Bios

  • Jenny Bogard, MPH

    Jenny Bogard has over twenty years of experience in health behavior change, strategy development, and program design across the managed care, nonprofit, and public arenas. She has held leadership roles in health insurance at Humana, worksite wellness at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and community health as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthcare Access and Equity Strategy director. Through her work to expand obesity prevention and treatment healthcare coverage, she has partnered with over 40 private payers, public payers, self-insured employers, and healthcare provider associations. Ms. Bogard has a BA in Health Administration from Florida Atlantic University and an MPH from the University of Miami. She also serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Payer Advisory Board, is a member of two Roundtable on Obesity working groups, and the Prescription for Activity Taskforce Advisory Board.

  • Scott Flinn, MD

    Dr. Flinn is a Regional Medical Director at Blue Shield of California where he focuses on improving the value of care delivered to Blue Shield members. Previously, Dr. Flinn was the Chief Medical Officer at Arch Health Partners, an award-winning medical group in San Diego. Prior to joining Arch, he served 22 years in the US Navy including two tours with the Navy SEALs, a tour as Medical Director for primary care at Naval Hospital San Diego, and a tour as Force Surgeon for Naval Surface Forces in charge of the health care for all Navy ships worldwide. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Dr. Flinn is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice and the American College of Physician Executives, becoming a Certified Physician Executive in 2013. He is board certified in Family Practice with a CAQ in Sports Medicine.

  • Andrew Freeman, MD, FACC, FACP

  • Dorothy Fink, MD

    Dr. Fink is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health and Director of the Office on Women’s Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Fink brings to OASH extensive experience treating women’s health issues. She is board-certified in endocrinology, internal medicine, and pediatrics, and is recognized as a physician leader on topics such as diabetes, nutrition, and bone health. Previously, her clinical practice focused on women from adolescence through menopause and beyond. She is a nationally certified menopause practitioner and an expert on estrogen. Dr. Fink has done extensive research on women’s health, including evaluation of blood markers to assist in diagnosing hypothalamic amenorrhea and investigating the role of diabetes in women’s skeletal health. Dr. Fink has presented at national meetings on polycystic ovary syndrome, the female athlete triad, and other bonerelated conditions. Most recently, Dr. Fink practiced at the Hospital for Special Surgery and New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell University.

  • Brigid K. Groves, PharmD, MS

    Brigid K Grove 1s Senior Director, Practice and Professional Affairs at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). She leads, coordinates, and contributes to efforts and initiatives related to transformation of the role of the pharmacist, advancing pharmacists’ patient care services, creation of practice tools and resources, and promoting the pharmacist’s role as a health care provider. Additionally, she administers, directs, coordinates, and participates in the work of the Association related to the APhA Community-based Pharmacy Residency Program initiative and advancement of postgraduate pharmacy residency education and training initiatives. Previously, Groves was population health pharmacist at a pediatric accountable care organization. Prior, she held roles as a clinical and pharmacy practice coordinator at a large grocery-store based community pharmacy chain. Groves has been heavily involved in professional pharmacy organizations for many years.

    Groves earned her Master of Science in Pharmacy Administration in 2014 and her PharmD in 2012 at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy (OSU COP). Additionally, she completed a combined PGY1 and PGY2 pharmacy residency in community care pharmacy administration at Kroger Pharmacy and OSU COP in 2014. Before her PharmD, Groves earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2006 from John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio.

  • Laura King, BScN

  • Marti Macchi, MEd, MPH

  • Keiva Nelson

    Keiva Nelson serves as a Team Lead Public Health Advisor, with over 13 years of Federal Service, for the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office on Women’s Health (OWH), Division of Policy and Performance Management. In this capacity, she has managed and overseen several projects, working towards achieving the vision and mission of OWH. Keiva represents OWH on several collaborations and workgroups, such as the Million Hearts Partnership with CDC, HRSA’s National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI), and the Federal Hypertension Control Leadership Council. Keiva is also the Project Lead for the design, building, and implementation of the new Performance Management Data Collection System, a data collection and analysis system to capture OWH’s performance measure reporting requirements, providing program data that generates trends and status updates for strategic planning accomplishments. Her leadership and oversight on this project led to Keiva being a recipient of the 2022 HHS Unsung Hero Award, from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health.

  • Jaime Murillo, MD, FACC, FASE

    Dr. Jaime Murillo is a Senior VP at OptumLabs and the Chief CardioMetabolic Officer at UnitedHealth Group, with a focus on early detection of CV disease, predictive analytics, prevention at a population level as well as research in health equity.

    He is a cardiologist from Yale University with an extensive background in computer sciences, AI, and research both in basic sciences as a Harvard Medical School fellow as well as outcomes research at Yale University. He practiced general cardiology with subspecialty in imaging at Sentara Healthcare System for almost 20 years. In addition to clinical practice he played several executive roles with a focus on leadership development and consumer strategies.

    He spent 3 years collaborating with IBM Watson on machine learning technology development. Prior to his current role at OptumLabs (formerly UHG R&D) he spent 2 years at UnitedHealthcare as the national lead for cardiovascular services focused on simple innovation and value-based transformation of cardiovascular care and affordability.

  • Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH

    Dr. Sanchez serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Prevention for the American Heart Association (AHA). He is the Principal Investigator of the National Hypertension Control Initiative with the federal Office of Minority Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is the AHA clinical lead on Target: BP (a joint blood pressure control initiative with the American Medical Association) and Know Diabetes by Heart (a joint cardiovascular risk factor control initiative with the American Diabetes Association). Before joining AHA, he served as Vice President and CMO for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, and he served as director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Texas School of Public Health. Dr. Sanchez served as Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2004 to 2006 and Commissioner of the Texas Department of Health. Dr. Sanchez obtained his MD from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, an MPH from the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, and an MS in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Dr. Sanchez is board certified in family medicine.

  • Michele Bildner, MPH, MCHES

    Michele Bildner, MPH, MCHES® is a Project Manager for Non-Infectious Disease Programs at the CDC Foundation, where she is responsible for creating public-private partnerships for chronic disease health promotion. She has worked in public health for over a decade, focusing mostly on urban community health assessment and policy, system, and environmental changes. Michele began her DrPH in Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2019 and has a deep interest in identifying, diagnosing, and addressing adaptive public health and organizational challenges and thrives on their complexity and messiness. She received the National Society for Public Health Education’s 2022 Karen Denard Goldman Health Education Mentor Award which recognizes her significant contribution to the preparation and performance of Health Education Specialists.

  • Meg Guerin Calvert, MPA

    Margaret (Meg) Guerin-Calvert is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting in Washington, D.C. and founding President of its Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy. She has over 30 years of experience as an economist in public and private sectors, in competition and regulatory policy, mergers, damages, class certification and intellectual property in healthcare and other industries. She leads FTI’s Center initiatives on health, health equity, and economic impact, which provide multi-sector collaboratives and stakeholders with actionable data and advanced analytics on drivers of medical and productivity costs of chronic conditions and their economic impact for innovative strategies and measurable benefit in their communities. Her projects include FTI’s Center selection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation along with the National Forum for Heart Diseases and Stroke Prevention, to build and disseminate the business case for hypertension prevention and control for employer engagement.

  • Diane Kolack, MPH

    Diane Kolack, MPH, is a program officer at the CDC Foundation. In her role, Diane works on programs and initiatives to improve public health outcomes related to non-infectious diseases, including the National Hypertension Control Roundtable and CDC PLACES: Local Data for Better Health. She is a seasoned public health professional with more than a decade of experience in the field. Diane brings an interdisciplinary lens to her work in public health, drawing from a rich background that includes arts administration, campaign finance, and community organizing. She holds a Master of Public Health degree in Community Health from the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy and a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College.

  • Meg Meador, MPH, C-PHI, CPHQ

    Meg Meador serves at the National Association of Community Health Centers as Director of Clinical Integration and Education, where she designs, implements, and evaluates integrated strategies and quality improvement initiatives with health centers. Most recently, she has been involved in leading national Million Hearts initiatives to prevent heart attacks and strokes, including addressing undiagnosed hypertension and accelerating use of self-measured blood pressure monitoring. Meg earned her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from UNCChapel Hill and completed a graduate certificate in Public Health Informatics from Johns Hopkins University.

  • Miriam Patanian, MPH

    Miriam Patanian has more than 20 years of public health experience focused on chronic disease prevention and control at both the state and national levels. She is a senior public health consultant at NACDD, leading health system initiatives addressing hypertension, Million Hearts®, and cardiovascular health. Before working as a consultant, Ms. Patanian served as the Director of the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program at the Washington State Department of Health. During this time, she coordinated local and statewide implementation of evidence-based initiatives to increase hypertension control and reduce the burden of heart disease and stroke in the state. Ms. Patanian began her public health career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Cardiovascular Health Branch (before it became the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention), where she helped to develop the Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke. She received her MPH from the University of Washington.

  • Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, PhD, MHS, RN

    Dr. Commodore-Mensah is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. As a nurse scientist and cardiovascular disease epidemiologist, her program of research seeks to advance cardiovascular health among African-descent populations locally (United States) and globally (sub-Saharan Africa) through implementation science and community-engaged methods. She is the Principal Investigator of the LINKED-BP Program and co-PI of the LINKED-HEARTS Program, two cluster-randomized controlled trials, which are testing the implementation of multi-level interventions to improve hypertension control and the management of multiple chronic conditions in primary care. She is the co-PI of the Addressing Hypertension Care in Africa (ADHINCRA) Study, a cluster-randomized control trial which tested the effectiveness of a nurse-led, mobile health intervention to improve hypertension control in Ghana. She is a National Hypertension Control Roundtable Steering Committee member and serves on the Advisory Boards of the National Hypertension Control Initiative and Target: BP. She is a Board member for the American Heart Association Baltimore and Greater Maryland area and the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association.

  • Modele O. Ogunniyi, MD, MPH, FACC, FACP, FAHA

    Dr. Modele Ogunniyi is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Master Physician with the Division of Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine. She also serves as the Associate Medical Director of the Grady Heart Failure Program.

    After receiving her medical degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, she obtained a Masters of Public Health and a Certificate in Health Finance and Management from Johns Hopkins University. Her postgraduate training includes a preventive medicine and public health fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, residency in internal medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and cardiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University.

    Her research focuses on examining social determinants of health and eliminating disparities in cardiovascular disease, specifically, hypertension and heart failure; and more recently, diversity in clinical trials, palliative care in advanced heart failure and cardiovascular disease in women. As a cardiovascular epidemiologist, she seeks to forge links between preventive medicine, public policy, quality improvement and scientific research. She is very passionate about mentorship, growing the pipeline and diversifying the workforce in Medicine.

    Dr. Ogunniyi is Principal Investigator on several clinical trials. She serves on the advisory board for the Metro Atlanta Heart Failure Collaborative and the editorial board of Clinical Cardiology. She is an active member/volunteer of many professional organizations including the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Medical Women’s Association. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, and American Heart Association.

    She serves on several national committees, including Co-Chair of the ABC Membership Committee, ACC Cardiovascular Disease in Women Committee, and the Steering Committee of the National Hypertension Control Roundtable. She is the Vice President of Health Awareness Initiative, Africa, a nonprofit organization, whose mission is to promote healthy lifestyles in African communities by creating health awareness through screening and education.

  • Steven Chen, Pharm.D.

    Dr. Steven Chen is Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the USC School of Pharmacy, Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, the William A. Heeres and Josephine A. Heeres Chair in Community Pharmacy, and Director of the USC Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health. He is PI or Co-I for over $18 million in grant-funded research evaluating the impact of Comprehensive Medication Management on healthcare quality, safety, cost, and patient and physician satisfaction, including a $12 million CMMI Healthcare Innovation Award. He is Co-Chair Emeritus of the HRSA Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC) and founder of the California Right Meds Collaborative (CRMC), a partnership between health plans, community pharmacies, and pharmacy schools providing Comprehensive Medication Management services supported by a value-based payment model. CRMC is supported in Los Angeles County by a $3 million CDC 1817 Wellness grant through the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 
Dr. Chen has received over 20 local, state, regional, and national awards or honors, recognizing his work in patient care practice innovation and transformation from organizations.

  • Brenda Dooley-Artis

    Brenda Dooley-Artis is the Director of Insurance & Risk Management for the Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD), Missouri’s largest specialized education provider. SSD, the largest specialized education provider in the state, equips and empowers students of all learning abilities to excel to their greatest potential. This is realized through an inclusive, collaborative approach, supported by comprehensive resources and deep expertise– centered on each student’s unique needs. As the leader of the SSD Insurance & Benefits Department, Ms. Dooley-Artis is responsible for administering the health & welfare benefits, property & casualty insurance, and the wellness program for employees of the Special School District. Ms. Dooley-Artis is dedicated to educating employees about their benefits plans to become more empowered consumers. She has a BA in Business Administration from Augustana College and has worked as a human resources professional for over twenty years.

  • Rachel Ferencik, MPA

    Rachel Ferencik has more than 25 years of public health and health policy experience at both state and national levels. She is a Director of Program Design in the Non-Infectious Disease Department at the CDC Foundation, where she has worked for four years. Prior to her work at the CDC Foundation, Ms. Ferencik was a strategist at Banyan Communications and spent almost 15 years at the Georgia Health Policy Center working on issues related to systems thinking mapping and modeling, Medicaid reform, the social determinants of health and other health policy issues. There, she developed a first of its kind training for legislators teaching them health policy from a systems-thinking perspective. Ms. Ferencik began her career working in the area of sexual assault and domestic violence. She holds a BA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MPA from Georgia State University.