Paul Agnew 

Master Ontologist
ReactiveCore

Paul is the Master Ontologist at the at ReactiveCore, a rapidly growing startup in New York city. He is responsible for finding innovative ways to migrate legacy environments and data structures into Ontologies and subsequently into cloud based big data environment. Paul and his team specializes in working with legacy experts and finding a path to capture their knowledge as ontologies that can then be leveraged for deep learning, AI and machine learning algorithms.   

Paul is also the co-author of the bestselling Data Model Resource Book, Universal Patterns in Data Modeling and has been a speaker (DAMA and DAMA International) and contributor in the field of data management, governance and data modeling for over 22 years working in many industries, including banking, logistics, genomics, health insurance, intelligence, and clinical data analytics. Paul is a native of Dublin, Ireland.

Arun Asok, PhD

Neuroscientist
Columbia University, Department of Neuroscience

Arun Asok, PhD, is a neuroscientist in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel at Columbia University. His research broadly centers around how aversive experiences are encoded and retrieved within distinct brain networks and how changes in these networks may alter future cognition and behavior. Arun’s published research has focused on unraveling the brain circuits important for fear and anxiety. He has also published research spanning clinical and preclinical domains examining how biomarkers of aging, such as telomeres, may serve as a useful tool for tracking the impact of stressful early-life experiences. His research has been featured in a number of books including The CRF Signal: Uncovering an Information Molecule and the The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer. His current work uses cutting-edge techniques in neural circuit targeting to dissect how the hippocampus, a brain area critical for memory, gates sensory information and influences the strength of aversive memories. Arun earned his BS in neuroscience from Temple University and his PhD in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Delaware.

Shelli Avenevoli, PhD

Deputy Director
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

John Bardi

Vice President, Government Affairs, & Digital Medicines Business Development
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.

John Bardi is Vice President, Government Affairs, & Digital Medicines Business Development at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI).  John oversees strategic business development for Otsuka’s digital platform as well as the execution of government policy and advocacy.

Before joining Otsuka, John worked as Vice President, U.S. Managed Markets, and Senior Director, Marketing, for ABILIFY^® (aripiprazole) at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Earlier, he worked at GlaxoSmithKline as Vice President, Long Term Care Channel Accounts, and Director of National Accounts, Institutional Sales.

Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, John served as Vice President, Clinical and Professional Services, at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and assistant administrator at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC.

John received a B.A. degree from West Chester University and a Master of Health Services Administration degree from The George Washington University.

Rinad S. Beidas, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
Director, Implementation Science Working Group
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Director, Implementation Research
Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research

Dr. Beidas’s research group has two primary foci: (1) improving behavioral health and the quality of behavioral health services for traditionally underserved patients; and (2) advancing the study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services (i.e., implementation science). Dr. Beidas is an established expert in implementation science; a recent social network analysis conducted by Norton and colleagues identified her as among the top 10 implementation science experts nationally. Dr. Beidas has published approximately 100 articles and is the co-editor of the only book published on EBPs in youth, Dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices in child and adolescent mental health. Dr. Beidas’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health continuously since 2012. Dr. Beidas is deeply committed to partnering with community stakeholders to understand the best way to implement evidence-based practices and improve behavioral health and health services across a variety of settings including community mental health, pediatric primary care, and schools. Further, Dr. Beidas and her group are invested in building capacity in implementation science and growing the next generation of implementation science investigators.

Dr. Beidas holds a bachelor of arts in psychology from Colgate University and a doctorate of philosophy in psychology from Temple University. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania. Dr. Beidas is a senior fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute and directs the Leonard Davis Institute’s Implementation Science Working Group. She is also an alumnus fellow of the NIH funded Training Institute in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH), Implementation Research Institute (IRI), and the Child Intervention and Prevention Services (CHIPS) Fellowship. She is the recipient of a number of awards, including the ABCT President’s New Researcher Award in 2015; the American Psychological Foundation Diane J. Willis Early Career Award; and the Perelman School of Medicine Marjorie Bowman New Investigator Research Award in 2017.  

Patrick S.F. Bellgowan, PhD

Program Director for TBI
NINDS / NIH

Patrick S.F. Bellgowan, PhD, is the Program Director for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The NINDS TBI portfolio covers a broad spectrum of research, from disease-related basic research to large clinical research programs. In addition to overseeing the TBI portfolio for NINDS, he is also programmatically involved in the Brain Initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Human Connectome project, and the NIH Common Funds Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program. Patrick earned his PhD in behavioral neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee studying the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning. His postdoctoral training at the Medical College of Wisconsin and later in the Intramural Research Program at NIH focused on investigating human memory systems using functional neuroimaging. Before coming to the extramural program at NINDS he was the Director of Cognitive Neuroscience and Associate Professor at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and the University of Tulsa, where he used magnetic resonance and immunological methods to study the acute effects of concussion in collegiate athletes.

Casey Bennett, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer
Raiven Healthcare

Casey Bennett, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer for Raiven Healthcare, and formerly a data scientist at Centerstone Research Institute. He received his PhD from the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University.

His work focuses on artificial intelligence in healthcare, including the areas of robotics, machine learning, clinical decision support, and personalized medicine. He was the lead designer for Centerstone’s award-winning organization-wide analytics platform (2010 TDWI Best Practices Award) and the national Knowledge Network Data Warehouse, the largest ongoing clinical mental health data repository in the country. He has published dozens of scientific articles, done interviews for national and international magazines like ComputerWorld and Slate, and been a guest on nationally syndicated radio talk shows. His work has also been featured as part of IBM’s “Smarter Planet” campaign.

Casey is currently working on projects using artificial intelligence to augment clinical decision making in chronic illness, as well as utilizing in-home robots for therapeutic purposes with elderly patients.

Brigadier General Donald C. Bolduc

Commander of American Special Operations Forces in Africa (retired)
United States Army

Brigadier General Donald C. Bolduc is Commander, Special Operations Command Africa, headquartered at Kelley Barracks near Stuttgart, Germany. In this role, he was responsible for the full spectrum of Special Operations activities across the African continent and the more than 1500 US military, interagency and international military personnel operating in 27 countries throughout Africa and Europe. SOCAFRICA is designated as US Africa Command’s lead counter-terror operations component.

Throughout his distinguished career, Donald has commanded at multiple levels that include US Africa Command, Special Operations Command Africa, Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command, Afghanistan; Combined Joint Special Operation Task Force, Afghanistan; 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Afghanistan; C Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne); and HHC, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). His Army and Joint experience includes Commander of SOCAFRICA, Deputy Director for Operations of AFRICOM, Assistant Deputy Director for Special Operations, J-37, Joint Staff, Pentagon; Deputy Acquisition Officer, United States Army Special  Operations Command; Executive Officer to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Aide-de-Camp, Secretary of the Army; Joint Policy Officer, US Total Army Personnel Command; Assistant Operations Officer, 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Command; and Chemical Officer, 6th Battalion, 37th Field Artillery, 2nd Infantry Division. His combat experience is extensive and includes six deployments to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom between 2001 and 2013; two deployments to Kuwait for Operation Desert Spring and Vigilant Warrior in 2002 and 1995; one deployment to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm in 1991; and one deployment to Grenada for Operation Urgent Fury in 1983.

Donald earned his ROTC commission and graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts in 1989. He holds a Master of Science degree in Security Technologies from the United States Army War College and a Master’s degree in Business Technology from Webster University. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, four Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, Army Commendation medal with valor Device, numerous foreign awards, Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Special Forces Tab, and Ranger Tab.

Daniella Brunner, PhD

Founder and President
Early Signal Foundation

Daniella Brunner, PhD, is the CEO and President of Early Signal Foundation. She received her PhD from Cambridge University, did post-doctoral work at Columbia University, and had a lab at CUNY before joining PsychoGenics Inc. in 1999 as Director of R&D, and later as Senior Vice President, until 2015. She has worked on developmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disease models for over 20 years; she introduced computer vision and machine learning techniques to the study of behavioral signatures for phenotyping, drug screening, and systems biology projects. Working with both Rettsyndrome.org and Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, Daniella set up a consortium of industry and academia to accelerate the development of therapeutics for these devastating disorders. As head of the Early Signal Foundation, she has focused efforts towards analytical systems that integrate human behavioral and “omics” readouts for healthcare and monitoring in rare disorders, focusing on data passively captured with wearable and home sensors.

Steven A. Cohen

Chairman and CEO
Point72 Asset Management

Steven A. Cohen is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Point72 Asset Management, a 1,000-person family office managing the assets of Mr. Cohen and certain eligible employees. Mr. Cohen founded S.A.C. Capital Advisors in 1992 and converted his investment operations to the Point72 Asset Management family office in 2014. An avid philanthropist and entrepreneur, Mr. Cohen has founded and holds active leadership roles in a number of nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Cohen is the Co-Chair and Founder of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. Started in 2001 by Mr. Cohen and his wife Alexandra, the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation is committed to achieving lasting and meaningful change through commitments to children’s health, education, veterans, and the arts. A longtime advocate for veterans with a particular interest in veterans’ mental health issues, Mr. Cohen co-founded Cohen Veterans Network and Cohen Veterans Bioscience in 2015 to improve the mental healthcare, treatment, and quality of life for recently-returned veterans and their families. He sits on the Board of Cohen Veterans Network.

Mr. Cohen also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles and the Emeritus Board of the Robin Hood Foundation. Mr. Cohen received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his investing career at Gruntal & Co., where he managed proprietary capital for 14 years before starting his own investment business.

Laurel A. Copeland, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine
Texas A&M University Health Science Center

Laurel A. Copeland, PhD, MPH, has expertise in health services research with administrative data from large medical records systems. She trained in research methodology (quantitative and qualitative) focusing on the development and evaluation of health behavior interventions at the University of Michigan School of Public Health while working on community-based alcohol survey research in the University of Michigan and large database studies in the Veterans Health Administration (VA) in Ann Arbor, MI. She moved to the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, TX, in 2004. Her work focuses on quality of care for patients with physical and mental illness. She is active in the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN, formerly HMORN) in which she served as Governing Board representative for Baylor Scott & White Health for 3 years and as site PI in the Mental Health Research Network. HCSRN is a consortium of 21 large payer-provider healthcare systems working together to create and analyze uniformly defined data elements. Current projects examine perioperative experiences of mental health patients in the VA, transition and reintegration of veterans leaving active military service, and care in the VA versus private not-for-profit systems. She works at Central Western Massachusetts Veterans Healthcare in Leeds, MA, and in the Center for Applied Health Research, Baylor Scott & White, Temple, TX, where she is Associate Director and leads the HCSRN data core. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, and adjunct in the Department of Psychiatry, UT Health San Antonio.

Guilhem Dupont, MBA

Founder and CEO
MyHealios

Guilhem Dupont, MBA, is the founder and CEO of MyHealios, a for-profit organization that specializes in developing and implementing digital care solutions for disabling chronic illnesses, which serves chronically ill patients by bridging the care and information gap between doctor’s appointments, as patients try to adapt and learn to live with their conditions. Providers are able to track their patients’ progress, symptom development, and possibly identify early signs of relapse. MyHealios combines the use of ubiquitous technology, evidence-based professional support, and telehealth delivery to collect data and track symptom progress to ensure that providers and patients stay connected throughout the course of the illness. Likely outcomes are improved symptoms, prevention of relapse, and improved quality of life. MyHealios works with leading international organizations and pharmaceutical companies to enhance patients’ lives by bringing our evidence-based solution to providers in the following disease areas: mental health, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and sleep disorders. Prior to founding MyHealios, Guilhem held senior business responsibilities at Roche and Johnson & Johnson. He has an MBA from the Warwick Business School as well as a BSc from Kent University (UK).

Al Emondi, PhD

Program Manager, Biological Technologies Office
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Dr. Al Emondi is a Program Manager within the DARPA Biological Technologies Office.  He manages the Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program that seeks to create a prosthetic hand system that moves and provides sensation like a natural hand. Dr. Emondi also manages the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program that is developing implantable neural interfaces able to provide advanced signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the brain and electronics.  Other interests include the development of non-invasive brain machine interface technologies.

Previously, Dr. Emondi was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic where he was responsible for ensuring the center is appropriately positioned to perform credible research and deliver emerging technologies to our Naval forces and DoD.  He provided the strategic oversight and execution of a $100M research portfolio, and directed innovative strategic investments in new scientific research, development of the center’s scientific workforce, the transition of research projects to mainstream acquisition and the recapitalizing of the center’s research laboratories. 

Dr. Emondi is recognized as an early pioneer in the area of programmable radio architectures and has worked with DoD, NATO and Partner for Piece Nations toward the instantiation and acceptance of Software Defined Radio technologies.   He received his masters degree in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Neuroscience from Syracuse University while conducting collaborative research at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at University of California, San Francisco.

Marc Fishman, MD

Marc Fishman, MD, is an addiction psychiatrist and leads Maryland Treatment Centers/Mountain Manor, a regional behavioral healthcare provider, which offers programs for residential and outpatient treatment of drug-involved and dual-diagnosis adolescents and adults. He is a member of the psychiatry faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He lectures and writes widely on substance use disorders (SUDs). His academic work has focused on models of care and treatment outcomes for SUDs, treatment of SUDs and particularly opioid addiction in youth, as well as medication treatment for addiction. Marc served as a co-editor for the most recent editions of the ASAM Criteria for the Treatment of Substance-Related Disorders and the chief editor for the ASAM PPC Supplement on Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Use Disorders. He served as a past president (2010-12) of the Maryland Society of Addiction Medicine, and is a current member of its board.

Dean Fixsen, PhD

Senior Scientist
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dean L. Fixsen, PhD, is a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Co-Founder of the National Implementation Research Network, and Co-Founder of the Global Implementation Initiative. He is also a research professor and member of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research Evidence for Sexual and Reproductive Health and an adjunct professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Dean has spent his career developing and implementing evidence-based programs, initiating and managing change processes in provider organizations and service delivery systems, and working with others to improve the lives of children, families, and adults. Dean is co-author of the highly regarded monograph, Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature. He has served on numerous editorial and professional boards and has advised federal, state, and local governments in the US and globally. He is one of the founding Board of Editors of the journal Implementation Science.

Michael C. Freed, PhD, EMT-B

Chief, Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Branch
Division of Services Intervention Research
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Michael C. Freed, PhD, EMT-B, is Chief of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Branch. Under his guidance, the branch helps set institute research priorities, develops funding initiatives, and administers a public health-oriented research portfolio to increase access, continuity, quality, equity, efficiency, and value of mental health services to those in need.  The branch also manages the dissemination and implementation research portfolio for the institute.  Michael joined the NIMH from the Department of Defense, where, as the research director of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and support staff, he worked to transform behavioral health care across the military health system. He served in principal and co-investigator roles on several key epidemiological and health services research studies, as well as clinical trials. He also assisted with research priority setting and helped design a system to expedite the translation of findings from research to practice. For nearly 15 years, Michael’s research has aimed to improve healthcare services for service members, veterans, and their families. He brings this passion and experience to NIMH. He is a licensed and practicing psychologist, holds academic appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and has been recognized by both the Department of Defense and NIMH for significant achievement.

Carolyn Furdek

PT, DPT, CPT (Retired)

Carolyn Furdek, PT, DPT, CPT (Retired), is a former NCAA Division 1 record setting swimmer, West Point graduate, 4-time Ironman athlete, accomplished leader and seasoned combat veteran, and as such, is no stranger to challenges in life, demanding environments, and austere and dangerous conditions.

However, when her third and final combat tour came to an abrupt end in the deserts of Afghanistan in 2005, little did she, her comrades, or her family realize the struggles that would face her for years after coming home. Even when the doors of psych wards had been closed and locked behind her, and a not well-known diagnosis haunted her for over a decade, Carolyn has always chosen to tackle each seemingly hopeless and unwanted situation with a “never give up” attitude.

Now in addition to practicing as a Doctor of Physical Therapy who dedicates her career to helping her patients take their first steps on their road to recovery, Carolyn travels across the country, sharing her message of resilience and hope. She further challenges audiences to shed age old views of those who struggle with invisible wounds. In doing so, she seeks to change the landscape of mental health and the way we as a society think and behave towards those who struggle. Audience members walk away inspired, refreshed, and ready to tackle their own challenges in life, both big and small, and share in

Carolyn’s mission to break the stigma associated with mental health. Whether they walk away ready to assume their own role as a self-advocate, a more informed provider, or just a better friend, Carolyn inspires her listeners to share their own story in order to help others. With each new audience, Carolyn continues to maintain her mantra that if it helps just one, it will have been worth it.

Allyson Gage, PhD

Chief Medical Officer
Cohen Veterans Bioscience

Allyson Gage, PhD, is a neuroscientist and drug development executive who has over 18 years of experience leading teams in all phases of clinical development. She has been responsible for the overall strategic and clinical development of small molecules, biologics, and cellular therapies for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, including depression, alcohol dependence, Alzheimer’s disease, neuropathic pain, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. Allyson has a proven track record in partnering with therapeutic area clinicians, US and international regulators, patient groups, and data scientists to translate pre-clinical information into human evaluation, design informative clinical trial protocols, and ensure a regulatory path with approvable and clinically meaningful outcome measures. Prior to joining Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Allyson’s most recent experience was focused in the field of regenerative medicine, working toward the development of a therapeutic for spinal cord injury. Allyson earned her BA from Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ, and her MS and PhD in neuroscience from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

Lindsey Grandison

National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Dr. Grandison has been associated with the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for fifteen years where he has managed activities on stress and alcohol use. He leads stress related programs within NIAAA and coordinates NIAAA related programs with other federal agencies and non governmental organizations. Prior to coming to NIAAA Dr. Grandison had an active academic research program in neuroendocrinology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical.

Robert Grossman, PhD

Chief Research Informatics Officer
University of Chicago

Robert L. Grossman has been a leader in the fields of data science, open data, and data sharing for over 25 years. He is the principal investigator for the National Cancer Institute Genomic Data Commons (GDC), a five-petabyte data-sharing platform containing detailed genomic and associated clinical data on the tumors of over 14,000 patients. He has also developed data commons and data sharing platforms for several other research communities, including the general science community (Open Science Data Cloud), environmental science (Open Commons Consortium-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [OCC-NOAA] Environmental Data Commons and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s [NASA’s] Project Matsu), and liquid biopsies (Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer [BloodPAC] Data Commons). He is the Frederick H. Rawson Professor at the University of Chicago and Co-Chief of the Section of Computational Biomedicine and Biomedical Data Science in the Department of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Center for Data Intensive Science and the Chief Research Informatics Officer (CRIO) of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago.

Magali Haas, MD, PhD

CEO and President
Cohen Veterans Bioscience

Dr. Haas is Chair, CEO and President of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a non-profit brain research organization based in New York City whose mission is to fast-track diagnostics and therapeutics to advance precision brain health. Magali has over 15 years of pharmaceutical executive experience, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson, where she assumed broad end-to-end development leadership roles in early & late stage neuroscience clinical development, translational medicine, diagnostics and integrative solutions. To pioneer new approaches for precision therapeutics for brain health, she founded Orion Bionetworks in 2012, which was transformed to Cohen Veterans Bioscience in 2015, while also serving as founding Chief Science and Technology Officer for One Mind for Research. She serves on several advisory boards including Alto Neurosciences, Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific Practice, VirtualBrainCloud, Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics and IMEC for nanoelectronics.  Magali earned her BS in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, and her MD and PhD in neuroscience with distinction from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dallas Hack, MD, Colonel, US Army (Retired)

Chief Strategy Officer
Cohen Veterans Bioscience

Dr. Dallas Hack, MD, served as the Director of the US Army Combat Casualty Care Research Program and Chair of the Joint Program Committee for Combat Casualty Care from 2008 to 2014 and as the Senior Medical Advisor to the Principal Assistant for Research and Technology, US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command from 2014 to 2015. He coordinated more than 70% of the Department of Defense trauma research to improve battlefield trauma care of those injured in combat. During this time, the Department of Defense funded more traumatic brain injury research than any organization because of the increasing awareness of its massive burden in the military. He has held numerous military medical leadership positions including Chief of Clinical Services at Fort Knox, KY, Commander of the NATO Headquarters Healthcare Facility, and Command Surgeon at the strategic level during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Dallas received numerous military awards including the Bronze Star, two Legion of Merit awards, and seven Meritorious Service Medals and was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the Military Order of Medical Merit. He has a BA from Andrews University, a MPH from Johns Hopkins University, an MD from Loma Linda University, a MSS from the US Army War College, and a CPE from the Certifying Commission in Medical Management. He was recognized as the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by Loma Linda University in May 2015. After retiring from military service, Dallas has consulted with numerous organizations to advance research in brain health and transition the progress to improved clinical practice.

Margaret Harrell, PhD

Director of Programs and Partnerships
Bob Woodruff Foundation

Margaret “Meg” Harrell, PhD, is the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF) Director of Programs and Partnerships. Prior to BWF, she was the Executive Director of Force Resiliency, within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was responsible for the offices, policies, oversight, and integrating activities pertaining to sexual assault prevention and response; suicide prevention; diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity; personnel safety; and for Department of Defense collaboration with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Meg spent 25 years at the RAND Corporation, where she researched military manpower and personnel, military families’ quality of life, and veterans’ issues. Her research portfolio includes approximately 70 publications. Concurrent with her time at RAND, she served as a presidential appointee to the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force, 2013-2014. From July 2011 to August 2012, she served as a Senior Fellow and Director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, where her research focused on military veteran suicide prevention and response, veteran wellness, and veteran employment. She is a former voting member of the Army Science Board, and has also briefed international audiences, testified before Congress, spoken extensively at conferences, and guest lectured at the United States Military Academy. Meg holds a BA with distinction from the University of Virginia, a MS in systems analysis and management from the George Washington University, and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Virginia, where her dissertation focused on the role expectations for Army spouses.

Bob Harward

CEO
Lockheed Martin, United Arab Emirates

Anthony Hassan, EdD, LCSW

CEO and President
Cohen Veterans Network

As the CEO and President of the Cohen Veterans Network, Dr. Anthony M. Hassan oversees the establishment of 25 mental health clinics nationwide. These clinics are designed to improve the mental health outcomes for post-9/11 veterans and their families, with a particular emphasis on post-traumatic stress, through high-quality, free, and accessible mental health care. In addition, he leads efforts to advance the field through funded research initiatives and training programs to improve care within the network and beyond.

Hassan is a veteran, of enlisted rank in the United States Army and an Air Force officer, with 30 years of experience in military behavioral health, serving as a military social work officer, leader, clinician, and academic. He served during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 on the first-ever Air Force combat stress control and prevention team embedded with the Army. He also led the largest military substance abuse and family advocacy programs in the Pacific. These programs were recognized as benchmark programs and training sites for all other Pacific bases.

He most recently served as the inaugural Director and Clinical Professor of the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. During his tenure at CIR from 2009 to 2015, Hassan was instrumental in the exponential growth of the school’s military social work program and community-based research on veterans and military families. He has strong relationships with the most senior levels of leadership in the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and Washington, D.C.

Tom Herzog

Chief Operating Officer
Netsmart

Tom Herzog is Chief Operating Officer of Netsmart, responsible for leading solution and technology strategies, focused on person-centric design to optimize workflow, efficiencies, and outcomes. His teams work in collaboration with both clients and partners to deliver comprehensive solutions for the behavioral health, social services, and post-acute communities. Tom’s responsibilities include solutions, development, engineering, technology, innovation, product development, IT, support, human resources, legal, marketing, and operational functions. Prior to joining Netsmart, Tom was Senior Vice President and General Manager for Technologies and Medical Devices at Cerner for 11 years. He oversaw the development, growth, and global delivery of solutions to optimize acute-care patient workflow, medical device interoperability, clinical imaging, and technology innovations. He led strategies focused on hospital workflow improvements, with technology as an enabler, driving patient safety. In prior roles at Cerner, he was responsible for business development, third-party relationships, technology specialists, and operations. Tom’s additional experience includes leading teams to automate systems, and integrating record, financial, document management, and information systems. He has been recognized for his ability to create innovative approaches and strategies that deliver results through vision and building strong teams. Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and human relations from MidAmerica Nazarene University.

Martin Hofmann-Apitius, PhD

Head of Department
Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI

Martin Hofmann-Apitius, PhD, is a professor of applied life science Informatics at Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology. Trained as a molecular biologist, he became more involved in computational biology and applied bioinformatics in the course of his scientific career. Martin has experience in both academic research and industrial research (mainly in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry). Since 2002, he has led the Department of Bioinformatics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing in Sankt Augustin, Germany, a governmental non-profit research institute and one of the largest non-profit organizations for applied research worldwide. Research activities of this department focus on automated methods for extracting relevant information from unstructured information sources (“unstructured information mining”) such as journal publications, patents, and web-based sources. His team uses these technologies for knowledge-based modeling of neurodegenerative and psychiatric conditions, and generating “knowledge maps” that represent the published knowledge on a medical condition in computable form. Information extraction is not limited to journal publications or patents, but includes mining in real-world data (social networks, patient forums, electronic patient records). His team’s substantive experience in high-performance computing allows them to perform complex information extraction and mining-tasks on a large scale. Martin is also the initiator and academic coordinator of the Innovative Medicines Initiative project AETIONOMY, which aims to generate a “mechanism-based taxonomy of neurodegenerative diseases.”

Susan Huntington, JD, PA

Counsel
Day Pitney, LLP

Susan Huntington, JD, PA, is Counsel at Day Pitney in Hartford, Connecticut. She assists health care providers with the spectrum of business and regulatory needs, with particular experience in forming accountable care organizations (ACOs) and clinical integration networks. She has focused her entire legal career in health law and has extensive clinical, business management, insurance, risk management, and legal experience. As a certified physician assistant, Susan also has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities faced by health care providers. She helps hospitals and physicians take advantage of the new options for clinical integration. She has also provided legal support for forming three Medicare shared savings program ACOs, including two national ACOs, a statewide clinically integrated network, and multiple ACO-like arrangements with third-party payers.

Chuck Ingoglia, MSW

Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Practice Improvement
National Council on Behavioral Health

Chuck Ingoglia, MSW, is Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Practice Improvement for the National Council for Behavioral Health where he leads the national charge to ensure that people have access to their potential to live full and complete lives. During the last ten years at the National Council, he has made valuable contributions to the organization in establishing direction and achieving specific goals for the over 2800-member organizations nationwide. As leader of the Policy and Practice Improvement Team, Chuck has transformed the conversation about mental health and delivery of services. He has effected change at both the national and state policy level by, among other things, playing a major role in federal and state policy advocacy and analyses on myriad issues relevant to behavioral health financing and health reform. His influence and advice on policy is informed by insight gained as a result of providing site-of-service technical assistance to members. Chuck holds a Master of Social Work and a Bachelor of Arts in social work, both from The Catholic University of America.

Kacie Kelly, MHS

Program Director, Health & Wellness
George W. Bush Presidential Center

Kacie Kelly is the Program Director, Veterans’ Health and Wellness for the George W. Bush Institute. In this role, Kacie oversees and manages policy, operational, and programmatic efforts on Veteran health and well-being, including the Warrior Wellness Alliance. She also manages strategic efforts to promote partnerships, collaboration, and alignment among organizations that are so crucial to fostering the health and well-being of post-9/11 Veterans. Prior to this role, Kacie served as the National Director for Public-Private Partnerships in the US Department of Veterans Affairs Office for Suicide Prevention, where she was responsible for developing a comprehensive and integrated public health approach to preventing suicide among the 14 million Veterans not engaged in VA healthcare. Throughout her 15-year career with the VA, she led innovative programs to serve more Veterans and their families through strategic partnerships within government and across public and private sectors. In addition, she has had leading roles in promoting military culture competence in the community, outreach efforts to reduce the stigma associated with seeking mental health care, and enhancing provider proficiency in evidence-based mental health care. She earned her Master of Health Sciences (MHS) at Louisiana State University and has a Graduate Certificate in Women in Public Policy and Politics from the University of Massachusetts – Boston.

Dave King

Founder & CEO
Exaptive Inc.

Dave King has been involved in tech entrepreneurship since graduating from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science in the early 1990s. Dave helped pioneer paperless manufacturing information systems in the electronics industry, then focused on designing extensible software systems for ad hoc visualization and analysis of large-scale multidimensional datasets. In 2011, Dave saw the need for a more modular and cross-disciplinary approach to data-science and founded Exaptive in order to pursue ways that technology and community can be combined to facilitate innovation. In 2015, his company was named by Gartner as one of five Cool New Vendors in the Life Sciences and won Oklahoma’s Most Promising New Business award in 2016.

Patrick M. Kochanek, MD

Ake N. Grenvik Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Director of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Patrick M. Kochanek, MD, is the Ake N. Grenvik Professor of Critical Care Medicine (CCM), Director of the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, and Professor and Vice Chairman of CCM at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is also Professor of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, Bioengineering, and Clinical and Translational Science. He has a long track record of investigation in traumatic and ischemic brain injury and neurointensive care and is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and US Department of Defense (DoD). His research focuses on secondary brain injury in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cardiac arrest, novel therapy development, and evaluation of biomarkers. He has more than 485 citations on PubMed and was identified by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as the most prolific author in the field of TBI in the past 15 years. He is PI of Operation Brain Trauma Therapy for the US DoD and has been PI for 17 years of a T-32 program titled “Pediatric Neurointensive Care and Resuscitation Research” funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Patrick has mentored numerous trainees, many of whom have gone on to careers of national prominence. He is Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric CCM and is on the editorial board of numerous journals in acute brain injury. He received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the American College of CCM (ACCM) in 2007, the Critical Care Distinguished Career Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2008, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of CCM in 2017, and was named Master of CCM by the ACCM in its inaugural class.

Karestan Koenen, PhD

Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Karestan Koenen, PhD, researches and teaches about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The broad goal of her work is threefold. First, she studies why, when exposed to a comparable traumatic event, some develop PTSD while others are resilient. She is particularly interested in how genes shape risk for PTSD. Much of this work is done through her leadership of the PTSD working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Second, she investigates how trauma and PTSD influence weight gain and alter long-term physical health, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and cognitive functioning. Her work provides further evidence that PTSD is not solely a mental health problem, but also increases risk of chronic disease, demonstrating that patients need access to integrated mental and physical healthcare. Third, she documents the global burden of trauma and PTSD through her work with the World Mental Health Surveys. The main goal of the surveys is to advance the genetic analysis of serious mental illness while contributing to global mental health equity by expanding the infrastructure and research findings from large-scale psychiatric genetic epidemiology to Africa, Mexico, and other areas that have been under-represented in neuropsychiatric genetics research.

Karestan also advocates for victims of sexual violence. In 2011, she testified before the House Foreign Affairs Full Committee hearing “Peace Corps at 50” about the epidemic of sexual violence and victim-blaming culture of the Peace Corps. She has written for the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and the Women’s Media Center’s Women Under Siege Project.

Harold Kudler, MD

Chief Consultant for Mental Health Services
Veterans Health Administration

Harold Kudler, MD, is Chief Consultant for Mental Health Services, US Department of Veterans Affairs Central Office. He also serves as Acting Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Patient Care Services. Harold received his MD from Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, trained in Psychiatry at Yale, and is Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke. He has received teaching awards from the Duke Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. From 2002 to 2010, he coordinated mental health services for a three-state region of the US Department of the VA, and from 2000 through 2005, co-chaired VA’s Special Committee on PTSD, which reports to Congress. He founded the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ (ISTSS) PTSD Practice Guidelines taskforce and has served on the ISTSS Board of Directors. He co-led development of the joint VA/Department of Defense Guideline for the Management of Posttraumatic Stress and serves as advisor to Sesame Street’s Talk Listen Connect series for military families. In 2012, he was appointed to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. He co-led the North Carolina Governor’s Focus on Returning Military Members and their Families, was Associate Director of the VA’s Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), which focuses on Deployment Mental Health, and was also Medical Lead for the VISN 6 Rural Health Initiative.

Matt Kuntz, JD

Executive Director
NAMI Montana

Matt Kuntz was born and raised in Helena, Montana.  Matt received his bachelor’s degree from West Point and his law degree from the University of Oregon.  Matt served as in infantry officer in the Army and was recognized as Distinguished Member of the Thirty Fifth Regiment for his service.  Matt was practicing corporate law in Helena when his step-brother, a Montana National Guardsmen who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, committed suicide. Spurred on by his step-brother’s death, Matt began advocating for effective screening and treatment of post traumatic stress injuries of our returning service members.  Senate Bill 711 was the culmination of these efforts.  It required multiple, face-to-face mental health screenings throughout America’s fighting force.  Senator Ted Kennedy attached the bill to the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 and was signed into law on October 8, 2009.

In June of 2008, Matt took on the role of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Montana’s (NAMI Montana’s) Executive Director in order to support, educate, and advocate for all Montanans suffering from serious mental illness and their families.  Matt’s advocacy efforts on behalf of Montana’s service members and their families were documented in the book, Faces of Combat: PTSD & TBI by Eric Newhouse.  Matt was recognized by President Obama in his inauguration festivities as one of eighteen Ordinary Americans Who Have Made An Extraordinary Difference.  Matt was also recognized as an Everyday All-Star byPeople Magazine and Major League Baseball.

Matt has helped lead the charge on a number of successful state advocacy efforts to establish mental health peer services in Montana, develop children’s mental health crisis beds, prevent the incarceration of offenders with serious mental illness, etc. Matt was also instrumental in the development of the Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery at Montana State University.

Matt is a member of the Board of Directors of the Uganda Rural Fund USA, Inc.  His latest book is Looking for Answers Through Dirty Glasses: Finding the Divine in a Challenging World.

Matt lives in Helena, his hometown.  When not at work, Matt can usually be found trying to keep up with his three kids or feeding his obsession with building homemade virtual reality game controllers.

Frank J. Larkin, MS

US Senate Sergeant at Arms
United States Senate

Frank Larkin is the United States Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA). As chief law enforcement and executive officer of the Senate, the SAA enforces rules of the Senate; provides a range of technical and administrative services to Senators in their Washington, DC, and state offices; and maintains security in the Capitol and Senate office buildings.

Frank was a member of the Senior Executive Service, recently serving as both the Acting Director and the Vice Director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) within the Department of Defense. He previously served as JIEDDO’s Director for the Counter IED Operations-Intelligence Integration Center. JIEDDO’s mission was to focus all Department of Defense actions in support of the combatant commanders’ efforts to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as weapons of strategic influence. Frank’s focus was in support of our deployed warfighters and special operations forces around the globe and the integration of a “whole of government” disruption effort targeting extremist networks that employ IEDs.

Frank served for more than two decades in the United States Secret Service (USSS), beginning in 1984 as a Special Agent assigned to the Philadelphia and Washington Field Offices, before assignment to the Presidential Protective Division. He was assigned to the Office of Congressional Affairs for a two-year fellowship on Capitol Hill, serving a year each with the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. Frank entered the USSS supervisory ranks as Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, where he led financial, electronic, and organized crimes investigations. Following the events of 9/11, he returned to Washington, DC, as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Presidential Protective Division, supervising White House security operations. As Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Technical Security Division, Frank was responsible for tactical countermeasures programs. In 2004, he was promoted to the Senior Executive Service, assuming the position of Deputy Assistant Director for Protective Research and Chief Technology Officer.

Following his USSS career, Frank was Director, Program Management & Leadership, for the Raytheon Company, and more recently, worked at Lockheed Martin’s Defense & Intelligence Solutions, responsible for providing operations and intelligence analysis support to the intelligence community.

A veteran of the US Navy, Frank has a significant military and law enforcement special operations background, serving as a special warfare operator in the Navy SEALs. After his Navy service, he was a uniformed patrol officer with the Norristown (PA) Police Department, a homicide detective with the Montgomery County (PA) District Attorney’s Office, and a Maryland State Trooper-Flight Paramedic.

Frank holds a BA degree in criminal justice and an MS degree in public administration from Villanova University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the US Secret Service award for valor, the Department of the Army’s Exceptional Civilian Service award, and the Superior Civilian Service award.

Seth Lederman, MD

CEO and Chairman
Tonix Pharmaceuticals

Seth Lederman, MD, is CEO and Chairman of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical research and development company focused on new therapeutics for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prior to founding Tonix, Dr. Lederman founded Targent Pharmaceuticals, whose late-stage oncology drug portfolio was sold to Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and marketed levoleucovorin as Fusilev® for advanced colorectal cancer, where it gained significant market acceptance. Seth served as an associate professor at Columbia University from 1996 until April 2017. He joined the faculty of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1985, became an assistant professor of Medicine in 1988, an associate professor with tenure in 1996, and Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology in 1997. His fundamental work on the CD40-Ligand (CD154) elucidated the molecular basis of T cell helper function and has led to the development of therapeutic candidates for autoimmune diseases and organ transplant rejection. His early work on HIV contributed to the understanding of how the V3 loop of HIV gp120 was involved in viral entry and infection. In addition to his research, he served as attending physician in the Edward Daniels Faulkner Arthritis Clinic and the Medical Service at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital (now New York Presbyterian Hospital) from 1988-1996. Seth earned a BA, cum laude, from Princeton in chemistry in 1979 and an MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1983. He trained in internal medicine and rheumatology at Columbia’s Presbyterian Hospital. He was an NIH physician-scientist 1985-1990 at Columbia.

Brian L. Losey  RADM, USN (ret)

Partner
Shield AI Inc.

President
Commons Federated, LLC

Brian transitioned from 33 years of service in the U.S. Navy and Special Operations community in 2016.  He commanded U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command, U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE.  He served in key command and staff positions in Task Forces deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa, and has significant experience in named and contingency operations around the world.  He served as a Director for Combatting Terrorism and Director for Maritime Security on the National Security Council Staff under the Bush and Obama Administrations.  Brian guides product and business development for Shield AI, a leading company in the fielding of autonomous and artificially intelligent robotic systems for the security sector.   In Commons Federated, LLC, Brian also serves as a consultant, advisor and board member to cutting edge technology enterprises seeking market growth in U.S. Government markets.

Brian P. Marx, PhD

Psychologist and Researcher
VA National Center for PTSD
Boston University School of Medicine

Brian P. Marx, PhD, is a psychologist and researcher at the VA National Center for PTSD and a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. He has studied PTSD and related conditions for the past 20 years. His early work focused on the identification of risk factors for sexual revictimization. This work led to the development of a prevention protocol that was tested in funded trials and endorsed by the World Health Organization. More recently, he has explored the importance of pre- and post-deployment neurocognitive functioning and mild traumatic brain injury for PTSD symptoms, functional impairment, and suicidality. His work in this area has been published in journals including Archives of General Psychiatry (now JAMA Psychiatry). Currently, he is Co-PI on a large Department of Defense–funded national registry of returning veterans with and without PTSD who are using VHA services. One aim of this project is to examine trajectories of PTSD symptoms and diagnosis among combat-exposed service members and identify predictors associated with trajectory classes. Using data from this project, Brian has published a number of papers on the DSM-5 PTSD diagnostic criteria. He is a co-author of the recently revised PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) and Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5), two of the most widely used measures to assess PTSD symptoms. Finally, Brian is a co-developer of Written Exposure Therapy (WET), a brief psychotherapy for PTSD that has been tested in several externally funded randomized controlled trials.

Dennis McGurk, PhD, Colonel, US Army

Director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program
US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

COL Dennis McGurk is Director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. He entered the military in 1990 as an infantryman in the Army Reserve and was commissioned as a medical service corps officer in 1994. He earned his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Texas Tech University in 2002. He has served as a platoon leader, operations officer, company commander, research branch chief, and detachment commander.  During his 22+ years of military service, Dennis has deployed to Haiti, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, was the lead author on two book chapters, has presented to numerous scientific and military conferences, and has briefed many senior military leaders including the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Secretary of the Army, and the Secretary of the Navy.

Thomas Meyer

Director, Veteran Services
The Philanthropy Roundtable

Thomas Meyer is the program director of veterans services at The Philanthropy Roundtable, where he advises donors on their charitable giving to support veterans and military families. He has authored two guidebooks on veterans philanthropy, Uniform Champions (2017) and Serving Those Who Served (2013), published articles in Philanthropy and Security Studies, and has been cited on this topic in outlets like the New York Times, NPR, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Thomas is also the co-founder of the Independence Project, a groundbreaking initiative testing new alternatives to the veterans’ disability compensation system that promote health and career success. Before joining the Roundtable, he conducted research with US and UK army officers focused on counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thomas completed a Fox Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and graduated with distinction from Yale University.

Tim Murphy, PhD

United States House of Representatives

Congressman Tim Murphy is currently serving his eighth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Murphy (Upper St. Clair) was first elected to the House in November 2002 to represent Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, encompassing the South Hills of Pittsburgh including portions of Allegheny, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties. Additionally, Murphy served as a Commander in the United States Navy Reserves and earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979.

Dr. Murphy remains the only practicing psychologist in Congress. For over 40 years, Murphy specialized in child and family treatment at several Pittsburgh area hospitals, taught courses in public health and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh and wrote two books: “The Angry Child” (2001) and “Overcoming Passive-Aggression” (2005). 

CMDR Murphy enlisted as a Navy Reserve volunteer in 2009 and was promoted to Commander 6 years later. His ADT included service at Navy Special Warfare Coronado, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).

He was assigned to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda where he practiced psychology in the Traumatic Brain Injury/PTSD Inpatient Unit. Murphy worked with a team of medical specialists to coordinate treatment plans and monitor patient progress with the goal of setting each service member on a path to healing with a complete array of medicine, psychotherapy and rehabilitative services. Murphy also worked with spouses and children of injured service members in the aftermath of a traumatic injury.

Congressman Murphy’s major mental health reform bill, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, was signed into law last December. The law works to curb the nation’s alarmingly high suicide rate, especially among our veterans and takes steps to increase awareness and eliminate the stigma associated with mental illnesses, such as PTSD, by creating a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline program to coordinate with suicide prevention hotlines at the state and local level as well as providing funding for community treatment programs.

Roger Murry

Executive Director
Coalition to Heal Invisible Wounds

Roger Murry is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Heal Invisible Wounds, an advocacy organization founded in February 2017 to spur the development of better treatment and care for Veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI. The Coalition connects leading public and private sector scientific investigators of new PTSD and TBI treatments with policymakers working to improve care for veterans. Coalition members support innovators at all stages of the therapy development life cycle, from initial research to late-stage clinical trials. Roger is a member of the Public Law and Policy Practice at Akin Gump in Washington, DC. Since joining Akin Gump in 2010, he has served in leadership roles for policy coalitions on international trade, technology, and agriculture. Prior to joining Akin Gump, he was managing director at Parven Pomper Strategies (PPS) Inc., representing domestic and international clients on international trade, foreign affairs, and health care issues. He joined PPS after serving three years as a policy advisor in the US Congress, during which time he focused on trade and healthcare policy. He also managed a variety of other policy portfolios including financial services, intellectual property, appropriations, and natural resources.

Chris Nowinski, PhD

Co-founder & CEO
Concussion Legacy Foundation

Chris Nowinski, Ph.D. is co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the concussion crisis through education, policy, and research. He is also the co-founder of the Boston University CTE Center and the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, a collaboration with Boston University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, where he currently serves as the outreach, recruitment, education, and public policy leader. An Eisenhower Fellow, Chris earned his Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience at BU School of Medicine.

A former Harvard football player and WWE professional wrestler, Nowinski was forced to retire from a series of concussions in 2003. His challenging recovery from post-concussion syndrome under the expert care of Dr. Robert Cantu led him to write Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis in 2006 to educate parents, coaches, and children about this previously hidden public health issue. The book later inspired an award-winning documentary, Head Games, in 2012.

Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts

Medal of Honor Recipient, Veteran
United States Army

Ryan Pitts served 6 years in the United States Army, completing two tours in Afghanistan, and is a recipient of the Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor. He returned from the service and earned a BA in business from the University of New Hampshire. Ryan works in the defense industry and resides in New Hampshire with his family. He continues to serve as an advocate for veterans regarding post-military integration and treatment for both the visible and invisible wounds of war.

Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD

Chief Research and Development Officer
US Department of Veterans Affairs

Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD, is Chief Research and Development Officer in the US Department of Veterans Affairs. She oversees the VA’s nationwide research enterprise, encompassing 2000 active projects at more than 100 sites. The singular purpose of VA research is to address unanswered questions that affect veterans’ health, quality of life, and healthcare. Prior to coming to the VA in January 2017, she was on the faculty at New York University College of Dentistry in the Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, and at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Biomedical Informatics.

Rachel’s research interests include informatics, genomics, and precision medicine. Her research has focused on deploying information technology innovations to improve real-world healthcare quality and effectiveness. She has led large, multidisciplinary, practical research projects including the NIH-funded Undiagnosed Diseases Network, which has used close bench-bedside-bench collaboration to find answers for scores of people with conditions that have eluded diagnosis. Rachel earned a DMD from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and a ScD in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jeff Richardson, MA, MBA, LCSW-C

President & CEO
Mosaic Community Services

Jeff Richardson, MBA, has served as the Executive Director of Mosaic Community Services (MCS), part of the Sheppard Pratt Health System, for twenty-three years and brings over thirty years of experience in behavioral health. He has been instrumental in MCS’s growth to become the largest community-based behavioral health service provider in Maryland. MCS has an annual budget of $70 million serving over 30,000 consumers in Central Maryland. Jeff holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master’s in business administration from Loyola University. He serves on multiple nonprofits boards, on state task forces, and in academic positions including the National Council for Behavioral Health, Mental Health Association of Maryland, Bon Secours Hospital, Itineris, and Community Behavioral Association of Maryland.

Michael C. Richardson, MA

Mental Health Vice President
Wounded Warrior Project

Michael C. Richardson, MA, is a Wounded War Project (WWP) independence services and mental health vice president. He is responsible for all mental health programs including in his role as Chairman of the Executive Steering Committee for the Warrior Care Network, which comprises four leading academic medical centers that provide innovative treatment for the invisible wounds. He is also responsible for WWP’s Independence Program, which provides extensive support to warriors suffering from moderate to severe brain injury, spinal cord injuries, or other neurological conditions who are most at risk for being institutionalized. Michael enlisted in the Army in 1981 and retired in 2013 as a Medical Service Corps Lieutenant Colonel. He last served as the Director of the Disability Evaluation System for Army Medicine as part of the Army staff. He commanded the Warrior Transition Battalion for Europe from 2010-2012.  Michael has had numerous deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, Kosovo, and Bosnia. During his last 15-month deployment to Iraq, Michael served as the Iraq Theater Medical Regulating Officer responsible for all patient movement within and departing from Iraq. His awards include two Legions of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and various other medals and decorations. Michael is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit for Army Medicine. He holds a master’s degree in public administration (health) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Hawaii.

Ekemini A. U. Riley, PhD

Associate Director
Center for Strategic Philanthropy
Milken Institute

Ekemini A. U. Riley, PhD, is an associate director of the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy (CSP), where she utilizes her scientific expertise to advise individual philanthropists and foundations on the state of research for various disease areas to help them identify opportunities for giving. She has led multiple projects within the CSP medical research portfolio spanning neurodegeneration, oncology, and nephrology. Prior to joining the Milken Institute, Ekemini worked as a science policy and communications analyst at Ripple Effect Communications, Inc., where she executed several projects across various divisions at the National Institutes of Health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences from The Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in molecular medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Rep. Phil Roe, MD

Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
United States House of Representatives

Phil Roe represents the First Congressional District of Tennessee. A resident of Johnson City serving his fifth term in Congress, Phil has a strong work ethic and is committed to working on behalf of the First District, Tennessee and our nation. 

A native of Tennessee, Phil was born on July 21, 1945 in Clarksville. He earned a degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Austin Peay State University in 1967 and went on and to earn his Medical Degree from the University of Tennessee in 1970. Upon graduation, he served two years in the United States Army Medical Corps.

Congressman Roe is Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Additionally, he serves on the House Education and Workforce Committee. 

As a physician, Congressman Roe has become an active player in the effort to reform our nation’s health care system. He is the co-chair of the House GOP Doctors Caucus and a member of the Health Caucus.

Prior to serving in Congress, Phil served as the Mayor of Johnson City from 2007 to 2009 and Vice Mayor from 2003 to 2007. He ran a successful medical practice in Johnson City for 31 years, delivering close to 5,000 babies. Phil has three children – David C. Roe, John Roe, and Whitney Larkin – and is a proud grandfather. He is a member of Munsey United Methodist Church.

Craig S. Rosen, PhD

Deputy Director
National Center for PTSD Dissemination & Training Division

Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine

Craig S. Rosen, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher who works to make effective treatments more accessible to veterans with PTSD and other mental health problems. As Deputy Director of the National Center for PTSD Dissemination & Training Division, he co-leads a VA center that strives to improve veterans’ care through clinical research, implementation science initiatives to increase use of best practices, and development of mobile apps and online tools for trauma survivors. He is also an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. 

Craig’s work focuses on increasing implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies, improving patient engagement in treatment, and using mobile apps and other self-help tools to expand reach of care.  He co-led the VA-funded PERSIST study on organizational factors impacting sustained use of evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD in VA clinics. He previously led two multisite trials using telephone support to improve patients’ engagement in PTSD treatment. He is involved in evaluating the VA’s adoption of measurement-based care and its nationwide dissemination of prolonged exposure therapy. He helped establish the joint VA/DoD Practice-Based Implementation Network, and he collaborates on that network’s current project to help clinicians integrate mobile apps and web-based programs into mental healthcare.

Linda Rosenberg, MSW

President & CEO
National Council for Behavioral Health

Linda Rosenberg is President and CEO of the National Council for
Behavioral Health. Under her leadership the National Council has become the nation’s largest mental health and addiction education and advocacy association with 2900 government and not-for-profit member organizations serving 10 million Americans.

The National Council helped secure passage of the federal parity law and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA); advanced the integration of behavioral health and primary care, leading to the creation of a Medicaid Health Home option; ensured passage of the Excellence in Mental Health Act; and introduced Mental Health First Aid in the U.S.A.

Prior to joining the National Council, Linda was New York State’s Senior Deputy Commission for Mental Health where she opened New York’s first Mental Health Court; implemented NY’s assisted outpatient program, Kendra’s Law; designed services and housing for the homeless; and developed and operated a Home and Community Waiver Programs for children with serious emotional disturbance and their families.

Linda also serves as a Cohen Veterans Network board member.

Barbara O. Rothbaum, PhD

Director, Emory Healthcare Veterans Program
Emory University School of Medicine

Barbara Olasov Rothbaum, PhD, is a professor in psychiatry and Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Research at the Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is also Director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program and the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program and holds the Paul A. Janssen Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology.  Barbara specializes in research on the treatment of individuals with anxiety disorders, particularly focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She has authored over 300 scientific papers and chapters, has published 5 books on the treatment of PTSD and edited 3 others on anxiety, and received the Diplomate in Behavioral Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is a past president of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), is currently on the scientific advisory boards for the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, the National Center for PTSD, and McLean Hospital, and on the executive committee of the Warrior Care Network, and is a pioneer in the application of virtual reality to the treatment of psychological disorders. She is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American Psychological Association’s Division 56 (Division of Trauma Psychology) and was awarded with her collaborating team the 2010 “Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Practice of Trauma Psychology” for APA Division 56 and the Robert S. Laufer Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement from the ISTSS. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Study on Assessment of Ongoing Efforts in the Treatment of PTSD. Her outreach efforts with veterans include BraveHeart: Welcome Back Veterans Southeast Initiative and initiating a clinician outreach and training program with the Georgia National Guard.

Warren Sapp

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Warren Sapp was one of the fiercest defensive lineman in football during his 13-year career in the NFL. A 7-time Pro-Bowler, Sapp was a Super Bowl Champion in 2003 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and made the All-Decade team of both the 1990’s and 2000’s. Sapp was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2017, he pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation to support research on concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

Crystal Shelton, MSSW, LCSW

Vice President, Clinical Programs
Cohen Veterans Network

As Vice President, Clinical Programs, Shelton is responsible for the development and day-to-day oversight of Clinical Programs including clinical training, telehealth, clinical innovations, intern and scholars’ programs and works directly to support each clinic to have the clinical resources and expertise necessary to provide the highest-quality clinical services to our veterans and military families.

Following a 2-year post-graduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins, Shelton served as an active duty social work officer in the United States Navy. During her time in uniform, she worked with infantry marines and combat instructors at the Marine Corps School of Infantry offering evidence-based interventions in the clinic and out in the training field. Shelton has worked closely with military leadership on multiple Force Preservation Counsels in an effort to build and sustain psychological readiness. In her final tour, Shelton was part of team that built and led the first-ever mental health clinic at the Wounded Warrior Battalion-East, where she provided clinical care for the USMCs most wounded, ill and injured.

Shelton received a BA in English from San Francisco State University and an MSSW from University of Texas, Austin, School of Social Work.

David J. Shulkin, MD

Secretary of Veterans Affairs
United States Department of Veterans Affairs

The Honorable Dr. David J. Shulkin was nominated by President Trump to serve as the ninth Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) and was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 13th, 2017.

Prior to his confirmation as Secretary, Dr. Shulkin served as VA’s Under Secretary for Health for 18 months, leading the Nation’s largest integrated health care system, with over 1,700 sites of care serving nearly nine million Veterans.

Before he began his service with VA, Dr. Shulkin held numerous chief executive roles at Morristown Medical Center, and the Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organization. He also served as President and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

Dr. Shulkin has held numerous physician leadership roles including Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital. He has also held academic positions including Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University School of Medicine. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Shulkin founded and served as Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, one of the first consumer-oriented sources of information on quality and safety in healthcare.

A board-certified internist, Dr. Shulkin is also a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and he completed his internship at Yale University School of Medicine and a residency and fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Medical Center. He also received advanced training in outcomes research and economics as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Shulkin has been named as one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives in the Country” by Modern Healthcare. He has also previously been named among the “One Hundred Most Influential People in American Healthcare.” He has been married to his wife, Dr. Merle Bari, for 29 years. They are the parents of two grown children.

Bradley D. Stein, MD, MPH, PhD

Senior Physician Policy Researcher
RAND Corporation

Bradley D. Stein, MD, PhD, is a practicing physician and senior scientist at the RAND Corporation. As a health services researcher and clinician experienced in working with individuals with behavioral disorders, his research activities focus on better understanding and seeking to improve the quality of care provided to individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders being treated in community settings. He has served as principal investigator and co-investigator on multiple grants from federal agencies including NIMH and SAMHSA that have examined how technologies can be used to improve care and outcomes of individuals who experience or are at-risk for behavioral health disorders. He is a previous member of the editorial boards of Psychiatric Services and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and from 2005-2011, served as the Senior Director of Research, Evaluation, and Outcomes at the Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, an academically affiliated nonprofit 501c3-managed behavioral health organization that managed behavioral health services for over 700,000 Pennsylvania Medicaid enrollees. Bradley’s research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, Milbank Quarterly, and Drug and Alcohol Dependence. He received his medical degree and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh and his PhD from the RAND Graduate School.

Dietrich A. Stephan, PhD

Chairman, Department of Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh

Dietrich A. Stephan, PhD, is a professor and Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Chief Innovation Officer at Carnegie Mellon University. He also leads translational and population health efforts at the Personalized Medicine Institute of UPMC. Dietrich has brought to market many new clinical solutions, often first-in-class modalities: multivariate genetic risk assessment for chronic disease and the first wallet card for pharmacogenomics, powerful cognitive enhancers for memory and learning disorders, single molecule long-read nanopore sequencing technology, genome interpretation, cancer tumor sequencing and target-based drug selection, microbiome sequencing and modulation across clinical indications, immune therapy for autoimmune diseases, home-based diagnostics for early stroke diagnosis, a novel class of broad spectrum antibiotics refractory to resistance promising to address the global epidemic of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, and many others.

Dietrich is also Chairman of the Board of Curable (a 501c3), which focuses on curing diseases through an integrative and engineering-based strategy. He has founded, or been part of the leadership, of several public private partnerships to accelerate cures including at Boston Children’s Hospital, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, the Institute for Individualized Health (now the INOVA Precision Medicine Institute), and the Cancer Genome Institute of Fox Chase Cancer Center. He has won numerous awards including the Bio-IT World Grand Prize in 2005, the “Most Influential in Bringing Genomics to the Clinic” award from the Consumer Genomics Conference in 2010, and the Legacy Laureate award from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. His work has been highlighted in books documenting the dawn of personalized medicine and in the press, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Wired, and others. Dietrich trained as a fellow at the National Human Genome Research Institute of NIH, received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and obtained a BSc from Carnegie Mellon University.

David J. Stiffler, MD

Medical Director
The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic

David J. Stiffler, MD, is the Medical Director of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at NYU Langone. He is on the faculty at NYU and sees patients in the NYU Faculty Group Practice. He graduated with a bachelor of science in biochemistry and molecular biology from Pennsylvania State University and received his MD from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 2010. After completing residency training at NYU, where he was chief resident, he went on to complete a fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry at NYU.

James R. Stone, MD, PhD

Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging
University of Virginia

James R. Stone, MD, PhD, is an associate professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging at the University of Virginia. He is a clinical interventional radiologist with a neuroscience background. His laboratory currently explores questions related to improving the clinical diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in both preclinical models and human subjects. Ongoing preclinical work includes the design and investigation of molecular imaging probes for the detection of acute and chronic effects of TBI. Probes under investigation include those targeting inflammation, cell death, and altered neurotransmitter receptor activity. He is involved with work exploring neurovascular changes in a preclinical blast TBI model. Human subject-related efforts focus on exploring neuroimaging correlates of repetitive low-level blast exposure in military populations. The goals of this work include determining whether military service members in this environment are at risk for development of mild TBI and helping to establish safe stand-off limits for low-level blast exposure. Additionally, James is involved with efforts to build a normative library to support improved population level research and work towards single subject assessment of patients with TBI. He is also involved with work utilizing machine learning/deep learning approaches for the automated segmentation of imaging findings diagnostic of TBI.

Terri Tanielian, MA

Senior Behavioral Scientist
RAND Corporation

Terri Tanielian is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. Tanielian is a nationally recognized expert in military and veteran’s health policy. Her research interests include access to and quality of care for service-connected health problems, particularly mental health problems; military suicide; military sexual assault; military families; veteran caregivers; and psychological and behavioral effects of combat, terrorism, and disasters. She employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods and analyses in her work, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of administrative data; as well as environmental scans of existing policies, programs and services.   She formerly directed RAND’s Center for Military Health Policy Research, overseeing RAND’s diverse military health research portfolio. In this role, she was interacted regularly with senior military health officials to identify and develop policy relevant studies and advise on the use of findings to improve decisionmaking. Tanielian was co–study director for RAND’s seminal study Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery (2008: RAND), the first non-governmental assessment of the psychological, emotional, and cognitive consequences of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. She won the AcademyHealth Impact Award for this work in 2011. She was also the principal investigator for RAND’s comprehensive study of military and veteran caregivers titled Hidden Heroes: America’s Military Caregivers.  She led the first ever prospective longitudinal study of military families across the deployment cycle, the Deployment Life Study. She has conducted several needs assessments examining the challenges and issues facing veterans living in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, Massachusetts and in New York State. Her studies have also examined the readiness of private sector health providers to deliver high quality care to veterans. She also led a study examining community based models for expanding mental health care for returning veterans and their families under the Welcome Back Veterans Initiative, as well as a consensus building effort to design a Blueprint for Future Research on Veteran Caregiving.  Tanielian has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She has served on many advisory committees and expert panels related to veteran mental health policy, public health preparedness, and homeland security.  Tanielian has a M.A. in psychology from the American University.

Sergeant Kyle White

Medal of Honor Recipient
United States Army

Spokesperson
Cohen Veterans Network

Sgt. Kyle Jerome White joined the Army in 2006, from Washington State. He attended basic training, advanced individual training, and U.S. Army Airborne School consecutively, at Fort Benning, Ga., before being assigned to the 2-503rd, at Camp Ederle, Italy, from 2006 to 2008. While assigned to the 2-503rd, White deployed to Aranas, Afghanistan, in spring 2007, where he served as a platoon radio telephone operator. He was assigned to the 4th Ranger Training Battalion, at Fort Benning, from 2008 to 2010. White departed the active-duty Army in May 2011.

His civilian education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he majored in finance. He currently resides in Charlotte, where he is a Vice President at Merrill Lynch.

His military education includes the Combat Life Saver Course, U.S. Army Airborne School, U.S. Army Air Assault School, the Infantryman Course (One-Station Unit Training), the Primary Leadership Development Course, and the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course.

White received the Medal of Honor during a May 13, 2014 ceremony at the White House. He became the seventh living recipient of the nation’s highest military decoration for conspicuous gallantry and valor during actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.

White received the Medal of Honor for his disregard of his own life while trying to save the lives of a Marine and two fellow Soldiers after his team of 14 U.S. Soldiers and squad of Afghan National Army soldiers were set up and ambushed by a much larger and more heavily armed Taliban force, who engaged in a three-prong attack from elevated ground.

White’s other awards and decorations include the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster and “V” device, the Army Achievement Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with one campaign star, the Global War on Terrorism Medal, the Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon with numeral 2 device, the NATO Medal, the Combat Infantry Badge, the Parachutists Badge, the Air Assault Badge, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the Valorous Unit Award.