Jennifer G. Adams, MD, is the inaugural Frankfort Family Director of the Center for Empathy in Medicine. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Director of the Primary Care Residency Track, and a preceptor and attending physician at Gouverneur Health.

Dr. Adams brings deep expertise as a clinician, educator, and researcher to her leadership of the Center, where she is dedicated to advancing empathy as a foundational element of medical education. She works closely with leaders across the educational and clinical missions to design, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive empathy curriculum spanning undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. A frequent speaker on empathetic healthcare, Dr. Adams has shared her work nationally and internationally and is committed to improving empathy training on a global scale.

Dr. Helen Arteaga-Landaverde is CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, a 545-bed Level 1 Trauma and Academic Medical Center serving over 1 million patients annually. The first Latina and woman of color to lead the hospital, she has driven national recognition for quality, equity, and patient-centered care. Under her leadership, Elmhurst became the first hospital in New York to earn Health Equity Gold standard certification and secured major accolades from U.S. News & World Report. In 2024, she secured $27.5M in state funding for the expansion of Elmhurst’s Women’s Pavilion and a new Pediatric ICU. She also launched NYC Health + Hospitals’ first comprehensive Wellness program. Helen holds degrees from NYU, Columbia, and CUNY, and has been honored by Crain’s, Becker’s, and Governor Hochul for her impact on public health and health equity.

Elizabeth is an executive leader in strategy, access, and systems transformation, with a passion for turning vision into action and aligning teams across health, education, and social systems. From 2016–2025, she served on the executive team at The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, leading initiatives such as the Gold Corporate Council, expansion into nursing, and the Medallia-Gold Humanism Trust Tool. Previously, she was Chief Innovations Officer at ICL, where she developed an agency-wide outcomes framework and championed evidence-based, person-centered, trauma-informed care. She holds degrees from Clark University, Teachers College at Columbia, and a PsyD from Rutgers.

Dr. Paul DeChant is a thought leader on leading organizational transformation and creating healthy workplaces. Paul advises C-level healthcare executives on managing critical problems such as financial and staffing challenges by transforming management systems and cultures to reduce the root causes of clinician burnout, improve KPI performance, and reduce burnout. He supports the AMA’s Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainment team and teaches at the University of Colorado – Denver’s Graduate School of Business.

Heather Leigh Flannery is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of AI MINDSystems Foundation, which focuses on advancing humanity’s health, prosperity, and privacy through systemic interventions and ethical AI practices. Flannery is also involved in various leadership roles, including Chair of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Working Group and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Trust and Wisdom in Global Health at the Government Blockchain Association, as well as Chair of the Washington, DC Chapter at AI 2030. Additional contributions include serving as Non-Legal Advisor at Cogent Law Group and Instructor at both European Tech School and the Global Blockchain Initiative. Previously, Flannery co-founded the Equideum Foundation, aimed at promoting digital inclusion and addressing health disparities.

Laura is the Chief Growth Officer at Vannadium and a 4-time startup founder specializing in growth and intelligent systems strategy. With a background in Neuroscience and Behavioral Psychology from Georgetown University, Laura has pioneered AI-powered workflows since early 2024, replacing traditional business processes with custom assistants. Her work bridges user-centric design with real-world operations, making AI both accessible and responsible across healthcare, fintech, and infrastructure sectors.

Margaret Fry, MD, is President and CEO of the Pediatric Physicians’ Organization at Children’s (PPOC), a clinically integrated network of approximately 800 primary care and behavioral health clinicians practicing in close affiliation with Boston Children’s Hospital at over 110 independent pediatric offices throughout Massachusetts. The PPOC manages population health initiatives, value-based care, EHR and advanced technology infrastructure, behavioral health integration, and continuing education to support the care of nearly 440,000 children and adolescents across Massachusetts.

Rick is the Founder and CEO of Vannadium, a Web4 infrastructure company redefining how organizations handle secure, sovereign data. A retired U.S. Navy officer and serial entrepreneur, Rick has launched 15 startups with seven successful exits. At Vannadium, he developed Diffusion™, a groundbreaking data platform enabling sub-millisecond, immutable transactions. Rick’s focus is helping complex industries—especially healthcare—adopt AI and DLT technologies without compromising trust, security, or operational integrity.

Mark Mantei, CEO of Vancouver Clinic, has over 40 years of experience in physician group practice and hospital leadership. Mark has a proven track record in profitably growing an organization through teamwork, attention to quality, physician relations, and disciplined strategy execution.

Mark started with Vancouver Clinic in 2015 and has been instrumental in helping the Clinic develop their long-term growth and opportunity strategy. The Vancouver Clinic is a 500+ clinician independent multi-specialty group practice with 18 locations and an 88 year history in Clark County, Washington.

Emily Promise is the CEO of ShorePoint Advisory Group and serves as a trusted advisor and primary point of contact for physicians, healthcare professionals and their families. Her role extends well beyond traditional financial advising; she functions as a strategic Chief Financial Officer for her clients, focused on protecting their financial health so they can remain focused on caring for others.

Taking a comprehensive, whole-picture approach, much like patient-centered care, Promise evaluates each client’s financial life as an integrated system rather than a series of isolated decisions. She partners with medical professionals through pivotal moments such as practice transitions, retirement planning, business sales, retirement planning, and generational wealth strategies, helping them navigate complexity with clarity and confidence.

Kathleen Reeves, MD, FAAP is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The national nonprofit organization champions humanism in healthcare, defined as clinically excellent care that is kind, safe, and trustworthy. Dr. Reeves’ specialties include the human connection in healthcare, ethics, trauma-informed care, substance misuse, healthcare professions education, and health equity. She is a pediatrician and a faculty member at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. Previously, she served for 20 years at Temple in various roles, including Founding Director of the Center for Urban Bioethics and a Senior Associate Dean.

Helen Riess, MD is Chief Scientist for Empathetics. Dr. Riess is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, PT, at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a core member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO) and faculty of the Harvard Macy Institute. Dr. Riess is a psychiatrist who developed an empathy training approach based on research in the neurobiology and physiology of empathy that has been rigorously tested in pilot studies and a randomized, controlled trial at MGH. She completed her residency and Chief Residency at MGH and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Riess has devoted her career to teaching and research in the art and science of the patient-doctor relationship.

Bryan is the Chief Wellness Officer of Duke Health Integrated Practice and Director of the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-being Science. After 30 years as a psychologist, psychometrician and investigator, he now works with leaders to assess and improve culture and work-force well-being. Bryan has conducted and published large studies and randomized controlled trials showing how to cause enduring improvements in the well-being of our workforce. He has authored over 100 peer reviewed publications, and his research instruments and well-being interventions have been translated and used in over 30 countries.

A perpetually recovering father of four, he enjoys running, using hand tools on wood, pickleball with friends, and hearing particularly good explanations of extremely complicated topics.

Dr. Steven Strongwater is the former President and CEO of Atrius Health, a physician practice with a long history as a national leader in delivering high-quality, value based, coordinated care, with more than 5,000 employees, serving 700,000 patients across eastern Massachusetts.

Atrius Health excelled in value-based care accepting financial risk in commercial and governmental programs including CMS’s Pioneer and NextGen ACOs alternative payment programs. Under Dr. Strongwater’s leadership, Atrius Health developed programs to reduce physician burnout and innovations to reduce total costs of care (e.g., hospitalization at home). Previously, he served as Geisinger Health System’s Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Medical Executive for Acquisition Integration.

Dr. Jeff Thompson is the former CEO of Gundersen Health System, pediatrician, and author of Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community. Gundersen was nationally recognized for higher quality, lower costs and dropping its green house gases by 95%. Dr Thompson spoke at the Paris climate talks and was honored by the Whitehouse as a champion for change. He has served as the board chair of Healthcare Without Harm.