Danielle Lazar, MPP, DrPH
Danielle Lazar is Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, and Innovation at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS). ACCESS operates 35 community health center locations across the Chicago metropolitan area and is one of the largest federally qualified health center networks in the country – serving 175,000 patients each year, including 30,000 uninsured individuals.
Serving ACCESS and its underserved communities for more than a decade, Ms. Lazar has dedicated her efforts to develop long-term, sustainable programs that increase access to care and address health inequity. Her most notable work has addressed extremely high-risk populations: people at risk for HIV; men and women with mental health and substance use issues; people emerging from the criminal justice system; women at high-risk for breast cancer mortality and other significant health disparities.
In her role, she has created and shaped ACCESS’ overarching strategy for research, evaluation and innovation, working with investigators at multiple academic institutions in Chicago and across the country. Under her leadership, she has been able to guide ACCESS’ research and evaluation partnerships to be more pragmatic and community-centric. Using a systems thinking approach and implementation science framework, she focuses her team’s work on elevating the voices of patients and care teams to develop core research and evaluation questions that are relevant to improving primary care practice in low-income communities as well as addressing significant health equity and disparities.
Ms. Lazar also serves as the Director of the ACCESS Center for Discovery and Learning, a National Institutes of Health-funded translational research center located on the South side of Chicago. The Center is specifically designed to be an innovation and research hub for fostering new thinking, testing and refinement of ways to deliver care that reduces long-standing health disparities.
Ms. Lazar holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and is completing her doctorate in public health at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Anand Parekh, MD, MPH
Dr. Anand Parekh is Chief Medical Advisor at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) where he provides clinical and public health expertise across the organization. Since 2015, he has led specific efforts tackling a variety of policy issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, future of public health, opioid crisis, obesity epidemic & nutrition, health & housing, domestic and global HIV/AIDS, business & public health collaboration, emergency preparedness, social isolation, rural health, and prescription drug costs. His health care expertise has been recognized by the Washingtonian in its listing of Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People.
Prior to joining BPC, he completed a decade of service at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As an HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the Senior Executive Service from 2008 to 2015, he developed and implemented national initiatives focused on prevention, wellness, and care management. Specifically, he played instrumental roles in the implementation of the Recovery Act’s Prevention and Wellness Fund, the Affordable Care Act’s prevention initiatives, and HHS’ Multiple Chronic Conditions Initiative. He received the Surgeon General’s Outstanding Service Award for his efforts.
Briefly in 2007, he was delegated the authorities of the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health overseeing ten health program offices and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Earlier in his HHS career, he played key roles in public health emergency preparedness efforts related to pandemic influenza and bioterrorism as special assistant to the science advisor to the secretary.
Parekh is a board-certified internal medicine physician, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, an adjunct professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and an adjunct associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where he previously completed his residency training in the Osler Medical Program of the Department of Medicine. He provided volunteer clinical services for many years at the Holy Cross Hospital Health Center, a clinic for the uninsured in Silver Spring, MD.
He currently serves on the Board of Population Health and Public Health Practice at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Dean’s Advisory Board of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Board of Directors of the Presidential Scholars Foundation, Board of Directors of WaterAid America, and the Founders Council at the United States of Care.
He has spoken widely and written extensively on a variety of health topics such as chronic care management, population health, value in health care, and the need for health and human services integration. His book Prevention First: Policymaking for a Healthier America was released in December 2019 and argues that prevention must be our nation’s top health policy priority. He is also a Forbes healthcare contributor focused on the coronavirus.
A native of Michigan, Parekh received a B.A. in political science, an M.D., and an M.P.H. in health management and policy from the University of Michigan. He was selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in 1994.
Ajanta Patel, MD, MPH
Ajanta Patel is the Medical Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Ian Smith, MD
Dr. Ian Smith is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling books, SHRED: THE REVOLUTIONARY DIET, and SUPER SHRED: The Big Results Diet, and The Shred Diet Cookbook. Dr. Smith’s newest book and New York Times best seller THE SHRED POWER CLEANSE was released in paperback in December 2016.
Dr. Smith served under the Obama Administration as an appointee to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. He is also the medical contributor and co-host of the nationally syndicated television show The Rachael Ray Show.
He is a former co-host of the Emmy award winning syndicated daytime talk show, The Doctors. He also served as the medical/diet expert for six seasons on VH1’s highly-rated Celebrity Fit Club, and is the creator and founder of the national health initiatives The 50 Million Pound Challenge and The Makeover Mile. Dr. Smith is the former medical correspondent for NBC News network and for NewsChannel 4 in New York, where he filed reports for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show as well as WNBC’s various news broadcasts. He has appeared extensively on various broadcasts including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey Show, The Talk, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, MSNBC and many more. He has written for various publications including Time, Newsweek, Men’s Fitness, and the New York Daily News, and has been featured in several other publications including, People, Redbook, Details Magazine, Essence, Ebony, University of Chicago Medicine on the Midway, Cosmopolitan, and Black Enterprise.
A highly-sought after speaker, Dr. Smith’s work has been honored by several organizations, including the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for his coverage on the momentous events beginning on Sept. 11, 2001. He is also very active in charitable causes.
Dr. Smith has also served on the boards of the American Council on Exercise, the New York Mission Society, the Prevent Cancer Foundation, The New York Council for the Humanities, and The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity.
Dr. Smith graduated from Harvard College with an AB and received a master’s in science education from Teachers College of Columbia University. He attended Dartmouth Medical School and completed the last two years of his medical education and graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Dr. Smith is the author of 14 books, 5 of them #1 New York Times Bestsellers including SUPER SHRED: The Big Results Diet, SHRED: The Revolutionary Diet, The Fat Smash Diet, Extreme Fat Smash, and Blast The Sugar Out!. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed The Blackbird Papers (2005 BCALA fiction Honor Book Award winner.)
Dr. Smith is the creator of the SHRED brand which includes SHRED Pop Popcorn and SHRED Bars with other products in development.
Michael Taitel, PhD
Dr. Michael Taitel offers consulting services on a range of healthcare topics with focus on program development and outcomes evaluation.
Dr. Taitel was Senior Director, Health Analytics at Walgreens (2010 – 2024). He helped establish the Walgreens Center for Health & Wellbeing Research, and he led multidisciplinary teams of data and social scientists responsible for conducting clinical program evaluation and outcomes studies, predictive analytics, patient risk stratification and outreach targeting. He also supported Walgreen’s health and wellness innovations and partner integrations.
Dr. Taitel has more than thirty years of experience in the healthcare industry developing, analyzing, and articulating the impact of programs and services. Proven record of accomplishments directing and motivating professional analytic teams. Visionary leadership in conceptualizing and executing innovative solutions to achieve corporate priorities. Fierce advocate for health equity and diversity & inclusion. Internationally recognized expert and author in population health, healthcare utilization, behavioral medicine, medication adherence, vaccination, COVID-19 surveillance, health disparities, digital health, and predictive modeling.
Michael holds a doctorate in experimental health psychology (psychophysiology) from Ohio University and a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Bowling Green State University. He serves on the Advisory Panel of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy at the University of Chicago. He also serves on the Board of Partners-NIH HEAL Data2Action (HD2A) Program (The HD2A Program is part of the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative to stem the national opioid public health crisis).
Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD
Dr. Volpp is the founding Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) and the Mark V. Pauly President’s Distinguished Professor at Perelman School of Medicine and Health Care Management at the Wharton School.
Dr. Volpp’s work focuses on developing and testing innovative ways of applying insights from behavioral economics in improving patient health behavior and affecting provider performance. He has done work with a variety of employers, insurers, health systems, and consumer companies in testing the effectiveness of different behavioral economic strategies in addressing tobacco dependence, obesity, and medication non-adherence. He has competitively been awarded more than $98 million to lead or co-lead studies funded by the NIH; the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation; the CDC; VA Health Services Research and Development; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Hewlett Foundation; the Commonwealth Foundation; the Aetna Foundation; Mckinsey; CVS Caremark; Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield; Hawaii Medical Services Association; Merck; Humana; Aramark; WW; and Discovery (South Africa).
Dr. Volpp has published over 300 articles including work in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs, and has been covered by media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Good Morning America, BBC, National Public Radio, Der Spiegel, Freakonomics and Freakonomics MD, and Australian National Radio.
Dr. Volpp’s work has been recognized in a number of ways. He has received awards for career achievement including the Matilda White Riley Award for career achievement in social and behavioral sciences by NIH, the John Eisenberg Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine, and the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Distinguished Investigator Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science. He was also named a Distinguished Scientist by the American Heart Association. His teams have been awarded “best paper of the year” awards from AcademyHealth, the Society of General Internal Medicine, and the Association for Consumer Research, and the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Dr. Volpp is an elected member of Penn Medicine’s AOA Chapter, the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of American Physicians (AAP), and the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academy of Sciences (IOM). He has served as an advisor to many different health plans, employers, and consumer companies and is a principal of the behavioral economics consulting firm, VALHealth.
Audris Wong, MBA
Audris Wong is the current Chief Financial Officer and VP of Finance & Administration for the Adler Planetarium, a premier Chicago cultural institution, dedicated to science education. Prior to the Adler she was a management consultant for over twenty years, specializing in healthcare, nonprofit, and information technology strategy, and also served as COO/CFO at a private school in Chicago. She has co-authored numerous papers on decision-support systems and consumerism in healthcare. Her strategic focus is on how mission-oriented organizations maximize their impact, empower communities, and leverage their talent and resources toward agility and transformation.