麻豆传媒

Swapna Reddy specializes in analyzing U.S. health care policy and law.

As a clinical assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions, her focus is on how policy can be used to improve health outcomes, increase health care access and equity, and reduce health disparities among minority and underserved populations. Ms. Reddy regularly comments to the media on issues related to U.S. health policy, including the Affordable Care Act, and has been featured on BBC, PBS, NPR, KJZZ, NBC 麻豆传媒, Bloomberg 麻豆传媒, Phoenix Business Journal and ABC 15.

Roswell Park Alliance Foundation Endowed Chair in Cancer Prevention and Senior Vice President of Population Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute

Dr. Nia Heard-Garris is a pediatrician and a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University; and also in the Division of Academic General Pediatrics and Mary Ann & J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research, Outreach, and Advocacy Center at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children鈥檚 Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Heard-Garris is an active member in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and serves as the Chair and founding member of the Provisional Section of Minority Health, Equity, and Inclusion.Dr. Heard-Garris recently completed a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She earned her Master of Science in Health and Healthcare Research. At the University of Michigan, she studied the influence of social adversities, such as vicarious racism or racism experienced secondhand, and environmental adversities, such as the Flint Water Crisis on health. As a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, Dr. Heard-Garris served as a fellow at the United States Department of Health and Human Services with the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She worked on the Flint Water Crisis and Zika while a fellow in those organizations. Dr. Heard-Garris trained at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC for her pediatric residency. During her residency, she completed a health policy fellowship and worked in Honduras, as a part of her global health track. She received her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Howard University College of Medicine and helped to launch the student-run free clinic serving DC residents. Dr. Heard-Garris earned her Bachelor of Science in biology at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Heard-Garris's overarching research interests revolve around the relationship between adversities experienced early in childhood and health. Further, those interests also include the factors that contribute to a child鈥檚 ability to thrive despite these experiences. Through her research, she aims to generate the knowledge to help inform evidence-based interventions that help pediatricians and policymakers build resilience in children and in the communities that support children. Her long-term goal is to understand the role of childhood stress in the development of pediatric illnesses and key mitigating factors, so that family-centered, culturally appropriate strategies can be developed to treat, prevent, and ultimately lessen the burden adversity has on health throughout the life course.

Dr. Heard-Garris is a general pediatrician and enjoys caring for children from diverse backgrounds, including children from immigrant backgrounds. Through her research and clinical work, she hopes to help all children thrive.

Dr. Patel serves the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Global Mental Health Fellow and is a professor of clinical psychology at Palo Alto University (PAU), which is dedicated to addressing pressing and emerging issues through research and training in the fields of psychology and counseling.   Dr. Patel鈥檚 research uses a community partnership approach to address mental health disparities among immigrant families, and in settings with limited mental health infrastructure.  The Global Mental Health Fellowship is a one-year opportunity for a psychologist to contribute to the work of the World Health Organization in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Dr. Rachel Issaka is a gastroenterologist and clinical researcher focused on decreasing the mortality associated with colorectal cancer, with a special focus on medically underserved populations. Dr. Issaka鈥檚 research includes identifying, measuring and recommending new and improved approaches to screening and follow-up both in Seattle and across the U.S.

The roots of Dr. Issaka鈥檚 research lie in a tale of two clinics. The first was at Northwestern University鈥檚 McGaw Medical Center, a few blocks from Chicago鈥檚 glittering 鈥淢agnificent Mile鈥� commercial district. The second was at a federally qualified health center on the city鈥檚 South Side, several miles and another world away.

Issaka worked at both clinics early in her medical career. She soon noticed a striking difference between the two. Her mostly white, middle- to upper-class patients at Northwestern faithfully followed whatever the doctor ordered. That included getting screened for colorectal cancer, the second-deadliest cancer in the U.S.

But it was different on the South Side. Her mostly African-American and Latino patients there, when encouraged to schedule screening for colorectal cancer, often declined.

Why?

Issaka has never stopped asking why disparities exist and how to achieve health equity in colorectal cancer screening. The questions aren鈥檛 academic. Screening can prevent colorectal cancer by detecting and simultaneously removing precancerous polyps, small lesions that over time can grow and become cancerous.

But despite clear evidence that screening for colorectal cancer saves lives, rates aren鈥檛 where they should be. The screening goal for the U.S. population, according to the American Cancer Society and National Colorectal Cancer Round Table, is 80 percent. The actual rate is about 63 percent across all populations, with even lower rates among racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status.

Closing that gap, Issaka noted, could save 200,000 lives over the next 20 years. And it could lessen the socioeconomic inequalities that linger 鈥� or stubbornly grow 鈥� in cancer care and mortality.

鈥淪creening is a way to not only prevent disease but reduce racial and economic disparities,鈥� said Issaka, who is on the faculty of the Hutch鈥檚 Clinical Research Division and the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, which is based in the Public Health Sciences Division. 鈥淲e need to close that gap so that every citizen can benefit from the advances in cancer care and prevention.鈥�

Antonia M. Villarruel, Ph.D., RN, FAAN is the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Director of the School鈥檚 WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership.

As a bilingual and bicultural nurse researcher, Dr. Villarruel has extensive research and practice experience with diverse Latino and Mexican populations and communities, and health promotion and health disparities research and practice both here and abroad. She incorporates a community-based participatory approach to her research. Specifically, her research focuses on the development and testing of interventions to reduce sexual risk behaviors among Mexican and Latino youth. As part of this program of research, she developed an efficacious program to reduce sexual risk behavior among Latino youth 鈥� entitled Cu铆date! which was disseminated nationally.

Dr. Villarruel serves in such national leadership roles as chair of the IOM Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and co-chair of the Strategic Advisory Council of the AARP/RWJ Center for Health Policy Future of Nursing Campaign for Action. She is an invited member of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the Aspen Health Strategy Group as well as an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Academy of Medicine. She is the recipient of the President鈥檚 Award for Health Behavior Intervention Research from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research; an inducted member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame; was named one of NBC鈥檚 Latino20; and received the Al Dia 麻豆传媒 Media鈥檚 Hispanic Heritage Award for leadership in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Riis earned her Ph.D. in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research examines the etiology of health disparities and the processes by which environmental factors and social experience affect child development and life-long health. Dr. Riis’ research uses salivary biomarkers to examine the interplay between the biological and environmental processes underlying health. This work includes a focus on advancing the field of salivary bioscience by expanding the range of analytes measured in saliva and increasing the application of salivary bioscience to new fields, including a broader integration into clinical, public health, and social science research. Through the use and validation of novel biomarkers, her research aims to expand our understanding of the response to stress and adversity to include changes in multiple physiologic systems, including those underlying inflammatory and metabolic conditions, and to inform effective prevention and intervention strategies. 

, is the chief administrative officer for health justice, equity, diversity and inclusion at UC San Diego Health. She also serves as the associate chief medical officer for health equity. In this dual, complementary role, she’s focused on creating an equitable, diverse and inclusive environment for students, trainees, faculty, staff and patients.
Cené is responsible for the vision, leadership and strategic planning of UC San Diego Health’s justice, equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives. She partners closely with leaders within the organization to ensure anti-racist, equitable, diverse and inclusive strategies, programs and policies are implemented across the health system. She brings extensive leadership, research, teaching and clinical experience to her position.
She is a nationally recognized health services and health disparities researcher. Her research focuses on evaluating and implementing solutions that enhance patient and family-centered care, focusing on the disparities in care by race and socioeconomic status. Cené has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and has mentored over a dozen students, trainees, and junior faculty. She has held leadership roles in national and international organizations throughout her career, including the American Heart Association, the Society of General Internal Medicine, and the Women’s Health Initiative.

Yvens Laborde, MD, leads Ochsner’s community health programs and promotes the organization’s outreach programs to improve health outcomes for at-risk populations. He was a founding member of the Ochsner Health Disparities Task Force.
Since joining Ochsner in 1995, Dr. Laborde has served in a number of leadership positions while maintaining a clinical practice. He led efforts in establishing the first inpatient hospital medicine service in New Orleans’ Westbank area, where he also served as medical director for Ochsner nursing home patients. He was an early adopter of incorporating advanced practice providers into his practice.
A native of Port au Prince, Haiti, Dr. Laborde was instrumental in Ochsner’s relief efforts in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake. He served as a co-leader of Ochsner’s on-the-ground relief efforts in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
Dr. Laborde completed his undergraduate studies in New Orleans then earned a medical degree from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans and a residency in internal medicine at Ochsner Health System. He is board certified in internal medicine.
He is the first Black physician elected to the Ochsner Health System board of directors and served two terms from 2006-2013. Among his numerous professional honors, he was a finalist for the 2017 U.S. Cooperative for International Patient Programs International Humanitarian and Global Health Leader Award.