Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Systems, Office of Medical Affairs
UnitedHealth Group
President and CEO,
Northwell Health
Assistant Professor
Harvard School of Public Health
Editor-in-Chief, NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery; Co-Chair, NEJM Catalyst Editorial Board; Chief Medical Officer, Press Ganey Associates, Inc.
Member, Editorial Board, New England Journal of Medicine
Executive Vice Dean and Vice Dean for Education
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
Editorial Director
NEJM Catalyst
Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
CommonSpirit Health
Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Acute Care Operations and Clinical Excellence
Scripps Health
Working as Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Systems in the Office of Medical Affairs at UnitedHealth Group, Dr. Garry Choy focuses on advancing the application of clinically focused technology for the enterprise. He has led clinical innovations in clinical quality improvement, provider data management, credentialing, population health, clinical decision support, analytics, and machine learning at organizations including Massachusetts General Hospital and CredSimple/Andros. He previously served as faculty at Harvard Medical School and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Choy received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, MS in Operations Research and Economic-Engineering Systems from Stanford University, and MBA from Johns Hopkins University.
Michael Dowling is one of health care’s most influential voices, taking a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration that many health system CEOs shy away from. As President and CEO of Northwell Health, he leads a clinical, academic, and research enterprise with a workforce of more than 77,000 and annual revenue of $15 billion.
Mr. Dowling has received numerous awards, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and a number of honorary degrees from Fordham University, University College Dublin (Ireland), and the prestigious Queen’s University Belfast.
In 2020, Mr. Dowling received the Deming Cup from the Columbia School of Business and was ranked No. 2 on Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. In 2017, he was served as the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City and he chairs the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Prior to joining Northwell in 1995, Mr. Dowling served in New York State government for 12 years, including leadership roles as Director of Health, Education, and Human Services, Commissioner of Social Services, Deputy Secretary and a Chief Adviser to former Governor Mario Cuomo. Earlier, he was a Professor of Social Policy and an Assistant Dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Services, and Director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County.
Michaela Kerrissey, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Management on the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who analyzes how organizations innovate, improve, and integrate services. She focuses on how teams solve problems that cross organizational boundaries and learn amid complexity in health care delivery and medical science. Her research has been published in leading academic journals in both management and health care, such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Health Affairs, and she contributes to popular outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and NEJM Catalyst. She has received Best Paper awards from the Academy of Management and the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research and was named on the 40 Under 40 list by the Boston Congress of Public Health.
Dr. Kerrissey designed the Management Science for a New Era course at the Harvard School of Public Health. She also teaches in multiple executive programs at Harvard’s business and medical schools and received the Bok Center award for excellence in teaching.
Dr. Kerrissey holds a BA from Duke University, an MS from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a PhD in Healthcare Management from Harvard University and Harvard Business School. She was awarded the Robertson Scholarship at Duke, a Hart Fellowship, and a Reynolds Fellowship at Harvard. Prior to academia, she was a consulting team leader at The Bridgespan Group, which was launched by Bain & Company.
Dr. Thomas Lee is Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, and an internist and cardiologist who practices at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is a Professor of Medicine, part time, at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to joining Press Ganey, he served as Network President for Partners Healthcare System and Chief Executive Officer for Partners Community HealthCare, Inc., the integrated delivery system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Geisinger Health System, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Geisinger Health Plan, Geisinger Quality Options, Inc., and Geisinger Indemnity Insurance Company Board of Directors. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Health Leads; the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College; the Special Medical Advisory Group (SMAG) of the Veterans Administration; and the Panel of Health Advisors of the Congressional Budget Office. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the New England Journal of Medicine, as well as Editor-in-Chief of NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery and Co-Chair of the NEJM Catalyst Editorial Board.
He is the author of more than 260 academic articles and three books, Chaos and Organization in Health Care, Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine, and An Epidemic of Empathy in HealthcarNamed in his honor, the Thomas H. Lee Award for Excellence in Primary Care is given each year to recognize a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who meets the needs of his or her patients exceptionally well.
Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Science from Harvard College, a medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, and a master’s degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He lives in Milton, Massachusetts, with his wife, Dr. Soheyla Gharib, who is Chief of Medicine at Harvard University Health Services. The couple has three daughters.
Dr. Catherine R. Lucey is Vice Dean for Education and Executive Vice Dean for the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She directs the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education programs of the School of Medicine and the Office of Medical Education. Dr. Lucey is on the executive management team for the School of Medicine’s Differences Matters Initiative and oversees other strategic initiatives for the medical school and the campus.
Dr. Lucey’s national portfolio of work has included membership on the National Academy of Medicine, the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the American Board of Medical Specialties. Additionally, she served as Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In these roles, she has worked to influence the direction of academic medicine and the continuum of medical education in ways aligned with UCSF’s approach to education, culture, and community.
Dr. Lucey joined UCSF from Ohio State University, where she was Vice Dean for Education for the College of Medicine and Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Education for the Office of Health Sciences.
She completed her residency in internal medicine at UCSF, including service as Chief Resident at the UCSF affiliated San Francisco General Hospital. She earned her medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine.
As Editorial Director for NEJM Catalyst, Edward Prewitt oversees all editorial content for the monthly journal, NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery; monthly Insights reports; and quarterly events. He works closely with NEJM Catalyst advisors, authors, and colleagues to ensure that editorial content advances the national and international dialogue to drive innovation in health care delivery, while upholding NEJM Group’s high standards for quality.
Kathleen Sanford, DBA, RN, FACHE, FAAN, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, CommonSpirit Health. Dr. Sanford has over 40 years of experience in health care, including staff nursing, middle management, chief nurse executive, hospital administrator, strategy executive, and system nurse executive roles. A former Army officer, Colonel Sanford retired as Chief Nurse and acting State Surgeon/Medical Commander of the Washington Army National Guard. She has implemented and researched various nursing models including virtually integrated acute care and inpatient private nursing practice. She served on multiple health care and community boards, including the American Hospital Association Board and Tri-Council for American Nursing. She served as the 2006 President of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE).
She has authored two management books, Leading with Love and Dyad Leadership in Healthcare: When One Plus One Is Greater Than Two. She served as Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Administration Quarterly for 7 years. Her January–March 2020 edition, titled “Always a Nurse,” was a compilation of articles about nursing and its many specialties. She is a Fellow in the Wharton School of Business Nursing Administration Program, a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She has received numerous awards, including the AONE (now American Organization of Nurse Leaders, AONL) Lifetime Achievement award.
Dr. Ghazala Sharieff was named Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Excellence and Experience, only months before Covid-19 became a household name and Scripps quickly restructured to face the pandemic. Integral to Scripps’ Covid-19 response, Dr. Sharieff co-led command center operations and immediately provided medical leadership for Scripps’ 15,000 employees and 3,000 physicians. In addition, Dr. Sharieff worked closely with county public health and facilitated regular meetings with the region’s other chief medical officers to better manage Covid-19 as a community.
Dr. Sharieff’s responsibilities include engaging physicians and staff in the coordination and management of inpatient clinical care and the reduction of unnecessary variation — especially as it relates to patient experience, quality, and safety. In March 2022, Dr Sharieff assumed responsibility for support services executive oversight. This included engineering, environmental services, food and nutrition, facilities, and disaster and emergency services.
Board-certified in both Emergency Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Dr. Sharieff previously served as Chief Experience Officer at Scripps, as Scripps Medical Director of Quality and Medical Management, and as Division Director of the Emergency Department at Rady Children’s Hospital. She is a published author with two books on emergency medicine and numerous articles to her name, and is a recognized lecturer on pediatric emergency medicine, patient experience, conflict management, and team building. Her innovative approach to identifying patient concerns and her work with physicians and staff have led to significant patient experience improvements.
Dr. Sharieff earned her medical degree from Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine and completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Stanford University and a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Rady Children’s Hospital. She received her physician executive Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Knoxville in Tennessee
Dr. Sharieff has also served on several national committees including as past Chair of the ACEP Pediatric Emergency Medicine Committee, past Chair of the ACEP Pediatric Section, the ACEP Public Relations Committee, the AAEM Board of Directors, and as Co-chair of the AAEM Education Committee.
