Marie Brown, MD, FACP
Marie Brown, MD, FACP is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Rush University Medical Center Chicago, Illinois and Senior Physician Advisor for the AMA. Dr. Brown is a practicing board certified internist and geriatrician actively engaged in patient care. After earning her medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago, she completed residency in Internal Medicine at Rush University Medical Center.
Dr. Brown was elected and served as the Governor of the Illinois Chapter of the American College of Physicians. Previous Chair of the Scientific Program for the American College of Physicians Annual Session she currently serves on the national ACP diabetes, atrial fibrillations and immunization Advisory Boards and as a Senior Physician Advisor to the AMA.
She has served as Director on the Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine and chaired the IM test writing committee. Her educational activities in diabetes, led to her appointment to the 8 member Operations Committee for the NDEP (National Diabetes Education Program) sponsored jointly by the CDC and the NIH.
Her publications include reviews in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings on Medication Adherence, the American Journal of Medicine, Family Practice Management and The American Journal of Medical Science. The New York Times Magazine highlighted a clinical case of Dr. Brown’s Sept 2016.
With a grant funded by the American College of Physicians, she has produced instructional videos regarding Medication Adherence and immunizations. These highlight interviews with real patients regarding their perspectives on the challenge of medication taking. She is often invited to speak nationally on medication adherence, patient centered medical home, diabetes, immunizations and Choosing Wisely along with updates in general internal medicine.
Michael J. O’Grady, PhD
Michael J. O’Grady, PhD is a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago and a Principal of O’Grady Health Policy LLC, a private health consulting firm. His current research is concentrated on the interaction between scientific development and health economics, with a particular concentration on diabetes and obesity.
His research included serving as co-principal investigator for the cost-effectiveness component of a multi-year clinical trial. The trial was part of the development of an artificial pancreas for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. His latest research/publications focus on the value of lifestyle intervention to prevent diabetes, as well as, detecting type 2 diabetes and prediabetes among asymptomatic adults by modeling the diabetes screening guidelines from both the American Diabetes Association and the US Preventive Services Task Force.
From 2003 to 2005, he was the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at HHS. Dr. O’Grady worked directly with the Secretary on such critical policy issues as implementing the new Medicare drug benefit. While ASPE, O’Grady chaired the committee responsible for developing and issuing “Diabetes: A National Action Plan,” designed to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and factors that increase the risk of diabetes; promote improved diabetes detection, monitoring, and treatment; and reduce the complications of diabetes.
Prior to his Senate confirmation, he served as a senior health advisor to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a senior health economist at the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. Dr. O’Grady also held senior staff positions with the Bipartisan Commission for the Future of Medicare, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.
Dr. O’Grady also serves on a number of Commissions and Boards including the Maryland Health Care Commission, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) and the Boards of Academy Health and the Patient Access Network Foundation. He received his BA from Alfred University and his MA and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester.
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.
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).
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.