Chelsey Smith, FNP-C, is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner. She originally attended Shadyside School of Nursing in Pittsburgh, PA, where she received her RN. Chelsey then pursued her interest in nursing, graduating with honors, from Chatham University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. While working in the neuroscience intensive care unit stepdown in Pittsburgh and providing pediatric home health care, she completed her Master of Science in Nursing with a specialty in Family. Chelsey is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner through AANP and licensed in Pennsylvania. She has worked primarily in a retail health care setting as a nurse practitioner since 2013. She has a passion for community health and for care across the lifespan. When not in the clinic, Chelsey enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys (age 10 and 13), gardening, and traveling.

Dr. Alyssa Gallipani, PharmD, BCACP, is clinical assistant faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She practices as a clinical ambulatory care pharmacist at RWJBarnabas Health. She is a board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist through the Board of Pharmacy Specialties and completed ambulatory care residency training at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. Dr. Gallipani provides direct patient care in collaboration with primary care providers at Barnabas Health Medical Group. She treats chronic disease states, including viral hepatitis, and works to improve access to and affordability of medications and to reduce the cost of care. She had the pleasure of collaborating with the Center for Asian Health to screen and treat individuals with viral hepatitis and participate in community outreach and clinical care initiatives. She presented at multiple viral hepatitis organizations, including the Hepatitis B Foundation and the Hepatitis B United Summit. Dr. Gallipani precepts advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students and residents to advocate for the role of the pharmacist as future providers. She is honored to be a part of the panel today with other leaders and trail blazers in the profession.

Su Wang, MD, MPH, FACP is the Medical Director of Viral Hepatitis Programs and the Center for Asian Health at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center and a member of the RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. She is Past President of the World Hepatitis Alliance, a non-governmental organization (NGO) committed to viral hepatitis elimination.

Dr. Wang is an internist and has served as primary investigator for a number of viral hepatitis screening and linkage-to-care grants sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other funders. She has led primary care-based hepatitis B and C programs, community outreach efforts, patient-based advocacy, and community-based research initiatives.

Dr. Wang has served on a number of World Health Organization (WHO) guideline development committees producing “Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus: Guidelines on Antiviral Prophylaxis in Pregnancy” and “Interim Guidance for Country Validation of Viral Hepatitis Elimination.” She is a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and serves on the steering committee for the HBV Special Interest Group and the Viral Hepatitis Elimination Taskforce, and is on the Patient Advisory Group.

She received her medical degree from the University of Miami and her Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Wang completed a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatric residency at Georgetown University Hospital and then served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer for the CDC at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She was previously the Director of Hepatitis Programs at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York City.

Marc Cohen, MD, is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC) in New Jersey, recognized by Newsweek as one of the world’s best hospitals. Formerly, he was Chief of the Division of Cardiology and Director of Cardiology Fellowship Training at NBI for 17 years. He was part of the TAVR team at one of the most active Valve Centers in New Jersey; Dr. Cohen is currently Professor of Medicine at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey.

Dr. Cohen has been instrumental in the expansion and enhancement of the Department of Medicine, augmenting an award-winning veteran team. During his tenure, NBIMC has reached a 1,100-heart transplant milestone and 1,000 TAVRs. As one of the top Centers in the US, specialists in intracoronary imaging, heart transplant, mechanical circulation devices, advanced lung disease, and lung transplant are able to care for a full range of health care options from routine to advanced critical care. Dr. Cohen is very proud of the 100s of Fellows and residents that he mentored.

Prior to NBIMC, Dr. Cohen served as Chief of Cardiology and Director of Clinical Research at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and was director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab there for ten years. He received his MD with honors from the New York University School of Medicine, and completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the Board of Cardiovascular Diseases, and the subspecialty Board of Interventional Cardiology.

Dr. Cohen is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American College of Physicians, and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, and is a member of the Cardiovascular Health Advisory Panel to the Commissioner of Health of the State of New Jersey. He has participated in many clinical trials, serving as the lead investigator of the international, multicenter ESSENCE trial, ACUTE I, ACUTE II, TETAMI, SEPIA-PCI, and as the co-lead investigator for the PRISM trial.

Dr. Cohen has authored or coauthored more than 400 articles including more than 200 peer-reviewed original papers. He has been a member of the editorial boards of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Invasive Cardiology, and the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis, and Coronary Revascularization Therapeutics.

Dr. Stanford is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics who practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide. She is one of the most highly cited obesity medicine physician-scientists, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as an MLK Scholar, MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Stanford served as a Health Communications Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completing her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor that Congress bestows upon America’s youth. Dr. Stanford also completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel.

Following an American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award in 2005 and AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. The American College of Physicians (ACP) selected Dr. Stanford as the 2013 recipient of the Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award, and the Massachusetts ACP selected her for the Young Leadership Award in 2015. She is the 2017 recipient of the HMS Amos Diversity Award and Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) Award for Women’s Health. In 2019, she was selected as the Suffolk District Community Clinician of the Year for the Reducing Health Disparities Award for MMS. She was chosen for The Obesity Society Clinician of the Year in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded the MMS Grant Rodkey Award for her dedication to medical students and the AMA Dr. Edmond and Rima Cabbabe Dedication to the Profession Award, which recognizes a physician who demonstrates active and productive improvement to the profession of medicine through community service, advocacy, leadership, teaching, or philanthropy. She is the 2021 Recipient of the Emory Rollins School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine selected her as a Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence.

Dr. Samba Reddy is a Regents Professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics and the Director of Texas A&M Institute of Pharmacology and Neurotherapeutics at Texas A&M University School of Medicine. He is a board-certified pharmacist and pharmacologist who is dedicated to developing new treatments for epilepsy and brain disorders. He has received continuous funding from the NIH for 18 years and is the principal lead on several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Defense (DOD), and other organizations, in fields such as epilepsy, chemical neurotoxicity and brain injury. Dr. Reddy has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of neurotherapeutics, including the discovery of the “neurosteroid replacement therapy” for epilepsy and women’s health. His research has paved the way for the FDA approval of two new neurosteroid medicines for post-partum depression (brexanolone) and refractory epilepsy (ganaxolone). He has published over 225 papers, five popular textbooks, and has mentored over 100 students and postdocs. He is a sought-after expert in his field and has been honored with numerous awards and recognition from prestigious organizations, including being named one of the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University.

Dr. Elaine Wirrell is the Chair and Professor of Child Neurology and Program Director of Child and Adolescent Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed medical school at the University of British Columbia and her Pediatric Neurology training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Wirrell is the past Co-chair of the Nosology and Status Epilepticus Task Force and a member of the Pediatrics Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy. She serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsy.com and is on the Medical Advisory Board for the Dravet Syndrome Foundation and the Lennox-Gastaut Foundation.

Dr. Wirrell?s main research interests are in early onset, medically intractable epilepsies including developmental and epileptic encephalopathies and epidemiology and comorbidities of pediatric epilepsy. Additionally, Dr. Wirrell is the recipient of the 2021 Kiffin-Penry Award from the American Epilepsy Society and the 2016 Distinguished Clinician award from Mayo Clinic.

Darae Ko, MD, MSc, is a board-certified cardiologist, echocardiographer, and a NIH-funded early-career clinical investigator with expertise in epidemiology and outcomes of atrial fibrillation. Her research program focuses analysis of real-world data using pharmacoepidemiologic methods to generate evidence for medically complex older adults with atrial fibrillation. She is a practicing cardiologist at Boston Medical Center, the largest safety net hospital in New England.

Dr. David Cho is a general cardiologist who practices at UCLA Health. He specializes in both the prevention and management of heart disease, working together with patients to improve their overall health and quality of life.

Dr. Cho received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology. He then obtained his Medical Degree and master?s degree in business administration from a combined program at Tufts University School of Medicine. He returned to California to complete his Internal Medicine Residency and Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine.

In addition to treating his patients through evidence-based medicine, he hopes to utilize emerging digital health tools to continue to improve the health for all his patients.

He is committed to the academic mission of medicine teaching medical students and residents, as well as close collaboration with the American College of Cardiology, currently serving as Chair of the Healthcare Innovation Section.

David S. Kountz, MD, MBA, MACP, is Co-Chief Academic Officer and Vice President for Academic Diversity, Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), and Professor of Medicine and Founding Sr. Associate Dean for Diversity and Equity, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

A practicing internist at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Dr. Kountz is a graduate of Princeton University (AB), SUNY/Buffalo School of Medicine (MD), and Georgian Court University (MBA). He holds state and national leadership roles in medical education, including appointment by the Christie administration to the Accreditation Graduate Medical Education Council of New Jersey in 2016.

Dr. Kountz has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, editorials, and abstracts, as well as having served as an investigator on more than 20 grants, including a recent project funded by NHLBI evaluating the value of oral anticoagulants to prevent venous thromboembolic disease in the setting of COVID-19. Dr. Kountz is the 2019 recipient of the Verice M. Mason Community Service Leader Award from the Edward J. Ill Excellence in Medicine Foundation. He was elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians in 2021.

Dr. Azar is currently Clinical Director for the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Director for the Adult Primary Immunodeficiency Center, at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr Azar completed his residency training in Internal Medicine, and fellowship in Allergy and Immunology, at the University of Iowa, and is board certified in Allergy and Immunology. He moved to Johns Hopkins where he founded the Center for Adult Primary Immunodeficiency, to create a multidisciplinary center for patients with PI disorders. Dr. Azar is involved in a varied of research areas, including the association of immunodeficiency with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); secondary hypogammaglobulinemia including autoimmune diseases and vasculitis; and novel treatments for the WHIM syndrome.

Dr. Azar has been named scholar of the Center of Innovative Medicine (CIM) at Johns Hopkins, has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, the Hopkins Medicine Magazine, selected in the Baltimore Magazine “Top Doctors” for the past 3 years, and nominated for the Johns Hopkins Best Consultant Physician Award.

Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, MD , is a specialist in Allergy and Immunology with 18 years of experience. She has board certifications in both Pediatrics and Allergy/Immunology and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, and American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Dr. Hernandez-Trujillo received her medical degree from Albany Medical College in New York and completed a pediatric residency program at Miami Children’s Hospital. She completed her fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center.

Dr. Hernandez-Trujillo is a Clinical Professor at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, Florida. She has served as the Medical Director for the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital since 2008 and is also the Program Director of the Allergy/Immunology Fellowship training program. Dr. Hernandez-Trujillo is interested in education regarding pediatric allergic disease, and she lectures nationally and internationally on the topics of pediatric food allergy, anaphylaxis, and immunodeficiency. Dr Hernandez-Trujillo serves on numerous committees for national organizations, including executive committee member of the AAP Section of Allergy and Immunology, Allergy/Immunology representative to Council of Pediatric Subspecialties for the ACAAI, and the Immune Deficiency Foundation Medical Advisory Board.

Dr Hernandez-Trujillo has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on a number of clinical studies on primary immunodeficiency and has presented abstracts, posters, and lectures at meetings and conferences worldwide. She has published multiple articles in respected medical journals, co-edited the first two editions of the Board Review Textbook on Allergy/Immunology, and is author of the renowned UpToDate topic of Agammaglobulinemia. Her most recent research and work has been in the areas of healthcare disparities, particularly the impact on Hispanic/Latinx patients. She was active during the COVID-19 pandemic sharing information in Spanish through efforts with the Immune Deficiency Foundation, participating in podcasts and panels about healthcare disparities in patients with primary Immunodeficiency, and collaborating with the Allergy and Asthma Network on a Webinar series for Hispanic/Latinx patients and the impact of asthma.

Ilana Jacqueline is the author of the book Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness. She is a patient advocate and patient influencer living with Primary Immune Deficiency Disease. You can find more about her on her website, www.ilanajacqueline.com.

Neal J. Weinreb, MD, FACP is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary (Bachelor of Hebrew Literature), and SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (MD, summa cum laude). After a residency in Internal Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a fellowship and faculty position at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, NY, he practiced Hematology and Medical Oncology in South Florida. Dr. Weinreb, the director of the University Research Foundation for Lysosomal Storage Diseases in Boca Raton, FL, retired from clinical practice in May 2018. He now devotes his entire professional attention to clinical research about Gaucher Disease and Fabry Disease. Dr Weinreb is a Voluntary Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Weinreb is an investigator for the Gaucher and Fabry Registries and a member of the Medical Advisory Board for the National Gaucher Foundation and of the International Working Group for Gaucher Disease.

Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD, currently serves as the Ward Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Simpson Querrey Center for Neurogenetics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Previously, he spent over two decades at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he completed his research and clinical training and served on the neurology faculty. His group discovered how to improve degradation of aggregation-prone proteins such as mutant huntingtin and a-synuclein by the lysosomal pathway. They identified a positive feedback loop between alpha-synuclein and lysosomal glucocerebrosidase in synucleinopathies. Using patient-specific neurons, his lab discovered a link between mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in neurodegeneration of human but not mouse midbrain neurons. Based on these findings, Dr. Krainc’s group initiated the development of activators of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase as targeted therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease. Their recent discovery of direct contacts between mitochondria and lysosomes and organelle dynamics has implications for various neurological and other disorders. He received numerous awards for his work and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Coy Heldermon is an associate professor of medicine and board-certified medical oncologist at the University of Florida with expertise in the treatment of breast cancer. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. His research expertise is in the use of gene replacement and stem cell therapies for the treatment of inherited disorders such as lysosomal storage diseases.

Dr. Roshan Lal is a Pediatric Clinical and Metabolic Geneticist working at the Rare Disease Institute, Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC. Her clinical and research interests are geared towards improving the quality of life for children with rare genetic diseases, specifically lysosomal storage diseases and neuro-genetic disorders. Her special interest includes being involved in clinical trials using orphan drugs as well as gene therapy. She is currently the Director of Clinical Trials and Director of International Patient Consultations and Care Referrals for the Rare Disease Institute at the Children’s Hospital.