D

Committee, Fellow, and Staff Biographies

COMMITTEE

MARY WAKEFIELD, Ph.D., RN, FAAN (Cochair), serves on a number of nonprofit and government boards and committees including the Veterans Health Administration Special Medical Advisory Group, the Macy Foundation, the University of Washington Medical Advisory Board, MITRE Health Advisory Committee and Executive Board, and the UC Davis Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders. From the fall of 2022 through early 2023 she was a temporary HHS appointee serving as Senior Counselor to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021 she served as Senior Counselor to the HHS Secretary for the Unaccompanied Children program operated by the Administration for Families and Children. In the fall of 2020, she was a member of the President-elect Biden’s transition team. In March 2015, Dr. Wakefield was named by President Obama to serve as the Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the second most senior position in the Department. She held this position through January 20, 2017. She led strategic department-wide initiatives in key health policy areas, with a particular focus on health and human service programs for vulnerable populations. Her domestic policy work largely focused on improving health status for underserved populations, including strengthening health programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives, and improving data analysis to better understand the health needs of rural populations.

From 2009 to 2015, Dr. Wakefield led and initiated program improvements as the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services

Administration to further strengthen the health care workforce, build healthier communities, increase health equity, and provide health care services to people who are geographically isolated or economically or medically vulnerable. Dr. Wakefield’s public service career also includes more than 8 years working in the U.S. Senate as a legislative assistant and later as chief of staff to two North Dakota senators. Dr. Wakefield has extensive academic experience, including serving as associate dean for rural health at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences University of North Dakota, director of the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and as a faculty member and area chair in the College of Nursing, University of North Dakota. Additionally, she worked on site as a consultant to the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Wakefield is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She has served on a number of public and not-for-profit boards and committees bringing expertise in nursing, health care quality, access to care, and the health workforce. Dr. Wakefield served on the IOM committee that produced the landmark reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. She also cochaired the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report Health Professions Education—A Bridge to Quality and chaired the committee that produced the report Quality through Collaboration: Health Care in Rural America.

LAUREN S. HUGHES, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., M.H.C.D.S., FAAFP (Cochair), is a family physician working as the State Policy Director of the Farley Health Policy Center and an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado. In these roles, she leads efforts to generate and translate evidence to inform the design and implementation of evidence-based health policy at the state, national, and federal levels. She participates in the Primary Care Centers Roundtable, a volunteer collective of all of the primary care research and policy centers in the United States. Her research interests include improving rural health care delivery, strengthening primary care infrastructure, and advancing behavioral health integration. She cares for patients at a rural federally qualified health center north of Denver. Dr. Hughes previously served as Deputy Secretary for Health Innovation in the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In this role, she collaborated with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center to codesign and launch the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, a new payment and delivery model that transitions rural hospitals from fee-for-service to multipayer global budgets and transforms how they deliver care to better meet community health needs. She also oversaw the creation of the Prescription Drug Monitoring

Program for the Commonwealth and led the department to full accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board.

In 2018, Dr. Hughes was selected by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as a Presidential Leadership Scholar. From 2022 to 2023, she served as chair of the American Board of Family Medicine Board of Directors. She also serves on the boards of directors of the Rural Health Redesign Center Organization and the American Medical Student Association Foundation. She is a member of the Primary Care Payment Reform Collaborative through the Colorado Division of Insurance and the Stakeholder Advisory Group for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research. Dr. Hughes is a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan, where she earned an M.Sc. in health services research. She holds a medical degree from the University of Iowa, an M.P.H. in health policy from the George Washington University, a master’s in health care delivery science from Dartmouth College, and she completed her residency at the University of Washington. Since 2021, Dr. Hughes has been a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Health Care Services.

RAMON CANCINO, M.D., M.B.A., M.S., FAAFP, is executive director of the University of Texas (UT) Health San Antonio Primary Care Center and senior medical director of Medical Management. Dr. Cancino also helps guide cancer prevention and screening strategies as the cochair of the joint UT Health San Antonio-MD Anderson Mays Cancer Center Cancer Prevention and Screening Committee. Prior to this role, he was chief medical officer of Mattapan Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in Boston, Massachusetts. A family medicine physician with more than 10 years health care executive experience in academic and FQHC settings, Dr. Cancino has led all aspects of primary care, including value-based care, cancer prevention and screening, and workforce development. His research interests include use and quality measurement, use of novel cancer screening strategies, and digital health. He sits on the Texas Primary Care Consortium Advisory Committee where he guides the direction of statewide primary care initiatives, and he sits on the board of directors of the UT Health San Antonio Regional Physician Network ACO. He holds multiple national committee positions. He sits on the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Practice and Quality Improvement Steering Committee, which guides the direction of relevant education for learners and clinician educators. He also sits on the Agency for Healthcare Quality Healthcare’s Safety and Quality Research study section.

Prior to these roles, Dr. Cancino completed his residency training at Mayo Clinic, completed an academic medicine fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine, obtained a master of science in health services

research at Boston University School of Public Health, and completed his M.B.A. at University of Texas at San Antonio.

KAREN L. FORTUNA, Ph.D., M.S.W., is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and cofounder of the Collaborative Design for Recovery and Health. As an international collaborative of patients, community health workers, peer-support specialists, caregivers, policy makers, and payer systems, the collaborative uses community-based participatory research to facilitate the development, evaluation, and implementation of digital tools that use mobile health to address needs identified by community members from vulnerable populations at the intersection of race and disability status, including but not limited to older adults with multiple chronic health conditions and people with disabilities, rare diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Her work spans many settings from primary care to community-based care. Dr. Fortuna has received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), National Institute of Mental Health, American Federation of Aging, Brain and Behavior Foundation, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, and the New York Academy of Sciences. Overall, she has been responsible for conducting or collaborating on more than 30 research projects including topics such as health disparities, self-management, patient engagement in digital technologies, participatory human-centered design, and has pioneered a new field of study: “digital peer support.” She is the 2022–2023 Chair of the Patient Engagement National Advisory Council to PCORI.

Dr. Fortuna is an invited member to the American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee, American Psychiatric Association’s Smartphone App Advisory Panel, Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts Advisory Panel, and Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft Research Group Die Offene Tür’s Open Innovation international advisory panel. Dr. Fortuna was the recipient of the Japanese Agency for Medical Research and Development Research Proposal of the year, Ally of the Year Award from the Western Mass Peer Network, Alvin R. Tarlov & John E. Ware Jr. Award in Patient Reported Outcomes, and the Faculty Achievement Award from the National Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work.

KEVIN GRUMBACH, M.D., is professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served as Chair of the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine from 2003 to 2022. He is a Founding Director of the UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care and Director of the Community Engagement Program for the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. His research and scholarship on the primary care workforce, innovations in primary care, racial and ethnic diversity in the health professions, and community

health improvement and health equity have widely influenced policy and practice. Dr. Grumbach is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and California Academy of Family Physicians, and cochairs the California Academy of Family Physicians Task Force on Primary Care for All to develop policy positions on primary care coverage, investment, and payment. He is also a member of Physicians for a National Health Program. He is a gubernatorial appointee to the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council and a technical expert for the California Office of Health Care Affordability Payment and Investment Workgroup, both of which are uncompensated positions. With Tom Bodenheimer, he coauthored the best-selling textbook on health policy, Understanding Health Policy—A Clinical Approach, now in its eighth edition, published by McGraw Hill. He received a Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration Award for Health Workforce Research on Diversity, the Richard E. Cone Award for Excellence and Leadership in Cultivating Community Partnerships in Higher Education, and the UCSF Chancellor’s Public Service Award. Dr. Grumbach has been an advisor to congressional committees and government agencies on primary care and health reform, and he has been a member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and currently serves on the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council. He cares for patients at the family medicine practices at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Health. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

YALDA JABBARPOUR, M.D., is a family physician and Director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care. In this role, she oversees a team of researchers who create and curate the evidence to support primary care. She conducts research on the primary care workforce, payment and investment in primary care, scope of practice for family physicians, factors contributing to primary care burnout, and the integration of public health and primary care. Dr. Jabbarpour first came to the Robert Graham Center as a Robert L. Phillips Health Policy fellow in 2015 and served as the Medical Director of the center from 2018 to 2022. Dr. Jabbarpour and her team at the Robert Graham Center, with support from the Milbank Memorial Fund, are responsible for authoring the primary care scorecards and creating the first national dashboard on primary care based on the National Academies report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care. She sees patients clinically at the MedStar Family Medicine Center in Spring Valley. She participates in the Primary Care Centers Roundtable, a volunteer collective of all of the primary care research and policy centers in the United States. Dr. Jabbarpour received her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles. She attended medical

school at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Family Medicine at the Georgetown University/Providence Hospital family medicine residency.

CANDACE SPROTT, M.D., M.B.A., FAAP, FACP, practices comprehensive outpatient internal medicine and pediatrics at the Southern California Permanente Medical Group where she has been since 2016. She also serves as the medical director of her medical office and conducts peer review for the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Sprott is highly active in the American College of Physicians (ACP), the professional home for all Internal Medicine physicians. She is the chair of her local chapter’s Early Career Physician Committee as well as a member of the ACP National Council of Early Career Physicians and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. In addition to these roles, she serves as Assistant Producer for the DEI shift podcast, a nationally recognized podcast hosted by the ACP that focuses on DEI topics within medicine. She’s passionate about operations and strategic planning, enjoys connecting with her patients through curiosity and empathy, and loves the thrill of a great case. Dr. Sprott trained in a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency program at Christiana Care Health System and the Alfred I duPont/Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware. After her chief year she completed a patient safety and quality improvement fellowship.

EBONI WINFORD, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Director of Research and Health Equity and a licensed psychologist at Cherokee Health Systems (CHS) in Knoxville, Tennessee. She provides direct clinical care to patients, contributes to workforce development in community health centers, and oversees research initiatives including those funded by Health Resources and Services Administration, the Tennessee Department of Health, and National Institutes of Health. She is the Clinical Director for CHS’s National Consultation and Training Program, which provides individualized onsite training to other health organizations as they seek to integrate their practices. She is on the board of directors for the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, is the Chair-Elect of the American Psychological Association’s Ad Hoc Health Equity Committee, is secretary of the American Pharmacists Association’s Community Health Planning and Policy Development section, and serves as the 2nd Vice Chair of the National Association of Community Health Centers Committee on Service Integration for Behavioral Health and HIV.

Dr. Winford holds adjunct faculty positions in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College and in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Fellow and a Health Equity Scholar in Cambridge Health Alliance’s Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy.

Dr. Winford earned her doctorate in clinical health psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and her Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a proud life member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE FELLOW

STEPHANIE GOLD, M.D., FAAFP, 2023–2025 Puffer/ABFM Fellow, is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado, a practicing family physician at a federally qualified health center in the Denver Health system, and a scholar at the Farley Health Policy Center. Her research and policy work focus on payment reform for primary care and integrating behavioral health with primary care, with the goal of system transformation to enable primary care to better and more equitably care for the whole heath of individuals, families, and communities.

Dr. Gold served as president of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) from 2022-2023. Through the CAFP, Dr. Gold helped advance legislation to improve primary care investment in Colorado and has provided input on multiple state task forces and committees related to primary care payment reform. Dr. Gold coedited a book, Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care: Your Patients Are Waiting, which provides guidance on practice transformation to integrate care. She led the development of the Building Blocks of Behavioral Health Integration, a framework of care delivery expectations for use in practice transformation and alternative payment models. Dr. Gold also teaches policy and advocacy skills and has developed novel curricula for residents and international learners. Dr. Gold received her M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Colorado—Denver Health track. Following residency, she completed a health policy fellowship with the Farley Health Policy Center.

PROJECT STAFF

MARC MEISNERE, M.H.S., is a senior program officer on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (National Academies’s) Board on Health Care Services. Since 2010, Mr. Meisnere has worked on a variety of National Academies consensus studies and other activities that have focused on mental health services for service members and veterans, suicide prevention, primary care, and clinician well-being. Most recently, he was the study director for the 2021 National Academies report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care and the 2023 report, Achieving Whole Health: A New Approach for Veterans and the Nation. Before joining the National Academies, Mr.

Meisnere worked on a family planning media project in northern Nigeria with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and on a variety of international health policy issues at the Population Reference Bureau. He is a graduate of Colorado College and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

ADAEZE OKORAOJUZIE is a senior program assistant with the Board on Health Care Services at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). Prior to joining the National Academies, she was the president of GlobeMed at Howard University, a grassroots organization that works directly with the Nancholi Youth Organization in Blantyre, Malawi. She is a certified birth doula who provided free doula services to young mothers in Washington, D.C., through the Community Doula Network. Through her content creator account “DazetheDoula” she creates awareness and educates her community on birth education. Ms. Okoraojuzie obtained her Bachelor of Health Sciences, magna cum laude, with a minor in biology and maternal child health from Howard University and she is an expected Master of Science graduate at Georgetown University Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences program August 2024.

SHARYL J. NASS, Ph.D., serves as Senior Director of the Board on Health Care Services and Director of the National Cancer Policy Forum at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). The National Academies provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. To enable the best possible care for all patients, the board undertakes scholarly analysis of the organization, financing, effectiveness, workforce, and delivery of health care, with emphasis on quality, cost, and accessibility. The forum examines policy issues pertaining to the entire continuum of cancer research and care. For more than 2 decades, Dr. Nass has worked on a broad range of health and science policy topics that includes the quality, safety, and equity of health care and clinical trials; developing technologies for precision medicine; and strategies to support clinician well-being. She has a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and undertook postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as a research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has been the recipient of the Cecil Medal for Excellence in Health Policy Research, a Distinguished Service Award from the National Academies, and the Institute of Medicine staff team achievement award (as team leader).