Expert Speakers

Dror Ben-Zeev, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington (UW), Mobile Health Researcher, and licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in development and evaluation of technology-based approaches in the assessment, treatment, and prevention of mental illness. Dr. Ben-Zeev directs UW’s mHealth for Mental Health Program (www.mh4mh.org)  a multidisciplinary effort to harness mobile technology to improve the outcomes and support the recovery of people with psychiatric conditions. He publishes extensively in scientific journals and is a regular speaker at national and international scientific meetings including invited presentations at the White House and National Institute of Mental Health Director’s Innovation Speaker series. Dr. Ben-Zeev has written editorials and commentaries on the use of technology-based interventions for Psychiatric Services and the New York Times, and his research has been covered by Public Radio, Nature, Wired Magazine, Slate, and The Economist. Dr. Ben-Zeev is the 2017 Inaugural Editor of the “Technology in Mental Health” Column in Psychiatric Services.

A results-oriented biomedical executive with a passion for leading high growth and turnaround companies, George Carpenter is the CEO of MYnd Analytics. He is leading commercialization of the company’s patented PEER technology for psychotropic medication management, the first biomarker solution for providers in behavioral medicine.

Prior leadership positions include serving as President and CEO of WorkWell Systems, Inc., a national physical medicine firm managing occupational health programs for Fortune 500 employers; Chariman and CEO of CORE, Inc., a company focused on integrated disability management and work-force analytics; Vice President of Operations with Baxter Healthcare; and Director of Business Development and a strategic planner for Baxter’s alternate site businesses. Mr. Carpenter began his career at Inland Steel where he served as a Senior Systems Consultant in manufacturing process control.

Mr. Carpenter holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a BA with Distinction in International Policy & Law from Dartmouth College.

One Mind is led by General Pete Chiarelli, U.S. Army General (Retired) who as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army led the Department of Defense efforts on post-traumatic stress (PTS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and suicide prevention. He is a retired General with almost 40 years of experience, and was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of One Mind in 2012.

As the 32nd Vice Chief of Staff in the Army, Chiarelli was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Army and its 1.1 million active and reserve soldiers. This included the oversight of many of the Army’s R&D programs, and the implementation of recommendations related to its behavioral health programs, specifically its Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention Program.

As commander of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Chiarelli coordinated the actions of all four military services and was responsible for the day-to-day combat operations of more than 147,000 U.S. and Coalition troops. He was also the Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates from March 2007 to August 2008. He retired from the Army in 2012. In 2013, Chiarelli received the Patriot Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s highest honor for his work to help soldiers and families suffering from the invisible wounds of war.

Scott Cousino has successfully built and led high-growth organizations, most recently a $110 million web-based learning platform. Prior to myStrength, Scott was an Internet executive at Alta Colleges, a higher education services company offering associate and bachelor degree programs to more than 18,000 students. As President of the 600-employee online college, he and his team were responsible for the initial launch and rapid growth of Alta’s fully accredited e-learning platform. Scott also served as Senior Vice President for Fidelity Investments, with oversight for the Company’s emerging growth offshore/international mutual fund division. Scott has an MBA from the University of Colorado and a BBA with distinction from the University of Michigan.

Nicholas J. Dogris, Ph.D. Is a California Licensed Psychologist in private practice. He is BCIA board certified in neurofeedback and has over 12 years of experience in the field. He is the inventor and founder of NeuroField, Inc.

Dr. Dogris is trained in the assessment, diagnosis, and psychological treatment of adults, adolescents, and children. He has over 18 years of experience in the mental health field and has worked with diverse populations to include people with chronic mental illness, developmental disorders and geriatric disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Dogris graduated with his PhD from the California School of Professional Psychology and holds two Masters in both Clinical and Research Psychology. He is a member of the AAPB (Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback) and the ISNR (International Society for Neurofeedback and Research). He lectures around the world providing training and consultation to practitioners who utilize NeuroField in professional practice.

Dr. Sherry Dubester is Anthem’s Vice President of Behavioral Health and Clinical Strategy. In this role, she leads Behavioral Health/ EAP strategy, business and product development as well as population health strategies for a broad set of clinical conditions, strategies to address health disparities and company wide efforts to address the opioid crisis.
Dr. Dubester has been with Anthem for 17 years in a variety of roles, including care management, clinical sales support for national accounts and clinical product. Prior to joining Anthem, Sherry was Executive Medical Director of Behavioral Health Services for Glens Falls Hospital in upstate New York. Previously, she led inpatient psychosocial services at National Jewish Health in Denver.
She serves on the executive committee of the board of the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness, as well as the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders workgroup and the Association of Health Insurance Plans’ opioid workgroup.

Dr. Adam Gazzaley is a Professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at UC San Francisco, and the founding Director 0f Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology creation and scientific research.   He designs and develops novel brain assessment and optimization tools to impact education, wellness, and medicine practices.

Dr. Gazzaley is also co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive Labs a company developing therapeutic video games, and co-founder and Chief Scientist of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. Additionally, he is a scientific advisor for over a dozen technology companies, has filed multiple patents based on his research, authored over 125 scientific articles and delivered more than 535 invited presentations around the world. He co-authored with Dr. Larry Rosen the MIT Press book: “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World,” winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience.

Dr. Gazzaley obtained an MD and a PhD in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed clinical residency in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at UC Berkeley.

Pamela Greenberg is the President and CEO of the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness, the national voice for specialty behavioral health and wellness companies which serve over 170 million people in the public and private sectors. She joined the organization in 1998 as the Executive Director for the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association (AMBHA).

Pamela serves on the Editorial Board of the Bloomberg BNA Health Insurance Report, is a liaison to the National Committee for Quality Assurance Standards Committee and is a member of the Advisory Board of Landmark Health, a company that provides home-based medical care to individuals with multiple chronic conditions. In 2017 she joined InnovaTel Telepsychiatry’s Strategic Advisory Board.

She was the President of ACMHA: The College for Behavioral Health Leadership and Chair of the Coalition for Fairness in Mental Illness Coverage, one of the leading Coalitions that advocated for the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

Prior to joining ABHW Pamela was the Deputy Director of Federal Affairs for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and a Legislative Assistant at Capitol Associates, a healthcare consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Walter Greenleaf, PhD is a research neuroscientist and medical product developer working at Stanford University.   Walter is known internationally as an early pioneer in digital medicine and virtual environment technology.  With over three decades of research and product development experience in the field of medical virtual reality technology, Walter is considered a leading authority in the field.

As a scientist and medical product developer, Walter’s focus has been on computer-supported clinical products, with a specific focus on virtual reality and digital health technology to treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke, Addictions, Autism, and other difficult problems in behavioral and physical medicine. He has founded and managed several medical product companies, including Pear Therapeutics, Virtually Better, InWorld Solutions, Cognitive Leap, and Greenleaf Medical.

Walter recently served as the Director for the Mind Division, Stanford Center on Longevity, where his focus was on advancing research on age-related changes in cognition. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s MediaX Program, and the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In addition to his research at Stanford, Walter is and co-founder of Virtual Ventures and Cognitive Leap, Chief Science Advisor at Pear Therapeutics, and Director of Technology Strategy for the University of Colorado National Behavioral Health Innovation Center.

Dr. Harbin is a Psychiatrist with over 40 years of experience in the behavioral health field. He has held a number of senior positions in both public and private health care organizations. He worked for ten years in the public mental health system in Maryland, serving as Director of the state mental health authority for three of those years. Between 1994 and 2004 he was CEO or Chairman of two national behavioral healthcare companies – Greenspring Health Services and Magellan Health Services. He served on the 2002 President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and chaired the Subcommittee for the Interface between Mental Health and General Medicine. In 2005 he co-chaired the National Business Group on Health’s workgroup to help corporations improve the behavioral health of their employees, which produced the Employer’s Guide to Behavioral Health Services. Since 2004

Dr. Harbin has provided health care consulting services to a number of private and public organizations, including AARP, CNS Response, Curiosityville, Smart Brain Technology, the Parity Implementation Coalition, Maryland Mental Health Association and the Kennedy Forum. He is keenly interested in brain health and wellness and has been involved with a number of health and education organizations working to advance progress in the field.

Dr. Corinna Lathan is CEO, Co-Founder, and Board Chair of AnthroTronix, Inc., a woman-owned biomedical engineering research and development company creating diverse human-centered products in digital health, wearable technology, robotics, and augmented reality. Most recently, Dr. Lathan led the technical team to develop DANAtm, an FDA-cleared, mobile digital health software platform for the Department of Defense as a deployed diagnostic support to evaluate cognitive function during treatment for depression, brain injury, and post-traumatic stress. Dr. Lathan is a thought leader on technology trends that impact health and healthcare and was named a 2017 Woman to Watch by Disruptive Women in Health Care.

Dr. Lathan has been featured in Forbes, Time, and the New Yorker magazines and her work has led to such distinctions as Maryland’s “Top Innovator of the Year,” MIT Technology Review Magazine’s “Top 100 World Innovators,” and one of Fast Company Magazines “Most Creative People in Business.” Dr. Lathan was named a Technology Pioneer and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and currently serves as co-Chair of their Global Future Council on Human Enhancement.

Dr. Jay Lombard is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer and Medical Director at Genomind. He is responsible for Genomind’s scientific research and development, as well as medical leadership and clinical oversight. Dr. Lombard is a board certified neurologist. Dr. Lombard has published several books on the role of nutrition and the brain and has lectured extensively on this topic. He has had numerous television and radio appearances including appearances on Larry King, Dr. Oz, CBS News, Fox News, The Early Morning Show and others. He was also invited to present at TEDMED 2012.

Prior to founding Genomind, Dr. Lombard served as the chief of Neurology at Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he led the Stroke Unit. He is also a former clinical assistant professor of neurology at New York Presbyterian Hospital, clinical instructor of Neurology and Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and chief of Neurology at Westchester Square Medical Center and the Brain Behavior Center.

Dr. Lombard is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He combined his psychiatry and neurology residency training at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.

Ana Maiques is the CEO of Neuroelectrics, a company aiming to change the way we interact with the brain, developing innovative technologies to monitor and stimulate the brain to help many patients in need. She was nominated by IESE as one of the most influential entrepreneurs under 40 in Spain (2010) and received the EU Prize for Women Innovators from the European Commission EC in 2014 and one of the Most Inspiring Fifty Women in Europe. Neuroelectrics recently received the Best Start-up in Health 2015 bye Wired UK magazine in an amazing event in London. She spends her time between Barcelona and Boston. Neuroelectrics was awarded as one of the best Entrepreneurial companies in the USA in 2016 by Entrepreneur360.

Dr. Carlos Peña is Division Director for the Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, in the Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Peña is involved in all aspects of the safety and effectiveness review of neurostimulation, neurodiagnostic, neurosurgical, neurotherapeutic, and physical medicine devices. Prior to joining CDRH, Dr. Peña served on detail as Assistant Director for Emerging Technologies in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. His areas of expertise included science, technology, policy, analysis, and regulatory matters related to biology, neuroscience, biotechnology, emerging technologies, and agriculture. Before joining OSTP/FDA, Dr. Peña served at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. He completed his neurosciences doctoral training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He also attended the University of Connecticut for the Masters in Comparative Physiology, and the City College of New York, City University of New York, where he received a Bachelors specializing in Developmental Biology.

William A. Richards is a psychologist in the Psychiatry Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Bayview Medical Center, where he and his colleagues have conducted research with psilocybin during the past 17 years, and also a clinician in private practice in Baltimore. His graduate degrees include M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, S.T.M. from Andover-Newton Theological School and Ph.D. from Catholic University, as well as studies with Abraham Maslow at Brandeis University and with Hanscarl Leuner at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, where his involvement with psilocybin research originated in 1963. From 1967 to 1977, he pursued psychotherapy research with LSD, DPT, MDA and psilocybin at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, including protocols designed to investigate the promise of psychedelics in the treatment of alcoholism, depression, narcotic addiction and the psychological distress associated with terminal cancer, and also their use in the education of religious and mental-health professionals. From 1977-1981, he was a member of the psychology faculty of Antioch University in Maryland. His publications began in 1966 with Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism, coauthored with Walter Pahnke. His book, Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, has recently been released by Columbia University Press.

Mark has a history of passionate and high energy leadership across a wide spectrum of professional settings with a focus on value-driven, culturally sensitive, purposeful and innovative health care practice. He is currently the Managing Director of NeuroThrive, LLC in Maryland and a consultant to various academic researchers, clinicians and non-profits in the region. He has eight years of clinical practice, served in a leadership capacity with one of the largest community mental health centers in the country, is a BCIA certified neurofeedback practitioner and former team lead for NeurExpand Brain Center, and a board member-at-large of the Foundation for Neurofeedback and Neuromodulation Research (FNNR). Mark completed his Master’s in Psychology: Clinical Neuroscience from Wales, United Kingdom on International Scholarship and is currently a PhD Candidate in Washington D.C.

Dr. Stephen Xenakis is a retired brigadier general and Army medical corps officer with 28 years of active service. He is an adjunct clinical professor at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He is the Founder of the Center for Translational Medicine, a nonprofit that conducts clinical research and development. He has been a senior adviser to the Department of Defense on neurobehavioral conditions and medical management. Dr. Xenakis serves as an anti-torture advisor to Physicians for Human Rights and belongs to the group of retired generals and admirals convened by Human Rights First. His clinical practice has been broad and varied over the past 40 years, including expert consultation to military attorneys and providing inpatient care, substance abuse and alcohol treatment, and community health services.
Dr. Xenakis is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry, as well as Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He has extensive experience in clinical psychiatry,research, teaching, and administration. While in the United States Army, Dr. Xenakis served in multiple positions of responsibility as a clinician and commander. The Federal Courts and the Office of the Military Commissions have qualified Dr. Xenakis as a psychiatric and medical expert in numerous cases of detainees at Guantánamo Naval Base and accused terrorists.

Dr. Carlson leads observational and randomized, controlled trial research to evaluate environmental and biologic modifiers of neurocognitive aging and dementia risk, with over 120 articles and 8 chapters. Dr. Carlson has co-developed the Baltimore Experience Corps model in 1998 and has served as a Project leader on the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial (BECT) to evaluate the impact of volunteer service on older adults’ cognitive, brain, and physical health. Within this trial, Dr. Carlson pioneered the use of brain imaging and accelerometers to evaluate the mechanisms through which social engagement impacts older adults’ health and brain plasticity. Dr. Carlson continues to innovate in the integrated analysis of GPS-enabled accelerometers and geo-spatial tools (GIS) to determine how social engagement and activity in daily life may impact cognition, mood, and brain health in mid and early late- life. Her lab’s goals are to use these tools to identify the most effective and sustainable ways that adults can buffer the brain and boost hippocampal function to delay risk for Alzheimer’s disease, for which targeted treatments have yet to be identified. She is also interested in using these tools to deliver low-cost interventions to underserved populations- young and older- who are at elevated risk for health disparities.

Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Director of the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas, Dee Wyly Distinguished University Chair and author of Make Your Brain Smarter, is committed to maximizing cognitive potential across the entire lifespan. As a cognitive neuroscientist with more than 40 funded research grants and more than 175 publications, Dr. Chapman’s scientific study elucidates and applies novel approaches to advance creative and critical thinking, strengthen healthy brain development, and incite innovation throughout life.

Dr. Chapman collaborates with scientists across the country and around the world to solve some of the most important issues concerning the brain and its health. On the frontier of brain research, her scientific study melds interdisciplinary expertise to better understand how to evaluate and achieve optimal brain performance through preserving frontal lobe function, the area of the brain responsible for reasoning, planning, decision-making and judgment. Dr. Chapman coined the term “brainomics” to define the high economic cost of poor brain performance, and she sees the brain as the most significant path to raise the standard of living globally. Dr. Chapman is actively studying and discovering informative pathways to improve brain function and cognitive performance in health, injury and disease; identifying novel non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment approaches, and testing the effect of brain training to exploit brain potential.

A Harvard- and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Fotuhi is widely regarded as an authority in the field of memory, aging, and increasing brain vitality in late-life. He has had numerous publications in major peer-reviewed journals, cited by thousands of scientists around the world.  National media such as the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, and the Today Show have interviewed him about his research and innovative “Brain Fitness Program.” Dr. Fotuhi is also the author of three books, including the recently released Boost Your Brain, the New Art and Science Behind Enhanced Brain Performance.

Dr. Fotuhi has had 25 years of teaching, clinical work, and neuroscience research experience at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He conducts clinical research, writes books, and gives public lectures about brain health, prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, and expanding brain capacity.

He is currently the medical director of NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center, the chief medical officer for Neurocore Brain Performance Center, and an affiliate staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Joel Kahn M.D. is the Chief Operating and Chief Medical Officer of eMindful.

Prior to eMindful he was the Executive Vice-President and CIO of WorldCare International Inc. a global telemedicine company and President of the WorldCare Global Health Plan Ltd an international insurance program. Other experience includes being the Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and a founding member of InteliHealth a two-time Webby award winning health portal that was a joint venture of Aetna – U.S. Healthcare and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Dr. Kahn graduated from Wesleyan University, received his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College and did a fellowship in Medical Informatics at Massachusetts General
Hospital / Harvard University.

Sarah Lock is AARP’s Senior Vice President for Policy working on the major issues facing older Americans. Sarah also serves as the Executive Director of the Global Council on Brain Health, an independent collaborative of experts working on brain health related to human cognition.

Ms. Lock came to AARP to conduct health care impact litigation on behalf of older persons and has represented the interest of older Americans in appellate courts nation-wide. Previously, Sarah served as a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, and a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dr. Merzenich is the brain behind BrainHQ and the author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life. For nearly five decades, he has been a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research. As co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Posit Science, Michael Merzenich heads the company’s science team.

Dr. Merzenich has published more than 150 articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, and received numerous awards and prizes, including the Kavli Prize in 2016. He has been granted nearly 100 patents, and he and his work have been highlighted in hundreds of books about the brain, learning, rehabilitation and plasticity.

Dr. Merzenich earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Portland and his PhD at Johns Hopkins. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison before becoming a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2007, he retired from his long career at UCSF as Francis A. Sooy Professor and Co-Director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and the Institute of Medicine in 2008.

In 1996, Dr. Merzenich was the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes software that applies principles of brain plasticity to assist children with language learning and reading.

Graeme Moffat is VP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for InteraXon, where he leads neuroscience research and health and wellness applications for Muse. He has over a decade of research experience in psychology and neuroscience and in scientific management.

Graeme served as managing editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience, the largest journal series in psychology and neuroscience, and of Frontiers in Neurology and Frontiers in Psychiatry. His experience has included research engineering at Neurelec/Oticon and graduate/postgraduate work at the National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) in France.

Graeme holds a PhD in neuroscience from Université Aix-Marseille. He is currently a TalentEdge Fellow of the the Ontario Centres of Excellence and a member of the Centre for Responsible Brainwave Technology (CeReB).

Dr. Morimoto is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. She conducts research at the NIMH-supported Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research (ACISR) on multiple aspects of late life depression including: neuropsychological deficits, treatment remission, and cognitive remediation.

She completed an NIMH T32 research fellowship at the Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry at Weill Cornell during which she focused on the relationship of specific cognitive deficits to treatment remission in geriatric depression. Her work identified a singular cognitive deficit that predicts non-remission with conventional antidepressants, regardless of the task by which it is elicited. Based on these findings, Dr. Morimoto developed a computerized cognitive remediation intervention targeted to treat these cognitive deficits and change the underlying neural circuit dysfunction that may predisposes patients to non-remission. The computer programs are based on the principles of neuroplasticity in the aging brain and are designed to treat both cognitive and affective symptoms of the disorder.

Dr. Sarah Shizuko Morimoto received her BA in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and her M.S., and Psy.D with a concentration in Clinical Neuropsychology at the PGSP-Stanford University Medical School Psy.D. Consortium.

James Gimian is Executive Direct of the Foundation for a Mindful Society, and founding publisher of their media projects Mindful magazine and Mindful.org. These projects are dedicated to bringing the benefits of secular mindfulness practice to all areas of modern life through media, community-building activities, conferences, and more. He is currently on the advisory boards of both the Center for Mindfulness at the UMass Medical Center and Mindful Schools. James is also co-author of two books on Sun Tzu’s Art of War and it’s application to leadership excellence amidst the conflict and challenge in an increasingly complex world. He has taught leadership training programs and mindfulness in North America and Europe since 1978.

Thomas R. lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, is a co-founder and President of Mindstrong Health. From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) committed to research on mental disorders. Prior to serving as NIMH Director, Dr. lnsel was Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University where he was founding director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience in Atlanta. Most recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA. Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.

David K. Nace MD is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Lantern, a San Francisco based digital therapeutic company. He also serves as an executive advisor for a number of other early stage population health and data / analytic healthcare companies. Prior to his role at Lantern he served as VP/ CMO with the McKesson Corporation, as well as prior senior leadership roles at Aetna, Optum, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Dr. Nace sits on many national boards and has played a leadership role in healthcare policy and reform since the early 1990’s. He is the immediate past chairman of the board of directors for the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), where he founded the PCPCC Center for e-Health.  He current sits on the board of directors for the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization and the Population Health Alliance. 

Dr. Nace received his medical degree at the University of Pittsbugh. He is board certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine.

Kathy Washa is AARP’s Senior Adviser, Specialized Membership. She joined AARP in 2013 to help build and develop Staying Sharp, AARP’s holistic brain health program. With over 25 years experience in consumer marketing and program development, Kathy leads the team that brings a consumer focus to brain health. Inspired by AARP’s mission to empower people to have a healthier brain over their lifetime, and working in collaboration with the Global Council on Brain Health, Kathy helps to ensure that scientific research is translated into meaningful consumer experiences on Staying Sharp, with content and science-based tools and personalized recommendations.
Before joining AARP, Kathy focused on development of consumer programs and marketing campaigns for older Americans with major brands in the healthcare and financial services space.

Vance M. Benton has been serving in the public school system for over 20 years. After graduating from Kent State University, where he received a full athletic scholarship to play football, he started his public school teaching career. After earning a Master’s Degree, he became an assistant principal at Hope Academy, a charter school in Akron, Ohio.  During his tenure as an AP, Vance served in all grade levels (K-12).  Two years as a deputy principal prepared him for the challenge of starting an alternative high school in the district that targeted 9^th-10^th grade students at-risk for drop out. After moving on to serve as a small school principal, his career came full circle as he returned to his Alma Mater, Glenville High School, to serve as a building principal.

In 2011, Vance became the first African-American principal in the 76 year history of Patterson High School in Baltimore City. His vision has seen the school grow into one of the most diverse student populations in Maryland, and been publicly recognized for successful initiatives developed under his tenure. In addition to his career in education, Vance is a self-published author and certified life coach.

As the author of over 100 articles, three books, multiple book chapters, and the Pearson Assessment Burns Brief Inventory of Communication and Cognition neuroscientist Martha S. Burns, Ph.D., is a leading expert on how children learn. She speaks frequently on the importance of applying the science of learning in early childhood education, understanding the adolescent brain, and the K-12 classroom. Dr. Burns is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University and a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association., She served on the medical staff of Evanston-Northwestern Hospital for 35 years. Her area of specialization is language and brain maturation from birth to adulthood.

Joe Burton is the founder and CEO of Whil Concepts, Inc. (“Whil”), a digital training platform helping employees to reduce stress, increase resiliency and improve their sleep and performance. He’s an entrepreneur in scientific wellbeing, former President of Headspace and spent fifteen years as a global COO in public companies. Joe is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider and The Huffington Post. He’s worked in over 70 countries and travels the world speaking on topics including disruption, culture, employee safety and mindfulness as competitive advantage. Joe discovered mindfulness as a super stressed executive after dismissing it as “definitely not for me” and it changed his life.

John H. Cammack is Managing Partner of Cammack Associates, which specializes in early stage investing in enterprises advancing brain fitness and educational attainment. John is currently on the boards of: CureViolence.org, ABAG (Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers), Baltimore Corps (Chair), Venture for America (Baltimore Chair), Betamore Advisory Board (Chair), Citelighter and Calvert Education Services. Past roles include Chairmanships of the United Way of Central Maryland, the Mutual Fund Education Alliance, and board assignments with the Foundation for Financial Planning and CFP Board of Standards.

From 1991 to 2009, John was a senior executive at T. Rowe Price where he served as Division Head and member of firm’s Operating Steering Committee, Institutional Marketing Steering Committee, Compliance Oversight Committee and T. Rowe Price Investment Services Board.

John is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Denison University with a BA in History and received his MBA from Columbia University.

Dr. Jacque Gamino joined the Center for BrainHealth team in 2001 and is currently the director of the BrainHealth Adolescent Reasoning Initiative. She has ten years of research experience developing, testing, and implementing brain, cognitive and behavioral assessment and training protocols for advanced reasoning in youth.

Dr. Gamino is a national expert in advanced reasoning and serves as a core member of educational reform think tanks for both the George W. Bush Middle School Matters Initiative and the Laura and John Arnold Comprehensive Education Reform Initiative with focused expertise in strategic thinking and critical reasoning. In the last three years, she has received more than $10 million in educational research funding to advance reasoning in youth across America. She is an invited national speaker and has published evidence-based practices for educators, students, parents, and researchers regarding maximizing adolescent brain potential.

Dr. Gamino, a cognitive neuroscientist, has dedicated her life to translating cutting edge research discoveries into practical applications to improve the learning capacity of students.  Her work has impacted thousands of students, families, and teachers across the country.

Laurence M. Hirshberg, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, director of the NeuroDevelopment Center, and serves on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior of the Brown University Medical School as Clinical Assistant Professor. Specializing in work with neurodevelopmental disorders for over 25 years, he consults and trains educators and clinicians across New England. Dr. Hirshberg has published and presented in many areas of clinical psychology and child development. Prior research includes studies of neurophysiological and neurocognitive predictors of response to treatment in major depression, quantitative EEG indicators of autism spectrum disorder, and studies of infant attachment and social referencing. Together with Brown colleague Lindsay Oberman, he is currently conducting a pilot study of transcranial direct current electrical stimulation as a treatment for ADHD.

Amy provides consultation services that emphasize evidence-based research and programming to facilitate policy change in the areas of education and mental health. She serves on the board of Mental Health America and is the education director for The Kennedy Forum.

A New Jersey native, Amy has had a lifelong interest in education policy, practice and politics. An educator by training, Amy has over 15 years of experience working in public schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She uses her experience as a teacher and a mother of four children to promote the importance of social and emotional learning in the development of mental wellness for children and adolescents. Her research interests include the early identification and intervention of mental health concerns in children, the use of brain fitness and mindfulness within school systems to foster and improve mental wellness, and the development of prevention programs that promote student social and emotional learning.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in Environmental Education from Nova Southeastern University.

Mrs. Kisya Johnson serves as a Transformation Specialist for Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), where she leads efforts to transform education through innovation, implementation, and organizational leadership. An educator with more than 20 years of experience, she has advanced sustainable change in urban education through her belief that all students are capable of learning if challenged to their utmost potential regardless of their economic, social and academic limitations.

As an Intensive Reading Teacher and Small Schools Administrator, she has achieved high learning gains and proficiency among low performing students by combining real life experience with student learning, as well as increases of 78% and higher in medical and industry certifications among high school upperclassmen. In 2015, she launched Transitions through Transformation (TNT), an organization to inspire secondary students to overcome obstacles by improving literacy. Her work as a graduation coach substantially increased 2015 high school graduation rates in her district, and realized unprecedented increases in ACT scores. Core values underpinning the transformational leadership techniques that realized these gains are personal ownership, relationship, reflection and engagement.

Ali Smith co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001, where he currently serves as Executive Director. He is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and graduate of the Friends School of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park, receiving a BS in Environmental Science and Policy with a Biodiversity specialization. He has over 15 years of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness to diverse populations around the globe, with a focus on underserved communities in Baltimore City. Through his work at the Holistic Life Foundation he has helped develop and pilot yoga and mindfulness programs at public and private schools, drug treatment centers, juvenile detention centers, mental crisis facilities, and retreat centers, nationally and internationally. Ali has authored a series of children’s books, and co-authored several yoga and mindfulness based curriculums, as well as developed numerous workshops and trainings. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on CBS News, NBC Nightly News as well as in Oprah Magazine, Yoga Journal, and many other publications.

Jonathan Calvin Smith is a product of Dallas Independent School District. He attended and graduated from Skyline Career Development Center. He furthered his education at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in Nacogdoches, Texas where he graduated Cum Laude in three years, receiving his Bachelors in Business Administration with a concentration in human resources.

Upon graduation from SFASU, Smith began working for Dallas ISD at the middle and elementary schools of his youth. His postgraduate studies include Universidad Internacional Spanish Immersion Program in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education’s Urban School Leadership Program, Dallas Theological Seminary and Dallas Baptist University. Smith holds a Masters in Educational Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington. Currently, he is the Principal of T. W. Browne Middle School. Under his leadership, schools have been recognized on the local, state and national level. In his most recent turnaround project leadership endeavor, Smith led T.W. Browne Middle School from the bottom 5% of the State of Texas in academic achievement, to ranking among the top 5 of Dallas ISD’s 41 middle schools in 8th grade performance in just three years.

Dr. Naomi Steiner is a developmental behavioral pediatrician, research expert in ADHD and attention difficulties, and Clinical Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine in the Pediatric Development & Behavioral Department. Dr. Steiner has unique experience as a developmental behavioral pediatrician and researcher. As a pediatrician, Dr. Steiner has over 20 years of experience working with families and patients with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, developmental delay, language delay, learning disabilities and academic challenges.

Dr. Steiner is a national and international leader in the field of training attention through neurofeedback, computer exercises, yoga, and relaxation breathing/biofeedback. For 10 years she has been researching computer attention training, including neurofeedback and has been the Principal Investigator on several large studies.

She graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and did her residency at The Brooklyn Hospital/New York University and Shands Hospital/University of Florida. Then she completed her developmental behavioral fellowship at Boston Medical Center/Boston University. She has run a private practice and was on faculty at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center/Tufts University for ten years before moving back to Boston Medical Center/Boston University.

Bruce E. Wexler is Professor at Yale University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard, received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, studied psychiatry at Anna Freud’s Clinic, neurology at Queen’s Square Institute of Neurology, and psychiatry at Yale. Author of over 130 scientific articles, Professor Wexler is a world leader in harnessing neuroplasticity to improve cognition through brain exercises and recipient of an NIH Director’s award for high innovation, high impact and potentially paradigm changing medical research. He and colleagues developed the first program that integrates computerized brain exercises and physical exercises to improve executive function in young children. Children who do the program show greater gains in executive cognitive functions and on school-administered tests of math and reading achievement. The program is a tool in the national effort to reduce achievement gaps related to poverty and is being used by thousands of children in schools across the U.S. Professor Wexler’s book “Brain and Culture; Neurobiology, Ideology and Social Change” presents new ideas about neuroplasticity and the relationship between people and their social and cultural environments (MIT Press, 2006). Oliver Sacks called it “a major achievement, touching the deepest biological and human issues…a very powerful and very important book.”Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University called it “A pioneering and bold effort to construct a bridge between scientific findings about the brain and the diversity, strengths, and fragilities of human cultures.” As a consultant for Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders, Dr. Wexler conducted a U.S. State Department funded study of how the “other” is portrayed in Israeli and Palestinian schoolbooks. Dr.Wexler has given multiple academic and public lectures in North and South America, Europe and Asia. In 2008 he was a visiting professor at Peking University. He is a consultant for the Kennedy Foundation Forum on Technology and Mental Health Innovations, and served as a consultant for the GE Brain Trust and the Gates Foundation.

Jody Woodrum is a retired Public School Educator and Administrator whose expertise lies in working with people to accomplish goals related to student achievement, particularly in using software solutions, teacher and leader professional development, and data analysis for improvement.

Dr. Woodrum completed her 35 year career in public education as the Assistant Superintendent of Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District in Mississippi, after serving in a variety of roles in public schools as a teacher, principal and curriculum director. She recently served as Program Development Manager for Scientific Learning and was a member of the graduate faculty at Georgia Southern University for many years.

She received her BS in Elementary Education from Appalachian State University and her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Georgia Southern University.