Board Emeriti
Board Emeriti
Emeriti Members
Neal Ball is a founder and honorary president of the American Refugee Committee, a body that provides medical aid, assistance and training to people who have become refugees as a result of war or displacement in Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and the Middle East.
He is Chairman of the Honorary Committee of the International Visitors Center (Chicago). He is Vice-President of the Committee for Amerindian Art of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Anthony P. Carter is a writer, lecturer, social justice influencer and award-winning global diversity and inclusion expert. He retired in 2015 as the Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson & Johnson
His 40+ year career spans the corporate, government and not for profit sectors. He has the distinction of being recognized as a public relations legend. He is a highly sought after global diversity and inclusion speaker.
Anthony has held two government press secretary roles of prominence at the local and national levels…in the New York City Mayor’s Office and in the United States House of Representatives.
The recipient of numerous awards for his work in diversity and inclusion, including the distinguished Corporate Diversity Award from the New Brunswick-New Jersey Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., Anthony is currently a Member of the Board of Trustees for Fordham University; President of the Board of Trustees of the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey; recently retired Trustee of the United Way – USA; and Board Member-Emeritus of the National Medical Fellowships.
As a writer, Anthony has national and global reach. His voice is heard in articles he’s written over the past few years, including “What Does it Mean to be a Black Catholic?”…”Social Justice: The New Diversity”…”Racism in Colleges and Universities Across America”…and “Social Separation and Social Injustice: Corporate America’s Accountability & Opportunity.”
Anthony has personal and enduring relationships with top civil rights leaders and educators across the United States.
In 2017, Anthony received a Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fordham University for his work in global diversity and social justice.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Reynaldo Ortíz-Minaya's areas of research reflect colonization's indelible impact on his land of birth and on surrounding islands in the Caribbean. His research includes world-historical structures of slavery (particularly in the Spanish-Caribbean); social regulatory processes; political economy; and ethno-racial labor formation. He examines the ways that systems of forced labor fluctuated and served as precursors to modern forms of penal punishment.
His forthcoming manuscript, "From Plantation to Prison: Visual Economies of Slave Resistance, Criminal Justice, and Penal Exile in the Spanish Caribbean, 1820-1886", explores the relationship between the expansion of slavery in Cuba and the rise of prisons in Puerto Rico as a means to incorporate the Spanish Caribbean into the world-market during the nineteenth century.
As a U.S. Fulbright Specialist, his additional research examines the historical relationship between forms of confinement (penal in particular) and the accumulation of profits under varying economic systems.
He serves on the board of directors for various international organizations focusing on penal reform and rule of law and has conducted research in Pakistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, South Africa, the Palestinian Territories, and throughout the Caribbean region.
Born Virginia Davis in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, she completed her undergraduate education at Spelman College and Sophia University. She then attended Howard University College of Medicine, graduating in 1976, and was a resident at Emory University Hospital until 1979.[1] She returned later to Emory to earn her Master's in Public Health, graduating in 1987.
Floyd has spent her career working with indigenous people worldwide to integrate traditional medicine with allopathic medicine. She has worked with indigenous people in the United States, Egypt, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Jamaica. While a resident at Emory, Floyd researched the impact of American foreign policy on African people as part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Task Force on Africa. After completing residency in 1979, Floyd joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a medical officer and researched poliomyelitis epidemiology for a year in Cameroon.
Upon her return to the United States, Floyd joined the National Health Services Corps to serve in rural Palmetto, Georgia for a three-year term. She then accepted a position to develop a family medicine residency program at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. As a public health director at the Georgia Department of Health and Human Resources from 1984 to 1997, she increased immunization rates, reduced infant mortality, improved prenatal care, and improved childhood nutrition. She also worked with the World Health OrganizationoCollaborating Centern perinatal care and maternal/child health research. She worked for the Ford Foundation as the director of Human Development and Reproductive Health from 1997 to 2002.
In 2003, she returned to her undergraduate alma mater as a visiting scholar. At the time, she led PROMETRA (Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine), a US nonprofit focusing on traditional medicine. As of 2006, she was on the faculty of Morehouse College.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Reynaldo Ortíz-Minaya's areas of research reflect colonization's indelible impact on his land of birth and on surrounding islands in the Caribbean. His research includes world-historical structures of slavery (particularly in the Spanish-Caribbean); social regulatory processes; political economy; and ethno-racial labor formation. He examines the ways that systems of forced labor fluctuated and served as precursors to modern forms of penal punishment.
His forthcoming manuscript, "From Plantation to Prison: Visual Economies of Slave Resistance, Criminal Justice, and Penal Exile in the Spanish Caribbean, 1820-1886", explores the relationship between the expansion of slavery in Cuba and the rise of prisons in Puerto Rico as a means to incorporate the Spanish Caribbean into the world-market during the nineteenth century.
As a U.S. Fulbright Specialist, his additional research examines the historical relationship between forms of confinement (penal in particular) and the accumulation of profits under varying economic systems.
He serves on the board of directors for various international organizations focusing on penal reform and rule of law and has conducted research in Pakistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, South Africa, the Palestinian Territories, and throughout the Caribbean region.
Dr. Mirian Graddick-Weir is the former executive vice president, Human Resources at Merck, where she had responsibility for all aspects of human resources for 68,000 colleagues located in over 90 countries. Dr. Graddick-Weir joined Merck in 2006 from AT&T, where she was executive vice president of Human Resources and Employee Communications. Prior to that role, she spent 20 years at AT&T holding numerous positions in HR and several large operational roles.
Dr. Graddick-Weir is a member of the Board of Directors of Yum! Brands, Inc. and Booking Holdings, Inc. She serves on the Foundation Board of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and is President, Graddick Weir Group LLC. Previously, she served as the Chair of the HR Policy Association and the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR). In 2001, Dr. Graddick-Weir was elected as a NAHR Fellow and in 2016 she was elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the Academy, the highest honor in the HR Profession.
Among her many awards, Dr. Graddick-Weir was named by Black Enterprise as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in business and recognized by Human Resources Executive magazine as one of the most influential global HR executives. She was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the University of Michigan and received Academy of Management’s Distinguished HR Executive Award.
In 2016, Dr. Graddick-Weir and her husband, Michael, established a Foundation to honor her father’s passion for advancing educational opportunities for people of color. The Samuel E. Massenberg Foundation is designed to increase the number of underrepresented minority students earning STEM degrees. Thus far they have established a partnership with UMass and support a two-week summer camp for rising 10th graders from underserved communities who have an interest in STEM.
Dr. Graddick-Weir earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hampton University, a master's degree and a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Cornelius L. Hopper is the Emeritus Vice President for Health Affairs for the University of California System. He received his AB and MD degrees, respectively, from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Following service as a Battalion Surgeon with the 4th Marines from 1961-63, he had training in Internal Medicine at Marquette University and, subsequently, in Neurology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he remained on the Neurology faculty until 1971, serving as the founding director of a network of University of Wisconsin Multiple Sclerosis Clinics and as a member of a U.W. multi disciplinary slow virus research team.
A State of California Health Manpower Policy Commissioner from 1981 until 2002, Dr. Hopper has served on numerous national, regional, and state advisory committees and councils. Currently, he Chairs the Board of Regents of the Samuel Merritt (Health Sciences) University in Oakland and also serves on the Boards of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, and the East Bay Regional Board of The Sutter Health System. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Sponsored Executive Nurse Fellowship Program. From March 2004 until November 2005, under the sponsorship of The California Endowment, he Chaired a special Steering Committee on the Future of The King./Drew Medical Center (Los Angeles).
Dr. Hopper has been a consultant to NIH, DHEW, the American Public Health Association, and The American International Health Alliance, among others. The latter assignment involved work in Central Asia and countries of the former Soviet Union. He has been the recipient of the Ohio University Medal of Merit, the Drake Medal from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (the highest award conferred by the College), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Medallion, Distinguished Service Awards from the Regional Medical Program Services and the Veterans Administration, and Resolutions of Appreciation from the California State Senate and the University of California Board of Regents. Annual "Hopper" Lectureships and Research Awards in Breast Cancer, AIDS, and Tobacco were created by the University in his honor on the occasion of his retirement.
Dr. Hopper has been married for 46 years to the former Barbara Johnson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - a Prudential Real Estate Agent in Berkeley, California. Their three children include a Los Angeles Community College Counselor, A Senior Deputy City Attorney for San Jose, California, and an Executive Producer of syndicated Television Programs.
Art was a retired physician and avid fly fisherman. A graduate of Marquette University School of Medicine (now The Medical College of Wisconsin), he trained in general pediatrics at the Maine Medical Center where he gained an appreciation for how traumatic hospitalization can be for children and has sought ways to improve the experience.
After his residency he joined HealthPartners, one of the largest HMOs in Minnesota. Throughout his career Art practiced general pediatrics in the Twin Cities. He served a member of the NMF board for more than 30 years, was board chair for more than a decade and, as Chairman Emeritus, currently served as a member of the Executive Committee. “Dr. Art” and his family have generously donated to NMF over the years and have supported the Hugh J. Andersen Scholarships for Minnesota medical school students.
Art and his wife, Martha, recently established an endowed chair in the Department of Pediatrics at The Medical College of Wisconsin that will provide enduring resources to the program and will serve to inspire and improve care to children with special medical needs. Their gift created the Kaemmer Professorship in Pediatrics: The “Super Kid” Chair in Special Needs.
Even after Art retired from practice but still carried a pocketful of “Super Kid” stickers in case he needed to brighten a child’s day, and he continued to motivate aspiring physicians to consider pediatrics as a career choice.
Health care executive Dr. Stephen Keith was born on July 20, 1952 in Battle Creek, Michigan to Laurel Eugene and Elizabeth Brown Keith. After graduating from the University of Chicago Laboratory High School in 1969, he received his B.A. degree in Black Studies from Amherst College in 1973. Dr. Keith went on to earn his M.D. degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1977. He completed his residency in pediatrics with the University of California Los Angeles in 1980, where he also received his M.S. degree in public health in 1982.
From 1982 to 1987, Dr. Keith served as an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics at UCLA and the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, where he also served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs. He served as a senior health policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources under the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1990.
In 1990, Dr. Keith was hired by Merck & Co., Inc. where he served in various senior management roles, including in the corporate public affairs and health strategies divisions. Dr. Keith was appointed vice president of marketing and sales at the vaccine developer and manufacturer North American Vaccine, Inc. in 1995 until 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he worked as president and chief operating officer of the life science startup, Antex Biologics, Inc. Dr. Keith was then hired as general partner with Emerging Technology Partners, LLC in 2002, a position he held until 2003. Dr. Keith then joined Glocap Advisors as a managing director and retained this role until 2005. Biologics Consulting Group hired him as a senior consultant in 2005, and he served until 2006.
Panacea Pharmaceuticals then hired Dr. Keith as president and chief operating officer in 2006. He remained at Panacea until 2009, when he was hired as chief executive officer of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. Three years later, Dr. Keith joined WellStreet Urgent Care in Atlanta, Georgia as a site director and staff physician. While practicing here, he was also hired as the chief executive officer of Optima Health, Inc. Dr. Keith remained there, and with WellStreet, until being selected as the chief executive officer of the life sciences company, Vivacelle Bio, in 2015. That same year, he was hired by Evanston Technology Partners to serve as chief business development and medical officer. Dr. Keith left Vivacelle Bio in 2017, and became a medical director of medical management and scientific services in the clinical services department of Syneos Health in 2018.
Dr. Keith has served on the board of directors for Intradigm Therapeutics, Cytomedix, Inc. (now Nuo Therapeutics), Vivacelle Bio, Evanston Technology Partners, National Medical Fellowships, Inc., and Community Health Charities. He served as a fellow of the Academy of Pediatrics and a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics.
Keith and his wife, Dr. Helene Gayle, reside in Chicago, Illinois. He has three children.
Dr. Darrell G. Kirch is president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which represents the nation's medical schools, their teaching hospitals and health systems, and related academic societies. He served as President and CEO of the AAMC from 2006 until 2019, when he was succeeded by Dr. David J. Skorton.
A distinguished educator, biomedical scientist, and clinician, Dr. Kirch speaks and publishes widely on the need for transformation in the nation’s health care system and how academic institutions can lead change across education, research, and health care for their communities and beyond. As a respected university leader, Dr. Kirch has chaired the Washington Higher Education Secretariat and served as a member of the American Council on Education Board of Directors. In 2007, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and has been active in multiple initiatives of the National Academies. As an ardent champion for the well-being of the nation's health professions workforce, he currently serves as co-chair of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. Dr. Kirch also serves as a member the Board of Regents of the American College of Psychiatrists.
Prior to becoming AAMC president, Dr. Kirch served as dean, university senior vice president, and academic health system leader of two institutions, the Medical College of Georgia and the Pennsylvania State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He has co-chaired the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for U.S. medical schools, and chaired the national AAMC Council of Deans.
A psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist by training, Dr. Kirch began his academic career at the National Institute of Mental Health, becoming chief of the Schizophrenia Research Branch, serving as the acting scientific director in 1993, and receiving the Outstanding Service Medal of the United States Public Health Service. A native of Denver, he earned his BA and MD degrees from the University of Colorado, and in 2002 received the Silver and Gold Award from the University of Colorado Medical Alumni Association.
Daniel T. McGowan has served in key leadership roles in a wide range of organizational settings, and has been responsible for the transformation of key organizations.
In 2010 he was elected Chairman of Hygea Health Holdings, Inc., a for-profit medical service organization headquartered in Miami, Florida. In 2008, he stepped down as the President of EmblemHealth Services, LLC, the management and service corporation for HIP Health Plans of New York (HIP) and Group Health Incorporated (GHI) which merged in 2006. Mr. McGowan came to a troubled HIP in 1996 as Sr. Vice President for Operations, rapidly became Executive Vice President, and in 1997 both President and Chief Operating Officer and one of two staff executives on the Board of Directors. He led a team which dramatically transformed HIP, acquired three highly regarded health plans, and led to HIP’s emergence as one of the nation’s leading health care companies.
From 1991 to 1995, he led the development of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, (LI) into the largest health and human services agency on Long Island by expanding its programs and quadrupling its resources. He served as Vice President for Planning and Program Development at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and as Executive Director of both the Nassau-Suffolk Health Systems Agency on Long Island and the Health Systems Agency of New York City. He was elected President of both the New York State Association of Health Planning Agencies and chair of the American Health Plans Association.
Before coming to New York, Mr. McGowan was Director of the Midwest Center for Health Planning in Madison, Wisconsin and Vice President of the Institute for Health Planning, where he directed technical assistance and educational services to 118 regional and 23 state health planning and development agencies. He was Director of the Bureau of Planning Coordination for the State of Wisconsin when it was ranked as the top such agency in the country by the Department of Health and Human Services.
He has lectured and written extensively on health-system and hospital planning, development and regulation. He taught in the graduate health care and public administration program at Long Island University, and has held faculty appointments at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and at Governor’s State University in Illinois.
Born in Illinois, Mr. McGowan graduated from Marquette University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and received a Master of Science from Northern Illinois University in administration of health and mental health services.
Dr. J. Mario Molina is an esteemed leader in medicine and business. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Molina Healthcare, a FORTUNE 500 company founded by his physician father in 1980 to provide health care to low-income individuals receiving benefits through government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare.
Dr. Molina earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his medical degree from the University of Southern California where he was elected to membership in Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma Xi. Dr. Molina performed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital then a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of California, San Diego. He was an assistant professor of medicine at USC before joining Molina Healthcare. He received a certificate in management from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
In 2005, Dr. Molina was featured in Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Hispanics in America. He has an honorary doctorate from Claremont Graduate University. Modern Healthcare listed him among the 100 most influential people in health care. He is a board member for Homeboy Industries, the Aquarium of the Pacific and an Overseer of the Huntington Library and Curator of the Osler Library. He is a trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine and served on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Dental School.
Dr. Sandra B. Nichols was the former Senior Vice President of Health and Community Engagement at UnitedHealth Group. Her role included representing UHG to propose policies and set the direction for Health Inclusion and Community Engagement. Dr. Nichols leveraged her expertise in public health, community engagement, health transformation, and health care management to address social determinants of health, plan programs for occupation and safety programming and leads innovative approaches to influence initiatives internally and externally. She provided expertise to support health equity and improve the health and wellness of marginalized populations.
Dr. Sandra Nichols has more than 20 years of increasingly responsible roles in public health, health care delivery and medical management. Prior to this role, Dr. Nichols was the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of National Inpatient Care Management for UnitedHealthcare. Before moving into this national role, Dr. Nichols had served as the Chief Medical Officer for several regions across the country. Prior to UHC, she served as Director and Commission of the Arkansas Department of Health and as a Cabinet Secretary and Board of Health Member in the administrations of two Arkansas Governors –Jim Guy Tucker and Mike Huckabee. Dr. Nichols has previously held the position of CEO for Amerigroup, District of Columbia and Virginia.
Dr. Nichols completed her BA in chemistry from Columbia College in Missouri, her MS in Biology from Tennessee State University, and her MD from the University of Arkansas School of Medical Science where she served as Chief Resident and completed a fellowship in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Family Practice.
She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Center for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Leadership Institute and an alumnus of the American Swiss Foundation Young Leader Conference. In 2015 Dr. Nichols received her MS in Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College.
Throughout her career, Dr. Nichols has received many awards and citations. In 2013 she received The Daily Record’s Top 100 Women in Maryland awards, and she is a 2011 recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business Award”. In 2006 she was named a Top 25 Minority Executives in Health Care by Modern Health Care Magazine and also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Columbia College. In 2005 she was a National Congress of Black Women, Inc. award recipient. Dr. Nichols is also the recipient of the National FBI Community Leadership Award, the Talented Tenth Award, the Eta Phi Beta Vision of Excellence Award, and the Public Health Leadership Institute Scholar Award.
Dr. Nichols currently serves on numerous boards and organizations. She is the immediate past chair of the National Medical Fellowships Board of Directors and serves on the board of Community Health Charities. In addition, she has also served on the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine Executive Council, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Southern Rural Access Board, Mercantile Bank Board, and Board of Trustees for Columbia College. She was appointed in 2012 by Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and served a four-year term on the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice of the Health Resources and Services Administration. Dr. Nichols was the United Health Foundation business sponsor for the Diverse Scholar Initiative. She is a published author of articles and a textbook chapter “Occupational Hazards” Goldsmith, Simmons, Nichols., Family Medicine Principles and Practice Robert B. Taylor. Springer-Verlag, 1994,1995,1996.
Lee H. Perlman is a lifelong New Yorker who has dedicated his career to serving others. From 1983 to 2020, Mr. Perlman was the driving force behind and longtime President of GNYHA Ventures, Inc., the for-profit business arm of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA).
As GNYHA Ventures President, Mr. Perlman oversaw a portfolio that included subsidiaries engaging in nearly $10 billion in commerce annually through group purchasing, management outsourcing, and health care consulting. Mr. Perlman was responsible for the development of all companies created under GNYHA Ventures, many of which were sold to larger organizations.
GNYHA Ventures effectively ended in March 2020 when Mr. Perlman concluded the sale of its last two companies to the national health care improvement company Premier, Inc. In total, Mr. Perlman developed and sold four GNYHA Ventures companies to Premier. Those transactions, combined with GNYHA’s sale of stock it acquired from Premier’s initial public offering when it became a publicly traded company, have earned GNYHA more than $1 billion.
A dedicated volunteer and philanthropist, Mr. Perlman devotes significant energy to non-profits related to health care, education, and the arts. He is Chairman of LiveOnNY, New York’s organ procurement organization, and serves on the Board of the Ronald McDonald House of New York. Mr. Perlman also serves on the Boards of the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation and the Convention Center Development Corporation (Javits Center).
Mr. Perlman is Co-Chair of the Berkshire Theatre Group in Pittsfield (Massachusetts), Treasurer of The Actor’s Fund, and Vice Chair and Compliance Officer of the American Theatre Wing. Mr. Perlman also sits on the Board of the UJA Federation of New York and serves as Treasurer for Common Point Queens.
Mr. Perlman received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Binghamton University and his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Sloan Program at Cornell University.
Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, was the inaugural full-time director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1991 and Associate Director of NIH for Women’s Health Research from 1994 until her retirement in 2011. Under her leadership, this new office led the implementation of NIH research inclusion policies for women and minorities in clinical research, developed the first ever, and several later, national strategic plans for women’s health research and established many new research funding initiatives and career development programs, including interdisciplinary initiatives, in collaboration with NIH Institutes and Centers.
During that time, she also established and co-chaired the NIH Committee on Women in Biomedical Careers with the NIH Director. She has since been named as a Senior Scientist Emerita at the NIH Fogarty International Center. She has presented her perceptions of women’s health and sex/gender research, health disparities, as well as challenges in biomedical careers to national and international audiences, and has served as a mentor to hundreds of young women and men of all races.
A special tribute by Senator Olympia Snowe on Dr. Pinn’s retirement was published in the Congressional Record in November 2011 commending her contributions during her NIH tenure. At the time of her retirement, The Association of American Medical Colleges awarded her a Special Recognition Award for exceptional leadership over a forty-year career.
Dr. Pinn came to the NIH from Howard University College of Medicine, where she had been Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology since 1982, the 3rd woman in the US to hold such an appointment and the first African American woman. Dr. Pinn also previously held teaching appointments in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University where she was also Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. Her professional area of focus in Pathology was Immunopathology, specifically renal and autoimmune diseases and transplant pathology. She now also holds the position of Professor, Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation at the University of South Florida.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (IOM) in 1995. She served several terms on the National Academies Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine and was a member of the National Academies committee that prepared the report on ‘Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors’ which was released in the spring of 2020. She is also a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. A graduate and Alumna Achievement Award recipient as well as former Trustee of Wellesley College, she earned her M.D. in 1967 from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the only woman and only minority in her class. She completed her post-graduate training in Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University before joining the faculty of Tufts. Dr. Pinn has over 200 scientific publications and book chapters, including Forewords, and has given more than 500 keynote speeches, lectures and presentations since 1991.
A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, educated in segregated public schools, Dr. Pinn has received 17 Honorary Degrees of Science, Law and Medicine. The University of Virginia School of Medicine has named one of its four advisory medical student colleges as ‘The Pinn College’ in her honor. Tufts University School of Medicine in 2011 announced the ‘The Vivian W. Pinn Office of Student Affairs’, named for her at the time her former medical students dedicated a scholarship in her name, the Vivian W. Pinn Scholarship Fund to support needy students to have the opportunity to study medicine at Tufts. She has held leadership positions in many professional organizations, including that as the 88th President of the National Medical Association (NMA) and is currently Chair of the NMA Past Presidents Council. Dr. Pinn serves on the Board of Trustees/Advisors of Thomas Jefferson University, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, and Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dr. Pinn has received more than 300 honors and awards. She was elected to Modern Healthcare’s Hall of Fame, the first African American woman to be so honored and is also a recipient of the New York Academy of Medicine Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Health Policy. Among many other recent honors, she received a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership of Drexel University in 2017, and she also served as the 2017-2018 Leader-in-Residence at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies of the University of Richmond. In 2019, she was presented with the John D. Thompson Distinguished Visiting Fellow Award by the Yale University School of Public Health, and was elected into the ICABA Global Hall of Fame.
Dr. Pinn received the 2020 American Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award for her leadership in women’s health as well as the 2020 Alma Dea Morani Award from the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation and the New York Academy of Medicine. She also was awarded the 2021 Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Pathology Chairs. Research!America awarded her the Outstanding Achievement in Public Health Award as one of its 2022 Advocacy Awards honorees. She recently received the 2022 Patients’ Advocate Award from the American Society for Clinical Pathology at which meeting the Society of Black Pathologists awarded its first “Vivian W. Pinn Pathologist of Color Award.”
Lectures in women’s health named for her have been established at the National Institutes of Health, the National Women’s Health Congress, and the National Medical Association. One of her greatest honors has been the announcement by the University of Virginia in the fall of 2016 that the medical research and education building was renamed for her as “Pinn Hall.” And in December 2016, the UVA medical school also announced the inaugural Pinn Scholars program to support and recognize mid-level faculty in efforts to take their research in novel directions. Her oral history is included in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibit on women physicians, ‘Changing the Face of Medicine’; in the University of Virginia’s project ‘Explorations in Black Leadership’ conducted by Julian Bond; and, in The HistoryMakers collection which is now housed in the Library of Congress.
The late Dr. Robert E. Tranquada served with distinction on the NMF Board of Directors for more than 30 years and was deeply committed to NMF’s mission of providing scholarships to diverse medical students, which he advanced through his leadership and philanthropy. NMF awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
At the time of his passing, Dr. Tranquada held the title of Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He was Chair Emeritus of Pomona College Board of Trustees; Emeritus Member of the Board of Trustees of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; an Elected Member to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) since 1983, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1984, an Emeritus Member of the Board of Overseers of the Claremont University Consortium; Emeritus Member of the Board of Directors of Good Hope Medical Foundation, Los Angeles; and Emeritus Member of the Board of Trustees of Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.
In addition to his storied career in academics and medicine, Dr. Tranquada was a founding board member and chair of L.A. Care Health Plan, established in 1997, and the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan.
He received an honorary Sc.D. from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1988 and from Pomona College in 2007. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in 2015.
Paul S. Viviano is a health care leader and a prominent national children’s health care advocate. For more than three decades, he has led academic health care systems, nonprofit community health care organizations and for-profit health care services providers that have delivered excellence in clinical care, research and medical education.
Viviano joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in late 2015 as President and Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of the Board of Directors and the Foundation Board of Trustees. Founded in 1901, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the highest-ranked children’s hospital in California and eighth in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. CHLA also operates one of the largest pediatric residency training programs in the country. The Saban Research Institute of CHLA is consistently ranked among the top children’s hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding and is home to more than 350 funded scientists and physician scientists.
Prior to joining CHLA, Viviano served as the Chief Executive Officer of UC San Diego Health System and Associate Vice Chancellor of UC San Diego Health Sciences. There he oversaw the entire $1.7 billion UC San Diego health care enterprise, which included leading-edge medical care; training of medical students, residents and fellows, responsibility for the faculty practice plan and all patient care delivery.
Prior to his work at UCSD, Viviano served as Chair of the Board and CEO of Alliance HealthCare Services—a for-profit, publicly traded organization that is the nation’s largest provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging services and a national leader in delivery of radiation oncology services. Paul continues to serve as a Director for Alliance, chairing the Compensation Committee and the company’s Special Committee.
Viviano also previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of University of Southern California University Hospital and USC/Norris Cancer Hospital. Additionally, Viviano held various hospital and regional chief executive positions for the St. Joseph Health System in Orange, California, including Health System President and Chief Operating Officer.
As part of his efforts in support of child health care, Viviano is actively involved with several state and national organizations committed to protecting and preserving preventative, acute and specialty health care for children. He is the immediate past Board Chair of the California Children’s Hospital Association (CCHA) and continues to serve on the Association’s Board of Directors. He represents the CCHA on the California Hospital Association Board and also serves on the CHA Board Executive Committee.
Viviano also chairs the Public Policy Committee of the national Children’s Hospital Association and is a Board member of Solutions for Patient Safety, the national consortium that sets clinical standards for U.S. children’s hospitals.
In addition, he is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Loyola Marymount University, the Catholic Jesuit University in Los Angeles, and is President of the UCLA Health Policy and Management Alumni Association.
Viviano is a California native and earned his bachelor’s degrees at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a master’s degree in public administration-public health at the University of California, Los Angeles. He and his wife, Carole, have two daughters and four grandchildren, and reside in Huntington Beach, CA.
Paula Williams Madison an American journalist, writer, businessperson, executive, and a former NBCUniversal executive who is, along with her family, a principal owner of The Africa Channel and has spent over 35 years in media.
Honored for corporate leadership and community outreach, Madison was named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005 and was included in Ebony magazine’s “Power 100.” In 2014, she was named one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She is of African and Hakka descent.
In 2015, Madison wrote the book Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem about her grandfather’s life and travels and her own visit to Guangdong. In 2015, Madison was recognized by East West Players for her contributions to the Asian American community. On the occasion of the 2013 Centennial Anniversary of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Madison was inducted as a member of Honorary Centennial Six, a great career achievement.
Madison has served in many organizations during her career. In addition to being named chair and CEO of the Los Angeles Sparks, she also became a member of the WNBA Board of Governors. Madison is a board member of Greater Los Angeles United Way, a past chair of the California Science Center Foundation, former vice chair of National Medical Fellowships and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and chair of The Nell Williams Family Foundation. In 2013, Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed her a commissioner of the Los Angeles Police Department.
A native of Harlem, she and her husband reside in Los Angeles.
# Deceased