Veenu Aulakh, MSPH is the President of the Center for Care Innovations (CCI).
Veenu is responsible for the organization’s overall strategy, building critical partnerships, and helping to ensure CCI continues to make an impact in transforming care for vulnerable populations by supporting innovation in safety net systems.
Before joining CCI, Veenu worked as a Senior Program Officer at the California HealthCare Foundation where she managed program related investments to organizations with innovations to improve care for underserved populations. She also led projects to improve the quality of primary care with an emphasis on information technology and patient engagement.
Veenu also held a number of positions within Kaiser Permanente related to improving quality of care. She also worked as a project manager with the diagnostics division of Abbott Laboratories.
Veenu received a bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s of science in health policy and management from Harvard University.
In her spare time Veenu enjoys climbing the hills of San Francisco and exploring foreign lands.
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS is the Lee Goldman, MD Endowed Chair in Medicine, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the inaugural Vice Dean for Population Health and Health Equity in the UCSF School of Medicine. She co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, a research center focused on discovery, implementation, policy, advocacy, and community engagement for communities at risk for poor health and inadequate healthcare.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is a general internist and cardiovascular epidemiologist who uses observational epidemiology, pragmatic trials, and simulation modeling to examine the impact of clinical and public health approaches to cardiovascular disease prevention in the US, in US population subgroups, and in other countries globally. She is an expert in prevention and the Immediate Past Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force where she served from 2010-2017 as a member, Vice-Chair, and Chair from 2016-2017, She is an inducted member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine.
Molly Joel Coye, MD, MPH is Executive in Residence at AVIA, the nation’s leading network for health systems seeking to innovate and transform. AVIA's mission is to advance care delivery transformation through the effective identification and deployment of digital solutions, in partnership with a Network of more than 30 large health systems. Dr. Coye also advises technology developers, investors, national health systems and policy makers about disruptive technologies and business models that accelerate transformation and constrain health expenditures, and serves on the advisory boards of early stage companies and venture and private equity firms investing in health care information technology and services.
Dr. Coye is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), a member of the Board of Directors of Aetna, Inc., and also serves on the Founder’s Council of United States of Care. From 2010 – 2015, Dr. Coye was the Chief Innovation Officer for UCLA Health, where she led the health system in identifying new strategies, technologies, products and services.
Dr. Coye founded and led HealthTech (the Health Technology Center), a non-profit education and research organization established in 2000 that became the premier forecasting organization for emerging technologies in health care. She also served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey, Director of the California State Department of Health Services, and Head of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Previously, Dr. Coye served as a member and chair of the Board of Directors of PATH, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in global health, and on the boards of the American Hospital Association, the American Public Health Association, and the American Telemedicine Association, The California Endowment, and the China Medical Board.
Dr. Coye received her medical degree and Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She holds a Masters in Chinese History from Stanford University and is the author of two books on Chinese history. She also is a member of the board of directors of San Francisco Jazz (SFJAZZ), and enjoys scuba diving and international culinary adventures.
Ralph Gonzales, MD, MSPH, is Associate Dean for Clinical Innovation and Chief Innovation Officer for UCSF Health. In addition, he leads the UCSF Clinical Innovation Center (CIC), which aims to develop the infrastructure and internal capacity to accelerate innovations that solve critical delivery system problems at UCSF. CIC partners with internal and external entities to analyze, prototype, test, implement and evaluate solutions that target our organizational priorities. CIC enables clinicians and staff to discover solutions that were previously not possible before through programs that leverage resources from cross-industry partnerships.
His research has played a significant role in national and global efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance by improving antibiotic prescribing practices - the body of which provides a successful roadmap for translating evidence into practice, policy and public health. Dr. Gonzales’ research is multidisciplinary, patient-centered, and informed by relevant stakeholders and policy makers such as the CDC, NCQA, professional societies and community clinicians and patients. It represents the full spectrum of translational research - from practice guideline development, to implementation of innovative health care interventions, to conducting larger community-based trials to examine the comparative effectiveness of different health care interventions.
Richard Gurley is the co-founder and CEO of Ryse Health, hybrid office-based and virtual endocrinology clinic serving patients with type 2 diabetes. He has spent his career focused on improving quality and reducing costs in the US healthcare system including groundbreaking work at TennCare, McKinsey & Company, Evolent Health, and WelbeHealth, where he built operations to deliver the PACE model of care to underserved communities. Richard has also invested in and avised a variety of early stage healthcare companies on strategy, growth, and operations. He holds an MBA from Duke University and a BA in Public Policy Studies from Vanderbilt University.
Ivor Braden Horn, MD, MPH, FAAP is an angel investor with Pipeline Angels and an LP in Portfolia’s Rising America Fund. Dr. Horn has 20+ years of experience addressing inequities in healthcare and held senior and executive leadership positions across health systems, academic, and entrepreneurial environments. She is a nationally recognized leader in health equity, social determinants of health and healthcare innovation. Dr. Horn has expertise in driving organization change within technology and product innovation and implementing quality improvement and stakeholder engagement initiatives. She has a track record of implementing programs to improve health outcomes and establish partnerships with community-based organizations to better serve at risk populations. Most recently, Dr. Horn served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Accolade, where she drove transformation of clinical strategy and led streamlining of clinical operations during the company’s rapid growth from serving ~300,000 to over a million members. Before Accolade, she served as Medical Director of the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Principal Investigator on several studies investigating health equity in the under-represented communities.
Dr. Horn is also a nationally recognized researcher with funding from government and non-profit organizations including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HRSA), AHRQ, and the Verizon Foundation to research the use of technology in under-represented populations. She has authored several peer-reviewed journal publications on health communication and health equity.
Dr. Horn received her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. She has a master’s degree in public health from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Sciences. She earned her medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric internship and residency at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Dr. Horn did her fellowship training in general academic pediatrics and community oriented primary care at the Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC.
Ben Lenail, MBA, based in Palo Alto, CA, is a founding officer of ALD Connect, a research consortium focused on the neuro-metabolic disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD).
Ben currently works for biotech company Deep Genomics. He is also on the Board of Directors of the American Brain Foundation, a mentor with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and a member of investment group HealthTech Capital.
Ben was previously a distinguished visiting scholar at Stanford University, and Senior Director of Corporate Development at Sun Microsystems. Ben has a Bachelor’s from Sciences Po (Paris, France) and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Among his significant experience in the nonprofit world, Ben has served on the Executive Committee of Silicon Valley Social Ventures (SV2) for three years; and on the Board of the International School of the Peninsula for seven years.
In his free time, Ben enjoys spending time with his family and his beloved Golden Retriever Hazel, yoga, and walking.
Pooja Mittal, DO is a Medical Director of Population Health at HealthNet. She is a family physician and uses this lens to design strategic initiatives to improve care for the most vulnerable. She is a member of the leadership team that works to further equitable care through a population health model for all HealthNet members. She has developed an expertise in digital health through her work in the HealthNet Digital Platforms Workgroup devising a defined digital strategy to support quality and member engagement.
As a fellow of the California Healthcare Foundation, Dr. Mittal conceived of a project to address inequities in African American Maternal and Infant mortality. She designed a project to fund community-based doula care through HealthNet MediCal. In partnership with the Quality/Culture and Linguistics Departments at HealthNet and Community-Based organizations, she led the HealthNet Community Doula Project. This project is aimed at improving outcomes for our African American pregnant women in Los Angeles County. The project is being studied as a model for value-based care in MediCal maternity.
Dr. Mittal also works at the National Clinicians Consultation Center at UCSF, a national HIV/AIDS warmline, where she is recognized as a national expert on Perinatal HIV care. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work, she has published in the areas of well-child care, group visits, preconception care, health equity and perinatal HIV.
John Noonan is the founder of LifeForce Capital, a venture capital firm focused on digital health companies. Prior to founding LifeForce Capital, John served as a senior advisor at the United States Department of Health and Human Services and as the Vice President of Corporate Development at Gerson Lehrman Group. As a member of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s board of directors, John is deeply committed to advancing health equity. John received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his JD from Yale Law School.
Robert M. Wachter, MD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 2021-22, the Department was ranked the best internal medicine department in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Wachter is author of 300 articles and 6 books. He coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996 and is often considered the “father” of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing medical specialty in the U.S. history. He is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He has written two books on safety and quality, including Understanding Patient Safety, the world’s top selling safety primer (now in its 3rd edition). His 2015 book, The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, was a New York Times science bestseller. In 2004, he received the John M. Eisenberg Award, the nation’s top honor in patient safety. Thirteen times, Modern Healthcare magazine has ranked him as one of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S.; he was #1 on the list in 2015. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2020-21, his tweets on Covid-19 were viewed over 200 million times by 170,000 followers and served as a trusted source of information on the clinical, public health, and policy issues surrounding the pandemic.