Boards

Vanessa Britto, MD, MSc, FACP

Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Executive Director of Health and Wellness, Brown University

Dr. Britto is a board certified Internal Medicine physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University where she serves as the Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Executive Director of Health and Wellness. She oversees the five departments that collectively comprise Health and Wellness for the University: Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Health Promotion, Emergency Medical Services, and Accessibility Services totaling a staff of 200 people. She currently volunteers with two non-profit medical mission organizations that travel regularly to Cape Verde, W. Africa and she is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians.  Dr. Britto lectures nationally and internationally on health care disparities, adolescent and women’s health. Dr. Britto is passionate about workforce wellbeing and in 2021 she was awarded the “Woman Physician of the Year” by the RI Chapter of the American College of Physicians.

The work of Health and Wellness supports and cares for 11,000 undergrad, graduate, and medical students. Prior to returning to Brown in 2018 to serve in her current role. Dr. Britto was the Director of Health Services at Wellesley College for the previous 16 years. She received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Returning to the east coast to train at Brown, Dr. Britto completed her residency and a general medicine fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital. While in fellowship she also received a Master of Science degree in Community Health from Brown University.

I. Glenn Cohen, JD

Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics

Glenn Cohen is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics. He is a recognized expert on the intersection of bioethics and the law, as well as health law and his current projects relate to big data, health information technologies, mobile health, research ethics, organ transplantation and medical tourism.

He is the author of more than 150 articles and chapters and is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of more than 15 books. He created the free online bioethics class through Harvard X and to date, more than 83,000 students have taken the course.

Prior to becoming a professor, he served as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and as a lawyer for U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division. He is one of three editors-in-chief of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences and serves on the editorial board for the American Journal of Bioethics. He is currently a member of the Ethics Committee of the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Khalilah Brown-Dean, PhD.

Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean is Executive Director of The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan University. Previous to her current position she served as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from The University of Virginia. She received the Henry R. Spencer Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Fannie Lou Hamer Outstanding Community Service Award, and was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Higher Education by Diverse Magazine.

Dr. Brown-Dean is the author of Identity Politics in the United States which traces the confluence of public policy, law, and institutional design in structuring contemporary political divisions. Her newest book, Protesting Vulnerability: Race and Pandemic Politics, is under contract with Cambridge University Press. Her publications appear in numerous scholarly and popular outlets focusing on civic engagement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, criminal justice, felon disenfranchisement, and the politics of mental health. She is a highly sought after political analyst with contributions to The Washington Post, MSNBC, L.A. Times, Fox News Radio, NPR and other outlets. She hosts the weekly Connecticut Public Radio show and podcast, Disrupted.

Dr. Brown-Dean is passionate about inclusive community development and is the Immediate Past Board Chair of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States, and the largest grant maker in a twenty town region. She currently serves as Chair of the Greater New Haven COVID 19 Community Fund.

Valerie Fleishman

Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Mass Health and Hospital Association

Valerie Fleishman is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Mass Health and Hospital Association.  Prior to this role she was Executive Director of the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI). Valerie is a seasoned health care and nonprofit leader with over 20 years’ experience in health care, health policy, health technology and innovation. Valerie is the parent of a liver transplant recipient.

Heung Bae Kim, MD

Vice-Chair of Surgery for Clinical Operation; Director, Pediatric Transplant Center, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Heung Bae Kim, MD is a pediatric transplant surgeon, Director of the Pediatric Transplant Center and Vice-Chair of Surgery for Clinical Operations at Boston Children’s Hospital where he holds the Weitzman Family Chair in Surgical Innovation.  Dr. Kim is also a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Membership and Professional Standards Committee at UNOS.

Lindsay A. Martin, MSPH

Founder, I-Squared Consulting Group; Instructor, T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health, Department. of Health Policy & Management and Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Lindsay A. Martin, MSPH, is a healthcare improvement and innovation leader dedicated to system design, improvement, and innovation. She founded I-Squared Consulting Group and works with government entities, healthcare systems, and community organizations to advance the role of quality and safety within health systems and across populations. Ms. Martin is an instructor in the department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she teaches quality improvement in healthcare. In addition, she is faculty for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Prior to her current roles, Ms. Martin   was the Executive Director of Innovation at IHI where she oversaw IHI’s Innovation process, working to find new solutions to difficult problems in health care and bringing those solutions into prototype testing. Ms. Martin received a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgetown University.

Judith Laich Pepe, MD

Senior Associate Director, Surgical Critical Care, Hartford Hospital

Judith Laich Pepe, MD is a critical care surgeon and has held several executive leadership and clinical roles at Hartford Hospital. She is currently the Senior Associate Director, Surgical Critical Care at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Pepe is also an Associate Professor of Surgery and Assistant Professor of Traumatology and Emergency Medicine at University of Connecticut Health Center and University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She also served as the Chair, LCDS Board of Trustees.

Ali Salim, MD

Chief, Division of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care and Emergency General Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital

‌Dr. Salim is a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and has served as the chief of the Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) since 2013. He also serves as the BWH Endowed Chair in Surgery and co-medical director of the Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation.

His clinical interests focus on the management of acutely ill trauma, emergency surgery and intensive care unit patients. His research centers on trauma patient outcomes, traumatic brain injury, optimizing organ donor physiology and increasing organ donation rates.

‌Dr. Salim has authored or co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications, with recent NIH-funded research exploring racial disparities in organ donation. His work also examines the long-term physical, emotional and psychosocial effects of moderate to severe traumatic injuries.

‌Before joining BWH, Dr. Salim was an attending physician, director of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and program director of the general surgery residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University, a master’s degree from Columbia University and his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. He completed his general surgery internship and residency, as well as a fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care, at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

Kevin Smith

Former Healthcare System Chief Executive Officer, Winchester Healthcare Management

Kevin Smith retired as Chief Executive Officer of Winchester Healthcare Management, Inc. and Winchester Hospital, where he previously served in several executive roles, including Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance, and Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier in his career, Mr. Smith worked as a healthcare consultant advising clients in the health care industry. Mr. Smith currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Winchester Healthcare Management, the parent organization of Winchester Hospital and its affiliates; the Board of Trustees of Care Dimensions, a non-profit provider of hospice and palliative care services in Eastern Massachusetts; and the Board of Directors of Reading Cooperative Bank.

Frederick J. Sorbo, III

Vice President of Budgeting and Financial Planning Hartford HealthCare

Frederick J. Sorbo, III retired from Hartford HealthCare in Hartford Connecticut where he served as the Vice President of Budgeting and Financial Planning.  In his role, he was responsible for the development and monitoring of annual operating and capital budgets in addition to financial planning development for the organization.  Mr. Sorbo previously held various finance positions, including Chief Financial Officer, at Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.  Prior to joining Mount Sinai Hospital, Mr. Sorbo was employed as an Audit Supervisor by Ernst & Whinney in Hartford, Connecticut.