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Commission on Investment Imperatives for a Healthy Nation Commission Members

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Leadership

Gilda Barabino
President
Olin College of Engineering
Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN
Visiting Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University Distinguished Fellow, University of Texas at Austin

Commission Members

Jennifer “adatsunome” Bereskin-SeaMonster
Community Advocate
Sue Birch
Director
Washington State Health Care Authority
Aneesh Chopra
CareJourney
Maria Contreras-Sweet
Administrator
U.S. Small Business Administration
Kafui Dzirasa
A. Eugene and Marie Washington Presidential Distinguished Professor
Duke University School of Medicine
Kenneth Frazier
Chairman
General Catalyst’s Health Assurance
Paula A. Johnson, MD, MPH
President, Wellesley College

Paula A. Johnson is a pioneer who brings decades of experience in the fields of academic medicine, public health, and higher education. Since joining Wellesley in 2016, she has placed the College at the forefront of STEM education for women and has led the creation of the school’s new strategic plan, which places inclusive excellence at the heart of the Wellesley experience. President Johnson has held several leadership roles in her career as a physician-scientist. She most recently served as the Grayce A. Young Family Professor of Medicine in Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Health. In addition, she founded the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

President Johnson is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received several honorary degrees and numerous awards for her contributions to science, medicine, and public health.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, President Johnson attended Harvard University, where she earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. She also trained in internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Johnson has served on several national and international boards, and she currently serves on the board of directors for Rockefeller University and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

COI: none noted

Orv Kimbrough
Chairman and CEO
Midwest BankCentre
Bob Kocher
Partner, Venrock
Steve Lipstein
former President and CEO
BJC HealthCare
Elizabeth Mitchell
President and CEO
Purchaser Business Group on Health
President and CEO
Missouri Foundation for Health

Dwayne Proctor, PhD, is the current president and CEO of Missouri Foundation for Health. During his nearly 20 years in philanthropy, Dr. Proctor has always worked to ensure that American communities were healthy and thriving. Before becoming president and CEO of Missouri Foundation for Health in 2021, he served in a variety of roles at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2002, he joined as a senior communications and program officer, providing strategic guidance and resources for several child health and risk-prevention initiatives such as Nurse-Family Partnership, Free to Grow, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol-Free, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy.
In 2005, Dr. Proctor was tapped to lead RWJF’s national strategies to reverse the rise in childhood obesity rates. In this role, he worked with his colleagues to promote effective changes to public policies and industry practices, test and demonstrate innovative community and school-based environmental changes, and leverage sustainable changes using both “grassroots” and “treetops” advocacy approaches to educate local and national leaders on their roles and opportunities to prevent childhood obesity.

Prior to RWJF, Dr. Proctor was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he taught courses on health communication and marketing practices to reach multicultural populations. During his Fulbright Fellowship in Senegal, West Africa, his research team investigated how HIV/AIDS prevention messages raised awareness of AIDS as a national health problem. Dr. Proctor received his doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees in marketing and communication science from the University of Connecticut. He is the former chairman of the board of directors for the Association of Black Foundation Executives and currently is the chairman of the board of trustees for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Foundation.

Eric Rubin
Editor-in-Chief
New England Journal of Medicine
Eduardo Sanchez
Chief Medical Officer for Prevention
American Heart Association
Andy Slavitt
Board Chair Emeritus
United States of Care
Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN
Visiting Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University Distinguished Fellow, University of Texas at Austin