Freeman A. Hrabowski III, PhD

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, PhD, served as president of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) from 1992 to 2022. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s committee that produced the 2011 report, Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads. In 2012, he was named in by President Barrack Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. His 2013 TED talk highlights the “Four Pillars of College Success in Science.” In 2022, Dr. Hrabowski was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and he was also named the inaugural American Council on Education Centennial Fellow, to be served upon his retirement from UMBC. In addition, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute also launched the Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program to help build a scientific workforce that more fully reflects our increasingly diverse country. In October 2022, he was named the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Speaker by Harvard University. In April 2023, The National Academy of Sciences awarded him the Public Welfare Medal, the Academy’s most prestigious award, and inducted him as a member of the academy, for his extraordinary use of science for the public good.

Jada Bussey-Jones, MD, FACP

Jada Bussey-Jones, MD, FACP, is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine of Emory University’s School of Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Science in Sociology and later her medical degree from Emory University. She currently serves as the Chief of General Medicine and Geriatrics, the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine, and the Associate Dean for Professional Development for Emory at Grady Health System. Dr. Bussey-Jones has nationally recognized educational expertise in the areas of minority health, health equity, and patient and provider education. She has developed several program initiatives addressing health promotion and disease prevention for vulnerable populations. She developed and directed curricula on cultural competence, disparities, and social determinants of health for students, residents, and faculty, and was recognized with an Educational Innovation Award for this work. She has also chaired the National Disparities Education Task Force for the Society of General Internal Medicine organization and served as editor for a special issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine dedicated to disparities education. In this role, her leadership resulted in an award-winning national disparities course, web based educational modules, and national symposia on disparities at both the Society of General Internal Medicine and at the American Association of Medical Colleges. She is the current president-elect for the Society of General Internal Medicine.

Mark C Henderson, MD, MACP

Mark C Henderson, MD, MACP is Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean for Admissions at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Henderson has edited several books including the Patient History: an evidence-based approach to differential diagnosis. He is co-principal investigator of the Accelerated Competency-based Education in Primary Care (ACE-PC) program and the California Oregon Medical Partnership to Address Disparities in Rural Education and Health (COMPADRE), both funded up by the American Medical Association. He has studied the MMI method for medical school interviews including as principal investigator for the California Longitudinal Evaluation of Admissions Practices (CA-LEAP) consortium. Other scholarly interests include medical student career choice, workforce diversity, utility of the medical history, and clinical reasoning.

Emily Cleveland-Manchanda, MD

Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, MPH is the Director for Social Justice Education and Implementation within the Center for Health Equity at the American Medical Association (AMA). She is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, the Assistant Program Director for the Boston Medical Center Executive Fellowship in Health Equity, and works clinically as an attending physician in the Emergency Department at Boston Medical Center. At the AMA, Dr. Cleveland Manchanda leads and oversees the AMA Center for Health Equity’s education portfolio. Her work focuses on coordinating effective action across sectors to promote social justice and equity in health, pushing health systems to address social and structural drivers of health, and supporting the development of health care leaders equipped to effectively advance justice in healthcare for patients, families, staff, communities and populations. Her research, educational and advocacy work primarily focus on addressing racism and other intersecting systems of oppression in medical education and clinical care. After graduating from Yale with a degree in Art History and French, Dr. Cleveland Manchanda spent two years working in the public health sector in Liberia with the Clinton Foundation before attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. She obtained her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and subsequently completed her residency training at the Harvard-Affiliated (MGH-BWH) Emergency Medicine Residency, where she served as a chief resident. She joined the faculty at Boston University School of Medicine in 2020, and the AMA in 2021. Dr. Cleveland Manchanda and her husband Gaurav met while working in Liberia, and now live in the Boston area with their three delightfully strong-willed children.

Sanjay Desai, MD

Chief academic officer, American Medical Association (AMA)