2021 IHA Leadership Summit – Sept. 23-24

Jon Meacham, Presidential Historian and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham is one of America's most prominent public intellectuals. A contributor to TIME and The New York Times Book Review, the highly sought-after commentator regularly appears on CNN and MSNBC. Known as a skilled orator with a depth of knowledge about politics, religion, and current affairs, Meacham brings historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives.

Meacham’s latest #1 New York Times bestseller, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, examines the present moment in American politics and life by looking at critical times in history when hope overcame division and fear. His presidential biography, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. Fox News also produced an hour-long special about the book.

In 2009, Meacham won the Pulitzer Prize for his national bestseller, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.

A contributing editor at TIME, Meacham writes for the magazine’s Ideas section. He also delivered eulogies for both President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush.

Meacham is a frequent guest on Morning Joe; Real Time with Bill Maher; The 11^th Hour, and was featured in Ken Burns’ documentary series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum, Meacham is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow of the Society of American Historians, and chair of the National Advisory Board of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at The University of the South and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt. Meacham’s next project is a biography of James and Dolley Madison. 

Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, President, Health Futures, Inc.
Goldsmith is the founder and president of Health Futures Inc, a healthcare company that guides venture and private equity investment in emerging technologies. He has more than a decade of experience as a lecturer at The University of Chicago, where he focused on health services management and policy. Goldsmith has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University, and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been published in The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Goldsmith is also a board member for Essent Corporation, an investor-owned hospital management firm. His interests include biotechnology, health policy, international health systems, and the future of health services.

Katherine Baicker, PhD, Dean and Emmett Dedmon Professor, The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
A leading scholar in the economic analysis of healthcare policy, Baicker joined The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy in 2017. Her research primarily relates to public and private health insurance, with a particular focus on health insurance finance and the effect of reforms on the distribution and quality of care. Baicker’s research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine; Science; Health Affairs, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Previously, Baicker was the C. Boyden Gray Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has also served as a commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. From 2005-2007, Baicker served as a Senate-confirmed Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where she played a leading role in the development of health policy.

Joy A. Lewis, MSW, MPH, Senior Vice President, Health Equity Strategies, and Executive Director, Institute for Diversity and Health Equity, American Hospital Association (AHA)
Lewis has broad oversight for several key AHA priorities and functions related to diversity, health equity and inclusion to support and build healthy communities. She also serves as a member of AHA’s executive management team. In 2018, Lewis joined the association as vice president of strategic policy planning. She provided leadership in organizing member work groups to ensure members’ involvement, gaining the value of their insights and perspectives to elevate the visibility of the AHA as a thought leader and agent of change around critical issues in healthcare. Before joining AHA, Lewis held several positions for nearly two decades at Kaiser Permanente. She currently is a member of several committees, including the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Health Workforce Research Committee and the University of Michigan’s Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center Consortium. Lewis was recently appointed to the board of directors of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Karthik Sivashanker, MD, MPH, CPPS, Vice President, Equitable Health Systems and Innovation, American Medical Association (AMA)
In addition to his role at AMA, Dr. Sivashanker serves as medical director in quality, safety, and equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also a psychiatrist at the Justice Resource Institute in Needham, Massachusetts, and a faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston. As a former Fulbright scholar, Dr. Sivashanker conducted research in Venezuela on the vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS in rural mountain communities. In 2017, he won a gold status fellowship with the Diffusion of Excellence Initiative through the Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health. As a fellow, he led efforts to standardize and improve the process of substance use screening and triage for veterans. Dr. Sivashanker’s work has focused on driving racial justice and equity in the healthcare arena by leveraging high-performance quality and safety practices. 

Lisa Suennen, Senior Managing Director, Manatt Digital and Technology, San Francisco, California
With more than 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, board member and strategic advisor, Suennen has focused broadly on new technologies and how they are transforming businesses. An internationally recognized speaker, she has spent much of her career helping companies adopt and leverage digital technologies, develop strategies for growth through innovation and investment, and build strong collaborations between established players and entrepreneurs. Suennen’s clients span the technology continuum, with a particular focus on digital health enterprises, life sciences companies, payers, health systems, medical technology manufacturers and emerging companies across the healthcare field. Prior to joining Manatt, Suennen led the GE Ventures healthcare fund and cofounded the American Heart Association’s Cardeation Venture Fund. She is also faculty at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business. Suennen writes the popular blog, Venture Valkyrie.

Thom Mayer, MD, Medical Director, National Football League (NFL) Players Association and Founder, BestPractices, Inc.
Dr. Mayer founded BestPractices Inc., a respected emergency physician group. He is a sought-after speaker on burnout, resilience, conversion of stress to creative energy, leadership, innovation, management, motivation, crisis management and more. In his role at the NFL Players Association, he created and implemented the league’s innovative concussion guidelines, as well as COVID-19 guidelines to ensure a safe season. USA Today named him one of “The 100 Most Important People in the NFL.” On September 11, 2001, Dr. Mayer served as command physician at the Pentagon’s rescue and recovery operation. That same year, his team was the first to successfully diagnose and treat inhalational anthrax. Dr. Mayer has written over 25 books and been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and ESPN. He has also written over 200 book chapters and 200 peer-reviewed articles.