Abner Mason

Abner Mason is the founder and CEO of SameSky Health, a cultural experience company that forms meaningful relationships to bring people to health. He has spent decades working to reduce barriers to care faced by underserved people nationally and internationally, from the federal to the local level. He currently sits on the Boards of Manifest MedEx and the California Black Health Network, and is a member of United States of Care’s Founders Council, the American Medical Association’s External Equity and Innovation Advisory Group, the HIMSS’ Social Determinants of Health Committee and the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative’s advisory board. Abner is the founder of HealthTech 4 Medicaid.

 
Darrell Gray, II, MD, MPH, FACG

Darrell M. Gray, II, MD, MPH, FACG is an outspoken health equity advocate, a clinical and policy expert, and a passionate voice for a better healthcare system. As the inaugural chief health equity officer for Elevance Health, he leads the execution of comprehensive strategy to advance health equity through a whole-health approach (addressing physical, behavioral, social, and pharmacy needs) among Elevance Health’s more than 45 million members and their respective communities.

Prior to joining Elevance Health, Gray was an associate professor of medicine at The Ohio State University, where he served as a practicing gastroenterologist and medical director of healthy communities for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, as well as deputy director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Gray serves in multiple national and local organizations aiming to advance health equity through innovation in community engagement, care delivery, research, and patient and provider education. He is co-founder of the Association of Black Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists and a past chair of the American College of Gastroenterology Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Gray is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and graduate of Morehouse College and Howard University College of Medicine. He completed his residency at Duke University Medical Center and gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University, subsequently earning a master’s degree in public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow.

 
Vanessa Guzman, MS, ME

Vanessa Guzman was Associate Vice President at the Montefiore Health System, overseeing physician partnerships, population health and quality improvement, clinical performance, and health information technology and reporting. As part of her role, she implemented preventive health applications and community-based organization partnerships to address SDOH barriers and improve delivery and cost-effectiveness of chronic care services and procedures.

Mrs. Guzman has helped create strategic plans to streamline regulatory and quality requirements, including initiating multi-year patient engagement programs and leading several CMS and NYS models. Her approach has shown to reduce administrative costs, hospital-acquired conditions and ensuring that patients receive timely primary care and follow-up visits after hospitalization. Mrs. Guzman has been responsible for integrating HIE and telehealth products, clinical documentation improvement, reimbursement models and provider services with technology partners. She has successfully implemented improvement solutions and innovation, including remote retinopathy screening for diabetes and Interactive Voice Response technology.

Her business model facilitates revenue and sponsorship opportunities toward, Created to Thrive, a foundation she formed to promote enrichment programs servings children, women and homeless adults around the world.

 
Alan Nevel

Alan K. Nevel is Senior Vice President, Chief Equity Officer for The MetroHealth System.

In this uniquely integrated leadership role, Alan is responsible for defining the overarching vision, identity and strategy to ensure that equity is the underlying central principle in all that the system does. Alan and his team’s primary focus is to work across administration and MetroHealth’s departments, programs and initiatives to eliminate systemic disparities and inequities that impact, patients, employees and the community.

A Native Clevelander, Alan brings over 25 years of experience in successfully guiding large Fortune 500 organizations through large scale Cultural Transformation. Alan’s management expertise includes driving the development and implementation of value-added, best-in-class strategies in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Human Resources, Organizational Change Management, Leadership, Talent and Workforce Development.

Alan began his professional career in R&D and manufacturing at the Sherwin Williams Company before moving on to a successful management consulting career with Andersen Consulting/ Accenture. At Accenture, Alan worked across a wide variety of industry verticals and functional areas focused on large-scale organizational transformation, supply chain process improvement and organizational change management.

A highly sought-after speaker and educator, Alan is a graduate of the Wickliffe City Schools, Cleveland State University (B.A., Liberal Studies) and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management (MBA). Alan is passionate in his commitment of giving back to his community. Alan is a proud member of the Cleveland (OH) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Ethisphere’s Equity & Social Justice Initiative Advisory Council and serves as a Board Director for The Cleveland State University Foundation, Urban League of Greater Cleveland, Recovery Resources, Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio, Karamu House, Creating Healthier Communities and the National Society of High School Scholars Foundation.

 
Dr. Alvia Siddiqi, MD, FAAFP