Linda V. DeCherrie, MD
Vice President
Clinical Strategy and Implementation at Medically Home

Dr. DeCherrie’s professional passion is home based medical care. She is the Vice President, Clinical Strategy and Implementation at Medically Home which is a technology-enabled services company that provides all the necessary tools to allow medical providers to provide hospital at home. Previously she was at Mount Sinai Health system for 18 years and most recently was the Clinical Director of Mount Sinai at Home, the home based service line. The service line includes Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program (home based primary and palliative care), Hospitalization at Home, Rehabilitation at Home, Mount Sinai Palliative Care at Home and Pediatrics Visiting Doctors and Complex Care. Dr. DeCherrie is a Clinical Professor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. DeCherrie graduated from University of Chicago in 1995 with a major in History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science and Medicine (HiPSS) and then continued at Pritzker School of Medicine graduating in 1999. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Boston University where she was named chief resident. She then came to Mount Sinai for her fellowship in Geriatrics which she completed in 2005.

Chere Gregory, MD, MHS
Senior Vice President
Chief Health Equity Officer
Novant Health

Dr. Chere Gregory is Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for Novant Health. Dr. Gregory’s career reflects her abilities as a physician leader, change agent, innovator, and originator. In 2003 she became the first African American woman in the United States to design and direct a neurocritical care unit. She built the first Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Center in the Carolinas. She also strategically created and lead: The infrastructure for two Joint Commission Certified Comprehensive Stroke Centers, the first regional neurology practice, a neurosciences hospital practice and research center, and a stroke elimination collaborative funded through a multi-million-dollar Department of Health and Human Services grant.

Dr. Gregory was the clinical visionary for the Maya Angelou Center for Women’s Health and Wellness. As Senior Vice President for a multi- specialty service line for women, she utilized strategies to implement
individualized care solutions for women, improved patient experience, and acquired program recognition by the Economic and Social Council to the United Nations. She was curriculum creator for the inaugural Maya Angelou International Women’s Health Summit and Award Gala. As a Physican Executive, Dr. Gregory leveraged expertise in care delivery and health system leadership to co-create the leadership programs entitled LIFT (Leveraging Internal Female Talent) and LEAD (Lead, Elevate, Accelerate and Deliver).
Currently, as Chief Health Equity Officer, Dr. Gregory leverages expertise to identify, analyze, and strategically address healthcare disparities. Dr. Gregory leads unconscious bias training for providers, advances culturally competent care models, co-chairs the Health Equity Council and the Novant Health Ethics Committee.

Dr. Gregory is board certified in Neurology and Vascular Neurology. She received a bachelors degree at Brown University, Masters in Health Finance and Management at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She completed residency at Case Western Reserve University and was the first African American woman to complete a fellowship in neurocritical care at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Gregory sits on numerous community boards, including: Healthcare Access, Inc., Second Harvest Food Bank, North Carolina Black Repertory Company, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Minority Health Advisory Council, Novant Health Physicians Insurance Protected Cell, LLC and the Winston Salem State University School of Health Advisory Board. Her recognitions include: the Winston-Salem Legacy Foundation for Women, Diversity MBA Top 100 Executives Under 50, Southern Community Bank, Visit Winston-Salem, Winston-Salem State University, National Women of Achievement, Inc., and the Winston Salem Chronicle.

Peggy O'Kane
President
NCQA

Margaret E. O’Kane is founder and President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and has received the Picker Institute Individual Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient-Centered Care, as well as the Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.

Modern Healthcare magazine has named O’Kane one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” 12 times, and one of the “Top 25 Women in Healthcare” 3 times. She is a board member of the Milbank Memorial Fund and the Institute for Exceptional Care. She is also a board member and former board chair of Healthwise, a nonprofit organization that helps people make better health decisions.  O’Kane holds a master’s degree in health administration and planning from Johns Hopkins University, where she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Eric Schneider, MD. M.Sc
Executive Vice President
Quality Measurement and Research Group
NCQA

Eric Schneider, MD, M.Sc. leads NCQA’s measurement, research and contracting agenda as Executive Vice President of the Quality Measurement and Research Group. In this role, he helps drive NCQA’s efforts to create a more equitable health care system and to advance the move to digital quality measurement.

Dr. Schneider came to NCQA from The Commonwealth Fund, where he was Senior Vice President for Policy and Research and a member of its executive management team. He has a long history with NCQA, most recently as Co-Chair of its Committee on Performance Measurement. He served on that committee for more than 10 years, including nine as Co-Chair.

Prior to his tenure at The Commonwealth Fund, Dr. Schneider was principal researcher at the RAND Corporation and held the RAND Distinguished Chair in Health Care Quality. As the first director of Rand’s Boston office, Schneider built its highly regarded multidisciplinary team of health services researchers.  As a professor at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School Eric taught health policy and practiced primary care internal medicine for 25 years.

Widely regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent health services researchers, Dr. Schneider has authored more than 125 published peer-reviewed research investigations and dozens of other scientific or medical research publications, reviews, chapters, editorials, and more. His work has focused on four aspects of health care quality — performance measurement methods; evaluation of quality and safety measurement in public reporting and financial incentive programs; use of health care quality measures to assess racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health care quality; and evaluation of innovative approaches in health insurance, organization and financing of health care, and the organization of health care delivery.

Dr. Schneider trained in health services research, public health and primary care general internal medicine. He holds a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in biology from Columbia University and a Master of Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of the AcademyHealth Board of Directors and a fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the National Academy of Social Insurance.