Keynote Speaker: Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI
Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI, is a nationally recognized physician-scientist leader in health equity research focused on integrating social, cultural, and environmental factors into clinical and translational research. Dr. Wilkins is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is Senior Vice President, Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, VUMC; and Senior Associate Dean, Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Among Dr. Wilkins’ many contributions to science is her prescient focus on engaging racial and ethnic minority communities, using implementation science methodologies in the design and conduct of clinical research. She has pioneered efforts to move the academic and clinical research enterprise to transform approaches to clinical research design by embedding participant and community engagement in every aspect of biomedical discovery. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, she has published over 100 papers on her research.
Dr. Wilkins' impact is evident in the diversity of her research funding, which includes being PI of multiple, large NIH research center awards: the Vanderbilt-Miami-Meharry Center of Excellence in Precision Medicine and Population Health; the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research; the Center for Improving Clinical Trial Education Recruitment and Enrollment at CTSA Hubs. As Director of the Engagement Core of the All of Us Research Program (a component of the Precision Medicine Initiative), Dr. Wilkins oversees initiatives that meaningfully engage research participants in the governance, oversight, implementation, and dissemination of the program. She has also been PI of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award on measuring and engendering trust in healthcare among African American men and a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Award on Improving Patient Engagement and Understanding Its Impact on Research.
Prior to joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2012, Dr. Wilkins was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, with secondary appointments in Psychiatry and Surgery (Public Health Sciences) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She served as the founding Director of the Center for Community Health and Partnerships in the Institute for Public Health, the Co-Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Research in the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, and the Director of “Our Community, Our Health,” a collaborative program with St. Louis University to disseminate culturally relevant health information and facilitate community–academic partnerships to address health disparities.
Plenary Speaker: Monica Peek, MD, MPH
Ellen H. Block Professor for Health Justice of Medicine and Associate Director, Chicago Center for Diabetes Translational Research, The University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Monica Peek is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where she works as a clinician, ethicist, and health services researcher. Dr. Peek is the Director of Research (and Associate Director) at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, the Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research, and the Executive Medical Director of Community Health Innovation. Her research pursues health equity and social justice, with a focus on promoting shared decision-making among marginalized patient populations, integrating the medical and social needs of patients, and addressing healthcare discrimination and structural racism that impact health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, COVID-19).
Dr. Peek has served as the principal investigator of multiple grants from institutions such as the Greenwall Foundation, NIH/NIDDK, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Merck Foundation.
Dr. Peek is a Senior Associate Editor for the journal Health Services Research, a member of the Executive Council for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and member of the national Advisory Board for Physicians for Human Rights. She is a previous member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) and the National Council for the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).
Dr. Peek was named one of the “Top 40 under 40” in Chicago and has been ranked among Chicago’s Top Physicians. She has been featured in national media outlets such as NPR, PRI/The World, CNN, and TIME Magazine.
Plenary Speaker: Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, MPH, MS
Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer, Indiana University Health and Associate Dean for Health Equity, Indiana University School of Medicine
Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds is the inaugural Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for Indiana University Health and the Associate Dean for Health Equity Research for Indiana University School of Medicine, where she holds an endowed chair for Health Equity Research. Dr Tucker Edmonds is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Clinical Pediatrics at IUSM, with training in general OBGYN, health services research, public health, and clinical ethics. She studies health equity and shared decision-making in reproductive health care. She is interested in understanding the impact of racism, classism, and culture on patient preferences and risk perceptions; physician decision-making and counseling; and ultimately, variations in treatment provision and service delivery. Her research on periviable decision-making has been supported by the NICHD, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, and is currently supported by an R01 from AHRQ.
Dr. Tucker Edmonds’ received an AB in Community Health and African American Studies from Brown University. She received her MD from Brown Medical School, and, concurrently, completed an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Tucker Edmonds trained in OBGYN at Duke University Medical Center; then entered the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received health services research training and an MS in Health Policy Research.
Dr. Tucker Edmonds previously served as an Assistant Dean for Diversity Affairs at IUSM, and co-directed Workforce Development for the Indiana CTSI. She has served on ACOG’s Committee on Ethics, Committee on Government Affairs, and, now, the Committee on the care of Underserved Women. She led Legislative Affairs for Indiana ACOG for ten years and is now the Immediate Past Chair of the Indiana Section. She is an ‘ELUM’ of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program. In 2021 Dr Tucker Edmonds was elected to the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society and elected as a National Academy of Medicine’s Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine. Dr Tucker Edmonds is married to Dr Joseph Tucker Edmonds, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies. They live in Indianapolis with their daughter, Zora, who is the delight of their lives.
Plenary Speaker: Peter J. Embí, MD, MS, FACP, FACMI, FAMIA, FIAHSI
Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation, Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Peter Embí, MD, MS, serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), Professor of Medicine, and Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), roles he began on Jan. 1, 2022.
As an internationally recognized researcher, educator and leader in the field of biomedical informatics, Dr. Embí is a frequently invited presenter and lecturer and has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed research articles, abstracts, books and book chapters. His areas of interest include clinical informatics, research informatics, public health informatics, and data-driven learning health systems. He had held research grants from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Library of Medicine, National Institute for Drug Abuse and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as well as numerous nonprofit foundations and public health agencies.
He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his medical degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa. He completed residency, chief residency, an informatics fellowship and a Master of Science in Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University. He then completed his rheumatology and immunology fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic before joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Prior to his move to VUMC, Dr. Embí served as President and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, Professor and Associate Dean for Informatics and Health Services Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Associate Director at Indiana CTSI and Vice President for Learning Health Systems at IU Health. Previous positions included leadership roles at The Ohio State University, where he was interim chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Associate Dean for Research Informatics for the College of Medicine and served as the nation’s first Chief Research Information Officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Prior to that, he served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where he was the founding director of the UC Center for Health Informatics and director of Informatics for the Cincinnati Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training. Dr. Embí also has experience in a variety of entrepreneurial activities, including co-inventing and co-founding health IT-based startups, partnering with companies to create and evaluate health care innovations, and developing programs that guide and enable other faculty to translate their discoveries into practice.
In recognition of his contributions to the field, Embí has been elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI), the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA) and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (FIAHSI). He has also served in numerous national leadership roles, including as the immediate past president and chair of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association. He also has served on many national advisory boards, including service on the Board of Scientific Counselors to the National Library of Medicine and on the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
