Advocacy Grand Rounds

As State Health Officer and Medical Director Dr. Joseph Kanter serves as the top medical official of Louisiana Department of Health, consulting on issues relating to policy, programmatic implementation, quality and accessibility of care, health equity, emergency preparedness and infection control, and bearing responsibility for enforcing the state’s Sanitary Code. His previous state roles have included Assistant State Health Officer, Interim Assistant Secretary, and Regional Medical Director.

Prior to joining the Louisiana Department of Health Dr. Kanter served as Director of Health for the City of New Orleans and led Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s comprehensive opioid mitigation strategy which included issuing a first-in-the-state standing order for naloxone, equipping the New Orleans Police Department with the reversal medication, increasing availability of medication assisted treatment, promoting harm reduction services, and initiating a City-wide effort to reduce the stigma of addictive disorders. A practicing and board-certified Emergency Physician, prior medical director of the Health Care for the Homeless clinic, and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at both LSU Health Sciences Center and Tulane School of Medicine, Dr. Kanter cares for a diverse spectrum of patients in the New Orleans area, including some of the most vulnerable in our community. He is a committed academic and works closely with residents, students, and other learners. His primary interests are expanding access to patient-centered care, promoting health equity, and creating efficiencies in systems of health while protecting vulnerable populations.

Pam Perry has over 25 years of experience working with Medicaid-focused policies and programs. She currently leads Government and Legislative Relations for Carolina Complete Health, a Medicaid health plan in North Carolina. Previous roles include Vice President of Business Development at Centene, Anthem, and Amerigroup; Deputy Director of Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Bureau of Primary Health Care; Policy Analyst at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration; Policy Advisor at the U.S. Senate; and Disease Intervention Specialist in Newark, New Jersey. Pam holds Bachelors degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Georgia. A native of New Jersey, Pam has traveled to all 50 states.

Allyson Evans is the Policy Director, and Director of the Medicaid Evidence-based Decisions (MED) Project at the Center for Evidence-based Policy. She joined the Center in 2019. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Evans served as a policy advisor and staff counsel for Texas Health and Human Services. In these roles, she advised on a range of legal matters related to Medicaid, including managed care, various waiver programs, Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Previously, Ms. Evans served as an attorney for the City of Austin, where she advised the city’s public health and procurement departments and as a Public Interest Fellow for the Legal Services of New Jersey’s Legal Access to Medical Patients Project. She also has served as a volunteer attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and other nonprofit organizations, including the Affordable Housing Strike Fund in Austin, TX. Ms. Evans earned a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a B.A. with honors from the University of Wisconsin. She is licensed to practice law in New Jersey, Texas, and Washington.

Dr. Ealena Callender is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist. In practice for 14 years, Dr. Callender is passionate about helping women reach their full potential in every stage of their lives. Her goal is to empower women and encourage them to be partners in their care. Dr. Callender takes a broad view of women’s health, realizing that there are many factors that can contribute to overall wellness. Prior to her medical career, Dr. Callender was a journalist and continues to use media to help raise awareness of important women’s health issues. Currently a candidate for a Master’s Degree at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, she hopes to continue making an impact on improving women’s health on a national and international scale.

Dr. Adam Urato is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist in his hometown of Framingham, Massachusetts. He grew up there and attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He did his OB/GYN residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He did his Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship at Tufts Medical Center. His interests include medication exposure in pregnancy and conflicts of interest in medicine.

Maritza Perez is the Director of Federal Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, DC where she leads the organization’s federal legislative agenda and strategy to end the drug war. In this role, she lobbies Congress and the Administration on issues pertaining to drug policy and criminal legal reform. Maritza convenes the Marijuana Justice Coalition which successfully pushed for the passage of the MORE Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in December 2020 and April 2022, marking the first and only times in history a Congressional chamber voted in favor of descheduling marijuana. 

Jaclyn Friedman is the Founder and Executive Director of EducateUS: SIECUS In Action, and a lifelong activist, advocate and organizer. Friedman’s work has globally popularized the affirmative consent standard of sexual consent. Her first book, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009, and has inspired new laws in five U.S. states, as well as policies on countless campuses across the country and the world. She also spearheaded the legendary #FBrape campaign, which forced Facebook to address and exclude content that promotes or trivializes violence against women under their hate speech policy, and is founder and former executive director of Women, Action & the Media (WAM!).

Since 2019, Christine Soyong Harley has led SIECUS to focus on sex education as a vehicle for social change, focusing on the broad benefits of comprehensive sex education to prevent child abuse and sexual violence, and to advance education on consent, gender justice, and affirmation of LGBTQ communities. Chris joined SIECUS with a robust background in public policy, advocacy, program management, and strategic thought leadership, with an emphasis on increasing policy advancements for underserved populations.

Chris brings extensive executive leadership experience to SIECUS, including having previously run her own consulting business and was the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders under the Obama Administration. Chris also brings experience working in state-level agencies and community organizing to SIECUS. Chris is mixed-race Korean American and Piscataway Indian–the indigenous people of Maryland, a single-mom by choice of twin boys, and the first generation of her family to attend college and graduate school. Chris received her B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Arka is a psychiatrist and preventive medicine physician. He has previously been a physician working for New York City’s public hospitals. He has now transitioned to Full Time work with the Federal Government while maintaining clinical practice and residency teaching responsibilities.

His work for the Federal Government is at CMS. At CMS, he works on teams developing payment policies with annual regulatory updates for the medicare physician fee schedule, outpatient prospective payment system, clinical lab fee schedule, and other payment systems. As an HHS medical officer and psychiatrist, he is also called on to consult on a variety of national behavioral health policy issues.

While previously leading the gun violence prevention action area at DFA, he helped to organize the DFA 2021 campaign to voice members’ opinion on ghost gun related safety measures to the ATF. This required thousands of DFA members to participate in the ATF rule making process.

Ameet Sarpatwari is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Assistant Director of the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) within the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics. His research draws upon his interdisciplinary training as an epidemiologist and lawyer and focuses on the effects of laws and regulations on therapeutic development, approval, use, and related public health outcomes. He teaches an annual course on public health law at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he also serves as Faculty Director of the JD-MPH program.

Deborah Bartz, MD, MPH is an obstetrician-gynecologist fellowship trained in Complex Family
Planning at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). As such she serves as the Ryan Program
Director for Harvard Medical School where she has a robust program of teaching both residents
and medical students in the form of daily lectures, work on the wards, and both classroom
teaching and hands-on training in abortion. She serves as a faculty expert in complex D&E
techniques, medical abortion, and contraception care in the medically complicated patient. Her
clinical practice acts as a bridge between the medically complex patients encountered at an
academic center and the high-volume ambulatory care provided at Planned Parenthood. This
varied practice offers many teaching opportunities as well. Dr. Bartz’s research has examined
best practices in reproductive health medical education. Given the dearth of access to
comprehensive reproductive services in the United States, she is particularly proud of her role
as an educator to a new generation of women’s health providers.

She serves as the Associate Clerkship Director for the OB/GYN medical student
rotation, as the Medical Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Title X
Program, and as the Director of Education for the Connors Center for Women’s Health and
Gender Biology at BWH. Through her educational activities, Dr. Bartz has been innovative in
expanding primary care specialist, resident, and medical student training to include evidence-
based, complex abortion care through simulation and through graduated models of training.
She has received multiple teaching awards. Dr. Bartz’ commitment to mentorship has been
rewarded with entrance into the competitive BWH Faculty Mentorship Leadership Program,
entrance into the APGO Scholars and Leaders Program, and membership on the Board of
Directors for Medical Students for Choice. Dr. Bartz’ current research program focuses on the
development, assessment, and propagation of best educational practices of abortion and
reproductive justice.

Greg Jackson, Executive Director of the Community Justice Action Fund, is a community organizer, political strategist and issue advocate.

Prior to becoming the organization’s Executive Director, Greg served as the National Advocacy Director for 2 years. In this role he worked with communities, elected officials, community leaders and impacted residents to advocate for proactive and preventive solutions to end gun violence. Greg led the effort to build political power through electoral participation, spearheading the 2020 Elect Justice Campaign that mobilized over a 1,000 volunteers and connected with over 1.6 million voters across the country.

As a gun violence survivor, gun violence prevention is personal for Greg. While being questioned by law enforcement in his hospital bed, Greg remembers being treated like a criminal and not like a victim. This experience and his recovery propelled Greg into action, becoming a vocal and leading voice on gun violence prevention for Black and brown communities.

Following his recovery, Greg became an avid mentor to local at risk youth and built multiple youth engagement movements like #WeReadDC that empowered hundreds of volunteers to support Washington, DC area youth through monthly reading events.

As the youngest member of Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration, Greg served as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services. Greg then went on to lead Community Engagement and Communications for the Washington, D.C.’s Office of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement (ONSE). At ONSE, Greg oversaw community events, outreach activities, policy development, violence reducing programs and direct engagement of residents most at risk to gun violence.

Before dedicating his life to gun violence prevention, Greg worked as a community organizer through various roles, including the Co-Chair of DC for Obama, the Obama for America, North Carolina – Field Director, the Southern Regional Director at Organizing for Action and the National Field Director, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, where he ran the largest mid-term election voter registration program in U.S. History.

Greg, an avid runner that has completed 5 half marathons, enjoys recreational sports and created a citywide organization offering recreational sports activities for thousands of young adults throughout the D.C. area.

Follow Greg on LinkedIn

Dr. Joseph V. Sakran is a trauma surgeon, coalition builder, policy advisor, public health expert, and nationally recognized advocate for gun violence prevention. He is currently Director of Emergency General Surgery, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Associate Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

A survivor of gun violence himself, Dr. Sakran’s interest in medicine and trauma surgery began after a stray bullet nearly killed him during his senior year of high school. He has subsequently dedicated his life to treating the most vulnerable, reducing health disparities among marginalized populations, and advancing public policy that alleviates structural violence in low-income communities. More information can be found here: https://www.josephsakran.com/about

Follow Dr. Sakran on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

A motivated leader with proven proficiency in developing innovate solutions to challenges and achieving favorable results. Committed to leading community-based violence prevention initiatives to ensure the voice of those most impacted are central in policy and program  decisions.

Kayla has 35 years of leadership experience and continues to work towards eradicating policies,

procedures, and social norms that create barriers for black and brown communities, particularly Black women, to ensure efforts to reduce violence are consistent with a racial equity and justice focused approach.

Zach Marcus is campaign manager for South Dakotans Decide Healthcare. He has been managing political campaigns around the country for the last 10 years. He is excited about the chance to make meaningful direct change with Constitutional Amendment D.

Peg O’Connell is the chair of Care4Carolina, a coalition of 146 organizations committed to finding a North Carolina solution for closing the health insurance coverage gap.  She has over 25 years of experience in legislative, public, regulatory and governmental affairs, healthcare, media and grassroots advocacy at the state and federal levels and has been active in North Carolina working to improve the public health by improving access to healthcare and reducing smoking and obesity. 

An attorney by profession, O’Connell has spent most of her career in government affairs and communications.  She graduated magna cum laude from Marietta College, earning a BA in history and political science, and received her law degree from the Ohio State University College of Law.

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS, is a Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Public Health (Health Policy and Management) at the Yale School of Medicine, an Associate Physician of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Health System, and Co-Director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale. With expertise in health services and outcomes research and the translation of clinical research into practice, his research examines the use and delivery of higher quality care and issues related to pharmaceutical and medical device regulation, evidence development, postmarket surveillance, and clinical adoption. Dr. Ross co-directs the Yale-Mayo Clinic Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), the Yale Open Data Access (YODA) Project, and the Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency (CRIT) at Yale Law School, and leads efforts at Yale-New Haven Health System in collaboration with the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST). He has published more than 500 articles in peer-reviewed biomedical journals, co-founded the preprint server medRxiv, and is currently the U.S. Outreach and Research Editor at BMJ.

Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE, is Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Law at the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship focuses on clinical research ethics and regulation, priority setting in research, access to investigational medicines outside clinical trials, FDA pharmaceutical policy, and the ethics of gatekeeping in health care. She is founder and co-chair of the Consortium to Advance Effective Research Ethics Oversight (www.AEREO.org), an organization working to evaluate and improve IRB quality and effectiveness, and an active member of the NYU Working Group on Compassionate Use and Preapproval Access (CUPA). She serves as a member of the boards of Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research (PRIM&R) and the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and as “ethicist in residence” at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Professor Fernandez Lynch has worked as an attorney in private practice, a bioethicist serving NIH’s Division of AIDS, a senior policy analyst with President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, and executive director of Harvard Law School’s bioethics and health law research program. She was named a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in 2019 and elected a fellow of the Hastings Center in 2021.