Maria Gomez, R.N., M.P.H.

Maria Gomez, R.N., M.P.H., is the founder, president, and CEO of Mary’s Center, a community health center providing healthcare, social services and education in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area since 1988. Under Gomez’s leadership, Mary’s Center has grown from serving 200 participants in a small basement with an initial budget of $250,000 to serving nearly 60,000 participants across seven locations in Washington, D.C. and Maryland with an annual budget of $80 million.

As a testament to her significant commitment to giving back to the community, former President Barack Obama selected her as one of the 18 recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.

Gomez is a health advisor to the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office; as such, Mayor Muriel Bowser and former Mayors Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty named her a member of their transition teams. She is also co-chair of the Human Services, Social Services and Health Committee of DC Mayor’s ReOpen DC Advisory Group for COVID-19. Maria is a member of the Mayor’s Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformations, which makes recommendations on strategies and investments necessary to transform healthcare in Washington, D.C.

Gomez is a board member for the DC Primary Care Association and the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County. She is also a member of the Suburban Hospital Board of Trustees, co-chair of the Latino Health Steering Committee of Montgomery County and serves on the Advisory Boards for the Smithsonian American Women History Initiative, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and the AmeriHealth Caritas National FQHC Initiative. In addition, she is a member of the Washington Housing Conservancy Board.

Gomez obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Anand Parekh, M.D.

Anand Parekh, M.D., chief medical advisor of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), has led efforts to tackle the opioid crisis, obesity epidemic, health and housing, domestic and global HIV/AIDS, public health, emergency preparedness, prescription drug costs, and more through the creation and transformation of policy.

Before joining BPC, Dr. Parekh served at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where he developed and implemented national initiatives focused on prevention, wellness and care management. Specifically, he played instrumental roles in executing the Recovery Act’s Prevention and Wellness Fund, the Affordable Care Act’s prevention initiatives, and HHS’ Multiple Chronic Conditions Initiative.

Dr. Parekh is a board-certified internal medicine physician, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and an adjunct assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, Dr. Parekh is an adjunct professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and serves on the dean’s advisory board of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, the Presidential Scholars Foundation board of directors and the board of directors of WaterAid America.

Dr. Parekh has spoken and written extensively on various health topics such as chronic care management, population health, value in healthcare, and the need for health and human services integration. His book Prevention First: Policymaking for a Healthier America, released in December 2019, argues that prevention must be our nation’s top health policy priority.

Dr. Parekh was selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in 1994. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree and his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan.

Trenor Williams, M.D.

Dr. Williams is a family physician, entrepreneur, former health system executive and consulting leader. Additionally, he founded and acted as CEO of Clinovations, which he sold to the Advisory Board Company (ABCO) in 2014.

In 2017, Dr. Williams co-founded Socially Determined to create an analytics platform that integrates the social determinants of health with clinical and claims data to quantify and visualize social risk and the specific impacts on health and healthcare outcomes. Socially Determined creates holistic models of people, the communities they live in, and their interactions with the healthcare system. Through that process, the company creates a SDOH risk score, a FICO score for healthcare, which will help health systems and health plans more comprehensively understand their patients and how to support them.

With more than 20 years of healthcare experience, Dr. Williams’ unique perspective is formed at the intersection of healthcare and technology. He has an extensive understanding and knowledge in the implementation of healthcare technology, clinical process redesign, consumer market strategy development, and clinical adoption strategy development for leading healthcare stakeholders here in the United States and around the world.

Before beginning his consulting career, Dr. Williams was the medical director of Family Practice at Mammoth Hospital in California. He also served as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve. Dr. Williams completed his family practice residency at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. He received his Medical Doctorate from Marshall University.

MODERATOR

Tich Changamire, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

Tich Changamire, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, is the Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst). He is responsible for leading CareFirst’s efforts to achieve excellence in healthcare affordability, quality and accessibility through innovative initiatives to improve the health of members and communities in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

Dr. Changamire is a board-certified family physician with more than 20 years of industry experience, including medical and health plan knowledge, provider-based healthcare leadership, value-based healthcare, population health, clinical quality improvement and the business of healthcare.

Before joining CareFirst, Dr. Changamire served as Chief Medical Officer and Regional Vice President for Humana Healthy Horizons in Louisiana, a Humana Medicaid plan. Before joining Humana, he held key leadership positions, including Medical Director at Center for Family Medicine in South Carolina and Medical Officer in Zimbabwe, where he experienced the HIV health crisis firsthand.

Dr. Changamire earned his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, his Ph.D. in Public Health from Harvard University, and his Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.