The Future of Public Health 2026

Dr. Sandro Galea

Margaret C. Ryan Dean, School of Public Health

Washington University in St. Louis

Dr Galea is a population health scientist, physician, and author. He is the Margaret C Ryan Dean, the Eugene S and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health at the Andrew M and Jane M Bursky School of Public Health, and Vice Provost of Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Robert Redfield

Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

GBMC Health Partners; University of Maryland School of Medicine

Robert R. Redfield, MD, is a board-certified Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine physician at GBMC Health Partners Primary Care—Texas Station. Dr. Redfield earned his medical degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his medical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After founding the Department of Retroviral Research within the U.S. Military Research Program, Dr. Redfield co-founded the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology. Additionally, he served as the Chief of Infectious Diseases and Vice Chair at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In 2018, Dr. Redfield became director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and led the organization's response to COVID-19. Dr. Redfield has also served as a Senior Adviser for Public Health to Governor Larry Hogan, with a focus on coronavirus variants, COVID-19 vaccines, and public health.

Dr. Simon Wain-Hobson

Emeritus Professor

Pasteur Institute, Paris

Simon Wain-Hobson is an emeritus professor at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, from which he retired in 2021. He and his colleagues were the first to sequence the genome of HIV, and Wain-Hobson has published more than 230 papers on virology and cancer. Wain-Hobson is the co-founder of two biotech companies working to develop countermeasures against cancer.

RADM Scott Giberson

Former Deputy U.S. Surgeon General

CEO, AMI Expeditionary Healthcare

RADM (Ret) Scott F. Giberson is a retired two-star Admiral and currently the CEO of AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, a global healthcare solutions company. During his 26 years of service, he held many executive and senior leadership positions in the Corps such as the Senior Advisor to the Office of Surgeon General, Director of Commissioned Corps Headquarters, Chief Pharmacy Officer (CPO) and a Senior Public Health Advisor for the Department of Defense, at Pacific Command. He also served as the Corps' overall Commander of the Ebola Response in West Africa.

Dr. Dorothy Fink

Director, Office on Women's Health

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Dr. Dorothy Fink is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health and Director of the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Gary Andres

Assistant Secretary for Legislation

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Gary Andres is currently the Assistant Secretary for Legislation in the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Andres served as the Republican Staff Director for the House Ways and Means Committee from 2018 to 2022 and for the House Energy and Commerce Committee from 2011 to 2017. He also worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs for Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Previously, he worked at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and Dutko Worldwide. Mr. Andres received his undergraduate degree in Social Science from Wheaton College. He also holds a Master's in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Dr. Nathan Kuppermann

Executive Vice President & Chief Academic Officer

Children's National Hospital

Nathan Kuppermann, MD, MPH, is executive vice president, chief academic officer of Children's National and director of the Children's National Research Institute. He also serves as chair of the Department of Pediatrics and associate dean of Pediatric Academic Affairs at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is also a member of the Center for Health Outcomes Research & Delivery Science, and he holds the Fight for Children Professorship in the Department of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Joel White

President

Council for Affordable Health Coverage

Joel White is President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, where he leads a seasoned government affairs team and manages a coalition of more than 30 organizations representing patients, manufacturers, providers, employers, and other health care stakeholders committed to lowering costs.

Dr. Matthew Zahn

Pediatric Infectious Disease Clinician

Rady Children's Health

Dr. Zahn has worked in local public health for 20 years, including overseeing immunization and communicable disease control programs for a diverse county of 3.2 million residents. In that capacity, he led the public health response to community outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. He has been active at the local, state, and national levels in advocating for support of the role of local public health in protecting communities against infectious diseases. He currently works as a pediatric infectious disease clinician who sees patients at Rady Children's Health in Orange County, California.

Dr. Joseph Marine

Professor of Medicine

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Joseph Marine, MD, MBA, FACC, FHRS, is a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist who practices primarily at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds appointments as Vice-Director of Operations for the Division of Cardiology and Section Chief of Cardiology for Johns Hopkins Community Physicians. He trained at UC San Francisco Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston University Medical Center, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Peter Pitts

President & Co-Founder

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

Peter Pitts is president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. He also serves as a visiting professor at the University of Paris School of Medicine. Pitts is a former member of the United States Senior Executive Service and Associate Commissioner of the US Food & Drug Administration where he served as senior communications and policy adviser to the Commissioner. He supervised FDA's Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of Special Health Issues, Office of Executive Secretariat, and Advisory Committee Oversight and Management. He served on the agency's obesity working group and counterfeit drug taskforce. He is a member of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) Expert Working Group to help advance patient involvement in the development and safe use of medicines.

Dr. Adam Urato

Maternal-Fetal Medicine Clinician

MetroWest Medical Center

Dr. Urato is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist specializing in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Dr. Urato has held academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, the University of South Florida, and Tufts University School of Medicine. His clinical roles have included Maternal-Fetal Medicine attending positions at MetroWest Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center/St. Elizabeth's, and Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Urato received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He has also published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and participated in FDA advisory panels.

Jackson Hammond

Senior Policy Analyst

Paragon Health Institute

Jackson Hammond is a Senior Policy Analyst at Paragon Health Institute. He has been active in the federal and state health policy space since 2017.

Julienne Verdi

Executive Director

Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy

Julienne Verdi is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy and The Headache Alliance. She leads national efforts to advance policy, education, and patient advocacy for people living with migraine and headache disorders.

Juliana M. Reed

Executive Director

Biosimilars Forum

Juliana M. Reed is an accomplished healthcare executive having spent the last 40 years working in both the US healthcare system as both a clinician and hospital administrator, as well the global pharmaceutical and medical device industries in corporate and government affairs executive roles. Ms. Reed has over 20 years' global experience in pharmaceutical and medical device regulatory pathways, reimbursement and government policy. She has direct experience in the US, Canada, LATAM, and throughout APAC and Europe.

Dr. Laura Kahn

Physician, Policy Researcher & Author

Formerly Princeton University

Dr. Laura H. Kahn is a physician, policy researcher, educator, and author. For almost 20 years, she was a research scholar in the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. Her education and training encompass nursing, medicine, public health, and public policy.

Sue Peschin

President & CEO

Alliance for Aging Research

Sue Peschin, MHS, serves as President and CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the narrative to achieve healthy aging and equitable access to care. Since 2012, Ms. Peschin has led the Alliance team on efforts to increase federal investment in aging research; develop Talk NERDY (Nurturing Engagement in Research and Development with You), a research engagement network; and advocate for equitable Medicare affordability and access. Sue is an accomplished speaker and thought leader, whose writing has been published in peer-reviewed journals and top-tier newspapers. Ms. Peschin serves on the Boards of Directors for the Association of Black Cardiologists; the National Health Council; and the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP). She also serves as a member of the Science Advisory Board for the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation and on the UMD Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center Community Advisory Board. Previously, Sue served in senior roles at the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, Consumer Federation of America, Hadassah, and the Violence Policy Center.

Dr. Andrew Noymer

Professor; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the Academy of Public Health

University of California, Irvine

Andrew Noymer, MSc, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, is an associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California Irvine, United States. From an epidemiological, demographic and social perspective, he has done research on influenza pandemics. Dr. Noymer is one of the world experts on infectious disease mortality, and he serves on the UN/WHO Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 mortality estimation. Dr. Noymer is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Public Health. For his work educating the public about epidemiology during the covid pandemic, Dr Noymer was listed in the Orange County Register "most influential people" in 2020 and 2022.

Jerry Rogers

Editor

RealClearHealth