Keynote Speakers
Paul DeChant, MD, MBA, FAAFP
Speaker|Coach, Paul DeChant MD, MBA Advancing Organizational Well-being
Dr. Paul DeChant is a thought leader to C-level executives pursuing organizational well-being. He is an authority on reducing physician burnout by fixing dysfunction in the clinical workplace. He is co-author of the book, “Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine”, speaks internationally, and blogs regularly at www.pauldechantmd.com
Paul is an experienced physician executive with more than 25 years of clinical and management experience in all aspects of medical group leadership, including quality improvement, strategic planning, financial growth, acquisitions, and Lean transformation.
From 2009 – 2014 he served as CEO of Sutter Gould Medical Foundation (SGMF), a 300-physician medical group. Under his tenure he led a management system and culture transformation based on the theme of “Returning Joy to Patient Care”, which:
• Achieved the highest levels of provider and patient satisfaction in Sutter Health;
• Improved physician satisfaction from the 45th to 87th percentile
• Increased profitability while reducing costs;
• Recognized as the highest rated in overall care among 170 California medical groups two years in a row
Dr. DeChant graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree. He received his medical degree from the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine and earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado-Denver.
Read more... CollapseHeather Farley, MD, MHCDS, FACEP
Chief Wellness Officer, ChristianaCare™
As the first Chief Wellness Officer for ChristianaCare in Newark, DE, Dr. Farley’s focus is on advancing the professional fulfillment and wellbeing of healthcare workers. She leads advocacy programs and initiatives aimed at optimizing the caregiver experience and fostering WorkLife meaning, connection, and joy.
Dr. Farley completed residency training in emergency medicine in 2005, fellowship training in administration in 2006, and earned her Masters of Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2018. She has previously served as the Assistant Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at ChristianaCare and was instrumental in establishing the institution’s first freestanding emergency department in 2013, subsequently serving as the medical director for 3 years. In 2014, she developed “Care for the Caregiver” one of the nation’s earliest and largest peer support programs for health care providers.
Dr. Farley is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She has held several leadership positions within the American College of Emergency Physicians on the state and national level. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and has been the principal or co-investigator in over 10 grant-funded studies. She frequently speaks at local, national and international venues with the goal of mutual sharing of best practices and innovations in the field of clinician wellbeing. She continues to oversee a team of dedicated and talented individuals who make the transformational work of ChristianaCare’s Center for WorkLife Wellbeing possible.
Read more... CollapsePlenary Speakers
Beth Cabrera, PhD
Author|Researcher|Speaker
Beth Cabrera is the author of Beyond Happy: Women, Work, and Well-Being. As a writer, researcher, and speaker, she helps individuals achieve greater success and well-being. Her leadership development programs focus on positive culture, strengths, meaning, mindfulness, and workplace well-being.
After earning her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Cabrera joined the faculty of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, a leading Spanish university. Upon returning to the U.S., she continued her academic career as a professor of management at Arizona State University and then as a senior research fellow at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Dr. Cabrera has been a senior scholar at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being since 2013.
In 2009 she founded Cabrera Insights, a leadership development company, to help individuals and leaders apply principles of positive psychology for enhanced engagement and performance. Her research, published in some of the top academic and professional journals, has received thousands of citations. Beth has served on numerous editorial boards and was the editor of Management Research. She has also served on the board of directors of several non-for-profit organizations, including ArtsFairfax, Mason’s Women in Business Initiative, Fall for the Book, and the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.
Dr. Cabrera’s course How to Build a Thriving Workplace: A Leader’s Guide, can be found at thegreatcourses.com and on audible.com. You can view her TEDx talk and read her blog at cabrerainsights.com.
Read more... CollapseNeil Greenberg, BM, BSc, MMedSc, FHEA, MFMLM, DOccMed, MInstLM, MEWI, MFFLM, MD, FRCPsych
Professor Neil Greenberg, Professor of Defence Mental Health
Professor Neil Greenberg is a consultant academic, occupational and forensic psychiatrist based at King’s College London. Neil served in the United Kingdom Armed Forces for more than 23 years and has deployed, as a psychiatrist and researcher, to a number of hostile environments including Afghanistan and Iraq. At King’s Neil leads on a number of military mental health projects and is a principal investigator within a nationally funded Health Protection Research unit. He also chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) Special Interest Group in Occupational Psychiatry and is leading the World Psychiatric Association position statement on mental health in the workplace. Neil has published more than 300 scientific papers and book chapters and has been the Secretary of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society and Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. During the COVID19 pandemic, Neil has worked closely with various government organizations and published widely on psychological support for healthcare, and other key workers.
Read more... CollapseAlika Lafontaine MD, FRCPC
President, Canadian Medical Association
Dr. Alika Lafontaine is an award-winning physician, social innovator, and the first Indigenous doctor listed in Medical Post’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors. He was born and raised in Southern Saskatchewan with a mixed Indigenous ancestry of Metis, Anishinaabe, Cree and Pacific Islander.
Alika has served in provincial and national medical leadership positions for almost two decades. In August 2022 he will become the first Indigenous physician to serve as President of the Canadian Medical Association, the national voice of Canada’s physicians. Dr. Lafontaine is a respected authority on health systems, change management, social innovation, anti-racism, and reflective practice.
From 2013 to 2017 Dr. Lafontaine co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance project, one of the most ambitious health transformation initiatives in Canadian history. Led politically by Indigenous leadership representing more than 150 First Nations across three provinces, the alliance successfully advocated for $68 million of federal funding for Indigenous health transformation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. He was recognized for his work in the alliance by the Public Policy Forum, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented the award.
In 2020, Dr. Lafontaine co-founded Safespace Networks with his brother Kamea, an Indigenous dentist and software developer. Safespace Networks is a Web 3.0 learning platform for safe and anonymous reporting of healthcare harm and waste. Patients and providers use the platform to share their lived and observed experiences, providing insights into healthcare systems without risk of retaliation. These insights can be used by patients to better navigate health systems, or by decision-makers, advocates, and funders to make better informed decisions.
Dr. Lafontaine continues to practice anesthesia in Northern Alberta.
Read more... CollapseKwadwo Kyeremanteng, MD, MHA, FRCPC
Assistant Professor, The University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital
Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng is a critical care and palliative care physician at The Ottawa Hospital where he cares for the sickest of the sick in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He is also an assistant professor at The University of Ottawa. His research focuses on making the ICU more efficient and improving access to palliative care services. To achieve this, he founded the Resource Optimization Network (RON), a multidisciplinary research group working to reduce health spending in this area without compromising care. Dr. K, as he is fondly called, is a leading contributor helping the department to achieve its vision of shaping the future of Medicine.
Dr. Kwadwo is also the voice of the “Solving Healthcare with Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng” podcast which launched in September 2019 in association with the RON. The episodes feature interviews and discussions on the topic of improving healthcare delivery in Canada. Underpinned by the values of cost-effectiveness, dignity, and justice, it challenges the status quo, leaving no stone unturned while exploring gaps, assumptions, and different perspectives in the pursuit of finding solutions to problems in healthcare systems.
Dr. Kwadwo has shared his knowledge and experiences on media outlets such as CTV News and CBC. You can also find more information about him at drkwadwo.ca/.
Read more... CollapsePanelists
Heather Farley, MD, MHCDS, FACEP
Chief Wellness Officer, ChristianaCare™
As the first Chief Wellness Officer for ChristianaCare in Newark, DE, Dr. Farley’s focus is on advancing the professional fulfillment and wellbeing of healthcare workers. She leads advocacy programs and initiatives aimed at optimizing the caregiver experience and fostering WorkLife meaning, connection, and joy.
Dr. Farley completed residency training in emergency medicine in 2005, fellowship training in administration in 2006, and earned her Masters of Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2018. She has previously served as the Assistant Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at ChristianaCare and was instrumental in establishing the institution’s first freestanding emergency department in 2013, subsequently serving as the medical director for 3 years. In 2014, she developed “Care for the Caregiver” one of the nation’s earliest and largest peer support programs for health care providers.
Dr. Farley is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She has held several leadership positions within the American College of Emergency Physicians on the state and national level. She has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and has been the principal or co-investigator in over 10 grant-funded studies. She frequently speaks at local, national and international venues with the goal of mutual sharing of best practices and innovations in the field of clinician wellbeing. She continues to oversee a team of dedicated and talented individuals who make the transformational work of ChristianaCare’s Center for WorkLife Wellbeing possible.
Read more... CollapseAlika Lafontaine MD, FRCPC
President-elect, Canadian Medical Association
Dr. Alika Lafontaine is an award-winning physician, social innovator, and the first Indigenous doctor listed in Medical Post’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors. He was born and raised in Southern Saskatchewan with a mixed Indigenous ancestry of Metis, Anishinaabe, Cree and Pacific Islander.
Alika has served in provincial and national medical leadership positions for almost two decades. In August 2022 he will become the first Indigenous physician to serve as President of the Canadian Medical Association, the national voice of Canada’s physicians. Dr. Lafontaine is a respected authority on health systems, change management, social innovation, anti-racism, and reflective practice.
From 2013 to 2017 Dr. Lafontaine co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance project, one of the most ambitious health transformation initiatives in Canadian history. Led politically by Indigenous leadership representing more than 150 First Nations across three provinces, the alliance successfully advocated for $68 million of federal funding for Indigenous health transformation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. He was recognized for his work in the alliance by the Public Policy Forum, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented the award.
In 2020, Dr. Lafontaine co-founded Safespace Networks with his brother Kamea, an Indigenous dentist and software developer. Safespace Networks is a Web 3.0 learning platform for safe and anonymous reporting of healthcare harm and waste. Patients and providers use the platform to share their lived and observed experiences, providing insights into healthcare systems without risk of retaliation. These insights can be used by patients to better navigate health systems, or by decision-makers, advocates, and funders to make better informed decisions.
Dr. Lafontaine continues to practice anesthesia in Northern Alberta.
Read more... CollapseSusannah G. Rowe, MD, MPH, FACS
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Boston University School of Medicine
Susannah Rowe, MD, MPH, FACS is an ophthalmologist at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Rowe serves as Associate Chief Medical Officer for Wellness and Professional Vitality at Boston Medical Center, and as Chair of the Wellness and Professional Vitality Council of Boston University Medical Group’s Office of Equity, Vitality and Inclusion. She leads institutional efforts to reduce clinician burnout and to improve work/life harmony, focusing on local and national drivers of well-being as well as the unique challenges facing highly mission-driven clinicians working in a safety net setting. Dr Rowe seeks to measure, inspire, inform, and promote equity-centered, wellness-centered leadership and programs that honor the connections between occupational well-being and personal identities including race, ethnicity, gender, and LGBTQIA2S+ identities. As a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society-Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association Joint Task Force on Physician Burnout and the Healthcare Professional Well-being Academic Consortium, Dr. Rowe advocates on regional and national levels for systems-based changes to enhance clinician equity and well-being.
After earning an MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Rowe completed residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary followed by fellowships in Health Services Research with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and Clinical Effectiveness at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Rowe maintains an active clinical and surgical practice with a focus on complex, high-risk cataract surgery. Her passion for teaching the next generation of ophthalmic surgeons has been recognized through numerous teaching awards for surgical instruction and mentorship. Committed to increasing access to ophthalmic care for underserved populations, Dr. Rowe founded and directs the Exception Vision Service at Boston Medical Center: a program dedicated to optimizing surgical eye care for people who experience barriers to eye care due to intellectual disability, mental illness, autism and dementia.
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