2024 Conference Theme:
Reflecting on Health Equity in the Heartland

Conference Objectives
  • Develop health-focused partnerships that address issues of health equity
  • Explore strategies to preserve the health of our communities
  • Understand perspectives, and address community and population health
  • Provide opportunities for community health workers to grow and develop
  • Highlight patients and families as health care partners

2024 FEATURED SPEAKERS

Jerry Jones

Alicia Thomas, DrPH, MHS

Danielle Jones, Ph.D., MPH
At his core Jerry Jones believes that in order for transformation in communities to occur, equity work must be steeped in understanding and rooted in love. 
 
For the past eighteen years, Jerry has worked closely with neighborhood-based organizations, healthcare systems and payors, academic research institutions, and philanthropic organizations to weave together a fabric of strategic partnerships in service of reducing inequities in health outcomes with and for people who have been traditionally excluded from and marginalized by the healthcare system
Dr. Thomas is the Founder of Indigo Strategic Health Advisors LLC and the Former Associate Director of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Award Program.

She is dedicated to supporting clients in the areas of authentic community engagement, strategic partnership development, and applying for federal and philanthropic funding.
Dr. Jones is the Vice President of Accountability, Belonging, and Culture at the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).

Dr. Jones is a proven leader in the healthcare association space with an extensive track record of advancing equity and inclusion in health care environments.

​Sharla Smith, Ph.D., MPH

Dr. Sharla Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health, the Director of Birth Equity in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and the Founder and Director of the Kansas Birth Equity Network.
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Sharla is a health services and systems researcher whose primary research is maternal and infant health disparities and community engagement. Dr. Smith is passionate about developing a culture of birth equity through community engagement, empowerment, and education.

Shary M. Jones, PharmD, MPH, BCPS

​CAPT Shary M. Jones, PharmD, MPH, BCPS, is a distinguished public health leader and pharmacist, known for her dynamic contributions to the healthcare landscape.

​With a rich and diverse background, she has made a lasting impact in various capacities, including her pivotal role at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she played a crucial part in shaping healthcare policy and preserving the fiscal sustainability of Medicare and Medicaid and ensuring the programs continue to provide essential healthcare services to eligible beneficiaries.

2023 FEATURED SPEAKERS

​Jabraan Pasha, M.D.

Wanda Irving, MPA

Lynette Sparkman-Barnes, Psy.D.
Founder and CEO of Lean In LLC, a diversity, equity, inclusion and health equity consulting firm, Dr. Jabraan Pasha is a practicing physician and educator, who is dedicated to the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion.

​He currently serves as national vice president of health equity for Juno Medical, as well as medical director for Juno Medical’s healthcare center in the Historic Greenwood district in Tulsa, OK.
Wanda Irving, MPA is forever the mother of Dr. Shalon Irving and Co-Founder of Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project (DSMAP), Inc. 
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DSMAP is a community driven, non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating Black maternal health disparities. The organization was established to honor Wanda’s daughter, Dr. Shalon, who passed away from preventable pregnancy complications in January 2017, three weeks after giving birth to her only child. Dr. Shalon was a brilliant researcher and fierce health equity champion. In an effort to continue Dr. Shalon’s legacy, Wanda co-founded DSMAP, where she is President of the Board and Acting President of the organization.
Dr. Lynette Sparkman-Barnes is proud to serve as a Clinical Psychologist, the Associate Director, and the Multicultural Specialist at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Counseling and Educational Support Services.

Dr. Sparkman-Barnes has devoted her career to a personal and professional commitment of working with underrepresented and underserved populations.  She’s served in a variety of settings, including Universities, Community Mental Health Centers, School-based Mental Health Organizations, Churches, Non-Profits, and Private Practice, impacting systems as a clinician, professor, program developer, manager and in various administrative leadership roles.

Stacy Scott, Ph.D., MPA

​A Toledo, Ohio native, Stacy Scott, Ph.D., MPA, Executive Director, Baby 1st Network, and founder of the Global Infant Safe Sleep Center, is a 30-year public health advocate and infant safe sleep expert who’s worked from the government agency level to ground zero spearheading numerous community outreach programs nationwide to end health disparities and reduce the risk of sudden unexpected infant deaths.

Scott serves as the executive director for Baby 1st Network. Baby 1st Network is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to uniting families, caregivers, and researchers with government, business, and community service groups to reduce infant mortality to the lowest level possible in Ohio and support families who have lost a child from sudden unexpected infant death. 

2022 FEATURED SPEAKERS

Take a look at our incredible lineup of keynote speakers!

Dr. Dana-Ain Davis, Ph.D.

Dána-Ain Davis is Professor of Urban Studies and Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY).  She is the Director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center. 

Kevin Dedner, MPH

Kevin Dedner serves as founder and CEO of Washington-D.C.-based Hurdle, which provides culturally intentional teletherapy to eliminate barriers that make it harder for people of color to get mental health care.​

Margaret "Marjy" Stagmeier

Marjy Stagmeier is an affordable housing solutionist, a champion of an equitable education-housing model, and a founding partner of TriStar, a real estate investment firm in Atlanta.

Shannon Breitzman, MA

Shannon Breitzman is a Principal with Health Management Associates’ Denver office, where she provides leadership to public health and behavioral health projects, plans, and treatments. 

Catherine Guerrero

Catherine Guerrero is Public Health Professional whose work includes spearheading public health and social change initiatives focused on advancing health equity. 

Michelle Trupiano

Michelle Trupiano serves as the Executive Director of Missouri Family Health Council, Inc., where she leads the administration of the Title X federal family planning program.

2021 FEATURED SPEAKER

Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS
"Centering Equity in the U.S. Pandemic Response: Ensuring Equitable Care Beyond COVID"
Dr. Nunez-Smith is Associate Dean for Health Equity Research; C.N.H Long Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management; and Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale. Dr. Nunez-Smith currently serves as Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
 
Dr. Nunez-Smith’s research focuses on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on centering community engagement, supporting healthcare workforce diversity and development, developing patient reported measurements of healthcare quality, and identifying regional strategies to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases. Dr. Nunez-Smith has extensive expertise in examining the effects of social and structural determinants of health, systemic influences contributing to health disparities, health equity improvement, and community-academic partnered scholarship.

Originally from the US Virgin Islands, she attended Jefferson Medical College, residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and fellowship at the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.

2020 FEATURED SPEAKER

 Daniel Dawes, JD
"The Political Determinants of Health and How We Can Change Them"
 Daniel E. Dawes J.D. is a nationally recognized healthcare leader, attorney, policy expert, administrator and author who has been at the forefront of recent major federal healthcare policy negotiations in the United States. A thought leader in health policy, his work focuses on health reform, health equity, mental/behavioral health, social determinants of health, poverty, and health system transformation, and bridges research, healthcare, population health and public health – the translation of research discoveries into all communities, including under-resourced, vulnerable and marginalized communities.

A published expert on health reform, health equity, health disparities, behavioral health, and social determinants of health, Dawes is the author of two groundbreaking books published by Johns Hopkins University Press: 150 Years of Obamacare and The Political Determinants of Health. His newest book, The Political Determinants of Health, answers the question, “How do policy and politics influence the social conditions that generate health outcomes?” Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers―including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options―that affect all other dynamics of health.

Among his many achievements, he was an instrumental figure in shaping the Mental Health Parity Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, the Affordable Care Act, and other federal policies. Daniel has keynoted over 150 conferences, symposia, conventions, seminars, retreats and meetings and written extensively on health reform, health equity, and mental/behavioral health, including the groundbreaking and best-selling health policy book, 150 Years of ObamaCare, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, which has received critical acclaim and endorsements from a bipartisan group of leaders, including Ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, U.S. Secretaries of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Louis Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary Garth Graham, as well as Surgeons General David Satcher and Regina Benjamin.

Daniel E. Dawes is a professor of health law and policy, the Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Executive Director of Health Policy at Morehouse School of Medicine, and co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN). A scholar, attorney and health policy expert in the movement to advance health equity among under-resourced, vulnerable and marginalized communities, Dawes brings a forward-thinking, inclusive and multidisciplinary approach to health policy, and has been at the forefront of recent major federal health policy negotiations in the United States. He is also an Associate Professor at the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In addition, he has served as a distinguished guest lecturer at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Yale University, University of Texas, University of Arizona, Georgetown University, and Saint Louis University.

Highly respected for his ability to achieve sound policy changes in a nonpartisan manner; Daniel lectures on health law, policy and management while serving simultaneously on several boards, commissions and councils focused on health equity and health reform. He is an advisor to international, national, regional, state, and municipal policymakers as well as think tanks, foundations, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

The 2019 Conference was amazing! Thanks to our amazing sponsors, presenters and participants. 

Register for an Affordable Opportunity to Share Research, Network, and Learn More About Regional Health Equity

The vast majority of medical care in the United States is administered in a community based-setting.  Yet, training for clinicians and clinician-researchers rarely concentrates in a community setting, and thus many important social underpinnings of disease go unnoticed and unaddressed.

​With the advent of community-university partnerships such as the teaching health centers program, community based participatory research and clinical and translational research programs, stronger connections between community and university are being made possible. 
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Still though, as social determinants of health are increasingly seen as the key to many chronic diseases, we feel that academic health institutions and local and regional community health entities stand to partner, communicate, and connect in many more radical ways. 
This conference targets a vibrant audience of clinicians, academics, health service organizations, social workers, public health, regional and local foundations, community health workers and community leaders with interest and passion for social justice, health equity, community and patient advocacy.
As a cardiovascular outcomes researcher, this conference introduced me to wonderful folks in the community that have been tremendous partners as we further our patient-centered research on shared decision-making. 

Carole Decker RN, PhD
Copyright © 2025 Heartland Conference on Health Equity & Patient-Centered Care