Workshop and Panel Chair
Jerry Gurwitz, M.D.
Jerry Gurwitz is the founding Executive Director of the Meyers Primary Care Institute, a joint endeavor of University of Massachusetts Medical School, Fallon Health, and Reliant Medical Group established in 1996. The Meyers Primary Care Institute has a mission to improve the health and health care of populations and communities through innovative research and educational endeavors. He currently holds the Dr. John Meyers Professorship in Primary Care Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where he also serves as Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Gurwitz is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth (AGING) Initiative—funded by the National Institute on Aging—which brings together the Health Care Systems Research Network with the 14 university-based Older Americans Independence Centers (“Pepper Centers”) across the United States to foster collaborative research targeting older adults with multimorbidity.
Dr. Gurwitz’s research falls at the intersection of geriatric medicine, patient safety, and health care delivery science. His career has covered a spectrum from aging pharmacology, to medication effectiveness and safety, to testing of innovative health information technology-based interventions to improve the quality and safety of health care during transitions across clinical settings. Dr. Gurwitz has been the recipient of numerous awards including the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Research from the National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission. He has been the recipient of the Leon I. Goldberg Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology from ASCPT, and the George F. Archambault Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.
Panel Members
Noelle Carlozzi, Ph.D., M.S.
Noelle Carlozzi is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Clinical Outcomes Development and Application (CODA) within the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan. With a broad background in clinical psychology and specific training in neuropsychology, she is an expert in outcomes measurement development, measurement application, and cognitive test development. Much of her work involves measurement development including both neuropsychological test development and patient-reported outcome (PRO) measurement development using state-of-the-art item response theory-based methods to develop computer adaptive tests (CATs). Dr. Carlozzi’s research portfolio includes experiences as PI and Co-Investigator (Co-I) on several extramurally-funded projects for a variety of different clinical populations (Huntington disease, traumatic brain injury, caregivers of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, and nephrotic syndrome). Of note is the development of the HDQLIFE measurement system—a PRO measurement system that evaluates health-related quality of life that is specific to Huntington disease—and the TBI-CareQOL measurement system—a PRO measurement system that evaluates health-related quality of life that is specific to caregivers of persons with traumatic brain injury. Dr. Carlozzi also has expertise in psychometrics, as well as the application of outcomes assessment (both PROs and neuropsychological tests); much of this work includes establishing reliability and validity data for PROs that examine health-related quality of life, with an emphasis on the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QoL) measures. Dr. Carlozzi also provides expert consultation to clinicians and persons in industry with an interest in utilizing PROs or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox in research or clinical care. She has recently begun to apply her outcomes measurement expertise in innovative ways, such as utilization of mobile health applications to evaluate real-time assessment of symptoms and functioning.
Kirsten K. Davison, Ph.D., M.S.
Kirsten K. Davison is the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Chair and Associate Dean for Research at Boston College in the School of Social Work. Dr. Davison held faculty appointments at SUNY Albany (2003–2011) and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2011–2019) before joining the faculty at Boston College in July 2019. Dr. Davison’s research, which has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, focuses on parenting and childhood obesity. She is particularly interested in the role of parents in shaping healthy diet and physical activity behaviors in children. Her research program is designed to inform the development of family-centered interventions promoting healthy growth and diet and physical activity behaviors in young children, particularly those from vulnerable backgrounds. Currently, she is the PI or Co-PI on three NIH-funded studies including a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a childhood obesity preventive intervention for low-income families implemented in Head Start (R01DK108200), a cohort study examining links between sleep and growth in children from birth to 2 years (R01DK107972), and a national study examining the role of fathers in childhood obesity prevention (R01HD098421). Beyond her research, Dr. Davison has led transdisciplinary postgraduate training programs including the Public Health Nutrition doctoral program and the Cancer Prevention and Control fellowship program at Harvard and has an extensive history mentoring undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students.
Kelly Evenson, Ph.D.
Kelly Evenson is a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her research focuses on physical activity and sedentary behavior, with specific interests in measurement, surveillance, intervention, and associations with outcomes. Dr. Evenson also conducts research to identify and evaluate policies and environments that support physical activity. She has served as a resource for physical activity measurement for several large cohort studies, consulted on the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, and led the early evaluation of the National Physical Activity Plan. Dr. Evenson is a fellow with the American College of Sports Medicine and volunteers on editorial boards for several journals.
Darrell J. Gaskin, Ph.D., M.S.
Darrell J. Gaskin is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor of Health Policy and Director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Gaskin is a health services researcher and health economist. He is an internationally recognized expert in health and health care disparities. He seeks to identify and understand place-based barriers to care for low income minorities and other vulnerable populations; to develop and promote policies and practices that address the social determinants of health to improve access to care, quality of care, and health care outcomes; and to promote equity in well-being, health, and health care by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geography. He serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He chairs the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action program. He also serves on the Board of Directors of AcademyHealth and American Society of Health Economists. He is a 2019 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Dr. Gaskin has a Ph.D. in public health economics from Johns Hopkins University. He holds an M.S. degree in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. degree in economics from Brandeis University.
Boris D. Lushniak, M.D., M.P.H.
Rear Admiral (retired) Boris D. Lushniak has been Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland since January 2017 after serving as Department Chair of Preventive Medicine and Professor of Dermatology at the Uniformed Services University. Dr. Lushniak was the U.S. Deputy Surgeon General (SG) from 2010–2015, Acting SG from 2013–2014 and was responsible for the 50th Anniversary SG’s Report on Smoking and Health and the SG Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer. During the Ebola response in 2015, he commanded the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Monrovia Medical Unit in Liberia.
Dr. Lushniak attended Northwestern (B.S., 1981; M.D., 1983) and Harvard (M.P.H., 1984), completed residencies in family medicine and dermatology, and is certified in dermatology and preventive medicine (occupational). He began his USPHS career in 1988 in the Epidemic Intelligence Service and served with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) until 2004 and was part of the team at Ground Zero and the CDC anthrax team. In 2004, he transitioned to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Office of Counterterrorism and was appointed FDA Assistant Commissioner in 2005. Dr. Lushniak retired from the USPHS in 2015 as a two-star Rear Admiral after 27 years in the uniformed services.