Complexity: The Intersections Between Health and Policy

Larry Gold serves as the Founder and Chairman of the Board of SomaLogic, and is a Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

One of society’s greatest challenges today is to improve health and achieve health equity for all at lower cost. I will speak about the plan of the Colorado Longitudinal Study (COLS) to create the largest, longitudinal repository of biological specimens and associated community and public health data in the world.

Jessica Mathews is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She served as Carnegie’s president for 18 years. Before her appointment in 1997, her career included posts in both the executive and legislative branches of government, in management and research in the nonprofit arena, and in journalism and science policy.

Stephan Wolfert left a career in the military for a life in the theatre after seeing Shakespeare’s Richard III. Stephan received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. On Broadway, Stephan created and directed the military segments for Twyla Tharp & Billy Joel’s Tony-Award winning production Movin’ Out and has been a character coach for Cirque du Soleil’s, Mystere.

Patricia Flatley Brennan is the Director of the NLM, a component of the NIH. The NLM is the world’s largest biomedical library and the producer of digital information services used by scientists, health professionals, and members of the public worldwide.

Mark Messenbaugh serves as SomaLogic’s Chief Corporate Strategy and Development Officer, where he is responsible for developing and structuring key business opportunities and third-party collaborations.

Daniel Dennett is Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy.

Craig J. Mundie is President of Mundie & Associates. He joined Microsoft in 1992 and became the Principal Technology-Policy Executive. In 2014, he retired from Microsoft as Chief Research and Strategy Officer. Previously he was CEO and co-Founder of Alliant Computer Systems.

Dan Theodorescu, MD, Ph.D. is the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Colorado where he is also a Distinguished University Professor. Dan is known for his work on the molecular mechanisms underlying bladder cancer and tools that determine drug response as well as discovery of new drugs for cancer.

Robert A. Weinberg is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bob and his colleagues isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the ras oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, the retinoblastoma gene.

Clyde Hutchison obtained his B.S. in Physics from Yale. As an undergraduate, he worked on bacterial spore germination with Carl Woese, then a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Harold Morowitz. His Ph.D. research, in the laboratory of Robert L. Sinsheimer at Cal Tech, concerned the genetics of bacteriophage phiX174.

David Quammen is an author and journalist who lives in Montana and travels widely for research, usually to jungles and mountains and swamps. His fifteen books include The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, Spillover—a work on the science and history of dangerous zoonotic pathogens—including Ebola and HIV, and Yellowstone: A Journey through America’s Wild Heart.

Joan Henneberry is a Vice President supporting colleagues in multiple Health Management Associates (HMA) offices across the country, and working with government, and private sector clients to implement state and federal health reform programs; developing new business models and partnerships that allow specialty providers to be part of new networks and new service delivery approaches; and assisting healthcare organizations with market assessments and business planning.

Kevin Hickerson’s research in particle physics focuses on neutrons and neutrinos. He is an academic lecturer, stand-up comic, tinkerer with many patents, Hollywood science consultant, and hosts the science and comedy podcast, Surely You’re Joking.

Howard-Yana Shapiro has been involved with sustainable agricultural and agroforestry systems, plant breeding, molecular biology, and genetics for over 40 years. He has worked with indigenous communities, NGO’s, governmental agencies and the private sector around the world.

Raymond F. Schinazi is the Frances Winship Walters Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory University and Co-Director of the HIV Cure Scientific Working Group for the NIH-sponsored Emory University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).

Calvin Trillin has been acclaimed in fields of writing that are remarkably diverse. As someone who has published solidly reported pieces in The New Yorker for more than fifty years, he has been called "perhaps the finest reporter in America."

Sarah Gray is the author of the award-winning, Washington Post best-seller, A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy’s Gift to Medical Science.