Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
As chief scientific officer, Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH, leads AAMC programs that support medical research and the training of physician-scientists and researchers in academic medicine. In this role, she provides leadership and vision for addressing research and science policy and other related critical issues facing academic medicine, medical schools and academic health systems.
Andrew Hyland, PhD Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Andrew Hyland from the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York will describe cigarette use patterns over time, present research identifying cigarette smoking as a major contributor to chronic disease and describe factors increase our understanding why people smoke and what reduces cigarette smoking in the population. He will also highlight the PATH Study, a key component of the national data collection infrastructure, that has made significant scientific advances to understand the nature of tobacco use and its impacts.
Jennifer Elisseeff is the Morton Goldberg Professor of Ophthalmology at the School of Medicine, and the interim head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with an appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is a pioneer in the development and commercial translation of injectable biomaterials for regenerative therapies.
Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and holds the Lee and Ezpeleta Professorship of Arts & Sciences at Harvard University. She was the director of the NBER’s Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017 and is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy group. Goldin was awarded the 2023 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.”
Erol Fikrig, MD Yale University School of Medicine
Erol Fikrig, MD, is chief of Infectious Diseases and specializes in treating patients with vector-borne diseases including Dengue fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and malaria.
Vector-borne diseases are caused by infections transmitted to humans and other animals by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and other blood-feeding invertebrates.
Sue Bodine, Ph.D. OKLAHOMA MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Sue Bodine is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Her current research is focused on the study of the neuromuscular system and its response and adaptation to various stressors, including exercise, disuse and aging. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has held positions in both academia and the biotechnology industry.
Dean Sheppard, MD University of California, San Francisco
Dean Sheppard is a Professor of Medicine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary (and other organ) fibrosis, acute lung injury and immune responses to solid tumors. One aim of the research is to identify new therapeutic targets to ultimately improve the treatment of each of these common diseases. The work began with basic investigation of how cells use members of the integrin family to detect, modify and respond to spatially restricted extracellular clues and how these responses contribute to the development of common lung diseases.
Dr. Gack is the Arthur and Marylin Levitt Endowed Chair and Scientific Director of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Research and Innovation Center. She did her PhD training in virology at Harvard Medical School as part of a collaborative graduate program between Harvard and the Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Before joining Cleveland Clinic in 2020, she held faculty positions at Harvard University and The University of Chicago.
My work aims to improve research methods and practices and to enhance approaches to integrating information and generating reliable evidence. Science is the best thing that can happen to humans, but doing research is like swimming in an ocean at night. Science thrives in darkness. Born in New York City (1965), raised in Athens. Valedictorian (1984), Athens College; National Award, Greek Mathematical Society (1984); MD (top rank of medical school class) from National University of Athens (1990); also received DSc in biopathology from same institution.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, September 2, 2025
