Join us on Wednesday, May 13 at The Boston Globe’s 2026 Health Equity Summit, where we will convene health and life sciences ecosystem leaders, medical experts, journalists, and community advocates in person to engage in critical conversations focused on reducing health disparities and fostering more inclusive care.
The Summit’s programming will consist of dynamic discussions and expert-led panels that dive into the work being done across the region's healthcare systems to ensure a more equitable future for all. Attendees will engage with journalists shaping the narrative and the experts driving change in their respective industries.
We are now operating on a waitlist. You can join our in-person waitlist or register for a virtual ticket below.
Join us virtually! The link to join the livestream will be emailed to you the morning of the summit. Our sessions will also be posted to our Globe Events YouTube after the summit's conclusion.
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A professor at Harvard and core member of the Broad Institute, David Liu pioneered the groundbreaking technologies that allow scientists to make precise changes to DNA. His innovations have opened the door to potential cures for a wide range of genetic diseases. Liu received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences winner and the 2022 King Faisal Prize in Medicine.
In this fireside chat, Liu reflects on the scientific breakthroughs behind these advances, their real-world impact, and how they're reshaping the future of medicine.
Aging is emerging as one of the most dynamic frontiers in biomedical research.
This panel explores how scientists are uncovering the mechanisms that drive age-related decline — and how that knowledge could lead to breakthroughs that slow, prevent, or even reverse aspects of aging.
Experts will discuss the latest research aimed at extending not just lifespan, but healthspan, and what these advances mean for the future of medicine.
Cancer diagnoses are rising at an alarming rate among adults under 55, a trend that could reshape the landscape of oncology.
This panel explores the surge in early-onset cancers and unpacks the complex web of contributing factors, including diet and lifestyle, and environmental exposures.
Panelists will also examine how these shifting trends are influencing approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and long-term care.
Meet the next generation of scientists, founders, and visionaries redefining what’s possible in health and biotech.
This panel spotlights rising changemakers who are translating bold ideas into real-world impact. Hear how they’re navigating discovery, risk, and purpose at the cutting edge of science.
Emergency physician and public health expert Dr. Jeremy Faust offers an unflinching look at the state of public health in America, and what the future demands.
As the country grapples with growing health inequities, rising misinformation, and a rapidly shifting healthcare landscape, Dr. Faust — joined by Globe reporter Jessica Bartlett — explores how medicine is evolving not just within hospital walls, but through advances in technology, communication, and public policy.
A diabetes treatment turned household name, Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are reshaping not only obesity care, but the way we think about chronic disease, longevity, even food systems and addiction.
This panel explores the sweeping implications of the Ozempic era — from clinical breakthroughs and ethical questions to access, equity, and pharmaceutical power. Hear from leading experts as they unpack what these drugs mean for the future of medicine.
Robert Langer is a Co-Founder of Moderna and one of nine Institute Professors at MIT. A prolific inventor, his research and patents has fueled the launch of countless biotech ventures, shaping the future of medicine. With over 220 major awards and 45 honorary doctorates, Langer has built a career at the intersection of science and entrepreneurship.
In this fireside chat with Business Reporter and author of Bold Types, a weekly roundup of Boston movers and shakers, Jon Chesto, they discuss the next big opportunities in health and biotech.
Dr. Uché Blackstock is a physician, transformation leader, and Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, where she partners with organizations to reinvent how health care is delivered, led, and experienced. A second-generation doctor trained at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Blackstock is widely recognized for her work creating systems-level change that improves health outcomes for all. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, a powerful work that examines the structural failures of the medical system, and the emotional and ethical toll they take on those called to serve within it.
Khameer Kidia is a writer, physician, and anthropologist at Harvard Medical School and University of Zimbabwe. A Rhodes Scholar and 2023 New America Fellow, Kidia has worked on global mental health research, practice, and advocacy for the last decade. His writing has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet Psychiatry, Slate, and The Yale Review. Born in Zimbabwe, Kidia lives between Harare and Washington, D.C.
Dr. Kiame Mahaniah is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Prior to being appointed Secretary, Dr. Mahaniah served as Undersecretary of Health. As Undersecretary, Dr. Mahaniah co-chaired the administration’s Advancing Health Equity in Massachusetts (AHEM) initiative, co-chaired the Primary Care Access, Delivery, and Payment Task Force, and chaired the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund (ORRF) Advisory Council. Dr. Mahaniah is a practicing physician in the field of addiction and primary care, who has continued to see patients while serving as Undersecretary and plans to continue to do so as Secretary. He was previously CEO of Lynn Community Health Center where he led the transition into value-based care. An avid teacher and committed mentor, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He holds an MBA from UMass Amherst, a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University, and a BA from Haverford College.
Allison Bryant, MD, MPH, is Associate Chief Health Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham, where she leads efforts to advance equity in patient care and outcomes. A maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bryant focuses on addressing systemic racism and bias in health and health care through innovative research, policy, and clinical programmatic initiatives. Some of her work examines disparities in pregnancy outcomes, including maternal morbidity and mortality, and cesarean delivery, with a particular focus on improving care for Black pregnant people. She chairs the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality Review Committee and is nationally recognized for advancing equitable care.
Nashira (she/her), is the daughter and great-granddaughter of midwives. She experienced firsthand the sacred care of midwives at the home births of her siblings in the 80s and her own two children in 2013 and 2017. These births transformed her worldview and put her on a path to uphold the vision of elder midwives who first dreamt of a birth center in Roxbury in the 1980s.
Nashira earned a master’s degree in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University School of Public Health, and has over 20 years of experience designing and implementing public health strategies to advance racial equity. Opening in 2027, Neighborhood Birth Center will be the first-of-its-kind community birth center in Boston, providing community midwifery to strategically address the maternal health crisis.
Nashira feels most free when walking barefoot in the grass or jumping in a cold lake. She lives with her family and rescue pup in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Pawtucket, Massa-adchu-esset, Pokanoket, and the Wampanoag people.
Julia is the Director of Midwifery at Mount Auburn Hospital. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Yale University and has been practicing midwifery for 18 years. A dedicated advocate for patient-centered care, she has championed initiatives such as nitrous oxide for labor pain relief, skin-to-skin contact following cesarean sections, and collaboration with community doulas. Julia is a driving force behind a new partnership with Boston College to launch Boston's only nurse-midwifery master's program. Passionate about serving immigrant communities, she works with NeighborHealth in East Boston and Charles River Community Health Centers in the Waltham/Brighton area. She also co-chairs the BILH Maternal Health Quality and Equity Committee, working to improve obstetric care across the BILH network.
Jeneé Osterheldt is a culture columnist who covers identity and social justice through the lens of culture and the arts. She centers Black lives and the lives of people of color. Sometimes this means writing about Beyoncé and Black womanhood or unpacking the importance of public art and representation. Sometimes this means taking systemic racism, sexism, and oppression to task. It always means Black lives matter. She joined the Globe in 2018. A native of Alexandria, Va. and a graduate of Norfolk State University, Osterheldt was a 2017 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where her studies focused on the intersection of art and justice. She previously worked as a Kansas City Star culture columnist.
Mara Kardas-Nelson covers inequality, particularly regarding health, the environment, and economic development. Her journalism has taken her around the world, and her reporting has been featured in The New York Times, The Nation, NPR, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Her first book, We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky (2024), a critical history of microfinance, was shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. Mara also has a background in global health, having worked with South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Partners in Health. Her time in different parts of the world informs the questions she asks, and how she frames her stories. Outside of work, she’s obsessed with the outdoors, and is a proud mom to one human and two dog children.
Anna Kusmer is Head of Opinion Audio at the Boston Globe. She produces and co-hosts the Say More podcast, a weekly show about news, arts, science and politics. Before the Globe, she worked as a radio producer and reporter for various NPR affiliates. She covered climate and environment for The World radio program at GBH.
Marin Wolf covers the business of health care for the Boston Globe. Before her move to Boston, she was a health care reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where she wrote about public health, biotechnology and Texas hospitals. She led the paper's COVID-19 and reproductive care coverage. Her work has also appeared in Bloomberg News and publications across North Carolina.
She is currently pursuing a master of public health degree from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. A North Carolina native, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jason Laughlin joined the Globe in July 2023 to cover the Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services. His reporting prioritizes the voices of people most directly affected by state services, which has included wheelchair users, foster children and parents, and families of people with developmental disabilities. Before coming to the Globe, Jason spent nine years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where his beats included transportation and health. His transportation reporting focused on the experiences of transit systems' users and workers, with highlights including coverage of a deadly Amtrak derailment, a plane's engine failure that killed a passenger, and the experience of railroad engineers who live with being unwilling participants in deaths on the tracks. The Pennsylvania MediaNews Association recognized Jason as the state's best beat reporter in 2017. As a health reporter, Jason was part of the team responsible for covering the COVID-19 pandemic, and was lead reporter covering Philadelphia's pandemic response. Originally from Taunton, Jason grew up in Richmond, Va., and Concord, NH. He attended the College of William & Mary and received masters' degrees from Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Sarah Rahal covers health and science for the Metro desk, with a focus on the public health needs especially in underserved communities across New England. She joined The Boston Globe in summer 2025 after eight years at The Detroit News, where she reported on breaking news, local government, the COVID-19 pandemic, caregiving, and investigations into Detroit’s political and economic revival post-bankruptcy.
Her 2023 report on kinship caregivers exposed critical gaps in Michigan’s social support system and helped change state laws, earning her the state’s top prize for enterprise reporting. Before joining the Globe, she was a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she focused on immigration and health policy disparities.
Sarah is a graduate of the Journalism for Media Diversity honors program at Wayne State University in Detroit. She previously served as president of the Michigan chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and remains an advocate for newsroom equity. She grew up in Dearborn, Michigan—the largest Arab American enclave in the U.S.—and is the proud daughter of Lebanese immigrants. When she’s not on deadline, she’s likely daydreaming about lemony tabbouleh, playing soccer, or managing a side hustle: the frozen wholesale falafel business she co-founded with her husband that still supplies Metro Detroit restaurants today.
Jamila Xible is the Director of Community Engagement at Health Care for All (HCFA), where she serves as the strategic leader of HCFA’s community engagement efforts across the state of Massachusetts.
A key component of this role is to oversee HCFA’s community-led campaigns to address intersecting public health issues and the infrastructure, staffing and sub-granting that advances health equity. A key strategy of these campaigns includes sub-granting to community-based organizations to enhance organizational capacity and implement culturally-responsive campaigns. Jamila also oversees several smaller but equally important foundation- and government-supported community engagement projects aimed at addressing health care access, affordability and equity, as well as efforts to build a small but growing grassroots base of support for the organization’s policy work. She serves as a leader with community groups, a strong program director and a fierce advocate for health justice.
Massachusetts has one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the country, yet maternal health disparities continue to grow. This panel brings together frontline clinicians, community birth workers, and health equity leaders to examine the barriers driving maternal health disparities and the local solutions gaining ground across the Commonwealth.
Spotlights the leaders building culturally responsive, trauma-informed models of care that meet patients where they are -- whether it be immigrant families navigating language and documentation barriers, providing gender-affirming care in an evolving policy landscape, delivering support to those experiencing homelessness, and more.
Pierre Noel has led the Haiti Development Institute (HDI) for 15 years, guiding its transition from the Haiti Fund at The Boston Foundation to an independent nonprofit. Based in Boston and Haiti, he focuses on institutionalizing HDI’s programs, governance, and sustainability. Pierre previously served as Country Director of FAMILY, Inc. in Haiti and Project Director for the Worldwide Vincentian Family. A former Boston attorney, he holds a BA from Boston University and a JD from the University of the District of Columbia. He is a graduate of the Monterey Institute and Boston University’s Nonprofit Management and Leadership program.
Dr. Kira Bona received her MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on clinical effectiveness. The Bona Lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute studies disparities in childhood cancer with a focus on improving childhood cancer outcomes by systematically considering poverty as a risk factor in the clinical trial setting and a target for interventions.
Dr. Narjust Florez is the Associate Medical Director of the Cancer Care Access Program and a thoracic medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. She completed her internal medicine residency in Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where she was the chief fellow from 2018-2019.
What does health equity in cancer care look like and what will it take to achieve it at scale? In this conversation, leaders from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute explore where inequities persist across the cancer continuum – from access and diagnosis to research, treatment and survivorship – and the real-world strategies beginning to close those gaps.
Erika Clesceri is a global change agent who served as director, mentor and diplomat with USAID’s humanitarian assistance for 21 years. She increased efficiencies in foreign aid by reducing impacts from plastic waste in life-saving supply chains via partnership with the World Food Program and MIT Lincoln Labs. Through the Climate Equity Group that she co-created, Indigenous People and Local Communities disproportionately impacted were centered in USAID climate finance. Working multilaterally, she led development of the digital Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool still in use by UN and NGO disaster responders globally.
As a research scientist and with the USGS, she assessed ecosystem impacts of hurricanes, algal blooms and oil spills, including dives on the Johnson Sealink deep-ocean submersible. She earned a PhD (Biogeochemistry) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She leads the Joint Initiative for Greener Humanitarian Assistance which she co-created in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake that devastated the country in 2015. She is an invited Board Member with the Boston Network for International Development and Senior Fellow with Harvard University.
Beatrice Lindstrom is a Lecturer on Law and Senior Clinical Instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Her research and advocacy focus on protecting human rights in humanitarian crises. She has worked extensively on emblematic health rights violations by humanitarian actors, including advocating for the rights of Roma communities poisoned by lead in UN displacement camps. Before joining Harvard, she served as Legal Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, where she led groundbreaking litigation seeking remedies for victims of the devastating cholera epidemic introduced to Haiti by the UN.
Karen Holmes Ward is the Director of Public Affairs and Community Services as well as host and executive producer of CityLine, WCVB’s award-winning weekly magazine program which addresses the accomplishments, concerns and issues facing people of color living in Boston and its suburbs. Karen has interviewed many notables including Oscar® winners Regina King, Lupita Nyong’o, Forest Whitaker, Octavia Spencer, Denzel Washington, and Spike Lee. Karen was part of the team honored with a National Association of Broadcasters 'Service to Community in Television' Award for WCVB’s community service efforts during and following the Boston Marathon attack. In 2018, she was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame and holds honorary doctorates from Merrimack College, Cambridge College and Boston University.
Tanisha M. Sullivan, J.D., M.B.A., is Sanofi's Head of External Engagement and Health Equity Strategy, overseeing U.S. health equity strategy and Massachusetts government relations. With nearly 30 years across the life sciences ecosystem, she served as Boston Public Schools' inaugural Chief Equity Officer and four terms as NAACP Boston Branch President. Currently President of the NAACP New England Area Conference, she chairs Governor Healey's Advisory Council on Black Empowerment. Recipient of the BBJ Power 50, Boston Magazine's Most Influential Bostonians, and BLOC's 100 Most Impactful Leaders in BioPharma, she holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Boston College Law School, an MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management, and executive leadership credentials from Harvard Business School.
Representative Marjorie Decker is serving her seventh term. Throughout her tenure, Representative Decker has passed legislation addressing step therapy, expanding access to telehealth, increasing supports for youth and adolescent mental health services, and reducing gun violence. She also filed legislation that was the basis for the Legislature's response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and passed a maternal health bill to improve birthing outcomes in the Commonwealth.
Jamal R. Watkins is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Advancement at the NAACP, leading efforts to maximize African-American participation in democracy. Previously Vice President of Civic Engagement at the NAACP, he brings extensive experience from leadership roles at the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Amnesty International, and City Year Los Angeles. His career spans politics, campaigns, communications, education, and fundraising, including work as National DNC Recruiter and Florida State Director for the Young Voter Alliance during the 2004 Presidential Election. A Stanford University graduate with a degree in Philosophy and Political Science, Watkins is based in Washington, D.C.
America turns 250. Biotech turns 50. Yet positive health outcomes remain out of reach for millions of Americans. Chronic disease rates are high. Longevity eludes many. This panel brings together public health strategists and health equity leaders to examine what 250 years of medical innovation has taught us — and what the next 250 must look like. How do we accelerate the movement from data to solutions? How do we ensure systems and policies don't replicate past inequities? And how do we use what history has taught us to finally deliver on medicine's promise for everyone? Three perspectives. One defining moment. The next 250 years start here.
Denise De Las Nueces, MD, MPH, CEO of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, is a board-certified internal medicine physician and addiction medicine specialist with a focus on vulnerable populations. She earned a BA from Columbia University and MD from Harvard Medical School in 2008. After completing the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program in 2011, Dr. De Las Nueces received a Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, earning a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2012. Dr. De Las Nueces joined BHCHP in 2012, where she most recently served as Chief Medical Officer.
Closing the gap between communities and care demands championing nurses and health workers and working together with community-based organizations. For more than 125 years, Johnson & Johnson has advocated for, elevated, and empowered the nursing profession, because nurses are the backbone of health care.
This panel will discuss the current nurse experience in Massachusetts, through a data informed lens. The panel will explore how initiatives like CareCommunity and the Nursing Workforce Solutions Program, among others, attract and strengthen an innovative, thriving and diverse nursing workforce, empowered to advance health equity and transform healthcare.
David Seltz is the first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC). The HPC is a first-in-the-nation independent state government agency charged with bending the health care cost curve and providing data-driven policy recommendations regarding health care delivery and payment system reform. Prior to leading the HPC, David was the Special Advisor on health care for Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray. Through these positions, David advised the passage of historic health care access reform legislation in 2006, a forerunner to the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Isha Williams is the global lead of healthcare workforce strategy for the Global Health Equity Organization of Johnson & Johnson, where she drives development and delivery of strategies that support nurses and community health workers, address care gaps, and deliver better health outcomes for patients globally. Previously, Williams was vice president of marketing for the U.S. pulmonary hypertension therapeutic area and inaugural head of culturally inclusive and relevant marketing for Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine.
Hiyam M. Nadel, MBA, RN, is the Director of the Center for Innovations in Care Delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She has over 26 years of progressive clinical and leadership experience in healthcare, innovation, and operational transformation. Hiyam’s expertise is in strategic planning, clinical process improvement, and fostering innovation in patient-care delivery. She has a record of spearheading cutting-edge initiatives and cross-disciplinary collaborations that drive growth, efficiency, and excellence. She is a 2025 Inaugural Francesco Pompei, PhD, and Marybeth Pompei, DNS, RN Endowed Chair in Nursing Innovation, believed to be the first specifically in nurse innovation.
Dr. Sheila Davis is the Chief Executive Officer of Partners In Health (PIH), a global health nonprofit organization rooted in social justice. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Northeastern University in 1988, her Master of Science in Nursing degree as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in 1997, as well as a Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a concentration in global health in 2008 from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She has worked in the HIV/AIDS field since the 1980’s including spending over 15 years as a clinician in the Infectious Diseases clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. At PIH Sheila held multiple cross-site roles at PIH, including Chief of Ebola Response, Chief of Clinical Operations, and Chief Nursing Officer before becoming CEO in 2019. She is also currently adjunct faculty at the UCSF School of Nursing and a Professor of Practice in Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda.