National thought leaders and industry experts

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Michael S. Fenster
MD, FACC, FSCA&I, PEMBA

"Dr. Mike" is a board-certified interventional cardiologist and professional chef. In addition to his clinical practice, he hosts a weekly national radio show, Code Delicious with Dr. Mike on RadioMD with podcasts available there, iheart radio, and iTunes. His Food As Therapy (FAT) Initiative™ recognizes the importance of the food experience in our lives as well as the impact of the quality of the comestibles we ingest; as only a physician and chef could.

Michael O. Leavitt

Michael O. Leavitt served in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is also a three-time elected governor of Utah. He is the founder and Chairman of Leavitt Partners, where he helps clients navigate the future as they transition to new and better models of care.

Al Lewis

As an author, Al's critically acclaimed category-bestselling book on outcomes measurement, Why Nobody Believes the Numbers, chronicling and exposing the innumeracy of the health management field, was named 2012 healthcare book of the year in Forbes. Cracking Health Costs: How to Cut Your Company’s Health Costs and Provide Employees Better Care, released in 2013, was also a trade bestseller.

Ryan Picarella MS, SPHR

As President of WELCOA, Ryan works with communities and organizations around the country to ignite social movements that will improve the lives of all working people in America and around the world.

Dr. Martin Makary

Dr. Makary is a professor of Health Policy & Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a busy pancreas surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Makary is the New York Times bestselling author of Unaccountable, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Newsweek. He is a frequent health commentator for CNN and FOXNews.

Patricia Sulak, M.D.

Founder of Living WELL Aware™, is a nationally recognized practicing physician, researcher, speaker, and medical school professor. She graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine and was named the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus. In addition to her busy clinical practice, she presents throughout the country to businesses, organizations, schools, and healthcare institutions on disease prevention through healthy living.

Bret Romney

Bret Romney is the founder and President of Ascend Strategies, Inc. Ascend Strategies is a company focused on helping organizations apply the principles, strategies and disciplines necessary to reach new levels of success. By using the unique “Success Orienteering” approach, Ascend’s clients are challenged to recognize the realities of their industries & businesses (the mountain), identify and define what success looks like (the trail from base camp to the summit), and then how get on with the hike toward that higher level of success.