2024 – Jim Yong Kim
Partner, Vice Chairman, and Emerging Markets Chairman at Global Infrastructure Partners (a part of BlackRock)
Co-founder of Partners In Health, Former President of the World Bank Group, Former Director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department
“Reflections on 40 Years in Global Health: Faith in Things Unseen”

2023 – Peggy Shepard
Co-founder and Executive Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice
“Advancing Environmental Health Through Justice and Equity”

2022 – David Williams
Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health and Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
“Understanding and Effectively Addressing Inequities in Health”

2020 – Marian Wright Edelman
Founder and President Emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund
“Closing the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline: Why America Needs to Invest in Children”

2019 – Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
President Emerita and Former CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“Lessons Learned While Building a Culture of Health”

2018 – Bernard J. Tyson
Former Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente
“Getting to Equity in Health Care: Lessons from Kaiser Permanente”

2017 – Camara Jones, MD, MPH, PhD
Senior Fellow – Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Cardiovascular Research Institute
Adjunct Associate Professor – Community Health & Preventive Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
“Achieving Health Equity: Tools for a National Campaign Against Racism”

2016 – Leana Wen, MD, MSc
Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore
“Lessons from Baltimore: The Intersection between Public Health and Physician Activism”

2015 – Byllye Avery, MA
Founder of the Black Women’s Health Imperative and Co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need
“Why Black Women’s Health Matters”

2014 – William Foege, MD, MPH
Former Chief of the CDC Smallpox Eradication Program and Former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
“Is Ebola the New Face of Global Health?”

2013 – Martín-J. Sepúlveda, MD, FACP
IBM Fellow and Vice President of Health Systems and Policy Research
IBM Corporation
“Unleashing the Power of Technology to Create Healthier Communities”

2012 – Mary Story, PhD, RD
Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health and Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs
School of Public Health, University of Minnesota
“Child Obesity Prevention: Environmental and Policy Changes to Improve Healthy Eating and Reduce Excess Weight Gain”

2011 – Kenneth Olden, PhD, ScD, LHD
Professor and Dean
City University of New York School of Public Health
“Environmental Context, or Neighborhood Matters for Human Health and Disease”

2010 – Ed Wagner, MD, MPH
Director of the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation
Group Health Research Institute
“Primary Care and the Future of American Medicine”

2009 – Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA
Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management and Dean, School of Public Health
University of California – Berkeley
“The Patient-Centered Medical Home: Its Role in Health Care Reform”

2008 – Jordan J. Cohen, MD
Professor of Medicine and Public Health at George Washington University
President emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges
“The Need to Fundamentally Reform America’s Health Care Delivery System”

2007 – Steven A. Schroeder, MD
Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine
University of California at San Francisco
“Pathways to Better Health: Some Run Through Healthcare Systems, Some Do Not”

2006 – Richard J. Davidson, PhD
President of the American Hospital Association
“The Evolving Role of Governing Boards in Improving the Quality of Patient Care”

2005 – Sara Rosenbaum, JD
The Harold & Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law & Policy
George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services
“The Quest for Fairness in Healthcare: A Nation at the Crossroads”

2004 – Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Director and Founder of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention
University of Wisconsin Medical School
“Innovations in Tobacco Control Policy – We Can Move the Mountain”

2003 – Michael T. Osterholm, PhD
Professor of Public Health and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
University of Minnesota School of Public Health
“Emerging Infections: The New Infectious Disease Frontier”

2002 – Kenneth E. Warner, PhD
Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health
University of Michigan School of Public Health
“Technology, Policy, and the Future of Nicotine Addiction”

2001 – Tom Harkin
U.S. Senator (D-IA)