Joe W. Ramsdell, M.D., is a Distinguished Professor and the Division Head of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Ramsdell was a member of the Alliance Board at its inception. He is a practicing general internist at the University of California, San Diego, and pulmonologist with a research interest in chronic disease management, with a specific interest in airways diseases such as asthma and COPD.

Dr. Ramsdell is Director of the UCSD Clinical Trials Center and Airway Research Center. This research center is funded by federal, foundation and industry grants. Dr. Ramsdell is also a working member of several important national networks including the Asthma Clinical Research Center, sponsored by the American Lung Association, and the UCSD COPDGene™ Study, a multi-center trial with the overall goal of conducting a comprehensive genome-wide association (GWA) study to identify genes influencing COPD. In addition to his personal practice, Dr. Ramsdell has an ongoing interest in general internal medicine, chronic disease management, and healthcare delivery. The Division of General Internal Medicine at UCSD includes over 120 general internists at the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego Veterans Administration Health Services system. Under the direction of Dr. Ramsdell, these UCSD faculty members are involved in cutting-edge health services research, as well as, personal care and most importantly, teaching.

Elizabeth Dreicer is a humanitarian, environmentalist, conservationist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Her professional and personal life is devoted to seeing, sharing, and developing solutions to creating a better world, including reforming systems. She is a builder—of relationships, teams, organizations, coalitions, and systems.
Dreicer is a proven software (data and analytics) products and services executive. Her career includes leading data science, machine learning, medical analytics, healthcare technology services, financial management, community health, managed healthcare, medical group purchasing, and healthcare publishing organizations. Board roles include enterprise, social enterprise, foundation, nonprofits, and public/private partnership organizations. Her experience spans start-ups (through sale), social innovation and social enterprise, product development, and professional services organizations. Over 20 years ago, Elizabeth saw that the internet would provide a new substrate to facilitate enduring and evolutionary collective intelligence. Since then, she’s worked to advance solutions to modern challenges—medicine, cyber, financial, environment, to name a few. Elizabeth’s passion lies in leading teams creating these systems where the focus is on improving lives and society. She is also a seasoned corporate governance executive and board member.

Since 2006, Elizabeth has been CEO of Kuity, a data science, advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence product development company with a focus on econometric, financial, cyber, environmental, and social systems. She is also a co-founder of Posiba—spun out of Kuity in December 2013—as a social enterprise that holds Datas, a data service for the social sector—foundations, government, nonprofits, researchers, and individual donors—designed to measure social conditions and progress. Posiba also holds givn, designed to activate more individual giving and satisfaction. Also, Dreicer is a co-founder of Consuli, a social enterprise (B Corp) that is organizing the world’s medical knowledge and making it accessible to consumers and clinicians.

Dreicer received her Bachelors of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Pennsylvania State University. She is also a graduate of Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine (previously FutureMed) Executive Program and Extreme Leadership Executive Programs.

As Trustee of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF), she is the current Board Chair and member of the Program Committee, Finance/Investment Committee (where she is past Chair), and the Program Related Investment (Impact Investing) Committee. Further, Elizabeth has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including 211 San Diego and Just in Time for Foster Youth (where she was a founding member). She is also a member and Co-Director of the E2 San Diego chapter of the San Diego E2 (environmental entrepreneurs), a national nonpartisan business leader group affiliated with NRDC (National Resource Defense Coalition) that advocates for good economic and environmental policies. Dreicer is a Board member of the San Diego Exploratory Foundation, working to bring the American National Olympic Committee ANOC World Beach Games to San Diego. Finally, she is involved in a couple of film projects, a venture fund project and efforts to advance positive capitalism.

Dr. Rodney G. Hood’s areas of expertise include health disparities, medical history and racism, health policy and advocacy, and cultural competency in healthcare. Beyond his new role at AHF, Dr. Hood currently serves as the vice chairman of the National Medical Association’s Cobb/NMA Institute, which works to develop, evaluate, and implement strategies to promote wellness and to eliminate health disparities and racism in medicine. He is also the current president & CEO of MultiCultural IPA, an organization designed to improve longevity and quality of life and to eliminate all ethnic and racial health disparities for the served population.

In August 2000, Dr. Hood became the 101st president of the National Medical Association (NMA) after serving as the association’s chairman of the board. During his tenure, he served as an advocate for strengthening African American physicians and for protecting the medically underserved.

Dr. Hood is an honors graduate of Northeastern University School of Pharmacy and a graduate of UC San Diego School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at UC San Diego Medical School, where he currently serves as an assistant clinical professor of medicine.

Julianne R. Howell, Ph.D., is Senior Health Policy Advisor in the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), participating in the development and implementation of an array of programs created by the Accountable Care Act and advising on County strategy and policy across health and human services issues.

Dr. Howell brings to her HHSA role 10 years of experience in Washington, DC. She was an RWJ Foundation Health Policy Fellow from 2002 – 2004, serving on Senator John Kerry’s staff and working with the staffs of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. From 2005 – 2011, she was an Independent Technical Consultant to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and was then Senior Advisor in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). From 1981 to 2002, Dr. Howell led strategic and major program planning for the Health Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, first as Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing and an Associate Director for UCSD Medical Center, and then as Director of Health Sciences Planning in the Office of the Vice Chancellor – Health Sciences/ Dean, School of Medicine.

Dr. Howell received her A.B. from Harvard/Radcliffe College, a Masters in Urban Studies and Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Masters in Public Policy and Ph.D. from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Rosemari Marshall Johnson was an original commissioner of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission and Vice Chair of the U.S. Section, a binational organization working to optimize health and quality of life along the U.S.- Mexico border. Dr. Johnson was a practicing anesthesiologist and a visiting associate clinical professor in UC San Diego School of Medicine’s anesthesiology department. She was a partner in the Anesthesia Service Medical Group; her practice included Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Clinic in La Jolla.

The San Diego County Medical Society has honored Dr.Johnson as its Physician Member of the Year. She has served as president of the San Diego County Medical Society as well as the California Society of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Johnson is a leader in the California Medical Association, especially in the areas of community and public health and serves as Medical Community Liaison for the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation, where she has had leading roles in programs including Project Access San Diego and Physician Advocates for Veterans.She received her medical degree and training in anesthesiology from Georgetown University School of Medicine, and is a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology and Fellow of the American College of Anesthesiology.

Donald Jones is a globally recognized leader in digital medicine, digital therapies, and technology-enabled health services. He is a sought out as a speaker, advisor, and board member. He works across a spectrum of healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device, wearable, apparel, material science, and early-stage companies. He is an independent director on the boards of venture capital backed companies with strategic investors including GE, Telus, Qualcomm, Reed Elsevier, and Adidas. His Fortune 1000 Advisory Board roles include Flex, TEVA, JSR, Sanofi, Otsuka, and MAS. Jones serves as Chief Digital Officer of the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI), a Center within The Scripps Research Institute, collaborating with the renowned Eric Topol, MD. He co-founded with Eric Scripps Digital Medicine, the world’s first digital health clinical trial center and the non-profit West Health Institute, raising over $130 million. STSI now holds the largest NIH grant in history, part of the ‘All of Us’ Precision Medicine Initiative.

For 11 years, Don led Qualcomm’s Wireless Health Global Strategy and Business Development and founded its healthcare subsidiary. In 2005 he founded and is now Chairman Emeritus of the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance. In 2016, WLSA merged with the HIMSS Personal Connected Healthcare Alliance (PCHA), forming a global trade, standards, scientific, and professional organization. Earlier in his career, Donald was COO of MedTrans, which grew from $4.5 million into the largest emergency services provider in the US, operating with more than 22,000 paramedics and 5,500 ambulances. He was Founder and Chairman of EMME, the largest consumer subscription based healthcare provider in Mexico, employing over 500 physicians. While advising the Board of American Medical Response, he helped build the largest medical group in the US, under the EmCare brand. Ultimately, MedTrans acquired AMR and EmCare, both now part of Envision Healthcare. EvoNexus recognized Donald Jones as 2014 Digital Health Innovator of the Year. Don conceived the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, a global competition with 134 entrants, for a consumer device which successfully makes medical diagnoses. The prize was awarded in Hollywood in April 2017.

Robert B. McCray has served the health care industry as a lawyer, CEO, investor and investment banker. He is President of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA), which he co-founded in 2005, and is a member the HIMMS Board of Directors and the Board of Managers of PCH Alliance, a HIMSS operating unit. Mr. McCray also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Alliance Healthcare Foundation where he is past Board Chair and current Chair of the Invest Up Committee. Mr. McCray is a member of the Board of Directors of Midmark Corporation where he serves as Chair of the Governance Committee.

Previously, Mr. McCray served as Managing Partner of Triple Tree, LLC, a merchant bank focused on the healthcare sector; Chairman, President and CEO of HealthCap, Inc., a venture capital-backed physician practice management company; as President, COO and early investor in Digital On-Demand, Inc., a technology company operating the ReDotNet music distribution system in major retail chains; as Managing Director of Caremark Physician Resources, a division of Baxter; and co-founder and Chairman of OnCall Medicine, Inc., a medical house calls company. Prior to his business career, Rob practiced healthcare regulatory and transactional law for 15 years and created a focused inter-disciplinary healthcare law firm and consultancy with a national client base.

Some previous appointments include: Chairman of the Sacramento (County) Environmental Commission; Chairman of the Sacramento City Toxic Substances Commission; President of the Environmental Council of Sacramento; board member of the American Lung Association – Sacramento Emigrant Trails

Mr. McCray holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Atul Patel is the senior vice president and corporate treasurer at PriceSmart, a warehouse club operator. He has over 22 years of International Treasury Management Experience. Prior to joining PriceSmart, he served as Assistant Treasurer for a private investment management firm in Bahrain and Geneva.

Patel spent seven years with Imperial Chemical Industries in London, managing foreign exchange and interest rate risk, day-to-day treasury operations, as well as managing a portfolio of $2 billion in surplus funds. Patel is a graduate of the University of Wales, United Kingdom.

Killu Sanborn, Ph.D., Managing Director at Oxford Finance, has over 25 years of experience of supporting life science and medical technology innovation as a venture debt lender, venture equity investor, banker, executive, entrepreneur and researcher. Her previous leadership positions include Managing Director of Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Senior VP of Life Science Venture Lending at Comerica Bank, Principal/Fund Manager with IngleWood Ventures, Director of Technology Commercialization at Stratagene, and first employee, VP of Business Development of Phenogenex. Over the years, Killu has advised entrepreneurial boards and management teams on operational, financial and strategic matters, and has and served on various local nonprofit boards and committees. Her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology is from Cornell University/Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City.

Dwight Smith is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for The Neighborhood House Association (NHA), which is San Diego County’s largest multi-purpose human services agency. NHA serves more than 22,000 families through an array of services meeting the cultural, social, health and emergency daily living needs of San Diego County residents. Smith joined NHA in 2006, where he is responsible for the organization’s overall legal affairs and where he manages the contract administration, corporate governance, information technology, and human resources functions.

Previously, Smith served as associate general counsel of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, where he assisted with strategic joint ventures with telecommunication, food and beverage and business service providers such as Verizon, Starbucks and FedEx. From 1995 to 2000, he was senior corporate counsel of The PMI Group, Inc., and was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, and SEC compliance. Smith began his career as a tax associate with Arthur Andersen & Co based in Chicago.

In 2013, The San Diego Business Journal awarded Smith the General Counsel award in the nonprofit category. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from DePaul University. Smith is a member of the California Bar Association, National Bar Association, and Association of Corporate Counsel. Smith is Secretary of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees and a member of the Audit, Program and Executive committees.

Jeffrey Willmann is President and CEO of Opprime’ Investments and Insurance Services, a local boutique consulting, investment, and insurance brokerage specializing in strategic relationships, business development, marketing, and insurance management services for their clients. Jeffrey’s work includes; mergers and acquisitions, and clients and sales acquisitions.

He is also currently a Shareholder and Officer: Director of Finance and Business Development, at Apreva Hospice; San Diego, as well as Shareholder and Officer, Healthcare in Motion; San Diego; and Trustee and Audit Committee Chair, Alliance Healthcare Foundation, San Diego.

His prior roles include: Director of Finance and Business Development, LightBridge Hospice, San Diego; Chief Financial Officer, Just In Time Foster Youth, San Diego; Vice President & CFO, Family Choice of New York, Buffalo, NY; Officer and Director, Trinity3 Corporation, Newport Beach; Vice President and CFO, Sharp Health Plan, San Diego; Founder and CEO, Trinity Hospice, San Bernardino.

He is equally passionate about community service, feeding 500 homeless people monthly since 2009; as well as being a 2010 LEAD San Diego Graduate. He holds a masters degree from Arizona State University in Health Service Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Arizona.