Program

Michael is the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at UnitedHealth Group. He has coordinated health equity efforts across UnitedHealth Group since June of 2010. Michael is responsible for the development and execution of enterprise efforts, initiatives, and interventions to identify health disparities, as well as enhancing or implementing programs, services, and strategies to address identified health disparities. 

Michael has held roles in the public and private sectors with responsibilities related to disease prevention, wellness, and health benefits and has spent close to 30 years focused on population health management. His roles have included serving as the Public Sector Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Region at UnitedHealthcare, a Major Accounts Manager at CareFirst Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Executive Director for the Maryland State Council on Cancer Control/Maryland Cancer Registry with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. 

Michael has contributed to numerous health equity and health disparities-related articles and publications and has lectured at public and private organizations and academic institutions. He continues to serve on various local and national boards. Committees focused on addressing barriers to health care and improving health outcomes, including the Maryland Department of Health Advisory Committee on Minority Health, the American Telemedicine Association Advisory Board on Eliminating Health Disparities, the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network Health Equity Advisory Team and the Howard Community College Educational Foundation Board. 

He completed his undergraduate studies at Morehouse College and received his Master of Public Health from George Washington University and his Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. 

Ali Shirvani-Mahdavi, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Analytics at Optum, focusing on Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health, based out of Minneapolis. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare and analytics consulting, Ali has an extensive and diverse background in healthcare analytics, health equity, quality management, and consumer behavior in the healthcare marketplace.

Before joining Optum, Ali was the Executive Vice President of Health and Behavioral Sciences at a leading technology company focused on using technology, big data, analytics, and behavioral sciences to drive member activity to help improve population health and quality in government-sponsored plans (MA, Medicaid, and QHP). 

In addition, Ali spent over ten years at UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage business as the head of Reporting and Analytics and Accenture, where he led several transformational projects in analytics and customer engagement for Best Buy, AT&T, and Stanford Hospitals and Clinics.

Ali received his Ph.D. in Behavioral Economics and Master in System Engineering from MIT.

Dana Gelb Safran, Sc. D is President & CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF). In addition to overseeing NQF’s longstanding function as a steward for our nation’s portfolio of healthcare quality measures, Dr. Safran is leading the expansion of NQF’s portfolio of products and services to advance healthcare quality, outcomes, equity, and affordability.  Dr. Safran is an internationally recognized healthcare executive with a unique blend of accomplishments in business and academia. A central feature of her work has been combining the science of quality measurement with the art of its use to drive significant change in the quality, outcomes, and affordability of care. Dr. Safran’s prior roles include serving for more than a decade as a senior executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), where she was a lead architect of the BCBSMA Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), which is widely credited with having catalyzed the value-based payment movement among public and private payers nationally. She was also a founding member of the executive team at Haven, a joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to achieve better health outcomes, care experiences, and care costs through innovation in care delivery, benefit design, and purchasing. Before joining NQF, she was an executive team member at WELL Health, Inc., a healthcare technology company. Dr. Safran is on the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine and has held a broad range of advisory roles in the public sector and internationally, supporting efforts to improve health and healthcare through effective performance measurement. Since 2017, she has served as a Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). She holds a BA in Biology and Government from Wesleyan University. She completed her post-graduate studies at the Harvard School of Public Health to earn an ScM and ScD in Health Policy and Management.

James Burroughs is the Senior Vice President of Government & Community Relations, and the Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer for Children's Minnesota, one of the largest freestanding pediatric health systems in the nation. James' key focus areas include patient quality initiatives, employee recruitment and retention strategies, organizational culture, increasing financial investment with diverse businesses, and initiatives that address the social determinants of health for patients and families. He also leads efforts to advance community relations and champion policies that improve children's health and well-being. On behalf of Children's Minnesota and other corporate and nonprofit partners, James founded the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity. 

 James has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, equity, diversity, inclusion, and employment law. Prior to Children's Minnesota, he served in the Office of Governor Mark Dayton as the state of Minnesota's first Chief Inclusion Officer, also making history as the first state Chief Inclusion Officer in the country.

Kate Johansen serves as interim Vice Chair of External Engagement for Mayo Clinic. She leads state, federal, and international policy and advocacy, community engagement, issues management, and thought leadership. Before joining Mayo, she led health policy for various best-in-class public and private organizations. She has also worked in all three branches of government, in two state legislatures, and on Capitol Hill. An attorney by training, Kate was elected Editor-in-Chief of the William Mitchell Law Review and clerked for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Helen Meyer. She is involved in many civic activities, including previous board service with the Medica Foundation and current service on Guthrie’s Corporate Council. She is also a 2003 Truman Scholar, a University of Minnesota Humphrey Policy Fellow, and, in 2020, was named one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 40” most influential people in government and politics.