Innovators,
Researchers and Doers

Caraline Coats, MHSA is Regional Market President for Florida, Senior Products at Humana. Prior to this role, she served as Vice President of Humana’s Venture Investing, Provider Alliances, where she led strategy and execution of Humana’s value based primary care provider alliance relationships. Previously, Coats served as Humana’s VP of Bold Goal and Population Health Strategy, leading Humana’s mission to help improve the health of the communities it serves by making it easier for people to achieve their best health.

Coats has been with Humana for 15 years. She started as Regional Director of Medicare Operations in Arizona and relocated to Florida, where she became the Vice President of Network Management and subsequently, the Regional Vice President of Network Management for the East Region.

Coats holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in health services administration from the University of Michigan.

Daniel E. Dawes, J.D., is the Founding Dean of School of Global Health and Senior Vice President of Global Health at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. Prior to this, he served as Vice President, Executive Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, and Professor of health law, policy, and management at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Among his many achievements, he was an instrumental figure, during his tenure as a health policy advisor on the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in developing and negotiating the Mental Health Parity Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, and the Affordable Care Act’s health equity-focused provisions, among other landmark federal policies, as well as the principal investigator for the nation’s first health equity tracker.

Dawes is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He serves as an advisor to The White House on health equity initiatives, an appointed member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director where he co-chairs the CDC’s health equity working, and the NIH’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research.

Dr. Wyatt Decker was named executive vice president for UnitedHealth Group and chief physician, value-based care and innovation in July 2023. In this role, Decker serves as the lead ambassador working across the enterprise and externally with key stakeholders to further advance accountable models of care. Decker previously served as chief executive officer of Optum Health.

Prior to Optum, Decker served as CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona. In that role, he established Mayo Clinic in Arizona as the safest hospital in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report. He also launched a state-of-the-art cancer center and the second campus of Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. At Mayo Clinic, Decker pioneered the use of digital technologies, including telemedicine and artificial intelligence. He also served as the founding chair and a professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, where he established and directed the emergency medicine residency training program.

Decker earned an M.D. from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Science from University of California Santa Cruz. He has published numerous scientific articles and is recognized among the nation's top 100 health care leaders by Modern Healthcare.

Mary Beth Donahue was named President and CEO of Better Medicare Alliance in 2021, bringing nearly three decades of management, health care policy, and patient advocacy to the role.

Donahue began her career working in state government in her native Massachusetts and ascended to a role as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Donna E. Shalala during the Clinton administration.

Most recently, she served as Executive Director of Kidney Care Partners, a coalition of patient advocates, dialysis professionals, care providers, researchers, and manufacturers dedicated to improving quality of care for individuals living with kidney disease.

A leader in patient advocacy and health equity, Donahue additionally serves on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering children to develop lifelong healthy habits. She served as an Advisory Council Member to the Cancer Support Community.

Donahue is also the past Executive Vice President of Advocacy and Operations of AHIP, the trade association representing companies providing health insurance coverage in the United States.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College and a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy where she served on the Alumni Board of Directors.

Dr. Joneigh S. Khaldun is the Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for CVS Health. She leads the CVS Health strategy to advance health equity for patients, members, providers, customers, and the communities served across all lines of the CVS Health business. Prior to this role, she served as the Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), where she was responsible for public health and aging programs, Medicaid, and behavioral health. She led Michigan’s COVID-19 response and is credited for Michigan’s early identification of and strategy to address disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. In 2021, she was named by President Biden to the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

Prior to her role at MDHHS, Khaldun was the Director and Health Officer for the Detroit Health Department, where she oversaw a robust community health assessment, spear-headed new human service and maternal and infant health efforts and led Detroit’s response to the largest Hepatitis A outbreak in modern U.S. history. Her efforts contributed to Detroit having the lowest infant mortality rate in recorded history in 2019.

Previously, Khaldun was the Baltimore City Health Department’s Chief Medical Officer, where she expanded and modernized the department’s clinical services. She has held previous positions as the Director of the Center for Injury Prevention and Control at George Washington University, Founder and Director of the Fellowship in Health Policy in the University of Maryland Department of Emergency Medicine, and Fellow in the Obama-Biden administration’s Office of Health Reform in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan, the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, and on the Health and Medicine Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Khaldun has received numerous awards, including the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum, the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Public Health award from the deBeaumont Foundation, and the George Washington University Monumental Alumni award. In 2020, she was named a Notable Woman in Health and Newsmaker of the Year by Crain’s Detroit. Khaldun obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, MPH in Health Policy from George Washington University, and completed residency in emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center/Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, where she was elected chief resident in her final year.  She practices emergency medicine part-time at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Dan Lowenstein has over 25 years in health care policy and advocacy. He is the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for VNS Health, one of the largest not-for-profit home and community-based healthcare providers in the U.S. Prior to joining VNS Health in 2017, Lowenstein was Senior Director of Public Affairs for the Primary Care Development Corporation. He previously held roles in global health advocacy and at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. Earlier in his career he was Chief of Staff to the NYS Assembly Health Committee Chair and a NYS Senator. He holds an MBA from New York University.

Dr. Elena V. Rios, a distinguished Medical Doctor with a Master of Science in Public Health, Master of the American College of Physicians, has received multiple national and international awards for her outstanding contributions to health equity. Rios started her career in 1992 as a policy advisor for the State of California office of Statewide Health Planning and Development; in 1993 for the White House Health Care Reform team, where she met physicians to establish the NHMA and NHHF; and in 1994 for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health. After 30 years of dedicated service part-time at NHMA and NHHF, shaping their mission and impact, Rios is not focusing all her efforts on leading NHHF’s initiatives. She started the Hispanic Physician Leadership Fellowship, which has resulted in hundreds of Hispanic physician leaders serving in the public and private sectors. Rios earned her BA from Stanford University, MSPH and MD from UCLA School of Public health and School of Medicine, Internal Medicine Residency from Santa Clara and White Memorial Hospitals, and her NIH NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship from UCLA Department of Medicine.

Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D., is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management. Thorpe was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1995. In this capacity, he coordinated all financial estimates and program impacts of President Clinton’s health care reform proposals for the White House. He also directed the administration’s estimation efforts in dealing with Congressional health care reform proposals during the 103^rd and 104^th sessions of Congress.

Thorpe has authored and co-authored over 120 articles, book chapters and books and is a frequent national presenter on issues of health care financing, insurance, and health care reform at health care conferences, television and the media. He serves as a reviewer on several health care journals.

Thorpe is chairman, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, an international coalition of over 80 groups focused on highlighting the key role that chronic disease plays int eh growth in healthcare spending, and the high rates of morbidity and mortality. PFCD focuses as well on identifying best practice prevention and care coordination strategies and scaling them countrywide.