Christian Dankers, MD, - Course Director
Mass General Brigham

Dr. Dankers joined the Department of Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2013.  As Associate Chief Quality Officer, he worked on Hospital Acquired Condition reduction, mortality reduction, improving the patient experience, and in strengthening safety culture through the application of Just Culture and reliability management principles.  In 2018, Dr. Dankers joined Partners Healthcare as the Associate Chief Quality Officer, where he helps oversee ambulatory quality improvement, quality and safety collaboratives, Patient Reported Outcomes work, and the government payment and policy team in the Quality, Safety, and Value group.  He continues to practice as a hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Tom Sequist, MD,
Mass General Brigham

Dr. Sequist is the Chief Patient Experience and Equity Officer at Mass General Brigham. In this role he leads system wide strategies for improving patient experience and health care equity, while also overseeing quality and safety.  He is a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sequist’s research interests include ambulatory quality measurement and improvement, with a focus on patient and provider education, and the innovative use of health information technology. Dr. Sequist is particularly interested in health policy issues affecting care for Native Americans, and has worked collaboratively with the Indian Health Service to evaluate the provision of care for this population. Dr. Sequist is a member of the Taos Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and is committed to improving Native American health care, serving as the Director of the Four Directions Summer Research Program at Harvard Medical School and the Medical Director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Physician Outreach Program with the Indian Health Service. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.H. degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Maury McGough, MD,
North Shore Health System

Dr. McGough is an internal medicine physician practicing in Salem, MA. She is President and Chairperson of the North Shore Health System and Medical Director of Primary Care. At North Shore Medical Center, she serves as Chair of General Medicine, Medical Director of North Shore Physicians Group, and as a Trustee for the NSMC Board. She was elected to the Partners HealthCare Board of Trustees in 2008 and served for nine years.  After completing her medical residency, she started a private practice in Salem before merging with five other physicians to form Harbor Medical Group and eventually North Shore Physicians Group, the tenth largest medical group in Massachusetts.  

Richard Gitomer, MD,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr. Gitomer is Director of the Primary Care Center of Excellence and is Vice Chair of Primary Care in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Gitomer came to the Brigham from Emory Healthcare in Atlanta where he held several positions including President, Chief Quality Officer (CQO) and Director of Clinical Services at the Emory Healthcare Network in Atlanta and Chief Quality Officer at Emory University Hospital Midtown.

Uché Blackstock, M.D.
NYU School of Medicine

Dr. Uché Blackstock is a thought leader and sought-after speaker on health inequities and racism in health care. She is the Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which partners with healthcare and healthcare-related organizations to address the critical factors contributing to health inequity, through talks, workshops and consulting services. In 2019, Dr. Blackstock was recognized by Forbes magazine as of one of 10 Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazers You Need to Get Familiar With.

She was formerly an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Faculty Director for Recruitment, Retention and Inclusion in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine. She left NYU School of Medicine in December 2019 after almost 10 years on faculty to focus on Advancing Health Equity. Dr. Blackstock received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University.

Amy Gallo
Paravis Partners

Amy Gallo is an expert in conflict, communication, gender, and workplace dynamics. She is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. She combines the latest management research with practical advice to deliver evidence-based ideas on how to improve relationships and excel at work.

She is the co-host of HBR's Women at Work podcast, which is in its fifth season.

In her role as a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, she writes frequently about a range of topics with a focus on interpersonal dynamics, communicating ideas, leading and influencing people, and building your career. Amy is on the faculty of the Emotional Intelligence Coaching Certification program. She taught at Brown University and is a graduate of both Brown and Yale University.