Speakers
Vanessa Cardona MSW, LICSW
Passageway Domestic Violence Advocate and Clinical Supervisor
Center for Community Health and Health Equity
Vanessa Cardona, LICSW is the Program Coordinator at Passageway at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She offers supportive counseling and advocacy services to survivors of intimate partner abuse. Currently, she also clinically supervises MSW graduate interns, providing domestic violence education and clinical support. She has presented at various Schwartz Rounds discussing the intersectionality of intimate partner violence with various forms of oppression. Vanessa graduated from Boston College in 2014, where she then went on to receive her Master’s in Social Work in 2016.
Martie Carnie
Senior Patient Experience Advisor
Center for Patients and Families
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Martie Carnie is a 31 year, four-time survivor of breast and melanoma cancers. She is a 30 year Patient Advocate, Senior Patient Engagement Advisor and Co Chair of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council Steering Committee. She is active on multiple councils, committees and projects, including patient safety, patient rounding, Joint Commission, Ambulatory Care, Care Improvement Teams, Health Literacy and coordinating activities at Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As a patient voice at the Brigham Research Institute, she serves as a Co Investigator and provides the patient experience perspective for Research. on multiple research grants including PCORI, She is a PCORI Ambassador, an Institute for Healthcare Improvement Faculty member on Patient Engagement. She is a spokesperson at conferences and seminars about patient-centered care, the patient experience, patient safety, Health Literacy and the Voice of the Patient in Design and Health Care within the United States, Canada, Japan and Israel.
Laura N. Frain, MD, MPH
Director of Ambulatory Geriatrics
Department of Medicine, Division of Aging
Dr. Laura Frain joined the division in January 2014 to lead ongoing collaborations with primary care to develop and implement new models of co-managing outpatient geriatric patients. Prior to her training in the HMS Multi-Campus Geriatric Fellowship, she was a primary care physician at BWH and became aware of the unique challenges caring for older adults in the current primary care system. During her HMS and VA Advanced Fellowship in geriatrics, she developed expertise in geriatric models of care. She implemented and participated in a collaborative model with geriatrics and the VA Heart Failure team to care for older high-risk veterans with heart failure. She is strongly committed to improving the quality of primary care to older patients and developing models of care. Dr. Frain teaches medical students, residents, fellows, primary care physicians, caregivers, and caretaker teams to meet the healthcare needs of our older patients.
Esteban Gershanik, MD, MPH, MMSc, FAAP, FHM
Medicine Hospitalist, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor of Medicine, Part-Time, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Esteban Gershanik is a Medicine Hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and currently performs projects and research on health information technology, public health, and health equity while also serving on the Brigham Health COVID-19 Equity, Diversity, and Community Health Response Team. He recently opened and managed the first federally designated COVID-19 drive through testing site in New Orleans as well as their Medical Monitoring Station at the Convention Center with their health departments and national guard. Formerly, he served as Chief Information Officer, Health Informatics Director, and Medical Consultant for the Louisiana Department of Health and previously was a medical director of the hospital medicine units and core member of the Patient Safety Learning Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as well as the Process Care and Redesign Clinician for Partners eCare.
Rich Joseph, MD MBA
Current BWH Nesson Fellow
Medical Director, The BWH Center for Community Wellness.
Practicing Physician, BWH Center for Weight Management and Wellness
Rich Joseph serves as the Medical Director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Center for Community Wellness (CCW) in Dorchester and is a practicing clinician in the BWH Center for Weight Management and Wellness. He recently completed his residency in Primary Care-Internal Medicine at BWH and was recently awarded the Nesson Fellowship to support his ongoing community development work. During his training, Rich helped to develop the CCW, co-chaired the Partner’s Graduate Medical Education Council on Resident and Fellow Wellbeing, and authored numerous articles on physician burnout, medical education, and the future of medical training. Rich received his medical degree from Stanford School of Medicine and his business degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He earned his B.S. from Yale University and is a native of New Haven, CT.
RonAsia Rouse, MPH
Program Manager, Health Equity
Center for Community Health and Health Equity
Ronasia Rouse is the Program Manager, Health Equity in the Center for Community Health and Health Equity. RonAsia currently over sees the project management needs of multiple health equity initiatives and committees within Brigham Health that all have the goal of advancing equity throughout the hospital and system. Previous to this role, she worked on the Youth Programs team in the Center for Community Health and Health Equity as the Education and College Success Coordinator. Throughout her career, RonAsia has led various projects and presentations aimed at providing participants with health education and resources that allow them to access their full potential, in healthcare, education and life. RonAsia has a passion for public health and education and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from George Washington University.