ANTHONY ROMEO, M.D.

Double Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon, Shoulder and Elbow Specialist

Anthony Romeo, M.D. is one of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons specializing in the management and surgical treatment of shoulder and elbow conditions. His state-of-the-art practice employs minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques to accelerate the recovery process for a range of challenging conditions. Dr. Romeo has lectured extensively on advanced surgical techniques to surgeons at both national and international forums. He is also a renowned scholar who has authored over 450 peer-reviewed journal articles and 35 chapters in orthopedic textbooks.

Dr. Mukesh K. Jain

Dean, Brown University

School of Medicine

A physician-scientist, Dean Jain is internationally recognized for studies that established a central role for Kruppel-like factors, a family of DNA transcription factors, in cardiovascular biology, innate immunity, and metabolism. Prior to his appointment at Brown, he oversaw basic and clinical research, a portfolio of programs with robust federal and non-federal annual research funding, more than 200 full-time staff, and one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs, with over 1,100 residents and fellows.

Nationally, Jain’s clinical and academic contributions have been recognized through numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation — an organization for which he is a past president— the Association of American Physicians, and the Association of University Cardiologists. In 2017, Jain and five colleagues (including two Nobel laureates) founded the Physician-Scientist Support Foundation, a nonprofit that strives to build a sustainable and diverse physician-scientist workforce through financial and research support for fundamental discoveries that improve human health.

SYLVIA OWUSU-ANSAH, M.D, M.P.H., FAAP

EMS Medical Director, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine

Medical Adviser on the medical television drama, "The Pitt"

Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a board-certified pediatrician and a pediatric emergency medicine physician, as well as an EMS physician. In addition to her clinical roles, she serves as the EMS Medical Director and the Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. 

Dr. Owusu-Ansah is dedicated to community engagement. Within two years, she taught CPR to over 2,000 individuals, including Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who is the city's first Black mayor, as well as all Division I Pitt athletic teams. Notably, a record-breaking soccer goalie saved her father's life using the CPR skills she learned through this initiative. She has also expanded her efforts globally, teaching CPR to schoolchildren in Ghana and West Africa.

Additionally, Dr. Owusu-Ansah co-leads a middle school program that exposes underserved students to healthcare and lifesaving skills, including CPR, while mentoring medical students of color. As the CEO and co-founder of Akoma United, a nonprofit organization, she aims to equip underserved communities with lifesaving skills, which includes a global initiative focused on Ghana. Furthermore, she is currently working on her book and is the creator and co-owner of a short film titled "In Good Hands," which is now a semi-finalist for the New York Independent Film Festival 2025. She also served as an advisor for the first season of the hit medical drama series "The Pitt," which is streaming on MAX.

CHARLES M. RICE, Ph.D.

Rockefeller University, Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology

2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

2016 Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award

National Academy of Medicine

National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Charles M. Rice is the Head of the Laboratory for Virology and Infectious Disease at the Rockefeller University. He is a prominent figure in research on members of the Flaviviridae, including the hepatitis C virus. Dr. Rice received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis, in 1974 and earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1981. From 1986-2000, Dr. Rice was a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Rice has co-authored over 400 articles in the field of virology, serves as a reviewer for numerous journals, is a past President of the American Society for Virology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the M. W. Beijernick, Dautrebande, Robert Koch, InBev Baillet-Latour prizes, and the Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award.

KATALIN KARIKÓ, PH.D.

University of Pennsylvania, Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, 

Perelman School of Medicine

2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Katalin Karikó is a professor at her alma mater, University of Szeged, Hungary, and adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. She is a former senior vice president at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany, where she worked from 2013 to 2022. For four decades, her research has focused on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA

for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potential of mRNA.

Her patents, co-invented with Drew Weissman on nucleoside-modified uridines in mRNA, were used to create the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna to fight the pandemic. For her achievements, she received many prestigious awards, including the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a 2-time Olympic Champion.

Linda Clemons

Body Language Expert and CEO of Sisterpreneur®

Linda Clemons is an award-winning Sales and Body Language Expert, or nonverbal communication  expert, with over four decades of experience in coaching entrepreneurs, professionals, celebrities, and  politicians.  

Her international coaching and speaking career has seen her uplift thousands of people, while sharing a  stage with the likes of President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Wozniak, and Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Ms.  Clemons has been decorated with awards and recognitions that include National Entrepreneur of the  Year by Office Depot, the Top Mentor award by Women of Wealth, a listing in the United States  Congressional Records for Community Work, and by President Obama for Community Work.  

She is currently the CEO of Sisterpreneur® Inc, which educates and empowers female entrepreneurs.

Robert Satcher, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

Astronaut and Surgical Oncologist 

Dr. Robert Satcher is recognized for his varied career interests and notable successes, from his training  as a chemical engineer, to his practice as an orthopaedic surgeon in oncology, and service as a mission  specialist astronaut and first orthopaedic surgeon astronaut for NASA. 

Dr. Satcher flew on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-129, in November 2009, during which he performed  two spacewalks totaling over 12 hours of extravehicular activity. Dr. Satcher’s research has focused on  understanding how cancer spreads to the skeleton, with a focus on discovering new curative treatment  options using cellular, molecular, and personalized medicine strategies.  

He has over 100 peer reviewed publications, and has received research grants from DOD and NIH, and  serves on grant review panels for NCI.

Drew Weismann, M.D., Ph.D.

2023 Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base  modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. 

2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist whose ground-breaking work with RNA Biology led  to a Nobel Prize in Medicine. His research laid the foundation for the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19  developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. Dr. Weissman is a Professor of Medicine at the Perelman  School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  

His laboratory’s work focuses on the study of RNA and innate immune system biology. One of Dr.  Weissman’s first projects began using an mRNA encoding antigen as a delivery system to load dendritic  cells, which promote broad immune responses as part of a vaccine. This project has expanded to  include basic studies of RNA immunogenicity and translation and the development of applications for  gene therapy.  

Another of Dr. Weissman’s projects develops new HIV envelope immunogens that can induce broad  responses and cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies. A third project continues his previous studies that  identified a protein found on dendritic cells, macrophages, and epithelial cells that bind HIV envelopes  with high affinity. The main focus of this project is testing whether this and related molecules function in  vivo to promote HIV genital tract infection with optimism to create a vaccine for HIV. 

Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.

2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of a method for high-precision genome editing using the immune system of a bacterium, which disables virus by cutting their DNA with a type of genetic scissors.

Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., is a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and  a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of  California, Berkeley.  

Dr. Doudna’s research focuses on RNA biology, leading to the development of CRISPR-Cas9 as  genome-engineering technology. This innovative technology earned Dr. Doudna and her collaborator,  Emmanuelle Charpentier, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She co-founded and serves on the advisory  panel of several companies that use CRISPR technology in novel ways, leading the discussion of the  ethical implications of CRISPR’s revolutionary technology across biology and medicine.  

Additionally, Doudna is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, senior investigator at  Gladstone Institutes, and the founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute; Dr. Doudna is a member of  several other distinguished scientific and medical societies and has received numerous other honors.  

Current research in the Doudna lab focuses on discovering and determining the mechanisms of novel  CRISPR-Cas and associated proteins; developing genome editing tools for use in vitro, in plants, and in  mammals; and developing anti-CRISPR agents.