17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006); Vice Chairman, Canyon Ranch; President, Canyon Ranch Health Institute; Distinguished Professor, Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona

Born to a poor Hispanic family in New York City, in the US Army Dr. Richard Carmona trained as a Special Forces medic and weapons specialist and became a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran. He later earned a BS and MD from UC San Francisco, and has worked as a paramedic, registered nurse, physician’s assistant, professor, chief medical officer, and health care system chief executive. He has also been the medical director of police and fire depts and is a fully qualified peace officer and SWAT expert.

As US Surgeon General, Dr. Carmona focused on prevention, preparedness, health disparities, health literacy and global health. Among many landmark communications issued during his four-year tenure, he released the definitive Surgeon General’s Report about the dangers of secondhand smoke. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Dr. Carmona is receiving an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Minnesota, the highest award conferred by the University of Minnesota.

National Clinical Lead for Patient Safety and Improvement, Scottish Government Health Foundation; Institute for Healthcare Improvement Fellow

While serving as National Clinical Lead for Patient Safety and Improvement, Dr. Jason Leitch is on leave from his academic post as an Honorary Consultant in Oral Surgery at the University of Glasgow Dental School in Scotland.

Dr. Leitch is also a trustee of the UK wing of the Indian Rural Evangelical Fellowship, which runs orphanages in southeast India, and of Dental Project Peru, which runs dental clinics in rural Peru.

He has a doctorate from the University of Glasgow, an MPH from Harvard, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He chairs the Conduct and Health Committees of the General Dental Council, the regulatory body for dentistry in the UK.

Founder and owner of Futurist.com; Consultant, Author, and Speaker

As an internationally respected futurist, Glen Hiemstra is founder and owner of Futurist.com, a company that has advised professional, business, and governmental organizations for two decades. He is the author of Turning the Future into Revenue: What Businesses and Individuals Need to Know to Shape Their Futures (2006) and co-author of Strategic Leadership: Achieving Your Preferred Future. 

An expert in preferred future planning, Glen works with government agencies and leading companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Adobe, zeroing in on emerging trends in science, technology, economics, demographics, the environment and more. He is frequently cited in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, US News & World Report, The Futurist, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier in his career, Glen was an award-winning professor and serves as a Visiting Scholar at the Human Interface Technology Lab at the University of Washington, which works on virtual and augmented reality technology. Mr. Hiemstra was educated at Whitworth College, the University of Oregon, and the University of Washington.

Research Professor, Operative Dentistry, University of North Carolina School of Dentistry

In addition to his position as Research Professor at UNC, Dr. Bader is also Senior Research Associate at the Health Services Research Center at UNC, as well as Clinical Associate Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the UNC School of Public Health.

Dr. Bader's work on outcomes of care and variations in dentists' treatment decisions has been published in numerous journal articles. He is also a consultant to two of the three NIDCR-funded Practice-Based Research Networks. He is a past president of the Behavioral Science/Health Services Research Group of the International Association for Dental Research and was a member of the Health Services Research and Dissemination Study Section for AHCPR.

Former Editor of the Journal of Dental Education(1986-2001), Dr. Bader is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Dental Association for Evidence-Based Dental Practice. He completed his DDS, MPH and Certificate in Dental Public Health at the University of Michigan.

Chief Dental Officer, Delta Dental of Massachusetts

Dr. Compton has been responsible for quality improvement effort sat Delta Dental over the past decade. Compton has helped guide the creation of an oral health foundation, a research dental center and an oral health institute, all focused on improving oral health. He is a leader in the movement to make dental benefits more evidence-based in the Delta Association, is Co-Director of the DSM-Forsyth Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry, and has been a leading force in changing the Medicaid program in Massachusetts.

Dental Director and Senior Vice President, HealthPartners, Inc. Dental Group

Since Feb. 2008, Dr. Gesko has been with HealthPartners, a family of nonprofit, consumer-governed health care organizations in Minnesota, which provide health care services, insurance, and HMO coverage to nearly 660,000 members.

Prior to joining HealthPartners, Dr. Gesko was the Associate Dental Director for Permanente Dental Associates (PDA) / Kaiser Permanente in Portland, OR for 20 years. PDA employs 120 dentists and operates 17 dental offices.

Dr. Gesko attended Montana State University in Bozeman, MT prior to his dental education at the University of Minnesota. After receiving his DDS degree, he completed a residency in General Practice at the Veterans Association Medical Center in Portland, OR. Following that, he operated a private dental practice in Bozeman, MT.

Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Dentistry, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington DC

Dr. Ward is a graduate of Marquette Univ. School of Dentistry and received a Masters Degree in Education at Bradley University. He has completed residencies in General Practice at the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ward has been an active clinician and has served as Chief of Dental Service and as a Clinical Champion for the introduction and implementation of the VA Electronic Medical Record. He has presented over 100 lectures to diverse audiences on managing the medically compromised dental patient and has been involved in the clinical and didactic education of dental and medical students, residents, and practicing clinicians.

He developed and implemented a two-year VA Fellowship for physicians and PhD scientists in War Related Illnesses and Injuries while in the VA Office of Academic Affiliations. In his present position, Dr. Ward recently established quality monitors and evidence-based guidelines of dental care for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a staff Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon at the Washington VA Medical Center.