David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM is a specialist in Internal Medicine, Preventive Medicine/Public Health, and Lifestyle Medicine, with particular expertise in nutrition.

He earned his BA at Dartmouth College (1984); his MD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1988); and his MPH from the Yale University School of Public Health (1993).  He completed sequential residency training and board certification in Internal Medicine (1991) and Preventive Medicine/Public Health (1993).

Katz is the founder and former director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (1998-2019), where he secured and managed roughly $40M in research funding.  He is Past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; Founder of the non-profit True Health Initiative; and Founder and CEO of Diet ID, Inc, acquired in 2023 by Tangelo, an award-winning food-as-medicine company, where he now serves as Chief Medical Officer.  He also serves as a senior science advisor to Blue Zones and Blue Zones Health.

Katz held faculty positions at the Yale schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing.  He cared for patients in the context of primary care Internal Medicine and an innovative model of Integrative Medicine for roughly 30 years, receiving awards for both clinical care and bedside teaching.  He served as a residency director in both Preventive Medicine and evidence-based Integrative Medicine.  He was the lead architect of the nation’s first fully accredited, combined training program in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine.  Katz was the inaugural editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal, Childhood Obesity, serving in that role for 5 years.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine; the American College of Physicians; the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; and Morse College, Yale University.

The recipient of numerous awards for teaching, writing, and contributions to public health, Katz was a 2019 James Beard Foundation Award nominee in health journalism, has been a widely supported nominee for the position of U.S. Surgeon General, and has received three honorary doctorates.  He is a 2023 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Doctors’ World Gala, and the 2024 recipient of the President’s Award from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Katz has an extensive media portfolio, having served as a nutrition columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine; an on-air contributor for ABC News/Good Morning America; and with appearances on most major news programs and contributions to most major magazines and leading newspapers, including OpEds in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  He is one of the original 150 “Influencers” selected by LinkedIN, and has a social media following of nearly one million.

He holds multiple U.S. patents; has roughly 250 peer-reviewed publications; has published many hundreds of on-line and newspaper columns; and has authored/co-authored 19 books to date including multiple editions of leading textbooks in nutrition, preventive medicine, and epidemiology. His most recent book for a general audience, How to Eat, co-authored with Mark Bittman, was a 2021 IACP Awards finalist.

His career-long focus has been the translation of science into action for the addition of years to life, and life to years, and on the confluence of human and planetary health.

On the COVID pandemic, he advocated consistently for a policy of total harm minimization (https://www.truehealthinitiative.org/covid/) by means of risk-stratified interdiction efforts- and for addressing the “prior pandemic” of cardiometabolic disease that contributes so much to acute risk.  These views were extensively covered in the New York Times.  His commentary on lessons in the pandemic in the American Journal of Health Promotion  was recognized among the journal’s “Best Papers of 2024.”

Katz has presented at conferences in all 50 U.S. states and in multiple countries on six continents.  Represented by the Harry Walker Agency, he has been recognized by peers as the “poet laureate of health promotion.”

He and his wife, Catherine, live in Connecticut.  They have five grown children.

Dr. Dexter Shurney is the Chief Health Officer of Blue Zones, LLC, that helps enable cities, counties, and large employers to transform their environments helping people live better, longer. The work is based on the orginal Blue Zones research. He is also the President of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine Innovation (CLMI), a branch of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. CLMI is a hub for lifestyle medicine research, innovation, and thought leadership on identifying and eradicating the root causes of disease.

Additionally, he serves a Senior Advisor to Modify Health, an organization that combines Food as Medicine with creative value-based payment strategies.

Dr. Shurney’s unique business expertise comes from varied roles he has performed over his career as a senior healthcare executive. Most recently he served as President, Blue Zones Wellbeing Institute, focused on applied population health research including SDoH and food as medicine (FAM).

Other former roles have included Chief Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer for Adventist Health, Vice President, Chief Medical Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director of Globlal Employee Benefits at Cummins, Inc., Chief Medical Director, Employee Health Plan at Vanderbilt University and Medical Center, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer at Healthways, and Senior Advisor Managed Care Strategy at Amgen. During his tenure at Vanderbilt, he held dual faculty appointments at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the Owens Graduate School of Business.

He is the Chair of the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) board representing 100+ large employer group members, and is a Past-President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). Under his leadership, ACLM launched a new provider education program for Blue Shield of California; led national conversations on provider payment reform and quality metrics; and spearheaded groundbreaking health disparity and equity efforts. He also serves as an independent director on several other boards including the Bon Secour Mercy Health Foundation, National Association of Managed Care Physicians (NAMCP), Population Health Alliance (PHA), and the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC).

Dr. Shurney is a highly regarded national authority on the health care industry with significant expertise in Food as Medicine, health insurance, employee health and well-being. He is also a well-regarded speaker at industry conferences and corporate events, and has appeared on NBC Today, in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, The Detroit Free Press, and numerous trade publications.

He is co-author of the book Integrating Wellness into Your Disease Management Programs a “how-to” strategic guide for employers that wish to innovate their approach to chronic condition management.

Dr. Shurney received his BS from Loma Linda University and his MD from Howard University College of Medicine. He also has an MBA and MPH from the University of Detroit/Mercy and the Medical College of Wisconsin, respectively. A licensed physician, he is board certified in both preventive medicine and in lifestyle medicine, and is a Fellow in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Richard A. Barasch has served decades as a pioneer in the healthcare industry. and currently serves as Chairman of The Oncology Institute (Nasdaq: TOI), a value-based oncology provider.

He is also the founder of RAB Ventures, LLC, which invests in growth healthcare companies. Portfolio companies include: HouseWorks LLC (personal home care), eCaring (technology for personal care agencies), Empassion Health (High Needs ACO Reach) and SecondWave (risk adjustment) Frontier Direct (Direct Primary Care) Cecelia Health( Metabolic Disease Management).

Richard was Chairman and CEO of Universal American from 1995 until its sale to WellCare Health Plans in April 2017. Universal American worked collaboratively with healthcare professionals, especially primary care physicians, to improve the health and well-being of Medicare beneficiaries and reduce unnecessary healthcare costs.

A member of the Advisory Board of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the National Advisory Board of the Health Policy and Management program at Mailman, Richard is also on the board of Community Health Network, an FQHC in New York City.

Richard is a graduate of Swarthmore College (1976) and Columbia University Law School (1979) where he was an Editor of the Law Review. He currently serves on the Advisory board of the Law School and is a Lecturer in Law.

Ben Leedle is a visionary leader with more than 30 years’ experience transforming population health and creating world-class companies. He currently leads Blue Zones, LLC, as President and CEO and serves on its Board of Managers. Blue Zones uses evidence-based methods to help people in communities across the country live better, longer.
Ben served as President and CEO of Healthways, Inc. from 2003 to 2007, where he was the driving force behind transforming the company from a small business focused entirely on diabetes treatment to the world’s number one independent population health management company. His keen critical thinking skills led him to reinvent the company twice to meet evolving industry demands, scaling massive growth by leveraging state-of-the-art technology infrastructure.
He also used his talents to co-found both the Blue Zones Project and the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The Blue Zones Project conducts community transformation projects across the country, helping more and more people realize the benefits of living longer, better, while the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index conducts U.S. state measurements and analyses to determine how a region’s culture and lifestyle contribute to its overall health.

Ben Quirk is Chief Executive Officer of Blue Zones Health. His expertise is scaling healthcare companies focused on primary care and technology enabled platforms. In 2022, Ben was recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Innovators. During his time at CareMax, Ben was responsible for growing one of the largest independent senior care platforms in the country. Upon meeting a pioneer in lifestyle medicine, Ben left CareMax to found Blue Zones Health. At Blue Zones Health, Ben created a new economic model prioritizing primary care, support services, and preventive medicine to shift costs away from expensive unnecessary disease progression, such as hospitalizations, to tackle chronic conditions proactively.

Ben is passionate about making healthcare equitable for all people. He believes by focusing on improving people’s quality of life, especially the underserved, we can improve health outcomes at the individual and societal level. With this mindset, Ben fostered the formation of Blue Zones Health to accelerate positive change in the healthcare industry by providing this new value-based economic model to employers and government payers, and help deliver care with a patient-centric, provider-empowered approach. Ben’s hope is that eventually the whole world will become Blue Zones certified because people will have the ability to access care that supports their ability to Live Better, Longer™.

Benjamin P. Barasch is the founder and managing partner of Boro Partners. Boro is a private investment fund focusing initially on real estate debt but has expanded to include healthcare investments on both the equity and debt sides.
Ben graduated from Yale College in 2014 and started his career at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division. He went on to become Vice President and Co-Head of Acquisitions & Originations at Urban Standard Capital, working there for 6 years. After his successful tenure at Urban, he launched Boro Partners in 2021 and has been recently laser focused on the underappreciated cross section of healthcare and real estate.

Graham Gallaher has worked as a financial services professional and principal investor since 2015. He began his career as a financial analyst in Houlihan Lokey’s financial restructuring group. From there, he served as an associate for Crescent Capital Group LP until 2019, when he joined Corbel Capital Partners. He is now Vice President. Graham’s responsibilities include sourcing and evaluating new investments and serving on boards of Corbel portfolio companies across numerous industries.

Graham is excited to be part of Blue Zones Health and help bring a truly differentiated approach to value-based care. His hobbies include spending time with his flat-coated retriever Oscar and flying small planes.

Brian Yoon’s career in finance as a principal investor and investment banker covers more than 15 years. Brian currently serves as a Managing Director and Investment Committee Member at Corbel Capital Partners, a lower middle market private investment firm.

He began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Bank of America. From there, he joined Deerpath Capital Management, where he headed the West Coast origination and investment efforts.

Brian earned his B.S. in Finance and Management from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles.