Joshua Chodosh, MD, MSHS, holds the inaugural endowed Michael L. Freedman Professor of Geriatric Research in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care in the Department of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine. He is Professor of Medicine and Population Health at NYU, Director of the Freedman Program on Aging and Cognition, and Co-Director for the NYU Aging Incubator initiative. He is also a core investigator in the VA HSR&D program at the Manhattan VA. Dr. Chodosh is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and was on faculty as a Professor of Medicine at UCLA until he was recruited to NY in 2015. He has held a number of leadership roles both regionally and nationally focused on healthcare policy impacting the quality of care for patients with chronic disease, particularly those with dementia. Dr. Chodosh served as Chair of the State of California Alzheimer’s and related Dementias Advisory Committee and co-chaired a statewide effort leading to the California State Plan for Alzheimer’s disease. The California Plan has provided a model for other state plans and the National Alzheimer’s Project Act. Dr. Chodosh has lead multiple implementation trials including a VA dementia assessment and care management program using clinical video-telehealth for rural-based Veterans with dementia that is poised to spread nationally. In addition to being an NIH-funded investigator, Dr. Chodosh is a co-Director of a $7.5 million State of NY Department of Health service grant to develop and coordinate caregiver services for family members of those with dementia living in all five boroughs of New York City.

Simona C. Kwon, DrPH, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Section for Health Equity, Departments of Population Health and Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Kwon is a social epidemiologist whose research examines the social and cultural contextual factors that influence health and health outcomes among racial and ethnic communities with a particular focus on Asian Americans. Using a social determinants of health framework, Dr. Kwon engages in the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based strategies in community settings with a focus on assessing cultural relevancy and impact, and identifying innovative channels to disseminate and translate findings and outcomes for priority end-users. She works collaboratively and in partnership with multi-sectorial coalitions made up of local and national community-based organizations, governmental agencies, service delivery organizations and multi-disciplinary researchers to address community-level health disparities. Dr. Kwon directs the NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities-funded, Center for the Study of Asian American Health and is a co-principal investigator on the CDC-funded REACH FAR Project with the aim to implement and disseminate sustainable policy, systems, and environmental-level strategies to address chronic disease health disparities among Asian American communities in the NYC/NJ area. She was awarded her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Yale University, her doctorate in the Division of Sociomedical Sciences from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, and served as a W.K. Kellogg Community Scholars Post-doctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health Behavior & Society.

Jeanine Wong is the Director of the Caregiver Services Program at Hamilton-Madison House in New York City. Jeanine received her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Argosy University in Oahu, Hawaii. Her clinical experiences include: Behavioral Health Specialist for the Hawaii Department of Education; a mental health group counselor at the Hawaii Kai Retirement Home and a counselor at Catholic Charities in Hawaii in their sex offender program. Jeanine is currently a licensed Marriage and Family therapist in New York and Hawaii.

Lakshman Kalasapudi is the Deputy Director at India Home, a nonprofit serving vulnerable South Asian seniors in Queens. He oversees the day to day activities of India Home including program management, external relations, fiscal management, new program development, and administration. He has worked in the New York City South Asian community for a number of years on issues such as queer rights, HIV/AIDS education, and housing issues.