Education Conference

Sheri Johnson, PhD, is Director of the Population Health Institute and Professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Johnson is a clinical child psychologist and has worked within multiple sectors to improve health and equity. Her research utilizes community engaged approaches to improve population health. Her teaching focuses on helping learners understand the connections between racism and health. Dr. Johnson is Principal Investigator of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program, with funding support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She previously served as Administrator and State Health Officer for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Director of Behavioral Health Services at Milwaukee Health Services Inc., a federally qualified health center. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a Board member of Frameworks Institute and a volunteer mentor for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Milwaukee. She completed undergraduate studies at Brown University; earned an M.A. and PhD in clinical psychology at Boston University and served as a Clinical Fellow in Psychology at Harvard Medical School.

Farah Kaiksow, MD, MPP, FHM, is a faculty member in the Division of Hospital Medicine within the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). She obtained her medical degree from UWSMPH, completed her internal medicine residency at Tulane University in New Orleans, and holds a Master of Public Policy degree from UCLA. As a practicing hospitalist, she provides acute care to adult patients in inpatient settings at the VA and UW Health hospitals. Dr. Kaiksow provides clinical instruction to medical students and residents on the inpatient wards and in the classroom. She teaches "The Intersection of Incarceration and Health," an elective course for medical students that includes topics such as conducting research with the correctional system, infection control, addiction and mental health, and caring for chronic conditions after release. Dr. Kaiksow is core faculty for both the Health Equity and Global Health Pathways of the Internal Medicine Residency program. She is a member of the Department of Medicine's Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee; affiliate faculty at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health's Center for Health Disparities Research; and serves on the School's Group on Women in Medicine & Science Steering Committee. Her scholarly interests include health inequities and how public and health policy can reduce these inequities. Her previous work examined the financial implications of Medicare hospitalization policies on patients of different socioeconomic status. She is currently studying the impact of incarceration on health, particularly among the aging population of incarcerated individuals. She is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

Corina Norrbom, MD, is an Assistant Professor at Medical College of Wisconsin-Central Wisconsin. She co-directs the Physician in the Community course, through which she mentors students in community-engaged scholarly projects. She is also Health Policy Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service. She has led local and statewide projects to advance health equity and is currently Project Director for the Hmong and Hispanic Communication Network (H2N) and Rural Resiliency Network (R2N) projects. She is also the Co-PI for the Advocates in Medicine Pathway (AMP) program, an MCW-CW pipeline program targeting Hmong and rural undergraduate students. She was the recipient of the 2021 MCW President’s Community Engagement Award, 2021 YWCA Woman of Vision award, and 2022 United Way of Marathon County Advocate of the Year. Dr. Norrbom practiced full-spectrum Family Medicine in northeast Wisconsin for 12 years and has worked as a rural general practice doctor in New Zealand. She is a graduate of Washington University School of Medicine. She is Board certified in Family Medicine.

Sonal Chandratre, MD, is the Regional Medical Director South East subdivision at Aspirus Medical Group and Chief Medical Officer at Aspirus Stevens Point Hospital. She is a practicing Pediatric Endocrinologist working at Aspirus Stevens Point Hospital, Stevens Point, Wis. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and has a strong leadership background in medical education serving as founding clinical course director for multiple clinical courses in the previous years. She takes lead on community-specific initiatives for betterment of children’s health. She is a public speaker on a wide variety of health and medical education-related topics and has represented physicians in panel discussions, newspapers, radio and television. She has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals on pediatric endocrinology, medical education and health care. She has also authored 2 books and plans on publishing more. Her first book is titled “How To Get Published Without Doing Research” in which she highlights the different publication categories that require minimal to no data collection and gives step-by-step templates in developing manuscripts. Her second book is an out-of-the-box children’s picture book focused on healthy weight and preventing childhood obesity titled “Kids, C'mon Let's Get Healthy! A complete kid’s guide to a healthy lifestyle.” In this children’s picture book, Dr. Chandratre has simplified helpful medical information with illustrations and presented it in a positive, kid-friendly and interactive way to help them willingly embrace a healthy lifestyle.

Sarah Brown, MD, MPH, is a family medicine physician practicing primary care at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wis. She grew up in Southeast Wisconsin in a large multiracial family in poverty. She completed medical school at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She led the Latinx cultural adaptation of cancer education programming and community based-participatory research through UWCCC's Cancer Health Disparities Initiative. As a physician leader of Gundersen's Social Determinants of Health team, Dr. Brown helped to launch an EMR-based screening tool and an integrated system response to patient needs with volunteer community resource connectors. She currently leads Mobile Medicine, an innovative medical education partnership between the health system and a local free clinic, to provide direct medical care to unhoused patients and migrant workers while teaching medical learners.

Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, was elected president-elect of the American Medical Association in June 2022. He is a senior associate dean, tenured professor of anesthesiology and director of the “Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment” at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He was elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees in 2014.

Dr. Ehrenfeld divides his time among clinical practice, teaching, research and directing a $560-million statewide health philanthropy. He also has an appointment as an adjunct professor of anesthesiology and health policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and as an adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Ehrenfeld is a consultant to the World Health Organization Digital Health Technical Advisory Group and previously served as co-chair of the Navy Surgeon General’s Taskforce on Personalized and Digital Medicine and as a special advisor to the 20th U.S. Surgeon General.

Dr. Ehrenfeld’s research focuses on understanding how information technology can improve surgical safety and patient outcomes. For the past two decades, Dr. Ehrenfeld has advocated on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals. In 2018, in recognition of his outstanding research contributions, he received the inaugural Sexual and Gender Minority Research Investigator Award from the director of the NIH.

Dr. Ehrenfeld is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Haverford College, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health. Board-certified in both anesthesiology and clinical informatics, Dr. Ehrenfeld is a fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Medical Informatics Association.

Dr. Osborne, a Family Physician, has held leadership positions in the clinical and payor space over the past 10 years. She has been a Clinical Associate Professor at Brown University in the Department of Family Medicine and has been a Family Medicine advocate to both State legislature for Rhode Island as well as in Washington DC. Having worked with underserved populations at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and a Healthcare for the homeless site, Dr. Osborne has a special interest in the social determinants of health and how they affect the health and wellbeing of members. She also brings experience of continuous quality improvement and application of lean methodologies in healthcare with the Quadruple Aim as the goal. Dr. Osborne also continues to provide clinical Addiction Medicine care to patients.

Dr. Osborne received her MBBS from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad, completed her Family Medicine training at the Residency Program in Family and Social Medicine (RPSM) at Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York and earned her Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the George Washington University, Washington DC. She is double Board Certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine. A Certified Physician Executive (CPE - American Association of Physician Leadership) she also has Certification from the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians (ABQAURP).

Karen Watson, MD, FACOG, is an OB-GYN at Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital - St. Joseph’s Campus and leads efforts for continuous improvement regarding maternal and infant health and has implemented innovative models for hospital-based care for obstetric patients. Dr. Watson is Chair OBGYN Peer review and Quality Committee St. Joseph’s Milwaukee and Elmbrook Memorial Hospital and a member of St. Joseph’s Milwaukee Campus Leadership Committee, Ascension Wisconsin Perinatal Workgroup and St Joseph’s OB Practice Committee.

Jeff Huebner, MD, is the Lead Medical Officer for the Wisconsin Medicaid program at the Department of Health Services. Medicaid (BadgerCare) currently serves over one million people in the state by providing health insurance and other health programs for low-income residents, and partners with health systems and public health in their health equity work. Dr. Huebner brings important family medicine perspective and population health experience into his Medicaid work, and believes Medicaid can drive the transformation to integrate medical and social care and achieve better health for all in our nation.

Prior to this role, Dr. Huebner served for seven years as the Medical Director in UW Health’s Office of Population Health, where he worked to improve care and lower costs for patient populations at risk for poor health outcomes due to medical complexity and structural barriers to health. Dr. Huebner’s leadership contributed to the launch of home-based primary care, the current clinical pharmacist program, and Connect Rx. His team also contributed to the expansion of Collaborative Care across UW Health’s entire primary care system and recently launched an initiative to expand advance care planning. He trained at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Washington Family Medicine residency, and has held many health policy internships and leadership advocacy roles throughout his career, including current service on the Board of Doctors for America.

Kalifa Wright, MPH, is a first-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and serves as the 2023 AMA-DCMS Student Representative. In 2018, she graduated from Columbia University, with an MPH in Health Policy and Management and Global Health after earning a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. Kalifa is dedicated to improving health care accessibility, particularly for historically marginalized populations. Through collaborations with researchers, policymakers, health professionals and community leaders, Kalifa has led and published research analyzing the barriers to accessing care in international and domestic health care settings. Her work has included evaluations of structural barriers to maternal and child health in Ghana, reproductive justice on the U.S-Mexico border and barriers to sexual and reproductive health care for youth in South and East Africa through her fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control. Her most recent work as a senior research analyst at the Center for Health Information and Analysis unfolded a major publication analyzing the intersection between race/ethnicity and emergency department over-utilization in Massachusetts. Kalifa looks forward to collaborating with members at DCMS to bridge the gaps between health policy, research and clinical care in Wisconsin.