Education Conference

Dr. Padmini D. Ranasinghe is the Immediate Past President of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, and current Chair of the American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health. Trained in internal medicine, preventive medicine, epidemiology, and clinical informatics at Johns Hopkins, with an MPH from Yale, she brings more than two decades of involvement in organized medicine and public health.  A clinician in hospital medicine, educator, and researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Ranasinghe teaches and mentors medical students, residents, and public health trainees. Her research focuses on the intersection of public health, physician well-being, value-based care, disaster medicine, gender disparities in healthcare, and artificial intelligence in medicine. She also contributes to the American Medical Association’s national task forces on digital health, AI, and clinical informatics. She is a past chair of AMA's International Medical Graduate Section.  

Paula serves as the State Health Officer and Administrator of the Division of Public Health at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In this role she leads the vision for statewide public health and health equity strategies. The Division of Public Health includes the following eight Bureaus and Offices: Aging and Disability Resources, Communicable Diseases, Community Health Promotion, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Informatics, Operations, Policy and Practice Alignment, Preparedness and Emergency Health Care. Paula is proud to be from Wisconsin and to have completed her education and training in her home state. Her public health experience has focused on exploring and strategizing ways to embed health equity and empowerment concepts into public health practice, policies, and scholarship.

Through her tenure at a diverse range of non-profit, academic, and government organizations, she has led and developed community-engaged research projects, statewide health equity efforts and cross-sector alliances, and provided training and technical assistance to affect the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health to advance health equity. In 2023, Paula was named to the DeBeaumont Foundation’s National “40 Under 40 in Public Health” list.

Paula has her Master of Public Health degree and Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Weston is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He serves as Chief Health Policy Advisor for Milwaukee County working to enhance the health of one million citizens. In addition, Dr. Weston is the Chief Medical Director for the Milwaukee County Offi ce of Emergency Management, directing medical services for the 15 fi re departments throughout the county with over 150,000 annual patient encounters. He was recently among seven individuals selected as a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine. He practices clinically in the emergency department at Froedtert Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Dr. Weston’s local, regional and national leadership has centered on community and partner engagement to advance population health and organizational sustainability. Through strategic planning, eff ective communication, crisis management, and the fostering of public-private partnerships, Dr. Weston has spearheaded initiatives addressing health care access, substance use disorder, motor vehicle collisions, fi rearm injuries, and disease prevention. He has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and in Politico and The New York Times. He has provided medical oversight for events including NFL, NBA, MLB, Indycar, and USA Triathlon. He has been selected as Milwaukee Business Journal’s 40 under 40, named the Public Health Leader of the Year, and listed as “Best of Milwaukee” in Milwaukee Magazine.

Dr. Weston received his baccalaureate degree at Lawrence University, his medical degree and master of public health from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and completed his emergency medicine residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. A faculty physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin for over 10 years, Dr. Weston is dual board-certifi ed in Emergency Medicine as well as Emergency Medical Services by the American Board of Emergency Medicine after completing his Emergency Medical Services Fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Weston is an NIH funded researcher with interests including prehospital care, resuscitation, disease surveillance, and public health promotion.

Dr. White is a semi-retired clinical dermatologist who started his career in the Navy, then Airforce. In the Air Force, he was Medical Director for TRICARE, Region IV, was on the faculty at Wright State University School of Medicine, and commanded the 8th Medical Group in Pusan, Korea. In the Navy, Dr. White served as the solo ship's doctor, deployed aboard USS Trenton to the Mediterranean, as part of the US 6th Fleet. He was dermatology residency program director at Wright State University for six years and Chairman of Dermatology.

Dr. White transferred to Mayo Clinic in La Crosse and served as Chairman, Dermatology Department Community Practice Division for 10 years. He retired from Mayo at the end of 2020, managed the Covid Vaccination Clinics for La Crosse County in 2021, and has worked as a consultant at Neighborhood Family Clinics in Onalaska since July 2021.

Currently, Dr. White works in a small clinic, providing accessible and affordable dermatological care for people of all ages and walks of life, who suffer from skin diseases.

Dr. White served on the Wisconsin Medical Society Board of Directors for several years and is the Immediate Past President of La Crosse County Medical Society.