The biggest impediment to career transition is inertia.
Meet Our Conference Faculty
Our faculty consists of your colleagues who have transitioned to a non-clinical career and will discuss the opportunities available in their field or industry. Many of our faculty members are alumni of the conference.
Maryam S. Abbasi, MD is an experienced freelance medical writer. She has worked on a wide variety of assignments including writing hundreds of journal article summaries, creating materials for advisory board meetings with key stakeholders, and editing and reviewing the quality of over 700 research abstracts for a nationwide OB/GYN conference.
JP Ahluwalia, MD, MPH is the Chief of Occupational Medicine for the United States Coast Guard in Washington, DC, and a Commander with the US Public Health Service. In this role, he is responsible for the occupational health and safety of over 50,000 active duty Coast Guard members. Previously Dr. Ahluwalia served as a Medical Officer with the FDA where he was responsible for monitoring the safety of approved biologic products including vaccines. Dr. Ahluwalia spent 8 years in the Army, including a tour with the 82nd Airborne Division in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is a Fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Preventative Medicine, and Board Certified in Public Health and General Preventative Medicine. He received his BA and MD from Ohio State and his MPH from Johns Hopkins.
Nicole Bamba, MD has experience in medical communications as both a freelancer and an employee (Medical Director). She started her career straight out of a neurology residency by working as a senior copyrighter for Grey Healthcare Group. Dr. Bamba’s subsequent experience includes VP, Associate Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs at Cline, Davis and Mann, Medical Director at Pixacore, Senior Medical Writer at Avant Healthcare, and currently as a home-based Freelance Medical Director at Area 23 on Hudson. Dr. Bamba is the mother of two young children. Her husband is an emergency medicine physician who also transitioned to a work from home non-clinical medical director role with a major insurance company. Dr. Bamba earned her BA from Duke and her MD from the University of Chicago.
David J. Berube, MD, MPH serves as Chief Medical Officer, VP at Lincoln Financial Group. He is also an assistant clinical professor at both Yale and UConn. He has vast experience in the field of disability insurance including Chief Medical Officer, VP, Liberty Mutual Benefits and National Medical Director, Group Insurance at Aetna. Dr. Berube completed his Occupational and Environmental Medicine Fellowship at Yale and earned his MD at the University of Vermont and his BA at Wesleyan.
Robert J. Cooper, MD, FACE, FACP is very active in non-clinical pursuits including knowledge company consulting, file review consulting, and expert witnessing. He is boarded in both endocrinology and internal medicine, is clinically active and is a graduate of SUNY StonyBrook and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University. He is a SEAK alumnus.
Michael DePietro, MD is the Respiratory Therapeutic Area Lead, Global Medical Affairs for Teva Pharmaceuticals, having previously served as a Senior Medical Director — Respiratory for AstraZeneca. In this role he leads the global medical affairs respiratory activities for the respiratory portfolio including the development of the connected respiratory digital inhaler program. This includes conduct of late phase clinical studies, health and outcomes research, and strategic medical support to other functions within Teva. Dr. DePietro is a Board-Certified Pulmonary Critical Care physician. Prior to his work in pharma he was a partner in a large pulmonary critical care group practice at Christiana Care Health Services were he was an ICU director, clinical investigator, and residency program faculty member, and clinical Assistant professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine. He earned his BS at the University of Scranton and his MD at Hahnemnann.
Morayo Fakiya, MD, CPHQ, CPPS, CLSSBB is the CEO and Founder of ORET Healthcare Enterprise which uses multiple innovative strategies (including population health improvement, clinical business intelligence, and capacity building) to promote quality and patient safety. Previously, she served as the Director of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at Howard University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Fakiya is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, a Certified Professional in Patient Safety, and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. She is board certified in both internal medicine and obesity medicine and is a SEAK alumna.
Glenda E Flemister, MD, FACP, FCCP has extensive experience in the health insurance field including over 10 years as a Medical Director with Aetna as well as experience as a Medical Director for BCBS Association and Chief Medical Officer of a patient management company that became a managed care organization. Dr. Flemister is triple board certified (Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine). She earned her bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois and her MD from Loyola of Chicago. Dr. Flemister currently serves as a consultant and expert witness. She is a SEAK alumna.
Ziad Gellad, MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder of Higgs Boson, Inc. a digital healthcare company that provides seamless patient engagement for better outcomes and practice efficiencies and whose products include Manage My Surgery. He is a Johns Hopkins and Duke-trained gastroenterologist with a passion for improving healthcare quality and value. Dr. Gellad is a practicing gastroenterologist, health services researcher, physician executive, and entrepreneur. In each role, his commitment to the patient and the patient experience has been central. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke where he also serves as Associate Vice Chair for Ambulatory Services in the Department of Medicine.
Carrie Holland, MD is a health and fitness coach who is the founder of mywhyfitness.net. She is a certified personal trainer who works with busy professionals, parents, and high achievers on diet, exercise and wellness. Dr. Holland is a board-certified family physician who still maintains a clinical practice. She has trained as an Integrative Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Dr. Holland is the mother of 2 small children and is a competitive body builder. She is a SEAK alumna.
Julia Pewitt Kinder, DO is a highly experienced and sought after career consultant who specializes in working with physicians to teach the exact steps to find a new career (www.physiciancareeropportunities.com). She is also a medical director for a national health plan, medical director for a hospice company, and international consultant to families of children with Down syndrome. Dr. Kinder is Board Certified in Family Practice. A SEAK alumna, she now serves as SEAK faculty, co-teaching “How to Start, Build, and Run a Successful Consulting Practice.”
Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM, MMCi is the Assistant Chief Medical Officer at Duke Regional Hospital (part of Duke University Health System). Dr. Lovins is also a practicing Hospitalist. His IT experience includes implementing a $1B EHR for a 1,500 bed, 2,000 physician health system and being the lead physician for EHR adoption, training, content creation, and optimization. Dr. Lovins earned his BA at Clark University in MA and his MD at University of Connecticut and completed a Masters of Management in Clinical Informatics at Duke University School of Medicine. He is board certified in Clinical Informatics and a Senior Fellow in Hospital Medicine.
Christine R. Mauro, MD, MMSc is a remote-based Senior Global Medical Director for Stryker. Previously she served as Medical Director, Minimally Invasive Therapies Group for Medtronic. Dr. Mauro received her BA from Arizona State, her MD from Minnesota, and her MMSc from Harvard Medical School. She trained in general surgery and completed a vascular surgery postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard-affiliated institutions. Dr. Mauro is married to a practicing general surgeon and they are the proud parents of two small children. She lives in the beautiful Berkshires of far western Massachusetts.
Laura McKain, MD has enjoyed an extremely successful non-clinical career since transitioning from her OB/Gyn clinical work. She spent 8 years at the CRO PPD where she started as a medical monitor/safety physician and was later promoted to senior medical director where she built and led a global team of safety physicians. Later, Dr. McKain served as a senior medical director with Myovant Sciences. Dr. McKain currently serves as a Pharma/Biotech consultant and as an OB/GYN volunteer at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. Dr. McKain is a thought leader on non-clinical and alternative careers for physicians and is the founder and moderator of the highly-acclaimed Physician Nonclinical Career Hunter Facebook Group.
Elizabeth McMurtry, DO, FACEP is an emergency medicine physician who has transitioned to become the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education and Faculty Development at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she is also an adjunct clinical faculty member. Previously, Dr. McMurtry served as the Regional Dean for the Walla Walla Core Site. Dr. McMurtry received her BS from California Baptist University and her DO from Des Moines University. She is a SEAK alumna.
Dr. Alisa Niksch is Chief Medical Officer of Genetesis, Inc., a company which has created a novel cloud-connected and AI-powered cardiac diagnostics and imaging platform. She is a trained pediatric cardiologist and electrophysiologist, practicing at Tufts Medical Center since 2010. She has been an advisor and researcher for multiple digital health startup companies like AliveCor, Inc., Zephyr Technologies, MindChild Medical, and Sproutling. She continues to be a mentor with programs such as MIT Hacking Medicine and MassChallenge HealthTech. She has authored articles in peer-reviewed journals on digital health and wearable technologies, and has spoken on the applications of AI in medicine and the experience of women in the technology sector. She is a graduate of The University of Virginia School of Medicine, and completed her fellowship training at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center and Stanford/UCSF Medical Centers.
Steven W. Parkes, MD, MBA, MPH, PCC is the President and Founder of the Clinician Coaching Institute, LLC (www.cliniciancoachinginstitute.com), the leading professional development and coaching resource for physicians. Dr. Parkes is a board-certified emergency medicine physician who successfully practiced and co-managed a busy 40 physician Emergency Department practice, EMPact Emergency Physicians. He first discovered the transformative power of the coaching process from working with his own coach to realize and escape habits leading to frustration and burnout. Dr. Parkes holds five different coaching certifications and is a 15-time finisher of the Ironman Triathlon, including the world championship in Hawaii. He earned his MD from Rush, his MPH from Johns Hopkins, and his MBA from Notre Dame. He is based in the Chicago area where he resides with his family and three children. He is a SEAK alumnus.
Peter Perdik, MD is the co-founder and former President/CEO of Physicians Proactive Protection a Risk Retention Group. In this role he was involved in all aspects of running a medical malpractice insurance company. Dr. Perdik currently practices pulmonology. His current non-clinical professional activities include file reviews, independent medical examinations and expert witnessing. Dr. Perdik earned his BA from NYU and his MD from St.George’s in Grenada where he was present during Operation Urgent Fury in 1983.
Christina Rama, MD is the Executive Medical Director of the Continuum of Care at UpStream, and formerly served as the Chief of Hospital Medicine/Chief Physician Advisor at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina where she had a team of four physician advisors reporting to her. Dr. Rama started her healthcare career as a nurse, later attending medical school at Wake Forest.
Jihad (JR) Rizkallah, MD, MSL-BC is an MSL thought leader who serves on both the Advisory Board and the Certification Committee for the Medical Science Liaison Society. His long and successful career in industry includes stints at Parke-Davis, Warner-Lambert, Pfizer and Sunovion where he managed MSLs in the field. Dr. Rizkallah is a foreign medical graduate with expertise in many disease states. He earned his medical degree at the medical school of Athens, Greece and completed his residency in internal medicine prior to transitioning to non-clinical work in the U.S.A.
J. Bruce Robertson, MD, FACS, CPE, AME is a board certified urologist with diverse non-clinical experience including utilization review, disability review, being the founder, CEO, and chairman of a 2,000 member health insurance trust, life care planning, and aviation medical examinations. Dr. Robertson still practices urology but no longer performs major surgery. Dr. Robertson earned his BA at the University of Houston and his MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He is the former vice-chairman of the American Urological Association’s National Legislative Committee. Dr. Robertson is a SEAK Alumnus.
Maureen Watson, MD has been a licensed Realtor since 2016, first with Century 21 Scheetz and presently with eXp Realty. Dr. Watson’s real estate practice is part of her portfolio career of serving as a physician advisor for the Franciscan Alliance Health System and performing insurance reviews for a major health insurance company. Dr. Watson practiced radiology before transitioning to her non-clinical endeavors. She is currently writing two books on real estate. Dr. Watson earned her BA from DePauw and her MD from Indiana University.
Michael H. Wetzel, MD, DBIM, CLU is the Chief Medical Director for Equitable Life. Prior to Equitable Life, Dr. Wetzel was a VP, Medical Director with Prudential and an AVP, Associate Medical Director with the Hartford. He is board certified in Family Medicine and Insurance Medicine. Dr. Wetzel earned his BS at Penn State and his MD from Thomas Jefferson Medical College.
Tom Whalen, MD, MMM, FACHE spent 10 years as the chief medical officer of Lehigh Valley Health Network, retiring in 2021. Prior to transitioning to administration Dr. Whalen practiced as a pediatric surgeon with extensive experience in national leadership roles and in academic medicine. He earned his BA/MD from Boston University and his Masters of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Whalen currently serves as a physician executive coach as well as on multiple Boards.
Meet Our Conference Mentors
You will find our faculty very giving of their time and very willing to answer your individual questions after their presentations, at the networking functions and when not presenting. To increase your networking experience and increase one-on-one attention, we have also assembled a team of mentors to be available to talk one-on-one with the attendees (at no additional charge).
Deborah Appleyard, MD is an orthopedic spine surgeon, SEAK alumna and mother of 4 children. Dr. Appleyard’s non-clinical experience includes working in the medical device field for Johnson & Johnson, assisting with preauthorizations for a third-party administrator, and owning and managing residential real estate rental properties.
Ankush Bansal, MD is a hospitalist and SEAK alumnus with experience performing file reviews for multiple referral sources, serving as an expert witness, working locum tenens and working direct to consumer telemedicine for multiple services.
Ryan Bayley, MD is a successful physician coach. His company, Bayley Coaching Solutions (solvingcareers.com), focuses on helping physicians find joy again through career change, including transitions to non-clinical opportunities. More recently, his company has expanded its focus to also work with physicians specifically on the transition into coaching and building successful coaching practices. Dr. Bayley is a SEAK alumnus.
Joe Bormel, MD, MPH is an internist who has broad experience in the healthcare IT/informatics field including industry, regulatory policy, public health and independent consulting.
Robert Brown, MD is a radiologist and SEAK alumnus who has successfully rebooted his clinical practice such that he has ample time and energy to write, blog, teach and appear on television. He would love to help his mentees get control of their lives and find perspective and joy.
Stephanie Brown, MD is a coach who specialized in assisting professional women and physicians who feel there is something more for them in life. Dr. Brown is a family physician with over 20 years’ experience and a SEAK alumna.
Savi Chadha, MD, MPH is a senior regional medical manager and medical science liaison with Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He received his MD from St. James School of Medicine. Dr. Chadha is a SEAK alumnus.
M. Kwan Chan-House, MD, FAAP, CPC is a pediatrician and SEAK alumna who has experience with part-time contract utilization review, full time employed UM for Excellus BCBS, and most recently, in remote positions developing health insurance coverage criteria for both public and private medical insurance.
Michael DePietro, MD is the Respiratory Theraputic Area Lead, Global Medical Affairs for Teva Pharmaceuticals having previously served as a Senior Medical Director – Respiratory for AstraZeneca. Dr. DePietro is a very experienced pulmonary critical care physician with approximately 20 years of clinical practice experience including roles as ICU director, clinical investigator and medical educator.
Joseph Estwanik, MD is an orthopedic surgeon who now devotes his professional time to conducting independent medical examinations (IMEs). Dr. Estwanik is a SEAK alumnus.
Morayo Fakiya, MD, CPHQ, CPPS, CLSSBB is an internist and obesity medicine physician with significant non-clinical experience in patient safety and quality improvement. She is the CEO of ORET Healthcare Enterprise which provides mentoring, coaching, and wellness support to physicians. She is a SEAK alumna.
Judy L. Finney, MD, FACC has been an Associate Medical Director with Allstate Financial in Chicago since 2012 where her responsibilities mainly involve life insurance underwriting. Dr. Finney is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology.
Glenda E Flemister, MD, FACP, FCCP has extensive experience in the health insurance field, including over 10 years as a Medical Director with Aetna, and currently serves as a consultant and expert witness. She is a SEAK alumna.
John Golberg, MD is an orthopedic surgeon who retired from surgery in 2015 but maintains a part-time clinical practice and has developed a busy consulting business in the area of IMEs, utilization review and medical-legal file reviews. Dr. Golberg is a SEAK alumnus.
Richard Hahn, MD, FACC, FACP, FCCP is an internist and cardiologist and a SEAK alumnus. Dr. Hahn’s non-clinical pursuits include expert witness work as a causation expert and in the medical malpractice arena; social security disability consultant/reviewer; instructor on the local medical campus; and ABIM cardiology test question consultant.
Carrie Holland, MD is a health and fitness coach who is the founder of mywhyfitness.net. She is a certified personal trainer who works with busy professionals, parents, and high achievers on diet, exercise and wellness. She is a SEAK alumna.
Connie Innis, MD is a board-certified radiologist and SEAK alumna. Dr. Innis’ non-clinical experience includes serving as a physician reviewer for Lumetra, working for 3+ years for a startup which facilitated patients receiving 2nd opinions, and working for 3M HIS as a clinical transformation physician. Dr. Innis is currently developing a 1:1 clinician mentor & medical consultation practice.
Lisa S. Jenks, MD is the owner and Medical Director of Genesis MedSpa in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which she founded in 2007. Genesis MedSpa has won numerous awards and been named a Colorado top 100 woman-owned business.
Julia Pewitt Kinder, D.O. is a physician career consultant who specializes in working with fellow physicians to teach the exact steps to find a new career (www.physiciancareeropportunities.com). She is a SEAK alumna, and three-time SEAK keynote speaker. She is board-certified in family medicine and serves as medical director for a national health plan.
Laura McKain, MD has enjoyed an extremely successful non-clinical career since transitioning from her OB/Gyn clinical work. She spent 8 years at the CRO PPD where she started as a medical monitor/safety physician and was later promoted to senior medical director where she built and led a global team of safety physicians. Later, Dr. McKain served as a senior medical director with Myovant Sciences. Dr. McKain currently serves as a Pharma/Biotech consultant and as an OB/GYN volunteer at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. Dr. McKain is a thought leader on non-clinical and alternative careers for physicians and is the founder and moderator of the highly-acclaimed Physician Nonclinical Career Hunter Facebook Group.
Elizabeth McMurtry, DO, FACEP is an emergency medicine physician with experience in teaching and educational administration. She is a SEAK alumna.
Peter S. Moskowitz, MD, Executive Director of the Center for Professional & Personal Renewal (www.cppr.com), is a certified, nationally-recognized career transition and life coach for physicians, author, keynote lecturer, and workshop facilitator. His book, “The Three Stages of a Physician’s Career: Navigating from Training to Beyond Retirement” is a top seller. Dr. Moskowitz is Clinical Professor of Radiology, Emeritus, at Stanford University School of Medicine and a SEAK alumnus.
Robert Nordness, MD, MPH is a highly experienced pharma physician who has held diverse roles in various-sized companies such as Alexion, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Pfizer. Dr. Nordness is Triple-Board Certified (Emergency Medicine, Occupational Medicine, and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine).
Philip E. Newman, MD is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California – Irvine, where he teaches cardiology fellows. He also maintains a successful expert witness practice. Prior to his teaching career Dr. Newman practiced clinical medicine as an interventional cardiologist. Dr. Newman is a SEAK alumnus.
Shelley Overholt-Thiesen, MD is a 2017 SEAK alumna who began her non-clinical career as a Medical Director at Aledade in 2018. Aledade helps physicians provide timely and high-quality care at lower costs through the structure of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Shelley is now the VP of Savings Initiatives, impacting >1000 independent primary care practices in 37 states in 2022. Aledade has remote work openings for primary care physicians (FP, IM) as medical directors, and other non-clinical physician career opportunities for those with strong business backgrounds.
Steven W. Parkes, MD, MBA, MPH, PCC is the President and Founder of the Clinician Coaching Institute, LLC (www.cliniciancoachinginstitute.com), where he specializes in coaching physicians in career transformation and leadership development. He is a SEAK alumnus.
J. Bruce Robertson, MD, FACS, CPE, AME is a urologist and SEAK alumnus whose non-clinical experience includes utilization review, disability review, being the founder, CEO, and chairman of a 2,000-member health insurance trust, life care planning, and aviation medical examinations (AMEs).
Stanley Sack, MD is a recently retired pediatrician who now works as a freelance medical writer with experience in CME, blogging, and web content marketing. Dr. Sack is a SEAK alumnus.
Karyn L. Tapley, MD, MBA is an OB/GYN and SEAK alumnus whose non-clinical experience includes locum tenens, running a successful and growing medical spa, real estate, financial planning, serving as a yacht broker, and coaching physicians on the steps they can take to obtain personal and financial freedom, even if they have student loan debt or other challenges.
Jonathan Terry, DO, ABIHM, IFMCP is an employed and private practice psychiatrist whose non-clinical pursuits include expert witnessing, teaching at multiple medical schools, authoring children’s books, and consulting with non-profits and other physicians seeking to start or improve their private practices. Dr. Terry is a SEAK alumnus.
Maureen Watson, MD is a radiologist and poster child for successful non-clinical career transition. Her portfolio career includes serving as a full-time physician advisor for the Franciscan Alliance Health System, performing insurance chart reviews for a major health insurance company, and being a successful Realtor.
David Yeh, MD is a nuclear physician (still practices part time), investment professional and the author of the book “The Busy Doctor’s Investment Guide.” His Wealthy Doctor Institute, LLC, (www.wealthydoctorinstitute.com) is a registered investment advisor. Dr. Yeh also manages the Praetorian Archimedes, LP hedge fund for qualified investors. Dr. Yeh is a SEAK alumnus.