To carry forward the engaging programs of the Health Career Collaborative, we have assembled an exceptional team of health care professionals, physicians, public health educators, school administrators, teachers, and students. The group has a wealth of knowledge and expertise and brings together a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences and insights. In team meetings and planning sessions, there is a high level of collaboration, thoughtful listening, and great energy. Everyone shares perspectives and contributes ideas to build highly effective and inspiring presentations and learning activities for all participants.
We are grateful for the support of Main Line Health and the Intuitive Foundation whose generosity has made it possible to build and grow the Health Career Collaborative. We are also grateful to other private funders who have enabled the sustainability of this work.
Health Career Collaborative Executive Team
Barry D. Mann, MD, FACS, is System Medical Director for Equity for the Main Line Health System in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania and Professor of Surgery at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Mann also served as Program Director of the Lankenau Medical Center Surgical Residency.
Dr. Mann has received national recognition for his work in surgical education, including the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Robert P. Glaser Distinguished Teacher of Medicine Award from the American Association for Medical Colleges and the Outstanding Teacher of Surgery Award from the Association for Surgical Education. He is a past president of the Association for Surgical Education. Dr. Mann’s textbook entitled SURGERY: A Competency-Based Companion, published by Elsevier, has become a medical textbook series with volumes in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics and Medicine for which Dr. Mann serves as series’ editor. For the past decade, in his role as Executive Director of the Annenberg Center for Medical Education at Lankenau Medical Center, Dr. Mann has been instrumental in the development of the Main Line Health Healthcare Disparities Colloquium. In 2008, Dr. Mann initiated an educational enrichment program designed to help disadvantaged high school students develop the skills necessary to explore and pursue careers in health care. This program has grown to become the Health Career Academy.
Liana Gefter, MD, MPH is the National Director for the Health Career Collaborative. Dr. Gefter brings over twenty years of experience in developing partnerships between medical schools and underserved schools. Dr. Gefter received her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and her master of public health degree from the University of California Berkeley.
Prior to medical school, she served for three years as a Teach for America corps member in East Palo Alto, CA where she taught elementary and middle school and was awarded the Unsung Hero award – a national teaching award for excellence in teaching. As an undergraduate Women, Gender, and Ethnic Studies major, Dr. Gefter’s thesis work involved extensive qualitative and epidemiologic research with girls in juvenile detention. Dr. Gefter also works for Stanford School of Medicine in the Center for Education and Research in Family and Community Medicine where she developed the Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program partnering medical residents with underserved high schools. Her Stanford program is now being implemented nationally and internationally. Her primary areas of interest include healthcare disparities, education equity, medical education, and community partnership.
John W. Gruber is a senior faculty member in the Upper School Science Department at Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, PA. John holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a graduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy.
With 25 years of teaching experience, John has led the design and implementation of integrated science curricula at many different student levels. In 2001, he was a Teacher Recognition Awardee in the United States Presidential Scholars Program. As a long-time student of evolutionary biology and natural history he is particularly interested in ways to incorporate laboratory research, field research and service learning into the secondary school classroom. John serves as the Director of the Distinguished Visiting Scientist Program at Friends’ Central and also coordinates the Advanced Summer Science Institute. In addition to his work and research as an educator and administrator, he is involved in an active research program in insect ecology and the systematic biology of moth species in collaboration with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. John also serves on the Board of Directors of Next Step Integral, a non-profit organization.
Chinwe R. Onyekere, MPH. Ms. Onyekere’s professional experience has provided her with the unique opportunity to develop a keen understanding of how to create and manage programs that have the potential for far-reaching impact on people’s health, the quality of care they receive, and the systems that provide that care.
During her tenure as a Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ms. Onyekere focused on reducing health care disparities, reversing the childhood obesity epidemic, and identifying innovative ideas for breakthroughs in health and health care. After RWJF, Ms. Onyekere served as the Executive Director for Health Leads New York, where she had the opportunity to establish a new model of health care delivery, in which patients’ unmet resource needs are addressed as a standard element of patient care. In her current role as Associate Administrator at Lankenau Medical Center and System Administrator for Graduate Medical Education for Main Line Health, Ms. Onyekere is responsible for implementing innovative models for primary care medicine at Lankenau Medical Associates and Lankenau Obstetrics and Gynecology Care Center, overseeing the financial graduate medical enterprise, as well as building relationships with community-based organizations in the Philadelphia area. Throughout her career, Ms. Onyekere has been committed to transforming the way health care is delivered locally and nationally to improve the health outcomes of all underserved and low-income communities. Ms. Onyekere received her Master of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, a Certificate in Business Essentials from Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College. Ms. Onyekere was nominated and awarded the 2015 Forum Award for Emerging Women Leaders by The Forum of Executive Women. Ms. Onyekere currently serves on the Board for Maternity Care Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving maternal and child health and wellbeing in Pennsylvania. She also serves on the board for North Penn Community Health Foundation, a health foundation that identifies, selects, and invests in programs and agencies that will improve the health, welfare and quality of life of Montgomery County residents.