Extraordinary women advancing healthcare

Honoring remarkable leaders shaping
healthcare across Massachusetts

Overview

Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare (EWAH) Awards recognize ten outstanding individuals across the Commonwealth for their career achievements, with a focus on how they influence, innovate, and foster diversity through policy, practice and mentorship.

OVERVIEW

Each year, the Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare (EWAH) Awards recognize ten outstanding individuals across the Commonwealth for their career achievements, with a focus on how they influence, innovate, and foster diversity through policy, practice and mentorship.

NOMINATION ELIGIBILITY

Impact

Demonstrates impact advancing healthcare
Sponsors people and policies to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the industry
Showcases actions and leadership that result in measurable change and/or success
Uses influence and organization’s processes to advance healthcare

Inspire

Inspires and lifts others to strive to improve healthcare
Mentors others to advance women in healthcare
Leads in diversity and inclusion improvements within their organization and the community
Influences others in the larger community by words and actions

Innovate

Leads to drive changes, improvements, and/or new healthcare services
Brings new ideas and thinking to enrich healthcare in the community
Demonstrates a commitment to forward thinking projects and needs that will advance healthcare

NOMINATIONS

Nominations for the 2023 EWAH Awards are open! The deadline to submit a nomination is May 15, 2023.

Nominate

ENDORSING PARTNERS

Endorsing Partners are member-based organizations spanning the healthcare community, who commit to sharing the EWAH nominations and awards with their members and networks. They are a key component of the outreach strategy to ensure that a diverse pool of nominations is received.

Learn More about becoming an EWAH Endorser.

2022 Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare in Massachusetts

Helen Adeosun

CEO and Founder
CareAcademy

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Meg Aranow

Sr VP and Platform Evangelist
WELL Health

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Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD MPH

Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Endowed Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician
Boston Medical Center/ Boston University School of Medicine

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Sampurna Chatterjee, PhD, MBA

Cancer Scientist
Takeda Pharmaceuticals

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Eileen Davis

Director, Call2Talk; Vice President
Mass211

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Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH

CEO and President
Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians

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Lydia Pace

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Robyn Riseberg

Founder
Boston Community Pediatrics

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Kimberly A. Truong

Chief Equity Officer
MGH Institute of Health Professions

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Jo Viney

Founder, President & CEO
Seismic Therapeutic

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Past Honorees

Learn more about previous receipients of the Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare Awards.

2022

2021

2020

Watch Previous Awards Events

Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare Awards 2021

Presented on September 30, 2021

Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare Awards 2020

Presented on September 24, 2020

Thank you to our endorsers!

Questions about EWAH? Contact us.

Helen Adeosun

CEO AND FOUNDER, Careacademy

Helen Adeosun, CEO and Founder of CareAcademy, has built a career driving outcomes for adult learners and finding meaningful ways for them to engage in learning. She launched CareAcademy to unite cutting-edge education strategies with the unique needs of the historically underserved caregiver community. To date, nearly 300,000 learners have completed over 1.5 million CareAcademy classes, and the company is aiming to reskill more than 1 million new home-care workers by 2023. The company has been named one of the 100 most innovative Edtech Companies in North America by HolonIQ and was a prior global winner of the MIT Future of Work Challenge. In 2021, CareAcademy was ranked as an Inc. 5000 company, a recognition of America's fastest-growing private companies, and named one of Inc.'s Best in Business.
Adeosun has previously worked with Pearson Education, Teach for America, and the Boston Public Schools. She was named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list in 2020, one of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2021, and a winner of EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year New England Award and one of the Boston Globe’s inaugural Tech Power Players 50 in 2022. Helen serves on the board of the Caregiver Action Network and is a frequent industry speaker, a fierce champion of home care, and an advocate for the direct care worker.
Adeosun earned a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in Politics and Arabic Studies and holds an EdM. in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University.

Meg Aranow

SR VP AND PLATFORM EVANGELIST, WELL HEALTH

Meg is currently the Platform Evangelist at Well Health.

Previously she was the Chief Executive Officer for Edaris Health where she managed all corporate functions. From 2012-2015 she was with The Advisory Board’s Information Technology Strategy Council where she advised healthcare IT leaders on a broad array of topics with a specific research focus in BI and Analytics.

From 2009 to 2015 she served on the Massachusetts Healthcare IT Council. She was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick.

From 1997 to 2012, she was the Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Boston Medical Center, the teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. She joined BMC immediately following its creation from a merger of Boston City Hospital and University Hospital and led the IT transformation to a unified architecture and application portfolio. Periodically during her time at BMC she held additional positions as the interim CIO at Quincy Medical Center and the interim CIO at the Boston Public Health Commission (the health department for the City of Boston).

From 1988-1995 she was the Assistant Vice President of IT for Brigham and Women’s Hospital and from 1995-1997 she was the Corporate Director of Clinical Systems for Partner’s Healthcare. She had general responsibilities for the BWH IT department and specific leadership responsibilities for the development and deployment of its nationally renowned CPOE system.

Meg holds a BA from Wheaton College (MA) and an MPH from Boston University.

Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD MPH

LOUIS W. SULLIVAN, MD, ENDOWED PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND ATTENDING PHYSICIAN, BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER/ BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Dr. Assoumou is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and the inaugural Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Endowed Professor of Medicine. She is also an attending physician in infectious diseases at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Dr. Assoumou obtained her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She then completed a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Brown University and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Harvard University’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She also earned a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Assoumou is a clinician-investigator whose research focuses on medical complications of substance use including HIV and Hepatitis C virus. She is currently the principal investigator on an NIH grant to improve linkage to care after testing for HIV and HCV.

Dr. Assoumou is the recipient of numerous awards including the Excellence in Teaching Hospital-Based Faculty Award at BMC. She was also recognized as the Distinguished Faculty of the Month in April 2020 for her service to the BUSM community in teaching, service on committees, mentoring of students, trainees and junior faculty. The same year she also received a Department of Medicine Evans Junior Faculty Research Merit Award recognizing an outstanding record of scholarship and research. In 2021, Dr. Assoumou was installed as the inaugural Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Endowed Professor of Medicine which honors Dr. Sullivan’s contributions to his alma mater – BUSM and to the medical field as former Health and Human Services Secretary.

Sampurna Chatterjee, PhD, MBA

CANCER SCIENTIST, TAKEDA PHARMACEUTICALS

Chatterjee is a translational scientist at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she brings innovative cures to patients with advanced and difficult-to-treat cancers. Prior to this, she developed novel therapeutics for deadly brain cancers at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital where she actively worked with young patients and their families to spread awareness about this deadly disease. Previously, Chatterjee identified prognostic biomarkers for clinical trials in advanced lung cancer patients at the Max Planck Society in Cologne, Germany. Alongside serving as an editor in scientific journals, Chatterjee is a professional mentor for early-career scientists at MGH and MIT offering high-level guidance for long-term career development, grant writing, public speaking, and networking.

Chatterjee is passionate about transforming society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible. She was the co-vice chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Postdoctoral Association (MGPA), where she advocated to provide a platform for research and career development for scientists. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profits to foster and promote an inclusive environment for all, particularly those underrepresented in science and medicine and those struggling with sexuality and gender identity.

Chatterjee has been invited to serve as a mentor in multiple national and international symposiums, and workshops, such as the NUCLEATE, NIH, and NPA IMPACT programs- all with an overarching goal to inspire and train scientists and entrepreneurs from vulnerable communities and backgrounds to become future leaders. She has been nominated as a 'Woman of Inspiration 2022' for profoundly influencing global healthcare and community.

Eileen Davis

VICE PRESIDENT, MASS211 / DIRECTOR, CALL2TALK

Eileen Davis is the VP of Mass211, the statewide service that connects callers to information about critical health & human services available in their community.

Mass 211 is an easy to remember number that serves as a resource for finding things such as emergency housing, childcare, food security, government benefits, behavioral health, disaster preparedness & youth services. She is responsible for operational, technological & staffing aspects of the program. Through her leadership, Mass211 has partnered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide covid related resources to over 1,000,000 residents since the start of the pandemic.

Eileen is also the Founder & Director of Call2Talk, an emotional support, mental health and suicide prevention helpline that actively engages with callers to help alleviate their feelings of despair, loneliness & potential suicidal ideation. Call2Talk is also a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network of Crisis Centers. She oversees all aspects of the program’s operation including volunteer recruitment, training, scheduling as well as program outreach and sustainability. She also oversees the TeleCheck program as well as LOSSteam MetroWest. She is the Founder & Chair of The MetroWest Regional Coalition for Suicide Prevention, holds a seat on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention, is an alumnus of the MetroWest Health Foundation Leadership Program of 2014 & was a recipient of the 2010 Massachusetts Leadership in Suicide Prevention Award. In 2017 her leadership lead Call2Talk as a finalist in the Excellence in Crisis Center Award from the American Association of Suicidology.

Ms. Davis received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Education and Psychology. She resides in Framingham with her family.

Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH

CEO & PRESIDENT, HARVARD MEDICAL FACULTY PHYSICIANS

Dr. Kimball is CEO and President of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an academic multi-specialty 501(c)3 that employs 2000 physicians and providers who practice in the Boston area, two-thirds of whom are Harvard Medical School faculty. She co-chairs the Beth Israel Lahey Health Performance Network Board (1.3 million members served), and is on the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health. A Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kimball has published over 340 papers and is the author or editor of several medical books. Awards include Mentor of the Year from the Women's Dermatologic Society, Outstanding Physician-Clinician Award from the National Psoriasis Foundation, Fierce HealthCare's Women of Influence Award, 2020, Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Psoriasis Foundation, and the Joseph B. Martin Dean's Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kimball serves on the Advisory Council to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (previously Francis Collins, MD, PhD) and has served on multiple other Boards including the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. Dr. Kimball received her MD from the Yale School of Medicine, an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a bachelor's degree in molecular biology and public and international affairs from Princeton University. She completed an internship in medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital, her residency in dermatology at Stanford University Medical Center and a clinical research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

Lydia Pace

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL

Dr. Lydia Pace is a primary care physician and a researcher in the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research focuses on advancing equity in delivery of women’s health care services in both the United States and in limited-resource settings around the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. She is the recipient of a National Cancer Institute Career Development Award for research to assess and improve the quality of breast cancer care provided in Rwanda, where she lived from 2011-2014 and continues to work. She also led development of a breast cancer early detection initiative in Rwanda that is now being scaled nationwide, and partners with the World Health Organization’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative. Dr. Pace also leads policy research and clinical initiatives to improve access to high-quality contraceptive care in the United States. She directs Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy in the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and directs the Connors Center’s Global Women’s Health Fellowship. Clinically, she practices primary care at the Jen Center for Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and cares for women at elevated risk of developing breast cancer in the BWH Breast Cancer Risk Assessment, Education and Prevention (B-PREP) program.

Robyn Riseberg

FOUNDER, BOSTON COMMUNITY PEDIATRICS

Robyn Riseberg is the Founder of Boston Community Pediatrics (BCP), the first nonprofit pediatric private practice in New England and one of the first in the country. Dr. Riseberg is passionate about helping kids and families and has dedicated her career to creating innovative programs while advocating for and working with underserved pediatric patients. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, UMass Medical School, and the Boston Combined Residency Program (Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center). Prior to BCP, Dr. Riseberg was the head of pediatrics at the South End Community Health Center (SECHC) and the Founding Medical Director of the School-Based Health Center at the Blackstone Elementary School. In 2020, she was recognized for her work on behalf of children in the community as a recipient of the distinguished Boston Children’s Hospital Award of Service to Pediatrics and the Community. She has taught and precepted medical students, pediatric residents and nurse practitioner students. She was on the Board of Directors at Casa Myrna for over six years and is currently on the National Advisory Council for Room to Grow, and a Corporation Member of Beacon Academy. In addition, she is the healthcare consultant for many early child care organizations and camps in the South End. Boston Community Pediatrics is the culmination and result of Dr. Riseberg’s entire career of direct service to marginalized families and brings the highest level of healthcare to pediatric patients and their families no matter their financial situation or insurance coverage.

Kimberly A. Truong

CHIEF EQUITY OFFICER, MGH INSTITUTE OF HEALTH PROFESSIONS

Dr. Kimberly A. Truong has 20+ years of experience advancing justice and equity efforts in education. She is chief equity officer at MGH Institute of Health Professions and adjunct lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. IHP is the only degree-granting institution within the Mass General Brigham system where Dr. Truong is also a member of the MGB DE&I Council. Under her leadership at the IHP, the organization adopted a commitment to equity and anti-oppression, implemented guidelines to take into account faculty of color invisible labor, and founded an incubator for innovative ideas in teaching and learning. Dr. Truong is also founder and principal at XEM Consulting Services, LLC, which supports organizations interested in transformational institutional change.

Dr. Truong is nationally recognized for research on the experiences of graduate students of color with racism and racial trauma. She is a sought-after speaker on justice and equity issues in higher education and the workplace. Dr. Truong written works have been published in the Harvard Educational Review, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, New Directions for Institutional Research, Inside Higher Ed, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, INSIGHT into Diversity, and About Campus. In 2022, COLOR named Dr. Truong to its inaugural POWER 50 Chief Diversity Officers list and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education designated her a CDO Fellow.

Dr. Truong earned a Ph.D. in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and B.A. from Brandeis University.

Jo Viney

FOUNDER, PRESIDENT & CEO, SEISMIC THERAPEUTIC

Dr Jo Viney, Ph.D. is a seasoned biotech executive and entrepreneurial scientist. She is Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic, the machine learning immunology company focused on creating new medicines to treat autoimmunity.

Prior to Seismic, Jo founded Pandion Therapeutics in 2017 and served as President and CSO until the acquisition by Merck for $1.85B in 2021. Prior to Pandion, she held research leadership positions and contributed to the drug discovery pipelines at Biogen, Amgen, and Immunex.

Jo is an independent board director for Finch Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Graphite Bio and Lab Central.

Jo is a big advocate for workplace inclusiveness and is actively involved with WEST, a non-profit organization supporting early to mid-career women in STEM.

Honoring remarkable leaders shaping healthcare across Massachusetts

Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare (EWAH) Awards recognize ten outstanding individuals across the Commonwealth for their career achievements, with a focus on how they influence, innovate, and foster diversity through policy, practice and mentorship.

Each year, the Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare (EWAH) Awards recognize ten outstanding individuals across the Commonwealth for their career achievements, with a focus on how they influence, innovate, and foster diversity through policy, practice and mentorship.

2022 Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare in Massachusetts

Helen Adeosun

Meg Aranow

Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD MPH

Sampurna Chatterjee, PhD, MBA

Eileen Davis

Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH

Lydia Pace

Robyn Riseberg

Kimberly A. Truong

Jo Viney

Past Honorees

2022

2021

2020

Watch Previous Awards Events

Thank you to our endorsers!

Questions about EWAH? Contact us.

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Helen Adeosun

Meg Aranow

Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD MPH

Sampurna Chatterjee, PhD, MBA

Eileen Davis

Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH

Lydia Pace

Robyn Riseberg

Kimberly A. Truong

Jo Viney

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Honoring remarkable leaders shaping
healthcare across Massachusetts