Alumni Board

Beverly I.  Anaele, MPH 
Public Health '20

Beverly I. Anaele, MPH is a public health advisor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Public Health Law Services. There, she co-coordinates the Public Health Law Fellowship, a training program for those seeking field experience. Beverly graduated from JCPH in 2020 with a master’s in public health. She has since been a passionate advocate for all things public health. Beverly strongly believes that every individual—regardless of their field—can benefit from public health principles. For that reason, she can often be seen encouraging students and partners to pursue an MPH, particularly at Jefferson, where possible. Beverly hopes to connect with more prospective students to support recruitment at this remarkable university.

Khalid Azzad, MBBS, FACP, FRCPC, CPE, MS-HQS 
Healthcare Quality & Safety Management, International Track '19 

Dr. Khalid Azzam is a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and holds the position of Physician-in-Chief at Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His previous roles at McMaster University include the Assistant Dean for Continuing Health Sciences Education and the inaugural Associate Dean for Continuing Professional Development.

Dr. Azzam's academic pursuits extend beyond his executive leadership role. He is involved in the continuum of medical education at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing health professions education. His focus areas include change leadership, quality improvement, patient safety, and diagnostic excellence. Clinically, Dr. Azzam specializes in general internal medicine, providing inpatient and outpatient care, supervising learners and integrating point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) for diagnostic applications.

Holding an MBBS in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Rajasthan, India, Dr. Azzam furthered his expertise with an MSc in Healthcare Quality and Safety Management (International Track) from the Jefferson College of Population Health. He completed his Internal Medicine training at the University at Buffalo in 2002. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is currently the Governor of the Ontario Chapter. Dr. Azzam is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in Internal Medicine and General Internal Medicine and is a Certified Physician Executive by the American Association for Physician Leadership. 

Mary Reich Cooper, MD, JD 
Faculty Advisor 

Dr. Cooper is Associate Professor of Population Health and Program Director for Healthcare Quality and Safety and Operational Excellence at JCPH.  She designed and inaugurated the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership (QIPS) program and the implementation of the Health System Science curriculum for the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in the JeffMD curriculum. 

She is on the Board of the American College of Medical Quality, the QTIP Editor for the American Journal of Medical Quality, and a national speaker on patient safety, healthcare quality, leadership, and social determinants of health.

Much of Dr. Cooper’s career has been leading healthcare quality and patient safety for academic medical centers and affiliated organizations.

Katie DiSantis, PhD, MPH
Faculty Advisor 
Chair, Student & Alumni Affairs Committee 

Dr. Katie Isselmann DiSantis is Associate Professor at JCPH in the public health program.  Dr. DiSantis holds a Doctorate in Public Health and MPH in Community Health Education from Temple University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State University. Her major research interests focus on identifying and analyzing the social, behavioral, and neighborhood factors that impact infant feeding behaviors and childhood obesity risk. Dr. DiSantis is also the Associate Director of Jefferson's Institute for Smart and Health Cities. 

Scott Goldfarb, PharmD, MBA, MS
Applied Health Economics & Outcomes Research '22

Scott Goldfarb is a Director of Organized Customer Value & Innovation at BeiGene.  In this position, Scott leads real-world data analytics collaborations in oncology and hematology with U.S. Market Access customers to provide value-driven evidence and to generate impactful scientific evidence to support the best possible outcomes for patients.  Prior to his current role, Scott was a Director of Value Strategy & Evidence at AstraZeneca, a Health Outcomes Liaison at GlaxoSmithKline, and a Health Economic Scientist at Pharmacia Inc.  Scott completed a managed care residency at a pharmacy benefit management company, and a BA degree from the University of California, San Diego.  At University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, he received a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.   Scott completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Baltimore and an MS in Applied Health Economics and Outcomes Research at  JCPH.  

Janice Nissen, BSN, MBA, MS 
Population Health '19

Janice (Jan) is both a health care professional and a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive, who has developed commercialization strategies at two multinational pharmaceutical companies, Merck, and Abbott Laboratories.  This work included numerous first-in-class products with market leadership and favorable outcomes for patients.  She led an enterprise-wide, global strategy of incorporating patient input into the companies’ value chain, from discovery through patent expiry, resulting in products that were more relevant, valued, and accessible. 

Jan served on the executive committee of a non-profit board in Nicaragua, Clinica Verde.  She is currently consulting with the NIH Foundation on patient engagement strategies to support their public-private partnerships, and building a first of its kind educational curriculum for nurses interested in a life science career with the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs.  She is also serving as an advisor to Press Ganey on customer experience in clinical trials.

Jan has a BSN from University of Illinois Medical Center, MBA from Lake Forest College and a Masters in Population Health from Thomas Jefferson University.  She also serves on the Medical Reserve Corp in Pennsylvania.

Ashwini D. Sharan, MD, MSQHS
Healthcare Quality & Safety '21 

Dr. Sharan is Chief Medical Officer for Medtronic Neuromodulation.  He joined June 2022.  He plays a key role in shaping the strategic direction of innovation and evidence plans, helps guide physician, society relations, and education engagements.  He also serves as a medical advisor to the business and interacts with the medical community to identify current and future business opportunites.

In addition, he is also employed part-time at Thomas Jefferson University where he still works as Professor of Neurological Surgery and Neurology at Sidney Kimmel Medical.  Dr. Sharan’s is a board certified neurosurgeon trained and has been faculty for 22 years, has performed over 8000 operations, and treated over 25000 patients.    He has trained and graduated 33 residents and 8 fellows and mentored over 70 medical students.  All of his fellows have pursued academic careers and one is already the head of his department. 

Dr. Sharan is an internationally recognized authority on functional neurosurgery, particularly for his contributions to the growing field of epilepsy surgery. Dr. Sharan also takes a keen interest in spine surgery, deep brain stimulation, intra-thecal pumps, and spinal cord stimulators. Dr. Sharan has been the co investigator on three NIH grants, investigating the safety of MRI for patients with implanted DBS systems, genetic influences of human epilepsy, and studying the roles of place and grid cells in human spatial navigation and memory. He is was the largest surgical enroller in the DARPA RAM project.  His work has been published in Neurology, Neurosurgery, Spine, Epilepsia, and Neuromodulation. He has been cited over 17,900 times and his H-index is 72 and produced over 200 peer reviewed publications.

Dr. Sharan has previously served as the Past President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and the Past President of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS.) He is a founder of multiple companies in the Neuromodulation space including Cerebral Therapeutics, Mudjala Medical, and previous company Intellect medical.  He was born in Patna, Bihar.  He lives in Southern New Jersey with his wife, Kanu Priya Sharan, a breast cancer oncologist, and two children, Isha Priya and Maansi Dayal.  His real passion in life is watching movies with his wife and his daughters.

Michele Sharp, MS 
Health Policy '21 
Chair

Michele Sharp is Vice President of Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility at Purdue Pharma, where she oversees the company's communications strategy, stakeholder engagement, and social impact initiatives. Prior to her work at Purdue, Michele served in communications leadership roles at the Connecticut Hospital Association and the American Association for Cancer Research. She is a Peabody Award-winning former journalist with over 25 years of experience in communications.

Michele earned a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, an MA in Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University, and a graduate certificate in Health Policy from Jefferson  College of Population Health. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Transformation at Baylor University to create positive and lasting change in organizations and communities.