Paving the Way

Dean David Roberts named as an Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow

David Roberts

David Roberts

David Roberts, HMS dean for external education, was among 21 health care leaders named to the second class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship, which is designed to strengthen the leadership of innovators across the U.S. health care ecosystem and challenge them to create new approaches that will improve the health and well-being of all Americans.

As the inaugural dean for external education, Roberts is developing and implementing innovative educational programs for learners around the globe by leveraging new technologies and advances in learning the sciences.

Roberts and his team have created an online learning platform called HMX, and have begun to transition Harvard Health Publications to digital and multimedia publishing. They have also merged and expanded HMS global and continuing medical education programs. Additionally, Roberts created a novel executive education program for business leaders to learn about the delivery of modern health care.

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Since 2001, Roberts, who is also an associate professor of medicine at HMS and a pulmonary and critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has served as an award-winning educator of medical students, residents, fellows and faculty.

Roberts previously directed HMS preclinical courses and the HMS Principal Clinical Experience at Beth Israel Deaconess. He is a current member and former associate director of the HMS Academy, which focuses on faculty development.

Elsie TaverasElsie Taveras, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, was also named as a Health Innovator Fellow.

Also the chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and director of Pediatric Population Health Management program at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Taveras founded and directed childhood obesity clinical programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital.

Taveras currently leads a research team dedicated to studying obesity, including epidemiological analyses of risk factors for childhood obesity across the life course, with an emphasis on racial/ethnic disparities, and translating epidemiological evidence into clinical and public health innovations to prevent and manage obesity and obesity-related conditions.

Joseph Betancourt, HMS associate professor of medicine and director of multicultural education at Mass General, was a member of the inaugural class of the Health Innovators Fellowship. He is also director of Mass General's Disparities Solutions Center, which works with healthcare organizations to improve quality of care, address racial and ethnic disparities, and achieve equity in health care.

The Health Innovator Fellows will spend four weeks over the course of two years exploring their leadership, core values, desired legacies and vision for the health care system. Each fellow commits to launching a leadership venture that will be individually challenging and will have a positive impact on health care in the U.S.

The Aspen Institute launched the Fellowship in 2015 in partnership with the Greenville Health System in South Carolina. The Health Innovator Fellows join more than 2,200 entrepreneurial leaders from 49 countries to become members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Adapted from an Aspen Institute news release.