Leonard Egede, MD, MS
President
Dr. Leonard Egede is a general internist, Professor of Medicine, the Charles and Mary Bauer Endowed Chair, and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (UB). Additionally, Dr. Egede is the President and CEO of UBMD Internal Medicine Practice Plan. He completed his medical training at the University of Benin in Nigeria, his residency training at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Maryland, and a Master of Science degree at the Medial University of South Carolina.
Dr. Egede's research has focused on developing and testing innovative interventions to reduce and eliminate health disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location for chronic medical and mental health conditions. He is currently the PI of five NIH R01s focused on interventions that address social determinants of health and improve health outcomes for adults with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Egede also has extensive experience using health systems research to initiate change and incorporating evidence-based care into clinical environments.
Dr. Egede has expanded the work he has done in the United States globally through efforts to provide care and empowerment of indigenous communities, promote collaborative research projects with investigators in other countries, and develop innovative strategies to improve outcomes for non-communicable diseases, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. He founded IHI in 2013 and has served on the Board and travelled to indigenous communities throughout the world.
Patricia N. Nnadi, MD
Vice President
Dr. Patricia Nnadi is a board certified psychiatrist with a particular interest in severe and persistent mental illness in adults. Dr. Nnadi completed her residency training in psychiatry at the University of Maryland in 1999. Subsequently, she completed fellowship training in eating disorders at the same institution in 2000.
Upon moving to South Carolina that same year, Dr. Nnadi worked as a staff psychiatrist for the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center, becoming the Center's Medical Director in May 2003. In January 2009 she transitioned to the role of a Consulting Psychiatrist on a Duke Endowment grant secured by the SC Department of Mental Health. The grant was designed to provide emergency room consultations in geographic areas in the state lacking psychiatrists. This program has grown and evolved into the DMH Telepsychiatry Service, where Dr. Nnadi and other psychiatrists deliver emergency room consultation across the state of South Carolina. Dr. Nnadi has served on the IHI Board of Directors since its founding in 2013.
Board Members
Tatiana M. Davidson, PhD
Dr. Tatiana Davidson is a tenured Professor of Nursing and Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is the Endowed Chair of Innovation in Behavioral Health and director of the Center of Excellence in Behavioral Health Nursing in the College of Nursing. Dr. Davidson received her BS from the University of Washington and MA and PhD from Clark University, and completed her internship and NIMH postdoc at MUSC.
Dr. Davidson’s research has focused mainly on maximizing the reach and receipt of evidence-based mental health treatments among trauma-affected youth and their families through the development, evaluation, and dissemination of innovative, technology-based resources. Dr. Davidson is PI on an active Duke Endowment grant (through 2020) to implement TRRP in three partnering trauma centers across South Carolina. She serves as Co-Investigator on several federally-funded research grants focused on the development, evaluation and implementation of mHealth technologies (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer) for providing best-practice mental health treatment to a wide range of traumatic stress populations, including disaster victims, child abuse victims, and first responders.
A second major research focus is on addressing mental health care disparities among racial/ethnic minority populations through the development and evaluation of culturally-modified, evidence-based interventions. She has been awarded both external and internal grants to examine how cultural variables can influence formal mental health treatment seeking, access and completion among Latinx populations, and to adapt evidence-based resources to mobile health delivery formats to reduce traditional barriers to mental health treatment among Latinx youth and families.
Clara "Libby" Dismuke-Greer, PhD
Dr. Clara "Libby" Dismuke-Greer is a Research Health Science Specialist at the Health Economics Resource Center (HERC), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, where she has worked since 2019. Her methodological expertise spans economic evaluation, statistical and econometric modeling, disability research, and the analysis of health disparities among vulnerable populations, including work with VA and Department of Defense health system databases. She currently serves as Principal Investigator on the Health Economics Study for the DoD/VA-funded Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC) Award, and holds funding on a number of additional NIH, VA, and DoD grants.
Dr. Dismuke-Greer has served as a researcher on detail to the Chief of the VA Office of Health Equity, contributing to evaluation and policy work aimed at reducing inequities in health services and outcomes for U.S. veterans, and she has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications over the course of her career. Her recent work includes research on the economic impact of comorbid traumatic brain injury and dementia on veterans' health care costs, and she has developed new expertise analyzing Department of Defense treatment facility utilization and costs. Her sustained contributions to health economics and veteran health equity research make her a valuable voice on the board.