Maryanne C. Bombaugh, MD, MSc, MBA, FACOG
President, Massachusetts Medical Sociey
Maryanne Bombaugh is a gynecologist at the Community Health Center of Cape Cod and past president of the Massachusetts Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Bombaugh has been
an active member of the medical society since joining the Society in 1993. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees, is a member of the House of Delegates, and is a member of the Massachusetts Delegation to the American Medical Association. In
addition to her clinical work and activity in organized medicine, Dr. Bombaugh also serves on the boards of CeltiCare Health and Coverys.
Dr. Bombaugh earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and completed her internship at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston Texas and her residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,
D.C. A veteran of the U. S. military, she served 12 years in the United States Army Medical Corps, eight years on active duty and four years in the reserves and completed her military service as the Division Chief of Gynecology at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center. Dr. Bombaugh earned her undergraduate degree from Smith College, a Master of Science degree from the School of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts, and her Master’s in Business Administration from the Isenberg School of
Management at the University of Massachusetts.
James B. Broadhurst, MD, MHA
Chair, Committee on Public Health, Massachusetts Medical Society
Jay Broadhurst is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health where he has enjoyed his entire professional career. He graduated from the Medical College of Virginia – Virginia Commonwealth University and went on to train
in family medicine first in the MCV Blackstone FMR and he completed his residency at the UMass Barre Health Center. He has also completed a mini residency in Occupational Medicine at UMDNJ. He is board certified in family medicine with a certificate
of added qualifications in sports medicine. He is also board certified in addiction medicine. Prior to medical school, Dr. Broadhurst completed a master’s degree in health administration at MCV-VCU including an administrative residency at Medical
Center Hospitals in Norfolk, VA (now Sentara Health Systems).
Dr. Broadhurst clinical interests in his family medicine practice have focused on caring for individuals with significant intellectual and/or physical disabilities. He is leased by his department to provide care for individuals with opiate dependence
in several opiate treatment program offices. He is also leased by his department to provide sports medicine clinical services to athletes at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. In this latter capacity Dr. Broadhurst coordinates medical care
for NCAA regional championships which Holy Cross hosts in Worcester. He also coordinates the UMass Sports Medicine team providing care as part of the medical program at the Boston Marathon. His primary professional interest is teaching with over
30 years leading undergraduate medical school small groups. He is Associate Residency Director in the Family Medicine residency and Associate Fellowship Director in the Sports Medicine fellowship.
Harold Cox
Dean for Public Health Practice, Boston University School of Public Health; Program Moderator
Harold Cox is Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. He is an appointee to the Massachusetts Public Health Council, sits on the Special Commission on
Local and Regional Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Cross Jurisdictional Sharing Advisory Committee. At Boston University, Dean Cox teaches three courses and directs the Activist
Lab, which engages the school and community in real world advocacy to drive lasting improvements in the health of our local, regional, and global communities.
Prior to joining Boston University, he served for 10 years as chief public health officer for the city of Cambridge. Mr. Cox is a trained social worker, and has extensive experience working with people with intellectual disabilities and those living with
HIV/AIDS.
Monica Bharel, MD, MPH
Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Keynote Presenter
Monica Bharel became Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in February of 2015. As Commissioner, she is responsible for spearheading the state's response to the opioid crisis, as well as leading the Department’s implementation
of health care cost containment legislation, Chapter 224, reducing health disparities, finding public health solutions for health care reform, finding innovative solutions using data and evidence-based practices, and other health care quality improvement
initiatives.
Dr. Bharel comes to DPH widely recognized for her dedication to health care for underserved and vulnerable populations. She previously served as the Chief Medical Officer of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the largest nonprofit health care
organization for homeless individuals in the country. Dr. Bharel has served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, Boston University Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health. She was previously at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston
Medical Center. She has practiced general internal medicine for 20 years in neighborhood health centers, city hospitals, the Veterans Administration, university hospitals and nonprofit organizations.
She received her Master of Public Health degree through the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine.
Thea James, MD
Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer, Boston Medical Center
Thea James is Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at Boston Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and a past president of the Medical and Dental Staff at Boston Medical Center. She is also an Assistant Dean in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, and the Director of the Violence Intervention Advocacy Program at Boston Medical Center.
Dr. James is a founding member of the National Network of Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Advocacy Programs (NNHVIP). She serves on the Steering Committee and the Research Group of NNHVIP. A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr.
James trained in Emergency Medicine at Boston City Hospital, where she was a chief resident.
Dr. James’ passion is in Public Health both domestically and globally. She is a Supervising Medical Officer on the Boston Disaster Medical Assistance Team (MA-1 DMAT), under the Department of Health and Human Services. She has deployed to post 9-11 in
New York City in 2011, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, Bam, Iran after the earthquake in 2003 and Port-Au-Prince Haiti after the earthquake of 2010.
Alex. Calcagno
Director, Advocacy, Government & Community Relations, Massachusetts Medical Society
Alex. Calcagno is Director of Advocacy, Government & Community Relations for the Massachusetts Medical Society where she oversees the organizations government relations and community relations programs. Ms. Calcagno is responsible for advocating the Medical
Society's position before the United States Congress, White House and Executive Agencies. Prior to coming to the Medical Society, she was Assistant Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Office of Government Liaison where she lobbied for children’s
health care at the national level. Her first entry into the political arena was as Assistant Press Secretary for United States Representative M. Caldwell Butler.
Jon Santiago, MD
State Representative - 9th Suffolk
Jon Santiago is a physician and legislator serving as the Democratic Massachusetts state representative for the 9th Suffolk district. Born in Puerto Rico, he moved to Boston when he was in elementary school. Although his family had come to Boston in search of greater opportunity, the city was in crisis when they arrived as the AIDS and gun violence epidemics were at their peak. When he was 10, he learned that his uncle had been diagnosed with HIV, a disease that would claim his life and leave his son an AIDS orphan. It was this family tragedy and his experiences in Roxbury that would spark a lifelong interest in medicine and service.
Looking for a better life for their children, his parents moved to Texas, where he went to public school, attended community college, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Captivated by public service and adventure, Mr. Santiago joined the Peace Corps, won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Paris; and ultimately spent almost five years abroad working and traveling across Europe, Latin America, and Africa. He returned to Boston almost 10 years ago with a plan to study medicine and give back to the community. A graduate of Yale School of Medicine, he now works and cares for underserved communities as an emergency medicine doctor at Boston Medical Center.
Mr. Santiago sits on the boards of the South End Community Health Center, Friends of the South End Library, Friends of Titus Sparrow Spark, and the Puerto Rican Veterans Park. In addition to his community activism and clinical responsibilities, Mr. Santiago has worked to address health disparities and combat the opioid epidemic through policymaking. He led an effort to increase access to the state’s opioid prescription monitoring program, which played a role in reducing overprescribing in Massachusetts.
Jessie Rossman, Esq.
Staff Attorney, ACLU Massachusetts
Jessie Rossman joined the ACLU of Massachusetts as a staff attorney in June 2013. She has both trial level and appellate advocacy experience and litigates on a broad range of civil rights and civil liberties issues. Her areas of focus include disability
discrimination on the basis of opioid use disorder, involuntary confinement on the basis of addiction, free speech, privacy & technology, transparency, voting rights and reproductive rights.
Last fall, she argued Pesce v. Coppinger before the federal
District Court of Massachusetts, where Judge Casper issued a first-of-its-kind preliminary injunction requiring the defendant Essex County House of Corrections to provide Mr. Pesce with continued access to his medication for addiction treatment during
his incarceration. In March, along with Goodwin and Procter, she filed DiPierro v. Hurtwitz, challenging the federal Bureau of Prison’s policy of denying methadone maintenance treatment to all non-pregnant inmates as applied to an individual client.
Ms. Rossman was a member of the Massachusetts Section 35 Commission in 2018-2019, which was charged with studying the efficacy of involuntary inpatient treatment for individuals diagnosed with substance use disorder.
She has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a bachelor's degree from Yale University. Before joining the ACLU of Massachusetts, Ms. Rossman served as a law clerk to Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also
worked as a staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan and as a litigation fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Brendan Abel, Esq.
Director of State Government/Legislative Counsel, Massachusetts Medical Society
Brendan Abel is the Director of State Government/Legislative Counsel in the Government Relations department at the Mass. Medical Society. Prior to coming to MMS, he worked in the legal department at Partners Healthcare and was the heath policy
researcher at the New England Journal of Medicine. He received his JD from Suffolk University, and a completed a fellowship in Medical Ethics at the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. Mr. Abel has been published in a number of academic
publications including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Hasting Center Report.
