Annual Education Program Speaker Bios

2025 MMS Annual Education Program — Physician Unions: Opportunities, Challenges, and Impacts

Friday, May 16, 2025, 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST – Virtual Live Webinar

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel MD, JD

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, is Director of the Center for Bioethics, Frances Glessner Lee Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Field of Legal Medicine, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Brendel practices clinical and forensic psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is Director of Law and Ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior. She previously served as the Founding Director of the Master of Science in Bioethics (MBE) program at HMS, Medical Director of the One Fund Center for Boston Marathon bombing survivors at MGH, and Clinical Director of the Red Sox Foundation and MGH Home Base Program for returning veterans and their families. Dr. Brendel is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Dr. Brendel received her BA in philosophy with distinction from Yale and medical and law degrees with honors from the University of Chicago.  She completed psychiatry and forensic psychiatry training at MGH-McLean.

Dr. Brendel works at the intersection of psychiatry, medicine, law, and ethics and is a past president of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (2018-2019) and the American Psychiatric Association (2022-2023). She has served on ethics committees of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP), and chaired the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Ethics Committee and Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Ethics, Grievances, and Professional Standards.  She is currently Vice-Chair of the American College of Psychiatrists Ethics Committee, co-opted consultant to the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Ethics Committee, and in her sixth of a seven-year appointment to the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA), of which she serves as Vice-Chair.

Ahmed Mukhtar Ahmed, MD, MPP, MSc

Ahmed Mukhtar Ahmed, MD, MPP, MSc, is a resident physician and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has led multiple investigations on the history, prevalence, and impact of unionization on healthcare workers, leading to publications in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. He is currently leading efforts to understand the impact of unions on patient outcomes and medical education.

Ahmed has received wide recognition for his work. In 2023, he was named a STAT Wunderkind, which recognizes the next generation of “scientific superstars”. His research has been awarded top prizes by Harvard Medical School and IPUMS Census Data.

Ahmed earned his bachelor’s from Cornell University. Following his undergraduate studies, he earned a master’s in public policy and education at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He holds an MD from Harvard Medical School, where he studied as a PD Soros Fellow and Presidential Scholar.

Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH

Carmel Shachar, JD, MPH, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health Law and Policy Clinic at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School (CHLPI). Ms. Shachar focuses her scholarship on law and health policy, in particular the regulation of access to care for vulnerable individuals, the use of telehealth and digital health products, and the application of public health ethics to real world questions. Her work has been published in leading health and law journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Law and the Biosciences. She has co-edited several books, including “Innovation and Protection: The Future of Medical Device Regulation,” “Consumer Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies,” “ Disability, Health, Law, and Bioethics,” “Transparency in Health and Health Care in the United States,” and “COVID-19 and the Law.”

Previously, Ms. Shachar was the Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Ms. Shachar graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Ms. Shachar currently serves on the board of the Fishing Partnership Support Services as well as on the Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA

Dr. Schulman is a Professor of Medicine, and, by courtesy, Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He serves as interim co-Chair of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Stanford, and as an Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine. He is the Faculty Director of Stanford’s new applied master degree program, the Master of Science in Clinical Informatics Management program. He also serves as Deputy Director of the Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and has an appointment in the Department of Health Policy (by courtesy) and serves as a Faculty Fellow in Stanford's Global Health Institute.

Dr. Schulman is a health economist/health services researcher working at the intersection of business, medicine and technology. With over 500 publications, he has had a broad impact on several areas of health policy (Scopus h-index=83). His research has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs. He is the editor-in-chief of Health Management, Policy and Innovation (www.HMPI.Org), and Senior Associate Editor of Health Service Research (HSR).

He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, the New York University School of Medicine, and The Wharton Health Care Management Program. He is an elected member of ASCI and AAP.