MMS Leadership Biographies

2023-2024

Barbara S. Spivak, MD
President

Barbara S. Spivak has been an internist at Mount Auburn Medical Associates for over 35 years. She started at the Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association (MACIPA) in 1997 and has served as its president and chairperson since that time.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 2001, she has served the organization in several capacities, including as the chair and an advisor on the Committee for Quality of Medical Practice, a member of the Committee on Strategic Planning, a member of the Task Force on Physician Burnout, a member of the Working Group on Governance Reform, as well as the chair of the Task Force on Health Insurance Policy.

In May 2021, Dr. Spivak was awarded the Massachusetts Medical Society Special Award for Excellence in Medical Service, which honors a physician who has made a distinguished demonstration of compassion and dedication to the medical needs of his or her patients and the general public. Also, she was named the Community Clinician of the Year by the Middlesex District Medical Society in 2020.

Dr. Spivak is an active participant in the Massachusetts Health Quality Partnership, representing MACIPA on the physician council, and previously served on its board and as its vice-chair. She also serves as a member of the state’s Quality Alliance Task Force. She is a long-standing member of the American Medical Association (AMA) Integrated Physician Practice Council. She participates on several Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Technical Panels evaluating and developing outpatient quality metrics to be used for payment. She has been involved with both AMA- and CMS-sponsored committees looking at alternative payment models, trying to identify creative solutions for the current health care crisis.

Dr. Spivak is a graduate of Tufts University. She earned her MD from the Tufts University School of Medicine and did her residency at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. She is a strong advocate for population health management, quality improvement, care management, and using data to inform strategies.

Hugh Taylor, MD
President-Elect

Hugh Taylor is a board-certified family physician who has practiced at Beverly Hospital for almost 40 years; and is a member of its Board of Trustees. He formerly held the positions of President of the Medical Staff of Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals, co-chair of the Medical Advisory Panel, and as an at-large representative to the Medical Executive Committee of the Beverly Hospital Medical Staff. Dr. Taylor has also served as a physician for several hospitals in Massachusetts and Ohio during his career.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) since 1983, he serves the organization in several capacities, including as a delegate from Essex South District and as a member of the Board of Directors of the MMS and Alliance Charitable Foundation. He previously served as chair of the Committee on Finance, chair of the Committee on Legislation, as chair of the Committee on the Sustainability of Private Practice, as vice chair of the Committee on Information Technology, as chair of the Task Force on EHR Interoperability and Usability, and as chair of the Reference Committee on Public Policy. Dr. Taylor is a past president of the Essex South District Medical Society. Additionally, he was a Massachusetts Medical Society Ambassador to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates.

Dr. Taylor served as an instructor in family medicine at Boston University School of Medicine for nearly 25 years.

As an active and longstanding member of the American Medical Association, Dr. Taylor is an AMA delegate for the American Academy of Family Physicians. He also served on the AMA’s Governing Council of the Specialty and Service Society, including as its chair from 2018 to 2019.

He is an active member of the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Taylor is a graduate of Harvard College. He earned his MD from Harvard Medical School, and did his residency in family medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland in Cleveland, Ohio.

Olivia Liao, MD, FACS
Vice President

Olivia Liao is a board-certified ophthalmologist at Lexington Eye Associates, a multi-specialty private practice group with 6 locations. She has served on its Board of Directors and as its Treasurer since 2000. Also, as a founding member and co-owner of Surgisite Boston, Dr. Liao is a member of its Quality Assurance Committee. At Emerson Hospital since 1996, she has held numerous committee positions and is currently a Medical Staff Officer.

Dr. Liao has been an active member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1988 and dedicates effort to multiple committees. Within Middlesex District, her responsibilities include executive committee member, secretary-treasurer, previous vice-president, and president. She served as vice-chair and chair of the Committee on Legislation, vice-chair of the District Leadership Council, chair of the Task Force on Joint and Several Liability, co-chair of the Working Group on Governance Reform, and advisor to the Committee for Strategic Planning. Middlesex District named her Community Clinician of the Year in 2019.

She is a longtime member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology; the New England Ophthalmological Society; the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, serving as its co-councilor and on the Board of Trustees in 2022; the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons; Women Ophthalmologists of Boston; and a Fellow at the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Liao graduated from the Six-Year Medical Program of Boston University College of Liberal Arts and was conferred her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed residencies and board certification in internal medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital and in ophthalmology at Tufts-New England Medical Center New England Eye Center.

She has been honored with multiple awards including Castle-Connolly's Top Doctor, Exceptional Women in Medicine, and thought-leader in Ophthalmology in the Boston area. Dr. Liao is an active volunteer for the Lions Club and the Community Council on Aging and conducts annual vision and glaucoma screenings and fundraising for Emerson Hospital's family health events. She has served as the traveling doctor for the New England Conservatory piano department.

Lynda G. Kabbash, MD, FAAAAI
Secretary-Treasurer

Lynda G. Kabbash is a practicing physician, specializing in allergy and immunology at New England Baptist Hospital and Atrius Health and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School where she teaches and mentors first-year medical students.

Dr. Kabbash has been a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1990 and has served the organization in many capacities, including as a member of the Committee on Women in Medicine and chair of the Task Force on Physician Public Communications.

An active member of the Norfolk District Medical Society, Dr. Kabbash served as its president from 2015-2017, and is past Chair of the District Leadership Council. She was selected as the Norfolk District Medical Society’s 2018 Community Clinician of the Year, an award recognizing her professionalism and contributions as a physician.

Also active with the American Medical Association (AMA), Dr. Kabbash is serving on Reference Committee F (finance), and is an AMA Alternate Delegate for the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI). She is Governor of Region 1 for the AAAAI regional societies (RSL).

Dr. Kabbash, who received her medical degree and specialty and research training from McGill University and Rockefeller University, is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and AAAAI.

Lee S. Perrin, MD
Assistant Secretary-Treasurer

Lee S. Perrin is a recently retired anesthesiologist formerly practicing at Steward St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) and who served on many SEMC committees. He was also a staff anesthesiologist at Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Carney Hospital.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1985, he has served as Trustee and Delegate for many years. Dr. Perrin has held numerous roles in the organization, including serving as Councilor/Delegate from Middlesex District Medical Society (1986-present); President of Middlesex District (1999-2001); on many committees; and was recently appointed as Chair of the MMS Alliance, and Charitable Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2012, he was awarded the Community Clinician of the Year by the Middlesex District Medical Society.

Dr. Perrin is active with the American Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the International Anesthesia Research Society, the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology, the Middlesex District Medical Society, and the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists.

Dr. Perrin is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency in anesthesiology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He completed a research fellowship in obstetric anesthesia at Boston Hospital for Women, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and in pediatric anesthesia at New England Medical Center. Dr. Perrin has been a Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine since 1999.

Melody Eckardt, MD, MPH, FACOG
Speaker of the House of Delegates

Melody Eckardt is an obstetrician/gynecologist at Monadnock Community Hospital, a critical access hospital in southern New Hampshire. She has also been the Maternal Health Senior Advisor for the Global Health Innovation Lab in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an attending physician at Boston Medical Center and South Shore Hospital.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 2002, she has served the organization in several capacities, including serving on the Board of Trustees, as Vice-speaker of the House of Delgates, as Co-Vice-Chair on the Committee on Membership, and as a member of the Committees on Strategic Planning and Recognition and Awards. Additionally, Dr. Eckardt is a Massachusetts Medical Society Delegate to the American Medical Association and was a past trustee of Physicians Insurance Agency of Massachusetts.

Dr. Eckardt is a past president of the Norfolk South District Medical Society.

With the Massachusetts section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Dr. Eckardt is a member of the Legislative Council and the Advisory Council.

Dr. Eckardt is a graduate of Messiah College. She earned her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, did her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts Medical Center, and has her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also completed a research fellowship in Global Health Leadership in the Division of Global Health and Human Rights at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Eli C. Freiman, MD, FAAP
Vice Speaker of the House of Delegates

Eli C. Freiman is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric emergency medicine physician at Newton Wellesley Hospital.

A member of the Medical Society since he was a medical student in 2012, Dr. Freiman has served the organization in many capacities. He is currently a co-chair of the Governance Reform working group, a member of the Society’s American Medical Association (AMA) Delegation, and a Middlesex District Delegate. He has previously served as a member on the Board of Trustees, vice-chair of the Committee on Legislation, a member of the Committee on Strategic Planning, a member of the Committee on Nominations, a member of the Subcommittee on Governance, a member of the Committee on Recognition Awards, the Chair of the Resident and Fellow Section, and as both a Resident and Fellow and Medical Student Section Delegate.

Dr. Freiman is active with the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). A long-time leader within the AMA’s medical student section (MSS) and resident and fellow section (RFS), he has previously served as the AMA RFS Speaker and MSS Region 7 chair. Locally, Dr. Freiman helped co-found the first medical student committee in the Massachusetts Chapter of the AAP (MCAAP). He is a long-time member of the MCAAP’s legislative committee and recently assumed the role of vice-chair.

Dr. Freiman earned his BS magna cum laude from Duke University in evolutionary anthropology and his MD at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has been elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha academic honor societies. He served as a categorical pediatrics resident at the Boston Combined Residency Program (Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center) and later served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has been honored with multiple teaching awards by Harvard Medical School. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Lois Dehls Cornell
Executive Vice President

Lois Dehls Cornell is the Executive Vice President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Appointed to the position June 1, 2016, Ms. Cornell is responsible for the operation and management of the Society and its operating divisions, and she provides oversight for its several subsidiaries. In addition to its membership advocacy, public health and educational activities, the Society, under the auspices of NEJM Group, publishes the New England Journal of Medicine.

Prior to joining the Medical Society, Ms. Cornell spent 24 years at Tufts Health Plan, where she served as Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel. Prior to joining Tufts Health Plan, Ms. Cornell was an Associate at the Boston law firm of Goodwin Procter.

Ms. Cornell has been recognized for contributions to her profession by Women’s Business Boston, which named her one of the Top 10 Women Corporate Lawyers in Boston, and Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly with its In-House Leaders-in-the-Law Award. She is also a recipient of the YWCA Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers Award. In 2018, with Ms. Cornell at the helm, the Massachusetts Medical Society was named by the Commonwealth Institute and Boston Globe Magazine as a Top 100 Woman-Led Organization in Massachusetts.

Ms. Cornell serves on the boards of the Pan Massachusetts Challenge and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, and is a member of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. She is past president of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Ms. Cornell received her B.A. cum laude from Macalester College and earned her J.D. from the Northeastern University School of Law. She also completed the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School and the Executive Leadership Program of America’s Health Insurance Plans.