Meet Our Leaders

Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN, is the inaugural holder of the James R. Klinenberg, MD, and Lynn Klinenberg-Linkin Chair in Nursing, she joined Cedars-Sinai in 1976, named vice president of nursing in 1991 and Senior Vice President in 2017. She currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Burnes Bolton has impacted healthcare policy, clinical practice and patient care nationally while elevating the role and enhancing the professional training of nurses. Her national leadership activities have included serving as president of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the National Black Nurses Association and the American Academy of Nursing. She served as chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Advisory Committee for Transforming Care at the Bedside and Veteran Affairs Commission on Nursing and vice chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine. She is a trustee of Case Western Reserve University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Burnes Bolton has received numerous honors over the years. She was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2016 and received the 2016 TRUST Award from the American Hospital Association for visionary leadership in healthcare. In 2016, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and was awarded an honorary doctor of science from the State University of New York. She has received Lifetime Achievement awards from the National Black Nurses Association and the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

Dr. Burnes Bolton received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Arizona State University and master of science degrees in nursing and public health and a doctorate degree in public health from UCLA.

Dr. Marvin Luther Crawford is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of Student Undergraduate Medical Education at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is the Pastor of First Saint Paul AME Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Dr. Crawford has centered his spiritual energies into encouraging the greatest of these to help and the least of these to hope. In all of his pastorates, food banks, educational assistance, health care education, economic empowerment, youth development, substance abuse intervention, housing and crime prevention have been the central point of his ministry. Dr. Crawford is a superb teacher and has received several awards during his 29-year career. Dr. Crawford is noted for his ability to incorporate spirituality into patient care and is one of the nation’s authentic experts in this area.

Dr. Cheryl L. Holder, Fellow in the American College of Physicians, has dedicated her medical career to serving underserved populations.

She has served as a National Health Service Corp Scholar, Medical Director of one of Miami’s largest community health centers, and participated in NIH and CDC health advisory and programmatic review panels.

Since 2009, as faculty at Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, she focuses on teaching the impact of social determinants of health on health outcomes, addressing diversity in health professions through pipeline programs, increasing awareness of HIV prevention and health impact of climate change.

Dr. Holder also serves in leadership roles in several other medical and climate change-focused organizations. Most recently, TED Talk selected her 2020 “The link between climate change, health and poverty”.as one of 25, Editor’s Pick.

William “Larry” Lucas served as Vice President, Government Affairs Diversity Programs for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an association representing the leading research-based biopharmaceutical companies. In this position, Mr. Lucas worked with the U. S. Congress, state legislators and local elected official on issues impacting patient access to medicines, access to quality health care and the research-based pharmaceutical industry. In this capacity, he also wrote a nationally syndicated monthly column about new developments in medical innovation. Mr. Lucas joined PhRMA – then known as PMA – in 1990 as an Associate Vice President. Prior to joining PhRMA, Mr. Lucas held various public affairs roles at such organizations as the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Gulf Oil Corporation, Michigan Consolidated Gas Companies, Primark Corporation’s Hospital Satellite Network and the Bureau of Census. In his 16 years with the Bureau of Census, he initiated a landmark outreach campaign for the 1980 Census Program that involved using all government jurisdictions. He worked as a DJ at Radio Stations WOKJ, Jackson, MS and WCHD/WJZZ, Detroit, MI. Mr. Lucas is a graduate of Jackson State University in Mississippi, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and honorable served the nation in the United States Air Force.

In 2009, Mr. Lucas received the National Medical Association’s Scroll of Merit Award, the National Hispanic Medical Association Leadership Award and National Minority Quality Forum, Health Promotion and Disease prevention Award. He received the 2010 Congressional Black Caucus Fall Health Braintrust’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also honored in the Congressional Record dated May 28, 2010, for his “dedication and illustrious career which, over many decades, has always championed to improve the health and wellness of all people, but particularly of the underserved”. On February 24, 2011, the Mississippi Legislature presented House Concurrent Resolution Number 48 to Mr. Lucas “commending the impeccable service and career accomplishments on the occasion of being honored by the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus”. On July 18, 2012, the Washington Government Relations Group presented Mr. Lucas with their “Tin Cup” Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc., Phoenix Body Award.

Mr. Lucas served on several Boards that included: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Congressional Black Caucus Institute, National NAACP Board of Trustees – Special Contribution Fund, National Black Caucus of State Legislators Corporate Roundtable, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators Corporate Advisory Committee, Tougaloo College, Philander Smith College, National Democrat Club and Franklin Square Club.

William McDade, MD, PhD is the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and adjunct professor of Anesthesiology at Rush Medical College. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice-President/Chief Academic Officer for the Ochsner Health System and adjunct professor at the University of Queensland; Professor of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago, Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs at the Pritzker School of Medicine; and Deputy Provost for Research and Minority Issues for the University of Chicago. He is founder of the James E. Bowman Society at the University of Chicago whose focus is on achieving diversity in academic excellence and the elimination of health inequities. Dr. McDade has been a past-president and board chair of the Chicago Medical Society and Illinois State Medical Society; and president of the Cook County Physicians Association, Chicago Society of Anesthesiologists and the Prairie State Medical Society. He has served as Chair of the National Medical Association’s Anesthesiology Section and the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education. He served on the US Department of Education’s National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation; and has been a representative to the Coalition for Physician Accountability; a board member for the National Board of Medical Examiners and for the ACGME, where he chaired the Taskforce on Diversity in Graduate Medical Education; and, has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association and on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Joint Commission. Dr. McDade is a board-certified Anesthesiologist having graduated from Pritzker’s Medical Scientist Training Program earning a PhD in Biophysics and Theoretical Biology. He completed his internship in internal medicine at UChicago and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a member of AOA and the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Dr. Elvin Price is the Victor A. Yanchick Associate Professor and Director of the Geriatric Pharmacotherapy at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy. He is also the Co-Director of the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation (iCubed) Health and Wellness in Aging Core. Elvin earned the Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Florida A&M University and his PhD from the University of Florida. Elvin studies the impact of genetic variation on cardiometabolic homeostasis, aging and pharmacological responses. Elvin is enthusiastic about fighting cardiometabolic diseases and educating the next generation of healthcare practitioners and scientists.

Rita Wray, is the Founder & CEO of Wray Enterprises, Inc., a national independent health care consulting firm. Formerly Wray held a gubernatorial appointment as Deputy Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration. She holds a B S degree from the University of North Alabama and a M B A from Jackson State University. Entrepreneur, author and lecturer, her career path combines a successful marriage of healthcare and business. Wray, a nationally recognized consultant/facilitator in the areas of regulatory compliance, risk management, leadership development, and strategic planning holds leadership positions in numerous international, national, state/local organizations.

Sandra Harris-Hooker, Ph.D. is Vice President and Executive Vice Dean for Research and Academic Affairs and Professor in the Department of Pathology at Morehouse School of Medicine With professional training in cell biology and postgraduate training in cardiovascular pathology, Dr. Harris-Hooker has worked in the area of vascular cell biology for over 25 years studying endothelial dysfunction involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and other vascular cell-mediated injuries. She and her colleagues’ study of vascular cells response to injury in a microgravity environment was one of the projects flown on NASA’s historic Discovery (STS-95) space shuttle flight. While her primary research interest is vascular cell biology, she is also interested in ways by which to integrate basic, clinical and population based research in order to reduce and eventually eliminate disparities in health.

She arrived at Morehouse School of Medicine 29 years ago from Boston University School of Medicine and was intrigued by this energetic new medical school and the unique opportunity to help shape its future by teaching, mentoring and providing research training to minority students. Dr. Harris-Hooker has been instrumental in directing or facilitating several institutional research programs at MSM including the Cardiovascular Research Institute, RCMI Center in Translational Research Program, the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities and the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhance Program. These initiatives have aided in enhancing the research training infrastructure for MSM student and faculty trainees.

Over the years, Dr. Harris-Hooker and a small yet determined team of colleagues have built a respectable research enterprise at Morehouse School of Medicine that is poised to contribute to economic improvement in Georgia, the region and the nation. She envisions the evolution of the MSM Clinical and Research Enterprises as an integrated approach to discover the scientific, medical and social reasons why certain communities are less healthy than others, and what steps can be taken to change their situations.

Dr. Harris-Hooker has received several honors internal and external to the institution. She was named as one of the “Top 100 People Who Lead Atlanta’s Health-Care Industry” in the January 2010 Atlanta Business Chronicle. She serves on several national boards and committees such as the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc, the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks, the Ethnicity and Disease Journal Editorial Board and NIH, NSF and NASA Scientific Review Committees.

Dr. Harris-Hooker graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana with a degree in Biology. She earned a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon completion of her Ph.D., Dr. Harris-Hooker spent three years of postdoctoral training in the Cardiovascular Training Program within the Department of Pathology at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine, in Seattle, Washington. After training in Seattle, she served on the faculty in the Department of Pathology at Boston University School of Medicine before joining the faculty at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Harris-Hooker was appointed Interim Dean and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs from December 2009–July 2011. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and an alumna of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM), Class of 2004.

Dr. Matthews-Juarez, is a social behavioral scientist, who participates in transdisciplinary and translational scientists who explore the role of epigenetics in chronic diseases and health disparities. She works within social networks for social change.

Dr. Matthews-Juarez is contributing to a new way of thinking about how to address and eliminate health disparities from a collaborative transdisciplinary and translational approach, exploring the role of epigenetics in chronic diseases and health disparities. She has significant contributions to the development of a diverse and culturally competent primary care workforce who stay and work in rural and underserved communities across the United States.

Dr. Jayne S. Reuben is an Instructional Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Director of Instructional Effectiveness at the Texas A&M University College of Dentistry. She returned to the college after serving as a founding faculty member and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (USCSOMG) in Greenville, SC. Dr. Reuben currently serves as the course director for all undergraduate pharmacology courses in the DDS curriculum and for the Clinical Pharmacology course for dental residents. She earned her doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a specialization in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Department of Pathology. A Past Chair of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Division for Pharmacology Education, Dr. Reuben is the current Chair-Elect of the Physiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Section of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). . A long-time diversity and student advocate, Dr. Reuben has authored articles and presentations on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups into health sciences careers and her research in the field of inflammation has been published in dental and medical journals. In addition, she has presented numerous continuing education and career development workshops for health science faculty and students.

Keelia Taylor, BSN, RN is a healthcare professional with over 20 years’ progressive experience in nursing, supervision, training, and case management. Ms. Taylor currently provides oversight for the Virginia’s Aetna Medicaid Long Term Support Services TSS programs including implementation of healthcare management services, enforcing clinical policies and procedures for regulatory and accreditation standards to ensure practice standards for quality interventions and problem resolution.