Board of Directors

Dr. Michelle Morse is the Acting Health Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC Health). She leads the agency’s work in bridging public health and health care to reduce health inequities and serves as a key liaison to clinicians and clinical leaders across New York City. She previously served as Deputy Commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness where she led place-based and cross-cutting health equity programs.

Dr. Morse is an internal medicine and public health doctor who works to achieve health equity through global solidarity, social medicine and anti-racism education, and activism. She is a general internal medicine physician, part-time hospitalist at Kings County Hospital, Co-Founder of EqualHealth, and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Morse’s continued commitment to advancing health equity and justice is informed by her experience in leadership roles as Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Heath, as a Soros Equality Fellow launching a global Campaign Against Racism, and as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellow with the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2024, Dr. Morse was named a TIME100Next honoree.

After practicing for 22 years as a healthcare lawyer for state regulatory agencies in Massachusetts and New York, Chris Stern Hyman founded Medical Mediation Group, LLC in NYC, to resolve healthcare disputes. In addition to serving as a healthcare mediator, she conducted research to gather data on the efficacy of mediation in healthcare. Hyman also trained health care professionals and attorneys in mediation skills and was an Associate and Adjunct Researcher at Columbia Law School, as well as a Special Master mediating appeals pending before the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department.

Hyman’s community involvement includes serving on the boards of the Citizens’ Committee for Children in New York, Women in Need, and The Writing Revolution. She earned her Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago.

Cara Berkowitz is the Executive Director, Government Relations and Community Affairs at the CUNY School of Medicine. Her career has focused on health and mental hygiene policy and advocating on these issues with local, state, and federal governments, including as Vice President of Government Relations and Policy at EmblemHealth, and also at The Jewish Board and UJA-Federation of New York.

Prior to UJA, Berkowitz represented the Bloomberg administration on behalf of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to advocate for City Hall’s public health and mental hygiene priorities. A published author, she has written several articles on healthcare topics, including intellectual property of government-sponsored pharmaceutical research and Medicare regulations surrounding palliative care. Berkowitz received her Juris Doctor degree from American University, Washington College of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.

Amit Bansal is a Partner and was a part of the founding team at Digitalis Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in solutions to complex problems in human and animal health. Based in New York City, he brings a multidisciplinary background spanning corporate innovation, healthcare delivery, and strategic finance. Before joining Digitalis, Bansal was at Mars, Inc., where he focused on corporate strategy and innovation, including developing a business model for affordable nutrition in the developing world.

Earlier, Bansal worked for a healthcare start-up leveraging telemedicine to expand rural access to primary care. He began his career at GE Healthcare in corporate finance, holding roles in finance, risk, and marketing.  Bansal received his Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and his Bachelor of Arts from Boston College.

Aaron Anderson is CFO and Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He has spent his career in New York City government working on public health. Anderson served as Chief Financial and Risk Officer and Assistant Vice President with the NYC Health + Hospitals’ Division of Correctional Health Services (CHS), where he worked since 2016 and was responsible for finance, budget, contracts, grants, policy coordination, patient relations, medical records, litigation management, and central pharmacy operations.

Before that, Anderson served for six years at the NYC Office of Management and Budget, where his team led budget oversight of expense, revenue, and capital for DOHMH and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, a Master of Science in Education from the University of Rochester’s Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester.

Gail Nayowith has a track record of accomplishment leading vital organizations to secure policy wins and system improvements in the health and human services sector. She started her career in local government at the New York City Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services (which merged with the New York City Department of Health), the Human Resources Administration, and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Nayowith went on to lead several nonprofit organizations, including the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, SCO Family of Services, and Cities of Service. She founded 1digit LLC, which helps nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, and government solve complex problems. Nayowith consults on special projects, including serving as the lead of the court-appointed monitoring team for the Lucas R. v. Becerra Settlement Agreements, and is an affiliate consultant with Bloomberg Associates. Nayowith is the Vice President of the Kenworthy-Swift Foundation and a member of the New York City Board of Health.

Bunny is Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Health New York (DHNY), which works to increase the visibility of New York as a leader in healthcare innovation, showcases the organizations and leaders curating the future of healthcare, and brings people together to share ideas, spark new directions and create success. Previously, Ellerin was director of Columbia Business School’s Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program (HPM) from 2016-2021, which she transformed into one of the most prestigious healthcare tracks in the country. 

Prior to becoming Director of the Columbia program, Ellerin spent 20 years in leadership positions in various healthcare organizations including Onsite Dental, Interbrand Health, PPD, Intouch Group, TCTMD, Vivra, and Advanced Health. During that period, Ellerin launched the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association (HBSHAA) which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. To recognize her impact, HBSHAA created the Ellerin Alumni Achievement Award, given to an outstanding leader annually. Bunny earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

Brenton Fargnoli joined Lightspeed as a Partner in 2025 to lead Healthtech investing at the firm, with a particular focus on AI’s role in reshaping the healthcare landscape. Previously, he worked at AlleyCorp where he started its Healthcare team and led it to become the most active Healthtech investor in the country (per HSBC Annual Venture Healthcare Report 2024). Prior to AlleyCorp, Fargnoli was an early employee at Flatiron Health where he helped build its value-based care business from the ground up and served on its leadership team through acquisition by Roche.  

Fargnoli started his career as a physician. Board-certified in Internal Medicine, he previously practiced at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and completed his residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, earning a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from the Wharton School.  

Michael Gargano is Managing Director at Argent Ventures LLC. He is responsible for structuring and financing new acquisitions and for overseeing development, leasing, and management of the firm’s properties. Prior to joining Argent, Gargano was a real estate attorney with the law firm of Shearman & Sterling, where he represented institutional and government clients on major real estate development and financing transactions.  He is on the board of AcuamarkDx, a colon cancer diagnostics company, and BlinkBio, Inc., a cancer therapeutics company. 

Gargano is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance.  He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Maria Griffin is a strategic fundraising advisor and the Founder of Griffin Associated, where she partners with nonprofits to design and implement transformational fundraising strategies. She is on track to raise $1 billion over her career, with $570 million raised to date. 

Griffin previously served as Chief Advancement Officer at DREAM, where she led a team to raise more than $20 million annually and built a best-in-class major gifts program. Earlier, she worked at CCS Fundraising, advising organizations such as UNICEF, the KIPP Foundation, and FPHNYC on campaigns and philanthropic growth. A former educator with Teach For America, Griffin has also served as a fundraising advisor to over 30 political candidates and is a past board member of Emerge New York. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Griffin brings deep experience in building sustainable revenue to advance health, education, and equity.  

Jungwon Kim, a communications strategist, organizational consultant, and former journalist, is a 2024-25 Soros Equality Fellow. In her previous work as Head of Creative & Editorial at the Rainforest Alliance, she directed a multimedia team of writers, videographers, and graphic designers. Earlier in her career, she served as the editor of Amnesty International USA’s human rights quarterly. Kim began her storytelling career as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and on-air correspondent for nationally syndicated public radio programs. 

Through her consulting practice, Next Wave, Kim develops tailored impact strategies, facilitates organizational and team retreats, and provides mindfulness-based leadership coaching. She also serves as the board chair of Peace Is Loud, a nonprofit organization that builds narrative impact in the documentary film sector. Kim did her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and dual Master of Jurisprudence and Master of Arts program in Journalism and East Asian Studies), where she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, a Foreign Language Area Fellowship, and a Korea Foundation Fellowship.   

Errol L. Pierre is a healthcare executive, public speaker, professor, and author. He serves as the SVP of State Programs at Healthfirst and was the former Chief Operating Officer of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. Pierre earned his Doctor of Business Administration degree from Baruch College, a Master of Public Health in Health Policy & Financial Management from New York University, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Fordham University. 

Pierre is an adjunct professor at New York University, Columbia University, and Baruch College, teaching Health Economics and Health Transformation. He serves as a board member of Arthur Ashe Institute of Family Health, Medinova, and is co-chair of the Yonkers Health Equity Taskforce. Pierre is also the author of a new book published by Wiley entitled The Way Up: Climbing the Corporate Mountain as a Professional of Color, where he delivers an actionable guide for underrepresented employees seeking to grow in today’s virtual workplace.    

Sabrina Spitaletta Johar has been at the Milken Institute since 2017. She leads the work focused on employers advancing public health priorities. She develops strategic collaborations across sectors and industries to advance whole-person health investments and performance, recognizing that employers are communities, in and of themselves, that reach employees, their families, and the surrounding communities.

Before joining the Milken Institute, Spitaletta Johar had a 14-year tenure in corporate affairs and human resources at Sanofi, as well as corporate relations at the Children’s Health Fund. She started her career at Lehman Brothers. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and organizations, behavior, and management from Brown University and a master’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. She is a member of the Advisory Council for Project Healthy Minds and Creating Healthier Communities. Spitaletta served on the Brown University President’s Strategic Advisory Council for the School of Public Health (2016-2025).

Toya Williford serves as the founding Executive Director of The AC & JC Foundation, Inc., a private family foundation based in New York City. Prior to joining the Foundation, Williford was the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City where she oversaw the overall management of the Mayor’s Fund and led the effort to foster public-private partnerships between City agencies, the private sector and the philanthropic community. She joined the de Blasio Administration as the Director of Programs and Policy and helped to launch and sustain the Center for Youth Employment.

Williford also served as the Program Director at the Brooklyn Community Foundation. She is a board member of Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, Central Park Conservancy, Elluminate, and Philanthropy New York. Williford is a certified vinyasa yoga and prenatal yoga instructor. She earned a Master of Science in Urban Studies from Cleveland State University and a Bachelor of Arts, focusing on Rural Sociology, from Cornell University.