At Independence Blue Cross (IBX), we believe everyone should have the same chance to live a longer, healthier life. We invite you, our members, to help make that vision a reality. Please join us for our 2024 Independence Health Equity Summit.
On October 7, 2024, we will host our third annual Independence Health Equity Summit at our IBX headquarters, 1901 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, and we want to hear what empowering health together means to you! Your input can advance our ongoing conversation on overcoming barriers to equitable care and help us align our health equity strategy to our members’ values.
You can also participate in a Health Engagement Expo and take direct action to help yourself, your family, and your community to advance in health and well-being together.
Want to stay involved in our health equity efforts all year round? Join our Health Equity Advocacy Council!
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Daniel Dawes, J.D., is a widely respected health care and public health leader, health equity and policy expert, educator, and researcher. He currently serves as Senior Vice President of Global Health and is the founding Dean of the Meharry School of Global Health, the first school of its kind in the United States.
Dawes is the author and editor of several groundbreaking books including 150 Years of Obama Care, The Political Determinants of Health, and Health Equity. He was instrumental in developing and negotiating the Mental Health Parity Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, and the Affordable Care Act’s health equity-focused provisions, among other landmark federal policies. He was also the principal investigator for the nation’s first health equity tracker, co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), and co-principal investigator of the HHS National COVID-19 Resiliency Network.
Dawes serves as an advisor to The White House COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, an appointed member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director, and co-chair of the CDC’s Health Equity Working Group, as well as the NIH’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. He is passionate about harnessing the power of collaboration to actualize and operationalize health equity for all communities.
Ala Stanford, M.D., is founder of the Black Doctors Consortium, a national leader in health equity, a health care policy advisor, and former regional Mid-Atlantic Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In May 2024 she was appointed Professor of Practice in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania with two additional appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and Annenberg School for Communication.
Dr. Stanford gained international recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic for creating a grassroots organization focused on education, testing, contact tracing, and vaccination in communities lacking access to care and resources. She and her team provided direct care for hundreds of thousands locally, and helped educate countless others nationwide through her organization’s messaging. She subsequently opened a multidisciplinary ambulatory care center bearing her name, in a neighborhood in Philadelphia with one of the lowest life expectancies in the city.
Dr. Stanford has received many awards and honors, including a Top 10 CNN Hero, one of Fortune Magazine’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and one of Forbes’s Most Influential Women. She has also received the American College of Surgeons 2023 Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award and the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award. She was selected as 2024 Distinguished Alumna from The Pennsylvania State University, and the City of Philadelphia commissioned a street in her name. She lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her husband and children.
Sharrelle Barber, Sc.D., MPH, is a social epidemiologist and scholar-activist whose research — situated at the intersection of “place, race, and health” — examines the role of structural racism in shaping health and racial health inequities in Black communities in the United States and Brazil. Dr. Barber is currently a tenured faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health and serves as the inaugural and founding Director of the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity, which launched on November 11, 2021.
Dr. Barber has received external funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her empirical work and academic commentary has been published in leading peer-review journals including The Lancet, the American Journal of Public Health, and Social Science and Medicine. She has lectured and taught nationally and internationally on the impact of racism on health inequities and serves on the Commission on Antiracism in Solidarity for The Lancet. Dr. Barber is the 2023 recipient of the Sherman A. James Diverse and Inclusive Epidemiology Award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research.
Kenyatta James is an innovative economic development professional with a proven track record in developing culturally sensitive strategies, managing diverse teams, and fostering effective partnerships. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, where he uses his skills to support the creation of a vibrant and equitable local economy.
Previously, James was the Program Director for the Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity (PAGE) at the same organization. Under his leadership, he successfully championed nearly $80 million in institutional contracts with local minority-owned businesses and spearheaded policy updates at the corporate, city, and state levels to enhance support for these enterprises.
In 2022, James established the award-winning Hurdle Fund Grant program, which provided $250,000 in catalytic capital and enabled minority businesses to secure nearly $3.5 million in anchor contracts. Before joining the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, Kenyatta gained valuable experience as an entrepreneur and community organizer.
Beth McConnell is the Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Programs at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO). In this role, she oversees a team that invests in programs that provide opportunities for household stability, economic mobility, and prosperity. These include investments in public benefits access, financial empowerment, workforce development, and more.
Previously, McConnell served as Policy Director for the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC), where she led successful efforts to advocate for more than $300 million in new local funding for affordable housing and community economic development programs.
Cherri Gregg is the afternoon news anchor for WHYY and co-host of WHYY’s live daily radio news show, Studio 2. An award-winning journalist, Gregg spent over a decade covering civil rights, social justice, race, and public affairs issues for KYW News radio and CBS 3 Eyewitness News. There, she was creator, host, and executive producer of the weekly, syndicated radio show and podcast, Flashpoint with Cherri Gregg.
Gregg, who is also a licensed attorney, is a founding member of the Law & Justice Journalism Project, a non-profit focused on shifting the journalism narrative around public safety, crime and justice.
Mike Cangi is a proud father of four and a passionate entrepreneur with a deep commitment to making a positive impact. As the co-founder and CEO of FareRx, a wellness company based in Philadelphia, Cangi is pioneering a “food-as-medicine” approach to health care. FareRx delivers culturally appropriate, nutritious meals designed to manage chronic conditions, promote health equity, and address social determinants of health.
Before FareRx, Mike co-founded United By Blue, an outdoor brand dedicated to environmental stewardship, which was acquired in 2022. Under his leadership, the company removed millions of pounds of trash from the world’s oceans and waterways. A graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business, Cangi won the prestigious Be Your Own Boss Bowl and was recognized in Outside Magazine’s “30 Under 30.” He is also a contributor to the Forbes Business Council.
Adaeze Enekwechi, Ph.D., M.P.P., is the CEO of Cayaba Care, a venture-backed, value-based maternal health company focused on improving outcomes for moderate‐ and high-risk pregnant women covered by Medicaid and commercial insurance. Cayaba provides a full suite of wrap-around services — in home, in person, and virtually — to supplement existing obstetric care with social, emotional, and other supports during pregnancy, at delivery, and postpartum, seeking to ensure that historically underserved populations experience excellent maternal outcomes.
Dr. Enekwechi is also an operating partner at WCAS, an investment firm, where she focuses on articulating the value of private-equity capital to growth-oriented health care companies. She also seeks to enhance the firm’s understanding of the policy and regulatory environment, which can have a significant impact on health care companies — particularly those serving the Medicare and Medicaid populations.
Dr. Enekwechi is trained in health economics and outcomes research, and previously led IMPAQ, LLC — a company that provided research, technical assistance, and advanced analytics services for federal clients — through its acquisition in 2020. She also spent many years in federal policy roles at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and was the Head of Health Programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Obama. There she led policy, management, and regulatory oversight for over $1 trillion in spending across all federal health agencies and programs.
Dr. Enekwechi serves on the board of directors at the Public Health Institute, Alliance for Health Policy, MedStar Health (the largest health system in the DC area), Tia (a women’s health company), and Liberty Dental (a private equity-backed company). She is also an active member of a Maryland chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.