Jan N. Basile, MD, FACP, FASH, FAHA
Professor of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Medical University of South Carolina
Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center
Previous Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs AHA Council of Hypertension
US National Leader SURPASS-CVOT
Charleston, SC

Dr. Jan N. Basile earned his medical degree in 1978 from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He then completed his internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he was also Chief Resident. He is board certified in internal medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American Society of Hypertension (FASH), and the American Heart Association (FAHA). For many years he served on the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Board of Directors and has served within the AHA as Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs on the Council of Hypertension.

His honors and awards include the MUSC School of Medicine Excellence in Teaching award, the Golden Apple award, and, in 2014, he was the first recipient of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control Hypertension Physician of the Year award. In 2019, he received the Marvin Moser Clinical Hypertension Award from the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension. He was President of the Southern Medical Association from 2008-2009.

Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at MUSC in the Division of Cardiology. He spent 31 years at the Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center while faculty at MUSC having retired from federal service as Chief of Primary Care in 2009. He remains a volunteer at the VA, this his 43rd year at that hospital. At MUSC, he continues to teach all 3rd year medical students on hypertension during their 3rd year core medicine rotation and sees clinical patients in research trials on the tole of renal denervation in controlling hypertension.

Dr. Basile’s career research interests include outcome-based clinical trials involving hypertension, lipid disorders, and diabetes. He has been involved in many large hypertension trials including the ALLHAT, ACCORD, VALUE, ONTARGET, ACCOMPLISH, ACCORD and SPRINT and SPRINT-MIND trials most under the auspices of the NHLBI. Most recently he has been involved in diabetes outcome trials with GLP1RA's including REWIND and most recently the SURPASS-CV Outcome trial, which is a cardiovascular outcome trial comparing Dulaglutide with the dual-agonist Tirzepatide.

He was a contributing reviewer of the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) and the 2017 ACC-AHA Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. Dr. Basile has published more than 400 original papers, abstracts, and book chapters, as well as a textbook, Hot Topics: Hypertension. He continues to be a contributing author for the hypertension section of “Up To Date”.

Steven L. Cohn, MD, MACP, SFHM
Professor Emeritus
Department of Medicine
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Miami, FL

Dr. Steven L. Cohn is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is the former Director of the Medical Consultation Service at Jackson Memorial Hospital and Medical Director of the UHealth Preoperative Assessment Center (UPAC) and Medical Consultation Service at the University of Miami Hospital, having relocated to Miami after 30 years at the State University of New York - Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn where he is also Clinical Professor of Medicine Emeritus. He was the former Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Associate Medical Director for Performance Improvement at Downstate and the Director of the Preoperative Medical Consultation Clinic and Medical Consultation Service at Kings County Hospital Center, responsible for education and supervision of senior medical residents in both in-patient and ambulatory care settings and has evaluated over 30,000 patients preoperatively. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Monterrey, Dr. Cohn completed his residency in internal medicine at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP), a senior fellow of the Society for Hospital Medicine (SHM), and a board member of the Society for Perioperative Assessment and Quality Improvement (SPAQI).

Dr. Cohn is a nationally recognized expert in perioperative medicine and a frequently requested speaker. He has given over 400 CME lectures ranging from grand rounds to presentations of research findings and coordination of educational workshops at numerous national meetings (ACP, SHM, SGIM, IARS). In 2017, he received the SHM Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Cohn is the author/editor of several books – Decision-making in Perioperative Medicine: Clinical Pearls (McGraw Hill and ACP, 2021), Perioperative Medicine (Springer, 2011), and Perioperative Medicine - Just the Facts (McGraw Hill, 2006), and section editor for medical consultation in Comprehensive Hospital Medicine (Elsevier, 2007). He wrote the chapter on Preoperative Evaluation for the past three editions of Goldman/Cecil's Textbook of Medicine, the section on Perioperative Medicine in MKSAP XV, and co-authored multiple topics in UpToDate. He has also written numerous book chapters and articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Hospital Medicine, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Heart, and Anesthesiology. Dr. Cohn has been named in Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors in the New York Metro Area annually from 1997-2011 and was also listed in New York Magazine's Best Doctors 2010 and 2011.

Francis L. Counselman, MD, CPE, FACEP
Chidester Endowed Chair of Emergency Medicine
Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Norfolk, VA

Dr. Francis L Counselman is a Professor and the Chidester Endowed Chair of Emergency Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr Counselman is past-President of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (2014-2015) and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (2002-2003). He is the recipient of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) "Award for Outstanding Contribution in Education" (2017), the Parker J Palmer "Courage to Teach" Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (2005), the 2003 Residency Director of the Year Award from the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

Nihar R. Desai, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Associate Chief, Section of Cardiovascular Medicine
Investigator, Center for Outcomes Research and Investigation
New Haven, CT

Dr. Nihar R. Desai is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, an Investigator at the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and Medical Director for Value Innovation at the Yale New Haven Health System Heart and Vascular Center. His interests focus on cardiovascular health services and comparative effectiveness research, examining patterns of care, identifying opportunities to improve clinical outcomes, and evaluating the impact of novel care delivery systems on cost and quality. In addition, he serves as a clinical consultant on the CMS acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery readmission and mortality measures. He graduated with highest honors from Lehigh University before completing an internship in the Clinton White House. He then attended the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he received his Doctorate in Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health where he received his Master’s in Public Health. Dr. Desai completed his residency training in Internal Medicine as well as his clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He then completed a research fellowship at the TIMI Study Group with Dr. Eugene Braunwald. His scholarly work has been published in New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Michelle L. Look, MD, FAAFP
Medical Director of Clinical Research
San Diego Sports Medicine and Family Health Center
Primary Care Specialist
Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine
San Diego, CA

Dr. Michelle L. Look practices obesity medicine in her role as a family practice-sports medicine physician for the San Diego Sports Medicine and Family Health Center. Over the years, she has served as principal investigator of numerous clinical trials assessing pharmacotherapies for obesity as well as authoring several published articles on obesity medicine in primary care.

Dr. Look received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and is board certified in family medicine, sports medicine, and obesity medicine. She joined San Diego Sports Medicine in 2001 after completing the San Diego Sports Medicine and Family Health Center’s Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program and a family practice residency at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego.

Stephanie J. Nahas, MD, MSEd, FAHS, FAAN
Associate Professor of Neurology
Director, Headache Medicine Followship Program
Assistant Director, Neurology Residency Program
Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals
Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Stephanie J. Nahas achieved her undergraduate degree in biology (cum laude) at Harvard in 1995. She then went to Rush Medical College where, after a brief detour to obtain a Masters degree in instructional technology from the University of Southern California in 1998, she earned her MD in 2001. She completed internship at Rush followed by neurology residency then fellowship in headache medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In January 2007, after 1.5 years of fellowship training, she joined faculty and became the Fellowship Program Director at the Headache Center of Thomas Jefferson University. She is a dedicated advocate for the field, having attended all but one Headache on the Hill events with the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA) in Washington, DC since 2007, and has served on the AHDA Board of Directors since 2018 (Vice President February 2018 – November 2019, Interim President November 2019 – February 2020, Member at Large February 2020 – present). Dr. Nahas serves as Section Editor for Current Pain and Headache Reports, is former Co-Chair of and current Senior Advisor to the “First Contact: Headache Education in Primary Care” Committee of the American Headache Society, and also serves on the Education Committee and Scottsdale Program Committee for the American Headache Society.

Kim Pfotenhauer, DO
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Director of Clerkship Curriculum
Michigan State University
College of Osteopathic Medicine
Lansing, MI

Dr. Kim Pfotenhauer is a Board Certified Osteopathic Family Physician and a fellowship trained Diabetologist. She is currently the Director of Clerkship Curriculum and an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She serves on the American Diabetes Association Women’s Interprofessional Network Advisory Group and as National Faculty for the NBOME. Speaking regionally and nationally on diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and vitamin D, she focuses on empowering primary care physicians to improve patient metabolic health.

John H. Post III, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Martha Jefferson Hospital
Charlottesville, VA

Dr. John H. Post is an Orthopedic Surgeon from Charlottesville, Virginia with expertise in Sports Medicine, arthroscopy of the knee and shoulder, and knee replacement surgery. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, served as a U.S. Marine helicopter pilot and subsequent helicopter instructor for the U.S. Navy. He received his MD from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He is a Fellow in the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and is a volunteer COVID 19 vaccinator for the Blue Ridge Health District. He enjoys outdoor exercise and has competed in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and the English Channel Swim and enjoys hiking with his family. His wife is the Director of Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Northridge Clinic. They have three children, a granddaughter, and two labs.

Lisa B. VanWagner, MD, MSc, FAST, FAHA
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Epidemiology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Dr. Lisa B. VanWagner is an Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. Dr. VanWagner received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2007. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL in 2010 and then served as Chief Medical Resident from 2010-2011. She also obtained her master’s degree in Clinical Investigation from the Northwestern University Graduate School in 2011. Dr. VanWagner completed her Gastroenterology & Hepatology training at Northwestern in 2014 followed by an Advanced Transplant Hepatology Fellowship in 2015 before joining the Northwestern faculty in 2015.

Dr. VanWagner utilizes human population-based approaches, large electronic health record data analysis and health services research methods to define and characterize cardiovascular disease risk prediction, prevention and treatment approaches in patients with chronic liver disease, particularly among patients with fatty liver disease. As a practicing transplant hepatologist, she sees patients with NAFLD/NASH before and after liver transplant and recognizes gaps in our knowledge of the epidemiology and pathobiology of cardiovascular disease in this growing population. Her scientific work has been recognized by leading professional organizations, with research awards from American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), American Society of Transplantation (AST) and American Heart Association (AHA). She has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Her publications have been the first to describe findings such as the increased risk of adverse cardiovascular disease events after liver transplant for NASH, the first to describe national estimates of cardiovascular disease events after liver transplant, and the first to develop a clinical liver transplant-specific cardiovascular disease risk assessment tool for clinical use (calculator available at: www.carolt.us). Other publications have been used to develop strategies for policymakers, such as the American Heart Association (annual statistics update), and for clinical practice guidance (AST guidance on cardiovascular disease evaluation and management in liver transplant candidates). Clinically, she works in the multidisciplinary Northwestern Fatty Liver Program in the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Center and the combined heart-liver transplant program at the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center. Dr. VanWagner is a fellow of the AHA and AST and currently serves as chair of the Liver and Intestine Community of Practice (LICOP) and serves on the Practice Guideline Committee for the AASLD.

C. Wayne Weart, PharmD, FASHP, FAPhA
Professor Emeritus Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy
Professor of Family Medicine
MUSC Department of Family Medicine
Charleston, SC

Dr. C. Wayne Weart received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy in 1971 from the University of Georgia. He served his residency in Hospital Pharmacy at the Medical University Hospital in Charleston, SC in 1972. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1974.Dr. Weart is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcome Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), as well as Professor of Family Medicine in the College of Medicine, MUSC. Prior to his teaching at the Medical University, Dr. Weart instructed at West Virginia University in pharmacy and family medicine.

Dr. Weart has more than 100 publications and he has given scores of lectures to numerous professional groups and societies. He has received outstanding teacher awards at both West Virginia University and MUSC and has been named Hospital Pharmacist of the Year in both South Carolina and West Virginia.

In 1991, Dr. Weart was among the first pharmacists to become a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. In 1992, he was honored for his excellence in pharmacy practice and designated a Fellow of the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. Dr. Weart was named a Primary Care Policy Fellow for 1999 by the U.S. Public Health Service and he was honored by the Alumni Association of the MUSC College of Pharmacy as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2002. He also received the Bowl of Hygeia Award from the SC Pharmacy Association in 2003 for outstanding service to the community and the profession of pharmacy and the George D. Schwerin Mentor Award, from the South Carolina Society of Health System Pharmacists in 2004. In 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009 he was recognized by the MUSC College of Pharmacy student body for his excellence in education by the Golden Mortar and Pestle Award. In 2008 the MUSC Board of Trustees named Dr. Weart as a Master Teacher. In 2012 he received the Proctor and Gamble National Leadership Award from the Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society. In 2014 he was awarded the Ralph M. Wilkie Distinguished Lifetime Service Award by the SC Pharmacy Association Board of Directors. In 2015 he received the Kenneth Flinchum Distinguished Service Award from the SC Society of Health System Pharmacists. In 2021 he was awarded the James A. McFarland, MD, FACP Award by the SC Chapter of the American College of Physicians for his scholarship and teaching. Dr Weart served on the Board of Directors of the SC Pharmacists Association and as President and Chairman of the Board for 2010-2011. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy from 2009-2013 and President of the Waring Library Society for 2014-2015. He is one of many Hot Dog Ministry volunteers involved with serving the homeless of Charleston.