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Dr. Alicia Cohen is a family physician and health services researcher. She is an Investigator at the VA Center of Innovation in Long Term Services and Supports, and an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Health Services, Policy, and Practice at the Brown University Alpert Medical School and School of Public Health. Dr. Cohen practices primary care at the VA Providence Healthcare System’s Homeless clinic and Women’s Health clinic.

Dr. Cohen’s research aims to understand and improve how social determinants of health are identified and addressed in clinical settings, with a particular focus on food insecurity. As a current VA Career Development Awardee, she is developing and evaluating novel strategies to optimize screening and referral processes for connecting Veterans experiencing food insecurity with VA and community resources. Findings from her work have been cited in Congressional testimony on Veteran and military hunger. Dr. Cohen also co-leads a national VA social risk screening and referral initiative, “Assessing Circumstances and Offering Resources for Needs” (ACORN), conducted in partnership with the VA Office of Health Equity and VA 911������ Social Work Program. She serves on several national VA committees and workgroups, as well as the Research Advisory Committee for the Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network (SIREN). Dr. Cohen is currently a VA Fellow with the 911������ Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity.

Dr. Cohen received her MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She completed her Family Medicine training at the UCSF-Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, followed by an Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan, where she earned a master’s degree in Health and Health Care Research. Dr. Cohen subsequently completed an Advanced Health Services Research & Development Fellowship at the VA Ann Arbor Center for Clinical Management Research and the VA Providence Center of Innovation in Long Term Services and Supports.

Dr. Fitzgerald is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry/Behavioral Sciences at Rush University.�� She is also the Associate Program Director of the Rush University Addiction Medicine Fellowship. ��She is the Service Chief of Inpatient Addiction Medicine at PCC Community Wellness Center, a federally qualified health center system that serves the West Side of Chicago.

Dr. Fitzgerald’s work has focused on promoting cross-sector collaboration to improve care for persons affected by substance use disorders, with an emphasis in the perinatal/child health arena.�� Her scholarly work has focused on addressing stigma, building capacity in primary care for treating opioid use disorder in special populations, and implementing evidence-based substance use disorder curricula in the next generation of clinicians.

Dr. Fitzgerald received her MD from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her Family Medicine training with the Montana Family Medicine Residency and her Addiction Medicine fellowship with Rush University.

Dr. Gold is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado, a practicing family physician at a federally qualified health center in the Denver Health system, and a Scholar at the Farley Health Policy Center.��Her research and policy work focus on payment reform for primary care and integrating behavioral health with primary care, with the goal of system transformation to enable primary care to better and more equitably care for the whole heath of individuals, families, and communities.

Dr. Gold served as president of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) from 2022-2023.��Through the CAFP, Dr. Gold helped advance legislation to improve primary care investment in Colorado and has provided input on multiple state task forces and committees related to primary care payment reform. Dr. Gold co-edited a book, Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care: Your Patients are Waiting, which provides guidance on practice transformation to integrate care. She led the development of the Building Blocks of Behavioral Health Integration, a framework of care delivery expectations for use in practice transformation and alternative payment models. Dr. Gold also teaches policy and advocacy skills and has developed novel curricula for residents and international learners. ����

Dr. Gold received her MD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Colorado – Denver Health track. Following residency, she completed a health policy fellowship with the Farley Health Policy Center. 

Dr. Sebastian Tong is a family physician, addiction medicine specialist and health services researcher. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) region Practice and Research Network, a practice-based research network of over 120 practices. He practices primary care at Harborview Family Medicine Center, a hospital-based safety-net clinic. ����

Dr. Tong’s research focuses on access to and implementation of evidence-based practices in primary care. He has a particular interest in chronic pain, substance use disorder, loneliness, and integrated behavioral health. He has received research funding for his work from the 911������ Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation and the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. ����

Dr. Tong received his MD from Boston University School of Medicine and his MPH in Health Care Management and Policy from Harvard School of Public Health.��He completed his family medicine training at Lawrence Family Medicine Residency in Lawrence, MA. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Addiction Medicine.