IHI would like to thank the co-chairs for their extraordinary effort and commitment in developing the program for the 2007 Summit.

Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, Founder and CEO, Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic (Alabama), is the former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile where she administered the Alabama-AHEC program and USA Telemedicine Program. She is a current member of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs and President of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African American female president of a State Medical Society in the US. Dr. Benjamin has served on numerous boards of directors and is a member of several professional health care associations. She was appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee, the Council of Graduate Medical Education, and the NIH Committee on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Benjamin has been recognized with many awards and honors, including the 1998 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, Time Magazine's "Nation's 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under," the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa, "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and "Woman of the Year" by CBS This Morning, among others.

Sir John Oldham, MB, ChB, MBA, Head of the Improvement Foundation, UK, is a practicing physician who regularly conducts workshops and presentations internationally. In 1997 he participated in an Institute for Healthcare Improvement project to redesign surgery systems in the US using the Collaborative methodology. Dr. Oldham then applied the Collaborative method to primary care in the UK and  being asked to create and head the UK’s National Primary Care Development Team (now Improvement Foundation). The Primary Care Collaborative is the largest improvement program in the world. He also created the concept of the award-winning Healthy Communities Collaborative with residents of deprived areas as the improvement team members. In 2000 he received the OBE for services to patients and in 2003 he was awarded a knighthood for services to the NHS.

Kevin Weiss, MD, MPH, FACP, is Professor of Medicine and directs the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He also directs the VA’s Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy Research located at Hines and Jesse Brown VA Medical Centers in Chicago. Dr. Weiss is program director for the newly established Northwestern University Masters and Certificate Programs in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety. He is a member or chair of numerous committees and he has published over 150 articles, chapters, texts, and monographs. His research is focused on issues of quality and access in primary care, and on conducting epidemiological and health services research projects involving access to care, guideline implementation, chronic care management, outcomes measurement, and quality improvement specifically focused on asthma care and asthma disparities.