Workforce Well-Being for Middle Managers

Jonathan Ripp, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine, Medical Education and Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Dean for Well-Being and Resilience and Chief Wellness Officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). He received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University and completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.  In the role of Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Ripp oversees efforts to assess and provide direction for system- and individual-level interventions designed to improve well-being for all students, residents, fellows, faculty, and other health professionals in the Mount Sinai Health System. He is the former Associate Dean of GME for Trainee Well-Being within the ISMMS Office of Graduate Medical Education, in which capacity he served to help spread well-being initiatives across the training programs of the Mount Sinai Health System. 

In the Department of Medicine, Dr. Ripp practices as a clinician in the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors home-based primary care program, where he maintains an active patient panel. In addition, Dr. Ripp is the Co-founder and Co-Director of CHARM, the Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine, an international group of medical educators, academic medical center and well-being leaders, experts in burnout research and interventions, and learners all working to promote healthcare professional and learner well-being. CHARM maintains several leadership networks, including the CHARM Chief Wellness Officer Network and the CHARM GME Well-Being Leaders Network, and also actively develops important content to advance the literature and field of clinician well-being. 

Recognized for his leadership in this area, Dr. Ripp has been invited to participate in the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education Symposia on Physician Well-Being, join the American College of Physician's Promoting Physician Wellness Task Force, and participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-being and Resilience. He also chairs the Greater New York Hospital Association’s Clinician Well-Being Advisory Group. Dr. Ripp’s primary research interest is in physician burnout and well-being, for which he has received grant support and has published and lectured widely. His multicenter studies have served to better elucidate the causes and consequences of physician burnout and have explored interventions designed to promote clinician well-being.  

Bree Andrews, MD, MPH, is a neonatologist and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine and serves as the inaugural Chief Wellness and Vitality Officer for Physicians for the Biological Sciences Division and the University of Chicago Medicine. She is also an Associate Dean for the Office of Faculty Advancement. In these roles, she is charged with assessing physician well-being across the organization and implementing programs that improve ease of practice, collegiality, resilience, and professional fulfillment. Her interests focus on professional identity and faculty as they prepare for and navigate meaningful, sustainable career trajectories. 

Jamile (Jay) Ashmore, PhD, is the Chief Wellness Officer and Director of the Division of Medical Psychology at Baylor Scott & White – The Heart Hospital.  He leads enterprise wide strategies to enhance physician well-being through systems-based and evidence-informed approaches. His work focuses on cultivating a well-being centered organizational culture, improving operational efficiencies, and advancing structural supports that mitigate burnout and promote occupational fulfillment.

Dr. Ashmore earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University and completed clinical training at Duke University Medical Center in the Division of Medical Psychology. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, Texas, where his research examined biopsychosocial determinants of health behavior change in chronic illness contexts including cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and obesity. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and industry.

He previously served as Director and Vice President of the Division of Weight Management at the Cooper Institute and Cooper Aerobics Enterprises, leading research and clinical programs.  At Baylor Scott & White-Plano, Dr. Ashmore led the hospital-based behavioral medicine service line and, as East Region Director of Behavioral Health, co-chaired the system-wide Behavioral Health Council and contributed to clinician well-being initiatives.  Nationally, he has served on the American Psychological Association’s Advisory Steering Committee for Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Healthcare Finance Advisory Committee.

In his current role, Dr. Ashmore chairs the Executive Physician Well-Being Committee and oversees programs addressing individual and system-level drivers of well-being for physicians and trainees. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Texas A&M College of Medicine, where he supports medical student education and ACGME well-being curricula for residents and fellows. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Healthcare Professional Well-Being Academic Consortium and collaborates nationally to advance the science and practice of healthcare workforce well-being.

With over 25 years of experience working with service dogs, Dr. Ashmore directs the Dogs of Cardiac Support facility dog program at The Heart Hospital. His current scholarly interests include well-being-centered leadership in matrixed healthcare systems, psychometric evaluation of workforce well-being, and developing a unified lexicon to foster shared understanding of well-being terms and constructs. His work aims to strengthen conceptual frameworks and measurement tools that enable health systems to accurately assess well-being and translate findings into targeted, evidence-based interventions.

Colin West, MD, PhD, FACP. Originally from Seattle, Dr. West received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Iowa in 1999. He completed residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Mayo Clinic, and joined the faculty in General Internal Medicine in 2004. He is currently Professor of Medicine, Medical Education, and Biostatistics at Mayo. He is Director of the Mayo Clinic Program on Physician Well-Being and was named the first Medical Director of Employee Well-Being for Mayo Clinic in 2022. Dr. West's research has focused on medical education and physician well-being, and has been widely published in prominent journals including Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JAMA Internal Medicine.