Gaurdia Banister, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, is the executive director of the Institute for Patient Care at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Banister has academic appointments at the Mass General Institute for Health Professions, the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Prior to her work at Mass General, Dr. Banister served as senior vice president for Patient Care Services and Chief Nurse at Providence Hospital, a metropolitan community hospital in Washington, DC.

Dr. Banister received the American Nurses Association Mary Eliza Mahoney Award and the Prism Award by the American Organization of the Nurse Executives for her outstanding achievements and leadership in promoting the integration, retention and advancement of minorities in nursing. She is also a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a former Johnson & Johnson Wharton nurse fellow and an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program.

Dr. Banister earned her BSN from the University of Wyoming, where she received distinguished alumna awards from both the university and the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing. She earned her MSN and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was also chosen as a distinguished alumna.

Cynthia Haq, MD, is an advocate for health equity, primary health care, and humanism in medicine. She completed medical school at Indiana University, and family medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin. She has served as medical faculty at Dartmouth, the Universities of Wisconsin and California, the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, Makerere University in Uganda, and as a consultant to the International Rescue Committee and the World Health Organization in Switzerland. She retired in 2023 from her position as Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, Irvine where she directed the Schwartz Rounds® program.

Zac Rich is the Chief of Program & Evaluation at The New Commonwealth Racial Equity & Social Justice Fund. A life-long youth violence intervention and adult re-entry advocate, Zac began his Boston-area career as a youth worker at Roca Chelsea, focused on neighborhoods in and around Chelsea, East Boston, and Roxbury. As a youth worker, he provided intensive outreach and case management support to young adults at the center of urban violence – both in the community and behind the wall in HOC, DOC, and DYS facilities.

Prior to joining NCF in 2023, he served as the Director of Justice-Based Initiatives at Commonwealth Corporation since 2014, where he oversaw technical assistance and program development strategy for the 14 Safe & Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) -funded cities across the Commonwealth on behalf of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, as well as the Adult Re-Entry Workforce Development Demonstration Program on behalf of Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Zac has served on the Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ) Board of Directors since 2018, and the Northeastern University Crime, Race, and Justice Community Advisory Board since 2023.