Moderator
Kevin Sia, PhD
Program Officer for Medical Research | Doris Duke Foundation

Presenters
Shawna Strickland, PhD
Associate Executive Director, Programs | American Epilepsy Society
Shawna Strickland (she/her), PhD, CAE, is the Associate Executive Director, Programs, at the American Epilepsy Society, where she focuses on effective association practice, project management, and quality continuing education. In this role, she leads the clinical activities, research, and education teams and special projects, including a CDC grant that aims to improve outcomes for underserved people with epilepsy. Dr. Strickland started her career as a clinician in pediatric intensive respiratory care. From there, she transitioned into higher education, serving as faculty and in program administration, as well as serving as an ethics consultant for the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s Center for Health Ethics. She has been active in developing clinical practice guidelines and researching areas such as clinician burnout and provider workforce shortages. Dr. Strickland earned her undergraduate degrees from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale and her graduate degrees from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Patricia Frustace
Sr. Director Awards and Diversity | American Society of Hematology
Patricia Frustace is the Senior Director of Awards and Diversity Programs at ASH. Patricia is responsible for the management and oversight of a $15 million portfolio of recruitment, retention, and recognition award programs across the Society. Further, she is responsible for overseeing the strategy, program operations, and volunteer governance structures for ASH’s highly regarded ASH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy. These efforts, begun in 2003, expanded under her leadership from a limited recruitment and retention effort into a multi-million-dollar, multi-faceted and comprehensive focus on embedding principles of DEI across all aspects of the Society. This work includes workforce diversity, principles of inclusion in Society work, creating a culture welcoming of diverse perspectives, talents, and experiences, embedding anti-racism principles into educational content, and a robust focus on advancing health equity across the field. Patricia is regularly asked to consult on peer organization efforts and to serve as an invited speaker on DEI related work in the medical specialty space. Further, Patricia has provided leadership and guidance on how to establish and convene DEI-focused governance structures and interest groups for multiple organizations, including the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and the American Board of Internal Medicine. Ms. Frustace will be the staff lead for the overall effort, will serve as staff liaison for governance bodies, and will lead the HCS learning community efforts. 

Stephanie Albin, PhD
Science Program Officer | The Kavli Foundation
Stephanie Albin, Ph.D., is a science program officer at The Kavli Foundation, where she manages grantmaking in neuroscience. This includes leading the foundation’s participation in the Neurodata Without Borders project — an effort to break down barriers to data sharing by developing a unified data format for cellular-based neurophysiology data. Dr. Albin also supports the foundation’s flagship program, the Kavli Institutes, and oversees collaborative partnerships designed to accelerate basic research in neuroscience.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2017, Dr. Albin spent two years as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow stationed at the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the Division of Chemistry where she worked on NSF-wide priorities such as the US BRAIN Initiative. Dr. Albin holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco, and conducted her postdoctoral research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus.