2026 Conference Speakers
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Renée Cummings
Professor Renée Cummings is a globally recognized intelligence innovator, AI accelerator, AI governance leader, criminologist, criminal psychologist, therapeutic jurisprudence specialist and expert in the psychodynamics of terrorism. She’s also a futurist specializing at the intersection of artificial intelligence, imagination, justice, and public trust. She serves as a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science, where she teaches data ethics, and governance under real-world conditions. She’s also co-chair of the Global Academic Network at the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP) and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
An internationally sought-after visionary keynote speaker, Professor Cummings advises executives, boards, policymakers, and global institutions on AI and AGI governance, foresight, and crisis leadership, with a particular focus on how emerging technologies amplify risk, reshape power, and impact society. Her work centers on translating complex AI systems into decision-grade intelligence—especially in moments of escalation, failure, or harm. Professor Cummings is widely known for advancing trauma-informed, justice-centered approaches to AI governance, emphasizing accountability, legitimacy, and trust at scale and protecting against data trauma—a term she coined. She has contributed to global conversations at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and at Davos where her work informs policy debates on AI, psychological health, public safety, and democratic resilience.
In addition to her academic and advisory roles, Professor Cummings is a trusted expert media analyst, frequently providing clear, authoritative commentary on AI risk, algorithmic harm, and the societal implications of emerging technologies. Her insights help global audiences understand complex technological issues during moments of uncertainty and crisis. With a background spanning criminal justice, risk, governance, and ethical innovation, Professor Cummings brings rare cross-sector insight to the challenges of governing intelligent systems in high-stakes environments. Her voice is consistently sought at global summits, corporate leadership forums, academic institutions, and in the media for her ability to anticipate emerging risks, confront uncomfortable truths, and lead conversations that shape the future of AI responsibly.
MORNING PANEL
Deepesh Chandra
Deepesh Chandra is the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Montefiore Einstein, where he leads the technology function for the health system and all its member entities. At Montefiore, he is leading a step-change in the organization’s use of technology and its digital transformation enabling the care delivery and business operations.
Previously, Deepesh was the Chief Analytics Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health and President of Accrete Health Partner, BSMH’s digital health and investment subsidiary. In his role, he led the vision and strategy on digital, data, analytics, and AI capabilities for the organization and its markets across seven states, while running health system’s diversified growth agenda on health tech and services.
Deepesh has a wealth of experience and leadership, including his work at McKinsey & Company as an Associate Partner, where he focused on technology and digital transformation for payers, providers, medical groups, post-acute, public sector, and private equity clients. Additionally, he has held leadership roles at Mount Sinai Health System, Tata Consultancy Service, and served as a board member and advisor to several health tech and services companies.
Throughout his career, Deepesh has collaborated closely with a variety of health care leaders in bringing together strategy, technology, and execution, and then directed large cross-functional teams across clinical, operations, product development, and vendor ecosystem, to deliver repeated success. During his work in the private equity space, he worked closely in health tech, leading end-to-end deals, delivering growth imperatives, and shaping the exit strategies with the investors and management team. Deepesh holds an M.S. in Business Analytics from NYU Stern School of Business and a B.S. in computer science engineering from the National Institute of Technology & Management in India.
Divya Pathak
Divya Pathak previously served as the Chief Data Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal health care delivery system in the United States. In this role, she provided executive leadership and strategic direction to the Data & Analytics organization to support NYC Health + Hospitals and its partners with data and digital tools, AI capabilities and insights to drive quality and performance improvements, support enterprise operations, and enhance patient outcomes. She is a thought leader andserves as a subject matter expert on leveraging AI and analytics to solve business, clinical, and operational problems in health care and collaborates with industry and academia in bringing emerging technologies to accelerate AI transformation at scale. She also actively engages in public speaking at industry and academic events on the use of AI in healthcare and clinical medicine.
With nearly 18 years of expertise in AI, software engineering, and talent development, Pathak excels in delivering impactful solutions for diverse stakeholders, including health systems, academic medical centers, payors, digital health, and pharmaceutical companies. Before joining NYC Health + Hospitals, she served as the Vice Chair for Artificial Intelligence & Analytics in the Center for Digital Health at Mayo Clinic. In this role, she led the Enterprise AI & Analytics organization, successfully delivering multiple AI-based solutions for clinical practice and enterprise operations. Pathak has also held key technical and managerial positions at IBM Research, where she spearheaded the delivery of pioneering AI innovations tailored forthe health care provider and payer markets.
Dr. Remle Newton-Dame
Dr. Remle Newton-Dame is the Assistant Vice President of Healthcare Analytics in the Office of Population Health at New York City Health + Hospitals.
She is an epidemiologist with 15 years of experience inelectronic heath record data and public health. At NYC H+H, she co-founded and runs the Data Core, ateam of analysts who harness big data to answer big questions on population health. Data Core’s analyticsportfolio includes risk targeting, access to care, depression, chronic disease, social determinants of health, pediatrics, preventive screenings, homelessness and care management. Previously, Dr. Newton-Dame served as the Senior Manager of Population Health at the NYCDepartment of Health.
She led the development of the NYC Macroscope, the first chronic disease surveillance system using city-wide ambulatory data from more than 1 million patients. In2020/2021, she also served in the Office of the Commissioner as a Special Adviser, in addition toher Data Core role. Dr. Newton-Dame has been an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, a Bates Fellow and a Center for a Livable Future Fellow. She has served as a reviewer for NEJM Catalyst, Journal ofthe American Medical Informatics Association, Generating Evidence and Methods, and Journal ofImmigrant and Minority Health. Dr. Newton-Dame received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins, and PhD from Marywood University.
Prof. Thalia Porteny (Moderator)
Dr. Thalia Porteny is a health policy scholar and applied ethicist. She is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health. Her interests are motivated by the needs she saw growing up in Mexico and working in the Mexican Ministry of Health. Drawing from ethics, health services research and implementation science, she employs qualitative and quantitative methods inher investigations. Her work aims to better understand the health needs and experiences of vulnerable populations, primarily older adult migrants, to advance fairer patient treatment, allocation, and access to health resources.
Professor Porteny earned her PhD and master’s degree in health policy and ethics atHarvard University. She then completed her postdoc training at the lab for Research on Ethics Aging and Community Health (REACH Lab) at Tufts University. Professor Porteny also worked and collaborated withvarious institutions such as WHO/PAHO, Doctors Without Borders, UCLA, the University of Miami, and the RAND Corporation. She has received several awards and scholarships from the National Institute ofHealth and from the Mexican Government.