Vikas Saini, MD is president of the Lown Institute. He is a clinical cardiologist trained by Dr. Bernard Lown at Harvard, where he has taught and done research. Dr. Saini leads the Institute’s signature project, the Lown Institute Hospitals Index, the first ranking to measure hospital social responsibility. The Index, first launched in July 2020, evaluates hospitals on equity, value, and outcomes, and includes never-before-used metrics such as avoiding overuse, pay equity, and racial inclusivity.  

In his role at the Lown Institute since 2012, Dr. Saini led the development of the Right Care series of papers published by The Lancet in 2017; convened six national conferences featuring world-renowned leaders in health care; and guided other Lown Institute projects such as the “Shkreli Awards.” Dr. Saini also serves as co-chair of the Right Care Alliance, a grassroots network of clinicians, patient activists, and community leaders organizing to put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care.

Prior to the Lown Institute, Dr. Saini was in private practice in cardiology for over 15 years on Cape Cod, where he also founded a primary care physician network participating in global payment contracts. He also co-founded Aspect Medical Systems, the pioneer in noninvasive consciousness monitoring in the operating room with the BIS device.

Dr. Saini is an expert on the optimal medical management of cardiologic conditions, medical overuse, hospital performance and evaluation, and health equity. He has spoken and presented research at professional meetings around the world, and has been quoted in numerous print media, radio, and television.

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Aaron’s varied career in communications has led to notable achievements including a US Supreme Court victory, being named “straight person of the year” by The Advocate magazine, and numerous awards for digital achievements in public higher education.

Previously, he had roles at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), the leading authority on the nation’s caregiving workforce, and as the founding director of KnowThyNeighbor, a social justice organization that played a disruptive and influential role in the fight for marriage equality.

Aaron graduated from the College of William & Mary with a BA in history and government and earned an MA in English from Salem State University.

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Carissa joined the Lown Institute in July 2014 as a Project Administrative Assistant and previously worked at the Boys’ & Girls’ Town of Italy and Museum of Chinese in America.

She is a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine with a MSc in Forensic Anthropology and holds an AB in Anthropology and Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies from Princeton University.

In her spare time, she competes in the sport of Taekwondo, often representing the United States in international competitions.

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Judith is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Lown Institute. She joined the Lown team in 2016, after receiving her Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School of Social Policy. Her research interests include hospital community benefit policy, overuse and value-based care, and racial health disparities. She has authored several white papers, journal articles, op-eds, and other publications on these topics.

Judith previously worked at the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, the Midas Collaborative, and Pearson Education. She has a BA in American Studies and Political Science from Rutgers University. In her free time, Judith enjoys playing competitive ultimate frisbee and listening to musical theater.  

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Prior to the Lown Institute, Stephanie worked at Primary Care Progress, taught organizing at the college level, and mobilized volunteers for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. She regularly volunteers with other community organizing groups and facilitates trainings on grassroots youth leadership.

Stephanie graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BA in History and earned an MEd in Civic Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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John is Vice President of Finance and Administration at the Lown Institute. He joined the Lown Institute team in the Spring of 2019 and has learned to wear many hats around the organization over time. 

He started his career in the Information Technology field working for Pathfinder International, a nonprofit in Watertown, MA.  After spending years traveling the globe for Pathfinder, he made a significant life change and attended law school full time.  After earning a law degree and passing the Bar Exam, he worked in a variety of positions at: Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Boston Baked Bonz, and Framingham State University.  John also formed his own private law practice focused on helping victims of debt collectors and those denied unemployment benefits by the state.

He is a proud Triple-Husky with three degrees from Northeastern University: BS (Operations Technology Mgmt), MBA (High Technology) and JD (Public Interest Law). In his free time, he plays with his three adorable rescued labs, cooks, gardens and hikes.

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Valérie is the Senior Director of Data Science at the Lown Institute. Prior to Lown, she developed and implemented data-driven approaches to execute marketing strategies at management and marketing consulting firms working at the intersection of consumer data, AI/ML, and software and technology platforms.

She has served as an AI/ML expert on behavior-based analyses and customer research with clients in retail, health care, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, media entertainment, high-tech, airline and auto industries.  More recently, she has focused on health care journey analytics and patterns of patient interactions with providers and insurers, mining EHR, medical and RX claims, customer service and call center data.

Previously, Valérie worked at Aetna where she mapped patient experience across touchpoints such as medical and Rx claims, precertification, drug prior authorization, customer service calls, online self-servicing, complaints and appeals.  Prior to Aetna, she ran a marketing analytics consultancy, was Analytic Director at TTEC Digital and Senior Analytic Manager at Valassis leading teams of analysts on the delivery of behavior-based segmentation, customer valuation, and predictive modeling.  She was previously an Associate in the Customer Strategy Practice  at Oliver Wyman and a statistician in health research for a large environmental consulting firm. 

Valérie graduated from Carleton College with a BS in Mathematics and earned an MS in Mathematical Statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Paula Smith joined the Lown Institute as a Data Scientist in spring of 2019. She previously worked at Partners Healthcare, Valetude, and Jebbit focusing on risk score analysis and statistical natural language processing. Paula holds a master’s degree in Public Health with a specialization in Quantitative Policy Analysis from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She received her BA from Boston University in Earth Sciences.

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Kelsey joined the Lown Institute in early 2020. Prior to this, she worked as a health policy researcher at the University of Sydney, Australia, where she also received her PhD in public health, with a focus on measuring overuse of medical care. She graduated from the University of Queensland with a degree in Mathematics and Statistics.

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Brenna is a Health Communications Specialist at the Lown Institute. She joined the Lown team in 2022, after receiving her Master of Public Health degree from Tufts University School of Medicine, where she concentrated in Behavioral Science and Health Communication.

She was previously contracted with the CDC on their COVID-19 response. She also served as the Co-chair of Marketing and Communications at MOTHER Lab, the largest Black maternal health lab in the nation.

She has a BS in Psychology from Clemson University. In her free time, Brenna enjoys hiking, yoga, and exploring the city on her electric scooter.

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