The Biographies…of the brains hard at work
Gautam Gulati, MD,MBA,MPH
Founder & Chair – Global Voices of Health
Dr. Gautam Gulati brings forth a rare and unique perspective to health care philanthropy having a diversified background in medicine, business and public health. Since his early years, he has always been dedicated to finding a life balance between his personal, professional, and philanthropic goals. He has contributed thousands of hours of charitable work over the past 15 years to help support the charitable missions of numerous philanthropic organizations. To date, through his leadership efforts, Dr. Gulati has helped raise (and growing) over $1M towards supporting the noble missions of such philanthropic organizations.
Now, Dr. Gulati has decided to take the next step in his life to create “Global Voices of Health” by merging his skill-sets and knowledge from his varying industry backgrounds and experiences. His interests lay in the belief that unforeseen value can be uniquely created by cross-pollinating sound business principles from differing industries. Using the “multiplier effect”, Dr. Gulati seeks to establish financially sound projects that “keep giving back”. Through Global Voices of Health, he hopes to attract philanthroprenuers from around the world to come up with such innovative solutions to help address critical issues facing the health care industry, specifically the under-served populations.
In his professional career, Dr. Gulati currently serves as a Strategy Consultant to the Life Sciences industry working with a range of clients including pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, policy institutions, financial institutions, venture capital & private equity, and more. He has also served as a Medical Director for a large medical education, advertising and communications company and has been involved with numerous media, policy, FDA, and internet related projects. Currently, Dr. Gulati is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (Business of Medicine Program) teaching a new course entitled ‘Medical Entrepreneurship & Innovation.”
Dr. Gulati is medically trained in Internal Medicine and received his Medical Doctorate (MD) and Masters in Public Health (MPH) from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Public Health. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.
Amita Vyas, PhD
Advisor – Global Voices of Health
Amita Vyas is the Founder of the Global India Fund. Dr. Vyas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at George Washington University. At the age of 20, Professor Vyas journeyed to Calcutta to work alongside Mother Teresa in the Missionaries of Charity. In one eye-opening summer, she saw what the social determinants of health and well-being really mean to vulnerable populations, and from that extraordinary experience decided to pursue a career in public health. Today, her work focuses on reproductive health care, adolescent health, and the health and development of immigrant children and adolescents. She is also an expert in multi-level research methods and evaluation. Dr. Vyas continues to hold an adjunct position in the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was previously on the research faculty of that institution’s Center for Adolescent Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, where she earned its Kann-Trowbridge Award for outstanding research in the area of population and family health.
Luis G. Ruiz, MD
Advisor – Global Voices of Health; Co-Chair, The Tipping Voice
Dr. Ruiz obtained his bachelor’s of science degrees in Biology and Sociology at the George Washington University in Washington, DC and graduated from the Howard University College of Medicine in 2000. It was during this stage of his clinical training that he was confronted with the reality that the mind and the body cannot be separated under the stress of social disparity. He was president of the Latino Boricua Health Organization, vice president of the class council and an active member of the National Hispanic Medical Association. These organizations are involved in a multitude of programs from mentoring minority students interested in pursuing careers in medicine to community outreach to raise health awareness and medical care to underserved urban areas. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Georgetown University / Washington Hospital Center and was selected to be Chief of Residents from 2003 to 2004 where he also served as vice-chair of the Graduate Medical Education Committee. Following the completion of his chief year he was appointed as the attending of the Subacute Care Unit at the Washington Hospital Center responsible for the triage and medical management of critically ill patients.
Dr. Ruiz is now completing a four year subspecialty fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Chicago. He chose this track as it provided an academic environment strongly committed to developing future physician scientists. He has been invited to serve as an instructor at the Pritzker School of Medicine as part of the Clinical Pathophysiology Lecture series and is currently involved in full-time basic science research. His research centers on airway smooth muscle molecular biology and physiology. He is involved in several projects focused on understanding the role of newly discovered pro-inflammatory proteins and their roles in asthma, airway remodeling and fibrosis.
Dr. Ruiz was born in Lima, Peru and later moved to Brasilia, Brazil where he lived for most of his youth. He can best summarize his upbringing as a mosaic of “snapshots” from growing up in these different, modern and bustling Latin American cities. He has been living in the US since 1984.
Selene G. Parekh, MD,MBA
Advisor – Global Voices of Health
Dr. Parekh joined the North Carolina Orthopaedic Clinic and Duke Orthopaedics in 2009, where he is a Surgeon in the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery. Prior to his tenure at Duke, he was a Foot and Ankle Surgeon at the University of North Carolina (UNC). While there, he was integrally involved in the teaching of medical students and residents. Furthermore, he served as the foot and ankle consultant to the Athletic Department, treating many of the well-known UNC athletes.
A graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Parekh completed his internship and residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship in foot and ankle surgery under the direction of Drs. Keith L. Wapner, Paul J. Hecht, MD, Wen Chao, MD, and Michael Castro, DO at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to graduating from medical school, Dr. Parekh completed a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). This was supplemented by a one-year Healthcare Entrepreneurship Fellowship at the Wharton School of Business. His experiences led to the development of the “Business of Orthopaedics” conference, the first of its kind in the United States. The course exposes orthopaedic surgeons to a breadth of topics, from practice management to product development and entrepreneurship, to personal financial management, to leadership and negotiations. While at UNC, he was an Adjunct Faculty member at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Currently, he is an Adjunct Faculty member at Duke’s Fuqua Business School.
Dr. Parekh and his wife live in the RTP area and are proud parents of two sons.
Tejas Patel, MPH
Director of Partnerships – Global Voices of Health
Tejas Patel provides a varied background that touches on both the public and private sector.
Tejas is currently a Senior Consultant with the Healthcare and Non-Profit group of the Public Services sector at BearingPoint Inc. based in McLean, VA. He has worked various healthcare issues for a wide range of clients to include the American Red Cross, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of the Army.
He also serves as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He currently is the Executive Officer for a 200+ Marine unit. He has faithfully and diligently served the Marine Corps for the past ten years.
In addition to his professional achievements, Tejas has also taken pride in his accomplishments while serving as a volunteer in the community. As a native-born Marylander, he has worked several years with organizations in the Metropolitan DC area to include the American Red Cross, the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). He started working with the American Red Cross as a Volunteer CPR/First Aid Instructor in high school.
He completed his Masters in Public Health (MPH) from The George Washington University after completing a tour of service with the US Peace Corps in Botswana, Southern Africa. Prior to serving in the Peace Corps, he completed his Undergraduate studies with a Biology degree from Penn State University.
He is an avid sports enthusiast and enjoys playing soccer and running.
Joseph B. Whitebread, Jr.
Legal Counsel – Global Voices of Health [Partner, Holland + Knight Law]
Joseph B. Whitebread Jr. is a business planning, corporate and tax attorney.
Mr. Whitebread’s business planning and corporate practice has included C and S Corporation transactions, reorganizations and separations, analysis of corporate tax issues, business disputes, and the sale/acquisition of corporate businesses both asset and stock acquisition. He also advises corporations and their owners on shareholder agreements, corporate restructuring and division agreements, and employment agreements. Mr. Whitebread is a general counsel to local businesses, including professional corporations, and renders advice on all general corporate matters for these clients.
He also has diverse experience in the income tax and planning aspects of partnership, limited liability company (LLC) and real estate transactions. This part of his practice has included negotiating and structuring of real estate partnerships, joint ventures and other entities, including LLCs and real estate title holding corporations, analysis of partnership and LLC income tax issues and implementing income tax strategies, planning and negotiation of UPREIT transactions, historic preservation tax incentives and like-kind exchange and condemnation transactions. Mr. Whitebread also advises real estate owners and other businesses on local tax matters, including District of Columbia franchise taxes and District of Columbia transfer and recordation taxes.
Mr. Whitebread also has significant expertise in state and local taxation matters, especially in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He works regularly in matters involving the District’s unincorporated business franchise tax, sales and use taxes and personal property taxes. He also works with clients in planning real estate transactions to utilize available transfer and recordation tax exemptions in DC, Maryland and Virginia. Mr. Whitebread also has substantial experience in tax controversy work with the District of Columbia and other local tax jurisdictions.
Mr. Whitebread represents tax-exempt entities, both as general and as transactional counsel, in connection with corporate, tax and planning matters. He has represented both public charities and trade associations in the areas of unrelated business income planning, royalty structuring, lobbying rules and procedures and corporate restructuring and planning.
Mr. Whitebread also provides estate, trust and gift planning services for clients; including analysis and implementation of tax deferral and estate reduction techniques and lifetime giving strategies, such as family limited partnerships and LLCs. He also implements trust planning devices including revocable trusts and life insurance trusts.
Mr. Whitebread has published numerous articles in tax publications, including articles on tax-free conversions to LLCs, D.C. tax incentives and benefits, partnerships with charitable partners and the tax aspects of historic preservation.
Veronica Walsh
Director of Planning – Global Voices of Health, The Tipping Voice, The Wapozi Project (courtesy of Planning the Globe)
Global Voices of Health 