Dr. Leana Wen

Dr. Leana Wen Speaker Biography

Change CNN Medical Analyst; ER Physician, Healthcare Executive, Washington Post Columnist, and Best-Selling Author

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, CNN medical analyst, and op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, where she writes a weekly column and anchors the Post newsletter, “The Checkup with Dr. Wen”. She is also a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of two books, When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests and Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.

Healthcare Policy

Previously, she served as Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, where she led the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department in the U.S. to fight the opioid epidemic, treat violence and racism as public health issues, and improve maternal and child health.

Education

Dr. Wen obtained her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and studied health policy at the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her residency training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital & Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Affiliations and Honors

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Wen has received recognition as one of Governing’s Public Officials of the Year, Modern Healthcare’s Top 50 Physician-Executives, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, and TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Dr. Wen lives with her husband and their two young children in Baltimore.

Dr. Leana Wen Speaking Topics

Lessons from COVID-19 and Implications for the Future of Healthcare

CNN medical analyst Dr. Wen has been one of the nation’s leading experts during the COVID-19 pandemic, called upon for her expertise by Congress, state and local governments, businesses, schools/universities, and scientific organizations. She can speak to the learnings from COVID-19 and what it has revealed about the need to focus on social determinants of health, public health preparedness, and care for the most vulnerable. She can then look forward to the future. What are major trends in payment reform, health workforce, and medical technology, and how will they, in the recovery from the pandemic, shape the future of public policy and healthcare delivery?

Reducing Health Disparities and Striving for Health Equity

Dr. Wen is a leading national expert on health disparities. During the COVID-19 crisis, she was asked to testify four times to the U.S. House of Representatives on the unequal impact of the pandemic on communities of color. While she served as Baltimore’s health commissioner, she reconfigured the agency to specifically focus on health equity and was among the first leaders to declare racism as a public health crisis. She can speak from the lens of current events on how COVID-19 has unmasked existing disparities and specifically focus on innovative solutions that reduce disparities and improve health in the short-term, as well as long-term efforts to address structural inequities. Here, she draws upon lessons in her new book, Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health and gives specific examples of successful innovations that reduce disparities and improve equity.

Mental Health and Well-Being

The stress that employees have endured during the pandemic will not vanish after the immediate crisis passes. Employees have been coping with isolation, dealing with loss, acting as caregivers, and struggling with childcare. Dr. Wen brings audiences a world of insights and understanding from her work as a practicing physician, former Health Commissioner of Baltimore, and chairwoman of a nonprofit addressing mental health and addiction. She shares personal experiences (including her own battle with postpartum depression and her experience as a caregiver to her ailing mother), best practices on employee health and well-being, and strategies for developing resiliency. And she outlines for audiences a framework for incorporating mental and physical wellness practices into the office, home, and everyday life.

Women in Leadership

Women, and women leaders, face distinctive challenges in the workplace. Trained in trauma/ER medicine and having been one of many “firsts” as a woman of color, Dr. Wen speaks from first-hand experience and from her professional research about the challenges and opportunities for women in leadership. These include advice for women about the “double bind”and “glass cliff”, such as owning one’s authentic identity and negotiating societal expectations. Dr. Wen alspo gives talks in crisis leadership, innovative leadership, and overcoming adversity. These include lessons from innovative leadership locally and nationally, drawing upon her background convening unlikely stakeholders around shared goals; leading collective impact, public-private collaborations in public health; and getting to points of agreement in turbulent political environments.

Wellness & Work-Life Balance

Dr. Wen has given dozens of talks to corporate audiences about employee wellness. One type of presentation is to employees on mental health and well-being, reducing stress, and simple things to improve health every day. She also includes patient advocacy tips including advice for those caring for children and older parents. Another type of presentation is for managers and HR directors. Dr. Wen has studied and implemented citywide wellness initiatives and corporate wellness strategies; she discusses best practices that improve employee well-being and productivity. She can also approach the topic from her work on the opioid epidemic and mental health crises—the “diseases of despair”—and speak in particular about what everyone can do to build resilience and incorporate mental and physical wellness routines into their work and home lives. Finally, she references both her own experiences negotiating dual roles as mother/executive and her research on women, parents, and caregivers in the workplace to speak about work-life balance in a changing environment.