Forum Network

Gautam Dantas, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Dantas combines genomic and computational technologies to reveal why antibiotic resistance develops so readily, making a number of diseases very difficult to cure. The Dantas lab has uncovered fascinating microbial mechanisms, important for both medicine and for science in general.

Professor Madras is a Professor of Psychobiology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Laboratory of Addiction Neurobiology at McLean Hospital, with a cross-appointment at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. Her laboratory focuses on neurobiology, brain imaging, medications development, and prevention. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Collaborative on the opioid crisis and has received numerous awards for her work. Image: [McLeanHospital.org](https://www.mcleanhospital.org/biography/bertha-madras "mcleanhospital.org")

Mehreen N. Butt, Esq. is an attorney living in Wakefield, MA. Mehreen was elected to the Wakefield Board of Selectman in April 2017, becoming the first American-Muslim woman elected to a municipality in Massachusetts. In April 2018, Wakefield voted to officially change the Board name to a gender- neutral name and became "Wakefield Town Council." Councilor Butt has worked in the health policy and social justice fields, working for the Massachusetts Legislature, Health Care For All, Tufts Health Plan and Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for low income and homeless women in Boston. Mehreen has committed to advocating for better representation, diversity and inclusion in the workforce and in government and works on campaigns that are dedicated to progressive, ethical and compassionate values. She received a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law and a B.S. in Biology and English from Tufts University. Councilor Butt is also a Board Trustee for Hallmark Health Systems, an Advisory Board member of SABA GB, and an associate member of the Friends of Lake Quannapowitt. She is a member of the New England Muslim Bar Association and an alumnae of both Emerge Massachusetts and the Woman's Bar Association Woman's Leadership Program.

Rick Dyer is an attorney and advocate for recovery who knows what it is like to be on both sides of the law. He overcame his struggles from heroin addiction, homelessness and incarceration, received a Governor’s pardon and presently practices law in the same court he was sentenced out of over 8 times. He has appeared in numerous national and international publications and broadcasts. Image: [recoverylaw.us](https://recoverylaw.us "recoverylaw.us")

Dr. Andrew Kolodny is one of the nation's leading experts on the prescription opioid and heroin crisis. He is Co-Director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. While working for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Office of the Executive Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Kolodny developed and implemented multiple programs to improve the health of New Yorkers and save lives. Image: [Brandeis University, The Heller School](https://heller.brandeis.edu/facguide/person.html?emplid=fed1af017db070b94ce59c13714f1e7970a787ad "Brandeis University, The Heller School")

Barry Meier, author of Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic, was a member of the New York Times reporting team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He is also a Pulitzer finalist and a two-time winner of the George Polk Award. At The Times, his work concentrated on the intersection of business, medicine and the public’s health. He exposed the dangers of various drugs and medical products, and was the first journalist to shed a national spotlight on the abuse of OxyContin. Image: [BarryMeierBooks.com](https://www.barrymeierbooks.com "barrymeierbooks.com")

Barbara Lewis is an Associate Professor of English at the College of Liberal Arts and the Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black History and Culture. She has expertise in theater, politics and performance, francophone literature, and cultural history. Image: [University of Massachusetts Boston](https://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/faculty/barbara\_lewis "University of Massachusetts Boston")

Amanda Figueroa is the Co-founder and Managing Curator of Brown Art Ink. She is a PhD candidate in American Studies at Harvard University. Her dissertation focuses on the role of exhibition design in audience engagements with art by Latina artists. She believes that public art education is the future of civic education, and the fastest path for community development. Image: Linkedin

Dell Marie Hamilton is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and independent curator whose artist talks, solo performances and collaborative projects have been presented to a wide variety of audiences in New York at Five Myles Gallery, Panoply Performance Lab, and MOCADA, as well as in the New England area at Hubweek, MIT, Boston University, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, the ICA/Boston, and the RISD Art Museum. She has also frequently performed with her teacher and mentor, Maria Magadalena Campos-Pons at venues such as the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.) and the Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts). Working across a variety of mediums including performance, video, painting and photography, Dell uses the body to investigate the social and geopolitical constructions of memory, gender, history and citizenship. With roots in Belize, Honduras and the Caribbean she frequently draws upon the personal experiences of her family as well as the history and folkloric traditions of the region. Dell has a B.A. in journalism from Northeastern University (Massachusetts) and completed her MFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Massachusetts). Her curatorial project “Nine Moments for Now” was ranked by Hyperallergic.com as one of 2018’s top 20 exhibitions in the U.S. and in 2019, she presented her first solo show “All Languages Welcomed HERE” at Salem State University in Massachusetts. Image: [Hutchins Center for African & African American Research](https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/dell-m-hamilton "Hutchins Center for African &African American Research")

Courtney Leonard was born and raised in South Boston. She works in Boston's service industry and is a union member who is demanding fair wages and healthcare.

Maria Garcia is the senior editor of The ARTery, WBUR's Arts and Culture Team. She oversees WBUR's arts coverage for the radio and the web. Maria started her career as a 19-year-old intern at ABC-7 in El Paso, and worked her way to lead investigative reporter and the youngest anchor of a 35-minute discussion program. She broke and investigated several big stories, including the mysterious loss of nearly $30 million at city hall and lack of financial reporting by public officials. Her stories often led to community action, including a city ethics investigation, reform of bidding rules and performance improvement plans for high level city officials. After a decade of political reporting, Maria decided to pursue another long-standing passion: arts journalism. She is interested in arts reporting in New England’s underrepresented areas, as well as investigative stories about Boston’s legacy arts institutions.

Gretchen Goldman is the research director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, Dr. Goldman leads research efforts on the role of science in public policy, focusing on topics ranging from scientific integrity in government decision-making, to political interference in science-based standards on hydraulic fracturing, climate change, and chemicals. Dr. Goldman came to UCS from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she was a postdoctoral research fellow working on statistical modeling of urban air pollution for use in epidemiologic studies of acute human health effects.