The 2008 Gallup Well-Being Forum will feature nationally recognized speakers from business, government, and colleges and universities.
Confirmed Speakers
Nicholas Christakis, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.
Nicholas Christakis, MD, MPH, PhD, is an internist and social scientist who conducts research on social factors that affect health, health care, and longevity. Dr. Christakis is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; and an Attending Physician in the Department of Medicine at the Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital. He is on the Executive Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy program at Harvard.
Jim Clifton
Jim Clifton is best known in the polling and survey research field for leading the acquisition of The Gallup Organization in 1988, at which time he became CEO of the organization founded by the renowned polling pioneer, Dr. George H. Gallup. His most recent innovation, the Gallup World Poll, is designed to tell the 10 million people who lead, govern, and manage the world what the world's 6 billion citizens are thinking. Questions in this ground-breaking project delve into individual and social needs, including food and shelter, safety and security, mental and physical health, education, jobs, economics and finances, transportation, water and air quality, hope and futurism, leadership approval, religion, and war and peace.
Angus Deaton, Ph.D.
Angus Deaton, Ph.D., is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. Dr. Deaton's research areas include health, economic development, and the analysis of household behavior, especially at the microeconomic level. His current research focuses on the determinants of health in rich and poor countries, as well as on the measurement of poverty in India and around the world. Dr. Deaton is a British citizen and has previously taught at Cambridge University and the University of Bristol. He is a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society and, in 1978, was the first recipient of the Society's Frisch Medal. He is President Elect of the American Economic Association and will serve as its President in 2009.
Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., became the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on July 3, 2002. She earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in chemistry and biology and her medical degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Dr. Gerberding completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she also served as Chief Medical Resident before completing her fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases at UCSF. She earned a master's degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990. Dr. Gerberding is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha (medical honor society), the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Epidemiology Society, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the Institute of Medicine.
Newt Gingrich, Ph.D.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration of leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21st century intelligent health system that saves lives and saves money. He is also the founder of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm specializing in transformational change; a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.; and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He received his bachelor's degree from Emory University and master's and doctorate degrees in modern European history from Tulane University. Before his election to Congress, he taught history and environmental studies at West Georgia College for eight years.
James K. Harter, Ph.D.
James K. Harter, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist Workplace Management and Well-Being for Gallup's workplace management practice and The Gallup World Poll. He is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, an exploration of the 12 crucial ingredients for creating and harnessing employee engagement. His research has been popularized in the business bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and How Full Is Your Bucket? and in academic articles, book chapters, and publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Dr. Harter received his doctorate in psychological and cultural studies in quantitative and qualitative methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D.
Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology (emeritus) and Professor of Public Affairs (emeritus) in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also a fellow at the Center for Rationality at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A 2002 Nobel prize winner in economic sciences, Kahneman has laid the foundation for a new field of research, called behavioral economics, by discovering how human judgment may take shortcuts that systematically depart from basic principles of probability. Through his work, he has pushed the frontiers of research by introducing psychologically realistic models of economic agents into economic theory.
Ben R. Leedle Jr.
Ben R. Leedle Jr. is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Healthways, Inc. Under his leadership, Healthways has increased revenue from $165 million in 2003 to more than $600 million in fiscal year 2007. He has led the company into new markets ranging from government to international. Healthways holds a prominent presence on "fastest growing" lists in Fortune, BusinessWeek, and Forbes due to Leedle's commitment to improving the health of people around the world. Leedle received a bachelor's degree in education (summa cum laude) from Central College and a master's degree from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. He is a graduate of the Executive Education Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Mike Morrison, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Mike Morrison is the founder and former Vice President of the University of Toyota, a corporate university he helped launch ten years ago. Morrison's passion centers on the principles of values-based leadership and lean thinking. In support of these principles, his research has revealed timeless, core strategies that are key to maximizing human potential. Morrison's education has taken him from the liberal arts foundations of Gonzaga University to a master's in business administration from the University of Southern California to a doctorate from Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School.
Gregory Pappas, M.D., Ph.D.
Gregory Pappas, M.D., Ph.D., is the Noordin M. Thobani Professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Health Sciences at Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, Pakistan. The department is a large-scale public health program that offers graduate-level education, provides health and development services in slum communities in Karachi, and conducts a wide variety of research. Dr. Pappas has directed the Office of International and Refugee Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he also served on the Executive Boards of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO), and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Dr. Pappas has many years of experience working on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and was a major author of the five-year strategic plan, a report to the U.S. Congress on the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). He was Deputy Director of the Demographic and Health Surveys and played a major role in the inclusion of biomarkers into that family of surveys. Dr. Pappas is currently on sabbatical in the United States working on influenza pandemic preparedness. Dr. Pappas is a member of the American Public Health Association and has served on its Executive Council and as chairman of its Science Board.
Sarah Pressman, Ph.D.
Sarah Pressman, Ph.D., is the Beatrice Wright Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas. Dr. Pressman's research examines the influence of psychosocial factors on physiological and health outcomes with a focus on how positive psychological factors "get under the skin" to decrease the likelihood of illness, disease and mortality. She has published in many well-regarded peer-reviewed journals and her work has been widely cited by the media, including The New York Times, WebMD, PBS, Psychology Today, and FOX News. In June 2007, her article "Does positive affect influence health"?, coauthored with Sheldon Cohen, Ph.D., was selected as one of the most cited and influential papers in the fields of Psychiatry and Psychology by Essential Science Indicators, a publication of the Research Services Group of Thomson Scientific. Dr. Pressman has received scholar awards from many organizations, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, the American Psychosomatic Society, the International Positive Psychology Summit, and Gallup.
Richard M. Suzman, Ph.D.
Richard M. Suzman is the Director for the Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health. The Behavioral and Social Research Program is one of four extramural research programs at the NIA, and is one of the largest funders of social science research in the country. Dr. Suzman has edited several volumes, including The Oldest Old (Oxford University Press) and Forecasting the Health of Elderly Populations (Springer Verlag). After attending the University of the Witwatersrand, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University and a Diploma of Social Anthropology from Oxford University. He was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University, where he also served briefly on the faculty.
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