Featuring Keynote Speaker: Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD MS

Breaking Barriers in Healthcare: Advancing Equity for All

Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD MS is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy and Director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Gaskin is a health services researcher and health economist. He is an internationally recognized expert in health and healthcare disparities. He seeks to identify and understand how contextual factors influence access to care, quality of care and health outcomes for minority, low socioeconomic status, and other vulnerable populations. His research strives to develop and promulgate policies and practices that address the social determinants of health and promote equity in health and well-being.

Dr. Gaskin is a leader in health economics and policy. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves on the Congressional Budget Office Panel of Health Advisors and the Board of Directors of the American Society of Health Economists. He has served in leadership roles in AcademyHealth, the American Public Health Association, the National Academy for State Health Policy, and the National Economics Association. He is a 2019 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Dr. Gaskin has a Ph.D. in public health economics from the Johns Hopkins University. He holds a MS degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA degree in economics from Brandeis University. Dr. Gaskin is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He served as Pastor of the Beth Shalom AME Zion Church in Clinton, MD from 1991 to 2023.

Featuring Keynote Speaker: Rachel Talley, M.D. Chief Medical Officer

Behavioral Health Administration Maryland Department of Health

Minority Mental Health in the State of Maryland

Rachel Talley, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer for the Behavioral Health Administration in the Maryland Department of Health. Prior to this role, she served as Program Director of the Fellowship in Community Psychiatry, Associate Program Director for the adult psychiatry residency program, and Director of the PennCOBALT Spaces of Color program at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also worked clinically in the public mental health system in Philadelphia, PA, providing direct services to individuals with serious mental illness at Horizon House, Inc. She remains on the appointed faculty as Clinical Associate Professor for Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Talley received her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed adult psychiatry residency training at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute and public psychiatry fellowship training at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Talley’s contributions to public mental health leadership and policy include serving on an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on Strategies to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Care Services through Medicare and Medicaid. She is a member of the board of the American Association for Community Psychiatry. She has been recognized for her teaching and leadership in community mental health, including receipt of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry Albert Stunkard Faculty Recognition Award (2021, 2022, 2023) and receipt of the 2021 Larry A. Real Award from the Montgomery County PA chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She was recognized in the inaugural 2023 class of Black Health Connect’s 40 Under 40.