Bio: Jason T. Carbone, PhD, MSW is the Director of Family Medicine Research, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Previously, Dr. Carbone was an Assistant Professor of Social Work and Chair of the Innovation in Community, Policy, and Leadership MSW program concentration as well as the Director of the joint MSW/MPH program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His work—which focuses on social and behavioral determinants of health through the lens of perceived community experiences and environmental stressors—is informed by nearly a decade of community practice experience at the neighborhood-level. Dr. Carbone’s research is particularly oriented to understanding how social location factors impact mental health outcomes from both an individual stress process model perspective as well as within the context of population-level health. He applies allostatic load theory to better understand the ways in which community stressors lead to negative mental health outcomes. He utilizes a range of advanced statistical methods—such as latent variable models, causal inference techniques, and time-to-event analyses—to better explicate these relationships. 

Bio: Jithinraj Edakkanambeth Varayil, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Mayo Clinic, where he practices primary care with a focus on clinical nutrition, home parenteral nutrition, and population health. He completed his medical training at Charles University, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, followed by Family Medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency Program in Rockford, Illinois. After residency, Dr. Edakkanambeth Varayil joined the staff at Mayo Clinic, where he has built a career at the intersection of clinical care, research, and digital innovation.

Dr. Edakkanambeth Varayil’s research focuses on malnutrition detection in population settings, and optimizing multidisciplinary care pathways for complex nutritional disorders. He leads multiple research projects including epidemiologic studies of malnutrition risk, machine-learning applications for clinical prediction. An engaged educator and mentor, Dr. Edakkanambeth Varayil teaches residents, fellows, and medical students, emphasizing research literacy, digital health, and high-value care. His academic productivity includes peer-reviewed manuscripts, invited presentations, and institution-wide quality improvement initiatives.

He is passionate about leveraging technology to advance equitable, data-driven primary care. Outside of work, he is a devoted father who enjoys hands-on projects, travel, and creating enriching learning experiences for his children.

Bio: Nicola (Nikki) Edge, PhD is the vice chair for research in Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she serves as the Cathy Cole Seilhan and Denton Seilhan Endowed Chair for Child and Family Resilience.  Her areas of research include children and families impacted by maternal substance use, depression and traumatic events such as abuse or neglect and she has published widely in these areas.   She also focuses on developing and studying interventions in primary care, early care and education and school settings designed to support positive mental health and increase trauma-informed practices. She directs an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation program in Arkansas, called Project PLAY, and is the director of the Arkansas Trauma Resource Initiative for Schools.

Bio: Lauren Groskaufmanis, MD, MPH is a family physician and faculty member at the Henry
Ford Providence Family Medicine Residency Program, where she cares for patients in both
inpatient and outpatient settings. She serves on the Scholarly Activity Committee and
mentors residents in research and scholarly work.

Dr. Groskaufmanis earned her medical degree at Duke University as part of the Primary
Care Leadership Track and completed a Master of Public Health at Virginia
Commonwealth University. She went on to complete her Family Medicine residency at the
University of Michigan.

Her scholarly interests reflect the breadth of family medicine and include reproductive
health, disability and access to preventive care, and simulation in medical education.

Bio: Frank Orlando, MD, FAAFP, completed two years of general surgery residency and then a two-year surgical oncology fellowship, after which he changed specialties to family medicine because of his desire for life-long patient relationships. He is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine were he has been a primary care physician since 2013 and the Medical Director of UF Health Family Medicine – Springhill since 2021. Dr. Orlando teaches both clinical and didactic course at the College of Medicine and is Faculty Advisor to three undergraduate student organizations. He is Co-Investigator on several research grants, and his current research interests include body composition, chronic inflammation, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, pharmacogenetics, COVID-19, and social determinants of health.

In 2023, Dr. Orlando became a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and an Associate Editor of Family Medicine and Primary Care, a specialty section of Frontiers in Medicine. He has served on the North American Primary Care Research Group Committee on Advancing the Science of Family Medicine - Practice-Based Research Networks since 2024. He volunteers for various local community health projects, is an avid triathlete, and enjoys spending quality time with his wife and daughter.

Bio: Rebekah Pratt, PhD is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. She is also Co-Associate Director of the Community Outreach and Engagement of the Masonic Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer center at the University of Minnesota. She trained as a Community Psychologist at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and completed her doctorate in the Division of Population Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has an established program of federally funded research in areas that include innovations in cervical cancer screening. In addition to her experience as a PI on NHLBI and NIDA R01s, she is MPI on a National Cancer Institute R01 testing the use of HPV self-sampling in primary care as a strategy to increase cervical cancer screening. She has a passion for community engaged research, and brings expertise in qualitative methods, clinic-based interventions and implementation science. Her work has primarily focused on minority, immigrant and underserved populations, with a particular emphasis on health equity and cancer prevention.

Bio: Dr. Gregory Shumer earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at the University of Michigan (2008) and Medical Degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine (2013).  He completed his family medicine residency and integrative medicine fellowship training at the University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine, where he served as a chief resident during his third year. During training, he also took part in the Executive Master’s Program through the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he earned a Master of Health Services Administration Degree. In addition to his clinical work as a primary care physician, Dr. Shumer is also actively involved in medical student teaching and family medicine residency education.

Dr. Shumer's research interests include innovations in primary care delivery and health systems research. As the research lead for the department’s New Innovative Clinical Experience (NICE) initiative, he evaluates emerging innovations in primary care. His work also examines the impacts of the patient portal and telemedicine on patient and provider experience of primary care, and patient preferences regarding primary care delivery.

Bio: Dr. Meredith Williamson is a Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of Integrated Behavioral Health for the Department of Primary Care and Rural Medicine within the Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine. She serves as an Associate Program Director for the Texas A&M Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Williamson is a licensed psychologist and board-certified in Clinical Health Psychology.  In these roles, she has led research, educational, and clinical initiatives focused on innovative integrated behavioral health curriculum and interdisciplinary clinical interventions. She has been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators at the Vashisht College of Medicine. She was awarded the Association of American Medical Colleges Mental and Behavioral Health Training Award and recognized by the White House for innovations in integrated behavioral health within primary care. She has secured research collaborators across the nation to advance family medicine and integrated behavioral health scholarship. She has been successful in individual and collaborative research endeavors, including over $15 million in external funding as either a PI, Co-PI, or Investigator, along with numerous national presentations and peer-reviewed publications. She currently serves as national research faculty for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Behavioral Science/Family Systems Educator Fellowship and Co-Chairs the Family and Behavioral Health Collaborative.