Douglas C. McKell (Contributing Fellows – Programs) is a health services researcher and educator whose work bridges artificial intelligence, behavioral science, and evidence-based health professions education. He holds graduate degrees from Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine (MS), the London School of Economics (MSc), the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions (MS-HPE), and Eastern Virginia Medical School (DHSc). He is Adjunct Faculty in Applied Health Economics at Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Population Health and in Healthcare Administration and Doctor of Health Science programs at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. His research explores the integration of AI and digital health technologies into medical and interprofessional education, focusing on human–AI collaboration, social cognition learning, and implementation science. A long-time reviewer and now Associate Editor for Medical Science Educator, McKell contributes to international initiatives on AI in health professions education. He is the first author of two national AI Needs Assessment surveys of US medical school faculty, the first author of two reports on AI applications and implementation challenges for medical school faculty, co-directs the Professional Development Workshop on AI for Medical School faculty for the International Association of Medical Science Educators, and is co-editing a Springer Manual on AI in Health Professions Education. His work advances understanding of how technology and human factors shape the evolving landscape of health sciences training. He is completing the Interreligious Chaplaincy Program at the Graduate Theological Union and will be a doctoral student studying Chaplaincy Formation and Education using AI at the School of Theology at Boston University beginning in the Fall 2026.
Kush Varshney (Advisor) is an IBM Fellow at IBM Research – Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he directs research in human-centered trustworthy AI, bridging moral philosophy, machine learning, and systems governance. He earned a B.S. from Cornell University in electrical and computer engineering, and an S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and computer science. His work spans several areas of artificial intelligence including value alignment, fairness, creativity, and safety, all of which are grounded in rigorous engagement with moral psychology and non-Western ethical traditions including Vedanta. He co-led IBM’s Science for Social Good initiative, served as general chair for the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, and has developed widely-used open-source tools for AI fairness, explainability, uncertainty quantification, and harm detection. Varshney authored the book “Trustworthy Machine Learning.” He combines technical research with philosophical inquiry into how AI systems can embody dharma while reflecting diverse value frameworks and supporting human flourishing across cultures.
Lav R. Varshney (Advisor) is the Della Pietra Infinity Professor and Inaugural Director of the AI Innovation Institute at Stony Brook University. He is co-founder and CEO of Kocree, Inc., a startup company building novel human-controllable AI for discovery and creativity, and chief scientist of Ensaras, Inc., a startup company focused on AI and wastewater treatment. He holds appointments at RAND Corporation and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a visiting scholar at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, a principal research scientist at Salesforce Research AI, and a research staff member at IBM Research. He is a former White House staffer, having served on the National Security Council staff as a White House Fellow, where he contributed to national AI and wireless communications policy. His research interests include information theory and artificial intelligence. He received his B.S. degree from Cornell University and his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rabbi Dr. Jason Weiner (Contributing Fellows – Programs), BCC, is the senior rabbi and executive director of the Spiritual Care Department at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, where he oversees the chaplaincy team and all spiritual care services across the health system. He also serves as rabbi of Knesset Israel Synagogue of Beverlywood and as a senior consultant to Ematai.
Formerly the assistant rabbi at Young Israel of Century City, Rabbi Weiner holds two rabbinic ordinations, a doctorate in clinical bioethics, a master’s in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University (Chicago), and a master’s in Jewish history from Yeshiva University. He completed four units of clinical pastoral education and is a board-certified chaplain.
