BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Kathryn E. Johnson
Ms. Johnson is the former CEO of the Health Forum, a position she held for 25 years. She continues on its board, and is Vice Chairman of the Film Institute of Northern California. Ms. Johnson is a graduate of Indiana University and earned her masters degree in Organizational Behavior at Boston University. She served as the Director of Management Development at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston from 1969 to 1976. In 1976, she joined the Association of Western Hospitals, which reorganized and became The Healthcare Forum in 1987.
Ms. Johnson was awarded a three-year Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship in 1984. She was selected Woman of the Year in 1992 by the Women Health Care Executives of Northern California and in 1993, she received the Key Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Society of Association Executives. She was named the 1995 recipient of the UniHealth America Foundation’s prestigious Pinnacle Award. In 1998, she was honored by the Women’s Business Network for her outstanding leadership in Association Management.
Ms Johnson is a visionary leader and has always helped Omni Med structure its plans several years into the future. She was the driving force behind the Center for Global Service and serves on several health related boards, including the World Food Program, Nuru, and Medshare.
Roger H. Sublett
President, Union Institute & University
Roger H. Sublett, Ph.D. was named Union Institute & University’s fifth president in April 2003, and announced his planned retirement in late 2018. He previously served UI&U as acting president and was provost and chief operating officer, and interim vice president for national undergraduate programs. Before joining Union in May 2001, Dr. Sublett served as the director of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Kellogg National Fellowship/Leadership Program and Program Director in Higher Education and Leadership at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, Michigan. He has authored, co-authored, or edited four books on the operation and lessons learned through the Kellogg Foundation, including the latest volume, Leading from the Heart.
Before joining the Kellogg Foundation in 1989, Dr. Sublett was associate vice president for Academic Affairs at the University of Evansville (Indiana), and also served as dean of the College of Graduate and Continuing Studies and director of special programs in the College of Alternative Programs. He earned his B.S.E. and M.A. degrees from the University of Arkansas and his Ph.D. in American History from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Dr. Sublett served as the executive vice president for the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) 1984-1989 and the president of the Coalition for Adult Education Organizations (CAEO) 1989-1990. He serves on the President’s Forum and is vice chair of the American Council of Higher Education’s Lifelong Learning Commission. He is a senior fellow in the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, and was appointed as a senior scholar at the Center for Ethical Leadership, Seattle, WA.
Dr Sublett is the one who first suggested that Omni Med be formed and has served as a board member since its founding in 1998. He has long served as a model of transformational leadership, at the W.K.Kellogg Foundation, and for many years at the helm of the Union Institute & University. It is fair to say that without Dr Sublett, Omni Med might well not exist.
Deirdre Phillips, M.D.
Dr Phillips is the Chief Medical Officer of the United Healthcare Community Plan - Mississippi, a Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She is also the President of the Global Family Medicine, doing national and international implementation of evidence based medicine and emergency preparedness consultation. She previously served as the Chief Medical Officer of United HealthCare Community Plan of Mississippi. A former Kellogg Fellow, Dr Phillips served as a board member of the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance. She received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine, her MPH degree from San Jose State University, and her undergraduate degree from Newcomb College. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine, an Alliance Deputy Commander of the Mississippi Medical response Team.
Dr Phillips has been an inspirational figure to scores of family health residents at the University of Mississippi and has given much of her life's energies over to trying to attain health equity for all people of Mississippi. She has been a strong supporter of Omni Med and created the initial connection with the University of Mississippi that has sent so many UMMC medical students to Uganda.
Edward O’Neil Jr., M.D.
Dr. O’Neil is the founder and president of Omni Med, and author of Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty and Global Service, and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service, both published by the American Medical Association, along with several articles. He works as an emergency staff physician at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, MA, and is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He founded Omni Med in 1998 and since 2008, he has led the program development of Community Empowerment in Health in Mukono, Uganda.
Dr. O’Neil earned his Medical degree from George Washington University, and completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Boston Medical Center. Dr. O’Neil completed the three-year Kellogg National Leadership Program, studying leadership, international development, and politics.
Dr Alexander von Hafften, M.D.
Dr Lex von Hafften is a psychiatrist in Anchorage, Alaska. He received his MD from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1987 and completed his psychiatric training at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle Washington and Adjunct Professor at the WWAMI School of Medical Education, University of Alaska, in Anchorage Alaska. . He began work with Omni Med in 2016 and has worked with government officials, academics at Makerere School of Medicine in Kampala to develop Omni Med's mental health program. He joined the Omni Med Board in the spring of 2022.