Kevin M. Simon, MD
Chief Behavioral Health Officer, City of Boston
Kevin M. Simon was appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu as the inaugural Chief Behavioral Health Officer for the City of Boston. Dr. Simon will guide a public health strategy to support Bostonians’ growing mental and behavioral health needs through the Boston
Public Health Commission. In addition, he is an attending psychiatrist at Boston Children's Hospital, an instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a current Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Health Policy at Harvard University.
Dr. Simon practices as a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist addiction medicine specialist caring for youth, young adults, and their families through the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program (ASAP) at Boston Children's Hospital. As a researcher,
Dr. Simon focuses on the intersections of mental health, substance use, and justice involvement. He completed clinical fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry and addiction medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and a
residency in adult psychiatry at Grady Hospital affiliated with the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. He received his medical degree from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. His writings on health equity, mental health,
and substance use are in notable journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Lauren B. Peters, JD
Executive Director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA)
Lauren Peters is the executive director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), the independent state agency of record for Massachusetts health care information. CHIA serves as the Commonwealth’s primary hub for health care data and
analytics and is charged with objectively reporting information about the quality, affordability, utilization, access and outcomes of the Massachusetts health care system to support policy development and the state’s provision and purchase of health
care services.
Prior to joining CHIA, Ms. Peters served as the Undersecretary for Health Policy at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). In that role, she was responsible for overseeing key programs and policies across several EOHHS agencies including
the Department of Public Health, the Department of Mental Health, and MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program. During her EOHHS tenure, Ms. Peters played an integral role in the state’s COVID-19 response, the development of programs to support individuals
experiencing homelessness and addiction, and advanced strategic policy priorities including long-term care and behavioral health reforms.
Ms. Peters previously served as Associate General Counsel and Director of Healthcare Policy at the Executive Office for Administration and Finance (A&F) where she served as an advisor on health care finance, policy, and legal matters. Her state service
also includes prior roles at the Health Policy Commission and the House of Representatives.
Ms. Peters is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School where she concentrated in Health and Biomedical Law and holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from William Smith College.
Thad Schilling, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Reliant Medical Group, Inc.
Thad Schilling, a practicing internist, is the Chief Medical Officer of Reliant Medical Group, which he first joined in 2014.
His initial leadership work was in Primary Care, with an emphasis on pioneering the transition to team-based care for patients at Reliant. This new model for primary care delivery focuses on patient-centeredness, interdisciplinary teamwork, and achieving
key quality and efficiency initiatives. He is currently focused on clinical transformation in Reliant’s specialty practices.
Dr. Schilling earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and performed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
John Torous, MD, MBI
Director, Digital Psychiatry Division, Beth Israel Lahey Health
John Torous is director of the digital psychiatry division, in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospital, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and assistant professor.
He has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences and received an undergraduate degree in the field from UC Berkeley before attending medical school at UC San Diego. He completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics,
and master's degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard. Dr. Torous is active in investigating the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and 5 books chapters on the topic.
He serves as editor-in-chief for JMIR Mental Health, web editor for JAMA Psychiatry, currently leads the American Psychiatric Association’s Health IT Committee, and is a senior member in IEEE.
