Board of Directors
Sophie M. Balzora, MD, FACG
President, Co-Founder
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Dr. Balzora graduated cum laude from Princeton University. She completed her medical training at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, internal medicine residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia University, and gastroenterology fellowship at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Renee Williams, MD, MHPE
Vice President, Co-Founder
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Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and former Program Director in the Division of Gastroenterology. She currently is the Associate Chair for Health Equity in the Department of Medicine, Director of the Saul J Farber program in health equity and Director for GME Education in NYU’s Institute for Excellence in Health Equity. She earned her M.D from New York University Grossman School of Medicine where she subsequently completed here residency in internal medicine and fellowship in gastroenterology. Her interests include healthcare disparities and medical education. She has been involved nationally in efforts to increase diversity in academic medicine. She co-authored the book entitled “Succeeding in Academic Medicine: A Roadmap for Diverse Medical Students and Residents.”
Dr. Williams is the former Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) before transitioning to a member of the ACG Board of Trustees in 2018. She is the 2018 recipient of the Minority Healthcare Digestive award from the American College of Gastroenterology along with the Award for Outstanding Membership from the Department of Internal Medicine’s Organization for Nurturing Diversity (DIMOND). She is currently the Director of the DIMOND program working with house staff on supportive programming for DIMOND members. In 2020 she received both the Faculty of the Year award from the Division of Gastroenterology and the Excellence in Diversity in Education Award from the NYU Educator Community. Her institutional service includes membership on the Dean’s Recruitment Committee and the Institutional Diversity Steering Group.
Ugo Iroku, MD, MHS
Secretary, Co-Founder
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He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a co-founder, Board Member and acting Secretary for the Association of Black Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists (ABGH).
His clinical interests are Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Early Onset Colorectal Cancer. His research interests are health equity in the diagnosis and care of gastrointestinal chronic diseases and cancers as well as the use of technology and innovation in combating medical misinformation .
Valérie Antoine-Gustave, MD, MPH
Treasurer, Co-Founder
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Valérie Antoine-Gustave, MD, MPH is a board-certified gastroenterologist. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and her medical degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Prior to entering medical school, she received a Master’s in Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research in health promotion and disease prevention earned her the Community Scholars Award: Special Interest Project from the Centers for Disease Control.
Dr. Antoine-Gustave completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell New York Presbyterian Hospital and a fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Her clinical expertise encompasses all aspects of gastroenterology and endoscopy with specific interests in women’s digestive health, colorectal cancer screening, acid reflux disease, and celiac disease.
Dr. Antoine-Gustave is an attending physician at NYU Langone Health. She currently serves as the Quality Committee Chair at Liberty Endoscopy Center. Her patient-first philosophy fuels her passion for individualized care.
Dr. Antoine-Gustave is a member of the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Gastroenterology Association, the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, MD, MPH
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Dr. Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa is currently an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also a member of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, which is a subdivision of the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Anyane-Yeboa treats patients with general gastrointestinal disorders and inflammatory bowel disease. Her research work is currently focused on the development of technologies to increase uptake of colorectal cancer screening in vulnerable communities. Her ultimate goal is to advance care, improve access, and eliminate disparities for vulnerable patient populations through health services research, community advocacy, diversity retention and recruitment efforts and policy. Dr. Anyane-Yeboa is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. She received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, completed her gastroenterology training at the University of Chicago Medicine, and received her Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
Rotonya M. Carr, MD
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Rotonya Carr, MD, FACP is Associate Professor of Medicine, Cyrus E. Rubin Chair and Division Head of Gastroenterology at the University of Washington. She was previously the Founder and Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Liver Metabolism and Fatty Liver Program. Dr. Carr is an R01-funded NIH-funded physician scientist and hepatologist who specializes in the care of patients with fatty liver diseases. Her laboratory investigates the basic mechanisms of insulin resistance in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcoholic liver disease. Dr. Carr is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, European Association for the Study of the Liver, and Research Society of Alcoholism. She is an editorial board member of Hepatology, Liver Transplantation, and Journal of Lipid Research. Dr. Carr is recognized by Cell in their inaugural group of 100 inspiring Black scientists.
Dr. Carr completed medical school at Cornell Medical University Medical College and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to starting her fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked as an Internist at Ferguson Medical Group in Missouri. Dr. Carr has held faculty positions at the University of Missouri, University of Pennsylvania and University of Washington.
Darrell M Gray II, MD, MPH, FACG
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Darrell M. Gray, II, MD, MPH, FACG is the inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer for Anthem, Inc., a role he assumed in August 2021. In this role, he is an architect of strategy to advance health equity across all Anthem lines of business with the aim of improving the delivery of equitable whole-person care to it’s more than 45 million members and cultivating healthier communities in which they reside.
Prior to joining Anthem, Inc., Dr. Gray was an Associate Professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University where he served in multiple roles including: Director of Community Engagement and Equity in Digestive Health within the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Medical Director of Healthy Communities for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. His work leveraged meaningful partnerships across public and private sectors in Ohio and nationally to reduce health disparities and the drivers of health among diverse populations. This was exemplified, in part, in his founding of the Provider and Community Engagement Program for Health Equity in Colorectal Cancer Prevention, co-leading Ohio State’s health equity response to COVID-19, and co-designing the health enterprise’s anti-racism action plan.
As an advocate for vulnerable and underserved populations, Dr. Gray serves in multiple national and local organizations aiming to reduce disparities in health and health care through innovation in community engagement, care delivery, research, and patient and provider education. Additionally, Dr. Gray utilizes scholarly and multimedia platforms to disseminate best practices in advancing health equity. He’s published in high-impact journals including Nature Reviews, Lancet, American Journal of Gastroenterology, to name of few.
Dr. Gray has received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to team-based science, community engagement, clinical care, and diversity. equity and inclusion, yet he considers his roles as husband to wife Brittney and father to children Harper, Ella, and Noah as his crowning achievements.
Dr. Gray is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and graduate of Morehouse College and Howard University College of Medicine. He completed his residency at Duke University Medical Center and Gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University. He subsequently earned a Master’s in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow.
Alexandra Guillaume, MD
Board Member, Co-Founder
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She is co-founder of the annual Thought Leaders in GI Motility Symposium held in New York, and a member of many GI organizations including the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society. Dr. Guillaume has a special interest in diversity initiatives particularly at the undergraduate level. She serves on the executive subcommittee for the Renaissance School of Medicine’s admission committee, and is also the Faculty Advisor to the School of Medicine’s Pre-Medical Access to the Clinical Experience (PACE) program.
Dr. Guillaume graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed Internal Medicine residency at New York University Medical Center and her GI fellowship at SBUH.
Dr. Guillaume is committed to enhancing the education of young women particularly in STEM and currently serves as a Board of Trustee for her alma mater, the all-girls high school, Sacred Heart Academy in Garden City, NY.
Rachel Issaka, MD, MAS
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Dr. Rachel Issaka is a gastroenterologist and medical researcher with expertise in colorectal cancer prevention, quality improvement, and health equity. As an Assistant Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, she researches ways to improve colorectal cancer screening participation in order to decrease mortality, particularly in medically underserved populations. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Dr. Issaka has contributed to national medical practice guidelines for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Dr. Issaka completed her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco where she also earned a master’s in clinical research. She completed her internal medicine residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she served as chief resident and obtained her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Fola May, MD, PhD, MPhil
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Dr. Fola May is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Director of the May Health Services Research Lab at UCLA, and Director of Quality Improvement in Gastroenterology at UCLA Health. She is a graduate of Yale University (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, BA), the University of Cambridge (Epidemiology, MPhil), and Harvard Medical School. Dr. May trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital before completing a fellowship in gastroenterology at UCLA Health and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. In the May Laboratory at UCLA, the team engages in work to improve population health strategies, increase access to preventive services and to eliminate health disparities domestically and internationally. She is passionate about improving awareness about preventive health and health equity and is involved in advocacy at the state and national level to develop and encourage policy to improve health care delivery. Dr. May is also an Assistant Director of the Specialty Training and Advanced Research training program at UCLA and a Director of Grants and Postgraduate Research for the UCLA Global Health Program.
Pascale M. White, MD
Board Member, Co-Founder
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Dr. Pascale M. White is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is the Director of the Gastroenterology Clinic, where she is involved in the education of medical students, residents, and fellows. Dr. White was recently appointed as an Ombuds for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, serving the medical students and trainees at her institution.
Dr. White received her medical degree from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at New York University School of Medicine, where she was also appointed as Chief Resident. She went on to complete her GI fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Dr. White’s research interest is in health disparities in colorectal cancer screening. She is a member of the American College of Gastroenterology and the American Gastroenterological Association. She has contributed articles in Women’s Health Magazine and US News and World Reports. Dr. White has a passion for reading travel books, cooking, and playing golf. She currently resides in New Jersey with her husband and daughter.