Leadership Team

Anant Madabhushi, PhD

Executive Director

Anant Madabhushi is a global leader in developing AI to improve outcomes for individuals with cancer and other diseases. He is a Robert W. Woodruff Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering and a member of the cancer immunology research program at Winship Cancer Institute. Madabhushi has authored more than 475 peer-reviewed publications and holds more than 200 patents issued or pending in the areas of AI, radiomics, computational pathology, medical image analysis, and computer vision.

Bruce Mellado, PhD

Senior Advisor

Bruce Mellado has more than 20 years of experience in big data and artificial intelligence in large projects related to the European laboratory CERN. He also has experience with innovation and translation in the interface between research and industry. He will work with Anant Madabhushi to manage the operations of the institute.

Jonathan Lewin, MD, FACR

Chair

Jonathan Lewin, professor of radiology and imaging sciences in Emory School of Medicine, is a pioneer in interventional and intraoperative MRI. He holds more than 25 patents and has been a principal or coprincipal investigator on NIH and other federal and state grants totaling more than $10 million. The author of more than 260 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and other publications, Lewin previously served as executive vice president for Health Affairs at Emory and CEO and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare.

Ravi V. Bellamkonda, PhD

Ravi V. Bellamkonda is provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University. As the institution’s chief academic officer, he works to ensure a distinctive, holistic educational experience for all Emory students and cultivates faculty eminence by supporting outstanding research, teaching, and scholarship. A biomedical scientist by training, Bellamkonda is internationally recognized for engineering innovative technologies to treat pediatric and adult brain tumors.

Deborah W. Bruner, PhD, RN, FAAN

As an internationally renowned researcher and clinical trials expert focused on patient-reported outcomes and symptom management across cancer sites, Deborah Bruner has ranked in the top 5 percent of all NIH-funded investigators for more than a decade. She is senior vice president for research at Emory and the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair in Nursing. Bruner is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and was appointed by President Barack Obama to one of only two NIH US-presidentially appointed committees.

Alistair Erskine, MD, MBA

Alistair Erskine is the chief information and digital officer at Emory Healthcare and vice president of digital health for Emory University. A visionary leader in medical informatics, he excels at positioning and supporting technology as a fundamental component of the patient and provider experience. Erskine has held leadership positions at several leading health systems, corporations, and universities including Mass General Brigham, Geisinger, and Sidra Medical and Research Center. He earned an MBA focused on business analytics and artificial intelligence from MIT.

Robert Friedman, CPA, MBA, CGMA

Robert Friedman is an investment research analyst and private investor, with ownership stakes in publicly traded and private companies, many of which are in the health care service and life science industries. Previously, he was a top-ranked aerospace analyst at S&P Equity Group, where he also developed S&P Core Earnings, a proprietary methodology used to measure a company's underlying economic earnings performance. The methodology, publicly endorsed by Warren Buffett, has been cited in major business periodicals, books, as well as in Federal Reserve research and Congressional testimony. Friedman has also taught basic intrinsic value investing as a visiting lecturer at Emory School of Medicine.

Craig D. Harrison

Craig D. Harrison has over three decades of business experience as the founder and former president of a groundbreaking fiber optics company. He holds a degree in economics with a physics concentration from the University of Rochester. His inventive prowess led to the development of a revolutionary spectroscopy technology used to measure drug concentrations in the biomedical field. Throughout his career, Harrison's innovative solutions earned him multiple patents, solidifying his position as a pioneering force in biotech and fiber optics. His company's success attracted global attention and was eventually acquired by a major public corporation.

Fred Sanfilippo, MD, PhD

Fred Sanfilippo has had a renowned career in research, academia, and health care administration at several top universities including Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Ohio State. He currently serves as director of the Emory-Georgia Healthcare Innovation Program, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in Emory School of Medicine, and professor of health policy and management in Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. Sanfilippo has received three patents and been awarded more than $30 million in sponsored research funds.

Vikas Sukhatme, MD, ScD

Vikas Sukhatme's groundbreaking research in drug repurposing led to creation of the Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine, which promotes research, education, and advocacy for effective and affordable medical treatments. As a translational researcher, he thrives on finding connections between clinical problems and scientific advances within and across areas and has co-founded several biotechnology companies based on his discoveries. Sukhatme is a full-time faculty member in Emory School of Medicine after serving five years as the school’s dean and as chief academic officer of Emory Healthcare.