Lois Margaret Nora Endowed Lecture Series
The Patient Voice: The Importance of Involving the Patient Perspective in the ABMS Community
Thursday, September 17, 2026
The importance of the patient’s perspective in medicine cannot be overstated. This session will feature ABMS and Member Board patient advocates, sharing their work in certification programming, advocacy and serving as family and community ambassadors promoting the value of board certification in providing quality care. The session will explore co-production of care, improvement, and research by incorporating the patient perspective in all phases.
Panelists
Moderator
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Co-Founder, Sickle Cell Prodigy
Ms. Bakare is the Co-Founder of Sickle Cell Prodigy, a patient-driven nonprofit redefining survivorship for individuals living with sickle cell disease who are exploring curative-intent therapies, including bone marrow transplant and gene-based therapy.
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A pioneering advocate in the rare disease community, she is recognized for advancing inclusion, challenging stigma, and elevating the patient voice at the intersection of medicine, media, and community.
Drawing from her lived experience, Ms. Bakare uses strategic storytelling and media engagement to shift perceptions and improve access to culturally responsive care. She serves in advisory roles across leading healthcare and biotech organizations, including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the American Board of Medical Specialties, Beam Therapeutics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Fulcrum, and Elevate Impact. She holds board positions with the Sickle Cell Knowledge & Information Network, Sickle Cell Disease Coalition, Sickle Cell Disease Partnership, and The Gift of Adoption Fund.
Diagnosed with the severe HbSS form of sickle cell disease in infancy, she underwent a successful allogeneic stem cell transplant in 2019 through a groundbreaking National Institutes of Health clinical trial. She is also the Founder of WBPR Agency, where she provides strategic communications counsel across healthcare, advocacy, and corporate sectors.
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System Vice President for Quality and Safety, Dartmouth Health
Associate Professor, Departments of Community & Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and the Dartmouth Institute, Geisel School of Medicine
Director, Chronic Health Improvement Research Program at Dartmouth Health (CHIRP), Department of Community & Family Medicine
Executive Director, the Promise Partnership Coproduction Learning Health System, Dartmouth Health & Geisel School of MedicineDr. Oliver is Associate Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine and System Vice President for Quality and Safety for the Dartmouth Health System in New Hampshire.
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He has expertise in Learning Health Systems, coproduction and improvement measurement and methodology, and has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, improvement faculty, or methodologist for improvement, implementation and research collaboratives internationally in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Sweden, and Australia.
Dr. Oliver is the Executive Director of the Promise Partnership, a strategic collaboration between Dartmouth Health and Geisel which includes the Care Experience Collaborative, a multicenter initiative to improve human experience across the Dartmouth Health system.
He teaches graduate and doctoral students, residents, and post-doctoral fellows in improvement and implementation, specializing in measurement and analytics.
He is a board certified family and psychiatric nurse practitioner with over 20 years in practice, a majority of which is in multiple sclerosis neurobehavioral care. Dr. Oliver is the 2022 recipient of the national improvement and implementation science research award from the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Institute, the 2023 recipient of the Batalden Award for career achievement in improvement from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and lead editor of the national best-selling Joint Commission Resources textbook Practical Measurement for Healthcare Improvement.
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Chief Medical Officer, American Board of Internal Medicine
Laura Sessums joined the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in June 2025 and is a practicing general internist.
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Previously, she was the CMO at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality where she had a diverse portfolio including Long COVID, strengthening collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other agencies, developing a primary care strategy, and improving patient experience measurement.
She has worked in the private sector, as the Chief Care Transformation Medical Director at Anthem, where she focused on commercial value-based care programs, including primary care, Accountable Care Organizations, and episode-based payment models.
She also spent five years as the Director of the Division of Advanced Primary Care at the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI). At CMMI, she developed and launched the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus, America’s largest multi-payer initiative to improve primary care.
She spent more than a decade in academic medicine as a clinician-educator, mostly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (as a civilian), where she served as the Chief of the General Medicine Section. Her professional activities have been in the areas of medical education and health care policy and advocacy; her research has focused on primary care.
Dr. Sessums is a former lawyer and is board certified by ABIM.
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President and Chief Executive Officer, American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
Dr. Hawkins has more than 30 years of professional experience ranging from his service in the United States Navy as an officer in the Medical Corps to leadership positions at national medical professional associations.
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Prior to joining ABMS in 2018, he served for five years as the Vice President for Medical Education Outcomes at the American Medical Association (AMA). There, Dr. Hawkins provided leadership for the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative, a $13.5 million grant program supporting 32 medical schools that are transforming their educational programs to better prepare their students to succeed in the nation’s evolving health care systems. He also provided senior staff leadership to the AMA’s Council on Medical Education and Academic Physician Section.
Previously, Dr. Hawkins was the Senior Vice President for Professional and Scientific Affairs at ABMS. In this role, he led educational, assessment, and international initiatives. Prior to that, Dr. Hawkins was the Deputy Vice President and then Vice President for Assessment Programs at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). There, he helped implement the Clinical Skills Examination of the United States Medical Licensing Examination, develop its assessment of professional behaviors program, and enhance the post-licensure assessment system for NBME and the Federation of State Medical Boards. Prior to joining NBME, Dr. Hawkins was Assistant Dean and Director of the Simulation Center at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Additionally, he served in various academic appointments in the Naval Medical Corps, receiving numerous commendations for his service.
A well-respected leader in the fields of physician assessment and education, Dr. Hawkins has more than 20 years of experience working on various initiatives to evaluate and improve physician performance, and is co-editor of a textbook on the assessment of clinical competence. He has given more than 80 presentations; conducted 30-plus courses and workshops; and published more than 70 articles, books, and book chapters. Dr. Hawkins is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is participating in continuing certification.