Our Board of Directors brings a broad range of expertise, experience and demonstrated public and private leadership to advance our mission. Direct experience in healthcare delivery and deep expertise in healthcare research keep us grounded in the realities of healthcare today, while world class experience in human-centered design and a strong entrepreneurial spirit help position our ventures to successfully improve the lives of people in our community.
Lee Walker graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS in Physics in 1963 and received NASA and National Science Foundation funding for his post graduate work in nuclear physics. Lee received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1967. He served as the President of Dell Computer Corporation through its formative years. After leaving Dell in 1990, Lee was asked to teach at the University of Texas at Austin. His graduate courses in Business Management have earned multiple teaching awards. He also teaches a First-year Signature Course and a course in the Plan II Honors Program, where he is a Senior Research Fellow. Among other honors, Lee was named Austinite of the Year by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and was given the Texas Nature Conservancy Lifetime Achievement award. Lee’s first book Imagination House: An Entrepreneurial Life was recently released in May of 2019 by Texas A&M Press.
Chris Webb serves Dell Medical School as the Chief Research Officer and Associate Dean for Research, crafting strategies that enable investigator and school success in research and development. In seeking ways to advance the pace and efficiency of research to improve health, Chris is developing an efficient and supportive operational infrastructure that will allow investigators to focus on collaborative research endeavors, not administrative minutiae. Prior to joining Dell Med, Chris was the assistant dean for clinical and translational research and executive director of the Clinical and Translational Institute at Stanford University, where he demonstrated creative leadership in an academic research enterprise. Chris devoted 15 years to supporting biomedical research at Stanford, constantly seeking ways to improve the academic environment so smart people could accomplish great things. Chris is a molecular biologist trained at Harvard University, with experience in developmental biology, genomics, information technology and technology development. He also had a two-year stint at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he was convinced that interdisciplinary, team research can result in the greatest impact.
Peter Coughlan is a thought leader in human-centered design with a focus on organizational (culture) and sustainable (people and planet) development. Peter rose to partner at IDEO, an international design and consulting firm founded in Palo Alto, California, where he helped pioneer the translation of human centered design (then largely applied only to product development efforts) into new processes and structures for organizations to be more people centered, creative and generative. He has since gone on to advise companies, including those in healthcare, on strategies for how to drive innovation through a human-centered lens. Most recently he's created Hasten Regeneration, his own disruptive organization to tackle climate change. Peter holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from UCLA; an Ed.M from Boston University; and a BA from Trinity College – Hartford.
Stephen Bekanich, M.D. is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Iris Plans, a disease-specific advance care planning service. Prior to this he served as the CEO of Ascension Health’s Texas ACO with 2,500 physicians and shared savings across government and commercial contracts. He was the Chief Medical Officer of the health insurance joint venture between Cigna and Ascension Health. Before moving to Austin, he held the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the University of Utah’s Medical Center where he started and directed their palliative medicine programs. Dr. Bekanich is the recipient of awards for medical leadership, innovation in health care, teaching, and patient and family satisfaction. His research is in the field of communication and pain. He serves on national boards and committees including the National Clinical Advisory Council for Cigna.