2026 Main Stage Speakers
Every conference has talks. Too many are overlong, underprepared, thinly vetted, and poorly lit. turING will feature a small number of tightly crafted talks, from different perspectives and disciplines – bridging cultures from the clinical to the software worlds.
Here is our confirmed speaker lineup for the 2026 turING:
Tala Fakhouri
VP, Consulting: AI & Digital Policy, Real-World Research | Parexel
Dr. Tala H. Fakhouri, PhD, MPH is currently the VP, Consulting: AI & Digital Policy, Real-World Research at Parexel. Tala is the former Associate Director for Data Science & AI Policy at FDA/CDER, where she led policy tracks for AI and RWE including authoring FDA’s first AI and RWE guidance documents, co-chaired the CDER AI Council, and helped shape global regulatory frameworks for AI, digital health technologies and real-world evidence. Prior to FDA, Tala held leadership roles at CDC including Chief Statistician for CDC’s flagship health study NHANES, and served on the Federal Committee for Statistical Methodology.
Rohit Nambisan
AI/Product Healthcare Entrepreneur
Rohit is an entrepreneur & product executive with experience leading organizations in healthcare data, AI, pharma, medical devices, personalized medicine, and health IT. Rohit was most recently the CEO & founder of Lokavant, a clinical trial data & AI company, which was acquired in 2025. Rohit holds an M.S in Management and Engineering from MIT, an M.A. in Neuroscience from Boston University, and a B.A in Cognitive Neuroscience from UC Berkeley.
Tony Fantana
Global Regulatory Affairs Innovation and Technology Lead |
Eli Lilly & Company
Tony is a strategic innovation leader with 15+ years of experience driving patient and business outcomes in Pharma, Digital Health, and Medical Devices. Currently, he leads Digital Transformation and Innovation for Global Regulatory Affairs, incorporating AI and advanced computing to accelerate submissions and approvals.
He is passionate about improving health outcomes through building and leading high-performing teams, fostering a culture of collaboration and excellence, and leveraging 21st century technology solutions.
At Lilly, Tony founded and scaled Digital Health and patient-centric blood sampling, now deployed in dozens of clinical trials, cutting millions in costs and reducing timelines. He is driving cross-industry collaboration as the leader of an Innovative Healthcare Initiative consortium with 50+ partners, and works with regulators in the EU and US.
He has delivered AI solutions solving thousands of manual labor annually, benefiting 1000+ global users. Part of several company-wide core teams, Tony drives cross-functional strategy with C-suite visibility.
Michelle Stump-Kerry
VP of Organizational Readiness and Enablement at Medidata
Michelle leads large-scale strategic initiatives that help teams adopt new technologies, processes, and mindsets—ensuring organizations are not only equipped for innovation but prepared to deliver on it. She brings over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including big pharma, CRO and Central Laboratories, with leadership and technical expertise in global data management, clinical trial management, clinical monitoring, investigator and client training, strategic planning, road mapping, technology and innovation.
Most recently, Michelle was the External Applications Portfolio Lead for a market leading Central Laboratory, where she was the business owner for a multimillion dollar portfolio of products for data integration, analytics, as well as investigator and client portal technology.
Michelle leverages her distinct global background and breadth of experience bringing a unique point of view to her professional endeavors to build meaningful, innovative alliances, partnerships and strategies.
Angela Radcliffe
Author | Quantum Kids Guardians of AI
Angela Radcliffe is a dynamic speaker, best-selling author, and noted clinical research, AI, and patient engagement expert who advocates for, and works with children (ages 8-14), parents, and educators to teach data, AI and health literacy to ensure kids have the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in a digitally connected world.
She’s the author of “Quantum Kids Guardians of AI”, an activity book that introduces elementary and middle school students to AI fundamentals through seven engaging missions. The book weaves concepts like neural networks, large language models, data ethics, and prompt engineering into relatable stories about school, social media, and robotics.
Van Crocker Jr.
Founder & President | Agonist Health
Van Crocker has spent his 25+ year career driving innovation and change in the healthcare field in senior operating roles and as a management consultant. As the President and Founder of Agonist Health, he has partnered with a broad array of innovators in the real world evidence sector, including private equity firms, pharmaceutical companies, technology developers and expert advisories.
Previously, Van co-founded and led Vidence (now a division of City of Hope) as its CEO, navigating the oncology information company through the COVID pandemic. Prior to Vidence, Van was President and Founder of Healthagen, the life sciences-facing analytics division of Aetna/CVS, harnessing large scale health data for AI/machine learning applications, value based relationships for drugs and devices, clinical trials, and digital health. Healthagen is now known as CVS Real World Evidence.
Before Healthagen, Van led finance and business development for Exicure, a public biotechnology company funded by AbbVie and Bill Gates. The company and its affiliates have developed a broad array of nanoparticle-based genetic therapies and diagnostic platforms, with applications including cancer and rare diseases. Van began his healthcare career as a management consultant with Booz & Company, where he focused on strategic initiatives for payer/provider clients.
Van holds a BS from the University of Virginia and an MBA with Honors from Kellogg School of Management.
Christoph Hornik
Professor of Pediatrics | Duke University and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI)
Christoph Hornik is a pediatric cardiac intensivist and the Samuel L. Katz Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). He serves as executive vice chair and vice chair for research in pediatrics and associate director of i-Cubed, DCRI’s center for clinical research innovation.
His research interests include the study of drugs and other interventions in vulnerable and underserved populations, including critically ill children, using innovative approaches ranging from direct-to-participant digitally enabled engagement and real-world evidence generation to advanced pharmacometrics modeling and regulatory compliant clinical trials. His research is funded by NIH, industry, and private foundations. Dr. Hornik has a passion for training and mentoring the next generation of pediatric clinical researchers, and for exploring non-traditional approaches to addressing complex problems affecting child health.
Brinnae Bent
Associate Director of the Society-Centered AI Initiative, Director of the TRUST Lab, and faculty in the Pratt School of Engineering | Duke University
Brinnae teaches courses on Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. She leads research at the intersection of machine learning, scientific discovery, and real-world deployment, with experience advancing AI systems across academia and industry.
Matt Bonam
Vice President of Digital Health | Evinova
Matt Bonam is the Vice President of Digital Health in Evinova, an AstraZeneca Group Health Tech company. He represents digital health on the AstraZeneca Biopharma R&D LT.
Matt has been in AstraZeneca for 23 years, working in a range of roles in the CMC area and in project leadership before leading the formation of the Intel Pharma group in 2014. Initially the group focussed on the use of Digital Health tools to support patients with medication adherence before joining R&D Digital Health in 2018.
Matt has overall accountability for the development of AZ’s digital patient solution platforms, the partnership with the Biopharma therapy areas in the use of digital solutions to augment clinical development and work with healthcare organisations to transform clinical pathways and improve outcomes for patients.
Merage Ghane, Ph.D
Director of Responsible AI in Health | Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)
Merage Ghane, Ph.D. is the Director of Responsible AI at the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), where she leads efforts to ensure the safe, fair, and effective design, development, implementation, and use of AI in healthcare. She brings together multiple health sector stakeholders, developers, and policymakers to co-create practical tools, guidance, and services that embed responsibility across the AI lifecycle.
With a background in clinical psychology, computational neuroscience, and decision-making, her work bridges technical, clinical, and social perspectives. Prior to CHAI, she held roles as NIH T32 post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, principle behavioral designer focused in ML/AI in Health at ideas42, and fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Ghane is committed to advancing health AI systems and processes that serve both innovation and impact for all.
Basia Coulter, Ph.D
Technology Executive, Digital Transformation Architect | Medidata
Basia Coulter has spent her career at an unusual intersection: she trained as a neuroscientist, then spent over a decade driving implementation of digital solutions across industries. Most people working at the intersection of AI and life sciences arrived from one direction. She came from both, and that dual vantage point shapes how she thinks about what it actually takes to make this technology work.
As a Transformation Architect at Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes company, she works with pharmaceutical and CRO leaders on the hardest version of the question: not whether AI can accelerate drug development, but how you actually implement it at scale, across the full value chain from molecule to medicine, in ways that create measurable impact.
She holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology, an M.Sc. in biological sciences, and has completed
executive programs at Wharton, MIT Sloan, and Stanford Medicine focused on AI in pharma and healthcare. She writes regularly on LinkedIn, less as a platform play, more as a way of working through hard problems in public. Basia lives in Durham, NC, with her husband, and is happiest either deep in a thorny technology question or somewhere in a national park without cell service and mountains to hike.
Ritesh Patel
Chief Innovation Officer | The Transformation Group
Ritesh Patel has spent four decades at the intersection of data and human health — starting in the 1980s, when he was building information systems at Citibank before most of the industry understood what data could do.
That early instinct has defined his career. As Chief Growth Officer at Doceree, he drove commercial strategy for one of healthcare's most sophisticated physician engagement platforms. Before that, he led digital health and innovation practices at Ogilvy Health and FINN Partners, helping pharmaceutical brands navigate the shift from broadcast to data-driven engagement.
Today, through Humble Ventures, he advises digital health companies and life sciences organizations on how to turn emerging tools and technologies into competitive advantage. He is a board member of Trialbee and the Chair of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
At turING, Ritesh will explore what it actually takes for the life sciences industry to benefit from the data already in the system — and what still stands in the way.
PANELISTS
Prasanna Rao
Chief Products & Innovation Officer | Saama
Prasanna Rao is a distinguished AI practitioner and industry thought leader, currently serving as the Chief Products and Innovation Officer at Saama. With over 30 years of experience in information technology and analytics, including more than a decade in healthcare and life sciences, Prasanna brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role.
Previously, as Global Head of AI/ML, Clinical Data Sciences at Pfizer Research & Development, Prasanna worked closely with stakeholders, vendors, business SMEs, machine learning developers, and data scientists to foster innovation and advance the adoption of AI in clinical data sciences. His tenure at IBM Watson as a Watson Solution Architect was marked by significant achievements in implementing AI systems for a diverse range of clients.
An accomplished speaker, Prasanna regularly presents at major industry conferences, including SCDM, DIA, SCOPE, DPharm, Tufts University CSDD, and Outsourcing Clinical Trials (OCT). He is also the holder of an IBM patent titled "Monitoring Clinical Research Performance," further cementing his status as a leading authority in leveraging technology for clinical development in the pharmaceutical industry. Prasanna continues to drive transformative advancements in AI and machine learning, delivering groundbreaking solutions to accelerate clinical research and development.
Pete Nellius
Lead Creative Technologist | Evinova
Pete Nellius leads the Futures and AI/ML Operations teams at Evinova, a healthtech business within the AstraZeneca group building AI-first solutions to accelerate global clinical trials. He helps shape what Evinova builds next, then guides the agents, tooling, and platform that deliver it at scale.
Pete joined Evinova as Lead Creative Technologist in 2023, following earlier work in the same role at AstraZeneca. Before moving into life sciences, he spent five years at AKQA as a Senior Creative Technologist, and previously led Creative Technology at Ogilvy Washington. Across his career he’s delivered work for clients including Delta Air Lines, Verizon, Optum, IBM, Intel, LVMH, DuPont, and a range of U.S. government agencies.
Steve Kearney
Global Medical Director | SAS
Steve Kearney is the Global Medical Director at SAS where he helps lead the organization’s focus on the future of digital health, AI, and advanced analytics across health care, life sciences, government, and the research and development divisions. An innovator in health outcomes and digital medicine, Dr. Kearney co-developed and implemented one of the first electronic disease registries at Duke Health while also
offering the first web-based ambulatory medicine elective at UNC. Dr. Kearney then joined the medical outcomes group at Pfizer where he continued his practical, actionable approach to data and the patient journey. He focused on health outcome insights from electronic medical record migrations, early personal digital assistants, novel health software programs and the first large patient claims databases. Throughout his career, Dr. Kearney has been a trusted advisor on health policy and Artificial Intelligence for state and federal agencies as well as Ministries of Health around the world.
Melissa Binz
VP, Development & Chief Medical Office Digital & Tech | GSK
Melissa Binz is VP, Development and Chief Medical Office Digital and Tech at GSK, leading technology-enabled transformation across clinical development, regulatory, safety and pharmacoviligence to strengthen how teams generate, flow, and use clinical data—accelerating delivery of trials and insights at scale.
Melissa brings 25+ years of experience spanning clinical data management, data engineering, quality, and analytics. Previously, as Head of Clinical Data Sciences at Takeda’s Data Sciences Institute, she led a multi-year transformation delivering 13 platforms/systems, 90+ clinical data-flow processes, and a new data engineering function; earlier roles at Pfizer and Novartis included implementing enterprise data management capabilities and leading global teams responsible for data standards, collection, and reporting systems.
Eloise Da Costa
US Innovation Lead | Sanofi
Eloïse Da Costa is a pharmacist and clinical trial innovation leader with experience across France, Canada, and the United States. She currently serves as Local Innovation Leader within Sanofi’s US Clinical Study Unit.
In this role, she connects global AI strategy with real-world execution, helping clinical teams adopt and scale innovative technologies. Her work includes evaluating and piloting AI solutions, leading change management for digital adoption and innovation, and building sustainable capabilities across study teams. She has contributed to initiatives ranging from AI-driven patient recruitment and site selection to social media strategies that accelerate enrollment across therapeutic areas.
Eloïse’s career at Sanofi spans competitive intelligence, feasibility data science, and clinical study management across three countries, giving her a comprehensive perspective on how data and technology shape the clinical trial lifecycle.
Janie Hansen
R&D Business Systems Transformation | Daiichi Sankyo Company
Janie Hansen is a seasoned professional in business systems transformation within global development information systems at Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. With over 20 years of experience as a business and integration architecture consultant in clinical systems, she has a proven track record of turning concepts into reality. Her expertise lies in delivering successful technology solutions and maximizing the value of technology investments in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, she has focused her efforts on leading transformative initiatives that leverage the potential of Generative AI.
Brian F Moynihan
AI & Automation Project Director | Duke University
As the AI and Automation Project Director, Brian Moynihan leads cross-functional initiatives that integrate artificial intelligence and automation into Duke’s academic and administrative operations. He partners with schools, centers, and the Office of Information Technology to design, implement, and evaluate projects that improve efficiency, strengthen data-informed decision-making, and enhance the staff and student experience.
Prior to joining Duke in October 2025, Brian led enterprise technology and AI transformation projects in higher education and industry settings, including roles at UNC Chapel Hill and Lenovo. He is the author of AI Culture Shift: Frameworks to Elevate People and Transform Organizations, a guide to ethical and human-centered AI adoption. Brian holds an M.B.A. and Masters in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Masters in Zen Buddhism from Miami University.
Main Stage Talks From Past Gatherings
Watch all the main stage talks from past events (2022-2025).
Submit a Nomination
Nominate yourself or someone you know that should be this year’s event.
April 29-30, 2026 | Durham, North Carolina