Dr. Christopher Payette is a board-certified emergency medicine physician in Washington, DC. He earned his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and completed his Emergency Medicine residency at GW. Following residency, Dr. Payette completed a research fellowship focused on the social drivers of health affecting patients with end-stage renal disease seeking acute care in the emergency department. His broader research portfolio includes acute and critical care studies, as well as injury prevention initiatives. Dr. Payette’s professional interests center on public health interventions related to HIV prevention, social drivers of health, injury prevention, and hospital-based violence intervention programs. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Additionally, he is an Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program and oversees the education of resident physicians and medical students.

Dr. Anum A. Niazi is an American Board of Internal Medicine certified hospitalist based in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated as a Chancellor’s Scholar from Vanderbilt University and went on to complete Internal Medicine Residency at Mercer University School of Medicine Coliseum Medical Center. She cares for patients as a physician partner with Vituity. After completing an administrative fellowship, she has served as Vituity’s Hospital Medicine Advocacy Lead and also serves on their Credentials and Partnership Affairs Committee, which addresses wellness promotion. She enjoys volunteering with the Vituity Cares Foundation and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital. She is an active member of Society of Hospital Medicine and has advised their board on future directions. She is serving on the Illinois State Medical Society’s Government Affairs Council, where she develops, promotes, and evaluates state and federal legislation, and is responsible for political education on issues affecting physicians and their practice. She is an Indiana State medical Society member, having served on their Drivers of Health Task Force to educate physicians across the state on the Drive for Five mobile app.

Dr. Deborah Rose is the 2024 Physicians Foundation Fellow. She completed her neurology residency at Duke University Medical Center and is currently a Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Rose is passionate about screening for and addressing drivers of health among her patients. Her clinical and research interests involve examining the role that socio-environmental disadvantages, adverse childhood experiences and chronic toxic stress play in brain health outcomes, specifically mild cognitive impairment, vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.

As the current Fellow, Dr. Rose is implementing a project in her clinical practice to assess the social and community needs among her patients in six key areas: economic stability, education, social and community context, health and clinical care, neighborhood and physical environment, and food security.

Ryan Lowery is the Physicians Foundation’s first Fellow and a pediatrician at the CommUnityCare Health Center in Austin, Texas. He completed both his pediatric residency and his chief residency at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas. Dr. Lowery has dedicated his career to addressing the drivers of health (DOH) and health equity, including working on systems to screen and respond to patient’s social health needs in his community.

As the Foundation’s Fellow, Dr. Lowery is expanding his leadership skills on addressing barriers to physician wellbeing, improving practice environments and building the understanding of DOH implications for patients and physicians.