Bridging Gaps, Empowering Communities

Experience the Event

Presented by Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society

AI holds immense promise, yet Ketan Paranjape warns the “last mile” remains a formidable barrier. From rural Indiana to India, infrastructure gaps and cultural nuances challenge the scalability of digital health. Explore how we can bridge this divide by prioritizing human kinship and ethical innovation over mere algorithmic speed.

Over the past two years, the Lucy Family Institute has invited a variety of business, government, academic, and non-profit partners to campus as part of the Health Equity Data Forum.  Each year, this has led to impactful research and data analysis questions.  In fall 2025, the Health AI track was a part of the larger RISE AI Conference, allowing attendees to meet and collaborate with researchers, industry partners, and other stakeholders. 

This year’s focal topic was Rural Healthcare; exploring the issues of first and last mile challenges of data acquisition and application to dispersed communities, and the possibilities of AI and data models to address these communities.  Rural healthcare topics included the mental health, transportation, availability/location of specialists, food accessibility, and availability/accessibility of people for clinical trials. Addressing these factors can significantly change outcomes for rural populations.

Meet the Speaker: Ketan Paranjape

Dr. Ketan Paranjape is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Bioscope AI. He is an accomplished commercial and technology leader, with 25 years of demonstrated experience at developing and commercializing digital solutions across healthcare, pharmaceutical, automotive, telecommunication, gaming, and animation. His roles have included chief operating officer of enterprise imaging at Optum, head of commercial business operations and transformation at Roche, along with leading the commercialization of the Navify digital platform. He was a managing director at Health2047, for-profit incubator funded by the American Medical Association and prior to that ran the life sciences business at Intel along with being the global head of product and engineering for multiple solutions for customers such as BMW, Boeing, Pixar, AT&T, Novartis and GE. He has a Ph.D. in applying artificial intelligence to Healthcare, MBA in Finance, and along with being on the roster of experts on Digital Health at the World Health Organization, he has participated on the US Health IT Standards Committee Precision Medicine Task Force, AAAS-FBI-UNICRI Project on Life Sciences and National and Transnational Security, International Telecommunication Union’s Global Cybersecurity Working Group and WHO’s Experts Working Group on eHealth.

Meet the Speaker: Bukata Hayes

As Chief Community Health Officer, Bukata Hayes is responsible for the Blue Cross community health strategies. Hayes serves as an advisor and strategic leader across the organization to identify and implement initiatives that bring about improved health engagements and experiences, greater fairness, representation and lasting systemic health ecosystem changes. He also oversees the community health work funded through the historic tobacco settlement, which invests in community led solutions and advances public policy, and health narratives to positively transform and advance community health and wellbeing in population centers and rural areas throughout Minnesota.

Hayes’ work places an emphasis on enhancing policies and programs that can more effectively address the specific needs of underrepresented communities, including initiatives that can increase access to high quality medical care while lowering overall medical costs.

Hayes also serves as chair of the board of directors for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation. He first joined the board in 2015 and was named chair in 2021. Hayes has more than 20 years of experience organizing and facilitating systemic change within large and small systems such as non-profit, K-12, higher education and rural communities. Prior to joining Blue Cross, Hayes spent 15 years as the executive director of the Greater Mankato Diversity Council. Before that, he served as the coordinator of the Multi Ethnic Center at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, the first-ever position of its kind at the college.

Hayes received a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota and a Master of Business Administration degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he is actively involved in numerous community-based organizations, including the MEDA Board of Directors, American Cancer Society (ACS), Minnesota Region Board of Directors, and the Blandin Foundation Board of Trustees.

Meet the Speaker: Emily Ho

Emily Ho is a quantitative psychologist, behavioral scientist, and psychometrician. She is currently an assistant professor in the department of medical social sciences at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. of medical social sciences Her research broadly focuses three main areas: 1) validation of performance measures in computerized neuropsychological assessment across multiple domains (e.g., NIH Toolbox; cognition, emotion, motor, and sensation); 2) cognitive aging and digital biomarkers of preclinical Alzheimer detection; 3) improving medical decision-making through behavioral science. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Additionally, her work has been featured in outlets such as National Public Radio and Harvard Business Review, and Salon. Emily’s work has been published in leading journals such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia, Nature Climate Change, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Management Science, Psychological Assessment, and Behavioral Science and Policy. She was named a Rising Star of Behavioral Insights by the Behavioral Exchange in 2018.

Meet the Speaker: Erwin Tan

Erwin Tan, MD, is senior director of AARP Health Thought Leadership, where he leads AARP’s work on healthy longevity and drives thought leadership on health disparities to highlight the importance of perceptions of aging and age discrimination. In this role, he cultivates collaborations with academic institutions and scientific organizations to promote AARP’s vision that everyone should be able to live a healthier and longer life. Tan is a physician with training in internal medicine, geriatric medicine, and integrative medicine.

Before joining AARP, Tan served as the director of what is now AmeriCorps Seniors. From 2004-2010, he served as an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was an attending physician in the division of geriatric medicine. He was also a co-investigator in the Baltimore Experience Corps Study. From 2003-2004, Tan was a White House Fellow serving as a special assistant to the secretary of veterans affairs. Before coming to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Tan was a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, where he was also a geriatric medicine fellow and a primary care medicine resident.  

Tan earned his doctor of medicine from the New York University School of Medicine and was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University, and was an exchange student at Tougaloo College, an HBCU in Jackson, MS. Tan was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserves and was in the Corps of Cadets at Providence College ROTC. Tan was born in Indonesia and is a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Meet the Speaker: Shelley Kendrick '10 MNA

Shelley Kendrick ’10 MNA became Ecumen President and CEO in 2019 and retired in the first quarter of 2026. She served as their Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations since 2015. Shelley has extensive leadership and operations experience in senior housing and services. She joined Ecumen in 2012 and led the management of the organization’s housing and care center communities, including strategic development, quality of care, operations, community relations, financial performance and innovation. Shelley has also led the ongoing expansion of Ecumen Hospice, which has grown to four regional offices, serving ten times the number of people daily than it did in 2015. Shelley holds a Masters in Nonprofit Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a B.S. in English Language and Literature from Eastern Michigan University.