Catherine Liao, MSPH is the vice president for Government Relations for Duke Health. She is responsible for leading and overseeing a comprehensive federal and state government relations program that aims to strengthen Duke Health’s identity and reputation on biomedical research, education, training and service.

Prior to joining Duke, she worked on Capitol Hill for six years managing health, education, labor and housing appropriations issues for a senior member of Congress. She also worked at the North Carolina Institute of Medicine reviewing federal health reform legislation and making recommendations for implementation at the state level. She also completed an administrative fellowship and served in the office of the chief of staff at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Liao was selected to participate in Leadership North Carolina Class XXVI, which aims to inform, develop and engage committed leaders across the Tar Heel State. She is also one of 18 fellows in the Class of 2019 of the Carol Emmott Fellowship, a national program that develops and empowers female leaders to leave a mark on health care.

Liao holds a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of science in public health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Mike Datto, MD, PhD is an AP/CP/MGP board-certified pathologist, vice chair of clinical pathology for the department of pathology at Duke University and the medical director and associate vice president for Duke University Health System Clinical Laboratories. In his role as associate vice president, Datto is responsible for maintaining the standards of the College of American Pathologists and CLIA/CMS within all clinical laboratories at Duke. 

Specifically, Datto oversees clinical testing; develops quality management systems and proficiency testing programs; provides consultation with ordering physicians; develops strategic plans in line with patient, physician and health system leadership needs; coordinates research and development; ensures adequate and appropriately trained personnel; and provides profession interpretation for molecular diagnostic testing including the wide range of PCR, quantitative PCR, sequencing, NGS and FISH based tests for inherited genetic diseases, hematologic malignancies, solid tumors and infectious diseases.

In the past, Datto worked in the Lab of Xiao-Fan Wang, defining the mechanisms by which transforming growth factor beta exerts its cellular actions in health and disease. Following the completion of medical school, Datto trained as a resident in pathology at Duke. He has been on faculty in the department of pathology ever since.

Outside of Duke, Datto has served on many national committees as a leader in laboratory medicine, including service to the College of American Pathologists as the Chair of the Accreditation Committee, and overseeing the accreditation decisions for all CAP accredited laboratories.

Datto received a BA from Johns Hopkins University in Biology. He went on to receive his MD and PhD from Duke University as part of the Medical Scientists Training Program.

Richard P. Shannon, MD serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Duke University Health System. In this role, Shannon works in partnership with our Nurse, Physician and Administrator triads to oversee governance, strategy and operational outcomes for our comprehensive centers of excellence, including Neurosciences, Heart, Oncology and Musculoskeletal.

As Chief Quality Officer for Duke Health, Shannon is responsible for the overall direction, leadership and operational management of the quality and safety programs of Duke Health, and provides leadership in strengthening a quality culture where everyone is engaged and respected.

Shannon received his BA from Princeton University and his MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, his cardiovascular training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was the Francis Weld Peabody Fellow and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before becoming the Claude R. Joyner Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Prior to joining Duke Health, he served as executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia, where he worked with faculty and staff to transform the UVA Health System into the premier health care provider in Virginia. Shannon has also served as the Frank Wister Thomas Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and as Chair of the Department of Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. Shannon has received numerous teaching awards from Harvard Medical School, Drexel University College of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Shannon’s investigative interests are in the areas of myocardial metabolism and heart failure, specifically the role of energetics in the progression of heart failure. Shannon’s lab was the first to discover the beneficial CV actions of incretins which formed the basis for Ventrigen, LLC, a company designed to develop incretins for the use in treating heart failure.

Shannon's pioneering work in patient safety is chronicled in the chapter “First, Do No Harm” in Charles Kenney’s The Best Practice - How the New Quality Movement is Transforming Medicine. His innovative work also has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, on CNN and CNBC news segments, and on ABC's "20/20", and was a centerpiece for the PBS report entitled "Remaking American Medicine." 

Shannon is an elected member of honorary organizations, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and served as a senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently is a teaching fellow for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. He is a Director of the National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center Research Hospital Board; and a member of the Boards of Directors of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., where he chairs the Quality Health Improvement Committee.

Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Duke Cancer Institute and William and Jane Shingleton Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology.

As a pediatric oncologist and a cancer biologist, Kastan conducts laboratory research concentrated on DNA damage and repair, tumor suppressor genes, and causes of cancer related to genetic predisposition and environmental exposures. His discoveries have made a major impact on our understanding of both how cancers develop and how they respond to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and his publications reporting the roles of p53 and ATM in DNA damage signaling are among the most highly cited publications in the biomedical literature of the past 25 years. He has received numerous honors for his highly cited work, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, as well as receipt of the AACR-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to basic cancer research. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, on the Boards of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Association of Cancer Institutes (AACI), as editor-in-chief of the journal Molecular Cancer Research, and as editor of the textbook Clinical Oncology.

Kastan earned his degrees from the Washington University School of Medicine and did his clinical training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. Before moving to Duke in 2011, Kastan was a Professor of Oncology, Pediatrics and Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University and Chair of the Hematology-Oncology department, as well as the Cancer Center Director at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. 

Paul Lindia is Vice President for Network Services at Duke University Health System (DUHS) and has been a part of the Duke University Health System for more than 27 years. Lindia oversees Duke University Health System’s clinical affiliations with community hospitals as well as the Duke LifePoint Healthcare relationship.

Prior to assuming his current role in 2001, Lindia served as chief operating officer at Duke Raleigh Hospital. He directed hospital operations and a staff of more than 800 FTEs, with an annual budget in excess of $100 million.

Lindia also served as DUHS Senior Director, Hospitals’ Operations Integration where he led the organization through restructuring initiatives including system-wide alignment of various operational departments. He led efforts to integrate major clinical and departmental systems and programs across the health system using business plans and business case reports to support the integration projects.

Lindia has also served as Assistant Chief Operating Officer for Surgical and Professional Services at Duke University Hospital. He was responsible for leading operational efforts in all areas of surgical and peri-operative services along with traditional hospital non-clinical departments.

Lindia is a graduate of Yale University and received a Master’s of Public Health in healthcare administration. He received his bachelor of science degree in business administration/accounting from Central Connecticut State University.