J. Mack Slaughter Jr. is an American emergency physician, philanthropist, youtuber, tiktoker and retired actor and singer. Slaughter began acting in local theatre as a child. At the age of 15, he successfully auditioned for a boy band called Sons of Harmony started by a radio station in Dallas. They toured with Destiny’s Child and opened for Bon Jovi and Jessica Simpson. Three years later, in 2001, the band broke up, after which Slaughter moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. In 2003, he won the role of Keith in the WB sitcom Like Family. The following year, Slaughter had a role in the comedy film, Fat Albert, starring Kenan Thompson and Kyla Pratt. In 2008, he founded the non-profit Music Meets Medicine, where musicians volunteer with children and youth at local hospitals, performing and teaching music. In 2018, Music Meets Medicine teamed up with non-profit, Kidd’s Kids, to raise $150,000 to create a therapeutic arts space at Dallas Children’s Medical Center.

Slaughter eventually left acting to attend UT Southwestern Medical School, graduating in 2013 and is currently an emergency room physician, at several hospitals in the Fort Worth area.

Dr. Dipen J. Parekh is a globally renowned urologic oncologist, healthcare innovator, and leader in academic medicine. He was appointed Executive Vice President for Health Affairs at the University of Miami and Chief Executive Officer of its health system (UHealth) on June 1, 2025. He remains Founding Director of the Desai Sethi Urology Institute and is an accomplished researcher and professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who holds the Victor A. Politano Endowed Chair in Urology and is widely celebrated for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of robotic-assisted urologic oncology. Having served as Chief Operating Officer of UHealth from 2020-2025, Chief Clinical Officer from 2017-2020, Chairman of the Department of Urology since 2012, Executive Dean of Clinical Affairs at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Director of Robotic Surgery for UHealth, Dr. Parekh brings a wealth of academic, clinical, administrative, and institutional experience to the role.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Parekh has performed more than 6,000 robotic urologic cancer surgeries, making him one of the most experienced practitioners worldwide. He led the groundbreaking RAZOR trial, published in The Lancet in 2018, which established the efficacy of robotic-assisted radical cystectomy as comparable to open surgery for bladder cancer. He is an NCI funded surgeon scientist with over 200 peer reviewed publications in urologic oncology. His dedication to innovation has also included establishing advanced robotic surgery programs in academic centers across the globe.

Don is a coach & fitness expert known for his work with celebrities & athletes. With a passion for helping individuals achieve their best selves, he emphasizes the importance of strength training, especially as we age. He opened his first NYC Gym in 2005. After operating gyms for 15 years, he expanded to a global online fitness business. He has developed a reputation for training some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Chip & Joanna Gaines, Sebastian Stan, Annie Hathaway, Matt Bomer, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Liev Schreiber, Hugh Jackman, Drew Powell, & David Harbour are among his roster of clients. As a trusted fitness expert, Don’s advice and programs have been featured in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Muscle & Fitness, as well as People, US Weekly, Origins, In Touch, Cosmopolitan, and Shape. He has demonstrated workouts and shared his training philosophy on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Golf Channel, Page Six TV, People NOW, E! News, Fox News, and WebMD. He also serves on the advisory board for Men’s Health magazine.

Prior to coming to NYU, Dr. Caplan was the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, where he created the Center for Bioethics and the Department of Medical Ethics. He has also taught at the University of Minnesota, where he founded the Center for Biomedical Ethics; the University of Pittsburgh; and Columbia University. He received his PhD from Columbia University. Dr. Caplan is the author or editor of 35 books and more than 880 papers in peer reviewed journals. His books include Vaccination Ethics and Policy, with Jason Schwartz, and, Getting to Good: Research Integrity in Biomedicine, with Barbara Redman. He has served on a number of national and international committees including as the chair of the National Cancer Institute Biobanking Ethics Working Group; chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning; and chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability. He has also served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the Special Advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on Genetics and Gene therapy, the Special Advisory Panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on Human Experimentation on Vulnerable Subjects, the Wellcome Trust Advisory Panel on Research in Humanitarian Crises, and as the co-director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study on Trafficking in Organs and Body Parts.

Edward Miguel is Distinguished Professor of Economics, the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, & Faculty co-Director of the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2000. He earned S.B. degrees in both Economics and Mathematics from MIT, received a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and Stanford University. Ted’s main research focus is African economic development, including work on the economic causes and consequences of violence; the impact of ethnic divisions on local collective action; interactions between health, education, environment, and productivity for the poor; and methods for transparency in social science research. He has conducted field work in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and India. He has published over 130 articles and chapters in leading academic journals and collected volumes, and his work has been cited over 50,000 times according to Google Scholar.

The “Whole Eye Transplant Moon Shot” refers to the ambitious research initiative at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute to transplant a whole eye, including the optic nerve, with the goal of restoring vision in blind patients. This project is considered a “moonshot” due to the immense scientific and technical challenges involved in successfully transplanting and reconnecting all the intricate components of the eye, particularly the optic nerve. The goal is to achieve whole eye transplantation, including the optic nerve, to restore vision in individuals with blindness. The project involves a team of experts in various fields, including ophthalmology, neurosurgery, and immunology. The primary challenge is regenerating and reconnecting the optic nerve, which is part of the central nervous system and does not readily regenerate in adults. The research is expected to lead to significant advancements in transplantation techniques, nerve regeneration, and potential cures for other diseases.

EJ Manuel, a former first-round NFL Draft pick, joined ACC Network in 2019 and is a studio analyst on The Huddle, ACCN’s signature football show that airs Saturday mornings throughout the fall. He also co-hosts ACCN’s In Play with Kelsey Riggs and is a regular each week on ESPN’s College Football Live. Along with is his ESPN duties, Manuel co-hosts College Sports Today on SiriusXM with Brock Huard.

One of the most productive quarterbacks in Florida State history, Manuel led the Seminoles to a 25-6 record as a starter during the 2009-12 seasons, and the fourth-most wins in program history. The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native also helped Florida State to notable victories including the 2013 Discover Orange Bowl, 2012 Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game and 2009 Gator Bowl – the final game of legendary coach Bobby Bowden’s career. He is the second quarterback in FBS history to win four straight bowl games, and also went 15-3 in his career against ACC opponents. Manuel is FSU’s all-time leader in completion percentage (66.9), which is tied for third in ACC history, and ranks among the top five Seminole quarterbacks all-time for passing yards (7,736, 4th), total offense (8,563, 3rd), completions (600, 3rd) and attempts (897, 5th), despite only two seasons as the full-time starter. He earned second team All-ACC honors for the 2012 season and was named the 2013 Senior Bowl MVP.

Following his career at FSU, Manuel was a first-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2013.

Kevin J. Tracey is president and CEO and the Karches Family Distinguished Chair in Medical Research at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research; professor of Molecular Medicine and Neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell; and Executive Vice President, Research, at Northwell Health. A leader in the scientific fields of inflammation and bioelectronic medicine, his contributions include discovery and molecular mapping of neural circuits controlling immunity. Dr. Tracey received his BS in chemistry, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Boston College in 1979, and his MD from Boston University in 1983. He trained in neurosurgery from 1983 to 1992 at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center and was a guest investigator at the Rockefeller University before moving in 1992 to the Feinstein Institutes. There he directs the Laboratory of Biomedical Science and was appointed president and CEO in 2005.
An inventor of more than 120 United States patents and author of more than 400 scientific publications, he cofounded the Global Sepsis Alliance, a non-profit organization supporting the efforts of more than 1 million sepsis caregivers in over 70 countries. Dr. Tracey is the author of Fatal Sequence (Dana Press) and delivers lectures nationally and internationally on inflammation, sepsis, the neuroscience of immunity, and bioelectronic medicine.