In his previous role as senior associate dean, Sousa was responsible for the medical education programs of the college’s seven community campuses across Michigan. During that time, he managed the doubling of the college’s class size and converting its two-year, 60 student Grand Rapids campus into a four-year, 350 student campus. He also led the creation of four new, two- year clinical campuses in Traverse City, Midland, Southeast Michigan and Detroit, Mich.

Most of Dr. Sousa’s work is in medical education and curriculum. He led the design of the college’s highly successful Shared Discovery Curriculum and regularly serves as a site team member for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. As the leader of the college’s $30 million expansion in Flint, Mich., Dr. Sousa was the PI on the C.S. Mott Foundation grants that led to the college establishing the College of Human Medicine building and the creation of the Division of Public Health in downtown Flint.

Dr. Sousa is a practicing general internist. He received his bachelor’s and his medical degrees from Indiana University School of Medicine. He then served as both a resident and chief resident in internal medicine and completed a primary care fellowship at Michigan State University.

Dr. Jennifer Johnson is the Inaugural Chair of the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health and C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University.  A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Johnson is a leading national researcher in mental health and maternal health treatments and implementation science. She serves as Chief Translation Officer for MSU’s Office of Health Sciences, helping to guide the realization of the University’s Sustainable Health strategic goals and to ensure uptake of research findings into practice and policy. Dr. Johnson has been a Principal Investigator of 18 NIH-funded research studies worth more than $72 million, including her current two NIH Center grants, the National Center for Health and Justice Integration for Suicide Prevention (NCHATS) and the Maternal Health Multilevel Intervention/s for Racial Equity (MIRACLE) Center.  

Her leadership at MSU includes serving on the MSU Strategic Planning Committee and serving as the Chair of the Faculty Senate while also leading in her field through roles on national scientific boards, numerous NIH review committees, and prestigious editorial boards. Dr. Johnson is committed to participatory research, leadership, and governance processes to promote equity, expand impact, empower the traditionally unempowered, and elevate their perspectives and contributions to solutions.  She is a proud mentor to 13 junior faculty and postdoctoral mentees, many of whom come from under-represented minority backgrounds. 

Dr. Frank, currently the Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Services at Henry Ford Health System earned her bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and a Master’s degree in social work at the University of Michigan. After successfully practicing as a psychiatric social worker for nine years she decided to return to medical school graduating from the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University.  She competed her psychiatry residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was the Chief Resident of Primary Care Psychiatry. Following graduation, Dr. Frank joined the faculty at Henry Ford for 19 years and served in a variety of positions, including Director of Residency Training, Director of Psychiatric Education, Director of Forensic Psychiatry, and Director of Outpatient Psychiatry. Additionally, she had ongoing research grants and a clinical practice, specializing in mood disorders. Dr. Frank went on to serve as Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs and Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine for eight years prior to accepting the Chair at Henry Ford. 

Dr. Frank’s interests include mood disorders, forensic psychiatry, suicide prevention, opiate use disorders, and women’s health. Dr. Frank is one of the principle authors of Zero Suicide Prevention guidelines which were central to the award of The Joint Commission’s highest honor, the Codman Award and the American Psychiatric Association's Gold Award while she was at Henry Ford. She is committed to ongoing suicide prevention strategies which are supported by a number of current research grants, including as co-director of MI-Mind, an innovative CQI Blue Cross funded project designed to eliminate suicide in the State of Michigan. She currently serves on the Governor’s Michigan Suicide Prevention Commission.

Prior to joining MDCH, Hertel worked as a senior advisor for Health Policy in the state House Republican Policy Office and as a legislative assistant to state Rep. Bruce Caswell. She began her tenure in the House in 2005. In 2010, she worked as a consultant with Public Sector Consultants and then as a policy analyst at Blue Cross Blue Shield. She returned to the House in 2011.