The Aspen Institute has announced its inaugural class of Health Innovators Fellows.

Launched in partnership with Greenville Health System, the program aims to strengthen the leadership of healthcare innovators across the United States and challenge them to create new approaches that improve the health and well-being of Americans nationwide. The initial fellows, who hail from the fields of medicine, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, mental health, government, healthcare venture capital, and veterans' health, will spend four weeks over the next two years exploring leadership models, their core values, and their visions for the healthcare sector. In addition, each fellow will commit to leading a venture with the potential to have a positive impact on health care in the U.S.  and will be invited to join more than twenty-one hundred other entrepreneurial leaders from forty-nine countries as a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

The 2015 Health Innovators class includes Joseph Betancourt, director of the Disparities Solutions Center at Mass General Hospital; Alice Chen, chief medical officer of the San Francisco Health Network; Elizabeth Fowler, vice president of global health policy at Johnson & Johnson; Anna Haghgooie, managing director of Chicago-based Sandbox Industries; Patrick Hines, founder and CEO of Detroit-based Functional Fluidics; Shannon Jaccard, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness San Diego; J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals; Drew Ladner, founder and CEO of Pascal Metrics in Washington, D.C.; Marc Lara, co-founder and chief scientific officer of MicroHealth; and Ann Lee-Karlon, senior vice president of Genentech.

"We are thrilled to recognize an extraordinary group of individuals — ten men and ten women — who reflect the best of passion and commitment in the U.S. healthcare system," said Rima Cohen, managing director of the Health Innovators Fellowship program. "The fellowship will harness the creativity, deep expertise, and diverse experiences of these leaders to help solve our health system's complex challenges."

For a complete list of this year's Health Innovator fellows, visit the Aspen Institute website.