Speakers

Dr. James McDonald has been a representative of the RI Department of Health at Governor Raimondo's Covid-19 Press Conferences. 

Dr. McDonald has served at the Rhode Island Department of Health since 2012 as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline and the Center for Customer Services Medical Director. He is also a member of the Governor’s task force on preventing Overdose deaths and leads the Prevention Strategy work group. Dr. McDonald is also the medical director of the overdose prevention program as well as medical director for the Center for Health Systems and Policy at RIDOH. Dr. McDonald earned his MD from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, his pediatric residency in the US Navy, and his preventive medicine residency from the State University of New York. He earned is MPH from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. McDonald is board certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine. His diverse career includes officership in the US Navy, as well as private practice in rural areas and in the Navajo Nation. Dr. McDonald lives in North Kingstown with his wife and three children.

R. W. Alley -- R. W. Alley has illustrated more than one hundred books for children, including Enzo Races in the Rain! and the popular Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond. In 2010, he received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award for Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan. He is also the illustrator of two large comic panel-formatted books: There’s a Wolf at the Door, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and There’s a Princess in the Palace, written by his wife, the talented Zoë B. Alley. You can visit him online at www.rwalley.com.

Zoë Alley -- As the very proud wife of illustrator R. W. Alley (check out his website, too!), and the mother of two wonderful adult "children", I am similarly thrilled! School-wise, I received my B.A. from the University of New Hampshire, and my Ed.M. from Boston University. You don't need to know the years! We live in Barrington, Rhode Island; a beautiful state with lots of ocean air that makes my hair curly!

Scott MacKay

With a B.A. in political science and history from the University of Vermont

and a wealth of knowledge of local politics, it was a given that Scott MacKay

would become a commentator for Rhode Island Public Radio's Political

Roundtable.

As a former political reporter for The Providence Journal, MacKay has spent

more than thirty years documenting the ins and outs of politics in Rhode

Island and New England. MacKay is married to Dr. Staci Fisher, an infectious

diseases specialist.

Margaret Holland McDuff is a dynamic and innovative leader working, through partnerships, to ensure that all Rhode Islanders are thriving in connected, safe, healthy communities. 

Margaret is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Family Service of Rhode Island, a 128-year-old human service organization originally led by Brown University’s president, impacting health, hope, healing and homes.  Under her tenure, FSRI has grown into a $24 million organization with 300 highly skilled team members actively strengthening the fabric of Rhode Island by enhancing health care for improved well-being; creating educational and family success; delivering trauma response and recovery; and fostering safe and loving homes. 

Recently, McDuff has overseen FSRI’s expansion into Integrated Healthcare through partnerships with local community health centers and other medical practices. FSRI clinicians and community health workers are co-located with medical staff to provide integrate behavioral health services. Since 2017, FSRI has served as the Providence lead for the Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island to pioneer a patient-centered primary care model that integrates medical and behavioral health.  

An accomplished child welfare expert, Margaret has pioneered the implementation of more than 30 trauma informed, evidence-based practices designed to strengthen families and her trauma informed strategies have earned FSRI a seat at the table at the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN).

McDuff has also worked to expand FSRI’s role as a link between communities and law enforcement with a range of police partnerships. The partnership she fostered between her agency and the Providence Police Department to assist crime victims received the national MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award and the national Mutual of America Community Partnership Award. The agency has also placed liaisons in the East Providence and State Police forces, and has become nationally recognized for helping abused, traumatized children, sex trafficking victims, and other victims of crime and violence. 

During her tenure, Margaret has overseen the successful merger between FSRI and AIDS Project Rhode Island, the state’s largest non-profit service provider for people infected, affected and at-risk of HIV/AIDS; as well as created an affiliate relationship with Lucy’s Hearth, the only shelter for homeless children and their families in Newport County.

Among her various statewide leadership positions, McDuff served as a member of former Governor Lincoln Chafee’s transition team, on the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority board of directors, was head of the Mayor’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council in Providence, and is former co-chair of the Rhode Island Children’s Policy Coalition. McDuff currently serves on the United Way of Rhode Island’s advisory board and on the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner’s community advisory group. She is also a member and regular presenter at the Alliance for Children and Families.

Margaret McDuff holds an MBA from Bryant University, an MA in Developmental Psychology from Rhode Island College, and a BA in Psychology from St. Anselm College.

Ambassador Nicholas Burns is the Goodman Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Faculty Chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project and also of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Burns is Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum, and Senior Counselor at The Cohen Group. He is Chairman of the Board of Our Generation Speaks, which seeks to bring together young Palestinians and Israelis in common purpose. 

Burns served in the United States government for 27 years as a career Foreign Service Officer. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2005-2008), U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005), U.S. Ambassador to Greece (1997-2001), and and State Department Spokesperson (1995-1997). He worked on the National Security Council as Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs; Special Assistant to President Clinton; and Director for Soviet Affairs for President George H.W. Bush. Burns served in the American Consulate General in Jerusalem where he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and before that, at the American embassies in Egypt and Mauritania. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston College and a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.