Joseph P. Dervay, MD, MPH, MMS
Dervay is currently a flight surgeon at the NASA Johnson Space Center, having served there for over 28 years. After completing his undergrad at Cornell University and a Doctor of Medicine at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, Dervay trained to become a Navy flight surgeon, serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.
Dervay completed an emergency medicine residency at The George Washington University, a space medicine fellowship and aerospace medicine residency at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and NASA, and hyperbaric medicine training at UTHealth Houston. He is board certified in aerospace, emergency, and undersea and hyperbaric medicine.
Roderic Pettigrew, PhD, MD
Pettigrew, vice chancellor for Health and Strategic Initiatives at Texas A&M University, serves as dean of the School of Engineering Medicine and CEO of EnHealth, the nation’s first comprehensive educational program to integrate engineering into all health-related disciplines at Texas A&M University.
Pettigrew previously served as the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health.
Rita Cammarata, DDS
Cammarata is a native Texan, born and raised in Port Arthur. She graduated from Lamar University and practiced adult and pediatric dental hygiene for 12 years before returning to dental school in 1992. Cammarata received her dental degree and completed her specialty training in pediatric dentistry from UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry.
Peter Embí, MD, MS
Embí, a professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, professor of medicine, and senior vice president for Research and Innovation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is an internationally recognized researcher, educator, and leader in the field of biomedical informatics.
Embí is a frequently invited presenter and lecturer and has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed research articles, abstracts, books, and book chapters.
Esmaeil Porsa, MD, MBA, MPH, CCHP-A
Porsa serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Harris Health and has a special interest in improving population health through addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) and health care delivery in correctional settings.
He previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Integration Officer at Parkland Health where he had worked since 2007 in different capacities including the Medical Director of the Dallas County Jail Health program, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Professional and Academic Affairs and Interim Chief Medical Officer. Porsa is the Texas Governor appointee to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards where he currently serves as the Vice Chair.
Abbie Stockard
Stockard, Miss America 2025, is a senior Bachelor of Science in nursing student at Auburn University in Alabama. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she comes from a family of healthcare professionals, and her twin brother, Bradley, is also a nursing student at Auburn.
As Miss America, Stockard is spending the year traveling to inspire other women and to advocate for cystic fibrosis (CF) research and the American Heart Association’s Go RED for Women initiative. Inspired by her best friend, who is living with CF, Stockard works to raise awareness of the disease’s impact on patients, families, and communities. She supports initiatives such as ensuring access to life-changing therapies and telemedicine for rural patients. She plans to work as a pediatric nurse and aspires to eventually become a nurse anesthetist.