National Wellness Conference Keynote Speakers
Dexter Shurney, MD, MBA, MPH, FACLM, DipABLM
Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Community Wellbeing and the Blue Zones Institute for Adventist Health
Dr. Dexter Shurney is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Community Wellbeing and the Blue Zones Institute for Adventist Health, a faith-based, nonprofit integrated health system serving more than 80 communities on the West Coast and Hawaii. The Blue Zone Institute is a “Living Lab” to create, study, and codify best practice, including a lifestyle medicine approach to care, that can be replicated across regions and communities of greatest need.
Previously, Dr. Shurney held the position of Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Clinical Affairs at Foodsmart by Zipongo, where he led a national food as medicine strategy employing telenutrition solutions to address poor nutrition and food insecurity.
Dr. Shurney is the immediate Past-President for the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and continues to serve as board member and in a leadership role in ACLM’s work to address health disparities. He serves on numerous other boards including the Bon Secours-Mercy Health Foundation, the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), the National Association of Managed Care Physicians (NAMCP), and the Population Health Alliance (PHA).
Former roles Dr. Shurney has held include Chief Medical Director / Executive Director for Global Health Benefits and Corporate Wellness for Cummins, Inc., and Chief Medical Director, Employee Health Plan for Vanderbilt University and Medical Center. During his tenure at Vanderbilt he also held joint faculty appointments as Assistant Clinical Professor, Division of Internal Medicine and Public Health, and Adjunct Faculty, Owens Graduate School of Management. For a number of years, he served as the Chief Medical Officer for Healthways. It was at that time that he was appointed by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to Chair the Tennessee Diabetes Prevention and Health Improvement Board. He is also the former Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of medical affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and the most recent Chair of the Business Strategies Committee for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP).
Dr. Shurney is co-author of the book “Integrating Wellness into Your Disease Management Programs” which is a “how- to” strategic guide for employers that wish to innovate their approach to chronic condition management.
He attended Loma Linda University for his undergraduate training, and later Howard University College of Medicine where he received his degree in medicine. He holds Masters’ Degrees in Business and in Public Health from the University of Detroit/Mercy and the Medical College of Wisconsin, respectively. He is a fellow in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and is board certified in both Preventive Medicine and in Lifestyle Medicine.
Candice Schaefer, PhD, ABPP
Global Head of Wellness, Twitter
Dr. Candice Schaefer is a board-certified licensed clinical psychologist and the global head of employee wellness at Twitter. Dr. Schaefer spent 10 years as a practicing clinician in medical settings and private practice before moving to the tech industry in 2017, where she created and delivered resiliency programming for employees working with graphic and sensitive content at Facebook. At Twitter, Dr. Schaefer serves as the manager of global employee wellness, subject matter expert, and consultant to many organizations within Twitter, with the goal of increasing employee resilience and decreasing occupational burnout. Prior to joining Twitter in 2019, Dr. Schaefer was a consulting psychologist at Facebook where she created and delivered resiliency programming for employees working with graphic and sensitive content at Facebook. She has served as a panelist and keynote speaker at many employee well-being conferences around the world, with a focus on building employee resilience and designing a comprehensive mental health strategy. Dr. Schaefer is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Business and Organizational Consulting Psychology, and currently serves as a board member. In 2021, Dr. Schaefer was awarded the Early Career Woman Psychologist in Management Award from the Society of Psychologists in Leadership.
