Introducing CHARM Connect
An initiative designed to foster well-being and community-building through structured and supportive scholarly conversations with well-being champions and leaders.
Scaling Peer Support Training with AI Simulation
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 4:30–5:30 PM ET
Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA
Associate Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School
Program Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Anesthesiology Residency
President and Co-Founder, The Emotional PPE Project
Sophie Sharp, BA
Program Manager of HEART, The Emotional PPE Project
Biography: Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA
Dr. Daniel Saddawi-Konefka is an anesthesiologist and intensivist whose work centers on helping clinicians grow, perform, and stay well. He is Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Program Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Anesthesiology Residency. In 2020 he co-founded The Emotional PPE Project, a national nonprofit that has connected thousands of healthcare workers to free, confidential mental health care and helped drive medical-licensing reform in multiple states. His research, grounded in cognitive psychology and educational theory, focuses on intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, feedback, and the barriers that keep healthcare workers from seeking the support they need. He holds an MD and MBA from the University of Michigan.
Biography: Sophie Sharp, BA
Sophie Sharp is Program Manager of HEART at The Emotional PPE Project, a national nonprofit working to remove barriers to mental health care for healthcare workers. She manages the development of HEART, a training curriculum that teaches healthcare workers how to support a struggling colleague, using AI voice simulation so the practice conversations can scale. She studied trust and mistrust in science and expertise at Columbia University’s Trust Collaboratory, and the psychology of learning and motivation in Dr. Sian Beilock’s lab at Barnard College. She holds a BA in Sociology from Barnard College, Columbia University, and is completing an MA in Psychology at The New School for Social Research.