Daphne Bascom, MD PhD completed a baccalaureate Summa Cum Laude degree in Biological Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo, before earning a doctorate in Physiological Science as a Marshall Scholar at the Laboratory of Physiology at Oxford University, where she was awarded the prestigious Peter Beaconsfield Prize in Physiological Sciences.  She then received her Doctorate in Medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she also completed an internship and residency in Head and Neck Surgery at the Department of Otolaryngology, and she followed that with a fellowship in Microvascular and Reconstructive Surgery of the Head and Neck at Oregon Health Sciences University.  She is additionally credentialed as a Certified Group Exercise Instructor, Certified Weight Management Specialist, Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist and Certified Food for Life Instructor, and she is a former professional competitive IFBB bodybuilder.  Her multi-faceted career has been dedicated to improving the health of the communities around her and making sure that these communities are equitably connected to the best resources and technologies available, and she has held an extensive series of high-level executive positions devoted to those pursuits.

Dr. Bascom serves as Lead Health Coach at The Vegan Gym, specializing in the fitness and empowerment of women of all ages, emphasizing a key supporting role of evidence-based plant-based nutrition and its synergy with beneficial physical activity in promoting health and resilience at the physical AND mental levels.  She draws not only upon her personal experience and passion in exercise physiology, strength training and outdoor running, but also a health-coaching infused commitment to meet people compassionately where they are at and lead by example.  She is also Principal Health Practice and Systems Engineer at Mitre Corporation, focusing largely on innovative health-related functions of the Veterans Administration, such as the Whole Health Program.   She has also now served a two-year term as Secretary of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine HEAL Initiative, pursuing health equity via promotion of lifestyle changes and systemic support, and in 2023 authored the article "Reversing Affirmative Action - Implications for Health Disparities, Health Equity, and Lifestyle Medicine".

In her early surgical practice treating patients with head and neck cancer at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Dr. Bascom clearly saw the need for an integrated community health care model that she would seek to develop in several future executive roles.  She worked for two periods at the prominent electronic health technology provider Cerner Corporation, developing software that provides a more holistic picture of patients and serving in Chief Medical Officer positions in major components of the company.  She joined the Cleveland Clinic Health System as Managing Director of eCleveland Clinic and then Chief Clinical Systems Officer, playing key roles in implementing the enterprise health record and in partnering with the Wellness Institute to support the Lifestyle 180 program. 

Dr. Bascom in 2017 became Senior Vice President of Community Integrated Health and Healthy Living, based in Kansas City MO, for the nonprofit YMCA of the USA, and was believed to be the first physician ever on staff for that enormous institution, advancing a year later to the Interim National Health Officer position.  In her work spanning the local and national offices, she worked to define and operationalize new clinical/community integration strategies and models that would leverage existing evidence-based health programs (such as chronic disease and diabetes prevention efforts) and offer centralized support for advancement.  A few of the notable achievements were expanded access to blood pressure self-management programs coordinated with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center and the American Heart Association, and boosting the Lifestyle Empowerment for Alzheimer’s Prevention program launched by The University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Center.  She then served for three years as Vice President of Population Health for the nonprofit  St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, championing community engagement and strategic planning to advance health equity, establishing longitudinal medication management programs that significantly improved A1c, blood pressure and weight markers, and securing a pivotal grant for launching the Resilience, Education, Activity, Community, Health, and Nutrition (REACHN) program.​