More than 200 state health officials crowded into a National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) annual conference session recently to learn about strategies to improve population health and reduce costs while simultaneously transforming their state’s health care finance and delivery models.
An alliance of health care providers, key community and social services organizations, and other partners in a geographic area.
An ACH strives to improve the health of an entire community by coordinating and aligning strategies across several sectors, with a focus on addressing multiple contributors of poor health and achieving greater health equity for all.
They came to hear representatives from California, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington State discuss their approaches to building population health priorities into their health system transformations through “accountable health” organizations. These entities invest in population health improvement through Accountable Communities for Health (ACHs) and care delivery structures that are accountable for population health, such as Accountable Care Organizations and Coordinated Care Organizations (CCO).
During the standing-room-only session, the four state presenters described their unique models, including financing and measurement strategies and relationships to broader health system transformation. Officials shared examples of how these new delivery models invest in social determinants of health to increase health and well-being and control costs. Examples include:
Several of California’s Accountable Communities for Health have chosen to focus on reducing violence and trauma as a priority. One conference participant observed, “It doesn’t matter how many times people who are victims of domestic violence see a doctor, it won’t improve their health until the violence stops.”
Michigan’s Community Health Innovation Regions identified the intersection of housing, homelessness, and health as a priority area. Its goal is to strengthen collaboration between health and housing agencies and develop solutions for Medicaid beneficiaries whose housing needs put their health at risk.
Oregon CCOs’ global budgets give them flexibility to provide non-medical services that result in better health and lower costs, such as supporting home improvements and rental assistance, embedding mental health professionals in school systems, and promoting gym memberships.
During the conference, NASHP also facilitated a half-day convening of state policymakers from 10 states, across departments and agencies, to advance state accountable health models. During the session, state officials discussed models, shared strategies, and identified multi-sectoral funding to support their focus on population health, health disparities, and social determinants of health. This cross-sector convening included officials from Medicaid and public health agencies and state health transformation offices, along with some key partners.
NASHP will continue to convene meetings, analyze, and report on the evolution of these state models, and build on previous analysis of State Levers to Advance Accountable Communities for Health, to help states advance these transformational efforts. Stay tuned for an upcoming cross-state comparison chart and accompanying issue brief that share lessons and themes related to accountable health models gathered during the NASHP annual conference.
For more information about NASHP’s work on state accountable health models, e-mail NASHP Senior Program Director Jill Rosenthal at jrosenthal@oldsite.nashp.org.
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Writershttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Writers2017-11-14 08:53:162019-10-22 14:55:30States Share Innovative Approaches to Improve Population Health through Accountable Health Models
Dr. Norman Thurston, Representative, Utah State Legislature Director, Office of Health Care Statistics, Utah Department of Health
For more than a decade, Utah State Legislator and Director of the Office of Health Care Statistics Norman Thurston has worked to reform his state’s health care system, including its Medicaid program, and is considered one of the state’s “go-to” health care policymakers.
Thurston, a Republican, has worked to reduce state spending on prescription drugs and is a member of the National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) Pharmacy Cost Work Group and its Health Care Access and Financing Committee. Sensitive to his state’s aversion to regulations, he is taking a unique approach to reining in drug costs by proposing legislation to import prescription drugs from Canada.
Recently, NASHP caught up with Thurston at its 30th Annual State Health Policy Conference in Portland, OR, to ask him about his prescription drug initiative. How did you get interested in health care policy? When I was in graduate school for applied microeconomics looking for field of emphasis, someone suggested I look into heath care because of the expected growth in health economics research. It turned out to be excellent advice. (Thurston, a Utah native, has a masters and PhD in economics from Princeton.) How did you come to work for lower prescription drug costs? NASHP suggested that states look at this. In the health care statistics world we are of course always looking at costs, and I love looking at data, so this was naturally an interesting question. You have sponsored a bill to import drugs from Canada, where most prescription drugs cost a fraction of what they do in the United States. Why did you choose that approach instead of proposing a bill to regulate drug costs? First, federal law already allows importation of drugs to happen, and passing a rate-setting bill (with a cost control commission that regulates drug costs like a public utility) may be fine for some blue states, but it’s not very appealing to a red state like Utah. We decided to look at something creative, and importing drugs fit our abilities.
Utah is unique in its politics and approach. We’re dealing with an industry that has a lot of market power, and you need to address market power with market power. The State of Utah pays for drug benefits for a quarter of its population (including state and local government employees and retirees, teachers, and Medicaid enrollees.) At some point, we need to say, ‘as a major drug purchaser, why aren’t we getting a better deal?’ Other major purchasers such as Canada and Europe are getting a much better deal than us. Where does the bill stand today? We’re drafting it now and working with stakeholders, including payors, public employee health plans, regional health carriers, retail pharmacists, and pharmacy benefit managers. Drug manufacturers are interested too, though perhaps not in the way we want them to be just yet.
The constituency I worry the most about in terms of how they will react to this idea is the free market conservatives, many of them are not sure how to react. Drug manufacturers are given a patent on their product and they have a monopoly. So how much latitude should we give someone as a monopolist? How should we approach this and talk about it? Then why not take a rate-setting approach toward this monopoly? Politically, it wouldn’t fly in Utah, far more people would have a problem with it and would wonder how would state government would know what’s a fair drug price? But when it comes to importing drugs from Canada, there are drugs that cost more in Canada and there are some that cost 10 percent of what they cost here. We need to figure out what they are and how to gain some real savings. What’s the hardest aspect about convincing Utah to import drugs from Canada? Most of it is logistics, how do we get them here, labelled correctly, and distributed to patients? It’s a logistics issue, not a philosophical one, and there are ways of addressing it. Our next session starts in late January. I’d like to have a solid draft of the bill in mid-December and start circulating it for comment and feedback. Could you have done this without NASHP? I think some things would have happened without NASHP, but NASHP has found a way to bring us together and move the dial forward and ramp it up. I like the 11-point report we produced on drug price controls that has gotten a lot of people’s attention and I’m surprised at the number of states that are doing things. Thurston can be both a state lawmaker and employee because, he explained, the Office of Health Care Statistics performs objective tasks such as collecting and analyzing data about health care cost and quality and therefore avoids any conflict of interest when it comes to policymaking.
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/7J6A03111.jpg54723648NASHP Writershttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Writers2017-10-31 09:04:072019-08-13 16:04:54Utah’s Norman Thurston Takes a Red State Approach to Lower Rx Costs with a Bill to Import Drugs from Canada
Cheryl J. Roberts, Deputy Director of Programs, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, and US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Jerome M Adams, MD, MPH
US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, MD, whose motto is “better health through better partnerships,” spoke at NASHP’s 30th annual State Health Policy Conference. It was a familiar venue for Adams, who as Indiana state health commissioner has attended NASHP conferences in the past and is a former NASHP Academy member.
As a state health commissioner, he worked to address an HIV outbreak in his state, spurred by unsafe injection practices resulting from the opioid epidemic, and worked on Indiana’s state Medicaid expansion. “I would not be where I am if it weren’t for NASHP,” he said during his opening remarks, complimenting the organization’s ability to share best practices and innovations in state health policy nationwide.
Adams, who was in Week 6 of the job when he spoke at the conference in Portland, OR, on Oct. 24, is head of the nation’s Public Health Service and serves as the nation’s doctor and its voice for communication and cultural. What are you doing to address the opioid crisis? I was Indiana state health commissioner during the largest HIV outbreak in the United States, with 225 cases of HIV infection in Austin, IN. This was higher than anywhere in the world (225 of the community’s 3,700 residents were infected).
It was a resource-poor community and didn’t have the capacity or cultural readiness to accept some of the remedies. Folks hammer me because they want the science, my work will always be informed by the evidence, but science is just one variable when you talk about public health policy.
We need to invite new and different people to the table. At the end of the day, we had to bring in business, faith-based, and police communities to talk about the science. I want you to keep thinking about who is not at the table, and bring them into the fold.
The Department of Health and Human Services has put out a toolkit, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to identify opioid hotspots in communities. For example, you will be law enforcement’s best friend if you can help them focus their law enforcement and interdiction efforts, they will help you set up diversion programs so they can turn people turn toward recovery, instead of putting them in jail. What about responding to the current increase in hepatitis C? I think we are at a tipping point with hepatitis C, there are more people with hepatitis C than all of the other CDC-reportable diseases combined. The opioid epidemic allows us to raise discussions about hepatitis C as never before. (Hepatitis C and B have begun to increase for the first time in decades because of unsafe injection practices that transmit these bloodborne diseases.)
I would challenge you to take this opportunity, so we can ride this wave and get this into public discussions. The opioid epidemic is tragic, but it gives us an opportunity to talk about mental health, HIV and hepatitis C. Have those discussions and bring other partners to the table. What concrete steps can the people in this audience take to support these efforts? It’s OK to have partisan camps from a political view, but don’t let that blind you from working with the other side. It hurts my heart to see the political dissent. Try to find common goals. Think of one person who is not at the table and reach out to them and invite them to your next meeting to start that discussion.
One person alone may not seem that they’ll make a big difference, but all of us together can. How are you reconciling all of the opposition to issues that impact public health? I am a public health advocate, and I know we need to change some basic things. We’re focused on jobs, safety and security, and they’re ranked equally high by Republicans and Democrats. I try to reframe the public health discussion in a way that doesn’t mean me telling people that they should think the way we do.
Instead of telling teachers you should care about obesity, instead offer exercise as a way to increase test scores and fight obesity. Yes, things can seem disappointing from a public health point of view, but there are opportunities to show people how prevention can help.
I was able to get a syringe exchange program instituted in one of the most conservative communities in the country by working with police and letting them know they can reduce arrests and jail over-crowding through this program, and working with businesses to see how this program would improve the community and its reputation. Click here to read the Surgeon General’s comments that accompanied President Trump’s comments on the opioid epidemic delivered Oct. 26, 2017.
Pictured are Cheryl J. Roberts, Deputy Director of Programs, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Writershttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Writers2017-10-31 09:01:442019-08-13 16:06:03Surgeon General Jerome Adams Discusses Opioids and the Importance of Partnerships at NASHPCONF17
Mary McIntyre, MD, Alabama’s chief medical officer (left) and Ana Novais, executive director of Rhode Island’s Department of Health.
PORTLAND, OR – State health officials shared wide-ranging innovations in their uphill battle against the opioid epidemic that is sweeping their states at the opening day of the National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) 30th State Health Policy Conference.
Officials explained they are experimenting with new strategies that use data, new treatment approaches, and reconfigured public safety responses to illegal drug use in a race against time as overdose deaths are expected to exceed the 63,000 recorded in 2016.
Kimberly Johnson, MD, director of the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, ticked off the various strategies and services that are being tried out in state incubator programs that show promise in tackling this national epidemic, including providing treatment on demand, decriminalizing illegal opioid use, creating safe drug use sites and needle exchange programs, improving diagnosis of people with opioid addiction, better use of data to identify drug use patterns in communities, and addiction treatment with medications, such as methadone, which is proven to lower relapse rates.
“The number one thing states can do,” she commented following her opening remarks Monday morning, “is to address prescribing practices among providers. But it really takes all of these strategies to stop this epidemic.”
While NASHP’s three-day conference addressed a host of state public health issues, the nation’s opioid epidemic was a frequent topic at various workshops. It remains the Achilles heel, officials noted, that exposes states’ conflicting and piecemeal public health approaches even while providing opportunities for innovation.
Ana Novais, executive director of Rhode Island’s Department of Health, highlighted her state’s effort to create a dashboard that pulls data from hospitals, police, emergency rescue workers, and providers to create an overdose reporting system. Armed with data, including the latest on fentanyl deaths and locations of overdoses, the state can launch responses that involve police, rescue workers, health care providers and community leaders.
In Ohio – where one in nine of the nation’s heroin overdoses occur — the Office of Health Transformation, led by director Greg Moody, is tackling opioid over-prescribing through a health care reform called value-based pricing that rewards Medicaid managed care providers who provide high-quality care at reasonable prices.
“We wanted to knit together strategies from different domains within state government to address the opioid crisis,” he explained to more than 200 officials who attended the session. To prevent future addictions, Ohio has spearheaded a payment innovation approach to discourage over-prescribing of opioids and reward “best-practice” painkiller prescribing in its Medicaid managed care program.
One of the quality measures Ohio uses to identify “high-value” health care providers is their opioid prescribing practice. The state examines how many opioids a provider – including dentists and orthopedic specialists — prescribe and for how long. Their prescribing practices are compared with the state average. Providers who prescribe above the average amount and duration of painkillers may not get referrals and may eventually lose financial incentives.
Pennsylvania’s approach to prevent future addictions is to provide Medicaid coverage for alternative pain management treatment, such as acupuncture and yoga.
Increasing access to medically-assisted treatment for addiction, educating providers to improve opioid prescribing practices, and building coalitions between public safety and communities to get people into treatment is daunting, officials noted. Some states are proposing to add a work requirement to their Medicaid programs, similar to what exists for adults receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which concerned some policymakers. “We want to make sure that if people are working toward recovery that they are not excluded from Medicaid eligibility,” one attendee pointed out.
Another official pointed out that lawmakers in her state wondered how much funding to invest in the naloxone program if emergency personnel keep reviving the same people after multiple overdoses.
“This is a disease,” said David Kelley, MD, chief medical officer of Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services Office of Medical Assistance Programs, “does an emergency medical technician say, ‘you’ve had angina five times already, we won’t treat you this time?’ Addiction is a disease, we need to stop thinking how many times is enough.”
“We do have to deal with the political ramifications that people still think of addiction as a personal choice,” observed Mary McIntyre, MD, chief medical officer of Alabama’s Department of Public Health. NASHP will be publishing many of the “State Innovations and Interventions in America’s Opioid Crisis” presentations and slides, and additional blogs in the weeks ahead at oldsite.nashp.org.
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Staffhttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Staff2017-10-24 12:54:322019-08-13 16:09:19States Share Innovations to Tackle their Opioid Epidemics
New York State Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried
At NASHP’s 30th State Health Policy Conference, state leaders from legislative and executive branches across the nation gathered to talk about what they are doing to manage escalating prescription drug costs in their states. Several states have recently passed or proposed legislation to force more transparency in drug pricing or to try to regulate drug costs.
Richard N. Gottfried, a long-time proponent of drug cost regulation and member of NASHP’s Pharmacy Costs Work Group, took time at the conference to answer questions about the growing number of state legislative initiatives to rein in drug costs. Gottfried of Manhattan was first elected to the NY State Assembly in 1970, and has chaired the Assembly’s Health Committee since 1987, working to expand publicly-funded health coverage and protect patient autonomy. He also serves on NASHP’s Health Care Access and Financing Committee. How did you get involved in drug cost regulation? If you’re involved in health policy as I am, you cannot do this work without confronting drug prices. For many years, my own thinking has been heavily shaped by what I’ve learned meeting with people from other states who were working to control drug costs. We need to learn from each other — none of us was born understanding the pharmacy industry. Is controlling drug prices a liberal, blue state initiative? It’s easy to be distracted by the fact that Vermont, Oregon, and California are in the lead on some of these issues, but on the other hand, Nevada recently passed drug cost control legislation and there are proposals to control drug prices in Utah and Oklahoma.
It’s really a question of whether you are fed up with the impact of drug prices on consumers and tax payers and employers and are determined to do something about it. There may be some degree of red or blue difference in how it’s done, but certainly there are people on both sides of the aisle working aggressively on this issue. The legislation we’ve been talking about in almost every case has passed with strong bipartisan majorities. What’s the most significant thing that has happened this year? There is a growing understanding that state governments are not powerless here, there are things individual states can do to protect their people. This is a long-standing principle of American government, whether it’s about abolition of slavery or women’s right to vote or child labor laws, some of the most important political developments in our government began at the state level. What do you hope will occur in the next year in terms of drug cost legislation? I think we’ll see a lot more states sharing ideas and developing new bills to regulate drug prices and getting them enacted. I often say we state lawmakers are in one of the few lines of work where plagiarism is encouraged, and a large part of NASHP’s job is to help states learn about what other approaches states are developing and spreading that information across the country. Should drug companies be viewed and regulated like public utilities? I’m not sure Americans are ready to go that far, but the problem is so severe and there’s so much bad behavior in the marketplace that people are fed up and want their elected government to do something for them. What are the obstacles state lawmakers face in implementing drug regulation? It’s the political power of drug companies, all the articles you read about how complicated drug pricing and marketing is, the fear raised by drug company propaganda that you will be depriving people from life-saving medication, and the feeling that this is too big for a state to tackle. All of those things are more mental obstacles than real ones. Unions and consumers and hospitals and doctors and employers who pay for most of our health coverage are also pretty powerful. What would you tell state lawmakers who want to take some action to control drug prices? It’s complicated, but that just means you have to pay attention and learn and stick to it
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Staffhttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Staff2017-10-24 10:25:082019-08-13 16:42:45An Interview with Drug Cost Control Advocate Richard Gottfried
Tuesday, October 24th
1:30PM-3:00PM
The idea of offering Medicaid as an option that people with higher incomes could purchase has been a topic of discussion recently. Could it be a solution for consumers who live in areas that commercial insurance carriers do not serve through the exchange, known as “bare counties” since Medicaid has a statewide reach and contracts with providers everywhere? Could it become a public option and provide consumers more choices? The concept is being considered by a U. S. Senator and was explored in Nevada where the state legislature passed a law in 2016 to offer Medicaid as a buy-in that was ultimately vetoed. After hearing a state and federal legislative perspective and thoughts from a national expert on the issue, there will be opportunity for thoughtful discussion. What are the potential advantages to a state in offering a Medicaid buy-in? What are the disadvantages or potential insurance market implications? What are some of the challenges in enacting and implementing this option? Speakers:
Aimee Grace, Health Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Brian Schatz, State of Hawaii
Assemblyman Mike Sprinkle, Representing Assembly District 30, State of Nevada
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Writershttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Writers2017-10-06 11:49:182017-10-06 11:49:18Medicaid Buy-In: Is it the Next Frontier?
Tuesday, October 24th
3:30PM-5:00PM
From hurricanes to wildfires, recent natural disasters have affected thousands and created widespread public health crises in many states. This session will explore some of the health threats that arise from natural disasters and levers states have to prepare for and respond to these emergency situations. This panel will feature state and federal perspectives on preparedness strategies, cross agency collaboration, and lessons learned. Speakers from Oregon and Florida will draw from recent experience and share state processes and systems for protecting health before, during, and after these events.
Moderator: Joe Flores, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Virginia Office of the Governor Speakers:
Dr. Eric Gebbie,Planning Section Chief, Health Security, Preparedness and Response Program, Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division
Jennifer Johnson,Director, Division of Public Health Statistics and Performance Management, Florida Department of Health
Robin Wagner,Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Aging and Adult Services, Louisiana Department of Health
https://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.png00NASHP Writershttps://oldsite.nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NASHP-Logo_website_168x157.pngNASHP Writers2017-09-19 13:31:332017-09-19 13:31:33State Levers for Protecting Health in Disasters
Adam Aaseby serves as Chief Information Officer and State HIT Coordinator at the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA). HCA purchases health care for 2.2 million Medicaid beneficiaries and state employees. Adam oversees core technology, Health Information Technology, and security infrastructure, as well as leading the agency modernization and innovation projects. These projects are focused on analytics and data infrastructure aimed at better health outcomes, improved value, and lower costs. Adam holds a Bachelor of Arts from Texas A&M University and a Master of Public Administration from Seattle University.
Jean Accius, Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute & Chief Strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America, AARP
Jean Accius is Vice President for Independent Living/Long-Term Services and Supports. Previously, he was the policy integration director for health and long-term services and supports (LTSS) issues in AARP’s Office of Policy Integration.
Jean helps coordinate AARP’s deliberative policy development process, focusing on (a) developing federal, state, and local policy related to health and LTSS care delivery, quality, and safety; (b) overseeing financing and coverage; (c) assisting with workforce and education issues; and (d) paying special attention to specific needs, such as prescription drugs, medical devices, and end-of-life care. He also ensures that AARP health initiatives and practices are consistent with AARP’s policies.
Jean previously served as a senior policy advisor within the Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and was recently selected for the Leadership Maryland (class of 2014) program.
As Policy Director for the NYS Medicaid program, Greg is responsible for planning, policy and development of new and emerging program areas. This portfolio includes policy and operations responsibility for inpatient, clinic, practitioner, transportation, pharmacy, care management, mental health, substance use disorder and developmental disabilities services.
Greg has lead responsibility for managing the state’s $8B Medicaid Waiver including its centerpieces the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program and the associated Value Based Payment (VBP) transformation. Recently under Greg’s leadership the pharmacy team is implementing an initiative designed to curb escalating pharmacy expenses through a cost to value review.
Beginning his career as a front-line service professional in the chemical dependence field, Greg has 30 years of government operations and management experience. Most of Greg’s work has focused on the nexus between program development and payment with a focus on incubating new programs and policy.
Jessica Altman, Chief of Staff, Pennsylvania Insurance Department
Jessica Altman was appointed Acting Insurance Commissioner on August 19, 2017. Prior to this, Ms. Altman served as Chief of Staff for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department alongside former Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller beginning in June 2015. In this position, Ms. Altman served as the top aide to former Commissioner Miller, oversaw policy initiatives for the agency, and coordinated policy with other state government agencies and external groups.
Prior to joining the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, Ms. Altman worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, where she developed policy and facilitated implementation of the Affordable Care Act.In addition, she analyzed policy for the health division of the White House Office of Management and Budget while completing her master’s degree.
Ms. Altman has a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management, with a concentration in Health Care Policy, from Cornell University.
Bryan Amick, Acting Deputy Director for Health Programs, South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Bryan Amick, PharmD, MS, MBA
Acting Deputy Director for Health Programs
South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Bryan Amick serves a dual role as both the pharmacy director and acting deputy director for the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS).SCDHHS provides health benefits for over one million South Carolinians.Before joining SC’s Medicaid program, Mr. Amick worked for several other healthcare payer organizations, including pharmacy benefit managers and commercial health insurance carriers.He has served in leadership roles for several state and national level pharmacy organizations.He is a peer reviewer for several pharmacy and benefit design publications, and serves as a grant reviewer for a number of state and national organizations.
Melody Anthony, Deputy State Medicaid Director, Oklahoma Health Care Authority
Melody Anthony is the Deputy State Medicaid Director for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.Her leadership at the agency encompasses multiple functions that touch more than one million lives each year as qualifying Oklahomans receive services in Fee-for-Service, managed care and a demonstration program that offers premium assistance.She is a direct report to the agency CEO and member of the executive team, ensuring that the strategic plan is implemented successfully in all aspects of operations. Melody ensures that improving the health of Oklahomans remains a primary focus in her areas of responsibility, including Member Services, Provider/Medical Home Services, Population Care Management, Behavioral Health and Pharmacy. Along with her leadership of these departments, she is the point of contact for the agency’s participation in the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiatives, both CPC Classic and CPC+. Her team focuses on value-based purchasing and return on investment,innovating care coordination models and addressing head-on public health challenges such as the opioid crisis and infant mortality. She has more than 20 years’ experience in health care, both in the private and public sector.
Richard Armstrong, Director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, State of Idaho
Richard “Dick” Armstrong was appointed Director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in June 2006 by Governor Jim Risch. He was reappointed to the position in January 2007 by Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter. Director Armstrong serves as executive and administrative head of the Department, which employs more than 2,800 people, with an annual budget of $2.5 billion. Prior to his appointment, Dick Armstrong was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Blue Cross of Idaho, where he was employed 36 years.
Joshua Auerbach, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland
Joshua Auerbach is a lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland.He is currently a special assistant to Attorney General Brian Frosh, and his previous responsibilities in the Office include serving as principal counsel to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.He has lived and practiced law in Baltimore since 2000.
Sam Austin, Health Policy Analyst, Population Health Institute, University of Wisconsin
Sam Austin leads the Evidence-Based Health Policy Project (EBHPP) at the at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Population Health Institute. The EBHPP works to connect research and expertise from the University and other sources into Wisconsin’s health policymaking process, and encourage an evidence-informed approach to policy in the state legislature. Prior to joining the Institute in 2016, Sam served for eight years as a budget analyst with the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a non-partisan service agency of the state legislature. In this role, Sam was the lead analyst for state and federal health programs, including Medicaid and multiple public health programs, and staffed the state legislature’s budget-writing committee. Sam received a master’s degree in international public policy at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Kenneth Bausell, IDD Manager, North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance
Kenneth Bausell–Division of Medical Assistance. Kenneth has over 10 years of experience in the Behavioral Health field in both the public and private sectors. He has worked in variety of settings which include direct service, non-profit management, case management, and utilization review. Currently, he is an IDD Manager with the Division of Medical Assistance’s Behavioral Health Section.
Kim Belshé, Executive Director, First 5 Los Angeles
Kim Belshé was named Executive Director of First 5 Los Angeles in November 2012. Prior to joining First 5 LA, she served as senior policy advisor of Public Policy Institute of California and, from 2003-2011, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency in the Administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kim previously held a number of leadership positions in state government, including director of the Department of Health Services and deputy secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency under Governor Pete Wilson. Kim also has served in leadership positions in California philanthropy, including the James Irvine Foundation. Kim was a founding member of the board of the state’s Health Benefit Exchange, Covered California, in 2011, and of the State First 5 Commission in 1999. She currently serves on a number of boards, including the Blue Shield of California Foundation, Blue Shield of California, Beacon Health Options and Southern California Grantmakers. She is a native of San Francisco and holds a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard College.
Thomas Betlach, Director, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)
Since 2009, Mr. Betlach has served as Director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), Arizona’s single state Medicaid agency.Mr. Betlach reports to the Governor on the AHCCCS program, which currently provides health care coverage to 1.9 million Arizonans at an annual cost of $12 billion.Through his leadership, Arizona: launched the first integrated health plan for persons with serious mental illness; leads the nation in duals alignment; is streamlining justice system transitions to health care; remains one of the lowest cost long term care programs nationally; has maintained high levels of home and community based placement for persons with long term care needs; created an integrated specialty plan for children with special health care needs; and modernized operational processes and systems, including enhancing data analytics in Medicaid. Mr. Betlach is the former President of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, a member of the CBO Panel of Health Advisers, a member of the Guiding Committee for the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, a member of the Steering Committee for the Reforming States Group, is a Board member of the NASMHP.
Jane Beyer, Senior Health Policy Advisor, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner
Jane began her career as a legal services attorney in Tacoma Washington.She served as legal counsel to the Washington State House of Representatives for twenty years, as Washington State’s Medicaid director and, more recently, as Washington State’s Behavioral Health Commissioner.She is currently the Senior Health Policy Advisor to Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.
Lynn Blewett, Professor, State Health Access Data Assistance Center, University of Minnesota
Lynn A. Blewett, Ph.D., is Professor of Health Policy at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management. She directs the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), a multidisciplinary research center that provides data analytics and policy analysis to better understand how policy impacts health insurance coverage, access to need care and population health. She works with state policy analysts and decision makers to better understand data and trends in health care to better inform health policy. She most recently served on the Board of AcademyHealthand Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Center for Health Statistics. She currently serves on the board of Portico HealthNet, a coverage program for the uninsured, and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Dr. Blewett received her MA in public affairs from the Hubert H Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and her PhD in health services research and policy from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Donna Bradbury, Associate Commissioner, Division of Integrated Community Services for Children & Families, New York State Office of Mental Health
Donna Bradbury, MA, LMHC, serves as Associate Commissioner and directs the Division of Integrated Community Services for Children and Families at the New York State Office of Mental Health.She oversees all community-based children’s mental health programs in New York State, as well as several innovative initiatives which integrate prevention, primary care, and mental health services for children and their families.She is currently providing leadership for the effort to transition children’s behavioral health services into Medicaid managed care as part of the larger Medicaid Redesign project.
Prior to state service, Donna worked for twelve years for the Rensselaer County Department of Mental Health.She delivered clinical services to children and their families, served as a consultant to Family Court as well as county-operated human service departments and schools, ran a specialized treatment program which successfully prevented institutional placement for many youth, and assisted in the creation and implementation of several interagency initiatives.
Cathy Caldwell, Director of the Bureau of Children’s Health Insurance (Alabama’s CHIP), Alabama Department of Public Health
Ms. Cathy Caldwell received a Masters of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2000 and a BS in Psychology from Auburn University at Montgomery in 1998.Ms. Caldwell is currently the Director of the Bureau of Children’s Health Insurance (Alabama’s CHIP) with the Alabama Department of Public Health.She has over eighteen years of state government service with the Bureau of Children’s Health Insurance, directing the separate CHIP program known as ALL Kids, providing healthcare coverage to over 80,000 children. She is a current a member of the National Academy for State Health Policy and has served or is currently serving on numerous national committees related to children’s health insurance coverage as well as healthcare reform implementation, including the Agency for Health Research and Quality National Advisory Committee Subcommittee on Children’s Healthcare Quality Measures, the National Collaborative for Innovation in Quality Measurement Advisory Panel (NCINQ MAP) the Medicaid and CHIP Data Analytics Learning Collaborative and the Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center Advisory Committee.
Judith Cash, Acting Director of the State Demonstrations, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Judith Cash is the Acting Director of the State Demonstrations Group (SDG) in the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at CMS.In this role, Judith leads the agency’s work on Medicaid demonstrations and waivers authorized under Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.
Prior to assuming her current role, Judith served as the Deputy Director for Policy in SDG and, before that, led CMCS’ work on Medicaid eligibility and enrollment.Before arriving at CMS in 2012, Judith spent most of her career in Virginia, working to ensure access to health care for low income and other vulnerable children and families.She was the Deputy Director at the Virginia Health Care Foundation, where, among other things, she led the Foundation’s grant making and strategic partnerships.She also led the Foundation’s work on Medicaid and CHIP outreach and enrollment, and served as Chair of the Virginia General Assembly’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Advisory Committee.Judith also served as President and CEO of CHIP of Virginia, was Health Policy Analyst for the Virginia General Assembly’s Commission on Youth, and Executive Director of the Children’s AIDs Network.
Darren Coffman, Director, Health Evidence Review Commission, Oregon Health Authority
Mr. Coffman is the Director of the Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC) for the state of Oregon. HERC provides evidence-based coverage guidance on health technologies to public and private payers and purchasers in the state. They also administer the Prioritized List of Health Services used to define the benefit package for the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program.Prior to the creation of HERC in 2012, Mr. Coffman served for 15 years as the Director of the Health Services Commission, the predecessor to HERC, with his involvement in Oregon’s pioneering heath care prioritization efforts dating back to 1989.
Diane Cook, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University
Dr. Diane Cook is a Huie-Rogers Chair Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University.She received her B.S. from Wheaton College in 1985 and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Her areas of research interest are machine learning and smart environments, where her results are reported in over 400 papers.For the last fifteen years Dr. Cook has focused on the design of smart environments to provide health assessment and intervention.Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, DOE, NASA, the Air Force, the Naval Research Lab, and the Department of Homeland Security.Dr. Cook is an editor for eight international journals,and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, and FTRA.
Tywanda Cox, Chief of Federal and State Health Policy, Oklahoma Health Care Authority
Tywanda holds a Master’s of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling and currently serves as a direct report to the Chief Executive Officer of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority in her role as the Chief of Federal and State Policy.Tywanda joined the Oklahoma Health Care Authority staff in May of 1998.During her tenure at OHCA, Mrs. Cox has worked in the Legal Division, Health Policy Division, Policy and Planning and Integrity Division and currently serving as the division director over Health Policy and Wavier Development & Reporting.Her responsibilities include oversight of a staff of over 37 who obtain state and federal authorities and approvals for the operation of the Oklahoma Medicaid program.She serves as the agency liaison to the Center’s for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) related to the Oklahoma State Plan and Operational Waivers, Governor’s Office related to the Oklahoma Administrative Code as well as to other Oklahoma sister agencies.Additionally, she represents the agency on national forums, committees and workgroups related to Medicaid eligibility enrollment and retention.
Pam Curtis, Director, Center for Evidence-based Policy, Oregon Health & Science University
Pam Curtis, MS, is the Center’s co-founder and Director. Ms. Curtis is responsible for the overall effectiveness of the Center as well as maintaining a portfolio of direct state work. She currently serves as the Director of the MED project (the Center’s largest collaborative of states), leads the Center’s work in Colorado focused on transforming primary care delivery through payment reform, and leads work in Oregon to develop a longitudinal child data set, integrated across six state agencies. Prior to founding the Center, Ms. Curtis served as a policy advisor to Oregon’s Governor on health and human services issues, as well as elected officials at the state, county and national levels. Ms. Curtis has clinical experience in the fields of substance abuse, behavioral health, and child abuse. Her professional background also includes collaborative governance.
Brooks Daverman, Director of Health Care Innovation, Tennessee Division of TennCare
Brooks Daverman is the Director of Health Care Innovation at the Tennessee Division of TennCare.
He is directing the Tennessee Health Care Innovation Initiative—a project to change how health care is paid for in Tennessee—moving from volume-based to value-based payment. The initiative partners include TennCare, CoverKids, state employee benefits administration, Tennessee’s four largest insurance carriers, the Tennessee Hospital Association, the Tennessee Medical Association, and many others.
Mr. Daverman has a Master’s in Public Policy from Duke University.
Chris DeMars, Transformation Center Administrator, Oregon Health Authority
Chris DeMars is the Administrator of the Oregon Health Authority Transformation Center, which is the hub of innovation and quality improvement for Oregon’s health system reform efforts. Before joining the Transformation Center in 2013, Chris spent eight years as a Senior Program Officer at the Northwest Health Foundation, where she managed the Foundation’s health care reform portfolio. Prior to working for the foundation, Chris spent six years as a Senior Health Policy Analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she authored numerous reports for Congress on Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance payment policy. Chris has also held positions at health-policy consulting firms where she focused on public health, health systems, and payment, and she began her career as a Policy Analyst at Indiana’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. Chris holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan.
Cynthia Denemark, Pharmacy Administrator/Partnership Coordinator, Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance, Delaware Health Care Commission, Department of Health and Social Services
Cynthia Denemark is the pharmacy director for the Delaware Division of Medicaid & Medical Assistance.She has served as the Pharmacy Director since 1992.She developed Delaware’s Point of Service Prospective DUR prescription system, state-wide Prior Authorization Program,Delaware Prescription Assistance Program and Rebate Program,.She has overseen the federal and state rebate programs, and has a wide range of experience doing quality assurance projects from HEDIS measure analysis, retrospective drug utilization review, and coordination with managed care organizations that are part of the Diamond State Health Plan.She has worked in hospitals, health clinics, and in retail settings.
Icilda Dickerson, Acting Chief, Bureau of Long Term Services and Supports, Ohio Department of Medicaid
Ms. Dickerson has over 27 years of experience in the field of public health and strategic policy development.Currently, she serves as Acting Chief for the Bureau of Long Term Services and Supports.She has worked at the Ohio Department of Medicaid since 2011.Under her direction, Children’s Health Policy which includes EPSDT and Ohio’s waiver programs for individuals with a nursing or intermediate care facilities level of care are managed.Her focus is in the development and implementation of state Medicaid policies for individuals with special healthcare needs. Ms. Dickerson has extensive experience in administering health services programs through collaborative partnerships with state agencies, local health departments, managed care plans, hospitals, pharmacies, provider associations, family advocacy groups and community-based organizations.
Paige Duhamel, Health Care Policy Manager, New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance
Paige Duhamel is the Health Care Policy Manager for the State of New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. In this role, she oversees strategic policy research and development on health care reform implementation. Prior to joining the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance, Ms. Duhamel worked in non-profit legal advocacy on health care reform implementation in New Mexico.
Tim Engelhardt, Director, CMS Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office
Tim Engelhardt directs the CMS Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, dedicated to improving services for individuals dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. Prior to joining CMS in 2010, Tim was a consultant with The Lewin Group, and he previously served as the Deputy Director for Long Term Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.Tim received a BA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame and an MHS from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Benjamin Finder, Senior Analyst, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC)
Benjamin Finder, M.P.H., is a senior analyst at the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). His work focuses on benefits and payment policy. Prior to joining MACPAC, he served as an associate director in the Health Care Policy and Research Administration at the District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance, and as a policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Mr. Finder holds a master of public health from The George Washington University, where he concentrated in health policy and health economics.
Joe Flores, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Virginia Office of the Governor
Joe became Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources in November 2014 where he provides counsel to the Governor and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources on state and federal policy issues as well as budgetary matters. He provides guidance to state agency officials on a range of executive policy matters that include legislation, fiscal policy, reports and regulations.
Joe was an analyst for the Senate Finance Committee in Virginia from 2002 through 2014, where he was responsible for the breadth of fiscal policy issues in health and human resources.As a non-partisan analyst, he was a resource to senators, agency officials, advocacy groups and the public on issues related to health care, social services, public health, behavioral health, children and adult services.
Before coming to Virginia, he worked as a fiscal analyst for the Minnesota House of Representatives as well as the Texas Legislature.Joe began his career with the American Public Human Services Association.
At present, Joe serves on the Executive Committee of the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and is the Chair of NASHP’s Health Care Access and Financing Committee.
Gary Franklin, Medical Director, Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
Research Professor, Departments of Environmental Health, Neurology, and Health Services, University of Washington
Dr. Franklin has served as the Medical Director of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) from 1988 to the present, and has more than a 25-year history of developing and administering workers’ compensation health care policy and conducting outcomes research. He is a Research Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, the Department of Medicine (Neurology), and the Department of Health Services, at the University of Washington (UW). He has served as Director or Co-Director of the NIOSH-funded ERC Occupational Health Services Research training program since its inception.
Dr. Franklin is also Director of the Occupational Epidemiology and Health Outcomes Program at the UW, which is the most productive program of its kind in the U.S. This program houses and facilitates primary research as well as the secondary use of workers’ compensation data in order to improve medical care and reduce the disability related to occupational injuries and illnesses.
Ellie Garrett, Deputy Director, Office of the Medical Director, Minnesota Department of Human Services
Ellie Garrett, serves as deputy director of the Office of the Medical Director at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. She also teaches a masters-level health policy course at St. Catherine University. Prior to joining DHS, she maintained a national and regional consulting practice focusing on public engagement on health policy issues and worked as the associate director for health policy and public health at the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics. There she co-directed the Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project, the nation’s largest state-sponsored public engagement project about pandemic planning. She is a past-president of the Minnesota Public Health Association and in 2004 received the Albus Justus Chesley Award for distinguished service to public health in Minnesota.
Audrey Morse Gasteier, Chief of Policy and Strategy, Massachusetts Health Connector
Audrey Morse Gasteier serves as Chief of Policy and Strategy at the Massachusetts Health Connector. She leads policy development and strategy related to the Health Connector’s role as a state based health exchange, program and product design, policy research, government affairs, and outreach and communication efforts aimed at engagement with consumers and employers. Prior to joining the Health Connector in 2012, she served as Director of Health Systems Policy at the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, a government agency responsible for analyzing the state’s health care delivery system and recommending policies. She also served as a Policy Analyst at the Association of Community Human Service Agencies in Los Angeles, California. Audrey holds a MS in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health and a BA from Mount Holyoke College. She lives in Concord with her husband and two children.
Eric Gebbie, Planning, Training and Grants Chief, Oregon Health Authority’s Health Security, Preparedness and Response Program
Eric Gebbie, DrPH, MIA, MA is the Planning, Training and Grants Chief for the Oregon Health Authority’s Health Security, Preparedness and Response Program.He is originally from Portland and has worked in public health and emergency preparedness since 1999 in New York, Chicago, the Philippines, and Arkansas.Other experience includes fieldwork on human rights violation monitoring and oral history collection.He earned a Doctorate in Public Health leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia, and a Master’s in social anthropology from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Julienne Giard, Director of Evidence-Based Practices, Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS)
Julienne Giard, LCSW is Director of Evidence-Based Practices in the Office of the Commissioner at the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). Ms. Giard leads or oversees several EBP initiatives (e.g., MAT, Trauma, ACT, CSP, Supported Employment) and consults to other staff across DMHAS who are implementing evidence-based and best practices. She is currently Project Director for a 5-year SAMHSA grant to expand Supported Employment and was previously the Project Director on two other SAMHSA grants on co-occurring disorders and trauma. Ms. Giard has authored several articles and national presentations, and is a clinician in private practice.
Richard Gottfried, Assembly Member, New York State Assembly
Richard N. Gottfried has chaired the NY State Assembly Health Committee since 1987 and represents a district in Manhattan. He works to expand publicly funded health coverage; protect patient autonomy, especially in reproductive and end-of-life care; and support safety-net health care providers. He sponsors the “New York Health” bill to create a state single-payer universal health plan. He’s a lawyer (Columbia, JD ’73) but does not have a private practice. Member of NY Academy of Medicine, National Academy for State Health Policy, Reforming States Group, NYC Bar Association, and NY Civil Liberties Union.
Aimee Grace, Health Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Brian Schatz
Aimee Malia Grace, MD, MPH, FAAP is a pediatrician and health policy advisor for Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI).She manages the senator’s portfolios on issues pertaining to health, veterans’ health, children, families, adoption, women, disabilities, and seniors.Dr. Grace has served as the lead congressional staffer for Senator Schatz’s Medicaid buy-in bill, which would allow states the option of creating a Medicaid public option for all state residents; the CONNECT for Health Act (S. 1016), a bill that would expand reimbursement of telehealth and remote patient monitoring in Medicare; and the Tobacco to 21 Act, which would raise the minimum legal age of tobacco sale to 21 nationwide.She also co-led legislative efforts for the ECHO Act, which seeks to expand the use of teleconferencing models like Project ECHO throughout programs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the STOP Pain Act, which seeks to expand NIH research on chronic pain and non-opioid alternatives to chronic pain, both of which passed into law in 2016.
Dr. Grace is originally from Honolulu, Hawaii.She attended Stanford University (B.A. Human Biology), University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Stanford Pediatrics residency, Harvard School of Public Health (M.P.H. Health Policy and Management), and Children’s National Health System/Johns Hopkins/George Washington University (Fellowship in General Academic Pediatrics, health policy focus).She also serves as a commissioner in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6B in her neighborhood of Southeast Capitol Hill, Washington DC, where she lives with her husband Joe and cat Mango.
Bruce D. Greenstein, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Bruce D. Greenstein is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As the CTO at HHS, Bruce provides leadership and direction to ensure that HHS effectively uses data, technology and innovation to improve the lives of the American people and the performance of the operating divisions across the Department.
Greenstein joins HHS after serving as President-West at Quartet.Quartet is a technology company improving the integration of behavioral health and physical healthcare for patients, providers, and payers.Prior to that, Greenstein ran an advisory firm that focused on the health care, government and technology markets across North America and China.
In his last government role, Greenstein held a Cabinet post with Governor Bobby Jindal as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals. As the chief of Louisiana’s largest agency, Greenstein led over 11,000 employees and a budget of over $9 billion. With a talented executive team, Greenstein led many reforms of the state’s health care system, including implementing managed care for over one million enrollees.
William Hazel, Secretary of Health and Human Resources, State of Virginia
William A. Hazel Jr. is serving his second term as Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia, a post he took in January 2010.
As Secretary, Dr. Hazel oversees 11 state agencies with more than 16,000 employees, covering such diverse programs as Medicaid, Behavioral Health, Social Services, and aging and Rehabilitation. These combined agencies spend approximately one-third of Virginia’s budget.
During his first term as Secretary, he led the Virginia Health Reform Initiative, helped establish the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, and served as the Founding Chair of ConnectVirginia, Virginia’s health information exchange.
Experience has demonstrated that the needs of Virginia and its citizens require both an inter-agency and inter-secretariat approach, and in his second term Dr. Hazel has focused on working across agency and secretariat lines.
Dr. Ed Hernandez had only one goal as a young man – to serve the health care needs of the community he came from.As an optometrist and local businessman, he never dreamed he would one day work in the California State Legislature.As a health care provider in predominantly low-income communities though, the need to improve access to health care is what drove him to run for office.Dr. Ed was first elected to the Assembly in November of 2006, and re-elected in November of 2008.He won his seat in the California State Senate in November of 2010 and was re-elected once again in 2014.
Senator Hernandez serves as Chair for the Senate Committee on Health and also Chair for the Senate Committee on Legislative Ethics.He is also a member of the Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee and the Senate Insurance Committee.
Gail Hirsch, Co-Director, Office of Community Health Workers, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Gail Hirsch, M.Ed., is Co-Director of the Office of Community Health Workers at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she has coordinated state public health efforts to support CHWs for over 20 years. She is a leader in CHW policy and organizing efforts in Massachusetts and nationally, and has served as an adviser to other states, federal agencies and regional and national organizations on CHW workforce development, including certification.
Lori Horvath, Deputy Director, Medicaid Development & Administration, Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities
Lori has over 25 years of experience in the field of developmental disabilities.She began her career as a direct care worker in an intermediate care facility serving young children with significant physical and cognitive impairments.She later worked for 10 years in an intermediate care facility for older adults.She then joined a county board of developmental disabilities where she served as an SSA Director for approximately 10 years.She began working for the Medicaid division of the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities in 2011 and became the Deputy Director of the division in October 2014.
George Jacobson, Project Manager, Payment Modernization and Targeted Investments Program, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
Sessions: Value-Based Purchasing for Managed Long-Term Services and SupportsGeorge has worked at AHCCCS since April 2013 in the Office of the Director. He coordinates the Agency’s care delivery and payment reform activities with senior management, and the provider and payer communities. He also serves as the Targeted Investments Program project manager, a $300 million project that provides financial incentives to eligible AHCCCS providers who meet certain benchmarks for integrating and coordinating physical and Behavioral Health care.
Prior to joining AHCCCS, he served in several hospital executive positions in Arizona, and in various post-acute organization executive positions. Mr. Jacobson also served three terms as board president of the Arizona Health Care Association, leading the organization’s long term care facility advocacy activities.He is a proud University of Arizona graduate, and holds MHA and MPA degrees from the University of Missouri.
Alani Jackson, Chief of the Medi-Cal Dental Services Division, Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
Alani Jackson is the Chief of the Medi-Cal Dental Services Division within the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). She has full management responsibility for administering the Medi-Cal Dental Services Program (Denti-Cal and Dental Managed Care), which provides dental services to nearly 14 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
Prior to joining DHCS, Ms. Jackson had over eight years of administrative and managerial experience with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Correctional Health Care Services. She has extensive experience and knowledge working in health care policy planning, development, and implementation, as well as interacting with high-level executives amongst various state departments.She has over 10-years of experience serving Californians as a public servant and additional years of experience working in the legislature and children’s advocacy.
Ms. Jackson has a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California, and two Bachelor’s in Community and Regional Development and Political Science from the University of California, Davis.
Allison Sampson-Jackson, PhD, LCSW, LICSW, CSOTP and Certified Facilitator of Dr. Brené Brown’s Daring Way™ curriculums (CDWF) focuses on advancing effective trauma informed clinical and organizational practices. Specialties include using attachment, mindfulness, and neuroscience interventions to enhance clinical and organizational practices. She is a person of lived experience and a professional having provided services via Behavioral Health, Education, Child Welfare and Criminal Justice systems for over 20 years. For 13 years, she served within an international healthcare organization first as mentor and finally as their VP of Clinical Operations and National Trauma Informed Service Line Leader. Partnering with the National Council of Behavioral HealthCare, she co-led 17 National Teams through the Council’s Trauma Informed Learning Collaborative. Today, Dr. Jackson is the CEO of Integration Solutions, providing trauma informed care consultation to human service and healthcare organizations furthering their integration of resilience practices to consumers via TIC organizational culture principles. https://integrationsolutions.org
Jennifer Johnson, Division Director, Florida Department of Health
Jennifer Johnson is the Director for the Florida Department of Health’s Division of Public Health Statistics and Performance Management and is responsible for the Department’s performance management and continuous quality improvement efforts.From January 2016 through May 2017, she served the Department of Health as the County Health Department Administrator for Jefferson and Madison counties, where she oversaw the provision of local public health services and initiatives. Prior to coming to the Department of Health, she served as the Health and Human Services Staff Director for the Florida Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability where she supervised policy research and analysis to assist legislative budget and policy deliberations. During her 16-year tenure at OPPAGA, areas of research and evaluation included state and local public health, Florida’s Medicaid program, developmental disabilities, health care regulation, long-term health care, substance abuse and mental health, and child welfare. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida and is in the final stages of earning a doctoral degree in Public Administration.
Kimberly Johnson, Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Kimberly A. Johnson, Ph. D., began her tenure as Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in February 2016 and leads the center’s activities to improve access to, and promote high quality, effective substance use disorder treatment and recovery services.
Prior to coming to CSAT, Dr. Johnson worked as a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where her projects included studies on mobile apps for behavior change, quality improvement in care development and acting as the co-director of the national coordinating office of the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers, and as co-deputy director of NIATx. She has also served as the state of Maine single state authority for substance abuse, and as the executive director of a substance abuse treatment agency. In her early career, Dr. Johnson was a child and family therapist and managed treatment and prevention programs.
Dr. Johnson’s dedication and contributions to the behavioral health field earned her numerous awards and she is a highly-regarded thought leader.She has authored a variety of publications on topics important to addiction and recovery.
Gabriel Kaplan, Chief of the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, Prevention Services Division, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Gabriel Kaplan is the Chief of the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch in the Prevention Services Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. He also oversees the work of the Division’s Health Access Branch. In this role, Dr Kaplan manages 8 public health work units that seek to improve policies around health promotion and prevention, to transform the delivery of care within health systems, and improve the linkages between community-based prevention and the clinical care system.Prior to this, he served as the Director of the Epidemiology, Planning & Evaluation Branch in the same division at CDPHE, where he directed the data analysis and research units that support public health prevention services and interventions.Before joining CDPHE, Dr. Kaplan served as an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Colorado, Denver’s School of Public Affairs.He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and is the President-Elect of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. Dr. Kaplan has a PhD in public policy analysis and research from Harvard’s JFK School of Government.
Kim Kehl, Trauma-Informed Care Project Coordinator, Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services
Under the general direction of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OMHAS) Medical Director, collaborates with partners to support training on trauma-informed practices throughout Ohio in a cost effective manner. He coordinates training efforts and implementation of trauma-informed practice within the behavioral health, developmental disabilities and human services systems. Kim works with OMHAS Regional Psychiatric Hospitals and DODD Developmental Centers to advance trauma-informed practice. He supports Ohio’s sixRegional Trauma-Informed Care Collaboratives to meet local regional-based needs and promotes statewide interdepartmental collaboration to advance trauma-informed care throughout the Ohio healthcare and human services systems.
David Kelley, Chief Medical Officer, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services' Office of Medical Assistance Programs
Dr. David Kelley is the Chief Medical Officer for Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ Office of Medical Assistance Programs. He oversees the clinical and quality aspects of the state’s Medical Assistance Program that provides health benefits to over 2.2 million recipients. Dr. Kelley also oversees nine physical health managed care organizations and a fee-for-service delivery system. Prior to joining the Department, Dr. Kelley worked for Aetna Health, Inc. as the medical director responsible for utilization and quality management in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Prior to Aetna, he served as Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Quality Improvement at Penn State University’s College of Medicine. In this role, he oversaw quality and utilization management at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Kelley attended University of Pittsburgh medical school, completed his residency training at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, and is board certified in internal medicine and geriatrics.
Patti Killingsworth is an Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of TennCare, and since February 2007, the Chief of Long Term Services & Supports. She has worked in Medicaid programs in Missouri and Tennessee for nearly two decades, leading system redesign initiatives in both states.In Tennessee, this includes an MLTSS program in 2010 that has significantly expanded access to home and community based services, rapidly moving toward a rebalanced system; and in 2016, a new MLTSS model program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, aligning incentives to help individuals achieve employment and integrated community living.Her commitment is to changing systems to better meet the needs of individuals and family members, promoting the development and expansion of home and community based service options, and ensuring that that the voice and perspective of people who need LTSS, their family members, and other key stakeholders is brought to bear in policy and program decision- making processes.
Mila Kofman, Executive Director, DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority
Mila Kofman is the Executive Director of the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority.Appointed to the position by a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors, Kofman is a nationally recognized expert on private health insurance markets and has worked with states and all stakeholders to implement health insurance reforms. Her approach is informed by her hands-on experience as the former Superintendent of Insurance in Maine implementing health insurance reforms, being a former federal regulator working with states to implement HIPAA reforms of the 1990s, studying state-based reform efforts and markets, and working with employer purchasing coalitions seeking to leverage purchasing power for sustainable financing of medical care. Ms. Kofman holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland (summa cum laude).
Dawn Lambert, Community Options Strategy Group, Connecticut’s Department of Social Services
Dawn Lambert manages the Community Options Strategy Group within Connecticut’s Department of Social Services. With over 25 years of experience in long-term services and supports, she currently serves as an appointed member of the National Academy for State Health Policy LTSS Committee, an advisor to the AARP LTSS Scorecard and a consultant to the Department of Justice regarding community options for older adults and people with disabilities.
Michelle Larson, Director of the Office of Medical Cannabis, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
Michelle Larson is the Director of the Office of Medical Cannabis at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). She has 20 years of public health experience at the state and local level that includes topics such as obesity, tobacco prevention, Strategic National Stockpile, emergency preparedness, environmental health, and policy development. She has a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Organization, Leadership, and Policy Development, a Masters of Public Affairs degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Government, and a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Wisconsin. Michelle served in the Minnesota Air National Guard for 6 years. Her hobbies include being a mom, knitting, and anything outdoors.
Tom Leahey, Pharmacy Manager, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
Tom Leahey is a Pharmacy Manager with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. He has been with the Department for 12 years and oversees the operations and non-clinical policy for the outpatient drug, physician-administered drug and durable medical equipment benefits.
Peter V. Lee is the executive director of Covered California, the first state-based exchange established under the Affordable Care Act. Since joining Covered California in 2011, Lee oversaw the creation and launch of the Covered California brand as well as an on-line platform that allows consumers to shop for and buy affordable health insurance.
With a $300 million budget and more than 1,000 employees, Lee oversees negotiations with health plans as well as outreach and marketing efforts to promote enrollment. Increasingly, Lee is working to advance the broader mission of Covered California: improving health care quality, lowering costs and reducing health disparities.
Prior to joining the exchange, Lee held leadership positions in the Obama Administration working on health care delivery reform and quality improvement.
Lee received a law degree from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Alice Lind, Manager, Grants and Program Development, Washington State Health Care Authority
Alice Lind is Manager, Grants and Program Development, in Washington’s Health Care Authority, responsible for the design and implementation of innovative Medicaid programs.
At the Center for Health Care Strategies, she provided technical assistance to states in designing systems for complex populations, including dual eligibles and authored papers on performance measurement, integrated care, hospice and long-term care. Ms. Lind serves on NCQA’s Standards Committee and has served as the chair of NQF’s Dual Eligibles Workgroup.
Ms. Lind received a MPH from the University of North Carolina, and a BSN from Texas Christian University.Her clinical background includes hospice and intensive care. She recently received certification as an Advanced Care Planning Facilitator.
MaryAnne Lindeblad, Medicaid Director, Washington State Health Care Authority
MaryAnne Lindeblad brings a broad health care and administrative background to the Washington Medicaid program. She has been an active health care professional and leader spanning most aspects of health care including acute care, long-term care, behavioral health care, eldercare and services for people with disabilities. MaryAnne served for two years as Assistant Secretary for Aging and Disability Services Administration with the Department of Social and Health Services, and Director of the Health Care Services Division with the Health Care Authority. Lindeblad has held a variety of leadership positions, including Assistant Administrator of the Public Employees Benefits Board, and Director of Operations for Unified Physicians of Washington. In 2010, she was selected for the inaugural class of the Medicaid Leadership Institute. MaryAnne currently chairs the executive committee for the National Academy for State Health Policy, serves on the boards of the National Association of Medicaid Directors and Olympia Free Clinic. Lindeblad holds a bachelor of science in nursing from Eastern Washington University, and master’s in public health from the University of Washington.
Pam MacEwan, Chief Executive Officer, Washington Health Benefit Exchange
Pam MacEwan is the Chief Executive Officer for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. Prior to joining the leadership team at HBE, Pam served as Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Governance for Group Health Cooperative.She directed Medicare and Medicaid program performance and strategy, government relations, public policy, communications, and consumer governance serving on Group Health’s leadership team for 16 years. Previously Pam served as a Commissioner with the Washington Health Services Commission implementing the Health Services Act.She worked with a broad coalition to pass health reform legislation. Pam has served on several health policy initiatives in the public and private sector, chairing the Association of Washington Health Plans, serving on the Washington State Hospital policy committee, the King County Health Action Plan, and the Children’s Health Initiative.She holds an MAT in history from Brown University and a BA in economics from The Evergreen State College.
Cindy Mann is a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, guiding states, providers, plans, consumer organizations and foundations on creating and implementing effective strategies around federal and state health reform, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and delivery and payment system transformation.She formerly served as the Deputy Administrator at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Director of the Center for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Services at CMS, where she led the administration of Medicaid, CHIP and the Basic Health Program for more than five years during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Ms. Mann’s prior positions include research professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, where she was founder and director of the Center for Children and Families, senior advisor at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, director of the Family and Children’s Health Program Group at the Healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA), now CMS.Ms. Mann earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law.
Mary E. Marinari, Senior Administrator, Information Systems Unit, Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance
Mary E. Marinari, MPA
Senior Administrator, Information Systems Unit, Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance
Mary leads the EHR Incentive Payment Program and coordinates Medicaid HIT Initiatives with State agencies and the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN).She received her B.A. from Boston University and an M.P.A from New York University.Mary’s experience in Delaware State government began in the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Social Services. Her background includes system implementations including the recent Delaware Medicaid Enterprise System (DMES) replacement; value based payment pilots; health care policy and planning; development of quality strategies and performance metrics; managed care implementation; budgetary analysis; and of course, IAPD submissions.
Greg Martin, Deputy Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Greg Martin is the Deputy, Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). He assists the Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer in facilitating the integration of Communications, Engagement, Training, and Dissemination activities across the department and organization-wide among other cross department and PCORI activities. Martin was previously deputy director, Stakeholder Engagement, and responsible for leading PCORI’s state- and local-level engagement with clinicians, policy makers, professional audiences, and the broader healthcare community. An experienced state health policy and state government affairs professional, Martin previously served the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Rebecca Matthews is chief executive officer of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, a $350 million public-private partnership created by the Florida Legislature to expand access to health insurance for Florida children.
Matthews leads day-to-day operation of Florida Healthy Kids, an innovative program that is closing the uninsured gap by providing health insurance for 180,000 children age 5 through 18.She also spearheads marketing, customer service, eligibility, enrollment and other core administrative services for Florida KidCare, the umbrella brand for the four government-sponsored health insurance programs currently serving 2.45 million children statewide from birth through 18.
Linda McCall, Program Director, Long Term Care and Behavioral Health, Georgia Department of Community Health
Linda McCall is the current Chair of the Interagency Directors Team (IDT) in Georgia and is employed by the Department of Community Health as the Program Director for Medicaid Policy and Provider Services for Behavioral Health & Long Term Care. She has 23 years of experience in the field of behavioral health and has been in her current state-wide position for 3 1/2 years. She was recently re-elected to be Chair of the IDT for a second year. Under Linda’s leadership, in August, 2017, the IDT was given approval by the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council (appointed by Governor Deal) for their System of Care State Plan for Children,Youth and Families.
Linda is in her ninth year as an Administrative Surveyor for CARF International. She is a mother of three children and several pets. She resides in Georgia.
Kate McEvoy, Director of the Division of Health Services, Connecticut Department of Social Services
Kate McEvoy is the Director of the Division of Health Services at the Department of Social Services, and is responsible for administration of medical, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental and transportation benefits for over 785,000 Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.Related, she oversees health policy aspects of Connecticut Medicaid’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Administrative Services Organization contracts and associated special projects, including the Person-Centered Medical Home initiative, Rewards to Quit (incentive-based tobacco cessation program) and the State Innovation Model Test Grant PCMH+ Program.She is also responsible for oversight of diverse aspects of the Connecticut Strategic Rebalancing Plan, including the Money Follows the Person Program, State Balancing Incentive Payments Program, nursing home diversification and workforce initiatives.In this work, Kate is particularly interested in the intersection of law and medicine with respect to person-centeredness, autonomy in decision-making and dignity of risk. Kate is the Department’s lead liaison to the Medical Assistance Program Oversight Council and the State Innovation Model Steering Committee.
Mary G. McIntyre, Chief Medical Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH)
Mary G. McIntyre, M.D., M.P.H., SSBB is Chief Medical Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). Dr. McIntyre received her B.S. in Biology from Winston Salem University in Winston Salem, NC.She earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville and served as resident physician in Internal Medicine at the George Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, TN.She obtained a master’s of public health in Health Care Organization and Policy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.She studied Lean and Six Sigma at Villanova University from 2010-2011.She is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine through the American Board of Preventive Medicine.She joined ADPH in January 2011, and served as Assistant State Health Officer for Disease Control and Prevention and State Epidemiologist before taking her current position.Prior to beginning her public health career she served in various roles at the Alabama Medicaid Agency for fourteen years.She provided primary care for eleven years before joining the State.
She is a member of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), the American Public Health Association
Jeff Meyers, Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
Jeff Meyers is the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.Appointed by Governor Maggie Hassan in January 2016, he leads an organization of 2,800 employees with an annual budget of $2.4 billion that includes Medicaid, Human Services, Public Health, Behavioral Health, Long Term Care and Disability Services, Child Welfare and Juvenile Services.As Commissioner, he has led a reorganization effort of the department to achieve integration of programs and funding streams to better serve New Hampshire citizens.Jeff is a graduate of The George Washington University (B.A.) and of Georgetown University Law School (J.D.).
Shane Mofford, Director of Rates and Payment Reform, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
Shane has served as the Director of Rates and Payment Reform for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in Colorado for just under two years, but has been with the Department for seven years in total.While his education is in Economics, he has worked in health care for 12 years in a variety of roles. Shane has lead or been closely involved with many of Colorado’s reform efforts including several initiatives to expand integrated care, managed care reforms, behavioral health reforms, primary care reforms, and hospital reforms.
Abdiasis Mohamed, Program Coordinator, Traditional Health Worker Program, Office of Equity and Inclusion, Oregon Health Authority
Abdiasis Mohamed is currently the Program Coordinator for the Traditional Health Worker (THW) Program with Oregon Health Authority’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. With the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Mohamed is charged with developing and implementing strategic work plan to support a sustainable and effective THW program, THW workforce training programs, State-run website registry and its integration into Oregon’s health system transformation within OHA’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. He also oversees the THW Commission and its subcommittees and ensures that the Commission meets its goals, deliverables and timelines. Mohamed serves on numerous advisory boards, committees and councils that influence both social and policy change at a local level, regional and national level.
Rene Mollow, Deputy Director, Health Care Benefits and Eligibility, California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
René has been with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) since 1995, working primarily with Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.She is currently serving as the Deputy Director for Health Care Benefits and Eligibility (HCBE).She is responsible for the formulation and administration of policy development and implementation; provides leadership for policy planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of health care services and delivery systems under Medi-Cal and for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). HCBE is comprised of five divisions and one office: Benefits, Eligibility, Pharmacy Benefits, Primary and Rural Health, Medi-Cal Dental Services and the Office of Family Planning. René directs and coordinates programs and activities in HCBE to ensure uniform program administration and direction of eligibility and benefit policies of procedures within the Medi-Cal delivery systems. In addition, she assists the Directorate and State Legislatures in determining program direction consistent with legislative intent and consults with the Director and State Medicaid Director on issues of significant policy impact involving both Medi-Cal & CHIP.
Greg Moody, Director, Ohio Governors Office of Health Transformation
Governor John R. Kasich appointed Greg Moody in January 2011 to lead the Office of Health Transformation. OHT is responsible for advancing Governor Kasich’s Medicaid modernization and cost-containment priorities, engaging private sector partners to improve overall health system performance, and recommending a permanent health and human services structure for Ohio.
Greg began his public service career as a budget associate for the U.S. House Budget Committee in Washington D.C. The Budget Chairman at the time, Rep. John Kasich, asked Greg to study the impact of Medicaid on federal spending – an assignment that set the course for his public policy career. Prior to joining the Kasich Administration, Greg was a senior consultant at Health Management Associates, a national research and consulting firm that specializes in complex health care program and policy issues. He worked with clients to improve Medicaid system performance, and wrote extensively about state health system innovations for the Commonwealth Fund, National Governor’s Association, and other foundations. Greg’s Ohio experience includes serving as Interim Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (2001).
Sue Moran, Senior Deputy Director, Population Health Administration, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Sue Moran currently serves as the Senior Deputy Director of the Population Health Administration for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Sue leads agency wide efforts to promote and protect the health of the all Michigan residents through surveillance and response to health issues, prevention of illness and injury, improvements in access to care, and promotion of health equity. Ms. Moran also oversees the Community Health Innovation Region (CHIR) and state evaluation components of Michigan’s State Innovation Model. Ms. Moran graduated from the University of Illinois with Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Public Health.
Melanie Moreno, Staff Director, California State Senate Committee on Health
Melanie Moreno is the Staff Director for the California State Senate Committee on Health where she is responsible for managing the operations of the Committee and analyzing and staffing legislation in the policy areas of public health, women’s and reproductive health, health care workforce, and prescription drugs.She has also served as the Chief Consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Health in a similar capacity. She has 25 years of experience working on health and welfare policy for state and local government, and worked as a Medical Social Worker at San Francisco General Hospital in the Emergency Department.Ms. Moreno received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Sacramento State University, and master of public health and master of social welfare degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jeremiah Morton, Director of Value-Based Purchasing, LTSS, Tennessee Division of TennCare
Jeremiah Morton has been with the State of Tennessee since 2013, where he has provided leadership in policy planning, development, and implementation of programs in multiple state agencies with an emphasis on data analysis. In his current role as Director of Value Based Purchasing in TennCare’s Division of Long-Term Services and Supports, Jeremiah spearheads nationally-recognized payment reform initiatives that create incentivized payment structures driven by quality improvement performance indicators and outcomes for both home and community-based and institutional providers. He is particularly excited to share the transformative results Tennessee has attained with its enhanced respiratory care providers.
Christina Mullins, Director, Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
Christina Mullins is the Title V Director for West Virginia.She is also the Director of the Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health at the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.In this role, she is responsible for the management and oversight of 26 programs and projects that help to improve the health and well-being of West Virginia’s women, children and families.In her nearly 20-year tenure with the Bureau for Public Health, she has worked to establish West Virginia’s youth anti-tobacco campaign, facilitated the achievement of all data benchmarks for the Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program and worked with a multitude of partners to launch a surveillance system for neonatal abstinence syndrome.Christina was born in the small community of Lincoln County, West Virginia and graduated from Marshall University with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology in 1997.
David Nash, Professor of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Kentucky College of Dentistry
David A. Nash is the William R. Willard Professor of Dental Education and professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the College of Dentistry of the University of Kentucky. Nash has led in the initiation and development of adding the internationally acclaimed dental therapist to the American oral health workforce to help address the issue of access to card for children. He has been a prime advocate forintegrating dental education with medical education, and has called for the creation of an “oral physician” curriculum. Nash has been named by the American Student Dental Association as one of the visionaries in American Dentistry.
Len Nichols, Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE) and a Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University
Len M. Nichols has been the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (CHPRE) and a Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University since March 2010.He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication with the media and policy makers for 20+ years, after he was Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Clinton Administration. Since that time he has testified frequently before Congress and state legislatures, published extensively and spoken to a wide range of hospital associations, physician groups, and health policy leadership forums around the country. After OMB, Len was a Principle Research Associate at the Urban Institute, Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change, and Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation. In addition to his positions at GMU Len is on the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and was recently appointed by the Comptroller General to serve on the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), created by the MACRA legislation of 2015.Len was an advisor to the Virginia Health Reform Initiative and is now the payment reform advisor to the Virginia Center for Health Innovation.As he has come to focus his research more on payment and delivery reform, Len was an Innovation Advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS in 2012, and is now the Principal Investigator on PCMH evaluation studies as well as more general ways to use payment and delivery reform to achieve triple aim and health equity goals. Len’s first job was teaching economics at Wellesley College from 1980-1991, where he became Associate Professor and Economics Department Chair, after receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1980.Len got his B.A. from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and his M.A. in Economics from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Rob Nosse has served as a state representative for inner SE and NE Portland since 2014.In both his first and now his second term he has served as the Vice Chair of the House Health Care Committee.He got his start in politics as a young man working for affordable public higher education for students and LGBTQ rights.In 1996 Rob went to work for SEIU a public sector and private sector health care union here in Oregon and across the country. In 2004 he went to work as a union representative for nurses with the Oregon Nurses Association.In the most recent legislative session Rob attempted to pass a bill to reduce the costs of prescription drugs.It did not pass but he learned a lot and hope to try to pass a bill on this topic in 2018.
Ana Novais, Executive Director of Health, Rhode Island Department of Health
Ana P. Novais, holds a master degree in Clinical Psychology, UCLN, Belgium, and is a graduate from the Northeastern Public Health Leadership Institute, University of Albany, NY and Leadership RI. Ana has worked in Public Health for 30 years including 5 years in Africa (Cape Verde), 5 years in Portugal and for the past 20 years in the USA. Ana has worked for the RI Department of Health since 1998, first as an Education and Outreach Coordinator and as the Chief for the Office of Minority Health assuring the Department addresses the health needs of the racial and ethnic minority communities of RI. Since March 2006 as the Executive Director of Health for the Division of Community, Family Health and Equity, Ana has lead the department efforts to achieve the goal of health equity by focusing in the areas of Health Disparities and Access to Care, Chronic Care and Disease Management, Maternal and Child Health, Environmental Health, Health Promotion and Wellness; and by developing and implementing the “Rhode Island Health Equity Framework” a plan of action for achieving health equity at the state and at local level through the “Health Equity Zones” initiative.
Christine Nye,B.A., M.S.S.W., is a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago and president of her company, CHN-HC, LLC.Currently, Ms. Nye works primarily on strategic planning, public policy analysis, program implementation, and project management with a focus on Medicaid managed care, Medicare and Medicaid service integration for dual eligibles, long-term services and supports, and MCO and MA operational readiness. She is under contract with NORC for several projects.
Ms. Nye was the first Director of Medicaid for HCFA (CMS) and was the Wisconsin State Medicaid Director during the development of its managed care and other significant program expansions. Other past responsibilities include: HIT Director for the State of Florida; Vice President for ACS (now Xerox) for government systems operations; Vice President for Advance PCS (CVS), a PBM; COO for Schaller Anderson (Aetna), a Medicaid managed care company; Regional Vice President of United Healthcare for Medicare managed care operations; Director for Special Health Care Initiatives for the Elderly at the Johns Hopkins Health System; and Deputy Director of Aging Programs for the State of Wisconsin.
Adam Obley, Clinical Epidemiologist, Center for Evidence-based Policy
Dr. Obley graduated from the University of Kansas, School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University where he also served as Chief Resident. Dr. Obley is a Clinical Epidemiologist at the Center for Evidence-based Policy where he works on a wide variety projects applying clinical and health services research to policy development. He is an academic general internist at Oregon Health & Science University, as well as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. He is also a staff physician at the Portland VA Medical Center.
Sherri Ohly, Health Promotion Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Sherri Ohly has been a contracted team member of the State of Wisconsin Health Department Chronic Disease Prevention Unit at the Division of Public Health since 2011. She provides leadership, technical assistance, and guidance for diabetes and chronic disease prevention/management programming and system change in Wisconsin. Collaborating with the CDC, APHA CHW section policy committee, the Community Guide and others, she has worked to create health strategies and technical assistance documents that guide Community Health Worker training and strategy development. Sherri is a certified trainer for Pathways Community HUB model and Stanford Self-Management programs, linking clinical work to communities. She serves as the lead public health staff in the state for Community Health Worker strategies and the Stanford-licensed self-management programs, engaging and mobilizing public-private partnerships to ensure success.
Andre Ourso, Administrator, Center for Health Protection, Oregon Health Authority
Andre is the Administrator for the Center for Health Protection within the Public Health Division of the Oregon Health Authority.The Center oversees public health licensing and regulatory programs that include the state drinking water program, environmental health, radiation protection, health care facilities, health and related professional licensing, and medical marijuana. Before becoming the Center’s Administrator, Andre was the manager of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program assisting in the oversight of the implementation of Oregon’s medical and recreational marijuana regulations. Prior to relocating to Oregon in 2015, Andre served as executive director of the Florida Board of Medicine and served as an assistant general counsel for the Florida Department of Health. He earned a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida and a law degree from the University of Florida.
Gary Parker, CHIP & Hoosier Healthwise Director, Indiana Medicaid, Family and Social Services Administration
Gary Parker has been the CHIP and Hoosier Healthwise Director for the State of Indiana since August 2015. CHIP and Hoosier Healthwise are Indiana’s managed care programs serving for children and pregnant women. He has nearly ten years of policy experience in the Medicaid program for Indiana dating back to the first iteration of the Healthy Indiana Plan in 2008 and also includes oversight of the state’s transition from a 209(b) state to a 1634 state. He completed his undergraduate studies at Butler University and received his J.D. with a Certificate in Health Law from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
Jennifer Patterson, Health Policy Legal Counsel, New Hampshire Insurance Department
Jennifer Patterson is the Health Policy Legal Counsel for the New Hampshire Insurance Department. Ms. Patterson is the lead attorney for the Insurance Department interacting with the New Hampshire legislature, Governor’s office, Congressional delegation and other state and federal executive branch agencies with respect to the insurance aspects of federal health reform and Medicaid expansion in New Hampshire.
Ms. Patterson has worked closely with the state’s Joint Legislative Health Reform Oversight Committee and Health Exchange Advisory Board, and coordinates with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on health reform and Medicaid expansion issues.
Meghan Peel, TPA Contract Supervisor, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services
Meghan Peel is the Program Manager for Montana’s Medicaid Expansion and CHIP Programs within the Department of Public Health and Human Services. Meghan serves as liaison between the Department and its Third Party Administrator. Additionally, Meghan manages several 1115 demonstration waivers, including Montana’s Medicaid Expansion demonstration waiver. Before joining Montana Medicaid, Meghan worked as an auditor for Ernst & Young in the Bay Area of California. Meghan received a B.S. in Business and holds a Master’s of Professional Accountancy, both from Montana State University. She lives in Helena, Montana with her husband and two sons.
Dr. Nicholas C. Peiper is a behavioral epidemiologist with 10 years of experience in substance use and mental health. His current work through the CDC, SAMHSA, and NIH focuses on opioid overdose prevention. Dr. Peiper also concentrates on the application of emergent computational methods to understand the epidemiology of cannabis use, including the intersection between social policy. In addition, he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville where he teaches online doctoral courses in behavioral epidemiology and applied research methodologies; directs MPH practicum programs; and mentors graduate students in public health and clinical psychology.
Chris Priest, Deputy Director, Medical Services, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)
Chris Priest is deputy director for Medical Services with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). In this role, Priest also serves as Michigan’s Medicaid director overseeing several health care programs, including MIChild and the Healthy Michigan Plan. Chris holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from George Mason University in Virginia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University.Chris currently serves on the National Association of Medicaid Directors Board, as a representative for Region II – Midwest Medicaid Directors.
Gail Propsom, Chief, Quality Management and Special Initiatives Section, Wisconsin Department of Human Services
Gail Propsom has a Master’s Degree in history.She has worked for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in a policy capacity for more than 25 years, developing and implementing policy on such varied issues as welfare reform, child support, employment and training, juvenile justice and child welfare.Since 2001, she has worked on long term support policy, including Olmstead implementation, Real Choice Systems Change Grants and Money Follows the Person.She currently manages a Section that oversees program quality, including data analytics, for managed long-term services and supports and several special projects including Money Follows the Person, housing issues for people with long-term care needs and efforts to support tribal involvement in long-term care.
Kristi Putnam, Program Manager, Kentucky HEALTH Team, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Commonwealth of Kentucky
Kristi Putnam is a 21-year veteran in government change management and innovation, with leadership and front line experience in family/child welfare services, advocacy, education, communications, and policy. A native of Florida, Kristi moved to Kentucky in 2015, and joined the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in 2016.Previously, she has worked in the Florida Departments of Education, Children & Families, the K-12 Public School system, Executive Office of the Governor, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as for child advocacy agencies and in private industry.She is currently the Program Manager for the Kentucky HEALTH Medicaid Waiver Project, the initiative that Kentucky has proposed to the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services as a means to transform Kentucky’s Medicaid system.Kristi and her husband have three daughters, and they are happily resettled in Louisville from Tallahassee, Florida.
David C. Radley, Senior Scientist,Commonwealth Fund
Senior Study Director, Westat
David C. Radley, PhD, is Senior Scientist at the Commonwealth Fund and a Senior Study Director at Westat. He is a health services researcher with expertise in policy evaluation, performance measurement, and data visualization. Dr. Radley is the scientific director for the Commonwealth Fund’s Performance Tracking initiative, and is responsible for the project’s overall measurement strategy; procuring and analyzing performance data; and curating performance information for public reporting. Dr. Radley previously worked as Senior Scientist at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and as an associate in domestic health policy at Abt Associates.
Lisa Ramirez, Project Director, Texas Targeted Opioid Response, Substance Use Disorder Unit, IDD and Behavioral Health Services Section, Texas Health and Human Services
Lisa Ramirez currently serves as the Texas Targeted Opioid Response Interim Project Director while performing duties as the Lead Program Specialist in the Substance Use Disorders Program Services Unit for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.She leads a team of subject matter experts committed to providing timely access to a full continuum of high-quality integrated substance use and co-occurring psychiatric disorders services for low-income Texas residents.Lisa identifies, plans, develops and implements substance use disorder policy and initiatives. One accomplishment towards this endeavor includes the appropriation of funds during the 84th legislative session for a multi-million dollar project aimed at improving outcomes associated with prenatal opioid exposure and neonatal abstinence syndrome.
She a graduate of the Women’s Addiction Services Leadership Institute and served as the Women’s Services Network representative for Texas, a component of National Association of State Alcohol/Drug Abuse Directors. In addition, she served as primary subject matter expert on treatment and intervention services for pregnant and parenting women.
Cheryl J. Roberts, Deputy Director of Programs, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services
Cheryl J. Roberts is Deputy Director of Programs for the Department of Medical Assistance Services in the Commonwealth of Virginia which provides Medicaid and SCHIP services for over 1,000,000 clients in the Commonwealth expending $9 billion a year. In her current position, she is responsible for the program development and executive oversight of non LTSS Medicaid managed care delivery system which covers 700,000 members, dental services, quality management, service, claims and provider operations, and program integrity operations for the agency. Previous responsibilities included oversight long term care, pharmacy services and behavioral health. Prior to working with the Department, Ms. Roberts served as the Chief Operations Officer of a Virginia based Medicaid health plan and was the Assistant Vice President of Operations for a large health insurance company in New York City.Ms. Roberts received her Juris Doctorate from Rutgers’s State University of New Jersey Law School. She serves as an executive committee chair for NASHP and also works on various national health care projects, collaborative and committees.
Tracy Rodgers, Executive Officer, Iowa Department of Public Health
Ms. Rodgers is an Executive Officer with the Iowa Department of Public Health. She spent 13 years working as a dental hygienist in general, pediatric, and periodontal dental practices in Texas and Iowa prior to working in public health.
Her current role with the department includes program and policy development for oral health programs. She manages the I-Smile and I-Smile Silver programs, the dental component of Iowa’s Title V block grant, and Iowa’s oral health workforce grant from HRSA. She received her Bachelor of Science degree and Certificate of Public Health from the University of Iowa.
Carl Rush, Project on Community Health Worker Policy & Practice, University of Texas Institute of Health Policy
Carl Rush has worked full time for and with CHWs for over 20 years. He has supported studies on CHW employment policy for the states of Arizona, Texas and Indiana, and for Public Health Seattle/King County. He was a lead author on HRSA’s 2007 CHW National Workforce Study.He is currently working on a national policy study for CDC on CHW certification. He has advised CHW policy initiatives in more than 20 individual states, and groups of state officials for the National Academy for State Health Policy, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the National Governors Association.
Bob Russell, Bureau Chief, Oral & Health Delivery Systems Bureau, Iowa Department of Public Health
Dr. Russell serves as Public Health Dental Director; and Bureau Chief of the Oral & Health Delivery Systems Bureau of the Iowa Department of Public Health.
Dr. Russell received his dental training at Loyola University of Chicago School of Dentistry and public health training at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He served as a past member of the National Quality Forum’s Oral Health Expert Advisors, and on several state and national Board of Directors including the National Network for Oral Health Access, the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation, Free Clinics of Iowa, and former board member of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Director. He was selected and received a federal HHS appointment to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care
Jeremiah Samples, Deputy Cabinet Secretary, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
Jeremiah Samples serves as Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. He oversees the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services (Medicaid), the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Bureau for Children and Families, Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities, Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, and the Bureau for Public Health.
Nationally, Mr. Samples was a founding member of the National Association of State Health Policy Exchangers Steering Committee, where he served on the board.In addition, Mr. Samples was actively engaged in several committees of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Mr. Samples has been a frequent contributor to the National Governors Association, Academy Health, National Association of Medical Directors and other national organizations that focus on health care issues.
Mr. Samples graduated Magna Cum Laude from West Virginia University with degrees in history and political science.He also received his Masters in Legal Studies at WVU.He has worked in state government for twelve years, including service with the West Virginia Legislature, West Virginia Governor’s Office, West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commission, and several positions within the WV Department of Health and Human Resources, where he has served in his current role since June 2014.
Jenney Samuelson, Associate Director, Vermont Blueprint for Health
Currently she is an associate director with the Blueprint for Health at the Department of Vermont Health Access.The Blueprint was established by the State of Vermont, under the leadership of its Governor, Legislature and the bi-partisan Health Care Reform Commission to spearhead transformation to a system where all Vermonters have access to a continuum of seamless, effective, and preventive health services.
Ms. Samuelson leads the Blueprint Expansion and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP) which consists of a team of practice facilitators who assist over one-hundred adult, family, and pediatric primary care practices to implement continuous quality improvement and patient centered medical home recognition.
Paul Saucier, Senior Director, Federal, IBM Watson Health
Paul Saucier is a Senior Director at Truven Health Analytics, an IBM Watson Health company.He specializes in integrated care and MLTSS.He consults on Medicaid program design and implementation, stakeholder engagement, qualitative research, and policy analysis. Recent projects include support to Pennsylvania DHS with design and implementation of Community HealthChoices, a national inventory of MLTSS program features for the CMS DEHPG, two national MLTSS studies for the AARP Public Policy Institute on care coordination and continuity of care, and a series of MLTSS issue briefs for the CMS 1115 evaluation.
Nina Schwartz, Strategic Policy Manager, Health Information Office, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing
Nina Schwartz is the Strategic Policy Manager in the Health Information Office at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing policy and programmatic initiatives impacting Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) eligibility. Prior to joining the Department, Nina was an associate attorney practicing civil rights law. Before moving to Colorado, Nina worked on health policy in the Washington, D.C., office of the National Council of Jewish Women, and as the health care legislative assistant in the Office of Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Linette Scott, Chief Medical Information Officer and the Deputy Director, Information Management Division, California Department of Health Care Services
Linette Scott, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Information Officer and the Deputy Director of the Information Management Division in the California Department of Health Care Services.In this role she works across the Department and with stakeholders to ensure that reliable data and information are available, and used to drive improvements in population health and clinical outcomes through the Department’s programs and policies.Dr. Scott is a Board Certified Physician in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.She has a Doctor of Medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School, a Masters in Public Health from University of California, Davis, and a Bachelors of Arts in Physics from University of California, Santa Cruz.Highlights from her career include serving as a General Medical Officer with the United States Navy, first as squadron physician with the Regional Support Group and later as the military physician for an Active Duty clinic; as a Public Health Medical Officer with the California Department of Health Services; as the California State Registrar and Deputy Director of Health Information and Strategic Planning in the California Department of Public Health.
Karen Smith, Director, California Department of Public Health
On March 23, 2015, Karen Smith, MD, MPH, was sworn in as director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer. Dr. Smith is a physician specializing in infectious disease and public health. Prior to her appointment, Smith served as public health officer and deputy director at the Napa County Health and Human Services Agency beginning in 2004.
Dr. Smith completed her medical training and infectious diseases fellowship at Stanford University after having obtained a Master of Public Health degree at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public health. She served as clinical faculty at the Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center Division of Infectious Diseases from 1997 to 2004 and was a faculty consultant for the Francis J. Curry International Tuberculosis Center at the University of California, San Francisco from 1997. Smith also served as TB Controller and Deputy Health Officer for Santa Clara County from 1997 to 2004.
Colleen Sonosky, Associate Director, Division of Children’s Health Services, Health Care Delivery Management Administration, District of Columbia’s Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF)
Colleen Sonosky, JD is the Associate Director of the Division of Children’s Health Services in the Health Care Delivery Management Administration in the District of Columbia’s Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF). DHCF is the agency responsible for the administration of the Medicaid program and the Division of Children’s Health Services oversees policies and procedures for Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) services benefit—the pediatric component of the Medicaid program for children under 21. Ms. Sonosky serves as the District’s EPSDT Coordinator as well as the CHIP Director for the Medicaid-expansion program. In addition, Ms. Sonosky represents DHCF on the District-wide Child Fatality Review Committee, Interagency Coordinating Committee for Early Intervention, andthe State Early Child Development Coordinating Committee (SECDCC) where she co-chairs the Health/Wellbeing Subcommittee.Shehas also served on many national work groups concerning maternal and child health.
Assemblyman Mike Sprinkle began his legislative career in 2013 in the Nevada Assembly.Since then he has risen to become Chairman of the assembly committee on Health and Human Services.Assemblyman Sprinkle also is chairman of the Ways and Means’ subcommittee on Human Services and is the assembly majority whip.Mike has sponsored many pieces of legislation dealing with guardianship issues, as well as child protective services, human trafficking and motorcycle safety.Specific to health care, in 2017 Assemblyman Sprinkle authored legislation allowing all in the state to buy into Nevada’s Medicaid system.He also has worked diligently on the opioid crisis affecting Nevada as well as the nation and on determination of death guidelines.Away from the legislature, Assemblyman Sprinkle has worked as a firefighter/paramedic for over 23 years.Personal hobbies include: outdoor sports, reading, listening to a broad range of music and spending time with his family.
Jeff Steinborn was elected to the New Mexico State Senate in November of 2016 after serving eight years in the New Mexico House of Representatives. Jeff represented House District 37 from 2006–2010, and House District 35 from 2012–2016.
During his time in office, Jeff has passed a diverse range of legislation including establishing webcasting for House of Representative committee meetings, campaign contribution limits, greater support of New Mexico’s veterans, protection of our water resources and legislation to establish the historic “Rio Grande Trail.”
Beginning in 2016 Senator Steinborn has been working on comprehensive legislation to reduce and contain the the rising costs of prescription drugs procured by the State of New Mexico.
Nora Stern, Program Manager, Persistent Pain Project, Providence Health and Services
Sessions:
Nora Stern is program manager for the Persistent Pain Project at Providence Health and Services and runs the Persistent Pain Program within Providence Rehabilitation Services state-wide.The primary focus of her work involves training health care professional in contemporary concepts regarding the neurophysiology of pain, facilitating the development of new treatment models to support a biopsychosocial approach to treatment, and development of pain education material for patients.The Persistent Pain Projecthas developed written material, pain education classes, and videoson pain for Providence patients which are used extensively throughout Providence, as well as learning modules for providers.In 2014, the pain project has trained all of the primary care physicians in Oregon in Providence Medical Group. As a physical therapist, she approaches persistent pain treatment by evaluating the aspects of the nervous system that have become too sensitized and addresses the sensitization through pain education, physiological quieting, sensory cortical retraining including kinesthetic awareness and graded motor imagery, and graded exposure and pacing.
Dena Stoner, Senior Policy Advisor, Texas Health and Human Services
Dena Stoner is a Senior Policy Advisor for Texas Health and Human Services. She has over 35 years of design and implementation experience including long term services, acute care, managed care and behavioral health. She has developed community-based long term services programs for people with various disabilities and has been involved in developing the state’s managed care system since its inception over twenty years ago. She currently concentrates on behavioral health. Examples of recent efforts include the Money Follows the Person Behavioral Health Pilot,1115 transformation waiver, Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment, Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Disease Study, HCBS state plan amendment for adults with serious mental illness and HCBS waiver for children with emotional disturbance.Her work has been featured in national and peer-reviewed publications. She is also involved in policy and research at the national level. She chairs the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors’ Medicaid /Finance Division, serves on the National Research Institute’s board and on the executive council of NASHP.
Marylou Sudders, Secretary of Health & Human Services, Executive Office of Health and Human Services, State of Massachusetts
Marylou Sudders leads the largest executive agency in Massachusetts, overseeing a $22 billion state budget, twelve agencies and 22,000 public servants.EOHHS services directly touch the lives of slightly more than 1 in 4 residents of the Commonwealth.Sudders’ responsibilities include the state’s MassHealth (Medicaid) program that provides health coverage to 1.9 million low income or disabled residents, chairing the board of the state’s health care marketplace (The Connector), the Autism Commission and, the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) Oversight Council; and, co-chairs the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness and the state’s first Governor’s Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts.Sudders is leading the Commonwealth’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic, strengthen the Department of Children and Families, and to ensure a sustainable MassHealth program.
Professionally trained as a social worker, Sudders has been a public official, private non-profit executive, advocate and college professor. She served as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Mental Health and has also served as a behavioral health expert with the Department of Justice.
Erin Taylor, Senior Consultant, Bailit Health Purchasing
Erin Taylor offers experience in health care policy analysis, public health, and payment and delivery system reform. Erin’s work has included researching and evaluating value-based payment strategies for individuals with complex care needs, including seniors and individuals with disabilities enrolled in managed care.Erin has co-authored briefs on integrating public health functions with health care delivery and value-based payment for Medicaid populations with complex care needs for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.Erin earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL and a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University.
Dr. Norman Thurston, Representative, Utah State Legislature
Director, Office of Health Care Statistics, Utah Department of Health
Dr. Thurston has a Masters and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University. His areas of specialty include insurance markets, health care provider markets, labor markets, and public finance/economics.
Dr. Thurston has been a policy analyst and health economist for the Utah Department of Health since 2003. Currently, he is the Director of the Office of Health Care Statistics which is responsible for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data related to health care cost and quality for the State of Utah.
Previously, he served as the policy advisor and executive staff for health system reform efforts in the State of Utah.
Before joining the state, Dr. Thurston worked for eight years as an assistant professor of economics at Brigham Young University.
Legislative
Rep. Thurston was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2014. He is a currently member of the following interim committees Economic Development and Workforce Services, Government Operations, and the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
Michael Tillman, Consumer Advocate, Oklahoma Family Network
Michael Tillman has his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration from The University of Phoenix and he received his associates as a Paralegal from Metropolitan College. He currently works as an area supervisor for a local private security firm in Oklahoma. He is also a Statewide Process Server and Private Investigator for the State of Oklahoma. He and his wife, Brandy, have three children who have had SoonerCare for insurance for the past seven (7) years. Their expertise in accessing services for their children and their ability to communicate and advocate well for their children and others has made them perfect family leaders for the Member Advisory Task Force (MATF family advisory council) for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (Medicaid agency).Mr. Tillman has personally experienced health concerns that have sometimes gone untreated, due to lack of access to health care coverage and therefore, access to healthcare.He advocates on a regular basis at the MATF and with legislators and policymakers to promote systems excellence.
Daniel Tsai, Assistant Secretary, MassHealth
Medicaid Director, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Daniel Tsai is the Assistant Secretary for MassHealth and Medicaid Director for the Commonwealth. Tsai was appointed in January 2015 by Governor Charlie Baker to oversee the state’s $15 billion Medicaid program, which covers one in four residents in the Commonwealth. In his role, Tsai is responsible for ensuring a robust and sustainable MassHealth program. That includes developing new policies, payment models, and operational processes that improve the way health care is delivered to 1.8 million low-and moderate-income individuals and individuals with disabilities.
Before joining HHS, Tsai was a Partner and leader in McKinsey & Company’s Healthcare Systems and Services practice. He has significant experience on design and implementation of innovative, state-wide health care payment systems for Medicaid, Medicare and Commercial populations, and has worked closely with multiple state Medicaid programs, private payers, and health services companies. He received a Bachelor of Arts in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard University.
Assistant Secretary Tsai and his wife live in Cambridge. He volunteers at a local community health center in Boston’s South End.
Gretchen Ulbee, Manager, Special Needs Purchasing, Minnesota Department of Human Services
As Manager of Special Needs Purchasing for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Gretchen leads a team responsible for negotiating Medicaid managed care contracts for over 100,000 seniors and people with disabilities, including integration of Medicare and long term services and supports. Prior to her current position, Gretchen spent seven years with Minnesota’s federal relations team, where she negotiated Medicaid waivers and Medicaid State Plan amendments.Gretchen also worked for a private health insurer as a Medicaid compliance manager.Gretchen is committed to improving care for low income seniors and people with disabilities.
Robin Wagner, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Aging and Adult Services, Louisiana Department of Health
Robin Wagner is Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Aging and Adult Services.She has been involved in Louisiana’s Permanent Supportive Housing program since planning began in late 2005 and has been responsible for LDH’s management of the program for most of its existence.In addition to PSH, she oversees several Medicaid home and community-based programs serving older adults and people with disabilities including HCBS waivers, PACE, and Money Follows the Person. Louisiana’s PSH program is recognized for its cross-disability focus, success in addressing homelessness and institutionalization, and innovation in covering tenancy supports under Medicaid.
Anya Wallack, Program Manager, Center for Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health, Brown University
Anya Rader Wallack is a Program Manager at the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health within Brown University’s School of Public Health.She took a temporary leave from Brown earlier this year to serve as Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services for the State of Rhode Island.Anya was Rhode Island’s Medicaid prior to working at Brown and, prior to that, was Director of HealthSource RI, Rhode Island’s health insurance exchange.
Anya served as Chair of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board from 2011-2013.The Board oversees cost control and provider payment innovation in Vermont.She also served from 2013-2014 as Chair of the Vermont State Innovation Model (SIM) governing board.
Anya served previously as interim President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute.She served from 1991-1994 as Policy Director and then Deputy Chief of Staff for Vermont Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Richard Whitley, Director, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Richard Whitley was appointed to the position of director of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) by Governor Brian Sandoval on June 15, 2015.In this position, Whitley manages a staff of more than 6,100 employees and a budget totaling more than $9.8 billion in combined state and federal funds.
As DHHS director, Whitley oversees the Public Defender’s Office and five divisions that provide both direct services and public assistance programs for Nevadans in need.The divisions include: Aging and Disability Services, Child and Family Services, Health Care Financing and Policy (Medicaid), Public and Behavioral Health, and Welfare and Supportive Services.The efforts of DHHS comprise nearly one-third the entire state budget.
Whitley began state service as the senior psychologist for the Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility in 1986.He joined DHHS in 1997 within the Health Division’s Bureau of Disease Control and Intervention Services.Whitley held several positions within the Health Division before being asked to serve as its administrator in 2008.His responsibilities expanded in 2012 when he was asked to also serve as administrator for the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services. The two divisions officially merged in 2013, and Whitley became the first administrator of the newly created Division of Public and Behavioral Health.
Whitley holds a Bachelor’s degree from Willamette University, in Oregon, and a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology from Western Oregon University.
Tammy Whitlock, Director, Division of Integrated Care and Behavioral Health Services, Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services
Tammy received her Bachelor’s from Longwood University and her Master’s in Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.Prior to coming to the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) Tammy worked in the areas of physical rehabilitation, mental health, and juvenile justice. Tammy started working with DMAS in 1994 as a Rehabilitation Analyst and has held various positions in Long Term Care and Maternal & Child Health. Tammy currently serves as the Division Director for Integrated Care & Behavioral Services overseeing behavioral health services, Commonwealth Coordinated Care and in 2017, MLTSS.
Lori Wing-Heier, Director, Alaska Division of Insurance, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development
Lori Wing-Heier was appointed Director of the Division of Insurance in February 2014.
Director Wing-Heier has approximately 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, including as a broker and agent. She most recently served as Director of Risk Management at a large Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) corporation where she designed and implemented a comprehensive enterprise-wide risk management program. She also served as senior vice-president at a national brokerage, working with Alaskan entities throughout the state, and as president of the Alaska Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers, Inc. Director Wing-Heier attended North Central Michigan College and holds the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and Certified Risk Manager (CRM) designations. As Division Director, Wing-Heier oversees and enforces the division’s mission to regulate the insurance industry to protect Alaskan consumers. Director Wing-Heier is a thirty-year resident of Alaska. She makes her home with her family in Anchorage, where the Director of Insurance position is located.
Joy Johnson Wilson, Principal, JJWilson State-Federal Solutions
Ms. Wilson is currently consulting on state and federal health issues. Prior to becoming a consultant, she was the Director of Health and Human Services Policy and Senior Federal Affairs Counsel with the National Conference of State Legislatures. NCSL represents the legislatures of the 50 states, its commonwealths, territories and the District of Columbia. As Senior Federal Affairs Counsel, she assisted with overall government relations and public affairs activities in the NCSL Washington Office. As Director of Health and Human Services Policy, she designed and implemented the lobbying strategy for the conference, as directed by the NCSL Committee on Health and Human Services, on health and human services matters. During her 38 years with NCSL, she took a leave of absence to join the staff of the Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care (Pepper Commission) and served as a non-voting Commissioner on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Medicaid Commission established by Secretary Michael Leavitt.
Ms. Wilson received a Bachelor of Science from Keene State College in New Hampshire and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Laura Zaichkin, Acting Chief Policy Officer, Washington State Health Care Authority
Laura Kate Zaichkin is the Acting Chief Policy Officer for the Washington State Health Care Authority, where she advises executive leaders and the state’s authorizing environment on purchasing policy and health reform efforts. She leads the Office of Health Innovation and Reform, HCA’shealth policy and innovation engine primarily focused on the development and implementation of the state’s plan for health systems transformation, called Healthier Washington. Prior to joining HCA in 2013, Laura was with the National Quality Forum in Washington DC where she convened a public-private partnership of national health care entities to help shape and catalyze action around the National Quality Strategy. Laura has a masters degree in public health policy from The George Washington University.
Marie Zimmerman, Medicaid Director, Minnesota Department of Human Services
Marie Zimmerman has devoted over a decade to public-sector health care in Minnesota, spearheading critical reforms and innovations that have been watched and emulated nationally. Appointed Minnesota’s Medicaid director in 2014, Marie oversees the strategic policy direction and the core business functions of Medicaid and the Basic Health Program (BHP), called MinnesotaCare. The combined budgets of Medicaid and MinnesotaCare topped $11.5 billion in 2016 and provide health coverage to 1 in 5 Minnesotans, delivering health care, behavioral health services and long-term services and supports to more than one million people.
Make more effective use of data, data matching, and demonstrating return on investment (ROI):
Review Medicaid data on individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD)to identify those eligible for additional housing supports.
Create data sharing agreementsto share data among Medicaid, I/DD, mental health, and housing
Explore capital investment strategies for affordable housing acquisition and development.
Develop sustainable cross-agency financing.
Partners
Illinois Department of Human Services
Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
Illinois Housing Development Authority
Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities
State Successes
Received approval for Behavioral Health Transformation Medicaid Section 1115 waiver that includes pre-tenancy and tenancy supports. Under the waiver, five independent pilot programs are currently being implemented. The state is exploring use of 1915(i) Medicaid authority to implement the remaining approved pilot programs, including a tenancy support project to support individuals at risk of institutionalization and homelessness.
Compiled information from a state-operated facility to inform interventions for super-utilizer groups in Chicago.
Examined the Cook County pilot’s success to determine statewide implementation possibilities in more rural areas of the state.
Worked with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) to develop a state plan for supportive housing. CSH provided education and TA with a particular focus on supporting individuals living with developmental disabilities. This population remains a priority for the Illinois team.
Facilitated five rounds of funding for supportive housing developments of 25 units or less through the Permanent Supportive Housing Development Program, with approximately 100 units approved per round. The 2020 Request for Applications has been released, and IHDA is encouraging applicants to develop larger and more creative housing projects.
Next Steps
Continue review of health and hospital projects for potential state system data matching and housing initiative opportunities.
Continue work on pre-tenancy and tenant supports for Illinois residents.
Explore expansion or new avenues for services typically covered through Medicaid Section 1115 waivers for other populations, especially I/DD populations.
Why Palliative Care Is Important for States
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it.
To address this gap, NASHP convened a cross-agency group of state policy leaders to provide guidance in developing a framework for how states, as agents of change, can foster access to quality palliative care services. Recognizing that policy development is always driven by the varied goals and priorities of individual states, NASHP’s Seven Ways State Policymakers Can Promote Palliative Careoffers a roadmap to help policymakers identify state-specific opportunities, areas of alignment, and ideas to aid future planning. Building on the roadmap, this toolkit provides additional concrete resources for states.
MaryAnne Lindeblad brings a broad health care and administrative background to the top position in the Washington State Medicaid program. Lindeblad, has been an active health care professional as well as a leader spanning most aspects of health care including acute care, long-term care, behavioral health care, eldercare and services for people with disabilities. Prior to her appointment as State Medicaid Director, she served for two years as the Assistant Secretary for Aging and Disability Services Administration in the Department of Social and Health Services. Previously, she was Director of the Health Care Services Division of the Medicaid program.
Lindeblad held a variety of leadership positions over the years, including Assistant Administrator of the Public Employees Benefits Board. During the 1990s, Lindeblad also worked in the private sector, serving as Director of Operations for Unified Physicians of Washington.
In 2010, she was selected for the inaugural class of the Medicaid Leadership Institute. In 2015 she was inducted into the Eastern Washington University Chapter of the Upsilon Phi Delta Society. She currently chairs the executive committee for the National Academy for State Health Policy, previously served on the board of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and the Olympia Free Clinic. Lindeblad holds a bachelor of science in nursing from Eastern Washington University and a masters in public health from the University of Washington
Erin C. Fuse Brown
Erin C. Fuse Brown
Associate Professor of Law Center for Law and Society, Georgia State University
Erin C. Fuse Brown, J.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Law and a faculty member of the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State University College of Law. She specializes in health law and policy, and her research focuses on health care markets, consolidation, and cost-control. Fuse Brown has published articles in leading legal and medical journals about hospital prices, medical billing and collection, health care competition and consolidation, consumer financial protection in health care, and state health reforms. She has consulted with NASHP on legal analysis and proposals for how state all-payer claims databases can move forward following the Supreme Court’s decision in Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and on state strategies to control health care prices. She received a J.D. from Georgetown, an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins, and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Victoria Veltri, JD, LLM, is the Executive Director of the Office of Health Strategy, appointed to serve as the first head of this agency in 2018. She was reappointed by Governor Ned Lamont in 2019 to oversee the office’s mission to implement comprehensive, data driven strategies that promote equal access to high quality health care, control costs and ensure better health for the people of Connecticut.
From 2016 to 2018, she was the Chief Health Policy Advisor in the Office of Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, coordinating the state’s health reform initiatives.
She is a member of the Board of Directors on the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange (d/b/a Access Health CT). Ms. Veltri has extensive legal experience in health care advocacy and in legislative policy and she lectures frequently at colleges, universities conferences on Connecticut’s health care initiatives.
Prior to joining Lt. Governor Wyman’s staff, Ms. Veltri was the State Healthcare Advocate.
Trisha Schell-Guy
Trisha Schell-Guy
Acting General Counsel
New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports
Trisha Schell-Guy is the Acting General Counsel for the NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports. In this role, Ms. Schell-Guy provides legal advice, guidance and policy making support to the NYS OASAS Commissioner, agency Executive staff and all agency divisions. Prior to her appointment as General Counsel, Ms. Schell-Guy served OASAS as Deputy Counsel for 5 years and as Associate Counsel for 5 years.
Ms. Schell-Guy also served as Senior Attorney for the NYS Office of State Comptroller and NYS Department of Motor Vehicles. Prior to her state service, Ms. Schell-Guy was engaged in the private practice of law for 13 years where she practiced in various areas of civil and criminal practice.
Ms. Schell-Guy has co-authored an article on Confidentiality and patient issues related to the sharing of substance use disorder treatment information for the Health Law Journal of the NYS Bar Association and has made numerous national and local presentations on issues pertaining to prevention, treatment and recovery issues impacting New Yorkers and the states system of care.
Ms. Schell-Guy resides in Glenmont, New York with her husband, two children and several pets.
Michael MacKenzie
Michael MacKenzie
Deputy Chief, Antitrust Division
Office of the Attorney General
Michael MacKenzie serves as an Assistant Attorney General and Deputy Chief of the Antitrust Division in Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office in 2011, he worked as an associate at Sachnoff & Weaver (now part of Reed Smith) and Eimer Stahl in Chicago. Mr. MacKenzie received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2006 and graduated from Yale University in 2003 with bachelor’s degrees in English and political science.
Jordan Kiszla is a Project Manager at the District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance where she leads telehealth policy and behavioral health transformation activities. Ms. Kiszla was previously an Associate Program Officer for the Federal and State Health Policy Program at the Commonwealth Fund. Ms. Kiszla holds an M.P.H. with a concentration in health policy from George Washington University.
Jessica Altman has served as Pennsylvania’s Insurance Commissioner since August 2017. In this role, she regulates the insurance marketplace, oversees licensed agents and insurance professionals, monitors the financial landscape of companies in Pennsylvania, educates consumers, and ensures residents are treated fairly. She is chair of the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and Vice Chair of NASHP’s Health Care Access & Finance Steering Committee. She previously served the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight; and the health division of the White House Office of Management and Budget as a policy analyst. She completed her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and received her Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management, concentrating in Health Care Policy, from Cornell University.
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Deputy Director
Adult Community Care Group, Division of Adult Services, New York State Office of Mental Health
Dr. Smith spent the last 7 years focused on Managed Medicaid implementation and systems transformation in the public behavioral health system in NYC. He is now also working on statewide initiatives, including Crisis System development, Telemental Health implementation and Integrated Care. Dr. Smith was a clinical administrator at Bellevue with responsibility for Forensic, Psychiatric Emergency and Substance Abuse Services. He also spent a decade working on Schizophrenia risk and prevention research at the Zucker Hillside Hospital.
Oliver Droppers
Oliver Droppers
Deputy Director for Policy Research, Legislative Policy and Research Office
Oregon Legislature
Dr. Droppers joined the Oregon Health Authority in 2010, as the project director for a five-year CMS CHIPRA Quality Demonstration project in Oregon, and also staffed the Oregon Medicaid Advisory Committee, which advises the operation of Oregon’s Medicaid program. While at OHA, Oliver also served as a senior analyst on a variety of legislatively created task forces and work groups aimed at expanding coverage for children and adults. In January 2017, Oliver transitioned to Legislative Policy and Research Office (LPRO), which provides centralized, professional and nonpartisan research to the Oregon Legislature. Oliver has staffed the House and Senate Health Care Committees. Currently, Oliver serves as the Deputy Director for Policy Research in the Oregon Legislature. Dr. Droppers is an adjunct faculty member at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. When Dr. Droppers is not engaged in public policy, he enjoys time with his two children and partner, and can be found exploring the Olympic National Park.
Ben Money
Ben Money
Deputy Secretary for Health Services
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
E. Benjamin Money, Jr. joined the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in 2019 as the Deputy Secretary for Health Services. His portfolio includes the Division of Public Health, Division of Health Services Regulation, the Office of Minority Health, and the Office of Rural Health. Ben previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Community Health Center Association (NCCHCA) during a 10-year period of unprecedented growth in organizations, clinical sites and patients served. In this role, Mr. Money was a the vice-chair of the National Association of Community Health Center Primary Care Association Leadership Committee, the Chair of the Southeast Health Care Consortium, a member of the boards of the NC Institute of Medicine, the NC Health Care Quality Alliance, the NC Health Information Exchange Advisory Board, the NC Safety-net Advisory Council, the Care Share Health Alliance and the public health practice advisory committees for both the East Carolina Brody School of Medicine and the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ben’s 36-year career in health care began in community mental health and includes 11 years in local public health and 18 years with community health centers. He holds a master’s degree in public health nutrition from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Mr. Money recently completed a certificate in Climate Change and Health from the Yale University School of Public Health.
Barbara Paulson
Barbara Paulson
Director of Children and Youth Services
Department of Behavioral Health
Barbara Paulson is the DC Department of Behavioral Health Deputy Director, Child and Youth Services. She is a seasoned behavioral health clinician with over 30 years of experience providing direct services to children, adolescents and their families. This includes delivering care as a private practitioner.
Barbara has held a variety of senior leadership positions. She served as the site director for Family Services in NW Ohio, Program Deputy Director for Family and Child Services of Washington, D.C. and as Clinical Program Administrator for Prevention and Early Intervention at the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health. During her tenure at the Department, she led the School-based Mental Health Program and developed the Healthy Futures program, the early childhood mental health program which now currently operates in over 60 locations.
She is nationally recognized for her expertise in school mental health programs and policies, early childhood mental health consultation and education and substance use prevention. Barbara has presented at numerous national conferences on the Healthy Futures early childhood mental health consultation program and school mental health. She has provided numerous additional trainings and workshops for educators, clinicians, and community based providers.
Barbara is a Licensed Independent Social Worker in the District, and an LCSW in Maryland. Barbara received her Bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Child and Family Community Services and her Master’s degree in Social Science Administration from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Steve Pearson
Steve Pearson
Founder and President
Institute for Clinical and Economic Review
Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc is the Founder and President of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), an independent non-profit organization that evaluates the evidence on the value of medical tests, treatments, and delivery system innovations to encourage collaborative efforts to improve patient care and control costs. Dr. Pearson is also a Lecturer in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Previously, he has served as a Visiting Scientist in the Department of Bioethics at the NIH, a Special Advisor on Technology and Coverage Policy at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Vice Chair of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MedCAC). His publications include over 125 peer-reviewed articles and commentaries on the role of evidence in the health care system, and the book No Margin, No Mission: Health Care Organizations and the Quest for Ethical Excellence, published by Oxford University Press.
Michelle Mello is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Professor of Medicine in the Center for Health Policy/Primary Care and Outcomes Research in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. She conducts empirical research into issues at the intersection of law, ethics, and health policy. She is the author of more than 200 articles on medical liability, public health law, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, biomedical research ethics and governance, health information privacy, and other topics. The recipient of a number of awards for her research, Dr. Mello was elected to the National Academy of Medicine at the age of 40. From 2000 to 2014, she was a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she directed the School’s Program in Law and Public Health. She holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School, a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.Phil. from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar.
Trish Riley, Executive Director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, built that organization as CEO from 1988-2003. She led Maine’s Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance, and was Federal liaison during the ACA deliberations. Riley held appointive positions under five Maine governors. She served on the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and was a member of MACPAC, an Institute of Medicine’s Subcommittee and served on the Board of the NCQA.
Pam MacEwan
Pam MacEwan
Chief Executive Officer
Washington Health Benefit Exchange
Pam MacEwan is the Chief Executive Officer for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. Prior to joining the leadership team at HBE, Pam served as Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and Governance for Group Health Cooperative. She directed Medicare and Medicaid program performance and strategy, government relations, public policy, communications, and consumer governance serving on Group Health’s leadership team for 16 years. Previously Pam served as a Commissioner with the Washington Health Services Commission implementing the Health Services Act. She worked with a broad coalition to pass health reform legislation. Pam has served on several health policy initiatives in the public and private sector, chairing the Association of Washington Health Plans, serving on the Washington State Hospital policy committee, the King County Health Action Plan, and the Children’s Health Initiative. She holds an MAT in history from Brown University and a BA in economics from The Evergreen State College.
Todd Landry
Todd Landry
Director
Office of Child and Family Services, Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Todd A. Landry is the Director of the Office of Child & Family Services for the State of Maine. Dr. Landry holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He earned his Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, in 2018. Landry most recently was chief executive officer of Lena Pope in Fort Worth, Texas, a nonprofit that serves children and families with an array of prevention and early intervention services, including childcare, public education, mental health counseling, and juvenile justice. He previously served as director of Nebraska’s Division of Child and Family Services and sits on national boards, including the Child Welfare League of America.
Molly Voris
Molly Voris
Senior Policy Advisor for Public Health and Health Care
Office of Governor Jay Inslee
Molly Voris (pronouns she/her) is the Senior Policy Advisor for Public Health and Health Care for Washington Governor Jay Inslee. In this role, she leads policy development and advises the Governor on health care issues, including advising the Governor on COVID-19 policy since the beginning of the pandemic.
Prior to her role in the Governor’s Office, she served as the Chief Policy Officer for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange for nine years. Molly previously worked at the National Governors Association on state health insurance coverage issues when the ACA was enacted, and at the Kaiser Family Foundation on Medicare issues when Medicare Part D was enacted.
Molly has an M.P.H. from George Washington University and bachelor degrees in political science and Spanish from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. She lives in Olympia, Washington with her spouse, three kids and their dog.
John Straus
John Straus
Founding Director
Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program
Dr. Straus is a primary care pediatrician and the founding director of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP). Begun in 2004, MCPAP was the first statewide program designed to address the shortage of child psychiatrists. Dr. Straus was responsible for the expansion of MCPAP to include MCPAP for Moms to address perinatal depression, mental illness, and substance use. MCPAP is the model for the implementation of access programs in 38 other states and for the federal legislation in the 21st Century Cures Act which led to the 21 state pediatric HRSA grants and 7 state maternal HRSA grants. He is president of the National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Programs, a non-profit dedicated to providing technical assistance and support to child psychiatry access programs. In 2019, Dr. Straus designed the Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction and Pain (MCSTAP) to assist adult PCPs with their patients with SUD and chronic pain issues.
Rep. Drew Gattine is in his fourth term in the Maine House of Representatives. He is House Chair of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee and previously chaired the Health and Human Services Committee.
Rep. Gattine has over 25 years of experience in implementing and operating programs designed to deliver more effective and efficient health care. He is nationally known on the topic of program integrity and has presented at numerous national conferences on this subject. He is also a former state assistant attorney general.
Rep. Gattine is passionate about helping vulnerable people access high quality health care and live better lives. His service has been recognized by organizations such as AARP, Disability Rights Maine, Maine Council on Aging, Maine People’s Alliance, Cancer Action Network Maine and The Maine Primary Care Association.
Rep. Gattine lives on a small family farm in Westbrook with his wife, Elizabeth. They have two children and a bunch of animals.
Ana Novais
Ana Novais
Deputy Director of Health
Rhode Island Department of Health
Ana Novais holds a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, UCLN, Belgium, and is a graduate of the Northeastern Public Health Leadership Institute, University at Albany, and Leadership RI. Ana has worked in public health for more than 30 years, including 5 years in Cabo Verde, 5 years in Portugal, and 23 years in the US.
Ana has worked for the Rhode Island Department of Health since 1998, first as a children’s health Education and Outreach Coordinator and later as Chief of the Office of Minority Health and Director of the Division of Community, Family Health, and Equity. In this role, Ana led the department’s efforts to develop and implement a framework for achieving health equity at the state and local levels through Rhode Island’s “Health Equity Zones” initiative.
In her current role as Deputy Director, Ana is charged with implementing the Department’s strategic priorities across all divisions and assuring the alignment of departmental resources and operations with these priorities.
Melissa Jordan
Melissa Jordan
Interim Division Director
Florida Department of Health
Melissa Jordan has worked at the Florida Department of Health, primarily in the field of applied epidemiology, since 2003. Since November of 2019, Melissa has served as the Interim Division Director of Community Health Promotion, managing an office of approximately 300 public health professionals and an annual budget of approximately $1 billion in state and federal funding. In this role, she is responsible for a wide range of health promotion activities including tobacco and chronic disease prevention, family health services, and WIC. She is leading Florida’s public health efforts to improve drug overdose surveillance and implement innovative prevention strategies.
Karl Fernstrom
Karl Fernstrom
Manager, Health Data Services Center
Minnesota Department of Health
Karl Fernstrom, Manager of the Health Care Data Service Center in the Health Economics Program at the Minnesota Department of Health: Karl Fernstrom leads the operational efforts for the acquisition and maintenance of health care administrative data for the Minnesota Department of Health which includes the MN APCD, MN HDD, and CMS data streams. In this role he also oversees the creation and release of MN APCD Public Use Files, collaborates with the Health Services Research unit on emerging research questions and policy issues relevant to health care research and health reform within the state. His background is in chronic disease epidemiology with areas of focus on conducting research using electronic health record and administrative data.
Julie Evers
Julie Evers
Medicaid Health Systems Administrator, Bureau of Long Term Services and Supports
Ohio Department of Medicaid
Julie has 30 years of experience in long term care policy with the Ohio Department of Medicaid. Her policy experience includes long term care facilities, home health, reimbursement and electronic visit verification. Recently she has been focused on issues facing long term care facilities as they address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vinita Bahl
Vinita Bahl
VP of Data Analytics
Center for Improving Value in Health Care
Vinita is Vice President of Data and Analytics at CIVHC and has decades of experience directing analytical work at a variety of health care organizations. Prior to joining CIVHC in 2019, Vinita served as Director of Performance Assessment & Clinical Effectiveness at the University of Michigan Health System. Vinita has expertise in the design and development of performance measurement systems, development of analytic capabilities to respond to new payment and care delivery models, analysis to drive performance improvement, and design of public reports. She holds Masters of Public Policy and Doctor of Dental Medicine degrees from Harvard University.
Michelle Alletto
Michelle Alletto
Chief Program and Services Officer
Texas Health and Human Services
Michelle Alletto serves as the Texas Health and Human Services Chief Program and Services Officer. She provides oversight to the programs that make up the full Texas HHS medical and social service array including Medicaid, food assistance and women’s health programs, residential care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and behavioral health services.
Michelle has over a decade of experience working in public health and management. Recently, she worked with the Milbank Memorial Fund, advising a multi-state collaborative on Medicaid long-term services reform. She previously served as deputy secretary for the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), the deputy director for the LDH Birth Outcomes Initiative, and the assistant director for public policy at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs in Washington, D.C.
Alletto holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Katie Wunderlich
Katie Wunderlich
Executive Director
Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission
Katie Wunderlich began her tenure as Executive Director of the Health Services Cost Review Commission in September 2018. In that role, she has lead the Commission through the transition from the hospital-based All-Payer Model to the Total Cost of Care Model, which focuses on hospital and non-hospital system transformation to enhance patient care, improve health, and lower costs. In order to successfully transform the delivery system, the new Total Cost of Care Model gives the State the flexibility to tailor initiatives to the Maryland health care context, encourages providers to drive health care innovation, and provides new tools and resources for primary care clinicians to better meet the needs of patients with complex and chronic conditions and help Marylanders achieve better health status overall. Previously, Ms. Wunderlich was the Principal Deputy Director at HSCRC overseeing the Center for Provider Alignment and Engagement that works with hospitals, physicians and other health care providers in partnership with patients to achieve the goals of the new model and transform healthcare delivery. Before joining the HSCRC in 2016, Ms. Wunderlich was a Deputy Legislative Officer in Governor Hogan’s Legislative Office. She also served as Director of Government Relations for the Maryland Hospital Association and as a budget analyst for the General Assembly’s Legislative Services department. She has a Masters in Public Policy from George Washington University.
Julia Tremaroli
Julia Tremaroli
Data Intake Analyst
Center for Improving Value in Health Care
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Julia Tremaroli has worked as the data intake analyst for the CO APCD at the Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) for over two years. Day-to-day, she engages data submitters to ensure their submissions to the CO APCD are timely, accurate, and of high-quality. She also works as an analyst on several projects that utilize data from the CO ACPD, including the support for HB19-1174 Surprise Medical Billing legislation. Julia is driven by the goal of achieving the Triple Aim: lower costs, improved quality, and healthier people.
Julia holds a degree from the University of Denver in Business Information and Analytics.
Thomas Smith
Thomas Smith
Chief Medical Officer/ Medical Director
Division of Managed Care, New York State Office of Mental Health.
Dr. Smith is Chief Medical Officer, New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS OMH); Co-Director, NYS OMH Center for Behavioral Health Integrated Performance Measurement, and Special Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. He oversees clinical and quality aspects of the New York State public mental health system with a focus on improving access to prevention, recovery and rehabilitation services for persons with serious mental illness (SMI). He is the recipient of numerous NIMH and foundation grants for studies of engagement strategies for persons with SMI, services for persons with first episode psychosis, and care management approaches for high-need persons with SMI.
Dr. Smith earned his M.D. at Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed his psychiatry residency at the University of Chicago before coming to New York where he has had extensive experience as a clinician, hospital administrator, and researcher, initially at Weill Cornell from 1989 – 2001. He moved to Columbia in 2001 and in 2008, joined the behavioral health services research division at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Smith participated in the design and implementation of New York State’s behavioral health Medicaid Managed Care redesign and has played a lead role in OMH programs that support population health monitoring for engagement in care and adverse events. He also oversees NYS OMH mental health parity enforcement efforts as well as initiatives to develop system level quality and performance measures.
David Seltz
David Seltz
Executive Director
Massachusetts Health Policy Commission
David Seltz is the first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC). The HPC is a first-in-the-nation independent state government agency charged with bending the health care cost curve and providing data-driven policy recommendations regarding health care delivery and payment system reform. Prior to this role, Mr. Seltz was the Special Advisor on health care for Governor Deval Patrick (MA) and Senate President Therese Murray. Through these positions, he advised the passage of historic health care access reform legislation in 2006, a forerunner to the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Subsequently, he worked on landmark cost containment legislation in MA, which has also become a model of success for many states. Mr. Seltz is a 2003 graduate of Boston College and originally from Minnesota. He was a recipient of Modern HealthCare’s 2015 Up and Comer Award and serves as a member of the Executive Committee to the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP).
Erinn Sanstead researches, develops, and evaluates procedures and strategies to produce Minnesota All Payer Claims Database Public Use Files (PUFs). In this role, she provides technical assistance on appropriate uses of administrative health care claims data and conducts data validation to assess PUF validity, completeness, and security. Her background is in infectious disease epidemiology with experience in decision modeling and cost effectiveness analyses.
Rachel Sachs is an Associate Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research explores the interaction of intellectual property law, food and drug regulation, and health law. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including the Harvard Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Sachs was previously an Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School.
Gail Propsom
Gail Propsom
Chief
Quality Management and Special Initiatives Section, Wisconsin Department of Human Services
Gail Propsom has worked for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in a policy capacity for almost 30 years, developing and implementing policy on such varied issues as welfare reform, child support, employment and training, juvenile justice and child welfare. Since 2001, she has worked on long term support policy, including Olmstead implementation, Real Choice Systems Change Grants and Money Follows the Person. She currently manages a Section that oversees program quality, data analytics and several special projects, including implementation of the Home and Community-Based Services Settings rule, Money Follows the Person, housing issues for people with long-term care needs and efforts to support tribal involvement in long-term care.
Norman Oliver
Norman Oliver
Virginia State Health
Commissioner State of Virginia
Dr. Oliver is the State Health Commissioner at the Virginia Department of Health. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Oliver served as the Deputy Commissioner for Population Health for VDH. Before accepting the Deputy Commissioner position, he was the Walter M. Seward Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Dr. Oliver has a long record of accomplishments in research and community health work, regarding health inequities. Most recently, his research interests have focused on the area of improving our understanding of the role of racial discrimination, bias, and prejudice in establishing and maintaining these health inequities and the understanding of the interplay between race and socioeconomic position in these disparities.
Dr. Oliver attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University, where he also obtained his Masters degree in medical anthropology. He trained in family medicine at Case, and he then practiced broad-spectrum family medicine in rural Alaska for 2 years before joining the UVA Department of Family Medicine in 1998.
René Mollow
René Mollow
Deputy Director, Health Care Benefits and Eligibility
California Department of Health Care Services
René has been with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) since 1995. In the Medi-Cal program, she serves as the Deputy Director for Health Care Benefits and Eligibility (HCBE). She provides leadership for benefit and eligibility policy planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of health care services and delivery systems under Medi-Cal and for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). HCBE is comprised of five divisions and one office: Benefits, Eligibility, Pharmacy Benefits, Primary and Rural Indian Health, Dental, and the Office of Family Planning. René works to ensure that policies, procedures, and related activities in HCBE conform to applicable state and federal policies, statutes and regulations. She assists the Directorate, Administration and State Legislature in determining program direction consistent with legislative intent and consults with the Director and State Medicaid Director on issues of significant policy impact involving both Medi-Cal and CHIP. René has played a major role in policy planning, development, and implementation on matters pertaining to health care reform implementation and coverage expansions for children and young adults under Medi-Cal.
Mary McIntyre
Mary McIntyre
Chief Medical Officer
Alabama Department of Public Health
Mary G. McIntyre, M.D., M.P.H., SSBB is Chief Medical Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). Dr. McIntyre received her B.S. in biology from Winston Salem State University in Winston Salem, NC. She earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville and served as resident physician in Internal Medicine at the George Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, TN. She obtained a master’s of public health in Health Care Organization and Policy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She studied Lean and Six Sigma at Villanova University from 2010-2011. She is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine through the American Board of Preventive Medicine. She joined ADPH in January 2011, and served as Assistant State Health Officer for Disease Control and Prevention and State Epidemiologist before taking her current position. Prior to beginning her public health career, she served in various roles at the Alabama Medicaid Agency for 14 years. She provided primary care for 11 years before joining the state. She is a member of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), the American Public Health Association (APHA), the Alabama Public Health Association (Alpha), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the Medical Association of the State of Alabama (MASA). She is most proud of being a wife and mother to four amazing adults and a grandmother to three.
Dena Stoner
Dena Stoner
Senior Policy Advisor
Department of State Health Services
Dena Stoner, Director of Innovation Strategy for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities / Behavioral Health Division, has over 40 years of policy, design and implementation experience, including long term services, acute medical care, managed healthcare and behavioral health. She currently concentrates on behavioral health, directing research and demonstration projects and making systemic changes to the state’s Medicaid program. Her work has been featured in peer-reviewed publications. Some of her current projects include the state’s Money Follows the Person behavioral health pilot and a randomized trial of self-direction for adults with serious mental illness. She also chairs the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors’ Finance Policy Division, serves on the National Research Institute’s Board of Directors, is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and chairs NASHP’s Long Term and Chronic Care Committee.
Jason McGill
Jason McGill
Assistant Director, Medicaid Program Operations & Integrity
Washington State Health Care Authority
Jason serves the state through public leadership for our Medicaid program, including joint stewardship of the program key elements such as Medicaid managed care oversight and program integrity. Working across divisions, he is leading managed care strategic planning and working on establishing performance metrics along with other major tasks of managing this large program. He previously served two Governors for Washington state as senior health policy advisor. He led the Governor’s health and related strategic vision, goals and policy initiatives, including long term care. His service has spanned critical times during the deep recession to implementing the Affordable Care Act that has resulted in expanded Medicaid and exchange health coverage to over 800,000 people in Washington. He also currently serves on the NASHP board and a member of the long term care committee.
Mike McCormick
Mike McCormick
Aging & People with Disabilities Interim Director
Oregon Department of Human Services
With more than two decades of state service, and a majority of those with the Department of Human Services, Mike McCormick has extensive knowledge of the agency’s program structure, client needs and policy guidelines.
Mike served as the Deputy Director of the Aging and People with Disabilities program in 2012 and from December 2015 to October 2019, when he assumed the Interim Director position. Mike was a key leader in securing approval for Oregon’s 1915(K) State Plan Option. He then used these tools to dramatically expand the percentage of individuals receiving services in their own home.
Prior to his work with Aging and People with Disabilities, Mike led the Department’s Office of Rates, Contracting and Research. During his tenure, Mike provided leadership on financial management, effective use of data in administering programs and establishing fair, competitive rates for long-term care providers.
During his leadership role for the Provider Audit Section, Mike adopted a data analytics approach towards assessing risk of errors, fraud and abuse in Oregon Health Plan’s medical programs. Under Mike’s leadership, millions of tax dollars were recovered and ultimately were used to fund needed services for Oregonians.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Mike graduated from University of Oregon with a BS in Business Administration.
Patti Killingsworth is an Assistant Commissioner for TennCare and the Chief of Long-Term Services & Supports (LTSS). She is a nationally recognized leader and highly sought-after expert and adviser in home and community-based services (HCBS), managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS), value-based purchasing for LTSS, and initiatives to improve care for beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. She has worked in Medicaid programs for over two decades, leading system redesign initiatives in multiple states. Her commitment is to transforming LTSS systems to better meet the needs of older adults and people with disabilities and their families, promoting the development and expansion of cost-effective HCBS options, and ensuring that that the voice and perspective of older adults, people with disabilities, family members, and other key stakeholders is brought to bear in policy and program decision-making processes.
Ashley Harrell
Ashley Harrell
Senior Program Advisor
Department of Medical Assistance Services, Virginia
Ashley Harrell is the Senior Program Advisor in the Behavioral Health Division at the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services. Ashley’s role in the Virginia Medicaid agency in most recent years was leading the implementation of the transformation of the Medicaid Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services – “Addiction and Recovery Treatment Services or ARTS”. ARTS has been recognized nationally as the model for States implementing SUD Demonstration Waivers. Ashley is also the Project Director for Virginia’s Section 1003 Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act. Virginia is one of fifteen states awarded the Grant to increase SUD treatment and recovery provider capacity. Prior to this, Ashley managed the Maternal and Child Health Division at the Medicaid agency to improve access to and enhance services for women and children eligible for Medicaid. Ashley is licensed in Clinical Social Work in Virginia, with degrees both in Master’s and Bachelor’s in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Jeffrey Hayden
Jeffrey Hayden
Senator
State of Minnesota
Sessions:
Wednesday Plenary: Legislatures Confront the Pandemic’s Aftershock – High Unemployment, Less Revenue, and Ongoing Health Threats
Senator Jeff Hayden was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2011 after serving in the state House of Representatives for four years. Sen. Hayden is the ranking DFL member on the Senate Human Services Reform committee; he also serves on the Commerce, Health and Human Services, and Finance committees. Hayden was elected by his peers as Assistant DFL Leader in 2016.
Senator Hayden has advocated for progressive policies in his community for decades and has been at the forefront of economic justice and health care issues throughout his legislative career. He authored the statewide minimum wage increase and helped pass a guaranteed school lunch program for all children regardless of their families’ ability to pay. He has pushed for enacting a single-payer health care system to expand access to affordable health care and has continually advocated for increased funding of Child Care Assistance Programs. He also authored the African American Family Preservation Act, which would protect the best interests of children and promote the stability and security of African American families. In 2015, Sen. Hayden co-chaired the Senate’s first Select Committee on Disparities and Opportunities which has invested more than $100 million into communities of color. And after more than 30 years, Senator Hayden was successful in securing the first increase in the Minnesota Family Investment Program since 1986. In 2019, Jeff authored and successfully passed legislation that removes certain racial restrictive covenants from housing deeds in the Twin Cities.
Joe Flores
Joe Flores
Deputy Secretary of Finance
Virginia Office of the Governor
Joe was appointed Deputy Secretary of Finance in January 2018. He provides guidance to the Governor and Secretary of Finance on a range of fiscal policy issues especially those related to Health and Human Resources (HHR). Joe is currently heading up efforts to identify, monitor, track, and provide counsel on expenditures from federal stimulus bills to address the impact of COVID-19 in Virginia. He helped lead Governor Northam’s successful Medicaid expansion efforts that included strategic planning, policy design, fiscal analysis, stakeholder engagement, legislative negotiations, and communications. Joe previously served as Deputy Secretary of HHR for Governor Terry McAuliffe.
For two decades, Joe was a fiscal analyst serving legislators in Texas, Minnesota, and Virginia on the breadth of fiscal policy issues in health and human resources. As a non-partisan legislative fiscal analyst, he was a resource to lawmakers, agency officials, advocacy groups, the media, and the public on issues related to health care, social services, public health, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, children and adult services.
Sarah Emond
Sarah Emond
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Institute for Clinical and Economic Review
With over 20 years of experience in the business and policy of health care, Sarah leads the strategic operations of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a leading non-profit health policy research organization, as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining ICER, Sarah spent six years in the corporate communications and investor relations department at a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, and several years with a health care communications firm. Sarah began her career in clinical research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Sarah holds a Master of Public Policy degree with a concentration in health policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University and received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Smith College. Sarah speaks frequently at national conferences on the topics of prescription drug pricing policy, comparative effectiveness research, and value-based health care.
Stacie Dusetzina
Stacie Dusetzina
Professor
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Stacie Dusetzina is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She is a health services researcher focusing on the intersection between health policy, epidemiology, and economics related to prescription drugs. She received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2010 and post-doctoral training at the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in 2012.
Dr. Dusetzina’s work focuses on prescription drug prices and affordability for consumers, with a special focus on high-priced or complex drugs. Her body of work has led to her participation in the President’s Cancer Panel’s workshops on Access to Cancer Drugs, her appointment to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on Ensuring Patient Access to Affordable Drugs, and testifying before the Senate Aging Committee on the same topic in 2019.
Shannon Dowler
Shannon Dowler
Chief Medical Officer
North Carolina Medicaid, Division of Health Benefits, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Dowler joined NC DHHS as the Chief Medical Officer for North Carolina Medicaid in 2019. Her past experience with Medicaid includes chairing the Physician Advisory Group for Medicaid (an independent legislated non-profit whose sole purpose is advising Medicaid on clinical policy) for many years. In the COVID pandemic she has led efforts across DHHS related to Telehealth and Health Equity with a focus on increasing testing in Historically Marginalized Populations.
Dr. Dowler obtained her medical degree from East Carolina (Brody) School of Medicine and completed a Family Medicine Residency and Fellowship in Asheville at MAHEC. She has spent her career in the service of non-profits including: the local health department providing full spectrum care (OB without deliveries) as well as a long standing role in the STD clinic, as CMO for a large FQHC in WNC, and most recently served as Associate Chief Quality Officer and Chief of Community Medicine for Mission Health System.
Steven Costantino
Steven Costantino
Director of Healthcare Reform and Financing
Delaware Health and Social Services
Steven M. Costantino is currently the Director of Health Care Reform for the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. His emphases is on driving payment and delivery transformation to more value-based and integrative care models across multiple payers of services. He is actively engaged in the development and implementation of a health care quality and cost benchmark for the State of Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. He was the lead on approval of a 1332 waiver application to CMS for reinsurance. He is also actively involved in the development of an MCO/ACO application process for Medicaid.
As Commissioner and of the Department of Vermont Health Access and Medicaid Director (2015-2017), he provided leadership and strategy for many of Vermont’s expansive Health Care Reform
As Secretary of the Executive Office of Health & Human Services (2011-2015), he applied his extensive experience in government and a variety of fields relating to health and human services to improve the quality of life of Rhode Island residents.
He was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1995 to 2010. He was appointed to the House Committee on Finance in 1999 and rose to the position of Chairman in 2004, retaining that leadership position for seven years.
He was Executive Director of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association of RI from 1986 to 1995.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College obtaining a Masters in Health Care Delivery Science, class of 2020.
Eileen Cody
Eileen Cody
State Representative,
Washington’s 34th District Washington State House of Representatives
Representative Eileen Cody was raised on her family’s farm in Iowa. After graduating from high school, Eileen earned an Associate’s degree in nursing from the College of Saint Mary and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Creighton University.
Eileen recently retired after working at Kaiser Permanente (formerly Group Health Cooperative) in Seattle for the past forty years. In addition to her work at Kaiser Permanente, Eileen is a founding member of District 1199 NW/SEIU Hospital and Health Care Employees Union.
First appointed and subsequently retained to the House of Representatives in 1994, Eileen has dedicated her legislative career to achieving affordable, quality healthcare for all residents of Washington state. Eileen currently serves as chair of the House Health Care and Wellness committee. Most recently, Eileen was instrumental in the creation and passage of Cascade Care, Washington state’s public option plan.
Emma Chacon
Emma Chacon
Operations Director
Division of Medicaid and Health Financing, Utah Department of Health
Emma Chacon is the Operations Director with the Division of Medicaid and Health Financing, Utah Department of Health. This position serves as a deputy to the State Medicaid Director. In her role, Ms. Chacon oversees, all aspects of Utah’s Medicaid and CHIP programs including the claims processing, program integrity, coverage and reimbursement policy, eligibility policy, managed care, and long term services and supports.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Chacon served as an Assistant Director for the Division and as the Director of the Bureau of Managed Health Care. In this position she was responsible for the administration of managed health care for physical, behavioral and dental health for both Medicaid and CHIP for the State of Utah. During her tenure the State of Utah implemented Medicaid reform through the creation of Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations. She is also part of Utah’s team to implement Medicaid expansion.
Prior to joining the Department of Health in 2005, Ms. Chacon served as the Director of the Office of Recovery Services, Utah Department of Human Services which is the Child Support Enforcement agency for the state of Utah. Ms. Chacon served in this capacity for 12 of her 29 years with the Utah Department of Human Services.
Dean Rosen has played a leading role in developing and advancing health policy for more than 20 years. He has a deep understanding of America’s complex health care system and an equally intimate knowledge of politics and process. A partner at Mehlman Castagnetti, Dean joined the firm to direct its health care practice in September 2005 after five years as the chief health care advisor to Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist (R-TN). Dean has held senior positions in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, serving in the Congressional Leadership as well as on key health care committees. He also served in several senior positions with the Health Insurance Association of America. He has helped shepherd through Congress major legislation involving a variety of policy areas, including Medicaid and Medicare reform, FDA regulation, health insurance coverage and health
care quality. Throughout his career, he has forged strong working relationships with key decision-makers on both sides of the political aisle in Congress and within the broader health policy community.
Chris Jennings
Chris Jennings
Founder and President
Jennings Policy Strategies Inc.
Chris Jennings is a decades-long health policy veteran of the White House, the Congress and the private sector. He served President Obama as Deputy Assistant to the President for Health Policy and Coordinator of Health Reform, and in a similar capacity in the Clinton White House for nearly eight years. In his decade with the U.S. Senate, he served as the Deputy Director of the Special Committee on Aging for three Senators (Glenn, Pryor, and Melcher). He also served in a major role for the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care. Mr. Jennings has advised eight Presidential campaigns, the 2008, 2016 and 2020 Democratic Platform Drafting Committees, and multiple gubernatorial and Senate candidates. Jennings Policy Strategies (JPS) is a nationally respected health care consulting firm committed to assisting foundations, purchasers, health systems, and aligned stakeholders develop policies to ensure higher quality, more affordable and sustainable health care.
Richard Figueroa
Richard Figueroa
Deputy Cabinet Secretary
Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom
Richard Figueroa is a Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom where he is responsible for health and human services issues. He was previously the Director of Prevention and the Affordable Care Act for The California Endowment. He has served twice previously in the California Governor’s Office, where he was a Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Health Care Advisor for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Deputy Legislative Secretary for Governor Davis where he was responsible for health care, human services and health insurance issues.
Erika Ferguson
Erika Ferguson
Director of the Office of Healthy Opportunities
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Erika Ferguson serves as the Director of the Office of Healthy Opportunities for the NC Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she leads the Department’s comprehensive strategy to effectively deliver health, not just health care by addressing the medical and non-medical drivers of health including housing, food, transportation and interpersonal safety. Erika started her career managing a homeless shelter in the Mississippi Delta and has since served in a variety of capacities across health care and human services including positions at Duke University and the World Health Organization. Erika holds a BS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and Duke University and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Chris DeMars
Chris DeMars
Transformation Center Director
Oregon Health Authority Transformation Center
Chris DeMars, MPH, is the Director of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Transformation Center and the Deputy Director of OHA’s Delivery System Innovation Office. In addition, she plays a lead role in the agency’s value-based payment and social determinants of health work. Before joining the OHA in 2013, Chris spent eight years as a senior program officer at the Northwest Health Foundation, where she managed the foundation’s health care reform grant making. Prior to working for the foundation, Chris spent six years as a senior health policy analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, contributing to numerous reports for Congress on Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance payment policy. Chris has also held positions at Kaiser Permanente Northwest and health-policy consulting firms, including Health Management Associates, and she began her career as a policy analyst intern at Indiana’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. Chris holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Michigan.
Ms. Dickerson has over 30 years of experience in the field of public health and strategic policy development. Currently, she serves as Bureau Chief for Long-Term Services and Supports in the Ohio Department of Medicaid since 2017. Her primary focus is to develop and implement state Medicaid policies in the areas of nursing and intermediate care facilities, home and community-based waivers, maternal and child health and developmental disabilities. Ms. Dickerson also coordinates with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and interpret federal guidelines, draft legislative language and perform comparative analysis to determine the most appropriate delivery of services for individuals and families. Previously, she was Section Chief for Interagency Policy in the Ohio Department of Medicaid 2011-2017, Project Manager for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services 2010-2011; Chief of Human Resources for the Ohio Office of Budget and Management 2008-2010; Assistant Director for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation from 2003-2008 and held various management positions within the Ohio Department of Health 1990-2003; and she also worked as a contract administrator with the federal government from 1988-1990. Ms. Dickerson has extensive experience in administering health services programs through collaborative partnerships with state agencies, local health departments, managed care organizations, hospitals, pharmacies and community-based organizations. In addition, she has been instrumental in creating non-traditional health education programs for under-served populations and has been nationally recognized for her statewide leadership in the implementation of efforts in high-risk communities. Ms. Dickerson holds a Masters degree in Health Services Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor’s degree in Health Education from Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio.
Marie Ganim
Marie Ganim
Health Insurance Commissioner
State of Rhode Island
Marie Ganim, Ph.D., is the Health Insurance Commissioner for the State of Rhode Island. In this role, she ensures the solvency of health insurers, protects consumers, encourages the fair treatment of providers, and works to improve health care quality, accessibility, and affordability. The Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner was created in 2005 to oversee both health insurance regulation and health policy for the state. Addressing the cost of health care through alternative payment and delivery models has been the focus of the Office’s reform agenda.
Cindy Gillespie
Cindy Gillespie
Secretary Arkansas Department of Human Services
State of Arkansas
Cindy Gillespie was appointed secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services by Governor Asa Hutchinson in March of 2016. She oversees Medicaid, child welfare, juvenile justice and other programs that support the well-being of the state’s most vulnerable populations. Her previous career includes serving as a principal at the multinational law firm Dentons where she led the Health Policy and Health Insurance Exchange Teams, as an advisor to Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on health policy and federal programs, and as senior management for both the Salt Lake and Atlanta Olympic Games.
Jean is a Registered Nurse that has over 30 years in hospital, home care and hospice administration. She holds a masters of science degree in nursing as a clinical nurse specialist and masters degree in hospital administration. She is currently completing her 20th year in the South Dakota State Legislature serving in both House and Senate. She has served on Health and Human Services Committee, chairing for four years in the Senate, Judiciary Committee and Local Government. She has served ten years on Joint Appropriations Committee serving as the Senate Chair. She currently is Vice Chair of House Appropriations and Chair of the Interim Rules Committee. She is a member of the RSG Steering Committee and serves on the Executive Committee for NCSL. She is a small business owner/operator of a Sports Bar and a Fitness Center and operates a small farm operation. She is married and has four children and six grandchildren.
Heather Korbulic
Heather Korbulic
Executive Director
Silver State Health Insurance Exchange
Heather Korbulic is the Executive Director of the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, Nevada’s state agency that runs and operates the online health insurance marketplace known as Nevada Health Link. Heather has over a decade of experience in human service specifically related to health care policy. She specializes in government affairs, public relations, coordinated project management and strategic planning. Under Heather’s direction the Nevada Exchange was the first state to successfully transition functionality away from the platform to operate as a fully autonomous state based exchange. Heather has a degree from the University of Oregon and is a Certified Public Manager.
Kevin Patterson
Kevin Patterson
Chief Executive Officer
Connect for Health Colorado
Kevin Patterson has served as Chief Executive Officer of Connect for Health Colorado since April of 2015. He previously served as chief administrative officer and interim chief of staff to Gov. John Hickenlooper and has an extensive history of public service. Kevin brings a strong understanding of local, state, and federal government and stakeholder engagement to this role. For his time at Connect for Health Colorado, Kevin has been focused on improving the customer experience so they can focus on health insurance with tax credits implications. Kevin has held many senior leadership roles for the city and county of Denver. He was elected to the Denver Board of Education in 2001 and 2005. Kevin graduated with a B.A. in Teaching from Sam Houston State University and holds both a Master’s of Public Administration and a Master’s of Urban Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver. Kevin is known as a collaborative non-partisan problem solver for Colorado issues.
Jennifer Sullivan
Jennifer Sullivan
Secretary
Indiana Family and Social Services Administration
Jennifer Sullivan, M.D., M.P.H. was appointed as Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration by Governor Eric J. Holcomb effective January 9, 2017. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Deputy State Health Commissioner and Director for Health Outcomes at the Indiana State Department of Health. Dr. Sullivan is currently a Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. She served as the Division Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine and was the Program Director for the Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics Residency from 2007-2015. Dr. Sullivan continues to work clinically in the Riley Hospital for Children Emergency Department.
She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston Honors College and her Masters in Public Health at the Richard Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana University. She earned her Medical Doctorate at Indiana University School of Medicine and is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics.
Dr. Sullivan is dedicated to building effective and efficient delivery of health care and social services to Hoosiers. She takes a public health approach to policy decisions and is committed to strategic alignment across government and the private sector to improve health outcomes and fill unmet social needs. She was recognized in 2019 as the recipient of the APHSA Friedman Health and Human Services Impact Award and is a 2017 Indianapolis Business Journal Woman of Influence.
FSSA is a health care and social service delivery and integration agency. The mission of FSSA is To compassionately serve our diverse community of Hoosiers by dismantling long-standing, persistent inequity through deliberate human services system improvement.
Judy Theriot
Judy Theriot
Medical Director
Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services
Judith Ann Theriot, MD, CPE, is the Medical Director for the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services and has served in that capacity since May 2019. Prior to that, she was the Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs’ Medical Director from July 2013 through May 2019. Dr. Theriot attended medical school at the University of Louisville (UofL) then went on to complete her Pediatric residency and a chief resident year before joining the faculty at UofL. Dr. Theriot served as the director of the General Pediatrics Clinical Research Unit and prior to that as the medical director of the Children and Youth Project; a multidisciplinary primary care clinic serving the inner-city high-risk children of Louisville Kentucky. Dr. Theriot is a certified physician executive and is a professor of Pediatrics at UofL. In addition to her administrative duties with Medicaid, she continues to see patients weekly in clinic at UofL and teach pediatric residents.
Marylou Sudders
Secretary
Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Marylou Sudders serves as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, overseeing 12 agencies and MassHealth, with a combined budget of $24 billion and 22,000 public employees delivering essential services that touch the lives of 1 in 4 state residents. Since joining Governor Baker’s cabinet in January 2015, Sudders has advanced strategic policy priorities, including: restructuring MassHealth into a population-based health coverage system, reforming the child welfare system, addressing the opioid epidemic, integrating physical and behavioral health care, and strengthening community-based services. Sudders co-chairs the Governor’s Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, the Governor’s Interagency Council on Aging, and chairs the Autism Commission and the board of Massachusetts Health Connector, the state’s health insurance marketplace. Sudders has held leadership roles across the public and private sectors, including serving as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Mental Health, a non-profit CEO, and associate professor and program chair at Boston College School of Social Work, a top ten nationally-ranked program. Sudders holds a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree in social work from Boston University, and honorary doctorates from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Bridgewater State University. She is the recipient of many civic, social work, and professional honors.
Tim Peterson test
Speaker
Tim has over 20 years of experience implementing state government systems, including end-to-end management of the entire software development lifecycle from contract negotiations and project initiation, through implementation, certification, and post-production operations. For the past several years, Tim has serves as the project manager for Montana Program for Automating and Transforming Healthcare (MPATH) initiative. The MPATH project is replacing Montanas 33 year old legacy Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) using a modular strategy leveraging existing COTS/SaaS solutions. Tim led the development of Montanas modularity replacement strategy that resulted in the Modularity Blueprint for the replacement of the remaining legacy components supporting the Montana Healthcare Programs. Additionally, he recently led the implementation of the Departments Population Health Data Analytics module to support Montanas Medicaid program.
Mark Greenberg
Speaker
Mark Greenberg is a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. His work focuses on immigration issues affecting children and families and implications of immigration enforcement and policy for health and human services programs and agencies.
From 2009-17, Mr. Greenberg worked at the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and was ACF Acting Assistant Secretary from 2013-17. ACF includes the Office of Refugee Resettlement and a wide range of other programs assisting low-income and vulnerable children, families and communities. Previously, Mr. Greenberg was Executive Director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy; Executive Director of the Center for American Progress’ Task Force on Poverty; Director of Policy for the Center for Law and Social Policy; and a legal services lawyer at the Western Center on Law and Poverty and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
Marie Zimmerman oversee and lead the major functions Minnesotas Medicaid program, Medical Assistance, and its Basic Health Plan, MinnesotaCare, the program which provide health coverage to 1.2 million Minnesotans. This includes: agency-wide Medicaid policy development and implementation; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) federal relations; health care program eligibility policy and operations (state-run and county oversight); benefits policy; pharmacy benefit management; health services and dental services advisory committees; managed care contracting, provider rate-setting; purchasing strategies and delivery systems reforms; enrollee and provider customer service; provider enrollment and training; provider claims payment; and benefit recovery and program integrity functions.
Most recently Zimmerman has been working as a Vice President at Hennepin Healthcare, but prior to that she served as Minnesotas State Medicaid Director for 4 years, and several roles at DHS over the past decade that included leading the development and launch of the departments purchasing reform initiatives including direct provider contracting through the Integrated Health Partnership program, managed care organization oversight and purchasing reforms, and integrated managed care products for seniors and people with disabilities. Additionally, Zimmerman served as the Health Care Administration policy director, deputy director of managed care and payment policy division and as the budget and legislative director.
Thomas Novak
Speaker
Thomas Novak is the Medicaid Interoperability lead in the Office of Policy at ONC where he supports the advancement of Medicaid interoperability in the drafting and review of federal regulations. He is detailed part time to the CMS Medicaid Data and Systems Group where he provides direct support to State Medicaid agencies and state governments on Health Information Exchange funding and strategy.
Virginia Dize is Co-Director of the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC) and Program Director at the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a). She has more than thirty years’ experience in Aging programs, the last 10 years focused on transportation for older adults and people with disabilities. Prior to joining the staff of n4a, she served as an Associate Director of the National Association of State Units on Aging. Ms. Dize oversees n4a’s transportation initiatives, including work on the Inclusive Coordinated Transportation Partnership project funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) and she previously served as co-director of the National Center on Senior Transportation (NCST; 2008-2015). She has managed several rounds of demonstration grants under the NCST and NADTC. She has a Master of Science degree in Gerontology from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History from Mary Washington College.
Tara Murphy is the Deputy Director of DSRIP Statewide Investments at MassHealth. Since January 2017, she has led the design, roll out, and management of a $115 million portfolio of Statewide Investment programs aimed advancing Massachusetts efforts to transform healthcare payment and care delivery and improve health outcomes for its MassHealth population. Prior to MassHealth, Tara served as the founding Administrative Director for the Kraft Center for Community Health Leadership at Partners HealthCare, a then-new entity focused on improving access to high quality healthcare in traditionally underserved communities by strengthening the workforce in community health centers. She previously held leadership roles in global health, first at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and then at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. She has also consulted at numerous community health centers and nonprofits.
Tara is a Board member at ParentChild+, a national nonprofit that uses early education and home visiting to help families build a brighter future for their children and themselves. She holds an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Dr. Tisha Holmes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. She conducts interdisciplinary work on planning for hazards and risks in order to reduce physical and social vulnerabilities and seek ways to build resilience in vulnerable, marginalized communities. Her research also emphasizes active community participation in research, education and decision-making processes to address the present and potential impact of climatological risks.
Holmes is collaborating with researchers in FSU Geography and the Center for Climate Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) to evaluate efforts of climate change adaptation planning in US local public health agencies and their engagement with vulnerable populations through the CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program. She is also conducting research on adaptation approaches to sea level rise in Florida and developing work on climate resilience planning in the Caribbean.
Joe Bryant is currently the Health Care Policy Advisor to Governor John C. Carney (Delaware). Joe has been in his current position since 2017. During his time in the Carney Administration, Joe has successfully championed many of the Governor’s top health policy initiatives. In addition to his work in the Governor’s Office, he serves as a Captain in the Delaware Army National Guard.
Joe graduated with a B.A. from Maryville College (TN) in 2008. As a senior, he successfully defended his thesis paper, “Concussions in sports: How educated are athletes about this diagnosis?” In 2012, he graduated from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with a M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling.
Prior to his current position, Joe worked as a Constituent Relations Liaison during Rep. John Carney’s time in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was Rep. Carney’s liaison for matters concerning the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration. In addition, Joe has several years of experience as a professional mental health counselor.
Wilmarie González has been working for almost 14 yrs. as a PA public servant, first with the Department of Aging, and now with the Department of Human Services as a top executive collaborating with local, state and federal agencies. Wilmarie has represented the state before legislative and executive branches in strengthening advocacy systems. Wilmarie has led teams in state studies and evaluations on elder abuse, financial exploitation, and guardianship issues impacting the aging population; Wilmarie has been a featured speaker at local, state and national forums covering topics from advocacy, protection, quality strategy, performance measures, and state funded programs.
Wilmarie is leading the new MLTSS Community HealthChoices programs quality strategy impacting Medicaid and Medicare services for the dual population. It includes establishing sound quality components that include early implementation strategy, performance measures, performance improvement projects, long-term evaluation while collaborating with internal and external stakeholder engagement.
Wilmarie has served as a board member in national, state and local organizations influencing public policy, education, older adults, and the arts. Former member of the PA Supreme Court Elder Law Task Force and Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Courts, and current member of the PA Judicial Conduct Board.
Wilmarie is a graduate of Rosemont College with a Masters in Management, and Eastern University with a Bachelors in Organizational Management.
Tom Curtis
Speaker
Tom Curtis serves as the manager of Quality Improvement and Program Development for Medicaid managed care at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). In this role, he is responsible for establishing, administering, and evaluating Michigans managed care performance monitoring, improvement, and innovation activity in Medicaid. This role includes supporting the department’s Health Equity, Social Determinants of Health, Payment Reform, and Behavioral/Physical Health Integration policy efforts in the Medicaid managed care program. Tom worked previously as the State Administrator for Michigan’s State Innovation Model (SIM) project, and as a Senior Quality Analyst with the MDHHS Managed Care Plan Division, where he developed performance improvement partnerships with Medicaid health plans. Tom worked for many years on local community engagement and organizing efforts before joining MDHHS.
Kierra Barnett
Speaker
Kierra S. Barnett is a PHD candidate in the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University and a Graduate Research Associate at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Kierra’s work focuses on the impact of social determinants of health (i.e. socioeconomic conditions, education, and natural, built and social environments) on racial and ethnic health disparities. Her dissertation research specifically explores John Henryism (an active coping mechanism against stressors), socio-economic status, and health disparities among Blacks.
Having joined the Kirwan Institute in 2013, Kierra has collaborated with state, county and city public health departments, as well as non-for-profit organizations, to assess health outcomes, such as infant mortality, and make policy and practice-based recommendations to address the disparities. After completing her doctoral degree, she intends to continue her scholarship to better understand health among Black populations across the socio-economic gradient.
Kierra also holds a Masters of Public Health from OSU and a Bachelors of Science in Community Health from the University of Illinois.
Chris Taylor is the Chief Inclusion Officer for the state of Minnesota. In his role, he facilitates change across the state system of government, creating more inclusive state agencies and promoting equity in state programs and services.
Taylor received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and a Master’s degree from the Cooperstown Graduate Program for Museum Studies. He is currently working on a Doctorate of Education in the Organization Development and Change program at the University of St. Thomas.
Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH recently joined the AMA in April 2019 as their inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer and Vice President. Her role is to embed health equity in all the work of the AMA and to launch a Center for Health Equity.
Prior to this in 2014, Dr. Maybank became an Associate Commissioner, and later a Deputy Commissioner, and lunched the Center for Health Equity, a new division in the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene geared toward strengthening and amplifying the Health Department’s work in ending health inequities. Under her leadership, and in a short amount of time, the health department made great strides in transforming the culture and public health practice by embedding health equity in the health department’s work. This work has been recognized and adapted by other City agencies and has captured the attention of the CDC and WHO.
She also teaches medical and public health students on topics related to health inequities, public health leadership and management, physician advocacy, and community organizing health. Currently, Dr. Maybank serves as President of the Empire State Medical Association, the NYS affiliate of the National Medical Association. In 2012, she co-founded “We Are Doc McStuffins,” a movement created by African-American female physicians who are inspired by the Disney Junior character, Doc McStuffins.
Dr. Maybank holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, an MD from Temple University School of Medicine, and an MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is a pediatrician and board certified in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
Dee Jones is the Executive Director of the North Carolina State Health Plan, which provides health care coverage to more than 725,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents. Jones has responsibility for the day-to-day strategy and operations of the Plan, working closely with the State Treasurer and the Plan’s Board of Trustees to monitor the financial condition of the Plan, implement quality improvements and maintain cost-effective programs for Plan members.
Before joining the Plan in 2017, Jones held executive leadership roles within the State at NC Department of Health and Human Services and NC Department of Administration. In addition, her private sector senior leadership experience across strategic operations and financial roles includes 11 years with Time Warner Cable and six years at Siemens Energy & Automation.
Dee holds an M.B.A./Accounting degree from the University of Phoenix and B.A. degrees in Accounting and Business Management from NC State University.
Elisabeth Arenales has been the Senior Policy Advisor on Health for Governor Jared Polis since January 2019. Prior to working for Governor Polis, she spent twenty years as the Health Program Director for the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. CCLP is Colorado’s unrestricted legal services program and focuses on family economic security. Elisabeth is recognized as a health policy expert and has a strong track record of protecting, preserving, and expanding access to health care, particularly for lower-income Coloradans. She has helped to shepherd legislation and programs that increased coverage, reduced health access barriers and led to significant changes in the Colorado health landscape.
Lisa Beauregard is the Director of the Home and Community Based Services Policy Lab at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elders Affairs where she previously served as a research analyst. She competed a Ph.D. in Public Policy at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global States at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2019. Previously, Dr. Beauregard received a Masters in International Political Economics from The Catholic University of America and a Bachelors of Arts, cum laude, in Political Science, from the College of the Holy Cross.
Jessica Rhoades
Speaker
Jessica Rhoades is an accomplished health care policy and advocacy leader with broad expertise and experience in Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, health insurance and payment and delivery system reform. She has served as health care policy advisor to two governors. She also served as Policy Director for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, where she oversaw the state’s Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion and served as Montana’s State Innovation Model Design Director, resulting in Montana’s largest ever public-private value-based payment initiative. Her work in the private sector includes working in public affairs for a national health care provider covering 14 states. Most recently, Rhoades led the effort to pass Montana’s reinsurance legislation and waiver submission.
Erica Phillips
Speaker
Ms. Phillips is a business development professional with 30+ years experience helping organizations apply data to solve complex problems.
Erica joined Esri, the global leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 3 years ago as the lead on Federal Health agencies. She works with agencies such as CDC, FDA, NIH and SAMHSA and with State Health Departments applying GIS to address public health issues such as the opioid crisis and access to health care. Erica advocates the idea that Place Matters for Health and utilizes Esris technology to support innovative approaches to public health challenges.
Prior to joining Esri, Erica worked for Nielsen Claritas and VNU/Mediamark focused on developing and supporting data-driven solutions. Highlights include the work she did with the Ohio Department of Health to define food deserts and the communities impacted by them.
A native New Yorker, Ms. Phillips is a graduate of Hunter College with a BA in Economics.
Ellie Hartman, Ph.D., BCBA-D, graduated from the University of Minnesota in Educational Psychology with a concentration in special education where she taught Behavior Analysis and Classroom Management and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst – Doctorate (BCBA-D). Dr. Hartman was an evaluator for Wisconsin’s SSDI two for one pilot, Wisconsin’s Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG), and the Administration on Intellectual and Development Disabilities (AIDD)’s Partners in Employment grant, called Let’s Get to Work in Wisconsin. Dr. Hartman is currently a Senior Scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Stout Vocational Rehabilitation Institute (SVRI) and is the Project Manager for Wisconsin PROMISE. As the Project Manager for Wisconsin PROMISE, Dr. Hartman, has been coordinating and leading the PROMISE inter-agency leadership and work groups, including facilitating a inter-agency Management Information System (MIS) for PROMISE program evaluation and data analysis. As a Senior Scientist at SVRI, Dr. Hartman works in close collaboration with the faculty and staff at SVRI and University of Wisconsin, Madison Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education (RPSE).
Chethan Bachireddy is the incoming Chief Medical Officer for the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (Medicaid). He is a physician, researcher, and public servant dedicated to improving health for vulnerable populations. In his new role, he is engaging in efforts related to the opioid epidemic, maternal/child health, value-based payment, and the social drivers of health. Prior to coming to Virginia, he was a National Clinician Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania where his work focused on two areas: 1) improving health for populations with high rates of HIV infection, substance use disorders, mental illness, and justice involvement and 2) applying insights from behavioral economics and clinical trial design to test strategies and technologies to help form healthy habits. He hails from Deep East Texas, studied economics and neurobiology at Harvard, attended medical school at Yale, trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and completed a Masters in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. He is excited to learn and collaborate to improve the health and well-being of the individuals, families, and communities who call Virginia home.
Jeremy Vandehey, J.D. is the Director of the Health Policy and Analytics Division for the Oregon Health Authority, which is responsible for developing and implementing the state’s vision for health reform. His teams’ work includes policy analysis, health care cost and quality reporting, advancing evidence-based care and best practices, spreading the use of electronic health records, advancing payment reform, and purchasing health care for nearly 300,000 public employees. Before joining OHA, Jeremy served as Health Policy Advisor to Governor Kate Brown. Jeremy previously led government relations for Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region and served as the legislative director for OHA during the design and implementation of Oregon’s coordinated care organizations. Jeremy received his Juris Doctor from the University of North Dakota School of Law and his undergraduate degree in public policy and administration from Western Oregon University.
Jaime S. King is the Bion M. Gregory Chair of Business Law and a Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. She is the Associate Dean and Co-Director of the UCSF/UC HastingsConsortium on Science, Law and Health Policy, the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCSF/UC Hastings Master’s Program in Health Law and Policy,and the Director of the J.D. Concentration on Law and Health Sciences. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition, a multi-disciplinary web-based resource about healthcare price and competition.Professor King received the Hastings Foundation Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 2015 and the Best Antitrust and Mergers Article of 2017 at the American Antitrust Institute Annual Meeting with her co-author Erin Fuse Brown.Professor King has testified before Congressional committees on health insurance mergers and price transparency and currently sits on the Board of the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. She holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard University, a J.D. from Emory University, and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Carissa Dougherty, LCSW, has over 18 years experience providing direct clinical practice, program management, and policy work. Ms. Dougherty previously managed an array of permanent and transitional supportive housing programs for persons with mental health and substance use issues. She has co-chaired the local homeless Continuum of Care and provided Mental Health First Aid training to hundreds of homeless service and housing providers.
Ms. Dougherty currently serves as Director in the Office of Mental Health Coordination. She leads a team of program specialists and policy analysts responsible for stakeholder engagement, system coordination, and policy initiatives. Prior to this role, she served as a Senior Advisor with a focus on coordinating services to address the housing needs for persons with IDD and behavioral health disabilities, exploring the sustainable financing options for health and housing initiatives, and promoting policies and programs that support such endeavors.
With over 30 years of healthcare experience, Ms. Ledbetter serves as the Chief Data Officer and Chief of the Enterprise Data Operations Branch in the Information Services Division within the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD). Ms. Ledbetter serves on the National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) board of directors. She is an active member of the California Health Information Association (CHIA), and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Ms. Ledbetter has a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management from The Ohio State University and holds a Masters in Health Services Administration from St. Mary’s College.
Vanessa Avery was appointed as the Associate Attorney General for Enforcement, Litigation and Investigations by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong in January 2019. She manages all aspects of affirmative enforcement by the office, including multi-district cases involving antitrust and government program fraud, consumer protection, the opioid epidemic, the Affordable Care Act, immigration, the environment, privacy and data security, as well as cases pending locally. Previously, she was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut. She handled a broad variety of cases on behalf of the United States, its agencies and employees. Prior to that, she was a Trial Attorney for the Department of Justice Civil Division in Washington, D.C. She also spent over a decade in law firm practice focusing on business and financial litigation. Vanessa earned her degrees at Yale University and Georgetown University Law Center.
Terry Cothran is currently the Director at Pharmacy Management Consultants (a division of the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy). His team provides support to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (state Medicaid agency) in managing the pharmacy benefits for our state Medicaid members. His practice has expanded into areas of Medication Therapy Management, Antibiotic Stewardship, Alternate Payment Models (APMs)/Value-Based Contracting, Academic Detailing, and programs to reduce over prescribing in nursing homes. The APM initiative has gained attention nationally from CMS as the first state Medicaid to initiate an APM intended to reduce prescription and healthcare costs.
Craig Nale is Policy and Legal Director to Senator Troy D. Jackson, the President of the Maine Senate. Craig’s work focuses primarily on the areas of healthcare and health and human services. Craig practiced law at a firm in Portland, Maine, for two years prior to joining the Maine Legislature in 2014. Craig is a graduate of Boston University and the University of Maine School of Law.
Stacey was named Interim Director for the Office of Health Analytics, Oregon Health Authority (OHA), in early 2019. OHA’s Office of Health Analytics is comprised of research, policy, and analytic staff who collect, organize and analyze data which they use to inform efforts to improve Oregon’s health care system. Previously Stacey was the Research and Data Manager within Health Analytics, and before that she managed a team focused on population health data for the Oregon Public Health Division. Stacey received her B.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering and her Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan.
Ms. Bresaw serves as Program Director for the New Hampshire (NH) Governor’s Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) initiative and Vice President of Public Health for Granite United Way. As Program Director, Ms. Bresaw works in close coordination with the Governors Office, the NH Department of Business and Economic Affairs, and the Community Development Finance Authority to administer the initiative. Through this initiative, Ms. Bresaw and her team work to empower employers to challenge stigma and provide supportive work environments for people in recovery and those impacted by substance use disorders. Ms. Bresaw’s role focuses on program development, coordination and alignment, monitoring and evaluation, and sustainability planning. At Granite United Way, Ms. Bresaw oversees public health strategies and initiatives and works to align these efforts with existing collaborations, partnerships, and Community Health Improvement Plans. In addition, Ms. Bresaw provides overall leadership and coordination to statewide public health efforts on behalf of Granite United Way, with a particular focus on addressing NH’s current opioid crisis.
Born and raised in NH, Ms. Bresaw received her Master of Social Work Degree in 2004 from the University of New Hampshire, with a concentration in community and administrative practice. She has worked in the field of public health and substance use disorders since 2004. In her current role, Ms. Bresaw provides ongoing technical assistance and support to key sectors to ensure the use of best practice approaches in public health and prevention. Ms. Bresaw has significant experience in the development of strategic plans, logic models, evaluation plans, and work plans designed to impact crucial public health issues in our communities. Ms. Bresaw currently serves as Co-Chair of the Prevention Task Force of the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs. She also serves as Vice President to the Board of the NH Public Health Association.
Sarah Finne, DMD, MPH brings over 30 years of experience from both private practice dentistry and public health supervision of a large school-based dental program in New Hampshire to her work in Dental Medicaid. Sarah remains active professionally as a member of the board and immediate past president of the Medicare-Medicaid-CHIP State Dental Association, as a member of the Association of State & Territorial Dental Directors, the ADA, and the International College of Dentists. She supports community oral health access through board membership with the NH Dental Society Foundation and the Greater Derry Oral Health Collaborative Corporation. Sarah holds a DMD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine as well as a Master’s in Public Health Administration from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Sarah Brummett, is Director of the Office of Suicide Prevention at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The Office is legislatively mandated as the state coordinating body for suicide prevention, intervention and postvention efforts. The Office sets statewide priorities and works with state agencies and community organizations to develop and implement effective strategies, including a community grant program, means restriction education initiatives, the Zero Suicide initiative, education and awareness programs, emergency department and hospital outreach and education, the Colorado-National Collaborative, federal grant-funded initiatives, Mental Health First Aid, and a school grant program.
Before joining CDPHE, Ms. Brummett practiced family and appellate law in both Colorado Springs and the Denver Metro area. Ms. Brummett received her JD from the Sturm College of Law, University of Denver and also a Master’s of Forensic Psychology from the Graduate School of Professional Psychology, University of Denver.
Sabrina Corlette is a Research Professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at Georgetown University. At CHIR she directs research on health insurance reform issues. Her areas of focus include state and federal regulation of private health insurance plans and markets and evolving insurance market rules. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Ms. Corlette was Director of Health Policy Programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she provided policy expertise and strategic direction for the organizations advocacy on health care reform, with a particular focus on insurance market reform, benefit design, and the quality and affordability of health care. From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Corlette worked as a professional staff member of the U.S. Senate HELP Committee. After leaving the Hill, Ms. Corlette served as an attorney at the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she advised clients on health care law and policy relating to HIPAA, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Ms. Corlette is a member of the D.C. Bar and received her J.D. with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin and her undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard University. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and two daughters.
Richard N. Gottfried has chaired the NY State Assembly Health Committee since 1987 and represents a district in Manhattan. He works to expand publicly funded health coverage; protect patient autonomy, especially in reproductive and end-of-life care; and support safety-net health care providers. He sponsors the “New York Health” bill to create a state single-payer universal health plan and sponsored NY’s medical marijuana law. He’s a lawyer (Columbia, JD ’73) but does not have a private practice. Member of NY Academy of Medicine, National Academy for State Health Policy, Reforming States Group, NYC Bar Association, and NY Civil Liberties Union.
Richard N. Gottfried has chaired the NY State Assembly Health Committee since 1987 and represents a district in Manhattan. He works to expand publicly funded health coverage; protect patient autonomy, especially in reproductive and end-of-life care; and support safety-net health care providers. He sponsors the “New York Health” bill to create a state single-payer universal health plan and sponsored NY’s medical marijuana law. He’s a lawyer (Columbia, JD ’73) but does not have a private practice. Member of NY Academy of Medicine, National Academy for State Health Policy, Reforming States Group, NYC Bar Association, and NY Civil Liberties Union.
Regan Foust, PhD is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and a Research Scientist at the Children’s Data Network at USC. An experienced researcher, project manager, and data translator, she works closely with data, research, and funding partners to pursue and communicate the CDN’s transdisciplinary research agenda, inform childrens’ programs/policies, and build the capacity of government agencies to make better use of their own data. Formerly, as Senior Manager, Data and Research for the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, she managed kidsdata.org, guided development and implementation of child health and well-being initiatives, and stewarded strategic data and communication partnerships. She also comes with prior experience replicating effective youth development interventions and evaluating and improving child welfare and educational programs. Dr. Foust holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in Psychology from U.C. Davis.
Paul Precht is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office at CMS whose portfolio includes policy issues impacting Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans. Prior to starting at CMS in 2010, Mr. Precht was the Policy Director for the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit advocacy and service organization based in New York.
Paige Duhamel is the Healthcare Policy Manager and lawyer for the Office of Superintendent of Insurance for the State of New Mexico. She began her work in the health insurance arena in law school with research on the impact of discriminatory health insurance benefit design on marginalized populations. Prior to joining the New Mexico’s Office of Superintendent of Insurance, she worked in a consumer advocacy law firm focusing on health care reform implementation and women’s access to health care. In the four years that Ms. Duhamel has been with OSI, her work has focused on regulatory and legislative policy development, including the Surprise Billing Protection Act, legislation to align New Mexico law with the Affordable Care Act, protections against unscrupulous purveyors of short term and limited benefits plans, and guarantees for network adequacy and prompt and transparent benefit utilization review.
Dr. Nicole Gastala is board certified in Family Medicine and is currently a Clinical Physician, Researcher, and Director of Behavioral Health and Addiction Medicine at Mile Square Health Center at the University of Illinois Hospitals and Health Science System, in Chicago, IL. Her interests include treating whole families with a special focus on preventative health care, group visits, and medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. She is a graduate of Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and completed her residency at the University of Iowa in Family Medicine.
Michael White has worked in the field of substance use disorder for over 9 years with an additional 3 years working with children and families. Michael specializes in substance use disorder program development between community agencies and judicial systems and has developed, implemented, and supported the integration of Medication Assisted Treatment into county and state correctional facilities located in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Texas. At Community Medical Services Michael supervises a team that closely works with Superior Court Drug Court Programs along with coordinating care to and from county and state correctional facilities. His experience also includes working within family courts, Department of Child Safety, and obtaining resources for pregnant women with substance use disorders by collaborating with community partners. Michael supports efforts of collaboration in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin. Michael is a national presenter in the areas of Collective Impact as an effective tool for the continuum of care, pregnancy and opioid dependence, along with Opioid treatment within Criminal Justice systems. Michael is a two-time graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Masters in Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Counseling. He has been proud to sit on the board for the Maricopa County Reentry Program and was a member of the Coconino County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. Currently, Michael is associated with the Maricopa County Correctional Health Coalition, is an executive board member for Hushabye Baby, and was recently appointed as a board member to Arizona Governor DougDucey’s Substance Abuse Task Force.
Meredith Ray-LaBatt, MA, MSW, works as the Deputy Director of the Division of Integrated Service for Children and Families at the New York State Office of Mental Health. For more than twenty years, Meredith has worked on behalf of children and their families, spending much of her career working to address the complex needs of children with mental health challenges who become involved with various other child-serving systems, including substance use, juvenile justice and child welfare. Most recently, Meredith has been working to transition children and childrens mental health services into Medicaid managed care, under the Medicaid Redesign efforts within New York State. This cross-system effort is working to create greater access and better align children’s behavioral health services for youth with various needs; including those in foster care, with serious mental health challenges and substance use disorders. Meredith holds Masters degrees in Criminal Justice and Social Welfare from the New York State University at Albany.
Megan O’Reilly is the Vice President for Federal Health and Family issues in AARP’s Government Affairs Office. Prior to joining AARP, Megan was the Director in the Office of Legislation at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Megan worked on Capitol Hill for 13 years for both Rep. George Miller on the Education & Labor committee and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Megan holds a JD from DePaul University and a BA from American University.
Matthew Statman LMSW, CAADC is Manager of the University of Michigan Collegiate Recovery Program, Adjunct Lecturer at the Eastern Michigan University School of Social Work, private social work practitioner and member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Matt earned his bachelors degree in Social Work from Eastern Michigan University and his masters degree from the University Of Michigan School Of Social Work. Matt is a person in recovery from a substance use disorder who has spent his career helping those with substance use disorders initiate and sustain recovery.
Mark Schulz
Speaker
Mark Schulz is the LTSS Systems Consultant for the Minnesota Board on Aging and a Legislative Liaison for Minnesotas Aging and Adult Services Division. In these roles he is reshaping the states long term care system to reduce its reliance on institutional care in favor of home and community-based service options and reforming those supports. He brings together key individuals and groups that have the talents and resources needed to develop, foster, fund and implement new, integrated community services at the local level.
Mark has served as an Ombudsman for Long-Term Care learning firsthand the complex reality our most vulnerable adults live with each day. Before that role, he served with the US military in various leadership positions with responsibility for small and large-scale, multi-faceted teams and complex financial situations. Mark received a JD from William Mitchell College of Law and a BS in engineering management from the United State Military AcademyWest Point.
Margarita Alegría
Speaker
Margarita Alegría is the Chief of the Disparities Research Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where she has served since 2004. Dr. Alegria was Director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research at Cambridge Health Alliance from 2002-2015 and a former Director of the Center for Evaluation and Sociomedical Research at the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Alegría is the Principal Investigator (PI) of four National Institutes of Health(NIH)-funded research studies and a grant funded by the William T. Grant Foundation. She has published over 200 papers, editorials, intervention training manuals, and several book chapters, focused on improving health care for diverse racial and ethnic populations. In October 2011, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in acknowledgement of her scientific contributions to her field.
Linette Scott, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Information Officer and the Deputy Director of the Information Management Division in the California Department of Health Care Services. In this role she works across the Department and with stakeholders to ensure that reliable data and information are available, and used to drive improvements in population health and clinical outcomes through the Department’s programs and policies. Dr. Scott is a Board Certified Physician in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine. She has a Doctor of Medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School, a Masters in Public Health from University of California, Davis, and a Bachelors of Arts in Physics from University of California, Santa Cruz. Highlights from her career include serving as a General Medical Officer with the United States Navy, first as squadron physician with the Regional Support Group and later as the military physician for an Active Duty clinic; as a Public Health Medical Officer with the California Department of Health Services; as the California State Registrar and Deputy Director of Health Information and Strategic Planning in the California Department of Public Health, and as the Interim Deputy Secretary for Health Information Technology at the California Health and Human Services Agency.
Leann is the director of the Equity and Inclusion Division for the Oregon Health Authority, joining the agency in 2010. Leann has 25 years of leadership experience developing equity, diversity and inclusion programs. Past employers include Clark College, the City of Vancouver and the YWCA She also has served as a consultant to multiple organizations including the Vancouver Police Department, Portland General Electric, Bonneville Power Administration, Hewlett-Packard and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Leann is a qualified administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory and holds a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with focus in Multicultural Organizational Development and Indigenous Psychology.
Kevin Martin
Speaker
Kevin Martin is the Fee for Service Rates Manager at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. He oversees the maintenance and reform of payment methodologies for inpatient and outpatient hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs), and pharmaceuticals. He has 13 years of healthcare experience ranging from systems management to program integrity and mostly focusing on data analysis in various forms. Recently he has been involved in several large payment reform efforts including, implementation of the Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Grouper methodology for outpatient hospitals and developing a per member per month payment model for FQHCs.
Mr. DeCerchio currently serves as the program director of the In-Depth Technical Assistance Program of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations (SAMHSA) National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, and the Deputy Project Director of the National Quality Improvement Center for Collaborative Community Court Teams, funded by the Childrens Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Prior to joining the staff of Children and Family Futures, Mr. DeCerchio served as the Assistant Secretary for Substance Abuse and Mental Health with the Florida Department of Children and Families Services from 2005 to 2007, and as the state Substance Abuse Director from 1995-2005. In November 2001, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Mr. DeCerchio as Deputy Director for Treatment to the Florida Office of Drug Control, and in 2004 he was appointed by Secretary Tommy Thompson to serve on CSAT´s National Advisory Council. Mr. DeCerchio has been a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem for children in foster care since October 2008.
Katie Gudiksen
Speaker
Katherine L. Gudiksen, Ph.D., M.S., is a Senior Health Policy Researcher for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Her work focuses on policies to address rising healthcare costs with an emphasis on state-level interventions to promote competition. While at The Source, she developed the pharmaceutical page to track and analyze state legislation to address rising drug prices. She is a graduate of the UCSF/UC Hastings Master of Science in Health Policy and Law program, where she studied policy solutions to address market inefficiencies in the pharmaceutical industry. She also holds an A.M. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University and a B.S. and B.A. from Hope College. Prior to joining The Source, she was co-founder and Director of Technology at Nidaan Inc., a cancer diagnostics company working to develop technologies designed to detect biomarker signatures for aggressive prostate cancer.
Kate McEvoy is the Director of the Division of Health Services at the Connecticut Department of Social Services. In her role as Director of Medicaid and CHIP, Kate has had the privilege of overseeing major transformation in Connecticut HUSKY Health, migrating from capitated managed care arrangements to a self-insured, managed fee-for-service approach. This has streamlined and simplified the program for both members and providers, freed up resources for an extensive array of care delivery and value-based payment interventions, and enabled the program to reduce both per member, per month costs and overall spend. During Kates tenure, Connecticut has expanded Medicaid and utilized a broad range of tools and funding under the Affordable Care Act to cover new services, take a person-centered approach, and enable choice and self-direction for older adults and people with disabilities.
Kate is a graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Economics and English, received her law degree from the University of Connecticut, and graduated from the CHCS/NGA Medicaid Leadership Institute. Her background is in community-based services for older adults, and she is the author of Connecticut Elder Law, a treatise that is republished each year. Kate is currently serving as the President of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and on the executive committee of the Reforming States Group.
Karynlee Harrington
Speaker
Karynlee Harrington is the Executive Director of the Maine Health Data Organization (MHDO) & the Maine Quality Forum (MQF). Both State agencies are responsible for promoting the transparency of health care costs and quality in the State of Maine. MHDO is the State of Maines All Payer Claims Database, and is also responsible for collecting hospital encounter, quality, financial and organizational data, and pharmacy data from the supply chain. MQF is responsible for improving health care quality in the state. Prior to her current role, Ms. Harrington served as the Vice President of Sales & Customer Support for CIGNA HealthCare of Maine and New Hampshire. Ms. Harrington has over 25 years experience working in health care. She earned her B.S. from the University of New Hampshire in Health Management and Policy.
Julia Wacloff
Speaker
Julia Wacloff, is the Dental Director for the Arizona Department of Health Services. Julia works with ADHS leadership and management on a variety of public health functions as related to oral health and has been in her current position for ten years. She was responsible for developing the first comprehensive state oral health plan for Arizona. Prior to joining the Department, she served as an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Oral Health. She has over 20 years of experience in various public health settings providing needs assessment, policy development and quality assurance at local, state and national levels.
Johnnie (Chip) Allen currently serves as the first Director of Health Equity at the Ohio Department of Health. In this position Mr. Allen is responsible for developing agency-wide goals, objectives and strategies to eliminate health disparities and promote health equity for all Ohio residents. Additionally, Mr. Allen works in partnership with national public health organizations, state cabinet-level agencies and a variety of public health programs to target services to disenfranchised groups, measure program performance and assess outcomes.
Mr. Allen has served in various public health capacities. These include working as a Disease Intervention Specialist, HIV Program Manager and the Chief of the Center for Health Promotion. Mr. Allen has implemented statewide social marketing activities to respond to chronic diseases; developed enterprise-wide program evaluation systems; and pioneered the use of market research analytic tools with GIS mapping capability to respond to health inequities.
Mr. Allen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Black Studies from The College of Wooster and a Masters in Public Health from Tulane University.
John-Pierre Cardenas
Speaker
John-Pierre Cardenas is the Director of Policy and Plan Management at the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange, where he was the primary author of Marylands state innovation waiver to establish the state reinsurance program. Mr. Cardenas has played a critical role in the shaping of important health coverage legislation in Maryland including the Maryland Easy Enrollment Health Insurance Program. Mr. Cardenas also manages agency relationships with state and federal legislators and regulatory industries; oversees the implementation and administration of the State Reinsurance Program; and provides end-to-end management and oversight of carrier relationships ranging from consumer enrollment to experience. He has been with the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange since 2013 in a variety of roles before assuming his current position in 2017. Mr. Cardenas previously worked as a research intern at the Health Benefits Exchange and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He received his Master of Science in Public Health from the Bloomberg School in 2014 and has a Bachelor of Arts in public health studies from the Johns Hopkins University.
Jodi Manz
Speaker
Jodi Manz, MSW serves as the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Resources in the Office of Governor Ralph Northam, a role she continued after serving four years under former Governor Terry McAuliffe. As Assistant Secretary, Jodi supports the development of health and behavioral health policy in the Commonwealth. She staffs the Governors Advisory Commission on Opioids and Addiction, the Governors Executive Leadership Team on Opioids, and coordinates the substance use disorder crisis response among Virginias state agencies. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Religious Studies, and she spent several years working in Chicago before returning to Richmond to complete the graduate program in Social Work Administration, Planning, and Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Jason Rachel
Speaker
Jason Rachel, Ph.D. is the Director for the Division of Integrated Care at the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS). In this role, he is responsible for providing executive leadership in the management and implementation of both current and new integrated care programs. Dr. Rachel directs and oversees all operations, policies, contract compliance and quality monitoring activities within the division to provide high quality, person-centered coordinated care services. His former roles include serving as a Senior Research Leader at Truven Health Analytics providing technical assistance to state Medicaid home and community-based programs on their quality framework and as Virginia’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) Project Director at DMAS. Dr. Rachel received his doctorate in Health Related Sciences with a specialization in Gerontology from Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Allied Health Professions.
Jane Wishner
Speaker
Jane Wishner is New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Executive Policy Advisor for Health and Human Services. An attorney with extensive experience as a litigator, researcher and advocate, Ms. Wishner left the private practice of law to become the founder and first Executive Director of the Southwest Women’s Law Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she led the Center’s systemic advocacy in the areas of discrimination, domestic violence, Title IX, reproductive health and women’s access to comprehensive health care coverage and services. She organized and led New Mexico’s consumer advisory group on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, served on the Market Regulation work group of the New Mexico Exchange Advisory Task Force and was a consumer representative on the Board of Trustees of the University of New Mexico Hospital, the state’s leading safety net hospital. Ms. Wishner left the Southwest Women’s Law Center to spend more time on health care policy work. She served as a qualitative researcher at the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she led several studies and co-authored numerous research reports, journal articles and briefs related to healthcare access, Medicaid, the private insurance market, opioid use disorder treatment, and the Affordable Care Act. Ms Wishner returned to New Mexico to work as the Policy Director for Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign for Governor, served on the Governor-Elect’s transition team, and joined Governor Lujan Grisham’s Administration in January 2019.
ane Beyer began her career as a legal services attorney in Tacoma Washington. She served as legal counsel to the Washington State House of Representatives for twenty years, working on a broad range of health, behavioral health, long term care, human services and criminal justice issues. She was Washington State’s Medicaid director from 1995 through 1998, and Washington State’s Behavioral Health Commissioner from 2012-2015. She has served as the Senior Health Policy Advisor to Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler since January 2017.
She graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law and is admitted to practice in Washington State and the District of Columbia.
James A. Clair
Speaker
Jim provides executive consulting services to technology-enabled companies in the pharmacy services and SaaS space. He is presently an Executive Consultant to CSSHealth, a Buffalo, NY technology-enabled company that provides Medication Therapy Management and Adherence services to health plans and pharmacy benefit managers. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors for Reveal Rx, a technology company that enables the review of pharmacy claims by health plans and PBMs. He formerly was CEO of Goold Health Systems, a healthcare management/pharmacy benefits administrator that more than tripled in size during his tenure. GHS was sold to Change Healthcare in 2013, and Jim ran the GHS wholly-owned subsidiary as well as their PBM business until mid-2016. From 2017 to 2018, Jim was CEO of Tricast, LLC, a technology-enabled pharmacy auditing company that sold to a competitor in 2018Q2.
Heidi Haley-Franklin
Speaker
Heidi Haley-Franklin is the Vice President, Programs at the MN ND chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association in Minneapolis, MN. Heidi has over 20 years of experience working with individuals and families in private practice, group homes, long-term and home health care settings. In her current position, she oversees all of the Association’s programs and services, and provides clinical supervision and ongoing education to those who directly work with individuals impacted by Alzheimers disease and related dementias. Heidi holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, a BA from the University of MN, Morris, and is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.
After serving one term as a Representative in the Maine House, Heather ran for the State Senate and is currently serving her first term, representing part of Portland and Westbrook, Maine. A former public school teacher and attorney, Heather now owns and runs Rising Tide Brewing Company with her husband, Nathan, in Portland. Under Heather’s leadership, Rising Tide has created two dozen jobs and helped spur the revitalization of the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland. Rising Tide has been committed to giving back to the community, with significant on-going support for the Maine Island Trail Association, the Good Shepherd Food Bank, Full Plates Full Potential, Portland Trails and many other organizations. Heather also served for many years on the Portland Development Corporation board, a quasi-municipal organization that administers the city’s economic development revolving loan funds and job creation grant programs. Heather and her husband live in Portland with their teenage son.
Heather Winfield-Smith is the Vaccine Supply and Distribution Section supervisor for the Hawaii Department of Health, Immunization Branch. In her role as Section Supervisor, she coordinates the Hawaii Stop Flu at School Program, a school-located influenza vaccination program that conducts annual clinics in over 180 participating schools, statewide. Heather also coordinates the Hawaii Vaccines For Children (VFC) Program which supplies hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine annually to VFC-participating providers for administration to Hawaiis eligible children. Heather has a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Hawaii and over 20 years of experience working at the Hawaii Department of Health Immunization Branch. The health of Hawaiis children, families, and communities are the motivation for Heather’s work and she is honored to have a role in ensuring their protection from the potentially devastating outcomes of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Hazel Alvarenga is the State Opioid Coordinator in the Office of the Director at the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. Hazel assists the Clinical Initiatives Project Manager with the management of the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant with the aim to reduce the effects of the opioid epidemic in Arizona. Prior to her current role, Hazel served as the Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) Project Coordinator and Opioid Epidemiologist at AHCCCS. She holds a masters of public health degree in research epidemiology and global health from Loma Linda University and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from The University of California Irvine.
Gary Cohen has been a pioneer in the environmental health movement for thirty years. Cohen is President and Co-Founder of Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm. He was also instrumental in bringing together the NGOs and hospital systems that formed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. All three were created to transform the health care sector to be environmentally sustainable and serve as anchor institutions to support environmental health in their communities.
Cohen was Executive Director of the Environmental Health Fund for many years. He has helped build coalitions and networks globally to address the environmental health impacts related to toxic chemical exposure and climate change.
Cohen is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, which has been working for over 25 years to heal people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy and to fight for environmental cleanup in Bhopal. He is also on the Boards of the American Sustainable Business Council, Health Leads and Coming Clean.
He has received numerous recognitions for his achievements, including: The MacArthur Foundation’s Fellows Award (2015), the White House’s Champion of Change Award for Public Health and Climate Change (2013), the Huffington Post’s Game Changer Award for Health (2012), the Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service (2007), and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2006).
Erica Guimaraes is a program coordinator in the Office of Community Health Workers at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she assists in promoting best practices for CHW integration into health care and public health teams. She also supports implementation of CHW certification in MA, including developing processes for CHW training program approval. Prior to joining DPH, Erica worked for 11 years in the Community Health Worker field, in the roles of a CHW, CHW supervisor and CHW program manager, at community based organizations and clinical settings. Erica holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
Ms. Stout directs the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) project at EDC, leading a team that provides resources and capacity building services to state and local leaders, health and behavioral health agencies and organizations, federal suicide prevention grantees, and national stakeholders involved in suicide prevention efforts across the country. She has worked in the suicide prevention field for 12 years, with a focus on building state and tribal suicide prevention workforce and infrastructure capacity for strategic, comprehensive, evidence-informed suicide prevention programs. Ms. Stout serves as a subject matter expert on substance abuse and suicide prevention collaboration, strategic planning, accessing and using surveillance data for program planning and evaluation, and knowledge translation and dissemination. She has presented widely at national and local conferences, as well as participating in federal and other national advisory groups, including a current national effort to develop recommendations for state suicide prevention infrastructure. Ms. Stout holds a Masters of Science in Health Communication, and has worked with state and local audiences to build capacity in strategic and effective messaging and campaigns for behavior change.
Doug Thomas is the Director of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, for the state of Utah. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD), and the National Association of State Mental Health and Programs Directors (NASMHPD), and is an active member of the Utah Substance Abuse Advisory Council. Doug has worked in the mental health and substance use disorder field for over 24 years in various capacities as a direct service provider and administrator. He has worked in both urban and rural settings and previously oversaw County services implementing evidence-based service delivery models; expanding prevention, treatment and recovery support services in rural Utah including work with tribal government. Doug is passionate about prevention and early intervention and integrating prevention efforts into systems to produce lasting outcomes to reduce risk and increase the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.
Dawn Lambert co-leads the Community Options Unit within Connecticut’s Department of Social Services. Within that role, her focus is on person-centered strategy and innovation. With over 25 years of experience in long-term services and supports, she currently serves as an appointed member of the National Academy for State Health Policy, an advisor to the AARP’s Public Policy Institute in Washington DC and a consultant to the Department of Justice regarding community options for older adults and people with disabilities.
A nationally recognized expert in health indicators and health disparities, CDR David T. Huang is the branch chief of the Health Promotion Statistics Branch, which provides data and statistical support to the national Healthy People initiative at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). He is a member of the charter class of Certified in Public Health (CPH) professionals and has contributed to articles appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), American Journal of Public Health, Annual Review of Public Health, American Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), in addition to serving as a contributing author on several federal publications on Healthy People 2010 and 2020. CDR Huang’s education includes a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MPH in quantitative methods from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
David Crall is the legislative analyst for the Oklahoma Senate Health and Human Services Committee, a position he has held since July 2017. David staffed the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Commission on Opioid Abuse in fall 2017 and drafted several pieces of legislation resulting from the work of Commission during the 2018 and 2019 legislative sessions. After voters legalized medical marijuana in Oklahoma through ballot initiative, David was the lead Senate staffer on the bicameral Medical Marijuana Working Group, which held public meetings with experts from the marijuana industry, state agencies, law enforcement, the medical field, the Oklahoma business community and NCSL throughout the summer of 2018 to study how best to implement the new medical marijuana program. David drafted the resulting Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, which created a regulatory framework for the program, as well as various other pieces of legislation relating to medical marijuana.
David Cassetty
Speaker
David serves as the Deputy Commissioner of Insurance in Las Vegas, and oversees the consumer services and enforcement sections of the Division. Prior to assuming this position, David spent 4 years as the General Counsel for Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation, managing 8 attorneys in the regulation of the insurance, banking and securities industries. David also has spent many years as an assistant attorney general, in Vermont and American Samoa, and started his law career in private practice in Florida, where he was board certified in appellate practice, mostly working on behalf of insurance companies.
Dave Richard is the Deputy Secretary, NC Medicaid, where he leads North Carolina’s $14 billion Medicaid and NC Health Choice programs for the states Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Richard’s vision for Medicaid is to ensure a sustainable, person-centered and innovative Medicaid program for more than two million North Carolinians who use Medicaid. As the programs undergo transformation to even better fit the needs of state and its residents, he is committed to the fundamental goal of improving the health and well-being of all residents. Richard believes the right way to achieve success is to work closely with stakeholders in all aspects of Medicaid.
Prior to leading Medicaid, Richard was the Deputy Secretary for DHHS Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Services and the State Operated Healthcare Facilities divisions. He joined DHHS in May 2013 as the Director of the Division of Mental Health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. Richard joined DHHS after leading The Arc of North Carolina, an advocacy and service organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as its Executive Director for 24 years.
Richard has a bachelor’s degree in education from Louisiana State University.
Daphnne Brown is the Director of Family Involvement & Outreach for Families Together in New York State. She provides support to families, advocates and service providers on family driven care, systems advocacy, and family empowerment. Daphnne provides training and technical assistance to family-run and provider agencies in preparation for the transformation to Medicaid Managed Care. She has served as the family engagement consultant for the past 7 years on the NYS System of Care Expansion grant and currently trains family / youth peer advocates on the High Fidelity Wraparound process. Daphnne has a B.S. in Business Administration from SUNY College at Brockport and is a Credentialed Family Peer Advocate.
Daniel Tsai is the Assistant Secretary for MassHealth and Medicaid Director for the Commonwealth. Tsai was appointed in January 2015 by Governor Charlie Baker to oversee the state’s $16 billion Medicaid program, which covers over one in four residents in the Commonwealth. In his role, Tsai is responsible for ensuring a robust and sustainable MassHealth program that best meets the needs of members. That includes developing new policies, payment models, and operational processes that improve the way health care is delivered to 1.8 million low-and moderate-income residents and individuals with disabilities.
Before joining HHS, Tsai was a Partner and leader in McKinsey & Company’s Healthcare Systems and Services practice. He has significant experience on the design and implementation of innovative, state-wide health care payment systems for Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial populations, and has worked closely with multiple state Medicaid programs, private payers, and health services companies. He received a Bachelor of Arts in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard University.
Assistant Secretary Tsai lives with his wife and son in Cambridge. He volunteers at a local community health center in Boston’s South End.
Connor McDonnell is a Housing Integrator with Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) where he leads efforts to reduce homelessness and expand affordable housing options for Oregon’s most vulnerable residents. This work includes initiating the Oregon Rural Peer Network for Supportive Housing and crafting a Permanent Supportive Housing program in Oregon. Prior to OHCS, he worked in a homeless shelter as a housing case manager, for elected officials, and in various levels of government working in different capacities at the nexus of health and housing. He most recently came to State government by way of HUD where he is most proud of creating the HUD Resource Locator which maps out all the federal housing programs across the U.S. Connor has a Master’s in Public Administration from The Hatfield School at Portland State University and a B.S. in Psychology from Virginia Tech.
Colleen Sonosky, JD is the Associate Director of the Division of Children’s Health Services in the Health Care Delivery Management Administration in the District of Columbia’s Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF). DHCF is the agency responsible for the administration of the Medicaid program and the Division of Children’s Health Services oversees policies and procedures for Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) services benefit—the pediatric component of the Medicaid program for children under 21. Ms. Sonosky also serves as the District’s EPSDT Coordinator and CHIP Director and represents DHCF on the District-wide Child Fatality Review Committee, Interagency Coordinating Committee for Early Intervention, and the State Early Child Development Coordinating Committee (SECDCC) where she co-chairs the Health/Wellbeing Subcommittee. She has also served on many national work groups concerning maternal and child health, including CMS’ National EPSDT Improvement Working Group, National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) Future of Children’s Coverage Workgroup and is a Member of NASHP’s Steering Committee on Health System Performance and Public Health.
Previously, Ms. Sonosky was the Director of Public Policy Research for the March of Dimes Foundation, the Vice President of Policy at FirstFocus, and the Senior Director of Programs and Policy for the Children’s Defense Fund. From 1993 to 2003, she served as Assistant Director and a lead researcher on maternal and child health policy at the Center for Health Policy Research (now housed in the Department of Health Policy) at The George Washington University. Ms. Sonosky is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Departments of Health Policy and Prevention/Community Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, where she has taught courses on maternal and child health policy.
Mr. Clinton Lasley is the Director of the Division of Alaska Pioneer Homes operating six state owned assisted living homes including the states only State Veterans Home. Mr. Lasley has been with the Department of Health and Social Services for six years, serving first in the Division of Public Health before moving to the Division of Alaska Pioneer Homes in 2016. Born and raised in Alaska, Mr. Lasley has 25 years of business management and organizational leadership experience with a passion for elders and promoting public health.
Catherine Kirk Robins works as a Deputy Director for the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative on issues surrounding prescription drug affordability. As a part of the MCHI team, Ms. Kirk Robins played an integral role in mobilizing a broad coalition to support the passing of Maryland’s landmark anti-price gouging and Prescription Drug Affordability Board legislation. Ms. Kirk Robins has worked to develop, progress, and implement state-level policy to address prescription drug affordability, and continues to collaborate with other state initiatives to improve legislative approaches to this issue.
Elizabeth Tilson serves North Carolina as the State Health Director and the Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she promotes public health and prevention activities, as well as provides guidance and oversight on a variety of cross-Departmental issues.
Dr. Tilson received her BA in biology from Dartmouth College, earned her Medical Degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Masters of Public Health from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She completed a Pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a General Preventive Medicine/Public Health Residency at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and is board certified in both fields. She has been active and has served in leadership roles in many local, state, and national pediatric, public health and preventive medicine organizations.
Beth Waldman is a Senior Consultant at Bailit Health with national expertise in health care policy, program development and implementation, specializing in Medicaid and CHIP programs and coverage for the uninsured. Beth’s work includes assisting states and other stakeholders in delivery system and payment reform design; care management and health home program design; behavioral health reform, including integration, opiate prevention and treatment; quality measurement; managed care procurements; and long-term services and supports strategy and integration.
Prior to joining Bailit Health, Beth worked for 12 plus years within the Massachusetts Medicaid program and served as the Massachusetts Medicaid Director from 2003 – 2006. Beth is a graduate of Union College in Schenectady, NY. She holds a law degree from Boston College Law School and a master of public health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Sessions:
MCH PIP Ancillary Meeting (CLOSED INVITATION ONLY MEETING)
Beth Kuhn
Speaker
Beth Kuhn is Chief Engagement Officer at the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services, leading policy and operational efforts to better integrate workforce, health and human service programs. She was until recently Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment, collaborating with many partners in a system of Kentucky Career Centers providing employment, vocational rehabilitation, veterans, and other workforce services to employer and individual customers. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner in December of 2014, Beth served as Sector Strategies Director, assisting with the design and implementation of industry sector-based approaches to workforce and economic development.
Beth has over 30 years of experience creating and implementing innovative workforce programs. She previously served as Director of Workforce Development at the Vermont Department of Labor, as Project Director at the United Way of Chittenden County (VT) where she developed employer partnerships to improve retention and advancement of entry-level workers, and as Vice President of WFD, Inc., a human resources consulting firm providing employee benefits, women’s advancement, and public-private partnerships to Fortune 100 companies including Ford Motor Company, GE, and IBM.
Beth has a BA in Public Policy from the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and a Master’s in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Ben Steffen serves as the Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care Commission. The Maryland Health Care Commission is an independent regulatory agency whose mission is to plan for health system needs, promote informed decision-making, increase accountability, and improve access to health care and health care coverage in Maryland. The MHCC administers the certificate of need program, the establishment of Maryland’s Health Information Exchange, and cost and quality reporting initiatives for hospitals, nursing homes, and health plans. Prior to assuming this position, he served as the Director of the Commission’s Center for Information Services and Analysis. This Center has analytic and operational responsibilities for health care practitioner initiatives in the state including development of an All Payer Data Base and the Patient Centered Medical Home Program. Mr. Steffen serves as a spokesperson for the Commission at state and national levels on state health care expenditures, physician work force, physician uncompensated care, and information security. Before joining the MHCC, he served as a budget analyst in the Health, Housing, and Income Security Division of the Congressional Budget Office, among activities he worked on the modeling that produced the estimates of reforms that ultimately led to the Medicare Prospective Payment System. Mr. Steffen holds a Master’s Degree from American University and has completed post-graduate work at the University Of Michigan. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer to Nepal.
Mr. Bassiri is Chief of Staff to the Medicaid Director at the New York State Department of Health. Prior to joining the Department of Health in May of 2019, he worked as Senior Policy Advisor for Health in the Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo under the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. His role in the Governor’s Office involved policymaking and implementation of strategic health initiatives, specifically related to the pharmaceuticals, insurance expansion, and Medicaid delivery system reforms.
As a California native, Amir earned his B.A. in both Economics and Psychology from the University of California, Davis, before earning a Master’s in Social Work (M.S.W) from Columbia University.
Alfred has served in various staff and management capacities in private industry, county and state government serving vulnerable populations since 1996.
Alfred has worked for the Division of Quality Assurance since 2001. Alfred has served the Division of Quality in a variety of roles, Assisted Living Surveyor, Assisted Living Regional Director, Director of the Bureau of Technology, Licensing and Education and currently Director of the Bureau of Assisted Living.
While in DQA, Alfred has been instrumental in establishing collaborative statewide working relationships with counties, care management organizations, advocates and industry representatives to help improve the quality of care in assisted-living settings.
Alex Blandford oversees and executes the CSG Justice Center’s health policy portfolio and works to improve access to health care for people in the criminal justice system through federal, state, and local policy. Prior to joining the CSG Justice Center, Alex was a project coordinator for the Institute for Evaluation Science in Community Health, which is housed in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. As a project coordinator, she oversaw a variety of research projects, including one examining the Pittsburgh region’s emergency response to mental health crises, and another evaluating the region’s Crisis Intervention Team training for police officers. She earned her BS in psychology and BA in French from the Pennsylvania State University and her MPH at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.
Alana Knudson, PhD, serves as a Program Area Director in the Public Health Department at NORC at the University of Chicago and is the Co-Director of NORC’s Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis. Dr. Knudson has over 25 years of experience implementing and directing public health programs, leading health services and health policy research projects, and evaluating program effectiveness. Her research and policy project findings have informed state, Tribal, and Federal health policy. She also has state and national public health experience having worked at the North Dakota Department of Health and for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Dr. Knudson serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Rural Health Association, the Board of Directors for the Maryland Rural Health Association, and the Board of Directors for the Rural Health Foundation. She is also a member of the RUPRI Health Panel.
A lifelong Oklahoman, Ashley has dedicated herself to the people of Oklahoma. Ashley currently works at the Oklahoma House of Representatives as a Legislative Assistant, after serving as Director of Constituent Services for Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb and after running the Senate soundboard while working as Secretary for the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. She is pursuing her degree at Oklahoma State University, majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Political Science. Ashley is active in her political party at the state level, recently served as the Speaker of the House of Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature, and volunteers with a nationally accredited animal rescue, Tornado Alley Bulldog Rescue. When she is not saving dogs, Ashley enjoys fishing, reading, and cooking (although not at the same time). Ashley visited Chicago this summer for a Women in Government conference and is ecstatic to return to Chicago so quickly to attend NASHP’s’ Annual Conference.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
