Vital Directions for Health & Health Care
Steering Committee Biographies
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The National Academy of Medicine’s Vital Directions for Health and Health Care Initiative commissioned expert papers on 19 priority focus areas for U.S. health policy by more than 150 leading researchers, scientists, and policy makers from across the United States. The purpose of the initiative was to compile expert information and viewpoints to inform debate and decision making around new directions for health and health care in the United States. The views presented in this series are those of the authors and do not represent formal consensus positions of the NAM, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or the authors’ organizations. Please direct all inquiries to Elizabeth Finkelman at efinkelman@nas.edu.
Victor J. Dzau, MD, National Academy of Medicine (Co-Chair)
Victor J. Dzau is the President of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly the Institute of Medicine (IOM). In addition, he serves as Chair of the Health and Medicine Division Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is Chancellor Emeritus and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University and the past President and CEO of the Duke University Health System. Previously, Dr. Dzau was the Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Chairman of Medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Dzau has made a significant impact on medicine through his seminal research in cardiovascular medicine and genetics, his pioneering of the discipline of vascular medicine, and his leadership in health care innovation. His important work on the renin angiotensin system (RAS) paved the way for the contemporary understanding of RAS in cardiovascular disease and the development of RAS inhibitors as widely used, lifesaving drugs. Dr. Dzau also pioneered gene therapy for vascular disease, and his recent work on stem cell paracrine mechanisms and the use of microRNA in direct reprogramming provides novel insight into stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. In his role as a leader in health care, Dr. Dzau has led efforts in health care innovation. His vision is for academic health sciences centers to lead the transformation of medicine through innovation, translation, and globalization. Leading this vision at Duke, he and his colleagues developed the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, the Duke Global Health Institute, the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, and the Duke Institute for Health Innovation. These initiatives create a seamless continuum from discovery and translational sciences to clinical care, and they promote transformative innovation in health. As one of the world’s preeminent academic health leaders, Dr. Dzau advises governments, corporations, and universities worldwide. He has been a member of the Council of the IOM and the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as Chair of the NIH Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Committee and the Association of Academic Health Centers. He served on the Governing Board of the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School and the Board of Health Governors of the World Economic Forum and chaired its Global Agenda Council on Personalized and Precision Medicine. He also served as the Senior Health Policy Advisor to Her Highness Sheikha Moza (Chair of the Qatar Foundation). Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Singapore Health System, the Expert Board of the Imperial College Health Partners, UK, and the International Advisory Board of the Biomedical Science Council of Singapore. In 2011, he led a partnership between Duke University, the World Economic Forum, and McKinsey, and he founded the International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery and currently chairs its Board of Directors. Among his honors and recognitions are the Gustav Nylin Medal from the Swedish Royal College of Medicine; the Max Delbruck Medal from Humboldt University, Charité, and the Max Planck Institute; the Commemorative Gold Medal from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; the Inaugural Hatter Award from the Medical Research Council of South Africa; the Polzer Prize from the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; the Novartis Award for Hypertension Research; the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association (AHA); and the AHA Research Achievement Award for his contributions to cardiovascular biology and medicine. Recently, he was awarded the Public Service Medal by the President of Singapore. He has received nine honorary doctorates.
Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Duke University (Co-Chair)
Mark McClellan is the Robert J. Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine, and Policy, and Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University with offices at Duke and in Washington, DC. The new Center will support and conduct research, evaluation, implementation, and educational activities to improve health policy and health, through collaboration across Duke University and Health System, and through partnerships between the public and private sectors. It integrates the social, clinical, and analytical sciences to integrate technical expertise and practical capabilities to develop and apply policy solutions that improve health and the value of health care locally, nationally, and worldwide. Dr. McClellan is a doctor and an economist, and his work has addressed a wide range of strategies and policy reforms to improve health care, including such areas as payment reform to promote better outcomes and lower costs, methods for development and use of real-world evidence, and more effective drug and device innovation. Before coming to Duke, he served as a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he was Director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiatives and led the Richard Merkin Initiative on Payment Reform and Clinical Leadership. He also has a highly distinguished record in public service and in academic research. Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. These include the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare and Medicaid payment reforms, the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative, and public-private initiatives to develop better information on the quality and cost of care. Dr. McClellan is the founding chair and a current board member of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and chairs the Academy’s Leadership Council for Value and Science-Driven Health Care, co-chairs the guiding committee of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has also previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health care policy at the White House, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of the Treasury. He was previously an associate professor of economics and medicine with tenure at Stanford University, and has twice received the Kenneth Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics.
Sheila Burke, MPA, RN, Harvard Kennedy School
Sheila P. Burke is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. She served as a lecturer and Executive Dean of the school from 1996-2000. Previously she had been Chief of Staff to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (1985-1996), a professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Finance (1979-1982), and Deputy Staff Director of that committee (1982 to 1985). From 2000-2007 she served as Undersecretary and then Deputy Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, serving on its National Council, and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Academy of Nursing. She serves on the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University and is a Distinguished Visitor at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law Center. She serves on several boards including the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid and the Uninsured, Ascension Health Care, the Commonwealth Fund, Abt Associates, is a member of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and serves on the Board of Directors of Chubb Insurance. She served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac) 2000-2007, the Kaiser Family Foundation 1999-2008 where she served as Chair of the Board. Burke, who also serves as a Senior Public Policy Advisor and Chair of the Government and Public Policy practice at Baker Donelson Caldwell & Berkowitz. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of San Francisco in addition to her Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.
Molly J. Coye, MD, MPH, Network for Excellence in Health Care Innovation
Dr. Molly Joel Coye is Executive in Residence at AVIA, the nation’s leading network for health systems seeking to innovate and transform. AVIA’s mission is to advance care delivery transformation through the effective identification and deployment of digital solutions. By providing strategic focus, process discipline, and a collaborative approach, AVIA delivers measurable results to its Network of more than 20 health system members representing over 325 hospitals. Dr. Coye was previously Social Entrepreneur in Residence for the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), a nonprofit national health policy institute focused on enabling innovations that provide solutions to the most pressing issues facing our health care system today. From 2010 – 2015, Dr. Coye was the Chief Innovation Officer for UCLA Health and headed the Institute for Innovation in Health and the Global Lab for Innovation at UCLA, where she led the health system in identifying new strategies, technologies, products and services to support the large-scale transformation of healthcare. Today the Global Lab for Innovation at NEHI advances the adoption of high-value innovations that enable dramatic improvements in access to and affordability of health services. Dr. Coye also advises technology developers, investors, national health systems and policy makers about disruptive technologies and business models that accelerate transformation and constrain health expenditures, and serves on the advisory boards of early stage companies and venture and private equity firms investing in health care information technology and services. Dr. Coye was previously the founder and CEO of the Health Technology Center (HealthTech), a non-profit education and research organization established in 2000 that became the premier forecasting organization for emerging technologies in health care. Dr. Coye has also served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey, Director of the California State Department of Health Services, and Head of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Coye is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, and a member of the Board of Directors of Aetna, Inc., Prosetta Biosciences, Inc., and ACCESS Health International. She has previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of PATH, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in global health, and on the boards of the American Hospital Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Telemedicine Association, Big White Wall, Cholestech, The California Endowment, and the China Medical Board. Dr. Coye holds M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in Chinese History from Stanford University, and is the author of two books on China.
The Honorable Thomas A. Daschle, Former U.S. Senator
Senator Daschle is the Founder and CEO of The Daschle Group, A Public Policy Advisory of Baker Donelson. The Daschle Group is a full-service strategic advisory firm that advises clients on a broad array of economic, policy and political issues. Senator Daschle has participated in the development and debate of almost every major public policy issue of the last three decades. In 1978, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the US Senate and was chosen as Senate Democratic Leader in 1994. Senator Daschle is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic leaders in history and one of only two to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. During his tenure, Senator Daschle navigated the Senate through some of its most historic economic and national security challenges. In 2003, he chronicled some of these experiences in his book, Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever. In the 2013 release of The US Senate: Fundamentals of American Government, Senator Daschle explores the inner workings of this important part of the legislative branch. Since leaving the Senate, Senator Daschle has remained an active and learned voice among policy-makers. As a well-known expert on health policy reform, he has written two books: Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and Getting It Done: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform. Senator Daschle has also emerged as a leading thinker on climate change, food security and renewable energy policy. He serves on both advisory and governing boards of a number of corporate and non-profit organizations and currently co-chairs The Cuba Consortium, an organization dedicated to an improved relationship with the people of Cuba. In 2007, Senator Daschle joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time. Senator Daschle is Chair of the Board of Directors at the Center for American Progress and Vice-Chair for the National Democratic Institute. He serves on the board of Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the LBJ Foundation. He also is a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Council of Foreign Relations. Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Senator Daschle attended South Dakota State University, graduating in 1969. He then served for three years as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force Strategic Command. Following his military service, he spent five years as an aide to South Dakota Senator James Abourezk. After leaving the Senate in 2005, Senator Daschle joined Alston & Bird LLP as a special policy advisor and then went on to work in the same role at DLA Piper before establishing The Daschle Group in 2014. He is married to Linda Hall Daschle and has three children and five grandchildren.
Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, Mount Sinai
Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH is the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. After earning her medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, she completed a Master in Public Health from Harvard University and a PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University. Dr. Diaz is the Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, a unique program that provides comprehensive, interdisciplinary, integrated, medical care, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, dental and optical services to young people. Under her leadership the Center has become one of the largest adolescent-specific health center in the U.S., serving more than 10,000 young people every year – for free. The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center is a major training site in the field of adolescent health and medicine, with research funded by NIH. Dr. Diaz is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), where she sits on its governing council, is a member of the Committee for the Health and Medicine Division, and chairs the Board on Children, Youth and Families at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Diaz has been a White House Fellow, a member of the Food and Drug Administration Pediatric Advisory Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In 2003, Dr. Diaz chaired the National Advisory Committee on Children and Terrorism for the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2009, she was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the New York City Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Runaway and Homeless Youth Taskforce. Dr. Diaz is active in public policy and advocacy in the U.S. and has conducted many international health projects in Asia, Central and South America, Europe and Africa. She is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the country and around the world.
The Honorable William Frist, MD, Former U.S. Senator
Senator William Frist, M.D. is a nationally-acclaimed heart and lung transplant surgeon, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and chairman of the Executive Board of the health service private equity firm Cressey & Company. He is actively engaged in the business as well as the medical, humanitarian, and philanthropic communities. He is chairman of both Hope Through Healing Hands, which focuses on maternal and child health and global poverty, and SCORE, a statewide collaborative education reform organization that has helped propel Tennessee to prominence as a K12 education reform state. As a U.S. Senator representing Tennessee from 1994 -2006 (the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928), Dr. Frist served on both the Health (HELP) and the Finance Committees responsible for writing all health legislation. He was elected Majority Leader of the Senate, having served fewer total years in Congress than any person chosen to lead that body in history. His leadership was instrumental in the passage of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and the historic PEPFAR legislation that provided life-saving treatment globally to over 12 million people and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide. He also held seats on the Foreign Relations Committee where he chaired the Subcommittee on Africa, the Commerce Committee, and the Banking Committee. Currently Dr. Frist serves as an adjunct professor of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt University and clinical professor of Surgery at Meharry Medical College. As a leading authority on healthcare, Senator Frist speaks nationally on health reform, government policy, global health, education reform, and volunteerism. His current board service includes the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Kaiser Family Foundation, Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, Bipartisan Policy Center, and Nashville Health Care Council. In the private sector, he serves on the boards of Select Medical, Teladoc, AECOM, and others.
Martha E. Gaines, JD, LLM, University of Wisconsin Law School
Meg Gaines is Distinguished Clinical Professor and founder and director of the interdisciplinary Center for Patient Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin Schools of Law, Medicine, Nursing & Pharmacy. The Center’s mission is to disrupt dysfunctional health care by restoring people to the core of care. The Center advocates with patients to get the care they need, while teaching future professionals to see their patients as partners; promotes changes in health care policy at the local, state and federal levels; and conducts primary, mixed methods research focused on patients’ experiences of their care. Students derive from a breadth of disciplines including medicine, nursing, law, health systems, genetic counseling, industrial engineering, and pharmacy, and work in interprofessional teams to provide advocacy services to patients with life-threatening and serious chronic illnesses. Ms. Gaines’ work focuses on consumer engagement and empowerment in health care reform where she has been privileged to collaborate with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, the Josiah Macy Jr Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute among others. She serves on the National Cancer Research Advocates of the NCI, on the Board of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare, recently co-chaired the Josiah Macy Jr Foundation annual conference “Partnering with Patients, Families, and Communities to Link Interprofessional Practice and Education,” and was appointed by the ABIMF to serve on the committee to develop the Charter on Organizational Professionalism for Healthcare Organizations, as a companion to the Charter on Medical Professionalism of the Choosing Wisely Campaign. Her diverse publications include “Engaging Patients at the Front Lines of Primary Care Redesign: Operational Lessons for an Effective Program,” “Medical professionalism from the patient’s perspective: Is there an advocate in the house?,” “Integrating Compassionate, Collaborative Care (the “Triple C”) Into Health Professional Education to Advance the Triple Aim of Health Care,” “A Social Compact For Advancing Team-Based High-Value Health Care,” “Best Case/Worst Case”: Evaluation of a novel communication tool for difficult in-the moment surgical decisions” and “Moving from tokenism to co-production: implications of learning from patient and community voices in developing patient centred professionalism.” Distinguished Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Ms. Gaines teaches courses related to consumer issues in health care advocacy and reform, and exploring professionalism for the 21st Century to graduate students from law, medicine, public health, nursing, pharmacy, genetic counseling and others. Ms. Gaines earned her bachelor’s degree at Vassar College and holds Juris Doctorate and Master of Law degrees from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is a long term survivor of metastatic ovarian cancer.
Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg, MD, National Academy of Medicine
Peggy Hamburg, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine. In this position, Dr. Hamburg serves as a senior adviser on international matters to the NAM President and Council and as liaison to foreign academies of medicine and science. Dr. Hamburg was appointed Commissioner of the FDA in May 2009, the second woman to serve in this position. Her past roles have also included senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative; Assistant Secretary for Policy and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Jane Henney, MD, National Academy of Medicine
Jane Henney is Home Secretary for the National Academy of Medicine. In this capacity, she assists the NAM President and Council in strengthening and supporting membership activities and participation. Dr. Henney has held senior leadership positions in both the academic and federal sectors. Among these, she was the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 1998 until January 2001; Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute from 1980-1985; Senior Vice President and Provost for Health Affairs at the University of Cincinnati 2003-2008; Vice President for Health Sciences at the University of New Mexico 1994-1998; Vice Chancellor for Health Programs and Policy at the University of Kansas Medical Center 1988-1992 and Interim Dean of the College of Medicine 1987-1989. Dr. Henney was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2000. She is a fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives and was elected to membership of both the Society of Medical Administrators and the Medical Administrators Conference. She has received numerous citations and awards for her work. Dr. Henney currently serves on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit organizations and publicly traded companies.
Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, University of Pennsylvania
Shiriki Kumanyika is emeritus professor of epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School Of Medicine. She has an interdisciplinary background and holds advanced degrees in social work, nutrition, and public health. During her tenure on the Penn Medicine faculty, Dr. Kumanyika also served as the Associate Dean for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, held a secondary appointment as Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Pediatrics (Division of Gastroenterology, Nutrition Section), and was affiliated with numerous Penn institutes and centers. She was the Founding Director of Penn’s interdisciplinary, multi-school Master of Public Health program. Dr. Kumanyika’s research focuses on identifying effective strategies to reduce nutrition-related chronic disease risks, with a particular focus on achieving health equity for black Americans. For more than three decades, she has led or collaborated on single- or multi-center randomized clinical trials or observational studies related to obesity, salt intake, and other aspects of diet. Several of these studies have evaluated interventions to promote healthy eating and physical activity in African American children or adults in clinical or community-based settings. Dr. Kumanyika founded (in 2002) and continues to chair the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) (www.aacorn.org), a national network that seeks to improve the quantity, quality, and effective translation of research on weight issues in African American communities. She has extensive experience in advisory roles related to public health and nutrition policy in the US and abroad. Dr. Kumanyika is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and is a past president of the American Public Health Association.
The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt, Former Governor of Utah and Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Mike Leavitt is the founder and chairman of Leavitt Partners, where he helps clients navigate the future as they transition to new and better models of care. In previous roles, Mike served as a three-time elected governor of Utah and in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush: first as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (2003-2005) and then as secretary of Health and Human Services (2005-2009). At HHS, he led the implementation of the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program. The task required the design, systematization, and implementation of a plan to provide 43 million seniors with a new prescription drug benefit. By the end of the first year, enrollments exceeded projections, prices were lower than projected, and seniors expressed high levels of satisfaction. Mike’s strategic ability can be seen in his redesign of the nation’s system of quality and safety standards for imported goods. In the spring of 2006, President Bush assigned him to lead a government-wide response. Within months, he commended a major strategic shift in U.S. policy on import regulation and trade. Mike is a seasoned diplomat, leading U.S. delegations to more than 50 countries. He has conducted negotiations on matters related to health, the environment, and trade. At the conclusion of his service, the Chinese government awarded him the China Public Health Award – the first time this award has ever been given to a foreign government official. Mike is, at heart, an entrepreneur. As governor, he organized a group of his colleagues to form Western Governors University. At WGU, degrees are earned based on competency rather than credit hours. WGU now has more than 60,000 students who reside in each of the 50 states and several foreign countries. Enrollment is growing at 35 percent a year. In November 2008, TIME magazine named WGU “the best relatively cheap university you’ve never heard of.” His book—Finding Allies, Building Alliances—was released in September 2013 by Jossey-Bass Publishers and chronicles his expertise and passion for collaboration.
Ruth Parker, MD, Emory University School of Medicine
Ruth Parker is Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester, and was a Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. For over two decades, her work has focused on research, education, and advocacy efforts to advance our nation’s health literacy. She is an author of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) and of the definition of health literacy used by Healthy People 2010, the IOM, the NIH, and the Affordable Care Act, as well as many scholarly pieces on health literacy. She is a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on Advisories to the FDA and PCORI. Dr. Parker served in leadership roles as a health literacy advocate for professional societies including the AMA and the ACP Foundation. She has consulted with numerous federal and state agencies, professional organizations and members of industry regarding their health literacy efforts. She was a member of the IOM Health Literacy Committee, a member and now Consultant to the Health Literacy Roundtable. Dr. Parker has received national awards in recognition of her work, including the Silver Achievement Award from the AAMC, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the ACP, the Walter C. Alvarez Award from the American Medical Writers Association, the Cecilia and Lenard National Health Literacy Award, and FDA Advisory Committee Service Award.
Lewis Sandy, MD, UnitedHealth Group
Lewis G. Sandy, M.D., is Executive Vice President, Clinical Advancement, UnitedHealth Group (a Fortune 25 diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives). At UnitedHealth Group he focuses on clinical innovation, payment/delivery reforms to modernize our health care system, and physician collaboration. He also is a Principal in the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization, with a focus on payment/delivery innovation and policy. From 2003 to 2007, he was EVP and Chief Medical Officer of UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group’s largest business focusing on the employer/individual health benefits market. From 1997 to 2003, he was EVP of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. At RWJF, he was responsible for the Foundation’s program development and management, strategic planning and administrative operations. Prior to this, Dr. Sandy was a program VP of the Foundation, focusing on the Foundation’s workforce, health policy, and chronic care initiatives. An internist and former health center medical director at the Harvard Community Health Plan in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Sandy received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University. A former RWJF Clinical Scholar and Clinical Fellow in Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Sandy served his internship and residency at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He is a Senior Fellow of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management.
Leonard D. Schaeffer, University of Southern California
Leonard D. Schaeffer is the founding Chairman & CEO of WellPoint, the nation’s largest health benefits company by membership. WellPoint (now Anthem) serves nearly 39 million medical members and has annualized revenues of $78.4 billion. He is currently the Judge Robert Maclay Widney Chair and Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and is a Senior Advisor to TPG Capital, a private equity firm. Schaeffer was Chairman & CEO of WellPoint from 1992 through 2004 and continued as Chairman through 2005. In 1986, Schaeffer was recruited as CEO of WellPoint’s predecessor company, Blue Cross of California, when it was near bankruptcy. He managed the turnaround of Blue Cross and the IPO creating WellPoint. During his tenure as CEO, WellPoint completed 17 acquisitions and endowed four charitable foundations with assets of over $6 billion. Under Schaeffer’s leadership, the value of the company grew from $11 million to over $49 billion. During his tenure, WellPoint was selected by Fortune as America’s Most Admired Health Care Company for six consecutive years; named by BusinessWeek as one of the 50 best performing public companies for three consecutive years; and identified by Forbes magazine as America’s best large health insurance company. Schaeffer was selected by BusinessWeek as one of the Top 25 Managers of the Year and by Worth as one of the “50 Best CEOs in America.” Schaeffer’s public service included appointments as Administrator of the federal Health Care Financing Administration (now CMS), Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget of the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Director of the Bureau of the Budget for the State of Illinois, Chairman of the Illinois Capital Development Board, and Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Mental Health. Mr. Schaeffer is a member of the boards of trustees of USC, RAND, the Brookings Institution and the board of fellows at Harvard Medical School. He also serves on the boards of directors of Walgreens, Quintiles, and scPharmaceuticals. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). In 2009, Schaeffer established a new research center at USC. The Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to research and analysis to promote health and value in health care delivery and to support evidence-based health policy. He has also endowed chairs in health care financing and policy at the Brookings Institution, Harvard Medical School, NAM, U.C. Berkeley and USC. Previously, Schaeffer served as President & CEO of Group Health, Inc., EVP & COO of the Student Loan Marketing Association, (Sallie Mae) and a Vice President of Citibank.
Glenn D. Steele, Jr., MD, PhD, xG Health Solutions
Glenn D. Steele, Jr., MD, PhD, is the Chairman of xG Health Solutions. From 2001-2015, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Geisinger Health System, an integrated health services organization nationally recognized for the development and implementation of innovative care models. Glenn previously served as Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Chicago, as well as the Richard T. Crane Professor in the Department of Surgery. Prior to that, he was the William V. McDermott Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, President and Chief Executive Officer of Deaconess Professional Practice Group, Boston, MA., and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA. Glenn is past Chairman of the American Board of Surgery. His investigations have focused on the cell biology of gastrointestinal cancer and pre-cancer, and most recently on innovations in healthcare delivery and financing. A prolific writer, he is the author or co-author of more than 488 scientific and professional articles. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Glenn serves as a member of the Roundtable on Value and Science-driven Healthcare, the Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education, the Vital Directions for Health and Health Care Steering Committee, and previously served on the Committee on Reviewing Evidence to Identify Highly Effective Clinical Services (HECS). A fellow of the American College of Surgeons, he is a member of the American Surgical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Past President of the Society of Surgical Oncology. Glenn serves on the following boards and national committees: Vice Chair, Health Transformation Alliance; Director, Cepheid; Director, City of Hope; Member, Emory University’s Healthcare Innovation Program (HIP) External Advisory Board; Director, Ingenious Med; Member, Institute for Healthcare Optimization Advisory Board; Director, PTC Therapeutics; Director, Stratus Video Interpreting; Member, the Peterson Center on Healthcare Advisory Board; Director, the State Health Care Cost Containment Commission; and Director, Wellcare Health Plans Inc. Glenn received his bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard College and his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in surgery at the University of Colorado, where he was also a fellow of the American Cancer Society. He earned his doctorate in microbiology at Lund University in Sweden.
Pamela Thompson, MS, RN, American Organization of Nurse Executives and American Hospital Association
Pam Thompson is chief executive officer emeritus of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). Prior to her appointment, she served 16 years as AONE CEO and senior vice president nursing/chief nursing officer of the American Hospital Association. She was responsible for the management and administrative leadership of AONE, as well as the AHA Workforce Initiative and addressing issues specific to strengthening the health care workforce and the redesign of patient care delivery. Before joining AONE, Thompson was vice president of Children’s Hospital, Obstetrics, Psychiatric Services, and Strategic Planning at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Thompson served as the chair of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) Board of Directors, was a member of the Lucien Leape Institute of NPSF and the NPSF Board of Advisors. Thompson was also chair of the New Hampshire Hospital Association board of trustees and the New Hampshire Foundation for Health Communities, as well as past president of the New Hampshire Organization of Nurse Executives. Thompson was a founding member of the Behavioral Health Network in New Hampshire and served as chairman of the board. Thompson is the recipient of numerous awards including the American College of Healthcare Executives 2009 Edgar C. Hayhow Award for an article she co-wrote about the results of a national survey on chief nursing officer retention and turnover. She also received the California Association of Nurse Leaders Lifetime Achievement Award and National League for Nursing’s President’s Award. She earned her Master of Science degree from the University of Rochester, New York and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Connecticut. Thompson is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She resides in Manassas, Virginia with her husband, Bob.
Elias Zerhouni, MD, Sanofi and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Elias Zerhouni is President, Global R&D, at Sanofi since 2011. A native of Algeria where he received his basic education and training, his academic career was spent at the Johns Hopkins University where he is currently professor of Radiology and Biomedical engineering. He served as Chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vice Dean for Research and Executive Vice Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 1996 to 2002. From 2002 to 2008 he served as Director of the National Institutes of Health of the United States of America. From 2009 to 2010 he was Senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and served as US presidential Envoy for Science and Technology. He has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific publications, holds several patents, and has founded or co-founded several companies. He is a member of the board of the Lasker Foundation. He is a member of the US National Academies of Medicine and of Engineering , the French Academy of Medicine and is a recipient the French Legion of Honor medal.