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Speaker Biographical Sketches
Leon Andrews, M.S., is a senior fellow at the National League of Cities’ (NLC’s) Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. Prior to joining NLC, Mr. Andrews was a fellow at the Forum for Youth Investment, where he coordinated a multistate youth policy and engagement initiative. He also serves on the boards of ChangeLab Solutions, the National Recreation and Parks Association, the Youth Planners Network, Healthy Kids Healthy Schools, and the Safe Routes to School National Review Group. Mr. Andrews is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and holds a master’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Cheryl Bartlett, R.N., was named commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in June 2013. As commissioner, Ms. Bartlett chairs the newly appointed Prevention and Wellness Advisory Board, which oversees a $60 million Prevention Trust Fund—the first of its kind in the nation. As former interim deputy commissioner, Ms. Bartlett led the Department’s creation and implementation of regulations to support the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prior to being named deputy commissioner, she was director of the Bureau of Community Health and Prevention, where she provided strategic direction and oversight for Mass in Motion—the initiative designed to help Massachusetts residents eat better and move more in the places they live, learn, work, and play. Ms. Bartlett has extensive experience as a registered nurse and hospital administrator implementing health system changes through quality assessment
and improvement practices. She received national certification in the following nursing specialties: cardiovascular, epidemiology, surveillance and infection control, dialysis, and HIV/AIDS. Ms. Bartlett has held elected and appointed positions at the local level in several municipalities, including serving on the Nantucket Board of Selectman. She received her nursing training at Yale New Haven Hospital and Quinnipiac University and graduated summa cum laude from Stonehill College with a degree in health care administration.
Don Bradley, M.D., M.H.S.-C.L., is senior vice president for healthcare and chief medical officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). Dr. Bradley is responsible for programs, interventions, and information designed to assist BCBSNC customers in making informed choices for optimal health and to help keep health care affordable. His accomplishments over the past 25 years at BCBSNC include leading the implementation of open-access online medical policy; the development of extensive primary care provider performance feedback; the institution of the annual State of Preventive Health forum; the implementation of comprehensive benefits and programs for the medical assessment and treatment of obesity (Healthy Lifestyle Choices); the creation of one of the nation’s first Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence programs; and the development of performance-based provider reimbursement and tiered provider networks. Dr. Bradley holds faculty appointments at Duke University and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He received gubernatorial appointments to the North Carolina State Health Coordinating Council and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. He also serves as chair of the North Carolina Healthcare Quality Alliance, as a member of the executive committee for the National Council of Physician and Pharmacy Executives within the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and as a member of the Board of Managers for North Carolina Health Innovations. Dr. Bradley completed his medical degree at the Medical College of Virginia; a family medicine residency in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and a Kellogg fellowship and a master’s degree in clinical leadership at Duke University. He practiced medicine in rural Virginia before joining the Duke Family Medicine Residency faculty in 1981. He served as medical director for the 50-physician Patient Centered Medical Home clinical practice, for which he successfully implemented multiple capitation and risk contracts.
Debbie I. Chang, M.P.H., is vice president of policy and prevention at Nemours Foundation. She serves as a corporate officer of Nemours, an operating foundation focused on children’s health and health care. Previously at Nemours, Ms. Chang was founding executive director of Nemours Health & Prevention Services, an operating division devoted to improving
children’s health through a comprehensive multisector, place-based model in Delaware. She has more than 26 years of federal and state government and private-sector experience in the health field. She has worked on a range of key health programs and issues, including Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Medicare, maternal and child health, national health care reform, and financing coverage for the uninsured. She has held the following federal and state positions: deputy secretary of health care financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, with oversight for the State of Maryland’s Medicaid program and the Maryland Children’s Health Program; national director of SCHIP when it was first implemented in 1997; director of the Office of Legislation and Policy for the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services); and senior health policy advisor to former U.S. Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr., former chair of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health for Families and the Uninsured. Ms. Chang serves on the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Board on Children, Youth, and Families and its Roundtables on Population Health and Improvement and Obesity Solutions; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Health Care Innovation Exchange Board; and the Winter Park Health Foundation Board. She has published work on population health; child health systems transformation; Medicaid; SCHIP; and Nemours’ prevention-oriented health system, including its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Pioneering Innovation award-winning statewide childhood obesity program. Nemours is a founding member of the Partnership for a Healthier America and the National Convergence Partnership, a unique collaboration of leading foundations focused on healthy people and healthy places. Ms. Chang holds a master’s degree in public health policy and administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kevin W. Concannon, M.S.W., is under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He was nominated by President Obama and Secretary Vilsack and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2009. Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services has principal responsibilities and funding authority for the Food and Nutrition Service, which serves an estimated one in four Americans, and has lead responsibilities for promoting healthful diet through the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Concannon has served as director of state health and human services departments in Iowa, Maine, and Oregon. He has championed expanded services, improved access, alternatives to institutions, consumer choices, affordable health care, diversity in workplaces and programs, and the modernization of
public information technology systems. He has also served in a number of national organizations, including as president of the American Public Welfare Association, president of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, trustee of the American Public Human Services Association, board member of the American Humane Association, and co-chair of the Milbank Memorial Fund state steering committee. He has received a number of awards, including the Lifetime Human Services Award from the American Public Human Services Association in 2007, the 2012 Catholic Charities USA Keep the Dream Alive Award, and the 2012 National WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) Association Leadership award. Mr. Concannon is a native of Portland, Maine, and a graduate of Saint Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, with both bachelor of arts and master of social work degrees. He has continued his studies at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Connecticut Graduate School of Social Work. He has taught graduate courses at the University of Connecticut; Portland State University, Oregon; and the University of Iowa as adjunct professor of social work.
William (Bill) H. Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., is a consultant to the IOM Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, and the director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center on Prevention and Wellness at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. He was director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at CDC from 1997-2012. Prior to his appointment to CDC, he was a professor of pediatrics at the Tuft’s University School of Medicine, and director of clinical nutrition at the Floating Hospital of New England Medical Center Hospitals. Dr. Dietz has been a councilor and past president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and past president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. From 2001-2003 he served as a member of the Advisory Board to the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. In 2000,
Dr. Dietz received the William G. Anderson Award from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and was recognized for excellence in his work and advocacy by the Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the American Dietetic Association, and received the Holroyd-Sherry award for his outstanding contributions to the field of children, adolescents, and the media. In 2005 Dr. Dietz received the George Bray Founders Award from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. In 2006, he received the Nutrition Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for outstanding research related to nutrition of infants and children. In 2008 Dr. Dietz received the Oded Bar-Or award from the Obesity Society for excellence in pediatric obesity research. In 2012, he received a Special Recognition Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics Provisional Section on Obesity, and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Dietz is the author of more than 200 publications in the scientific literature, and the editor of 5 books, including Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children, and Nutrition: What Every Parent Needs to Know. Dr. Dietz received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1966 and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970. After the completion of his residency at Upstate Medical Center, he received a Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Dietz is a member of the IOM.
Jessica Donze Black, R.D., M.P.H., is director of the Kids Safe and Healthful Foods Project—a joint initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In this capacity, she leads research, policy, and advocacy efforts aimed at improving school nutrition. Prior to joining Pew, Ms. Donze Black served as national director of the Healthy Schools Program for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. In her work at the Alliance, she led a team of more than 60 people in 37 states who were helping schools make healthy and sustainable changes in their environments, policies, and practices. Ms. Donze Black’s past work also includes directing obesity initiatives for the American Heart Association, managing national nutrition policy for the American Dietetic Association, serving as a health policy fellow for Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM-D), and practicing clinical nutrition at DuPont Hospital for Children. Ms. Donze Black is a registered dietitian with a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Christina Economos, Ph.D., is vice chair and director of ChildObesity180, New Balance chair in Childhood Nutrition, and associate professor at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the School of Medicine, Tufts University. Dr. Economos’s research efforts have addressed the interaction among exercise, diet, body composition, bone health, and the built environment with the aim of preventing osteoporosis and obesity starting in early childhood. She is principal investigator of multiple large-scale studies examining childhood nutrition and physical activity with the goal of inspiring behavior, policy, and environmental change to improve the health of America’s children. She has worked effectively with diverse communities and has crafted, implemented, and evaluated physical activity and nutrition education curricula. At ChildObesity180 she blends scientific evidence and rigor with innova-
tion and experience from the private sector to develop, implement, evaluate, and scale up high-impact obesity prevention initiatives. Dr. Economos is involved in multiple national obesity and public health activities and has served on several IOM committees, including the Committee on an Evidence Framework for Obesity Prevention Decision Making, the Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention, and the Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention. She received a bachelor of science degree from Boston University, a master of science degree in applied physiology and nutrition from Columbia University, and a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry from Tufts University.
Helen Eddy, R.Ph., M.B.A., is assistant vice president, Health and Wellness, for Hy-Vee, Inc. (since 2009) and executive director of the Healthiest State Initiative (since 2012). Ms. Eddy has been employed by Hy-Vee, Inc. for 25 years, holding various positions in pharmacy operations until 2009. Her current responsibilities include Hy-Vee’s retail health and wellness initiatives, such as wellness screenings, pharmacy and dietitian services, and natural and organic products. In 2011 Governor Terry Branstad launched Iowa’s Healthiest State Initiative, a public–private partnership with the goal of making Iowa number 1 in well-being by 2016. Ms. Eddy graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy and received her M.B.A. from Drake University in 1984.
Lisa Gable, M.A., is president of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a chief executive officer-led initiative aimed at helping to reduce obesity, especially childhood obesity, in America. Her background includes tenure as U.S. ambassador and commissioner general, Aichi World EXPO 2005; global brand identity manager for INTEL Corporation; partner, The Brand Group; member, the Governor’s Economic Development and Jobs Creation Commission; advisory board member, Base Technologies; trustee of Thunderbird School of Global Management; board member, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute; board member, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities; a commissioner of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships; U.S. delegate to the United Nations; vice chairman for the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services; trustee for the California State Summer School of the Arts; deputy associate director, Office of Presidential Personnel, the White House; and special assistant for technology transfer policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense. Ms. Gable is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s National Security Studies program.
Julia Halberg, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., FACOEM, is vice president, global health and chief medical officer at General Mills, Inc. Dr. Halberg leads the company’s global approach to preventive care, health education, wellness programs, and medical treatment. She joined General Mills in 2001 as director of health services. Dr. Halberg has published extensively on several topics, including shift work, blood pressure, and circadian rhythms. She is a fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and served on its board of directors for 6 years. At the University of Minnesota, she is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, where she mentors environmental/public health Ph.D. candidates, medical students, and occupational medicine residents. Dr. Halberg serves on the boards of Way to Grow and the Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety. She earned her medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and received a master’s degree in biology/ecology and a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Halberg completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in occupational medicine, in which she is board certified.
Geraldine Henchy, M.P.H., is director of nutrition policy at the Food Research and Action Center. Ms. Henchy’s work focuses on nutrition policies, such as increasing the healthfulness of nutrition programs, necessary to reach the goals of eradicating domestic hunger and improving the nutrition and health of low-income individuals and families. She was a member of the IOM’s Committee to Review the Child and Adult Care Food Program Meal Requirements, which had the task of creating nutrition standards to bring the meals served into compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. She is currently chair of the policy committee of the American Public Health Association’s Food and Nutrition Section. Ms. Henchy serves on the USDA’s Management Improvement Task Force. She has been honored to receive awards for her work on child nutrition programs from the Sponsors Association, the National Sponsors Forum, and the California Roundtable. Most recently, the National Association of Family Child Care honored Ms. Henchy with its Advocate of the Year Award. She is the author of numerous policy briefs on the federal child nutrition programs and has co-authored a number of publications, including Making WIC Work for Multicultural Communities: Best Practices for Outreach and Nutrition Education, Time for a Change: WIC Food Package Guide, WIC in Native American Communities: Building a Healthier America, and WIC Partnerships and the Nurturing Parent. Ms. Henchy is also the author of a number of Web-based tools, including most recently the “Child Care Wellness Tool Kit: Child and Adult Care Food Program.” She is a registered dietitian and holds an M.P.H. in nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley.
Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H., is the 14th assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), having been nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009. Dr. Koh oversees 12 core public health offices, including the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps; 10 regional health offices across the nation; and 10 presidential and secretarial advisory committees. He also serves as senior public health advisor to the secretary of HHS. As assistant secretary for health, Dr. Koh is dedicated to creating better public health systems for prevention and care so that all people can reach their highest attainable standard of health. He previously served as Harvey V. Fineberg professor of the practice of public health and associate dean for public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was also director of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Preparedness. He has published more than 250 articles in the medical and public health literature. Dr. Koh served as commissioner of public health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1997-2003) after being appointed by Governor William Weld. He has earned numerous awards and honors for interdisciplinary accomplishments in medicine and public health, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for National Service, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Cancer Society, and the Drs. Jack E. White/ LaSalle D. Leffall Cancer Prevention Award from the American Association for Cancer Research and the Intercultural Cancer Council. He is an elected member of the IOM. President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Koh to the National Cancer Advisory Board (2000-2002). A past chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for a Healthy Future (the group that advocated for the commonwealth’s groundbreaking tobacco control initiative), Dr. Koh was named by the New England Division of the American Cancer Society as “one of the most influential persons in the fight against tobacco during the last 25 years.” He has also received the 2012 Champion Award from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the Hero of Epilepsy Award from the Epilepsy Foundation, and the Baruch S. Blumberg Prize from the Hepatitis B Foundation. He was named to the K100 (the 100 leading Korean Americans in the first century of Korean immigration to the United States) and has received the Boston University Distinguished Alumnus Award, as well as two honorary degrees. Dr. Koh graduated from Yale College. He completed postgraduate training at Boston City Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as chief resident in both. He has earned board certification in four medical fields—internal medicine, hematology, medical oncology, and dermatology—as well as a master of public health degree from Boston University.
Sarah Lee, Ph.D., is team lead for the Research Application and Evaluation Team in the School Health Branch, Division of Population Health, CDC. The team is focused on chronic disease prevention in schools, including promotion of physical activity and healthy eating and prevention of tobacco use. She provides scientific expertise and leadership on numerous documents, resources, surveillance studies, and CDC school health programs related to youth physical activity and obesity prevention. Her previous and current research interests include school policies and environmental influences on physical activity among youth, physical activity assessment, dissemination and diffusion of school health tools and resources, and the coordinated school health model applied to designing effective programs. Dr. Lee is lead author for CDC’s Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool and CDC’s Guidelines for Schools to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Young People. Additionally, she has published more than 25 peer-reviewed manuscripts related to youth physical activity, childhood obesity prevention, and evidence-based strategies for use by schools in implementing effective policies and programs related to both of these topics. Dr. Lee earned her Ph.D. in exercise and wellness education from Arizona State University.
Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., is executive director of the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), where he leads the organization’s advocacy efforts on behalf of a modernized public health system. He oversees TFAH’s work on a range of public health policy issues, including implementation of the public health provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and annual reports assessing the nation’s public health preparedness, investment in public health infrastructure, and response to chronic diseases such as obesity. In January 2011, President Obama appointed Dr. Levi to serve as a member of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. In April 2011, Surgeon General Benjamin appointed him the group’s chair. Dr. Levi is also professor of health policy in George Washington University’s School of Public Health, where his research has focused on HIV/AIDS, Medicaid, and integration of public health with the health care delivery system. He has also served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health and deputy director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Dr. Levi received a bachelor of arts degree from Oberlin College, a master of arts degree from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from George Washington University.
Nicolas P. Pronk, Ph.D., FACSM, is vice president for health management and chief science officer for HealthPartners, Inc. Dr. Pronk is also a senior research investigator at the HealthPartners Institute for Education
and Research; adjunct professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health; visiting research professor in environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health; member of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services; and founding and past president of the International Association for Worksite Health Promotion. His research expertise lies in the areas of population health improvement, the role of physical activity in health, and the impact of multiple health behaviors on health outcomes. Dr. Pronk is particularly interested in improving population health in the context of the employer setting; the integration of health promotion with occupational safety and health; and the integration of health promotion, behavioral health, and primary care. He is senior editor of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Worksite Health Handbook, 2nd ed. (2009), and author of the scientific background paper for the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan for Business and Industry. Dr. Pronk received a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Texas A&M University and completed postdoctoral studies in behavioral medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh.
Bill Purcell III, J.D., is an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee. He served most recently as special advisor on Allston (a neighborhood of Boston) and co-chair of the Work Team for Allston in the Office of the President at Harvard University. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Purcell served as director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His accomplishments as a civic leader earned him Public Official of the Year honors in 2006 from Governing Magazine. Mr. Purcell’s prior civic leadership positions include mayor of Nashville from 1999 to 2007 and five terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives. During his tenure in the Tennessee House, he held the positions of majority leader and chair of the Select Committee on Children and Youth. After retiring from the General Assembly, Mr. Purcell founded and became director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies. He previously served in various capacities on IOM obesity-related committees, including the Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention (member), Committee on an Evidence Framework for Obesity Prevention Decision Making (member), and Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention (vice chair). Mr. Purcell is currently the chair of the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions. He is an adjunct professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University. He graduated from Hamilton College and Vanderbilt University School of Law.
Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, is deputy chief medical officer (CMO) for the American Heart Association. Formerly, Dr. Sanchez served
as vice president and CMO for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, where he focused on worker and worksite wellness; clinical prevention; and management of chronic disease, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Sanchez served as director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Texas School of Public Health from 2006 to 2008, as Texas state health officer from 2001 to 2006, and as commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2004 to 2006 and of the Texas Department of Health from 2001 to 2004. He also served as local public health officer in Austin-Travis County from 1994 to 1998. Dr. Sanchez currently serves as chair of the Partnership for Prevention’s Board of Directors and chair of the National Commission on Prevention Priorities. He recently served on the IOM Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity, was a member of the IOM Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention, and served as chair of the IOM Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments. He will be serving on the IOM’s Roundtable on Obesity Solutions. From 2008 to 2012, he chaired the Advisory Committee to the Director of CDC. Dr. Sanchez received his M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, an M.P.H. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, and a master of science degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University. He holds a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering and a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Boston University. Dr. Sanchez is board certified in family medicine.
Lawrence A. Soler, J.D., is president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), an organization dedicated to making the healthy choice the easy choice by working with the private sector to bring about healthier options for American families. Prior to joining PHA, Mr. Soler was chief operating officer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). He oversaw the bulk of JDRF’s activities, including all fundraising and local chapters, marketing and communications, information technology, government relations, and international development. Mr. Soler received a bachelor of arts degree with honors from Clark University and his J.D. degree from George Washington University. He is a member of both the Maryland and Washington, DC, bar associations.
Loel Solomon, Ph.D., M.P.P., joined Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit Program in 2003 and presently serves as vice president for community health. In this position, Dr. Solomon works with health plan and medical group leaders to establish the strategic direction for Kaiser Permanente’s multifaceted approach to prevention and community health and develops national partnerships to advance those ends. He was a co-founder of the
Convergence Partnership, a collaborative of national funders working to advance policy and environmental approaches to community health, and currently serves on the Partnership’s steering committee. Dr. Solomon also leads Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit Community of Practice and oversees the program’s evaluation and community health needs assessment activities. Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Solomon served as deputy director of the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development for Healthcare Quality and Analysis, where he oversaw the state’s hospital outcomes reporting program, analyses of racial and ethnic health disparities, and dissemination of health care data to researchers and members of the public. He served as a senior manager at the Lewin Group in Washington, DC, and as a member of Senator Edward Kennedy’s health staff. Dr. Solomon received his Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University and a master of public policy degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
Marion Standish, J.D., is senior advisor, Office of the President, at The California Endowment. She leads the foundation’s multiple philanthropic partnerships, provides strategic guidance to its Health Happens Here Campaigns, and provides programmatic support to impact investing activities. In that capacity, Ms. Standish serves as lead officer for the Endowment with the Partnership for a Healthier America, the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign, the National Convergence Partnership, and collaboration among California’s Community Transformation Grant recipients. Prior to assuming her role as senior advisor, Ms. Standish was director of community health for the Endowment, overseeing multiple grant-making initiatives focused on transforming communities so that the healthy choice is the easy choice. Before joining the Endowment, she was founder and director of California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), a statewide nutrition and health research and advocacy organization focusing on access to nutritious food for low-income families. Before launching CFPA, she served as director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, a statewide advocacy organization focusing on health, education, and labor issues facing farm-workers and the rural poor. She began her career as a staff attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, a federally funded legal services program. Ms. Standish serves on the board of directors of the Food Research and Action Center and the San Francisco Community Boards Program. She received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, and both her master of arts and undergraduate degrees from New York University.
Dianne S. Ward, Ed.D., is a professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. She has experience conducting research in the area of child health, specifically obesity prevention. During the past 10 years, she has been the principal investigator or co–principal investigator for a number of research studies exploring environmental determinants of obesity and testing preschool, school, and home-based interventions for preventing obesity in children and families through promotion of healthy eating and/ or physical activity. Dr. Ward’s recent work has been focused on child care settings. She led the team that developed Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care, an environmental and policy intervention that has been adopted for use by a number of communities across the United States. In addition, she and her colleagues developed an instrument for assessing the nutrition and physical activity environments in child care settings. Her success in that effort led to the National Cancer Institute-funded project HomeSTEAD: the Home Self-Administered Tool for Environmental Assessment of Activity and Diet. Dr. Ward received a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Coker College, a master of science degree in physical education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her Ed.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
