Appendix D
Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers and Moderators
Stacy Becker, M.P.P., oversees the majority of ReThink Health’s place-based and research and development work. Previously, Ms. Becker was Director of sustainable financing for Rethink Health. She has also served as Budget Director for the City and County of San Francisco (California) and for the City of Saint Paul (Minnesota), as well as Public Works Director for the City of Saint Paul. As a policy consultant for 18 years, she provided guidance on affordable housing, pay-for-success pilots, long-term care financing, and nonprofit strategic management. She has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, and an M.S. in city design and social science from the London School of Economics, which she attended as a Bush Leadership Fellow.
Christopher M. Brown, J.D., Financial Policy Director, leads policy efforts pertaining to banking, financial inclusion, and political activation efforts at PolicyLink. Previously overseeing federal policy and government affairs, he now focuses on local, state, and nationwide strategies that enhance economic mobility, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Tax Alliance for Economic Mobility—a national coalition focused on equitable tax reform. Mr. Brown possesses expertise in a range of policy areas and political engagement, and has led policy efforts at the state, federal, and international levels since his time on Capitol Hill and in the private sector. He focuses on strategic partnership opportunities between the private, public, and nonprofit sectors that advance better outcomes for all, and draws on previous experience in Congress where he served as Counsel to the U.S.
House Committee on Education and Labor and as Legislative Director on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Just prior to joining PolicyLink, Mr. Brown represented a U.S. development firm in Central America, where he directed foreign expansion efforts and government relations. Mr. Brown holds a B.A. from the University of Georgia and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois.
Pete Davis advises Wall Street money managers on Washington policy developments that affect the financial markets. President of his own consulting firm, Davis Capital Investment Ideas, since 1992, Mr. Davis draws on 11 years of experience as a prominent Capitol Hill economist with the Joint Committee on Taxation (1974–1981), the Senate Budget Committee (1981–1983), and Senator Robert C. Byrd (1992). He worked in the House and the Senate, and for Republicans and Democrats. He introduced the first computer policy model, the Treasury Individual Income Tax Model, to Capitol Hill in early 1974. Combining his economic and public policy expertise, Mr. Davis formulated the 1975 rebate, the earned income tax credit, the 1976 estate tax rates, the 1978 marginal tax rates and the Roth-Kemp tax cut. In 1981, he joined the Senate Budget Committee as Senior Economist for Tax Policy where he advised Chairman Pete V. Domenici and Committee Members on tax legislation, including the Reagan tax cuts and the 1983 Social Security amendments. He left Capitol Hill in 1983 for the Washington Research Office of Prudential Bache Securities, where he advised investors for 7 years.
Anne De Biasi, M.H.A., is Director of Policy Development at Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). She is responsible for defining the agenda and general strategy associated with the organization’s goal to create a modernized, accountable public health system and to integrate prevention into a reforming health care delivery and financing system. Prior to joining TFAH, Ms. De Biasi served in three policy positions, including as the first Director of Child Health Policy and Advocacy at Nemours (a foundation operating a child health system), as Director of Public Policy at the National Breast Cancer Coalition (a grassroots advocacy coalition), and as the Director of the Children’s Dental Health Project (a policy, advocacy, and research organization). Prior to that, she served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Oak Orchard Community Health Center and came to Washington, DC, as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow. During and after the Fellowship, she worked as health care staff for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Ms. De Biasi was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Virginia and graduated at the top of her class from the Masters in Health Administration Program at the Medical College of Virginia. She is a graduate of Leadership Rochester and
was recognized with a “40 under 40 Award” from the Rochester Business Journal. Ms. De Biasi currently chairs the board of a faith-based nonprofit focused on HIV and hepatitis awareness, prevention, and harm reduction.
Meredith Fowlie, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and holds the Class of 1935 Endowed Chair in Energy at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. She is also a research associate at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas and the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Kathy Gerwig, M.B.A., is Vice President of Employee Safety, Health and Wellness, and environmental stewardship officer at Kaiser Permanente. She is responsible for developing, organizing, and managing the organization’s national Environmental Stewardship initiative, and under her leadership Kaiser Permanente has become widely recognized as an environmental leader in the health care sector.
Ms. Gerwig has twice testified before Congress on the need for federal chemical policy reform, and has appeared at numerous hearings on environmental issues. She is also Kaiser Permanente’s national leader for Employee Safety, Health and Wellness, responsible for eliminating workplace injuries, promoting healthy lifestyle choices, and reducing health risks for the organization’s employees and nearly physicians.
She serves on the boards of several leading nongovernmental organizations—Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, and the Center for Environmental Health—focusing on safety and environmental sustainability in health care.
Alan Gilbert, J.D., joined GE’s Healthymagination in June 2011 as Director of Global Government and NGO Strategy. In this role, Mr. Gilbert shapes, champions, and messages GE’s positions on health care policy, reform, and business objectives and communicates them to internal and external stakeholders.
He currently directs U.S. health policy for Healthymagination; leads open innovation challenges on traumatic brain injury and has directed a similar innovation challenge on breast cancer; helps develop outreach and thought leadership around cancer, neurodegenerative, and other disease marketing initiatives; and is the leader of GE’s strategic partnerships and initiatives to change health care cost and quality trends to bring better health to more people in the communities in which GE operates.
Mr. Gilbert joined the GE team after working at the intersection of health care policy and politics for more than two decades in Washington, DC. Before opening his own consulting practice in 2009, he was Senior Vice President and Counsel for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manu-
facturers of America, creating and implementing all federal legislative strategy for the country’s largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
In 2002, Mr. Gilbert was selected by President George W. Bush to be a domestic policy advisor, leading the White House and the administration’s health care agenda and creating a health information technology initiative and infrastructure. Earlier, he served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson. Mr. Gilbert also worked in the U.S. Senate as chief health counsel to former Senator Judd Gregg (New Hampshire) and was a key health advisor to several members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
George Isham, M.D., is Senior Advisor, HealthPartners in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As Senior Advisor, Dr. Isham is responsible for working with the board of directors and the senior management team of HealthPartners on health and quality of care improvement for patients, members, and the community. Prior to his appointment as Senior Advisor in 2012, Dr. Isham served as HealthPartners’ Medical Director and Chief Health Officer, a position he held since 1993. Dr. Isham is also Senior Fellow, HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research. As Senior Fellow, he is responsible for facilitating forward progress at the intersection of population health research and public policy.
Dr. Isham is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and was designated as a National Associate of the Institute of Medicine in 2003 in recognition of his contribution to its work. He is active in health policy nationally and currently co-chairs the National Academies’ Roundtable on Population Health Improvement. He is a former member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Task Force on Community Preventive Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, founding Co-Chair of the National Committee for Quality Assurance committee on performance measurement, and founding Co-Chair of the National Quality Forum’s Measurement Application Partnership and a founding member of the advisory board for the National Guideline Clearinghouse.
Dr. Isham completed his bachelor of arts in zoology and master of science in preventive medicine/administrative medicine for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois, following which he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, Wisconsin.
Nick Johnson, M.P.P., serves as Senior Vice President for State Fiscal Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, DC-based
research and policy institute. He directs the Center’s State Fiscal Project, which publishes frequent reports on how state budget and tax decisions are affecting families and communities, and develops policies to enhance fiscal responsibility, equity, and accountability. Mr. Johnson’s analysis and commentary have been featured in national, regional, and local newspapers, and he is a frequent television and radio commentator on state fiscal issues. He is a regular contributor to the Center’s blog, “Off the Charts,” and speaks regularly at conferences in Washington, DC, and around the country. He also serves as an advisor to the members of the State Priorities Partnership, a network of independent state-level policy organizations.
In 2004, Mr. Johnson was awarded an Ian Axford Fellowship in Public Policy and served as an advisor to the New Zealand Treasury and the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, conducting analysis of that country’s programs of tax relief and cash assistance for low-income families. In 2014, Mr. Johnson was named to the Nonprofit Times Power & Influence Top 50. In 2010 State Tax Notes magazine named Mr. Johnson to its “All Decade State Tax Team.”
Mr. Johnson holds a graduate degree from Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy and an undergraduate degree from Yale University. He came to the Center in 1996 from the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Sanne Magnan, M.D., Ph.D., is the Co-Chair of the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (2006–2007, 2011–2016). In 2007, she was appointed Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. She served from 2007 to 2010 and had significant responsibility for implementation of Minnesota’s 2008 health reform legislation, including the Statewide Health Improvement Program, standardized quality reporting, development of provider peer grouping, certification process for health care homes, and baskets of care.
Dr. Magnan was a staff physician at the Tuberculosis Clinic at St. Paul—Ramsey County Department of Public Health (2002–2015). She was a member of the Population-based Payment Model Workgroup of the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network (2015–2016) and a member of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Multi-sector Collaboration Measure Development Technical Expert Panel (2016). She is on Epic’s Population Health Steering Board and on the Healthy People 2030 Engagement Subcommittee.
She served on the board of Minnesota Community Measurement and the board of NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, a federally qualified
health center and part of Hennepin Health. Her previous experience also includes Vice President and Medical Director of Consumer Health at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Currently, she is a Senior Fellow with HealthPartners Institute, and adjunct Assistant Professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Magnan holds a M.D. and a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Minnesota and is a board-certified internist.
Giridhar Mallya, M.D., M.S.H.P., who joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2015, is an accomplished public health physician and health policy expert. Working to advance the role of policy in achieving a Culture of Health, particularly at the state and local level, he views the Foundation as “a national leader in marshaling the evidence used to shape policies that foster healthier people, communities, and institutions.”
Previously, Dr. Mallya was Director of Policy and Planning for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In this position, he helped define public health priorities for Philadelphia, coordinated research and evaluation activities, and worked with key leadership to set policies and develop regulations. He led the Department’s Get Healthy Philly tobacco control and obesity prevention initiatives, which leveraged policy change and multisector collaboration to substantially reduce adult and youth smoking and childhood obesity while narrowing racial and socioeconomic disparities. The effort was recognized by the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the Harvard University Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and the National Association of Government Communicators for its effectiveness in fostering healthy environments and behaviors. He has published and presented extensively on policy and systems approaches to chronic disease prevention.
Dr. Mallya earned his A.B. in Biology from Brown University, graduated from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and competed a residency in Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Following residency, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania where he received an M.S. in Health Policy Research.
Rose Marie Martinez, Sc.D., is a Senior Board Director, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Health and Medicine Division, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The board has a vibrant portfolio of studies that address high-profile and cutting-edge issues that affect the public’s health. The board addresses the science base for public health interventions and examines the capacity of the health system, particularly the public health infrastructure, to support disease prevention and population health improvement, including the
education and supply of health professionals necessary for carrying them out. The board has examined such topics as the safety of childhood vaccines and other drugs, pandemic influenza preparedness, tobacco control policies, the health effect of environmental exposures, the capacity of governmental public health to respond to health crises, systems for evaluating and ensuring drug safety post-marketing, clinical preventive services for women, and chronic disease prevention, among others.
Prior to joining the National Academies Dr. Martinez was a Senior Health Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research (1995–1999), where she conducted research on the impact of health system change on the public health infrastructure, access to care for vulnerable populations, managed care, and the health care workforce. Dr. Martinez is a former Assistant Director for health financing and policy with the U.S. General Accounting Office where she directed evaluations and policy analysis in the area of national and public health issues (1988–1995). Her experience also includes 6 years of directing research studies for the Regional Health Ministry of Madrid, Spain (1982–1988).
Dr. Martinez received the degree of Doctor of Science from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Martinez was appointed to the Council on Education for Public Health Board of Councilors by the American Public Health Association (2015–2017).
Bobby Milstein, Ph.D., M.P.H., leads several ReThink Health projects focused on large-scale institutional change, including ongoing development of the ReThink Health Dynamics Model and other tools that allow leaders to negotiate their own scenarios for transforming regional health. Previously, Dr. Milstein spent 20 years planning and evaluating system-oriented initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and was the principal architect of CDC’s framework for program evaluation. He received CDC’s Honor Award for Excellence in Innovation as well as Article of the Year awards for papers published in Health Affairs and Health Promotion Practice. Dr. Milstein earned a Ph.D. in public health science from the Union Institute & University and an M.P.H. from Emory University. He once was a documentary filmmaker and also contributed storylines for The West Wing.
Xavier Morales, Ph.D., M.R.P., is a longtime advocate for community-driven initiatives to achieve health equity and environmental justice. Taking an expansive view of what constitutes good health and community wellness, he works in partnership to enable opportunities for youth development, workforce development, college access, prisoner reentry, early childhood development, affordable housing, and expanding access to culturally and linguistically appropriate heath care for all. Dr. Morales
currently serves on the board of the Urban Peace Initiative, and is the Vice-Chair of the City of Berkeley sugar-sweetened beverage tax expert panel. Dr. Morales often provides testimony in legislative arenas and is a frequent speaker at health conferences, health justice gatherings, and in college/university settings. Dr. Morales, a former Peace Corps volunteer (Hungary), is originally from Sanger, California, and studied environmental sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and city and regional planning at Cornell University.
Aysha Pamukcu, J.D., is an attorney and advocate for equitable, data-driven law and policy. As a senior staff attorney at ChangeLab Solutions, she leads health equity practice and implementation across program areas. Through research, training, and technical assistance, she also assists communities with improving policies in maternal and child health, healthy retail environments, and just food systems. Prior to joining ChangeLab Solutions, she served as policy counsel at the Greenlining Institute, where she worked on equitable community development and investment for communities of color. Ms. Pamukcu’s volunteer work includes providing asylum representation through the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and assisting judges at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia. She graduated from Stanford University, with honors, and the University of Southern California Law School.
James M. Sallee, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a public economist who studies topics related to energy, the environment, and taxation. Much of his work evaluates policies aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions related to the use of automobiles.
He was the 2008 recipient of the National Tax Association Dissertation Award and the 2009 recipient of the John V. Krutilla Research Award. He completed his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan in 2008. He also holds a B.A. in economics and political science from Macalester College.
