Jeremy Alberga is a senior manager at AcademyHealth and primarily works on The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program. He also manages AcademyHealth's contract with HRSA to provide technical assistance to 43 State Planning Grant awardees. His responsibilities include providing technical assistance to state policymakers on health policy reform, specifically expanding and maintaining health insurance coverage through public programs and public/private partnerships; disseminating state models of expansion through the program’s written products; convening workshops and small group consultations for policymakers; and assisting in the development of technical assistance documents. Mr. Alberga also is the lead content developer for SCI’s Web site and has authored publications on a range of topics from Wisconsin’s BadgerCare program to innovative state efforts to incentivize quality care.
Mr. Alberga came to AcademyHealth in April 1999 from a private firm providing research to hospital emergency departments and ambulatory care facilities. Mr. Alberga received his M.A. in international health policy from the George Washington University and his B.A. from McGill University, Montreal.

Mary Angel has worked in senior level management positions related to the health care field for more than 20 years and has served as a marketing and public relations consultant in related areas. Her experience includes leadership roles in partnership with registered nurses associations, primary care groups, youth smoking cessation agencies, and health care charities. Ms. Angel and her husband own a full-service advertising agency that serves clients throughout West Virginia and surrounding states.

Christy Bonstelle is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Medicaid within the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. As a policy analyst, Christy primarily provides analytic support for policy decisions related to Massachusetts’ 1115 Waiver and SCHIP programs. Additionally, Christy has recently lead workgroups to increase premiums and co-payments within the MassHealth program. Prior to her work in the Massachusetts Medicaid and SCHIP programs, Christy was a policy analyst at the United States General Accounting Office. She holds a Master’s degree from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Kate Brewster is the manager of the Employer Contact Unit (ECU) at the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, which manages the RIte Share Premium Assistance Program. She is also a part-time instructor for the Case Management Institute at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work. Ms. Brewster served as a project manager for the RIte Care Statewide Outreach Project where she trained and coordinated the efforts of community-based outreach workers responsible for enrolling uninsured children and families into RIte Care, Rhode Island’s Medicaid Managed Care program. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from the University of Rhode Island and a Master of Social Work degree from Rhode Island College.

Alice Burton is director of the State Health Policy Group at AcademyHealth, where she leads The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program and advises on other special projects. Previously, Ms. Burton was the director of the planning administration at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In that role, she was responsible for policy analyses and advising the Department on health care financing legislative issues, including Medicaid, the Maryland Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the uninsured. She also served as the project director for Maryland’s Health Resources and Services Administration Planning Grant on the uninsured.
Ms. Burton is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and holds a master’s degree in health policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Deborah Chollet is a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C., where she conducts and manages research on private health insurance coverage, markets and regulation, including employer-sponsored health plans for workers and retirees, individual health insurance, and Medicare supplement plans. She regularly provides direct technical assistance to states on matters related to private health insurance coverage and markets. She is a senior consultant to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives program, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Benefits Quarterly, the Journal of Insurance Issues, and Health Administration Press. Her previous positions include vice president of Alpha Center (now AcademyHealth); director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research and associate professor of risk management and insurance at Georgia State University; senior researcher at the Employee Benefit Research Institute; and assistant professor of economics at Temple University. Dr. Chollet holds master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Pamela S. Dickson, M.B.A., is a senior program officer and leader of the Disparities Team at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her program activities at the Foundation have focused on increasing all Americans’ access to care, with an emphasis on reducing racial and ethnic disparities.

Before joining the Foundation, Ms. Dickson held several senior positions at the New Jersey Department of Health. As assistant commissioner from 1988 through 1994, she supervised the all-payer hospital rate-setting system and the health planning program. As director of health care reform initiatives, she coordinated efforts among the Governor’s Office, the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Insurance to implement New Jersey’s 1993 Health Care and Insurance Reform legislation.

Ms. Dickson has served on the board of directors of the National Association of Health Data Organizations and on the Access for the Uninsured Steering Committee of the National Academy for State Health Policy. She earned an M.B.A. in health care administration from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia and a B.S. in education from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

Mr. Findlay is director of research and policy at the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation. The NIHCM Foundation is a Washington D.C-based non-profit research and educational organization. He joined NIHCM in November 1999 and has conducted most of the group’s research on pharmaceutical market trends. He also oversees the group’s five-year cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prior to joining the NIHCM Foundation, Mr. Findlay was senior policy analyst at the National Coalition on Health Care (1998 – 99) and oversaw that group’s research on Medicare and health insurance trends. Before that, Mr. Findlay had a 20-year career as a journalist, editor, and writer covering medicine and health care policy at, among other publications, USA TODAY (1983 – 1987, 1996 – 1998), U.S. News & World Report (1987 – 1992), and Business & Health Magazine (1992-1996). Mr. Findlay received his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Colorado (1976) and his masters degree in public health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (1995).

Isabel Friedenzohn is an associate at AcademyHealth where she works primarily on The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program. Her responsibilities include providing technical assistance to state policymakers on health policy reform, specifically expanding and maintaining health insurance coverage; disseminating state models of expansion through the program’s written products; convening workshops and small group consultations for policymakers; and assisting in the development of technical assistance documents.

Ms. Friedenzohn joined AcademyHealth in October 2001 after receiving her master’s of public health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. During her graduate studies, Isabel also worked as an international health intern in the Office of International and Refugee Health at the DHHS. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked for the VA Health Services Research & Development in Ann Arbor, Mich., as a research health science specialist. Most recently she was a consultant at Mercy International Health Services, where she collaborated on two projects assessing human resources and health services management issues.

Anne K. Gauthier is vice president at AcademyHealth. Ms. Gauthier comes to AcademyHealth from one of its predecessor organizations, the Alpha Center, where since January 1989, she has directed a wide range of health policy and demonstration projects concerned with health care financing and delivery issues of national significance. She serves as program director for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) initiative and as senior advisor for the Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program. She oversees the development and operation of AcademyHealth programs for research/policy syntheses and for information services. She also serves as secretary to the Board of Directors and staffs several Board standing and advisory committees. Prior to joining the Alpha Center, Ms. Gauthier was senior researcher for the National Leadership Commission on Health Care and, for more than six years, served the Congress of the United States in its Office of Technology Assessment. A graduate of Princeton University, Ms. Gauthier earned her M.S. in health administration at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) School of Public Health.

John Adams Hurson has represented Montgomery County in the House of Delegates since 1991 and been a member of the House Leadership since 1993. He and his colleagues crafted significant health care legislation in the mid-1990’s, including passing historic legislation that reformed the small group health care insurance market and became a national model for health care insurance.

Mr. Hurson became the Majority Leader of the House of Delegates in 1995, where he has worked to expand high quality health care benefits for the most needy citizens in Maryland. In the 2001 session, he helped to pass landmark legislation that provided access to substantive prescription drug benefits for 200,000 senior citizens in the state. In 1998, he was the chief architect of legislation that established the Maryland Children’s Health Insurance Program (MCHIP) that now provides health care benefits for more than 100,000 children in Maryland.

Mr. Hurson became President-elect of NCSL in July 2003, and will be installed as President of the organization in July 2004. He holds an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

As New Mexico Medicaid Director, Carolyn Ingram administers and directs the statewide Medicaid and SCHIP program that includes the full range of Medicaid physical and behavioral health services. She returned to New Mexico to serve under Governor Bill Richardson’s administration after she gained experience as a senior manager with the Lewin Group, a nationally recognized resource for health and human services consulting. While at Lewin, Ms. Ingram worked with a number of states on evaluating and redesigning ever-shifting health care practices, technologies and regulations.

Prior to her position with Lewin, Carolyn held several key management positions within the New Mexico Human Services Department’s Medicaid program between 1993 and 2001, including heading the Medicaid Contract Administration Bureau and managing the department’s three multi-million dollar contracts for Salud!, the state’s Medicaid managed care program. Through her work Ms. Ingram has gained experience in working with legislative, federal, and Native American groups on health care issues. She also serves as the chair of the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool that provides care to high-risk individuals who are unable to qualify for health insurance.

Mila Kofman is an assistant research professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, where she conducts a range of studies on the uninsured problem focusing on private market reforms, regulation, access, affordability, adequacy of job-based and individual health coverage, and private purchasers including associations, HIPCs and multiple employer arrangements. She has written about state and federal health insurance reforms and has presented on these topics to a wide range of audiences (including the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and state legislatures). Her expertise has been recognized widely by print and television press.

Ms. Kofman was appointed to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Consumer Participation Board of Trustees in 2002 for a 2-year term and reappointed in 2004 for a 2-year term. She also serves on the Board of Directors for URAC (a health care accreditation firm).

Ms. Kofman was a federal regulator at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1997 to 2001, where she worked with federal and state legislators developing health care initiatives. In the fall of 2000, she was a special assistant to the Senior Health Care Advisor to the President at the Domestic Policy Council at the White House. In March 2000, Ms. Kofman was honored with the Labor Secretary’s Exceptional Achievement Award.

Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Ms. Kofman was Counsel for Health Policy and Regulation at the Institute for Health Policy Solutions (IHPS), where she worked with small businesses on health insurance issues. Ms. Kofman holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park (summa cum laude).

Bill Lindsay is a principal with Benefit Management & Design, Inc., an employee benefits brokerage and consulting firm in Denver, Colorado. His extensive background within the field of health care and insurance has placed him within the sphere of the national health care policy and financing debate.

Highlights of his contributions include:

• Inaugural Board Chair of the Colorado Children’s Basic Health Plan Policy Board;
  
• Board Chair of the oldest small business coalition in the United States, National Small Business United;
  
• Grant Review & Award panel member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation;
  
• Past member of the National Advisory Council of the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy; and
  
• Past Board member and current health committee chair for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Lindsay has published and coauthored numerous articles and white papers on insurance, employee benefits, health care and health care reform. He frequently serves as a speaker and panelist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, national insurance companies, and national industry associations. He is often called to testify before the United States Congress.

In recognition of his contributions, Mr. Lindsay has been awarded the Colorado Business Magazine’s “Ethics in Business” award, and the Colorado Trust’s “Community Service” award. For nearly a decade, The Denver Business Journal has named him to the “Who’s Who in Health Care in Colorado”.

Mr. Lindsay graduated from Gettysburg College with a degree in political science. He has the designation of Chartered Life Underwriter and is a registered representative with the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Anthony T. Lo Sasso, Ph.D., is a research associate professor at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He is an economist and applied econometrician whose research spans several dimensions of health and labor economics and health services research. Dr. Lo Sasso is currently completing year four of a five-year Independent Scientist Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality studying workplace health benefits and how they affect employee health. As part of this broad research agenda, he currently has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the impact of an expansion of mental health benefits on cost and quality of care at a Fortune 50 manufacturing firm. In addition, Dr. Lo Sasso is currently studying the nascent consumer-driven health care movement and its potential impact on employer-sponsored health insurance and employee health.

Dr. Lo Sasso has studied the impact of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program on uninsurance among children and the extent to which public coverage may have “crowded out” private coverage of children. He has just completed a research project for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization to study how the availability of safety net health care services affects the willingness of firms to offer health insurance and the willingness of employees to take-up health insurance when it is offered.

Dr. Lo Sasso received his doctorate in economics in 1996 from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Dr. Anne Marie Murphy is the administrator for medical programs in Illinois (Medicaid Director). She directs the Illinois Department of Public Aid’s Medicaid program, which serves more than 1.7 million Illinoisans and has a budget of over $10 billion in FY04.

Ms. Murphy was previously a senior health care policy advisor for Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) from January 1997 to May 2003. In that capacity, she advised the senator on all aspects of health care and welfare policy, including Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance, public health, mental health, medical research, Food and Drug Administration issues, domestic violence prevention, and veterans health care.

Before joining the Durbin staff, Ms. Murphy was a Health, Education and Labor Committee staff member for Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) and Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA).

Her career has focused on a very wide range of health care issues from state financing and budgeting to public health, consumer safety, and strategies to reduce the number of uninsured.

Mrs. Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences (Honors) from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Ms. Roddy is the director of the Planning Administration at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. For Maryland’s Medicaid program, she has responsibility for program analyses and evaluation as well as advising senior-level officials on legislative issues. Prior to working for the State of Maryland, Ms. Roddy was a management consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

Ms. Roddy has a master’s degree in health services administration and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan.

Tony Rodgers is director of the State of Arizona Medicaid/SCHIP programs, known as Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). Mr. Rodgers was previously general manager for WellPoint Health Networks, State Sponsored Programs. He was responsible for the Medicaid and SCHIP product lines, which had more than one million members, and for state- sponsored programs’ health plan operations.

Mr. Rodgers served as chief executive officer of L.A. Care Health Plan for five years, where he provided leadership to management and direction in developing the business operations. L.A. Care grew to over 600,000 members under Mr. Rodgers’ leadership, making it one of the largest health plans in California and the largest public health plan in the United States. In May 1997, he was appointed to the Governor’s Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force to make recommendations for the improvement of managed health care in California.

Mr. Rodgers holds a Master of Science degree in public health and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He completed a fellowship with the National Association of Public Hospitals in information systems management and planning, and served as an adjunct professor in health policy and administration at Arizona State University and the University of Southern California. Currently, Mr. Rodgers has an appointment as visiting professor of UCLA School of Public Health.

Gerald Roueche joined the staff of the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency in 2001. He serves as the executive assistant to the director where he has facilitated preparation of the agency’s strategic plan, participated in the Multi-State Drug Purchasing Coalition, and acts as the agency liaison with the Legislature throughout the year.

Following a 25-year absence, Roueche rejoined state government in 1996. He served concurrently as a key staff member to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability and the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee. He participated in the development of West Virginia’s CHIP legislation as well as the state’s welfare-to-work legislation, West Virginia Works.

As executive director of the New Jersey Individual Health Coverage (“IHC”) Program Board and the New Jersey Small Employer Health Benefits (“SEH”) Program Board, Ward Sanders is the administrator for the two state agencies charged by law with regulating the individual and small group health benefits markets. These two markets cover approximately one million New Jersey residents.

Prior to his appointment as executive director, Mr. Sanders served as the Assistant Director of the SEH Board. He began his state service as a deputy attorney general of the New Jersey Division of Law representing the New Jersey Department of Insurance (now Department of Banking and Insurance), the SEH Board, and the IHC Board. He has been closely involved with New Jersey’s health coverage reform programs since their formation in early 1993.

From 1984 to 1988, prior to earning his law degree, Mr. Sanders worked in Washington, D.C. for the International Center, a foreign policy research organization. He is a 1991 graduate of the Villanova University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Villanova Environmental Law Journal and the student commencement speaker. Mr. Sanders is also a 1984 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., where he received his B.A. in Government.

Jeanene Smith, M.D., M.P.H., is deputy administrator of the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research (OHPR). This state agency provides oversight and coordination for all elements of the Oregon Health Plan and state health trends, providing technical and policy support to the legislative and executive branch decision-making on health policy. The agency’s administrator reports directly to the Governor and the Legislature, and the Office supports the work of Oregon’s Health Policy Commission, which is focused on developing a state health plan, the Health Resources Commission, which has been doing evidence-based drug class reviews for Oregon’s Physicians Managed Preferred Drug List, and the Health Services Commission which oversees the Oregon Health Plan’s Prioritized List of Health Services. The office also is statutorily charged with the collection of Oregon’s hospitals financial and discharge data, uninsurance data, and regular surveys of Oregon’s hospitals, nursing facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers.

Dr. Smith has an extensive background in health care and insurance coverage. She is a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) School of Medicine, and completed a residency in Family Medicine at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. She graduated with a master’s degree in public health from Portland State University in 2001. Dr. Smith practiced family medicine in both private practice and safety net clinics for over 12 years, including a year in the Alaska Native Health Service overseeing two remote Aleutian Island village clinics, before joining OHPR to work with the Oregon’s HRSA State Planning Grant in September 2000. She has been the project director for Oregon’s State Coverage Initiatives Grant project, which facilitated the final submission and implementation of the Oregon Health Plan 2 Medicaid Waiver. Dr. Smith has overseen the evaluation of the impacts of the Oregon Health Plan policy changes through the development of the Oregon Health Research and Evaluation Collaborative (OHREC).

Julie Sonier is assistant director of the Health Economics Program at the Minnesota Department of Health. The program conducts research and applied policy analysis to monitor changes in the health care marketplace, to understand factors influencing health care cost, quality and access, and to provide technical assistance in the development of state health care policy. Ms. Sonier supervises the work of research staff analyzing trends in access and cost, including work performed under Minnesota’s State Planning Grant for research and analysis aimed at reducing uninsurance. Ms. Sonier has worked for the Minnesota Department of Health since 1997; prior to that, she was a policy analyst in Washington, D.C., for the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Sonier holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and an undergraduate degree in economics from Amherst College.

Patricia H. Stromberg is deputy commissioner for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, CHIP, and adultBasic Program Office. She has more than 20 years of senior level experience in management of complex government programs (e.g. Children’s Health Insurance Program, adultBasic Insurance Program, TANF, Medicaid, Food Stamps, LIHEAP, Refugee Assistance). Her responsibilities include management of Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and of adultBasic.

Before joining the Insurance Department, Ms. Stromberg held various positions with the Department of Public Welfare. She was director of the Bureau of Policy, Office of Income Maintenance, and director of the Office of Hearings and Appeals. She presently serves as the co-chairman of the SCHIP Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as vice-chair of the National SCHIP Alliance, and as a member of the National Covering Kids and Families Policy Committee sponsored by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Adam Thompson is the legislative and constituent liaison for the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance (GOHPF) in Maine. He was previously a special assistant at GOHPF.

Mr. Thompson worked for the State Senate Democratic Campaign Committee during the 2000 election cycle. After the election, he became executive director of the Maine Democratic Party from 2001 to 2003.

Mr. Thompson graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in studio art and rhetoric.

Ms. VanLandeghem has more than 15 years experience in health and human service policy and program development with expertise in public health systems, children’s health insurance, maternal and child health, adolescent health, and coalition building. She spent 11 years in Washington, D.C., where she worked for national children’s health and education organizations, including as the assistant executive director of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. Currently, she operates a consulting business based in Chicago, that works with national, federal, and state clients including: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative™ (CHIRI™); The National Governors Association; and the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership.

Ms. VanLandeghem has worked with national and state health, education, and human service agencies and other groups to improve and advance policies, programs, and services that support children and their families, particularly those who are low-income. She is the author of numerous reports and publications on child and family health policies and best practices. In 2000, she was the recipient of the American Public Health Association’s Young Professional Award for outstanding achievement and leadership in maternal and child health. She received her M.P.H. from the University of Michigan.

Alan Weil directs the Assessing the New Federalism project at the Urban Institute. This project, the largest in the Institute’s 34-year history, monitors, describes, and assesses the effects of changes in federal and state health, welfare, and social services programs. Mr. Weil was formerly executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing — the cabinet position responsible for Colorado’s Medicaid and Medically Indigent programs, health data collection and analysis functions, health policy development, and health care reform. He was also health policy adviser to Colorado Governor Roy Romer, program director of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, and legal counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Medical Security. He is the author of many articles and co-editor of two books: Welfare Reform: The Next Act, and Federalism and Health Policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of California at Berkeley, a master of public policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Wu Xu, Ph.D., is the director for the Office of Health Care Statistics at Utah Department of Health and Executive Secretary for Utah Health Data Committee, a statutory committee. The Utah Office of Health Care Statistics administers statewide health care data collection and dissemination, including hospital inpatient discharge, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department encounter databases, as well as HMO enrollee satisfaction surveys and HEDIS reporting. Ms. Xu has led several outcome evaluations for Utah’s demonstration or public programs such as Utah Statewide Immunization Information System, the Utah Medicaid nursing home bed moratorium, and the Primary Care Network (PCN). She has successfully organized two multi-state projects to improve data uses in patient safety (AHRQ-funded Utah/Missouri Patient Safety Demonstration Project, 2001-2004) and in maternal and child health (HRSA-funded Transportable Maternal and Child Health Information Internet-query Module, MATCHIIM 1997-2000).

Lynn Zehnder is director, benefits strategy, at Sears, Roebuck and Co. where she leads a team that designs and develops health and welfare programs offered nationally to Sears associates and retirees. These programs include medical, dental, life, disability, along with a broad voluntary benefits program. She also has responsibility for strategic planning in the retirement plans area including the 401(k) and pension plans.

Ms. Zehnder is on the Board of Directors for the Midwest Business Group on Health; the Health Policy Committee for the ERISA Industry Committee; the Governance Committee for the Care Focused Purchasing Initiative Coalition; and is the Sears board representative for the NBGH Institute on the Costs and Health Effects of Obesity. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Health Alliance Medical Plans, which is a physician-owned medical plan in Urbana, Ill., and is a member of the HR Committee for the board at Sherman Health System in Elgin, Ill.

Prior to joining Sears, Ms. Zehnder spent 19 years in Illinois state government in varying capacities. Under Governor Jim Edgar she managed the state employee benefit programs, the Local Government Health Plan, and the Teachers Retirement Insurance Program, all covering over 380,000 lives. She was the financial officer for a major state agency and assistant appropriations director for the Senate Republican Staff. She is a Certified Government Benefits Administrator.