Sponsored by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives program
Conducted by AcademyHealth

Jeremy Alberga is a Senior Associate at AcademyHealth and primarily works on The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program. 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 website 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. Before that he worked for a private firm providing research to hospital emergency departments and ambulatory care facilities. Mr. Alberga received his MA in international health policy from the George Washington University and his BA from McGill University, Montreal.

Rod has been Executive Director of the Utah Department of Health since July 1992. The Utah Department of Health is an agency of over 1300 employees with an annual budget in excess of $1.2 Billion. The Agency's responsibilities include all the usual core public health responsibilities, the State's public insurance programs [Medicaid and CHIP], and the development of new health access initiatives under Governor Michael O. Leavitt.

Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, Mr. Betit was the Director of the Utah Division of Health Care Financing (the State Medicaid agency) from 1987 to 1992, and prior to that directed the medical assistance and public assistance programs in Alaska for 12 years. Rod has designed and launched a number of innovative Medicaid programs under Governor Leavitt's comprehensive health care agenda called "HealthPrint". The latest initiative that Rod and Governor Leavitt have teamed up on is an 1115 Waiver under Medicaid called the Primary Care Network which will bring basic health coverage to 25,000 working Utahns whose employers do not offer health care coverage. This new initiative was opened for enrollment by Governor Leavitt on July 1, 2002.

Barbara Brett joined CoverColorado as Executive Director in September of 1999. Her background includes social work, health insurance sales and marketing and Executive Director of Mountain Medical Affiliates, a large physician owned PPO company.

Brett is past President of the National Association of Comprehensive Health Insurance Pools (NASCHIP) and remains a director on the NASCHIP Board. She has also served on the Board of the Colorado Group Insurance Association, the Commissioner's Task Force studying Small Group and Rural Access and is currently actively involved with the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, in addition to her responsibilities for CoverColorado.

Her accomplishments for the CoverColorado program include the implementation of an Advanced Care Management system for managing 13 high cost/chronic conditions. This initiative in conjunction with five other states led to the development of a task force to study the impact of the Advanced Care concepts on costs and benefit designs using predictive modeling to better understand the management of high risk individuals.

Barbara is a graduate of The Colorado College with an additional degree from Colorado Women's College.

Kate Brewster is the Manager of the Employer Contact Unit (ECU) at the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. The ECU is responsible for managing the RIte Share Premium Assistance Program. Kate is also a part-time instructor for the Case Management Institute at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work. Kate 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. Kate 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.

Deborah Chollet is a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, DC. Dr. Chollet 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. As a Senior Consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives program, she regularly provides direct technical assistance to states on matters related to private health insurance coverage and markets. She currently serves on the Medicare study panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance and 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 M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Pamela Dickson is a Senior Program Officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her program activities at the Foundation focus on increasing access to care for all Americans, with a particular emphasis on reducing racial and ethnic disparities in access to care. 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 held positions as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Health Data Organizations and of the Access for the Uninsured Steering Committee of the National Academy for State Health Policy. She holds an M.B.A. in Health Care Administration from the Wharton School of Business.

Isabel Friedenzohn is an Associate at AcademyHealth and will be working 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.

Isabel joined AcademyHealth in October 2001 after receiving her Master's of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked for the VA Health Services Research & Development in Ann Arbor, MI, 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. During her graduate studies, Isabel also worked as an international health intern in the Office of International and Refugee Health at the DHHS.

Vickie Gates is a Vice President of AcademyHealth and serves as Director of the State Coverage Initiatives program and the Project Manager for the AcademyHealth's contract with the State Planning Grant Program of HRSA. Prior to joining AcademyHealth, Ms. Gates was the Director of Support Services for Multnomah County, Oregon responsible for finance, human resources including employee benefits and collective bargaining, information technology, organizational development, central research and evaluation, and support of the county's quality initiative.

Ms. Gates has a wide variety of experience in health care and human services. She served as the first Oregon Health Plan Administrator (responsible for oversight and coordination of Oregon's health care reform and health policy development). The Oregon Health Plan is nationally known and the recipient of a Ford Foundation Innovations in Government Grant. She also served as Deputy Director, and Director of Program and Finance for the Oregon Department of Health and Human Services. Other governmental experience includes the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office and the Children's Services Division of the Department of Health and Human Services

Ms. Gates has also served on the Boards of Directors for the Northwest Health Foundation, Oregon Health Decisions, the Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers and the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT). She currently serves on the Oregon Health Forum Board of Directors.

Ms. Gates received her B.A. from the University of North Carolina and has pursued graduate studies in history and public administration.

Dr. Helms is president and CEO of AcademyHealth. As such, he directs a staff of 54 and oversees the development of the organization's strategic mission and vision. Prior to becoming president and CEO of AcademyHealth in 2000, Dr. Helms served for twenty-five years as president of the Alpha Center and one year concurrently as president of the Alpha Center and CEO of the Association for Health Services Research (AHSR) prior to the merger of the two organizations. The Alpha Center was a non-partisan, non-profit health policy center that provided expert technical assistance, objective analysis and research, and comprehensive education and facilitation services. AHSR was the only national membership organization formed exclusively to promote the field of health services research and to strengthen the relationship between users and producers of research.

In addition to leading AcademyHealth, Dr. Helms serves as a senior advisor to several of its programs including the National Health Policy Conference, the Annual Research Meeting, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) State Coverage Initiatives program and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) User Liaison Program. Dr. Helms also serves as President and CEO of the Coalition for Health Services, AcademyHealth's advocacy arm. The Coalition provides a unified voice for enhanced federal funding of health services research and data to inform health policy and practice.

Dr. Helms has published in the Health Affairs and Health Services Research journals and has given numerous presentations, testimony before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures and briefings for Congressional staff. He serves on the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation Board of Directors and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Additionally, he serves on the national advisory committees for the Center for Study of Health Systems Change, the State Health Access Data Assistance Center and the Kansas Health Institute.

Dr. Helms received his doctorate in public administration and economics in 1979 from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Dr. Holahan is Director of the Health Policy Research Center at The Urban Institute. He has managed numerous health research projects in the last 25 years and authored many books and papers on health policy. His recent work has focused on the Medicaid program, as well as state health policy more broadly, and issues of federalism and health. These include analyses of the recent growth in Medicaid expenditures, variations across states in Medicaid expenditures, and the implications of block grants, and expenditure caps and changes in matching formulas on states. He has also published research on the reasons for the growth in the uninsured over the past decade and on the effects of proposals to expand health insurance coverage on the number of uninsured and the cost to federal and state governments. He has recently completed work on the costs of the uninsured and on differences in the costs of health coverage between Medicaid and private insurance. Other research interests include health system reform, managed care, physician payment, and hospital cost containment.

Julia Ann James (Julie) is a principal in the Washington, D.C. consulting firm Health Policy Alternatives, Inc. (HPA). She joined the firm in 1998 with more than twenty-five years experience in health services research, planning and policy. Before joining HPA, she was the Chief Health Policy Analyst for the Senate Committee on Finance. In this capacity she was responsible for overseeing all health policy issues within the jurisdiction of the Committee, including Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and health system reform issues. Prior to joining the Finance Committee staff in 1991, Julie was involved with health policy in the state of Oregon. She began her career as a research assistant at the Kaiser Health Services Research Center. She was active in health planning in the state, first as the Associate Director of the regional health planning agency, Northwest Oregon Health Systems, and later as a Governor's appointee to the Oregon Health Council, which she chaired for a year. She also served as Vice-Chairman of the Oregon Certificate of Needs Appeals Board. Other positions in Oregon included being Associate Director of the Oregon Comprehensive Cancer Program and working as an independent consultant on health and other public policy issues.

Mila Kofman joined the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute (formerly Institute for Health Care Research and Policy) as an Assistant Research Professor in November 2001. She conducts a range of studies on the uninsured problem focusing on regulation of private markets and market practices, access, affordability, adequacy of job-based and individual health coverage, and private purchasers including associations, HIPCs and multiple employer arrangements. Ms. Kofman has written about HIPAA and ERISA issues and has presented on these topics to a wide range of audiences. Ms. Kofman was recently appointed to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Consumer Participation Board of Trustees and was selected to serve as a designated consumer representative at the NAIC.

Ms. Kofman was a federal regulator at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1997 to 2001. 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. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Ms. Kofman was Counsel for Health Policy and Regulation at the Institute for Health Policy Solutions (IHPS). Before joining IHPS, Ms. Kofman worked at the NAIC and a private law firm.

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).

Steve Landkamer entered public service as an Economic Support worker in Wisconsin in 1983 where he was responsible for Medicaid eligibility determination. In 1986, Steve entered the social work field as an adult service worker in Sheboygan, providing case management for people with disabilities and older adults. In 1989, Steve became the Long-term Support Manager in Calumet County, Wisconsin. In May of 1998, he joined the Partnership team in his present capacity as Project Manager of the Wisconsin Partnership Program and the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.

Mr. Larsen is a member of Saul Ewing's Insurance Practice Group in its Baltimore office. He concentrates his practice in insurance, healthcare, business and government relations. For the past six years, Mr. Larsen served as Maryland Insurance Administration Commissioner, overseeing 270 employees and a $21 million annual budget. His term was distinguished by a number of achievements, including a 95 percent conviction rate in Insurance Fraud Division criminal investigations and the fact that the state saw only two insolvencies in an eight year period.

Mr. Larsen served as chairman of the NAIC's Health and Managed Care Committee, vice-chairman of the Health Insurance Task Force, Chair of the Market Conduct and Consumer Affairs Committee, the Consumer Complaints Working Group, and the External Grievance Working Group. He also served on NAIC Executive Committees and held leadership positions in its Northeastern Zone. In addition, Mr. Larsen serves on the Board of American Accreditation Health Care Commission/URAC and as a trustee of the Maryland Health Care Foundation.

Prior to his appointment as Insurance Commissioner, Mr. Larsen served as chief legislative officer to Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening. His career has also included serving as counsel and senior counsel for the USF&G Corporation, as legislative aide to Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer, and as counsel for the Economic Matters Committee of the Maryland General Assembly House of Delegates.

Mr. Larsen received a B.S. from Gettysburg College, an M.P.A.P. from Rutgers University, and a law degree from the Rutgers School of Law-Camden. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland.

Jane Longo is Bureau Chief for KidCare in the Illinois Department of Public Aid. KidCare is Illinois' integrated program of Medicaid and SCHIP health benefit plans for children and parents. As Bureau Chief, Jane oversees all aspects of KidCare including policy and procedure development, outreach and enrollment efforts, compliance with state and federal laws, and monitoring of program performance. Jane has been with KidCare since its inception in 1998. Prior to joining the Department in 1997, Jane worked for the Executive Office of the Governor - Bureau of the Budget. She held several positions with the Bureau including Budget Analyst, Senior Analyst and Division Chief. As Division Chief, Jane prepared and negotiated the Governor's budget recommendations for the Departments of Public Aid, Economic Security and Commerce & Community Affairs. She also advised the Governor and his staff on welfare and economic development issues. Jane has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

John Lumpkin directs the activities of the Health Care Group. Before joining the Foundation in April 2003, Lumpkin served as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health for 12 years. During his more than 17 years with the department, he served as acting director and prior to that as associate director.

He has seen the health and health care system in operation first practicing emergency medicine and teaching medical students and residents at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. After earning his M.P.H. in 1985, he began caring for the more than 12 million people of Illinois as director of an agency with more than 1,300 employees in seven regional offices, three laboratories and locations in Springfield and Chicago. He has overseen improvements to programs dealing with women's and men's health, information and technology, emergency and bioterrorism preparedness, infectious disease prevention and control, immunization, local health department coverage and the state's laboratory services.

Lumpkin has been chairman since 1996 of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. He served on the Council on Maternal, Infant and Fetal Nutrition, the Advisory Committee to the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Medicine's Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century. He has served on the boards of directors for the Public Health Foundation and National Forum for Health Care Quality. He also has served as president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Emergency Medicine, and as speaker and board of directors member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. While director, he received the Arthur MacCormack Excellence and Dedication in Public Health Award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the Jonas Salk Health Leadership Award and the Leadership in Public Health Award from the Illinois Public Health Association. Lumpkin also has been the recipient of the Bill B. Smiley Award, Alan Donaldson Award, African American History Maker, and Public Health Worker of the Year. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Lumpkin earned his B.M.S. and M.D. degrees from Northwestern University Medical School and his M.P.H. from the University of Illinois School of Public Health. He trained in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago.

Ree Sailors brings more than 25 years of experience in the health and human services arenas. She presently serves as the Executive Health Policy Advisor to Governor Locke of Washington State. Prior to that, she served as the Public Policy Coordinator for the Community Health Purchasing Alliances of Florida. Ms. Sailors managed the Commercial HMO regulatory functions within the Agency for Health Care Administration which included quality certification of HMOs, supervision of external review panels, and consumer assistance hotlines. She was the President and CEO of the Florida Health Access Corporation, the country's first operational government-sponsored health purchasing alliance for small businesses.

Ms. Sailors has extensive background in public policy analysis and consensus-building techniques having served as Executive Director of numerous gubernatorial and legislative blue ribbon task forces examining issues such as: competition and consumer choice in health care, medical malpractice, indigent care financing, and regulatory programs like certificate of need and hospital revenue assessments. Ms. Sailors is a graduate of Florida State University, where she received a Masters in Social Work with emphasis in Planning and Administration.

Prior to joining NGA as their chief health lobbyist in January of 1999, Matt spent five years working for the National Association of State Medicaid Directors. He earned his first health policy Purple Heart analyzing the Clinton Health Security Act, his second with the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and is well on his way to a third on the NGA Medicaid Reform Task Force.

He has dabbled in issues like tobacco, Medicaid, Medicare, public health, long-term care, prescription drugs, and managed care, and firmly believes he was personally responsible for both the repeal of the Boren Amendment and securing the entire tobacco settlement for the states.

Although he's still getting his feet wet with ERISA issues, Matt is looking forward to not having to remember the 68 different avenues for Medicaid eligibility; or the details of how the third-party liability system interacts with medical child support.

A lifelong Virginia native, Matt taught high school for two years at T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, VA. He holds a BA in Eastern Religious Studies from the University of Virginia, and is still trying to find ways to explain how that got him to where he is today.

Matt's proudest achievement to date is that Ed Howard of the Alliance for Health Reform thinks this is the most amusing biographical sketch he's ever seen.

Brian Sullivan is currently Vice President of Blue Cross of California's Sales. In this role, Sullivan is responsible for all agency sales that support individual and small group services in the state of California.

Previously, he was Vice President of Sales for UNICARE (another wholly owned subsidiary of Wellpoint) managing the Individual, Small Group, and Senior sales for the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Sullivan joined the company in September 1999 as a regional vice president of ISG sales.

Prior to joining WellPoint, Sullivan served as director of sales for Humana in Colorado and later in Kansas City where he managed sales and service for nine states in the West and Midwest. A Houston broker for many years, Sullivan also served as vice president, life and health division for Anco Life Benefits-one of Texas' largest property and casualty agencies.

Sullivan graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in political science from Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Mass. His professional affiliations include Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) from American College; Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC) from American College; Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) from the Life Management Association; and Managed Healthcare Professional (MHP) from the Health Insurance Association of America.

Joseph W. Thompson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a general pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist whose professional activities focus at the interface of policy research and practice. Currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Thompson has supported the Arkansas Legislature in its deliberations of the Tobacco Settlement, evaluates the quality of managed care programs serving children in commercial and Medicaid managed care, and conducts research at the state and national levels as the new Children's Healthy Insurance Programs are deployed. His current activities include general attending responsibilities in the clinic and hospital, population and policy assessments through the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and policy relevant research activities associated with AHRQ.

Dr. Thompson has served as the Principal Investigator on behalf of the state for both the Insurance State Planning Grant Program and the State Coverage Initiative demonstration grant. Current activities include expanding the use of health data to inform and improve health policy development at the state and national levels.

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, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Steve Wetzell is a nationally recognized health care purchasing and market reform leader. Steve is currently serving as an independent consultant working with public and private sector purchaser and consumer organizations to advance value-based health care purchasing principles and market reform. Steve's primary client is The Leapfrog Group. Other clients include The Washington Business Group on Health, The National Business Coalition on Health, The Pacific Business Group on Health, The Midwest Business Group on Health, 3M, Ford Motor Company and Union Pacific.

Steve previously served as a founding employer and Executive Director of the Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG), a Minnesota coalition of more than 45 major employers. Prior to joining the Buyers Health Care Action Group in 1992 to serve as the organization's founding executive director, Steve worked in human resource management for fourteen years in the areas of compensation, benefits and labor relations.

Steve is also a founding member of the Leapfrog Group and the Institute for Clinical Systems Integration. Steve has served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the National Business Coalition on Health, the Board of Directors of the Minnesota State Health Care Data Institute, the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center External Advisory Group, and the Minnesota Health Care Commission. In addition, Steve served as a fellow on Senator David Durenberger's Washington health care staff.

Ben Wheatley is a Senior Manager at AcademyHealth: a professional home for health services researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners, and a leading, non-partisan resource for health research and policy. Mr. Wheatley joined the organization in May 1997 and works primarily on The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives program, assisting state officials in developing and implementing strategies to expand health insurance coverage for the uninsured. He has provided direct technical assistance to states and has authored publications focusing on state coverage programs for low-income families, innovative expansion models, and state efforts to reduce costs and improve care quality through disease management. He is a frequent presenter on state Medicaid disease management programs. He has also worked with states in developing premium assistance programs to support employer-based health care coverage for low-income workers. Prior to joining the Academy, Mr. Wheatley worked as a researcher at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center where he analyzed the impact of managed care on post-acute providers and the consolidation of the rehabilitation hospital industry through mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, he worked as an analyst in the Business Development office of the University of California at San Diego Medical Center. Mr. Wheatley is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he received a Master's Degree in Public Policy with an emphasis in health care policy.

Claudia Williams, through her firm AZA Consulting, provides expert policy consulting in the areas of health coverage reform, Medicaid and SCHIP policy, and translating research for policymakers.

Ms. Williams is leading an effort, along with colleagues from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to develop a pilot RWJF initiative, the Synthesis Project. Working hand in hand with researchers and policymakers, the Synthesis Project will produce reports on health policy topics that distill what we know from research for an audience of Federal and State policymakers and other target groups. These reports are highly graphical, framed by policy options and conclusion-oriented.

Prior to founding AZA Consulting, Ms. Williams worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services conducting research and developing policy for Medicaid and SCHIP. She co-led the HHS evaluation team for the Congressionally funded SCHIP evaluation. She also worked as a Senior Manager at The Lewin Group where she directed studies in the areas of coverage policy, health care market analysis, community health assessment and program evaluation. Ms. Williams holds an M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.