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AWARDS JUDGES
Jeanne Boling, MSN, CRRN, CDMS, CCM offers a national perspective on case management, integrated care management and collaborative practice trending. She has served as Executive Director of Case Management Society of America for eleven years. CMSA is a leading rapidly growing multidisciplinary professional association with over 10,000 members, over 22,000 member/subscribers, 70 chapters in the United States and an international outreach to CMS-UK and CMS-Australia, the Ontario Canada Case Management Association and member countries and territories including Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. She is a founding leader and former Executive Director of the Case Management Leadership Coalition, a newly formed group of over 35 organizations with a stakeholder interest in the future of case management. Jeannie has served on the Utilization Review and Accreditation Commission (URAC) Board of Directors, the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC) and Advisory Boards for numerous publications and insurance, managed care, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Previously, Jeannie was Executive Director of the Individual Case Management Association, Conference Director for the Medical Case Management Conference and Associate Editor of The Case Manager magazine. Jeannie is former President of Case Management, Inc., a Little Rock, Arkansas based association management company and education provider.
Helen Burstin, MD, MPH is the Senior Vice President for Performance Measures of The National Quality Forum, a private, not-for-profit membership organization established in 1999 to develop and implement a national strategy for healthcare quality measurement and reporting. Dr. Burstin joined NQF in January 2007 and is responsible for the NQF consensus development process and projects related to performance measures and practices. Prior to joining NQF, Dr. Burstin was the Director of the Center for Primary Care, Prevention, and Clinical Partnerships at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In her role, she oversaw the development of the Health Information Technology (IT) portfolio which invested over $166 million on research at the intersection of health IT and quality of care. Her center also supported the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and an extensive body of research on primary care and prevention. Prior to joining AHRQ in 2000, Dr. Burstin was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Quality Measurement at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In her role, she developed a hospital-wide electronic Quality Measurement Reporting System. She also served as the Chair of the Medical Staff Executive Committee on Quality Assurance and Risk Management.
William R. “Bill” Braithwaite, MD, PhD has dedicated his whole career to improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare for patients and practitioners through information technology as a pioneer in the field of medical informatics. Currently an independent consultant, he serves as Treasurer of Health Level Seven (HL7) and sits on the advisory boards of two security technology companies, PGP Corp and Anakam, and two federally contracted projects with RTI International and Thomson-Medstat. During a health policy sabbatical with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee health staff in 1993-94, he worked with an industry coalition to develop the legislative content for the Administrative Simplification Subtitle of HIPAA. In late 1994 he joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work on the development of health information standards. As Senior Advisor on Health Information Policy in the Office of the HHS Secretary, Dr. Braithwaite oversaw the regulations implementing the Administrative Simplification Subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). From 2001 to 2003 he served as National Director of HIPAA Advisory Services in the Washington, DC office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Practicing as an independent consultant in health information policy and strategic planning from 2003 to 2005, he joined the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) contributing to the June 2004 report, "Revolutionizing Health Care Through Information Technology". From 2005 to 2006, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at the eHealth Initiative.
Judith A. Cahill, as Executive Director of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, has responsibility for policy creation and implementation, administrative operations, and overall staff leadership of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). The Academy is a professional society with over 5,000 members nationwide which is dedicated to the continuing professional development of pharmacists and other health care practitioners engaged in the practice of pharmacy in managed care settings. Judy has been working in the dynamic area of managed health care for over 20 years. For 11 years she helped direct the activities of the Group Health Association of America, the leading trade association representing health maintenance organizations in the United States. Her area of responsibilities included policy development, medical management issues embracing quality measurement and management, and development of education programs, publications, and research projects. Prior to her duties with GHAA, Ms. Cahill served as contracting officer for the HMOs that participated in the United States Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Ms. Cahill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from LeMoyne College, a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati, and certification as an Employee Benefits Specialist from the Wharton School of Business. She serves on several editorial advisory boards and Boards of Directors for organizations dedicated to serving the pharmacy profession.
Connie Commander, RN-BC, BS, CCM, ABDA, CPUR, as owner and President of Commander' Premier Consulting Corp., is focused upon the advancement of case management and medical management in today’s health care environment. Previous experiences have been in health plans, physician networks and facility based departments, located in Texas and Illinois. She has held numerous management positions focused upon the implementation of and the merging of CM, UM, DM and Risk Management. She has experience as an Administrator for an Independent Physician’s Association in the Chicago area, and multiple years experience in management, contract negotiations, and measuring outcomes based upon case management interventions. She currently educates case managers across multiple settings to develop and implement a Collaborative practice of case management and care coordination throughout all delivery of health care venues. She believes that the key to improving individuals’ health outcomes begins with preventive medicine and continues with individual patient centered treatment teams. She embraces a Behavior Change Model to educate an individual and support them to move toward effective self care. Connie views Collaborative models, Integrated Health care delivery systems and effective transitions of care as critical components for care coordination. She is a national speaker and author and continues to network and mentors others in the field, both on national and international venues. She participates in multiple advisory committees and professional associations to further her education and networking abilities. She has been awarded both the National and Houston Chapter Case Manager of the Year award. She has held several National Board positions, with CMSA, including National President of CMSA for 2006-07, and the Immediate Past President for the National Association of CMSA for 2007-08. She is also a member of NTOCC, ABQUARP, ACCM, and AMCA
Dee W. Edington, PhD, Director of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center, is also a Professor in the Division of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan and a research scientist in the School of Public Health. Trained in mathematics, kinesiology and biochemistry, Dr. Edington taught at the University of Massachusetts before coming to Michigan in 1976. Dr. Edington is the author or co-author of over 500 articles, presentations, and several books, including Biology of Physical Activity, Biological Awareness, Frontiers of Exercise Biology, The One Minute Manager Gets Fit and the 2nd edition, The One Minute Manager Balances Work and Life. Dr. Edington’s teaching and research focus on the relationship between healthy lifestyles, vitality and quality of life, as they benefit both individuals and organizations. He is specifically interested in how individual health promotion, worksite wellness activities and programs within organizations impact health care cost containment, productivity and human resource development. In essence, the HMRC studies the precursors to disease and vitality. Dr. Edington enjoys the constantly emerging challenges at the HMRC. He describes the Center as dynamic, innovative and a world-class leader in driving towards information-driven decision making in the evolving new health care environment.
Mark Frisse, MD, MBA, MSc is the Accenture Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University. He also serves as Director of Regional Informatics Programs through the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health and in this capacity is responsible for coordinating regional, state, and national projects aimed at the application of information technology to advance patient care. Working through the office of the Governor of the State of Tennessee, he is director of one of the Nation’s five state and regional demonstration programs in health information technology, focusing on the development of a comprehensive health information exchange system for southwest Tennessee. Prior to assuming his position at Vanderbilt, Dr. Frisse was Vice President in First Consulting Group’s Clinical Transformation Practice working to advance quality and safety through the application of technology, process redesign, evaluation techniques, and evidence-based practice. Prior to joining First Consulting Group, Dr. Frisse was Chief Medical Officer and Vice President, Clinical Information Services at Express Scripts, one of the Nation’s largest independent pharmaceutical benefits management concerns. He served as general manager for their Practice Patterns Science subsidiary – a firm applying integrated medical and pharmaceutical claims data to reduce practice variation to a client list that included Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Missouri and Humana. He participated in the formation of RxHub – a new approach to electronic transmission of prescriptions from physicians to pharmacies. He was also responsible for the Express Scripts’ DrugDigest consumer Web site and was active in the development of Express Scripts’ consumer ebusiness strategy.
Dawn Geren, CPA, CEBS, is Manager, Healthcare Benefits, United Parcel Service and responsible for the pharmacy benefits for the UPS health and welfare benefit plans, serving over 300,000 employees, retirees, survivors and their families. Her work includes evaluating and providing guidance for pharmacy benefit challenges. Prior to joining UPS in 1997, Ms. Geren audited employee benefit plans for the Department of Labor.
Jack Hoadley PhD is a health policy analyst and researcher with 25 years experience. He joined Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute as a Research Professor in 2002, where he conducts research projects on Medicare and Medicaid, with a focus on prescription drug issues. Recent projects include studies of the use of formularies by Medicare drug plans, the use of evidence-based medicine to manage pharmacy costs in Medicaid, the safety net for individuals without drug coverage, and an evaluation of recent changes to Florida’s Medicaid program. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and has worked in academic and government settings. Prior to arriving at Georgetown, he held positions at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) and its successor, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), and the National Health Policy Forum.
Peter R. Kongstvedt, MD, FACP is an independent advisory professional and a former senior executive with Accenture in their Reston, VA office. He has thirteen years of consulting experience and twenty years of operational experience at the senior-most levels of health plans, including managed care, health insurance, and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. In addition to his industry experience, Dr. Kongstvedt is the primary author and editor of three books currently in print: The Managed Health Care Handbook, Fourth Edition; The Essentials of Managed Health Care, Fourth Edition; and Managed Care: What it Is and How it Works, Second Edition. The fifth edition of the newly combined Essentials and Handbook will be published by Jones & Bartlett in February/March of 2007. Dr. Kongstvedt’s primary focus is in strategy; he has also created and led industry benchmarking studies of financial and operational metrics in high performing health plans, worked in medical management, and keeps a regular focus on trends and issues in the marketplace. Dr. Kongstvedt serves as Accenture’s primary thought leader in this industry sector, including writing and regular public speaking, as well as working with various boards of directors on behalf of clients. He is a board-certified internist.
H. Stephen Lieber, CAE joined HIMSS as President and CEO in April 2000. In addition to his role as President and CEO of HIMSS, Steve serves on the following Boards of Directors: HIMSS, HIMSS Foundation, HIMSS Analytics (chairman), MedTech Publishing, Center for Information Technology Leadership, the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). Also, serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health Initiative, the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) strategic committee, the Healthcare Leadership Alliance, the EHR Collaboration, and the Board of Sponsors of the Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education. Steve previously served as CEO of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) for nearly nine years before accepting a position with the American Hospital Association as Vice President, Division of Personal Membership Groups. Prior experience includes Vice President of Operations for the Illinois Hospital Association; Senior Budget Analyst for the Illinois Bureau of the Budget; and Assistant Administrator, Research and Statistics for Arkansas Social Services. Steve has been a Certified Association Executive (CAE) since 1994, is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and Association Forum of Chicagoland and has been awarded honorary life memberships at the American Hospital Association and the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management.
Edison A. Machado Jr., MD, MBA is the Medical Director and Programs Manager for Bridges to Excellence (BTE), a national program focused on rewarding physicians for better quality care. In that capacity, Edison is responsible for managing and supporting BTE program implementations, engaging various stakeholders on strategic and operational issues related to program development, adoption and success. He acts as the primary interface between BTE and its National Health Plan licensees, working on initiatives aimed at driving greater administrative efficiency and value. Edison leads BTE’s program and performance measures’ development efforts, collaborating with valued partners on the growth and continuous refinement of BTE program metrics. He appears in front of many audiences across the country speaking on behalf of the BTE program. Prior to his current role with BTE, Edison worked as an Internal Medicine house officer at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center where he interfaced with administration and house staff on various quality improvement projects.
Mary Madison, MPA is VP and Executive Director of Foundation on Research and Education/AHIMA. Prior to joining the American Health Information Management Association, Ms. Madison, founded Madison Consulting Group, LLC which provided consulting services to health care executives and brings over 20 years of experience in the areas of managed care, health insurance, private healthcare foundations, hospital administration and government programs. Her expertise lies in strategic positioning of companies -bridging business and research to improve outcomes and identifying business solutions in health care. Prior to forming her own consulting practice, Ms. Madison spent 10 years at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association where she headed up the department of applied research, strategic initiatives and competitive intelligence. Ms. Madison led multi-institutional health services research with BCBS Plans nationwide, including pay-for-performance, obesity and specialty drug studies, and conducted analyses of managed care accreditation standards. She also developed and directed two national awards programs, Best of Blue and BlueWorks – recognizing innovation and best practices in clinical, operational and research programs adopted by BCBS health plans. She has served as an NIH reviewer and has experience in research agenda setting with the CDC.
Mary Meeker is a benefits specialist with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the largest union for workers in the public service with 1.4 million members nationwide. For the past four years, Ms. Meeker’s primary focus has been on health benefit issues. Her responsibilities include advising AFSCME leadership and affiliates on emerging health benefit issues and tracking trends in health care. She also reviews, analyzes and interprets for affiliates pertinent health legislation, regulations and standards. She received a B.S. in finance from James Madison University and the Group Benefits Associate (GBA) designation from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.
Tracey Moorhead is President and Chief Executive Officer of DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance, the only organization effectively representing all stakeholders in disease management and care coordination. Based in Washington, D.C., DMAA represents more than 200 corporate and individual members by advancing the promise of disease management for cost-effective, quality health care. Ms. Moorhead is recognized as a leading health care advocate with considerable experience in public policy and coalition management. She effectively directs policy formulation and strategic advocacy efforts, as well as represents the disease management community before the media, allied organizations and constituents, and all levels of government. Ms. Moorhead previously served as Executive Director of the Alliance to Improve Medicare (AIM), a bipartisan coalition advocating comprehensive Medicare improvements. AIM supported enactment of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. As AIM’s Executive Director, Ms. Moorhead coordinated and moderated educational and policy briefings for congressional staff; directed AIM’s policy research, development and communications efforts; and developed grassroots programs in conjunction with AIM member organizations. In addition to her role with AIM, Ms. Moorhead served as Vice President, Government Relations, for the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC). In this role, she coordinated a nationwide, multi-million dollar grassroots outreach campaign to senior citizens and partner organizations to increase awareness and participation in new Medicare benefits.
David B. Nash, MD, MBA is The Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor and Chairman of the Department of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Jefferson is one of a handful of medical schools in the nation with an endowed professorship in health policy. Dr. Nash, a board certified internist, founded the original Office of Health Policy in 1990. From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first Associate Dean for Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College. In 2004, he was named Co-director of the Masters Program in Public Health at Jefferson and was named as a finalist in the 15th Annual Discover Awards for Innovation in Public Health by Discover magazine. Internationally recognized for his work in outcomes management, medical staff development and quality-of-care improvement, his publications have appeared in more than 100 articles in major journals. He has edited seventeen books, including A Systems Approach to Disease Management by Jossey-Bass, Connecting with the New Healthcare Consumer by Aspen, The Quality Solution by Jones and Bartlett, and most recently, Practicing Medicine in the 21st Century by ACPE. In 1995, he was awarded the Latiolais (“Lay-shee-o-lay”) Prize by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy for his leadership in disease management and pharmacoeconomics. He also received the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award in October 1997 and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998. Finally, in 2006, he received the Elliot Stone Award for leadership in public accountability for health data from NAHDO.
Laurel Pickering, MPH is Executive Director of the New York Business Group on Health (NYBGH), a 175 member business coalition representing over 1 million covered lives, committed to market-based health care reform, quality improvement and value-based purchasing. NYBGH also provides the employer’s perspective on current health care issues to legislators and healthcare organizations. Since becoming Executive Director in 1996, Ms Pickering has focused on mobilizing the business community to drive improvement in healthcare, providing access to health insurance for small businesses by creating a purchasing alliance and organizing health plans to work together to improve quality. Recent initiatives include the New York Metro Mental Health Collaborative and the New York Multi-Payer Reporting Project. As Executive Director, Ms. Pickering oversees the NYBGH role in the NYS Health Accountability Foundation, a joint venture between NYBGH and IPRO. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the NYBGH subsidiary, HealthPass, a consumer-choice purchasing alliance for small businesses. NYBGH leads the Leapfrog Group regional rollout in the NY Metro area and Ms. Pickering is overseeing that initiative. Ms. Pickering has served as a researcher for Columbia and Emory Universities; has worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and served as an assistant to George Pataki, now Governor, in the New York State Assembly. Ms. Pickering currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Business Coalition on Health and the Educator Support Network, CDC’s Business and Labor Responds to AIDS Board of Business and Labor Partners and the Business Sub-Committee of NYCLIX (New York Clinical Information Exchange). She was recently selected as one of New York’s rising stars by Crain’s and featured in the 2007 40 Under 40 issue.
Michael Pine, MD, MBA is president and founder of Michael Pine and Associates, Inc., an innovative analytic consulting firm that for 19 years has specialized in monitoring and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services. He is nationally recognized as an expert in clinical risk-adjustment and quality improvement. Dr. Pine was a member of the Prometheus Design Team and has been selected to direct the development of two of Prometheus Payment’s four major operational systems. He led the analytic team that created HealthMarket’s episode-based reimbursement system and currently is doing ground-breaking developmental work in database design, pay-for-performance, and consumer-driven healthcare. Dr. Pine is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American College of Cardiology. He has served on the medical faculties of Harvard, the University of California at Irvine, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous publications in basic science, clinical medicine, medical decision making, and healthcare performance monitoring and improvement. He is a frequent speaker on such topics as reforming the healthcare market, assessing and improving clinical performance, and creating new databases to support innovative healthcare reimbursement and benefits design. Dr. Pine is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and the University of Cincinnati School of Business.
Bob Queyrouze, CCP, CEBS, SPHR is an internal HR consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which is the 11th District of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has won several awards for their health and wellness programs including the Institute for Health and Productivity Management award for Innovation and Demonstrated Leadership, and the Champions of Health award for Workplace Wellness. He has been employed at the Bank for the past 21 years. Before coming to the Federal Reserve Bank, Mr. Queyrouze worked in various human resource positions within local government, consulting, non-profit and the federal government. He has over 30 years experience in human resources management and over 25 years in compensation and benefits. Mr. Queyrouze attended Harvard Law School’s program of instruction for lawyers workshops on negotiation, advanced negotiation, and mediation. He has been certified in compensation, benefits and human resources management from World at Work, the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans and the Society for Human Resource Management. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health and serves as the chair of the Patient Safety Committee of the DFW Regional Leapfrog Roll-out and the community collaborative Partnership for Peak Healthcare Performance. Mr. Queyrouze was also a member of the former Health Maintenance Organization Technical Advisory Committee of the Texas Health Care Information Council. He co-authored “The Invisible Costs Of Presenteeism: A Study of Health & Productivity in the Work Place”, published in the Platinum Book – Practical Applications of the Health & Productivity Management Model, by the Institute for Health and Productivity Management, 2004.
Patricia R. Salber, MD, MBA is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Universal American Corp, Medicare Advantage Division. In that capacity, she oversees quality improvement, pharmacy management, and care management for UAC’s Medicare Advantage plans. Prior to joining UAC, Dr. Salber was an independent health care consultant and principal in PRS Strategic Healthcare Consulting. She provided clinical expertise to health plans and other clients that needed help optimizing process efficiency and clinical outcomes for populations with a high burden of chronic illness. In addition to these positions, Dr. Salber hosts a health care blog, “The Doctor Weighs In,” on www.thedoctorweighsin.com. Dr. Salber writes frequently on obesity and its relationship to insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. Prior positions include President of the Bay Area Region Leadership Council of the American Diabetes Association and Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Practical Health Reform. Other prior positions include founder and CEO of Acelacare, a chronic illness care company, Sr. Medical Director for CalPERS and the Center for Health Improvement at Blue Shield of California and Medical Director of the Kaiser Permanente-General Motors Team.
Joshua Seidman, PhD, President, Center for Information Therapy has been on a quest to improve health care quality for 17 years—first by influencing health plans and provider behavior, then shifting to a grassroots approach by activating consumers. Since October 2001, Dr. Seidman saw the fusion of his two strategies to improve health care quality in information therapy (Ix)—the timely prescription and availability of evidence-based health information to meet individuals’ specific needs and support sound decision making. Before launching the independent, not-for-profit IxCenter, Dr. Seidman served as senior editor and director of quality initiatives for the Advisory Board Company’s Consumer Health Initiative. Previously, he was Director of Measure Development for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). He has also worked at the Advisory Board Company as a Consultant and at the American College of Cardiology as Assistant Director of Private Sector Relations. In addition, Dr. Seidman has published several book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals on e-health and quality-of-care-related issues.
Michael J. Thompson, FSA, MAAA is a Principal in the New York office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has over 25 years of experience in healthcare and employee benefits strategy development and implementation, design, financing, pricing, operations and analysis. Mike consults with major employers and health plans on integrated health, wellness and consumerism, defined contribution retiree health, vendor performance management, human capital effectiveness and healthcare supply chain management strategies. Mike serves as one of PwC's national thought leaders for healthcare consumerism strategies for the health industries practice, participates on the steering board of the World Economic Forum "Working for Wellness" initiative as well as a delegate to the Montage Group focused on cross-sector collaborative solutions and is a frequent speaker on next generation health strategies. In the past few years, Mike has served as a leader promoting health industry efforts based on the principals of Six Sigma. Mike is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and serves on the Federal Health Committee, Disease Management Committee, Medicare Committee as well as chairman of the Quality Initiatives Subcommittee of the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA). Mike also serves on boards of the New York chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the New York Business Group on Health. Prior to joining PwC, Mike served as an executive with a major health plan in both national and regional leadership capacities. Mike is a primary author of multiple articles and publications including "Employer Driven Consumerism - Integrating Health into the Business Model" (Employee Benefits Quarterly), "The Factors Fueling Rising Healthcare Costs 2006" (AHIP Publication), "Pay for Performance - Rewarding Improvements in Quality of Healthcare" (AAA Issue Brief), "Healthcare Transformation, Leadership and the Evolution of Consumerism" (WELCOA), "The Healthcare Balancing Act: Aligning Objectives, Intentions and Incentives" (View).
Deborah Unger has been the Clinical Director and Assistant to the CEO of the State of Alabama Employees’ Insurance Board since December 2000. Ms. Unger wears many hats in overseeing the benefit plans for State and Local Government Insurance Plans. She works directly with active and retired employees and their dependents. Her management spectrum includes: medical cost management, utilization management, quality improvement, case management, disease management, Third Party Administration Oversight and Compliance, and Worksite Wellness Program Administration and Oversight. Deborah’s nursing background is equally varied. She has experience in all aspects of nursing to include Emergency Medicine, Home Health Care and Nursing Administration. She was Vice President of Operations for Managed Health Strategies/DirectCare prior to joining the State Employees’ Insurance Board.
Dennis C. White has over thirty years of experience in health care in three sectors: for-profit consulting, nonprofit hospital management and coalition management and government. He joined the staff of the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) in September of 2005 serving as its Senior Vice President Value-Based Purchasing. In that position he is responsible for overseeing the operation of eValue8 NBCH’s national program to evaluate the performance of health plans. Other NBCH value-based purchasing initiatives include coalition-based rollouts of the Bridges to Excellence program and Leapfrog programming. Prior to his current position, Mr. White was for 15 years the Executive Director of the South Central Michigan Health Alliance (now renamed the Michigan Purchaser Health Alliance), which he helped create. Mr. White helped shape the Alliance's focus on community-based health reform through programs which showed measurable savings and provided information with which to evaluate health system performance. Mr. White was a Principal at Chi Systems, Inc., a health care consulting firm with corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dennis worked for ten years in hospital management at two Boston teaching hospitals. He was Department Manager at New England Medical Center, affiliated with Tufts Medical School and was Vice President at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Prior to his hospital experience, Dennis worked with the Executive Office of Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Susan K. Willette, National Practice Leader, Health & Productivity Management, Mercer is a principal and Mercer’s national health and productivity management specialty practice leader. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Sue brings specialized expertise designing, implementing and evaluating integrated programs that address the health of an employer’s population. Sue is strategic leader for many of Mercer’s largest and most complex clients across the country. Prior to joining Mercer, Sue held several senior positions with a vendor of health promotion and employee assistance programs. Sue assisted public and private sector employers, health plans and pharma organizations identify solutions to address their needs.
Christine G. Williams, M.Ed. Christine G. Williams is the Director for Strategic Partnerships for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a role she assumed in 2007. In this capacity she works with external stakeholders to develop strategic partnerships consistent with the Agency’s role as a science partner and in its effort to translate research into practice. From 1995-2006, Chris was the Director of the Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer at AHRQ. In that capacity she was responsible for programs to disseminate the work of the Agency, including the Knowledge Transfer Program, working with state and local policymakers, health care systems and purchasers to develop and facilitate strategies to help to inform policy and translate research into practice. From l982 -1994, Ms. Williams served as the senior health policy advisor to former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.). In that capacity she was involved in the development of comprehensive health care reform legislation in 1993-4, as well as initiatives for Medicare, Medicaid, long term care, public health and outcomes research.
Thomas W. Wilson, PhD, DrPH is a nationally known epidemiologist specializing in the evidence-based design and evaluation of defined population health programs and products. These population health interventions include: disease management, case management, wellness, payment-for-performance programs, predictive algorithms, and electronic medical records. Wilson is the principal of Trajectory(r) Healthcare, LLC--a strategic epidemiologic consultancy firm. He is currently the co-chair of the Patient Safety and Quality Committee of the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA), and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Health and Productivity. Dr. Wilson is also the founder and board chair of the Population Heath Impact (PHI) Institute www.PHIinstitute.org, a non-profit organization advocating for credible, independent, and transparent evaluations of organized population health management programs. His former positions include the Corporate Epidemiologist at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, faculty research positions at Columbia University and UC Berkeley, an NIH post-doctoral fellowship position in cardiovascular disease, and a Fulbright award lectureship. He did his doctoral work in epidemiology at UCLA.