2010 Colorado Health Symposium
Plenary Bios

Judith Bell
President
PolicyLink

Judith Bell has been with PolicyLink since it was founded in 1999 and continues to drive its mission of advancing economic and social equity. Her efforts have been central to making PolicyLink a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, transportation, education, and infrastructure. Bell oversees strategic planning, policy development and policy campaign strategy at the local, state, and national levels. In particular, she has led PolicyLink efforts to increase access to healthy foods including advancing a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative. At the federal level, she has also played a leadership role in advancing the proposed Promise Neighborhoods initiative and expanding equity impacts in the Transportation authorization. She supervises PolicyLink projects at the local and state level focused on equitable development, including equity in public investment, fair distribution of affordable housing, and community strategies to improve health.

Stuart Butler, Ph.D.
Vice President, Domestic & Economic Policy
The Heritage Foundation

Having guided The Heritage Foundation's domestic policy research for more than 30 years, Stuart Butler has helped shape the debate on critical issues from health care and Social Security to welfare reform and tax relief. The National Journal recently named him one of Washington's 12 "key players" on health care." In the debate over President Obama's health proposals, Butler argued for an alternative based on consumer choice and state-led efforts, not federally directed ones. The English-born Butler joined Heritage as a policy analyst in 1979, when the organization was a relatively obscure conservative think tank. He has testified before Congress and appeared as a guest commentator on several major television networks.

Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H.
17^th Surgeon General of the United States;
CEO - Canyon Ranch Health Division

In his four-year tenure as U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Richard Carmona focused on prevention, preparedness, health disparities, health literacy and global health — including the definitive Surgeon General's Report about the dangers of secondhand smoke. Recently, he partnered with famed cyclist Lance Armstrong and three former U.S. Surgeons General to launch the first National Call to Action on Cancer Prevention and Survivorship. The National Call to Action is a battle plan to make cancer prevention a national priority. Dr. Carmona has worked as a paramedic, registered nurse, physician's assistant, professor, chief medical officer and health care system chief executive. He also served as the medical director of police and fire departments and is a fully qualified peace officer and SWAT expert.

Mick Cornett
Mayor of Oklahoma City

Inspired by his own 42-pound weight loss, Mick Cornett literally put Oklahoma City on a diet and helped change the culture of obesity in his hometown. Since then, the mayor's efforts have been noted in Oklahoma and nationwide. The Oklahoma State Medical Association honored Cornett with its Prevention in Practice award. The Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition bestowed him with its Public Official award. Among mayoral peers, the U.S. Conference of Mayors gave Cornett its City Livability Outstanding Achievement Award. Fitness Magazine named Cornett a "2010 Champion of Health and Fitness." In further recognition of his commitment to fighting the obesity epidemic, Cornett attended the 2010 State of the Union Address as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Elliot S. Fisher, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine - Dartmouth Medical School;
Director for Population Health and Policy - Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice

Dr. Elliot S. Fisher's research has focused on exploring disparities in health care spending. His research revealed that most of the differences in spending are due not to differences in health status or poverty, but to greater use of discretionary services — such as reliance on hospitals as a site of care, specialist referrals and ordering diagnostic tests that would not have been ordered in lower-spending regions. He concluded that per-capita spending on such services is essentially unrelated to improving the quality, outcomes and efficiency of the U.S. health care system. Fisher was recently named director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

Jason Hwang, M.D., M.B.A.
Executive Director of Health Care
Innosight Institute

Dr. Jason Hwang co-authored the American College of Healthcare Executives' 2010 Book of the Year, The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care with Clayton M. Christensen and the late Jerome H. Grossman. The book examines how innovative managing models used in other industries could benefit the health care sector. Hwang is an internal medicine physician and executive director of health care at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit social innovation think tank based in Mountain View, Calif. Previously, Hwang taught as chief resident and clinical instructor at the University of California, Irvine, where he received multiple recognitions for his clinical work.

Jodee Kozlak
Executive Vice President, Human Resources
Target Corporation

As executive vice president for human resources for one of the largest retail chains in the country, Jodee Kozlak is charged with setting the strategy for enterprise talent management and organizational design as well as overseeing Target's team culture and employment brand. Target initiated a pilot program in 2009 that rewarded employees with bonuses for monitoring their health and provided financial incentives for following up on recommendations to improve health. The pilot program connected employees with "health advocates" who helped workers navigate their benefits and resolve claim issues. Kozlak, who reports to Target's CEO, was appointed to her most recent role in 2006. She is also a trustee of the Target Foundation. Prior to joining target, Kozlak was a partner in a Minneapolis-based litigation practice.

Jim Krieger, M.D., M.P.H.
Chief of the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Section of Public Health - Seattle and King County;
Clinical Professor of Medicine and Health Services - University of Washington

Dr. Jim Krieger's research focuses on interventions to reduce health inequities in obesity, hypertension and asthma by addressing social and physical environmental determinants of health. He recently served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Childhood Obesity Action for Local Governments. He has received numerous awards, including the Secretary of Health and Human Service's Innovation in Prevention Award and the Environmental Protection Agency's A Children's Environmental Health Excellence Award. Krieger has more than 20 years of experience in epidemiology, public health program and policy development and chronic disease control and prevention.

Mark Laitos, M.D.
President
Colorado Medical Society

Elected president of the Colorado Medical Society in 2008, Dr. Mark Laitos formally assumed CMS presidency in September, 2009. Previously, he was on the CMS board of directors and was a co-chair of the CMS Congress on Health Care Reform. Laitos grew a two-doctor partnership into the five-physician Longs Peak Family Practice in Longmont. He has served as president of the Boulder County Medical Society for two years. Laitos also was chairman of the family medicine department at Longmont United Hospital and of that hospital's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee.

Gov. Richard D. Lamm
Co-Director
Institute for Public Policy Studies
University of Denver

Former three-term governor of Colorado and legislator, Richard Lamm has been in the forefront of political change for decades. A lawyer and certified public accountant, he has been associated with the University of Denver for 40 years, most recently as co-director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies. Author of numerous books, Lamm's latest are Two Wands, One Nation and The Brave New World of Health Care. He was an early leader of the environmental movement and served as president of the First National Conference on Population and The Environment. Early in his career, Lamm was named one of Time magazine's "200 Young Leaders of America." In 1992, he was honored by The Denver Post and Historic Denver, Inc. as one of the "Colorado 100" people who made significant contributions to the state. He also served as chairman of the Pew Health Professions Commission and as a public member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Harold D. Miller
Executive Director - Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform;
President and CEO - Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement;
Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Management - Carnegie Mellon University

An expert in health care payment and delivery reform, Harold D. Miller wrote From Volume to Value: Better Ways to Pay for Healthcare, which appeared in the September 2009 edition of Health Affairs. He also authored the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform's report on creating accountable care organizations. In 2007, he served as the facilitator for the Minnesota Health Care Transformation Task Force, which prepared recommendations that led to passage of Minnesota's health care reform legislation in 2008. Miller also designed and is currently leading a multi-year project with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative to reduce preventable hospital admissions and readmissions through improved care for chronic disease patients.

Peter J. Neumann, Sc.D.
Director - Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health
Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Tufts Medical Center

The founder and director of the Cost-Effectiveness Registry, a comprehensive database of cost-effectiveness analyses in health care, Dr. Peter Neumann's research focuses on the use of cost-effective analysis in health care decision-making. He is the author or co-author of more than 150 papers in the medical literature. Neumann has served as president of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Neumann received his doctorate in health policy and management from Harvard University and was on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health for 10 years.

Len Nichols
Director, Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics; Professor of Health Policy
George Mason University

Known for his ability to bridge the worlds of economics and health services research for health system stakeholders, clinical leaders, elected and appointed policy officials and journalists, Len Nichols recently took on new responsibilities at the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University where he will continue the work he began at the New America Foundation. Nichols has testified frequently before Congress and state legislatures and is a popular public speaker on health policy and politics. He has advised the World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization, as well as various state and federal government agencies. He is frequently interviewed and quoted by major media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Lehrer News Hour and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

T.R. Reid
Journalist, author and documentarian

Through his coverage of global affairs for The Washington Post, his books and documentary films, and his light-hearted commentaries on National Public Radio, T. R. Reid has become one of the nation's best-known correspondents. Reid has written and hosted documentaries for National Geographic TV, PBS and A&E. He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He has written six books in English and three in Japanese and has translated one book from Japanese. His most recent book, The Healing of America, came out in June, 2009. PBS's Frontline produced two documentary films, A Second Opinion and Sick Around the World, following Reid as he reported on the health care system both nationally and internationally. He has taught at Princeton University and the University of Michigan.

John Rother
Executive Vice President of Policy and Strategy
AARP

John Rother is responsible for the federal and state public policies of AARP and for formulating the Association's overall strategic direction. He is an authority on Medicare, managed care, long-term care, Social Security, pensions and the challenges facing the aging boomer generation. Prior to joining AARP in 1984, Rother served eight years with the U.S. Senate as special counsel for labor and health to former Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., then as staff director. He also served as chief counsel for the Special Committee on Aging under its chairman, Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa. He also serves on the boards of Generations United, Pension Rights Center, The National Coalition on Health Care and the Alliance for Healthcare Reform, advisory boards to Kaiser Permanente, Google and several Congressional fellowships.

Michael Soman, M.D., M.P.H.
President and Chief Medical Executive
Group Health Permanente

Dr. Michael Soman is president and chief medical executive of Group Health Permanente, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system based in Seattle. Group Health employs more than 900 physicians and clinicians. Soman also serves as the executive medical director of Group Health Cooperative's Group Practice Division, overseeing the care of nearly 400,000 patients in Group Health-operated facilities. He previously served as the executive medical director for the Puget Sound Region. Before that, he was medical director for primary care at Group Health, overseeing 20 primary care facilities. He has practiced as a family physician in Group Health medical centers for 17 years.

Simon Stevens
Executive Vice President - UnitedHealth Group;
President - Global Health;
Chairman - UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization

Simon Stevens has led a varied career in health care management. He was health policy director for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, responsible for reform of the British National Health Service. He also worked as an executive running academic medical centers, primary care, behavioral health and payer organizations — in both the public and private sectors. Before being named president of Global Health and executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, Stevens served as CEO of Ovations, UnitedHealth's Medicare business — during which time Ovations grew from $24.5 billion to more than $31 billion in revenues.

Steven J. Summer
President and Chief Executive Officer
Colorado Hospital Association

Steven Summer was appointed President and CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association in September 2006. At the Association, he works to represent the unified voice of Colorado’s 94 hospitals and health systems in addressing issues such as healthcare reform, access and coverage for all Coloradans, affordable care, and making hospitals safe for the patients they serve. In 2009, Steven was appointed by Governor Ritter to the Center for Improving Value in Health Care Steering Committee (CIVHC). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence Advisory and the Colorado Physician in Health Program (CPHP). Steven served as a member of Colorado’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. In 2009, Steven was the recipient of the Denver Business Journal Powerbook Healthcare Industry Leader Award.

John W. Suthers
Attorney General
State of Colorado

As Colorado's Attorney General, John Suthers is charged with representing and defending the interests of all Coloradans and is chief legal counsel and advisor to state government and its many agencies, boards and commissions. Recently, he joined attorneys general from other states to overturn a major provision of the newly signed federal health care reform law, arguing that it is unconstitutional. A Colorado native, Suthers' 33-year legal career includes stints as District Attorney for Colorado Springs, director of the Colorado Department of Corrections and a presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney for Colorado. He also spent 10 years in private practice. He is the author of five books, including "No Higher Calling, No Greater Responsibility: A Prosecutor Makes His Case," an analysis of the prosecutor's role in the justice system.

Joseph W. Thompson, M.D., M.P.H.
Surgeon General - State of Arkansas;
Director - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity;
Director - Arkansas Center for Health Improvement

Known as a leader in planning and implementing health care financing reform, tobacco- and obesity-related health promotion and disease prevention programs, Dr. Joseph Thompson's work is centered at the intersection of clinical care, public health and health policy. He is responsible for developing health policy, research activities and collaborative programs that promote better health and health care in Arkansas. Nationally, as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, he is leading an effort that is the linchpin of RWJF's strategy to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity by 2015.

Jay Want, M.D.
President and CEO
Physician Health Partners LLC

As president and CEO of Physician Health Partners LLC, Dr. Want heads up a management services organization that serves more than 50,000 patients in Colorado. He is a member of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Health Care Committee, an affiliate of the Colorado Business Group on Health and has served on task forces for the Colorado Division of Insurance, The Colorado Trust and the Colorado Hospital Association. Want is board-certified in internal medicine and was a primary care internist in private practice for 10 years. His professional interests include servant leadership, re-engineering medical practice and high-acuity care systems.

Andrew Webber
President and CEO
National Business Coalition on Health

Andrew Webber leads the National Business Coalition on Health, a national, nonprofit membership organization of 60 purchaser-based coalitions on health, dedicated to improving health and transforming health care community by community. As president and CEO of NBCH, Webber is responsible for all of the association's activities, including value-based purchasing programs, government and external relations, educational programs, member communications and technical assistance, and research and evaluation. Webber sits on the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum, the Leapfrog Group, and the combined Bridges to Excellence and Prometheus Payment organizations. He started his health policy career in 1978 as an employee of the Washington Business Group on Health (which later became the National Business Group on Health), rising to the position of vice president for public policy.