2012 Symposium Plenary Speaker, Debate and Keynote Bios

Jeffrey Brenner, MD (Keynote)
Founder and Executive Director
Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers

Jeffrey Brenner is founder and executive director of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. The coalition is an alliance of local stakeholders – hospitals, providers and community residents – working together to build an integrated health delivery model that provides better care for the city's residents. Brenner is a family physician and has worked in Camden, N.J., for the past 12 years. His urban family medicine practice serves a largely Hispanic Medicaid population and provides the full spectrum of family health services – delivering babies, caring for children and adults, and making home visits. Brenner's work with the coalition has been profiled in The New Yorker and on PBS's "Frontline."

Wes Moore (Keynote)
Youth Advocate and Entrepreneur
Author, "The Other Wes Moore"

Wes Moore is an advocate for U.S. veterans and youth, examining the roles that education, mentoring and public service play in young lives. Despite a troubled childhood, Moore became a Rhodes scholar. He was a U.S. Army captain from 2005 to 2006 serving in Afghanistan where he spearheaded the American strategic support plan uniting former insurgents with the new Afghan government. He was a special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2006 to 2007, and later became a vice president at Citigroup. He is a member of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America board and founder of STAND!, which works with Baltimore youth involved in the criminal justice system. A featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Moore has appeared on "Charlie Rose," "Meet the Press" and "The View." He is the author of "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates," a nonfiction narrative about the juxtaposition of his life and that of a convicted criminal also named Wes Moore. The questions raised about accountability, chance, fate and family profoundly impacted Moore who believes that public servants—teachers, mentors and volunteers who work with youth—are as critical to the nation as the armed forces.

Hank Cardello
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute

Hank Cardello is a former food industry executive whose mission is to bring about practical, market-oriented solutions to the nation's obesity epidemic. Cardello is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan policy think tank, where he directs its Obesity Solutions Initiative. He is the author of "Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat" and the landmark report "Better-for-You Foods: It's Just Good Business." Formerly the president of Sunkist Soft Drinks, Inc., marketing director for Coca-Cola and brand manager for General Mills, Cardello recently served as co-chair of the University of North Carolina-sponsored Global Obesity Business Forum. He is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and has shared his perspectives in numerous media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR, CNN and "Good Morning America."

Elizabeth Carger
Senior Manager, Public Policy and Social Marketing
Olson Zaltman Associates

As senior manager of public policy and social marketing at Olson Zaltman Associates, Elizabeth Carger oversees all aspects of work with public policy and nonprofit clients. With an academic research background in international relations and 20th century American political history, Carger has conducted qualitative research using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) for national and international nonprofit and corporate clients. She particularly focuses on the analysis and strategic implementation of ZMET findings to help clients fundamentally understand how their target groups think and feel about a given topic at an unconscious level, and then provides recommendations for using this knowledge to shape communications.

Ann Christiano, MPAP
Professor and Frank Karel Endowed Chair in Public Interest Communications
University of Florida

Ann Christiano is the Frank Karel Endowed Chair in Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida. As a professor in the College of Journalism and Communications, she teaches and advises students in social change communications and public relations. Before joining the University of Florida faculty, Christiano directed communications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Vulnerable Populations portfolio, which creates new opportunities for better health by investing in places where health starts and grows – in homes, schools and jobs. She also oversaw communications strategies for the Green House project and CeaseFire, and developed a robust government relations program that helped foundation grantees build productive relationships with their elected officials and significantly increased the foundation's profile among Washington policymakers. Christiano has worked with the Washington Business Group on Health, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Business Technology.

John Fetterman
Mayor of Braddock, Penn.

John Fetterman founded the first successful youth program in Braddock, Pa., in July 2001. These same disenfranchised youth were responsible for electing Fetterman into office by the thinnest of margins – one vote – over a two-term incumbent and another lifetime resident in May 2005. As mayor of Allegheny County's poorest community, Fetterman has sought to revitalize Braddock through the arts, youth employment, urban agriculture, community policing and adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings and homes. These efforts have been chronicled nationally by The New York Times, CNN, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," Fox News and CNBC.

James O. Hill, PhD
Founding Executive Director, Colorado Center for Health and Wellness
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

James O. Hill is the founding executive director of the Colorado Center for Health and Wellness at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He holds the Anschutz Endowed Chair in Health and Wellness, and is past president of the American Society for Nutrition and The Obesity Society. Hill has published more than 400 scientific articles and book chapters about obesity and nutrition. He received the TOPS award from The Obesity Society as well as the Centrum Center, McCollum and Kritchevsky awards from the American Society for Nutrition. Hill is a co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry and America On the Move, a national weight gain prevention initiative that aims to inspire Americans to make small lifestyle changes.

Anthony B. Iton, MD, JD, MPH
Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities
The California Endowment

Anthony Iton is senior vice president of Healthy Communities at The California Endowment, the state's largest private health foundation, where he supports the Building Healthy Communities: California Living 2.0 initiative, which develops communities where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. He was the director and county health officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department, overseeing the creation of an innovative public health practice designed to eliminate health disparities by tackling the root causes of poor health among California's low-income communities. While a physician at Stamford (Conn.) Hospital's HIV clinic, he also served as director of Health and Human Services and school medical advisor for the City of Stamford. In addition, Iton was a primary care physician for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and a staff attorney and health policy analyst for the West Coast regional office of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.

Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD
Author, "Intern: A Doctor's Initiation"

Sandeep Jauhar is a cardiologist and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. When Jauhar was a Ph.D. student in physics at Berkeley, a friend's illness made Jauhar yearn for a profession where he could affect people's lives directly. After graduating from medical school, he began his grueling training at a Manhattan, N.Y., teaching hospital where he wrestled with his decision to enter medicine – and reached satisfying and often surprising conclusions about the human side of modern medicine. Author of the best-selling book "Intern: A Doctor's Initiation," Jauhar has written about medicine and health for The New York Times, The New England Journal of Medicine, Slate and the Los Angeles Times, and has been interviewed by CNN, Bloomberg, NPR and others. He was an AAAS Mass Media Fellow at TIME Magazine and received a South Asian Journalists Special Recognition Award for outstanding stories about medicine.

Lisa D. Katic
Principal
K Consulting, LLP

Lisa D. Katic is principal of K Consulting and an expert in scientific and regulatory programs related to nutrition, biotechnology, functional foods, food labeling and obesity. As a registered dietician, she has debated domestic and international nutrition issues; testified on Capitol Hill and before federal, state and international regulatory agencies; and interfaced with regulatory and food standard-setting bodies to develop science-based policies for the U.S. public and private sectors. She is the former director of scientific and nutrition policy at the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), and is currently serving as an advisor to the association. Before joining GMA, she was associate director of food safety for the International Food Information Council, and media coordinator and nutrition education consultant for the Dairy Council in Cleveland. Katic has appeared on NBC's "Today," CNN, the Food Network and all major evening news programs.

Dr. Michael O. Minor
Undersheperd, Oak Hill Baptist Church
National Director, Health and Human Services Partnership
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

Michael O. Minor is a national champion of faith-based health and wellness mobilization. Minor has worked with numerous individuals and groups, highlighted by his collaboration with First Lady Michelle Obama and her Let's Move! campaign. He is the national director of the Health and Human Services Partnership of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. – the nation's largest African American religious denomination – and serves as the undershepherd of the Oak Hill Baptist Church in Hernando, Miss. A published researcher, Minor provides advisory services for several local, regional and national faith-based health and wellness initiatives.

Len Nichols, PhD
Director, Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics
George Mason University

Len Nichols is 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. He joined the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University in 2010 where he continues the work he began at the New America Foundation. Nichols has testified frequently before Congress and state legislatures, and was recently selected to be an Innovation Advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He has advised The World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization as well as various state and federal government agencies. Nichols 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, NPR, "PBS NewsHour" and the BBC.

Kamara O'Connor
Lead Organizer, Bring Health Reform Home
PICO National Network

As lead organizer for the Bring Health Reform Home campaign, Kamara O'Connor works with 10 diverse PICO federations, supporting efforts to collect stories about current barriers to health care and preparing people who are most impacted by the system to help shape direct solutions. She has worked with the PICO National Network for six years, beginning in Oakland, Calif., and later joining the Bring Health Reform Home campaign.

PICO community leaders from across the country worked to influence the federal Affordable Care Act, with an emphasis on low-income working class families. Today, organizers help local communities use the tools and resources of the law to strengthen accessibility in their city health care systems for the most vulnerable populations. PICO's Camden New Jersey federation strongly influenced the work of Jeffrey Brenner, and the joint "hot-spotting" strategy has been featured in The New Yorker, PBS's "Frontline" and CNN.

Manuel Pastor, PhD
Director, Program for Environmental and Regional Equity
University of Southern California

Manuel Pastor is a professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC). He is the founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and currently directs USC's Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and co-directs the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. The recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, Pastor has focused his research on the economic, environmental and social conditions impacting low-income urban communities and the social movements seeking to change those realities. In his most recent book, "Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America's Metropolitan Regions" (co-authored with Chris Benner), Pastor argues that growth and equity can and should be linked, offering a new path for a U.S. economy trying to recover from economic crisis and distributional distress.

T.R. Reid
Author and Documentarian

Through his coverage of global affairs for The Washington Post, his books and documentary films, and his lighthearted commentaries on NPR's "Morning Edition," T.R. Reid has become one of the nation's best-known journalists. He has written six books in English and three in Japanese. His health policy book, "The Healing of America," was published in 2009 and became a national best-seller. As Reid investigated the health care system both nationally and internationally for the book, PBS's "Frontline" followed him and later produced two documentary films based on his reporting. In 2012, PBS broadcast Reid's latest documentary, "U.S. Health Care: The Good News," where he travels across the United States reporting on communities that provide excellent medical care at costs far below the national average.

Marguerite Salazar
Regional Director, Region VIII
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

As regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Region VIII, Marguerite Salazar plays a vital role in effectively implementing the federal Affordable Care Act. Prior to this appointment, Salazar was president and CEO of Valley-Wide Health Systems, a large, rural Community Health Center serving more than 40,000 residents through 26 primary health care clinics in 22 southern Colorado counties. She is a fellow in the National Hispana Leadership Institute as well as a Livingston Fellow in the Bonfils Stanton Foundation. Salazar was a trustee for the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation and was appointed by former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to serve on the board of governors for Colorado State University. She served as chair of the Colorado Humanities and on the board of trustees for the Nature Conservancy and the National Center for Farmworker Health.

Chris Waugh
Director and co-founder, Active Health
Lead, Health and Wellness
IDEO

Chris Waugh is a senior lead within IDEO's Health and Wellness practice, using design thinking to create positive impact for IDEO's clients and customers as well as consumers. Health and Wellness at IDEO looks to people's unmet needs, desires and aspirations to tackle a wide variety of design and innovation challenges – from designing the next emergency room to creating weight management strategies for consumers. Waugh enriches the practice through his passion for understanding how the intersection of social issues, systems and food can help IDEO clients create better offerings and lead better lives. In addition to leading relationships with businesses and organizations such as Steelcase, Nike, Jamie Oliver and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Waugh has guided the evolution of thought within health at IDEO through his writing on wellness, obesity and behavior change.

Alan Weil
Executive Director
National Academy for State Health Policy

Alan Weil is the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. Previously he served as director of the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project, one of the largest privately funded social policy research projects undertaken in the United States. He was the executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, health policy advisor to former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and assistant general counsel in the Massachusetts Department of Medical Security. The co-editor of two books, Weil publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals and has testified frequently before Congress. He is on the editorial board of Health Affairs and is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Board on Health Care Services, the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Margo G. Wootan, DSc
Director, Nutrition Policy
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Margo Wootan is the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the country's leading health advocacy organizations that specializes in food, nutrition and obesity prevention. Wootan co-founded and coordinates the activities of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity and the Food Marketing Workgroup. She coordinated and led efforts to require calorie labeling at fast-food and other chain restaurants, require trans fat labeling on packaged foods, improve school foods, reduce junk-food marketing aimed at children, and expand nutrition and physical activity programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The recipient of numerous awards, Wootan is quoted regularly in the nation's major media.