COMMITTEE CHAIR

Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., CHAIR
Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he also heads the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center.  The Center, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, works with leaders of American health professional organizations and health care institutions to increase the rate at which patients who smoke are offered help to quit.  Between 1990 and 2002 he was President and CEO, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  During his term of office the Foundation made grant expenditures of almost $4 billion in pursuit of its mission of improving the health and health care of the American people.  During those 12 1/2 years the foundation developed new programs in substance abuse prevention and treatment, care at the end of life, and health insurance expansion for children, among others.  In 1999, it reorganized into health and health care groups, reflecting the twin components of its mission.  Dr. Schroeder graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine at the Harvard Medical Service of Boston City Hospital and in epidemiology as an EIS Office of the CDC.  He held faculty appointments at Harvard, George Washington, and UCSF.  At both George Washington and UCSF he was founding medical director of a university-sponsored HMO, and at UCSF he founded its division of general internal medicine.  He has published extensively in the fields of clinical medicine, health care financing and organization, prevention, public health, and the work force, with over 250 publications.  He currently serves as chairman of the American Legacy Foundation and of the International Review Committee of the Ben Gurion School of Medicine, and is a member of the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine, the Harvard Overseers, the James Irvine Foundation, the Save Ellis Island Foundation, and the Council of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.  He has six honorary doctoral degrees and numerous awards.

COMMITTEE

Bobbie Berkowitz, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.
Bobbie Berkowitz, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., is a Professor and Department Chair at the University of Washington School of Nursing.  She directs the RWJF funded initiative "Turning Point" and the NIH/NINR funded Center for the Advancement of Health Disparities Research.  She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Group Health Cooperative, a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Institute of Medicine. She served as Co-Chair of the IOM Committee Using Performance Monitoring to Improve Community Health and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the IOM/TRB Committee Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land Use.  She holds a Ph.D. in Nursing Science from Case Western Reserve University.

Donald M. Berwick, M.D., M.P.P.
Donald M. Berwick, M.D., M.P.P., is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a not-for-profit organization leading the improvement of health care throughout the world.   He is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Health Care Policy at the Harvard Medical School and professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.  He is also a pediatrician, an Associate in Pediatrics at Boston's Children's Hospital, and a Consultant in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Berwick has published over 110 scientific articles in numerous professional journals on subjects relating to health care policy, decision analysis, technology assessment, and health care quality management.  Dr. Berwick serves on the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and on the IOM's governing Council and as the liaison to the IOM's Board on Global Health.   He is also a member of several editorial boards, including that of Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).   A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Berwick holds a master of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MD cum laude from the Harvard Medical School.

Bruce E. Bradley, M.B.A.
Bruce E. Bradley, M.B.A., is Director, Health Plan Strategy and Public Policy for General Motors Health Care Initiatives.  He is responsible for health care related strategy and public policy with a focus on quality measurement and improvement, consumer engagement and cost effectiveness.  General Motors provides health care coverage for over 1.1 million employees, retirees and their dependents with an annual expense of  $4.8 billion.  Bradley joined GM in June 1996 after five years as corporate manager of Managed Care for GTE Corporation.  In addition to his health care management experience at GTE, he spent nearly 20 years in health plan and health maintenance organization's (HMO) management.  From 1972 to 1980 he was executive director of the Matthew Thornton Health Plan, Nashua, N.H.  From 1980 to 1990 he was president and chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Group Health Association in Providence, RI, a staff model HMO.  He was co-founder of the HMO Group (now Alliance of Community Health Plans), a national corporation of 15 non-profit, independent group practice HMOs, and the HMO Group Insurance Co., Ltd.  Bradley has gained recognition for his work in achieving health plan quality improvement and for his efforts in developing the Health Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measurements and processes.  He is a board member of the National Quality Forum, Treasurer of the board of FACCT, board member of The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, a past board member of The Academy for Health Services Research and Policy, and a founding member and past chair of the Leapfrog Group board.  A native of Pelham, N.Y., Bradley holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Yale University (1967) and master's degree in business and health care administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (1972).

Janet M. Corrigan, Ph.D.
Janet M. Corrigan, Ph.D., is President and CEO of the National Committee for Quality Health Care, a non-profit, non-partisan education and research institute.  Prior to joining NCQHC in June 2005, she was Senior Board Director at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), where she was responsible for the IOM Health Care Services portfolio of initiatives on quality and safety, health services organization and financing, and health insurance issues.  She provided leadership for IOM’s Quality Chasm Series which produced ten reports during her tenure including: To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Prior to joining IOM in 1998, Dr. Corrigan was the Executive Director of the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. Dr. Corrigan serves on the boards of the Baldrige Board of Overseers and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. She received her doctorate in health services research and master of industrial engineering degrees from the University of Michigan, and masters’ degrees in business administration and community health from the University of Rochester.

Karen Davis, Ph.D.
Karen Davis, Ph.D., is president of The Commonwealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in independent research on health and social issues.  Dr. Davis, a nationally recognized economist, has had a distinguished career in public policy and research.  She served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services from 1977-1980, and holds the distinction of being the first woman to head a US Public Health Service agency.  Prior to her government career, Dr. Davis was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and an assistant professor of economics at Rice University.  She is the recipient of the 2000 Baxter-Allegiance Foundation Prize for Health Services Research.  She has written extensively on health and social policy issues, and is a former president of Academy Health.  Dr. Davis received her doctorate in economics from Rice University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Johns Hopkins University in 2001.

Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, J.D.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, J.D., is a health care consultant in Washington, D.C., a Senior Advisor to JPMorgan Partners, LLC, and an Adjunct Professor of Health Care Systems at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  She is a commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on Medicare policy issues, and also serves on several corporate and non-profit boards, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Quality Forum.  From 1997-2000, DeParle served as Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  As Administrator, she directed the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance programs, which provide health insurance coverage for some 80 million Americans at an annual cost of more than $600 billion.  Before becoming HCFA Administrator, DeParle was the Associate Director for Health and Personnel at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where she oversaw budget and policy matters relating to all Federal health programs.  She also served as the Tennessee Commissioner of Human Services under Governor Ned McWherter from 1987-1989, and worked as a lawyer in private practice in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Washington, D.C.   DeParle received a B.A. from the University of Tennessee, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. and M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar.

Elliott S. Fisher, M.D., M.P.H.
Elliott S. Fisher, M.D. M.P.H., is Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover NH and Co-Director, VA Outcomes Group, VA Medical Center, White River Junction, VT.  He is a general internist and former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar who has broad expertise in the use of administrative databases and survey research methods in health systems evaluation.  His research has focused on exploring the causes and consequences of variations in clinical practice and health care spending across U.S. regions and among health care providers.  His most recent work suggests that at least 30% of Medicare spending is now devoted to medical services that provide no detectable health benefits.

Richard G. Frank, Ph.D.
Richard G. Frank, Ph.D., is the Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Dr. Frank serves on the Biobehavioral Sciences Board of the Institute of Medicine. He advises several state mental health and substance abuse agencies on issues related to managed care and financing of care. He also serves as Co-Editor for the Journal of Health Economics.  Dr. Frank was awarded the Georgescu-Roegen prize from the Southern Economic Association for his collaborative work on drug pricing, the Carl A. Taube Award from the American Public Health Association for outstanding contributions to mental health services and economics research, and the Emily Mumford Medal from Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry. In 2002 Dr Frank received the John Eisberg Mentorship Award from National Research Service Awards.

Robert S. Galvin, M.D.
Robert S. Galvin, M.D., is the Director of Global Health Care for General Electric.  He is in charge of the design and performance of GE's health programs, totaling over $3B annually, and oversees the 1 million patient encounters that take place in GE's 220 medical clinics in over 20 countries.  Drawing on his clinical expertise and training in Six Sigma, Dr. Galvin has been an advocate and leader in extending the benefits of this methodology to healthcare.   Dr. Galvin has focused on issues of market-based health policy and financing, with a special interest in developing a business case for quality and reforming the reimbursement system.  He is a past member of the Strategic Framework Board of the National Quality  Forum and is currently on the Board of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.  He is a co-founder of the Leapfrog Group and current Chairman of the Board and he is on the Advisory Group of the Council on Health Care Economics and Policy.  Dr. Galvin is widely published on issues affecting the purchaser side of health care, and is an Associate Professor Adjunct of Medicine at Yale, where he directs the seminar series on the Private Sector for the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship.  He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

David H. Gustafson, Ph.D.
David H. Gustafson, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he directs the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications (designated by the National Cancer Institute) and the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the federal government's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment). His research focuses on the use of systems engineering methods and models in individual and organizational change.  Much of his research has centered on the development and evaluation of the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) which provides supports to people facing serious health problems such as cancer. His randomized controlled trials and field tests of CHESS help understand acceptance, use and impact of eHealth on quality of life, behavior change and health services utilization.  His research also contributes to organizational improvement with a particular attention to models that predict and explain organizational change.  Dr. Gustafson is a Fellow of the Association for Health Services Research and of the American Medical Informatics Association, a Fellow and past Vice-Chair of the Board of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  He also chaired the recently completed Federal Science Panel on Interactive Communications in Health and is Chair of the eHealth Institute.  He is a member of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board.

Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, Pharm.D.
Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, Pharm.D., is Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), where she teaches and has cared for patients at the UCSF Diabetes Center.  She holds the Thomas J. Long Endowed Professorship in Chain Pharmacy Practice and has previously served as Chairwoman of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.  Dr. Koda-Kimble received her Pharm.D. from UCSF and joined its faculty in 1970, where she was involved in developing an innovative clinical pharmacy curriculum.  Dr. Koda-Kimble is a member of the USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) Board of Trustees and is Vice Chair of the American Council of Pharmaceutical Education Board of Directors.  She is a past president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and has served on the California State Board of Pharmacy, the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee, and many other boards and task forces of national professional associations.  Dr. Koda-Kimble is frequently invited to address national and international groups and has many publications, the best known of which is Applied Therapeutics, a text widely used by health professional students and practitioners throughout the world.

Alan R. Nelson, M.D.
Alan R. Nelson, M.D., is an internist-endocrinologist who was in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah, until becoming chief executive officer of the American Society of Internal Medicine (ASIM) in 1992. Following the merger of ASIM with the American College of Physicians (ACP) in 1998, Dr. Nelson headed the Washington Office of ACP-ASIM until his semi-retirement in January 2000, and currently serves as Special Advisor to the EVP/CEO of the College. He was president of the American Medical Association and currently serves as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises congress on Medicare issues.  A member of the Institute of Medicine, he serves on the IOM Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences Research and Medicine, and was co-chair of the Workshop Planning Group on the Environment and Cancer. He also was Chair of an IOM committee on Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Health Care and is a co-editor of the study report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.  Dr. Nelson attended Utah State University, and received his MD degree from Northwestern University in 1958.

Norman C. Payson, M.D.
Norman C. Payson, M.D., having completed his turnaround assignment, retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Health Plans, Inc. in November of 2002.  Oxford Health Plans is a prominent greater New York health plan with 1.5 million members.  Dr. Payson was recruited to the CEO position in 1998 after Oxford experienced severe operational and financial challenges and then led its successful turnaround.  Prior to joining Oxford, Dr. Payson was co-founder and CEO of Healthsource, Inc., from its inception in 1985 until its sale to CIGNA Corporation in 1997.  During his tenure, Healthsource grew to 3 million members in 15 states.  Dr. Payson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his MD at Dartmouth Medical School.

William A. Peck, M.D.
William A. Peck, M.D., was named Director, Center for Health Policy and Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Washington University in 2003.  From 1989 to 2003, Dr. Peck served as Dean of Washington University School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs, and President of the Washington University Medical Center.  His academic activities include original investigations in bone and mineral metabolism (100 scientific publications), extensive clinical teaching and patient care experience.  Major scientific contributions include the first method for studying directly the structure, function and growth of bone cells, demonstration of mechanisms whereby hormones regulate bone cell function, and examination of causes of osteoporosis.  Dr. Peck served as founding president of the National Osteoporosis Foundation; on the editorial boards of multiple journals; on numerous National and International medical and scientific panels; and on advisory boards of major pharmaceutical companies.  He has held numerous lectureships and society memberships, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (elected President, 1984), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (awarded Fellowship, 1992) and Institute of Medicine (NAS).  He now serves on the Boards of Hologic Corporation, Reinsurance Group of America, Allied Health Care Products, Angelica Corporation, TIAA-CREF Trust Company, Research!America (Vice-Chair), Johnson & Johnson Scientific Advisory Committee and the Jewish Center for Aged (honorary).  He served as Chairman of the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and, subsequently, Chairman of the AAMC.  Dr. Peck graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine (M.D. 1960), completed two years of residency (Internal Medicine) and one year of fellowship (Metabolism) at Barnes Hospital (1960-1963) and served for 2 years as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health (Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases). 

Neil R. Powe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Neil R. Powe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  He also is Director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, an interdisciplinary research and training center at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions focused on population-based and health services research.  Dr. Powe's research has involved technology assessment, patient outcomes research, clinical epidemiology and health services research in many areas of medicine.  He has also studied physician decision making and other determinants of use of medical practices including payers' decisions about insurance coverage for new medical technologies, the effect of financial incentives on the use of technology, efficiency and outcomes in for-profit versus non-profit health care institutions, and the relation between hospital volume, technology and outcomes.

Christopher Queram, M.H.A.
Christopher Queram, M.H.A.,  has been CEO of the Employer Health Care Alliance Cooperative (The Alliance) of Madison, Wisconsin, since 1993.  The Alliance is a health care purchasing cooperative owned by more than 160 member companies that contracts with providers, collects and reports cost and utilization data, conducts consumer education and advocacy, and designs employer and provider quality initiatives and reports.  In addition to his responsibilities at The Alliance, Mr. Queram is a member of the board of The Leapfrog Group and currently serves as treasurer.  He is a member of the Wisconsin Board on Health Information and the board of the Wisconsin Private Employer Health Care Coverage program.  In addition, he is a member of the "Principals" for the AHA/CMS National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative, a board member of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, and a member of the steering committee for the Wisconsin Hospital Association's CheckPoint quality reporting initiative.  He served as a member of the Planning Committee for the National Quality Forum and continues as chair of the Purchaser Council and board member of the Forum.  He has served as chair of the board of the National Business Coalition on Health (1998 - 2000) and the Wisconsin Patient Safety Institute (2001 - 2002).  He also served as a member of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance and as a member of President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.  Prior to his current position, Mr. Queram was a hospital executive in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Mr. Queram holds a Master of Arts degree in health services administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Robert D. Reischauer, Ph.D.
Robert D. Reischauer, Ph.D., is the President of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, non-partisan policy research and education organization that examines the social, economic and governance problems facing the nation.   He served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) between  1989 and 1995 and was CBO's Assistant Director for Human Resources and Deputy Director of CBO during the 1977 to 1981 period.  Mr. Reischauer has been a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program of the Brookings Institution (1986-89 and 1995-2000) and the Senior Vice President of the Urban Institute (1981-86).  Mr. Reischauer is an economist with an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Economics and Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.  He has written and lectured extensively on a wide range of topics including federal budget policy, health reform, social welfare issues, and the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He frequently contributes to the opinion pages of the nation's major newspapers, comments on public policy developments on radio and TV, and testifies before congressional committees.  Mr. Reischauer is a member of the Harvard Corporation and serves on the boards of several educational and nonprofit organizations.   He is Vice Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and served as Chair of the National Academy of Social Insurance's project, "Restructuring Medicare for the Long Term" from 1995 to 2004.

William C. Richardson, Ph.D.
William C. Richardson, Ph.D., is president and CEO Emeritus of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, MI. Before joining the foundation in August 1995, Dr. Richardson was president of the Johns Hopkins University, a position he had held since 1990. Dr. Richardson was also professor of health policy and management at the university. Dr. Richardson is a member of the IOM of the National Academies and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Richardson has served on the boards of the Council of Michigan Foundations and the Council on Foundations (trustee and chairman). He also serves on the board of directors of the Kellogg Company, CSX Corporation, the Bank of New York, and Exelon Coporation. Dr. Richardson is a graduate of Trinity College and the University of Chicago.

Cheryl M. Scott, M.H.A.
Cheryl M. Scott, M.H.A., is  currently the President Emerita for Group Health Cooperative.  From 1997-2004, she was its President and CEO.  GHC is one of the the nation's largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care systems.  Prior to assuming her position in 1997, Scott served as GHC's Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer.  Ms. Scott is a clinical professor in the Department of Health Services at the University of Washington.  At the national level, Ms. Scott served on the Boards of the Alliance of Community Health Plans (Chair: trustee) and America’s Health Insurance Plans.  She currently serves as the board chair for the Health Technology Center and is a trustee for the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund. Ms. Scott received a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in health administration from the University of Washington.

Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D.
Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., is a prominent researcher in health policy and organization behavior at the University of California, Berkeley and is Dean of the School of Public Health.  Dr. Shortell is known as a leading academic voice advocating reform of the nation's health system. His research has helped establish determinants of health outcomes and quality of care for health care organizations.  As the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, Shortell holds a joint appointment at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and the Haas School of Business. He also is affiliated with UC Berkeley's Department of Sociology and UC San Francisco's Institute for Health Policy Studies.  Shortell has received the Baxter-Allegiance Prize, considered the highest honor worldwide in the field of health services research. He also has received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Association for Health Services Research and the Gold Medal award from the American College of Healthcare Executives for his contributions to the field.   Dr. Shortell received his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame, his master's degree in public health from UCLA and his PhD in behavioral science from the University of Chicago. Before coming to UC Berkeley in 1998, Shortell held teaching and research positions at Northwestern University, the University of Washington and the University of Chicago.

Samuel O. Thier, M.D.
Samuel O. Thier is professor of Medicine and professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.  He was president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare System from 1996-2002.  From 1994-1997 he was president of The Massachusetts General Hospital, and was Brandeis University's president during the previous three years.  He served six years as president of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and eleven years as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, where he was Sterling Professor.  Dr. Thier is an authority on internal medicine and kidney disease and is also known for his expertise in national health policy, medical education and biomedical research.  Born in New York, he attended Cornell University and received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Syracuse in 1960.  He served on the medical staff of Massachusetts General Hospital, as an intern, resident, chief resident in Medicine and chief of the Renal Unit, and held a faculty appointment at Harvard.  Prior to joining the faculty of Yale in 1975, he was professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  He has received fourteen honorary degrees and the UC Medal of the University of California, San Francisco.  He has served as president of the American Federation of Clinical Research and chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a Master of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Member of the American Philosophical Society.  Dr. Thier is a director of Charles River Laboratories, Inc., The Commonwealth Fund (Chairman), Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Chairman), and Merck & Co., Inc. and a member of the Board of Overseers of TIAA-CREF and the Board of Overseers of Cornell University Medical College.

Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D.
Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation, where she analyzes and develops policies relating to health reform and to ongoing changes in the medical marketplace.  Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees, acts as an advisor to members of Congress and other elected officials, and speaks nationally and internationally before professional, business and consumer groups.  From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans, which covered health care for both veterans and military retirees.  From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission. Previously, she served as Deputy Assistant to President (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues.  Prior to that, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, overseeing the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  Dr. Wilensky is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of The National Academy of Sciences and its Governing Council, and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America, the American Heart Association, and on the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Health Care Management. She is an advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, immediate past chair of the Board of Directors of Academy Health and is a director on several corporate boards.  Dr. Wilensky received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.