Dr. Benjamin Chu was appointed president, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Southern California Region, in February 2005.  Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Chu was President of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation with primary responsibility for management and policy implementation at the Corporation. Prior to that, Dr. Chu was Senior Associate Dean at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  He has also served as Associate Dean and Vice President for Clinical Affairs at the New York University Medical Center managing and developing the clinical academic hospital network.  Dr. Chu is a primary care internist by training with extensive experience as a clinician, administrator and policy advocate for the public hospital sector.  He was Senior Vice President for Medical and Professional Affairs at the Corporation from 1990-1994.  During that period he also served as Acting Commissioner of Health for the New York City Department of Health and Acting Executive Director for Kings County Hospital Center. Dr. Chu also has extensive experience in crafting public policy.  He served as legislative assistant for health for Senator Bill Bradley as a 1989-90 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow.  His area of interests includes health care access and insurance, graduate medical education policy, primary care and public health issues.  He has served on numerous advisory and not-for-profit boards which focused on health care policy issues.  Dr. Chu received a Master in Public Health from the Mailman School at Columbia University and his Doctorate of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. 

Stuart H. Altman, Ph.D.                                           

Stuart H. Altman is the Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. He served as dean of the Heller School from 1977 to a 1993. Professor Altman has had extensive experience with the federal government, serving as deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation/health in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1971-76, chairman of the congressionally-mandated Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, 1983-1996, and a member of the Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, 1999-2001. In addition, from 1973 to 1974, he served as deputy director for health of the President's Cost-of-Living Council and was responsible for developing the council's program on health care cost containment. Dean Altman has testified before various congressional committees on the problems of rising health care costs, Medicare reform and the need to create a national health insurance for the United States. He chaired the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Changing Market, Managed Care, and the Future Viability of Safety Net Providers.  His research activities include several studies concerning the factors causing the recent increases in the use of emergency rooms. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has taught at Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley.


Brent R. Asplin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.E.P.

Brent Asplin is Department Head of Emergency Medicine at Regions Hospital and HealthPartners Research Foundation in St. Paul, MN, and is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota.  After receiving his degree from Mayo Medical School, he completed the University of Pittsburgh's Affiliated Residency in Emergency Medicine.  To develop his interests in research and health care policy, Dr. Asplin completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan.  During this program he obtained a M.P.H. in Health Management and Policy, and also worked as a Congressional Fellow in the office of United States Senator Max Baucus.  He is currently studying the causes and consequences of emergency department crowding and hospital capacity as well as patient access to the ambulatory care system.

John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S.

John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S., is Chief Information Officer of the CareGroup Health System, Chief Information Officer and Associate Dean for Educational Technology at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN), Chief Information Officer of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI), and an emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Halamka completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University where he received a degree in Medical Microbiology and a degree in Public Policy with a focus on technology issues. In 1984, Dr. Halamka entered medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, and simultaneously pursued graduate work in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on technology issues in medicine. During medical school and graduate training, he continued his business activities and developed Ibis Research Labs into a 25 person software consultancy, specializing in medical and financial information interchange. Ibis was sold to senior management in 1992. Dr. Halamka served his residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine. While at Harbor-UCLA he was an active member of the information systems team and developed a hospital-wide knowledge base for policies, procedures, and protocols. Further, he was instrumental in creating an on-line medical record, a quality control system, and several systems for medical education. His research focus during residency was building automated triage tools for patients infected with HIV. In 1996, Dr. Halamka joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and continues to integrate his knowledge of medicine and technology focusing on the use of the Internet to exchange clinical patient data.

Mary M. Jagim, R.N., B.S.N., C.E.N.

Mary Jagim, R.N., is an experienced emergency/trauma nurse with extensive leadership background in program development and implementation, group facilitation, government affairs, and community based injury prevention.  She is currently the Manager of the MeritCare Hospital Emergency Center in Fargo, North Dakota.  Well versed in current issues affecting emergency/trauma nursing and emergency care, Jagim has served as President for the Emergency Nurses Association, and currently serves on its Managers curriculum task force.  Jagim also served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety Panel to Prevent Pedestrian Injuries and is on the Board of Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety.  Jagim received her B.N. from the University of North Dakota in 1984.

Kenneth Kizer, M.D., M.P.H.

Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H., is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Quality Forum (NQF), a Washington, DC-based private, non-profit voluntary consensus standards setting organization which was established in 1999, pursuant to a Presidential commission.  Prior to taking his current position, he served for five years as the Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  In this capacity, he was the highest ranking physician in the federal government and the CEO of the veteran's healthcare system, the largest integrated healthcare system in the U.S.

Dr. Kizer also served as Director of the California Department of Health Services and was California's top health official for over six years, and prior to that, he was Chief of Public Health for California and, before that, Director of California's Emergency Medical Services Authority. He practiced emergency medicine and toxicology in both private and academic settings for over fifteen years.

Dr. Kizer is an honors graduate of Stanford University and UCLA.  He is board certified in six medical specialties and/or subspecialties, and has authored over 350 original articles, book chapters and other reports in the medical literature.  He is a fellow of numerous professional societies and a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society, the Delta Omega National Honorary Public Health Society, and the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

Peter M. Layde, M.D., M.Sc.

Dr. Layde is Professor and Director of the Division of Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Layde has been an epidemiologist for over 20 years and an active injury control researcher for over 10 years. He has published extensively on agricultural injuries and methods for injury epidemiology, including early work on use of case-control studies for homicide and on the epidemiological representativeness of trauma center-based studies. He has been an ad-hoc reviewer for the injury Grant Review Committee for over 10 years and served as a member of that committee from 1997-2000.  Dr. Layde serves as Co-Director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin and as Director of its Research Development and Support Core. He is also Principal Investigator on the Risk Factors for Medical Injury research project.

Eugene Litvak, Ph.D.

Eugene Litvak (Ph.D., Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) is Professor of Health Care Management and Operations Management at the Boston University School of Management. He is also Director (with Michael C. Long, M.D.) of the Program for the Management of Variability in Health Care Delivery. His research interests include operations management in health care delivery organizations, cost-effective medical decision making, screening for HIV and other infectious diseases, and operations research. Since 1995, he has collaborated with Dr. Michael Long in the development and practical application of innovative variability methodology for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. He was the lead author of the new protocols in screening for HIV and hepatitis, which reduce the cost of screening by a factor of 5 to 10 while simultaneously reducing errors by a factor of 20 to 40. These protocols, which have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are currently the subject of a large-scale international trial supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and Chiron and Roche pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Litvak is the author of more than 50 professional publications. He arrived in the United States in 1988, and prior to joining Boston University, he was a faculty member at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

John R. Lumpkin, M.D., M.P.H.

John R. Lumpkin, M.D., M.P.H., is the Senior Vice President for Health Care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).  Prior to joining RWJF, he was the first African American to hold the position of Public Health Director in the state of Illinois.  He served the second longest tenure of any director since the present agency structure was created in 1917.  As director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Dr. Lumpkin oversaw an agency of 1,300 employees located in Springfield, Chicago, seven regional offices and three laboratories who share primary responsibility for the quality of life in the state.  Dr. Lumpkin’s career in public health began with his appointment in 1985 as associate director of IDPH’s Office of Health Care Regulations, which oversees the licensing, inspection and certification of health care facilities.  Dr. Lumpkin received his medical degree in 1974 from Northwestern University Medical School.  He trained in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago and earned his M.P.H. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health.  Dr. Lumpkin is past president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Accountability, a former Commissioner of the Pew Commission on Environmental Health, a former board member of the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting, a past board member of the American College of Emergency Physicians and past president of the Society of Teachers of Emergency Medicine.  Lumpkin has also been the recipient of the Bill B. Smiley Award, Alan Donaldson Award, African American History Maker, and Public Health Worker of the Year.

W. Daniel Manz, B.S.

W. Daniel Manz is the Director of Emergency Medical Services for the Vermont Department of Health.  He has been in emergency medical services (EMS) for more than 25 years and worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT), volunteer squad leader, hospital communications technician, EMS regional coordinator, EMS trainer and State EMS Director.  Much of his work has been in rural areas including Maine and Saudi Arabia.  Mr. Manz has been active in the National Association of State EMS Directors, serving as their President for 2 years and representing the association on several national projects including the EMS Agenda for the Future, the HCFA Negotiated Rule Making process, and the current National EMS Scope of Practice Model.  Mr. Manz remains active as a volunteer EMT-Intermediate with the local ambulance service in his community.  In his spare time he enjoys running, fishing, and sheep farming.

John E. Prescott, M.D.

Dr. John Prescott is currently Dean of the West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine.  He previously served as Senior Associate Dean and as the President and CEO of University Health Associates (UHA), WVU's medical/dental faculty practice plan.

Dr. Prescott received both his B.S. and M.D. degrees at Georgetown University.  A recipient of an Army Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) scholarship, he completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, and was then assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  In 1990 he joined WVU and soon assumed leadership of the Section of Emergency Medicine.  During that same year, Dr. Prescott founded and became the first Director of WVU's Center for Rural Emergency Medicine.  In 1993 he became the first Chair of WVU's newly established Department of Emergency Medicine.  As past recipient of major Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private foundation grants, Dr. Prescott's research and scholarly interests include: rural emergency care; injury control and prevention; medical response to terrorism; and academic and administrative medicine.

In 1999, Dr. Prescott became WVU's Associate Dean for the Clinical Enterprise and assumed his current position within UHA.  He has been a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians since 1987 and is the recipient of WVU's Presidential Heroism Award.

C. William Schwab, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Dr. Schwab is currently Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1987, Dr. Schwab established a Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center, Surgical Critical Care Service, the PennStar Flight Program, and the Communications Center at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Today Dr. Schwab’s surgical practice focuses on caring for the severely injured patient and incorporating the most advanced techniques in trauma surgery available. He is one of the first traumatologists to study the effects of trauma in the elderly patient. In addition, Dr. Schwab is extremely active in the field of violence prevention and in developing a program in which trauma surgeons can become leaders in the public health effort to reduce firearm-related injuries. He is the Director of the Firearm & Injury Center at Penn (FICAP) and has been awarded several grants to look at the possibilities of reducing firearm and non-firearm injury. Another of his most recent projects is the formation of a trauma network. This involves setting up Level II trauma centers throughout the Delaware Valley to work with the University of Pennsylvania’s Level I trauma center in enhancing the quality of medical care for victims of injury. He has accomplished this at the Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, PA, and at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA, and is currently consulting with other facilities to improve their trauma care as well.  In October 2004, Schwab was elected President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST).  He will serve as President Elect through August 2005, at which time he will assume the full duties of the presidency.

Joseph L. Wright, M.D., M.P.H.         

Joseph Wright, M.D., M.P.H. is Medical Director for Advocacy and Community Affairs at Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in the District of Columbia.  In that capacity, Dr. Wright serves as medical consultant to the hospital’s community partnership initiatives and provides strategic leadership for the organization’s advocacy mission.  He is integrally involved in CNMC’s role as pediatric leader in the District’s public health safety net through management of the school health and health care for children in foster placement programs.  Clinically, he is the founding Director of the Center for Prehospital Pediatrics in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Children’s and practices Pediatric Emergency Medicine in the hospital’s Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center.  Academically, Dr. Wright is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Community Health in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at George Washington University (GWU).  In addition to his academic responsibilities, Dr. Wright also serves as the State EMS Medical Director for Pediatrics within the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS), and is very active in emergency medical services for children (EMSC) initiatives both regionally and nationally. 

Dr. Wright has been a member of the full-time faculty at Children's National Medical Center since 1993, and has devoted much of his academic energy to addressing the concerns of under-served populations.  He has been recognized for his advocacy efforts as a winner of the Shining Star award from the Starlight Foundation for outstanding contributions to health care service in the African-American community.  Dr. Wright also teaches in the School of Public Health at GWU, and is a member of Delta Omega, the national public health honor society.  In addition to clinical and administrative activities, Dr. Wright is an active investigator in the Health Services and Community Research Center of the Children’s Research Institute at CNMC.  He is most interested in the evolution of emergency care settings as appropriate environments for effective public health research. He is currently devoting his efforts to work in the area of injury prevention, specifically focusing on intentional injuries involving pre-teens and adolescents.  Dr. Wright and colleagues have been the recipients of several federal grants to conduct community-based violence prevention research, and have authored several scholarly publications in this area.  His expertise has resulted in appointments to a number of national advisory boards including the Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Executive Committee of the Section on Emergency Medicine of the AAP, the Council on Child Advocacy of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, and the Committee on End-of-Life Care for Children of the Institute of Medicine.  Dr. Wright has made numerous media appearances and lectures widely to both professional and lay audiences.