George C. Eads, Ph.D.

Dr. Eads is Vice President and Director of Charles River Associates (CRA) Washington, D.C. office and is an internationally known expert in the economics of the automotive and airlines industries. Prior to joining CRA, Dr. Eads was Vice President and Chief Economist at General Motors Corporation. He frequently represented the corporation before congressional committees and federal regulatory agencies. He has served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. Dr. Eads has published numerous books and articles on the impact of government on business, and has taught at several major universities, including Harvard and Princeton.


Sheila P. Davis, B.S.N., M.S.N., Ph.D.

Dr. Davis is Associate Professor, Department of Adult Health, in the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She is also Vice President of Davis, Davis & Associates, a health management consultant company. Her research focuses on minority health issues, especially cardiovascular risk among ethnic populations. Dr. Davis is the founder and chair of the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in Children (CRRIC) Committee at the University of Mississippi. This is a multidisciplinary committee (physicians, nurses, dietician, health educator, college administrator, nurse practitioners, etc.) committed to reducing cardiovascular risks in children. Dr. Davis is a member of the American Nurses' Association and has written numerous publications on the profession and the experiences of ethnic minorities in the health professions. She is author of a faith-based program, Healthy Kid's Seminar, which is used to promote adoption of healthy lifestyle choices by children.


Cathy Schoen, M.S.

Cathy Schoen joined The Commonwealth Fund in September 1995 as director of research and evaluation. Prior to joining the Fund, she was director of special projects at the University of Massachusetts Labor Relations and Research Center. She also serves as program director of the Fund's Health Care Coverage and Quality Program, a policy and research grant program established to help inform national and state health insurance and delivery system policy decisions. During the 1980s, Ms. Schoen directed the Service Employees International Union's Research and Policy Department in Washington, D.C. She went to SEIU after serving as a member of President Carter's national health insurance task force where she was responsible for national reform issues and research and policy related to Medicaid and ambulatory care payment policies. Ms. Schoen also served as a senior health advisor during the 1988 presidential campaign. Prior to federal government service, she was a research associate at the Brookings Institution. Her research interests include health care coverage and quality issues, Medicaid and children's programs, and worker's issues. Ms. Schoen formerly served on the IOM Committee on Immunization Finance Policies and Practices.


Shoshanna Sofaer, Dr.P.H.

Shoshanna Sofaer is the Robert P. Luciano Professor of Health Care Policy at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, in New York City. She completed her master's and doctoral degrees in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, taught for six years at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health and served on the faculty of George Washington University Medical Center, where she was Professor, Associate Dean for Research of the School of Public Health and Health Services and Director of the Center for Health Outcomes Improvement Research. Dr. Sofaer's research interests include providing information to individual consumers on the performance of the health care system; assessing the impact on information on both consumers and the system; developing consumer-relevant performance measures; and improving the responsiveness of the Medicare program to the needs of current and future cohorts of older persons and persons with disabilities. In addition, Dr. Sofaer studies the role of community coalitions in pursuing public health and health care system reform objectives, and has extensive experience in the evaluation of community health improvement interventions. She has studied the determinants of health insurance status among the near-elderly, including early retirees. Dr. Sofaer served as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Coverage for Low Income and Non-Working Families for the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform in 1993. Currently, she is Co-Chair of the Task Force on Medicare of The Century Foundation in New York City, a member of the Board on Health Care Services of the Institute of Medicine, and a member of the Health Systems Study Section of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.


Peter Szilagyi, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Szilagyi is Director of Pediatric Ambulatory Services at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. He is also Associate Division Chief of General Pediatrics, and Director of the Child Health Outcomes Research Division. Dr. Szilagyi is also on faculty at the University of Rochester as Associate Professor of Pediatrics, General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. He is an active member of the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association, and is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research. Dr. Szilagyi is a health services researcher with interests in optimizing the health care and functional outcomes of vulnerable children. He has led a number of studies on health care financing for children, focusing on managed care and on uninsured children. Dr. Szilagyi's research team studies on health insurance for uninsured or underinsured children have contributed to state and national health insurance reform, which culminated in the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Barbara Wolfe, Ph.D.

Barbara Wolfe is Professor of Economics, Public Affairs, and Preventive Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She teaches health and public economics. She has been a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, a Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Board for International Health of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, and a scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. Dr. Wolfe's research interests include determinants of children's attainments, effects of investments in children, health insurance and the labor market, and methodological issues. She received her BA degree in economics from Cornell University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wolfe previously served on the IOM Committee on Immunization Finance Policies and Practices.