Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured Members List

Commission Members

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured is the Foundation's largest operating program and serves as the organizing vehicle for the Foundation's work on health care for low-income people. The Commission functions as a policy institute and forum for analyzing health care coverage and access for the low-income population and assessing options for reform. The Commission, begun in 1991, strives to bring increased public awareness and expanded analytic effort to the policy debate over health coverage and access, with a special focus on Medicaid and the uninsured. The Commission is based at the Foundation's Washington, DC office.

Chairman:

James R. Tallon, Jr., New York, New York
President, United Hospital Fund of New York; Secretary/Treasurer of the Alliance for Health Reform; member of: the boards of The Commonwealth Fund, the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence; member of the New York State Board of Regents. Former: State Assemblyman, New York State Legislature (1975-1993) and Majority Leader (1987-1993)

Members:

Ron J. Anderson, M.D., Dallas, Texas
President and Chief Executive Officer, Parkland Health & Hospital System; Former: Member, Governor Richards’ Health Policy Task Force; Chairman, National Association of Public Hospitals; Texas Association of Public and Nonprofit Hospitals, Texas Hospital Association; Chair, National Public Health and Hospital Institute, Texas Institute for Health Policy Research; Member, Institute of Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas

Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., Bayou la Batre, Alabama
Physician, Bayou la Batre Rural Health Clinic; member of: Alabama Medical Association, Board of Trustees; Physicians for Human Rights, Board of Trustees; Mandela Award Winner, 1998; CBS This Morning, Woman of the Year, 1996

Sheila P. Burke, R.N., M.P.A., Chair, Washington, D.C.
Faculty Research Fellow, Malcolm Weiner Center for Social Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Research Professor Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute.

Karen Davis, Ph.D., New York, New York
President, The Commonwealth Fund; Former: Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (1980-1995); Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation/Health, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (1977-1980)

Susan Dentzer, Washington, DC
On-air correspondent, The NewsHour; member of the boards of: Board of Overseers, Dartmouth Medical School, the International Rescue Committee, the Global Health Council, the California Health Benefits Review Committee; the Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research, the Japan Society of New York and the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research. Former: chief economics correspondent and economics columnist, U.S. News & World Report (1987-1997); senior writer, Newsweek; Board of Trustees, Dartmouth College (1993-2004)

The Honorable David Durenberger, St. Paul, Minnesota
Senior Health Policy Fellow, Graduate School of Business, University of St. Thomas; Chair, National Institute of Health Policy; Chair, Technology Leadership Forum; Commissioner, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC); Board Member, National Committee on Quality Assurance; Former: U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1978-1995); Chair, Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, member of: Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Environment Committee.

Jennifer L. Howse, Ph.D., White Plains, New York
President, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; Former: Pennsylvania State Commissioner for Mental Retardation; Executive Director of Federal Court Appointed Willowbrook Review Panel

Sylvia Drew Ivie, J.D., Los Angeles, California
Founder and Director of The South Los Angeles Community Kitchen; Former: Consultant, The California Endowment, Disparities in Health in South LA; Faculty, LA Trade Tech, Community Health Leadership Training Program; Program Director, Steering Committee on the Future of the King/Drew Medical Center, California Endowment; Member, Hospital Advisory Board for King/Drew Medical Center. Former: Executive Director, T.H.E. Clinic, Inc.(16 years); Executive Director, National Health Law Program (10 years); Director, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1 year); Nelson Mandela Award Winner for Health and Human Rights (1994)

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., Princeton, New Jersey
President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Senior Vice President and Director, Health Care Group, RWJ (2001-2003); Former: Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine, Director of Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania; Associate Chief of Staff for geriatrics and extended care, Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center; member of White House Task Force on Health Care Reform

James J. Mongan, M.D., Boston, Massachusetts
President and CEO Partners HealthCare System, Inc.; Professor of Health Care Policy and Professor of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Former: Member, Kaiser Family Foundation, Board of Trustees; President, Massachusetts General Hospital (1996-2002); Executive Director of the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and Dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine (1981-1996); White House staff (1979-1981); Former Deputy Asst. Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1977-1979); Staff, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance (1970-1977)

Thomas Perez, J.D., M.P.P., Baltimore, Maryland
Secretary, Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation; Former: Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Law Programs, University of Maryland Law School; Council Member, Montgomery County, MD; Director of the Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (1999-2000); Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice (1988-1999)

Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D., Princeton, New Jersey
James Madison Professor of Political Economy, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University; Former: President, Association of Health Services Research

Trish Riley, Portland, Maine
Director, Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance, Augusta, Maine; Former: President, Center for Health Policy Development; Executive Director, National Academy for State Health Policy; Executive Director, Maine Committee on Aging; Chair of National Task Force on Medicaid Managed Care

Alan Weil, Washington, D.C
Executive Director of the National Academy for State Health Policy and president of the Center for Health Policy Development (CHPD); Former: Director of the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalism; Executive Director, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing; Health policy advisor to Colorado Governor Roy Romer; assistant general counsel, Massachusetts Department of Medical Security

Emeritus:

The Honorable Henry Bellmon, Billings, Oklahoma
Statesman in Residence, Oklahoma State University; Former: Governor of Oklahoma (1963-1967 and 1987-1991); U.S. Senator from Oklahoma (1968-1980)

The Honorable Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., LL.B. Washington, D.C.
President and Chairman of the Board, First American Bankshares, Inc.; Former: U.S. Senator from Maryland (1968-1986); U.S. Representative from Maryland (1960-1968)

The late Edward N. Brandt, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Commission Member: 1991-2007): Regents Professor Emeritus, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Professor and Director, Center for Health Policy, University of Oklahoma; Former: Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1981-1984)

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