KAISER FOUNDATION HEALTH PLAN - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Kaiser Permanente

Andrew Bindman, MD, is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Kaiser Permanente. He is responsible for driving superior quality and equitable health outcomes through the integration of quality innovation, care delivery, and research in collaboration with the Permanente Medical Groups. He is also Kaiser Permanente's executive sponsor for the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Dr. Bindman previously spent more than 30 years at the University of California, San Francisco where he practiced and taught clinical medicine while conducting research in health access and outcomes that resulted in more than 180 published scientific articles. A noted policy expert, he has held advisory and leadership roles for the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Healthy California for All Commission, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Bindman is a graduate of Harvard College and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. A board-certified general internist, he completed his residency in internal medicine at UCSF and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Stanford University. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, where he currently serves on the board for health care services and chairs the workshops on diagnostic excellence. In 2021, he was elected to the Association of American Physicians in recognition for his notable contributions to advancing scientific and practical medicine.

Job Titles:

• CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness

Ann Oliva is CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education, advocacy, and capacity building organization dedicated to ending homelessness in the United States. A career veteran of homelessness and housing policy, she is recognized as one of the foremost experts on homelessness in the nation. In her role, Ms. Oliva works closely with members of Congress and the Administration, as well as with officials and advocates at the state and local levels. As part of that role, she also collaborates closely with Alliance partners to educate the public on the real nature of homelessness and its solutions, and to advance known best practices within the homeless services sector. Ms. Oliva previously served as Vice President for Housing Policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Her distinguished career is also marked by a decade of federal service at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). During her 10-year tenure at HUD, Ms. Oliva successfully designed and implemented a variety of initiatives and programs, including homelessness prevention, supportive housing, and rapid re-housing programs, as well as a demonstration to end youth homelessness. In 2015, Ms. Oliva was named one of the 50 Most Influential Leaders in the department's first 50 years, and was honored with the True Colors Fund's True Leader Award. She was a finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammie) in management excellence in 2011, and was part of an inter-agency team that won a Sammie for the team's work on reducing Veteran homelessness in 2012.

Job Titles:

• Senior Vice President, Government Relations, Kaiser Permanente

Job Titles:

• Executive Director
• Kaiser Permanente in 2013 As the Director of Safety

Cecilia Oregón (formerly Cecilia Oregón Echeverría) is the executive director for Kaiser Permanente's Institute for Health Policy. In her role, Cecilia leads strategy and operations for the Institute. Her specific areas of expertise include access to health care for underserved populations as well as behavioral health, school-based health, and early childhood issues. Cecilia joined Kaiser Permanente in 2013 as the director of safety net partnerships for the National Community Benefit program. In her role, Cecilia fostered the development and spread of national and regional safety net partnerships and helped accelerate the organization's safety net grant strategy and initiatives. She transitioned to her current role in 2016. Prior to Kaiser Permanente, Cecilia served in program officer roles for several foundations including the Blue Shield of California Foundation and The California Endowment where she managed grant portfolios focused on strengthening California's healthcare safety net and improving access to health care. She has also served policy analyst at the California Healthcare Foundation, an analyst of social legislation for the Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C., and a special projects associate for the Alameda County Public Health Department. Cecilia has a bachelor's degree in social welfare, a master's in public policy, and a master's in public health from University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves as the vice chair of the Alameda County First 5 Commission and sits on the boards of directors for the national School-based Health Alliance, Insure the Uninsured Project and Northern California Grantmakers.

Ms. Russell-Tucker has served on various state and national committees, including the Connecticut General Assembly's Committee on Children Strategic Action Group on Chronic Absence, as President of the Connecticut Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an expert panel member on committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Ms. Russell-Tucker previously served as an adjunct faculty member at Albertus Magnus College School of New Dimensions.

Job Titles:

• Acting Chief Medical Officer and Acting Director, Center for Clinical Standards and Quality for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Dora Hughes, MD, MPH, was named the Acting Chief Medical Officer and Acting Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in July 2023. CCSQ is primarily responsible for executing all national clinical, quality, and safety standards for healthcare facilities and providers, as well as establishing coverage determinations for items and services that improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries. Previously, Dr. Hughes served as Chief Medical Officer at the CMS Innovation Center. She led the Center's work on health equity, advised on care delivery, payment and data collection strategies for the Center's models and initiatives, and represented CMS on clinical and cross-agency working groups within HHS. Earlier in her career, Dr. Hughes served as the Counselor for Science & Public Health to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the US Department of Health & Human Services. In this role, she helped with passage and early implementation of the Affordable Care Act and provided oversight and guidance on priority issues regarding public health and prevention; workforce and the safety net; food, drug and device regulatory matters; and biomedical research innovation. In addition to federal service, Dr. Hughes was an Associate Research Professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, where her work focused on the intersection of clinical and community health, health equity, healthcare delivery and teaching. She remains on faculty at GWU's School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Hughes also has served as Senior Policy Advisor at Sidley Austin, where she advised on regulatory and legislative matters in the life science industry. Dr. Hughes began her career in health policy as Senior Program Officer at the Commonwealth Fund, and subsequently as Deputy Director for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee under Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She then served as the Health Policy Advisor to former Senator Barack Obama. Dr. Hughes received a BS from Washington University, MD from Vanderbilt and MPH from Harvard. She completed internal medicine residency at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Superintendent of School Support Services, Long Beach Unified School District

Erin M. Simon leads major reform efforts in school districts. In her current role as the assistant superintendent of school support services for the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Dr. Simon oversees more than 300 staff members and manages a $65,000,000 million budget. Dr. Simon leads the direction of the special education and student support divisions, and the Family Resource Centers, which provide social, emotional and behavioral health-related support to students within a cluster of schools in LBUSD. She also provides guidance to the District's 85 schools, with over 69,000 students, on specialized services that covers compliance and policy to name a few. Dr. Simon has been recognized and praised for increasing student achievement and school attendance, closing the opportunity gaps between identifiable and pronounced groups of students, and advocating for equitable robust educational programs, social-emotional interventions and resources to ensure students can reach their potential. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to policy and practice.

Job Titles:

• Professor of Psychiatry and Healthcare

Professor of Psychiatry and Healthcare Management and Policy and co-director of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute Harold Alan Pincus, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Healthcare Management and Policy and co-director of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Pincus also serves as a senior scientist at the RAND Corporation. Previously, he was director of the RAND-University of Pittsburgh Health Institute and executive vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the national director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship (supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, West Health Policy Institute and Atlantic Philanthropies) and previously directed national programs for the Robert Wood Johnson and MacArthur Foundations. Earlier, Dr. Pincus was deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and founding director of APA's Office of Research, was the special assistant to the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and served on White House and congressional staffs as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. Dr. Pincus has been appointed to the editorial boards of 12 scientific journals and published more than 500 scientific publications in health services research, science policy, research career development, quality of care and the diagnosis, classification and treatment of mental disorders. He has led research and research training programs totaling over $250 Million in external funding. Among multiple other national/international committee appointments, he is co-chair of the National Quality Forum Standing Committee on Behavioral Health and the World Health Organization's ICD-11 Committee on Quality and Patient Safety and was vice chair of the Task Force on DSM-IV. Dr. Pincus was named 2019 Mentor of the Year at the Columbia University Medical Center and the 2017 recipient of the C. Charles Burlingame Award by the Institute of Living for contributions to the field of psychiatry and has received the William C. Menninger Memorial Award of the American College of Physicians for distinguished contributions to the science of mental health, the Research Mentorship Award from the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry and APA for contributions to the career development of young investigators, Vestermark Award from the National Institute of Mental Health and APA for contributions to psychiatric education, Health Services Research Senior Scholar Award of the APA and Columbia University's Emily Mumford Medal among other honors. For 22 years he worked one evening a week at a public mental health clinic caring for patients with severe mental illnesses.

Job Titles:

• Chief, Healthy School

Job Titles:

• Chief of Behavioral Health, the Southeast Permanente Medical Group

Karen R. Stewart, MD is the Chief of Behavioral Health for The Southeast Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Stewart is responsible for development and implementation of the mental health and wellness care delivery system for Georgia's 320,000 members. Her passion for this work is driven by her dedication to creating equitable and excellent mental health care that centers health equity and excellent outcomes for patients. Dr Stewart is aware that excellent clinical outcomes are best achieved by developing a workforce that is able to do top scope work aligned with the organization's vision and the clinician's passion for serving in the field of healthcare. Dr. Stewart has been a champion for integrating mental health into the primary care setting through her role as the National Clinical Lead for Collaborative Care for Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Dr Stewart has been able to champion the development and implementation of Collaborative Care programs in 7 of Kaiser's 8 markets. This is an extension of her work with the Mental Health and Addiction Leaders of Operation (MHALO) for the national Kaiser Permanente team. MHALO centers critical work  such as creating a zero suicide and overdose culture, focusing on measurement-based care, and providing delivery innovations like digital therapeutics. Each market has developed programming in these critical areas with Dr. Stewart serving as a subject matter expert for TSPMG's care delivery leadership team. Dr. Stewart is a board-certified adult and child adolescent psychiatrist who received her BS in chemistry from Spelman College and her medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine. She went on to complete her adult psychiatry residency and child and adolescent fellowship at Emory University. Dr. Stewart has served on the boards of trustees for Morehouse School of Medicine and the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association.

Job Titles:

• Vice President of Partnerships, Inseparable

Keris Jän Myrick, MBA, MS is the Vice President of Partnerships at Inseparable. She previously served as the Co-Director of The Mental Health Strategic Impact Initiative, which aims to advance the transformation of mental health by catalyzing cross-sectional reforms, strengthening collaborations, and bridging gaps. She currently serves on the Board of and is policy liaison for the National Association of Peer Specialists and the Board of Directors for Mental Health America. Ms. Myrick previously held positions as the Chief, Peer and Allied Health Professions for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs for the Center for Mental Health Services of the United States Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, President and CEO of Project Return Peer Support Network, a Los Angeles-based, peer-run nonprofit and the Board President of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Ms. Myrick is a leading mental health advocate and executive, known for her innovative and inclusive approach to mental health reform and the public disclosure of her personal story. Ms. Myrick has over 15 years of experience in mental health services innovations, transformation, and peer workforce development. In June 2021, Ms. Myrick was the recipient of Mental Health America's highest honor the Clifford W. Beers Award. Ms. Myrick's personal story was featured in the New York Times series: Lives Restored, which told the personal narratives of several professionals living with mental health issues. Ms. Myrick is an in-demand national trainer and keynote speaker, and authored several peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She is known for her collaborative style and innovative "whole person" approach to mental health care and is a podcast host of "Unapologetically Black Unicorns" which centers on lived experience, race equity and mental health change agents. Ms. Myrick a Certified Personal Medicine Coach and Certified Therapeutic Game Master; has a Master of Science degree in industrial organizational psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University. Her Master of Business Administration degree is from Case Western University's Weatherhead School of Management.

Job Titles:

• Senior Health Policy Consultant

Krysten Joyce is a senior health policy consultant in the Institute for Health Policy at Kaiser Permanente. In her role, Krysten provides content and strategy expertise to organization's drug pricing and coverage initiatives. She also conducts research, tracks policy developments, and facilitates conversations among internal and external experts in the field. She is currently particularly focused on fair drug pricing policy and vaccine development. Other topics she tracks include universal coverage policy, affordability, and delivery system reform. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Krysten served as Strategy and Policy Manager at the Colorado State Innovation Model, a federally funded initiative under the Governor's office, where she identified policy strategies to improve access to integrated physical and behavioral health and led state efforts to explore development of new alternative payment models. Before that, she served as the health care staffer for U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-CO), advising on issues including the Affordable Care Act, women's reproductive health, and rural health services. Krysten holds a bachelor's degree and a master of public health degree in health policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley.

Job Titles:

• Chief Executive Officer and President of the Oakland
• Chief Executive Officer and President, Public Health Institute ( PHI )

Mary A. Pittman, is chief executive officer and president of the Oakland-based Public Health Institute (PHI), one of the country's largest and oldest independent non-profit public health organizations. At PHI and throughout her career, she has been a nationally recognized leader in improving community health, safety net and Medicaid provision of care for vulnerable populations, addressing health inequities, building the public health workforce, and promoting prevention.

Job Titles:

• Chief Clinical Officer at Cherokee Health Systems
• Chief Executive Officer, Cherokee Health Systems

Parinda Khatri is chief clinical officer at Cherokee Health Systems (CHS), a comprehensive community health care organization in Tennessee that is a Federally Qualified Health Center and Community Mental Health Center. In her role at CHS, Khatri provides oversight and guidance on clinical quality, program development and management, workforce development, clinical research, and clinical operations for blended primary care and behavioral health services within the organization. She is also the principal investigator of several research and education programs at CHS, including the NIH-funded All of Us Research Program and Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities. Khatri is also involved in integrated health care policy and practice issues at the national level. She is past president and board member of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, and was appointed to the HRSA Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary and Community-Based Linkages from 2017 to 2021 by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services. She is the clinical director for the Advancing Behavioral Health Equity initiative through the Center for Care Innovations, a consultant to Center for Healthcare Strategies, and on the advisory boards for the National Integration Academy for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Center for Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care at the University of Pennsylvania, the Center for Integrated Primary Care at the University of Massachusetts, as well as the clinical advisory committees for Amerigroup and BlueCare of Tennessee.

Job Titles:

• Senior Health Policy Leader

Rebecca Flournoy, senior health policy leader at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, brings more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit, government, and philanthropic sectors. At Kaiser Permanente, she tracks health policy developments, facilitates discussions with leaders across the organization, leads policy research, and shares information, perspectives, and recommendations on telehealth and digital equity, integrated care, housing and health, economic security, health equity, and other topics. In previous roles at PolicyLink, the Alameda County Public Health Department, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and as a consultant, she has led research and advocacy efforts promoting health equity at local, state, and federal levels. One campaign, to support community leaders in developing grocery stores and markets in underserved low-income communities, resulted in more than $220 million in grants and more than $1 billion in private sector investments. She has led advocacy trainings for community-based coalitions, published in peer-reviewed journals, and facilitated and presented at many meetings and conferences. Her philanthropic experience includes working with grant-making committees, developing grant guidelines, vetting grantees, and evaluating philanthropic initiatives. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Job Titles:

• Senior Health Policy Consultant

Renee is a senior health policy consultant in the Institute for Health Policy at Kaiser Permanente. In her role, Renee leads the organization's mental health initiative and provides content and strategy expertise on a variety of health care topics, including food security, mental health services in schools, child trauma and resiliency, and trends in Medicaid. She also manages research projects, tracks policy developments, and facilitates conversations among internal and external experts in the field. In 2023, Renee is closely following the Medicaid redetermination process and emerging mental health workforce issues. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Renee served as public policy manager at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a nonprofit organization focused on ensuring that the environments that surround children promote good health. In this role, she led the organization's policy strategy and supported legislative campaigns across the country aimed at reducing childhood obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. Before that, she worked at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, conducting research on food and beverage marketing to children and sugary drink taxes. Renee holds a bachelor's degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.