Study Group Members


Christine K. Cassel, M.D.


Christine K. Cassel, M.D. Christine K. Cassel, MD, Geriatrician and President, American Board of Internal Medicine, was previously Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.

She is a leading expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics and quality of care.

Among her many professional leadership positions, Dr. Cassel is past-Chair of the ABIM Board of Directors and ABIM Foundation, served as Chair of the Board of the Greenwall Foundation, which supports work in bioethics; is immediate past-President of the American Federation for Aging Research; and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director at the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Governing Council and has served on previous IOM committees responsible for influential reports on quality of care and medical errors, chaired a recent report on end-of-life care, and co-chaired a report on public health. In 1997-98, Dr. Cassel served on the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.

Dr. Cassel was formerly Chair of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development and Professor of Geriatrics and Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. During 10 years at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Cassel was Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine, Professor of Geriatrics and Medicine, Founding Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and Founding Director of the Center for Health Policy Research.

She has edited and authored a number of books, including Medicare Matters: What Geriatric Medicine Can Teach American Health Care (2005), Ethical Patient Care (2000), Geriatric Medicine (Fourth Edition), A Practical Guide to Aging (1997), Approaching Death (1997), Encyclopedia of Bioethics (1995), Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions (1993), and Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear War: A Sourcebook for Health Professionals (1984).

Dr. Cassel received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine.

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Meryl Comer


Meryl Comer Meryl Comer is an Emmy-award winning reporter, producer, and talk show host with over 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism. She was among the first women broadcasters in the early 80s to specialize in business news as it relates to public policy.

For eighteen years Comer moderated the nationally syndicated debate program "It's Your Business". She also co-anchored Nation's Business Today for six years on ESPN, the Ten O'clock News for Metromedia, Two's Company for WMAR/CBS Affiliate and the Good Day Show on WCVB-TV in Boston.

Concurrent with her broadcast responsibilities, Ms. Comer served as senior vice president for the National Chamber Foundation (1997- 1999) and for 11 years prior (1987-1997) as vice president for Communications Development at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to joining the broadcast division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce full-time in 1983, Comer was VP of Broadcast for the Washington public relations firm Gray and Company, now Hill & Knowlton. In 1981, she worked Network Press Liaison for the Reagan-Bush Inaugural Committee.

Winner of the 2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award and 2007 Proxmire Award, Ms Comer is currently writing a book Slow Dancing with a Stranger to benefit Alzheimer's research. In November 2007, she was named President of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative.

BOARD AFFILIATIONS:
National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (Emeritus), Carnival Resorts International, Inc., Franklin Pierce College, National Alzheimer's Association, Johns Hopkins Neuropsychiatry, The Copper Ridge Institute (EMA), and the Greater Washington Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Her past board affiliations include The Presidential Scholars Foundation, Eureka Foundation (90-95) The Fulbright 50th Anniversary Committee (USIA ‘95/96), The President's Advisory Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (‘84-86) and White House Fellows Program (‘75).

Ms. Comer's alma mater is the University of Pennsylvania.

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Newt Gingrich


Newt Gingrich Since retiring from Congress, Newt Gingrich has worked extensively on the issues of health and healthcare, devoting the majority of his time to advocating a transformation of the entire system. In 2003, he founded The Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration of public and private sector leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money.

Newt Gingrich is widely recognized as a transformational leader, unparalleled in his ability to create and lead successful large-scale change. As the architect of the Contract with America, he led the Republican Party to victory in 1994, capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in forty years. Under his leadership, Congress passed transformational legislation including welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, funding to strengthen our defense capabilities, and the first tax cuts in sixteen years.

During his twenty years in Congress, Speaker Gingrich was committed to improving America's healthcare system, co-chairing the Republican Task Force on Health for four years prior to becoming Speaker. Under his leadership as Speaker, Medicare was improved, investment in medical research was dramatically increased, and FDA reform was enacted to allow for quicker approval and access to new medicines for those with terminal and degenerative illnesses.

The Washington Times called him "the indispensable leader" and Time magazine, in naming him Man of the Year for 1995, said, "Leaders make things possible. Exceptional leaders make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional."

Mr. Gingrich is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and sits on the Board of Regents at the National Library of Medicine. In addition, he co-chairs both the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care and the recently formed, bipartisan Alzheimer's Study Group. He has received numerous health and healthcare honors and awards.

Speaker Gingrich has authored numerous health publications, columns and books, including Saving Lives and Saving Money, which describes the vision and principles of the Center for Health Transformation. His latest best-seller, Winning the Future, includes key chapters on health and healthcare, based on his work at the Center. Most recently, Speaker Gingrich and CHT CEO and President Nancy Desmond published a new book, The Art of Transformation.

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Steven E. Hyman, MD


Steven E. Hyman, MD Steven E. Hyman, MD assumed the role of Provost of Harvard University in December, 2001 and also serves as Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.

A leading scholar at the intersection of molecular neuroscience, molecular biology, and psychiatry, Dr. Hyman returned to Harvard after serving as the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 1996 to 2001. As a component of the National Institutes of Health, NIMH is charged with generating the knowledge needed to understand, treat, and prevent mental illness. Hyman's tenure there was marked by intensified efforts to bring molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience, and behavioral science all to bear, in integrated ways, on the understanding of mental illness and mental health.

Dr. Hyman graduated from Yale College summa cum laude in philosophy and the humanities, in 1974. As a Mellon fellow in philosophy of science, he received B.A. (first class honors) and M.A. degrees from the University of Cambridge in 1976. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School (cum laude) in 1980. Following an internship in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in neurology at MGH, he was postdoctoral fellow at Harvard in molecular biology. At McLean Hospital and MGH, graduating residents selected him as Best Teacher four times.

Dr. Hyman was Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Psychiatry Research at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1992 until he left for NIMH in 1996. His laboratory focused on mechanisms by which the neurotransmitter dopamine produced long-term changes in brain function by the regulating the expression of genes. This research was relevant both to understanding addiction, and to understanding how therapeutic psychotropic drugs produced their beneficial effects.

He also taught neurobiology at Harvard Medical School both to medical and graduate students and was the first faculty Director of Harvard University's Interfaculty Initiative in Mind, Brain, and Behavior from 1994 to 1996.

He has authored more than 100 research articles and reviews and has coauthored several widely used basic and clinical textbooks, the most recent being Molecular Neuropharmacology: Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience (2001).

Among his honors, Dr. Hyman is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He also has received awards for public service from the U. S. Government and from patient advocacy groups such as the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the National Mental Health Association. Across the country and over the world, he has lectured on topics ranging from genes, brain, and behavior to the stigma of mental illness.

Dr. Hyman is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American College of Psychiatrists. He has served on scientific advisory boards nationally and internationally including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Riken Brain Sciences Institute in Japan, and the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Germany.

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Bob Kerrey


Bob Kerrey For twelve years prior to becoming President of The New School, Bob Kerrey represented the State of Nebraska in the United States Senate. Before that he served as Nebraska's Governor for four years.

Educated in pharmacy at the University of Nebraska, Bob Kerrey served three years in the United States Navy. After his military service, he started a chain of restaurants and health clubs in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.

Bob Kerrey entered the race for Governor of Nebraska with no prior political experience and was elected as a Democrat in a heavily Republican State. After serving a single four-year term, he returned to business.

Upon the death of Nebraska's senior United States Senator, Kerrey became a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He was elected in 1988 and re-elected in 1994. He chose not to run for re-election a third time because of the offer to be President of The New School and his desire to return to private life.

Bob Kerrey is the author of When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir, published by Harcourt Books (May 2002). He served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, currently leads a five year writing challenge sponsored by The National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, is co-chair with Newt Gingrich of The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care, and is a member of the advisory board of the United States Government Accountability Office and the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.

In May 2005 Bob Kerrey received the Robert L. Haig Award for Distinguished Public Service from the New York State Bar Association, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from New York Law School.

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Henry F. McCance


Henry F. McCance Henry F. McCance is Chairman of the Board of Greylock Management Corporation and General Partner in several Greylock private, limited partnerships for venture capital investments.

Mr. McCance serves on the board of Cabot Corporation, is a member of the Yale Investment Committee, and is on the board of advisors of the Yale School of Management. Mr. McCance served as the inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence, Harvard Business School, and served on numerous public and private corporate boards of directors. In 2004, he received the National Venture Capital Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2003, along with Greylock's founding partners, the Harvard Business School Award for Alumni Achievement. In 2000, he was voted one of the country's 10 best VCs by Forbes.

In 2005, Mr. McCance co-founded Cure Alzheimer's Fund, a new non-profit, which uses a venture capital approach to fund research with the highest probability of curing Alzheimer's disease. He serves on the board of directors and the executive committee of Cure Alzheimer's Fund.

Mr. McCance graduated from Harvard Business School with High Distinction, Baker Scholar, and from Yale University with a B.A. in economics, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa.

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Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D


Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D In July 2007, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, Senior Fellow, became the Director of the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institution. The Center will study ways to provide practical solutions for access, quality and financing challenges facing the U. S. health care system. In addition, Dr. McClellan is also the Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies. Dr. McClellan has a highly distinguished record in public service and in academic research. He is the former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2004-2006) and the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (2002-2004). He also served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and senior director for health carepolicy at the White House (2001–2002). In these positions, he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. These include: 

  • The Medicare prescription drug benefit and other innovative coverage options, including the move from indemnity insurance to personalized, prevention-oriented care;
  • Innovative approaches to coverage in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, including roadmaps that states have used to update and expand coverage and the "Money Follows the Person" initiatives in long-term care;
  • The development of the FDA's Critical Path initiative, regulatory reforms to modernize pharmaceutical manufacturing, efficient risk-management methods to better address safety issues, and reforms to speed the approval of low-cost generic medicines and improve the availability of safe and effective treatments;
  • Public-private initiatives to develop better information on the quality and cost of care, and steps to help consumers and providers use this information to improve care, including performance-based provider payment reforms, and Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements.

 In the Clinton administration, Dr. McClellan was deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy from 1998–1999, supervising economic analysis and policy development on a range of domestic policy issues. Dr. McClellan was also an associate professor of economics and associate professor of medicine (with tenure) at Stanford University, from which he was on leave during his government service. He directed Stanford's Program on Health Outcomes Research and was also associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics, and co-principal investigator of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal study of the health and economic status of older Americans. His academic research has been concerned with the effectiveness of medical treatments in improving health, the economic and policy factors influencing medical treatment decisions and health outcomes, the impact of new technologies on public health and medical expenditures, and the relationship between health status and economic well being. He has twice received the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics. Dr. McClellan is a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. McClellan earned his M.P.A. from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1991, his M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in 1992, and his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1993. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Dr. McClellan has been board-certified in Internal Medicine and has been a practicing internistduring his academic career.

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Sandra Day O'Connor (Retired)


Sandra Day O'Connor (Retired) Associate Justice, was born in El Paso, Texas, March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O'Connor III in 1952 and has three sons - Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her B.A. and LL.B. from Stanford University. She served as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California from 1952–1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany from 1954–1957. From 1958–1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965–1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in1969 and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1975 she was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat September 25, 1981. Justice O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.

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James A. Runde


James A. Runde James A. Runde is a Wall Street veteran specializing in strategic and financial advice. He is a Special Advisor and a former Vice-Chairman of Morgan Stanley. Throughout his 34-year career with the firm, he has worked on mergers, privatizations, and restructurings, with a focus on the transportation and infrastructure industries. From 1991 to 1999, he also served as Chair of the Morgan Stanley Foundation.

Since 2006, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Kroger Co., one of the nation's largest grocery retail chains. He also served on the Board of Directors of Burlington Resources, a large natural gas company.

He currently serves as a trustee of The Morgan Library & Museum.

One of ten children, Runde grew up in Sparta, Wisconsin. He attended Marquette University as NROTC scholar, and following his graduation, served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for five years on the nuclear power staff of Admiral Rickover.

He graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1969. Since 2000, he has served on the Board of Trustees of Marquette.

He also earned a master's degree from the George Washington University School of Business.

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David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.


David Satcher, M.D. Dr. David Satcher was the 16th Surgeon General of the United States. He was sworn in on February 13, 1998, and served a 4-year term.

Dr. Satcher served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 through January 2001. He also held the posts of Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993 to 1998. Upon his departure from the post of Surgeon General, Dr. Satcher became a fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In the fall of 2002, he assumed the post of director of the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine. Before joining the Administration, he was President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993.

Dr. Satcher served as professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine from 1979 to 1982. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Interim Dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, during which time, he negotiated the agreement with UCLA School of Medicine and the Board of Regents that led to a medical education program at King-Drew. He also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center for six years.

Dr. Satcher is a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and Macy Faculty Fellow. He is the recipient of many honorary degrees and numerous distinguished honors, including top awards from the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and Ebony magazine. In 1995, he received the Breslow Award in Public Health and in 1997 the New York Academy of Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award. Earlier this year, he received the Bennie Mays Trailblazer Award and the Jimmy and Roslyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He did residency/fellowship training at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, UCLA, and King-Drew. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Physicians. Dr. Satcher wanted to be known as the Surgeon General who listened to the American people and who responded with effective programs. His mission was to make public health work for all groups in this Nation. He not only is a champion of promoting healthy lifestyles, he is also an avid jogger and enjoys tennis, gardening, and reading.

Born in Anniston, Alabama, on March 2, 1941, Dr. Satcher and his wife, Nola, have four grown children.

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Harold Varmus, M.D.


Harold Varmus, M.D. Harold Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City since January 2000.

Dr. Varmus received the Nobel Prize (jointly with Michael Bishop, his former colleague at the University of California, San Francisco) for the discovery of cellular genes that are progenitors of retroviral oncogenes. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and has received the National Medal of Science, the Vannevar Bush Award, and several honorary degrees. In addition to authoring over 300 scientific papers and four books, including an introduction to the genetic basis of cancer for a general audience, Dr Varmus has been an advisor to the Federal government, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and many academic institutions. He served on the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health from 2000 to 2002; is a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Library of Science; chairs the Scientific Board of the Grand Challenges in Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and is involved in initiatives to promote science in developing countries. His current research at the Sloan-Kettering Institute mainly addresses molecular mechanisms of oncogenesis, using mouse models of human cancer.

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