Roundtable Chair

George Isham, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Isham is Medical Director and Chief Health Officer for HealthPartners. He is responsible for quality, utilization management, health promotion and disease prevention, research, and health professionals’ education at HealthPartners.   

Before his current position, Dr. Isham was Medical Director of MedCenters Health Plan in Minneapolis. In the late 1980s, he was Executive Director of University Health Care, an organization affiliated with the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dr. Isham received his Master of Science in Preventive Medicine/Administrative Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois and served his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison.

His practice experience as a primary care physician included 8 years at the Freeport Clinic in Freeport, Illinois, and 3 ½ years as Clinical Assistant Professor in Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

HealthPartners: Is a consumer-governed Minnesota health plan. Formed through the 1992 affiliation of Group Health, Inc., and MedCenters Health Plan. HealthPartners is a large managed health care organization in Minnesota, representing nearly 800,000 members. Group Health, founded in 1957, is a network of staff medical and dental centers located throughout the Twin cities. MedCenters, founded in 1972, is a network of contracted physicians serving members through affiliated medical and dental centers.
 

Roundtable Members

Barbara Allen, M.P.A.
Ms. Allen is with the Division of Beneficiary Analysis at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Previously, Ms. Allen has a long history of working on quality improvement issues.  She served as Project Manager of MPRO, Michigan’s Quality Improvement Organization.  Ms. Allen has additional experience serving as Northern Michigan Hospital and Charlevoix Area Hospital’s spokesperson and in the provision of home healthcare.  

Sharon Barrett, M.S.
Ms. Barrett is currently working with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) in the area of health literacy and is the Principal Investigator on a study funded by Kaiser Permanente and the Commonwealth Fund, entitled Assessing Health Literacy Practices in Primary Care Settings. The study is designed to identify and describe promising patient-centered care practices employed by primary care clinicians to assess the health literacy of their patients. The study will explore strategies, practices and skill sets that may be utilized by clinicians to improve their effectiveness in serving patients with low health literacy levels and assisting them in managing chronic illness.  In addition, the study will assess other factors related to health literacy and health communication that may influence and/or deter patient compliance with treatment recommendations and potentially impact health. 

Throughout her federal career, Ms. Barrett has held leadership positions, continually providing expertise in the areas of program and policy development, partnership development, providing technical assistance and training in women’s health, minority health, cultural competency, hemophilia care, and primary care. Within these areas she coordinated the development of gender-specific, culturally competent initiatives, studies and informational materials to assist individuals in accessing quality care and in making informed health care decisions.

 

Carolyn Cocotas, R.T., M.P.A.
Carolyn Cocotas joined Affinity Health Plan in April, 2005 as Director of the newly created Department of Community Health Innovation.  Announcing her appointment, President and CEO Maura Bluestone said Carolyn “brings to Affinity many years of professional experience in quality improvement, performance measurement, HMOs, Medicaid and Medicare managed care, and research management.”

Carolyn’s career spans over three decades during which she held progressively responsible positions in the health care industry, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. General Accounting Office, the United States House of Representatives, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, Community Health Plan of the Rockies, the Performance Measurement Coordinating Council and Kaiser Permanente.

In her new role, Carolyn oversees Affinity’s corporate Making a Difference Program, a major component of which is the grant giving program. According to Carolyn “….This effort has as a stated goal the conduct, in partnership with our providers, community based organizations and others, of practical, applied research, pilot and other projects that will stimulate innovation in the delivery of health services to our members and the communities in which they live. The impetus for this work is the Board’s commitment to supporting new, successful ways of improving the health of our members and the community.”

Carolyn has a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Health Administration.

Mike Davis, M.B.A.
Mr. Davis is Vice President, Human Resources, U.S. Retail and Corporate for General Mills, Inc. He has responsibility for human resources for the company’s six U.S. retail divisions (Big G Cereals, Meals, Yoplait, Snacks, Baking and Pillsbury U.S.) and also has oversight for human resources for the company’s corporate departments.

Prior to this role, Mr. Davis had overall responsibility for the company’s compensation and benefits functions. At various times he also had accountability for other HR functions including staffing and recruiting, HR communication, payroll, HR service center, HRIS, relocation and stock administration.

Mr. Davis is a frequent speaker and author on executive and director compensation and benefits issues. He has served on four National Association of Corporate Director Blue Ribbon Commissions on the Compensation Committee, Director and CEO Performance Evaluation, Director Compensation, and Director Professionalism. He has been interviewed or quoted in Fortune, Business Week, Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on compensation and benefit matters.

He has spoken on executive and director compensation issues at many human resources, legal, financial, and corporate governance conferences, and has lectured on these topics at Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, University of Southern California, Cornell and University of Minnesota business schools.

Mr. Davis is the Chairman of the Board of WorldatWork (an association focused on educating practitioners in fields of compensation and benefits) and is the past Chairman of the Board of the National Business Group on Health.

Mr. Davis has two bachelor’s degrees from Purdue University in Industrial Management and Computer Science, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Mr. Davis is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Barbara A. DeBuono, M.D., M.P.H.
Barbara A. DeBuono is medical director of public health at Pfizer, Inc. A nationally known leader in her field, Dr. DeBuono is a driving force behind Pfizer’s efforts in the health literacy arena.

Dr. DeBuono served as the New York state commissioner of health from January 1995 through November 1998, where she shaped a health care reform agenda that included developing the state’s comprehensive Medicaid Managed Care program. Previously, Dr. DeBuono oversaw public health programs and health promotion activities as director of disease control and state epidemiologist for the Rhode Island Department of Health, establishing the nation’s first comprehensive breast cancer screening and quality assurance program and authoring comprehensive AIDS legislation.

Recently named clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. DeBuono currently serves on the advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control, the boards of the National Academy for State Health Policy and Center for Health Policy Studies, and the advisory committee to the Health Care Financing Organization.

Debbie Fritz, Ph.D.
Deborah Fritz is the Director for Policy and Standards in the Health Management Innovations Division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Dr. Fritz joined GSK in 1994 as Director of Health Economics Policy in the Public Policy Division of Corporate Affairs. She was responsible for analyzing legislative and regulatory proposals, recommending and implementing corporate policies and strategies, and advising federal and state government affairs staff. She has continued to focus on quality, health care reform, Medicare, Medicaid and other public policy issues during her tenure at GSK. Dr. Fritz leads the company’s effort to address health care quality and related market issues.

Previously, Dr. Fritz was Assistant Vice President for Health Care Systems for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). During her six years at PhRMA, she staffed the managed care marketing committee; health outcomes work group and drug use review work group. Dr. Fritz gained national recognition for her work on the “Principles of Drug Use Review.” She was actively involved in the association’s analysis and policy development regarding Clinton Health Care reform and related proposals. Her primary focus was on quality, managed care and pharmaceutical benefit design issues. She initiated and supported the industry’s two year interdisciplinary effort to develop disease-specific outcomes measures.

Dr. Fritz held the position of Executive Director for the Center for Prepaid Health Care Research which was most noted for its early demonstration projects to bring Medicaid, uninsured and elderly populations into managed care organizations. In New York, California and New Mexico, Dr. Fritz worked in community health planning agencies. She specialized in rural health care delivery, financing and delivery of health care and regional ambulatory care planning.

Dr. Fritz earned her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Syracuse University through the Maxwell School health studies program. She received a Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina and a Bachelors degree in sociology from Duke University.

Betsy L. Humphreys, M.L.S.
Betsy Humphreys is Deputy Director of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). As Deputy Director, she shares responsibility with the Director for overall program development, program evaluation, policy formulation, direction and coordination of all Library activities. In addition, the Deputy Director is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Library, and in the absence of the Director, assumes full responsibility for all functions performed by the National Library of Medicine.

Ms. Humphreys also coordinates the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) project, which produces knowledge sources to support advanced retrieval and integration of information from disparate electronic information sources, and NLM's activities related to health data standards.

Ms. Humphreys received a B.A. from Smith College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, and a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals. She has received President's Awards from both the American Medical Informatics Association and the Medical Library Association. Ms. Humphreys presents and publishes widely.

Jean Krause
Ms. Krause serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer for the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation.  The Foundation was incorporated in 1999 to improve the health of the public through the creation and support of programs in education, research, service and professionalism.

Ms. Krause received her B.A. in English from Boston University, with additional postgraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the University of Colorado in Greeley, Colorado.

Ms. Krause’s professional experience includes over 25 years at the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. She held various positions ranging from local to regional and national appointments. She is a senior executive experienced in all aspects of corporate giving, program development, staff and volunteer management and strategic and financial planning. She served on a number of national task forces and committees.

Ms. Krause has received numerous awards through the years focusing on finance, human resources and management.


Linda Johnston Lloyd, M.Ed.
Ms. Johnston Lloyd is the Senior Advisor for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Center for Quality.  She received her undergraduate degree from Slippery Rock University and her MEd from The Pennsylvania State University.

Linda is Chair of the HRSA Health Literacy Work Group, the HRSA Health Literacy Coordinator and a member of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Literacy Work Group. She has made numerous presentations on Health Literacy and the Quality of Health Care.

Ms. Johnston Lloyd represents HRSA on the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization's Health Literacy and Patient Safety Roundtable Meetings and on the Institute of Medicine Health Literacy Roundtable Project. Linda is a member of the Expert Review Panel for the American College of Physicians Foundation Prescription Bottle Labeling Research Project.

Prior to joining the Federal Government, Ms. Johnston Lloyd was a Professor of Health Science at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD and currently teaches as adjunct faculty. She is an elected member of the American Association for Health Education's Board of Directors.

Linda is the recipient of four HRSA Administrator's Citations, the HHS Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service and the International Community College Teaching Excellence Award from the National Institute For Staff And Organizational Development, The University of Texas at Austin.

Dennis Milne, M.B.A.
Mr. Milne is Vice President responsible for two functional areas within the American Heart Association; patient education and the American Stroke Association.  Both areas are part of the AHA’s Healthcare Markets Division and Mr. Milne is responsible for providing strategic marketing and communications planning and direction to assist the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association in reaching stated health objectives and goals.  

He is responsible for directing staff in the development of business plans and provides expertise and leadership on the creation, implementation and management of patient interventions focused on disease management and risk factor management.  Programs, products and services may be delivered direct to patient or through intermediaries such as healthcare professionals or systems.  Products use a wide array of media including print, broadcast and web.   Key to his work is creating strategic alliances with professional, corporate and government partnering organizations. 

Mr. Milne works with several volunteer groups and is the staff liaison to the American Stroke Association Advisory Committee.  Prior to joining the American Heart Association in 1989, Mr. Milne’s career spans 15 years of marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies, including Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the Quaker Oats Company and Sara Lee Corporation. 

Mr. Milne holds Bachelors of Science and M.B.A. degrees from Iowa State University.

Dennis O’Leary, M.D.
Dennis O’Leary is President of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).  Under his leadership, the Joint Commission has successfully modernized its accreditation process to focus on the actual performance of individual health care organizations and to emphasize the use of measurement to drive continuous improvement in organization performance.

In recent years, he has overseen the introduction of cutting-edge standards relating to patient safety, pain management, use of patient restraints, and emergency preparedness, and he has led the formulation of National Patient Safety Goals which have also been incorporated into the Joint Commission’s accreditation process. During Dr. O’Leary’s 10-year tenure as its president, the Joint Commission has expanded its programmatic purview to encompass the mainstream of the U.S. health care delivery system.

Prior to joining the Joint Commission, Dr. O’Leary served as dean for Clinical Affairs at the George Washington University Medical Center and vice president of the George Washington University Health Plan, an academic HMO.

Ruth Parker, M.D.
Ruth Parker is Professor of Medicine, and Associate Director of Faculty Development for the Division of General Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine, received her medical training at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her primary research interests are in medical education and health services of underserved populations.

Dr. Parker has focused extensively on the healthcare issues of underserved populations, particularly health literacy. As principal investigator in the Robert Wood Johnson Literacy in Health Study she developed a measurement tool to quantify patients' ability to read and understand health information. She is widely published in health literacy, and co-edited the complete bibliography of medicine on health literacy for the National Library of Medicine. She is chair of the AMA Foundation steering committee for the national program on health literacy, and former chair of the AMA expert panel for the Council of Scientific Affairs.

Yolanda Partida, M.S.W., D.P.A.
Yolanda Partida is National Program Office Director for Hablamos Juntos: Improving Patient-Provider Communication for Latinos, an initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve access to quality health care for Latinos with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Hablamos Juntos (We Speak Together) is working with 10 demonstration sites around the country to develop affordable ways health providers can offer language services. Grantees are implementing seven program requirements in three benchmark areas: 1) Increasing the availability and quality of interpreter services; 2) Developing useful health related materials in Spanish; and, 3) Supporting the development of symbols-based signage to help patients find their way around health care facilities.

Dr. Partida has extensive experience in public teaching and private hospital administration, as well as public health administration and public policy. She has consulted on health policy and management, implemented cross-border public health strategies in the most populated US-Mexico border region, and helped launched Healthy San Diego, a multi-health plan managed care program for Medicaid patients.

Dr. Partida received her DPA from the University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development.

Kyu Bak Louis Rhee, M.D., M.P.P.
Kyu Bak Louis Rhee serves as a primary care physician and medical director at the at Upper Cardozo Community Health Center in Washington, DC. He is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and he is an active member of the National Health Service Corps.

As medical director of the largest community health center serving the underserved in Washington, DC, he manages and leads a staff of over 30 full and part-time clinicians. He also has a joint appointment at the George Washington University School of Public Health in the Departments of Prevention and Community Health and Health Policy. He teaches a course on Health Disparities and Community Health Management and Leadership.

In addition, Dr. Rhee currently serves as the President of the Board of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU). ACU is a national, nonprofit, transdisciplinary organization of clinicians, advocates, and health care organizations united in a common mission to improve the health of America's underserved populations by enhancing the development and support of the health care clinicians serving these populations.

Prior to coming to Washington, DC, Kyu did his residency and served as a Chief Resident in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. His medical school training occurred at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He also finished a Master’s degree in Public Policy with a concentration in Health Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His undergraduate education was at Yale University where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Science in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and also served as President of the 5100-member student body.

William Smith, Ed.D.
Dr. Smith is Executive Vice President and Senior Social Scientist of Development Program Services at the Academy of Educational Development. Dr. Smith supervises programs of communication and marketing for social change, and serves as senior scientist for the development of behavior change programs at AED, both publishing and speaking widely to policy-making audiences around the world. He often acts as consultant to international organizations including UNICEF and WHO, as well as national departments of health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Smith is recognized as one of the leading specialists in the application of social marketing to social change, and he is co-founder of the Institute for Social Marketing. He has designed, supervised and evaluated social marketing and communication campaigns on HIV/AIDS prevention in 22 countries, and infant and maternal health in 35 countries of the world.

Carol Teutsch, M.D.
Dr. Teutsch is a Director of Medical Services at Merck & Co.  She is involved in regulatory issues, marketing perspectives, and creating curriculum and multimedia resources for training the sales force in the science of osteoporosis and diabetes. She frequently serves as an internal consultant for a variety of medical and scientific issues at Merck and has been involved in various activities around diversity, women's health, clinical investigator community, and organizing and hosting Grand Rounds for USHH.

Winston F. Wong, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Winston Wong joined Kaiser Permanente in 2003 as Clinical Director, Community Benefit, with joint appointments at the Care Management Institute and the National Program Office of Community Benefit. In this role, he is responsible for developing and cultivating partnerships with communities and agencies in advancing population management and evidence based medicine, with a particular emphasis on safety net providers and the elimination of health disparities.

From 1993 - 2003, Dr. Wong was a Commissioned Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, serving as both the Chief Medical Officer for the Health Resources and Services Administration, Region IX, and its Director of California Operations. He achieved the rank of Captain, and was awarded the Outstanding Service Medal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Wong received a Master’s Degree in health policy and his Medical Degree from University of California Berkeley – San Francisco Joint Medical Program. A Board Certified Family Practitioner, continues a small clinical practice at Asian Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Oakland, California, where he served previously as Medical Director. Dr. Wong has served on a number of state and national advisory groups addressing issues in cultural competence, health care access, and improving health care for vulnerable populations.

Sabra Woolley
Dr. Woolley joined the Applied Sociocultural Research Branch in September 1999. Her background is in cultural anthropology, with a specialization in medical anthropology. Dr. Woolley received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in anthropology from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

After teaching for a number of years at the University of Hawaii, she moved to the Washington area and worked in a number of settings, including the United State Navy, consulting firms, and the George Washington University Medical School. For 5 years, Dr. Woolley acted at the Scientific Review Administrator for the socio-behavioral panel for the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program.

Her research interests are in the area of applied medical anthropology, with a focus on cultural competence in medical settings and the nature of the biomedical cultural system as it is evolving in the United States.

Antronette Yancey, M.D., M.P.H.
Antronette K. Yancey is currently Professor at the Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, with primary research interests in chronic disease prevention intervention and adolescent health promotion. She recently returned to academia full-time after five years in public health practice, first as Director of Public Health for the city of Richmond, VA, and, subsequently, as Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

In addition to her many scientific publications, her poetry has also been published in several newspapers and in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. She completed her BA in biochemistry and molecular biology at Northwestern University, her MD at Duke, and her preventive medicine residency/MPH at UCLA.