RWJ Health Policy Fellows: About Us

Kenneth B. Chance, Sr., DDS, FACD, FICD is Professor and Division Chief of Endodontics at the University of Kentucky, College of Dentistry. He received a BS degree from Fordham University in 1975 and a DDS degree from Case Western Reserve University, School of Dental Medicine in 1979. He received postgraduate training at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, General Practice Residency Program in NYC, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Dental School (UMDNJ-NJDS) in Endodontics in 1982. At UMDNJ-NJDS, Dr. Chance served as head of the Department of Endodontics, assistant dean of External Affairs, and University Federal Relations Advisor. He was director for the Health Policy Program at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC. Dr. Chance served as dean and professor at the Meharry Medical College, School of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee. He was elected Member-At Large of the Administrative Board of the Council of Deans of the American Dental Education Association. He has served on major committees including: the Institute of Medicine Committee on National Institutes of Health Research Priority Setting Process, and Chairman of the Governor’s Oral Health Policy 2000 Advisory Committee for New Jersey. In 1991, Dr. Chance was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). He was also a PEW National Dental Leadership Development Fellow in 1991. Dr. Chance has received more than fifty awards, citations and special recognitions including; the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Excellence Award in Education, Governor of Tennessee Outstanding Achievement Award, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Community Service Award. He has fellowships in the American and International College of Dentists, Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honor Society, Academy of Political Science, Pierre Fauchard Academy, and was elected Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academy of Practice in Dentistry. Dr. Chance presently serves on the Case Western Reserve University Board of Trustees, as Vice Chairman of the Academic Affairs and Student Life Committee, and is a member of the Audit and University Relations Committees. He has numerous publications and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and has made more than sixty invited presentations, both nationally and internationally.

Linda Degutis, DrPH, is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health, and Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale University. She is the Research Director for the Section of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Degutis, who is a native of Chicago, Illinois, received a Bachelor of Science degree from DePaul University, a Master of Science in Nursing and a Doctor of Public Health from Yale University. She was a 1996-97 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, working in the office of Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN). Dr. Degutis’ research interests have centered on issues related to alcohol and injury, with a particular focus on interventions and policy issues, and she is the author of numerous publications. Her current research activities focus on both clinical and policy interventions related to injury and substance abuse. She has received research funding from several federal agencies including CDC and NHTSA, as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She serves as a grant reviewer for CDC, HRSA, and the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, she serves on the Yale School of Medicine CME Committee, and is a member of the affiliate faculty for the Yale Clinical Scholars Program. She has served as a mentor to a group of faculty fellows for Project MAINSTREAM, a project that focuses on developing and implementing educational strategies in the area of substance abuse for faculty from multiple disciplines. At the Yale School of Public Health, she is working with other faculty on educational strategies in the area of disaster preparedness, as well as injury and violence prevention and interventions. Recently, the school was awarded a grant to develop an academic Center for Public Health Preparedness, which Dr. Degutis will direct. Dr. Degutis is the Chair of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association and is an active member of the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of APHA, as well as a member of the Connecticut affiliate. She was a member of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Acute Care Research Agenda Steering Committee, and currently serves on the CDC Agency-Wide Research Agenda Development Core Team, as co-chair of the Community Preparedness workgroup. Her other activities include membership on the Healthy People 2010 Task Force of SAEM. She is on the Advisory Board of America’s HealthTogether, a public policy educational group. On a local level, she is actively involved with the CT Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking, and the Connecticut Governor’s Prevention Partnership.

Susan Dentzer is the Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs, the nation’s leading journal of health policy, and an on-air analyst on health issues with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Ms. Dentzer assumed the job of Editor-in-Chief on May 1, 2008, after a decade as the on-air health correspondent for The NewsHour. Health Affairs, which has been called the nation’s health policy “Bible,” is a peer-reviewed journal published by Project HOPE that appears bimonthly in print with additional online entries published weekly at www.healthaffairs.org. Prior to joining The NewsHour in 1998, Ms. Dentzer was chief economics correspondent and economics columnist for U.S. News & World Report, where she served from 1987 to 1997. Before joining U.S. News, Ms. Dentzer was at Newsweek, where she was a senior writer covering business news until 1987. Ms. Dentzer's work in television has included appearances as a regular analyst or commentator on CNN and The McLaughlin Group.

Senator David Durenberger served as the senior U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1978 to 1995. During his time in the Senate, Senator Durenberger served as chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence; chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee and was catapulted into the leadership role in national health reform.

In addition, Senator Durenberger chaired the Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee, led President Reagan's New Federalism effort in 1982, and was a 14-year member of the Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations. He was also a member of the Senate Environment Committee; Government Affairs Committee; and the committee now known as the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and served as Vice Chair of the Pepper Commission in 1989-1990.

Senator Durenberger is currently a Senior Health Policy Fellow at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis Minnesota and chairs the National Institute of Health Policy (NIHP).

He has also served on various national health commissions and boards including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. He currently serves on the Board of the National Commission on Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Durenberger is a nationally sought after public speaker, and writes a popular bi-weekly national commentary on current events.

Senator Durenberger was also named by Governor Tim Pawlenty to lead the Minnesota Citizens Forum on Health Care Costs, an inside-out approach to healthcare reform in Minnesota. He is author of Prescription for Change and Neither Madman Nor Messiahs and teaches and speaks nationally on the future of healthcare delivery and policy.

He graduated from St. John’s Prep School in 1951 and St. John’s University in 1955. While attending St. John’s, Senator Durenberger was involved in Army ROTC, becoming the program’s first cadet battalion commander and the top honor cadet. Senator Durenberger went on the serve in the United States Army as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1956-1963. During this time, Senator Durenberger also graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1959.

Judy Feder, PhD, is Professor and Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and was the 2006 Democratic nominee for Congress in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. She is one of the nation's leaders in health policy--most particularly, in efforts to understand and improve the nation's health insurance system. A widely published scholar, her three decades of policy research began at the Brookings Institution, continued at the Urban Institute, and, since 1984, has flourished at Georgetown University. Her expertise on the uninsured, Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care is regularly drawn upon by members of Congress, Executive officials, and the national media. Feder has also held leadership policy positions, both in the Congress and in the Executive Branch. As staff director of the congressional Pepper Commission (chaired by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV), Feder is widely credited with setting the stage for the health reform debate of the 1990s. In 1993, she was appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services, where she worked to expand health insurance coverage, effectively manage Medicare and Medicaid, and assure the safety of food and drugs. Feder today pursues her policy leadership first and foremost by educating future policy leaders at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute. She continues her research as co-director (with Sheila Burke) of the Georgetown University Long-term Care Financing Project and as senior advisor to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Feder is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the National Academy of Social Insurance; a former chair and board member of AcademyHealth; and a board member the Center for American Progress Action Fund Committee. She is also a member of the National Research Council’s Standing Committee on Research and Evidentiary Standards, the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowships Program Advisory Board, and the Hamilton Project’s Advisory Council. Feder is a political scientist, with a B.A. from Brandeis University (1968) and a Master's (1970) and Ph.D. (1977) from Harvard University.

James R. Gavin III, MD, PhD is clinical professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Healing Our Village, Inc. Prior to this, he served as president and chief executive officer of MicroIslet, Inc., San Diego, California, from January 2006 to July, 2007, and was president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta from 2002-2005. He served as senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 1991 to 2002 and as director of the HHMI–National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program from 2000 to 2002. Before joining the senior staff of HHMI, Dr. Gavin was a professor and chief of the Diabetes Section, acting chief of the Section on Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Hypertension, and William K. Warren Professor for Diabetes Studies at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He previously served as an associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Gavin served as a lieutenant commander in the US Public Health Service from 1971 to 1973 and continues to serve as a reserve officer.

Dr. Gavin belongs to a number of organizations, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), the Endocrine Society, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Physicians, the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, the Sigma Pi Phi Leadership Fraternity, the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Rotary Club. He is a past president of the ADA and was voted Clinician of the Year in Diabetes by the ADA in 1991. He has served on many advisory boards and on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology and the American Journal of Medical Sciences. He is on the board of trustees for Emory University, Livingstone College, and is Trustee Emeritus for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, he is national program director of the Harold Amos Faculty Development Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Gavin is Chairman Emeritus of the National Diabetes Education Program and a past member of the Board of Scientific Councilors for the Intramural Research Program of NIDDK at the NIH. He also serves as chairman of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the VA Cooperative Diabetes Study (VADT).

Dr. Gavin has published more than 200 articles and abstracts in such publications as Science, Journal of Applied Physiology, Diabetes, and the American Journal of Physiology. He is coauthor of two books: Healing Our Village: A Self-Care Guide for Diabetes Control(written with L. Coleman) and Dr. Gavin’s Health Guide for African Americans(written with S. Landrum). He hosted the “Powerpoint” health talk-radio show for public radio station WCLK, 91.9 FM, Atlanta from 2005-2006. Among the many honors Dr. Gavin has received are the Daniel Hale Williams Award, the E.E. Just Award, the Herbert Nickens Award, the Daniel Savage Memorial Award, the Emory University Medal for Distinguished Achievement, the Banting Medal for Distinguished Service from the ADA, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Duke University School of Medicine, the F.C. Greenwood Award from the RCMI of NCRR at NIH and the Internist of the Year Award from the National Medical Association.

Dr. Gavin graduated from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, with a degree in chemistry. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from Emory University and his MD degree from Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. He and his wife, Dr. Annie Gavin, are the parents of three adult sons.

Katie B. Horton, RN, MPH, JD, is a research professor at the Center for Health Policy Research at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Before joining the GWU, she was the president of HealthPolicy R&D, a health policy firm in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the law firm of Powell Goldstein. HealthPolicy R&D offers its clients a wide range of services, including research, design and analysis of health policy proposals. Ms. Horton combines professional and technical expertise, clinical experience and creative innovation to develop sound and strategic health policy positions and effective business planning for clients. Before establishing HealthPolicy R&D, Ms. Horton served as senior professional health staff specializing in Medicare financing issues for the United States Senate Committee on Finance. She was an advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and other Democratic Senators and their staffs on federal health insurance issues and drafted a variety of legislative proposals involving improvements to Medicare and patient protections in the private health insurance market. Ms. Horton has broad experience working with Congressional advisory organizations such as the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office and has also worked extensively with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Prior to her work with the Senate Committee on Finance, Ms. Horton served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) where she was responsible for the Member's legislative agenda regarding Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and social security issues. Ms. Horton also served as Director of Clinical Services for Operation Smile, a humanitarian organization providing health services to indigent children in developing countries.

Arthur Kellermann, MD, MPH, FACEP, is the RAND Corporation’s Paul O’Neill Alcoa Professorship in Policy Analysis. He succeeded Dr. Nicole Lurie, who left RAND to become Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Before joining RAND, Dr. Kellermann was Professor and Associate Dean for Health Policy at the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. He was previously founding Chairman of the School's Department of Emergency Medicine. Until August 2006, he also served as founding Director of the Emory Center for Injury Control, a World Health Organization collaborating center for injury and violence prevention. He practiced and taught in the Emergency Care Center of Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta’s only public hospital and Level I trauma center.

Dr. Kellermann’s research focused on injury prevention, emergency cardiac care, and health services for the poor and the uninsured. He holds career achievement awards from two disciplines: the John G Wigenstein and Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Awards from the American College of Emergency Physicians and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, respectively, and the Excellence in Science Award from the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of the American Public Health Association. In 2001, he received Emory University’s Scholar/Teacher Award, and in 2005, he received the university’s Charles Hatcher Award for Excellence in Public Health.

In 1999, Dr. Kellermann was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Between 2001 and January 2004, he served as Co-Chair of the IOM Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. From 2004 to 2006, he served on the IOM Board of Health Care Services and the IOM Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System.

Angela Barron McBride, PhD, RN, received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Georgetown University, her master's degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing from Yale University, and her PhD in developmental psychology from Purdue University. She is Distinguished Professor-University Dean Emerita at Indiana University School of Nursing. Dr. McBride is known for her contributions to women’s health, particularly the psychology of parenthood, and to psychiatric-mental health nursing. Her first book The Growth and Development of Mothers was recognized as one of the best of 1973 by both The New York Times and the American Journal of Nursing. She went on to author How to Enjoy a Good Life with Your Teenager (1987), which was a selection of Psychotherapy Book Review. Her book (co-edited with Joan K. Austin) entitled Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: Integrating the Behavioral and Biological Sciences earned a 1996 Book-of-the-Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing. She has contributed to more than fifty other books, and has published numerous articles in both professional journals (Nursing Research, Research in Nursing and Health, Sex Roles, Developmental Psychology, American Psychologist, etc.), and popular magazines (e.g., Ms. Magazine, Women’s Day). Dr. McBride served as president of Sigma Theta Tau International (1987-1989), the honor society of nursing, during the building of the International Center for Nursing Scholarship in Indianapolis. She has served on the National Advisory Mental Health Council of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (1987 to 1991), on the advisory committee of NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health (1997-2001), and as president of the American Academy of Nursing (1993-1995). She has served on the boards of a number of professional journals and annuals, e.g., Research in Nursing and Health, Annual Review of Nursing Research, Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, Encyclopedia of Nursing Research, Encyclopedia of Nursing Leadership. She currently serves on a number of boards/advisory committees, e.g., Clarian Health Partners (she chairs the board’s Committee on Quality and Patient Care), Hartford Foundation’s "Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity" Program (she provides direction to their annual leadership conference), NIH Specialized Centers of Research on Sex and Gender Factors, Society for Women’s Health Research. In 1988, University Hospitals of Cleveland presented her with the MacDonald Hospital for Women Award for contributions to women's health. She has received honorary doctorates from the University of Cincinnati (1983), Eastern Kentucky University (1991), Georgetown University (1993), Medical College of Ohio (1995), University of Akron (1997), and Purdue University (1998). In 1995, she received the "Outstanding Contributions to Nursing and Health Psychology" Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 38 on Health Psychology; that same year, she was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine where she later served as a Scholar-in-Residence (2003-04). In 1999, the Indianapolis Business Journal and The Indiana Lawyer named her one of most "influential women" in Indianapolis; in 2005 she received the Community Spirit Torchbearer Award of the Indiana Commission for Women.

James J. Mongan, MD, a professor of health care policy and a professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, also serves on the board of the Commonwealth Fund and chairs its Commission on a High Performance Health System.

Dr. Mongan is former president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare in Boston, an integrated health system founded in 1994 by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to being appointed president and CEO of Partners, Dr. Mongan was president of Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest and oldest teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. He also served for 15 years as executive director of the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, a large public hospital, where he also served as dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Dr. Mongan spent 11 years in Washington as staff to the Senate Finance Committee, working on Medicare and Medicaid legislation. He later served in the Carter administration as deputy assistant secretary for health and then at the White House as associate director of the domestic policy staff.

Dr. Mongan is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has served on the boards of the American Hospital Association and the Kaiser Family Foundation, and was a member of both the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission established by Congress and the Institute of Medicine’s Commission on the Consequences of Uninsurance.

Peter Neumann, ScD, is Director of the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Tufts Medical Center, he was on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health for ten years, most recently as Associate Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences. His research focuses on the role of cost-effectiveness analysis and risk-benefit tradeoffs in healthcare decision making. He has conducted numerous economic evaluations of medical technologies, including evaluations of treatments for Alzheimer's disease. He also directs a project to develop a comprehensive registry of cost-effectiveness analyses in health care. Dr. Neumann has contributed to the literature on the use of willingness to pay and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in valuing health benefits. His other research has focused on the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of health economic information, and the role of clinical and economic evidence in informing public and private sector healthcare decisions, including those made by the Medicare program. He is the author or co-author of over 100 papers in the medical literature, and the author of Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Improve Health Care (Oxford University Press, 2005). He is a contributing editor to Health Affairs and member of the editorial board of Value in Health. Dr. Neumann has served as President of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), and as a trustee of the Society for Medical Decision Making. He has also held various policy positions in Washington, including Special Assistant to the Administrator at the Health Care Financing Administration. He received his doctorate in health policy and management from Harvard University.

Mario F. Pacheco, MD, is a Board Certified family physician. He is the founding director of the Northern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program, a rural residency training track sponsored by the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine. He is also the first Associate Vice President for Hispanic Health at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. A 1986 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Dr. Pacheco completed his residency in family medicine at the University of New Mexico Department of Family and Community Medicine. He completed a one-year Fellowship in Health of the Public at UNM and subsequently worked as a staff physician at La Familia Medical Center for 10 years. He is a diplomat and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In 2000-2001 he was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and served in the office of United States Senator Jeff Bingaman. He subsequently worked for the New Mexico Department of Health until July, 2002 when he resumed the residency directorship at St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe. He has authored papers in the fields of U.S.–Mexico Border Health, school-based health, and rural residency training tracks. His main professional interest is improving health services access for rural and uninsured families in New Mexico.

Sara Rosenbaum, JD, is Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy. She also holds an appointment as Professor of Health Care Sciences at GW's School of Medicine and Law. As a scholar, an educator and a national leader, Professor Rosenbaum has dedicated her career to promoting more equitable and effective health care policies in this country, particularly in the areas of Medicaid and Medicare, managed care, employee health benefits, maternal and child health, community health centers and civil rights in health care systems. Her commitment to strengthening access to care for low-income, minority and medically underserved populations has had a transforming effect on the lives of many Americans, particularly children. In addition to her responsibilities as Chair of the Department of Health Policy, which she founded and developed, Professor Rosenbaum is Director of the Center for Health Services Research and Policy, the institutional home for many of the Department's research activities, and Director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program. As a mentor, she is drawn to young people interested in improving health care for the poor. "I am always on the lookout for students who have a keen desire not only to learn health policy, but to apply their knowledge to systemic problems that disproportionately affect low-income, medically underserved, or disabled children and adults," she says. Professor Rosenbaum has been named one of the nation's 500 most influential health policy makers by McGraw Hill. Among other honors, she has received the Investigator Award in Health Policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has been recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services for distinguished national service on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries. As a member of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Clinton, she directed the drafting of the Health Security Act and oversaw the development of the Vaccines for Children program.

^top

Kenneth B. Wells, MD, MPH, received his M.D. from UCSF and his M.P.H. from UCLA. He is a psychiatrist, a Senior Scientist at RAND, Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health. He directs the Health Services Research Center of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, which focuses on improving quality of care for psychiatric and neurological disorders across the lifespan. He is the Principal Investigator of the NIMH-UCLA/RAND Center for Research on Quality in Managed Care and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Partnership Initiative. He is also Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation UCLA Clinical Scholars Program and Chair of the Community Health Improvement Collaborative. Dr. Wells is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). He was the first recipient of the Young Investigator Award and also received the Distinguished Investigator Award of Academy Health. In 2006, he received the American Psychiatric Association Award for Research. His current research interests focus on community-based participatory research methods for mental health services improvement in disadvantaged communities.

RWJF Health Policy Fellows Advisory Board

Board Biographies

Board Biographies