CO-CHAIR: Nancy-Ann DeParle, JD
Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Consonance Capital Partners
Nancy-Ann DeParle is a managing partner and co-founder of Consonance Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in innovative health care companies in the lower middle-market. She is a director of CVS Health and HCA Healthcare, along with several Consonance portfolio companies, and a trustee of Duke University. She is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
From 2011-January 2013, she was Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy to President Barack Obama. A health policy expert, from 2009-2011 DeParle served as Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, where she spearheaded the Obama Administration’s successful effort to enact the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
From 2001-2009, DeParle was a managing director of CCMP Capital Advisors, and a senior advisor to its predecessor, JPMorgan Partners, LLC. Earlier in her career, she served as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Associate Director for Health and Personnel at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
DeParle received a B.A. from the University of Tennessee, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. and M.A. in Politics and Economics from Balliol College of Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
CO-CHAIR: Jack Rowe, MD
Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. John Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, from 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1988 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. Dr. Rowe has received many honors and awards for his research and health policy efforts regarding care of the elderly. Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the Research Network on An Aging Society.
Dr. Rowe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He. served on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Chair of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and the Board of Trustees at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Dr. Rowe is a former Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).
With respect to his business career, Dr Rowe has received many awards and recognitions including being listed in the top ten managers of the year, in the world, by Businessweek in 2005 and being included in Harvard Business Review’s 2013 listing of the best performing CEOs in the world, in all industries.
MEMBERS
Drew Altman, PhD
President and CEO, Kaiser Family Foundation
Drew Altman is president and chief executive officer of KFF, a position he has held for more than 30 years. He is a leading expert on national health policy issues and an innovator in the nonprofit and foundation field. Dr. Altman built KFF with the mission the organization pursues today–to serve as a nonpartisan source of information for policymakers, the media, the health policy community, and the public. He is also founding publisher of KFF Health News, the largest health newsroom in the U.S., which reports on health issues and distributes its articles through major news outlets across the country.
Dr. Altman was commissioner of the Department of Human Services for the state of New Jersey, director of Health and Human Services at The Pew Charitable Trusts, vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and served in a senior position in the Health Care Financing Administration in the Carter administration. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Altman earned his doctorate in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his postdoctoral work at Harvard University before moving on to public service. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Morehouse School of Medicine.
The Honorable Alex M. Azar II
24th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Alex Azar has extensive healthcare experience in the senior-most levels of the U.S. government and the private sector that gives him a unique perspective and background. He has committed his professional career to protecting and enhancing the health of all Americans.
Azar served as the 24th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2018-2021), leading over 85,000 employees with a budget of over $1.4 trillion, the largest budget of any cabinet department on Earth. He was the architect of Operation Warp Speed, delivering COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics in record time. He led the historic transformation of the healthcare system in the United States and HHS’s response to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. He drove U.S. Government efforts to tackle the opioid crisis, increase private insurance options, bring transparency of price and quality information to healthcare, expand telehealth, give patients ownership of their health records and make those records interoperable and transportable, enable healthcare provider collaborative care models, remove regulatory barriers to low-cost, high-quality care, transform payment systems to pay for health and outcomes rather than sickness and procedures, reduce drug prices, and transform kidney care for the first time in almost 50 years. Azar also led key public health initiatives such as banning flavored e-cigarettes, reducing youth tobacco use by nearly one-third in one year and youth e-cigarette use by 54% in three years, creating and implementing the program to end the HIV epidemic in America in 10 years, preparing for and responding to public health threats, crafting the first rural health initiative to improve access and quality of care, and launching a program to reduce dramatically maternal mortality. Azar has played significant roles on the global health stage, leading many of the U.S.’s global health security efforts, representing the U.S. in the World Health Assembly, working with the WHO to end Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, chairing the most active G7 health ministerial in history in 2020, and convening and leading western hemisphere coordinated efforts to assist with the Venezuelan refugee crisis.
Azar served for five years (2012-2017) as president of Lilly USA, LLC, the largest affiliate of global biopharmaceutical leader Eli Lilly and Company, producing over $10 billion in revenue (2016). Azar previously was vice president of Lilly’s U.S. Managed Healthcare Services and Puerto Rico from 2009-2011. He joined Lilly in 2007 as senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications.
Before his tenure at Lilly, Azar was the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2005-2007), where he was the number two official and chief operating officer. From 2001-2005, he served HHS as General Counsel.
Azar earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in government and economics from Dartmouth College in 1988, and a law degree from Yale University in 1991. After law school, he clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Secretary Azar is currently an advisor to Foresite Capital, sits on several corporate boards and advisory boards, is a part-time Adjunct Professor of Business and Senior Executive-in-Residence at the University of Miami Herbert Business School, is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Institute, the Aspen Institute’s Health Strategy Group, the American Task Force On Lebanon’s Policy Advisory Board, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Future of Health Care Advisory Group, the advisory board of the National Institute for Healthcare Management Foundation, and the Healthcare Leadership Council. Azar previously served on the boards of HMS Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: HMSY), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the Healthcare Leadership Council, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the American Council on Germany, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Lanhee J. Chen, PhD
David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Policy Studies, Hoover Institution
Public Policy Program Lecturer, Stanford University
A veteran of several high-profile political campaigns and himself a candidate for statewide office in California, Chen has worked in politics, government, business, and academia.
Chen was a candidate for California State Controller in 2022. He earned more votes than any other Republican candidate in the country in the general election and won endorsements from every major newspaper in the state. Chen has advised numerous major campaigns, including four presidential efforts. In 2012, he was policy director of the Romney-Ryan campaign, and served as Governor Mitt Romney’s chief policy adviser, a senior strategist on the campaign, and the person responsible for developing the campaign’s domestic and foreign policy.
In addition to his academic appointments, Chen is a Partner at the Brunswick Group, a global business advisory firm, and a member of the Board of Directors at El Camino Health in Northern California.
From 2014 to 2018, Chen served as a presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed member of the Social Security Advisory Board—an independent, bipartisan panel that advises the president, Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security on matters related to the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income programs. He also served in the George W. Bush Administration as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Chen earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in Political Science from Harvard University; his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School; and his A.B. magna cum laude in Government from Harvard College.
Chelsea Clinton, DPhil, MPH
Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation
Vice Chair, Clinton Health Access Initiative
As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to improve lives and inspire emerging leaders across the United States and around the world. This includes the Foundation’s early child initiative Too Small to Fail, which supports families with the resources they need to promote early brain and language development; and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a global program that empowers student leaders to turn their ideas into action. A longtime public health advocate, Chelsea also serves as vice chair of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and uses her platform to increase awareness around issues such as vaccine hesitancy, childhood obesity, and health equity.
In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, She Persisted in Science, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference; Don’t Let Them Disappear, It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going; and Welcome to the Big Kids Club. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar. Chelsea’s podcast, In Fact with Chelsea Clinton, premiered in 2021 and is the co-founder of HiddenLight Productions.
Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc, their children Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper in New York City.
Peggy Hamburg, MD
Co-President, InterAcademy Partnership
Vice-Chair, President’s Intelligence Advisory Board
Dr. Peggy Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health, medicine, and science, perhaps best known for her expertise on biological threats and biomedical research and innovation. She currently serves as co-president of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), an international consortium of national academies of science and medicine working to advance the role of science in evidence-based policy decisions. She is also vice-chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Previously, Dr. Hamburg has served in numerous leadership roles including: Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; National Academy of Medicine Foreign Secretary, President/Chair, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vice President/Senior Scientist, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; New York City Health Commissioner; and Assistant Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Dr. Hamburg sits on a range of boards and advisory committees, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, The Nuclear Threat Initiative, The Council on Foreign Relations, The Commonwealth Fund, The Urban Institute, The Nature Conservancy, The Lasker Foundation, Ending Pandemics and Resolve to Save Lives.
Dr. Hamburg is widely published and has received numerous awards and honorary degrees. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and is board-certified in Internal Medicine.
Bob Kocher, MD
Partner, Venrock
Bob Kocher, MD is a Partner at Venrock and focuses on healthcare IT and services investments. He currently serves on the Boards of Devoted Health, Virta Health, Aledade, Lyra Health, Sitka, Need, Accompany Health and Premera Blue Cross. He is a Board Observer at Grand Rounds, Doctor on Demand, Stride, Suki, SmithRx and The Public Health Company.
Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow and Advisory Board Member at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Healthcare Management (NIHCM).
Prior to Venrock, Bob served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council, as a Partner at McKinsey & Company, and is an internal medicine doctor.
Julie Anne Nordstrom, JD
Board Member, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation;
US Trustee, Save The Children;
Board Member, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Julie Anne Nordstrom is a retired attorney, having practiced law in Washington state. She has spent the past 20 years serving on governance boards and has recently completed a graduate program at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute.
Nordstorm is personally committed to the not-for-profit sector focusing on improving education, health equity and cancer care. She is currently Chair of the Patient Quality and Safety committee of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, an NCI designated comprehensive cancer center providing research, education and clinical care. Nordstrom is also Chair of the Head Start Board for Save The Children, US, whose focus is on providing early child development and learning to children in rural communities of need in the southern United States.
Additionally, she serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evalution supporting the mission to deliver timely, relevant and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice worldwide. She serves on the University of Washington Medicine Board, previously as Chair of the system board and Chair of the University of Washington Medical Center Board, advising management on strategic initiatives, operations, and financial performance.
Nordstrom received her BA from the University of Washington and her JD from Seattle University.
Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA
Professor of Clinical Medicine, UCSF
Mark D. Smith, M.D., M.B.A is currently a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. From 2015 to 2019 he served as co-chair of the Guiding Committee of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network. Previously, Dr. Smith was the founding President and former Chief Executive Officer of the California Healthcare Foundation, Inc., a philanthropic organization focused on improving the health of Californians, from 1996 to 2013.
He was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) in 2001 and chaired the IOM’s Committee on the Learning Healthcare System, which produced the widely publicized 2012 report Best Care at Lower Cost.
Dr. Smith serves as a Director of the Commonwealth Fund, Teladoc Health, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and Phreesia,. He earned his B.A. degree in Afro-American Studies from Harvard College, his M.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his M.B.A. in Healthcare Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. He maintains an active clinical practice at the Positive Health Program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.