Louise Cohen
Ms. Cohen became CEO of the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) in August 2015. Prior to assuming leadership of PCDC, she was Vice President for Public Health Programs at Public Health Solutions in New York City (2011-2015), and oversaw a variety of programs to improve community health through food access and nutrition, women’s reproductive health, tobacco control and child development. Ms. Cohen held successive leadership positions at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) for 12 years, including as Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Health Care Access and Improvement. Among her accomplishments at DOHMH, Ms. Cohen led the development and execution of Take Care New York, New York City’s first comprehensive health policy agenda. She also oversaw the Primary Care Information Project, which brought a public health and prevention-oriented ambulatory care electronic health record system to more than 2,500 primary care providers. Before her tenure at DOHMH, Louise was Director of the Park Slope Family Health Center (now part of the NYU Lutheran Family Health Centers network). Louise served on PCDC’s Board of Directors from 2011 until she became CEO.
Lawrence Casalino
Dr. Casalino is Chief of the Division of Health Policy and Economics at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is interested in comparative effectiveness research focused on the healthcare delivery system. Put simply, this means asking: which types of organizations, using which types of processes, provide higher quality, cost-effective care? For example: at present, large numbers of primary care and specialist physician practices are being purchased by hospitals. Does this lead to higher or lower quality care? Higher or lower cost care? Dr. Casalino is particularly interested in unintended consequences of policies and in the effects of policies and of the
organization of practice on physician professionalism and on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in healthcare delivery. At present, Dr. Casalino is working on projects that seek to define the demography of physician practices in the U.S., to describe the processes used by practices to improve care, and to analyze which factors are related to increased use of such processes. In addition, he has written a number of conceptual articles and reports intended to introduce new problems and/or to help provide new frameworks for thinking about problems. Dr. Casalino received his MD from the University of California, San Francisco, and his PhD in health services research from the University of California, Berkeley.
Lindsay Farrell
Ms. Farrell is President and CEO of Open Door Family Medical Centers. She has dedicated her professional life to high-quality community-based care, efficient care delivery and population health management to assure a more equitable healthcare system for us all. Homegrown at Open Door, where she originally served as a volunteer, Ms. Farrell has also served as Open Door’s Director of Operations and Director of Development. During Ms. Farrell’s tenure as President and CEO, Open
Door has grown significantly and doubled the number of people served. Today, Open Door is accredited by the Joint Commission, recognized by the National Committee on Quality Assurance as a Level 3 patient-centered medical home and has won the prestigious national Davies Award from the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Ms. Farrell is a member of the Board of Directors of MVP Health Plan in Schenectady, the Community Health Care Association of New York State, the Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC) and the Health Center Controlled Network of New York. She is also a past Chair of the Westchester Women’s Agenda. Ms. Farrell is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and received her MBA from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. She is a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has received the Sol Feinstein Community Service Award from St. Lawrence University, the Betsy Cooke Grassroots Advocacy Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers, and been named as one of Westchester County’s most influential residents by Westchester Magazine.
Sherry Glied, PhD
Dr. Glied is the Dean of NYU Wagner. From 1989-2013, she was Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She was Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management from 1998-2009. On June 22, 2010, Dr. Glied was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services, and served in that capacity from July 2010 through August 2012. She had previously served as Senior Economist for healthcare and labor market policy on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1992-1993, under Presidents Bush and
Clinton, and participated in the Clinton Health Care Task Force. She has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Board of Academy Health, and has been a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisers. Dr. Glied’s principal areas of research are in health policy reform and mental healthcare policy. Her book on healthcare reform, Chronic Condition, was published by Harvard University Press in January 1998. Her book with Richard Frank, Better But Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the U.S. since 1950, was published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2006. She is co-editor, with Peter C. Smith, of The Oxford Handbook of Health Economics, which was published by the Oxford University Press in 2011. Dr. Glied holds a BA in economics from Yale University, an MA in economics from the University of Toronto and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.
Chris Koller
Mr. Koller is president of the Milbank Memorial Fund. The Fund currently convenes 17 state-based projects engaged in multi-payer primary transformation and is supporting a study to determine how to best measure primary care spending. Milbank convenes the Reforming States Group, a bipartisan, voluntary group of state health policy leaders from the executive and legislative branches that convene to work on solutions to pressing problems in healthcare.Before joining the Fund, he served the state of Rhode Island as the country’s first health insurance commissioner, an appointment he held from March of 2005 through June of 2013. Under Mr. Koller’s
leadership, the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner developed a successful initiative to raise the primary care share of total commercially-insured healthcare spending from 6% to 11% over five years. The Office was also one of the lead agencies in implementing the Affordable Care Act in Rhode Island. Prior to serving as health insurance commissioner, Mr. Koller was the CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island for nine years. In this role he was the founding chair of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans. Mr. Koller received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College and master’s degrees in management and religion from Yale University. He was a member of the IOM Committee on Essential Health Benefits and serves in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities. Mr. Koller is also adjunct professor of community health in the School of Public Health at Brown University.
Troy Oechsner
Mr. Oechsner is the Acting Executive Deputy Superintendent for the Insurance Division at the New York State Department of Financial Service (DFS), with responsibilities for the regulatory oversight of all commercial insurance (including health, life and property insurance) in New York State. He previously served for over eight years as Deputy Superintendent for Health at DFS, with responsibilities including licensing, examination and regulation of all health insurers. Mr. Oechsner was part of a team that implemented the Affordable Care Act in New York, restored regulatory oversight of health insurance rates and passed legislation protecting
consumers from surprise bills from out-of-network doctors, among other initiatives. He is also an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. Before joining DFS, Mr. Oechsner served as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Attorney General’s Health Care Bureau, where he directed litigation against health plans, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, doctors and hospitals for illegal and deceptive business practices. In addition, he served as an appellate lawyer at the Attorney General, as well as personal law clerk to Judge Stewart Hancock in the New York State Court of Appeals. Prior to law school, Mr. Oechsner worked as a community organizer in Lynn, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the State University of New York, with a BA degree in history and a JD. A Delmar resident, Mr. Oechsner coaches his son’s soccer team and plays in a zydeco band in his spare time.