2006 Petris Symposium:
Toward a Health Policy Agenda for All Californians

Participant Biographies

Gale Bataille, MSW, Mental Health Director, San Mateo County, CA
Ms. Bataille has been San Mateo County's Mental Health Director for the past five and a half years, and has worked in the mental health field for over 30 years, including 10 years as Mental Health Director for Solano County and 9 years in Contra Costa County as Chief of Planning and as Deputy Director for Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services. Ms. Bataille is a founding member, past President, and current member of the Board of the California Institute for Mental Health and served as President and on the Governing Board of the California Mental Health Directors Association for over 10 years. She was instrumental in the development of the California Institute's Center for Multicultural Development and has an ongoing commitment to culturally sensitive and effective mental health services. She received her Masters Degree in Social Work from San Francisco State University.

Kimberly Belshé, MA, Secretary, California Health & Human Services Agency
Ms. Belshé was appointed secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2003. She manages an agency that has almost 33,000 employees, with a total state budget nearing $70 billion. The agency oversees 11 state departments and one board that are responsible for providing Californians with health, developmental, mental, rehabilitative, social and other critical services, particularly to those most in need and at risk. Ms. Belshé served in a number of leadership positions in state government under the administration of Governor Pete Wilson. As State Health Director, Ms. Belshé provided leadership in the state's efforts to expand health insurance coverage for low-income children and pregnant women, reverse teenage and unintended pregnancies, combat tobacco use and advance a broad prevention agenda. She received her MA degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University and her BA degree in government from Harvard.

Timothy T. Brown, PhD, Associate Director of Research, Petris Center
Mr. Brown received his doctorate in Health Services and Policy Analysis, with a specialization in economics, from UC Berkeley. His current research focuses on health care labor markets, child behavioral health, oral health, and the connection between social capital and health. He has presented his work most recently at the 5th World Congress of the International Health Economics Association, the American Public Health Association's 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, and the 2005 Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth. His work has been published in Health Services Research, Health Economics, and The Archives of Internal Medicine. As Associate Director of Research, Mr. Brown manages the research staff and day-to-day research work of the Petris Center.

Bruce Cohen, MBA, President and CEO, Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc.
Mr. Cohen joined Cellerant as President, CEO and Director in 2002. Prior to Cellerant, he served as CFO of GeneSoft (now Oscient Pharmaceuticals), President and CEO of Acacia Biosciences (acquired by Rosetta) and Vice President of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Alza). He previously served as President of ViTel International and as a management consultant with the Monitor Group. Mr. Cohen held a number of positions at Baxter, as well as in the non-profit health care sector. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA and MA from Tufts University.

Kathleen E. Foote, JD, Sr. Asst. Attorney General, California Department of Justice
Ms. Foote has been a deputy in the Attorney General's Antitrust Section in San Francisco since 1988, and is currently the Antitrust Chief. The cases she has handled include Hartford Fire Ins. v. California, the Wells Fargo-First Interstate bank merger, the Thomson-West law book publishing merger, and the Microsoft case. Her unit's most recent successes include averting the closure of the Shell Bakersfield oil refinery, and securing a groundbreaking pro-consumer ruling on antitrust exemption in California v. Safeway, et al. Before joining the State, Ms. Foote was Associate Dean at USF School of Law, where she taught Land Use and Environmental Law for seven years. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1967, and her law degree from USF School of Law in 1975.

Paul B. Ginsburg, PhD, President, Center for Studying Health System Change
Mr. Ginsburg is President of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Founded in 1995, HSC conducts research to inform policymakers and other audiences about changes in organization of financing and delivery of care and their effects on people. HSC is widely known for the objectivity and technical quality of its research and its success in communicating it to policy makers and the media, as well as to the research community (see www.hschange.org for more details). In 2005, for the third time, Mr. Ginsburg was named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 most powerful persons in health care. He recently received the first annual HSR Impact Award from AcademyHealth.

Deborah Haas-Wilson, PhD, Professor of Economics, Smith College
Prof. Haas-Wilson teaches Economics at Smith College, where she teaches courses in microeconomic theory, industrial organization and antitrust policy, health economics, and the economics of regulation. Prof. Haas-Wilson received her PhD in economics from the UC Berkeley in 1983 and her BA in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1979. She is the author of Managed Care and Monopoly Power: The Antitrust Challenge (Harvard University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care (Duke University Press, 2003). Prof. Haas-Wilson serves as a consultant on antitrust matters and an economic expert in antitrust cases for the Federal Trade Commission. Also, she has served as a consultant on antitrust matters for the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General and as an economic expert in multiple private cases in the health care and sports industries.

Stephen W. Mayberg, PhD, Director, California Department of Mental Health
Dr. Mayberg has been Director of the California Department of Mental Health since February 1993. Since then, he has embarked on an ambitious agenda that includes major initiatives to reform the mental health system. These reforms reflect changes based on programmatic research and program outcomes and accountability. Dr. Mayberg received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota. During his public service career, he has been an advocate for interagency programming and planning. In June 2002, Dr. Mayberg was appointed to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.

Edward E. Penhoet, PhD, President, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Mr. Penhoet is President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and is currently Vice Chairman of the state-appointed board overseeing California's $3 billion stem cell research initiative. Mr. Penhoet served as President and CEO of Chiron Corporation from the time he co-founded the company in 1981 until 1998. Prior to founding Chiron, he was a faculty member of the Biochemistry Department of UC Berkeley, and is the immediate past Dean of the School of Public Health. Mr. Penhoet continues to be involved in the biotechnology industry as a director of Alta Partners, a pioneering venture capital firm that focuses on investing in life sciences. Mr. Penhoet earned his AB in Biology from Stanford in 1963 and his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington in 1968.

Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, Dean, School of Public Health, Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy & Management, UC Berkeley
Prof. Shortell is the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Organization Behavior at the School of Public Health and Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley; he is also the Dean of the School of Public Health. Prof. Shortell has done extensive research identifying the organizational and managerial correlates of quality of care and of high performing health care organizations. He has been the recipient of many awards including the distinguished Baxter-Allegiance Prize; the Distinguished Investigator Award from AcademyHealth; the Gold Medal Award from the American College of HealthCare Executives; and, the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award from the American Hospital Association. Prof. Shortell received a commendation by California State Senate for his contribution to health through leadership of the technical committee on "Pay for Performance."

Kenneth Taymor, JD, MBV Law, LLP
Mr. Taymor is an attorney at MBV Law, LLP in San Francisco and a member of the Program on Stem Cells in Society at the Stanford Medical School's Center for Biomedical Ethics. He represents entrepreneurs, privately held companies, nonprofit enterprises, and public entities. His research focuses on intellectual property protection, licensing and commercialization, and the economic impacts of government supported business development. Mr. Taymor received a JD from Yale Law School in 1982 and an AB from Princeton in 1974. He has been a Lecturer at the Stanford Law School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA Law School.

Richard M. Scheffler, PhD, Director, Petris Center
Prof. Scheffler is the Distinguished Professor of Health Economics & Public Policy at the School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. His research focuses on healthcare markets, health insurance, the health work force, mental health economics, and international health system reforms. Prof. Scheffler has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Rockefeller Scholar, and a Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine - National Academy of Sciences. He has received the American Public Health Association's Carl Taube Award for contributions to mental health services research. His forthcoming book is on the future of the health work force and will be published by the University of California Press.