Advisory Board Members
Tangerine Brigham, MPP
Program Officer, Community Health
The San Francisco Foundation
Tangerine Brigham is the Community Health Program Officer for The San Francisco Foundation. She directs the Foundation's efforts in the areas of prevention, access, health disparities, and policy reform. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Brigham served as Chief of Staff for LA Care Health Plan, Director of the Corporation for Supportive Housing's California program, and Director of Policy and Planning for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She serves on the boards of First Place Fund for Youth, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, and the Fred Finch Youth Center. She received her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Harvey Brody, DDS, MS.Ed
Professor Emeritus
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Brody is a Clinical Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. He has authored 45 articles, been a featured speaker at national and international meetings, and received numerous honors and awards. These include two Educator of the Year awards, a congressional commendation from the 104th United States Congress, Omega Boys and Girls Club Man of the Year for 2000, and the 2006 UCSF Martin Luther King Jr. Award. Dr. Brody has served as a health policy fellow with Senator Diane Feinstein, a senior policy advisor for the Assistant Secretary of Health, and an advisor to the UC Office of the President. Dr. Brody has directed hospital and university based residency programs, been the principal investigator on local, state and federal grants, and serves on the boards of five community based organizations.
Paul Feldstein, PhD
Professor of Health Care Management
University of California, Irvine
Paul J. Feldstein is Professor and Robert Gumbiner Chair in Health Care Management at the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Irvine. His previous position was at the University of Michigan, as Professor in both the Department of Economics and the School of Public Health. Before that, he was Director of the Division of Research at the American Hospital Association. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago. Prof. Feldstein has written six books and over 60 articles on health care. His book, Health Care Economics, 6th edition, 2005, is one of the most widely used texts on health economics. Health Policy Issues: An Economic Perspective on Health Reform, 3rd edition was published 2003. His book, The Politics of Health Legislation: An Economic Perspective, 3rd edition, 2006, uses economic analysis to explain the outcome of health legislation in terms of the interest groups affected. During several leaves from the University, Prof. Feldstein worked at the Office of Management and Budget, Social Security Administration, and the World Health Organization. He has been a consultant to many government and private health agencies, an expert witness on health anti-trust issues, as well as serving on the board of Sutter Health, a large not-for-profit health care organization. He is currently on the board of directors of Odyssey Healthcare, a publicly traded hospice company.
Kathleen Foote, JD
Senior Assistant Attorney General
California Department of Justice
Kathleen 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 University of San Francisco School of Law, where she taught Land Use and Environmental Law for seven years. Prior to teaching, she spent three years as an associate attorney with the San Francisco law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1967, and her law degree from USF School of Law in 1975. Ms. Foote has been active in community affairs, serving as mayor of Mill Valley, CA twice during the 1980s, and as a San Francisco Bay (BCDC) Commissioner from 1988 to '92. She is also past Board chair of the Marin Community Foundation, and a former youth soccer coach.
Richard Frank, PhD
Professor of Health Economics
Harvard Medical School
Richard G. Frank is the Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prof. Frank serves on the Biobehavioral Sciences Board of the Institute of Medicine. He advises several state mental health and substance abuse agencies on issues related to managed care and financing of care. He also serves as Co-Editor for the Journal of Health Economics. Prof. Frank was awarded the Georgescu-Roegen prize from the Southern Economic Association for his collaborative work on drug pricing, the Carl A. Taube Award from the American Public Health Association for outstanding contributions to mental health services and economics research, and the Emily Mumford Medal from Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry. In 2002, Prof. Frank received the John Eisberg Mentorship Award from National Research Service Awards.
H.E. Frech III, PhD
Professor of Economics
University of California, Santa Barbara
H.E. Frech III, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has published over 100 articles and books. His research has ranged over a wide variety of topics, including health insurance and managed care, competition, monopoly and antitrust policy, the production of health, Medicare reform, and Australian health insurance. Prof. Frech has consulted on health economics for private and public organizations. He has testified in federal and state courts, state legislatures, state and federal regulatory bodies, and in the US Congress. He has lectured in North America and in Europe. In 1990, Prof. Frech co-organized (with Peter Zweifel) the Second World Congress of Health Economics in Zurich.
Deborah Haas-Wilson, PhD
Professor of Economics
Smith College
Prof. Haas-Wilson is Professor of 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 University of California, 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). In addition, her work has been published in multiple journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Law and Economics, and Review of Economics and Statistics. 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.
Sherry Hirota
Executive Director
Asian Health Services
Sherry M. Hirota is currently chief executive officer of Asian Health Services, based in Oakland. In addition to her executive responsibilities at Asian Health Services, her professional and community affiliations include: member of The California Endowment's Board of Directors since its founding in 1996 until April 2005; appointed member of the Advisory Committee on Research on Minority Health of the ORMH, National Institutes of Health; a founding board member of the Association of Asian and Pacific Islander Community Health Organizations; member of the Governing Board, Alameda Alliance for Health until 2002;and member of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of Primary Health Care's National Center for Cultural Competence. She is a member of the executive committee of the Community Voices for Immigrant Health Project, a Kellogg-funded national initiative called Community Voices: Health Care for the Underserved; a board member of the Community Health Centers Network, and the 2005 Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alameda Health Consortium. Ms. Hirota co-authored a chapter on "Access to Health Care" in Confronting Critical Issues of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, Sage Publications, Inc. 1994, and wrote a chapter in the book Immigrant Women's Health, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999. Ms. Hirota's numerous awards and commendations include the Office of Minority Health's 2006 Minority Health Community Leadership Award (Asian American Community), The California Wellness Foundation's 2005 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award, Outstanding Woman of the Year in Health-Alameda County Women's Hall of Fame, Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award, and Woman of the Year, 16th Assembly District of California.
Anthony Iton, MD, JD, MPH
California Health Officer
Alameda County
Tony Iton is the Alameda County California Health Officer. He received his medical degree at Johns Hopkins Medical School and subsequently trained in internal medicine and preventive medicine at New York Hospital, Yale, and Berkeley, and is board certified in both specialties. Dr. Iton has also received a law degree and a Masters of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley and is a member of the California Bar. He has worked as an HIV disability rights attorney at the Berkeley Community Law Center, a health care policy analyst with Consumers Union West Coast Regional Office, and as a physician and advocate for the homeless at the San Francisco Public Health Department. His experience practicing both medicine and law independently has enabled him to blend both disciplines in the day-to-day practice of public health, and in responding to recent public health emergencies such as SARS and anthrax. Recent awards include the Champion of Children Award from the United Way; the National Association of City and County Health Officials Award of Excellence for the use of information technology in public health; and the HeartSaver Award from the American Heart Association. Dr. Iton's primary interest is the health of disadvantaged populations and the contributions of race, class, wealth, education, geography, and employment to health status.
Patrick Johnston, MA
Former California State Senator, Stockton
Patrick Johnston served for twenty years in the California State Legislature, ten in the Assembly, and ten in the Senate, where he chaired the Committee on Appropriations for six years. He was the first legislator in residence at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Government. Mr. Johnston is currently Chairman of the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy; he is Vice Chairman of the California Bay Delta Authority, the governing body for the state-federal water management system. Mr. Johnston teaches a course on California politics and policy featuring practitioners from the State Capitol at UC Berkeley. He is also a private consultant in government relations. Mr. Johnston is a graduate of St. Patrick's College (philosophy) and holds a Master's degree from CSU Sacramento (political representation).
Bill Lockyer (ex-officio member)
Attorney General
State of California
Bill Lockyer was elected as California's 30th Attorney General in November of 1998. A veteran legislator, he was first elected to the State Assembly in 1973 to represent the East San Francisco Bay Area, and moved to the Senate in 1982. Twelve years later, he was elected President Pro Tem of the California Senate by his fellow Senators. He served previously as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee for nine years, overseeing numerous bills on judicial administration and civil and criminal law. A native of Oakland, Mr. Lockyer is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and received a secondary teaching credential from CSU Hayward. He was awarded his law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento while serving in the Senate. Mr. Lockyer was named legislator of the year in 1996 by the California Planning and Conservation League for work on environmental protection. He received the same honor from the California Journal in 1997 for all-around legislative excellence. As a Senator, Mr. Lockyer was instrumental in the passage of hundreds of laws toughening California criminal laws, protecting civil rights, lowering taxes, and enhancing education quality and school safety.
Eliseo Medina
International Executive Vice President
Service Employees International Union, CLC
Eliseo Medina has served as international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) since 1996, when he made history by becoming the first Mexican American elected to a top post at the 1.8 million-member SEIU. Mr. Medina began his career as a labor activist in 1965 when, as a 19-year-old grape-picker, he participated in the historic United Farm Workers' strike in Delano, CA. Over the next 13 years, he worked alongside Cesar Chavez and honed his skills as a union organizer and political strategist. He left the Farm Workers in 1978, after rising to the rank of second national vice president. Mr. Medina has a deeply felt interest in SEIU's work on immigration policies; he's helped strengthen ties between the Roman Catholic Church and the labor movement to work on common concerns such as immigrant worker rights and access to health care.
Richard Scheffler, PhD
Director, The Nicholas C. Petris Center
University of California, Berkeley
Richard Scheffler has been the Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center since its inception in 1999. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds the Chair in Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare endowed by the State of California Office of the Attorney General. His research is on health care markets, health insurance, the health workforce, mental health economics, social capital and health, pharmacoeconomics, and international health systems. Professor Scheffler is a recipient of the American Public Health Association's Carl Taube Award, which honors distinguished contributions to the field of mental health services research. He was a Rockefeller and a Fulbright Scholar, and served as President of the International Health Economists Association 4th Congress. He has been a Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine and the World Bank. He also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization in the area of human resources. He has published more than 150 papers and edited and written six books. His newest book will be published by Stanford University Press in September 2008—Is There a Doctor in the House: Market Signals and Tomorrow’s Supply of Doctors.
Stephen Shortell, PhD, MPH
Dean, School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
Stephen M. 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 the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Dean of the School of Public Health at Berkeley. Prof. Shortell also holds appointments in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley and at the Institute for Health Policy Research, UC San Francisco. A leading health care scholar, Prof. Shortell has done extensive research identifying the organizational and managerial correlates of quality of care and of high performing health care organizations. Prof. Shortell has been the recipient of many awards including the distinguished Baxter-Allegiance Prize for his contributions to health services research; the Distinguished Investigator Award from Academy Health; 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.” He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and past editor of Health Services Research. He serves on many boards and advisory groups. He is currently conducting research on the evaluation of quality improvement initiatives and on the implementation of evidence-based medicine practices in physician organizations.