Kathe Fox, PhD, Board Chair

Kathe Fox is an independent consultant and an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Harvard Medical School. Most recently she was Vice President of Informatics at Aetna. Kathe also helped manage data governance for external release of Aetna data for research. Prior to joining Aetna, Kathe was Vice President and Practice Leader for Health Plan customers at Medstat (now Truven Health Analytics) where she was responsible for analytic and consulting solutions for the managed care market. In addition, Kathe was a Principal Investigator for contracts with CMS and AHRQ and was a member of the original team that vetted the Health Plan Report Card (1994) for NCQA.

Kathe holds a Ph.D. from Yale University (Department of Epidemiology and Public Health) and a B.A. in History from Skidmore College. She is President of the Alumni Board of the Yale School of Public Health, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of axialhealthcare, and an advisor to Springboard Enterprises.

Carmella Bocchino, RN, MBA

Carmella Bocchino, a registered professional nurse and former hospital administrator, is President and CEO of CRB Strategies, LLC, a consulting organization offering strategic operation and policy services to health care organizations. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor to the executive team at America’s Health Insurance Plans, AHIP.  Prior to her role as Senior Advisor, Ms. Bocchino held the position of Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Strategic Planning at AHIP.  She currently serves on the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) governance board. For the past two decades she has worked with the executives of health insurers developing strategies to streamline health plan operations, reform care delivery and payment model, and advance an interconnected health care system. Ms. Bocchino has a master’s degree in business administration from Rutgers University, an undergraduate degree in human resources management from Upsala College and a nursing degree from Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing. 

Lesley Curtis, PhD

Lesley H. Curtis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Duke School of Medicine.

A health services researcher by training, Dr. Curtis is an expert in the use of Medicare claims data for health services and clinical outcomes research, and a leader in national data quality efforts. Dr. Curtis serves as co-PI of the FDA’s Sentinel Innovation Center, Co-Investigator of the Data Core for the FDA’s Sentinel Initiative to monitor the safety of FDA-regulated medical products, and Chair of the Data Quality Subcommittee for the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST) Coordinating Center that generates real-world evidence for health technology and medical devices.

She serves as co-Investigator of the coordinating center for PCORI’s National Clinical Research Network (PCORnet), working with health systems and patient networks to develop a harmonized network infrastructure that leverages health systems and electronic health record data for robust observational and interventional research.

Roy Goldman, PhD, FSA, MAAA, CERA

Roy Goldman is a retired actuarial executive who has been active in all areas of health insurance since 1980. His last position was Chief Actuary of Humana. Prior to that he was the CFO and Chief Actuary of Geisinger Health Plan in Danville, PA; Mercy Health Plans in St. Louis, MO; and The Prudential Insurance Company’s Group Operations.

Roy was the 72^nd President of the Society of Actuaries.  He is currently immediate Past President and a member of the board of directors. He served five years as a trustee of The Actuarial Foundation and was the founding sponsor of The Modeling the Future Challenge for high school students. He served six years on the Health Advisory Panel of the Congressional Budget Office. While at Humana, Roy help establish the Health Care Cost Institute.

He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Rutgers University and B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude from Franklin and Marshall College.  He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries [FSA] a member of the American Academy of Actuaries [MAAA], and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst [CERA]. His research and articles have been published in the SOA’s Transactions, The American Journal of Managed Care, The Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, the SOA’s textbook on Group Insurance, and SOA’s Health Section’s Health Watch, and the Academy’s Contingencies.

Mary Henderson, PhD

Dr. Henderson is a Principal at Health Analytics Connect. She was the President of the CVS/Aetna owned subsidiary Health Data Management Solutions (HDMS), where HDMS provided leading edge health care analytics solutions and consulting to large employers, payers and provider systems, including international engagements. She then served as Senior Vice President of Business Solutions at the American Medical Association. Her responsibilities included overseeing the CPT licensing business, the Provider credentialing products and the data management and licensing for the Physician Master File, the most comprehensive database on physicians and other health professionals in the US. Most recently, she was the Executive Vice President at Blue Health Intelligence where she oversaw all sales of products and services, account management and product development. Dr. Henderson has a PhD from Brandeis University, focusing on health economics, and a BA in psychology from Temple University, graduating summa cum laude.

Cara V. James, PhD

Cara James is President and CEO at Grantmakers In Health (GIH). Prior to joining GIH, she served as Director of the Office of Minority Health at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) where she provided leadership, vision, and direction to advance the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CMS goals related to reducing disparities and achieving health equity for vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic populations, persons with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, and persons living in rural communities. Under her guidance, CMS developed its first CMS Equity Plan to Improve Quality in Medicare, its first Rural Health Strategy, created an ongoing initiative to help individuals understand their coverage and connect to care, increased the collection and reporting of demographic data, and developed numerous resources to help stakeholders in their efforts to reduce disparities. Before joining CMS, Dr. James served as Director of the Disparities Policy Project and Director of the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, where she was responsible for addressing a broad array of health and access to care issues for people of color and other underserved populations, including the potential impact of the Affordable Care Act, analyses of state-level disparities in health and access to care, and disparities in access to care among individuals living in health professional shortage areas. Prior to joining the foundation, she worked at Harvard University and The Picker Institute.

Dr. James is a past member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Health and Medicine (NASEM) Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and has served on several NASEM committees. She has published a number of peer-reviewed articles. Dr. James holds her doctorate in health policy and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University.

Mara McDermott, JD, MPH

Mara McDermott is the Chief Executive Officer of Accountable for Health, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization committed to accelerating the adoption of effective accountable care. She is an accomplished healthcare executive with deep expertise in federal healthcare law and policy, including delivery system reform, physician payment and payment models. Previously, Mara was Vice President at McDermott+Consulting, where she worked with clients to advance policies related to value-based care. Prior to that, she was senior vice president of federal affairs at America’s Physician Groups (formerly the California Association of Physician Groups, CAPG), a professional association representing medical groups and independent practice associations working in capitated, coordinated care models. Mara is an attorney by training and previously served as counsel in the health industry practice at Akin Gump in Washington, D.C. In that role, she focused on a variety of issues affecting health industry clients, with an emphasis on health policy and regulatory issues facing physician organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and academic medical institutions.

Kosali Simon, PhD

Dr. Kosali Simon is a nationally known health economist who specializes in applying economic analysis in the context of health insurance and health care policy. She is the Herman B Wells Endowed Professor and Associate Vice Provost for Health Sciences at Indiana University. Her current research mainly focuses on the impact of health insurance reform on health care and labor market outcomes, and on the causes and consequences of the opioid crisis.

Dr. Simon is a research associate of NBER, serves as a member of the governing body of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and management. She previously served on the board of ASHEcon, the board of the AEA's Committee on the Status of Women in Economics, and the National Advisory Committee of RWJF Health Policy Scholars Program.

She is Editor for the Journal of Health Economics, Co-Editor of Journal of Human Resources and editorial board member for the American Journal of Health Economics and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. She is former Associate Editor of Health Economics (2009-2018) and former co-editor of Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (2010-2015).

Sara Teppema

Sara Teppema is the Chief Actuary for Wildflower Health. In this role, she focuses on predictive analytics to support the development and design of value-based care models to improve outcomes in women’s health. Prior to joining Wildflower, she was an independent consultant and partner with Santa Barbara Actuaries. She also served as the divisional vice president for provider payment innovation and analytics for Health Care Services Corporation, and as a principal for advisory services with Valence Health, now part of Evolent Health. Teppema’s leadership also includes positions at the Society of Actuaries, Aon, Deloitte Consulting, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Mercer.

Sara is currently vice-chair of the American Academy of Actuaries health equity committee. She recently completed a term as an elected board member of the Society of Actuaries and chaired the International Actuarial Association’s Pandemics Task Force. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois.

Chris Whaley

Chris Whaley is the Associate Director of the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research and Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health. Prior to joining Brown University, he served as an Economist at RAND Corporation. His research focuses on health care price transparency and market structure. Whaley’s research has been covered in many media outlet such as the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNN. His research results have been presented to many state and federal policymakers including the US Congress, Congressional Budget Office, Federal Trade Commission, Executive Office of the President, and many more.

Dr. Whaley has published several peer-reviewed articles. He holds a doctorate in Health Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago.