TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014
3:45 TO 4:45 PM
Lexington Convention Center-Bluegrass Ballroom 2
MODERATOR
Lisa Simpson, M.B., B.Ch., M.P.H., FAAP
President & CEO
AcademyHealth
Dr. Simpson is the president and chief executive officer of AcademyHealth. A nationally recognized health policy researcher and pediatrician, she is a passionate advocate for the translation of research into policy and practice. Her research focuses on improving the performance of the health care system and includes studies of the quality and safety of care, health and health care disparities and the health policy and system response to childhood obesity. Dr. Simpson has published over 75 articles and commentaries in peer reviewed journals. Before joining AcademyHealth, Dr. Simpson was director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and professor of pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati. She served as the Deputy Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality from 1996 to 2002. Dr. Simpson serves on the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program National Advisory Council, and the Editorial boards for the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research and Frontiers in Public Health Systems and Services Research. In October of 2013, Dr. Simpson was elected to the Institute of Medicine.
Dr. Simpson earned her undergraduate and medical degrees at Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), a master’s in public health at the University of Hawaii, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies in 2013.
PANELISTS
Paul E. Jarris, M.D., M.B.A.
Executive Director
Association of State & Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
Paul Jarris was appointed Executive Director of ASTHO effective June 19, 2006. Prior to his appointment, Jarris served as State Health Official of the Vermont Department of Health from 2003 to 2006.
Jarris served as Medical Director for Vermont's largest nonprofit HMO, Community Health Plan, from 1992-1996. He was President and CEO of Vermont Permanente Medical Group from 1998-2000 as well as CEO of Primary Care Health Partners, Vermont's largest statewide primary care medical group, from 1999-2000. Throughout his career, Jarris has maintained an active clinical family practice, including work in federally qualified health centers and a shelter for homeless adolescent youth. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Medical Management.
Jarris graduated from the University of Vermont and received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1984. He interned at Duke-Watts Family Medicine Residency Program in Durham, N.C. and completed his residency at the Swedish Family Practice Residency Program in Seattle, Washington. Following residency training, he received a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Washington.
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Robert M. Pestronk, M.P.H.
Executive Director
National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO)
As Executive Director for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) in Washington, DC, since November 2008, Mr. Pestronk represents the nation’s local health departments and their staff who protect and promote health, prevent disease, and seek to establish the social foundations for wellness in nearly every community across the United States. Mr. Pestronk received an MPH from the University of Michigan School of Public Health with concentrations in human nutrition and health planning and administration. He received an AB in politics from Princeton University.
Prior to his position at NACCHO, he served as Health Officer in Genesee County, Michigan for 22 years where, among other accomplishments, he was recognized for: establishing the 26,000 member Genesee Health Plan, some of Michigan’s earliest public and work place tobacco control regulations, and Genesee County’s Public Health week conference; introducing a culture of efficacy, efficiency, accountability, and quality improvement within his department; reducing infant mortality rates and the racial disparity among those rates; increasing foundation and federal funding for the department’s work; involving local residents and his board in three five-year cycles of successful departmental strategic planning; and creating productive relationships with university and community-based organizations. His health department was fully accredited by the state of Michigan.
Mr. Pestronk is a member of the Board of Directors for the Ruth Mott Foundation. He is a past board member of NARSAD, the Mental Health Research Association, the Michigan Health Officers Association (of which he is a past president) and of the Michigan Association for Local Public Health. He is a Primary Care Policy Fellow through the United States Department of Health and Human Services and trained as a Scholar through the Public Health Leadership Institute. He is Past President of the Primary Care Fellowship Society and Past President of the Public Health Leadership Society Council. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Public Health Roundtable and of the National Advisory Committee for Turning Point: Collaborating for a New Century of Public Health. He was the first President of the Public Health Law Association. He served on the Board of the Greater Flint Health Coalition, the Rotary Club of Flint (Michigan), Priority Children, and Temple Bethel.
The University of Michigan School of Public Health honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus, and he was the first recipient of the John H Romani Award from the Department of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health. The American Lung Association, Genesee Valley, has honored him as Professional of the Year and subsequently as Health Advocate of the Year.
Pestronk’s published work includes articles in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the Journal of the American Public Health Association, Health Education and Behavior, Public Health Reports, and the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Chapters in books include those published by the American Public Health Association and Oxford University Press.