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Health Chairs Meeting
June 8-10, 2006
Washington, D.C.

Winds of Change: Health Policy in Turbulent Times

This program is sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Speakers Bios

Donna Folkemer

Donna Folkemer is Staff Director for the Health Chairs Project and a Group Director at the National Conference of State Legislatures.  She oversees staff in NCSL’s Forum for State Health Policy Leadership and provides technical assistance to state legislators and legislative staff on Medicaid, prescription drugs, and aging and disabilities.  Donna’s career in state health policy research and management spans 32 years.  Prior to joining NCSL in 2000, Donna was Chief of Policy and Planning for the District of Columbia Medicaid Program.  Earlier, she was a senior researcher at the Intergovernmental Health Policy Project at George Washington University and a program manager at the National Association of State Units on Aging.  Donna began her professional career as a health planner at the Maryland Office on Aging and during her 16 years there served as Chief of the Long Term Care Division and Chief of the Planning and Evaluation Division.  Donna is a graduate of West Virginia University and holds masters degrees from both the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University.

Barbara Lyons, Ph.D.

Diane Rowland, Sc.D.

Diane Rowland is the Executive Vice President of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Executive Director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.  She is also an adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of the Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Rowland has directed the Kaiser Commission since 1991 and overseen the Foundation’s health policy work since 1993.  She is a noted authority on health policy, Medicare and Medicaid, and health care for poor and disadvantaged populations and frequently testifies as an expert witness before the United States Congress on health policy issues.  Her federal health policy experience includes service on the staff of the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, as well as senior health policy positions in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Secretary and the Health Care Financing Administration (now Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).  Dr. Rowland is a nationally recognized expert with a distinguished career in public policy focusing on health insurance coverage, access to care, and health care financing for low-income, elderly, and disabled populations. She has published widely on these subjects and is the editor of several books, including Financing Home Care and The Medicaid Financing Crisis: Balancing Responsibilities, Policies, and Dollars, and is a co-author of Medicare Policy: New Directions for Health and Long-Term Care of the Elderly and Health Care Cost Containment: Lessons from the Past and a Policy Proposal for the Future. 

Dr Rowland is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a founding member of the National Academy for Social Insurance, Past President and Fellow of the Association for Health Services Research (now AcademyHealth), and a member of the Advisory Board for the Brookdale National Fellowship program.  She has served as a national expert on the Governor’s Health Reform Task Force in Louisiana, the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, and the Commonwealth Commission on the Future of Health Insurance and Commission on Women’s Health.

Dr. Rowland holds a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, a Masters in Public Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Doctor of Science in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University. 

David Merritt

David Merritt is a project director at the Center for Health Transformation.  The Center, headed by former Speaker Newt Gingrich, is a collaboration of public and private sector leaders working to transform health and healthcare in America. He leads CHT’s projects on Health Information Technology, the Uninsured, and Consumer-Driven Healthcare. 

He works extensively with Congressional offices, the administration, the media, and private sector leaders to bring fundamental change to our health and healthcare systems, particularly through health information technology.  He is widely quoted in trade and national press, including Business Week, United Press International, and MSNBC, as well as in Modern Healthcare, Healthcare IT News, and other publications.  He is a frequent speaker with Center members, as well as with state and industry leaders, such as the Southern Governors Association, Citigroup, the Florida House of Representatives, and the Georgia eHealth Summit.  His writing has been widely published, including the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and the Washington Times.   

Prior to joining the Center, Merritt was with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) directing the association’s educational programs, with a primary focus on federal legislative and regulatory issues.

Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.

Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., was appointed Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on February 5, 2003.  Prior to her appointment, Dr. Clancy had served as AHRQ's Acting Director since March 2002 and previously was Director of the Agency’s Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research (COER).

Dr. Clancy, who is a general internist and health services researcher, is a graduate of Boston College and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  Following clinical training in internal medicine, Dr. Clancy was a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond before joining AHRQ in 1990.

Dr. Clancy holds an academic appointment at George Washington University School of Medicine (Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine) and serves as Senior Associate Editor, Health Services Research. Dr. Clancy has served on multiple editorial boards (currently Annals of Family Medicine, American Journal of Medical Quality, and Medical Care Research and Review). Dr. Clancy has published widely in peer reviewed journals and has edited or contributed to seven books. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians in 2004.

Her major research interests include various dimensions of health care quality and patient, including women’s health, primary care, access to care services, and the impact of financial incentives on physicians' decisions.

Dr. Clancy lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C, with her husband, Bill.  She enjoys jogging, movies and spending time with her extended family, especially four nieces in Virginia.

Gene W. Matthews, J.D.

Gene Matthews, J.D. is the Director of the Institute of Public Health Law, which is an operating arm of the CDC Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia.  The mission of this new Institute is to expand the use of law as a tool in the practice of public health through outreach, training, and coordinated research.

Mr. Matthews served as the Legal Advisor to CDC in Atlanta from 1979 to 2004, directing a legal staff that grew to 30 persons.  During that 25 year span, he handled a wide range of public health law issues and litigated important public health lawsuits and civil discovery cases.  Mr. Matthews is widely published and is frequently called upon to lecture on cutting-edge legal issues facing public health, such as bioterrorism preparedness, confidentiality, and livable communities. 

Since 1999, Mr. Matthews has also provided leadership for the development of CDC’s internal Public Health Law Program, and he has guided this exciting initiative to reach out both to the legal community and to public health practitioners. 

His recent creation of the Institute of Public Health Law as part of the CDC Foundation is designed to create the external entity to complement CDC’s internal public health law initiative and to build additional partnerships and activities using alternative funding mechanisms.

In June 2004, Mr. Matthews received the Distinguished Career Award of the Public Health Law Association “…in recognition of a career devoted to using law to improve the public’s health.”  Mr. Matthews also holds faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and the Georgia State University College of Law.

Mr. Matthews is a 1971 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law and is a member of the North Carolina Bar.

John Kitzhaber, M.D.

John Kitzhaber served as Oregon Governor from 1995 to 2003. He was President of the State Senate from 1985 until 1993. Gov. Kitzhaber has been closely involved with natural resource issues in Oregon and the West during his entire public service career. As governor of Oregon, he an advocate for finding innovative and cooperative solutions to the natural resource issues confronting the region. He served as cochair of the Western Governors’ Association efforts that developed a comprehensive strategy to address forest health and the risk of catastrophic fire throughout the West. He took the lead on Columbia River management issues. His administration developed and implemented the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds as a way to involve local communities in the recovery of threatened and endangered salmon runs. Gov. Kitzhaber joined with former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to develop the “Enlibra “ approach to resource management, and led the effort to address the forest health crisis in the Northwest through his work with the Blue Mountains Demonstration Area. Kitzhaber earned his bachelor of science degree from Dartmouth College and his medical degree from the University of Oregon Medical School.

John McDonough, DPH

John E. McDonough is the Executive Director of Health Care For All, Massachusetts’ leading consumer health advocacy organization.  From 1998 through 2003, he was an Associate Professor at the Heller School, Brandeis University, and a Senior Associate at its Schneider Institute for Health Policy.  From 1985 to 1997, he served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives where he co-chaired the Joint Committee on Health Care.  In 1996, he led the successful campaign for passage of health access legislation to cover uninsured children, funded by new tobacco taxes, legislation which served as a model for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program. 

Edmund F. Haislmaier

Edmund F. Haislmaier is an expert in health care policy and markets. Prior to rejoining Heritage in 2005 as a Research Fellow, Ed was a health policy consultant (1998-2004) and Director, Health Care Policy in the Corporate Strategic Planning and Policy division of Pfizer (1994-1998). Before that (1987-1994), Haislmaier was the Senior Policy Analyst for health care issues at The Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Haislmaier is the author of numerous papers on health policy topics including; health care tax policy, employer-based and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, foreign health systems, long-term care, pharmaceuticals, and health care price controls. He is also frequently called upon to assist federal and state lawmakers in designing and drafting health reform proposals and legislation.

He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Haislmaier holds a B.A. in History from St. Mary's College of Maryland.

Senator Richard T. Moore

DISTRICT REPRESENTED: WORCESTER AND NORFOLK. — Blackstone, Douglas, Dudley, Hopedale, Mendon, Milford, Millville, Northbridge, Oxford, Southbridge, Sutton, Uxbridge and Webster, in the county of Worcester; and Bellingham, in the county of Norfolk.

EDUCATION: Hopedale High School; Clark University, A.B.; Colgate University, M.A.,; University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

PROFESSION: Educational Administrator.

PUBLIC OFFICE: Selectman (1970-1978, chairman 1971, 1972, 1974 and 1977); Quinsigamond Community College Advisory Board (1970-1975); Massachusetts Health and Education Facilities Authority (1968-1970); Mass. House (1977-'94); Associate Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency (1994-'96); Mass. Senate (1996-2006).

Committees on which the legislator serves:

Health Care Financing (Chair)
Senate committee on Bills in the Third Reading
Senate committee on Post Audit and Oversight
Bonding, Capital Expenditures & State Assets
Higher Education

Representative Patricia A. Walrath

Representative Robert S. Hargraves

DISTRICT REPRESENTED: First Middlesex. - Consisting of the towns of Ayer, Dunstable, Groton, Pepperell and Townsend, all in the county of Middlesex.

EDUCATION: University of Maine; Boston University.

OCCUPATION: Middle School/High School Principal.

PUBLIC OFFICE: Groton Town Moderator (1967-1973); Groton Selectman (1972-1976, 1982-1994); Groton-Nashoba Valley Technical High School Planning Committee (1964-1967); Groton School Committee (1964-1967); Mass. House (1995-2002).

Committees on which the legislator serves:

House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight
House Committee on Rules
Joint Committee on Public Health
Joint Committee on Health Care Financing

Molly Ramsdell

Ms. Ramsdell has been with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) for ten years and currently serves as staff to NCSL’s Standing Committee on Budgets and Revenue and NCSL’s Task Force on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.  Her work with the committee and task force includes leading NCSL’s activities before Congress and the administration on these issues.  Ms. Ramsdell is the author of NCSL’s Mandate Monitor, a publication that tracks federal mandates and the cost shift to states.

Prior to staffing the Budgets and Revenue Committee, Ms. Ramsdell staffed NCSL’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee and spent several years as program manager of NCSL’s Health Policy Tracking Service.  Prior to joining NCSL, Ms. Ramsdell was a research associate at the Intergovernmental Health Policy Project at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Ms. Ramsdell holds a master’s degree in public health from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.  

Joy Johnson Wilson

Ms. Wilson is Federal Affairs Counsel and Health Policy Director at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).  NCSL represents the legislatures of the 50 states, its commonwealths, territories and the District of Columbia.  As Federal Affairs Counsel, she assists with overall government relations, administrative, and public affairs activities in the NCSL Washington Office and is responsible for the operation of the Washington Office in the absence of the Director. As Director of Health Policy, she designs and implements the lobbying strategy for the conference on health care issues.  

Ms. Wilson has been with NCSL since 1978.  She took a leave of absence in 1989 to serve on the staff of the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care, better known as the "Pepper Commission.”  On the Pepper Commission staff, she was the liaison to groups representing state and local elected officials, organized field hearings and worked on issues related to the impact of health care reform on small business.   She was recently appointed to serve as a non-voting member of Medicaid Commission established by Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Ms. Wilson received a Bachelor of Science from Keene State College in New Hampshire and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Victoria Wachino

Victoria Wachino is a nationally recognized expert on health care coverage, specializing in the Medicaid program and the uninsured.  She is the principal of Wachino Health Care Policy Consulting, an independent consultancy that conducts research, analysis, and strategy on health care policies and their impact on low-income people, the health system, and states.  Wachino is a frequent speaker and commentator on developments in the Medicaid program.

Between 2004 and 2006, Wachino served as Health Policy Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one of the nation’s premier policy organizations.  In that capacity, Wachino oversaw the Center’s work on Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the uninsured.  While at the Center, Wachino evaluated the implications of federal and state proposals to restructure the Medicaid program and conducted extensive analysis of and authored numerous papers on the Medicaid provisions of the federal Deficit Reduction Act, which became law early in 2006.  

From 2000 to 2004, Wachino served as Associate Director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, where her work focused on the impact of the financing of the Medicaid program on health care coverage.  There, she lead-authored and co-authored numerous reports, including “Financing Health Coverage:  The Fiscal Relief Experience” and a series of Kaiser papers examining state fiscal policy and the changes states made to their Medicaid programs, including “States Respond to Fiscal Pressure:  State Medicaid Spending Growth and Cost Containment” and “Is the State Fiscal Crisis Over?  A 2004 State Budget Update.”.

Wachino also has broad expertise in federal budget issues.  While at Kaiser she developed an annual analysis of funding for major health programs in the federal budget. From 1995 to 2000 she worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she served as a senior policy advisor to OMB leadership on a wide range of budgetary and legislative issues and as a lead budget analyst on public health programs.  She has also worked on health care issues at the state and local level.  She holds an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from Mount Holyoke College. 

Len Nichols, Ph.D.

Len Nichols, a highly respected healthcare economist, directs the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, which aims to expand health insurance coverage to all Americans while reigning in costs and improving the efficiency of the overall health care system. Before joining New America, Dr. Nichols was the Vice President of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute, and the Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton reform efforts of 1993-94. He has testified frequently before Congress and state legislators and has published widely in a variety of health related journals.

Previously, Dr. Nichols was Chair of the Economics Department at Wellesley College, where he taught for 10 years. He also served as a member of the Competitive Pricing Advisory Commission (CPAC) and the 2001 Technical Review Panel for the Medicare Trustees Reports. He was on the advisory panel to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Covering America project and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization. Dr. Nichols received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois.

Elicia Herz, Ph.D.

Elicia Herz is a Specialist in Social Legislation in the Domestic Social Policy Division at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a federal agency that provides non-partisan research and policy analysis, and other legislative support to the U. S. Congress.   Her primary areas of expertise include Medicaid (eligibility and benefits for children, families, and pregnant women; financing; upper payment limits; managed care), and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (all issues).  Prior to joining CRS in 1998, she was an analyst with The MEDSTAT Group, a private health care research consulting firm.  She has had over 25 years of experience in the health care field.  She received a Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago.

Jocelyn Guyer is a Senior Program Director at the Center for Children and Families and a Senior Researcher at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. She joined the Institute from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, where she served as an Associate Director, and, prior to that, as a Senior Policy Analyst. Her publications at the Kaiser Commission include The Bush Administration Medicaid/SCHIP Proposal, released in May
2003. At the Commission, she led analysis of several emerging issues relating to Medicaid, SCHIP and the uninsured, including proposals to restructure the Medicaid program; areas which she continues to examine at the Center for Children and Families. Additionally, her focus at CCF
includes family coverage issues and cost-sharing policies in Medicaid and SCHIP.

In the past, she has served as both a senior health policy analyst and a policy analyst focusing on health and welfare policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she designed policy initiatives to expand coverage to low-income parents and worked with several states to implement family-based coverage expansions. While at CBPP, she authored publications
including Taking the Next Step, Employed But Not Insured, and Six Million Mothers are Uninsured. She has also served as legislative research assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She holds a Masters of Public Affairs in Economics and Public Policy from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University.  http://ihcrp.georgetown.edu/people.html#guyer

Nancy Tyler, J.D.

Nancy Tyler is currently working as Counsel for the House Finance Committee of the West Virginia Legislature specializing in health care legislation.  She also works with the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resource Accountability in West Virginia.  She has worked closely with the legislative leadership to draft major health care legislation including the creation of the Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council and the Interagency Health Council established this year to begin redesigning the health care system.

Ms. Tyler formerly served in a variety of health posts at the local and state levels including Deputy Attorney General over the Litigation Unit of Worker’s Compensation, the director of the Office of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification, the Director of West Virginia Operations for United Health Care and the executive Director of the Women’s Health Center of Boulder, CO.  She also has worked in a variety of social work positions with persons with disabilities and individuals with mental health problems.

Ms. Tyler’s law degree is from the University of Denver School of Law and her Masters in Social Work is from West Virginia University.  

Jeffrey S. Crowley, M.P.H.

Jeffrey S. Crowley is a Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.  Mr. Crowley has more than ten years experience conducting policy research related to people living with HIV/AIDS and other people with disabilities.  His primary areas of expertise are: Medicaid policy, including Medicaid prescription drug policies; Medicare policy, with an emphasis on issues impacting non-elderly people with disabilities; and consumer education and training.  Before joining the Health Policy Institute in October 2000, Mr. Crowley served as the Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), overseeing the organization’s public education, community development, and training activities.  Mr. Crowley earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from Kalamazoo College.

Michael W. Cheek

Mike Cheek, Senior Manager, focuses on a variety of state and federal Medicaid and long-term care issues including Medicaid eligibility, Medicaid reform, dual- eligible beneficiaries, and managed long-term care. He has twelve years of long- term care operational and government experience. At Avalere, Mike also focuses on Medicare Part A payment issues for post-acute care.

Prior to joining Avalere Health, Mike was a Senior Manager at The Lewin Group (a subsidiary of Quintiles Transnational Corporation). Before joining Lewin, Mike worked for the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD) on long-term care and eligibility issues; he also operated a technical assistance center for states on programs supporting persons with disabilities. Earlier, he was the Director for Federal Policy at the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disability Services (NASDDDS). In both association positions, he represented state agency perspectives – and the individuals they support -- in the federal policy arena.

Mike is an active member of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) and is on the District of Columbia (DC) Quality Trust Board of Directors. The Trust oversees DC long-term care service delivery for persons with developmental disabilities. He holds a B.S. in Psychology and Biology from the College of William and Mary.

John Coster, R.Ph., Ph.D.

John Coster is the Vice President of Policy and Programs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS). He is responsible for policy issues relating to federal health care programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and federal regulatory issues, such as the FDA. He is a 1984 graduate of St. John's University College of Pharmacy in New York and received his Masters and PhD in Health Policy from the University of Maryland.

Cheryl Matheis

Cheryl Matheis is Director, Health Strategies Integration in AARP’s Office of Social Impact.  Her department guides AARP’s overall efforts to achieve affordable health coverage for all Americans, to allow people to receive long term services in the settings they prefer, and to improve health status.

From 1999 to 2004 she was the Director of State Affairs.  In that position, she led AARP’s national program of state governmental advocacy, overseeing a 20 person office which guided the activities of AARP’s 53 state and territorial offices. 

Prior to that, she was a legislative representative on the Federal Affairs Health Team, in which she coordinated management of AARP’s regulatory efforts and served as primary liaison to the Health Care Financing Administration and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.  Before coming to AARP, she was a practicing attorney focusing on health care issues.  Cheryl received a BA from Manhattanville College and a law degree from Catholic University.

Mara Youdelman, J.D., L.L.M.

Elena V. Rios, M.D., M.S.P.H.

Dr. Rios serves as President & CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, (NHMA), representing Hispanic physicians in the United States. The mission of the organization is to improve the health of Hispanics.  Dr. Rios also serves as President of NHMA’s National Hispanic Health Foundation affiliated with the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, to direct educational and research activities.

Dr. Rios also serves on the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and the Partnerships for Prevention Boards of Directors, the American Medical Association Commission to End Health Disparities, and is Co-Chair for the Hispanic Health Coalition.  Dr. Rios has lectured and published articles and has received several awards on health policy, including awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Congressional Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American Caucuses, American Public Health Association Latino Caucus, Association of Hispanic Health Executives, Minority Health Month, Inc., and Hispanic Magazine.

Prior to her current positions, Dr. Rios served as the Advisor for Regional and Minority Women’s Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health from November 1994 to October 1998. In 1992, Dr. Rios worked for the State of California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development as a policy researcher. In 1993, Dr. Rios was appointed to the National Health Care Reform Task Force as the Coordinator of Outreach Groups for the White House. Dr. Rios has also served as President, Chicano/Latino Medical Association of California, Advisor to the National Network of Latin American Medical Students, member of the California Department of Health Services Cultural Competency Task Force, Stanford Alumni Association and Women’s Policy Inc. Boards of Directors, and the AMA’s Minority Affairs Consortium Steering Committee.

Dr. Rios earned her BA in Human Biology/Public Administration at Stanford University in 1977, MSPH at the University of California School of Public Health in 1980, her MD at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1987, and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose and the White Memorial Medical Center in East Los Angeles in 1990, and her NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship at UCLA in 1992.

Melinda J. Silver

Melinda J. Silver is a Pension Law Specialist in the Office of Policy and Research, Employee Benefit Security Administration, at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she has concentrated for the past five years on health care issues as they affect employer-sponsored coverage. She has also worked on detail in the Solicitors Office of the U.S. Department of Labor in the Pension Benefits Division. Previously she worked as an Associate Counsel in the General Counsel’s Office for the New Mexico Public Employee Retirement Association, and was a small business owner, practicing law as a sole practitioner in New Mexico for 13 years.

Kathy Harm

In her role as Senior Advisor to ICMA-RC, Kathy is responsible for assisting employers in understanding the problems associated with retiree health care coverage and in designing solutions to these problems.  She has over 22 years of experience with ICMA Retirement Corporation, a private not-for-profit administrator of retirement programs for public sector employers.  She has a strong background in public sector qualified and non-qualified retirement programs and has become recognized as a knowledge resource in the emerging area of public sector retiree health programs.

Before joining the ICMA Retirement Corporation, Ms. Harm was employed at the local government level in Vermont and Maine, most recently as Town Manager of Windham, ME.

Ms. Harm is the author of A Public Employee’s Guide to Retirement Planning and co-author of State and Local Government Deferred Compensation Programs, each published by GFOA. She has written numerous articles appearing in governmental and pension publications, such as American City and County, Government Finance Review, Public Management, and the Employee Benefits Plan Review. She is in demand as a speaker at state and national conferences on financial planning for public employees, retiree health care issues, and other related topics. 

She received a Bachelor's Degree from Syracuse University. She is an NASD Series 6, 26, and 63 Registered Representative, and also holds a Certified Financial Planner™ designation.

 2006 Health Chairs Meeting