COMMITTEE

Daniel Polsky, Ph.D. (Chair), is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Policy at Johns Hopkins University. He holds primary appointments in both the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Carey Business School. He was the Robert D. Eilers Professor at the Wharton School and the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, where he was faculty from 1996 to 2019. As the current director of the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative and former executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, Dr. Polsky has extensive experience in leading interdisciplinary teams advancing research to inform U.S. health policy to address challenges of access, affordability, value, and equity. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He was the senior economist on health issues at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He received a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan in 1989 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.

London Breedlove, Psy.D., (they/them) is a licensed psychologist with over a decade of experience practicing, teaching, and doing program development with integrated behavioral health. Dr. Breedlove is the director of integrated behavioral health and a clinical associate professor in the Family Medicine Department (DFM) at University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. They serve as the co-director of education for the Osher Center of Integrative Health. They are a past board of trustees president for the Washington State Psychological Association (2019) and serve as the Washington’s Council representative to the American Psychological Association (2021–present). Prior to joining the DFM, Dr. Breedlove was the director of clinical training for doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs at Columbia Valley Community Health, a patient-centered medical home and federally qualified health center in Wenatchee, Washington, for 7 years. Dr. Breedlove currently co-chairs a task force for the Washington State Psychological Association to address psychology trainee reimbursement in Washington as an avenue to fund psychology training and address behavioral health workforce shortages in the state.

Richard G. Frank, Ph.D., is the Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics emeritus at Harvard Medical School. He is a senior fellow in economic studies and the director of the Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy at the Brookings Institution. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) directing the Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy. From 2014 to 2016 he served as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the HHS. His research is focused on the economics of mental health and substance abuse care, long-term care financing policy, prescription drug markets, and disability policy. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 1997. He is co-author with Sherry Glied of the book Better but Not Well (Johns Hopkins Press). Dr. Frank received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University.

Marie Ganim, Ph.D., is semi-retired, teaching health policy at Brown University and Northeastern University. She has over 35 years of experience leading health care reform initiatives at various levels and branches of government. The focus of her career and academic study has been on health care policy analysis, legislation, and implementation. For more than 20 years as a top advisor to the Rhode Island State Legislature, she participated in crafting most of the state’s health-related laws and policies during that era. She later served (from 2017 to 2021) as the nation’s only state health insurance commissioner, a Governor’s Cabinet role that is unique to the State of Rhode Island, combining both health regulation and policy authorities. She chaired the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Working Group on Health Care Innovation from 2018 to 2021 and was a co-founder of the NAIC Behavioral Health Parity Working Group. During the crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ganim was actively engaged in eliminating state regulatory and payment constraints on tele-health and facilitating increased private funding for Rhode Island’s substance use and mental health clinicians and services to maintain access to care throughout 2020. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. in public affairs from Northeastern University.

Cynthia Gillespie, M.A., retired from her position as secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services in November of 2022. Prior to her appointment in 2016, Ms. Gillespie served as a principal in the Washington, D.C., office of Dentons’ Public Policy and Regulation practice and a leader of the firm’s health policy and health insurance exchange teams. Earlier in her career, she served as a senior advisor to then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, where she oversaw the Romney Administration’s executive branch initiatives and helped develop the state’s health reforms. She has served on boards overseeing state government employee health plans, a health insurance marketplace, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Health Care Services. For the past 20 years, Ms. Gillespie has focused on health policy and innovations in coverage and insurance models, particularly for lower-income and special populations. As secretary in Arkansas, she oversaw a significant state-wide expansion of mental health services provided through Medicaid, with the goal of ensuring access to a robust continuum of services in both rural and urban settings. Ms. Gillespie is a graduate of Auburn University with an M.A. in organizational communication.

Christina L. Goe, J.D., is an attorney with extensive experience in health insurance regulation and health care law. She is a member of the bar in California (1980–present [inactive]) and Montana (1995–present). Ms. Goe worked as chief legal counsel and general counsel for the Montana Department of Securities and Insurance from 1999 to 2017. She was also active on several committees at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, including as chair of the ERISA Working Group and vice-chair of the Regulatory Framework Task Force. Beginning in 2010, she worked exclusively on implementing state and federal health insurance laws, including HIPAA, the Affordable Care Act, and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. In 2017, Ms. Goe established a solo law practice, focusing on state and federal health insurance law and other issues relating to health care delivery reform. She has consulted on or co-authored issue briefs and articles relating to mental health parity enforcement.

She was the recipient of the Montana Governor’s Award for Excellence in 2014 and 2016. She has a B.A. in history from Stanford University and a J.D. from Santa Clara University Law School.

Jennifer Kelly, Ph.D., is the 2021 past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is board certified in clinical health psychology and is the director of the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Her primary APA presidential initiative focused on psychology’s role in achieving health equity. In 2019, she served as a co-chair of the Advocacy Coordinating Committee of the American Psychological Association Services, Inc. She served on the board of directors as recording secretary for APA from 2013 to 2018. Prior to that, she served on the board as a member-at-large. A past president of the Georgia Psychological Association, Dr. Kelly has served as the federal advocacy coordinator of the association for 24 years.

Dr. Kelly has been recognized for her advocacy on behalf of psychology, including recognition by the APA Services, Inc., Practice Leadership Conference in 2019, for her leadership in advancing the profession of psychology through federal advocacy, Legislative Award of the Georgia Psychological Association in 2000, the 2011 State Leadership Award, Karl F. Heiser Advocacy Award, and the Federal Advocacy Award by the APA Practice Organization in 2004. She was the 2012 recipient of the APA Division of Health Psychology/American Psychological Foundation Timothy B. Jeffrey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Health Psychology. Dr. Kelly received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Florida State University.

Parinda Khatri, Ph.D., is the chief executive officer at Cherokee Health Systems (CHS). Dr. Khatri is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience in clinical practice, training and education, research, and administrative leadership in behavioral health. Prior to her role as CEO, she was the chief clinical officer at the organization, where she provided guidance on clinical quality, program development and management, workforce development, clinical research and operations for blended primary care, and behavioral health services.

Dr. Khatri is on the advisory council for the National Integration Academy for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as well as the clinical advisory committees for Amerigroup and BlueCare of Tennessee. She is also on the National FQHC Advisory Board for United Healthcare, board of directors for Advocates for Community Health (ACH), board of directors of the Tennessee Association of Mental Health Organizations, and the board of directors for Clinicians for the Underserved. Dr. Khatri was recognized with the Don Bloch Award in 2020 by the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association, the Cynthia Belar Award for Excellence for Education and Teaching by the Society of Health Psychology, and the Susan P. Smith Award of Excellence by the Tennessee Primary Care Association. Dr. Khatri received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Benjamin F. Miller, Psy.D., is the past president of Well Being Trust, a national foundation dedicated to advancing the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. Over the last two decades, Dr. Miller has worked tirelessly to prioritize mental health in our policies, programs, and investments. A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Miller works at the intersection of policy and practice, ensuring that mental health and addiction treatment are prioritized across America. His primary professional and research experience has been on the integration of mental health into both community and health care settings. He has published prolifically on the topic of mental health and primary care integration and is seen as subject matter expert for mental health. Dr. Miller has participated in several National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) efforts, including as a member of the Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and a co-chair for the National Academies’ workshop on Innovative Data Science Approaches to Assess Suicide Risk in Individuals, Populations & Communities: Current Practices, Opportunities, and Risks. Dr. Miller received his doctorate in clinical psychology at Spalding University.

Douglas P. Olson, M.D., is an internal medicine and addiction medicine physician. Dr. Olson most recently served as the chief medical officer for the country’s Medicaid program at The Center for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Washington, D.C. While at CMS, he worked primarily on mental health and substance use treatment initiatives. He is the medical director of HAVEN, Connecticut’s Physician Health Program; remains clinically active working at a community health center; and is president of the board of directors of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved. He was a National Health Service Corps scholar, is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and is an American Academy of HIV Medicine Specialist. As an administrator and clinician, his career has been dedicated to improving the health of our country’s workforce and that of underserved populations. Dr. Olson graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Yale.

Sally Raphel, M.S., APRN-PMH, FAAN, has been a practicing nurse for 62 years and retired from teaching in 2016 from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is presently the associate editor for Archives Journal of Psychiatric Nursing. Ms. Raphel started the child sexual abuse clinic at the University of Maryland in the 1980s and served as the director of the American Nurses Association Policy, Practice and Economics Department for 11 years. Ms. Raphel ran the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Mental Health Nursing at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and worked with countries in South and Central America. She served as the president of the Baltimore Mental Health Leadership Institute and served on the Board of ISPN. She has numerous national and international publications, presentations, and blogs and has held national elected and appointed positions on groups working to advance mental health for persons of all ages. Ms. Raphel graduated from Mercy Hospital Nurses School and holds a masters in psychiatric nursing from the University of Maryland. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nurses and was named a Living Legend in Psychiatric Nursing by the International Society of Psychiatric Nurses.

E. Clarke Ross, D.P.A., has been the public policy director for the American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) since December 2010. Since 2014 Dr. Clarke and AAHD have served as the Washington Representative of the Lakeshore Foundation. Dr. Clarke’s 52 years of work history includes serving as the chief executive officer of CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder); the deputy executive director for public policy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness; the executive director of the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association; the assistant executive director for federal relations and then deputy executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors; and director of governmental activities at United Cerebral Palsy.

Dr. Clarke served on the National Quality Forum (NQF) Measure Applications Partnership coordinating committee (July 2021–March 2023) and between July 2012 and March 2023 served on several NQF committees. Dr. Clarke was a member of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Health IT Policy Committee, Consumer Workgroup, from March 2013 to November 2015; of the Consumer Task Force, November 2015–April 2016; and of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Wellness Campaign National Steering Committee from January 2011 to September 2014. Dr. Clarke received his doctorate in public administration from George Washington University.

Joshua Jacob Seidman, Ph.D., is the chief research and knowledge officer at Fountain House, a national mental health not-for-profit organization fighting to improve health, increase opportunity, and end social and economic isolation for people living with serious mental illness. He is trained academically as a health services researcher and strongly believes in complementing that with human-centered design approach in advancing new models of care. Dr. Seidman previously launched and led Avalere’s Center for Payment & Delivery Innovation. Dr. Seidman oversaw quality and performance improvement at Evolent Health. He served as director of meaningful use for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where he was responsible for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s policy development around the meaningful use of electronic health records and e-quality measures. Previously, Dr. Seidman was the founding president of the Center for Information Therapy, which advanced the practice and science of using health information technology (IT) to deliver tailored information to consumers to help them make better health decisions. Dr. Seidman also served as the director of measure development at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Dr. Seidman received his Ph.D. and M.H.S. from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his B.A. from Brown University.

Marylou Sudders, M.S.W., is currently a senior policy advisor at Smith, Costello & Crawford, a premier public policy law firm and a trustee of a charitable fund that invests in children’s mental health in Massachusetts. In 2023 she stepped down after serving the full 8-year term in Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s administration as secretary of health and human services. She oversaw 12 agencies, including the MassHealth program, and chaired the state’s insurance marketplace and numerous commissions. During that time she also led the state’s response to COVID-19. As secretary, she invested heavily in improving access for behavioral health care, advocating for stronger consumer insurance protections, implementing telehealth, and developing strategies to address current work force challenges. An expert in behavioral health, she has worked to pass significant legislation on behavioral health care and insurance coverage, child welfare reform, and gun safety. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, including serving as commissioner of mental health in Massachusetts, associate professor and department chair at Boston College School of Social Work, a nonprofit chief executive officer, and a consultant with the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Sudders received her M.S.W. from Boston University and holds three honorary doctorates, plus is the recipient of numerous civic, social work and professional honors, including the Knee/Wittman Outstanding Achievement Award from the NASW Foundation.

Rachel Talley, M.D., is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the director of the department’s fellowship in community psychiatry and the associate program director for the department’s adult psychiatry residency program. Dr. Talley serves on the board of the American Association for Community Psychiatry and is a member of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute. She works clinically in community-based settings providing care to publicly insured patients with severe mental illness. She has contributed to several nationally disseminated quality-improvement frameworks to advance the integration of physical and behavioral health services, including co-authorship and participation on expert panels. She has been recognized for her teaching and leadership in community mental health, including receipt of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry’s Albert Stunkard Faculty Recognition Award for the past three consecutive years (2021, 2022, 2023) and receipt of the 2021 Larry A. Real Award from the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Dr. Talley received her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed both her residency training in adult psychiatry and her public psychiatry fellowship at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute.

John Torous, M.D., M.B.I., is the director of the digital psychiatry division in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BDIMC), a Harvard Medical School–affiliated teaching hospital, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and assistant professor. At a system level, Dr. Torous is the medical director of behavioral health informatics for Beth Israel Lahey Health. Dr. Torous is active in investigating the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters on the topic. He directs the digital psychiatry clinic at BIDMC, which seeks to improve access to and quality of mental health care through augmenting treatment with digital innovations. Dr. Torous serves as editor-in-chief for the journal JMIR Mental Health and as web editor for JAMA Psychiatry, and he is the immediate past chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s health information technology committee. He has served on National Research Council panels on veterans’ health in the past year.

He has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences and received an undergraduate degree in the field from the University of California, Berkeley, before attending medical school at the University of California, San Diego. He completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics, and master’s degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard University.

Jane Zhu, M.D., M.P.P., M.S.H.P., is a primary care physician and associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Zhu’s broad research interests relate to access to care as well as the role of provider incentives and organization of care on health care delivery. Her research program has focused extensively on mental and behavioral health services, including (1) how mental health provider networks (the sets of providers with which managed care insurers contract to deliver services) affect access to care and clinical outcomes; (2) how to measure and monitor network adequacy; and (3) understanding levers that improve mental health workforce participation and patient access in public insurance programs. Funded by foundation grants and the National Institutes of Health, her work has been published in high-impact journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs; cited in government and legislative reports; and widely reported in the media.

Dr. Zhu received her B.S. from Duke University, where she was named a Fulbright Scholar, and her M.D. and M.P.P. from Harvard. She completed internal medicine residency training at the University of California, San Francisco, and completed fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania as a National Clinician Scholar.

STAFF

Udara Perera, M.P.H., is a senior program officer on the Board on Health Care Services at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). She is the study director for this project, Strategies to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Care Services through Medicare and Medicaid. Prior to joining the National Academies, she was a director in quality measurement at the National Quality Forum in Washington, D.C., where she led the consensus development process committees on cardiovascular diseases, all-cause admissions and readmissions, surgery, primary care and chronic illness, geriatrics and palliative care, and cost and efficiency. She also worked on the Measure Applications Partnership and led the Post-Acute Care/Long-Term Care Workgroup and Health Equity Advisory Group, and she has worked on the development of several recommendations reports on topics that include maternal morbidity and mortality measurement, electronic health record care communication and care coordination, and attribution for critical illness and injury. She completed her postdoctoral research training in maternal and child health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds an M.P.H. in Global and Community Health and graduate certificate in public health leadership and management from George Mason University, and a B.S. in biological sciences, a B.S. in interdisciplinary studies: public and community health, and a minor in psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is completing her Dr.P.H. in community health and prevention at Drexel University.

Abigail Godwin, M.P.H., is a dedicated public health professional specializing in policy analysis, legislative research, and executive administration. Currently, she serves as a research associate at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine working on enhancing provider participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace insurance plans. She holds a master of public health from Boston University and a bachelor of science in public health from Sam Houston State University. Before her role at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Ms. Godwin worked on campaign efforts to expand long-term services and supports coverage with the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, served as a policy intern for Massachusetts State Senator John F. Keenan, and worked as a special assistant at the Brennan Center for Justice. Alongside her professional and academic milestones, Ms. Godwin is dedicated to community service, with volunteer experience at United Ways Workplace Wellness, Be The Match, and Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Elizabeth Ferré, M.P.H., is a research associate with the Board on Health Care Services. She is currently working on the project Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection and assisting with a second project, Strategies to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Care Services through Medicare and Medicaid. Previously, she has worked on the Board on Global Health on the Analysis to Enhance the Effectiveness of the Federal Quarantine Station Network Based on Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic consensus study. Her primary interests include anticipation, prevention, detection, and response to infectious diseases; emerging disease threats; global health security; pandemic preparedness; and achievement of health equity. She is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, and attended James Madison University for a Bachelor of Science in public health. She holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in global health from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Marc Meisnere, M.H.S., is a senior program officer on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (National Academies) Board on Health Care Services and is director of the Standing Committee on Primary Care. Since 2010, Mr. Meisnere has worked on a variety of National Academies consensus studies and other activities that have focused on mental health services for service members and veterans, suicide prevention, primary care, and clinician well-being. Most recently, he was the study director for the 2021 National Academies report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care and the 2023 report Achieving Whole Health: A New Approach for Veterans and the Nation. Before joining the National Academies, Mr. Meisnere worked on a family planning media project in northern Nigeria with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and on a variety of international health policy issues at the Population Reference Bureau. He is a graduate of Colorado College and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Joseph Goodman, B.S., is a senior program assistant at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). Having been with the Academies since 2007, Mr. Goodman has extensive experience with working on several studies and workshops. Some of his recent work at the National Academies has included workshop series such as Accelerating the Use of Findings from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research in Clinical Practice to Improve Health and Health Care. He earned his Bachelor of Science in music education from Frostburg State University.

Sharyl J. Nass, Ph.D., serves as senior director of the Board on Health Care Services and director of the National Cancer Policy Forum at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). To enable the best possible care for all patients, the board undertakes scholarly analysis of the organization, financing, effectiveness, workforce, and delivery of health care, with an emphasis on quality, cost, and accessibility. The forum examines policy issues pertaining to the entire continuum of cancer research and care. For more than two decades, Dr. Nass has worked on a broad range of health and science policy topics that includes the quality, safety, and equity of health care and clinical trials; developing technologies for precision medicine; and strategies to support clinician well-being. She has a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, and she undertook postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as well as a research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has been the recipient of the Cecil Medal for Excellence in Health Policy Research, a Distinguished Service Award from the National Academies, and the Institute of Medicine staff team achievement award (as team leader).