Separating Politics from Health Care Choices: Key “Purple” Messages for All Consumers
 
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Speakers

Leah Binder
CEO, The Leapfrog Group

Leah Binder is CEO of The Leapfrog Group, a national organization based in Washington, DC, representing employer purchasers of health care who are demanding improvements in the safety of the nation's hospitals. In 2009, she ranked 28th on Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare.

Ms. Binder plays a leading role in health care policy. She currently sits on the National Quality Forum's Serious Reportable Events Steering Committee, the National Priorities Partnership Board, the Critical Care Roundtable, and the Advisory Board of the Institute for Interactive Patient Care.

Before joining Leapfrog in the spring of 2008, Ms. Binder spent 8 years as vice president at an award-winning rural hospital network in Farmington, Maine, the Franklin Community Health Network, and before that she was a senior policy advisor for the Office of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in New York City. She started her career at the National League for Nursing, where handled policy and communications for more than 6 years.

Ms. Binder has a BA from Brandeis, and two masters' degrees from the University of Pennsylvania; one from the Annenberg School of Communication and the other from the Fels Institute of Government.
Ann Boynton
Deputy Executive Officer, Benefit Programs Policy and Planning, CalPERS

Ann Boynton became deputy executive officer of Benefit Programs Policy and Planning in April 2011, as part of a reorganization of CalPERS' internal reporting structure. Ms. Boynton provides executive leadership for health policy and planning, health policy research, health plan contracting and administration, retirement research and planning, and the CalPERS Center for Innovation.

Ms. Boynton previously served as deputy executive officer of Benefits Administration. She came to CalPERS in September of 2010 from the legal and consulting firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips where, as a managing director, she worked with health care and health care information technology issues.

Prior to that, Ms. Boynton served as undersecretary at the California Health and Human Services Agency. As one of the agency's top officials, she helped oversee state and federal health care and social services programs, including Medi-Cal and the health information technology exchange. From February 2005 to February 2006, Ms. Boynton was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief deputy cabinet secretary where she was responsible for the development and advancement of major policy initiatives for the administrative branch of California state government and the day-to-day running of state government operations.  Her work experience includes almost 20 years as a management consultant in the private sector, including employment with IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers and owning her own management consulting business.

She holds a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from California Lutheran University and a master's degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Wendy Lynch, PhD
CoDirector, Altarum Institute Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care

For 25 years, Dr. Wendy Lynch has been making the connection between human and business performance. Her career has included roles as a faculty member at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, senior scientist at Health Decisions International, and principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Now, Dr. Lynch runs her own consulting firm and serves as senior scientist at an education and research foundation called the Health as Human Capital Foundation. She also continues to educate audiences about economic incentives in health care. Educated at the University of Colorado at Boulder, she earned a doctorate in research and evaluation methodology.

Dr. Lynch has applied her skills in research design and evaluation to several pivotal studies in the fields of health management, productivity assessment and human capital management. A frequent speaker, and author of more than 50 articles and reports, Dr. Lynch is also coauthor of the book Aligning incentives, Information and Choice.
Jonathan Skinner, PhD
John Sloan Dickey Third Century Chair of Economics, Dartmouth College

Dr. Skinner is John Sloan Dickey Third Century Chair of Economics, Dartmouth College, and a professor in the Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Dartmouth Medical School. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a former editor of the Journal of Human Resources. His research has focused on factors influencing household savings, regional variations and growth in health care expenditures and productivity, and racial disparities in health care utilization and outcomes. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.