Michael Monson, Chair – Altarum

Michael Monson is the Chief Executive Officer, and President of Altarum, as well as a Trustee of the Board. Altarum is a nonprofit organization focused on improving the health of individuals with fewer financial resources and populations disenfranchised by the health care system. Working primarily on behalf of federal and state governments to design and implement solutions that achieve measurable results, Altarum combines expertise in public health and health care delivery with technology development and implementation, practice transformation, training and technical assistance, quality improvement, data analytics, and applied research and evaluation. Altarum’s innovative solutions and proven processes lead to better value and health for all.

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Prior to Altarum, Michael was the Senior Vice President of Medicaid and Complex Care and CEO of Social Health Bridge at Centene Corporation – the nation’s largest Medicaid health plan. He had national product responsibility for Centene’s Medicaid and Complex Care product lines – TANF; CHIP; Foster Care; Medicaid Expansion; Aged Blind & Disabled; Managed Long Term Services and Supports; and Medicare-Medicaid Plans (CMS Financial Alignment Demonstration). These products operate across 30 states and collectively comprise more than 12.5 million members and more than $70 billion in revenue.

Michael developed Centene’s strategy to address the social determinants of health and led the Centene Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration with academic researchers that improved quality of care across all of Centene’s members.

Previously, Michael was the Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Residential Services at Village Care of New York where he had responsibility for a $60 million P&L as well as multiple corporate functions. Village Care is a New York City based integrated health system with more than $200 million in revenue.

Michael began his career in health care leading strategy and innovation at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a safety net organization that was also the nation’s largest home-based health care company. He also spent six years advising nonprofit organizations as a consultant at McKinsey.

He earned a master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Katie Smith Sloan, Treasurer – LeadingAge

Katie Smith Sloan is president and CEO of LeadingAge, formerly the Association of American Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). Sloan also serves as the executive director of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA), a global network of ageing services organizations committed to quality of life for people as they age.

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At LeadingAge, Sloan is responsible for the overall management and leadership of the organization’s activities. Working closely with the Board of Directors, Sloan focuses on the continued development and implementation of LeadingAge’s strategic vision and plan, and the public policies and programs to advance the interests of its members. Sloan works to build an accurate and positive image of the important role LeadingAge members play within our society. She joined LeadingAge in April 2002, after having served in a number of key leadership positions at AARP. As a member of AARP’s senior leadership team, Sloan was responsible for major social marketing initiatives to carry out the association’s strategic priorities in health and wellness, economic security, and consumer protection.

Sloan has a strong commitment to the consumer movement, and serves as secretary-treasurer of the Consumer Federation of America and a member of the Board of the Center for the Study of Services/Consumer Checkbook. She also serves on the Board of Directors of HelpAge USA and ValueFirst, a group purchasing company serving the aging services field. Sloan has a master’s degree from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College.

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N4A Staff, Nora Super

Nora Super, Secretary – NS Ideas, LLC

Nora Super is the CEO of NS Ideas, LLC, a boutique consulting firm she leads together with her husband, health economist, Len Nichols. Nora is an internationally recognized thought leader on healthy longevity and the economic and social impact of global population aging. She is a well-known expert and prolific writer on health, long-term care, and retirement public policy. In 2022, Nora was named one of Forbes’ 50 over 50 women making an impact.

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Nora provides strategic advice to leaders in the aging field, including the US Department of Health and Human Services, The John A. Hartford Foundation, the BOLD Public Health Center of Excellence on Early Detection of Dementia, and the Long-Term Quality Alliance. Nora is also an expert facilitator of major events and convenings, with proven skill in producing meaningful outcomes and actionable recommendations. She also is a dynamic motivational speaker, with a passion for mental health advocacy and improving the lives of older adults and their families.

Nora serves on several advisory boards, including the Columbia University Health and Aging Policy Fellow Program National Advisory Board, the Gerontological Society of America’s Editorial Board for Public Policy & Aging Report and Reframing Aging Initiative Advisory Board, the Healthy Aging Coalition, the Long-Term Quality Alliance, the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition, the Retirement Income Institute’s Scholars Advisory Group, University of California San Francisco’s Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment Policy Advisory Board, and UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Brain Health Partnership.

Most recently, Nora was the Executive Director of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging, where she provided strategic direction for the three primary focus areas of the Center:  Healthy Longevity, Financial Security, and Improving Dementia Care. While at the Milken Institute, Nora created and launched the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care, which upon her departure included 100+ organizations, and seeks to transform and improve the complex health and long-term care systems that people at risk for and living with dementia must navigate.

In 2014, President Obama appointed her as Executive Director of the White House Conference on Aging, where she received wide recognition for her nationwide efforts to improve the lives of older Americans. She has also held leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AARP, Kaiser Permanente, and USAging.

Nora received a certificate in gerontology from the University of Gerontology’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, completed her graduate work in public administration with a concentration in health policy at the George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, and received a BA in political science from Tulane University and the University of New Orleans.

She and her husband, Len Nichols, live in New Orleans, LA, with their Beagle, Philippe. They have three adult children.

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Sharon Alexander – AmeriHealth Caritas

Sharon Alexander is currently President of Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Solutions for AmeriHealth Caritas where she develops and optimizes programs, policies and best practices to better support individuals with complex LTSS needs. She previously managed AmeriHealth Caritas’ Medicare dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNP) and Medicare/Medicaid integration products (MMP), as part of the CMS Financial Alignment Demonstration initiative; and she launched a full array of Medicare Advantage products for Universal American Corporation.

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She came to AmeriHealth Caritas after serving as Secretary of Aging for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where she served as the State’s chief advocate for the health, economic and social needs of 2.5 million older people and their caregivers. Ms. Alexander holds a Masters of Public Management from The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor of Science, Health Planning and Administration, from The Pennsylvania State University. 

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Michelle Bentzien-Purrington – Molina Healthcare

Michelle Bentzien-Purrington is the Senior Vice President of Managed Long-Term Services and Supports and Social Determinants of Health Innovation Center for Molina Healthcare, Inc. She is responsible for strategic oversight and operational implementation of person-centered programs for special needs populations. Ms. Purrington has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare strategy and operations, 14 of which have been dedicated to holistic programs that support independent living and individual preferences.

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Carrie Blakeway Amero – Abt Associates

Carrie Blakeway Amero is a Healthcare Project Director at Abt Associates. Ms. Amero’s work focuses on improving long-term services and supports (LTSS) systems by increasing public awareness of and access to home and community-based options and improving the quality of services in nursing homes. Her areas of expertise include Medicaid LTSS, Medicare post-acute care, and other aging and disability services; person-centered approaches to service planning and delivery; quality measurement; and direct care workforce development.

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Before joining Abt Associates, Ms. Amero was the Director of Long-Term Services and Supports at the AARP Public Policy Institute. She oversaw AARP’s LTSS-related research and strategic initiatives and collaborated with AARP partners. She led the research, development and production of the LTSS State Scorecard 2023 and coordinated the ongoing work of LTSS Choices, a multi-year, multi-faceted initiative to catalyze the transformation and modernization of the nation’s long-term care system into one that meets the dynamic needs and preferences of consumers and their families.

She earned a master’s in public affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Joe Caldwell, PhD – Community Living Policy Center

Joe Caldwell, PhD, is Senior Scientist and Director of the Community Living Policy Center, within the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University. His work focuses on home and community-based services and supports for individuals with disabilities, older adults, and family caregivers.

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Current areas of research include: 1) Impact of person-centered planning on health and community living outcomes; 2) Home and community-based services unmet needs and quality; 3) Impacts of family support policies and practices; and 4) Policy analysis and development to improve long-term services and supports financing, shift from institutional to more cost-effective home and community-based services, and enhance integration and coordination with the broader health care system. Other areas of research and scholarship have included outcomes of self-directed services and supports, supports for aging family caregivers and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the self-advocacy movement.

Previously, Dr. Caldwell was Director of Long-Term Services and Supports at the National Council on Aging, where he led the Disability and Aging Collaborative, a coalition of over 40 national aging disability organizations that work together to advance federal long-term services and support policy.

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Camille Infussi Dobson  – ADvancing States

Camille Dobson is the Deputy Executive Director at ADvancing States (formerly NASUAD). In that role, she provides executive leadership and policy guidance to state aging and disabilities agencies, focused on managed long-term services and supports and quality measurement. She provides intensive technical assistance to states seeking to implement or improve their MLTSS programs on topics as diverse as stakeholder engagement, care management, MCO oversight mechanisms and quality measurement. She has served as an advisor to NCQA regarding LTSS accreditation standards as well as person-driven outcomes. She also represented the states on two different NQF committees working on HCBS quality measurement.

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Prior to joining ADvancing States, she worked for 10 years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, focusing on Medicaid policy and operations. Her responsibilities at CMS included negotiating and monitoring section 1115 Medicaid demonstrations; managing a team of analysts who reviewed and recommended approval of managed care waivers and State plan amendments, and most significantly, serving as Senior Policy Advisor for Medicaid managed care. In that role, she served as the agency’s policy expert on Medicaid managed care delivery system issues and directed the agency’s regulatory and technical assistance efforts regarding managed care. She was the lead author of CMS’ 2013 guidance to States laying out key elements for MLTSS programs, which has since been translated into the new Medicaid managed care rule.

Before joining CMS in 2005, she spent twelve years working in Medicaid operations, policy and compliance with two Maryland-based Medicaid MCOs. She received her Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Master’s degree in Public Administration, both from George Washington University.

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Wendy Fox-Grage, AARP

Wendy Fox-Grage, MS, MPA – National Academy for State Health Policy

Wendy Fox-Grage is a project director at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), where she works with states on long-term services and supports, family caregiving, and palliative care. Prior to joining NASHP, she provided policy research, analysis, and guidance for the AARP Public Policy Institute from 2004 to 2019. Her areas of focus are state long-term services and supports reforms, Medicaid-managed long-term services and supports, and home- and community-based services. Previously, Wendy worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures for nearly 10 years, where she advised state legislators and legislative staff on issues related to long-term services and supports.

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Wendy started her career in public policy as a congressional intern with the US Senate Special Committee on Aging. She holds a master of science in gerontology and a master of public administration from the University of Southern California’s Andrus Gerontology Center. She has a bachelor of science from Northwestern University.

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Patti Killingsworth – CareBridge

Patti Killingsworth is a career public servant with more than 25 years of Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) experience, leading system redesign initiatives in multiple states. Most recently, she was the longstanding Assistant Commissioner and Chief of LTSS for TennCare, the Medicaid Agency in Tennessee, where she led the design and implementation of two successful managed LTSS programs. She is a lifelong family caregiver and nationally recognized leader in HCBS, managed LTSS, value-based purchasing for LTSS, and initiatives to improve care for beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. She currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for CareBridge, a value-based healthcare company dedicated to supporting Medicaid and dual eligible beneficiaries receiving HCBS to maximize their health, independence, and quality of life.

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Killingsworth is also a newly appointed Commissioner to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide array of issues affecting Medicaid and CHIP. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Socio-Political Communication from Missouri State University.

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Sarita A. Mohanty – The SCAN Foundation

Sarita A. Mohanty, MD, MPH, MBA, serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The SCAN Foundation. The SCAN Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the United States focused on improving the quality of health and life for older adults. Its mission is to advance a coordinated and easily navigated system of high-quality services for older adults that preserve dignity and independence.

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Previously, Sarita served as the Vice President of Care Coordination for Medicaid and Vulnerable Populations at Kaiser Permanente. Sarita was previously Assistant Professor of Medicine at USC; Chief Medical Officer of COPE Health Solutions, a health care management consulting company; and Senior Medical Director at L.A. Care, the largest U.S. public health plan.

Sarita completed her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She earned her MD from Boston University, MPH from Harvard University, and MBA from UCLA. She completed undergraduate work at UC Berkeley. She currently is an Associate Professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J.Tyson School of Medicine and is a practicing internal medicine physician with KaiserPermanente. Sarita enjoys international travel, tennis, and spending time with her husband and three children.

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Terrence O’Malley – Partners HealthCare

Dr. O’Malley is an internist/geriatrician who specializes in the care of nursing home patients. He graduated from Amherst College and Cornell University Medical College followed by training in Primary Care Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is on the teaching faculty at MGH and Harvard Medical School, where he provides clinical care and supervises medical students, house staff and fellows in geriatrics.

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He was formerly the Medical Director of Non-Acute Care Services for Partners HealthCare System, an integrated network and Pioneer ACO, where he provides network oversight of efforts to improve transitions of care and the exchange of clinical information at transitions. Through an ONC Challenge Grant, IMPACT (Improving Massachusetts Post Acute Care Transitions), he conducted research to measure the impact of the electronic exchange of essential clinical data at the time of a care transition on the utilization of healthcare services.

He co-chaired the Long Term and Post Acute Care Sub-workgroup within the Standards and Interoperability Framework at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and was one of the Leads of the Longitudinal Coordination of Care Workgroup which are creating a standard national data set for transitions of care to be part of Meaningful Use Stage 3 and the framework for the exchange of a longitudinal care plan. He is a member of the NQF Care Coordination Measures Steering Committee.  He is currently the Community Lead on the eLTSS project to develop a shared care plan among community based service provider.  He has published numerous articles on transitions of care and quality measurement, and lectures frequently on these topics at the local, regional, and national levels.

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John Tschida – Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)

John Tschida, MPP, is the Executive Director of Research and Policy for the Association of University Center on Disabilities (AUCD). AUCD is a national network of more than 100 university-based interdisciplinary programs advancing policy, research, education, practice, leadership and advocacy to improve the quality of life of children and adults with disabilities in the U.S. and around the world.

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Mr. Tschida has spent the last 20 years using data and research to drive policy change and service development for individuals for disabilities. Before joining AUCD, he served as director if the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. NIDILRR is the federal government’s premiere applied research agency impacting individuals with disabilities.

Prior to joining NIDILRR in 2014, he served as director of public policy and innovation at Allina Health in Minnesota, where he developed integrated health delivery systems and financing models for people with disabilities. At the Courage Center, Minnesota’s leading nonprofit provider of rehabilitation services, Mr. Tschida was vice president of public affairs and research. There, he built and directed a policy and research team that focused on defining and achieving better outcomes for complex populations. His team received one of the first Health Care Innovation Awards from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Earlier in his career, Tschida served as a research fellow at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research, in Washington, D.C. He was also assistant director of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Office.

Mr. Tschida has served on a number of public and private boards designing policy or governance solutions to further the independence of people with disabilities and he has written numerous articles on disability and public policy for national and local publications.

Mr. Tschida, who has lived with a spinal cord injury since 1993, has a master’s degree in public policy and a health services research certificate from Georgetown University, and a bachelor of arts from Macalester College.

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