Staff

 

Catherine Hess is Managing Director for Coverage and Access at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), working with a group of staff in developing and implementing initiatives focused on public and private insurance coverage, access to care and health care reform. She serves as Co-Director for Maximizing Enrollment: Transforming State Coverage and Co-Expert Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWFJ) sponsored State Refor(u)m web-based platform for exchange on health care reform. She also oversees longstanding work funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to provide assistance and report on state children's health insurance programs, as well as an Atlantic Philanthropies project to address children and health care reform. She was principal investigator for the National Workgroup to Integrate a Safety Net into Health Reform Implementation, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, and is senior advisor on a federal cooperative agreement focused on Medicaid and the safety net. Ms. Hess earlier severed as the first Executive Director of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, a position she held for 14 years. Afterward, she worked as a consultant to national organizations and federal and state agencies. In the 1980's, she served as Director of the Policy Office for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Division of Family Health, where she played an instrumental role in developing the nation's first state maternity care insurance program, Healthy Start. Ms. Hess holds teach appointments at both John Hopkins and George Washington Universities' school of public health. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester and has a Master of Social Work from the Boston University School of Social Work.

 

 

 

Alice M. Weiss joined the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) in 2007, and is the Co-Director of Maximizing Enrollment: Transforming State Health Coverage. Alice also provides technical assistance expertise and leadership to other projects relating to eligibility and enrollment issues, health reform implementation, children’s coverage, and Native American health coverage. Alice came to NASHP from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, where she was health counsel for Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), with primary responsibility for Medicaid, CHIP, and private health insurance coverage issues. During her tenure at Finance, Alice helped write the bipartisan CHIP Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), Hurricane Katrina health relief legislation, and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and was integrally involved in Medicaid reform debates. Alice has also held senior health policy positions at the National Partnership for Women & Families and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, supporting private coverage and Medicaid reform legislative initiatives, most notably in her work on the Patient’s Bill of Rights managed care reform legislation. Alice received a B.A. from Haverford College and a J.D. from Northeastern University Law School.

 

 

 

Alan Weil has been the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) since September 2004. NASHP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research and policy organization dedicated to excellence in state health policy and practice. Mr. Weil previously served as director of the Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project, one of the largest privately funded social policy research projects ever undertaken in the United States. He previously held a cabinet position as executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, was health policy advisor to Colorado Governor Roy Romer, and was assistant general counsel in the Massachusetts Department of Medical Security. Mr. Weil is a frequent speaker on state health policy, Medicaid, federalism, and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He is the co-editor of two books, publishes regularly in peer-reviewed journals, has testified before Congress more than half-a-dozen times, and is often called upon by major media outlets. He is on the editorial board of the journal Health Affairs, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine's Board on Health Care Services, the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System, and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Consumer Health Foundation in Washington, DC, and of the Board of Directors of the National Public Health and Hospitals Institute. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Harvard Law School.

 

 

 

Maureen Hensley-Quinn is a Program Manager at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) where she focuses on states efforts to cover eligible individuals, particularly children within public and publicly subsidized programs. Maureen serves as the Deputy Director of Maximizing Enrollment, a $15 million national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused on streamlining and simplifying enrollment and retention of individuals eligible for public health coverage programs, including Medicaid. Prior to joining the staff of NASHP, Maureen was the Medical Specialist at the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA). At CTAA, she focused on the public's access to health care through analysis of public health coverage (Medicaid in particular) and state and federal transportation policies. Prior to working at CTAA, Maureen was employed by the Massachusetts State Attorney General's Office within its Insurance Division as a Mediator/Legal Analyst. In this role she advocated on behalf of Massachusetts residents for improved treatment and coverage, particularly in health care (both public and private). Maureen received a bachelor's degree in political science from Merrimack College in Massachusetts and earned a master's degree in public affairs from the John W. McCormack School of Public Policy, which is a school within the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

 

 

 

Andrew Snyder is a Program Manager at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), where he analyzes state policies related to eligibility, enrollment, and benefit design in Medicaid and CHIP programs. He has worked on issues relating to data systems, public health, the healthcare safety net, and particularly on issues related to oral health. In a previous position as a program manager at the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, Andy oversaw large research projects, including an extensive 50-state comparison of policies related to children’s dental care. From 2002 to 2006, Andy was a policy analyst at the Wisconsin Medicaid program, where he staffed a Governor’s Task Force on Access to Oral Health Care. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a master's degree in public affairs from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

 

 

 

Katie Baudouin joined NASHP in 2011. Through the Maximizing Enrollment program she works with grantee states to improve their Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment systems and processes as well as assisting as they prepare for health care reform implementation in 2014.  Before joining NASHP, she worked for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals on the state's MaxEnroll project as well as health care reform and managed care implementation.  She previously worked with nonprofit and community based organizations as Public Policy Director of the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations (LANO). A native of Louisiana, she attended Loyola University New Orleans and earned an MPA from Louisiana State University.

 

 

 

Nicole Dunifon joined NASHP in January 2012 to serve as the program assistant for the Maximizing Enrollment program. As the program assistant, Nicole supports the day-to-day operations of the grant, develops and maintains content for projects on the Maximizing Enrollment website, and provides research and administration support for the program. Prior to joining NASHP, Nicole worked as the operations coordinator for Health Leads, a non-profit organization whose mission is to mobilize undergraduate volunteers, in partnership with providers in urban clinics to connect low-income patients with basic resources to be healthy. Nicole holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master's degree in health policy from George Mason University.