Presenter Bios

STEPHEN T. PARENTE, PhD, MPH, MS is the Minnesota Insurance Industry Chair of Health Finance in Carlson School of Management and the Director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota.  As a Professor in the Finance Department, he specializes in health economics, health information technology, and health insurance.  He has served has a consultant to several of the largest organizations in health care delivery including: UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Center for Medicare and federal and state governments as well as medical technology firms.  Dr. Parente’s peer-reviewed publications focus on the consumer directed health plans, health reform, medical technology assessment and consumer choices in health and wealth management.  His peer-reviewed research has been reported in the nation media outlets including: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes, Politico, Business Week, and Washington Post.   He has discussed his research in national and local media appearances on television and radio. 

In Washington DC, he served as the Governing Chair of the Health Care Cost Institute, an Adjunct Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute and a health policy adviser to the American Action Forum.  Dr. Parente was been nominated in 2017 to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services.  He has testified to the US Congress and state government on health reform legislation.  Dr. Parente was a health policy advisor for the McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign and served as Legislative Fellow in the office of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D‑WV) during the Bush and Clinton Administrations' health reform initiatives.  He has a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and both a Masters of Public Health and a Masters of Public Policy Analysis from the University of Rochester.

Lucy Liu is a Principal in Oliver Wyman’s Health and Life Sciences practice. 

She focuses on value-based healthcare, working with physicians, health systems, and payers on increasing the value of everyday care delivery through projects ranging from enterprise strategy, to insurance product innovation, to improving appropriateness in care, one service at a time. 

Lucy’s recent experiences include:

Previously, Lucy worked with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies at ClearView Healthcare Partners, where she led growth strategy engagements including therapeutic area strategy, mechanistic and commercial opportunity assessments, strategic M&A due diligence, life cycle management, and joint venture facilitation s

Lucy received her BA in Neurobiology from Harvard University, and in a previous life was a bench scientist in the Molecular and Cellular Biology department of Harvard University and in the Regenerative Medicine group at Pfizer Global Research and Development. 

David Auerbach, PhD is a health economist and currently Director for Research and Cost Trends at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. His work has spanned a number of focus areas including understanding employer markets for insurance, spending trends and cost drivers, primary care and the health care workforce. He has specialized in, and is a nationally-recognized expert on the Registered Nurse workforce including advanced practice nurses. He has twice chaired the workforce theme for the Academy Health Annual Research Conference, has appeared several times on NPR’s Marketplace, and has authored and co-authored several dozen publications on a range of topics in the top journals in the field including NEJM, JAMA, and Health Affairs. Prior to working at the HPC, he was a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation in Boston and prior to that, he was a principal analyst at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington DC where he co-developed the model used to analyze the Affordable Care Act.

Bryce Ward is the Associate Director at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research and founder of ABMJ Consulting. He has a PhD in economics from Harvard University and BAs in economics and history from the University of Oregon. He has expertise in urban and regional economics, labor economics, health economics, public finance, social economics, real estate economics, environmental and natural resource economics, and statistics/econometrics.

He taught classes at Harvard University, Lewis and Clark College, the University of Oregon, and Portland State University. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and economic reports, and he has provided expert testimony in dozens of court cases and legislative proceedings. His research has been featured in places like the New York Times, PBS NewsHour, ProPublica, the Boston Globe, the Oregonian, Ballotpedia, Stateline, Scientific American, Inc. Magazine, and MSN Money.

Arnold Epstein, MD, MA, is the John H. Foster Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard Chan School of Public Health His research interests focus on quality of care and access to care. During 1993-94 he served in the Clinton Administration and in 2014-2016 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services. He received the Distinguished Investigator Award from Academy Health in 2015. He is Associate Editor at the New England Journal of Medicine and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.

Lander came to CHP after working as a program director and teacher for a high school study abroad program in South America. Living and teaching in small communities in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia often caused her to ask questions about the disparities in health, wealth, and education that exist around the world. She finds gratification being at CHP working to eliminate those same disparities. Lander holds an M.S. in science education from Montana State University and a B.A. in biology from The Colorado College. 

 Angela J. Beck, PhD, MPH is Principal Investigator and Director of the HRSA/SAMHSA-funded Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she also serves as Clinical Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, and Assistant Dean for Student Engagement and Practice. Her research efforts are focused on development of a minimum data set, studies of characteristics and practice settings, and analysis of professional and legal scopes of practice for the behavioral health workforce. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physiology from Michigan State University and Master of Public Health and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education.

Dr. Sutherland completed his Ph.D. in School/Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Virginia. He also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Psychology and an M.S. in Clinical Psychopharmacology.  He is licensed as a Psychologist in Montana and New Mexico. He holds a Prescribing Psychologist License in New Mexico and is Board Certified in Medical Psychology.  His career has encompassed work in public schools, child advocacy centers, community health centers, private practice, general and psychiatric hospitals, as well as the Indian Health Service.  He is especially grateful for the opportunity to serve Native American people in Montana.  His current interests include the development of integrated care programs, psychopharmacology and the assessment and treatment of children. Professional recognitions include the Indian Health Service Director’s Award, FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award, Montana Psychological Association Charles E. Kelly Award, and the American Society for The Advancement of Pharmacotherapy National Service Award.

Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine and a CHP/PCOR core faculty member. His research focuses on the constraints that vulnerable populations face in making decisions that affect their health status, as well as the effects of government policies and programs designed to benefit vulnerable populations. He has published empirical economics and health services research on the elderly, adolescents, HIV/AIDS and managed care. Most recently, he has researched the regulation of the viatical-settlements market (a secondary life-insurance market that often targets HIV patients) and summer/winter differences in nutritional outcomes for low-income American families. He is also working on a project examining the labor-market conditions that help determine why some U.S. employers do not provide health insurance.

He worked for three years as an economist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., where he also taught health economics as a visiting assistant professor at the University of California-Los Angeles. He received a BA in economics, an MD and a PhD from Stanford University.

Vickie Groeneweg, MSN, MBA, RN, has cared for patients for more than 35 years. She holds a bachelor of arts in education, a bachelor of science in nursing, a master of science in nursing, as well as an MBA. Her clinical expertise is in Intensive Care and Emergency/Trauma Nursing. Vickie has been employed at Bozeman Health for 29 years and assumed the role of Chief Nursing Officer in 2007. In 2016, Vickie was the executive sponsor of the most extensive change in the history of Bozeman Health—the conversion to a system-wide electronic health record, EPIC. Vickie has served as the Bozeman Health member of the Gallatin County Mental Health Local Advisory Committee for 10 years and is the executive leader coordinating the Behavioral Health strategic planning for the health system. Vickie’s passion is to build transformational leaders and engage them in managing successful change. She belongs to the American Nurses Association, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Matt Kelley was appointed health officer in Gallatin County in 2010 and serves as director of Gallatin City-County Health Department, the lead public health agency in the county. Prior to that, Matt served as a policy and program analyst with the Executive Office of the Mayor in the District of Columbia, where he worked on public health and mental health issues for the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. Matt has also worked as a journalist covering the U.S. Congress and served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, where he and his wife focused on sanitation and nutrition projects. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Mongan Institute Health Policy Center.  Dr. Donelan is a survey researcher who has conducted hundreds of local, national and international surveys of the experiences of patients and health professionals in health care systems.  Presently, Dr. Donelan is leading a national project looking at the roles of physicians, nurses, social workers and informal caregivers in the care of frail older adults.   Throughout her career Dr. Donelan has been interested in the nexus of patient and professional experience of health system change at micro and macro levels, with a special interest in improving health care for vulnerable populations and underrepresented minority faculty and staff.  Dr. Donelan has been a collaborator for more than 20 years with Dr. Peter Buerhaus, Director of the Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Center at Montana State University and has served on a National Academy of Medicine Committee to understand progress toward the goals of the 2010 Future ofNursing report. Previously Dr. Donelan was a faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and was the founding Managing Director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program. She was a co-founder and senior vice-president of a company that provided assistance to patients confronting critical and complex illnesses. She holds degrees in English and American Literature (AB) from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, in Education (EdM) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and in Health Policy and Management (ScD) from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Renee Reijo Pera accepted the position of Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Montana State University in January, 2014. Previously, Dr. Reijo Pera was the director of Stanford University’s Center for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Research and Education and the Center for Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology as well as the doctoral program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Reijo Pera has received numerous awards throughout her career, including being named one of 20 Influential Women in America by Newsweek magazine in 2006. In 2010, her work in imaging algorithms was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 10 biomedical breakthroughs. She has been at Stanford since 2007. The university is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 research universities in the nation with a $1.2 billion annual research portfolio. In addition to her work as director of the two research centers and doctoral program, Reijo Pera was also George D. Smith Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the departments of genetics and obstetrics and gynecology. Her research is aimed at understanding the genetics of human development and in characterizing the basic properties of normal and diseasebearing human pluripotent stem cells, especially their ability to differentiate to all cell types. Reijo Pera's work has garnered more than $28 million in research awards, including several ongoing grants from the National Institutes of Health. She has also served as a consultant, adviser, founder, or on the board of directors of numerous private, donor-backed initiatives that moved research discoveries into the field of medical applications. Dr. Reijo Pera received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Superior, a master’s degree in entomology from Kansas State University, a doctorate in molecular cell biology from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and postdoctoral training in human genetics at the Whitehead Institute for BioMedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. 

Peter Buerhaus, a professor of nursing and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies, is a nurse and healthcare economist who is well-known for his studies and publications focused on the nursing and physician workforces in the United States. He serves on the Board of Directors for Academy Health, the nation’s premier association of health services and health policy researchers, as well as on the Bozeman Health Board of Directors.

Before coming to Montana State University in 2016, Dr. Buerhaus was the Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing (2000-2015) and Senior Associate Dean for Research (2000-2007) at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Health Policy (2013-2015), and assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health (1992-2000). During the 1980s he served as assistant to the Vice Provost for Medical Affairs, the chief executive of the University of Michigan Medical Center (1987-1990), and as assistant to the chief executive officer of the University of Michigan Medical Center’s seven teaching hospitals (1983-1986).   

Jonathan S. Skinner is a James O. Freedman Presidential Professor in the Department of Economics, Dartmouth College and a professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, where he works in the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. He is also a research associate and Director of the Aging Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge, MA, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

His research interests include the economics of government transfer programs, technology growth and disparities in health care, and savings behavior of aging baby boomers. Before moving to Dartmouth, he taught at the University of Virginia, University of Washington, Stanford University, and Harvard University. Professor Skinner received a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Rochester, NY, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Wendy Stock is a professor of economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics (DAEE) at Montana State University. She joined the DAEE in 2000 and served as the DAEE Department Head from 2006-2016. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Michigan State University in 1994 and 1996, respectively, and a B.A. in economics from Weber State University in 1992. Prior to joining the DAEE, she was an assistant professor of economics at Kansas State University.  Her research focuses on two primary areas: (1) the impacts of labor market policies and (2) economics education. Her research in the area of labor market policies has focused on the impacts of disability, race, sex, and age discrimination legislation and on the impacts of no-fault divorce and family leave policies. Her work in this area has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Human Resources, Economic Inquiry, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, and other outlets. Her research in the area of economics education includes more than a dozen studies focusing on graduate and undergraduate education in economics, educational attrition and degree completion, assessment of the factors that impact time to degree completion, the impact of teaching innovations, the immediate and longer term job outcomes of college graduates, and the match between curricula and job demands. Her research in this area has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Human Resources, Economics of Education Review, Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Education, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Economic Inquiry. She is the author of an insightful introductory-level economics textbook, “Social Issues and Economic Thinking,” published by Wiley and available via most online outlets. She served on the American Economic Association Committee on Economic Education from 2005-2011 and again beginning in 2017. She has won numerous teaching and research awards and her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Ford Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation, and the Charles Koch Foundation. Her most recent area of research focuses on the impact of policy and regulation on the health, education, and labor market outcomes of those with mental disorders.

Vincent H. Smith is Professor of Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University and co-director of the MSU Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis.  Dr. Smith received his bachelors and master's degrees in economics from the University of Manchester in 1970 and 1971, and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 1987).   He has been privileged to be a member of the Montana State University faculty since 1988.   Dr. Smith’s current research program examines agricultural trade and domestic policy issues, with a particular focus on agricultural domestic and trade policy, risk management, agricultural science policy, and domestic and world commodity markets.  He is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar who has authored and edited eleven  books and monographs, including The Economics of Crop Insurance and Disaster Aid, (co-authored with Dr. Barry Goodwin), and has also published over 200 articles on agricultural insurance and other policy and economic issues. 

Dr. Smith’s contributions to agricultural economics and the economics of agricultural insurance have been recognized nationally through multiple awards for outstanding research and education programs. In 2008, he became a Distinguished Scholar of the Western Agricultural Economics Association and in 2011 he received the USDA Bruce Gardner Award for his outstanding contributions to the economic analysis of agricultural policy.   Since 2010, Dr. Smith has also served as an American Enterprise Institute Visiting Scholar and the Director of AEI’s national agricultural policy research program.  The program is widely recognized as a vehicle through which leading internationally recognized scholars provide insights to congress and, more broadly, a wide range of stakeholders on the economic impacts of US agricultural policy. In addition, to his scholarly research, Dr. Smith work has been featured extensively in major print media (for example, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, US News and World Report, the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, the Congressional Quarterly, and other venues).