speaker biographies
December 14-15, 2004

Charles E. Begley, Ph.D. is Professor of Management, Policy, and Community Health at the UT School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston where he has taught since 1984. He is also an adjunct faculty member of economics at Rice University. Dr. Begley teaches courses in health policy, health services research, and health economics. He has directed numerous health services and policy research projects at the national, state, and local level. With several colleagues at the University of Texas, he recently completed the 3rd edition of a popular textbook on health services and policy research. His current research interests include international evaluation of health services in epilepsy, disparities in access to and outcomes of care in epilepsy in the U.S., cost-effectiveness of mammography screening in older women, and methods for monitoring the performance of health care safety nets.

 

Jose Camacho is the Executive Director and General Council for the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC), a private, non-profit membership association that represents safety-net health care providers in the state of Texas. He assisted in the development of TACHC as an organization and has served as General Counsel since the incorporation of the Association in 1983 and as Executive Director since 1984. Prior to working for the TACHC, he obtained extensive legal and policy experience while working on migrant farm worker issues and running a private law practice.

Mr. Camacho received his bachelors in Political Science and Sociology from Texas A&I University and his J.D. from the University of Texas in 1973.

 

The Honorable David Dewhurst is the Lieutenant Governor for the state of Texas and serves as President of the Texas Senate. He has worked to balance a $10 billion plus revenue shortfall, to lower homeowners' insurance premiums, and to make tort reform a priority in response to the medical malpractice crisis. Lt. Governor Dewhurst served as Chairman of the School Land Board, the Veterans Land Board, the Coastal Coordination Council, the State Product Development Board, and served on the Governor's Business Council and the President's Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community. He was appointed by Governor Rick Perry as Chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Homeland Security and served as commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. He began his business career after serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. State Department. In 1981, he founded Falcon Seaboard, a Texas-based diversified energy and investments company. Lt. Governor Dewhurst received his B.A. from Arizona State University.

 

Ronald R. Cookston, Ed. D., in his role as Director of Gateway to Care of the Harris County Hospital District functioning as Fiscal Agent for the Harris County Community Access Collaborative, provides leadership to develop program service components, facilitates coordination of the broad community health service system, serves to facilitate linkages between the 126 Member and Affiliated Organizations of the Collaborative and provides direction for and management of the program activities. Gateway to Care offers services to the approximately 800,000 uninsured and underinsured Harris County residents. Described at Gateway to Care, it offers navigation services, which connect residents of Harris County to resources in order to establish a healthy home. Gateway to Care also developed and supports "Ask your nurse" a 24-hour telephone triage service available at (713-633-2255) for residents of the county to find resources for urgent health care questions and to help make decisions about where to access care. The program is also working to facilitate the development of additional primary care services with the objective of adding 10 clinics to the health care service delivery system by 2006 in order to increase the availability of services to 110,000 people in Harris County.

 

Anne Dunkelberg is the Senior Policy Analyst and Assistant Director for the Center for Public Policy Priorities, where she focuses on policy and budget issues related to health care access, as well as general issues related to immigrants' access to public benefits. She joined the Center in 1994, coming from the State Medicaid Director’s Office at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Anne is a native Texan. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and her M.P.A. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at U.T. Austin.
The Center for Public Policy Priorities is a non-partisan, non-profit organization whose purpose is to improve the social and economic well-being of low-income Texans by providing timely, credible, and understandable data-based analysis, and by using that analysis to advocate for policy change. The Center was founded in 1985 by a group of Benedictine Sisters from Boerne, Texas and began operating as an independent non-profit organization in 1999. The Center's policy work includes analysis of child care, health care, hunger, and workforce/economic development programs, as well as state budget and tax policy, all from the perspective of their impact on low-income Texans.

 

Travis Froehlich is vice president of Planning for the Seton Healthcare Network. His responsibilities include strategy and operations planning and reporting for the 20-facility health network. He was educated in marketing and advertising at The University of Texas at Austin and managed his own marketing research, advertising and public relations agency for 15 years before joining Seton. Froehlich is a founding member and former chair of several community health and human services boards in the Austin area. He currently serves on the board of Envision Central Texas.

 

Dianne Longley is the Director of Special Projects for the Texas Department of Insurance. Ms. Longley has worked with numerous legislative committees on issues regarding health insurance including the recent Blue Ribbon Task Force on Uninsured Texans and the Joint Interim Committee on Mandated Health Benefits. She has been with the department for 18 years and currently serves as a member of the Texas Health Care Information Council, the National Data Interchange Standards Task Force, and the State Agency Advisory Committee for the East Texas Rural Access Program.

 

Camille Miller has been President & CEO of the Texas Institute for Health Policy Research since its inception in 1996. Ms. Miller gained extensive experience in policy research and development while she served under two governors, two lieutenant governors, a state comptroller and a state senator planning, researching and developing state policy to address health and human services issues. She also held executive staff positions at the Texas Department of Community Affairs and the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. As chief of staff for the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, she supervised legislative interim studies on medically fragile children, and the reorganization of health and human services and Medicaid. In February 1995, she joined the Texas Hospital Association (THA), was selected to be the director of its Medicaid project, and promoted to be the Director of Regulatory Affairs.

The Institute is a non-profit health policy research and development organization. The aim of The Institute’s research is to contribute to the formation of corporate, state and federal policy. The Institute pursues that goal by utilizing innovative, inter-disciplinary research methods involving focus groups, forums, symposia and community development.

 

Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H.., is Commissioner of the new Texas Department of State Health Services. As Commissioner and Chief Health Officer for the State of Texas, Dr. Sanchez oversees programs such as mental health, substance abuse prevention, and treatment programs, disease prevention and bioterrorism preparedness programs, family and community health services programs, and environmental and consumer safety and regulatory programs. The Texas Department of State Health Services combines the former Texas Department of Health, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Texas Health Care Information Council, and the mental health component of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

Dr. Sanchez became Commissioner of Health on November 5, 2001. He is a board-certified family practice physician, actively practicing in Austin from 1992-2001. Dr. Sanchez also served as Health Authority and Chief Medical Officer for the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department from 1994 to 1998.

Dr. Sanchez received a M.D. in 1988 from the Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and holds a M.P.H. from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston-School of Public Health, San Antonio Branch, and a M.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University. He has bachelor's degrees in biomedical engineering and chemistry from Boston University. Dr. Sanchez grew up in Corpus Christi where he graduated from Mary Carroll High School.

 

James Walton, D.O., is board certified in internal medicine and serves Baylor Health Care System’s physician organization, HealthTexas Provider Network, as Senior Vice President and Medical Director for Community Health. A graduate of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in 1982, Dr. Walton leads the community health improvement efforts for Baylor’s affiliated physician organization, HealthTexas Provider Network. This 400-member physician organization works to expand its identity in the Dallas marketplace as a high-quality physician organization with a focus on reducing health outcome disparities through community health improvement and charitable community service. His efforts within Baylor established the Volunteers -in-Medicine program. This program coordinates volunteer physicians, nurses and support staff to seven faith-based, free community clinics in the Metroplex and Project Access.
In 2000, Dr. Walton initiated the development of Project Access with the Dallas County Medical Society. He serves as Chairperson of the Physician Committee for the program and oversees this project, testing the hypothesis that expanding physician volunteerism can improve community health status and increase health care access for the uninsured. Project Access was designed as a community collaboration between: HealthTexas Provider Network; Central Dallas Ministries; Dallas Fort-Worth Hospital Council; and Dallas County Medical Society.
Lastly, Dr. Walton is actively engaged in political advocacy, serving on the State of Texas, Governor’s Workgroup for Medicaid Reform; the Texas Medical Association’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Medicaid; and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services Commission’s Regional Advisory Committee for Medicaid Managed Care.