701 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 737-5980
dmaa@dmaa.org
www.dmaa.org

Former U.S. Senator John Breaux
Sunday, Sept. 7, 11:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.

Sen. Breaux is a vital voice and force in the American political arena. He led a long and distinguished career in Congress before joining Patton Boggs as senior counsel after retiring from the United States Senate in 2005. He provided strategic advice to Patton Boggs' attorneys and clients on a wide range of public policy matters, with special concentration in the areas of health care and energy law. His latest venture is co-founding the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, an all-in-the-family lobbying firm for bipartisan solutions, with former Senator Trent Lott.

A politician with balance. Breaux was elected to the House of Representatives in 1972 at the age of 28—at the time, the youngest member of the United States Congress. He was a widely recognized bipartisan leader in the Senate, and in 1993 was elected by his Democratic colleagues to the post of Deputy Minority Whip, a position he held until his retirement. He also held a number of key Senate committee positions. A senior member of the Finance Committee, Breaux served as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy. He also held positions on two other Finance subcommittees, the Subcommittee on Health Care, and the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. From his position on the Finance Committee, he played instrumental roles in forging the compromises that led to passage of the welfare reform and health insurance reform bills in 1996. He was also a leader in the efforts to reduce the capital gains tax and to provide tax relief for college education expenses.

Sen. Breaux was a founder of the Centrist Coalition of Senate Democrats and Republicans and served as chair of the Democratic Leadership Council. In 2005, President Bush appointed Breaux as the co-chair of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, while in 2006, he was chosen to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.

Charlie Cook
Nationally Recognized Political Analyst
Sunday, Sept. 7, 11:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.

Widely regarded as one of the nation's premier analysts of U.S. elections and political trends, Charlie Cook publishes The Cook Political Report and is a political analyst for the National Journal Group, where he writes weekly for National Journal magazine and CongressDailyAM. He also writes a regular column for the Washington Quarterly, published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is a political analyst for NBC News. Once deemed "the Picasso of election analysis" by The Wall Street Journal, Cook has been featured on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs, as well as on Good Morning America, the Today show, Nightline, Meet the Press with Tim Russert, and This Week. He is also a welcome fixture on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, CNN, and National Public Radio.

Before joining the National Journal Group in 1998, Cook wrote a twice-weekly column in Roll Call, Capitol Hill's premier newspaper. Charlie also served as an election night analyst for CBS in 1990 and 1992, and for NBC in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004.

The New York Times has called Cook, "…one of the best political handicappers in the nation" and noted that The Cook Political Report is "a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative," while Bob Schieffer of CBS News refers to it as "the bible of the political community." David Broder of The Washington Post has written that Charlie Cook is "perhaps the best non-partisan tracker of Congressional races."

Cook focuses on a broad overview of the upcoming presidential election, an examination of President George W. Bush's and Congress' agendas, and provides perceptive commentaries on policy making in Washington. In a balanced manner, he provides audiences with the concrete information they need to hear about today's political and legislative environments.

Bruce Bagley, MD
Medical Director for Quality Improvement
American Academy of Family Physicians
Monday, Sept. 8, 10 - 11:30 a.m.

During his practice career, Dr. Bagley provided the full range of family medicine services in a single specialty group practice in Albany, N.Y. Under his leadership, the 10-person group was a pioneer in the community in adapting to the challenges of managed care, quality improvement and informatics.

In his active leadership role with the AAFP, Dr. Bagley was elected president-elect in 1998, served as president in 1999-2000 and Chair of the Board in 2000-2001. He chaired the AAFP's Task Force on Hospitalist Physicians, the Task Force on Obstetrics in Family Medicine, the Task Force on Quality Enhancement and the Task Force on Quality in Family Medicine. He also chaired the Ad Hoc committee on electronic medical records for the AAFP.

Dr. Bagley's current responsibilities with the AAFP include liaison work with other national organizations in the quality arena and active participation in the development, deployment and implementation of performance measures. He provides clinical oversight for quality improvement programs and products developed by the AAFP. Dr. Bagley has spoken extensively on the topics of performance measurement, office redesign, electronic health records and leadership. He is a 2005-7 Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award examiner.

Paul Grundy, MD, MPH
Chair, Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative
Director, Healthcare Technology and Strategic Initiatives
IBM Global Well Being Services & Health Benefits
Monday, Sept. 8, 10 - 11:30 a.m.

Before joining IBM East Fishkill, Dr. Grundy was in Rochester, Minn., as the IBM Wellbeing Director and, before that, he served as a senior diplomat in the U.S. State Department in the interface of health and diplomacy. He has been the medical director for International SOS, the world's largest medical assistance company, and Adventist Health Systems, the second-largest not-for-profit medical system in the world.

Dr. Grundy earned his medical degree at the University of California San Francisco and trained at Johns Hopkins University. He has worked extensively in the international AIDS pandemic, including writing the first national legislation addressing AIDS education in Africa.

Dr. Grundy has won numerous awards, including the Department of State Superior Honor Award for handling the crisis surrounding the two attempted coups in Russia and another Superior Honor Award for his work on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Ken Thorpe, PhD
Executive Director, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease
Monday, Sept. 8, 4 - 5:30 p.m.

Dr. Thorpe is executive director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease and the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and chair of the department of health policy & management, in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. He also co-directs the Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality. As an academic, he has testified before several committees in the U.S. Senate and House on health care reform and insurance issues. Dr. Thorpe has authored and co-authored more than 85 articles, book chapters and books and is a frequent national presenter on issues of health care financing, insurance and health care reform at health care conferences, television and the media.