Science for Health Policy Summit | Center for Healthcare Policy and Research | UC Davis Health

Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Xavier Becerra was the 25th Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the first Latino to hold the office in the history of the United States. Throughout his career, Becerra made it his priority to ensure that Americans have access to the affordable healthcare they need to survive and thrive – from his early days as a legal advocate representing individuals with mental illness, to his role as the Attorney General of the state of California.  Secretary Becerra served 12 terms in Congress as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure, he was the first Latino to serve as a member of the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, he served as chairman of his party’s caucus, and as the ranking member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health.

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Medical Association and JAMA Network
Lee Goldman, M.D. Endowed Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Ph.D., M.D., M.A.S., is 17th editor-in-chief of the Journal for the American Medical Association. She is the Lee Goldman, M.D. Professor of Medicine and professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco. She previously served as the chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and as the inaugural vice dean for Population Health and Health Equity in the UCSF School of Medicine. She co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital that focuses on actionable research to improve health equity and reduce health disparities. Bibbins-Domingo is a general internist and cardiovascular epidemiologist whose scholarship includes observational epidemiology, pragmatic trials, and simulation modeling to examine clinical and public health approaches to prevention in the U.S. and globally. She previously served on and led the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 2010-2017. She has received numerous honors, including induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Director, Center for Healthcare Policy and Research
Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences

Courtney Lyles, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR) and a professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences. She joined CHPR and UC Davis in July 2023 after serving as an associate professor in the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. While at UCSF, Lyles served as co-director of the Innovation in Research and Informatics core for the UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and co-directed the UCSF Population Health Data Initiative. 

Associate Director, California Firearm Violence Research Center
Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis Health

Amy Barnhorst is an emergency and inpatient psychiatrist, a professor of psychiatry at UC Davis, and the associate director of the California Firearm Violence Research Center. Her work doing violence and suicide risk assessments in a psychiatric crisis unit led to her interest in firearm-related policies and education. She’s a nationally recognized expert on firearms laws and mental illness, and her academic work focuses in on the interface between firearms, violence, suicide and mental illness. She helped develop California’s red flag law, known as a Gun Violence Restraining Order, and was one of two experts to testify about it before the Senate Committee. She has presented to and testified before legislatures in other states about firearm-related laws for violence and suicide prevention, and works with a consortium of experts across the country to develop and recommend evidence-based firearm policy. In 2019, she developed the BulletPoints Project, a state-funded program to develop and disseminate a firearm injury prevention curriculum for healthcare providers.

President and CEO, Public Policy Institute of California
Former Chief Justice of California

Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that works to improve public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research. She assumed this role in January 2023. Prior to joining PPIC, she served as the Chief Justice of California for 12 years. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye established herself as one of the country’s leading proponents of equal access to justice, civic education, and reform of court funding practices that unfairly affect the poor.  When she was sworn into office in January 2011 as the 28th Chief Justice of California, she became the first person of color and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye raised awareness of the unfair financial impact of fines, fees, and the bail system on the poor. She also sought to advance bail system reform that would address concerns about fairness and public safety. 

Chief Deputy, California Legislative Analyst’s Office

Carolyn Chu is chief deputy at the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), the California Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor. In this role, she guides the development of analysis and recommendations on a range of key issues, including the state economy, the budget condition, and health and human services programs, among others. Her work includes overseeing the LAO’s work on health policy, particularly the state’s Medi-Cal program. This work supports the Legislature in evaluating the fiscal and policy implications of health care proposals, weighing the tradeoffs presented by differing approaches, and assessing the state’s capacity to reach its long-term goals.

Vice Chair, Workforce Diversity
Associate Dean, Workforce Innovation and Education Quality Improvement

Tonya Fancher, M.D., M.P.H. completed a primary care general internal medicine residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospital and then spent four years in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Travis Air Force Base. A professor of general internal medicine, Fancher is currently vice chair for Workforce Diversity and associate dean of Workforce Innovation and Education Quality Improvement. Since joining UC Davis in 2002 as a health services research fellow, she has worked in undergraduate medical education and graduate medical education to address workforce shortages in medically underserved communities.

Deputy Director for External and Legislative Affairs, California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)

Amy Gilson, Ph.D., has served since February 2022 as OEHHA’s deputy director for external and legislative affairs. In this role, Amy connects the office’s scientific work with broad audiences and statewide conversations. She helps shape and advance OEHHA’s communications and legislative priorities, guides its communications channels – including the main website, Proposition 65 warnings website, and social media, and leads the office’s engagement with the media and Legislature. 

Prior to joining OEHHA, Amy was the policy manager of the environmental nonprofit Californians Against Waste. She earlier served the Legislature as committee consultant for the California State Senate Committee on Transportation and legislative aide to Assemblymember Bill Quirk, and was a California Council on Science and Technology Policy fellow with the California State Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. She has also launched or expanded multiple university-based science policy initiatives, including as senior program director and instructor of UC Riverside’s Science to Policy Program.

Amy received her Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. secondary field in science, technology, and society studies from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from UC Berkeley.

Director of State Health Policy, California Health Care Foundation

Katie Heidorn is the director of state health policy at California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), where she leverages the foundation’s data, expertise, and partnerships to help California’s state government make informed decisions about health care. Heidorn is based in CHCF’s Sacramento office.

Heidorn has nearly two decades of experience working in health policy, government, and nonprofits and is a skilled leader, facilitator, and communicator. She comes to CHCF after more than two years as executive director for the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP). Before that, Heidorn was the government affairs advocate for Health Net and the development director and policy lead at the nonprofit California Coverage and Health Initiatives. Heidorn spent a decade in California state government, including as a deputy secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency and principal consultant in the Senate Appropriations Committee. She is also an alumna of the California Senate Fellows Program.

Heidorn received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and comparative literature from UC Davis.

Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, UC Davis Health

Richard Kravitz, M.D., M.S.P.H., is a general internist with interests in medical education, individualized care, and health policy. His practice is largely restricted to supervision of students and trainees in ambulatory settings. Kravitz has research interests in primary care quality, health communication, and individualization of care. He is a two-time winner of the Academy Health Article-of-the-Year Award and author of “Understanding Clinical Negotiation” [McGraw-Hill, 2021]. He is a former director of both the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research and UC Center Sacramento.

Associate Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, UC Davis Health

Elizabeth Magnan is a family medicine physician and health services researcher. She is passionate about improving whole person health and her clinic and research efforts work to improve the processes and outcomes of healthcare. Her research focuses on the chronic condition care, from diabetes to substance use disorder. She studies how to measure and improve the quality of care and health outcomes for persons with chronic conditions using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Chief Health Director, CalPERS

Don Moulds, Ph.D., was named CalPERS chief health director in August 2019.

As head of the Health Policy and Benefits Branch, he provides leadership and oversees our health benefits program, including policy, research, plan contracting and administration, rate development, member and employer account management, and the long-term care program.

He brings to his role more than 25 years of strategic leadership in government and health policy at both the state and federal levels.

Moulds joined CalPERS from The Commonwealth Fund, a national foundation and think tank dedicated to improving the American healthcare system, where he was executive vice president for programs.

Prior to the Commonwealth Fund, he served as acting assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he served as principal policy advisor to then-Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Before that, he spent over a decade in California where he led the bipartisan Senate Office of Research and was principal consultant for the leader of the Senate on health insurance and other issues.

Moulds serves as an ex-officio member of the Health Care Affordability Board of the Office of Health Care Affordability and on the Board of Directors for the Integrated Healthcare Association, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, John Burton Advocates for Youth, National Institute for Public Employee Health Care Policy and the Purchaser Business Group on Health.

Moulds earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Bates College. He holds a master's and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Illinois and has taught philosophy and ethics courses at the University of Illinois, Harvard University, and California State University, Sacramento.

Deputy Staff Director, California State Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review

Scott Ogus is the deputy staff director for the California State Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, with primary responsibility over the state’s health programs including Medi-Cal, the Department of Public Health, Covered California, the Department of Managed Health Care, and community mental health. Prior to working for the committee, Ogus spent five years working on the Medi-Cal budget at the state Department of Finance, and four years as legislative staff for Assembly Member Mike Feuer. Prior to working in the Capitol, Ogus spent seven years as a molecular biologist at UC San Francisco and in the biotechnology industry, studying and developing treatments for obesity, diabetes, cancer, and inflammation. Ogus earned a master’s in Public Policy from the Goldman School at UC Berkeley.

Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis
Former California Legislator and Chair, Assembly and Senate Committees on Health

Richard Pan, M.D., M.P.H., is a pediatrician and former California state senator. He is senior lecturer in Health Policy and Management in the Department of Public Health Sciences at UC Davis. He previously was Pediatric Residency Program director and vice chair of Education in the UC Davis Department of Pediatrics where he established a nationally recognized service-learning curriculum on social determinants of health for residents. Pan served in the California State Assembly beginning in 2010 followed by the State Senate from 2014-2022, where he was chair of the committees on Health and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. He played a leadership role in health policy in the legislature including implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Medi-Cal reforms, and public health improvements including landmark legislation to abolish non-medical exemptions for school vaccine requirements. Pan currently serves on the California Health Care Affordability Board and the U.S. Census National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations, and he is the physician advisor to Medical Education Policy and Governance at the American Medical Association. Pan earned his B.A. in Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University, M.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, and M.P.H. at Harvard University.

Co-Chair, Nominating and Governance Committee, California State Assembly

Rosielyn Pulmano is the health policy consultant of the Speaker of the State Assembly. She is the top aide of the speaker on health related matters and oversees all health policy, budget, and legislation for the speaker.

Pulmano has over 20 years of experience in the California state government, having worked for the State Senate, State Assembly, and as former deputy secretary for the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. Pulmano has comprehensive experience developing, designing and implementing highly complex health care legislation and consumer protections. Pulmano received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of the Pacific and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and is a member of the State Bar of California. 

Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UC Davis Health

Carolina Reyes, M.D., NACD.DC, is a health sciences associate clinical professor at UC Davis School of Medicine caring for patients with high-risk pregnancies. She is recognized nationally for her advocacy and commitment to improving the quality of care, especially to the underserved and marginalized. 

Reyes serves on the California Pregnancy-Related Mortality Review Committee identifying ways hospitals and physicians can improve the care provided to prevent adverse outcomes and inform policy. She is a trustee of stewardship of CommonSpirit Health and serves on the Quality and Patient Safety Committee. CommonSpirit Health is dedicated to providing quality care though innovation and advancing for social justice for all.  She is chair emeritus of the California Health Care Foundation Board of Directors dedicated to strengthening California’s safety net.

Reyes earned numerous awards in recognition of her professional and community service, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Community Service Award for dedication to women’s health and underserved populations. She was previously appointed to the U.S. Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, the U.S. Preventive Health Services Task Force and as a senior scholar with the Agency for Health Care and Quality. She was honored to serve on the Institute of Medicine Committee producing the sentinel report on Unequal Treatment and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Medicaid.    

She is board-certified in Maternal Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology and is certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Principal Analyst, California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP)

An-Chi Tsou, Ph.D., is a principal analyst for the California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP). Driven by a strong desire to apply her scientific skills to directly impact society, she became a science fellow in the California State legislature and quickly worked her way up to legislative director, crafting policies related to health, the environment, racial and social justice, and education. Over the past ten years, she has worked in legislative and regulatory branches of government, and as a policy consultant for a variety of organizations to inform policy on healthcare access, cannabis, racial and social justice and equity, behavioral health, and the healthcare workforce. An-Chi earned her B.S. in Engineering Science at Smith College, and her Ph.D. in bioengineering from UC Berkeley carrying out blood cancer research.

Executive Director, California Policy Lab, UC Berkeley

Evan White co-founded the California Policy Lab (CPL), which generates research insights for government impact. Through hands-on partnerships with government, CPL performs research across issue silos and builds the data infrastructure necessary to improve programs that millions of Californians rely on. Since 2017, CPL has helped conduct 300+ projects with over 75 agency partners. As executive director, White leads the Lab's Berkeley site and authors reports on household finance, migration, and poverty. Prior to CPL, Evan served as senior advisor to the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. White also served as director of Fair Housing for northern California’s largest fair housing nonprofit. He holds a joint degree in Law and Public Policy from UC Berkeley.