Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions

Appendices

A. Analysis Team

This project was led by Jennifer Cannistra, an analyst on the Presidential Transition Team and subsequently in the newly created Office of Health Reform. Jeanne M. Lambrew, former Deputy Director of the Office of Health Reform, also guided the project. Advice and assistance on analysis of the survey questions were provided by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the leadership of Thomas Ricketts, Ph.D. Two preeminent qualitative researchers, Kelly Devers and her team at Virginia Commonwealth University and Shoshanna Sofaer at Baruch College School of Public Affairs, provided guidance on this project.

Sarah B. Fenn: Sarah served as the state legal Voter Protection Director for the Obama campaign in Indiana, Kentucky, and New Hampshire and as campaign field staff in Iowa, Idaho, Texas, and Florida. She holds a J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is admitted to the California Bar.

Tim Granholm: Tim is a recent graduate of Indiana University and an Obama campaign veteran. Since completing his volunteer position with the Presidential Transition Team, he has joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Aida Dargahi: Aida was the Field Organizer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas during the 2008 presidential election; she interned with Obama for America during the presidential primaries. Before joining the Obama campaign, Aida was completing her bachelor's degree in Political Science.

Jason F. Cunningham: Jason holds a B.A. from Union College and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. Jason served in the Obama campaign as the Deputy Political Director in New Hampshire and is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Randy P. Silang: Randy was a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Jacksonville, Florida. He has a background in industrial engineering and management consulting and plans to pursue a Masters in Public Policy degree at George Washington University in the fall.

Doug Taylor: Doug has over ten years of experience working in the technology and finance sectors, where he has developed and honed both his analytical and managerial skills. He is originally from California and holds a degree in Mathematical Economics from Pomona College.

Juliana Herman: Juliana is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in Political Science and American History. Most recently, she served as the Voter File Manager for the Pennsylvania Campaign for Change, handling the voter targeting and database management for the Obama Campaign in Pennsylvania.

Matthew Lackey: Matthew Lackey is the Senior Political Strategist for the AFL-CIO. He has spent over six years using mathematical analysis and programming to optimize systems and programs for the private sector, international competitions, and progressive causes.

Kelly J. Devers, Ph.D.: Dr. Devers is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Departments of Health Administration and Family Medicine. She is an expert in qualitative and mixed methods research and their use in health services and policy research.

Minha F. Husaini: Minha served as the National Muslim American Outreach Coordinator for the Research and Religious Affairs Departments at Obama for America in Chicago. She holds a Masters degree from the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

Chrissi Johnson: Chrissi began her involvement with the campaign as a volunteer while attending graduate school at the University of Iowa; she then served as a member of the Missouri Research Team for the Obama campaign beginning in June 2008. She holds a Masters in Counseling and Rehabilitation in Higher Education from the University of Iowa, Iowa City and B.A.s in Journalism and Spanish from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Thomas Ricketts, Ph.D.: Dr. Ricketts is a Professor of Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and Managing Director of the American Academy of Surgeons Health Policy Research Institute. His work has focused on access to health care and the supply of health care professionals.

Jennifer King: Jennifer is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a researcher at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. She conducts research on access to care and insurance coverage and previously worked in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

Shoshanna Sofaer, Ph.D.: Dr. Sofaer is the Robert P. Luciano Professor of Health Care Policy at the School of Public Affairs, Baruch College. Dr. Sofaer is an expert on the use of qualitative and mixed research methods in health policy and health services research who frequently provides consultation and training to other researchers on this topic.

Eben A. Weitzman, Ph.D.: Dr. Weitzman is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution, and in the Public Policy Ph.D. Program, both at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; he received his Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology from Columbia University. In 1995, he co-authored one of the first texts on computer assisted qualitative data analysis with the late Mathew Miles, and continues to write and teach about qualitative research methods for use in a wide range of areas including health care services and public policy development.

Karen W. Frazier: Karen is a Research Associate with the American Institutes of Research. She has extensive experience with qualitative data collection and analysis, project management, and related training activities in health services and policy research. She has a Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master's degree from the University of Virginia.

Kate Albright-Hanna: After graduating from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, Kate worked at NBC News and then at CNN as a documentary producer. She joined the Obama campaign as director of video in the new media department, and then continued as the content lead during the Presidential Transition.

Andrew Sigle: Andrew's professional background is as an executive in the telecommunications industry in both the United States and Europe. He has undergraduate degrees in engineering and economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

Anna Perng: Prior to joining the Obama Campaign for Change and the Presidential Transition Team, Anna was Development Officer for Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. She received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 2003.

Kacy Rohn: Kacy graduated from Dickinson College in 2008 with a B.A. in Political Science. After graduating, she was selected as an Obama Organizing Fellow and then worked as a Field Organizer in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania for the general election.

Betsy Dexter: Betsy is originally from Owensboro, Kentucky and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2002 with a B.S. in Communications.

Emeline Davis: Emeline is a Producer of Reality Television for such shows as Hell's Kitchen, Paradise Hotel, and Hit Me Baby One More Time. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Lawrence University.

Meredith Rahn-Oakes: Meredith is a recent high school graduate taking a year off before beginning at Georgetown University in the fall. She worked on the Obama campaign in Philadelphia, as a member of the Women's Vote Team.

Travis Moore: Travis manages the advocacy efforts of the Better World Campaign and UN Foundation, supporting the work of the UN and UN programs. He has also worked for Senator Tom Daschle and Representative Henry Waxman and holds an M.A. in contemporary European Politics from the University of Bath (UK).

Robin T. Kelley, Ph.D.: Dr. Kelley is an adjunct at Georgetown University in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. In addition to working on the report, she conducted a local Health Care Community Discussion in Washington, D.C. among resource limited residents. She graduated from University of Maryland with her Ph.D. in Public and Community Health in 2002 and from Columbia University with her M.S.S.W. and Vassar College with her B.A. in English.

Ramy Eid: Ramy is an attorney primarily in government, former Deputy Attorney General for the State of New Jersey, and Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Newark, New Jersey. He holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.