Gail Wilensky TOPICS: Health Healthcare Healthcare Future FEE CATEGORY:* 15.0k to 20.0k TRAVELS FROM: Maryland Profile Program Outlines Request This Speaker

Gail Wilensky: Profile

Dr. Gail Wilensky is a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation, where she analyzes and develops policies relating to health care reform and to ongoing changes in the health care environment. Gail Wilensky’s professional career combines the analytical skills of a policy researcher, the political insights of an advisor to the United States Congress and a former presidential appointee, with the administrative skills of a manager of both large and small organizations.

Gail Wilensky has provided testimony before the Congress on more than 90 occasions and has delivered hundreds of speeches to professional, business, and consumer groups. She has published extensively in the areas of health policy and financing issues. Gail Wilensky has appeared on numerous television programs and is a frequent commentator on health care events for radio.

The former chair (2001-2003) of the President’s Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s Veterans, Gail Wilensky served on the two-year task force created by President Bush covering health care for both veterans and military retirees. In this capacity, she testified before Congressional committees and acted as an advisor Congress and other elected officials.

Gail Wilensky is a commissioner on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, serving as vice chair. Her appointment is for a four-year term commencing October 2004. Also in 2004, the governor of Maryland appointed Gail Wilensky to serve on the Maryland Health Care Commission.

Additionally, she is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and its governing council, serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America, the American Heart Association, the National Opinion Research Center, and on the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Health Care Management. Dr. Wilensky is an advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, past chair of the Board of Directors of Academy Health and is a director on several corporate boards.

From 1997 to 2001, Gail Wilensky chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission.

From 1992 to 1993, Gail Wilensky served as deputy assistant to president George W. Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare reform issues. Dr. Wilensky came to the White House after two years as the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in the Department of Health and Human Services where she directed the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Dr. Wilensky received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan. She is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, and has published approximately 100 articles.

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