Greg Gierer is a health policy expert with more than 20 years of experience in Washington, DC with demonstrated success in advocating before the Congress, federal agencies, state governments and policymakers. He has expertise in the federal legislative and regulatory policy process and success in achieving positive outcomes for healthcare organizations, including through the development and implementation of policy and advocacy strategies. His areas of expertise include the Affordable Care Act; comprehensive health care reform; Medicare policy, including Medicare Advantage and Part D; prescription drug policy and drug pricing reforms; and health system and payment reforms.

Before joining Health Management Associates, Greg was vice president of Policy and Research at the Better Medicare Alliance (BMA), the leading non-profit research and advocacy organization focused on strengthening and improving the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. During his tenure at BMA, Greg led regulatory policy development and engagement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to advance BMA’s policy and advocacy priorities.

His advocacy efforts and policy engagement helped shape key MA payment policies and regulations, including securing enactment of the CMS CY 2023 Rate Announcement that provided stability for the MA program and its beneficiaries.  Greg also led a comprehensive policy and advocacy strategy to effectively mitigate proposed payment reductions, including risk adjustment policy changes, that were finalized as part of the CMS CY 2024 Rate Announcement.  In addition to leading regulatory policy and engagement with CMS, Greg also engaged effectively in the legislative process to advance patient-centered reforms, including reforms to improve the prior authorization process in MA and increase flexibility for MA plans to address the social determinants of health.

Prior to joining BMA, Greg was the senior vice president for Policy at AHIP where he led regulatory policy work and strategy related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation, including the successful implementation of the ACA exchanges and insurance market reform regulations. Later, Greg led policy-development work to advance public policies to strengthen and stabilize the exchange marketplace.

Previously, Greg held senior public policy roles at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. He started his career on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT).

Informing his policy and advocacy efforts, Greg has extensive experience developing and managing research and consulting projects. Under his direction, BMA partnered with leading research organizations and consulting firms to produce timely, rigorous, and credible research and analysis reports that demonstrate the value of MA to beneficiaries. Greg is also a skilled communicator and nationally recognized thought-leader who has represented numerous healthcare organizations and associations at high-profile health policy and business conferences.

Greg earned his Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Providence College.

Greg also serves on the Cancer Support Community’s Cancer Policy Institute Advisory Board and, during the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency, volunteered with the Virginia Medical Reserves.

During this free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, reading, and playing golf.

David Fox is a leading authority on the regulation of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, biological products, combination products, and controlled substances. Known for his collaborative approach to complex regulatory issues, David has successfully resolved numerous disputes between sponsors and staff at FDA on products that raise novel regulatory issues. As a former senior lawyer for FDA and throughout his career in private practice, David has been deeply immersed in the regulatory side of drug development, advising industry teams on gaining approval for novel products across numerous therapeutic classes, including respiratory, oncology, pain, addiction therapy, neurology and psychiatry, anti-infectives and anti-virals, vaccines and metabolic disorders. David is a graduate of the College of William and Mary (B.A. ’86) and NYU School of Law (J.D. ’89). He served as Assistant Chief of Enforcement and Associate Chief for Drugs in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel from 1994-2000.

Stephen Edge, MD, is the Vice President of Healthcare Outcomes and Policy; and Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. Founded in 1898 as the nation’s first cancer center, Roswell Park set the standard for today’s multidisciplinary approach to the highest quality cancer care. Dr. Edge trained at Case Western Reserve University and the National Cancer Institute. Prior to his current position, Dr. Edge served as the Cancer Center Director at Baptist Cancer Center in Memphis, TN. Until July 2013, Dr. Edge served for 21 years as Chief of Breast Surgery and the Alfiero Foundation Endowed Chair in Breast Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. He is the immediate past Chair of the Commission on Cancer and the American Joint Committee on Cancer. His research focuses on community wide quality of cancer care across the continuum of care.

Lisa Simms Booth serves as Executive Director at the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, a Washington, DC based health, education and arts nonprofit with the mission to develop and promote healing practices that explore physical, emotional and mental resources that lead to life-affirming changes for people affected by cancer.

Most recently, Lisa served as Senior Director of Patient and Public Engagement at the Biden Cancer Initiative, where she helped define the organization’s advocacy outreach and collaboration strategies. She also led the design and coordination of the Biden Cancer Collaborative, which mobilized the cancer patient and advocacy community around key priorities, promoting, and sharing tried and tested approaches to addressing common problems.

Prior to joining the Initiative, she was at FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, playing leadership roles in partnership development, external affairs and operations. Throughout her 14-year tenure at FasterCures, she created programs that brought together pharmaceutical, biotech, philanthropic, and non-profit communities.

Previously, Lisa worked for political and advocacy organizations including LISTEN, Inc., The Alliance for Justice, Time Dollar Institute, Children’s Defense Fund, Democratic National Committee and the National Rainbow Coalition. She is a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Michigan State University. She is active in the music ministry and community outreach efforts for her church, Metropolitan AME, which recently celebrated its 181st Anniversary.

Jeff Belkora, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor, Patient Support Corps, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His professional mission is to help people grow in their capacity for leadership, teamwork, and decision-making. To this end, Dr. Belkora develops, implements, and evaluates patient engagement programs in health care. His programs have been implemented and evaluated in academic and community settings in the United States and the UK. He is the author of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and case studies on patient decision making. Dr. Belkora also disseminates his work internationally through speaking, training, and consulting engagements. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. Belkora was a co-founder of Outcome Software, a decision analysis software company. Dr. Belkora earned a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. His graduate training at Stanford University included an M.Sc. in Statistics and culminated with a Ph.D in Engineering.

Lauren Barnes is Senior Vice President, Strategic Market Development & Access for Blueprint Medicines, a commercial stage Boston based precision medicine company focusing on genomically defined cancers, rare diseases and cancer immunotherapy. Ms. Barnes has extensive expertise and experience in pricing, market access, pre-commercialization and managed markets in particular for the US market. She has been involved in launch planning of more than 50 drugs, devices and diagnostics during her career. Prior to her current role Lauren was Vice President at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, SVP Avalere Health and led their Reimbursement & Commercialization practice and has also held various roles at Amgen and the agency that runs the United States Medicare Program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Ms. Barnes has a BA in Public Health and a MHS in Health Care Policy from Johns Hopkins University. She serves on the board of Ascelia, a Swedish biotech company, as well as Ossium Health, a US biotech company, both of which are developing innovative cancer treatments.

Jeff Allen, Ph.D. serves as the President and CEO of Friends of Cancer Research (Friends). During the past 20 years, Friends has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of policies ensuring patients receive the best treatments in the fastest and safest way possible. As a thought leader on many issues related to Food and Drug Administration, regulatory strategy and healthcare policy, he is regularly published in prestigious medical journals and policy publications, and has contributed his expertise to the legislative process on multiple occasions. Recent Friends initiatives include the establishment of the Breakthrough Therapies designation and the development of the Lung Cancer Master Protocol, a unique partnership that will accelerate and optimize clinical trial conduct for new drugs. Dr. Allen received his Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from Georgetown University, and holds a Bachelors of Science in Biology from Bowling Green State University.