Lamar Alexander was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and began representing Tennessee the following year. He previously served as governor of the state (1979–87). A seventh-generation Tennessean, Alexander was born in Maryville, TN. In 1962 he received a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies from Vanderbilt University. After earning a law degree (1965) from New York University, he served as a clerk to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He then was an assistant to U.S. Sen. Howard Baker and served in the administration of Pres. Richard Nixon, working as the assistant to the president’s executive assistant. During his two terms (1979–87) as governor, Alexander was noted for implementing education reforms and for promoting business in the state. He was appointed president of the University of Tennessee system in 1988. He left that post in 1991 to serve as secretary of education in the administration of U.S. Pres. George H.W. Bush. From 2008 to 2012 he was chair of the Senate Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican position in that chamber. In 2015 he became chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. In that role he has been a key figure in talks concerning the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010; PPACA). 

Dr. A. Mark Fendrick is the Center’s Director and a Professor of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine and a Professor of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Dr. Fendrick received a bachelor’s degree in economics and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. Dr. Fendrick conceptualized and coined the term Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID) and currently directs the V-BID Center at the University of Michigan, the leading advocate for development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative health benefit plans. His research focuses on how clinician payment and consumer engagement initiatives impact access to care, quality of care, and health care costs. Dr. Fendrick has authored over 250 articles and book chapters and has received numerous awards for the creation and implementation of value-based insurance design. His perspective and understanding of clinical and economic issues have fostered collaborations with numerous government agencies, health plans, professional societies, and health care companies. Dr. Fendrick is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly IOM), serves on the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee, and has been invited to present testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.

Patrick Stewart, Innovu President, drives Innovu’s overall strategy and executes the business model. He brings more than 30 years of Fortune 500 executive management, company growth, and technology commercialization experience to Innovu. Along with three other experts in their fields, Pat founded Innovu on the fundamental belief that by bringing together vast silos of data, you can unlock powerful knowledge to solve complex business challenges. Prior to founding Innovu, Pat served as Avnet Service’s Vice President and General Manager, where he integrated three new acquisitions to form the Americas IT Solutions Division. He developed and executed the division’s strategy, including creating a strong alignment between Avnet and its global technology leaders and empowering Avnet partners to identify and capture high-growth services and solution opportunities in the IT market place. Previously, he served as Chairman & CEO of Pepperweed Consulting, an IT enterprise cloud and big data management and integration provider. As the largest software and services partner for HP in North America, he was responsible for Pepperweed’s overall strategy, operations, and growth. Pat was also co-founder and managing director of Idea Foundry, a venture fund/business accelerator that created and funded more than 100 early-stage technology companies throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. Additionally, Pat has held various senior leadership and executive management positions, including business development, operations, business process re-engineering, product marketing, and design engineering. Pat earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University and his Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Joseph Landsman is the President and CEO of The University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) which owns and operates University Health System (UHS), Inc. Prior to being named CEO of UHS in January 2005, Landsman served as the system’s Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Executive Vice President. During his tenure, Landsman provided UHS with the financial expertise that launched the company and several of its subsidiaries. Before joining UHS in 1999, Landsman was the Executive Vice President of Zale Lipshy University Hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he also served as its Chief Financial Officer from 1995 to 1997. Landsman is on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Hospital Association and served as the association’s Chair from 2012 to 2013. He also serves as the Past Chair of the United Way Board of Directors, and was the 2012 Chair of the Greater Knoxville Area’s fundraising campaign. Other professional and civic affiliations include serving on the boards of TennPath and the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence. Landsman is a graduate of Loyola University in Baltimore, Md. 

Neil Goldfarb is President and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH), an employer-led non-profit organization established in 2012 with the mission of developing best practices for maintaining a healthy workforce, and ensuring that when healthcare is needed it is safe, high-quality, accessible and affordable. Mr. Goldfarb brings over 30 years of healthcare research and management experience to his Coalition leadership position. As Associate Dean for Research in the Jefferson School of Population Health, he was responsible for developing and carrying out the School’s research agenda, focused on healthcare quality and value, and economic evaluation of healthcare technologies. Concurrently, Mr. Goldfarb served as Director of Ambulatory Care Performance Improvement for the Jefferson faculty practice plan. His previous positions include Executive Director of a quality improvement consulting and data collection firm, and Vice President of Health Services for the Philadelphia region’s first Medicaid managed care plan. Mr. Goldfarb has authored over 60 articles in the peer-reviewed literature, focused on his interests in health and disease management, quality measurement and improvement, care for the underserved, and health economics and outcomes research. He has served as adjunct faculty for the Jefferson College of Pharmacy and University of the Sciences. Mr. Goldfarb is Chair of the Board of Governors of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance), and founding co-Director of the College for Value-based Purchasing of Health Benefits.

Brandon Hollingsworth is WUOT’s news director. In that role, he oversees the station's daily news operations. He also hosts Dialogue and produces the biweekly series HealthConnections. For seven years, Brandon was WUOT's All Things Considered anchor. From 2008 to 2010, he hosted Morning Edition on Alabama Public Radio. For two years before that he served as an APR bureau correspondent and Morning Edition anchor at WLJS-FM in Jacksonville, Alabama. Brandon's work has been heard nationally on the flagship NPR newsmagazines Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as the network's newscast service. He has contributed to NPR's midday newsmagazine, Here and Now, and his work has aired on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Inside Appalachia. Brandon is a 2008 graduate of Jacksonville State University, and holds a B.A. in communications. He is a native of St. Clair County, Alabama.