Jinnet Briggs Fowles

Jinnet Briggs Fowles, Ph.D. is the senior vice president of research for the Park Nicollet Institute, where she has worked since 1985. Dr. Fowles conducts applied research to understand the responses of consumers, patients, and physicians to financial incentives and to information about quality. 

Dr. Fowles is interested in the uses of measurement for both quality improvement and public accountability. She has served as a measurement advisor to the AMA’s Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement and to the Minnesota Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement. In 2003, Dr. Fowles served as a health policy fellow for Senator Hillary Clinton.

She has published extensively on the reliability and validity of differing data sources, including administrative data, patient self report, ambulatory paper medical records, and electronic records. Dr. Fowles received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Communication Research and an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Art History.

Judith Hibbard

Judith Hibbard is a professor of health policy at the University of Oregon. Over the last 25 years, she has focused her research on consumer choices and behavior in health care. Dr. Hibbard has a particular interest in testing approaches that give consumers and patients more knowledge and control over their health and health care.

She is the lead author of the Patient Activation Measure, used by researchers and practitioners nationally and internationally to more effectively tailor support for patient self-management. 

Dr. Hibbard advises many health care organizations, foundations, and initiatives. She has served on several advisory panels and commissions, including the National Advisory Counsel for AHRQ, the National Health Care Quality Forum, United Health Group Advisory Panel, and National Advisory Council for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.    

She is the author of over 95 peer reviewed publications. Dr. Hibbard holds a masters degree in public health from UCLA and her doctoral degree is from the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley.

Alonzo Plough

Dr. Alonzo Plough is the vice president of strategy, planning and evaluation for The California Endowment. Plough is responsible for the leadership and overall direction of The Endowment’s planning, evaluation, research and organizational learning.

Plough’s career includes many awards recognizing exemplary public service and leadership, service on numerous boards of directors of nonprofit organizations and an extensive body of scholarly publications. 

He served for ten years as director and health officer for the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health, one of the foremost metropolitan health departments in the nation. He was also professor of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health & Community Medicine in Seattle.

Prior to that, Plough served for eight years as director of public health for the Boston Department of Health and Hospitals. During his many years in Boston, he held academic appointments at the Harvard University School of Public Health, Tufts University Department of Community Medicine, and Boston University School of Management. 

Ellen Stovall

Ellen Stovall has been the president & CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship since 1992. A 36-year survivor of three diagnoses of cancer, Ms. Stovall is a founder and along with Dr. Patricia Ganz, co-chairs the Cancer Quality Alliance—an alliance formed in 2005 to promote collaboration among stakeholders who are committed to cancer quality improvement.

Ms. Stovall is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum. During its tenure, she was a vice-chair of the IOM’s National Cancer Policy Board and was vice-chair of its Committee on Cancer Survivorship. In that role, Stovall co-edited the Institute of Medicine’s recently released report titled, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition.

Recognizing a need for the voice of cancer survivors to be heard during the national debate over health care reform, the Cancer Leadership Council was convened in 1993 under Ms. Stovall's direction. The group meets monthly in Washington and includes representation from 33 national cancer organizations.

Ms. Stovall is also the vice-chair of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s National Advisory Committee for Pursuing Perfection: Raising the Bar for Health Care Performance. She serves on the Board of Directors of NCQA and The Leapfrog Group.