Dean’s Advisory Board

Richard M. Levy was chairman of the Varian Medical Systems Board of Directors (2002–2014) and is currently chairman emeritus. He was general manager of the Medical Business (1986–1999) and CEO of the company (1999–2006).

Levy has been on the board of Sutter Health, a $10 billion health care system, since 2006, and was chairman of that board from 2013 to 2014. He has served on the board of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, an affiliate of Sutter Health, since 2002. He was on the board of the United Way Silicon Valley (2002–2014) and served as its chair (2008–2009). He has been a co-chair of the advisory committee of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and an active participant in summits for CCI (Center for Corporate Innovation, Inc.), with a focus on improvement of the national health care system. That focus remains one of his primary interests today.

Other boards include the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, where he is chairman; North Hawaii Community Hospital; Ravenswood Family Health Center; the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, where he is chairman; and Cancer Commons, a not-for-profit company developing information to guide patients through the complexities and variations in cancer treatment. He is a past chairman of the board of directors of the American Electronics Association.

Levy holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a doctorate in nuclear chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been married to his wife Sue since 1964. He has two sons and three grandchildren. He enjoys umpiring Little League baseball in Palo Alto, snorkeling in Hawaii, hiking with his dog, and mentoring students and employees.

Amy Bassell-Crowe is a practicing clinical psychologist in the Bay Area who has focused on the health and mental health needs of children, adolescents, and adults. In addition to her clinical practice, she has been a speaker and consultant to a number of schools and community organizations including Jewish Family and Children’s Services, East Palo Alto I Have a Dream Program, Summit Public School, Menlo School, and numerous public school districts. She will also be serving as a clinical supervisor for the LifeMoves organization focusing on homeless families and individuals.

Bassell-Crowe is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and has continued her connection with Berkeley as a guest lecturer at the School of Optometry focusing on the mental health needs of patients and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the School of Public Health. She and her husband Jeff have three daughters and live in the Bay Area where they have been active in numerous organizations focused on effective parenting, mental health needs, and education.

Raymond J. Baxter was Kaiser Permanente’s senior vice president for Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy. As a member of Kaiser’s national executive team, Baxter led the organization’s activities to fulfill its social mission, including care and coverage for low-income people, community health initiatives, health equity, environmental stewardship, and support for community-based organizations. He also led Kaiser Permanente’s work in research, health policy, and diversity, and serves as president of KP International.

Baxter has more than 35 years of experience managing public health, hospital, long-term care, and mental health programs, including heading the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. He also led The Lewin Group, a noted health policy firm. He holds a doctorate from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. He serves on the advisory boards of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Duke University Institute for Health Innovation, the board of the CDC Foundation, the Global Agenda Council on Health of the World Economic Forum, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement and the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium for Value and Science Driven Health Care. Most recently, Baxter also served as president and CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

In 2001 the UC Berkeley School of Public Health honored him as a Public Health Hero for his service in the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. In September 2006 he received the CDC Foundation Hero Award for addressing the health consequences of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast and for his longstanding commitment to improving the health of communities.

Terry earned her MPH in Public Health Nutrition in 1975, and re-engaged with her alma mater in 2017 by providing input on an early draft of our strategic plan. Ever since, Terry’s service and leadership has been invaluable to the School. She served as the Co-Chair of our Changemaker Task Force, joined our Dean’s Advisory Board, and has served as one of Dean Lu’s top advisors. Terry has contributed over $500,000 to Berkeley Public Health. Her service, leadership, and philanthropic support have been instrumental to our success in developing the foundation for the Berkeley Public Health Changemaker initiative. And thanks to Terry’s support, we were able to launch four Changemaker courses, which we plan to scale in order to develop far more public health changemakers and solve many more of the most critical threats to public health we face today.

Terry is highly engaged on every level, serving as a top advisor to the Dean as well as mentoring students, helping with the Big Give texting campaign, and so much more. She likes to present in classes, mentor groups of students over happy hours, and she has connected us to other prospective major donors such as Mario Molina (the former CEO of Molina Healthcare), Jeff Barlow (the Chief Legal Officer of Molina Healthcare), and Rahul Chopra (a seasoned entrepreneur, VC, C-Level Executive, and has founded dozens of tech and healthcare companies). Terry has also served as a connector and champion for our work, often introducing us to others who become some of our most valuable thought leaders and philanthropic supporters. We are so thankful for Terry’s contributions, that we named one of our most popular conference rooms after her to honor her generosity and leadership.

Terry’s 40-year career began with her first job as a WIC nutritionist at the Family Health Foundation of Alviso, followed by working in a wide range of healthcare organizations focused on increasing access to quality healthcare services. In her most recent role as COO of Molina Healthcare, Terry was responsible for operational oversight of health plans and clinics in 13 states; all provider contracting and service and health care delivery, and managing the Pathways Behavioral Health and Molina Medicaid solutions business lines. Previously, as President of AccentCare West, Terry supervised home health care operations in multiple markets in California and Arizona; payer sources included managed care organizations, long-term care insurers, Medicaid, and private pay. During her prior tenure as President and COO at Praxis, she led strategic direction and implementation of plans to build a national network of Comprehensive Wound Healing Centers in partnership with acute care hospitals. As EVP at Matria, Terry established a managed care strategy and developed products for provider and payer customers focused on improving the outcome of the maternal-newborn episode of care.

In addition to her Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, Terry holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from Northwestern University and Terry holds a Juris Doctor from Stanford University. She currently serves as a Member of numerous Committees for California Water Services Group. She has served on the Board of Directors of Maternal Outreach Management Systems (M.O.M.S); Chairperson for the Board of Directors, Orange County March of Dimes, and Compliance Committee Chair and Member or the Compensation Committee for Apria Health Care.

Michael E. Bird (Kewa Pueblo/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo) has over 25 years of public health experience in the areas of medical social work, substance abuse prevention, health promotion and disease prevention, public health policy, HIV/AIDS prevention, behavioral health, and health care administration. Mr. Bird is the first American Indian and social worker to serve as President (2000–2001) of the American Public Health Association. He has been involved in numerous projects and programs on a local, tribal, national, and international level. Mr. Bird earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Utah, and worked as a medical social worker for a number of years before earning a Masters Degree from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in 1983. Bird is the first American Indian and social worker to serve as president (2000–2001) of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Bird is also the first American Indian to serve on the National Policy Council for AARP and is currently the public health programs director for Indian Health Council, Inc., a community health center serving nine tribes in rural north San Diego County. He has served in a leadership role on numerous projects and programs on a local, tribal, national, and international level.

In 2018, he received an Influential Alumni Award from UC Berkeley School of Public Health in recognition of significant contributions to the field of public health. He has served on the Boards of the AARP National Policy Council, Kewa Pueblo Health Corporation, American Indian Graduate Center, Bernalillo County Off Reservation Native American Commission, Health Action New Mexico, Seva Foundation, and is currently a member of the National Collaborating Center for Aboriginal Health Advisory Committee (Canada). Following his term at APHA, he served as executive director of the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center in Oakland.

Jerry Cacciotti is a partner with A.T. Kearney in its Health Practice. He has significant experience in R&D, resource allocation, and growth strategies for pharma, biotech, and consumer health clients. He also advises life science companies on how to enter new sectors, undertake mergers and acquisitions, and realign their strategies. He has broad experience across disease categories, especially in oncology and immunology.

Before joining A.T. Kearney, Jerry was a life sciences practice leader for Oliver Wyman, IMS Health, and Strategic Decisions Group. He has also worked in finance and has served as a foreign policy and press officer for the U.S. Congress. Jerry earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Margaret (Maggi) Cary is a doctor’s doctor with a physician’s mind and a friend’s heart. As an executive coach, she blends a scientist’s thinking with empathy. She earned her medical doctorate from Baylor College of Medicine and also holds a master of business administration degree in marketing and management and a master of public health degree. She graduated from Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program and is a PCC-accredited executive coach. Her first business experience was to take a failing occupational medicine clinic into profitability after three years of losing money. While at the Veterans Health Administration, she envisioned, created, and directed the Community of Champions, the VA’s national physician leadership development program.

Cary is the president of The Cary Group Global, a client-focused company that provides executive coaching, training, and physician leadership development programs. She is an ICF-certified executive coach, keynote professional speaker, facilitator, and author. Cary is also a ferocious learner and serial focuser with a lifelong passion for teaching what she has learned. As one surgeon client wrote, “I always felt you looked at me as a person, with my individual strengths and weaknesses. I appreciated your more holistic approach and came to understand much better how important it was for me to be emotionally centered to be an effective leader. You are a skilled coach.”

Cary is on the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she developed and teaches the Narrative Medicine course. Her coaching clients include physician executives at academic medical centers, professional societies, research facilities, and pharmaceutical companies. She blogs on TheDoctorWeighsIn.com.

Deborah Freund is a university professor in the School of Community & Global Health (SCGH) and in the Department of Economic Sciences (DPE) in the School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation (SSSPE). She is also an adjunct professor in the department of population health science at The College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific. In the past, she has served as the RAND Corporation’s O’Neill-Alcoa Chair of Policy Analysis; the president of Claremont Graduate University; the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs and distinguished professor of public administration and economics at Syracuse University; and the vice chancellor for academic affairs, dean of the faculties, and professor of public affairs, economics, and medicine at Indiana University. She served as executive director of the American Society of Health Economists from 2019-2020. Before she completed her PhD, she worked at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her research focuses on value-based reimbursement, Medicaid managed care, and health disparities

Debbie began her academic career as an assistant and associate professor in the departments of health policy and administration at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the department of economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was one of the first scholars to study Medicaid and is known for her research and evaluation of Medicaid managed care, and the outcomes and costs of total knee replacement. She wrote the Australian guidelines on pharmacoeconomics—legislation that determines national drug prices through cost-effectiveness analysis and setting a reference price—a practice that has spread across the world. She was on the team that designed the Medical Care Expenditures Panel Survey and was the principal investigator of the team that created the Fair Health Database.

Freund is the author of more than 100 refereed articles and chapters, two books, and has been on the editorial board of 10 journals and publishers. Her current interests are in Medicaid managed care, health disparities, the impact of the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, how COVID-19 has impacted access to care and insurance coverage, and vaccine hesitancy. For her research, she has received numerous grants and contracts, totaling over $50 million as principal investigator and another $50 million as a co-principal investigator or participant. Funding agencies have included CMS (formerly HCFA), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the New York State Health Foundation, AHRQ, NIH, NSF, and the states of Vermont and Ohio.

Freund has been a recipient of the Kershaw Prize, which is given to a scholar under the age of 40 by the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management; the J.S. Drotman Award from the American Public Health Association, which recognizes an individual younger than 30 who has challenged public health in a creative manner; and the Board of Trustees Award from the American Hospital Association. In the past, Freund has consulted for members of Congress, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), Cerner, and in several pharmaceutical companies.

In addition to serving on the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Board, Debbie serves on several other boards. Her current board service includes Cedars Sinai Health System, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the San Antonio Regional Hospital, and the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. Her previous board service includes the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Med-America, and Academy Health and Tuition Plan. In the past, she also was a very active member of The American Public Health Association, where she chaired the medical care section. She also has served on many advisory boards including the Duke University Evaluation Hub, and the Catalyst for Health Reform. She served as chair of the American Hospital Association’s Board of Health Research and Education Trust, and the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). Freund was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2003.

Debbie received a master’s degree in applied economics, a master of public health degree in medical care administration, and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

Charles Froland DrPH, MPH, MBA has spent over 30 years in leadership positions in a wide variety of institutional investment management settings serving endowments, foundations, and both public and private pension funds on a global basis. He was most recently CEO and CIO of Performance Equity Management, a private equity and venture capital investment firm. His prior roles included being a managing director of several major institutional funds including the Stanford University Endowment and the GM Pension. Following his retirement in 2016, he has continued as an adviser to Performance Equity Management and has also been an independent investor in real estate, buyouts, and venture capital.

Charles has also had a long commitment to working with community health and educational organizations. He serves on the Board of the Exchange Club of New Canaan, Connecticut, which raises funds for health services agencies serving needy families in Fairfield County. He is an advisor to the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory of the University of Washington. He has also worked on boards with the Boys Town Children Services of Omaha, Nebraska, and the Beacon School in Oakland.

Anthony B. Iton is senior vice president of Healthy Communities at The California Endowment, the state’s largest private health foundation. His primary focus is on the foundation’s 10-year Building Healthy Communities: California Living 2.0 initiative, the goal of which is to create communities where children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. Before his appointment to The Endowment, Iton served as both the director and county health officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department. In that role, he oversaw the creation of an innovative public health practice designed to eliminate health disparities by tackling the root causes of poor health that limit quality of life and lifespan in many of California’s low-income communities.

For three years, Iton also served as director of Health and Human Services and school medical advisor for the City of Stamford, Connecticut. Concurrent with that, he served as a physician in Internal Medicine at Stamford Hospital’s HIV Clinic. In addition, Iton served for five years as a primary care physician at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Iton’s varied career also includes past service as a staff attorney and health policy analyst for the West Coast regional office of Consumer’s Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

Published in numerous public health and medical publications, Iton is a regular public health lecturer and keynote speaker at conferences across the nation. He earned his bachelor of science degree in Neurophysiology, with honors, from McGill University, his Juris Doctor degree at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Lauren LeRoy PhD is a strategic advisor to foundations and nonprofit organizations focused on health and policy issues. Her current professional interests and activities include: advice on organizational positioning, programming, and strategy; executive coaching; and facilitation of high-level meetings and forums.

Previously, LeRoy was president and CEO of Grantmakers in Health; executive director of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a nonpartisan congressional advisory body; executive director of the Physician Payment Review Commission; associate director of The Commonwealth Fund Commission on Elderly People Living Alone; assistant director of the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies and director of its Washington, D.C. office; and health analyst in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Her research interests and published works include Medicare reform, the health workforce, health care for the elderly, health system reform, and the work of health philanthropy in improving people’s health, access to care, and health equity.

LeRoy is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance; a fellow of the National Academies; has chaired several Institute of Medicine study committees; is a member of the dean’s Policy Advisory Council at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health; chairs the National Advisory Council of the California Health Benefits Review Program; and is a senior fellow at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She holds a doctorate in Social Policy Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mary A. Pittman is chief executive officer and president of the Oakland-based Public Health Institute, one of the largest and oldest nonprofit public health organizations in the country. PHI is home to more than 600 employees working in virtually every area of public health, in California, across the country, and around the world. A nationally recognized leader in improving community health, addressing health inequities among vulnerable people, and promoting quality of care, Pittman leads efforts to bring health care and public health together to improve population health and create greater health equity. Under her leadership, PHI has expanded its global portfolio, increased its policy and advocacy work, and been recognized as one of the 50 best nonprofit places to work in the nation.

Before joining Public Health Institute, Pittman was president of the Chicago-based Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association. As such, she led the growth and development of HRET, synchronized the efforts of board members and research and educational professionals, and served on the executive staff of the American Hospital Association.

Before taking leadership of HRET, she was president and chief executive officer of the California Association of Public Hospitals. From 1984 until 1990, she served as director of planning and evaluation for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. From 1996 until 2007, she also served on PHI’s board of directors. Over the course of her 30+ year public health career, Pittman has been recognized as a strong leader and advocate for public health. She has authored several books and peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, and developed public policy and legislative proposals to reduce health disparities and expand access and quality of health care to underserved populations. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and also received a master’s degree in city planning from the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.

Mary Jo Potter is currently CEO of Healthcare Angels and a senior advisor at BDC. In these roles, she is a consultant and investor in the health care sector, working most especially with the scaling of newer companies and ideas. She previously had been a partner or principal in three other consulting firms, working across industries in corporate mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and diversification. She built and sold a software company to McGraw-Hill and helped grow another start-up that went public and was subsequently sold.

Potter has more than 90 person-years of board experience, well over half of it in the health care sector. These included CHW/Dignity, CHI in Denver, and CHRISTUS in Dallas. She currently is on the boards of John Paul in Paris, Compli in Portland, the National Association of Corporate Directors in San Francisco, Hope Unlimited in Brazil, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and Goodwill in the East Bay. She received her master’s degree from Northwestern University, her bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights University in Michigan, and attended the Stanford Executive Program in India.

Kenneth Taymor is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy at UC Berkeley School of Law. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, Taymor practiced law for over 20 years as an attorney with MBV LAW in San Francisco, where he specialized in real estate, land use, and corporate law. His clients included commercial development firms, nonprofit and for-profit homebuilders, local governments and community development corporations.

Taymor graduated from Yale Law School in 1982, where he was article and book review editor of the Yale Law Journal and cofounder of the Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1974. From 1982 to 1988, Taymor was an associate at Morrison & Foerster, and from 1988 to 1993, he was special assistant (business and finance) to the San Francisco city attorney, serving as the city’s chief legal advisor in real estate and development matters. From 1993 to 1997, he practiced at Cassidy & Verges.

Taymor also teaches and has created courses on community development, small business, and regional economics growth at the Stanford Law School and Stanford Business School. He has also been a visiting professor of law at UCLA.

Barbara Terrazas is the director of planning, development, and policy at Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, one of the leaders in delivering multiculturally and linguistically appropriate health care services in Southern Alameda County. She was the CEO of Catholic Charities of Alameda/Contra Costa—the largest social service provider in the East Bay—for more than 10 years. Previously she was vice president of regional operations at “Just Say No” International, director of affiliate relations and planning at the American Lung Association of California (where she held oversight responsibility for 21 local affiliate organizations and developed the association’s first strategic plan), and executive director at La Clinica de la Raza.

Terrazas has more than 30 years of experience in organizational development, strategic planning, governmental relations, grants and contract administration, resource development, and community affairs. She was a founding member of the Multicultural Institute of the Franciscan School of Theology and an active advocate for youth violence prevention and breast cancer research. Her passion for the preservation of accessible quality health care for the underinsured and uninsured has advanced the national, state, and regional public health agenda.

She holds a BA degree in sociology from Mills College and earned her MPH from UC Berkeley in 1976. She sits on the board of trustees for Mills College, the board of directors for CompassPoint, and the New American Community Foundation board. Her community leadership honors include the Marcus Foster Alumni Award from Oakland Public Schools (1983) and the Public Affairs Award from the Latina Foundation of Northern California (1988).