Jessica Briefer French, MHSA, Senior Consultant for Research, National Committee for Quality Assurance
Ms. French is responsible for the development and oversight of research projects that support measurement and evaluation of new areas of health care quality. Currently, Ms. French directs several projects focused on measuring, evaluating and improving care for vulnerable populations, including multicultural populations, children and children with special health care needs. Ms. French has directed projects to develop standards for multicultural health care distinction, issue awards to health plans for innovations in multicultural health care and provide demonstration grants for small physician practices to improve care for their minority patients. She is also responsible for the publication of several versions of a guide to quality improvement in multicultural health care.
Ellen Wu, MPH, Executive Director, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
Ellen has been the Executive Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) since 2001. CPEHN is a statewide health policy organization whose mission is to eliminate health disparities by advocating for public policies to improve the health of communities of color. During her tenure CPEHN has played a critical role in advancing policy requiring health plans and insurers to provide language services to their enrollees. She serves on numerous boards and advisory committees including the California Budget Project, Healthy Families Quality Advisory Committee, and as a Governor’s appointee to the Department of Public Health’s Advisory Committee. Prior to joining CPEHN, Ellen consulted with the Community Health Center Network, was a Program Officer at the Tides Foundation, and served as Director of Health Education and Cultural Linguistic Services for the Alameda Alliance for Health.
Kathryn L. Coltin, MPH, Director, External Quality Data Initiatives, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Ms. Coltin is Director, External Quality Data Initiatives at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She has served on several national advisory committees in the area of health care performance measurement and reporting. She served as a member of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics for eight years, chairing its Quality of Care Workgroup. Ms. Coltin has led Harvard Pilgrim’s initiatives to identify and reduce racial/ethnic disparities in health care since 1998 and serves as their representative to the National Health Plan Collaborative on Reducing Racial/Ethnic Disparities. She served on the Massachusetts Medicaid Disparities Policy Roundtable on designing performance incentives for reducing racial/ethnic disparities in the MA Medicaid program. She currently serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Finding Answers: Disparities Solutions for Change” program, the Sounding Board for the Disparities Solution Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and the NCQA Cultural and Linguistic Access Standards Advisory Committee.