Neal Halfon, MD, MPH

Dr.Halfon is a professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; of Health Services in the UCLA School of Public Health; and of PublicPolicy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs.

Dr. Halfon’s most recent work attempts to define a developmentally-focused model of health production across the life course and to understand the implications of life course health development for the delivery and financing of health care. His Life Course Health Development model has been used to explore new approaches targeted at promoting health, preventing the spread of disease,and optimizing the health of individuals across all communities.

Dr. Halfon has also served as a key health and domestic policy advisor to former Vice President Al Gore, providing guidance in 1998 and 1999 on the development of several new initiatives focused on family-centered community building.

Helen DuPlessis, MD, MPH

Dr. DuPlessis is a core member and manages the Blue Sky Health project, bringing with her over 20 years of health care and public health experience. She is a senior advisor at the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities and is an assistant professor in the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health.

Prior to joining Blue Sky Health, Dr. DuPlessis played an active role in the development of the L.A. Care Health Plan, a public health plan serving Medi-Cal(Medicaid) and other low income beneficiaries in Los Angeles County and later served as its Chief Medical Officer.

Before joining L.A. Care Health Plan, she served as the director of student medical services for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she was responsible for the health and health-related services of over 670,000 students in grades kindergarten through 12th. During her tenure with the School district, she spearheaded the development of an innovative outreach and education program– a partnership between public, private, educational and social service agencies– responsible for enrolling over 100,000 children and families in health insurance programs and creating the impetus for electronic eligibility screening approaches.

Dr. DuPlessis also served as the director of the Community Pediatrics program at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center and was the medical director for the Child Health and Disability Prevention program. She also served as a consultant with the Health Sciences and Drug Policy Research Programs of the RAND Corporation.

Arleen Leibowitz, PhD

Dr.Leibowitz is a founding and core member of Blue Sky Health. She brings a widerange of expertise in health care economics and financing to the Blue Sky Health team.

As an economist and leading scholar in health policy, Dr. Leibowitz focuses on health care and labor economics. She has examined the effects of cost-sharing and managed care on patients' use of the health care system. Her current work focuses on the cost of financing HIV care and care for children with emotional problems.

Her research on labor issues has focused on maternity leave and child care issues, including the effect of maternity leave legislation on the participation of new mothers in the labor force. She has also examined the link between the amount of time parents spend with young children and a child’s IQ score, income and academic performance.

A member of the Los Angeles County Task Force on Access to Health Care, Dr.Leibowitz has testified before California Assembly and Congress committees on issues concerning health care financing. During her 18-year career at the RAND Corporation, she served as director of the Center for the Study of Employee Benefits and as associate director of the RAND Health Sciences Program.

Dr. Leibowitz currently serves as the Department Chair of the Public Policy program at the UCLA School of Public Affairs.

Mark Peterson, PhD

Dr.Peterson is a founding and core member of Blue Sky Health. A specialist on American national institutions and a political scientist, Professor Peterson brings public policy expertise to the Blue Sky Health team. His research focuses onthe Presidency, Congress, and interest groups and the effects of their interactions on domestic and health care policy.

Currently, Dr. Peterson chairs the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Scholars in Health Policy Research program. He is also a member of the National Advisory Committees for the Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) program. He has served on advisory panels for the California HealthCare Foundation and is the former editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Dr. Peterson has been heavily involved in many grassroots political efforts and has been on the policy making side as well. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, he was Democratic Party Ward Chair in the First Ward and worked first hand on many political campaigns. As an American Political Science Association CongressionalFellow, he served as a Legislative Assistant for Health Policy in the Office of U.S. Senator Tom Daschle.

David A. Ganz, MD, PhD

Dr.Ganz brings his unique perspective as a gerontologist and extensive knowledge in the field of health care to the Blue Sky Health team. Dr. Ganz is a Clinical Instructor in the Division of Geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicineat UCLA. He is also a Staff Physician and Special Fellow at the Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center in the Greater Los Angeles VeteransAffairs Healthcare System.

Dr. Ganz’s research focuses on measuring and improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of care for frail, older adults. One area of interest has been measuring clinicians’ adherence to standards of care for a variety of conditions, including cardiovascular and musculoskeletal conditions that are common problems in older adults. He has expertise in using decision analytic methods to determine the cost-effectivenessof various therapies, including cholesterol-lowering therapy for patients with heart disease, and antipsychotic medicines for patients with schizophrenia.

More recently, Dr. Ganz has engaged in research relating to quality improvement and medical practice redesign for patients with falls and mobility disorders, a common problem in older adults.

Dr. Ganz received a joint M.D./M.P.H. degree from the Harvard Medical School in 2001, completed his internal medicine residency and clinical geriatrics fellowship at the UCLA Medical Center, and his Ph.D. in Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Samuel Y. Sessions, MD, JD

Dr.Sessions is a core team member of the Blue Sky Health Initiative at UCLA. His current research interests include health care finance and administration,health care politics, and mental health policy. Previous publications of Dr. Sessions have appeared in the Virginia Law Review, the International Lawyer, the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Health Politics,Policy and Law.

Prior to entering medical school, Dr Sessions was Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he served from 1993 to 1994. From 1989 to 1993 he was Chief Tax Counsel to the United States Senate Finance Committee. Dr. Sessions was also an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He began his professional career in the New York City office of the international law firm Cleary, Gottlieb,Steen & Hamilton. He received his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review, and his LL.M. from the Columbia University School of Law in New York City.

Currently Dr. Sessions is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance,California. He received his MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine and his specialty training at the UCLA-West Los Angeles VA residency program in psychiatry, where he was chief resident.