Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH
Foundation President and Founder
Dr. Nobel is on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, where his teaching and research activities address the design of healthcare delivery systems that improve quality, cost-effectiveness and access. He also works in consultation with several major organizations to develop healthcare programs that are centered on the use of emerging information technologies, combining “high tech” with “high-touch” in meeting the needs of patients and those who care for them.
A published poet, Dr. Nobel has received several awards for his poetry including the Bain-Swiggett Prize from Princeton University, and the American Academy of Poets Prize from the University of Pennsylvania.
An avid arts supporter, Dr. Nobel has served on the Board of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company of New York City, the Board of Overseers of the De Cordova Art Museum in Lincoln, MA, and is a member of the Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston Director’s Circle.
Dr. Nobel graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University within the Science and Human Affairs program. He received his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his internal medicine residency at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston. Board-certified in both Preventive Medicine and Internal Medicine, Dr. Nobel also holds Master’s Degrees in Epidemiology and Health Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he is an adjunct professor.
Laurel Pickering
Laurel Pickering is Executive Director of the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), a 175 member business coalition representing over 1 million covered lives, committed to market-based health care reform, quality improvement and value-based purchasing. NEBGH also provides the employer’s perspective on current health care issues to legislators and healthcare organizations. Since becoming Executive Director in 1996, Ms Pickering has focused on mobilizing the business community to drive improvement in healthcare, providing access to health insurance for small businesses by creating a health insurance exchange and organizing health plans to work together to improve quality. Recent initiatives include the New York Metro Mental Health Collaborative One Voice, and the New Jersey Multi-Payer Reporting Project. As Executive Director, Ms. Pickering oversees the NEBGH role in the NYS Health Accountability Foundation, a joint venture between NEBGH and IPRO. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the NEBGH subsidiary, HealthPass, a health insurance exchange for small businesses. NEBGH leads the Leapfrog Group regional rollout in the NY Metro area and Ms. Pickering is overseeing that initiative.
Ms. Pickering has served as a researcher for Columbia and Emory Universities and has worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Ms. Pickering currently serves on NCQA’s Standards Committee, the Board of Directors of The Leapfrog Group, CDC’s Business and Labor Responds to AIDS Board of Business and Labor Partners, the Commissioner of NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Advisory Council, the Board of Directors of NYCLIX (New York Clinical Information Exchange), and the Community Advisory Committee of the New York State Health Foundation. She was selected as one of New York’s rising stars by Crain’s and featured in the 2007 40 Under 40 issue.
Ms. Pickering received her BA from SUNY Albany and MPH from Emory University.
Robert Gabbay
Robert A. Gabbay, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine, College of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and Director of the Penn State Institute for Diabetes and Obesity and Penn State Hershey Diabetes Institute.
His research program is focused on studying integrative approaches to Reinvent Diabetes Care. Much of his efforts are organized around improving diabetes care within the primary care setting where most patients with diabetes receive treatment. Dr. Gabbay helped to lead a unique, state-wide initiative aimed at transforming care in Pennsylvania to be aligned with the Chronic Care Model. The Chronic Care Model, developed by Dr. Ed Wager, is the best evidence-based approach to transform care from an acute and reactive system to a proactive, planned, and population-based system of care. This unique undertaking merges, for the first time, changes in reimbursement with incentives for Chronic Care Model implementation. This initiative holds significant promise to transform healthcare in other regions and establishes a potential national model for systematic chronic disease management.
Recently, Dr. Gabbay has completed the DYNAMIC (Diabetes Nurse Case Management and Motivational Interviewing for Change) study. Motivational interviewing was implemented with the patients in order to track the improvement of diabetes outcomes, and now these techniques are being integrated into the curriculum at the Penn State College of Medicine thanks to Dr. Gabbay’s efforts and research.
Dr. Gabbay, originally a native of New York City, completed his Bachelor’s Degree at McGill University. He then earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin where he studied insulin signaling mechanisms. After an Internal Medicine Residency at Cornell University – New York Hospital, he had a Fellowship at Harvard Medical School – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He joined the Penn State Hershey College of Medicine in 1998. Dr. Gabbay is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine as well as the Department of Molecular Medicine. He also maintains an active endocrinology clinical practice.
Michael Monson
Michael Monson is the Senior Vice President of Performance & Innovation at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). VNSNY, with $1.6 billion in revenue, is the country’s largest not-for-profit home based healthcare company. As both a payer (Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Special Needs, Medicaid Long Term Care) and a provider (homecare, hospice, long term care), VNSNY services more than 140,000 individuals a year in the metro New York City marketplace.
Reporting to the CEO, Performance & Innovation (PI) is VNSNY’s corporate strategy group focusing on the core strategic and operational management issues facing the company. At VNSNY, Michael has been involved with a range of issues including developing growth strategies for the overall company, forecasting market trends, leading scenario planning for the health plan, improving the financial and operating performance of the homecare business, and optimizing the sales force. Michael also leads VNSNY’s Innovation Office which is responsible for identifying health services, health informatics, and health IT companies that are complementary to VNSNY’s existing suite of services.
Michael joined VNSNY in 2004 after having spent six years working for McKinsey & Company where he worked primarily with media and nonprofit clients. Prior to working for McKinsey, Michael was the Finance Director for then Congressman Robert Menedez’s campaign. Michael has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Les Gosule
Leslie C. Gosule received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bentley College in 1969 and his Masters of Science in Taxation degree from Northeastern University in 2001. Mr. Gosule earned the designation of Certified Valuation Analyst in 1995 and is a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. He is involved in business valuations, estate and succession planning, litigation support and all other aspects of business consulting for closely held business entities. Les was an instructor at Northeastern University for over 30 years. Les is also on the Criminal History Board and is a board member/treasurer for the Garden of Peace. He is working diligently to pass the habitual offender bill, named for his daughter, “the Melissa Bill”.
Team Members
Deborah Obalil, Executive Director
Heather Stuckey, PhD, Director of Research
HealthSTAR Public Relations, Media Counsel
