Alkire, Gregg, and Wilson Elected to Alliance for Health Policy Board of Directors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sarina Katz
skatz@allhealhpolicy.org

Washington, D.C. — The Alliance for Health Policy is pleased to announce that Michael J. Alkire, MBA, president of Premier, Vicky Gregg, co-founder of Guidon Partners, GP, LLC, and M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S., president of Wayne State University, have been elected to serve as members of the organization’s Board of Directors. Alkire, Gregg, and Wilson will each serve three-year terms beginning January 1, 2021. Together they will help the Alliance realize its mission to advance health policy knowledge and facilitate solutions-focused dialogue among diverse stakeholders and leaders.

“The Alliance Board of Directors is excited to welcome these talented experts with diverse perspectives to guide the work of the Alliance during this extraordinary time for health policy in our nation,” shared Reed V. Tuckson, Board Chair of the Alliance for Health Policy.

“Mike, Vicky, and Roy bring a broad array of senior-level experiences across the health care landscape, complementing our broad stakeholder community, and will quickly become critical assets to the Alliance Board, staff, and overall mission”, said Tom Scully, Board Vice Chair.

Mike Alkire brings with him more than 20 years’ experience running business operations and business development organizations. Through his tenure with Premier, a health care performance improvement company, he assists member hospitals, health systems, and other health care providers to deliver the highest quality, most cost-effective care for the patients they serve. Mr. Alkire has tackled some of the nation’s most challenging health problems, innovating solutions to nationwide drug shortages, inadequate domestic manufacturing of critical supplies, and antiquated public health surveillance.

Vicky Gregg’s deep experience in health care ranges from direct patient care to her long tenure as a Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. She began her career as a registered nurse in critical care before moving into senior roles in health care administration and financing. As a co-founder of Guidon Partners, she joins several other senior health care service leaders as an investor and consultant for an array of public and privately held health care companies.

Roy Wilson combines experience from both academia and the public sector. He has championed the causes of both public health and health equity, and has focused his attention on traditionally underserved populations. He is passionate about the next generation as president of Wayne State University where he works to transform the university into a preeminent, public, urban research university.

The Alliance expresses immense gratitude to its outgoing members Peter M. Leibold, J.D., chief advocacy officer for Ascension and John Rother, J.D., president and CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care.

Read more about Mr. Alkire, Ms. Gregg, and Dr. Wilson here:

Michael J. Alkire, MBA

Michael J. Alkire, MBA, is the president of Premier. As president, Alkire leads the continued integration of Premier’s clinical, financial, supply chain, and operational performance improvement offerings helping member hospitals and health systems provide higher quality care at a better cost. He oversees Premier’s quality, safety, labor, and supply chain technology apps and data-driven collaboratives allowing alliance members to make decisions based on a combination of healthcare information. These performance improvement offerings access Premier’s comparative database, one of the nation’s largest outcomes databases. Mr. Alkire also led Premier’s efforts to address public health and safety issues from the nationwide drug shortage problem, testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives regarding Premier research on shortages and gray market price gouging. This work contributed to the president and Congress taking action to investigate and correct the problem, resulting in two pieces of bipartisan legislation. Prior to serving as president, Mr. Alkire was president of Premier Purchasing Partners, which offers group purchasing, supply chain, and resource utilization services to hospitals and health systems. Premier remains among the top group purchasing organizations in the industry as the value of supplies purchased through its contracts has increased to more than $56 billion. Upon joining Premier in late 2003, Mr. Alkire worked closely with the Purchasing Partners team to develop and implement a three-year transformation plan designed to dramatically increase returns to the alliance’s shareholders while building stronger relationships with members and suppliers. Mr. Alkire is a past board member of GHX and the Healthcare Supply Chain Association. He was recently named one of the Top 25 COOs in Healthcare for 2018 by Modern Healthcare. In 2015, he won the Gold Stevie Award for Executive of the Year and in 2014 he was recognized as a Gold Award Winner for COO of the Year by the Golden Bridge Awards. He has more than 20 years of experience in running business operations and business development organizations at Deloitte & Touche and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Before joining Premier, he served in a number of leadership roles at Cap Gemini, including North American responsibilities for supply chain and high-tech manufacturing. Mr. Alkire graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science from Indiana State University and a MBA from Indiana University.

Vicky B. Gregg

A nurse by education, Vicky’s deep experience in health care ranging from direct patient care to her long tenure as a chief executive spans hospital administration, long-term care, and health care benefits and financing. Currently she is a co-founder of Guidon Partners, GP, LLC since November 2014. She currently serves on the Boards of Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ: ACHC,) and Elara Caring, and previously served on the Boards of Landmark Healthcare, Trizetto, and TeamHealth. Ms. Gregg served as the chief executive officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee from January 2003 to December 2012. She served as market vice president for Humana in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana prior to joining BlueCross. Ms. Gregg was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the National Institutes of Health Commission on Systemic Interoperability, served on the Boards of the BlueCross BlueShield Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans, including two years as Chair, the National Institute of Healthcare Management (NIHCM), and the Board of the University of Tennessee. She has received numerous awards and recognition including Top 25 Women in Healthcare.

M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S.

M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S., was unanimously elected president of Wayne State University by the Board of Governors on June 5, 2013. He assumed the presidency on August 1, 2013. Prior to joining Wayne State, Dr. Wilson served as deputy director for strategic scientific planning and program coordination at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously, Dr. Wilson was dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for health sciences at Creighton University, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus and chair of the Board of Directors of University of Colorado Hospital. Immediately prior to joining NIH, Dr. Wilson chaired the Board of Directors of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and was acting president during part of that time. Dr. Wilson’s research has focused on glaucoma and blindness in populations from the Caribbean to West Africa. He holds elected memberships in the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine), the Glaucoma Research Society, the American Ophthalmological Society, and the Society of Medical Administrators. He has served on the executive committee of the NIH-funded Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study and chaired the Data Monitoring and Oversight Committee of both the NIH-funded Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, and the African-American Eye Disease Study. Dr. Wilson was a member of the advisory councils of both the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the former National Center for Research Resources, and currently serves on the Advisory Council of the NIH Director as well as the NIH Director’s National Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce (co-chair). He has served on the governing boards of many national organizations including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), where he served as chair (2017-2018). Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, a master’s of science degree in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He was selected for the list of Best Doctors in America for a consecutive 14 years by Best Doctors Inc. and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Healthcare CEO of the Year in 2011. His additional honors include the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Senior Achievement Award, the Distinguished Physician Award from the Minority Health Institute, the Herbert W. Nickens Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the NIH Director’s Award, the President’s Award from the American Glaucoma Society, the Lifetime Research Award from the W. Montague Cobb Institute, the Justice Award from the Arab-American Civil Rights League and the Detroit branch of the NAACP, and the Excellence in Educational Leadership Award from the Detroit Regional Chamber.

About the Alliance for Health Policy

The Alliance for Health Policy is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping policymakers and the public better understand health policy, the root of the nation’s health care issues, and the trade-offs posed by various proposals for change. We believe a better health care system begins with a balanced exchange of evidence, experience, and multiple perspectives. Regardless of their point of view, our audience recognizes the Alliance’s reputation as a well-respected source for unbiased health policy information.