Milbank Memorial Fund Announces Board and Staff Appointments

The Milbank Memorial Fund has announced additions to its Board of Directors and management team.

At its October 15, 2013 meeting, the Board of Directors of the Milbank Memorial Fund elected Paul D. Cleary and John M. Colmers to serve as new directors of the organization.

Dr. Cleary is dean of the Yale School of Public Health and the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine. Besides his administrative responsibilities, he has studied how organizational characteristics affect the costs and quality of care for persons with AIDS, evaluated a national continuous quality improvement initiative in clinics providing care to HIV-infected individuals, and studied the long-term impact of patient-centered hospital care. A member of the Institute of Medicine since 1994, Dr. Cleary was editor of The Milbank Quarterly from 1992 to 2000. He is chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program.

Mr. Colmers is vice president of health care transformation and strategic planning for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He also serves as chair of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. From January 2007 to January 2011 he served as secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and from November 2000 to January 2007 was a senior program officer here at the Fund. Prior to joining the Fund, he spent nineteen years in Maryland state government where he held various positions, including executive director of the Maryland Health Care Commission and the Health Services Cost Review Commission.

“We are honored and fortunate to have Dr. Cleary and Mr. Colmers join the Board,” said Board Chair Samuel L. (Tony) Milbank. “Both are distinguished professionals in precisely the areas where we work—identifying the best evidence and experience to help decision makers improve the health of populations. Both have extensive governance experience; their presence will help our deliberations immensely.”

Christopher F. Koller, president of the Fund, also announced the appointment of Trina A. Gonzalez as program officer of the Fund. Ms. Gonzalez comes to this role after sixteen years in public service in California state government, most recently as interim chief of the Center for Innovation at the California Public Employees Retirement System. Last year, she left public service to obtain a master’s degree in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. “Trina is a great fit for our work,” said Mr. Koller. “As program officer she will have primary responsibility for the Reforming States Group (RSG), our flagship programmatic initiative. Her deep experience of working with executive and legislative branch state officials to implement meaningful policies places the RSG and other Fund work in good hands.”