A global leader driving public health research, policy, and practice, Dr. Jha serves as Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. 

An accomplished and practicing physician, Dr. Jha is recognized globally as a trusted expert on major issues facing the nation’s health and a catalyst for new thinking and approaches. A long-time leader on pandemic preparedness and response, from directing groundbreaking research on Ebola to serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, he has led national and international analyses of key issues and advised policy makers around the world.

President Joe Biden appointed Dr. Jha as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator in March 2022, describing him as “one of the leading public health experts in America.” From the White House, Dr. Jha led the work that increased the development of and access to treatments and newly formulated vaccines, dramatically improved testing and surveillance, rebuilt our strategic national stockpiles, facilitated major investments in improving indoor Air Quality, and put in place an infrastructure to respond to current and future disease outbreaks more effectively. He has received bipartisan praise for his pragmatic approach to public health that, in the words of President Biden, “translates…complex scientific challenges into concrete actions” that help improve millions of lives. 

Dr. Jha is one of the most highly cited researchers in the nation, having published more than three hundred publications in the most prestigious medical journals including Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and the BMJ. He is also a frequent contributor to a range of public media. His work has focused on how to improve the quality and costs of care that people receive, studying the impact of local and national policy efforts both in the US and around the world. Before serving as Dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, he was the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also served as the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Jonathan (Jon) Blum currently serves as the Principal Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this dual role, Jon oversees CMS’s program policy planning and implementation and day-to-day operations of the entire agency. CMS’s programs provide health coverage to more than 150 million individuals, spending more than $1.7 trillion in annual benefits with an annual operating budget of more than $7 billion.  

This is Jon’s second time serving in a senior leadership position at CMS. He previously served as the Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center of Medicare from 2009 – 2014, leading the agency’s Medicare payment and delivery reform strategies and the policy and program management of the Medicare program.

Jon has more than 25 years of public- and private-sector experience working in health care policy and administration. In addition to his positions at CMS, he has worked as a strategy and management consultant, an Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, professional staff at the Senate Finance Committee, and a program analyst at the Office of Budget and Management. 

Prior to joining CMS, Jon served on several nonprofit boards with missions to improve access and equity to health care and health coverage, including Mary's Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center; the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County; and the Medicare Rights Center.

Jon earned a Master of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Ryan came to Brown in the fall of 2022 from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he served as director of the Center for Evaluating Health Reform, co-director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy, and associate director of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation’s Data and Methods Hub.

Professor Meyers is a health services researcher and health economist whose research broadly focuses on how payment and delivery reform affect the outcomes of historically marginalized patient populations. His current research interests include trying to understand the drivers of inequities in the Medicare Advantage program, the evaluation of care management programs for high-risk patient populations, and Medicaid policy for patients with chronic illness.

Professor Fuse Brown’s areas of research and expertise include health law and policy, health care finance, health care consolidation and prices, the Affordable Care Act, single-payer and public option health reforms, ERISA preemption of state health laws, consumer financial protections for patients against surprise medical bills and medical debt. She also serves as a consultant to the National Academy for State Health Policy to provide legal and policy resources and draft model laws for its Center for Health System Costs, funded by Arnold Ventures.  Professor Fuse Brown’s work has influenced health policy at the state and national levels.

Erica is a Vice President for Health Care, Payor Reform at Arnold Ventures where she leads the team’s strategic investments and policy work on commercial sector prices, Medicare sustainability, and provider payment reform. Erica has over a decade of health policy experience in government, think tanks, and philanthropy. Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, she worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she led the Health Division’s quantitative work to advance policies for the president’s budget, federal regulations, and legislative proposals. Erica has also worked on Medicare and private insurance issues at the Congressional Budget Office and the Brookings Institution.

Erica holds a Ph.D. in political science from Texas A&M University, as well as a B.A. in economics and B.S. in mathematics from the University of Maryland.