Staff

Jennifer Adams-Dunwell is the Fund’s accounting officer. Previously Ms. Adams-Dunwell worked as a bookkeeper for Best Deal Trucking Company and prior to that for Brylane Inc. She earned a BA degree in accounting from Lehman College and completed a certificate program in nonprofit accounting.

Rachel Block is a program officer at the Fund. An independent consultant who worked for the Fund and other organizations focusing on federal and state health policy issues, she has served in numerous executive roles in the public and private sectors, including spearheading development of New York state’s health information technology strategy as deputy commissioner for Health Information Technology Transformation in the New York State Department of Health and as the founding executive director of the New York eHealth Collaborative. Ms. Block has also worked at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she held several senior management positions directing policy development and operations for Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance, and federal survey and certification programs.

Gail Cambridge is the Fund’s administrative services manager. Prior to joining the Fund, she was employed at the Guyana National Cooperative Bank. During her eleven years at the bank, she held several senior positions and was instrumental in implementing new procedures and training. She graduated magna cum laude with a BS degree from the City University of New York and an MS degree from Central Michigan University.

Trina A. Gonzalez is a program officer at the Fund. Before joining the Fund, Ms. Gonzalez served in California state government where she was the interim chief for the Center for Innovation at the California Public Employees Retirement System, deputy director for pollution prevention at the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and assistant secretary for public health and emergency medical services at the Health and Human Services Agency. She earned a BA degree in international relations from Scripps College, an MA degree in political science from the University of Hawaii, and an MPP from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Howard Markel is the editor-in-chief of The Milbank Quarterly. He is also the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. An acclaimed social and cultural historian of medicine, Dr. Markel has published widely on epidemic disease, quarantine and public health policy, addiction and substance abuse, and children’s health policy. From 2006 to the present, he has served as the principal historical consultant on pandemic preparedness for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From late April 2009 to February 2011, he served as a member of the CDC director’s “Novel A/H1N1 Influenza Team B,” a real-time think tank of experts charged with evaluating the federal government’s influenza policies on a daily basis during the outbreak. The author or co-author of ten books and over 350 publications, he is editor-in-chief of The 1918–1919 American Influenza Pandemic: A Digital Encyclopedia and Archive. He received his AB (summa cum laude) and MD (cum laude) from the University of Michigan and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in general pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 2008, he was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Katelynn Sedan is an administrative assistant at the Fund. She joined the Fund in the summer of 2010 after graduating from Loyola University Chicago. She earned two BA degrees from Loyola: one in philosophy with an emphasis in social justice and another in political science with an emphasis in military intervention. She also minored in international studies.

Tara Strome is assistant managing editor of The Milbank Quarterly. She was previously publications associate and administrative assistant at the Fund. Prior to that she worked as a committee assistant for the Oregon Senate and as a data specialist for the Multnomah County Department of Human Services. She holds a BA in sociology from Colby College and an MPA in health policy and management from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.

Lisa Dulsky Watkins is the director of the Milbank Memorial Fund Multi-State Collaborative, a consortium of 18 state and regional multi-payer programs designed to transform primary care. She is actively engaged in advocacy for new and continued support for these efforts and other innovations at the state and federal levels. She is the former chief of operations for the Vermont Blueprint for Health, one of the founding members of the Collaborative. She received her MD degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and her BS from the City College of New York. She completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and was in primary care practice as a board-certified pediatrician in Middlebury and Essex Junction, Vermont.

Judith Zimmer is the Fund’s communications director. She comes to the Fund with more than 20 years of experience in health care communications. Previously, she worked for a New York City-based cancer research foundation and at several medical centers, including Mount Sinai. A journalist by training, Ms. Zimmer has written about health for magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times. She is the co-author or author of several books, including The Cardiovascular Cure (Broadway) and Labor of Love, Women Share the Joy of Childbirth (John Wiley). Ms. Zimmer has a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College. Members of the press can contact Judith at jzimmer@milbank.org or 212-355-8400.