CO - FOUNDER

Mary A. Pittman, DrPH, is past chief executive officer and president of the Oakland-based Public Health Institute (PHI), and Emerita PHI Board Member. PHI is one of the country’s largest independent public health organizations providing research, fiscal sponsorship, and program implementation. She has been a recognized leader in community and population health, care for vulnerable populations, and leadership. Her experience in public health and health care settings have made her an adviser in public and population health, and a member of numerous advisory groups and boards. Recently Pittman co-founded the For Our Health Committee to speak out about actions taken by the Administration to undermine the nation’s public health, research, and health systems. This voluntary group of leaders provides a voice for those still working in government and other organizations who fear retaliation if they speak out.

 Under Pittman’s leadership PHI expanded work in global workforce, focused on gender and racial equity and inclusion, public policy and advocacy, strengthened research and technical assistance, advanced cancer research and clinical trials for children, and deepened focus in health equity to build power and engage communities in addressing disparities. In partnership with Kaiser Permanente and philanthropies, PHI built an agile and diverse workforce for COVID-19, supporting local public health organizations, to respond to COVID and other health preparedness issues.

CO - FOUNDER

As CEO of GoodWin Strategies, Matthew serves a diverse portfolio of mission-driven clients, leveraging his expertise in public policy, advocacy, and leadership development, and a core commitment to social justice to provide strategic counsel and support to help organizations secure their goals in a rapidly changing and complex public policy landscape. Matthew is an experienced strategist, advocate, and nonprofit leader with almost three decades of experience serving in senior leadership roles in nonprofit organizations and government agencies in the U.S. and U.K. Previously, Matthew held executive roles at the Public Health Institute, where he led government relations, program management, and public policy initiatives and his career also includes impactful work at the California Department of Public Health and the United Kingdom’s Department for Education and Skills.

CO - FOUNDER

Thomas Higgins was Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet of President Carter. He also served as a senior Executive at HEW and HHS. He is a former state legislator and Health Committee chair in Iowa. He served as head of the Health and Human Services Department in Portland Oregon and later as Chairman of the Board of SCAN Health Plan. He was the founding CEO of Prosetta Biosciences and currently serves as Board Chair.

CO - FOUNDER

Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Professor Emeritus, Family and Community Medicine and Economics at the University of New Mexico. He formerly served as Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He was the founding Executive Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM and a founding Dean of the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health. He previously served as a Professor at UCLA School of Public Health and Senior Health Scientist at RAND. During the 1990s, he served simultaneously as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (PHS) and Director of Interagency Health Policy (HCFA). He has served on several occasions as a White House Senior Advisor. Dr. Valdez was Chairman of the Public Health Institute Board and the New Mexico Community Foundation Board. He served as a Patient-Centered Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Trustees member and on the board of the National Quality Forum (NQF) His expertise in health services research and policy analysis is internationally recognized, and he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

ADMINISTRATIVE INTERN

Madeline Hahm is an incoming Masters of Philosophy student at Trinity College, Dublin, where she will be studying Applied Intercultural Communications with a focus on Political Policy. Prior to joining the For Our Health Committee, she was a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where she received her B.A. in Spanish Language & Culture with concentrations in both Coastal & Marine Sciences and Sustainability. During her four years at Amherst, Madeline worked at the college’s health center, educating her peers on available medical resources and assisting with various harm-reduction programming. Throughout the 2022-2023 academic calendar, Madeline also spent the year abroad, first in Spain and then in Ecuador, conducting conservation fieldwork in the Galápagos Islands, where she became fluent in Spanish.