Michael Villaire, MSLM, is Chairman and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, a healthcare nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to empowering people to better health, with a major mission emphasis on advancing health literacy toward health equity.

Mr. Villaire has written numerous articles on various aspects of health literacy, and lectures nationally on health literacy. He is co-author of the textbook, Health Literacy in Primary Care- A Clinicians Guide, published by Springer in 2007, and the self-help health book, What To Do When Your Child Is Heavy, published by IHA in 2009.

As its CEO, Mr. Villaire leads IHAs health literacy initiatives:

• The IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center

• The Health Literacy Specialist Certificate Program

• Three national, annual, continuing education conferences: Operational Solutions to Improve Health Literacy, the co-sponsored Health Literacy in Action policy and practice conference (HLiA), and the annual Health Literacy Research Conference (HARC)

• IHA’s self-help health book series, What To Do For Health, and the micro-pub series on mental health and managing chronic illnesses

• Health Literacy Research and Practice, an online, peer-reviewed, open access journal in health literacy.

Wilma Alvarado-Little, MA MSW, is the New York State Department of Health as Associate Commissioner and Director of the Department’s Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities. She focuses on racial and health equity issues from a linguistic and cultural perspective in addition to her interests in public policy, research, health literacy and health disparities prevention. She is the former Co-chair of the Board of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, serves as a member of the National Project Advisory Committee for the Review of the CLAS Standards, HHS Office of Minority Health, and has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy.

Eric Anderson, PhD, MBA, is a professor at the La Sierra University School of Business. Dr. Anderson has written more than 50 academic and professional articles that have been published in a variety of publications. He was selected to serve on the Academic Medicine and Managed Care Forum, which was made up of experts from 30 of the Nation’s leading universities as well as the Academic Medicine and Health Industry Forum sponsored by the Council on US Health Care.

Kambiz Arman, MD, is the chairman of the OB/GYN department at Friends of Family Health Center. For 20 years he practiced at Friendly Hills Medical Group in La Habra, California, and was chairman of the department for 10 years. In addition to providing patient care, Dr. Arman gives lectures regarding pertinent public health topics to educate the community.

Linda Neuhauser, DrPH,, is Clinical Professor of Community Health and Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research, teaching and practice are focused on translating research findings into improved health interventions, including mass communication. She is especially interested in leveraging participatory approaches to improve the relevance of communication to meet the literacy, linguistic, cultural and other needs of diverse audiences. She is co-principal investigator of the UC Berkeley Health Research for Action Center that works with users to co-design and evaluate multi-media health communication resources that have now reached over 30 million households in the US and overseas. Her center’s staff also works with heath plans and other public and private organizations on strategic planning, trainings, and communication resources to improve health literacy and clear communication. She was a participant in the US Surgeon General’s Workshop on Health Literacy and a member of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Communication Advisory Committee. She was previously a US health officer in West and Central Africa.

Barbara Price, Barbara Price is the corporate senior vice president of strategy and planning for Scripps Health. She has extensive experience working with medical group and health system operations within competive health care environments. Prior to joining Scripps, she held leadership positions with Kaiser Permanente, Sharp Healthcare, KPMG Peat Marwick, Sequoia Hospital, and Stanford University Medical Center. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from the Walter Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Albert E. Barnett, MD, is Chairman Emeritus. He is a nationally recognized expert on healthcare delivery models. Dr. Barnett founded Friendly Hills Medical Group in 1968 and served as the CEO of Friendly Hills HealthCare Network until 1996. During this time, he helped to build one of the most esteemed physician-led healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. A respected author and lecturer, Dr. Barnett consults on an extensive variety of healthcare issues and has written or contributed to six books on the delivery of healthcare.