AboutMeet The Board
Anya Rader Wallack, Ph.D.
"Vermont is and will continue to be the best place in the country to practice medicine. We’re working to reduce the hassle factor and allow physicians to do what they were trained to do – help their patients stay healthy and treat their illnesses if or as they occur. The current system of health care financing is not working for Vermont’s physicians. Our charge is to design a solution that works better for everyone."
-Anya Rader Wallack, Ph.D., Chair
Anya Rader Wallack, Chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, has worked in health care policy and reform for the past two decades. In January 2011, Ms. Wallack joined Governor Shumlin as Special Assistant for Health Reform and was the chief architect of Act 48, the Governor’s health reform plan. During the 1990’s Ms. Wallack served as Governor Howard Dean’s Deputy Chief of Staff and focused on health reform. Additionally, Ms. Wallack served on Hillary Clinton’s Health Reform Task Force. Upon leaving the Dean administration, Ms. Wallack became the Executive Director of the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care and a member of the Vermont Board of Medical Practice.
More recently, Ms. Wallack led the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute and was also interim President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation. She chaired the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council’s committee on cost containment, and served on the Rhode Island Health Reform Task Force. Ms. Wallack has been a consultant on state-based health reform to states, non-profits, foundations and health care providers for much of the past decade.
Ms. Wallack is a native Vermonter and graduate of the University of Vermont.
She holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University and lives in Montpelier.
“The rising cost of healthcare and complexities of insurance are an enormous challenge for employers. As a Vermont business owner who must meet a payroll every week, I understand how urgently we need to reform all facets of this system. Vermont’s small size and unique character, together with the passage of Act 48, make our state ideal to lead the way to an improved, less costly health care system"
-Al Gobeille
Based in Burlington, Vermont, Al Gobeille owns and operates Gobeille Hospitality, a restaurant and hospitality business that includes four popular restaurants and catering businesses: Shanty on the Shore, Burlington Bay Market and Café, Breakwater Café and Grill, and Northern Lights Cruises. Gobeille Hospitality employs 230 people.
Mr. Gobeille serves on the Town of Shelburne Select Board and has negotiated with the Town’s union employees on health insurance benefits. He is a board member of the Visiting Nurses Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, and serves on the State of Vermont’s Payment Reform Advisory Committee.
Mr. Gobeille is a graduate of Norwich University and has served as an officer in the United States Army. He lives in Shelburne.
“If we shift the paradigm to focus on primary care that enables Vermonters to achieve better health and eliminate barriers to providing quality care, the foundation is set to support each and every patient as well as the overall health of our state. That’s what we all want.”
- Allan Ramsay, M.D.
Dr. Allan Ramsay is a Colchester-based primary care physician who has practiced in Vermont for 30 years. Dr. Ramsay’s signature work is in the area of palliative care, where he has been a leader in developing models for assuring that patients’ wishes are followed at the end of their life. He is currently Fletcher Allen Health Care’s Medical Director of Palliative Care Service and the founder of the Rural Palliative Care Network.
Dr. Ramsay has expertise in clinical information systems having served as a consultant to IDX and as principle investigator on studies aimed at examining the value of computerized decision-making tools in primary care offices.
Dr. Ramsay is a member of the board of the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties. He is also a member of the Quality Improvement Committee of the University of Vermont Department of Family Medicine.
Prior to moving to Vermont, Dr. Ramsay served in the National Health Service Corps in rural Colorado. He was also President of an HMO Professional Service Corporation in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado.
Dr. Ramsay holds a medical degree from Emory University and is board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics, hospice and palliative medicine. Ramsay lives in Essex Junction.
"My participation on this team will be dedicated to the people of Vermont, to improving their health and having them as partners as we go forward."
- Karen Hein, M.D.
Dr. Karen Hein is Adjunct Professor of Family & Community Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and immediate past president of the William T. Grant Foundation. Since 2003 Dr. Hein has served on boards that focus on health care reform, as well as on youth development, global health and the professionalization of humanitarian assistance in other countries, including RAND Health, Consumers Union, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, the International Rescue Committee and ChildFund International.
Dr. Hein spent 25 years on the faculty at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, where she trained pediatric residents and fellows and focused her research on adolescent HIV and AIDS. During the Clinton health reform effort, Dr. Hein served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow with the United States Senate Finance Committee. Dr. Hein then served as Executive Office of the Institute of Medicine from 1995-98 and was hired by the Grant Foundation in 1998.
Dr. Hein holds a medical degree from Columbia University and is a board certified pediatrician. She has owned a home in Jacksonville, Vermont for 40 years and has lived there full-time since 2004.
“The primary way we can address the escalating cost of health care is to spend less by wasting less. Vermont is uniquely positioned to address the complexities of health care today and position our state for the future."
- Con Hogan
The former Secretary of the Agency of Human Services (AHS) for the State of Vermont under both the Snelling and Dean administrations, Con Hogan has been a leader in health care and welfare reform. Since his retirement from state service in 1999, Mr. Hogan has consulted internationally with governments on human services and health care management. He has co-authored several books on Vermont’s health policy. Prior to serving as AHS Secretary, Mr. Hogan was President of International Coins and Currency based in Montpelier, VT for over ten years.
Mr. Hogan served in leadership positions at the Vermont Department of Corrections and previously worked for the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
Mr. Hogan holds a Master’s Degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Vermont. He lives in Plainfield.
Georgia J. Maheras, Esq., Executive Director
"No one should be without health insurance or worry that their coverage is inadequate if they get sick. Nor should Vermonters fear bankruptcy because someone in their family is ill. These are ethical issues as much as financial ones and I am proud that Vermont is seeking a better way to ensure that our citizens have access to quality care."
- Georgia Maheras
Georgia Maheras, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Green Mountain Care Board, recently served as the Deputy Commissioner of Health Care Administration at the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care for the State of Vermont.
Maheras has held numerous leadership positions in health care as an advocate, manager and owner of GJM Health Care Consulting. Prior to relocating to Vermont and as the Private Market Policy Manager for Health Care for All, a consumer advocacy organization in Massachusetts, Maheras focused her expertise to increasing health insurance coverage and quality. Maheras has also championed efforts to reform pharmaceutical companies marketing practices of data mining to influence prescribing patterns. She served as counsel of record on an Amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in an effort to uphold Vermont’s confidentiality law respective to such practices. Maheras has served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
Georgia is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Boston University's School of Theology. She lives in Montpelier.
