Texas Employers for Affordable Health Care is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization mobilizing employers, families and other health care stakeholders across the state of Texas to rein in the excessive prices paid for employer-sponsored health care for almost half of all Texans — nearly 14 million people — by increasing price transparency, prohibiting anti-competitive contracts and billing, and improving oversight of consolidations and mergers.
Chris Skisak, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Texas Employers for Affordable Healthcare (TXEAHC), a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization mobilizing Texas employers, families, and other healthcare stakeholders across the state to rein in the excessive prices paid for employer-sponsored healthcare. Dr. Skisak also serves on the Board of Governors of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasing Coalitions, and Board of Directors of the Texas Business Group on Health. He serves on the leadership councils for Houston Cities Changing Diabetes and Houston Health Equity Collaborative.
Prior to joining TXEAHC, he was President and Founder of Corporate Health Management Solutions, an organizational health and productivity management company. He had previously worked 25 years with Houston Fortune 50 energy companies in a variety of population health management positions. He is originally from Chicago. He received his M.S. and PhD from the University of Texas School of Public Health and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed in scientific journals.
Ted Barrall has over 20 years of Human Resources experience in various leadership roles and has been the Director of Compensation and Benefits at The Friedkin Group since 2012. Based in Houston with 2,700 associates, The Friedkin Group is made up of auto-industry related companies including Gulf States Toyota, US Auto Logistics, and Westside and Northside Lexus. Friedkin has received wellness awards from the Houston Business Journal, American Heart Association, the Healthiest 100, and the HBCH. Ted has a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a Masters from Indiana University, Bloomington. Ted tries to stay fit in his spare time and is passionate about engaging his company’s associates in improving their health and reducing healthcare costs.
James Dickey has founded or co-founded investment, insurance, technology, and consulting firms and served in executive roles for Citigroup and Kemper. He led multiple community and political organizations, including serving three years as the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He is currently CEO of JD Key Consulting and a board member of C5 Texas, a charity helping middle and high school students overcome adversity to reach their full potential. James and his wife Linda live in Spicewood and have three children.
Dr. Paul H. Keckley is Managing Editor of The Keckley Report and Managing Partner of The Keckley Group which provides advisory services to health systems, health insurers, medical groups and healthcare investors.
He is widely sought as an industry thought leader about healthcare industry trends, regulatory policy and emergent growth opportunities. In 2010, he facilitated negotiations between the White House and leading healthcare trade organizations pursuant to the passage of the Affordable Care Act and is considered an expert on U.S. health policies specific to delivery and financing.
He writes the Keckley Report, a weekly analysis of key industry trends and is a columnist for Healthcare Financial News and Healthcare Executive. He is also frequent speaker for industry events and contributor to CNN, Modern Healthcare, Politico, New York Times and Wall Street Journal media coverage about industry issues. He served as Principal Investigator for studies of consumer behavior in healthcare for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and has published 3 books and numerous peer-reviewed monographs.
He currently serves as an Independent Director of Q Source Memphis, TN; Sullivan Cotter, Chicago IL; CareNova, Charlotte NC and Advent Health, Asheville, NC and Advisor to Erdman Inc. Madison WI; Privia Health, Baltimore MD; the Consumer Health Products Association Washington DC; the Lipscomb University School of Business Health Management Program and the Disruption Lab in Nashville TN.
Previously, he served as Executive Director, Navigant Center for Health Research and Policy Analysis, Washington DC (2013-2015), Executive Director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, Washington DC (2006-2013), Executive Director, Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-based Medicine, Nashville TN (1999-2006), President, PhyCor Management Corporation, Nashville TN (1994-1999) and Principal, The Keckley Healthcare Market Research, Nashville TN (1974-1993).
He served as Adjunct Professor in Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine and Owen Graduate School of Management (1998-2006) and in Georgetown University’s School of Health Policy (2008-2010).
He holds a B.S. from Lipscomb University, Nashville TN, an M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, Columbus OH and completed a graduate fellowship at Oxford University, UK.
Andrea Cockrell is Administrative Services Manager for the City of Plano, serving the following areas of HR: health, wellness and retirement benefits, compensation and training. Andrea also served as the City’s Controller from 2010 – 2013. Prior to joining the City, Andrea, a CPA, spent the first ten years of her career in public accounting and has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Accounting from Texas A&M University. Andrea also serves as the President of the Texas Business Group on Health and is a member of the National
Purchaser Leadership Council.
Charles Miller is a senior policy advisor for health care at Texas 2036. During the past two legislative sessions, he worked on bills and efforts to improve health insurance markets, optimize price transparency, and improve the efficiency and value of the health care industry in Texas so that Texans are able to access and afford quality care when they need it.
Charles joined Texas 2036 after serving as a Budget and Policy Advisor for Governor Greg Abbott. Charles advised on a broad range of issues, including health care, insurance, workforce development, elections, information resources, cybersecurity, and first amendment issues and civil law.
He served as the primary liaison to a number of state agencies, including the Texas Department of Insurance, Texas Workforce Commission, Department of Information Resources, Secretary of State and Office of the Attorney General, among others. Charles is a recovering attorney, having previously practiced insurance defense litigation.
Jim Parrish is a multifaceted professional with over 30 years of experience serving in accounting, finance, human resources, health plan administration, and technology services roles. In addition, he served as a Governor Abbott appointee on the $35 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System Board.
Jim holds an MBA and various professional certifications and serves as the Human Resources and Risk Management Director for the City of McKinney, Texas.
Dr. Christopher Whaley is a health economist at the RAND Corporation and Professor at the RAND Pardee Graduate School. Christopher received his PhD in Health Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on health care price transparency and market structure. His research has been published in leading clinical, health policy, and economics journals. His research has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNN. He has presented results to state and federal policy makers, including the California State Assembly, Texas House Select Committee on Health Care Reform, Executive Office of the President, Congressional Budget Office, and the Federal Trade Commission.
Ken Janda is a warrior for health equity and Founder/Managing Principal of Wild Blue Health Solutions, a Texas-based consultancy. Wild Blue focuses on advancing new care and payment models for traditional healthcare and social determinants of health, increasing coverage options and connecting our most vulnerable populations to health care access. Prior to starting Wild Blue, Ken served for 11 years as President and CEO of Community Health Choice, a nonprofit health insurer that included over 400,000 enrollees in Medicaid, CHIP and the ACA’s subsidized individual Marketplace. A 40-year veteran of the health industry, Ken previously held executive positions with health insurers Prudential, Aetna and Humana.
Ken is also an Adjunct Professor in Population Health at the University of Houston College of Medicine and Lecturer at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, teaching the essentials of health systems, insurance and health care financing to medical and MBA students. He is passionate about connecting every Texan to quality, affordable care.
Peter Cram is the Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, TX and an adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He was on faculty at the University of Iowa (2002-2013) and Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at Sinai Health System and University Health Network at the University of Toronto (2014-2021). Dr. Cram was previously a Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar and completed a Health and Aging Policy Fellowship in the office of Congressman Lloyd Doggett. His research focuses on variation in utilization, outcomes, and cost for hospital-based services. Dr. Cram is the co-founder of the International Health System Research Collaborative (IHSRC) with Bruce Landon from Harvard.
Vivian Ho, Ph.D., is the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics, a professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University, and a professor in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Ho’s research examines the effects of economic incentives and regulations on the quality and costs of health care. Her research is widely published in economics, medical and health services research journals. Ho’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Cancer Society and Arnold Ventures.
Ho has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics, as well as on the NIH Health Services, Outcomes and Delivery study section. She was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2020. Ho is also a founding board member of the American Society for Health Economists, a board member for Community Health Choice and a member of the Community Advisory Board at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. Ho received her A.B. in economics from Harvard University, a graduate diploma in economics from The Australian National University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.
Avik Roy is the President of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank that conducts original research on expanding opportunity to those who least have it. Roy’s work has been praised widely on both the right and the left. National Review has called him one of the nation’s “sharpest policy minds,” while the New York Times’ Paul Krugman described him as man of “personal and moral courage.”
Roy has advised three presidential candidates on policy, including Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney. As the Senior Advisor to Perry’s campaign in 2015, Roy was also the lead author of Gov. Perry’s major policy speeches. The Wall Street Journal called Perry’s address on intergenerational black poverty “the speech of the campaign so far.”
Roy also serves as the Policy Editor at Forbes, where he writes on politics and policy. NBC’s Chuck Todd, on Meet the Press, said Roy was one “of the most thoughtful guys [who has] been debating” health care reform. Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox.com, called The Apothecary one of the few “blogs I disagree with [that] I check daily.”
Roy is the author of Medicare Advantage for All: A Patient-Centered Plan for Universal Coverage and Permanent Fiscal Solvency, published by FREOPP in 2019; How Medicaid Fails the Poor, published by Encounter Books in 2013; and other books. He is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. He serves on the advisory boards of the National Institute for Health Care Management, the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, the Bitcoin Policy Institute, and other organizations; is a Senior Advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center; co-chaired the Fixing Veterans Health Care Policy Taskforce; and serves on the Boards of Directors of CrowdHealth and the Texas Bitcoin Foundation.
Roy’s writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Atlantic, among other publications. He is a frequent guest on television news programs, including appearances on CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and Bloomberg.
Previously, Roy worked as a health care investor and portfolio manager at Bain Capital, J.P. Morgan, and other firms. He was born and raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas. USA Today named him to its All-USA High School Academic First Team, honoring the top 20 high school seniors in the country. Roy was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied molecular biology, and the Yale University School of Medicine.