John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV was reelected in 2002 to his fourth term as a United States Senator from West Virginia. After serving as a VISTA volunteer in West Virginia in 1964, he was elected to that state's House of Delegates, served four years as secretary of state, three as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College, and eight years as governor before his election to the U.S. Senate in 1984. During his Senate tenure, he has chaired the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Health Care (Pepper Commission) and the National Commission on Children. Under his leadership, the children's commission became a model for bipartisan lawmaking on children's education, welfare and health care issues. Sen. Rockefeller is ranking member of the Finance Committee's Health Care Subcommittee, and is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence among his other committee assignments. He graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. degree in Far Eastern languages and history, after spending three years studying Japanese in Tokyo. Later, he studied Chinese at Yale University. He has been chairman of the Alliance for Health Reform since its founding in 1991.

Susan M. Collins was elected to represent the State of Maine in the United States Senate in 1996 and was re-elected to a second term in 2002. She was the 15th woman in history to be elected to the Senate in her own right.

Senator Collins was raised in Caribou, a small city in northern Maine, where both her parents have at one time served as mayor. Her family runs a fifth-generation lumber business, founded by her ancestors in 1844 and operated today by two of her brothers.

A 1975 magna cum laude graduate of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Senator Collins worked for former Maine Senator William S. Cohen for 12 years. In 1987, she joined the cabinet of Maine Governor John R. McKernan as Commissioner of Professional and Financial Regulation, a position she held for five years. She then served as New England Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 1992 to 1993.

In 1994, Senator Collins ran her first campaign for public office and became the first woman in Maine history to receive a major party nomination for governor after winning an eight-way Republican primary in June of 1994. She lost the general election in the fall.

In December of 1994, Senator Collins became the founding executive director of the Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor, Maine, a position she held until she resigned in 1996 to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Cohen. She won both a contested Republican primary and a four-way general election later that year.

Robert Graham, MD has served in a series of positions in both the private and public health care sectors since 1970. He is currently professor and Robert and Myfanwy Smith Chair of Family Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine. Formerly, he was the deputy director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Earlier, he served as the executive vice president of the 90,000 member American Academy of Family Physicians. He holds degrees from Earlham College and the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

James R. Tallon, Jr., is president of the United Hospital Fund of New York, which addresses important issues affecting hospitals and health care in New York City. Prior to joining the Fund in September 1993, he was the majority leader of the New York State Assembly, where he served for 19 years. As majority leader and as chair of the Assembly's health subcommittee from 1979 to 1987, he led efforts to reform the Medicaid program in New York while expanding eligibility for pregnant women and children. Mr. Tallon is chair of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and serves on the boards of The Commonwealth Fund, and the Open Society Institute Program on Medicine as a Profession. He has served as a member of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission (ProPAC). Mr. Tallon received a B.A. in Political Science cum laude from Syracuse University and an M.A. in international relations from Boston University.

Nancy W. Dickey, MD is president of The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, and is vice chancellor for health affairs for the A&M System. Dr. Dickey served as president of the American Medical Association in 1998-99. She also has been active in numerous other professional organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Texas Medical Association. Prior to her current appointment at Texas A&M, she served as interim dean of the university's College of Medicine. Earlier, she was the founding program director of the Family Practice Residency of the Brazos Valley and was a professor of family and community medicine at the College of Medicine. Dr. Dickey has been an active editorial advisor and reviewer for a number of professional publications. In addition, she served as editor in chief of Medem, an internet-based patient education company. Her many honors include five honorary doctoral degrees and recognitions from the Texas Society of Pathologists and the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. She is a frequent speaker at professional and civic organizations around the country.

Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins is a past president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, where she was also chair of the League of Women Voters Education Fund. As the first woman of African-American descent to head the 80-year-old organization, she lead the League's education and advocacy work on public policy issues. As president of the organization, Dr. Jefferson-Jenkins placed a high priority on issues such as increased citizen participation in the electoral process, campaign finance reform, voting and health care. She received a Ph.D. in Urban Education and Administration from Cleveland State University, an education specialist (Ed.S.) degree from Kent State University, and a master's degree in education administration from John Carroll University.

William D. Novelli is executive director and CEO of AARP, a membership organization of more than 36 million people age 50 and older. Among his many accomplishments, he is an internationally recognized leader in the field of social marketing, having managed marketing programs in cancer control, diet and nutrition, cardiovascular health, reproductive health and infant survival. Mr. Novelli joined AARP in 2000 as associate executive director, public affairs. Earlier, he was president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and CARE, the world’s largest relief and development organization. He co-founded and was president of Porter Novelli, now one of the largest public relations agencies. He holds a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Penn's Annenberg School for Communication, and has pursued doctoral studies at New York University.

John J. Sweeney is president of the AFL-CIO. Mr. Sweeney began his trade union career as a research assistant with the Ladies Garment Workers. At the time of his first election to the AFL-CIO presidency in 1995, he was serving his fourth four-year term as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which grew from 625,000 to 1.1 million members under his leadership. A vice president of the SEIU since 1980, he was also chair of Executive Council Committees on Health Care, and Organization and Field Services. Mr. Sweeney began his SEIU career in 1961 when he joined Local 32B in New York City as a union representative. He was elected president of Local 32B in 1976, and led two citywide strikes of apartment maintenance workers during the 1970s. He was elected SEIU president in 1980. Mr. Sweeney graduated from Iona University with a degree in economics.

Humphrey Taylor is chairman of the Harris Poll, a service of Harris Interactive. He has had overall responsibility for more than 8,000 surveys in more than 80 countries for governments, corporations and foundations. Mr. Harris writes and speaks frequently about the forces transforming the nation's health care system, and on differences between our system and those in Canada, Western Europe and Japan. He testified before congressional committees on Social Security, health care cost containment, Medicare, aging, policies affecting disabled people, drug exports, privacy, and the taxation of employee benefits. He has made presentations in the White House and on Capitol Hill on these subjects, and on Health Maintenance Organizations, productivity, consumerism, health promotion and disease prevention. Over his working life, he has written more than a thousand columns, papers, op ed articles and book chapters. Mr. Taylor was chairman of the board of the American Health Foundation for six years. He is chairman of the National Council on Public Polls and serves as a trustee for a number of medically-related foundations and organizations.

Reed V. Tuckson, MD is senior vice president of the UnitedHealth Foundation and executive vice president and chief of medical services, at the UnitedHealth Group. Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group and Foundation, Dr. Tuckson served as senior vice president, professional standards for the American Medical Association. He also served as administrative liaison for the AMA with the National Patient Safety Foundation. Dr. Tuckson currently is a member of several health care-related and academic organizations, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He served as chairperson of the Institute's Quality Chasm Summit Committee and was a member of the group's committee on the consequences of the uninsured. In addition, he serves as a member of the secretary of health's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society and has held a number of other federal appointments. Dr. Tuckson is a graduate of Howard University and the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Edward F. Howard has been with the Alliance since its inception in 1991. Previously, he served as general counsel for the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care (Pepper Commission). Before that, he directed public policy at the Villers Foundation and at the National Council on the Aging, and served as general counsel to the House Select Committee on Aging. He holds a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.