Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture
26th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture
Balancing Act: The Crucial Interplay of Public and Private Sectors in Health Care
Alison Beam, Senior Vice President and Chief Government Affairs Officer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
The 26th Annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture took place on April 2, 2024. View the recording.
About the speaker
Alison Beam currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Government Affairs Officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In this capacity, Beam is responsible for leading the enterprise's government relations at the local, state, federal, and international level, as well as directing policy and charitable giving.
Prior to her role with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Beam served as acting Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania. In this role, she reformulated and strengthened Pennsylvania's COVID-19 vaccination enterprise, elevating the Commonwealth from 49th to 8th in the country for COVID-19 vaccination rate in three months. Simultaneously, Beam was responsible for crafting an accountable and inclusive impact strategy for an estimated $1.7 billion of federal stimulus investments directed to various divisions of the Department of Health and multiple state agencies.
Prior to serving as acting Secretary of Health, Beam served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Tom Wolf, coordinating initiatives across Pennsylvania's departments of Health, Human Services, Drug and Alcohol Programs, Aging and Insurance, as well as the Office of Advocacy and Reform. She helped coordinate the rollout of Pennie, Pennsylvania's health insurance marketplace, and the Reach Out PA mental health campaign.
In her presentation titled "Balancing Act: The Crucial Interplay of Public and Private Sectors in Health Care," Beam will delve into the intricate web of health care in the United States and explore the indispensable relationship between the public and private sectors. She will also discuss how the two sectors' collaboration, often described as a delicate balancing act, impacts access, quality, and affordability of health care services for millions of Americans.
About the Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture
The Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture is regularly conducted each Spring. The late Stanley P. Mayers, Jr. M.D., co-founded the Penn State undergraduate program in the Department of Health Policy and Administration. He was a member of the Mount Nittany Society, the University’s highest donor-recognition group, and gave his own personal resources to support outstanding students in the College of Health and Human Development. In honor of his late wife, he established the Virginia L. Mayers Memorial Scholarship Endowment in 1992.
HPA faculty members, staff, and alumni are committed to enlarging the endowment and have unanimously supported the initiative with their own private contributions. The fund enhances the education of students and expertise of faculty members in areas that continue to honor Dr. Mayers’ contributions as a professor, administrator and philanthropist. Today, the principal challenge for HPA is to stay abreast of changes in the industry while continuing to serve the public interest.
The endowment provides funds to enrich the department’s outreach activities, examples include: creating a public lecture series, enhancing field-based professional development for faculty members, and acquiring health care-specific teaching materials. Established as an endowment, the fund will provide income for the HPA department in perpetuity.
- Past lectures
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The Health Policy and Administration department aims to accomplish its mission of developing leaders and knowledge to improve health and health care.
Past speakers:
- 2023: Dr. Ala Stanford, Region III Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- 2022: Kevin Frick, professor, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
- 2021: Elena Hung, co-founder and executive director, Little Lobbyists
- 2019: Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD, editor-in-chief, Kaiser Health News
- 2018: David Nash, founding dean, Jefferson College of Population Health,
- 2017: Maureen Bisogano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
- 2016: Sorrel King, co--founder, Josie King Foundation
- 2015: Eugene A. Woods, president and chief operation officer, CHRISTUS Health
- 2014: James Kevin Stoller, MD, chairman of Education Institute at the Cleveland Clinic
- 2013: Mary Naylor, professor, Gerontology, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
- 2012: David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, founding director, Yale University Prevention Research Center
- 2011: Craig Hillemeier, retired CEO, Penn State Health; E. Eugene Marsh, senior associate dean, Penn State college of Medicine; Alan Zuckerman, president, Health Strategies & Soluations, Inc.
- 2010: David Nash, MD, MBA, Professor, health policy and medicine, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University
- 2009: Bruce Bagley, MD, medical director for quality improvement, American Academy of Family Physicians
- 2008: Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, director, Center to Advance Palliative Care
- 2007: Albert Wu, MD, MPH, professor, health policy and management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- 2006: Carolyn Clancy, MD, director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Health and Human Services
- 2005: Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, clinical professor, George Washington University
- 2004: William W. Sage, MD, JD, professor of law, Columbia University
- 2003: David Leach, MD, executive director, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
- 2002: Bruce R. Korf, MD, Ph.D., medical director, Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics
- 2001: Peter A. Ubel, MD, associate professor of medicine, University of Michigan
- 2000: Douglas L. Mayers, MD, division head, Henry Ford Hospital
- 1999: John M. Esienberg, MD, administrator, Agency for Health Care Policy Research
- 1998: Stanley P. Mayers Jr., MD, professor emeritus, health policy and administration, Penn State
