C-TAC Public Engagement Workgroup

Bill Novelli is a professor in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He teaches in the MBA program and has created and leads the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at the School. He also is Co-Chair of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), a national organization dedicated to reforming advanced illness care by empowering consumers, changing the health care delivery system, improving public policies and enhancing provider capacity.

From 2001 to 2009, he was CEO of AARP, a membership organization of over 40 million people 50 and older. During his tenure, AARP achieved important policy successes at national and state levels in health, financial security, good government and other areas. It also doubled its budget, added five million new members and expanded internationally.

Prior to AARP, Mr. Novelli was President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, whose mandate is to change public policies and the social environment, limit tobacco companies’ marketing and sales practices to children and serve as a counterforce to the tobacco industry and its special interests. He now serves as chairman of the board. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of CARE, the world’s largest private relief and development organization. He was responsible for all operations in the U.S. and abroad. CARE helps impoverished people in Africa, Asia and Latin America through programs in health, agriculture, environmental protection and small business support. CARE also provides emergency relief to people in need.

Earlier, Mr. Novelli co-founded and was President of Porter Novelli, now one of the world’s largest public relations agencies and part of the Omnicom Group, an international marketing communications corporation. He directed numerous corporate accounts as well as the management and development of the firm. Porter Novelli was founded to apply marketing to social and health issues, and grew into an international marketing/public relations agency with corporate, not-for-profit and government clients. He retired from the firm in 1990 to pursue a second career in public service. He was named one of the 100 most influential public relations professionals of the 20th century by the industry’s leading publication.

Mr. Novelli is a recognized leader in social marketing and social change, and has managed programs in cancer control, diet and nutrition, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, infant survival, pay increases for educators, charitable giving and other programs in the U.S. and the developing world. He began his career at Unilever, a worldwide-packaged goods marketing company, moved to a major ad agency, and then served as Director of Advertising and Creative Services for the Peace Corps.

In this role, Mr. Novelli helped direct recruitment efforts for the Peace Corps, VISTA, and social involvement programs for older Americans. He taught marketing management for 10 years in the University of Maryland’s M.B.A. program and also taught health communications there. He has lectured at many other institutions. He has written numerous articles and chapters on marketing management, marketing communications, and social marketing in journals, periodicals and textbooks.

Recent Publication: Novelli WD, H. G. (2012). Recognizing an Opinion: Findings from the IOM Evidence Communication Innovation Collaborative. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1–2.

Mr. Novelli serves on a number of boards and advisory committees. He and his wife, Fran, live in Bethesda, Maryland. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.

Alexandra Drane is a founder, chief visionary officer, and chair of the board of Eliza Corporation, the pioneer and leader in Health Engagement Management. Alexandra also is a co-founder of EngageWithGrace.org, a not-for-profit movement aimed at helping people understand, communicate and have honored their end-of-life wishes. Prior to founding Eliza, Alexandra was a founder of three other healthcare ventures – all focused on developing products that enable individual behavior change through the use of technology. The output of these ventures included the web-enabled injury-tracking software system adopted by the U.S. Olympic Committee, software that automates dialysis clinics across the U.S., and a medical device proven in clinical trials to improve asthma treatment compliance by over 35%.

  Taylor is the Vice President for Public Policy, External Relations, and Communications for The Permanente Federation, which represents the national interests of the regional Permanente Medical Groups, who employ more than 16,000 physicians caring for 9 million Kaiser Permanente members. She oversees the policy, government relations, marketing, and communications activities of The Permanente Federation, and serves as a liaison between the branding, and communications activities of Kaiser Permanente Health Plan/Hospitals and the Permanente Medical Groups.

Nancy has over 25 years of experience in health care leadership and consulting, giving her deep insights into the strategic and operational challenges facing health care systems.  In that time, she has:

-       Led her own health care consulting practice, providing project management, operations improvement, group facilitation, and leadership coaching for health care clients

-       Served as Director of Strategic Projects for the San Francisco Medical Center of Kaiser Permanente

-       Led an internal operations consulting team for The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG), which employs over 4,000 physicians in Northern California

-       Provided strategy and quality improvement consulting for Hamilton/KSA’s Hospital and Health Systems strategy consulting group and direct contracting and network development consulting for Mercer Inc.’s National Medical Audit Services.

In addition to her duties at The Permanente Federation, Nancy is also the Executive Director of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), a consortium of 33 of the nation’s most prominent physician-led multi-specialty group practices. In this role, she helps to set strategy and directs the activities of a non-profit organization whose goal is to foster the development and recognition of accountable physician practices as a model for transforming the American health care system.

Nancy has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management and an AB in Human Biology from Stanford University. She completed the Stanford Program at Oxford, studying in affiliation with Magdalen College. More recently, she completed Kaiser Permanente’s Advanced Leadership Program in association with the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.