To the UMB Community:

On Tuesday, Jan. 31, we kick off the President's Panel on Politics and Policy, a speaker series examining issues important to the UMB community that are likely to be affected by the new presidential administration and the new Congress. With so much at stake in terms of health and higher education policy, federal budget priorities, and issues of civil rights and social justice, I do hope you'll take part in this timely conversation.
 
Our speaker for the first installment of the series, focusing on health care policy, is Karen Fisher, JD, chief public policy officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Ms. Fisher leads the AAMC's public policy initiatives on medical education, health care delivery, and medical research, providing guidance to advance the association's legislative and regulatory priorities and developing policy proposals that support the work of academic medicine. Ms. Fisher has more than 20 years' experience in legislative and regulatory health care policy. Most recently, she served as senior health counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, where she helped draft the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which created the new Medicare physician payment system.
 
Ms. Fisher's lecture begins at 8:30 a.m. and will be followed by a Q&A session. Breakfast will be provided. Please register for this event.
 
Mark your calendars for the full series, below. All lectures are 8:30 to 10 a.m. in the SMC Campus Center, Elm Room 208.
 
Feb. 28, 2017
Social Justice
Frank Bruni, New York Times op-ed columnist and best-selling author
Mr. Bruni's career at The New York Times spans more than 20 years and includes stints as White House correspondent, chief restaurant critic, Rome bureau chief, and staff writer for the Sunday magazine. In his op-ed columns, appearing in the Times twice weekly, Mr. Bruni reflects on such topics as American politics, higher education, and LGBTQ rights. He is the newspaper's first openly gay columnist, and his reporting and commentary have been honored by GLAAD and by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
 
March 21, 2017
Higher Education
Goldie Blumenstyk, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education
As a reporter and editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education since 1988, Ms. Blumenstyk has covered a wide range of topics, including distance education, the internet boom and bust, state politics, university governance, and fundraising. She is nationally known for her expertise on for-profit higher education, college finances, and the commercialization of academic research.
 
May 2, 2017
Federal Budget Outlook
Matt Hourihan, MPP, director of the R&D Budget and Policy Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Invited)
A director with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2011, Mr. Hourihan analyzes federal science budgets for U.S. policymakers and for the science community. Prior to joining AAAS, Mr. Hourihan served as a clean energy policy analyst at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, where he tracked federal energy R&D investments and the role of innovation in solving energy and climate challenges.
 
While we don't yet know what the next four years will hold, it's important that we look at our work though the lens of shifting budget and policy priorities. These lectures promise a compelling forecast of the issues we care about most, and I do hope you'll join this critical dialogue.

Sincerely,

Jay A. Perman, MD
President