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Board & Staff
Board of Directors
Staff
Ann joined Prescription Policy Choices in 2006, after serving as Chief of Staff for Maine’s Senate Majority Leaders for 3 ½ years where she provided information and expertise regarding health care policy issues when health care reform was a major focus of the legislature. The focus of her work during that time included significant constituent work and policy analysis in the area of health care service delivery and financing, including Maine’s Dirigo Health Care Reform Law, prescription drug programs, hospital financing and the state budget related to health and human services programs. Prior to her work at the Maine Legislature, Ann worked as a health care policy analyst and advocate for several years in Maine’s nonprofit sector and also as a policy writer for the Maine State Medicaid Program, MaineCare. She has served on a number of health care related boards and commissions including the Governor’s Health Action Team, and most recently the Commission to Study the Future of Primary Care in Maine. She previously chaired the State Medicaid Advisory Committee and was an active member of Maine’s Dual Diagnosis Task Force aimed at improving the continuity of care for people suffering from both mental illness and substance abuse. Ann helped establish the Maine Dental Access Coalition created in an effort improve access to oral health care throughout Maine. Ann currently serves as the Chair of a Maine-based women’s health care fund serving low-income women and is past chair of Literacy Volunteers of Waterville, where she was awarded the statewide Administrative Volunteer of the Year Service Award in 2001.
Jennifer Reck, MA is a policy analyst and project manager for Prescription Policy Choices (PPC). She recently led PPC’s tri-state academic detailing planning initiative involving Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and authored the resulting white paper: A Template for Establishing and Administering Prescriber Support and Education Programs. Prior to joining PPC in 2007, Jennifer was with the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) at the Muskie School of Public Service in Portland, Maine where she also completed graduate coursework in health policy. At IHP she co-authored a review of approaches to improving medication management. She earned a master’s degree in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University (1998) where she studied the intersection between society, medical research and practice, and a bachelor’s from Bard College (1994) in the history and philosophy of science. Jennifer lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 1998-2004 where she worked at an international medical communications agency which served the corporate offices of major pharmaceutical companies. Her behind the scenes look at industry approaches to research design, publication and education raised serious concerns relating to their impact on clinical research and the medical profession, and led her to her current role as an advocate for prescription drug policy reform.
After serving as a communications consultant for more than year, Jean Grigsby recently joined the staff as Prescription Policy Choices as communications director. In this capacity, she will work to create greater awareness and visibility of the organization’s education and public policy mission and strategically position PPC for a leadership role in prescription drug education and policy reform. In addition to her work with Prescription Policy Choices, she continues to serve as principal of the Write Approach, a firm that she established in 2003. The Write Approach provides marketing, public relations, and writing services—with an emphasis on high-quality writing—to businesses, government agencies, individuals, and nonprofits. Prior to starting her own business, Jean served as a marketing and public relations professional in corporate, government, and nonprofit settings for more than 20 years and earned her master’s degree from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
Sharon Anglin Treat is the Executive Director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, a nonpartisan organization of state legislators working jointly across state lines to reduce prescription drug prices and expand access. Prior to joining the Association, Ms. Treat has served for 7 terms in the Maine Legislature, including two as Senate Majority Leader, and since 2006 she has been a member of the Maine House of Representatives. Ms. Treat has an A.B. degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (1978) and received her law degree with honors from Georgetown University Law Center (1982). Ms. Treat has significant health policy experience not only in her current position, which involves health policy analysis and communication on pharmaceutical issues, but also as a legislator and an attorney and teacher of environmental policy and law, where her particular expertise involved toxics and environmental health. She has presented on pharmaceutical policy at conferences sponsored by organizations as diverse as public sector pension fund managers, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), FamiliesUSA, Columbia Law School and American University’s Washington College of Law, and the National Community Pharmacists Association, and has testified on pharmaceutical and health issues in numerous state legislatures including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Ms. Treat is a member of the Executive Committee of NCSL and also serves as a member of NCSL’s Health and Labor Committees. She is a member of the American Public Health Association, where she was a panelist in a forum addressing organizational responses to access to pharmaceuticals at their annual meeting in 2007. With the support of the Forum on Democracy and Trade, Ms. Treat has also convened and staffed the Legislative Working Group on Prescription Drugs and Trade, comprised of state legislators, Medicaid experts, and representatives of state attorneys general. This group focuses on educating state policymakers on trade policy that affects state pharmaceutical policy, and works with policymakers to engage with the U.S. Trade Representative on these issues. In the Maine Legislature, Ms. Treat has chaired the Health and Human Services, Judiciary, and Natural Resources Committees, and sponsored significant health care legislation including Maine Rx Plus; Dirigo Health, Maine's uninsured health access law; pharmacy benefit manager regulation; and drug marketing disclosure and regulation. Representative Treat currently serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Insurance and Financial Services. Ms. Treat has practiced law with a nonprofit organization, in state government and in private practice, has taught environmental law at the University of Maine Law School and Colby and Bowdoin Colleges, and was the Coordinator of the Environmental Studies Program at Colby College from 2000-04.
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