FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Katie Smith
Park City Center for Public Policy
(435) 649-6980
(435) 649-6983
Mary Kaye Huntsman joins top leaders and experts at Inaugural Park City Policy Institute
Park City, UT, August 28, 2007 – The Park City Center for Public Policy will convene its inaugural Public Policy Institute September 20 - 21. This powerful event will bring together national and local leaders to address key public policy issues in Park City, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics alpine events.
Participants will join the Center’s business executives, former governors and other leaders to understand and reframe tough issues in ways that generate promising solutions to public issues. This year’s topics include healthcare financing and access; better approaches to improve mental health and reduce addiction; and ways to reform the American legal system so that it better promotes justice, liberty, health and prosperity in our society.
The Institute will kick off on Thursday morning, September 20th, with a special introduction to the Park City Center by its Chairman, Bill Shiebler and President, Jim Souby. Following this address, a panel of state and national experts will search for answers to our nation’s healthcare finance and access crisis. The panel will be moderated by the Chairman of the Center’s Governors Board, Jim Hodges, former governor of South Carolina. Leading voices in healthcare finance and reform including Marty Sellers, Chief Executive Officer, Sellers-Feinberg; Michael J. Stapley, President and CEO, Deseret Mutual Benefit Association and Chair, ERISA Industry Council on retirement and health benefits; and, Scott Williams, Chief Medical Officer, HCA Mountainstar Health will discuss how to finance a healthcare system that provides both access and quality.
Starting over lunch on Thursday afternoon, the Center will convene many of the foremost experts in mental health and substance abuse to illuminate a path forward for improving mental health and reducing addiction. Mary Kaye Huntsman will keynote this discussion. Experts from across the country will then discuss the growing mental health and substance abuse problems facing the nation. Participants include Charles Curie, President of the Curie Group and former Administrator of the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration; Susan Foster, Director of Research, National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse; Vijay Ganju, Director, Texas Mental Health Transformation Project; Junius Gonzales, Florida Mental Health Institute; Gail Hutchings, President and CEO, Behavioral Health Policy Collaborative; Bruce Kamradt, President & CEO, Wraparound Milwaukee; Ron Manderscheid, Director of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Programs, Constella Group; Steve Mayberg, Director of Mental Health Services, California; Gloria O’Neill, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Alaska; and, Russ Petrella, Senior Vice President, Magellan Health Services. Mr. Curie has just completed an evaluation of the mental health system in Australia.
Friday morning, September 21st, Phillip Howard, Chairman and Founder of Common Good will deliver a keynote address “Restoring Common Sense to American Law”. He will then participate with other esteemed panelists including Judge Judith Billings, Utah Court of Appeals; Jim Geringer and Mike Sullivan, former Governors of Wyoming; Leslie Francis, Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah; and, Ted Hershberg, Director, Center for Greater Philadelphia and Operation Public Education in a discussion moderated by Dean Hiram Chodosh, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, on how our legal system needs reform in order to promote greater justice, liberty, health and prosperity in our society. All the policy sessions are open to the public but advanced registration is required.
Along with these compelling sessions, participants will learn how the Park City Center plans to contribute to the Park City community. To register or to learn more about the event, including a full agenda, visit us online at www.parkcitycenter.org.
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*The Park City Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation*