Advisory Board

Alan Morgan, MPA

CEO of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA)

Mr. Morgan joined the NRHA staff in 2001. He has more than 20 years of experience in health policy development at the state and federal levels. In 2011, he was selected by readers of Modern Healthcare as being among the top 100 most influential people in health care.

Gilbert Liu, MD

Medical Director, The Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center

Dr. Gilbert Liu joined the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center (GRC) as medical director in 2021. He advises and consults on research initiatives and health care improvement programs. He is a professor of clinical pediatrics at The Ohio State University and is a practicing pediatrician. Prior to joining GRC, Dr. Liu was the former medical director of Nationwide Children’s Hospital Partner for Kids. He also served as chief medical officer of the Kentucky Department of Medicaid Services and professor in the University of Louisville’s Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Liu holds degrees from Duke University and the University of Mississippi, and completed his pediatric residency and medical informatics fellowship at the University of North Carolina.

Tim Putnam, DHA, MBA, FACHE

Tim Putnam is the former President and CEO of Margaret Mary Health in Batesville, Indiana and has over 30 years of health care experience. He received his Doctorate in Health Administration from the Medical University of South Carolina where his dissertation was focused on acute stroke care in rural hospitals. He currently chairs the National Rural Health Association’s Policy Congress, the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium, and was appointed by the Governor to the Indiana Board of Graduate Medical Education, which he also chairs. In 2015, Dr. Putnam was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician and serves on the Batesville Fire and EMS Lifesquad. He is the 2017 President-elect of the National Rural Health Association.

Andrew Bazemore, MD, MPH

Senior Vice President of Research and Policy, American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM)

As Senior Vice President for Research and Policy, Dr. Bazemore is responsible for managing all ABFM research functions and staff, development and implementation of an enterprise-wide strategy for research, co-directing the new ABFM Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care in Washington DC, coordinating and developing an existing and expanding ABFM leadership/scholarship portfolio, developing national and international collaborative research partnerships, and continuing to grow his own research in measures that matter for primary care, workforce & training, and access to primary health care for vulnerable populations. He previously served for 7 years as the Director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine in Washington, DC, and as its Assistant Director for 7 years prior to that.

Mary Charlton, PhD

Associate Professor, University of Iowa

Dr. Charlton is an associate professor and Director of the Iowa Cancer Registry. She is an epidemiologist and health services researcher with expertise in cancer among rural populations. She holds a PhD and MS in epidemiology from the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

Veronica Judy Cecil, JD, BS

Veronica Cecil has served as Deputy Commissioner in the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services under Governors Matt Bevin, Steve Beshear, and Andy Beshear. She has also been a senior consultant for a health care consulting firm. Previously, she served with the Kentucky legislative leadership staff in Frankfort, directed Ben Chandler’s Congressional office in Lexington, and also served in his office when he was Attorney General of Kentucky. She was recently Vice President for Policy at Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and Executive Director of the Kentucky Health Engagement Foundation.


Organizations

American Board of Family Medicine

The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is the second largest medical specialty board in the U.S. Founded in 1969, it is a voluntary, not-for-profit, private organization whose purposes include improving the quality of medical care available to the public; establishing and maintaining standards of excellence in the specialty of Family Medicine; improving the standards of medical education for training in Family Medicine; and determining by evaluation the fitness of specialists in Family Medicine who apply for and hold certificates. The ABFM collaborates with other specialty boards and organizations to promote better health care, drive better outcomes, and manage health care resources responsibly.

University of Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues helps non-metropolitan journalists define the public agenda for their communities and grasp the local impact of broader issues. In this way it assists rural journalists in learning how to exercise editorial leadership in small markets. The Institute helps journalists all over America learn about rural issues, trends and events in areas they've never seen but that have much in common with their own. While based at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, the Institute is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional effort, with academic partners in more than 25 institutions across 19 states.