Speakers

Mark Cuban, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, a graduate of Indiana University, and now a Dallas, TX resident has always been an entrepreneur.

From selling and trading baseball cards, selling garbage bags and magazines door-to-door, to starting a business buying and selling stamps at age 16, there have been few years in his life when he wasn’t starting or running a business.

He first appeared as a “Shark” on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit business show “Shark Tank” in 2011 and quickly established himself as one of the most popular and tough Sharks throughout his tenure, investing millions of dollars in hundreds of small businesses.

In 2015, in response to vestibular issues he was experiencing, he partnered with the doctors who currently operate DizzyAndVertigo.com to integrate Vestibular Rehabilitation software and VR Goggles to create a solution that offers an alternative to special devices that cost $190K. The solution continues to be used and has helped thousands of people get relief from dizziness.

In 2019, Mark co-founded Costplusdrugs.com. Its launch on Jan 19, 2022, with transparent pricing and a limited markup, has fundamentally changed the pricing of medications in the USA.

Other awards Mark has earned include being named to the Texas Business Hall of Fame, the Horatio Alger Award, the SXSW Hall of Fame, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and GQ Man of the Year. He is married and lives in Dallas with his wife and three children.

Claire Brockbank is the Director of Policy and Strategy for the 32BJ Health Fund, a Taft-Hartley fund serving almost 200,000 covered lives. She is responsible for the Fund’s efforts to drive down hospital prices. Her portfolio includes a multi-stakeholder campaign to draw attention to the central role that hospital prices play in healthcare costs as well as action to lower those prices through public policy, operational innovation, and direct interaction with hospitals. Brockbank’s expertise in healthcare system dynamics was also instrumental in steering the Fund’s radical approach to its recent RFP process and developing a model contract that firmly establishes the rights an employer should have with its third-party administrator.

Prior to joining 32BJ Health Fund, Brockbank served as CEO of Peak Health Alliance, a healthcare purchasing cooperative in Colorado. As the lead architect for the development and launch of Peak, Brockbank was responsible for leveraging data and community organizing to lower premiums by approximately 35 percent in its first two years of operation. Peak also pioneered innovative benefit designs to channel access to more value-driven services. 

Brockbank earned a master’s degree in health policy and management from Harvard University.

Prior to joining the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, Randa Deaton served as the Vice President of Purchaser Engagement, at the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), a national nonprofit organization representing 40 of the largest public and private healthcare purchasers. In this role, she led PBGH’s employer membership education and engagement to enhance effective healthcare purchasing strategies and contracting standards on topics that included maternity, pharmacy, whole-person health, and fiduciary stewardship.

She worked in the private sector as the Corporate Director of the Community Health Initiative at Ford Motor Company from 2004 to 2020, where she helped found the Kentuckiana Health Collaborative (KHC), a nonprofit coalition of businesses and healthcare stakeholders working to solve complex health problems. She served as KHC’s President and CEO, bringing more than 17 years of experience working directly with healthcare purchasers to drive healthcare system improvements in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. In these roles, she led the development of the Kentucky Core Health Care Measures set across multiple expert stakeholders including providers, payers, employers, and consumers; she also led the release of Kentucky’s first public reporting of quality reports for primary care practices.

Randa has served as Vice Chair of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, Employer Taskforce Chair for the Biller Family Foundation, Advisory Board Member of the University of Louisville’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences Advisory Board, advisory member to the Greater Louisville Medical Society’s Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee, and Taskforce Member of the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Driving Value through the Next Generation of Quality initiative.

Randa earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana State University and her master’s in industrial/organizational psychology from Middle Tennessee State University. Outside of work, Randa enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, camping, and cheering for Indiana sports.

Mark Hage, a former public-school teacher and union field representative, is currently the Director of Benefit Programs and a healthcare policy analyst for the Vermont-National Education Association.  He co-administers the Vermont Education Health Initiative, a self-insured trust that provides comprehensive health benefit plans to 35,000 covered lives, active and retired, in the public education community. Mark has been involved in healthcare reform efforts since the early 2000s. 

He now serves on the Board of Directors of Vermont Healthcare 911, a broad-based reform coalition of labor unions, business leaders, and civil society advocates. Mark makes his home in Montpelier, Vermont. 

 Assembly Member Chantel Jackson, LMSW, stands at the forefront of progressive change, representing District 79 with unwavering dedication and a tireless commitment to her constituents. Serving the neighborhoods of Concourse Village, Melrose, Morrisania, Claremont, Belmont, and East Tremont, she has become a beacon of hope and empowerment for the diverse communities she serves. 

During the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chantel demonstrated exceptional resilience and compassion as she served her community. In addition to running for office, Chantel balanced providing essential mental health services to her students through teletherapy and distributing food to her community seven days a week. 

In her first term in the Assembly, Chantel achieved a significant victory with the passage of a bill requiring a license to purchase or possess a semiautomatic rifle, a crucial step in addressing gun violence in communities across the state. Since assuming office, she has allocated $80,000 in funding toward entrepreneurship initiatives within her district.

 Additionally, Chantel has dedicated $133,000 towards bolstering mental health programs. She is the chair of the subcommittee on Micro Businesses and serves on the Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Cities, Education, Housing, Small Business, and Mental Health committees. 

Beyond her legislative work, Chantel is deeply invested in fostering health, wellness, and entrepreneurship in her community. Through initiatives such as "Strolling for Life," an advocacy event focused on combating infant mortality, and "Secure The Bag: Small Business Resource Fair," she empowers residents to take charge of their well-being and economic futures. 

As she enters her second term and fourth year in office, Chantel remains steadfast in her commitment to serving as a voice for the voiceless and a champion for progress. Her dedication to her role and experience as a licensed social worker, college professor, author, and devoted mother to her daughter, Skye, and son, TJ, informs every aspect of her work, driving her relentless pursuit of health, wellness, education, and generational wealth for her community. 

Ivana Krajcinovic, PhD is the Vice-President for Healthcare Delivery at UNITE HERE HEALTH (UHH), a national Taft-Hartley Fund that provides healthcare for unionized hospitality workers and their families. Combining her training as a health economist with more than 30 years working directly with immigrants and the working poor, Ivana oversees a wide variety of projects. She has deep expertise in engaging participants, ranging from benefit education to chronic disease self-management, as well as in developing peer-to-peer programs.

Ivana leads a team whose challenge is to radically bend the cost curve while maintaining quality coverage as every dollar that UHH spends on healthcare is a dollar that could go to a worker in wages—higher wages that likely do more for workers’ health than increasing spending on their healthcare. Ivana and her team have utilized narrow networks, value-based contracts, direct contracting and have established health centers designed for their members. 

Ivana has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and is the author of From Company Doctors to Managed Care: The United Mineworkers’ Noble Experiment (Cornell University Press).

First elected to the New York State Senate in a Special Election in February 2002, Senator Liz Krueger is currently the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Budget and Revenues and Rules Committees. Senator Krueger is a strong advocate for reproductive rights, affordable housing and tenants' rights, improved access to healthcare, and more equitable funding for public education. 

In 2011, Senator Krueger formed the New York State Bipartisan Pro-Choice Legislative Caucus and passed key legislation to protect and expand access to maternal, reproductive, and sexual healthcare in New York. She has fought for policies that make New York a more affordable place to live, work, and retire, and is a proud sponsor of the Fair Pricing Act. 

Senator Krueger has made reforming and modernizing New York State’s government, political process, and tax policy the central goals of her legislative agenda and is one of New York’s most recognized advocates for transformative and good-government reforms. 

Keanan Lane is the Assistant Director of Strategy at 32BJ Health Fund, a self-insured Taft-Hartley benefit fund providing healthcare coverage to 200,000 members and families of SEIU 32BJ across 11 states. In his role, Keanan leads strategic initiatives focused on improving healthcare value through innovative purchasing strategies, direct contracting opportunities, and hospital pricing initiatives.

Prior to joining 32BJ Health Fund, Keanan was an associate director at the Peterson Center on Healthcare, where he managed an $8+ million grant portfolio focused on healthcare affordability. He drove the expansion of the Peterson-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs, a technical assistance program that expanded to support ten states with cost containment and transparency initiatives. Previously, Keanan was a health policy researcher at Mathematica, specializing in healthcare costs and reimbursement systems, and worked as a health policy fellow for Congressman Jim McDermott. 

He holds a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Lee Lewis serves as Chief Strategy Officer and GM Medical Solutions for the Health Transformation Alliance. He leads efforts across over 70 leading employers and six million employees to save lives and save billions of dollars through improved health delivery, outcomes, and experience. Key initiatives include optimizing health benefits administration, direct primary care networks, and advanced clinical integrations. He is also host of the leading employer health podcast, Broken Benefits.

Lee has advised healthcare strategy at Fortune 10 employers, insurance companies, medical associations, and the Departments of Justice and Labor, and has been quoted in Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. He is a founding, charter member of the Health Rosetta organization, which seeks to open-source employer health benefits strategy. 

Before joining the HTA, Lee was ranked the #2 consultant in the world for Gallagher in health benefits consulting and was named the top large-employer consultant in the U.S. by the Validation Institute.

Lee is a Rhodes Scholar Nominee and graduated second in his class, Magna Cum Laude with University Honors.

Council Member Julie Menin represents New York City Council District 5, covering the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. An attorney, civic leader, three-time City Commissioner, and former small business owner, Julie has over two decades of experience in the public and private sectors. She currently serves as the Chair of the City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection and as Co-Chair of the Council’s Women’s Caucus. Julie most recently served as the City’s Census Director, successfully advocating against the Trump Administration's efforts to add a citizenship question and achieving a historic result by finishing first among all major cities. Because of this effort, New York City will be receiving its fair share over the next decade of over $1.5 trillion in federal funding for public schools, affordable housing, healthcare, infrastructure, and other vital programs.

As Council Member, Julie has passed over 19 bills of which she was the primary sponsor, including the groundbreaking Healthcare Accountability Act to lower and bring transparency to excessive hospital prices. Her tenure has included several critical policy wins such as advancing universal childcare in New York City, creating a new right to counsel program for victims of domestic violence in divorce proceedings, easing burdens on small businesses by establishing a one-shop-stop web portal for all city licenses and codifying the right to reproductive health services.

As Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), Julie reinvigorated the agency by increasing consumer restitution by 70 percent while instituting 25 reforms to lower onerous fines on small businesses where there was no consumer harm. Also under Julie’s leadership, the agency implemented the City’s historic Paid Sick Leave Law, launched a new Earned Income Tax Credit initiative that resulted in over $260 million being returned to low-income New Yorkers, and conducted trailblazing investigations into industries preying on New Yorkers such as for-profit colleges. Before becoming a Commissioner, Julie served as the seven-year Chair of Manhattan Community Board 1 where she helped lead Lower Manhattan’s resurgence after 9/11.

Julie is a proud mom and honored to represent the district that her mother and grandmother settled in (known as Little Hungary) after surviving the Holocaust and escaping from Hungary. Julie resides in Yorkville with her husband and children.

Cora Opsahl is the director of the 32BJ Health Fund, a self-insured Taft-Hartley benefit fund that sets comprehensive design parameters to ensure the 200,000 members and families of SEIU 32BJ have easy and sustained access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. Since becoming Health Fund director in 2021, Opsahl has prioritized a data-driven approach to healthcare, focusing on reducing trend; solving the affordability challenge on behalf of union members; and most important, keeping members at the center of every decision.

Under her leadership, the 32BJ Health Fund has saved more than $35 million annually—which it has reinvested in new and better benefits, including the first fertility benefit for members—by removing NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals and physicians from its network, transitioning to a new pharmacy vendor and pharmacy group purchasing coalition, and establishing an expanded Centers of Excellence program. In 2024, Opsahl conducted an innovative medical RFP, stipulating that all finalists must have a signature-ready contract drafted by the Health Fund prior to award. By including the Health Fund-drafted contract in the RFP process, the Fund was able to negotiate an agreement that brought unprecedented visibility and increased accountability to the 32BJ Health Fund benefit. In 2025, the Health Fund is focused on direct-contracting opportunities that allow it to carve out key benefits and ensure quality while managing spend.

Cora Opsahl is regarded as an expert in pharmacy benefit management and previously worked at Express Scripts, where she held a variety of roles, ranging from Medicare Part D to operations to strategy and acquisitions. She earned an MBA from Saint Louis University.

Manny Pastreich has dedicated his career to improving working conditions for service workers. In December 2022, Manny became President of the 185,000-member strong 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Previously, Manny served as Secretary-Treasurer and Director of Bargaining for 32BJ. In this role, he participated in bargaining every major 32BJ contract, helping win wage increases, strengthening members’ health and training benefits, and expanding job protections for the 32BJ members in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and beyond.

Manny’s work has led to thousands of members being organized into SEIU and 32BJ. He led the research for the 1992-1996 Justice for Janitors campaign in Washington D.C., which saw janitors and allies blocking bridges and major traffic arteries. He also played a key role supporting 32BJ’s successful organizing of tens of thousands of security officers and airport workers in the 2000s.

Manny is the Union Chairperson of the Building Service 32BJ Benefit Funds.

Howard serves as President of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, Inc. For four decades, he has represented the real estate industry in labor negotiations, participated in thousands of arbitrations, as well as represented employers before federal, state, and NYC courts and administrative agencies. Notably, he was a counsel of record before the Supreme Court of the United States in 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett, a seminal labor case that cemented arbitration as a foundation of organized labor relations. 

Howard is also an officer and trustee on the SEIU 32BJ Funds and the Local 94 IUOE Funds and Committees and is active in the funds’ governance. The International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans (IFEBP), which educates trustees and administrators of employee benefits plans, awarded Howard the designation of Master Trustee and Master Administrator. 

A regular speaker in industry and legal professional circles, Howard volunteers extensively. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the IFEBP in 2024, the 34th Street Partnership in 2021, the Project Outreach in 2013, and The Bridge in 2012 and its Executive Committee in 2017. Howard has been honored by Project Outreach, The Bridge, and SSDSRV for his commitment and devotion to these organizations. 

A graduate of Hofstra Law School, Howard is admitted to practice law in New York State, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Howard is also member of the New York State Bar Association and the Real Estate Board of New Yo

Misha Sharp is the Assistant Director of Policy at 32BJ Health Fund a self-insured Taft-Hartley benefit fund that sets comprehensive design parameters to ensure the 200,000 members and families of SEIU 32BJ have easy and sustained access to affordable, high-quality healthcare.

Under her leadership, the policy team is at the forefront of driving policies to lower healthcare costs and hospital prices in New York and New Jersey to ensure sustainable, high-quality benefits for their members. This includes introduction and passage of legislation to prohibit anticompetitive contracting clauses in New York State, legislation to create the first-ever municipal Office of Healthcare Accountability in New York City, and legislation to require the New York State public employee plan to publish its hospital prices. Currently, the policy team is advancing novel legislation to establish site neutral payments for routine services in New York State and legislation to strengthen healthcare cost growth benchmark programs in New Jersey, in addition to engaging with federal legislation and rulemaking that impacts self-insured health plans.

Misha has worked across 32BJ Health Fund operations and analytics teams: leading implementation of regulatory opportunities resulting from the No Surprises Act and Transparency in Coverage, managing vendor relationships, and developing cost and savings models to assess potential benefit changes.

Previously, Misha worked with the United Hospital Fund to provide strategic guidance and research for the New York State Medicaid program. She holds an MPH from Emory University.

As Executive Director of the 32BJ Benefit Funds, Peter Goldberger oversees the administration, operation, and planning for the 11 multi-employer funds that deliver a broad range of benefits to more than 187,122 members and 288,330 covered lives with a combined asset portfolio of $9.4 billion.

Prior to his appointment as Executive Director in 2018, Mr. Goldberger served as Deputy Executive Director for nine years, and in that time worked closely with the Executive Director on the restructuring of the health benefits to eliminate deficits, the expansion of the reserves of all the funds, and the move of the headquarters to more efficient space. Mr. Goldberger is also responsible for charting the Funds’ future growth and its response to an ever-increasing demand for the organization’s services. Prior to joining the Funds, Peter served as Chief of Staff for the SEIU Local 32BJ, and as Director of Education and Mobilization for UNITE/ACTWU. Mr. Goldberger holds an A.B. in History from Brown University.