CPR Staff

Suzanne F. Delbanco is the executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform, an independent, non-profit corporation working to catalyze employers, public purchasers and others to implement strategies that produce higher-value health care and improve the functioning of the health care marketplace. Suzanne helps CPR members and employers collectively push for improvements in the quality, affordability, and transparency of health care. In addition to her duties at CPR, Suzanne serves on the advisory board of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Institute and participates in the Healthcare Executives Leadership Network. Previously, Suzanne was the founding CEO of The Leapfrog Group. Suzanne holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy and a M.P.H. from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

Andréa E. Caballero is the program director for Catalyst for Payment Reform and has 20+ years of experience in the health care industry.  Andréa has a broad portfolio and specializes in measuring payment reform at the state and national level, identifying appropriate payment reforms based on assessments of local markets, and developing request for information (RFI) and model contract language for purchasers as they procure health care services. Additional skills include evaluating and reporting on price transparency resources for consumers and policymakers, assisting purchasers in direct contracting and pharmacy-related issues, and deep knowledge on a wide range of public policy issues.

Prior to joining CPR, worked in government affairs including as Vice-President, Enterprise and Health Services Policy for UnitedHealth Group, Director of State Government Relations for the Western Region for PacifiCare’s Public Affairs team, and as Regional Legislative Manager for Humana.  Andréa received her MPA from Brandman University and two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Ripon College.  In addition to her duties at CPR, Andréa currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the Community Hospital of Long Beach Foundation.

Ryan Olmstead is CPR’s director of member services.  In this role, Ryan’s primary responsibility is strategy and planning for the events CPR offers to its 30+ member organizations, including member strategy meetings and supplier user groups.  Ryan leads the annual effort to update CPR’s Aligned Sourcing & Contracting toolkit and believes that purchasers who align their demands send a louder signal to the marketplace about purchaser expectations.  Additionally, Ryan has lead multiple product evaluations as an output of CPR employer-purchaser collaboratives, recently including an evaluation of bundled payment administrators. Prior to joining CPR, Ryan was an assistant vice-president for health and benefits at Aon Hewitt and a senior associate in health and benefits at Mercer. He draws on his 12 years of experience in consulting to better understand and predict employer-purchasers needs.  Ryan received his MPH from UCLA’s School of Public Health.

Julianne McGarry is CPR’s project and research director. In this role, she leads CPR research initiatives that help purchasers leverage data and insights to design and optimize their benefits procurement strategies.  Examples from her portfolio include a compendium analysis of payment reform programs within Medicaid MCO contracts, data-driven tools to evaluate alternative payment models and benefit design programs, and a roadmap for purchasers to maximize the value of hospital price transparency data.  You can find her insights on the promise and perils of narrow network strategies, predictions on the post-pandemic future of payment reform, and the rationale for standardized program evaluation in CPR’s blog.

Prior to joining CPR, Julianne was Chief of Staff for the department of Payment Innovation, then the Program Director for National Network Optimization at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. In these roles, she wore many hats including communications director, lead sales engineer, and strategy and operations consultant. From 2008-2013, Julianne worked for Kaiser Permanente – first in Quality and Operations consulting for The Permanente Medical Group, then as Chief of Staff for the department of Delivery System Strategy. Julianne holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Goldman School at UC Berkeley, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lea Tessitore is a senior project and research manager at Catalyst for Payment Reform, leading a variety of projects and initiatives on special topic areas. Lea recently led an employer-purchaser strategic collaborative that revolved around the challenges, opportunities, and solutions available in the mental health space. Her published work includes the 2020 Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws which tracked state efforts to help consumers find health care price information though transparency websites and supportive legislation. Lea worked to educate employers on the nature and value of palliative care and produce the Purchaser Toolkit for Serious Illness Care Strategies, which provides practical tools for implementation. As a bioethicist, Lea uses her unique perspective and formal principles of health care ethics to inform CPR’s work, including work with the NYS Health Foundation to develop the first-ever Consumer Empowerment Scorecard. Lea received her Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from Union Graduate College, Master of Science in Bioethics from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Clarkson University, and Bachelor of Arts from Union College.

Alejandra (Ale) Vargas-Johnson is senior project and marketing manager with Catalyst for Payment Reform, assisting the program director with CPR’s Scorecard on Payment Reform 2.0 initiative in addition to other research and analysis work. Ale is passionate about using health care services research to spur change and previously worked as a research analyst at UCSF’s Bixby Center in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program. This knowledge influenced her work facilitating webinars on maternity care and health equity. She enjoys bringing CPR’s audience timely news and resources through our Tuesday newsletter, CPR Weekly. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and worked as a middle school teacher in Brazil for two years.  She holds a dual Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Spanish from University of Southern California, where she was a Trustee Scholar.

Emma Wager is the project and research assistant at Catalyst for Payment Reform. She is passionate about equity, identifying emerging trends in the health landscape, and using data to push for evidence-based transformation within the health care system. She has worked on vendor evaluations such as bundled payment, written case studies centered on individual innovative employers, and co-produced a series of webinars around maternity care. Prior to joining CPR, Emma was on the policy and research team at the New York State Health Foundation, working on data-driven analyses aimed at improving the health of New York State residents. She holds an MPH with a concentration in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University, and a dual B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Connecticut.

Kathy Flock manages operations and accounting for Catalyst for Payment Reform on a part-time basis.  Over the last 20 years she has been a small businesses consultant supporting operations, finance, contracts administration, human resources, and insurance and investor relations. For seven years she was director of operations for a boutique commercial real estate firm in San Francisco.  Kathy is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a degree in business economics.

Gabriella Klein is an associate, project and operations at CPR. Gabriella provides administrative support to CPR’s staff and contributes to a range of projects, including developing online education courses, using employer demands to build marketplace evaluation tools, and supporting employers’ needs in mental health. Gabriella also manages CPR’s website and event logistics. Prior to working at CPR, she spent a year in operations at a health technology startup in San Francisco and completed internships at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the University of Sydney School of Public Health. Gabriella received her B.S. in Global Public Health and Communications from New York University.