2023 Annual Meeting Plenary Speakers

Chrissie Juliano
Executive Director, Big Cities Health Coalition

Chrissie Juliano, MPP, is the Executive Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition. BCHC is a forum for the leaders of America’s largest metropolitan health departments to exchange strategies and jointly address issues to promote and protect the health and safety of the more than 61 million people they serve. Ms. Juliano was the Deputy Director of BCHC from December, 2014 to June, 2015.

Prior to joining BCHC, Ms. Juliano was a Senior Program Manager at RESOLVE where she developed and facilitated collaborative processes and consensus building projects among a variety of public health stakeholder groups. As part the RESOLVE health team, she managed the Public Health Leadership Forum, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, working with thought leaders to envision the “high achieving” health department in 2020 and shepherding a working group through the process of defining a set of foundational capabilities and areas that all health departments should possess.

Previously, Ms. Juliano worked on stakeholder outreach at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products and in policy development at the Trust for America’s Health. She holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Communication from the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.

A CONVERSATION WITH CALIFORNIA STATE LEADERSHIP

Michelle Baass
Director, California Department of Health Care Services

Christine Siador
Assistant Director, California Department of Public Health

This year’s annual meeting will also feature a conversation with a state leader from the California Department of Public Health.

Michelle Baass was appointed Director of the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 10, 2021. DHCS supports the health of about 14 million Californians on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. Ms. Baass leads a team of more than 4,000 individuals at DHCS. Before her appointment to DHCS, Ms. Baass served as Undersecretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency (Agency) since 2018 and Deputy Secretary of the Office of Program and Fiscal Affairs at Agency from 2017 to 2018. Prior to joining Agency, she worked for the California Legislature for 13 years, including in positions at the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Senate Office of Research, and Legislative Analyst’s Office. Ms. Baass earned a Master’s of Public Policy and Administration degree from California State University, Sacramento, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and German from the University of Notre Dame.

Christine Siador is the CDPH Assistant Director, since June 2021. She oversees policy, planning and performance for CDPH. This includes oversight of the Office of Communications, Office of Professional Development & Engagement, Office of Legal Services, and the newly established CDPH Office of Policy & Planning. Some of the key initiatives she oversees include the Future of Public Health initiative, Lean Transformation, and the transformation of CDPH to become a healing organization focused on trauma responsive leadership.
Prior to joining CDPH, Ms. Siador was the Acting Director of the Population Health Division at the San Francisco Department of Public Health since 2020, where she also served as Deputy Director from 2012 to 2020. In these roles, she directed core public health services including public health emergency preparedness and response, communicable disease control, environmental health, public health laboratory, and emergency medical services agency. She also coordinated the reorganization of the SFDPH/PHD and strategic planning efforts; and coordinated the development of Lean performance improvement strategic initiatives; oversaw its process to achieve public health accreditation; established the Office of Anti-Racism and Equity; and conducted the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) Organizational Assessment on Racial Equity. Ms. Siador also served as the Deputy Director at the University of California, Berkeley Center for Infectious Diseases and Emergency Readiness from 2004 to 2012.

Ms. Siador is committed to promoting a culture of continuous quality improvement. She brings a racial equity lens to her work which comes from her deep-rooted values of respect, dignity, equity, diversity & inclusion.
She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelors of Art in Biopsychology and the University of California, Berkeley with a Master of Public Health degree in biomedical science/infectious disease.

Nick Buettner led 17 world expeditions, including explorations to identify blue zones regions; Former COO of Foolproof, a financial literacy foundation; Ed-tech innovator and co-founder of Maya Quest, a web-based education program. Innovator with deep experience engaging schools, employers, and community leaders. Nick is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Blue Zones Project in all of the Blue Zones communities and corporate sites. He is also a National Speaker, Blue Zones expedition member, and ed-tech innovator. Over the last 20 years, Nick has led 17 expeditions over 6 continents around the world, three of which were to Blue Zones sites. Nick received his BA in International Business with a minor in Economics from Augsburg College. In his free time, Nick enjoys playing hockey, gardening, and going on adventures.