Michigan Health Policy Forum
A Non-Partisan Venue to Discuss Health Policy
Michigan Health Policy Forum
A Non-Partisan Venue to Discuss Health Policy
Hosted by Michigan State University
The Michigan Health Policy Forum is Pleased to Present the Fall 2025 Forum
"Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Justice: Reflecting on the Ethical Implications of the Big, Beautiful Bill"
Please click here to watch Dr. Leonard Fleck's Keynote Presentation
Please click here to watch the Panel's Presentations
Speaker Slide Decks:
Susan Goold, MD, MHSA, MA, FACP
Speakers:
Julie Phillips, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair of Department of Family Medicine, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University
Julie Phillips, MD, MPH, is Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Dr. Phillips received her medical degree and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan, and completed her residency training in Family Medicine at the same institution.
Dr. Phillips oversees a vibrant statewide academic family medicine department focused on community-engaged education, patient care, and research. She has extensive experience in undergraduate and graduate medical education, curriculum development, student advising, and faculty mentorship. She is a founding Associate Editor for PRiMER, a journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
Dr. Phillips’ professional interests include student, resident, and faculty professional development; social mission-driven medical education; narrative medicine; women in Family Medicine; development of the primary care physician workforce; and size-inclusive medicine. Dr. Phillips is an international expert on how students make career choices, and how this shapes the emerging physician workforce. She has also published many narrative pieces and poems.
Dr. Phillips practices Family Medicine at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.
Leonard Fleck, PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University
Leonard M. Fleck, PhD., is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics in the Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University. He has been a faculty member since 1985. He is the author of four books: Just Caring: Health Care Rationing and Democratic Deliberation (Oxford University Press, 2009); co-editor of Fair Resource Allocation and Rationing at the Bedside (Oxford University Press, 2015); Precision Medicine and Distributive Justice, Wicked Problems for Democratic Deliberation, (Oxford University Press, 2022); Bioethics, Public Reason and Religion: The Liberalism Problem (Cambridge University Press, 2022). In addition, he has 160 refereed articles and book chapters in a broad range of academic and professional journals. He has spoken at more than 700 professional conferences (state, national, international). In 2003, he was the recipient of a University Distinguished Faculty Award as well as a Distinguished Faculty Award from the College of Human Medicine. His primary areas of research include a broad range of issues related to health care justice and health policy (health care rationing, health care priority-setting, health care access, health care financing); the role of rational democratic deliberation in addressing health care rationing issues; ethical and policy issues related to emerging genetic knowledge and technologies, especially in relation to reproductive medicine; ethical and policy issues related to precision medicine (targeted cancer therapies, immunotherapies, CAR T-cell therapy); social and political philosophy.
Dominick Pallone, Executive Director, Michigan Association of Health Plans
Dominick Pallone is the Executive Director for the Michigan Association of Health Plans (MAHP), a Lansing based organization that represents 10 health plans who collectively provide coverage for more than 4 million Michiganders.MAHP’s mission is to provide leadership for the promotion and advocacy of high quality, accessible and equitable health care for the residents of Michigan.
Prior to joining MAHP, Dominick was a Partner at Midwest Strategy Group, a multi-client lobby firm where he specialized in health care, state appropriations, Medicaid, higher education, transportation, and state procurement. He has also served as staff within the state House and Senate, most notably as Committee Clerk for the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Joint Capital Outlay Subcommittee.
Dominick earned his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Michigan State University, James Madison College.
Maribeth Leonard, MBA, LBSW, Chief Executive Officer, LifeWays
Maribeth Leonard is the Chief Executive Officer of LifeWays, providing an array of behavioral health services in Jackson and Hillsdale counties to individuals seeking services. She has served in various positions at LifeWays for nearly 31 years, and as CEO since 2012.
Maribeth holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Kansas State University, and an MBA from Spring Arbor University. Maribeth represents LifeWays with service on several regional and state-level committees.
Locally, Maribeth is a Board member of the Jackson Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. She is also a graduate of Leadership Jackson, a Jackson Health Improvement Organization Board member, a former Jackson Nonprofit Network Board member, a board member of the Michigan Association of Mental Health Board Executive Board, and participates in local events including the Alzheimer’s Walk, disAbility Connections fundraising and community awareness events, March of Dimes Walk, Exchange Club, Special Olympics Fund Raising events, Drug Summit on Heroin & Prescription Drug Abuse, the Jackson Suicide Coalition, Bridges to Justice initiative, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the annual Walk-a-Mile-in-My-Shoes rally at the state capitol, and United Way fundraising events.
Maribeth is passionate about recognizing signs of abuse, supporting individuals in crisis, and raising awareness of suicide. In addition, she strives to raise awareness of how childhood trauma impacts students in the classroom and its connection to mental health. She frequently speaks to audiences about understanding that recovery is not a one-size plan, but rather a process unique to each individual.
Maribeth is a visionary leader who expanded access to behavioral health and Substance Use Disorder services with the passing of a two-county Mental Health Millage. Most recently, LifeWays has achieved certification as a Michigan Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Demonstration Site.
The mother of two as well as five step-sons and -daughters, Maribeth lives in Jerome, MI.
Phillip Bergquist, Chief Executive Officer, Michigan Primary Care Association
Phillip Bergquist is the Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Primary Care Association (MPCA) and Michigan Community Health Network (MCHN). Phillip provides executive direction for the Association and affiliated Clinically Integrated Network, spanning strategy, staff leadership, and resource management for a variety of supports and services to member organizations including value-based care delivery, health information technology, workforce, organizational resilience and sustainability, and government affairs and advocacy. Before serving as the Association’s CEO, Phillip held several healthcare leadership roles including as the Chief Operating Officer of MPCA, the Chief Operating Officer of Honor Community Health, a community health center serving the residents of Oakland County, MI, and as Manager of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Phillip completed his undergraduate degree at Rochester University and the Community Health Center Executive Fellowship at the University of Kansas.
Susan Goold, MD, MHSA, MA, FACP, Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan
Dr. Goold, Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan, studies the allocation of scarce resources for health. Her early philosophical work, emphasizing the need for communities to participate in informed deliberations about resource spending decisions that affect them, led her to develop an award-winning exercise, CHAT (CHoosing All Together) that has been used to engage communities in setting priorities for the use of limited resources for health research, health insurance and community health. She has developed, with a community partner, a network of partners from minority and underserved communities in Michigan and engaged these communities in research to inform health policy, including evaluating the expansion of Medicaid in Michigan. Other areas of Dr. Goold's work include empirical evaluation of Medicaid expansion, resource allocation during public health emergencies, public health ethics, physician stewardship, deliberative procedures in bioethics and health policy, and trust in healthcare organizations.
Julia Rupp, CEO, West Michigan Community Mental Health Services
Julia Rupp has over 30 years of leadership experience in Behavioral Health, currently as the CEO of West Michigan Community Mental Health Services. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and master’s in science at Depaul University. Other significant roles include chairperson of the Michigan Community Mental Health Association CCBHC caucus and is CARF accreditation surveyor.She is passionate about CCBHC as the national model for providing quality care based on research-based practices and has been providing leadership in CCBHC since 2015, assisting the state in writing the CCBHC planning grant, and participating in the development of the Michigan model of CCBHC from the beginning.
She is committed to the principals of parity in access, science-based care, recovery, and person-centered care and the importance of ensuring the voice of those with lived experience in mental health and substance use disorders. In these leadership roles she has led her organizations through periods of significant organizational, statewide, and federal healthcare change. Her competencies include providing strategic leadership, policy advocacy, and challenge resolution in the public behavioral health system. She is an experienced facilitator in mission driven organizational growth, leadership development, and system-level changes as a leader and advocate in state and national healthcare policy.