Biographies
Bruce A. Chernof, MD
President & Chief Executive Officer
The SCAN Foundation
BChernof@thescanfoundation.org
Bruce Allen Chernof, MD, FACP, currently serves as the President & Chief Executive Officer of The SCAN Foundation whose mission is to advance the development of a sustainable continuum of care for seniors. The SCAN Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the United States focused entirely on improving the quality of health and life for seniors.
Prior to heading The SCAN Foundation, Dr. Chernof served as the Director and Chief Medical Officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, after serving as the Department’s Senior Medical Director for Clinical Affairs and Affiliations since December 2004.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Chernof served as Regional Medical Director for California Health Programs at Health Net, California's largest network-model managed care plan where he managed the Healthy Families program statewide and the managed care Medicaid program in Los Angeles County. Previously, Dr. Chernof worked as an academic general internist in the VA system as well as at Olive View UCLA Medical Center, serving as a UCLA faculty member.
Dr. Chernof completed his residency and served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine for the UCLA-San Fernando Valley Program. After residency, Dr. Chernof completed a Fellowship in Medical Education at the UCLA School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from UCLA and completed his undergraduate work at Harvard University.
Currently, Dr. Chernof is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at UCLA. Dr Chernof served as the founding Director of UCLA’s five-year combined MD/MBA Program. In 2002, the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA recognized Dr. Chernof with the Award for Excellence in Education for these innovative programs. He has had work published in a variety of journals including Medical Care, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
René Seidel
Vice President, Programs and Operations
The SCAN Foundation
RSeidel@thescanfoundation.org
Rene Seidel is Vice President of Programs and Operations at The SCAN Foundation. Prior to his current position, Mr. Seidel worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services in a number of positions, including State Grants Manager for the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy, the Mental Health Liaison for the Health Services Administration in the Office of Clinical Affairs and Affiliations, and as Director of Board Relations during his last three years with the County.
Before joining the County in 2001, Mr. Seidel directed health and social services programs for many years in community-based organizations. He served as Founder and Executive Director of the Family AIDS Institute in Salvador, Brazil, and as Director of HIV Services at Tarzana Treatment Centers in Los Angeles County. As part of this work, he was appointed to a number of community planning commissions and consortia.
Mr. Seidel was one of the founding staff members of the City of West Hollywood Homeless Project.
Mr. Seidel graduated from the Polytechnic College for Social Sciences in Munich, Germany, as a Social Pedagogue (FH).
Gretchen E. Alkema, PhD, LCSW
Vice President, Policy and Communications
The SCAN Foundation
GAlkema@thescanfoundation.org
Gretchen E. Alkema serves as Vice President of Policy and Communications for The SCAN Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was the 2008-09 John Heinz/Health and Aging Policy Fellow and an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, serving in the office of Senator Blanche L. Lincoln (D-AR). Dr. Alkema collaborated with legislative staff to advise Senator Lincoln on aging, health, mental health and long-term care policy.
Tom Higgins
Chairman
The SCAN Foundation
Tom Higgins’ career has spanned both the public affairs and private sectors, most recently as the founding Chief Executive and Director of Prosetta Corporation, a biotechnology company focused on anti-viral drug discovery and development. Prior to that, he was the President and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility, the leading global resource for businesses seeking to improve their performance in areas of corporate social responsibility.
After earlier career experience as a newspaper reporter and gubernatorial campaign manager, Mr. Higgins was elected to the Iowa General Assembly at the age of 27, where he served three terms and was chairman of the Human Resources Committee, before resigning to serve in the Carter administration. There, he began as a Senior Executive at Health & Education Welfare, and later worked at Health & Human Services as Associate Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. His service culminated as a presidential appointee on the White House Senior Staff, where he served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet. In the early 1980s he was the head of the Health and Social Services Department in Portland, Oregon, which established several new models of local health care finance and delivery.
In 1990, Mr. Higgins was recruited as a Vice President of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maryland. He was subsequently elected a Senior Vice President of the company, with broad responsibilities for operations and staff organizations at BC/BS, as well as its subsidiary holdings. Mr. Higgins also served as a Senior Vice President of Edison International and its subsidiary, Southern California Edison, and on the management committee and helped to set overall strategy for the company.
Mr. Higgins has been a volunteer board member for many health, social service and arts agencies during his career. In recent years, he has served on the board of the California Coalition for Clean Air and the National Health Law Program. Currently, he serves on the boards of the Third Street Clinic and Tutor Corps in San Francisco. He is also on the board of the Human Rights Watch Council for Northern California and St. Ambrose University. Mr. Higgins has been on the board of SCAN Health Plan for over a dozen years and has served as Chairman of the Board of The SCAN Foundation since the foundation’s formation in 2007.