DeAnn Friedholm, Campaign Director

DeAnn brings twenty-five plus years of health care leadership to Consumers Union. She worked on health care reform in the 1990s, learning plenty of important lessons from that experience. She ran Texas' Medicaid program, and brings to her advocacy deep experience with the budgetary problems states and local governments face as they try to patch over the holes in our nation's health care safety net. And perhaps most salient, she spent more than a year uninsured because no company would cover her due to her pre-existing conditions.

From our D.C. office, DeAnn will lead Consumers Union's effort to promote comprehensive reform--care when we need it at a price we can afford.

Susan Herold, Senior Health Writer

Susan Herold writes about health care from the perspective of ordinary people trying to plan for it, purchase it, and pay for it. She looks at the work of health economists, business people and health policy experts and pulls out for the rest of us the likely impact that big ideas will have on individuals. Susan has more than ten years experience as a journalist and health writer, working on projects as diverse as investigations of foster care and federal land swaps, to Consumers Union's own Best Buy Drugs project. Best Buy Drugs brings you the most current, scientific information comparing your drug options so that you can buy the most effective and least costly treatment for your conditions.

Before joining CU, Susan was an American Political Science Association journalism fellow for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). Prior to that, she worked as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers, edited a magazine and taught journalism at the university level.

Meg Bohne, Campaign Organizer

Meg Bohne is a Campaign Organizer working on Consumers Union's health care reform campaign. Formerly of CU's San Francisco office, she has recently hopped coasts and is now based out of Yonkers.

A community activist, advocate and organizer since 2000, Meg has worked on issues spanning consumer protection, the environment, higher education funding, senior issues, prescription drug safety, and health care reform.

Meg started out working with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), a student-run nonprofit group based at college campuses throughout New York State, as a campus organizer at SUNY Stony Brook and eventually as a supervisor of seven campus chapters.

In California, Meg shifted the focus of her advocacy work to health care, working on reform efforts, prescription drug and Medicare Part D issues with nonprofit groups Health Access California and the Congress of California Seniors.

Having joined up with Consumers Union to work on national health care issues, Meg wound up on the endeavor of a lifetime traveling the country as the spokesperson for the Cover America Tour. For four months, Meg went from coast to coast with two colleagues interviewing Americans about their experiences with the health care system. 17,000 miles later, she remains as impassioned as ever in the fight for safe, affordable health care for everyone.

Liz Foley, Campaign Organizer

Liz was born and raised in Staten Island, NY and joined CU in March 2005 as a Campaign Organizer with PrescriptionForChange.org. Before joining CU, she worked as a Regional Supervisor and Campus Organizer in New York City for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) for three years. In the time leading up to the 2004 election, she was the Pennsylvania Transportation Coordinator for America Coming Together (ACT) for their Election Day "Get out the Vote" efforts.

Liz also spent a year teaching English in Quito, Ecuador and doing development work in the Amazon. She also worked for a Member of Parliament in London, England. Liz received her Bachelor's degree from Siena College in Albany, NY. She currently resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Blake Hutson, Campaign Organizer

Blake Hutson is a grassroots organizer in our Southwest office in Austin, TX focusing on health care reform. Before coming to Consumers Union Blake lived and worked in the South American country of Guyana. As a volunteer he assisted local groups in community mobilization and organizational development helping locals achieve the dream of home ownership at Habitat for Humanity.

As a graduate student intern at CU Blake worked at the ground level of our health care campaign connecting with activists that sent in personal stories. When the Cover America Tour came around, Blake joined the crew as an organizer and traveled the country for almost four months meeting those same people and many others as Consumers Union aimed to tell the story of real people's experiences with the health care system.

Susan Herold, Senior Health Writer

Susan Herold writes about health care from the perspective of ordinary people trying to plan for it, purchase it, and pay for it. She looks at the work of health economists, business people and health policy experts and pulls out for the rest of us the likely impact that big ideas will have on individuals. Susan has more than 20 years experience as a journalist and health writer, working on projects as diverse as investigations of foster care and federal land swaps, to Consumers Union's own Best Buy Drugs project.

Before joining CU in 2003, Susan was an American Political Science Association journalism fellow for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). Prior to that, she worked as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers, edited a magazine and taught journalism at the university level.

Lynn Quincy, Senior Policy Analyst

Lynn Quincy joined Consumers Union in 2009 and works on a wide variety of health policy issues, focusing primarily on the areas of consumer protection and health reform at the federal and state levels. Prior to joining Consumers Union, Lynn was a senior researcher with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., where she performed policy analysis, provided technical assistance, and modeled outcomes in support of state coverage expansion strategies. She also held senior positions with the Institute for Health Policy Solutions and with Watson Wyatt Worldwide. She holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Maryland.

Steven Findlay, Senior Policy Analyst

Steve Findlay joined Consumers Union in August 2004 as the editor of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a public-education project providing consumers easy-to-understand reports on the most affordable, effective medications available based on the scientific evidence.

Steve now works on CU’s health reform efforts, focusing on comparative effectiveness research, health information technology, insurance reforms and drug pricing. Prior to joining CU, Steve was director of research and policy at the National Institute for Health Care Management, and a senior policy analyst at the National Coalition on Health Care. Prior to his advocacy work, Steve had a 20-year career as medical and health care journalist, working at USA TODAY, U.S. News & World Report and Business & Health magazine. Steve has a degree in Biology from the University of Colorado and an M.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Adrienne Hahn, Senior Attorney

Adrienne Hahn joined Consumers Union in 2008 as part of the federal health policy and advocacy team. She supports CU’s major push to reform the nation’s health care system and she coordinates with CU’s health team and leads outreach to Capitol Hill on initiatives including Medicare, Medicaid, managed care reform, and drug pricing issues. Her issues include health care reform, Medicaid, Medicare, comparative effectiveness, health disparities, and liaison to Best Buy Drugs on drug pricing issues.

Bill Vaughan, Senior Policy Analyst

Bill Vaughan joined Consumers Union in 2005 as a senior health policy analyst, leading the organization’s drug safety reform efforts that resulted in a major drug-safety bill in 2007. Bill now works on CU’s health care reform efforts, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, comparative effectiveness research and many other health policy issues.

Prior to joining CU, Bill worked on health care for Families USA for two years. But the bulk of his career was spent in Congress, where he began in 1965 staffing various members of the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He retired from Congress in 2001 as staff director for the Minority on the Subcommittee on Health.