Speakers Bios

Lisa M. Carr

Lisa is a Senior Advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) focusing on Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and Marketplace outreach to faith and other community-based organizations. For four years, Lisa was Associate Director at the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships where she focused on health care.

Lisa has over 30 years of public policy and government relations experience with a focus on health and human service policy. For over ten years she served as the Senior Director of Public Policy for Lutheran Services in America. Lisa worked for almost ten years at Catholic Charities USA as their senior legislative representative. Lisa also worked for 4.5 years for former Congressman Peter H. Kostmayer (D-PA), where she focused on health and human services.

Lisa received her Masters in Social Work degree from The Catholic University of America. In her free time she mentors three young African American men whose parents passed away and she is a deacon in her church.

Elizabeth A. Cullen, J.D., M.P.A.

Elizabeth brings more than two decades of experience in health systems financing and health care policy at the federal and state level to her role as Counsel for Health Policy with the Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) Strategic Health Resource Center. Elizabeth advocates for key policy priorities affecting the health care safety net, such as preserving the Medicaid and Medicare programs against steep funding cuts, health care delivery system transformation and innovation in Medicare and Medicaid, and mental health reform/substance use reform, as well as prevention and wellness initiatives. These issues are critical to JFNA’s broad network of Jewish federation health care, aging, and behavioral health partner agencies across the . She also provides strategic guidance and support to federations and our partner agencies across the country, helping them engage with their elected and appointed officials and prepare for major changes ahead. Elizabeth works directly with members of Congress, congressional staff, and regulatory agencies on initiatives that affect our provider agencies’ ability to continue delivering high quality care to vulnerable individuals.

Elizabeth came to JFNA with nearly two decades of experience in health policy and advocacy. Previously, she worked for the American Psychological Association on a broad array of issues, including health care reform and Mental Health Parity, and as a legislative analyst with the Massachusetts Legislature.

Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors and co-chairs the Policy Committee for the Mental Health Liaison Group, a coalition of more than 60 national organizations representing consumers, parents and family members, advocates, providers, and mental health experts dedicated to building better lives for people with mental illness. Within her community, Elizabeth also serves on the Board of Directors for a local aging-in-place non-profit.

Elizabeth holds degrees from Brown University, New York University School of Law and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

William C. Daroff

As the Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Washington Office of The Jewish Federations of North America, William Daroff is the chief lobbyist and principal spokesperson on public policy and international affairs for the 147 Jewish Federations and more than 300 independent communities represented by JFNA, Daroff ensures that the voice of Jewish Federations is a prominent force in the Nation's Capital. Named by newspaper as being among the fifty most influential Jews in America, Daroff guides the Jewish community’s advocacy efforts on the Federation movement’s key domestic policy issues, principally on health and human services, such as Medicare and Medicaid, long-term care, and policies affecting older Americans, including Holocaust Survivors, as well as homeland security programs and strengthening the capacity of charities to care for those in need. In addition to his focus on domestic policy, Daroff is a key player in foreign policy circles – advising policymakers and elected officials on Jewish communal concerns, namely those related to the US- relationship, the Middle East conflict, and efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. He is also a leader in the worldwide fight to combat the assault on Israel’s legitimacy, creating and overseeing the Federation movement’s Israel Action Network, and serving on both the steering committee of the Prime Minister of Israel’s global task force and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization’s working group. Daroff is also a social networking pioneer and evangelist. In April 2016, the JTA news service named him the most influential person on “Jewish ” (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed in the second slot). Follow him at www.Twitter.com/Daroff. Daroff received his Bachelor’s Degree (summa cum laude) in Political Science & History, Master’s Degree in Political Science, and Juris Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in his hometown of , OH. He lives in suburban Washington, DC, with his wife, Heidi Krizer Daroff, and their two children. The couple met in Krakow, , while studying at Jagiellonian University, from which they both received certificates in the history of Eastern European Jewry and the Holocaust.

Amy Gotwals

Amy E. Gotwals joined n4a in September 2005 and currently serves as Chief, Public Policy and External Affairs, a position created in 2014. Amy previously served as Director, Public Policy and Legislative Affairs.

In her role, Amy leads n4a’s public policy, advocacy, communications, external relations and membership relations activities. Representing local aging agencies, Amy serves as the lead in outreach to Congress and the Administration to ensure that needed resources and support services are available to older Americans and their caregivers.

Amy has 22 years of public policy, lobbying and grassroots organizing experience. She has represented diverse groups including the Older Women’s League, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers and the National Network for Youth.

Amy has a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College and earned a Master of Legislative Affairs from the George Washington University

Rebecca Kaplan

Rebecca Kaplan covers the House of Representatives as a producer for CBS News, a job that has kept her especially busy the past six months covering the transition of power and the increasingly contentious battle between the Democratic-controlled House and the Trump administration. Kaplan began her career as a print reporter covering the White House for National Journal before moving to television in 2011 as a campaign embed, where she covered the presidential bids of Rick Perry and Rick Santorum and then the vice presidential bid of then-Congressman Paul Ryan. She grew up in Bethesda, MD, attended the University of Pennsylvania, and currently lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Adam.

Stephan Kline

Stephan Kline is The Jewish Federations of North America’s Associate Vice President for Public Policy. Previously he was JFNA’s Senior Director of Government Affairs where he worked to provide service to Jewish Federations and expand their capacity to access health and human services funding and as Legislative Director, supervising the Federations’ advocacy related to health and long-term care, not-for-profit tax, housing, budget and appropriations, and family issues. Stephan received the Association of Jewish Community Government Affairs Directors Distinguished Service Award and authored a publication, “The Continuum of Care in the 21st Century -- Helping Federations Meet the Needs of our Jewish Elderly.”

Prior to joining the Jewish Federations in 1999, Stephan was the Legislative Counsel at the Alliance for Justice and Director of the Alliance’s Judicial Selection Project, where he worked on protecting the rights of not-for-profit organizations and on judicial independence issues. Stephan has also worked for the Federal Election Commission as an enforcement attorney, lobbied for the American Civil Liberties Union on health care reform and reproductive rights, and was a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. Stephan is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and has a J.D. magna cum laude and L.L.M. in Law and Government from American University.

Representative Jamie Raskin

Congressman Jamie Raskin represents Maryland's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Montgomery, Carroll, and Frederick Counties. He was sworn into his second term at the start of the 116th Congress on January 3, 2019.

A member of the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee, Raskin is also a newly appointed member of the powerful House Committee on Rules; vice chair of both the House Administration Committee and the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution; and chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Subcommittee on Expedited Procedures, which is working to fast-track key pieces of legislation. As the Democratic Caucus leadership representative for the 116th Congress, Raskin represents junior members of the Caucus (those who have served five or fewer terms) at the leadership table. He was also appointed to serve as a senior whip for the 116th Congress.

Before entering Congress, Raskin was a three-term state senator in Maryland, where he also served as the Senate majority whip. He earned a reputation in Annapolis for building coalitions and delivered a series of landmark legislative accomplishments, including marriage equality, abolition of the death penalty, Maryland’s farm-to-schools program, and restoration of voting rights to former prisoners. For more than 25 years, he was a professor of constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law and authored dozens of law review articles and several books, including best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People and the highly acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About America's Students, which has sold more than 50,000 copies.

Raskin graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review.