JAMES R. TALLON, JR President, United Hospital Fund of New York A Legislator's Perspective on the Role of Health Services Research in Shaping Uninsured and Medicaid Policy April 22, 2005 12:00 - 1:30 PM Colonial Penn Center Auditorium   Biosketch: James R. Tallon, Jr., is president of the United Hospital Fund of New York. He is recognized nationally for his leadership in health care policy. He serves as a member of the New York State Board of Regents, the constitutionally established supervisory body of all education and education-related activities in New York. In addition, Mr. Tallon is chair of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and serves on the boards of the Alliance for Health Reform, The Commonwealth Fund, and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession. In 1998-99, Mr. Tallon led the planning process to establish the National Quality Forum. He is a former member of the board of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, has held visiting lecturer appointments at the Columbia University and Harvard University schools of public health. Prior to joining the Fund in 1993, Mr. Tallon represented Binghamton and parts of Broome County in the New York State Assembly for nineteen years, beginning in 1975. He chaired the health committee from 1979 to 1987 and was Majority Leader from 1987 to 1993. In September, 1999, Empire State Reports named him as one of 25 leaders whose work resulted in sweeping improvements in the lives of New Yorkers in the past 25 years. Mr. Tallon received a B.A., cum laude, in political science from Syracuse University and an M.A. in international relations from Boston University. He has done additional graduate work at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. In 1995, he was awarded honorary doctorates of humane letters from the College of Medicine and School of Graduate Studies of the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and from New York Medical College. In March 2000 he was named an honorary fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Mr. Tallon and his wife, Norma, reside in Binghamton and New York City. They have three adult sons.