Richard Scheffler has been the Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center since its inception in 1999. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds the Chair in Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare endowed by the State of California Office of the Attorney General. His research is on health care markets, health insurance, the health workforce, mental health economics, social capital and health, pharmacoeconomics, and international health systems. Professor Scheffler is a recipient of the American Public Health Association's Carl Taube Award, which honors distinguished contributions to the field of mental health services research. He was a Rockefeller and a Fulbright Scholar, and served as President of the International Health Economists Association 4th Congress. He has been a Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine and the World Bank. He also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization in the area of human resources. He has published more than 150 papers and edited and written six books. His newest book will be published by Stanford University Press in September 2008-Is There a Doctor in the House: Market Signals and Tomorrow's Supply of Doctors.

Harold Luft, PhD, is the Caldwell B. Esselstyn Professor of Health Policy and Health Economics and Director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. His research and teaching interests include health maintenance organizations, hospital market competition, quality and outcomes of hospital care, risk assessment, and risk adjustment. Professor Luft chaired the National Advisory Council of what is now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, serves as a member of the Institute of Medicine, and currently sits on the board of the Academy. He also serves on several editorial boards, has been a senior editor of Health Services Research, and will soon be a co-editor of HSR. Professor Luft received his AB, MA, and PhD in economics, specializing in health sector economics and public finance, from Harvard University.

Jim manages the financial and business operations of the Petris Center, which includes budget administration, fund management, project management, liaison with funding agencies, vendor relations, and general operations. He worked in finance, budgeting, and information systems at UC Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts, and was a consultant in these areas to private secondary education and health care organizations. Jim also brings a private industry perspective to the Petris Center, having led finance and information technology teams in the large corporate environments of Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Leasing, Itel Corporation, American President Lines, and Levi Strauss, and in the small-firm, high-tech world - two software companies and a systems integration firm. He has a BA from Indiana University and an MBA from Saint Mary's College of California.