Dr. Maria E. Minon, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina currently serves as Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), a position she has held since 1998. In this capacity, Dr. Minon works to facilitate and oversee the activities of the medical staff, medical quality and patient safety, Psychology Training Program, Graduate and Continuing Medical Education, CHOC's Heart, Neuroscience, Orthopaedic and Cancer Institutes and Clinical and Basic Science Research departments. Dr. Minon also served on the CHOC Board of Directors for three years. 

Dr. Minon has made a strong commitment to helping the community. Dr. Minon is the current Chair of the Orange County Children and Families Commission. She served the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA) as President for the 2000-2001 term. She has also served as OCMA's Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Minon is a Vice Chair for the Orange County Ronald McDonald House Board of Trustees as well as serving as Director for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern California Charities Board of Directors. She participates on the Latino Health Access Board of Directors. Dr. Minon is a diligent advocate for Health Care in Orange County as evidenced by her service on the California Medical Association Board of Trustees, Finance Committee, Nominating Committee and House of Delegates. She has served as President of the California Chapter IV of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and participated for six years on the AAP's Committee on Child Health Finances. 

Honors awarded to Dr. Minon include the 2007 OCMA Physician of the Year, the Charlie Hester Philanthropy Award, Outstanding Pediatric Student by the Orange Pediatric Society and Cum laude Honors from the UCI School of Humanities.

Dr. Minon earned her Medical Degree at University of California, Irvine . She conducted her post-graduate training at UCI Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Orange County, where she was appointed Chief Resident. UCI College of Medicine appointed Dr. Minon a faculty position as Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Minon worked in private practice for general pediatrics and adolescent medicine from 1979 to 1998.

Conway Collis is Senior Counselor and Chief Government Affairs Officer for Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS). DCHS is a California health care system of hospitals and medical centers committed to serving and advocating for low-income Californians and providing compassionate, holistic care to all. DCHS furthers the mission of its sponsors, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who have provided health care to Californians since establishing the state’s first hospital in 1856. Collis previously served as an elected Member and Chairman of the California State Board of Equalization, a domestic policy advisor to U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, and a Committee Counsel for the U.S. Senate.

As a Counsel for the U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and domestic policy advisor to U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, Collis was responsible for advising on federal domestic public policy issues including poverty, health and social and legal services.

Collis was elected to the California State Board of Equalization, California’s umbrella tax and revenue agency, in 1982. Re-elected in 1986, he served as Chairman of the Equalization Board, overseeing an agency with over 1500 employees in 57 offices. He wrote and sponsored a number of new laws and regulations, including the State Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, tax credits for employer-sponsored childcare and the elimination of tax benefits for discriminatory private clubs. He also implemented a broad modernization and reform of the state tax bureaucracy. While on the Board, Collis chaired a major 1986 statewide voter registration drive, registering nearly 300,000 voters, and was the proponent of a 1988 statewide initiative to address housing and homelessness through a coordinated, cost-effective program. In 2001, he served as Chairman of the California State Senate Bipartisan Task Force on Homelessness.

Most recently, Collis initiated the Medi-Cal provider fee (AB 1383 by Dave Jones, D-Sac) on behalf of DCHS, which is projected to generate $3.5 billion to provide health care to low- income Californians and over $300 million for children’s health care.

Collis currently serves on the boards of Kids In Sports, Alliance of Catholic Health Care and Private Essential Access Community Hospitals.

Collis graduated with honors from Occidental College in 1970 and Stanford Law School in 1974. He is married to Margaret S. Henry, Supervising Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County Dependency Court. They have two sons, Rocky and Luke.

Patrick Duterte has served as director of the Solano County Department of Health and Social Services since 2001. He previously worked in Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara County Human Services Agency as Director of Employment and Benefit Services, and managed child welfare and employment programs in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. He also has worked as a rehabilitation counselor and counseling supervisor.

In addition to the First 5 California State Commission, Mr. Duterte serves on the boards of United Way of the Bay Area, the National Association of County Human Services Administrators, Partnership Health Plan of California and Workforce Investment.

Following a tour of duty in Vietnam, Mr. Duterte received his bachelor and master degrees from University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State, respectively.

Mr. Duterte and his wife, Diane, have been married for 31 years, and have five children ranging in age from 13 to 29. They currently reside in Fairfield, CA.

Casey McKeever is an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the California Department of Social Services, a position he has held since December 2007. He decides appeals of people who contest state and local agency actions affecting public social services, including Medi-Cal, In-home Supportive Services, food stamps and CalWORKs. Before he became an ALJ, he served for five years as Chief Consultant to the Assembly Committee on Human Services, drafting and analyzing legislation and advising the committee chair on human services issues.

Casey was an anti-poverty lawyer and advocate for over 25 years with Legal Services of Northern California and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, where he was Directing Attorney of the Sacramento office from 1985-2003. He was principally responsible at Western Center for leading state level advocacy efforts on behalf of Californians needing public assistance. In this capacity he drafted, sponsored and supported legislation creating a homeless assistance program for families with children, authorizing hardship supplement payments, reducing duplicative paperwork requirements and promoting education and training for low-income parents. He was a leading voice on behalf of the poor opposing reductions in assistance to families contained in some of the welfare reform proposals debated in the 1980s and 1990s. He was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services Sandra Smoley to the Welfare Reform Steering Committee in 1998 to assist with implementation of California’s CalWORKs program.

Honors Casey has received include a lifetime achievement award from California Food Policy Advocates, an Opening Doors to Justice Award by the Public Interest Clearinghouse, a Legal Services Achievement Award by the Legal Services Section of the State Bar, Public Citizen of the Year by the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the Ida B. Wells Award for Outstanding Contributions Toward Economic Justice for Women by the Women’s Economic Agenda Project. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973 and a J.D from Stanford Law School in 1976.

Joyce Iseri has over three decades of experience in health and human service issues in the public and private sectors. She currently is a consultant for Capitol Academy 120, a program for local elected officials sponsored by the California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus Institute.

From 2002 to 2004, Iseri was chief deputy director of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, a state agency that provides health coverage to uninsured Californians. Prior to that, she was the principal consultant for health and human services for the Assembly Appropriations Committee under Chairs Carole Migden and Darrell Steinberg. Her 14 years of legislative experience also includes serving as consultant with the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and the Assembly Office of Research. In addition, she has held managerial positions in the California Departments of Social Services and Corrections, as well as serving as Executive Director of a foster care provider association for seven years.

Iseri holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin and has done graduate work in economics at the University of Hawaii and UCLA. Her community activities include serving on the board of the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project.

Dr. Kathryn Icenhower is the Executive Director of SHIELDS for Families, a private community-based non-profit organization dedicated to developing, delivering, and evaluating culturally-sensitive comprehensive service models that empower and advocate for high-risk families in South Los Angeles. Dr. Icenhower incorporated SHIELDS in 1991 with Dr. Xylina Bean and Norma Mtume, MA. Since that time the organization has grown to employ 330 staff with a $22 million dollar annual budget to provide comprehensive services to over 5000 families annually through its 34 programs for substance abuse, child welfare, mental health, children and youth, and support services such as food, transportation, housing, and educational and vocational training.

Kathryn received her BSSW from Ohio State University and her MSW and PhD from the University of Southern California. She has worked in the substance abuse and child welfare fields for over thirty years in both clinical and administrative positions and has remained at the forefront of the field as an advocate for comprehensive and collaborative services for high risk communities. Kathryn sits on numerous local, state, and federal coalitions and advisory boards, including the California State Child Welfare Council and the National Center for Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, and was a founding member of the California Perinatal Treatment Network and the National Family Centered Treatment Director's Coalition. Dr. Icenhower also serves as a consultant for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMSHA) and has assisted the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) with policy development for Family Centered Treatment, as well as providing technical assistance on child welfare initiatives nationally through Casey Family Programs. In 2005, Dr. Icenhower was given an "Innovator Award" from CSAT for her work in Family Centered Treatment. In 2009, she received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her piloting efforts in the child welfare and substance abuse fields.

Under Dr. Icenhower's guidance, SHIELDS programs have been nationally recognized and used as models by federal, state and local entities including HUD, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. SHIELDS has been recognized in special reports by the Children's Defense Fund, the Washington Health Foundation, the National Economic Development and Law Center, Little Hoover Commission, and the Rockefeller Foundation for its innovative and effective models of service. In 1995, SHIELDS received the C. Everett Koop Award for the most cost-effective community based program in the nation. In 1997, SHIELDS was presented a special recognition award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and in 1998, SHIELDS received the Inaugural Athena Award for the State of California from the International Athena Foundation in recognition of SHIELDS efforts to empower women in the community. SHIELDS has also been featured in articles in the Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine and in local and national television features, including CNN, "Life Moments", "A Place of our Own", "48 Hours" and Vh1's "Celebrity Rehab" with Dr. Drew.

Diana Dooley, Ex Officio Member
Health & Human Services Agency