About Us
At the Institute for Health Policy Accountability, our work is designed to provide the public with a clear picture of how health care policy is formed, debated, and implemented. From lawmakers to the public, everyone should know when special interests are manipulating the system to achieve a desired outcome.
To do that, we have four main goals:
advocate for sunlight & transparency
identify what policies are working
expose misguided advocacy
provide support for new solutions
Our mission is simple: ensure the public receives an honest assessment of policy proposals and their potential impacts on patients.
Leadership
Susana Martinez
Susana Martinez served as Governor of New Mexico from 2011 – 2018. She was New Mexico’s first female governor and the first Hispanic female governor in the history of the United States. Prior to being elected governor, Martinez was a prosecutor for 25 years along the nation’s southern border. As governor, she prioritized keeping New Mexico’s communities safe, ensuring all students receive a high-quality education, and diversifying and growing the state’s economy.
Governor Martinez’s two terms were marked by many successes including eliminating a $450 million inherited budget deficit and leaving the state with a $2 billion surplus; job growth at a 12-year high; improving the state’s high school graduation rate by 11 percentage points – to an all-time high of 74 percent; and implementing a number of public safety initiatives.
Blake Harris
Blake Harris served as Chief of Staff to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee from 2018 – 2021. Prior to joining the Lee administration, Harris served as Executive Director of the Bill Lee Transition Team and as the political strategist for the successful gubernatorial campaign. Harris previously founded a leading public affairs company in Alabama that represented top clients across the Southeast. He is a graduate of Harding University and the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. He is an Alabama native and currently resides in Brentwood, TN with his wife and three children.
Chris Walker
Chris Walker has years of experience working with clients and campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels, and has led multiple high-profile and high-stakes communications and public policy efforts. Walker previously served as Senior Advisor and Director of Communications for former Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. He also served as a Senior Communications Advisor on Governor Lee’s gubernatorial campaign. Walker is a veteran of four presidential campaigns and was Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), and served in the George W. Bush administration as a Public Affairs officer at the Department of the Treasury and as a Defense Fellow at the Department of Defense. He is also involved with Tennessee SCORE, a non-partisan K-12 and higher education advocacy organization. Walker is a graduate of The University of Tennessee and he currently lives in Nashville with his wife and two children.