FIU health care experts


Florida International University has several experts available to discuss the Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care law.

For questions or assistance in contacting any of the following experts, please call the Office of Media Relations:

Maydel Santana-Bravo: 305-348-1555, santanam@fiu.edu
Dianne Fernandez: 305-608-4870, dfernand37@fiu.edu
Madeline Baro: 305-348-2234, mbaro@fiu.edu
Jean-Paul Renaud: 305-348-2716, jprenaud@fiu.edu
JoAnn Adkins, 305-348-0398, jadkins@fiu.edu


Fernando J. Valverde

Fernando J. Valverde, M.D. is Chief Executive Officer of the Florida International University HealthCare Network. Valverde also holds the positions of assistant professor of medicine and associate dean for Community and Clinical Affairs at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.  He is considered a pioneer in the field of physician practice management and managed health care.  In the 1990’s, he was responsible for founding, managing and expanding the largest Internal Medicine physician group with more than 100 full time internists practicing across Florida. This state-wide network of physicians and practices provided more than 500,000 patient visits each year in more than 70 locations.
Office: 305-348-0611
Email: valverde@fiu.edu

Pedro José “Joe” Greer, Jr., M.D.
For more than two decades Dr. Greer, assistant dean of academic affairs at FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, has brought health care to the poor and the disadvantaged. His autobiography, “Waking Up in America: How One Doctor Brings Hope to Those Who Need It Most”, details his early years as a physician delivering care to patients living under highway overpasses in Miami. Recognized by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Sr., and Carter for his work with Miami’s poor, Dr. Greer, a native Miamian, is the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to the city’s homeless, and the St. John Bosco Clinic, which assists undocumented immigrants. He is also the recipient of three Papal Medals as well as the prestigious MacArthur “genius grant.” In 2009, Dr. Greer accepted the nation’s highest civilian honor – the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dr. Greer is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-0570
Email: Pedro.Greer@fiu.edu

Elizabeth Price Foley
Foley, a professor of law, sat through the oral arguments as Supreme Court Justices heard the case. An expert on healthcare law, she has previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and spent several years on Capitol Hill as a health policy advisor, serving as senior legislative aide to U.S. Congressman (now U.S. Senator) Ron Wyden (D-OR), legislative aide for the D.C. office of the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, and a legislative aide for U.S. Congressman Michael Andrews, a Democrat from Texas. Foley’s most recent book is on the Tea Party, and can speak to how Florida will be affected by the movement.
Office: 305-348-8344
Cell:  305-360-6813
Home:  734-562-2279
Email: foleye@fiu.edu

Howard M. Wasserman
Howard M. Wasserman joined the College of Law faculty in 2003. He graduated magna cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he was an associate articles editor of the Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, he clerked for Chief Judge James T. Giles of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Judge Jane R. Roth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also has been a visiting professor at Saint Louis University School of Law and Florida State University College of Law.  Wasserman teaches civil procedure, evidence, federal courts, civil rights, and First Amendment; his scholarship focuses on the freedom of speech and on the role of procedure and jurisdiction in public-law and civil-rights litigation. He blogs at PrawfsBlawg and atSports-Law Blog and is the Section Editor for the Courts Law Section of JOTWELL.
Office: 305-348-7482
Cell: 786-417-2433
Email: howard.wasserman@fiu.edu

José M. Gabilondo
Gabilondo, associate professor of law at FIU’s College of Law, has served in government finance and academic positions, both domestically and abroad. His government service includes attorney-advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he advised on federal finance and the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets; attorney-advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he conducted market structure and risk management inspections of securities markets; capital markets analyst in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, where he advised on capital markets, liquidity risk, and bank funding; and attorney in the World Bank’s Legal Department, where he advised the bank on domestic and foreign suits involving treaty-based immunities. Gabilondo teaches federal income tax, corporate and partnership tax, corporate finance, international finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Gabilondo is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Office: 305-348-5943
Email: jose.gabilondo@fiu.edu

Nicol C. Rae
Political science Professor Nicol C. Rae’s can discuss the political fallout of the Supreme Court decision. His research has focused primarily on the contemporary Congress and the impact of American political parties on national institutions.  Rae is also the author of several books such as “The Decline & Fall of the Liberal Republicans: From 1952 to the Present”, “Southern Democrats”, and “Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the 104th Congress”. Rae was awarded a Congressional Fellowship by the American Political Science Association in 1995-1996, and served as a Capitol Hill aide to Congressman George P. Radanovich of California, and Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
Office: 305-348-2270
Email: nicol.rae@fiu.edu