Ellen Shaffer
Ellen R. Shaffer is Co-Director of the Center for Policy Analysis, which conducts policy research and advocacy on the cutting edge of social justice and public health. The Center’s current projects address reproductive rights, access to health care, and globalization and health. The Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign increases the voice and visibility of the pro-choice majority (to take action, see the Facebook page). The EQUAL Health Network campaigns for Equitable, Quality, Universal, Affordable health reform. EQUAL was instrumental in Organizing the million-person Virtual March on Washington in February, 2010, that turned the tide on passing the Affordable Care Act. The Network’s speakers’ bureau educates communities about health care reform. The Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) explores the effects of international trade agreements on public health, including access to vital human services and medicines, and tobacco control. Dr. Shaffer is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, and an elected member of the Board of the National Women’s Health Network. She recently completed a term as an elected member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, and has been appointed to the National Academy of Social Insurance. Dr. Shaffer served as the senior health policy advisor to U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone from 1992 to 1995, guiding work on national health care reform and managed care patients’ rights. Her proposal for a state-based universal health service, under a grant from the California Health Care Options Project, extends her work with U.S. Representative Barbara Lee on H.R. 3000, the U.S. Universal Health Service Act. Projects have included the politics chapter for Our Bodies Ourselves, and studies on the implications of health care reform proposals for California immigrants and for other low-income workers. She has a Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley, a Ph.D. from the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist.