Mark Gibson is currently a program officer for the Milbank Memorial Fund and Director of the Center for Evidence-based Policy at the Oregon Health and Science University. In these roles he works extensively with state policy makers to identify and obtain the research evidence they need to inform their policy deliberations.
Mr. Gibson became directly involved in state health policy deliberations when he served as Chief of Staff to Oregon Senate President John Kitzhaber M.D from 1985-1993. In this role Gibson supervised the staff of the Senate, and advised the President on the full range of issues considered by the Senate. During this time, Gibson participated directly in the drafting and passage of the groundbreaking Oregon Health Plan.
From 1995 through January of 2003, he served as Policy Advisor for Health, Human Services, and Labor to Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon. In this role he led Oregon’s numerous health initiatives from Workers’ Compensation Reform, to creation of the Oregon Children’s Health Insurance Program and to a reorganization and expansion of the Oregon Health Plan. Most recently, Gibson led the effort to enact the Practitioner Managed Prescription Drug Plan, Oregon’s answer to runaway drug costs in its Medicaid program. This approach uses systematic reviews of global drug effectiveness research to guide the creation of a preferred drug list that is both clinically sound and economical.
From 2000 – 2002 Gibson served as Co-chair of the Reforming States Group, a voluntary nonpartisan collaboration of senior health policy officials from both the legislative and executive branches of state government.