Mei Wa Kwong, JD has over two decades of experience in state and federal policy work.  She is the Executive Director for the Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), the federally designated National Telehealth Policy Resource Center.  She has written numerous policy briefs, crafted state legislation and led several coalition efforts on a variety of issues and assisted states in their telehealth efforts, particularly in Medicaid and public health.   

Ms. Kwong is recognized as a national expert on telehealth policy.  She helped create the model statute language that became the basis of the 2011 California state legislation that updated California telehealth law, published several articles on telehealth and telehealth policy in various peer reviewed journals and is the co-author of CCHP’s 50 State Medicaid Telehealth Reimbursement Survey.  She has been consulted by state and federal lawmakers on telehealth legislation and policy and is sought out by the media to provide insight on telehealth issues.  Ms. Kwong is a sought-after speaker who has spoken to a variety of audiences including health industry executives, physicians, journalists, attorneys and various national organizations.   

Prior to joining CCHP, Ms. Kwong was the Policy Analyst for Children’s Home Society of California where she worked on education and early childhood issues.  She was recognized for her work by the Child Development Policy Institute. 

Ms. Kwong is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School and has a BA in International Affairs.   

Suzinne Pak-Gorstein, MD, MPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her career has been fueled by a commitment to support health equity through the clinical care of vulnerable children as well as by working on public health efforts to empower marginalized communities locally and internationally.   

In terms of telehealth equity work, Dr. Pak-Gorstein is involved with efforts to ensure equity in utilization of telehealth for patient care in the UWMC system, and co-chairs the American Academy of Pediatric's (AAP) Telehealth Equity workgroup to develop evidence-base for equity in Telehealth dashboards, metrics, and interventions. 

Clinically, Dr. Pak-Gorstein provides care for refugee children and other immigrant families at the UW Harborview Pediatric Clinic. She also attends on the pediatric trauma service at Harborview Medical Center. She serves as the pediatric advisor for the WA State Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance's Refugee Health Promotions project, partnering with refugee resettlement agencies to support refugee and asylee's seeking children with complex medical and social complexities. She has developed CDC national nutritional guidelines for refugee children, and developed curricula to train pediatric residents on refugee health care.  

With regards to global and public health efforts, Dr. Pak-Gorstein co-directs the Global Health Residency Education and Advocacy for Child Health (REACH) program, training and mentoring pediatric medical residents carrying out community assessments in Kenya, and she serves as a course instructor and speaker for public and global health courses at the University of Washington. She has worked with governmental programs supporting child nutrition programs while living in Nepal and Indonesia, and supported monitoring and evaluation projects in Laos, Bangladesh, Philippines, and India.