Richard Scheffler has been the Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center since its inception in 1999. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds the Chair in Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare endowed by the State of California Office of the Attorney General. His research is on health care markets, health insurance, the health workforce, mental health economics, social capital and health, pharmacoeconomics, and international health systems. Professor Scheffler is a recipient of the American Public Health Association's Carl Taube Award, which honors distinguished contributions to the field of mental health services research. He was a Rockefeller and a Fulbright Scholar, and served as President of the International Health Economists Association 4th Congress. He has been a Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine and the World Bank. He also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization in the area of human resources. He has published more than 150 papers and edited and written six books. His newest book will be published by Stanford University Press in September 2008-Is There a Doctor in the House: Market Signals and Tomorrow's Supply of Doctors.

Martin Potucek is the Director of the Institute of Sociological Studies and Head of the Center for Social and Economic Strategies at Charles University. He is a member of several scientific boards and is an active contributor to the editorial boards of numberous scientific journals. He is also President of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISP ACEE) and First Vice-Chairman of the Research and Developement Council of the Government of the Czech Republic. Dr. Potucek has published three monographs, fifty articles in scientific journals, five textbooks, and over ninety research papers and policy projects. His present research interests include the processes of formation of public policy, Czech social policy reform and forward studies of the Czech Republic.

As a senior member of the CiMH staff, Dr. Adams is responsible for a wide range of projects focused on quality improvement andsystems transformation through technical assistance, consultation, training and research. Primary projects include consultation withthe County of Santa Cruz, leadership in several evidence based practice initiatives, as well as the implementation of the Mental Health Services Act. Dr. Adams received his Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his MD from Northwestern University and his MPH from Harvard. He completed his psychiatry residency at Stanford where he also served for two years as a RobertWood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Adams is a Distinguished Fellow of the APA, is board certified in general psychiatry, and holds sub-specialtycertification in addiction psychiatry.

Joan Bloom is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. She received her BS from the University of California, Berkeley and a MA in Sociology and PhD in Sociology of Education from Stanford University. Her research interests include: Assessing the effect of organizational arrangements (structures and process) on the adoption of new services and other organizational innovations and psycho-social interventions to prevent, encourage early diagnosis, and improve the quality of lives of individuals at risk for or with chronic disease (e.g. cancer, diabetes, cardiac disease, and chronic mental illness). Current projects include notification of persons at high risk for prostate and breast cancer; ten year follow-up of young breast cancer survivors, a physical activity intervention to prevent osteoporosis and weight gain in breast cancer survivors, the utilization, cost, and outcomes of capitating mental health services for medicaid recipients.

Dagmar is Sub-Dean and Associate Professor of Demography at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. She teaches courses on Human Ecology and Methods in Geography and Demography. Her research focuses on mortality and public health in Central and Eastern Europe, the effects of regional, social and psychosocial factors on health. In addition, she is founder and leader of the Czech Association of Parent and Friends of Children with Down Syndrome.

Howard Goldman is a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Goldman received joint M.D. - M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in social policy research from the Heller School at Brandeis University in 1978. He is the author or co-author of 275 publications in the professional literature. Dr. Goldman is the editor of Psychiatric Services, a mental health services research and policy journal published monthly by the American Psychiatric Association. He also serves on the editorial boards of several other journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.

Petr heads the Department of Public and Social Policy at Charles University in Prague. He studies health policy processes at the national and international levels, specializing in the economic and ethical aspects of health policy in the context of globalization and commercialism.

Stephen Hinshaw is a professor and the chair of the Psychology Department at UC-Berkeley. His main interests lie in the fields of child clinical psychology and developmental psychopathology. Major themes of his work include the diagnostic validity of childhood disorders, the role of peer relationships in normal and atypical development, the utility of identifying subcategories of aggressive behavior, the early prediction of behavioral and learning problems, the neuropsychology of externalizing behavior in childhood, the contribution of family factors to acting out behavior, and the implementation of combinations of psychosocial and pharmacologic intervention for children with externalizing behavior disorders. Several of these themes combine in Hinshaw's investigations of children with ADHD. Dr. Hinshaw is the authorof The Years of Silence Are Past: My Father's Life With Bipolar Disorder.

Teh-wei Hu is a professor emeritus of health economics in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He is a health economist, econometrician, and research methodologist with a special interest in cost-effectiveness analysis and the use of mental health services by special populations. Dr. Hu is a consultant to the World Health Organization and the World Bank. His research interests include mental health cost effectiveness analysis, economics of tobacco control, health care reform in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and costs and outcomes of mental health capitation experiments. He is he co-author of one of the few existing books that teach cost-effectiveness analysis applied to mental health (Hargreaves, Shumway, Hu, and Cuffel, 1998).

David Mechanic is the René Dubos University Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. His research and writing deal with social aspects of health and health care. Dr. Mechanic is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He has served on numerous panels of The National Academy of Sciences, federal agencies and non-profit organizations. He has written or edited more than 25 books and approximately 400 research articles, chapters and other publications in medical sociology, health policy, health services research, and the social and behavioral sciences.

Juraj is Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica. He teaches courses on health policy and economics and is the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters focusing on health policy and management.

Jiri is the Director of the Psychiatric Department of Charles University in Prague, 1st Medical School. As President of the Czech Psychiatric Association, he is interested in the history, development, and organization of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic.