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General
Session and Keynote Speakers
SUNDAY, April
11, 2010
3 to 5 pm
Opening General Session & Washington Update
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Paul Begala
Strategist and Commentator |
From the White House’s Situation Room to CNN’s
news program of the same name, Paul Begala’s experience
gives him an unmatched perspective on politics and the media.
As a political strategist or pundit, Begala has been at the center
of every election cycle of the last 25 years.
The CNN political analyst and former top aide to President
Clinton was reportedly the first person to predict the Democratic
takeover of the House in 2006. As senior strategist to the campaign
of Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey, he helped unseat the third-ranking
Republican in the US Senate, allowing the Democrats to take control
of that chamber as well.
Begala served as counselor to President Clinton in the White
House, where he helped define and defend the Administration’s
agenda, from the State of the Union Address to the economic,
domestic and international issues the White House faces each
day. With his partner James Carville he was a senior strategist
for the Clinton-Gore Presidential Campaign in 1992, and he has
helped direct the political strategy of numerous other campaigns
across the country and around the world, including advising politicians
in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
He helped his friend John F. Kennedy, Jr. launch the political
magazine George and wrote the “Capitol Hillbilly” column.
He is the author of several New York Times best-selling
books, including Is Our Children Learning? The Case Against
George W. Bush; Buck Up, Suck Up, and Come Back When You Foul
Up and Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future – the
latter two he co-authored with Carville. Begala’s latest
book, The Third Term: Why George W. Bush (Hearts) John McCain was
released in October 2008.
Begala is a research professor at Georgetown University’s
Public Policy Institute and in 2007 was named the prestigious
Carl Sanders Distinguished Scholar in Political Leadership at
the University of Georgia School of Law.
Begala received his bachelor’s degree in government and
his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where
he was also the student body president.
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Val J. Halamandaris, JD
President, National Association for Home Care & Hospice |
Val J. Halamandaris was named President of the National Association
for Home Care & Hospice on its birthday, March 10, 1982.
For the past 27 years, he has guided the organization to become
one of the most respected in Washington, D.C. Under his direction,
NAHC has helped raise public awareness and the acceptance of
home care and hospice from 10 percent to more than 80 percent.
Halamandaris is a Utah native and worked his way through college
on the staff of Sen. Frank E. Moss, and continued working full
time as he completed his law degree from Catholic University
Law School. He served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Special Committee
on Aging and the U.S. House Select Committee on Aging. In a congressional
career that spanned 20 years, he helped to write major home health,
hospice and aging bills into law.
In addition to being a trade association executive, he is an
attorney, author, publisher, editor, producer of films for television,
a published photographer and a humanitarian.
Since coming to NAHC, Halamandaris has founded The Caring Institute,
The Frederick Douglass Museum, The Foundation for Hospice and
Home Care, The Center for Health Care Law, CARING Magazine
and The World Home Care and Hospice Organization. Most recently,
he helped found the Home Care Technology Association of America,
the Private Duty Homecare Association of America and the Home
Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association.
Halamandaris has won many awards, including the National Ellis
Island Award in 2003, and has been one of the nation’s
most acknowledged experts on the U.S. Congress and in the fields
of health care and aging for more than 40 years.
Washington Update
National Association for Home Care & Hospice policy staff
engaged in negotiations with Congress, federal agencies and other
policymaking bodies will provide inside information on issues
of vital interest to home care and hospice providers. Your representatives
on the front lines will present the latest on legislative, regulatory,
legal and research developments relative to the prospective payment
system, conditions of participation, quality monitoring and other
vital issues.
Objectives:
- Identify pending regulatory issues and analyze their impact
on home care and hospice agencies.
- Analyze pending legislative proposals for impact on home
care and hospice operations.
- Outline industry advocacy efforts and response to pending
legislative and regulatory proposals.
Faculty: Legal, Legislative, and
Regulatory Staff, National Association for Home Care & Hospice,
Washington, D.C.
Course Level: Update; 2.0 Nursing CEs; 2.0 Accounting CPEs
(NASBA/RE).
MONDAY,
April 12, 2010
9 to 10 am
General Session with Keynote Speaker
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David Plouffe
Campaign and Grassroots Strategist |
Unquestionably one of the men most responsible for now-President
Barack Obama’s 2008 election victory next to the candidate
himself, David Plouffe was the campaign manager for Obama’s
successful presidential campaign. After winning the election,
President-elect Obama credited Plouffe in his acceptance speech,
calling him “the unsung hero of this campaign, who built
the . . . best political campaign, I think, in the history of
the United States of America.”
Plouffe is credited with the campaign’s overall strategy
in the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
He was credited by The New Republic for Obama’s
success in the Iowa caucus and for crafting an overall strategy
to prolong the primary past “Super Tuesday.” The
Chicago Tribune wrote that Plouffe “was the mastermind
behind a winning strategy that looked well past Super Tuesday’s
contests on Feb. 5 [2008] and placed value on large and small
states.” Plouffe also maintained discipline over communications
in the campaign, including controlling leaks and releasing information
about the campaign on its terms.
Averse to publicity himself, Plouffe’s control over the
internal workings of the Obama campaign successfully avoided
the publicly aired squabbles that frequently trouble other campaigns.
Speaking to staff after the Inauguration, President Obama said
that it was in this sense that Plouffe “embodied the entire
spirit of the campaign — that culture that he set at the
top ended up permeating everybody.”
The campaign won for the effort’s digital savvy, its
success in community-building, and its willingness to allow the
Obama brand to be created by consumers rather than top-down communications
mandates. David Axelrod, now senior advisor to President Obama
and chief strategist for his campaign, praised Plouffe, stating
that he had “done the most magnificent job of managing
a campaign that I’ve seen in my life of watching presidential
politics. To start something like this from scratch and build
what we have built was a truly remarkable thing.”
WEDNESDAY,
April 14, 2010
Noon to 1:15 pm
Luncheon & Keynote Address
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Norah O’Donnell
Television Correspondent
(Invited) |
Norah O’Donnell was named Chief Washington correspondent
for NBC News’ 24-hour cable channel MSNBC in May 2005.
In addition, O’Donnell serves as a contributing correspondent
for NBC’s top-rated Today.
O’Donnell served as White House correspondent for NBC
News from September 2003 to May 2005, reporting for NBC News
broadcasts, including the top-rated Nightly News, Today and
MSNBC. Prior to being named White House correspondent, O’Donnell
had been NBC News’ congressional correspondent.
O’Donnell has covered a number of major breaking news
stories for both NBC and MSNBC, including the September 11 terrorist
attacks. She received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for
Breaking News Coverage for a Dateline NBC story titled, “DC
in Crisis,” on the night of September 11, 2001. O’Donnell
then covered the Pentagon following the terrorist attacks. She
traveled extensively with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
and reported on the war in Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.
O’Donnell has been a correspondent with NBC News since
1999, reporting for all the news division’s broadcasts.
For Decision 2000 political coverage, she reported on the Republican
primaries, the Republican and Democratic conventions, and the
Florida recount battle. O’Donnell was also one of the anchors
on MSNBC for election night, reporting on the congressional contests.
Prior to joining NBC News, O’Donnell was a staff writer
for Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, where she
covered Congress. She also traveled across the country to cover
numerous House and Senate contests. From 1997-99, O’Donnell
was also a contributor and news analyst for MSNBC.
Washingtonian Magazine has named O’Donnell as
one of Washington’s 100 most powerful women. O’Donnell
has also been named to Irish American Magazine’s 2000 “Top
100 Irish Americans” list.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, O’Donnell is a graduate
of Georgetown University and received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy.
She also holds a master’s degree in international affairs
from Georgetown. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband,
a restaurateur.
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