OHA Bios

Dave Baden

Dave Baden, formerly Oregon Health Authority's chief financial officer (CFO), came to OHA from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he most was deputy CFO. His accomplishments at OHA include managing OHA’s procurement process for Coordinated Care Organizations, as well as multiple critical roles during the pandemic. He was one of the statewide incident commanders in response to COVID-19, procuring and distributing personal protective equipment to health care systems in Oregon amidst a nationwide shortage.

Kristine Kautz

Kristine Kautz, Oregon Health Authority's deputy director, has been employed by the state of Oregon for 33 years. Previously Kris served as the Department of Revenue deputy director for almost six years and before that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) deputy director for five-and-half years. She also has been deputy director for administration at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, assistant director for human resources at the Department of Corrections, senior budget analyst at DAS, and the Workers' Compensation Management-Labor Advisory Committee administrator at the Department of Consumer and Business Services. From March 2008 to February 2011 she served on the Oregon Employees Federal Credit Union Board of Directors. Kris also served from 2012 to 2014 on the board of directors of The Luke Center, which provides leadership development programs to the public sector. Kris is a graduate of the University of Portland with a bachelor's degree in business administration

Ebony Clarke

Ebony Clarke, Oregon Health Authority’s behavioral health director, brings more than 25 years of experience as an administrator, manager and clinician. In both the public sector and non-profit behavioral health arena, Ebony has influenced policy, centering the "work" with an equity and consumer lens.

Prior to this role she served in multiple leadership roles during her 12 years at Multnomah County, most recently as Health Department Director overseeing public health, behavioral health, corrections health, and the federally qualified health centers. Before that, Ebony served as the county’s Behavioral Health Director. Before joining the county, Ebony worked as a Service Director of Child and Family Services at Lifeworks NW. In that role, she oversaw child and family outpatient mental health, prevention, and culturally specific adult mental health and addiction services.

Under her forward-looking leadership, Ebony led the Multnomah County Health Department during the pandemic, with a staff of 1,900 and a budget of over $400 million. The county was a regional leader in the COVID-19 response, standing up vaccination clinics for low-income and underserved communities. She was instrumental in establishing the Behavioral Health Resource Center, which serves more than 1,000 people a week in downtown Portland.

Ebony’s mission is to build and sustain a behavioral health continuum of care that is consumer-focused, equity-focused, and effective in meeting the unique and complex needs of every person in Oregon to promote healing and well-being for individuals, families, and communities.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Ebony holds a Master of Social Work from Portland State University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon.

Leann Johnson

Leann Johnson, M.S., is the director of the Equity and Inclusion Division. She joined the Oregon Health Authority in 2010 as an executive manager for the Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights unit. Leann has more than 20 years of leadership experience developing equity, diversity and intercultural programs in the public and non-profit sectors. Past employers include Clark College, the City of Vancouver and the YWCA of Clark County. She also has served as a consultant to multiple agencies and organizations including the Vancouver Police Department, Portland General Electric, Bonneville Power Administration, Hewlett-Packard and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Leann is a qualified administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory and the Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory. She holds a master's degree in industrial/organizational psychology with program focus in multicultural organizational development and indigenous psychology. Leann also has a bachelor's degree in communications management from the University of Portland.

Ali Hassoun

Since 2018, Ali Hassoun has led the Public Employees’ Benefit Board (PEBB) and Oregon Educators Benefit Board (OEBB) programs as the Director. In that role, he’s been a catalyst in bringing Oregon’s health transformation strategies to PEBB and OEBB members by offering better coordinated care and containing health care cost growth to the more than 300,000 people they serve. Ali also brings many years of experience in state government finance, health care, and employee benefits, including working as the deputy director and director of operations for both PEBB and OEBB. Ali was part of the core team that initially stood up OEBB and the Oregon Health Insurance Exchange.

Before coming to OHA, Ali worked for nine years in the state budget office at the Department of Administrative Services (DAS). More recently, Ali has been a crucial leader in the implementation of Senate Bill 1067 (2017), the Oregon Legislative bill that merged the administration of the two boards. He established the SB 1067 work group that brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to formulate innovative approaches to improving the quality of health care, more efficiently delivering care, and reducing unnecessary costs.

Dana Hittle

Dana Hittle is the Medicaid Director for the State of Oregon at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) where she oversees the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), a program that provides health care coverage to more than 1.4 million Oregonians. Under her leadership, Oregon became the first state in the nation to provide continuous coverage for kids from birth to age six and to win approval for health-related social needs through a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver, which will include medically necessary short-term housing benefits, nutrition assistance and support to help people manage the impact of climate change.

Dana has more than 23 years of experience with Medicaid at OHA and the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). Throughout her career, she has worked with teams across OHA, ODHS, and with Federal partners to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Oregon’s Medicaid program and its ability to deliver services to the state’s most vulnerable populations, including children and youth in foster care, and people who are aged, experiencing disabilities, and who need behavioral health services.

Cara Biddlecom

Cara Biddlecom is the Interim Public Health Director at the Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division. In her role, Cara provides strategic leadership for the Public Health Division’s 929 FTE, over 115 programs and a biennial budget of $1.4B. In this capacity, Cara provides leadership for the Public Health Division’s enterprise-wide initiatives, which includes work with all 33 local public health authorities; Oregon’s federally-recognized Tribes, community-based organizations and public health system partners toward the elimination of health inequities. Prior to serving as the Interim Public Health Director, Cara served as the Public Health Division Deputy Director since 2016, where she focused on implementation of public health policy and strategic initiatives, including modernization of Oregon’s governmental public health system, Oregon’s State Health Assessment and State Health Improvement Plan, and development of state agency partnerships to address social and structural determinants of health and equity. Cara’s prior work experience at the Public Health Division also includes work in health promotion and chronic disease prevention and Oregon’s health system transformation effort.

Prior to joining the Public Health Division in 2008, Cara worked in public health at the national and at the National Association of County and City Health Officials in HIV/STI prevention and adolescent health. Cara also led health programming at Our Place, DC, a community-based organization serving individuals affected by the carceral system. Cara’s prior work experience also includes harm reduction, HIV and Hepatitis C prevention. Cara holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 20 years of experience in public health.

Dolores "Dolly" Matteucci

Dolly Matteucci is superintendent of Oregon State Hospital. She previously served for eight years as executive director at Napa State Hospital in California, responsible for the development, direction and management of the hospital. Dolly began her career at Napa State as a clinical dietician, and also served as administrative resident, assistant hospital administrator, and hospital administrator. As OSH superintendent she supervises two campuses, one in Salem and one in Junction City, serving more than 1,400 people per year and employing more than 2,000 staff. Hospital-level care provided by OSH includes 24-hour, on-site nursing, psychiatric and other credentialed professional staff, treatment planning, pharmacy, laboratory, food and nutritional services, and vocational and educational services.