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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:November 12, 2026 The Alliance for Health Policy Remembers Founder Sen. Jay Rockefeller – Sen. Rockefeller co-founded the Alliance in 1991 with Sen. Jack Danforth as a nonpartisan forum for health policy education—a mission that continues 35 years later Washington, D.C. — The Alliance for Health Policy today remembers former Sen. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV (D-WV), a five-term senator who co-founded the organization in 1991 as the Alliance for Health Reform. Rockefeller died Friday in Washington, D.C., at age 89. Rockefeller’s was a life of service and included time with the Peace Corps in the Philippines and the VISTA program in Emmons, West Virginia. He went on to serve in state government, including two terms as the governor of West Virginia. In the Senate, he served on the Finance Committee. But for many members of Washington, D.C.’s health policy community, a lesser-known achievement is the most personal one. “Every week, I hear from a policy professional about how the programming Senator Rockefeller envisioned, championed, and made possible through the Alliance was instrumental in their career,” said Claire Sheahan, M.Sc., President and CEO of the Alliance for Health Policy. “Thirty-five years after Senator Rockefeller co-founded the organization with…

The Odyssey. The Wizard of Oz. Into the Woods. Life is a Highway. Thunder Road.  From ancient times to the present, from the sublime to the everyday, our culture is replete with stories about the journeys we take in life. When we travel through memory, we “revisit” the past. When we face a tough decision, we’re at a “crossroads”. And when we are called to new adventures, we venture into “uncharted territory.” As people, we are meant to explore – whether physically traveling from place to place, or inwardly, on the metaphorical hero’s journey (or both). Along the way, important life lessons are learned. New alliances are formed. Difficult choices are made. And sometimes, our heroes confront their darkest fears and emerge with deeper clarity and wisdom about their next steps. What does all this mean for those of us who have dedicated our careers to health policy? Let us consider what typically draws our heroes out of their comfort zones: an unexpected visitor, a cataclysmic event, or a growing, unsettling recognition that the status quo, as comfortable as it might seem, is simply too painful to sustain. I believe we are now at that point in our health policy…