Staff

Phyllis Coombes
Co-Team Leader

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Plan II, University of Texas at Austin; Master in Political Science, University of Texas at Austin; coursework toward a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Political Science, specializing in comparative government, international relations and research methodology.

Areas of Expertise: Health and human services and fraud issues

Key Projects: Three Texas Performance Reviews and a Health Care Claims Study

Phyllis Coombes has managed numerous major projects for the Comptroller's office. She is an expert in health care purchasing (which accounts for about one-third of the state budget), human services, fraud and state fees. She has academic training and experience in research methods of all kinds, including survey design and statistical analysis. Coombes was supervisor of Policy Research for the Comptroller's Office for nearly a decade and a senior research analyst since 1985. She was team leader for the health and human services sections of three Texas Performance Review (TPR) reports and was financial analyst for health and human services issues for the preceding two. Coombes also led the design effort for the Comptroller's Health Care Claims Study, which measured potential overpayments and estimated possible savings in the state's Medicaid and other programs, and led the 1995 "Partnership for Independence" project that became H.B. 1863, Texas' Welfare Reform Act.

Before joining the Comptroller's Office, she worked at the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, the Texas Department of Highways (later the Department of Transportation) and the Department of Human Services in positions related to systems analysis, operations research, planning and program evaluation.

Linda Gibson

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Government, University of Virginia; Masters in Public Affairs, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of Expertise: health and human services, health care financing, interagency issues, federal funds

Key Projects: First Texas Performance Review; five-part Comptroller's financial report, Dollars We Deserve, concerning federal funding opportunities for Texas; federal welfare reform

Linda Gibson has been a senior health and human services analyst for the Texas Senate and the Comptroller's office for 13 years, and a budget analyst in the Governor's Office for five years. She has contributed to a wide range of health care financing projects and research involving Medicaid, welfare reform, nursing home quality issues, and health care fraud.

She recently returned to the Comptroller's office after nine years as a policy specialist in health and human services at the Senate Research Center. There, she worked with legislative and committee staff members and agency officials to track and develop legislation and monitor policy initiatives. At the request of the lieutenant governor, she represented the Senate Research Center and the lieutenant governor's staff in the planning and implementation of Texas' response to federal welfare reform changes, and monitored the state's nursing home reforms.

Ruth V. Ford
Co-Team Leader

Academic Background: Bachelor of Science in Education, University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of Expertise: Health and human services, welfare reform, strategic planning/performance based budgeting and systems re-engineering

Key Projects: State's strategic planning and budgeting system; Task Force on Adult Education Accountability; and the Texas Integrated Enrollment Redesigned System

Ruth Ford has extensive experience in Texas state policy development, both in the legislative and executive branches. Her career has focused on developing rational, effective policies that foster healthy children and self-sufficient families. As a budget and policy analyst in the Governor's Budget and Planning Office during three different administrations, Ford developed expertise in the areas of health care, Medicaid and services to families and children at risk of government dependency. She chaired a 10-state strategic policy initiative sponsored by the National Governor's Association to develop comprehensive, performance-based services for at-risk children and families. She has participated on numerous advisory committees including the Texas Hospital Payment Advisory Committee, the Community Collaboration Advisory Committee, the Texas Mobilization Committee to Strengthen Family Ties, the Texas Comprehensive School Health Initiative and the Texas Interagency Task Force for Welfare Reform. In addition to her work in health and human services, Ford served on the steering committee that developed the state's strategic planning and budgeting system and, more recently, was a member of the Education Commissioner's Task Force on Adult Education Accountability.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Ford represented the Texas Workforce Commission and Health and Human Service Commission on the Texas Integrated Enrollment Redesigned System project, an interagency initiative to re-engineer the state's health and human service eligibility and enrollment systems. She also served as special assistant to the chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, assisting in developing policies to return control of employment and training programs to local communities.

Mary Louise (Mary Lou) Gibson

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Areas of Expertise: Health and human services and juvenile justice

Key Projects: Health Care Atlas of Texas, several Texas Performance Reviews and Health Care Finance Data Project

Mary Lou Gibson has more than 25 years of experience in government. Among her other accomplishments, Gibson coordinated the production of the Comptroller's Health Care Atlas of Texas and served as a policy analyst for TPR studies involving community-based mental health programs for children, enhanced penalties for gang recruitment and evaluations of state-funded drug prevention programs. She also participated in the Fraud Measurement Study and the Health Care Finance Data Project.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Gibson worked at the University of Texas at Austin and at the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal-Star.

Maria Mendez-Lewis

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature, University of Texas at Austin; Master of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: State tax policy, health services, local government finance and federal funding

Key Projects: Three Texas Performance Reviews and the Special Financial Report, Critical Condition: Soaring Health Care Costs Plague Texas Businesses

Maria Mendez-Lewis has 20 years of experience as a research analyst in the Comptroller's office. Mendez-Lewis has studied a wide variety of fiscal and public policy issues and has extensive experience in the preparation of fiscal note estimates for proposed legislation. She developed health and human services issues for three major TPR reports and authored the chapter on access to health care appearing in the Comptroller's Health Care Atlas of Texas . Mendez-Lewis served as senior analyst on the Comptroller's Special Financial Report, Critical Condition: Soaring Health Care Costs Plague Texas Businesses, as well as the five-part series Dollars We Deserve, concerning federal funding opportunities for Texas, which won the Public Policy Research Award of the Austin Society for Public Administration.

Mendez-Lewis has extensive experience in project management, having led projects that established and analyzed nationwide state tax burdens; reported on the fiscal capacity of county and city governments; compared Texas consumption and business taxes and expenditures to those of other states. She also served as team leader for Texas cities in the Comptroller's Forces of Change report.

Tamara R. Plaut

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Urban Planning, Rutgers University; Master in Regional Economics, University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. in Regional Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

Areas of Expertise: State economy, tax policy and revenue estimation

Key Projects: Biennial Revenue Estimates and economic forecasts

Tamara Plaut has more than 20 years of experience in university and public-sector settings and has served the Comptroller's office both as senior economist and chief revenue estimator. She directed the preparation of the comptroller's Biennial Revenue Estimate in 1989, 1991 and 1993, as well as the development of revenue estimates for major tax bills in 1990 and in 1991. In addition, Plaut has evaluated the fiscal implications of TPR proposals since that project's inception. At present, Plaut's duties include monitoring the national and state economies and producing state short-term and long-term economic forecasts. Plaut also has produced revenue estimates of federal funding for health and human purposes, projected statewide property values and directed or participated in special studies on the outlook for the border region, the Y2K problem and a number of other issues.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Plaut was manager of Economic Forecasting at the University of Texas Bureau of Business Research. During this period, she developed state and regional forecasting models and managed and documented the bureau's short- and long-term Texas economic forecasts. Prior to this role, she was a research assistant at the Regional Science Research Institute in Philadelphia, where she participated in studies of the economics of wastepaper recycling, the urbanization of agricultural land and farmland preservation.

During her professional career, Plaut has produced more than 100 technical and non-technical publications on the Texas economy, the state's economic and demographic outlook, economic forecasting models and other topics.

Mario Salinas

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Med, Austin College, Sherman, Texas; graduate study at the University of Guadalajara Medical School.

Areas of Expertise: Health care, environmental and natural resources issues

Key Projects: Five Texas Performance Reviews

Mario Salinas has 10 years of experience with the Comptroller's office. He participated in five TPR reviews of state government as a member of the Health and Human Services, Elderly and Disabled, and General Government teams; has authored a number of articles and reports related to health and environmental issues; and co-authored a special report to the Texas Legislature and governor on the implementation of supported employment summit recommendations. He was a trainer and member of the Comptroller's Family Pathfinders Team, which attempted to help families leave welfare and become independent.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Salinas worked at Temple Orthopedic Clinic.