NOLHGA’s 2026 Legal Seminar & July MPC Meeting

Ann Gillespie, Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance, is a former Illinois State Senator for District 27, with extensive experience in managed health care and insurance. Currently, Director Gillespie serves in leadership roles with the NAIC as Chair of the D Committee which oversees insurance market regulation and consumer protection, and on the NAIC Executive Committee for 2026. She also serves on the Implementation Assessment Committee (IAC) at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

As a State Senator, Director Gillespie sponsored legislation for the new State-Based Marketplace (SBM), also known as the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange, which Governor Pritzker signed into law in 2023. The SBM operates within the Illinois Department of Insurance and began enrolling Illinoisans in Get Covered Illinois - Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health plans on November 1, 2025.

During her tenure as a State Senator, Director Gillespie also championed health care and insurance reforms. She served as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee for Health and Human Services, Chair of the Medicaid Working Group, and was a member of the Senate Insurance Committee.

Prior to joining the Illinois General Assembly in 2019, Gillespie practiced health care law, served as Chair of the Illinois HMO Guaranty Association, and consulted with state insurance departments managing HMOs in receivership.

Director Gillespie has held several leadership roles in the health care industry. At CVS/Caremark, she was Vice President, Member Communications Operations, heading member communication strategy and operations for commercial and Medicare lines of business. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Operations Member Experience, leading the Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) enterprise team and overseeing the member experience across Mail, Customer Care, Clinical, and Specialty operations. Previously, she was Vice President & General Manager, Mail Pharmacy Operations in the Chicago area.

Director Gillespie is a Six Sigma Black Belt with expertise leading teams in health insurance operations process improvement. She holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. Her commitment to community service includes volunteering as a La Rabida Children’s Hospital Tutor and Girl Scouts Illinois Crossroads Service Unit Leader.

Nathan Houdek has served as Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin since his appointment by Governor Tony Evers in January 2022. He previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Insurance for three years under former Commissioner Mark Afable.

Commissioner Houdek serves as the state’s chief regulator of insurance and oversees the operations of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. He is also Vice Chair of the state Group Insurance Board and a Board member of the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund, the state’s guaranty fund.

As a member of the NAIC, Commissioner Houdek currently serves as Chair of the Financial Condition (E) Committee and the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (H) Working Group; Co-Vice Chair of the Risk-Based Capital Model Governance (EX) Task Force; and as a member of the Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee, the International Insurance Relations (G) Committee, and various task forces and working groups.

Having spent over 20 years working in state legislative and regulatory affairs, Commissioner Houdek has extensive experience finding solutions to complex public policy and regulatory challenges across all lines of insurance. He has held several senior-level roles in the public and private sectors, including serving as a principal at one of Wisconsin’s largest public affairs and business consulting firms and as Chief of Staff to a former minority leader in the Wisconsin State Senate.

Commissioner Houdek grew up in northern Wisconsin and earned his BA and MBA degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Scott White was appointed Commissioner of the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance in 2018. He was elected NAIC President in December 2025.

Commissioner White joined the Bureau as a research analyst in 1998. From 1999 until 2011, he worked as an attorney advising the Bureau on all major insurance regulatory and compliance matters. In 2011, he became head of the Commission’s financial services legal division, expanding his practice areas to include securities and banking.

At the NAIC, Commissioner White has chaired the Financial Condition (E) Committee, the Long-Term Care Insurance (EX) Task Force, and the Southeast Zone. He is a member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Executive Committee, Macroprudential Committee, and Insurance Capital Standard Task Force.

Commissioner White earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Missouri. He and his wife, Jodi, have two grown daughters.

Ariel Bayewitz is responsible for the analytics and insights that support Health Solutions functions at Elevance Health, focusing on areas such as network reimbursement analysis, value-based contract enablement, and care provider profiling. He has leveraged 20 years of experience in reimbursement, contract analysis, and value-based payment design to secure two United States patents, develop numerous large-scale enterprise platforms, and lead several complex enterprise networks.

Kara Baysinger is a Partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department and a member of the firm’s Insurance Transactional and Regulatory Practice Group. She serves as Co-Chair of Willkie’s Insurance Regulatory and Insurtech groups. She has vast experience representing national and international insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance-related service companies, Insurtech companies, and technology companies on a wide array of insurance regulatory, compliance, and strategic matters. She also advises clients on regulatory investigations and examinations (including multi-state examinations), innovation and digital transformation, licensing, transactional and M&A matters, reinsurance, cybersecurity, market conduct, sales practices, and product and market development issues.

Baysinger’s commitment is recognized by Chambers USA (2024), where a client described her as “my attorney of choice for insurance and regulatory matters.” She has been recognized as a leading practitioner since the inception of Chambers in both California and Nationwide for Insurance.

Baysinger began her career working in-house for insurance companies, where she led compliance, market conduct, product development, and government relations functions. She is also the co-author of Courageous Counsel: Conversations with Women General Counsel in the Fortune 500, a groundbreaking look at the paths of women into the ranks of General Counsel.

Kirsten Byrd has broad experience in insurance law and commercial litigation and focuses her practice on insurance company receiverships. She represents insurance regulators charged with overseeing the supervision, rehabilitation, and liquidation of insurers. She represents and has also served as a deputy receiver administering the winding down of troubled companies.

Byrd represents insurance receivers—as well as other business clients—on complex litigation matters. She has successfully prosecuted and defended lawsuits involving professional malpractice claims against accountants, actuaries, and attorneys; contract claims; statutory actions; and actions for injunctive relief. She has experience with a broad array of insurance products and has prosecuted and defended disputes involving business interruption, property, directors and officers liability, cyber, and general liability insurance.

In addition, Byrd advises major national insurance companies on compliance requirements, as well as representing them in their responses to regulatory inquiries and complaints. She also provides guidance on the requirements for corporate transactions involving the purchase, sale, or merger of insurance-regulated entities.

Jason Cowley, a former federal prosecutor and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, is the Chair of the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Litigation Department and a member of the Securities Enforcement and Litigation Practice Group. He principally represents financial institutions (including investment funds), corporations, and executives in criminal investigations and trials, regulatory enforcement proceedings, and complex civil litigation. He also conducts internal investigations, undertakes transactional diligence, and advises on compliance matters. He has particular experience in matters involving securities and commodities fraud, cross-border enforcement issues, anti-money laundering issues, and criminal and civil asset forfeiture.

Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Cowley served for over 13 years in the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and, prior to that, the Eastern District of North Carolina. In the Southern District of New York, he held key leadership positions, serving for over three years as Co-Chief of the SDNY’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and as Chief of its Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit.

As a Chief of the SDNY’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, Cowley supervised a team of approximately 20 senior prosecutors. He oversaw the investigation and prosecution of various white collar offenses, including insider trading, accounting fraud, corporate embezzlement, investment advisor fraud, market manipulation, hedge fund and private equity fund overvaluation, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In this position, he worked with a variety of domestic and foreign regulatory entities, including the SEC, CFTC, FERC, FINRA, PCAOB, NYSE, and the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority.

During his tenure as Chief of the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit, Cowley was the Office’s principal advisor on money laundering and asset forfeiture issues and oversaw the investigation and prosecution of various money laundering offenses, Bank Secrecy Act/AML violations, and sanctions violations involving the illicit transfer of funds through the U.S. financial system. In this role, he worked with a variety of regulatory entities, including FinCEN, OFAC, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the New York Department of Financial Services. His work included overseeing various efforts to recover and return funds stolen from crime victims and working with other components of the Department of Justice to design and implement large-scale victim remission programs, including a program for the victims of the Madoff Ponzi Scheme.

Cowley served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C. Dever III of the United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He attended UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and served as President of the UNC Class of 2001.

Lindsay Crawford joined NOLHGA in October 2024 as Assistant Vice President, Insolvency Management. In her role, Crawford provides advice to NOLHGA task forces and member associations with respect to diverse financial issues involved with the insolvent company, policy owners, and with the requirements of guaranty associations. Her duties include active participation in the development of strategies to address payment of statutory benefits to policyholders of insolvent insurers and working to ensure the successful resolution of multi-state insurance insolvencies by providing financial and project management, including support to specific task forces. Additionally, she analyzes, develops, recommends, and executes strategic options in insolvencies including runoff scenarios, assumption reinsurance, captive solutions, and other creative options.

Crawford joined NOLHGA after 16 years at the Nebraska Department of Insurance with experience as a financial analyst and reinsurance specialist, with over 9 years leading and managing the Financial Regulation Division as Deputy Chief Examiner and, most recently, Chief Financial Regulator. In her roles as Deputy and Chief, she was responsible for financial analysis, financial examinations, holding company transactions, supervisory colleges, actuarial reviews, company licensing, and the collection of premium tax in one of the country’s largest domestic insurance markets.

In addition, Crawford had considerable experience in important financial regulation work at the NAIC, including Vice Chair of the Risk-Focused Surveillance Working Group, the Valuation of Securities Task Force, and Group Solvency Issues Working Group and a member of various other task forces and working groups, including the Financial Analysis Working Group (FAWG), Reinsurance Task Force, and Receivership and Insolvency Task Force.

Crawford holds a Bachelor of Science in Business–Accounting and Finance from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In addition, she is a Certified Financial Examiner (CFE) and is the current President of the Society of Financial Examiners (SOFE).

Eric Del Monaco has over 24 years of experience in fixed income and derivatives. He has served in executive positions at several financial institutions, where he provided oversight over a wide range of asset classes including, but not limited to, corporate bonds, preferreds, private placements, leveraged loans, commercial whole-loans, CLOs, CMBS, RMBS, esoteric ABS, credit derivatives, interest rate derivatives, equity derivatives, treasuries, and repos. In addition to providing oversight to the market-making activities in these products, he also oversaw their design, structuring, and placement. He also worked extensively with both rating agencies and regulatory bodies such as the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), National Futures Association (NFA), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and various state insurance and banking regulators.

Prior to founding EDM Research, Del Monaco served as Chief Risk Officer of American Life & Security (ALSC) from November 2020 until March 2022. In this role, he provided oversight for asset management, portfolio construction, reinsurance capacity, counterparty risk, and hedging, amongst other related responsibilities. As Chief Risk Officer, he developed the specifications for the investment and risk management infrastructure to evaluate company-level exposure to portfolio risks, including the required technology stack and oversight framework.

Prior to his role at ALSC, Del Monaco served as Head of Global Markets at Natixis CIB Americas, a global money-center bank headquartered in Paris, France. At Natixis, he was directly responsible for a business with over 140 employees and an over $30BN balance sheet; he served as a member of both the Global Markets and Americas committees. He was responsible for all front office risk related to markets activities across fixed income and equities and was the primary front office interface to regulatory stakeholders.

Throughout his career, Del Monaco worked extensively with some of the world’s largest life insurance companies on matters related to capital, balance sheet management, and investments. He spent six years at Nomura as a Managing Director and Head of Structuring, where he was responsible for structuring across all financial products in the Americas and served on the Nomura Americas Global Markets executive committee. Prior to Nomura, he ran Credit Structuring at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital in New York, where his specialties included credit derivatives, counterparty risk, and complex repackagings. He also spent five years as part of Citigroup’s European Credit businesses, working extensively with clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Del Monaco graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics with honors from Tufts University. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the Country School in Easton, Maryland, and is an active member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He also serves on the Board of Safeware, Inc., a national leader in public preparedness, providing public safety products to municipalities and first responders for over 40 years.

Paul Durica oversees the planning, development, and production of exhibitions at the Museum. His involvement with CHM goes back over a decade. He was co-curator on the "Chicago Authored" exhibition and has created many different tours and public programs for the Museum. While still a graduate student, Durica launched a series of free, interactive walking tours, lectures, and reenactments that engaged Chicago’s past.

Beth Dwyer was named as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation (DBR) in May 2023 under Governor Dan McKee. In addition to her role as Superintendent of Financial Services, where she oversees the regulation and enforcement of insurance, banking, and securities, she also oversees the State Fire Marshal’s office (including the Bomb Squad), the State Building Office, Gaming and Athletics, and a wide variety of professional licenses.

Director Dwyer has been employed by the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation for over 20 years, first as General Counsel to the Insurance Division and then as Associate and Deputy Director, responsible for banking, insurance, and securities. In that time, she has championed both the rights of consumers and streamlining operations to provide efficiencies to businesses that operate in Rhode Island. She is a Past-President of the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association. She was awarded the 2010 Rhode Island Attorney General’s Justice Award for Consumer Protection. She completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education.

Director Dwyer is President-Elect of the NAIC, and she has served as Chair and Vice Chair of various committees, task forces, and working groups. In 2022, she was appointed as the NAIC representative to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Stability Oversight Counsel (FSOC).

Director Dwyer has lived in Rhode Island for most of her life and is a graduate of Providence College and Pepperdine University School of Law. She holds the designations of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) from The Institutes, Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) from The American College, and Senior Professional in Insurance Regulation (SPIR) from the NAIC. She was admitted to practice law in California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and various Federal Courts in California and Rhode Island.

Katelyn Fisher represents insurance companies, HMOs, and other industry stakeholders on a wide range of insurance matters, with a focus on health insurance market reform, insurance regulatory compliance, insolvency matters, and holding company transactions. Her health insurance practice extends beyond individual and small group market compliance to encompass government-sponsored health programs, Medicaid and Medicare issues, and matters involving managed care organizations. She is known for her highly collaborative, relationship-driven approach—she values the people behind the work and partners closely with clients, investing the time to understand their businesses and goals so she can help them navigate complex regulatory challenges as a trusted, long-term advisor.

Fisher helps health insurance companies, HMOs, and dental plans navigate the ever-changing health insurance regulatory climate. She has extensive experience advising health insurers and HMO clients on the complex overlay of state and federal health insurance regulation when offering Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicaid Managed Care Plans, and/or individual and group health insurance coverage (including those offered inside and outside of state and federal Health Insurance Marketplaces). She helps clients understand and comply with applicable federal and state insurance statutes and regulations, including requirements related to holding company act transactions, marketing and sales practices, vendor contracting, federal essential health benefits (EHBs), state benefit mandates, health and dental product filings, state financial exams, and state licensing and financial solvency. She provides practical, day-to-day compliance guidance that aligns regulatory requirements with operational realities, allowing her to guide clients through overlapping and evolving regulatory frameworks.

Before joining Faegre Drinker, Fisher worked as a legal intern for Wishard Health Services (now Eskenazi Hospital) in Indianapolis and as a summer session legislative intern with Indiana Senator Evan Bayh in Washington, D.C. She also served as a volunteer English teacher for Christel House Mexico in Mexico City.

Ann Gillespie, Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance, is a former Illinois State Senator for District 27, with extensive experience in managed health care and insurance. Currently, Director Gillespie serves in leadership roles with the NAIC as Chair of the D Committee which oversees insurance market regulation and consumer protection, and on the NAIC Executive Committee for 2026. She also serves on the Implementation Assessment Committee (IAC) at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

As a State Senator, Director Gillespie sponsored legislation for the new State-Based Marketplace (SBM), also known as the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange, which Governor Pritzker signed into law in 2023. The SBM operates within the Illinois Department of Insurance and began enrolling Illinoisans in Get Covered Illinois - Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health plans on November 1, 2025.

During her tenure as a State Senator, Director Gillespie also championed health care and insurance reforms. She served as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee for Health and Human Services, Chair of the Medicaid Working Group, and was a member of the Senate Insurance Committee.

Prior to joining the Illinois General Assembly in 2019, Gillespie practiced health care law, served as Chair of the Illinois HMO Guaranty Association, and consulted with state insurance departments managing HMOs in receivership.

Director Gillespie has held several leadership roles in the health care industry. At CVS/Caremark, she was Vice President, Member Communications Operations, heading member communication strategy and operations for commercial and Medicare lines of business. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Operations Member Experience, leading the Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) enterprise team and overseeing the member experience across Mail, Customer Care, Clinical, and Specialty operations. Previously, she was Vice President & General Manager, Mail Pharmacy Operations in the Chicago area.

Director Gillespie is a Six Sigma Black Belt with expertise leading teams in health insurance operations process improvement. She holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. Her commitment to community service includes volunteering as a La Rabida Children’s Hospital Tutor and Girl Scouts Illinois Crossroads Service Unit Leader.

Joel Glover partners with clients to solve problems in the insurance industry—including all related regulatory, transactional litigation, and insolvency/receivership issues. Having worked in the insurance regulatory and insolvency field since he began practicing law in 1991, he has represented all types of insurance entities, life and health insurance guaranty associations, and receivers throughout the country.

Mr. Glover maintains strong relationships with guaranty associations, insurance industry regulators, and the insurance industry. He has served as task force counsel for NOLHGA on various multi-state insolvencies; represented several guaranty associations; and served as counsel to the Insurance Commissioners in Colorado, Hawaii, and Arizona in their capacities as liquidators of insolvent insurers.

Outside of his legal practice, Joel enjoys coaching youth basketball, hiking, biking, yoga, and tai chi.

Allen Goolsby regularly represents clients on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and securities and finance matters. This include representation of Boards of Directors and Board committees in special situations; experience with a variety of merger, acquisition, and financing transactions involving publicly held corporations; and experience advising publicly held corporations regarding corporate governance.

Mr. Goolsby graduated cum laude from Yale University with a BA in History and received an LLB from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Jan Graeber is the Executive Director–Designate of the Texas Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association (TLHIGA), where she is transitioning into the Executive Director role through the end of 2026.

Prior to joining TLHIGA, Graeber served as Senior Actuary at the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), where she led industry advocacy efforts on long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, and risk classification issues before state and federal policymakers, the NAIC, and other organizations involved in insurance policy and regulation.

Before joining the ACLI, Graeber spent over 20 years at the Texas Department of Insurance, where she served as Chief Actuary and Deputy Commissioner, overseeing life and health insurance products and related regulatory matters.

Graeber received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Actuarial Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of both the Society of Actuaries and the American Academy of Actuaries.

Anthony Habayeb is CEO and Co-Founder of Monitaur, a leading AI governance software company. Monitaur enables its customers to deliver responsible AI and critical models that business leaders, regulators, and consumers can trust.

Habayeb is a Director for the IRES Foundation and has frequently contributed to the NAIC on issues related to AI risks and governance. He also advises AI companies globally and in Boston’s thriving ecosystem. In addition to his experience with to Monitaur, he possesses a wealth of experience from his strategic consulting days at Accenture and executive roles at Gannett, Monster, and Yahoo.

Nathan Houdek has served as Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin since his appointment by Governor Tony Evers in January 2022. He previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Insurance for three years under former Commissioner Mark Afable.

Commissioner Houdek serves as the state’s chief regulator of insurance and oversees the operations of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. He is also Vice Chair of the state Group Insurance Board and a Board member of the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund, the state’s guaranty fund.

As a member of the NAIC, Commissioner Houdek currently serves as Chair of the Financial Condition (E) Committee and the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (H) Working Group; Co-Vice Chair of the Risk-Based Capital Model Governance (EX) Task Force; and as a member of the Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee, the International Insurance Relations (G) Committee, and various task forces and working groups.

Having spent over 20 years working in state legislative and regulatory affairs, Commissioner Houdek has extensive experience finding solutions to complex public policy and regulatory challenges across all lines of insurance. He has held several senior-level roles in the public and private sectors, including serving as a principal at one of Wisconsin’s largest public affairs and business consulting firms and as Chief of Staff to a former minority leader in the Wisconsin State Senate.

Commissioner Houdek grew up in northern Wisconsin and earned his BA and MBA degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tamara Kopp is the Executive Director for the Missouri Insurance Guaranty Associations, where she manages the Missouri Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association and the Missouri Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association. Previously, she served as receivership counsel for the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance, supervising receiverships of Missouri-domiciled companies.

Kopp serves on the Boards of Directors for the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds (NCIGF); Guaranty Support, Inc. (GSI); the International Association of Insurance Receivers (IAIR); and Boy Scouts of America – Great Rivers Council. She earned her JD from the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law and a BS degree from Northwest Missouri State University.

Daniel McCarty is an experienced insurance regulatory and transactions attorney with a deep and practical understanding of state, federal, and international insurance issues. He advises insurers, producers, and other insurance stakeholders on a range of regulatory, compliance, and transactional matters, including those related to insurance holding company act requirements, credit for reinsurance, captive insurance, and complex reorganizations. His practice also includes a significant focus on new and evolving matters, such as private equity firm involvement in insurance and financial guaranty insurance.

Prior to his current role at Eversheds Sutherland, McCarty served as a policy advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that role, he was a senior advisor to the Director of the Federal Insurance Office, where he advised on insurance policy and regulation. He also served as the designated federal official of the Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, a Treasury-authorized advisory committee consisting of senior executives from Fortune 500 insurers and producers, state insurance commissioners, and leading consumer advocates.

McCarty is a former U.S. delegate to the Insurance and Private Pensions Committee at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In his role at Treasury, he also provided advice on a number of bilateral and multilateral developments, including the Bilateral Agreement Between the United States of America and the European Union on Prudential Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance (US-EU Covered Agreement).

Prior to his role at Treasury, McCarty worked for the NAIC, where he advised state insurance regulators on a number of legal issues, including Dodd-Frank’s impact on the state-based system of insurance regulation.

Ralf Meisenzahl is a Vice President and the Director of Financial Research in the economic research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. His research focuses on financial intermediation, linkages between finance and the real economy, and economic history. His work has been published in several academic journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He previously served as co-editor in chief of Explorations in Economic History. He is a member of the executive committee of the International Banking, Economics and Finance Association (IBEFA) and an editorial board member of the Journal of Risk and Insurance.

Before joining the Chicago Fed in August 2019, Meisenzahl served as principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board. He received a diploma in economics from University of Mannheim and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.

Mark Palmer has served as Chief Counsel of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism since 2015, where he is dedicated to advancing the quality of justice and upholding the rule of law across Illinois. In this role, he supports efforts to promote professionalism, civility, and integrity within the legal and judicial systems.

Palmer’s work includes spearheading statewide initiatives such as the Commission’s statewide lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring program; courthouse professionalism trainings; and other educational programming for lawyers, judges, and law students.

Palmer’s commitment to innovation in the legal profession extends to serving on the Illinois Supreme Court’s E-Business Policy Board and Illinois Judicial Conference’s AI Task Force. His leadership in ethics and legal technology has earned him recognition as a 2023 vLex Fastcase 50 honoree, which honors “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators.”

Before joining the Commission, Palmer was in private practice at Evans, Froehlich, Beth & Chamley in Champaign. His practice spanned litigation and transactional matters with a focus on commercial disputes, banking law, municipal law, and appellate advocacy in state and federal courts. He also served on the federal Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel, representing indigent defendants in federal courts.

Palmer has always been actively engaged in professional and civic service. He served on the Illinois State Bar Association’s Board of Governors (2019–2025) and Assembly (2013–present) and has chaired the Public Interest Law Initiative’s (PILI) 6th Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee for over a decade. He serves on the Advisory Council of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium while mentoring undergraduate and law students. He currently devotes 100% of his representation time to pro bono matters as a Guardian Ad Litem in Champaign County.

Palmer has been an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois College of Law since 2009, where he’s taught advanced trial advocacy and continues to guest lecture on ethics, professionalism, and legal technology.

Palmer received his J.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a 2024 Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Sociology. Outside of work, he enjoys cheering on Illini sports with his family, exploring local trails at Allerton Park, or tending to their garden.

Andy Polacek is a Policy Advisor in the economic research department, where he is member of the finance team and head of the Chicago Fed Insurance Research Center. His policy work focuses on systemic risk of the insurance industry. He represents the Federal Reserve as the Vice Chair of International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Macroprudential Monitoring Working Group.

Polacek’s current research interests include life insurers’ investments in private credit, homeowners insurance and mortgage markets, and forecasting insurance inflation. He has a B.A. in economics and international studies and an M.S in economics and policy analysis from DePaul University.

Jacob Stuckey is the Illinois Special Deputy Receiver, assisting the Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance in her statuary role as conservator, rehabilitator, and liquidator of financially impaired and insolvent insurance companies. He is currently appointed to manage the administration of 16 estates covering many different types of insurers. Stuckey represents Director Gillespie as Chair of the NAIC’s Receivership and Insolvency Task Force and as Co-Chair of the Receivership Financial Analysis Working Group.

Prior to joining the OSD, Stuckey served in various senior positions within and adjacent to the Illinois state government, including senior roles with the Department of Central Management Services, Office of Management and Budget, the Office of the State Treasurer, and the Illinois Finance Authority. He is also a veteran of the United States Army, with combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stuckey received his Bachelor’s Degree in Politics and Government from Illinois State University and his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Katharine Wade became President of the National Organization of Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA) in August 2023. She is responsible for leading NOLHGA to fulfill its mission to support state guaranty associations in protecting policyholders in multi-state insolvencies and promoting the values and interests of the guaranty association system.

Wade is an insurance executive with more than 30 years of experience in insurance operations, compliance, public policy, and regulation. In her more than 20-year career with Cigna, a Fortune 100 global insurer, she oversaw federal and state government affairs, public policy, and compliance for the health and group life and disability businesses.

After Cigna, she served nearly four years as Connecticut’s 32nd Insurance Commissioner, responsible for consumer protection and the regulation of an industry that generated $170 billion in written direct premium in one of the nation’s top insurance markets. As Commissioner, she chaired the Health and Managed Care (B) and International Insurance Relations (G) Committees and served on the Executive Committee of the NAIC. She represented the state insurance regulatory system in testimony before Congress. In addition, she served as a member of the Executive and Policy Development Committees of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and on the U.S. Treasury Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.

Prior to joining NOLHGA, as a Principal at Dunraven Strategies, Wade worked with large global insurers and start-ups to navigate regulatory complexity and understand how insurance markets work. Her work included launching companies and products, managing the risk of various regulatory issues, and providing strategic counsel on emerging business or regulatory issues.

Scott White was appointed Commissioner of the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance in 2018. He was elected NAIC President in December 2025.

Commissioner White joined the Bureau as a research analyst in 1998. From 1999 until 2011, he worked as an attorney advising the Bureau on all major insurance regulatory and compliance matters. In 2011, he became head of the Commission’s financial services legal division, expanding his practice areas to include securities and banking.

At the NAIC, Commissioner White has chaired the Financial Condition (E) Committee, the Long-Term Care Insurance (EX) Task Force, and the Southeast Zone. He is a member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Executive Committee, Macroprudential Committee, and Insurance Capital Standard Task Force.

Commissioner White earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Missouri. He and his wife, Jodi, have two grown daughters.