During his April 23 press briefing, Governor Ned Lamont announced the members who will serve on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group.

HARTFORD — Governor Ned Lamont has announced the members who will serve on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group — the panel of local health, business, workforce, and education experts organized by AdvanceCT that will consult with his administration and legislative leadership on the reopening of Connecticut’s economy and education system as the nation emerges from the unprecedented public health emergency caused by COVID-19.

During a daily press briefing April 23, panel Co-Chairs Indra Nooyi, former Board co-chair of AdvanceCT and former CEO of PepsiCo, and Dr Albert Ko, Professor of epidemiology and medicine and department chair at the Yale School of Public Health agreed May 20 was a logical target date to begin “looking at” a careful and highly phased reopening plan that could see a roll out beginning in June if it meets with public health experts’ approval.

But even that roll out proposal is fraught with ifs, and Dr Ko said such a phased reopening would be contingent on the widespread availability of quick turn around COVID testing, including a recently developed spit test that Yale is beginning to formulate and plans to begin piloting in the coming few days.

According to information from Lamont’s office, each Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group member was chosen because of either their expertise in the field of medicine and science; their experience as a member of Connecticut’s business community; their representation of the workforce; their proficiency regarding the needs of the state’s at-risk populations; or their leadership role within the education system.

Members of the advisory group, along with Governor Lamont’s Chief of Staff Paul Mounds, Jr, will be meeting weekly with the leadership of the Connecticut General Assembly for advice and counsel, including Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, House Minority Leader Themis Klarides.

“I’m as anxious to reopen our economy and get back to business as usual as everyone else, but if we don’t do this in a thoughtful way, all of our efforts to mitigate the spread of this virus to date will have been worthless,” Governor Lamont said.

The governor said actions taken so far in Connecticut, while painstaking, have been helping to slow down the spread of the virus. The steadily slowing rate of hospitalizations shows that what the state has done so far is having an impact.

“But we are not out of the woods yet,” Lamont cautioned.

He said the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group of medical professionals, local business representatives, professionals who work with our at-risk communities, and education officials will provide Connecticut with “a valuable resource in our efforts to get our state moving again, while doing so in the safest and most sensible way possible.”

The Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group is a separate entity from the multi-state, regional council that the State of Connecticut has joined with the governors of several other states from the Northeast. The purpose of this localized group is to specifically focus on the needs of Connecticut’s towns, cities, business community, workforce, at-risk populations, and education system.

The governor expects that many of the recommendations and advice developed by this advisory group, along with those of legislative leaders, will be useful in his administration’s ongoing discussions with the multi-state, regional council.

The members of the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group include:

Main Advisory Group (Co-Chair) Indra Nooyi: Board co-chair of AdvanceCT; former CEO of PepsiCo (Co-Chair) Dr Albert Ko: Professor of epidemiology and medicine and department chair at the Yale School of Public Health Oni Chukwu: Executive chairman of Aventri Alex Karnal: Partner and managing director of Deerfield; co-founder and board member of The Institute for Life Changing Medicines Dr Mehmood Khan: CEO and board member of Life Biosciences, Inc. Dr Harlan Krumholz: Cardiologist and health care researcher at Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital Dr Charles Lee: Scientific director and professor at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine David Scheer: President of Scheer & Company, Inc; board chair of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals

Business Committee (Chair) Oni Chukwu: Executive chairman of Aventri Joe Brennan: President and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association Rodney Butler: Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Peter Denious: President and CEO of AdvanceCT Howard Hill: Owner of Howard K. Hill Funeral Services Roberta Hoskie: President and CEO of Outreach Realty Services Steve Matiatos: President of the Connecticut Lodging Association Dan Meiser: Chairman of the Connecticut Restaurant Association John Olsen: President Emeritus of the Connecticut AFL-CIO Fran Pastore: President and CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council Timothy Phelan: President of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association Meredith Reuben: CEO of EBP Supply Solutions David Roche: President of the Connecticut Building Trades Garrett Sheehan: President and CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Pedro Soto: President and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies

Community Committee (Chair) Marcella Nunez Smith: Director of Equity Research and Innovation at the Yale School of Medicine Marie Allen: Executive Director of the Southwestern Connecticut Agency on Aging and Independent Living Dr Ken Alleyne: Vice Chair of the Connecticut Health Foundation Nora Duncan: State Director of Connecticut AARP Rochelle Palache: Assistant District Leader for SEIU, Local 32BJ Daria Smith: Executive Director of the Connecticut State Independent Living Council

Education Committee (Co-Chair) Rick Levin: Former President of Yale University (Co-Chair) Linda Lorimer: Former Vice President for Global and Strategic Initiatives at Yale University Rick Branson: Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools Jan Hochadel: President of AFT Connecticut Steve Kaplan: President of the University of New Haven Alice Pritchard: Chief of Staff to the President of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Rachel Rubin: Chief of Staff to the President of the University of Connecticut Jen Widness: President of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges Donald Williams, Jr.: Executive Director of the Connecticut Education Association

Governor’s Representatives Paul Mounds: Chief of Staff for the Office of the Governor Josh Geballe: Chief Operating Officer for the Office of the Governor and Commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services Renée Coleman-Mitchell: Commissioner of the Department of Public Health Dr Matthew Cartter: State Epidemiologist for the Department of Public Health Miguel Cardona: Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Education (Also co-chair of the Education Committee) Beth Bye: Commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (Also member of the Education Committee) Deidre Gifford: Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services (Also member of the Community Committee) Amy Porter: Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Aging and Disability Services (Also member of the Community Committee) Jordan Scheff: Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services (Also member of the Community Committee) David Lehman: Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (Also member of the Business Committee)