Safety Net Association of PA – Ellen Kugler bio

Ellen Kugler is SNAP's director of federal policy and is responsible for monitoring health policy developments in Washington, D.C. with a potential impact on SNAP hospitals and representing the interests of those hospitals before Congress and the administration. She is an expert in government health care policy, especially Medicaid and Medicare, as well as a skilled lobbyist with an extensive network of relationships on Capitol Hill.

Ellen's career in the public policy area began in the public sector in the 1980s when she worked for various state legislative leaders and presidential candidates. She then came to Washington, D.C. and served on the staffs of prominent members of the health subcommittees of both the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In 1992, Ellen moved into the private sector as a lobbyist and health care policy consultant. Today, as a principal of DeBrunner & Associates, she represents health care clients on a variety of policy issues before Congress and the administration and advises those clients on complex Medicaid and Medicare policy issues. A lawyer by training, Ellen is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she concentrated on health care and government law. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science and urban planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

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