David Regan

President

SEIU United Healthcare Workers West

Dave Regan is president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), a union that represents more than 150,000 healthcare workers in California. He also is a vice president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

In 2011, Regan was elected SEIU-UHW president, and along with more than 300 members formed the largest, democratically elected union executive board in California. The newly elected board is focused on improving healthcare in California, including reducing the prevalence of manageable and preventable chronic diseases like heart disease, asthma, obesity and diabetes that drive healthcare costs and lead to a poorer quality of life for millions of people in California. To that end the board launched “Let’s Get Healthy California” in 2011. Under this banner, Regan and SEIU-UHW members have already:

• Been a moving force behind an executive order by Gov. Jerry Brown creating a Let’s Get Healthy California taskforce, a high-level group charged with developing a plan to significantly reduce the incidence of chronic disease in California over 10 years. The effort was recognized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which passed a resolution urging other bodies of government to follow suit.
• Reached a landmark strategic agreement with the California Hospital Association with the goal of improving quality healthcare, lowering costs, changing funding incentives to promote those goals, and high-road labor relations.
• Reached a unique agreement with Kaiser Permanente with incentives for workers, as a group, to improve their health on a number of indicators, including body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, and smoking cessation.
• Gone into their communities to do health screenings, create walking clubs and healthy eating groups, and do a wide variety of activities to help improve the health of people in their neighborhoods. These activities include a partnership with Chivas USA, a professional soccer team in L.A., to do health screenings before home games, a grant from The California Endowment to sign up low-income people for healthcare plans, and a grant from the federal government to develop the home care workforce to become a more integrated part of the health care team.

Background

From 2000 to 2008, Regan served as president of SEIU District 1199, a three-state local union representing more than 34,000 members in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Under his leadership, District 1199’s membership grew from 13,000 to more than 34,000.

As a member of the SEIU Health Care Division Steering Committee, Regan helps plan and execute the union’s strategic work, including organizing, bargaining and politics nationwide.

A longtime activist in SEIU’s national political action efforts and a former member of the Ohio Democratic Party’s Executive Board, Regan is dedicated to ensuring that all SEIU members have a voice in their elected government. In 2008, Regan helped lead thousands of SEIU members in the campaign to elect President Barack Obama.

Regan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Lori Knicely, and two daughters, Skylar and Madeleine.