Look who came to Project PIVOT

Kate Wasson is a dedicated advocate and leader currently serving as the Senior Advocacy Manager at the Sepsis Alliance. She graduated with honors from Seton Hall University, a year early, with degrees in Political Science and Catholic Studies and a minor in Nonprofit Studies. She is currently finishing her Masters in

Public Administration at Villanova University. Kate's passion for making a positive impact has

been evident throughout her career.

Previously, as the Executive Director at USYG: Youth in Politics, Kate empowered young individuals to actively participate in the political process, amplifying their voices on critical issues. Her experience extends to legislative affairs, having worked closely with Rep. Katie Porter, where she influenced policy decisions and effectively represented the interests of young constituents. Kate also served as the Executive Director of the Prime Protection Foundation, a gun violence prevention organization. Kate Wasson continues to drive progress and champion important causes, exemplifying her dedication to creating positive

change in communities nationwide.

Tracy’s personal experience with a life-altering surgical error, and the subsequent challenges, have undoubtedly shaped her perspective and drove her to take action to protect others. Resilience, advocacy, and research played a critical role in ensuring the best possible outcome for her own health and fueled her resolve to prevent similar situations from happening to others.

Through exhaustive research, she discovered that the surgeon that injured her made several other life-altering mistakes with other patients and the state board has yet to address these recurring issues adequately. This blatant lack of accountability confirms to her that she must advocate for better patient care and safety. Her unique background in navigating the healthcare system partnered with management experience at an Ivy League university will prove to be valuable assets in the efforts to protect others and advocate for change.

Tracy’s story serves as a reminder of the importance of patient empowerment, awareness, and the need for accountability and transparency in healthcare. It’s clear that her journey has led her to a meaningful path of advocacy, where she hopes to make a difference in the lives of others and drive positive change in the healthcare system. She hopes her experience and dedication will inspire others to be more proactive and informed when seeking medical care and in advocating for their rights and safety.

Kevin grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Leavenworth, Kansas.  He and his two brothers were all diagnosed with sickle cell disease.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from the University of Kansas and worked in pharmaceutical sales and management for 23 years before taking an early retirement due to health complications from his sickle cell.

After his career departure, he received his MS in Healthcare Informatics from Walden University and a Community Health Worker certification from the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA).  Kevin currently volunteers as President of the Uriel E. Owens Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Midwest, a CBO in Kansas City, KS.  He is involved with advocacy through the Rare Disease Legislative Advocates and is Chairman of University Health’s Patient Family Advisory Council.

He has also worked on various projects and committees for such organizations as the American Society of Hematology, the National Health Council, the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, and the Missouri Hospital Association.  

Adam Thompson holds an undergraduate degree in Theology from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in public health from the Jefferson College of Population Health. He began his career in public health in 2006 as an outreach worker utilizing web-based social networking platforms to reach gay and bisexual men who inject drugs.

Mr. Thompson was the co-developer of multiple national trainings and workshops for Persons Living with HIV to be more meaningfully involved in health systems transformation. He served for 5 years as the Co-Chair of the Primary Care and Chronic Illness Committee where he was responsible for co-facilitating the endorsement of quality measures for use in value-based payment programs. Currently, Mr. Thompson serves as practice facilitator leading national networks of clinics and organizations seeking to improve healthcare systems using quality improvement and implementation science methodologies.

As a person with HIV himself, Mr. Thompson is an advocate for the meaningful involvement of patients, families, and caregivers in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare services.

Dr. Charity S. Watkins, a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at North Carolina Central University and Duke-NCCU BIRCWH Scholar, holds a BA in Sociology, an MSW, and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research, deeply influenced by her personal experience with peripartum cardiomyopathy, focuses on how social work can both interrupt racial inequities in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiac-related severe maternal morbidity and create critical social supports for Black women after experiencing these life-threatening conditions.

Dr. Watkins seeks to ensure her research demonstrates the value of personal experience, community-rooted solutions, and interprofessional practice by serving as an expert consultant and advisor for multiple national grant-funded research projects, advocating for women's heart health policy as a WomenHeart Champion with the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, and contributing to communities as the Board of Directors Chair for Equity Before Birth, a Durham-based nonprofit organization that addresses gaps in access to supports and resources critical for healthy maternal and infant outcomes.

Natasha Chiofalo, MPH has cumulative work experience in a variety of public health areas since 2007.

Natasha has always had a passion for promoting health and well-being. In various capacities, Natasha has worked with diverse regions throughout the United States as well as in Latin America.

Topics Natasha has worked with include environmental health, asthma, allergies, diabetes, HIV, mental health, and cardiovascular health. Passionate about patient outcomes and ensuring the healthcare systems are working optimally, Natasha has been dedicating her career to quality improvement since 2015.

Natasha is passionate about effective patient care, patient satisfaction, and optimal clinic operations. In her spare time, Natasha manages her animal sanctuary which includes horses, cats, chickens, and a dog.

Bonnielin Swenor is an epidemiologist and the Endowed Professor of Disability Health and Justice at The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and joint appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, which uses data- driven approaches to shift the paradigm from ‘living with a disability’ to ‘thriving with a disability’. Motivated by her personal experience with disability, her work is focused on advancing equity for people with disabilities, promoting disability inclusion and accessibility, and developing evidence-based and disability-inclusive policies.

Dr. Swenor has provided advice and expertise to multiple organizations and agencies, including speaking at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Summit on Equity and Excellence in STEMM, chairing the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) planning committee for the Disrupting Ableism and Advancing STEM series, and co-chairing the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) Subgroup on Individuals with Disabilities. Her work has been published in leading academic journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Lancet, and has been featured in multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and TIME magazine.

Dr. Swenor also has a track record of translating research into policy change, as she played a pivotal role in national advocacy that led the NIH to designate people with disabilities as a health disparity population.

Silke Schoch is the Director of Research & Programs at the National Health Council. Ms. Schoch joined the National Health Council in 2017 and has been a project manager for many of the NHC’s patient engagement-focused projects including the Patient Experience Mapping Toolbox and Patient-Centered Core Impact Sets Blueprint. Her interests include patient engagement, qualitative research, and gender equity. She has co-authored publications in journals such as The Patient and Value in Health.

Ms. Schoch earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from American University in 2017 and a Master of Arts degree in Public Management from Johns Hopkins University in 2023.

Valencia Robinson, Ed.S was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in October 2006. She was busy enjoying life as a high school English teacher and a mother of a 3, 4, 5, and 8 year old. She continued teaching during chemotherapy.  Her experience ignited in her a passion to become an advocate for others, especially as she saw so many women suffering and dying after their diagnosis.

Valencia quickly reached out to many groups and individuals to expand her advocacy work. She joined the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation and became a member of their Board.  An active member, she serves on various committees and visits the state capitol in Tallahassee advocating for legislation that would make life easier for cancer patients and for funds to continue research and treatment for patients.

Valencia expanded her advocacy to a national level.  She graduated from NBCC’s Project LEAD science training program in 2017.  She quickly put her training to use, reviewing for the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program, which challenges the scientific community to design research that will address the urgency of ending breast cancer.   Valencia works with the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, and as an NBCC representative with the Oncology Nursing Society, on projects to help improve care for those who are diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a founding member of The Light Collective.

As a national advocate, Valencia has participated in several NBCC Leadership Summits and Lobby Days, meeting with her Senators and Representatives to advance the group’s public policy agenda. In her local community, for the past twelve years, she has sponsored a free Wellness Retreat for breast cancer patients and survivors. She served as a panelist at the 2018 and 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In 2013 she was selected as a National Teacher of the Year by People Magazine. She is an author and speaker who uses her personal testimony to encourage others to change their outlook on the miracle of daily life. Valencia continues to embrace every opportunity to educate herself as an advocate and makes certain she disseminates what she learns to her community and beyond.

Dr. Benjamin is the Director of Community Innovation and former Chief Medical Officer at Ariadne Labs, a joint center of healthcare innovation founded by Dr Atul Gawande, at Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He provides guidance and support to Ariadne Labs research faculty, ensuring that Ariadne’s findings are supported by rigorous evidence and result in meaningful and sustainable change. Evan mentors faculty and research scientists to enhance the design and implementation of healthcare solutions. In addition, Evan leads a national collaborative to advance transparency and improve patient safety through Communication and Resolution programs. His research and implementation work to improve patient safety has received national recognition.,

Prior to his work at Ariadne Labs, Evan was Senior Vice President for Population Health and Quality, Baystate Health, a $3B revenue integrated delivery system in Massachusetts where he oversaw clinical quality, patient safety, population health, infection control, a 100 physician primary care practice, and Information Technology for the 5 hospital system. He was responsible for bringing reliability and efficiency to the health system using modern tools of improvement science.

He is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is active in scholarly research in patient safety and healthcare delivery and speaks and consults nationally on issues related to improving healthcare delivery. Evan is former faculty for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) where he taught leadership and improvement. He sits on numerous national boards and healthcare panels including the National Academy of Medicine, the American Hospital Association, CMS and others. He currently serves as a board member for the UMass Memorial Health Care System. 

Evan received a BA in Chemistry from Williams College, an MD from Case Western Reserve University, and an MS in Healthcare Delivery Science from Dartmouth College. He completed an internal medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Vadim Dukhanin, MD, MHS is an Assistant Scientist at the Department of Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Vadim is passionate about authentic patient engagement in healthcare, including meaningful patient and public voices in healthcare priority-setting and resource allocation, patient-reported outcome and experience measures, and strategies to more actively and effectively engage care partners in care delivery through shared access to patient portals.

Vadim is a co-investigator on the project "Developing a Patient-Reported Measure Set of Diagnostic Excellence" which tests a questionnaire for patients and their care partners to report their perspective of diagnostic excellence of a recent emergency department or urgent care facility visit. Vadim was also a co-investigator on the project "Patient-Reported Measures for Driving Diagnostic Excellence" which crafted a set of Roadmaps illustrating and guiding the development of goals and metrics that can be achieved with patient-reported measures of diagnostic excellence. This project continues via the Center for Diagnostic Excellence Patient-Reported Measures. Finally, Vadim was a co-investigator on the SIDM's co-funded project "Exploring and Addressing Diagnostic Error Disparities Related to Cognitive Reasoning Pitfalls" where the partnership between patients and researchers co-developed solutions to address diagnostic disparities that are currently being disseminated for implementation and tailoring. Vadim continues the later project as a SIDM2023-2024 Diagnostic Excellence Fellow.

Andrea Downing is the co-founder and Board President of The Light Collective.

Downing’s journey in health privacy advocacy is deeply personal. Diagnosed as a “previvor” of the BRCA1 mutation at age 25, she opted for a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy to mitigate her high risk of breast cancer. Her technical background propelled her to advocate for privacy protections within the breast cancer community.

She has been a prominent figure in health privacy research, focusing on the implications of technology and social media on patient data privacy. One of her notable contributions is her work on the security vulnerabilities within “private” Facebook groups, which had significant privacy implications for health-related support groups.  (CNN: Read more). Downing also investigated the use of surveillance technologies in health related websites.  The study sparked further investigations into the use and regulation of tracking technologies within healthcare, leading to significant actions by regulatory bodies such as the FTC and HHS, which moved to ban certain types of trackers to protect patient privacy.

Her work has been instrumental in driving changes that aim to safeguard patient privacy in the increasingly digital landscape of healthcare.

Dr. Chapman is the Chief Science Officer for the Center for Innovation & Value Research (formerly the Innovation and Value Initiative), a nonprofit research organization whose mission is to advance the science, practice, and use of value assessment in healthcare to make it more meaningful to those who receive, provide, and pay for care. Dr. Chapman was Director of Health Economics at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) prior to IVI, where he led development of economic evaluations that accompanied reviews of clinical evidence, assessing the potential costs, cost-effectiveness, and budgetary impact of a wide range of pharmaceutical and other clinical interventions.

Before ICER, Dr. Chapman conducted health economics and outcomes research as a consultant. Dr. Chapman holds a PhD in health policy with a concentration in decision sciences from Harvard University and an MS in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Kelaye Emiru serves as the Vice President of Health Information Strategy and Services at the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF), a prominent nonprofit dedicated to healthcare research, data, education, and advocacy, with a core mission of reducing patient risk and advancing health equity through ensuring optimal care for all. Kelelaye is at the forefront of driving the transformation of NMQF’s community data lake into actionable insights, empowering health programs to achieve tangible impact. His role transcends the mere oversight of data services deployment; rather, it revolves around his steadfast commitment to collaborating with partners to craft data-driven interventions with profound significance. By leveraging the power of data and cultivating strategic alliances, Kelelaye propels initiatives forward that pave the way for evidence-based 

interventions, ensuring that our endeavors yield substantial results in enhancing community health outcomes.

With 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Kelelaye excels in process improvement, leadership, and forging strategic partnerships. He chaired the Cancer Stage Shifting Initiative aligned with President Biden's Cancer Moonshot 2.0, demonstrating his leadership in driving industry-wide change. Kelelaye's expertise has been instrumental in fueling NMQF's evolution into a trailblazing healthcare information agency. His purpose-driven approach is rooted in collaboration, empathy, and transformative action.

Kelelaye has spearheaded initiatives to foster an inclusive workplace culture, champion equity and address the needs of marginalized groups within the healthcare system. He remains steadfast in his commitment to driving impactful change, believing wholeheartedly in the power of collaboration, empathy, and transformative action to construct a more equitable world.

Dr. Sigall Bell is a healthcare innovator focused on building strong relationships between patients and clinicians to improve safety and quality of care. An associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of Patient Safety and Discovery at OpenNotes, Dr. Bell’s work concentrates on patient engagement and empowerment. As a recipient of the Arnold P. Gold professorship for humanism in medicine and a contributor to several AHRQ medical liability reform grants, she has trained over 1,000 clinician leaders in medical error disclosure and contributed to national guidelines on compassionate and transparent communication after harmful events.

Her work on open notes has been cited by the National Academies of Medicine, the National Quality Forum, the IHI National Action Plan, and is recognized as a transforming concept in patient safety.  Dr. Bell’s research aims to develop the evidence base, systems, and culture to make patient and family engagement an expected, supported, and celebrated norm. She strives to bring a culture of engagement to pediatric and adult patients, empowering kids and communities for healthier futures.

Prior to her work in patient safety, Dr. Bell was an HIV doctor, international health specialist, and an inductee to the CoSIDA National Athletic Hall of Fame.

Eric J. Thomas, M.D., M.P.H. is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Healthcare Quality at the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He also directs the UT Houston-Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety. Since 1992 he has conducted research on patient safety and his work was heavily cited in the Institute of Medicine's reports To Err is Human (2000), and Improving Diagnosis in Health Care (2015).

Dr. Thomas’ current research focuses on topics such as diagnostic errors, measuring safety culture, and engaging families and frontline clinicians in detecting harm and improving patient safety. Dr. Thomas also served as the Chancellor’s Health Fellow for Patient

Safety for The University of Texas System. In that role he led UT System efforts regarding disclosure of errors, a quality and safety grants program, and faculty training for quality improvement.

As Associate Dean for Healthcare Quality he works with other leaders of the UT Houston Medical School to develop quality and safety programs within the education, research, and patient care missions of the school, and he Co-Chairs the UT Physicians Outpatient Quality Council. In 2007 he received the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Research from the National Quality Forum and Joint Commission, and currently serves as Co-Editor in Chief for BMJ Quality and Safety.

Laura Wooster serves as ACEP’s Senior Vice President of Advocacy & Practice Affairs, overseeing the College’s federal and state legislative, regulatory, and practice advocacy. Prior to joining ACEP, Laura served as Senior Vice President, Public Policy, for the American Osteopathic Association (AOA).

She also spent five years at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, first developing policy on delivery system reform and health IT, and then as a Congressional and Administration lobbyist. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Michigan, and a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

Julie Brown (she/her) is a Senior Survey Researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has expertise in the design and conduct of qualitative and quantitative data collection and in managing multi-disciplinary project teams.

Brown specializes in the development and implementation of patient experience of health care surveys. She leads the RAND instrument design team for the sixth iteration of the AHRQ-funded Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®), and is responsible for RAND's efforts to develop and test CAHPS measures, and new approaches to collect CAHPS data. She has led numerous systematic reviews of the literature and conducted over 120 focus groups to inform the development of survey items.

She has conducted over 400 one-on-one interviews to test comprehension, navigation, and usability of survey items and format. She is principal investigator for the CMS contract Implementation of the CAHPS Surveys for the Merit Based Incentive Payment System and Medicare Shared Savings Program in which CAHPS is used to measure patient experience with Accountable Care Organizations and group practices in support of CMS quality programs. She is co-principal investigator for the CMS contract National Implementation of Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plan CAHPS, which supports CMS's regulatory requirement to monitor the quality of care provided by health and prescription drug plans.

As a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School she developed and teaches a course on survey design. She received her B.A. in social ecology from the University of California at Irvine.

Lake Murray is the Health and Wellness Coordinator for the National Down Syndrome Society where they work to create and support the dissemination, implementation, and evaluation of health and wellness programs.

Lake, born with Spina Bifida, has a longstanding commitment to disability advocacy. They previously worked with the organization Special Fishies, promoting drowning prevention and water safety for individuals with disabilities, and for the County of San Luis Obispo in managing Covid-19 guidelines and procedures for over 3,000 County employees.

Recently, they served as a graduate research assistant for the pilot study of 321go! in partnership with the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia. Lake holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a Master of Public Health in Health Promotion from George Washington University.

Shelby Dawkins (she/they) serves as the Deputy Director of the Healthcare Equality Project at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. In this role, Shelby is dedicated to ensuring that the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups have access to inclusive healthcare.

She collaborates with healthcare organizations to foster environments that are welcoming and supportive for both their staff and patients while addressing advocacy in policy.

Shelby's commitment to equity has taken her from Ohio to the Nation’s Capital. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies with a focus on difference and diversity from The Ohio State University, and a master’s degree in healthcare administration with a focus on leadership and management from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

An Ohio native, Shelby began her career in social services, which led to her specialization in health equity at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, James Cancer Center, and Solove Research Comprehensive Cancer Center. During her 11 years at OSUWMC, Shelby gained experience in patient care, operations supervision, administrative work, community engagement, and outreach. She also emerged as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as health equity.

Shelby's extensive experience in a large healthcare system has given her valuable insights into creating inclusive cultures for both staff and patients, benefiting the surrounding communities. Supported by her wife Sandra and their two children, Ahli and Noa, Shelby continues to advocate for equitable healthcare access for all marginalized populations, striving to ensure that future generations have better opportunities than the last.

Caroline Jens, MPH

UCSF Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx)

Caroline comes to CoDEx from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where she supported the Diagnostic Excellence Initiative and its recent conclusion.

CoDEx aims to serve as a national coordinating entity, engaging the diagnostic excellence community to promote novel findings, catalyze action, and advance the field.

Mika serves as the director of communications for the UCSF Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx).

With an extensive background in philanthropy-focused communications for the UCSF Foundation and the Smithsonian, her expertise extends to brand campaigns, marketing, and high-impact writing, honed through her work with organizations such as Georgetown University, the FBI, and various private sector enterprises and clients. 

Tracy Granzyk, MS, MFA is a healthcare and life sciences consultant, change and communication strategist with TiER1 Performance, and a freelance writer and content creator who is the founding editor-in-chief at Please See Me (www.pleaseseeme.com), an online, literary magazine that elevates the health-related story of vulnerable populations and those who care for them.

She most recently served as the founding Senior Director of the Center for Healthcare Narratives at the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety and was a longtime faculty member at the Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety (AELPS), where her passion for patient and provider safety began. Her portfolio of health-related content includes writing, directing, and producing and highlights include: the award-winning Tears to Transparency film series - The Lewis Blackman and Michael Skolnik stories, numerous articles on health-related topics, and ghostwriting on long-form fiction and creative nonfiction projects. 

She earned her MFA in Screenwriting and Creative Nonfiction at the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert Low Residency program and is represented by Dara Hyde. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with two crazy puppies and is the cool aunt to four young adults. Her portfolio can be found at: www.tracygranzyk.com or reach out to her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tgranz24/ 

Lisa Stewart is a patient and community engagement leader with extensive experience facilitating and operationalizing cross-sector partnerships.

She is the Founder and CEO of Torchlight/Groundwork Engagement, a consulting and training firm that works with community-based organizations, and industry, and academic research organizations, to build capacity and infrastructure for sustained engagement. She previously served as the Senior Director of Research and Advocacy at Discovery, a Publicis Health firm, and as the Senior Engagement Officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

While at PCORI, she led the Engagement Science & Practice team that was responsible for leading initiatives to advance the practice of engagement in health research through technical assistance, resource development, assessment, and promotion. She has served in many roles including as a patient/family navigator, co-investigator, and in positions of leadership for community boards and an NIH CTSA award...

She has degrees from the University of Virginia (M.A., Socio-Cultural/Medical  Anthropology) and Florida A&M University (B.S., Business Management).

Dheerendra Kommala, MD, is Chief Medical Officer at ECRI, responsible for ECRI’s Medical Office. He joined ECRI in 2019 as Chief Strategy Officer responsible for setting the organization’s strategic direction.

Dr. Kommala brings more than 20 years of experience as an academic clinician, researcher, and chief medical officer. He successfully introduced new products and services to markets throughout the world by working collaboratively with major health systems, industry leaders, clinicians, and patients. Throughout his career, he has been a vocal advocate for patient safety and a visionary leader managing large teams.

Prior to joining ECRI, Dr. Kommala was global vice president of medical affairs for Baxter Healthcare. Previous experience included working as chief medical officer/global vice president of medical affairs for ConvaTec, and as associate medical director of Global Pharmaceutical Research for Renal Care, Abbott Laboratories.

Dr. Kommala received his initial medical training in India, and completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Medicine.

Stacy Palmer is a visionary thinker and pragmatic strategist who has been a critical leader in the rapid expansion of experience as a central conversation in healthcare. Through her role as senior vice president and COO at The Beryl Institute, she has helped expand the focus on experience into a true global movement.

With a commitment to gather, understand, and integrate insights from The Beryl Institute community, Stacy helped establish a resource library that shares how healthcare organizations around the world are creating positive experiences for patients, family members, and caregivers. As host of the PX Marketplace Series’ To Care Is Human podcast, she also works with solution providers to broaden industry awareness of the tools available to them to impact experience.

Stacy helps organizations bring experience strategy to life through keynote speeches and workshops. She has co-authored numerous papers and stays connected to the work on the front lines, sharing experience journeys in the Institute’s On the Road series of articles.

Stacy and her husband, Rick, reside in Colleyville, Texas, where they raised their daughters, Maya and Luca. Driven by her commitment to elevating human experience, Stacy volunteers regularly in the community through religious and service organizations, provides mentorship, and is a passionate advocate for the foster care community.

Divvy K. Upadhyay, MD, MPH, CPHRM, CPPS leads diagnostic safety efforts at Geisinger- a large integrated, mostly rural, health system in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Upadhyay’s major focus is on establishing and learning from a system-wide program to identify and address diagnostic errors. He first started working on diagnostic errors more than a decade ago exploring health policy and diagnostic errors. For the last 7 years, he has worked full time on diagnostic safety at Geisinger managing a multi-disciplinary committee to improve clinical diagnosis and working closely with the organization’s patient safety, clinical risk management, and grievance teams.

He has collaborated with leading researchers and worked with local operations teams and clinical leaders to implement diagnostic safety in practice. In 2021, he was appointed to the 12-member national advisory panel for The Leapfrog Group’s “Recognizing Excellence in Diagnosis” - a new national initiative to publicly report and recognize hospitals for preventing patient harm due to diagnostic errors. He Co-Chairs SIDM’s Practice Improvement Committee and has been on expert/advisory panels at NQF (Project HARM and Diagnostic Excellence), IHI, ECRI, and RAND.

Prior to working with Geisinger, he was a healthcare policy analyst in Washington D.C. where he analyzed physician payment policy, primary care, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act among other healthcare policy issues.

Al Richmond, MSW, is the executive director of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health - CCPH, founded in 1998 to promote health equity and social justice through partnerships between communities and academic institutions. 

He is a global thought leader advocating for the authentic and strategic engagement of communities in public health and research. For over two-decades he has provided leadership in health equity initiatives, all of which were designed to address the persistent health disparities that are pervasive in the US and globally.  His commitment to equity allows him to provide leadership to multiple COVID19 projects, including RADxUP, and Co-PI of the North Carolina CEAL Project.

Al also serves as Co-PI of the Community Engagement Alliance Consultative Resource launched in 2022 to serve as a national resource to NIH funded projects. Al has served as a member of PCORI’s Patient Engagement Advisory Panel and as Project Lead with multiple projects funded through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program. He enjoys supporting other professionals and non-profit leaders as a certified professional and business coach. Al received his MSW from The Ohio State University and BSW from Livingstone College, an HBCU in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Ms. Jenna Williams-Bader, MPH, is Managing Director of Quality Measurement at the National Quality Forum (NQF), where she oversees projects solving challenges related to quality measurement and advancing digital quality measures and data standards.

She is currently leading a project designed to support and promote the implementation of diagnostic excellence measures. While at NQF, she also led the Measure Applications Partnership (MAP). Ms. Williams-Bader is a measure development expert with more than ten years of experience developing clinical quality measures for use in national public reporting and accountability programs, including the CMS Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), Medicare EHR Incentive (“Meaningful Use”) Program, and CMS Medicare Advantage Star Ratings.

She has particular expertise with electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and digital quality measures (dQMs), and has developed measures covering various clinical areas, including screenings, immunizations, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

Joyce Greenleaf is the Regional Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections in the Department of Health and Human Services.  She leads a team of social science researchers in the Boston office. She has over 38 years of Federal oversight experience.  She served as an instructor at the Training Institute of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, teaching standards for evaluations. 

Her professional interests include patient safety, dietary supplements, and human subjects protections, among other topics.  Over her career, she has received many awards for her contributions, including a Bronze Medal for outstanding employee of the year.  

Ms. Greenleaf is co-author of the chapter entitled The Ebb and Flow of Federal Initiatives to Regulate Healthcare Professionals, in Regulation of the Healthcare Professions.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration and B.A. in Sociology from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.  In her free time, she promotes open space conservation, pollinator preservation, biodiversity, and maintaining wildlife habitat both through her volunteer role as a steward for conservation land in her town and at her home, where her gardens have been featured in local native plant garden tours.

Jennifer Bright, MPA (she/her) is President, International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), a nonprofit that works with patients and clinical experts worldwide to define and deploy standardized tools to measure health outcomes that matter to patients. Prior, she held executive roles at the Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI), focusing on advancing patient-centricity, transparency and equity in health technology assessment, at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and Mental Health America.

Jennifer is also Founder and President, Momentum Health Strategies®; Board Chair, Mental Health America; and editor, American Journal of Accountable Care and the Journal of Patient Experience.  She holds degrees in political science and public administration from Trinity University and George Washington University.

Desiree Collins-Bradley is a resident of Houston, Texas. Her passion is patient and family engagement in healthcare and ensuring that patient’s voices are always represented at all levels of shared decision-making.

She is a mother of three wonderful children.  Her daughter was born with a genetic disorder Jarcho Levin Syndrome. It is extremely rare and often carries a very high mortality rate and grim prognosis. Her medical journey has inspired her to become an advocate not only for her daughter but in the medical community. She believes in the pillars of family-centered care, and it is her passion to spread their importance and awareness. She has become involved in several committees at the hospital, including the Newborn Center Family Advisory Committee, of which she was the Co-chair and one of the founding members.

Desiree is serving her gift of expertise in patient and family engagement as the Patient Engagement Network work lead at ATW Health Solutions. She currently manages ATW’s very interactive, diverse patient network, Patient Partner Innovation Community, PPIC of over 3,000 members across the country. She aims to inspire other patients and caregivers to partner in their healthcare communities to drive change. She is a strong advocate for patient populations at most social risk. She has worked on several SDOH and Social Determinants of Health initiatives with the National Quality Forum. She has participated in panel discussions at congressional briefings in Washington, DC through their partnership.

Jeff Salvon-Harman, MD, CPE, CPPS, Vice President, Safety, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is a Certified Physician Executive, Certified Professional in Patient Safety and IHI Fellow who is resolute about creating Safety and Belonging for patients and the healthcare workforce.

He provides strategic leadership in Safety with deep operational expertise implementing change initiatives and applying quality improvement methods. He is a recognized subject matter expert in high reliability, patient and workforce safety, Human Factors application to Root Cause Analysis, and system level management of quality and safety.  Previously, Dr. Salvon-Harman was the Chief Patient Safety Officer/VP, Quality Institute and Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control for Presbyterian Healthcare Services in New Mexico.  He is retired from the US Public Health Service where he dedicated 20 years to the Indian Health Service and the US Coast Guard in roles ranging from clinical service delivery to management and leadership.

Dr. Salvon-Harman completed his residency in Family Medicine at Carilion Health System in Roanoke, VA after graduating from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA.

Cristina Boccuti is Vice President of Health Security at the AARP Public Policy Institute. In this role, she leads a team of senior health policy professionals to deliver research and analysis that drives and supports public policy priorities, advocacy efforts, issue campaigns, and communication activities that advance AARP’s work on behalf of older adults.

Before joining AARP, Boccuti served as Director of Health Policy at West Health, where she led strategic research and analysis on federal and commercial health care spending and Medicare-related issues, including out-of-pocket costs, access to care, provider payment, quality measures for geriatric care, and health workforce.

Prior to West Health, she was an Associate Director at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), where she analyzed Medicare reform proposals as part of a major initiative on the future of Medicare. Boccuti has also held senior positions at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and The Urban Institute. 

Before transitioning to health policy, Boccuti was a speech-language pathologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago.

She completed her graduate studies at Georgetown University and George Washington University and her undergraduate studies at Cornell University.

L. Bradley Schwartz is a Chicago medical malpractice attorney who almost died after a series of communication breakdowns in a hospital emergency room. Brad entered the hospital feeling slightly lethargic with a worsening headache.

Almost 12 hours later, he was comatose and on life support. Mr. Schwartz woke up a month later to learn his limbs needed to be amputated because his entire medical team had missed all the early warning signs of sepsis.

It soon became Brad’s personal mission to make sure every patient’s voice is heard, because in his case, it wasn’t. He founded Greater National Advocates, a national network of Independent Patient Advocates who have the experience and ability to step in and help prevent medical errors before they happen.

GNANOW.ORG is an expansive national online directory of patient and healthcare advocates who offer immediate support for patients and loved ones struggling to manage a healthcare crisis. 

Dawn is a nurse executive with over 20 years of healthcare leadership experience. She is an expert in strategic planning, program development, and leading patient safety and high-reliability transformations.  Dawn is a board-certified Advanced Practice Nurse with a clinical focus on quality and safety. In her role at Oracle Health, she leads the Federal Clinical Quality and Patient Safety organization. 

Her “Why” is her son Noah who has a complex chronic medical condition and has survived unsafe care.  

Margot Rhondeau is the Senior Director of Health & Wellness for the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) where she leads the creation of resources and programming to improve health and wellness within the Down syndrome community. Margot joined NDSS in 2020, bringing 14 years of experience working in the health space, both internationally and nationally, to overcome barriers to care and increase health services and programs for underserved populations.

Margot holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematical economics from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in international economics and development from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Margot is the proud mother of a child with Down syndrome. She enjoys hiking, taking her children on adventures and advocating for inclusion and acceptance.

Dr. Soojin Jun is a board-certified geriatric pharmacist in the United States and a founding member of Patients for Patient Safety US, a group of patient safety activists who have experienced medical harm directly or indirectly, committed to activating US healthcare according to the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 of the World Health Organization (WHO).

She has trained as a certified professional in patient safety (CPPS) and a certified professional in healthcare quality (CPHQ). After losing her dad to many gaps in healthcare as a foreigner, one of them a medication adverse event, she changed her career from a videographer to a pharmacist. She believes that a combination of art, empathy, and compassion in healthcare can make healing possible. She speaks passionately about patient safety, trauma-informed care, patient rights, health equity, health literacy, the expansion of roles of pharmacists, and patient advocacy at the policy level.

Kerri Moran is the Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications, Policy, and Partnerships for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In this role, Kerri is responsible for coordinating communications and policy activities to support the division’s mission of protecting patients and healthcare workers through safe healthcare delivery systems in the United States and abroad. Kerri also develops and maintains strategic relationships to support division and partner goals.

Kerri has been with DHQP since 2014 and has provided partnership and health communications expertise for the rollout of significant initiatives including patient safety-focused reports and resources as well as for the division’s educational efforts for sepsis awareness, improving antibiotic use, increasing adherence to hand hygiene, and promoting medication safety. 

Celina Gorre is the CEO of WomenHeart, the largest nonprofit organization focused exclusively on improving the health and quality of life for women living with and at risk for heart disease. Celina is also a patient herself.

Before leading WomenHeart, Celina served as the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, in London, overseeing more than $250M in public research funding in 66 countries. From 2009-2011, Celina was the Managing Director of the Foundation for the UN Global Compact, establishing the 501(c)(3) to enable companies to support the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative. From 2007-2009, she worked with UNFPA and UNICEF in Angola as a senior HIV/AIDS advisor.

Celina has had extensive experience at the intersection of corporate responsibility and global health, developing health and social programs for multinational companies, as the Technical Manager for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, from 2005-2007, and has held in-house corporate responsibility positions, leading global training for Gap Inc.’s social responsibility department and conducting factory audits for Mattel Inc. Celina has spoken all around the world on topics including research funding cooperation, the social role of corporations, implementation science, women’s health, and cardiovascular patient engagement. Celina earned her BA and MPH from UCLA and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. 

When I dreamt of being a writer, I imagined sharing my voice with others. I never thought it would also lead to becoming a national advocate for patients and families. I’ve been a published writer and journalist for over twenty years with a broad portfolio. Since 2005, I've focused on writing about –– and working to help –– families in crisis. I do this because my own family survived years of our son’s medical crises and we were lucky enough to have a happy resolution. My personal narrative book (working title Catch Me When I Stumble) is in editing. Check back for updates. I'll let you know when it will be published.

Most recently, I'm proud of my column, Dx IQ.  It's been helping patients apply the latest medical diagnostic news to their own care since 2018. My latest articles are published on my Substack Patient No More. You can subscribe here, or there, to read them in your inbox. 

And I’m thrilled to sit on the advisory panels for several major national projects on patient safety and diagnostic error to represent the patient experience. I’m a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and of the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ).

Ruth Ann Dorrill is an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG). 

Ruth Ann has been with the HHS OIG for 29 years and led national studies in evaluating hospital and nursing home patient safety, including co-leading its 2010 study that found the first national incidence rate of adverse events in hospitals.  She has also led management reviews of HHS programs, including the problematic implementation of HealthCare.gov and HHS management of the Indian Health Service, and co-led OIG’s COVID-19 hospital and nursing home response work.

Ruth Ann testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee regarding nursing home quality in 2018 and received the June Gibbs Brown Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency in 2021.  She is a Senior Fellow at the Partnership for Public Service in Washington, DC and holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Bachelor of Science from Baylor University.

CDR Karen Ho Chaves is the Director of the Division of Quality Measurement and Improvement in the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

She oversees programs responsible for providing the evidence, methodology, and research for improving healthcare in the U.S. These include a quality measurement program called the AHRQ Quality Indicators, and patient experience surveys for quality improvement called the Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS) and Survey on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS). She also led the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report, a Congressional annual report on the status of healthcare quality and disparities in the U.S. for over a decade.

She serves as a Federal Career Coach to provide career development support for leaders in federal service. Previously she was a Public Affairs Advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She has been a United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer since 2009. She has deployed in public health and emergency response for numerous missions including ASPR/Secretary’s Operation Center for hurricane response, Operation Allies Welcome, Unaccompanied Children, and COVID-19. 

She has served the Chair of the USPHS Asian Pacific American Officers Committee. She has also served as the Health Policy Advisor at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  Prior to her federal service, she worked as a community advocate with the NICOS Chinese Health Coalition in San Francisco, California. Commander Chaves received her Master of Health Science in Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ehsan is a quality and pa/ent safety expert, as well as a dedicated public health professional, boas/ng over 13 years of professional experience. Her passion for enhancing quality and pa/ent safety is evident throughout her career, where she has spearheaded numerous projects aimed at assessing and enhancing pa/ent safety on both na/onal and facility levels across various healthcare settings.

Drawing from a diverse background, Ehsan has held various roles in numerous hospitals across Egypt, with her most recent posi/on being the Head of the Quality Research and Performance Improvement Sec/on at 57357 Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt, one of the world's largest pediatric oncology hospitals. Addi/onally, she serves as a Quality and Pa/ent Safety Consultant in the Health Systems Unit of the EMRO Office of the WHO, where she has contributed to projects spanning mul/ple countries in the region, including Jordan, UAE, Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, and others.

Ehsan is also a dedicated instructor in quality and pa/ent safety, having delivered numerous lectures and served as a faculty member in the Joint Commission Interna/onal’s Pa/ent Safety Program in Egypt in both 2018 and 2019. Furthermore, she is an instructor in the prac/cal component of the Hospital Management and Quality Excellence Diploma at the American University of Cairo.

Ehsan holds a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy and a Master of Public Health from Yale School of Public Health, facilitated by the USAID scholarship. Addi/onally, she is a cer/fied Master Six Sigma Black Belt and a Cer/fied Professional in Healthcare Quality, among other creden/als.

Driven by her passion for public health, Ehsan co-founded and co-leads MakeDeathsCount, a nonprofit organiza/on dedicated to enhancing mortality surveillance in low and middle-income countries. With a focus on preven/ng avoidable deaths and priori/zing public health 

interven/ons, the organiza/on has successfully executed projects in Northwest Syria and Somalia, making significant strides in improving healthcare outcomes in these regions. Future plans include projects in Bangladesh, India, and Ethiopia.

Joann Sorra, PhD, is an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist and Westat Vice President with over 25 years of experience conducting organizational and health services research.

She is the  Project Director for a contract that supports the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) and Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) programs. She has expertise in organizational culture, patient safety, patient and caregiver experience with healthcare, healthcare quality, implementation science, program evaluation, survey methodology, and complex project management.

Dr. Sorra is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

Kathy McDonald, PhD, MM, is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Health Systems, Quality and Safety at Johns Hopkins University. She holds primary appointments in the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine (General Internal Medicine), as well as academic affiliations in business, public health and engineering. She is co-director of the Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the Center for Equity in Aging at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. 

Her interdisciplinary scholarship aims to improve health care delivery, and relies on close partnerships with patients, frontline clinical teams, and delivery system leaders. Influential research products include over 100 evidence-based national quality, prevention and safety measures. In the diagnostic excellence domain, her team focuses on patient reported measures, diagnostic disparities solutions for diagnostic equity, narrative elicitation methods to deepen understanding of patient and care partner experiences.

She has served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and founding chair of the Patient Engagement Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. She also served as a member of two National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Committees – Child Health and Healthcare Measures, and Improving Diagnosis and Reducing Diagnostic Errors. She is currently serving on the NAM Diagnostic Excellence Forum Planning Committee.

Leah Binder, MA, MGA, is President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, representing employers and other purchasers of health care calling for improved safety and quality in hospitals. Leapfrog publishes free ratings of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers on how safe they are for their patients. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and consistently named among Modern Healthcare’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in healthcare.

Under her leadership, The Leapfrog Group has grown fourfold in size, and launched major new initiatives including the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns letter grades assessing the safety of general hospitals across the country. 

She has served on numerous national boards and councils, including the National Quality Forum, Women of Impact, CMMI’s Accountable Care Action Collaborative, and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. 

Prior to her position at The Leapfrog Group, Leah spent eight years as vice president at Franklin Community Health Network, an award-winning rural hospital network in Farmington, Maine. Prior to that she served as senior policy advisor at the New York City Mayor’s Office. She started her career at the National League for Nursing, where she handled policy and communications for more than 6 years.

Ms. Binder has a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and two master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, one from the Annenberg School of Communication and the other from the Fels Institute of Government. She was born and raised in Maine and lives in Maryland with her husband and two sons.

Erin Grossmann currently serves as the Regulatory and External Affairs Manager at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), where she implements the College's advocacy agenda and leads the management of the College’s cross-divisional relationship-building initiatives, and was previously External Affairs Coordinator.

She graduated from George Washington University where she studied Political Science and Sociology. 

Aisha Terry, MD, MPH, FACEP, is currently the President of the American College of Emergency Physicians. She is an associate professor of emergency medicine and health policy at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC.

She is the senior advisor to the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine Health Policy Fellowship and chief executive officer of the Minority Women in Science Foundation (MWSF), a non-profit organization that empowers the dreams of future leaders with an interest in science careers.

She received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and her Master of Public Health from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. 

Jonathan Fisher, MD, MPH, FACEP, FAEMS is the  Interim Associate Executive Director, Clinical Affairs at American College of Emergency Physicians.  He is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University and is board-certified by ABEM in both Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services.  He completed his emergency medicine residency training at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital in 2001.

Dr. Fisher spent many years in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, where he served numerous leadership roles including Vice-Chair and EMS Fellowship Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine. He has served in key leadership roles in numerous institutions and national organizations including Academy of Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Council on Graduate Medical Education, Council of Residency Director in Emergency Medicine. National Association of EMS Physicians, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Fisher has a long track record of innovative work in medical education, public health, and administration.

Carole Stockmeier is the Senior Vice President of Safety & Reliability Solutions at Press Ganey. She leads development and integration of methods and solutions to help healthcare organizations optimize safety and performance excellence. 

Specific areas of interest include reliability competency, organizational resilience, emotional harm measurement, and solutions and analytics for event learning and improvement.

With over 20 years of experience and expertise in safety science and high reliability organizing, Carole was a founder and Chief Operating Officer of HPI (Healthcare Performance Improvement). She has coached healthcare leaders in comprehensive safety and reliability culture transformation resulting in recognized and published outcomes in safety and return on investment. Prior to the formation of HPI, she served as the Director of Safety and Performance Excellence at Sentara Healthcare, recipient of the 2004 AHA Quest for Quality Prize and the 2005 John M Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award. 

Carole led the earliest applications of reliability leadership methods in healthcare, notably including the widely practiced Daily Safety Check-In. She was a developer of the HPI SEC© & SSER© Patient Safety Measurement System for Healthcare as well as Focus & SimplifySM methodology for human factors integration in work process and protocol development. With a philosophy of “all share, all learn”, Carole was a founding convener and strategic leader of the HPI Safety Summit, a highly regarded gathering for organizations engaged in safety and high reliability organizing. 

Within Press Ganey, Carole is a member of the PG Patient Safety Organization (PSO) executive steering committee and a co-lead for the PG PSO High Reliability Learning Series and the PG Safety Leadership Council.

Outside of Press Ganey, she is board member of the Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (AQIPS) and served as a member of the Old Dominion University Women’s Initiative Network (WIN), a professional development program for first-generation college students. Carole is a contributing author of Zero Harm: How to Achieve Zero Harm in Patient and Workforce Safety. 

Residing in Chesapeake, Virginia, Carole is a breast cancer survivor, which has given her first-hand perspective on safety, quality, and experience of care in the healthcare industry.

Carole holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Master of Health Administration from the Medical College of Virginia.

Laura Wooster serves as ACEP’s Senior Vice President of Advocacy & Practice Affairs, overseeing the College’s federal and state legislative, regulatory, and practice advocacy. Prior to joining ACEP, Laura served as Senior Vice President, Public Policy, for the American Osteopathic Association (AOA).

She also spent five years at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, first developing policy on delivery system reform and health IT, and then as a Congressional and Administration lobbyist. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Michigan, and a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

Nikki is a nurse executive with over 25 years healthcare information technology experience, focusing the last four years on system and patient safety. She has a passion for the health of health data and how it impacts care delivery, research, and population health.

In her current role at Oracle Health, she leads the Quality and Safety team that strives to continuously advance patient safety within the complex sociotechnical systems at the intersection of healthcare and technology. 

Rita K. Jew, Pharm.D., MBA, BCPPS, FASHP is President at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) where she provides leadership in advocacy of ISMP’s mission and vision to stakeholders and develops and implements strategic goals, provides oversight and actively participates in consultation, education, publications, and oversees the development of new guidelines, programs, products and services.

Prior to ISMP, Dr. Jew was a neonatal/pediatric specialist and has held various leadership positions including Director of Pharmacy at UCSF Health, Executive Director of Pharmacy & Clinical Nutrition Services at CHOC Children’s and Clinical Manager at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Her 25 plus-year tenure in hospital pharmacies encompassed broad experiences in pharmacy leadership, clinical pharmacy services, formulary management, medication safety, pharmacy operations, centralized pharmacy services, pediatric pharmacy services, healthcare technology and automation, sterile & non-sterile compounding, finance/ revenue-cycle, 340B program, CQI/lean, clean room and pharmacy construction, emergency preparedness and establishing residency programs.

Dr. Jew received her Pharm.D. from University of California at San Francisco, completed an ASHP-Accredited Residency in Clinical Pharmacy at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and received her MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She is a Board- Certified Pediatric Pharmacy Specialist (BCPPS).

Erin N. Grace, MHA, is Deputy Center Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

In this role, along with the Center Director, she oversees the five divisions of the Center: General Patient Safety, Healthcare-Associated Infections, Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), Quality Measurement and Improvement (QMI), and Healthcare Data and Analytics, and manages the day-to-day operations of the Center. In her role as Acting Director of CQuIPS from May 2022 to April 2023, she served as co-chair for the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety. Previously Ms. Grace served as Division Director for the General Patient Safety Program where she managed the Agency’s activities related to patient safety including funding of grants and contracts, and development and dissemination of evidence-based tools and resources to advance patient safety.

Ms. Grace also served as Chief of Health IT Translation at AHRQ where she focused on knowledge translation, evaluating the impact of the AHRQ Health IT Portfolio’s work, and assessing the future research needs to be addressed by the Portfolio. She also managed contracts, grants, and other initiatives with special expertise in health information exchange, Medicaid, rural, and children’s health IT needs. Prior to her time at AHRQ, Ms. Grace served as Senior Vice President at the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, MD; Assistant Vice President for Accreditation, at NCQA; and Administrative Director for Medical Affairs at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. Ms. Grace received her Master’s Degree in Health Administration from The Ohio State University.

Shannon Davila, MSN, RN, CPPS, CIC, CPHQ, FAPIC

Shannon currently serves as the Executive Director of ECRI’s Total Systems Safety. With a clinical background in adult critical care nursing, Shannon specializes in infection prevention, patient safety and healthcare quality improvement. She currently sits on the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety.

She has authored a book and published several articles that focus on the importance of infection prevention and patient safety. In 2016, Shannon was honored with the APIC Heroes of Infection Prevention Award. 

Shannon has served in the United States Air Force and is appointed to sit on the New Jersey Commission for Women Veterans. Shannon is certified in just culture, patient safety, infection control, and healthcare quality, as a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer and High Reliability coach. She received her BSN from the University of Southern Maine, her MSN from Walden University, and in 2020 was designated by APIC as a fellow in infection prevention (FAPIC).