2018 Speaking Faculty

On April 15, 2013, what is referred to as Marathon Monday in Boston, Heather Abbott of Newport, RI set out on an annual tradition with six friends. They would attend the Red Sox game, followed by a walk over to the finish line to watch the runners. Abbott would never have dreamed this day would change her life forever.

Abbott was struck by shrapnel from the second of the two bombs, severely injuring her left foot. Strangers Matt Chatham, former New England Patriots lineman, and his wife, Erin, carried her to safety.

After three surgeries in four days, Abbott was faced with an agonizing decision – should she try and save her left foot or amputate her leg below the knee. With the help of other amputees, and the support from thousands around the country, Abbott made the difficult decision, at the age of 38, to live her life as an amputee.

Her recovery, as it is for many, was a journey through pain, anger, optimism, challenge and resilience. A significant part of her recovery was her support network – the friends, family and strangers who sent her well-wishes, the fellow amputees who helped her transition and the custom prostheses that allowed her to live her life as before.

Through insurance and donations, Abbott was given four different prosthetic legs. Just months after the bombing, she was living independently and resuming the activities she loves, including stand up paddle boarding, running and wearing high heels. Abbott has remained a model of strength and resilience and is determined to help other victims of limb loss. She is a certified Peer Counselor for the American Amputee Coalition and is helping other amputees adjust to their “new normal,� as others helped her. By starting the Heather Abbott Foundation, she has another chance to continue to pay it forward for all amputees. Heather Abbott has recently been awarded the following: the 2014 Orthopedic Association’s Spirit of an Active Lifestyle Award, an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Framingham State University in 2015, the Stonehill College President’s Excellence Award in 2015 and the 2015 Providence Business News Woman to Watch.

Shannon is the Vice President of Clinical Strategy overseeing patient care programs and clinical innovation for Amedisys, a national home care, hospice, and personal care provider. Her work focuses on evidence-based clinical programs aimed at patient self-care and disease awareness that enhance the lives of patients and caregivers while improving outcomes. Throughout her 20-year career, Shannon has also created clinician education programs that increase employee engagement and retention. As a healthcare executive, Shannon has led innovation, operations, branding, marketing, sales, and organizational strategy.

Ms. Abbott earned her Masters Degree in Business Administration from Montreat College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Western Carolina University. She holds an active RN License in the state of Florida and was awarded Fellow Status within the American College of Health Care Executives.

Aamer Ahmed is Director of Patient Experience and Provider Onboarding at Froedert and the Medical College of Wisconsin representing the physician practice. Aamer has been with FMCW for six years overseeing service excellence improvement, change management and physician engagement. Highlights of Aamer’s career include developing a physician communication program for all providers, creating a patient-centered physician orientation, creating a physician champion management system and subsequently bringing FMCW to top decile performance.

Allen, Ph.D. joined Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) in September 2014 as the first Chief Patient Experience Officer. In this role, she has oversight and responsibility for enhancing and continually improving the overall experience of patients and families by coaching, utilization of best practices, transparency, reporting, and system collaboration. She focuses on person and family centered care and engagement. Her position sits within the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Her team consists of Coaches, Volunteer Services, Patient Relations, and Patient and Guest Services. Dr. Allen is a healthcare leader with over 25 years of expertise in patient experience, performance improvement, analytics, quality and patient safety in large academic medical centers, community hospitals, and non-profit and for profit healthcare systems. She has her Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology and Community Medicine, a Green Belt in Lean, and is a Certified Executive Coach. Dr. Allen was named in the Becker’s Hospital Review list as “130 women hospital and health system leaders to know� for 2015-2017.

Presently, serves as the health system executive for the consumer experience, employee engagement, process improvement strategies and hospital operations. Patrick is the executive lead for Sparrow’s Baldrige journey.

Prior to his current position, Patrick served as the Executive Director for several strategic service lines at Sparrow Health System. Before Sparrow, he served as the Administrator for the post-acute services division at Henry Ford Allegiance Health.

He received his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and master’s degree from Western Michigan University.

Patrick has been an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) at both state and national level, serving on committees and the chapter board, and was the chapter president for Great Lakes Chapter of ACHE. Patrick is board certified as a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Currently serves as Senior Director of Patient Experience for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Brian joined Vanderbilt in 2007 and prior to current role served as Administrator for the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. Prior to Vanderbilt Brian was CEO/COO of a multispecialty physician group practice in Western New York and started his professional career at Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation in Chicago as a Practice Manager. In his current role he has strategic and operational responsibility for institutional performance on service metrics.

Dr. Patrick Carroll is the Chief Medical Officer/Divisional Vice President for Walgreen’s Healthcare Clinics. In this role, Dr. Carroll oversees all matters pertaining to provision of care, clinical outcomes, patient safety, healthcare information systems and strategic initiatives and programs that will enhance the care model. In addition, Dr. Carroll is instrumental in implementing care management programs, managing relationships with health systems and collaborating with the Clinical Office in the development of enterprise clinical programs.

Prior to joining Walgreen’s in May 2014, Dr. Carroll served as the Chief Medical Officer of Integrated Care Partners, Hartford HealthCare’s clinical integration organization. He was also the Medical Director for Hartford HealthCare’s Medicare Shared Savings Program which currently has over 20,000 patients in a Medicare/CMS shared-risk pilot program. He played a key role in leading the Hartford HealthCare’s efforts in the transition to value-based care in a time of a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. From 2010–2012, Dr. Carroll served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Granite Medical Group in Quincy, Massachusetts. Granite Medical Group is a 40-provider Multispecialty/Primary Care Group which is part of Atrius Health, a 1000 Medical Provider Group.

Dr. Carroll received his bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross and his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School. He completed his residency training at Middlesex Hospital in family practice, where he served as Chief Resident.

Dr. Carroll is Board Certified in Family Practice and in Adolescent Medicine.

Sarah Christensen, MA, is the director of Patient Education at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. With 20 years of a cancer-specific patient education background, including 11 years leading education departments at two National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer centers, she is responsible for institution-wide patient education programming including:

• Providing leadership in strategic planning for an innovative patient education program.
• Reporting business analysis to increase efficiencies and decrease costs of programming.
• Overseeing development of initiatives, communication strategies and evaluation of patient and family-centered education programs.

She and her staff of 16 employees work closely with patients and families to develop a patient-centered learning environment that provides the health care team with the resources needed to best involve patients in their own care.

Ms. Christensen received a Bachelor of Arts in English, Secondary Education from Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota and a Master of Arts degree in Health and Human Services Administration, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Management, from Saint Mary’s University, Winona, Minnesota.

Having strong business and education experience, together with a leadership and strategic management background, Ms. Christensen brings a new perspective to the Patient Education office with the intent to continually serve and support patients and caregivers in the fight against cancer.

Fiona Greig is the Director of Consumer Research for the JPMorgan Chase Institute. Previously, Fiona served as the Deputy Budget Director for the City of Philadelphia from 2012 through 2014 and as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, Fiona was a consultant at McKinsey & Company for five years, consulting public and social sector clients on strategy, operations and economic development.

In 2009 Fiona started and ran Bank on DC, a financial inclusion program for the District of Columbia. She has published on economic and public health topics in journals such as the American Economic Review and AIDS and Behavior. Fiona was named a Rising Talent by The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University.

As Chief Experience Officer, Christine Holt provides leadership to transformational initiatives at Holy Redeemer Health System, including providing direction for the marketing, recruitment, employee university, and construction and design functions, as well as the employee and patient experience strategies. Previous to the CXO role, Chris was the VP, Marketing and Public Affairs for the System. In her 20 plus years in healthcare, Chris has served in a variety of capacities within health systems and large physician practices, including marketing and management. She began her healthcare career as a long-term care administrator. Chris received her Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and finance from Saint Joseph’s University and her MBA in healthcare administration and a MS in healthcare finance from Temple University.

Megan is the Director of Patient Experience for Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa. She has her Master’s from Drexel University and was among the first to receive her CPXP, the certification for patient experience professionals. With a background and understanding including community practice, university health, and inpatient, she has led collaborative practices to improve employee and patient experience. She is a member of the Geisinger speaker’s bureau, and a national speaker for patient experience.

Melissa is extremely passionate about the experience that patients, families and staff receive. As Director of Patient Experience for Steward Health Care, she oversees corporate initiatives to drive quality, safety and patient experience within Steward’s hospitals and collaborates with Steward’s ambulatory practices to enhance the patient’s entire journey.

Alongside her experienced team, Melissa works closely with Steward’s Northeast Region of 9 hospitals where they are using qualitative and quantitative data to sustain compassionate communication techniques, hardwire bedside rounding and enhance employee engagement. Nationally, Melissa is helping to develop the Patient Experience strategy for Steward’s recently acquired 25 community hospitals under the direction of the Chief Medical Officer.

Before working with hospitals, Melissa joined Steward in 2015 working as a Performance Improvement Advisor for Steward Health Care Network where she helped drive outcomes and achieve some of the largest increases in key patient experience domains for the Network’s ambulatory practices. For more than a decade, Melissa’s career has consisted of roles in performance improvement, operations and marketing. She lives in Lakeville, MA with her husband and two girls, ages 7 and 3.

Janet (Jodi) Larson, M.D. is the Chief Quality and Experience Officer (CQXO) at NWH and is part of the Strategic Leadership Team. She has oversight of Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s quality, safety, performance improvement, patient outcomes, accreditation activities, Medical Staff office, and experience/service excellence for our patients, their families, and NWH employees. The CQXO serves as a change agent at the center of driving service culture transformation and unifying quality, safety and experience strategies to improve care delivery. Prior to that, Dr. Larson had been serving as the Acting Associate Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Larson works clinically as a hospitalist on the adult medicine inpatient service.

Alison Lemay joined UMass Memorial Medical Center as Associate Vice President, Patient and Family Experience in 2017. Alison is responsible for collaborating with clinical and administrative leadership to drive the UMMMC’s organization-wide strategy to achieve our vision of being the best place to give and get care. She works to ensure our patients, their loved ones, and other Medical Center visitors have an exceptional experience while in our care and receive the highest quality service. She is part of the Senior Leadership team and reports directly to the President of UMMMC.

Alison recently chaired the 4th Annual Patient Engagement and Experience Summit in Boston, MA. She was a panelist at the 2017 Value-based Care Summit in Boston and subsequently featured in several articles on patientengagementHIT.com.

Alison joined UMMMC from Steward Health Care where she was the Corporate Director, Patient Experience Strategies overseeing patient experience programs at eight community hospitals. During her time with Steward, she oversaw the implementation of Purposeful Rounding and Bedside Shift Report at all of the community hospitals. She also personally shadowed and coached over 100 providers on improving communication practices with their patients and families.

Prior to joining Steward, she was an Operations Management Project Manager at Newton-Wellesley Hospital where she developed a hospital-wide Patient Experience program. She also managed projects focused on length of stay reduction, patient flow and interdisciplinary bedside rounding.

Alison graduated from Boston University with a Master of Public Health focusing on Healthcare Policy and Management, and from Providence College with a B.S in Biology. She lives in Ashland, MA with her husband and their three boys, ages 9, 5 and 2.

Juan is responsible for company-wide diversity efforts to identify and implement strategies to grow Tufts Health Plan's presence in diverse communities, comprising members, providers, brokers, employers, employees and vendors. Previously, Juan was the company's director of health care services where he led various strategic initiatives, including medical cost management and provider contracting strategy and analytics. Prior to joining Tufts Health Plan in 2010, Juan held management positions at Blue Cross Blue Shield and Deloitte Consulting. He serves on several boards including The State of Massachusetts Latino Advisory Commission, The Dimock Center Foundation Board, The Boston Foundation Latino Legacy Fund, ALPFA Boston's Corporate Advisory Board, the State of Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council and Quality Interactions Corporate Advisory Board. Juan's leadership has not gone unnoticed as he has received several recognitions including the 2017 Boston College John A. Dinneen, S.J., Alumni Community Service Award, 2017 Get Konnected's 50 Most Influential People of Color in Health Care, 2016 El Planeta's Powermeter: Most Influential People for the Hispanic Community, 2015 Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40, 2015 Whittier Street Health Center's Men's Health Champion, ALPFA's National 2013 Most Promising Business Professional and the 2011 Medical Law Report's Rx for Excellence Leader in Quality. Juan earned a B.S. from the School of Management at Boston College. He is originally from Medellin, Colombia and resides in Waltham, MA.

Carol A. Majewski serves as the Director of Patient Experience for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system. Prior to developing that role, she served for 13 years as Dartmouth’s Administrative Director for the Center of Perioperative Services. Carol’s efforts were directed to strategic planning, clinical operations and championing quality, safety and patient experience initiatives in both the inpatient and ambulatory perioperative settings. Prior to her role at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Carol held a comparable position at Windham Hospital in Willimantic CT, and has worked in the for-profit industry at Hartford Surgical Center and in mobile lithotripter technologies.

Carol is a BSN graduate from Niagara University, earning her Masters in Health Care Management at the Hartford Graduate Center and her second Masters in Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2013. Carol holds a Greenbelt certification in Continuous Improvement at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Value Institute and attained her certification as a Patient Experience Professional in 2016.

In her role, Carol co-creates, with leaders, staff, patients and families the strategic direction and priorities for patient experience at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Supported by a Value Analytics team, she utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data to inspire, motivate and drive improvement, implement best practices and evolve their culture. She leads operational teams in furthering patient experience work, including service excellence initiatives, and fosters a collaborative spirit across the system to establish and build a consistent experience for patients and families utilizing the voice of patients to design, improve and inform unit, departmental and organizational change.

With over 35 years of non-profit management experience, Mary McGowan currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. As the primary representative and spokesperson for this national 35,000 member patient advocacy organization serving women living with and at risk for heart disease, McGowan ensures successful implementation of the strategic direction and increases WomenHeart's visibility and brand recognition among key audiences nationally.

McGowan joined WomenHeart in September of 2010 as Chief Operating Officer to ensure the organization’s long term growth and sustainability. McGowan provided leadership and day-to-day oversight of WomenHeart’s main components including fundraising, resource development, communications, marketing, programs and public policy. She created and implemented WomenHeart's National Hospital Alliance, comprised of hospitals committed to advancing women's heart health - a partnership with hospitals nationwide that seeks to ensure that women heart disease patients in every community have access to information, education and patient support services.

Prior to joining WomenHeart, Mary served as Executive Director of the Allergy & Asthma Network, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating suffering and death due to asthma, allergies and related conditions. She held various positions with the American Academy of Pediatrics during her service of 18 years. Following the events of 9/11, she was project director on multiple emergency preparedness grants focusing on the needs of children.

McGowan earned a Masters Degree in Human Resources Development from the George Washington University and a B.A. from Trinity University. She has a congenital heart disorder, a patent foramen ovale (PFO), also known as a hole in her heart, causing a minor stroke in 2010.

In 2005 Nancy had a booming career as a customer service consultant to multiple National retailers. She suddenly had a health crisis that nearly ended her life - twice. She experienced the high returns of empathetic patient care when one ICU nurse made all the difference in her survival, as told in her book, “Stripped: 49 Life Lessons Learned from Dying.� Nancy is now applying her first-hand perspective and customer service expertise to educate healthcare professionals how to communicate effectively and with compassion. Nancy is a member of several patient and family advisory councils including BIDMC, NAME, and PVI.

Chris Oginz joined Newton-Wellesley Hospital in 1997. Chris is responsible for collaborating with the Experience/Engagement Workgroup to drive the Newton-Wellesley Hospital organization-wide strategy to achieve our mission of creating the best place to receive and provide care. She works to develop, implement, and monitor strategies to consistently improve the patient experience and employee engagement.

Her passion is to give an exceptional experience to every patient! every time!

She reports to the Vice President, Quality, Safety & Patient Experience and the Chief Quality and Experience Officer.

Kevin Pawl is the Senior Director of Patient Access at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is responsible for improving the patient, family and referring-provider experience when accessing services. In his current role, significant accomplishments have been made including the creation of a business intelligence tool which provides transparency to key Access metrics, as well as enterprise-wide Access standards that help align both hospital and physician delivered services.

Mr. Pawl is an experienced leader with almost 30 years of increasingly high-level responsibilities. He started his career at Boston Children’s in 1989 and has held several positions within the hospital. He has been a lecturer and consultant at health care events and national meetings on patient access, practice operations and organizational culture. He is a Fellow of the Medical Group Management Association, holds certifications in Lean Process Improvement, and is certified with the American College of Medical Practice Executives. He holds a Master of Science in Leadership from Northeastern University.

Deborah Pesanka is a Senior Corporate Improvement Specialist for the Clinical Improvement Department at the Wolff Center at UPMC. Since January 2007, she has served as an internal consulting resource for quality, safety and process improvement in enterprise-wide initiatives. Deborah assesses operations and processes in a comprehensive current state analysis and leads interprofessional teams in the development of clinical outcomes that drive quality patient outcomes, optimize patient experiences and reduce resource utilization.

Deborah began her career as a critical care nurse in the cardiothoracic ICU at UPMC Mercy Hospital. With an early interest in improvement of care delivery, she moved into a newly- created cardiac outcomes management role. Deborah was in nursing leadership for many years and this operational role drove her passion for patient safety. Clinical expertise and project management experience came together in the 2004 development of a new in-patient cardiac surgical service line.

Deborah graduated from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in 1989 and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Carlow University in 1993. She obtained her Masters of Science in Management and Technology from Carlow University in 2001. She holds a green belt in Six Sigma methodology and teaches quality courses across UPMC. Deborah has presented both nationally and internationally on quality.

Kristen Silberstein is a widely recognized and respected executive, with over twenty-five years experience in New Jersey’s healthcare industry. She has served on various industry task forces and committees, and has provided expert testimony to New Jersey Joint Assembly Committees on major policy initiatives, including out-of-network reimbursement legislation, and tiered networks. In 2016 she was a finalist for the NJBIZ Healthcare Professional of the Year Award.

In September 2016, Ms. Silberstein joined Holy Name Medical Center as its Chief Experience Officer. As the executive responsible for non-clinical patient services, she develops and implements next-generation patient engagement initiatives. She also chairs the Holy Name council that leads the hospital’s patient-centered cultural competency initiatives (PC3). Prior to joining Holy Name, she spent twenty-one years at Valley Health System where she was responsible for developing payer strategies and overseeing Valley’s payer relations and contracting efforts.

Kristen holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, and a B.A., Economics and Business, from Lafayette College.

Manu serves as the Chief Information Officer for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliated Academic Medical Center. In his current role, he is responsible for all IT matters pertaining to the Academic Medical Center and all the enterprise infrastructure solutions for the BIDMC System. He founded and directs BIDMC's "Center for IT Exploration" which works to adopt innovative analytics, mobile, cloud and AI/ML solutions to enhance the experience of BIDMC's providers, patients and staff. Before joining BIDMC in 2014, Manu served as the Secretariat CIO for Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services where he led the state’s largest IT public portfolio. Manu played a key role in the development of Massachusetts' first statewide Health Information Exchange known as "Mass HIWay" which has now delivered over 200 Million healthcare transactions since its inception. Manu was recognized by Computer World magazine as one of the top "100 Premier IT Leaders� in the world and by New England HIMSS as "The CIO of the Year for 2014". Manu has an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, an MBA from Boston University and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Thorsten Wirkes is a Vice President at Oscar Health focused on building Oscar's business operations. During his time at Oscar, Thorsten has led a number of high-profile initiatives like the insourcing of Oscar's operations or Oscar's partnership with the Cleveland Clinic. Prior to Oscar, Thorsten served as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. He holds a Master in Business from Germany's WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management and an MPA from Columbia.