Chiao Wen Lan is a Social Scientist for the End Stage Renal Disease National Coordinating Center (ESRD NCC). She conducts research and supports clinical, technical, and analytic efforts focused on advancing health equity. She is supporting CMS in identifying unmet health-related social needs affecting the renal community, developing strategic approaches for the use and analysis of healthcare data, and targeting interventions and innovative solutions to advance kidney care nationwide. She is a research scientist with experiences conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses focusing on health equity. Her work includes analyzing and interpreting large datasets to reduce health disparities among people who are underserved. Previously she served as the co-investigator for an NIH grant and led the epidemiological assessment to examine the impacts of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome in tribal communities. She also evaluated COVID-19 impacts and supported a CDC project to prevent suicide, intimate partner violence, and adverse childhood effects. Dr. Lan has been involved in multiple NIH-funded randomized controlled intervention trials aimed at ameliorating the impacts of substance misuse and HIV/AIDS on patients and families around the world, especially in resource-limited settings. A certified public health professional, she holds a doctorate in Community Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a Master of Public Health from Brown University.

Dr. Henner is a Nephrologist, and currently serves as the Division Chief of Nephrology and Medical Director of Dialysis at Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He also serves as the Medical Director of Dialysis at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, in Bennington, Vermont. Dr. Henner completed his Nephrology Fellowship in 2003 at New York University (NYU). Prior to that, he graduated from Medical School at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) in 1998 and completed his Internal Medicine Residency at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, PA in 2001.

Dr. Henner currently serves as the President of the National Forum of ESRD Networks and is past Medical Advisory Council (MAC) Chair for the Forum. He also serves on the Medical Review Board (MRB) of the IPRO ESRD Network of New England (Network 1) and previously served as the Medical Review Board (MRB) Chair, and ESRD Divisional Board Chair for ESRD Network 1. Dr. Henner currently resides in Pittsfield, MA with his wife Nadine and 3 children- Alex (19 years old), Maddie and Gabe (15-year-old twins). Some of Dr. Henner’s favorite pastimes include baseball, hockey, and football, and he is a fan of the New York Yankees, Rangers, and New York Giants, craft IPAs, fantasy baseball and football, and the Grateful Dead.

Sunil Patel, MD is the Program Director of the Kidney Pancreas Transplant Program at NVUM (UMC Transplant Center, Las Vegas, NV). Since joining the UMC Center for Transplantation as Program Director in 2020, Dr. Patel has worked alongside his colleagues at Nevada’s first and only transplant center to significantly expand access to life-saving kidney transplants. Most recently, the UMC Center for Transplantation performed 154 transplant procedures, more than tripling the annual number of transplants recorded in previous years. Dr. Patel and his team members also work tirelessly to optimize the use of donor kidneys, utilizing innovative procedures to reduce wait times and help patients recover from kidney failure. This includes performing dual kidney transplants in certain cases, using two donor kidneys rather than one to promote the best possible outcome. He was previously an Associate Professor of surgery at the Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY and an Assistant Professor at the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. Dr. Patel was fellowship trained at the University of Pittsburgh and is Board - Certified in General Surgery.

Shrona Alpough, RN, BSN is the Facility Administrator for the DaVita Renal Center of Port Arthur in Texas. She has been wholeheartedly serving ESRD patients in the region for the past 11 years with a passion to make a difference and the mission to provide service excellence. She is a recognized expert in leading the efforts to advance health equity in the renal community, particularly to meet the complex social needs of patients to ensure equitable access to care.

Dave Tyrell, BS, RN is the Clinical Director/Transplant Administrator for the Center for Transplantation – University Medical Center Las Vegas. He has been with UMC for over 16 years and has worked in the Transplant Center for the last 6 years. He has been instrumental in improving transplant center and dialysis facility communication and patient education about kidney transplantation in the greater Las Vegas area. Dave is also an active volunteer for the Nevada Nurses Association and served as the state president for 2 years. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is a Registered Nurse.

Christa Abel is an LCSW at Berkshire Medical Center’s Renal Dialysis Department. She is the Renal Social Worker at 2 dialysis units, covering both in-center and home modality patients. She worked part time in this capacity from 2003-2013, and recently returned to Renal full-time in 2022. Christa graduated with her MSW from the University of Michigan and had a special interest in social policy. She worked in the Boston area in subsidized housing to ensure tenancy preservation through service coordination prior to moving to the Berkshires. Christa’s goal is to be a strong support and advocate for her patients. She enjoys the community spirit of the dialysis units where she works.

Samantha Richardson is the Director of the Governance and Impact Analysis Group in the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics (OBRHI). Ms. Richardson and her team are focused on unifying CMS's efforts to reduce regulatory and administrative burden for beneficiaries and the medical community, therefore enabling the health system to focus on providing higher quality care at lower cost and to fostering innovation in health care delivery.

She is responsible for leading enterprise-wide efforts and supports cross-agency projects to eliminate overly burdensome and unnecessary regulations. Ms. Richardson oversees initiatives to: measure the impact of CMS regulations; innovate tools to reduce redundancy in CMS regulations using AI; create strategic communications opportunities while engaging external stakeholders; additionally, her team develops databases and data analytic protocols to assist internal components as they develop policy.

Ms. Richardson has served in various leadership positions during her time at CMS. She recently served on the Departmental award winning COVID waiver team during the onset of the pandemic. Prior to that role she served as a senior advisor in the CMS Office of the Administrator leading and supporting CMS's burden reduction initiatives under the Patients over Paperwork Initiative. She has also served as a Director within the CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI), where she led CPI's program risk assessment and strategy development functions. She also served in leadership and management positions in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) on National Coverage Determination (NCDs) and the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) programs.

Before joining CMS, Ms. Richardson was a consultant focused on IT and health policy contracts with CMS and the Food and Drug Administration.

LT John Edward Watts IV, Pharm.D. is the team lead of the Impact Analysis Team within the Governance and Impact Analysis Group of the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatic and the Chair of CMS's Impact Analysis Workgroup.

Dr. Shari M. Ling currently serves as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Dr. Ling’s committed focus is on the achievement of meaningful health outcomes for patients and families through the delivery of high quality, person-centered care, across all care settings. Her clinical focus and scientific interest are in the care of persons with dementia, multiple chronic conditions, and functional limitations.

Dr. Ling leads the CMS Behavioral Health Strategy implementation. She also represents CMS on several Health and Human Services (HHS) efforts. She represents CMS on the workgroups for the National Alzheimer’s Project Plan, and workgroups to eliminate and prevent Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs), the National Strategy to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance.

Dr. Ling earned a Master’s in Gerontology in Direct Service at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, an MD degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine, completed a rheumatology fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital followed by a Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She continues her clinical work serving veterans as a volunteer dementia care provider, and has retained her appointment as part-time faculty in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Adrienne Mims, MD MPH is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Rainmakers Strategic Solutions LLC. She is board certified in family medicine and geriatrics, with fellowship status in both specialties. As a clinical epidemiologist, she has more than 30 years of clinical and administrative experience in using quality performance metrics to guide changes in clinical processes and delivery system redesign to improve health equity for populations served. Using an interdisciplinary team approach that included beneficiary voices, she led the adaptation of a variety of settings from small to large clinical practices, health systems, Federally Qualified Health Centers, disease management programs, and Medicare Advantage plans.

Joe Montminy was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2017 at age 54. Since his diagnosis, he has become a strong advocate for helping those diagnosed with dementia find ways to accept their diagnosis and live their best life, improved provider education, spreading awareness of the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and improving accessibility to resources and support networks for individuals living with dementia.

Joe sits on the NAPA Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, National Alzheimer's Association Board of Directors, New England Early-Stage Advisory Group and the Quinnipiac University Alzheimer's Research Advisory Council. He was a member of the Massachusetts's state task force that identified and recommended solutions to address the top unmet needs for people living with younger-onset dementia in Massachusetts. He frequently speaks to state and federal congressional representatives regarding the importance of supporting Alzheimer's disease legislation and funding. Prior to his diagnosis, Mr. Montminy was a subject matter expert in the individual annuity market, an Associate Actuary with the Society of Actuaries and a member of the Academy of Actuaries.

G. Michael Harper, M.D. is a geriatrician, Professor of Medicine at UCSF, a staff physician at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC), and current President of the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Harper has worked in ambulatory and home-based primary care, long-term care, PACE, and acute and post-acute care. He now provides primary care for homebound older adults in San Francisco in the UCSF Care at Home Program. At the SFVAMC he provides consultative geriatric services on the Mobile Acute Care for Elders service, and he supervises physicians who are training to become geriatricians.

As a clinician-educator, his work has focused on training a workforce that is prepared to care for our rapidly aging population. He has been an internal medicine clerkship director, a geriatrics fellowship program director, and a Principal Investigator for multiple foundation and federal government sponsored geriatrics training and faculty development programs. Dr. Harper is a member of the UCSF Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators and the author of several book chapters and peer reviewed articles on a range of clinical and educational topics. He was an editor for two textbooks in Geriatric Medicine. He previously served as Associate Chief of Staff for Geriatrics, Palliative and Extended Care at the SFVAMC and is a certified medical director.

Dr. Harper graduated from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed a general internal medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center where he was also a Chief Resident. He completed a geriatrics fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine.

David Bercham holds a Master of Social Work degree and has over 20 years of experience managing and conducting program assessment and technical assistance projects on the local, state, and national levels for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the State of Michigan Department of Human Services (MI DHS). He has evaluated healthcare quality improvement programs, child and family mental health programs, juvenile delinquency prevention programs, juvenile court systems, and delinquency prevention practices in American Indian communities. Mr. Bercham has extensive experience conducting qualitative and quantitative data collection with adults, children, youth, and families across a variety of urban and rural settings. Mr. Bercham has provided technical assistance on all phases of program assessment including evaluation design; survey design and implementation; data collection, management, and analysis; and technical report writing. At Rainmakers Strategic Solutions, LLC, Mr. Bercham serves as the Program Director of the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Survey Center (BFCC-SC) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at DHHS. In this role, David provides overall administrative management and oversight of the BFCC-SC project; supervises BFCC-SC project staff; interfaces with project funders and other pertinent parties; leads project-related meetings; authors, reviews, and edits project reports; and oversees the development and submission of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) justification packages.

Scott Fortin, MBA, has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with 10 of those specific to the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) community. He is a solutions-oriented marketing and stakeholder relations professional skilled in managing relationships and strategic communications. He understands methodology to develop and implement unique relational strategies in high profile environments. Scott is also well versed in collaborating with key partners and stakeholders to deliver communications and outreach solutions that support program objectives, ensuring effective and strategic messaging. Scott graduated from Olivet Nazarene University with a Master of Business Administration.

Stephanie Fry is a survey methodologist who leads health services and policy research. She has supported the QIO program and evaluation work for more than 15 years and is currently serving as the BFCC NCORC Deputy Director. Ms. Fry is also a Senior Study Director at Westat where her work focuses on design and implementation of healthcare program evaluations, including the collection and reporting of stakeholder, beneficiary, provider, and payer perspectives.

Matthew Stofferahn, MD is the medical director of Livanta’s BFCC-QIO program. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a residency in emergency medicine and internal medicine at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Delaware, where he served as chief resident. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). In addition to clinical practice, his healthcare experience includes roles in emergency department administration, quality assurance, and peer review. He continues to practice emergency medicine and is a core faculty member of the Valley Health System Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Stella (“Stace”) Mandl is the Deputy Director for the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics at CMS. Stace transitioned back to CMS in 2019 from the Office of Health Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) where she served as the Designated Federal Officer for the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and the PTAC Staff Director. Prior to joining ASPE, in her previous role at CMS, Stace was the Division Director for the Division of Chronic and Post-Acute Care. There she served as a technical lead and member of the leadership team overseeing the statutorily required programs related to post-acute care quality measure and data reporting, including the Improving Post-Acute Care Medicare Transformation Act of 2014. Stace is a certified public health nurse and has over 35 years of combined social work, healthcare, nursing, policy, quality, and leadership experience and has dedicated her professional career to improving patient care quality, safety, and outcomes. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Stace’s diverse healthcare background includes social work, and her nursing career was launched in the US Army Nurse Corps (CPT Mandl) which evolved to include specialty areas such as emergency care, general surgery, Phase I post-anesthesia care, medical-surgical, clinical research, psychiatric care services, and nursing leadership.

Morgan is an experienced human-centered design leader with 8 years at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Morgan currently manages multiple human-centered design engagements, leading cross-agency qualitative research efforts supporting the Administration’s priorities and is a Technical Advisor for the Customer Focused Research Group (CFRG), within the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics (OBRHI). Morgan ensures the CFRG team leverages human-centered design methodologies to elevate the voices of all CMS stakeholders. Prior to joining CFRG, Morgan spent 2.5 years in the Office of the Administrator directly supporting the Principal Deputy Administrator for Operations and Policy.

Ted Long, MD, MHS, is Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at New York City Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the U.S. He is also executive director of the NYC Test & Treat Corps, the City’s comprehensive effort to provide COVID-19 testing, support, and treatment for New Yorkers.

New York City Health + Hospitals provides care to more than one million New Yorkers through 11 hospitals and more than 50 community health center sites. Dr. Long is responsible for leading one of the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and transforming the health system’s current portfolio of ambulatory care, with more than five million outpatient visits per year, into an integrated and high-quality network providing care to all New Yorkers. He oversees Population Health and started the NYC Care program, which provides universal access to care for all New Yorkers.

Dr. Long previously served as Senior Medical Officer for the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where he helped lead programs including the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program. Before coming to CMS, Dr. Long served as Medical Director at the Rhode Island State Department of Health.

Dr. Long is a practicing primary care physician in the Bronx. He has authored 50 peer reviewed articles that have been published in journals including JAMA, Nature, and Lancet Public Health. Dr. Long is currently a faculty member at the NYU School of Global Public Health, the Yale School of Medicine, and the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.

Sarah Lenz Lock is Senior Vice President for Policy and Brain Health in AARP’s Policy, Research and International (PRI). Ms. Lock leads AARP’s policy initiatives on brain health and care for people living with dementia, including serving as the Executive Director of the Global Council on Brain Health, an independent collaborative of scientists, doctors, and policy experts convened by AARP to provide trusted information on brain health. Previously, Ms. Lock was Senior Attorney/Manager at AARP Foundation Litigation conducting health care impact litigation on behalf of older persons. Ms. Lock has been a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, a Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives to Congressman Michael D. Barnes working with the Federal Government Service Task Force, and also worked at the law firm of Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn.

Jeane is a public health nurse committed to equitable, trauma-informed health policy and programming globally. She currently serves as an Associate Director for Science and Policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the US Surgeon General. Together with an inspiring team, she drives efforts to amplify local voices and solutions, strengthen partnerships, and translate the best available scientific evidence to protect, promote, and advance our nation’s health, safety, and well-being. Originally from Queens, NYC, she and her partner, Pierce, do their best to keep up with their three mighty little girls.

Dr. Carla Shoff is the Senior Advisor to the Chief Dental Officer in the Office of the Administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to this role, Carla was a Social Science Research Analyst in the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics at CMS for 9 years. She began her career as a Research Associate in the Population Research Institute at Penn State University. Carla holds a dual-title Ph.D. in Rural Sociology and Demography and a graduate certificate in Survey Methodology from Penn State University, where she focused her studies on health disparities, quantitative research methods, and statistics. Carla has devoted her career to using data to identify disparities in population health, health-related behaviors, and access to health care, which can be used to inform policy and advance health equity. She has a robust research portfolio of over 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Herndon is the owner and principal consultant with Key Analytics and Consulting, LLC. She is an economist with extensive experience in research, policy analysis, program evaluation, project management, and education. She works with non-profit and for-profit organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions on measuring and evaluating healthcare delivery system performance. Her technical experience includes study design, survey research, statistical analyses of large claims databases, Delphi consensus processes, and healthcare quality measurement. She’s led testing efforts for Dental Quality Alliance oral healthcare quality measures to establish measure feasibility, reliability, and validity, and she is currently leading the data analyses for the DQA’s State Oral Healthcare Quality Dashboard. She served as a coach and technical advisor for the DQA’s Medicaid Quality Improvement Learning Academy and led external quality review evaluations for the State of Florida’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. Dr. Herndon has served as principal investigator on NIH/NIDCR-funded research, and she holds faculty appointments at the University of Florida College of Medicine and the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. She is an elected member of the Society of Pediatric Research, and her research has been published in a broad range of journals in the social and medical sciences.

Dr. Natalia Chalmers is CMS' first Chief Dental Officer in the Office of the Administrator. She is a board-certified pediatric dentist, oral health policy expert, and public health advocate who brings more than 20 years of clinical, research, industry, and regulatory experience to CMS. Previously, Dr. Chalmers served as a Dental Officer at the FDA. Dr. Chalmers has devoted her career to transforming scientific and healthcare data and information into actionable insights to address equity, improve care, and inform policy and funding better. Dr. Chalmers completed her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Medical University of Sofia, a residency in pediatric dentistry at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and a Ph.D. in oral microbiology from the Graduate Partnerships Program of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and the NIDCR/NIH, Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Forsyth Institute, and Clinical Research Fellowship at the NIDCR/NIH. In addition, Dr. Chalmers holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Research from Duke Medical University and a Certificate in Drug Development and Regulatory Science from the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

Ms. Mary E. Foley is the Executive Director of the Medicaid-Medicare-CHIP Services Dental Association (MSDA). A graduate of the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Policy, Ms. Foley received a Master’s Degree in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Over her vast career, Ms. Foley has acquired a breadth of knowledge and experience in dental hygiene, dentistry, and dental policy related to dental public health, Medicaid, and CHIP programming. Since December 2009, Ms. Foley has been instrumental in advancing Medicaid policy across the states, aligning with federal priorities such as CMS’s Triple Aim, Quality in Healthcare, Value-Based Programming, and Health Equity. Her understanding of legislative and regulatory policy and its administration has helped to transition State dental programs from traditional fee-for-service to quality driven, value-based programs focusing on performance-based models that drive equitable oral healthcare for all. Her background in data and epidemiology helped to create the MSDA National Profile of State Medicaid and CHIP Oral Health Programs—an online, all State, Medicaid dental program resource. Through the establishment of the MSDA Corporate Round Table, Ms. Foley has forged partnerships and broadened communication across Medicaid dental program vendors seeking to improve administrations and ultimately care for Medicaid and CHIP members. Prior to her current position, Ms. Foley served as the Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), Office of Oral Health (OOH), and Dean of the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, in Boston.

Anita Monteiro leads the healthcare quality improvement and innovation programs at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Anita is passionate about and dedicated to improving the lives, health outcomes and the experience of care for the people we serve. Anita leads a team of 110 incredible management and technical experts across Baltimore and four other U.S. locations, as well as dozens of specialized contract personnel across the country, to collectively serve as the primary driver for healthcare quality improvement for Medicare in the United States. This is accomplished through the provision of healthcare technical assistance to over 500 community health coalitions, 15,000 nursing homes, 7,500 dialysis facilities, and over 2000 hospitals (including all Indian Health Service hospitals). The program also includes key initiatives to reduce Opioid use and misuse, increase kidney transplantation, and Kidney community emergency/disaster planning and management at the national level. The program is also responsible for beneficiary protection through investigation of over 200,000 complaints per year, advocacy on their behalf, and expedited appeals for beneficiaries who believe they are being discharged early from certified healthcare facilities. In addition to the focus on quality improvement, Anita also leads data evaluation, communications and strategic innovation in healthcare.

Steve Burrows is a comedic storyteller - a writer, director and performer who has been entertaining audiences in film, television, commercials and theatre for 25 years. In 2009, in a career 180°, Burrows dropped out of Show Business to take care of his mother, Judie Burrows, a retired Wisconsin public school teacher who had gone in for a routine partial hip replacement and came out in a coma with permanent brain damage.

Confronted with the failure of Judie’s providers to take responsibility for the harm caused by substandard care and faced with daunting healthcare expenses that drained his family’s financial resources, Steve embarked on a ten-year fight for his Mom's life and for medical and legal justice. This journey became Steve’s latest film, the award-winning, critically acclaimed HBO documentary film Bleed Out. Seen by millions, Bleed Out has become a wake-up call-to-action for systemic medical reform in American Healthcare. Scores of hospitals systems, universities, medical, nursing and law schools have made Bleed Out a part of their teaching curriculum. Legislation inspired by Judie and Bleed Out began making its way into law. Healthcare providers across America have repeatedly declared Bleed Out is literally saving lives.

Carole Hemmelgarn, MS, MS, graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Speech Communication. She received a master’s degree in Patient Safety Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a second master’s degree in Health Care Ethics from Creighton University.

Ms. Hemmelgarn has worked in healthcare for over 30 years. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago for ten years teaching in their mater’s program for patient safety. Currently, Ms. Hemmelgarn is the Senior Director Education for the MedStar Institute for Quality & Safety. She is also the Director for the Executive Master’s program for Clinical Quality, Safety & Leadership at Georgetown University.

Ms. Hemmelgarn is involved in patient safety work across the country. She sits on the Leapfrog Patient & Family Caregiver Expert Panel, Board of Quality, Safety and Experience at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Collaborative at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Clinical Excellence Council for Colorado Hospital Association, and the Board of Directors for the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement.

Her passion resides in transparency and communication after medical errors, health care communication, the power of storytelling in health care, and the aftermath endured by providers, patients, and families when medical harm transpires.

Ms. Hemmelgarn was driven to the field of patient safety after she lost her nine-year-old daughter, Alyssa, to multiple medical errors.

Armando Nahum is a founding member of Patients for Patient Safety US, a network of people and organizations aligned with the World Health Organization and focused on making healthcare safe. In 2006 Armando and his wife, Victoria, began their work in patient advocacy by establishing the Safe Care Campaign after 3 family members experienced healthcare associated infection in 3 different hospitals, in 3 different states in 10 months’ time, culminating with the death of their son, Josh.

Armando has been a driving force in establishing Patient and Family Advisory Council for Quality and Safety at each of the 10 MedStar Hospitals. Through his work MedStar reduced sepsis mortality due by 35%. The MedStar Health Sepsis Initiative has become a national model, adapted by institutions across the U.S. It has earned the Sherman Award for Patient Safety as well as the Circle of Honor for Patient Safety Innovation award from the Maryland Patient Safety Center.

He also is a co-founder of the Healthcare and Patient Partnership Institute, established to effectively train Hospitals to achieve the stated goals of CMS’ Partnership for Patients by bringing the patient and family voice into structured and sustainable advisory councils.

In February of 2020 Armando was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria. On November 14, 2022, Armando was invited by Secretary Becerra, from HHS, to open the session on the National Healthcare System Action Alliance.

Soojin (or “Soo”) Jun is a board-certified geriatric pharmacist (BCGP) in Illinois and Wisconsin. She is also a certified professional in-patient safety (CPPS) and a certified professional in healthcare quality (CPHQ), passionate about patient safety and quality improvement.

After losing her dad to many gaps in healthcare as a minority caregiver, possibly from medication adverse events, she changed her career from a wedding videographer to a pharmacist. She is a passionate patient advocate and is the owner of a Medium publication called “I am Cheese” where we envision empathetic healthcare by sharing healthcare stories in any language with a belief that any of us can be an “extra slice of cheese” to prevent medical harms.

She specializes in medication therapy management and believes empathy in healthcare can make healing possible in any relationship of healthcare. She has experience in both inpatient and outpatient pharmacies and has worked as a population health pharmacist that manages complex medication regimens and also helps with social determinants of healthcare.

She is also an ambassador for the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to patient safety worldwide, where she passionately speaks up about patient safety, patient rights, minority health, and patient advocacy for voiceless patients. She speaks English and Korean and is eager to help patients!

Stephen Esquivel-Pickett, PhD is an economist in the State Demonstrations Group (SDG) in the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS). In this role he works with states by providing technical assistance to ensure states are conducting systematic monitoring and robust evaluation for Medicaid section 1115 demonstrations. Additionally, he is engaged in driving SDG’s efforts to establish and standardize monitoring and evaluation expectations for state demonstrations focusing on Health-Related Social Needs and Home and Community Based Services. Prior to joining CMCS, Stephen worked in the private sector and researched topics including health care utilization of low-income individuals, the effects of the Affordable Care Act on health coverage, and provider incentives in primary care. Stephen earned his PhD and MA in economics from Rice University and BBA in business and mathematics from Baylor University.

Joshua Bougie is a Health Insurance Specialist in the Division of State Coverage Programs at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Basic Health Program, and Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants. In this role, Josh provides programmatic oversight and develops CHIP policy and guidance by drafting Federal regulations, State Health Official letters, and other communications to States. He also reviews CHIP State Plan Amendments, identifies policy issues and their potential impact, and provides technical assistance to States and stakeholders. He oversees the submission, maintenance, and analysis of State data through (1) the annual State CHIP report and the CHIP Annual Reporting Template System; and (2) the CHIP Statistical Enrollment Data System. Josh serves as a subject matter expert on various CHIP policy and operation topics, including health services initiatives (HSIs) and their application for meeting health related social needs.

Prior to CMS, Josh served in State government to provide policy and programmatic oversight for Medicaid-funded home and community-based services; aged, blind, and disabled services; and behavioral health services for children and adults. He has also held positions with community organizations that directly addressed the needs of families struggling with homelessness, substance use disorders, behavioral health issues, and physical and intellectual disabilities.

Amy Pulda received a Master of Public Affairs degree from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After receiving her MPA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she began her career in public policy and state government at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. At the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, she has worked on program monitoring and compliance, researching and analyzing legislation, and developing and implementing policy initiatives. She is currently the Homelessness Services Manager at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In her role as Homelessness Services Manager, she has primary leadership of Wisconsin Medicaid initiatives and stakeholder relationships to address housing issues and homelessness.

Prior to working at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Amy Pulda worked with policies related to homelessness and housing while working as a Case Manager at the Franciscan Outreach Association, in Chicago, IL. At the Franciscan Outreach Association, she worked on a study which tested the efficacy of a “Housing First” model to improve the health of homeless individuals with chronic illnesses. The study measured the costs of health care services used by individuals experiencing homelessness before and after entering permanent supportive housing to determine whether permanent supportive housing would lead to significant reductions in the use of hospital inpatient and emergency room care.

Gary Sing is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at MassHealth, Massachusetts’ Medicaid agency. He is a member of the Innovation Team at MassHealth and oversees various delivery system investment programs, including numerous workforce initiatives. Gary also works to advance integration of health-related social services into MassHealth, which includes overseeing the Flexible Services program that allows MassHealth Accountable Care Organizations to use state/federal Medicaid dollars to pay for certain health-related nutrition and housing supports for certain eligible members. Additionally, Gary works to further strengthen MassHealth’s commitment to health equity through management and coordination of various health equity initiatives at the agency. Prior to joining MassHealth, Gary worked as a strategy consultant in the life sciences industry, earned a PhD from Harvard University in Engineering Sciences with a focus on computational neuroscience, and earned dual B.S.E.’s from Duke University in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

LeTonya “Tonya” Smith started at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, Maryland in 2011. She worked in the Performance Based Payment Policy Group providing expertise on the quality metrics for the Value Based Modifier (VM) and Quality Resource Use Reports (QRURs).

LeTonya started in iQuality Improvement and Innovation Group (iQIIG) in 2013 where she provided subject matter expertise on the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) 11th Statement of Work (SOW), Task H-Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI). As a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) she has provided contract management and oversight for several Quality Payment Program-Small, Rural and Underserved (QPP-SURs) technical assistance contractors for the QPP-SURS program. She currently serves as a COR for the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC): Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) Focused Task Order- Nursing Home Task. She has served as the Team Champion and most recently as the Nursing Home SME for the iQIIG Health Equity Matrix Team. She is currently the Health Equity SME for the Nursing Home Task. Tonya is involved in several Health Equity workgroups as led by the CMS Office of Minority Health.

LeTonya Smith has practiced as a Family Nurse Practitioner for 25 years in various practices including Internal Medicine, Pain Management and Diabetes and Endocrinology. She has provided care in various locations including nursing homes, assisted livings, outpatient clinics, home visits as well as a mobile outpatient clinic. Since 2014, she currently practices in an Internal Medicine office in Pikesville, Maryland. Ms. Smith received her Bachelors in Nursing degree and Masters in Nursing- Family Nurse Practitioner certification at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. She currently attends Howard University and is in Master of Divinity (MDiv) Program. Upon program completion, LeTonya plans to use her clinical experience, health policy and quality improvement expertise and MDiv degree to decrease health disparities in people of color by leveraging faith-based organizations.

Ms. Geltmaker serves as the Program Director for Qsource, Indiana’s Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), where she provides oversight and direction for the quality improvement activities associated with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 12th Statement of Work.

Ms. Geltmaker has a passion for improving health care and has more than 32 years in leadership, project management, business development, healthcare marketing and referral development, and patient care. Her knowledge and insight include the day-to-day operations in settings such as the physician office, hospital, hospice, home health and outpatient rehab. In her 17 years with the QIO, she has dedicated her efforts to successfully supporting teams, as well as assisting providers and stakeholders directly, with implementing quality improvement methodologies for population health, patient safety, EHR adoption, and cultural competency. She has conducted live and virtual presentations, facilitated learning and action network activities, and provided diabetes self-management education. Tammy received her baccalaureate degree in nursing from Indiana University Southeast, master’s degree in health administration from Webster University, and training in Lean Six Sigma.

Don is a Quality Improvement Advisor for Qsource, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for the state of Indiana with a passion for using data to improve the quality of health care. He has more than 15 years of experience providing quality improvement assistance to healthcare providers and communities. Don served as the leader of the Improving Health for Populations and Communities project which assisted physician offices with quality improvement projects using health information technology. Don possesses expertise in Medicare quality reporting programs and regularly provides technical assistance regarding process changes and improvements to meet reporting program requirements and to improve efficiency and quality of care. He and the QIO team have assisted health care organizations in successfully qualifying for incentive payments from the Medicare Quality Payment Program.

Tara is a registered nurse who has been working with healthcare providers and organizations improve upon their quality metrics and patient outcomes for over 12 years. Prior to her focus on healthcare quality, she spent time at the bedside in the areas of critical care and oncology. Her passion for patients in rural communities has led her to serve on the board of the Indiana Rural Health Association and is currently holding an officer position as past president. Tara’s current position at Qsource allows her to blend her expertise in quality and process improvement and nursing skills to continue to assist providers and patients achieve their health outcome goals.

Floyd Eisenberg, MD, MPH, FACP, consultant to ICF, supports harmonized standards for electronic clinical quality measurement (eCQM) and clinical decision support (CDS) that are consistent with clinical workflow. As President of iParsimony, LLC he works on various quality-related standards activities. He also initiated the HIMSS Immunization Integration Program under the American Immunization Registry Association. Dr. Eisenberg is an Infectious Diseases internist with clinical practice and managed care quality experience. Dr. Eisenberg served as a Senior Key Expert at Siemens Health Services and initiated the transition to eCQM process at National Quality Forum. He holds elected positions as HL7 Treasurer, the HL7 Cross Workgroups Project Workgroup, and as past co-chair of the HL7 Clinical Quality Information Workgroup.

Tabia Henry Akintobi, PhD, MPH is Professor of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Dean of Community Engagement, and Principal Investigator and Director of the Prevention Research Center. Germane to these efforts is her demonstrated excellence in community-based participatory research, community-engaged public health practice and experiential learning among trainees across the health professional career development pipeline.

Shirley is the Executive Director & Co-Vice Chairman of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia, (HHCGA), a non-profit organization created to advance health policies that improve access to services for Hispanic/Latino children and adults, secure better health outcomes, and the prevention of Chronic Diseases with increased sustainability throughout the State. The HHCGA is presently Georgia's only statewide organization focusing on better outcomes in Chronic Diseases to this population.

Shirley has forged the organization around a core mission of policy, advocacy, and subject matter experts, relative to chronic diseases and behavioral sciences that impact our community. Shirley remains a recognized steward, positive game changer and subject matter expert by multiple national organizations, corporate partners, community stake holders, chronic disease experts and public policy/health think-tanks. Shirley is a graduate of the Class of 2019 for Leadership Atlanta. Shirley was also a recipient of the prestigious 2022 Joseph D. Greene Community Service Award that recognizes the recipients for their volunteer service to advance the health and healthcare of Georgians.

Shirley is multi-lingual with fluency in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Prior to joining the HHCGA, Shirley was a Senior Worldwide Executive in technology, communications, and multi-national industries with various Fortune 500 companies to new ventures across multi-million-dollar enterprises.

Dr. Khizer is the Vaccine Trials Unit Director at the Morehouse. She is an experienced Lead Coordinator with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. She is skilled in Epidemiology, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Cell Culture, Epi Info, and Healthcare. Strong administrative professional with a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) focused in Epidemiology from Georgia State University.

Purva Rawal, PhD, is the Chief Strategy Officer at the CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As part of the Senior Leadership team, she provides guidance and leadership on the execution of the Innovation Center’s strategy.

Most recently, she was a principal at CapView Strategies, where she developed evidence-based public policy and business strategies and conducted policy research on health system transformation and sustainability issues. She was also an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University. In 2016, she published a book, The Affordable Care Act: Examining the Facts and has published book chapter, blogs, and papers on value-based care. Previously, Dr. Rawal served as professional staff on the Senate Budget Committee during the passage of the Affordable Care Act and as the health and social policy advisor to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). She was also a director in the Health Insurance and Reform Practice at Avalere Health. She began her health policy career as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and as a Congressional Fellow for the Society for Research on Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Rawal received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Noemi Rudolph is the Acting Group Director for the Research and Rapid Cycle Evaluation Group (RREG), at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She has been with CMS for 27 years. In this role, she leads a team that conducts statutorily mandated evaluations of Medicare and Medicaid payment and service delivery model tests and demonstrations and oversees research with policy relevance to CMS. Prior to becoming a manager at CMS, she worked on the evaluations of projects involving dual eligible beneficiaries, Medicare Advantage, and prescription drug benefit. She joined the federal government as a Presidential Management Fellow working briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, CMS’ San Francisco Regional Office, and a Medicare payment contractor. Mrs. Rudolph has a MPH in Community Health Sciences and a BS in Psychobiology, both from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Mir is an Internist and Infectious diseases physician graduate of the Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her medical degree at the Universidad Central de Venezuela where she developed a passion for community health and serving the most vulnerable populations. She has a 20-year career leading primary care transformation efforts, building bridges between stakeholders, and ensuring the highest quality of care. Dr. Mir has held multiple leadership positions including being the Chief Medical Officer for Dot House Health in Dorchester and currently the Chief Medical Officer at Community Care Cooperative (C3) where she leads the transition of our FQHC’s to a value based model of care.

Kate Davidson, LCSW is the Director of the Learning and Diffusion Group (LDG) at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this role, Ms. Davidson leads the Innovation Center’s team focused on accelerating healthcare system transformation and person-centeredness by leveraging improvement science within and across models. She also executes on the Innovation Center’s strategy for multi-payer alignment through the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network (HCP-LAN). Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Davidson led Policy and Practice Improvement efforts at the National Council for Behavioral Health, where she managed payment reform, quality improvement and workforce development initiatives in mental health and addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery organizations and provided training and technical assistance to healthcare and human services organizations, counties and states. Ms. Davidson began her career researching, testing and scaling interventions in healthcare and community-based settings. In this capacity she has provided clinical and administrative leadership in a broad range of settings testing innovative payment and care delivery models. Ms. Davidson has an MSW from Fordham University and a BA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Dr. Elizabeth Fowler is the Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS. Dr. Fowler previously served as Executive Vice President of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and Vice President for Global Health Policy at Johnson & Johnson. She was special assistant to President Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council. From 2008 to 2010, she was Chief Health Counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where she played a critical role developing the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act. She also played a key role drafting the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Dr. Fowler has over 25 years of experience in health policy and health services research. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Fowler is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022.

Dr. Sean Michael is a board-certified and actively practicing emergency physician with dual-board certification in clinical informatics. He serves as Regional Chief Medical Officer for CMS’s Denver office, focusing on the implementation of CMS programs and policy including Medicare, Medicaid, EMTALA, and the Agency’s health access and equity initiatives across the Mountain West. As a senior medical advisor for CMS programs in the region, he provides clinical expertise around payment, policy, quality improvement, survey/enforcement operations, contracted health plans, and data analytics and  serves as the principal liaison with the clinical community.  Dr. Michael was previously the Emergency Department Medical Director at the University of Colorado Hospital and remains on faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. His academic research has focused on hospital flow and crowding, patient safety, clinical decision support, and workflow design.

Dr. Venkatesh is Chair of Emergency Medicine for Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Emergency Medicine for Yale New Haven Hospital. He is also Scientist at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation to study health system outcomes and efficiency, and he is supported by CMS as co-Principal Investigator of the Emergency Quality Network and for the development of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and is senior editor of The Evidence book series. He is national leader within ACEP and SAEM and serves on expert panels for the National Quality Forum, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and CMS. His work is also funded by NIH’s National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Addiction Policy Forum to advance the quality and delivery of emergency and acute care for opioid use disorders. Dr. Venkatesh earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. He went on to earn an MBA from Ohio State University before completing medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University.

Eric Wei is the Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal health system in the United States, with 11 acute care hospitals, 5 skilled nursing facilities, 60+ community health centers, a home care agency, correctional health services, and an insurance plan. He leads the health system’s Office of Quality and Safety, focused on fostering a culture of safety, building quality improvement capacity across all 43,000 staff, and becoming a data driven organization. Dr. Wei also leads care experience, workforce wellness, high value care, continuing professional education, utilization management, transitions in care, emergency medicine innovation, virtual care, data and analytics, and emergency management. He is the fellowship director for the NYC Health + Hospitals Clinical Leadership Fellowship and launched Healthcare Administration Scholars Program. He is a practicing Emergency Medicine physician rotating through all 11 Emergency Departments at NYC Health + Hospitals. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at University of California, Los Angeles and completed the combined MD and MBA program at University of California. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency and the Healthcare Administration Scholars Program at the University of Michigan and is Lean Healthcare, Six Sigma Black Belt, and TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer certified.

Dr. Martin Reznek is Professor and Execute Vice Chair for Clinical Operations and Education in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School and UMassMemorial Health, where he oversees 5 EDs, UC, and a large observation unit. He was the Founding Director of Richard V Aghababian Emergency Medicine Leadership and Administrative Fellowship and chairs multiple national committees, including with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his medical education at Baylor College of Medicine before completing residency at Detroit Receiving Hospital, simulation fellowship at Stanford University, and emergency medicine and hospital administrative fellowship at Detroit Medical Center, while also earning an MBA from University of Michigan. He has published extensively on the topics of quality, safety, hospital flow, and boarding.

Mike has been the Director of the Division of Quality Contracts since October 2021. Since joining CMS/OAGM in December 2013, Mike has also served as a Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer supporting many of CMS’ programs. Additionally, prior to joining CMS, Mike served as a Contract Specialist and a Contracting Officer for the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 5 years.

Anita Monteiro leads the healthcare quality improvement and innovation programs at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Anita is passionate about and dedicated to improving the lives, health outcomes and the experience of care for the people we serve. Anita leads a team of 110 incredible management and technical experts across Baltimore and four other U.S. locations, as well as dozens of specialized contract personnel across the country, to collectively serve as the primary driver for healthcare quality improvement for Medicare in the United States. This is accomplished through the provision of healthcare technical assistance to over 500 community health coalitions, 15,000 nursing homes, 7,500 dialysis facilities, and over 2000 hospitals (including all Indian Health Service hospitals). The program also includes key initiatives to reduce Opioid use and misuse, increase kidney transplantation, and Kidney community emergency/disaster planning and management at the national level. The program is also responsible for beneficiary protection through investigation of over 200,000 complaints per year, advocacy on their behalf, and expedited appeals for beneficiaries who believe they are being discharged early from certified healthcare facilities. In addition to the focus on quality improvement, Anita also leads data evaluation, communications and strategic innovation in healthcare.

Dr. Lawrence is a practicing chiropractor. He and his division colleagues at CMS are integral to annual development of the annual CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and helped shepherd the new chronic pain management codes into the 2023 PFS: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2022-23873.pdf.

Dr. Linda Porter is the director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She coordinates support of trans-NIH pain research and activities through the NIH Pain Consortium and trans-agency pain research through the HHS Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, a federal advisory group. Dr. Porter received a B.Sc. in Physical Therapy from McGill University. Her clinical practice focused on developmental disabilities. She later earned a Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy from Boston University School of Medicine. She was on the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) for 15 years before joining the NINDS. During those years she directed a NIH funded research program aimed at elucidating mechanisms of sensory-motor integration at the cortical level and studied the effects of various neuromodulators on developing cortical neurons and their neuroprotective influence over neurons in the mature cortex. She taught in the Graduate Neuroscience Program and the School of Medicine at USUHS.

Cindy Steinberg is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Pain Foundation and Policy Council Chair for the Massachusetts Pain Initiative. She is a nationally prominent and articulate spokesperson for the needs of people living with pain. She has been interviewed in print and on radio, television and internet sites including NPR’s All Things Considered and Marketplace, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and numerous local TV and radio affiliates. Ms. Steinberg has won numerous awards for her pain policy accomplishments. Her dedication to pain advocacy was sparked when she sustained a severe crush injury that left her with daily back pain. In 2015, she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve on his Opioid Working Group and subsequently as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Drug Formulary Commission. At the federal level, she has served on the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), a high-ranking pain policy oversight committee managed by the National Institutes of Health. In 2018, Ms. the Secretary of HHS to serve on the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force created by Congress and was the only patient and pain advocate appointed to the panel. In February of 2019, Ms. Steinberg was invited to testify before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee at a hearing on “Managing Pain During the Opioid Crisis”.

Dr. Jan Losby is the Branch Chief for the Health Systems and Research Branch in CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention. Dr. Losby conducts applied health systems research, implements evidence-based prevention efforts, and supports state and community public health efforts to reduce overdose and related harms. Dr. Losby is responsible for advancing the implementation of CDC’s 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain. Dr. Losby works with healthcare systems on linkage to care, quality improvement, electronic clinical decision support tools, and data system integration with electronic health records.

Samantha Richardson is the Director of the Governance and Impact Analysis Group in the Office of Burden Reduction & Health Informatics (OBRHI). Ms. Richardson and her team are focused on unifying CMS's efforts to reduce regulatory and administrative burden for beneficiaries and the medical community, therefore enabling the health system to focus on providing higher quality care at lower cost and to fostering innovation in health care delivery.

She is responsible for leading enterprise-wide efforts and supports cross-agency projects to eliminate overly burdensome and unnecessary regulations. Ms. Richardson oversees initiatives to: measure the impact of CMS regulations; innovate tools to reduce redundancy in CMS regulations using AI; create strategic communications opportunities while engaging external stakeholders; additionally, her team develops databases and data analytic protocols to assist internal components as they develop policy.

Ms. Richardson has served in various leadership positions during her time at CMS. She recently served on the Departmental award winning COVID waiver team during the onset of the pandemic. Prior to that role she served as a senior advisor in the CMS Office of the Administrator leading and supporting CMS's burden reduction initiatives under the Patients over Paperwork Initiative. She has also served as a Director within the CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI), where she led CPI's program risk assessment and strategy development functions. She also served in leadership and management positions in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) on National Coverage Determination (NCDs) and the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) programs.

Before joining CMS, Ms. Richardson was a consultant focused on IT and health policy contracts with CMS and the Food and Drug Administration.

LCDR Réna McClain obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in New Jersey. Following graduation, she completed a one-year managed care residency at the former Medco Health Solutions. She then continued to work for the company in a number of capacities including Clinical Lead for their specialty care pharmacy (Accredo) and later as a Manager working with their Medicare Part D offering.

Her career with the federal government has spanned 10 years, most of this time with CMS. In her current role, she is a Senior Health Insurance Specialist within the Governance and Impact Analysis Group within the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics (OBRHI). Her work focuses on burden reduction and health equity. As the lead on a number of surveys, her goal is to ensure that stakeholder voices are heard to ensure equity.

Dr. Natalia Chalmers is CMS' first Chief Dental Officer in the Office of the Administrator. She is a board-certified pediatric dentist, oral health policy expert, and public health advocate who brings more than 20 years of clinical, research, industry, and regulatory experience to CMS. Previously, Dr. Chalmers served as a Dental Officer at the FDA. Dr. Chalmers has devoted her career to transforming scientific and healthcare data and information into actionable insights to address equity, improve care, and inform policy and funding better. Dr. Chalmers completed her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Medical University of Sofia, a residency in pediatric dentistry at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and a Ph.D. in oral microbiology from the Graduate Partnerships Program of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and the NIDCR/NIH, Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Forsyth Institute, and Clinical Research Fellowship at the NIDCR/NIH. In addition, Dr. Chalmers holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Research from Duke Medical University and a Certificate in Drug Development and Regulatory Science from the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Steffany Chamut is a full-time Instructor at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) in the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology, the Office of Global and Community Health, and 2022 Health and Aging Policy Fellow (HAPF) in the American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Program. As part of her HAPF fellowship placement, she is working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-Office of the Administrator supporting oral health initiatives and policy development focused on skilled nursing facilities. At HSDM, she engages in diverse programmatic efforts across the school and the healthcare profession ranging from dental, public health education, workforce development, and clinical training at pre-and post-doctoral levels, and oral health integration initiatives. She is the curricular evaluation lead at the HRSA-funded National Center for Equitable Care for Elders (NCECE) that provides training and technical assistance aimed at improving the care for older adults, and Co-PI of the “Catalyzing Oral Health Workforce for Rural and Vulnerable Populations” training program that created the first and only DPH Residency in the country with a dedicated rural track. Dr. Chamut was selected by the National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA) as a 2022 Butler-Williams Scholar and by the Office of Small Business Research (OSBR) as a finalist for the Healthy Aging start-up Challenge for the development of innovative science-driven technology. She is a Human Resources for Health (HRH) Faculty at the University of Rwanda, School of Dentistry (first Bachelors of Dental Surgery program in the country), and visiting lecturer at the University of West Indies, Mona School of Dentistry, Kingston, Jamaica.

Colleen Lampron is the President of AFL Enterprises, LLC a small public health consulting and government contracting business. Her work is focused on closing the gap between what we know and what we do so that people can live full, healthy, joyful lives. Accomplishments in quality improvement include:

Serving as the National Network for Oral Health Access Quality Improvement and Innovation Consultant where FQHCs:

• improved sealant rates by 10%;
• dental programs implemented a quality improvement dashboard, and
• medical and dental professionals collaborated to improve outcomes for patients with diabetes Her work in Colorado includes:
• the SMILES Dental Project, a virtual dental home initiative that delivered more than 11,000 patient visits to unserved populations,
• Leading the Cavity Free at Three initiative,

Colleen also led the San Francisco Department of Public Health Dental Transformation Initiative Local Dental Pilot Project which brought federally qualified health centers and private practices together to improve the dental delivery system for children 0-5.

A graduate of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Breakthrough Series College and Quality Improvement Coach certification, she has a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from West Chester University. Colleen applies her public health education with her quality improvement expertise to improve health and healthcare nationwide.

Monica McKee is the Vice President of Ancillary Clinical Services at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, the nation's largest Urban Indian health care facility, where she has worked for nearly 16 years. Monica has administrative oversight of numerous departments at OKCIC, including Dental, Optometry, Lab, Radiology, Behavioral Health, Patient Advocacy and Physical Therapy. In her role, McKee is responsible for maintaining quality of care standards and reliable access to care for more than 23,000 American Indians who call the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic their medical home. Monica received her Bachelors of Science-Dental Hygiene and Master's in Health Care Administration and Policy degrees from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. Monica currently serves as the Chair of Maternal and Child Health for the March of Dimes Board of Directors. She also serves on the Strategic Planning Committee of the Native Oral Health Network, and the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network. Monica is married to her husband of 12 years, has two boys that require her to live at the baseball fields, and although she's a two-time OU grad, she's a proud Arkansas Razorback at heart.

Cheri C. Wilson received a BA in Russian from Howard University, an MA in Russian Area Studies from the University of Minnesota, was a PhD candidate (ABD) in Russian history at the University of Minnesota and received an MHS in Health Finance and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is multilingual—fluent in Russian, speaks French and Spanish with a reading knowledge of German. Ms. Wilson is a nationally recognized diversity and inclusion, cultural and linguistic competence, and health equity subject matter expert. She currently serves as Program Director for Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity (JHM ODIHE). Previously, she served as the Program Manager for Education, Training, and Scholarship in the JHM ODIHE, was a Senior Research Scientist in the Health Determinants & Disparities Practice at General Dynamics Information Technology, the Director, Corporate Office of Diversity & Inclusion at RWJ Barnabas Health in New Jersey, an Assistant Scientist in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), and an Acting Assistant Director of the Quality Improvement Department at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ms. Wilson is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), a Past President of the Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality, and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. She is particularly interested in health and healthcare disparities and health equity as they relate to racial/ethnic, language, and gender and sexual minorities and the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate patient-centered care in language understandable to all patients.

A distinguished and compassionate clinician, Alexandria Beranger, MD, is Board-certified in Internal Medicine and serves as National Director of Quality and Patient Experience at ChenMed, one of the country’s leading primary care providers for seniors.

Dr. Brock is a medical director at Telligen. She currently serves PATH’s Clinical Director and as a subject matter expert for the Data Validation and Administrative Contractor (DVAC), supporting CMS’ Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC). Her work involves: establishing collaborative and enduring relationships with key national partners dedicated to improving healthcare quality; advising the national analytic team on measures for assessing NQIIC’s progress on CMS priority quality improvement (QI) goals; establishing progress and outcomes metrics; providing clinical insight, leadership, and facilitation support to teams as they work on QI priorities; and applying principles of implementation science to ongoing QI efforts. Dr. Brock has extensive experience in producing results with clinicians in the IHS hospital setting.

CAPT Cynthia (Cindy) Gunderson is a United States Public Health Service Pharmacist with the Indian Health Service (IHS). She is a 2004 graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy. CAPT Gunderson serves as the Chair of the IHS National Committee on Heroin, Opioids, and Pain Efforts (HOPE) and Director of Revenue Enhancement for the Bemidji Area. In these dual roles, CAPT Gunderson leads diverse, interdisciplinary teams to identify opportunities for improvement, to engage key stakeholders, and to achieve success. CAPT Gunderson provides direction and supports IHS efforts to promote appropriate and effective pain management, to reduce overdose deaths, and to improve access to culturally appropriate treatment. She has a demonstrated passion for working with tribal communities to augment local responses to the opioid crisis and has led local initiatives to expand access to naloxone for opioid overdose reversal, improve maternal-child-health outcomes, and support innovative solutions to complex challenges.

Ms. Reierson is the program director for the Partnership to Advance Tribal Health. In this role she provides oversight and coordination of planned activities of the PATH team. She works closely with PATH team members to engage healthcare professionals in practice transformation efforts. She also leads the PATH Behavioral Health team. Ms. Reierson works with national stakeholders and partners to align efforts and to spread successful strategies, tools, and best practices. Ms. Reierson has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare quality improvement across the care continuum, with recent training in agile implementation, and seven years of experience working with Indian Health Service and Tribal communities. Ms. Reierson is a Certified Just Culture Champion and a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer.

Dr. Schreiber is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, and the Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group. Dr. Schreiber is a general internal medicine physician with over 25 years of health care experience. Prior to coming to CMS, she was the Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) in Detroit, Michigan. Earlier roles at HFHS included the Division Head of General Internal Medicine, and the SVP of Clinical Transformation and IT Integration, where she was the clinical lead of the systemwide Epic implementation. The Epic implementation and use earned HFHS a Davies Award in 2018. She has also held senior leadership roles at the Detroit Medical Center, where she was the Chief Quality Officer, and with Trinity Health System where she was the national system Chief Medical Officer and acting interim Chief Medical Information Officer.

While at CMS Dr. Schreiber has led many quality initiatives, including MIPS transformation to value pathways, the modernization of the Hospital Stars program, as well as advancing digital quality measurement systems. She is on the boards of ACCME (continuing medical education), Leapfrog, and a member of HITACH (the national health information advisory committee) among others. Prior to joining CMS, she also participated in numerous state and national quality committees including the Board of Directors for the Michigan Hospital Association Keystone Center and the Patient Safety Organization, the Board of Directors of MPRO (Michigan Peer Review Organization – the Michigan QIO), the National Quality Forum Patient Safety Metrics Committee, and the National Quality Partners.

Carole Hemmelgarn, MS, MS, graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Speech Communication. She received a master’s degree in Patient Safety Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a second master’s degree in Health Care Ethics from Creighton University.

Ms. Hemmelgarn has worked in healthcare for over 30 years. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago for ten years teaching in their mater’s program for patient safety. Currently, Ms. Hemmelgarn is the Senior Director Education for the MedStar Institute for Quality & Safety. She is also the Director for the Executive Master’s program for Clinical Quality, Safety & Leadership at Georgetown University.

Ms. Hemmelgarn is involved in patient safety work across the country. She sits on the Leapfrog Patient & Family Caregiver Expert Panel, Board of Quality, Safety and Experience at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Collaborative at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Clinical Excellence Council for Colorado Hospital Association, and the Board of Directors for the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement.

Her passion resides in transparency and communication after medical errors, health care communication, the power of storytelling in health care, and the aftermath endured by providers, patients, and families when medical harm transpires.

Ms. Hemmelgarn was driven to the field of patient safety after she lost her nine-year-old daughter, Alyssa, to multiple medical errors.

Marty Hatlie, JD is a patient safety advocate with a strong interest in the roles patients and family members play as co-creators of patient safety solutions. In 2021 he co-founded Patients for Patient Safety US, a US branch of the World Health Organization’s Patients for Patient Safety network. PFPS US is a network of Patient Safety Champions that advocates for implementation of the WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan in the US. He also serves as President & CEO for Project Patient Care, a non-profit organization based in Chicago that is dedicated to using the voice of the patient to improve care. He also is a principal of the Healthcare Patient Partnership Institute, which works with hospitals and health systems to engage patients as advisors in patient safety improvement work.

Drawing on experience as a civil rights attorney, malpractice defense litigator, lobbyist and coalition builder, Mr. Hatlie is active in both public and organizational policy development on patient safety, litigation reform and patient safety issues. He works extensively with consumers and organizations to foster the cultural paradigm shift necessary to support a patient-centered, systems-based approach to the delivery of healthcare services. Mr. Hatlie has served on leadership teams as a consultant on multiple research projects and transformation initiatives funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Col Steven L. Coffee is a career military officer in the U.S. Air Force. His staff assignments include three Combatant Command tours, two National Security Agency/Central Security Service tours, the Joint Staff, and Headquarters Air Force. He commanded the Force Support Squadron at the National Reconnaissance Office.

Colonel Coffee earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Morehouse College, a Master of Arts in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University, a Masters in Clinical Quality, Safety and Leadership from Georgetown University, and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. Additionally, he has completed Joint and Combined Warfighting School through the National Defense University, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College through the Air Force, Air University.

His passion and purpose for improving patient safety was birthed following a delay and ultimately misdiagnosis of a metabolic condition in his newborn son, Steven L. Coffee, Jr., subsequently causing him to receive a liver transplant at eight-weeks old. He is a founding member of the Patients for Patient Safety US chapter of the World Health Organization. Colonel Coffee served as a charter member and first community Chair of the MedStar Georgetown Patient and Family Advisory Council for Quality and Safety and sits on Patient and Family Advisory Councils for the MedStar Health System, the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, Sentrics E3 and Hope for Henry foundation.

Stephanie Hutchinson, MBA is the Executive Director of the Comagine Health ESRD Network 16, providing strategic oversight for quality improvement work in 240 facilities covering more than 24,695 patients in 5 states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington). Prior to joining the Network community, she worked for the National Kidney Foundation of Florida as the CEO for 8 ½ years. Ms. Hutchinson has an MBA from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and an undergraduate degree in Health Education from the University of South Florida. She has a personal connection to kidney disease as the daughter of an ESRD patient and caregiver for three years. Ms. Hutchinson joined the Forum’s Board of Directors in July 2014 as a Member-at-Large before being elected Treasurer in January 2016. She is also a member of the National Association of Healthcare Quality.

Jessica Joseph, MBA, currently the Senior Vice President for Scientific Operations, has been with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) since 2004. She is responsible for the strategic planning, execution and evaluation of the overall business operations and logistics for NKF’s national and local professional education and membership activities. She also oversees NKF’s research grant program, patient programs, meetings, and events, and NKF’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI). Jessica volunteers as a surveyor for the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). She received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Business from University at Albany – State University of NY and her Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Healthcare Administration from University of Phoenix.

Matthew Rivara, M.D., is a board-certified nephrologist who serves as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, WA. He is also an investigator at the UW Kidney Research Institute. Dr. Rivara’s model of patient care focuses on working to empower patients and their families to feel that they are the primary drivers of their care and overall health. Dr. Rivara earned his MD from Harvard Medical School, completed a residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a clinical and research fellowship in nephrology at the University of Washington. He is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles and textbook chapters on a variety of topics related to kidney disease. His primary areas of research include improving outcomes for patients transitioning to and undergoing dialysis treatment, as well as patient-reported outcomes among patients treated with dialysis. He has served on multiple steering committees for multiple Kidney Health Initiative Projects and is a member of the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis Education Committee and the American Society of Nephrology Quality Committee. In addition, Dr. Rivara is currently the Faculty Chair for the National Kidney Foundation Home ECHO Program.

Deirdra Stockmann, Ph.D., M.U.P. is the Acting Director of the Division of Quality and Health Outcomes in the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Since joining CMS in 2012, Deirdra has worked with state Medicaid and CHIP agencies and their partners to improve health outcomes by improving access to and quality of health services for people enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. Before joining CMS, Deirdra worked on multi-stakeholder collaborations to address social determinants of health and other aspects of community wellbeing. Deirdra holds a Ph.D. and Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and a Bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania.

Krista Lynch leads the Analytics, Research and Measurement (ARM ) team at the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA). Krista has been with HCA for 8 years. She has worked on various health care analytics projects and is especially interested in reproductive health, women’s health, working with tribes, LGBTQ and health equity. She has her master’s degree in economics from Kansas State University. One of her favorite things to do in Washington is kayak among the seals.

Larry Mull received a BA in Business Management from NC State University and an MBA from Wake Forest University. His work in the private sector comprised product management, business process reengineering, and strategic/operational planning. Larry then worked for Bank of America. In his role as Senior Vice President, Larry led a diverse team in operational and performance reporting for consumer risk operations, identifying KPIs and delivering key metrics and scorecards to senior management. Larry’s ability to communicate business objectives from data to dashboard and his interest in serving his community led him to join NC Medicaid’s Business Intelligence & Analytics Office in 2016.

Larry applies his ability to understand business needs and then leverage data to provide crucial information for decision-making to impact organizational health objectives. As Associate Director of Business Intelligence Solutions, Larry enjoys being able to apply his breadth of experience in different industries in a meaningful, impactful way. His team provides data and dashboards internally throughout the organization, and externally to researchers, vendors, legislators, and the public. Larry and his team have crafted interactive dashboards to help these varied audiences better understand NC Medicaid trends and opportunities in the public health sphere.

When his two kids aren’t keeping him busy, Larry enjoys getting outdoors to run, hike, and golf.

Kimberly Proctor, PhD is the Chief Data Officer for the Data & Systems Group in CMCS and leads projects on geocoding Medicaid and CHIP beneficiary addresses, improving the quality of race and ethnicity data in the TAF, integrating enrollment datasets to monitor PHE unwinding, and examining the impact of the COVID-19 PHE on Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. Prior to this role, she led TAF development, content review for the Medicaid DQ Atlas, and the development of a series of publicly available data files relating to key Medicaid and CHIP content areas. In her previous work at CMS, she led a research portfolio relating to the quality of administrative data across topics such as race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Joel Andress, PhD, leads strategic planning projects for digital quality measurement advancement at CMS. Dr. Andress has led development of quality and cost measures over the past 11 years for multiple CMS quality programs, including the End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program (ESRD-QIP), the Dialysis Facility Compare Star Ratings, and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

Bridget Calvert is the Senior dQM Implementation Lead in the Division of Quality Measurement at CMS. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing strategy and vision for submissions integrations and authentication services.

Mrs. Calvert has over 15 years of software implementation including training, management, process improvement and project management. Prior to her role at CMS, Mrs. Calvert was a Project Manager at Johns Hopkins Healthcare; most notably focusing on improving health plan operations. Mrs. Calvert is active in her community volunteering for several charitable organizations.

Cheryl G. Franklin, MD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and is a practicing gynecologist with Morehouse Healthcare (MHC). Dr. Franklin seeks to address, through research, advocacy, clinical services, and public policy, some of the nation’s health disparities, especially those which disproportionately affect African American women. Her research interests include Maternal Health Equity; Obesity and Physical Inactivity; Cardiovascular Health for Women; HPV-Mediated Genital tract cancers; Mobile-health Technology and Telemedicine; and Global Health. Dr. Franklin is the immediate past medical director of Morehouse Healthcare and is skilled at coordinating the delivery of multispecialty healthcare services in the 21st century, value-based, healthcare environment.

Dr. Franklin currently serves on the Peach State Health Plan Board of Directors and the March of Dimes’ Atlanta Market Board where she provides input to its Mission Impact Committee. She recently served on the Board of Directors for the Morehouse Choice Accountable Care Organization and Education System (MCACO-ES), a statewide collaboration of community-based healthcare partners that “take responsibility for the cost improvement, efficiency, quality and effectiveness of community and population health.” Cheryl is an alumnus of Stanford University, Columbia University School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Hernandez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Executive and Founding Director of the Center for Maternal Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). She has a broad background in community-based participatory research (CBPR), maternal and child health disparities, health policy, and social determinants of health. Dr. Hernandez has more than 16 years of experience in developing partnerships and implementing CBPR that engages with diverse stakeholder groups. Dr. Hernandez is an NIH R01 funded researcher who has obtained diverse extramural funding to develop multiple lines of research to advance science toward the elimination of women’s health inequities. The research approach in these local and nationally funded initiatives takes a multi-sectoral and multi-level translational research approach and explores the integration of technology to advance women’s health. She has continuously served and held leadership positions (vice chair, chair) on multiple organizations focused on maternal morbidity and mortality.

Dr. Hernandez received her Master of Public Health from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Stony Brook University. She earned her PhD in public health as well as a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary women’s health from the University of South Florida. Dr. Hernandez was a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) maternal and child health leadership trainee and epidemiology trainee.

Kaitlyn Hernandez-Spalding, MPH is a research assistant II at the Center for Maternal Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine. She currently assists with the Maternal Near Miss study and the Prevent Maternal Mortality using Mobile Technology (PM3) study. Kaitlyn is a recent graduate from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she received a Master of Public Health in Community Health Sciences. Kaitlyn also received a Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a concentration in Health Education from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2018.

Dr. Anita Thomas is a Technical Advisor and Team Lead with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Quality Improvement and Innovations Group (iQIIG). She supports work on improving coordination of care, medication safety, and patient safety, health equity and reducing opioid related harms across care settings. Dr. Thomas is a clinical pharmacist by training, specializing in quality improvement, pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research. Dr. Thomas was part of the initial CMS team that helped implement Medicare Part D and has over 15 years of experience working as a program leader in areas of data analysis, healthcare quality improvement, performance and strategy, and clinical patient care.

Ms. Ford joined CMS in 2008 and is a QIN-QIO COR in the Department of Community and Population Health (DCPH) in iQIIG. She is also the DCPH Nursing Home Patient Safety SME. Ms. Ford is a Registered Nurse with a Masters of Public Health. Prior to working at CMS, she worked as a clinical nurse in acute care hospitals and had multiple positions for a health insurance plan including Nurse Case Manager, Manager of Medicare Product Development, and Director of Provider Relations.

Sheila McLean, MBA, LNHA, CPHQ, is a senior consultant manager/vice president at Health Quality Innovators (HQI), the QIN-QIO for Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina and Virginia. A senior professional with more than 25 years of experience in nursing home administration and quality management, she understands strategic planning and knows the importance of process redesign to effectively meet performance and quality improvement goals. In her role with HQI she is responsible for driving multiple quality improvement initiatives across various healthcare settings.

Allison Spangler, BSN, RN, RAC-CT, QCP is a consulting manager at Health Quality Innovators with over 15 years of nursing home quality improvement experience. She is a seasoned certified resident assessment coordinator and Quality Assurance/Performance Improvement (QAPI) certified professional. In her role at HQI, Ms. Spangler provides technical assistance to conduct root cause analysis, develop action plans, and follow-up to ensure progress and sustainability. She has helped nursing home facilities improve their regulatory compliance, quality measure performance, and reimbursement through accurate MDS coding while also maximizing opportunities for rapid cycle quality measure improvement (QMI).

Ms. Spangler holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Virginia.

Teresa Lubowski completed a B.S degree in Pharmacy at the Albany College of Pharmacy, a Pharm D. degree at the University of New York at Buffalo and a 2-year research/antibiotic stewardship fellowship in infectious diseases at the Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. She has professional pharmacy experience including institutional antibiotic stewardship practice in multiple states, quality improvement, antibiotic stewardship experience in the outpatient setting, field and headquarters experience in the pharmaceutical industry and teaching, administration and research experience in academia. Currently, Dr. Lubowski is the Lead for the HQIC Antibiotic Stewardship Work Group, Director Quality Improvement and Medication Safety and Co Lead for the CMS Quality Improvement initiative for IPRO. She has been working in Quality improvement for the past 6.5 years.

Valerie Reger is a Public Heath Representative 2 on the Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) Team at the New Jersey Department of Health. Valerie is a Licensed Practical Nurse since 2007, with the state of New Jersey. She has worked in Acute Psychiatric, Long-term care and Subacute facilities. Valerie has also worked as a Human Resources Director for 5 years. Her role on the ICAR Team is to help assist facilities with Infection Prevention.