Devin Carty serves as the Chief Talent (Human Resources) and Experience Officer for Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA). In this role, Mr. Carty oversees two offices, the Office of Strategy and Innovation and the Office of Talent. Mr. Carty is accountable for all aspects of the CTCA Strategy, Innovation and Talent functions for a 5,200 employee organization including organizational and talent strategies, attraction and selection, employee development, succession planning, wellness and wellbeing, compensation and benefits. Mr. Carty and his team are responsible for ensuring the strategic direction of CTCA and that there is a healthy, loyal, fully-performing employee in every role.
Prior to CTCA, Mr. Carty served as the Vice President of Culture, Chief Experience Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for Tenet Healthcare Corporation (formally Vanguard Health Systems). He was part of the leadership team that took Vanguard Health System from 15 hospitals, 18,000 employees and $2.8 billion in revenue, to 30 hospitals, 45,000 employees and $6.5 billion in revenue in five years. Mr. Carty was also part of the leadership team that merged Vanguard Health Systems with Tenet Healthcare Corporation to create the second largest health care system with 89 hospitals, over 100,000 employees and over $17 billion in revenue. Mr. Carty's responsibilities included overseeing three offices including, Culture and Talent, Customer Acquisition and Patient Experience, and Organic Growth through Brand Management, Marketing (B2B and B2C) and Sales.
Prior to joining Vanguard Health Systems, Mr. Carty was a Partner with Gallup Consulting, where he was responsible for leading the health care consulting for the Midwest, Southwestern, and Pacific Northwest divisions. Mr. Carty has extensive consulting experience with clients in health care on issues such as culture improvement, human capital management, employee engagement, operational process improvement, succession planning, physician partnership & engagement, organizational restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and the consumer experience. His consulting insights have helped his health care clients from around the globe improve their profit through process efficiencies and organic growth, by improving their employee, physician and consumer experience.

Prior to Gallup, Mr. Carty was part of the consulting and business development team for a leading Public Relations and Marketing firm. He was brought in to lead a start-up division focused on leveraging analytics to determine the effectiveness of company’s public relations, media and marketing practices. He was also recruited by NASA and Judson University to work on their space research team, where he determined different growth rates of E. coli in an oxygenated environment compared with a deoxygenated environment. Prior to joining NASA and Judson University he founded a successful internet sales company selling goods for a top-branded retail organization. The company was sold four years after it was founded.

Mr. Carty graduated in three years from Benedictine University, with duel bachelor degrees in biology and biochemistry. He then started to focus on medical school, but decided to get his Executive MBA in International Executive Leadership from the University of Nebraska instead. He has also continued to advance his learning with Executive Development and Certifications in Design Thinking from Stanford (Institute of Design at Stanford), Lean Process Improvement from Toyota University, Leadership and Organizational Transformation from Center for Creative Leadership, Information Technology from SUNY-Binghamton School of Management, Strengths Coaching from Gallup University and Corporate Restructuring, Mergers and Acquisitions from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Carty also serves as a co-founder and board member of Clariture Health, serves on the Executive Board of Beryl Patient Experience Institute, is a Founding Executive Council Member for Press Ganey Patient Experience Institute of Innovation, and an Advisor to Martin Companies, a venture investment company that provides capital, operational support and mentoring to early-stage companies.
Mr. Carty also serves as a medical missionary in Congo, Africa where he travels around the jungles setting up medical clinics and providing care to those in need.

About Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA):
CTCA is a national network of hospitals providing a comprehensive, fully-integrated approach to cancer treatment.  CTCA serves patients with complex cancer from all 50 states and multiple countries around the world at facilities located in suburban Chicago, Philadelphia, Tulsa, and suburban Phoenix and Atlanta.  Known for delivering the Mother Standard® of care and Patient Empowerment Medicine®, CTCA provides patients with information about cancer and their treatment options so they can control their treatment decisions.

Dr. Airica Steed, Ed.D, MBA, RN, CSSMBB, FACHE – Diversity MBA Magazine Top 100 Executive Leaders Under 50 and Modern Healthcare awarded “Up & Comer”, serving as the “first appointed” Enterprise Chief Experience Officer (CXO) for the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. She is charged with spearheading an enterprise-wide cultural and organizational transformation to create a world-class experience for patients, families, employees, and providers as the “Provider and Employer of Choice” and leading large-scale strategy initiatives to drive high quality care, profitable growth, customer satisfaction/loyalty, workforce engagement, efficiency, and value optimization.  Prior to her current role, she served as a Vice President for Advocate Healthcare system and as a Senior Management Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers Healthcare Advisory Practice.

Dr. Steed is an accomplished transformational change leader and expert spanning multiple market verticals leveraging Lean Six Sigma, Malcolm Baldrige framework, “Big 4 Consulting”, organizational development, service excellence and change leadership.  She has published numerous, peer reviewed articles and book chapters and has been an active speaker in the industry. She holds a Bachelors degree in Nursing, a Masters of Business Administration, and a Doctorate in Leadership, in addition to numerous credentials and certifications, including a Master Black Belt and International Certification in Lean Six Sigma and has served multiple terms on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Performance Excellence Award. 

Christine Holt is the chief experience officer and vice president, marketing and public affairs for Holy Redeemer Health System, an integrated system providing HealthCare, HomeCare and LifeCare throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and 12 counties in New Jersey. Her main responsibility is to build the brand for the system and its services, and help the organization deliver distinct experiences that embody the brand promise and enhance the value provided to patients, physicians and employees. Prior to Holy Redeemer, Chris was director of marketing for the Rothman Institute and Nazareth Hospital, as well as a long-term care administrator. She received her BS in marketing and finance from St. Joseph’s University and her MBA in health care administration and MS in health care finance from Temple University.

Geri Lynn Baumblatt is an industry expert on shared decision making and patient engagement. For the past 11 years she’s overseen the creation of a large library of multimedia patient engagement, education, shared decision making, and behavior change Emmi programs and interactive phone calls. These programs have won numerous awards including Freddie Awards, the IHA Health Literacy Award, the Frank Netter Award, ClearMark Plain Language Awards, and the 4th Annual Leonard G. Doak Health Literacy Innovator Award.
She also hosts an annual Health Literacy Month blog series on Engaging the Patient. She regularly speaks and serves on health literacy and shared decision making panels for organizations like AHRQ, the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, Health Literacy Missouri, and the Center for Plain Language and recently joined the editorial board of the Journal of Patient Experience. She works with decision scientists, behavior change experts, patients, and clinicians; they draw on their research and experience to create content that helps patients engage in their care. She holds a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Denver.

Liz Jazwiec, R.N. is a internationally renowned speaker, strategist and author who has shared her passion for leadership, engagement and service with audiences across all industries. She is the award winning author of the bestselling books “Eat THAT Cookie!,”  “Hey Cupcake! We are ALL Leaders,” and “Service Excellence is as easy as P.I.E. (Perception Is Everything.)
 
She’s also been a longtime hospital officer who helped raise service scores at Chicago, Illinois’ Holy Cross Hospital from the 5th to the 99th percentile in just a few years.  Her work as vice president of patient care and as the director of emergency services was one of the key reasons Holy Cross won Fortune Magazine’s Enterprise Award for Best Business Practices..

Today, she uses that expertise to inspire other organizations interested in building a culture where excellence is driven by strong leaders and engaged employees. Many audiences describe Liz’s presentations as uplifting, motivational and fun.  However they also clearly respect her practical and experience-based style.  You’re sure to enjoy her creative and viable suggestions for addressing some of the difficult issues facing organizations today

Alan Dubovsky is the Director of Customer and Physician Engagement with The Emory Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, the outpatient division of Emory Healthcare. Alan is responsible for the patient experience across Emory Clinic comprising over 100 clinical areas delivering over 3 million patient encounters annually. Alan manages the Service Management department, which includes the functions of service process improvement and coaching, Guest Services, Patient Advocacy, Interpretation Services, and Emory Healthcare’s special constituent patient program. Alan also serves as the main administrative champion for all physician engagement efforts for over 1800 providers. Alan joined Emory in 2011 with over 10 years of healthcare experience focused on improving the patient experience.

Julie has worked for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare for 15 years. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has 14 hospital sites, over 500 employed physicians, and 17,000 employees.  Currently she serves as the first Vice President for Patient and Family Experience for the system.  She started her career as a registered nurse in 1996. In 2010, she received her MBA in Organizational Development and her Doctorate in Business Administration specializing in Leadership in 2013. 

Megan is a graduate of Drexel University with a Masters in Nursing Education.  From Selinsgrove,  Pa, she has had a long career within Geisinger Health System, moving from direct nursing care for 18 years everything from cardiac to maternity, to land in a role creating and implementing community health programs for the Women’s Health Service Line.  In the last six years she has been involved in process improvement for the nursing service for pain management, communication, medication reconciliation and education and patient belongings tracking.  She joined the Patient Experience team at Geisinger in March 2014, bringing a wealth of patient perspective and employee education to lead patient centric changes in four hospitals of the  Geisinger Health System.

Micah is Senior Experience Improvement Coach for TruthPoint who has over 13 years of healthcare experience. His coaching spans the health care continuum from pediatrics to geriatrics and includes numerous care settings, many of which have gained material improvements in their patient experience scores. 
Micah spent 10 years as a Quality and Safety consultant for a major pediatrics health system in his current role at TruthPoint, he provides coaching and improvement support to 12 health care systems, 31 medical centers, and hundreds of inpatient and outpatient clinical departments nationwide.

A recognized thought leader in the Patient Experience, Sean has been a healthcare administrator for more than 15 years and has been in management and business consulting for more than 25. A proven healthcare administrator he concurrently managed a wide range of practices in both adult and pediatrics (including: Developmental Medicine, Gastroenterology, Genetics, Infectious Diseases, Hemophilia, Neonatology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Rheumatology, Dermatology, Phototherapy, MOHS Surgery, Endocrinology/Diabetes, Travel Medicine, Pulmonary, Sleep Lab, Infusion Center).
Sean has a demonstrated track record of successfully moving both employee and physician engagement, and well as, patient satisfaction. The units he managed had best in class scores for employee engagement and patient satisfaction. As the first patient experience leader in the BJC Healthcare system Sean successfully improved Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s HCAHPS percentile rank by 48 points within the first year of building the patient experience team.
He holds advance degrees in business administration, applied economics and clinical biomedical informatics. Sean has lived in 3 continents and enjoys the outdoors. He spends much of his free time traveling around the united states and overseas where he visits friends and family. He is passionate about improving the experience of our patients and families, and developing an organization’s culture.

Terri Nuss, MS, MBA serves as Vice President of Patient Centeredness for Baylor Scott & White North. In this role, Ms. Nuss is responsible for strategy and the development of tools and methods to drive patient-centered care and show meaningful results. She directs patient satisfaction data harvest and analysis and oversees annual efforts to align goals and equip leaders and staff and understand how service affects the experience and outcomes for patients.
Ms. Nuss joined Baylor Scott & White North in 1992 and has led its patient centeredness initiatives since 2006. Before becoming a system leader in patient centeredness, Ms. Nuss directed care for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary diagnostic, interventional and rehabilitation services. She also has experience working in Cardiology at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
With Ms. Nuss’ expertise and focus on servanthood balanced by stewardship, the Office of Patient Centeredness drives sustainable service improvement, and supports the system’s strategy of actively inviting the patient to create the ideal care experience. Under the leadership of Ms. Nuss, Baylor Health Care System is transforming culture from patient-focused care to true partnership between patients and caregivers. Her expertise within patient- and family-centered care includes development of system structure and governance, identification of key initiatives and urgencies, engagement of colleagues and piloting initiatives, systematic implementation and assessment, on-boarding and education, and service recovery.  In addition, Ms. Nuss has experience and expertise in measuring and reporting the patient experience through internal and external inputs, data analysis, and annual goal setting.
Ms. Nuss received her Bachelor of Applied Arts degree from Central Michigan University, her Master of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, and her Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University.

Ms. Greenhouse has over 25 years of leadership experience in a variety of health care settings (acute care, rehabilitation, outpatient, and post-hospital care). As Executive Director of the PFCC Innovation Center, she is responsible for strategic and programmatic implementation and spread of the Patient and Family Centered Care Methodology and Practice (PFCC M/P) regionally, nationally and globally. She has co-authored 25 papers on patient and family centered care, health care outcomes, process assessment, and organizational models in peer-reviewed journals, and is a frequent speaker on the topic of engaging patients and families as partners in redesigning care delivery with a focus on improving experiences and outcomes while decreasing waste and cost.       

Greg Berney has more than 10 years of healthcare experience.  He currently serves as Director of Patient Experience at Cone Health in Greensboro, NC. As an inaugural member of Cone Health’s Leadership Coalition, Greg has been a very active leader in the organization’s cultural transformation. Greg has a Master of Social Work from Arizona State University and has previously worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in a variety of medical settings. 

Theresa Johnson is an accomplished professional with more than 15 years progressively responsible experience in strategy, change management, learning and leadership development.  A highly consultative, intuitive and collaborative, strategic thinking partner, Theresa has a proven and successful track record of developing leaders at all levels in an organization.   From building and leading a team of high performing learning consultants; to leading a team of learning strategists and senior instructional designers in a corporate office environment - leadership development is one of her hallmarks.

Theresa brings a wealth of experience from specialty retail and hospitality with companies such as Hallmark Cards, Macy’s, Walt Disney World and Luxottica Retail.  During her tenure at Luxottica Retail, the Training and Development team received two Best in Class industry awards:
   
2008 -  Bersin & Associates Learning Leader Initiative Excellence award, recognized Luxottica Retail’s be!LUX training and development department for an enterprise-wide talent management strategy.  The team launched a new LMS and talent management suite, developed governance boards, established learning priorities, created new talent management processes, and eliminated ah-hoc systems.  The Learning Leaders Excellence awards recognize organizations for innovation and excellence in critical areas of training and development and talent management resulting in significant business improvement.

2009 -  the American Society of Training and Development recognized Luxottica Retail with a BEST Award for their efforts to rebuild its talent pipeline and provide just in time associate training that positively impacted the business.  The BEST Award recognizes organizations who are Building talent, Enterprise wide, Supported by the organization’s leaders, fostering a Thorough learning culture. 

In 2011, Theresa joined Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio where she served as the Director of Service Excellence & Consumer Relations. In this role, Theresa was instrumental in leading an initiative to successfully improve the patient and family experience across the system.

Theresa now serves as Vice President, Service Excellence at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, Texas.  In this newly created role, Theresa is responsible for the development and implementation of a system-wide approach to customer service designed to create exceptional experiences for patients and family members that interact with and are served by Parkland Health & Hospital System.   

Theresa has earned multiple degrees including a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland; a Master of Arts in International Business and an Master of Business Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Theresa and her spouse reside in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Stacie Pallotta is a Senior Director in the Office of Patient Experience at Cleveland Clinic, a 1450-bed hospital (main campus) in Cleveland, OH.

With more than 10 years of healthcare experience in research and academic medical centers, Stacie has a variety of experience in clinical and translational research, project management and healthcare administration.  Joining Cleveland Clinic in 2005, Stacie has been with the Office of Patient Experience since 2011.

Currently Stacie’s areas of focus include culture and service, best practices, external partnerships and volunteer services. She also oversees the Association for Patient Experience, a non-profit organization established to support healthcare professionals, patients, and their families by improving the patient experience.

Stacie’s role in the Office of Patient Experience has allowed her to partner with key members of Human Resources to drive organizational culture development, employee engagement initiatives and service training and sustainability. She has also worked extensively with Cleveland Clinic’s international partners in developing patient experience strategy, customizing it for local environments and implementing best practices.

Stacie holds a master’s degree in public health from Case Western Reserve University.

Julie is the Vice President of Patient Experience for the University of Arizona Health Network, Tucson, Arizona and faculty for the University of Arizona's Interpersonal Education and Practice Program. She has strategic responsibility for patient experience outcomes across the health system. Her expertise includes healthcare leadership coaching, focusing on achievement of organizational goals in safety, quality, and employee and patient experience, and the "how to" of organizational culture with concentration on interprofessional education and practice.
Her nursing background has provided her with the understanding and skills to make a difference by helping organizations improve patient quality, safety and experience, as well as employee and physician engagement. In addition, prior to her current role, she was with the Studer Group for over 12 years with responsibilities that included designer of emergency department service line and medical practice service line (tools, strategies and evaluative measures), leadership development for all levels of leadership, coaching to for managing teams, running effective meetings, critical conversations, implementing leadership development institutes, and interdepartmental collaboration.
Julie graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Carroll Columbia College of Nursing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently completing her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the University of Minnesota in Health Innovations and Leadership.

Lynn is the Director of Patient and Community Experience at Waterbury Hospital, in Waterbury CT.  Lynn has 38 years of healthcare experience with 25 years in patient experience improvement.  She possesses a successful track record and holds a regional reputation for formulating strategies to achieve improvement in service excellence and patient satisfaction.  Lynn has strong leadership, goal setting and coaching skills.  She believes that data drives results and is critical to transforming organizational culture. 

Lynn has a passion for people development and a strong desire to make a positive impact on the patient experience.  She is committed to changing the patient experience through staff and team development, patient and physician satisfaction as well as insuring positive employee engagement.

Alicia Staley is a three-time cancer survivor, first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease as a sophomore at Syracuse University. She is committed to making a difference in the health care community. Ms.
Staley has been involved in managing, navigating, and advocating for her own care, and actively shares what she has learned to improve other patients’ experiences. She has been a patient at Tufts Medical Center since 1994. She sits on the Tufts Medical Center Board of Governors and is the co-chair of the Tufts Patient and Family Advisory Council.

Ms Staley is the Chief Patient Officer of Akari Health, a healthcare consulting group based in Boston, MA.  She advises clients on how to use social media and social networks to build powerful relationships with patient communities.  Alicia has in-depth knowledge of the power of online communities and provides direction to companies looking to build platforms to interact with consumers and patients in meaningful ways. She leads Akari's patient engagement efforts and works with clients to improve their quality and safety initiatives.

She shares her passion and enthusiasm for helping the cancer community by contributing to Awesome Cancer Survivor and the BCSM community. She regularly speaks at social media and digital conferences throughout the US. She has presented at the South by South West Interactive Conference (SXSWi), AF4Q’s Annual Meeting 2013, 140 Boston, ePharma 2013, and Social Media for Pharma.  As an inspirational speaker, Alicia reaches many different audiences, providing insight into life as a 22+ year cancer survivor.

Heather Gjerde is a social media marketing professional based in San Diego, California. Heather currently manages the social media program for Scripps Health, the largest not-for-profit health care organization in San Diego, California. Scripps treats a half-million patients annually through the dedication of 2,600 affiliated physicians and 13,500+ employees.
Prior to joining Scripps, Heather practiced public relations and social media for a variety of regional and national consumer brands at a full-service marketing and brand development firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Clients included Oregon Chai, Culver’s restaurants, Schneider National and adidas Golf/TaylorMade/Ashworth.
When she’s not on the clock, you can find Heather walking her dog Izzie along the beach, globetrotting or Instagramming her latest food obsession.
Connect with her just about everywhere social: @LilMsSociable.

As a co-founder of CipherHealth, Alex Hejnosz has led the company through significant growth since inception. He directs the Company’s commercial side, working with the sales and marketing teams to bring CipherHealth’s solutions to hospitals around the country. Alex also plays a key role in business development by identifying and expanding strategic partnerships and initiatives for the Company. In addition, Alex oversees all aspects steady-state operations, having managed hundreds of client implementations.
Prior to starting CipherHealth, Alex researched outcomes and effectiveness at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City and worked on the development of a physician tracking database at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Additionally, Alex worked for HUP as a certified emergency medical technician gaining over a year of in-hospital experience.
Alex earned his Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, studying Health Care Management and the Biological Basis of Behavior at The Wharton School.

Robert Kluttz is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with fifteen years of process improvement experience across a wide range of industries and applications.   Prior to joining ICMC, Robert led Kaiser Permanente’s Lean Six Sigma deployment in their Ohio region while supporting both clinical and administrative process improvement initiatives.  He consolidated nearly thirty million data points to begin to quantify the impact of physician and process variation on clinical outcomes & patient satisfaction.  He also led efforts to improve new patient experience and pharmacy fill accuracy. 
Robert also supported NASA’s Lean Six Sigma program in his role as Master Black Belt at Booz Allen Hamilton.  While at NASA, Robert was instrumental in embedding change management in their Kaizen process improvement events.  He was also a member of NASA’s Transition Technology to Flight team, which was focused on reducing the time to convert research projects into applied technologies. 
Prior to that role, Robert played key roles in the Lean Six Sigma deployments at both Key Bank and Rockwell Automation.
He is the co-founder of the Northeast Ohio Lean Six Sigma Forum, a consortium of process improvement leaders from over 50 organizations including Goodyear, Akron Children’s Hospital, the Federal Reserve Bank, and Gojo Industries.  He was also a member of Kent State University’s Lean Six Sigma steering committee.
Robert is an active community volunteer with both Junior Achievement and Entrepreneurship Preparatory School, a high-performing charter academy in inner-city Cleveland.  He also supported Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts in Gautier, Mississippi.
Robert is a graduate of the Naval Nuclear Power Program and is completing his Master of Business Administration degree at Baldwin Wallace University

Dr. Sara Laskey, MD, was named the first Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cleveland’s MetroHealth System in late 2013. In this position, Dr. Laskey is responsible for the leadership, design, and implementation of initiatives that fulfill the patient-centered mission and vision of MetroHealth. She collaborates with MetroHealth executives, medical staff, and department directors to develop training programs and communications that are transforming the culture of MetroHealth.

In the past year, Dr. Laskey and her team developed and implemented Pathways to Patient Experience, an innovative three-hour training for every MetroHealth employee. She has launched a recognition program, “Star IQ Genius,” to honor those employees whose behavior is exemplary of patient-centered care as well as implementing “Leadership Rounding” for administrative and clinical leaders throughout the organization. Currently, she is developing an intensive service and leadership program for all managers and front-line employees at MetroHealth, which she expects to implement in 2014-2015.

In addition to her Patient Experience responsibilities, Dr. Laskey is also an attending physician in the Emergency Department at MetroHealth and previously was the Director of Medical Operations for the department, a position she held from 2011 through 2013. She is an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. She was an active flight physician with Metro Life Flight for five years.

Dr. Laskey was Chair of the Leadership and Development Committee and Director of the Leadership Academy of the Ohio Chapter of American College of Emergency Physicians from 2012-2014. She currently serves on the Northern Ohio Trauma System (NOTS) Quality Committee; and the American College of Emergency Physicians National Council.  In addition, she was selected to serve on the CEO Search Committee for the MetroHealth Medical Center in 2012 and 2013. It is this committee that selected MetroHealth’s current leader, Dr. Akram Boutros.

Dr. Laskey’s work has been published in multiple the peer-reviewed journals including Genetic Medicine and Academic Emergency Medicine, as well as in numerous textbooks and professional newsletters. She’s presented abstracts at national symposia.

Prior to becoming a medical doctor, Laskey was a clown with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

About MetroHealth: The MetroHealth System, with more than 400 primary care and specialty care physicians, is one of the most comprehensive healthcare providers—and the only level one trauma center—in Northeast Ohio. As a public healthcare system, MetroHealth provides services to any resident of Cuyahoga County regardless of ability to pay. MetroHealth also is a center for medical research and education, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. All staff physicians hold faculty appointments with Case Western Reserve.

Dr. Morrow has over 30 years of experience across the healthcare industry, including time spent in clinical practice, as a managed care executive, a biopharmaceutical medical director and a healthcare writer. He comes to Next IT from Genentech, Inc., a biotech pioneer, where he worked as a Physician Executive. Dr. Morrow is an advocate for outcome-improving innovations in patient care and adherence and brings new perspectives to the medical industry for best utilizing Next IT’s proprietary virtual health assistant technology. He is a sought-after speaker and has given hundreds of lectures on topics including pharmacy management, medical management, disease management, specialty pharmacy, genomics and biotechnology. Morrow has authored nearly 100 publications in a variety of peer and trade journals and has been a major contributor to a textbook on managed care. He writes the provocative monthly column, Tomorrow's Medicine, for Managed Care, an online magazine widely read by health-plan executives and physicians. He also serves or has served on the advisory boards for six journals and several not-for-profit organizations.

Sharon Lee Parker is a nationally recognized author, speaker and cancer coach. Presently, she is the Director of Patient Experience/Advocacy at the John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ, which just received the designation by Health Grades as one of the top 3 in New York.
Sharon has a Master’s degree in Gerontology and is on the board of Health and Natural Sciences, at the University of Northern Colorado. She formerly was in the hospitality industry for more than 30 years wearing many hats including Director of Guest relations, at a major resort hotel.
 A speech and communication undergraduate degree naturally followed a young life making records and commercials.
After winning the battle of 2 unrelated cancers in 2003, at MD Anderson, Houston with Dr. Andre Goy,, Sharon wrote the book, “Look Out Cancer Here I Come,” and founded Life Lover Foundation, for new and novel therapies in cancer research.
She served on the Board of Trustees at HUMC for 8 years, while coaching more than 14,000 people and speaking to patients and groups, interested in her winning philosophy, until she assumed her present role.

Roseanna Ryan is the Director of Patient Advocacy, Patient and Family Centered Care and Language Assistance Services at Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.  Ms. Ryan completed her undergraduate education at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue, NY and earned a BS in Healthcare Administration.  She completed her graduate education at the College of Business at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY and earned a Master’s in Business Administration.  Ms. Ryan joined Stony Brook University Hospital in 1992 and has held many positions within the Division of Nursing during her tenure. Prior to her current position she was a Project Manager for the Division of Nursing.  Ms. Ryan has spoken nationally about Stony Brook Medicine’s Patient and Family Centered Care efforts.

Amy Searls has over twenty years of leadership experience. Shecurrently is Executive Director, Service Excellence at University of ColoradoHospital in Aurora, Colorado. Originally from the Chicago area, she has heldpositions as Cancer Center Liaison and Director of Guest Services, and Directorof Service Excellence with Banner Health and Providence Hospitals, Columbia,South Carolina. She has helped develop and implement many educational andtraining programs and resources designed to positively impact the patient andfamily experience. She has extensive background in many aspects of clinical andnon-clinical operations in hospital and ambulatory settings. She’s been recognizedfor delivering exceptional performance related to the patient experience. Shehas helped develop and successfully achieve service strategies and operationalobjectives through innovative planning, service, department networking,effective problem solving, vision and leadership. Her philosophy, whichemphasizes mission and purpose in what we do in health care, has helped her successfullyimpact the patient, guest and team experience.

 

Susan Hirt currently serves as the Director of Education for Talent Plus ® leadership consultants. Acting on a desire to study leadership talent, Hirt joined Talent Plus in June 2001 and has served as analyst and consultant throughout her tenure in the organization. In this role, she partners with executives to help them discover and develop the talents of their associates, which leads to growth for the individual and for the company. Through strength-based feedback and individualized coaching, she guides people to understand their natural propensities and to discover the best path for success. In her current role, Hirt has the opportunity to teach the Talent Plus interview technology as a selection and development tool within Talent Plus and in the client setting. Her North American clients include Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Stanford University Medical Center, Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Mercedes-Benz USA and Capella Hotels and Resorts. Hirt also enjoys employing her foreign language skills and has worked extensively with organizations in Europe, including the Autostadt, Robinson Club, the Oetker Hotel Collection and the Dorchester Collection. Hirt began her professional career as a scholar of classical languages and literature. She earned her master’s and Ph.D. with the intention of taking a position as a university professor. Eager to engage her teaching and analytical skills for the benefit of individuals and organizations, she became intrigued with the opportunity to do so within the business environment as a leader and catalyst for change. While finalizing her dissertation, Hirt began to work closely with the senior management team at MDS Pharma Services (now Celerion), a contract research organization for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. She was directly involved in the merger process of this organization with one of its largest competitors, bringing together leaders from multiple international locations to identify and realize the key benefits of the merger. Her activities there allowed her to influence visionary and strategic planning across the organization and highlighted for her the importance of leadership excellence as a key driver and sustainer of growth. Hirt received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and her master’s and Ph.D. from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. During her graduate work, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship and studied for a year at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany. She currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband, Brian.

Mike Sinoway is the Chief Executive Officer at Avatar Solutions. His expertise in client service, market research, information technology, and big data are a perfect fit with the current offerings and future direction of the company.
Mike has over 25 years of experience in building professional services organizations. From 2005 to 2014, he was a member of AlixPartners, a leading business advisory firm. In his role as Managing Director, Mike founded and built the firm's Growth Practice. He helped clients improve innovation, sales, marketing, service, and pricing. His clients have included companies in hospitality, consumer products, high tech, medical products, life sciences, and health care.
Prior to AlixPartners, Mike served 15 years at Deloitte Consulting, where he led the firm's regional operations practice and co-founded the firm's global Customer Relationship Management Practice. He enjoyed bringing production concepts, lean principles, and process thinking to the traditionally chaotic areas of sales and marketing.
Mike's early career included working in R&D for advanced propulsion systems at Honeywell Aerospace, and in Research & Planning for Walt Disney Attractions. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Arizona State.

Caryn travels extensively across the United States to teach aromatherapy to professionals as well as lay people. She is a well-organized and thorough instructor, and instills in her students her enthusiasm for integrating this natural modality into professional and personal lives. Caryn specializes in education for hospitals, hospices, massage schools, esthetic schools, wellness clinics, medi-spas, health care practitioners and pain clinics. Classes are tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual or organization and are designed to be both informative and participatory.

    She is accomplished in project management, organization, product development, production efficiency, quality control, and systems training and implementation. Her loyal customer base relies on and appreciates her insight, spirited energy, creativity, cooperative nature, and ethical character. She excels at discovering solutions and identifying the ways to grow professionally with her clients.
In 2001 she purchased Jacki’s Magic Lotion (JML), an all-natural massage and body lotion company. In 2002, she founded Scents of Well-Being and expanded the lotion line to include products for massage therapists specializing in infant massage and for estheticians (skin care). JML has now been manufactured for 45 years, with no interruptions.
    In 2002, Caryn founded Essential 3, an essential oil company that provides tested, therapeutic-quality essential oils and education for health care professionals, health care facilities, and lay people. Caryn personally and discerningly researches and chooses the sources for her essential oils.
   

Stephen is the Director of Patient Experience at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.  For more than 30 years Stephen has given his time in various capacities to hospitals in New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia and New Jersey, The United Way, Girls, Inc. and Meals on Wheels, to name a few, as he believes that volunteering expands our minds and allows us to intrinsically improve the lives of others.  Stephen's direct experience analyzing data, empowering employees and partnering with customers are key to his success driving organizational change 'through the eyes of the patient.' He has more than 25 years of experience in Fortune 500 companies in customer satisfaction, process improvement and financial, change and project management across multiple industries.

Cassandra Willis-Abner is the Corporate Director of Service Excellence and Assistant Hospital Director for Operations at the University of Michigan Health System. She is responsible for designing, implementing and directing transformational strategies to achieve ideal experiences for patient, family and employee stakeholder groups. Besides leading a department of internal performance consultants and skilled trainers, she is also responsible for Entrance Services and Hospital Communications and Information Services.

In her previous role as Director of Managed Care Operations, Cassandra was responsible for the operational and administrative activities associated with U of M’s Hospitals and Health Center’s managed care contractual agreements, representing over $650 million annually in professional and facility related charges.  Cassandra led a department of four divisions:  Enrollment Services, Provider Network Development, Referrals and Authorization Services and Training and Education. 

Prior to joining UMHS, Cassandra led the claims processing, enrollment process, claims inquiry and coordination of benefits departments in a 120,000 member health plan.  She has also been the senior leader for Medical Practices for an urban hospital system and has experience in Strategic Planning.

Cassandra is maize and blue through and through. She earned her Bachelors Degree (in Organization Psychology) from the University of Michigan and also her Masters Degree in Health Services Administration from UM’s School of Public Health.

She is on the board of several community based organizations in the metro Detroit area to include a Federally Qualified Community Health Center-- The Wellness Plan Health Centers, New Center Community Mental Health Services and Southfield Ravens Pop Warner Football and Cheer Association. 

She is married to Lawrence Abner and is the mother of Jay (13) and Kelsey (11).