Creating Workforce Joy and Well-Being

Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, KBE, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is also former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A pediatrician by background, Dr. Berwick has served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and on the staff of Boston's Children's Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has also served as Vice Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, the first "Independent Member" of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, and Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He served two terms on the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) governing Council, was a member of the IOM's Global Health Board, and served on President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. Recognized as a leading authority on health care quality and improvement, Dr. Berwick has received numerous awards for his contributions. In 2005, he was appointed "Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire" by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his work with the British National Health Service. Dr. Berwick is the author or co-author of over 160 scientific articles and six books. He also serves as Lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, and he's an elected member of the American Philosophical Society.

Derek Feeley, DBA, ​​​​​​​​​​joined IHI as Executive Vice President in September 2013 and served as CEO from January 2016 until July 2020. His work is international in scope, guiding work to deliver IHI's mission to improve health and care across the world. Prior to his work at IHI​, Mr. Feeley had been Director General (DG) Health and Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland since November 2010. From January 2011, the DG role was extended to cover Health and Social Care. He was the principal adviser to Scottish Ministers on health and care issues and he provided direction to the work of NHS Boards in ensuring the delivery of high-quality health and health care. Mr. Feeley has had a varied background in policy analysis during thirty years in public service. From 2002 to 2004, he spent two years as Principal Private Secretary to Scotland's First Minister. Thereafter, he moved on to work on developing a framework for service redesign in the NHS. He was a 2005-2006 Harkness/Health Foundation Fellow in Health Care Policy and spent a year in the United States working with Kaiser Permanente and the Veteran's Health Administration. Mr. Feeley was appointed as Director of Healthcare Policy and Strategy on his return. In that role, he was responsible for advising the Scottish Government on all health care quality issues, including patient safety, and he also led on health care information technology.

Susan Hannah, Senior Director for Europe Region and Strategic Partners, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), has a background in high-care nursing and expertise as a leader for patient safety and clinical improvement in Scottish healthcare, responsible for the delivery of patient safety in a health system and as faculty for the national programme. A trained Improvement Advisor with IHI, she worked in the Scottish Government for 6 years, performing improvement and leadership roles to influence the adoption of quality strategies and improvement science in government policy teams and across public services. Susan led the design and delivery of a national Raising Attainment for All QI Collaborative for education, later amalgamating this with the Early Years Collaborative to establish and lead the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative; a large-scale national programme that delivers multiagency quality improvement communities working to improve health and achievement outcomes across Scotland.​

Randy Peto, MD, is the former Medical Director for Quality Improvement at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. He has studied and worked in health care quality improvement and patient safety for more than 20 years. He also served as the Medical Director for Quality at MassPRO, focusing on the Medicare population. Currently, Dr. Peto serves as an Adjunct Lecturer of Healthcare Leadership at Brown University. Dr. Peto is particularly interested in the culture of health ​care settings, increasingly at the microculture level. He has participated in the use of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Randy has also helped lead the dissemination of TeamSTEPPS communication skills at Baystate. He has been active in training both "just culture" and apology/disclosure principles. ​Dr. Peto received a BA from Colgate University, an MD from Hahnemann Medical College, and an MPH from Harvard University. He also completed a fellowship in Clinical Decision Analysis at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He is board certified in Preventive Medicine.​

Amar Shah, MD, is a Consultant forensic psychiatrist and Chief Quality Officer at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT). He leads at executive and Board level on quality at ELFT, including quality improvement, quality assurance, quality control and quality planning. He is the lead for quality improvement (QI) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the national QI lead for the mental health safety improvement program run jointly by NHS Improvement and CQC. He is an improvement advisor and faculty member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, teaching and guiding improvers and healthcare systems across the world. He has completed an executive MBA in healthcare management, a masters in mental health law, and a postgraduate certificate in medical education. Amar is a regular national and international keynote speaker at healthcare improvement conferences and has published more than 20 peer-review articles in the fields of forensic psychiatry and quality management.​

Becka DeSmidt is a Project Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she leads initiatives that convene health system teams to collaborate to achieve shared aims related to care quality, workforce well-being, and environmental sustainability in health care. Becka is certified as an Improvement Coach and has expertise in community organizing – a method grounded in storytelling, building strong relationships, and co-designing change. She has designed and delivered online trainings in improvement science, safety culture, health equity, joy in work, and leadership. She formerly led IHI’s Open School Chapter Network, an interprofessional learning community of thousands of students, residents, and professionals in more than 100 countries around the world working together to lead improvement in their local settings. Becka’s background is in health care strategic planning: at Advisory Board, she worked with health system leaders on clinical technology investment and service line strategy; at MassGeneral Brigham Healthcare (formerly Partners Healthcare), she contributed to the organization’s efforts to test, evaluate, and scale population health management programs. Becka holds a degree in political science from Pomona College and a master’s degree in public health from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.