Jesse McCall, MBA, is Senior Director and Improvement Advisor for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). He coaches individuals and organizations through the process of improvement which includes the data-driven identification of strategic improvement priorities, development of operational systems to support improvement, and the building of practical improvement capability necessary for staff to get results that matter. Jesse also has extensive experience in coaching organizations to engage clinical staff to reduce burnout and foster joy in work. Jesse joined IHI in 2007 and over his tenure has designed, executed, and evaluated programs and projects around the world. Jesse is also a Teaching Fellow at The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and has expertise in practical application of the science of improvement, staff engagement and wellness, program and product development, marketing and communications, customer relationship management, and large-scale initiative operations. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston and MBA from the UMASS Amherst Isenberg School of Management.

Jessica Behrhorst, MPH, CPPS, CPQH, CPHRM, Quality, Safety and HRO Consultant, Aptive Resources, works in the areas of patient safety, workforce safety, and high reliability. She is faculty for the IHI Patient Safety Executive Development Program and on Redesigning Event Review with Root Cause Analysis and Action (RCA2). Prior to Joining Aptive Resources she served as the Senior Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). She has also served as the Assistant Vice President of Quality & Patient Safety at Ochsner Health System where she helped set the strategic priorities in quality and patient safety and oversaw various projects involving patient safety, performance improvement, regulatory readiness, ambulatory nursing, and quality outcomes. She has presented her work on RCA2 and Improving the Culture of Safety at various regional and national meetings. She has also worked on research projects involving reduction in Sepsis mortality and access to healthcare for underserved populations. Jessica received her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and her Master of Public Health Degree from the Louisiana State University School of Public Health. She is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM).

Lauge Sokol-Hessner, MD, CPPS, is a practicing clinician, educator, researcher, innovator, and leader in patient safety & quality improvement. He’s an Associate Professor of Medicine and an attending hospitalist at the University of Washington (UW) & Harborview Medical Centers, and a Quality Improvement Mentor at the UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety.  As the Associate Director for the UW Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement and a Faculty Coach for the PACT Collaborative, he helps lead national work to sustain and spread more proactive, ethical, person-centered responses after harm events.  He has operational quality & safety experience as a former Senior Medical Director of Patient Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.  As IHI Faculty, and as a former quality and safety fellowship program director and masters program course director at Harvard Medical School, he's passionate about helping develop the next generation of leaders in quality and safety, and he regularly teaches about patient safety, quality improvement, and leadership.  He completed his medical degree and internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

Srikant Iyer, MD, MPH, is the Chief Quality Officer and Chief of Emergency Services for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), and Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Quality Committee of the Board at CHOA, as well as a Trustee on The Children’s Care Network Board. Prior to these roles, Dr. Iyer was responsible for leading a portfolio of work related to Cincinnati Children’s efforts to improve community and population health. He served as Vice President of Medical Affairs for Tri State Child Health Services (PHO), Assistant Vice President for the Health Network by Cincinnati Children’s (a risk-based payment model for children covered by Medicaid) and was the Co-Leader for the Community Health Initiative at Cincinnati Children’s. He was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics with a joint appointment in the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence and the Division of Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s. He has led several large, successful improvement efforts at varying levels of the system. On a national level, he served as the Improvement Advisor for the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative, sponsored by the Joint Commission on Congenital Heart Disease. Additionally, he has been as an Innovation Advisor to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He has served as a mentor for faculty interested in a path of improvement leadership and has been a Teaching Faculty in several improvement courses.

Pat Folcarelli, RN, MA, PhD, is the Sr. Vice President for Patient Care Services and the Cynthia and Robert J. Lepofsky Chief Nursing Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Folcarelli rejoined BIDMC after serving for 3 years as Vice President for Patient Safety at CRICO the insurance captive for the 35 Harvard affiliated institutions. In her CRICO role Pat assisted with strategic and operational patient safety solutions. Prior to joining CRICO in 2020, Folcarelli worked in various roles at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) for more than 30 years both in nursing leadership roles and in the area of patient safety and health care quality finally serving as the Vice President for Health Care Quality. Folcarelli is a part time lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and for the past 5 years has co-directed a course on Patient and Family Engagement in Quality and Safety for the master’s in healthcare quality and safety at HMS. Folcarelli received her BS in Nursing from Hunter College of the City University of NY and earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. She serves on the PNQIN (Perinatal Quality Improvement Network) advisory board, the Quality and Safety Board Subcommittee for Mercy, a health system headquartered in St. Louis, MO, and the Board Subcommittee for Quality and Safety Committee of Baystate Health. Folcarelli is also the former Co-Chair of MACRMI (the Massachusetts Alliance for Communication and Resolution Following Medical Injury) and MITSS (Medically Induced Trauma Support Services) both of which are now a part of the Betsy Lehman Center. She has also served on the Board of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors and is a past president of the Massachusetts Society for Healthcare Risk Management.

Dr. Erica Taylor is a practicing orthopaedic hand surgeon at Duke University. She achieved her degree in Biomedical Engineering Science from the University of Virginia and obtained her medical degree from the Duke School of Medicine. She completed a fellowship in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She joined the Duke School of Medicine faculty in 2013 and received her Masters of Business Administration from the Duke Fuqua School of Business in 2020. As a proud member of the Duke University Community, she is heavily committed to various aspects of leadership, including extensive engagement in surgical. In addition, she is the Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Orthopaedics. In 2020, she was appointed as the first Duke Health Chief Medical Officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In this senior leadership role, she works alongside colleagues and institutional leaders to develop thoughtful strategy and best practices towards implementation of health equity across clinical environments. She was named as one of 2022’s Top Diversity Officers in Healthcare.

Inspired by the aforementioned experiences, in 2020 she founded the Orthopaedic Diversity Leadership Consortium, LLC, a pioneering organization whose mission is to elevate the necessary components of inclusive leadership in health care through network and strategy development. She also has earned a faculty appointment of Executive in Residence at the Duke Fuqua School of Business, where she lectures on the intricacies of strategic diversity leadership in health care. Dr. Taylor brings a lifetime of experience, passion, and has a proven track record as a leader for change. She believes that achievement of shared goals must be sustained through creative thinking, unified efforts, and sincere commitment. As a wife and mother of four beautiful children, her family and her faith are the cornerstones that bring her the energy and unwavering spirit of love to do this work.

Esther Imani Munene, MBA, PhD is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Administration at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She has over ten years of experience in diverse health care settings in the US and internationally. Her research and teaching centers on Healthcare Policy and Systems, drawing on several health professions and academic disciplines, including epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, operations research, health informatics, and improvement science. She is particularly interested in examining health policy issues, including health care cost, quality, and utilization of health services, and understanding how policy can be leveraged to contain health care costs and improve outcomes of treatments. Dr. Munene holds several national and international certifications in health care quality improvement and patient safety, including Lean and Six Sigma.

Dr. Laurence M. Solberg, is currently the Associate Director for Clinical Innovations in the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center, NF/SG VHS, Gainesville, Florida. He is a board-certified geriatrician and implementation science researcher. Dr. Solberg earned his medical degree from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in geriatric medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

Recently he completed a fellowship in Health and Aging Policy with the John A. Hartford Foundation working with the Veterans Benefits Administration. He is also involved in clinical quality improvement and implementation projects including as a leader in the VA Central Office (VACO) Geriatrics and Extended Care (GEC) Age-Friendly Health System program, a program through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) emphasizing the “4Ms” – what “m”atters to patients, “m”edication, “m”entation, and “m”obility – when caring for older adults.

His contributions to geriatrics and gerontology have been recognized with fellowships in the American Geriatrics Society and the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Solberg is proud to be a veteran serving veterans.

Kim Smashe, DNP, MBA, RN, GERO-BC, ACM-RN, NE-BC, serves as the Geriatrics and Care Transitions Manager within Duke University Health System’s Population Health Management Office. In this leadership role, Kim oversees a team of professionals dedicated to delivering transitional care interventions. These interventions are designed to support patients as they transition from hospital or skilled nursing facilities to their homes, ensuring continuity of care and promoting optimal health outcomes.

As a key member of the Geriatrics Executive Committee, Kim plays an instrumental role in leading Duke’s Age-Friendly Health System initiative and operationalizing the Geriatrics Strategic Plan across the Duke Health System. Championing efforts to meet the unique needs of older adults, her work involves aligning clinical strategies and initiatives to enhance geriatrics care delivery and improve the patient experience for older adults within the health system. Her commitment to fostering an environment of excellence in geriatrics care reflects her dedication to advancing health outcomes for aging populations and supporting their successful transitions across care settings.

Kim brings a wealth of nursing experience to her role, having worked as a burn ICU nurse, where she provided critical care to patients with severe injuries, and as a hospice nurse, offering compassionate end-of-life care to patients and their families. Additionally, she has served as an urgent care clinic administrator, where she honed her leadership and operational management skills in a fast-paced healthcare environment.

Ken Catchpole is a human factors engineer who has spent the last fifteen years studying and improving safety and performance in acute care. His research has been primarily conducted in the UK and USA, exploring trauma, cardiac, orthopaedic, vascular, gastro-intestinal, spinal, and urological surgery. He has also contributed to accident analysis and quality improvement in the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Qatar, and Sao Paulo. Current projects include human-systems integration in robotic assisted surgery; communication and coordination in trauma and transplant; and work systems analysis of sterile processing; with a dozen other interests at any one time. Through popular media, over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and at least 150 invited lectures, has engaged thousands of people in the improvement of healthcare from a human-centered perspective.

Gill Smith is a quality improvement, patient safety, and human factors professional and the Managing Director of Kaizen Kata. She is working with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as a Faculty Director. Gill is an IHI Fellow and a Certified Professional in Patient Safety from the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. Gill specialises in helping organisations and individuals to build a culture of continuous quality improvement, through capability building and strategic quality improvement support; working globally in the pursuit of quality improvement and patient safety at organisational and system levels. Gill is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare. Gill spent 30 years working in the National Health Service (UK), where her career was dedicated to leading large-scale transformation/reform projects, with a strong emphasis on the application of quality improvement methodology to deliver results.

Katharine Luther, RN, MPM, Vice President (retired), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), now serves as IHI Faculty. Ms. Luther was responsible for furthering IHI's work assisting health care leaders achieve bold aims and developing strategic partnerships that leverage innovation, pilot testing, implementation, and continuous learning across organizations. Previously, she served as Executive Director at IHI, designing new programs to impact cost and health care quality. When she retired, Ms. Luther also served as the Director of Quality at the UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX. Ms. Luther has more than 30 years of experience in clinical and process improvement, large-scale change projects, program development, rapid-cycle change, developing and managing a portfolio of projects, and working with all levels of health care staff and leaders. Her clinical experience includes critical care, emergency room, trauma, and psychiatry. She has held quality and safety leadership positions at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Hermann Hospital Texas Medical Center. She is certified in Lean and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Lloyd P. Provost, Statistician and Senior Improvement Advisor at Associates in Process Improvement, helps individuals and organizations learn the science of improvement in order to improve their processes and systems. Mr. Provost's experience is in applications of statistical process control and in designing research and quality improvement studies. For the past 16 years, he has worked as an IHI Senior Fellow as an Improvement Advisor. He also serves on the IHI faculty for the Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program, provides Improvement Advisor support for IHI's developing countries programs, and coordinates the development and work of other Improvement Advisors that support IHI. He provides support for the QI curriculum for the IHI Open School. Mr. Provost co-authored the books Quality Improvement Through Planned Experimentation, The Improvement Guide, and The Health Care Data Guide.

Patricia Rutherford, MS, Vice President (retired), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and IHI Faculty has expertise in developing and testing innovations and new models of care in patient- and family-centered care; hospital-wide patient flow (right care, right place, right time); Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB); and optimizing care coordination and transitions in care. She was Project Director for the Transforming Care at the Bedside initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; served as Co-Investigator for the STate Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR) initiative, funded by the Commonwealth Fund; and was the Innovation and Content Lead for developing IHI's framework for Achieving Hospital-wide Patient Flow and related system-wide improvement efforts. Her skills include knowledge of process improvement, innovation, and idealized design; coaching clinicians, staff, and senior leaders in organizations on process improvement; and management of all aspects of large-scale performance improvement initiatives.

Frederick C. Ryckman, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Operations (retired), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, worked to implement the safest and most reliable health care for children. He directed Medical Operations from 2000–2017 and served as the interim Chief Operating Officer in 2015. In addition, as the Peri-Operative Service Director, he led the OR management team, infection prevention, and safety initiatives. The primary focus of his work is patient flow and capacity management throughout the Children's Hospital inpatient and outpatient environment. He is also Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati, specializing in Pediatric Multi-Organ Transplantation. He now resides on Sanibel Island, Florida.

Jane Taylor, EdD, Improvement Advisor and Learning Designer, supports learning collaboratives and innovation projects by providing expertise in improvement approaches and measurement. She has advised collaboratives for both adult and pediatric populations. She is interested in the integration of transformative learning, improvement science, and clinical improvement as well as engaging persons in their care. Ms. Taylor has an EdD from Columbia University, Teachers College in Adult Learning and Leadership. In her spare time, she plays the violin and is a competitive amateur ballroom dancer. She is a trusted friend and colleague to many; a sister, wife and aunt.

Lina Al-Sakran, PhD, is an embedded health services researcher and evaluation consultant at Vancouver Island Health Authority, specializing in the evaluation of quality improvement initiatives across the continuum of care. Leveraging a learning health system approach, she applies advanced analytics and clinical expertise to drive data-informed decision-making, supporting implementation and sustainment of quality improvement initiatives and optimizing health system performance. She holds a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, where she focused on the epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology of multiple sclerosis, including chronic disease surveillance and health services utilization. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, leading evaluations of health policy interventions and knowledge translation strategies using large administrative health databases. In her current role, Dr. Al-Sakran leads the evaluation of multi-arm quality improvement projects aimed at enhancing care for vulnerable populations such as those with COPD, frailty, and end-of-life needs. She is principal investigator on patient-centered research initiatives and collaborates extensively with cross-disciplinary teams to translate complex data into actionable insights. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and recognized nationally for its contributions to improving healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

Eric Bates, MBA, BSN, RN, CENP, is the Senior Director of Patient Care at Northwell Health’s Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Eric has direct oversight of the operations, care delivery, finance, and quality outcomes for 151 inpatient beds in Critical Care, Stepdown, and Medical Telemetry as well as invasive and non-invasive cardiology procedural areas. In his 15 years of healthcare experience, he has held prior roles as an emergency department RN, critical care RN and other progressive leadership roles in Cardiology and Nursing Finance at Northwell’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY. Eric has led many successful quality improvement projects, throughput and patient flow initiatives, and innovative approaches to patient care. Eric is certified in executive nursing practice and holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Rhode Island College in Providence, RI and an MBA in Healthcare Management from Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. Eric volunteers on the Education, Advocacy, and Outreach committee of Smile Train, the largest non-profit cleft focused agency in the world. He lives in New York City with his wife Carleigh, and two daughters Olivia and Chloe.

Maureen Bisognano, President Emerita and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), previously served as IHI’s President and CEO for five years, after serving as Executive Vice President and COO for 15 years. She is a prominent authority on improving health care systems, whose expertise has been recognized by her elected membership to the National Academy of Medicine (IOM), among other distinctions. Ms. Bisognano advises health care leaders around the world, is a frequent speaker on quality improvement at major health care conferences and is a tireless advocate for change. She is also an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Research Associate in the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities. Additionally, she chairs the Advisory Board of the Well Being Trust, co-chairs the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care with Dr. Atul Gawande, and serves on the boards of the Commonwealth Fund, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Indiana University Health and Nursing Now. Prior to joining IHI, she served as CEO of the Massachusetts Respiratory Hospital and Senior Vice President of The Juran Institute.

Donna Jouan-Tapp, MSN, is a nurse leader with almost 40 years of experience in acute care, community care and public health. She holds a master’s in nursing (focused on leadership and change management), project management and Lean certifications, executive leadership certificates, and has expertise in resource-demand optimization. She has been leading the translation of evidence into practice for the past 18 years, implementing new evidence-based services, leading quality improvement and resource-demand optimization to create high quality, cost effective and patient-centered care options for clients across the continuum of care. She currently works as the Director for the Cowichan Health and Care Plan on Vancouver Island, BC. In addition to daily operational responsibilities, she is leading a large-scale, evidence-based project designed to create acute care avoidance through targeted investment in community services. This strategic approach to overall patient flow, implemented over the past four years has proven to be effective, resulting in an optimal occupancy situation within the local hospital, while supporting clients to receive care in community and remain in their place of choice.

Vladimir G. Manuel, MD, MS, is a family medicine physician and Assistant Professor at UCLA Health, where he serves as a Senior Quality Officer. In this role, he leads systemwide initiatives to improve care delivery across inpatient and outpatient settings, with a focus on flow, equity, and quality. He designed and launched UCLA’s Immediate Care network, creating best practice models that align urgent, after-hours, and primary care services. Dr. Manuel partners with the UCLA Health Patient Flow Command Center to develop operational flow metrics and strategies that span UCLA’s quaternary, tertiary, and community hospitals. His work emphasizes the importance of integrating outpatient flow principles into traditionally inpatient-focused improvement efforts, designing metrics and tools that enable whole-system thinking. He also serves as an Investigator in the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), where he collaborates with community health partners, such as LACare and LAUSD, to apply improvement science and data-driven insights to population health challenges. Dr. Manuel holds an MD from the University of Pittsburgh and an MS in Technology and Policy from MIT. He brings an operationally grounded, clinically engaged approach to system improvement and flow redesign.

Karen Murrell, MD, MBA, Care Without Delay Director, Northwest Permanente Medical Group. In this multidisciplinary role, she works to expedite hospital and ED flow. Prior to this she was Chair of Emergency Medicine for The Permanente Medical Group in Northern California, was director of one of the top 20 busiest Emergency Departments in the country and was also head of hospital operations at South Sacramento. She has extensive experience in performance improvement, hospital and emergency department management and practice, with more than 40 years of experience in a variety of roles. Dr. Murrell has focused on innovative approaches to patient flow in both the emergency department and inpatient hospital, using Lean methodology to improve departmental flow that resulted in markedly decreased time to physician and length of stay. She is a frequent presenter on her work and co-author of several papers on flow. She also co-authored a book on Emergency Psychiatry.

James Rudy, Senior Director Operations, Integrated Operations, Northwell Health, joined Northwell Health in 2012 as an Industrial Engineering Throughput Project Manager at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC). In that role he was responsible for utilizing industrial engineering techniques to streamline processes, improve patient flow, and maximize work force productivity. In 2013, he was promoted as the Director of Operational Excellence, and was responsible for establishing the Operational Excellence Department’s strategic plan and goals. Key initiatives at LIJMC have included implementing an award-winning emergency department split flow model, a learning system around patient flow and throughput, hospital star rating, and a daily management system for engaging staff in continuous improvement. In his current role, James is the Senior Director of Integrated Operations at Northwell Health. The teams strategic focus is on driving improvements to patient flow and capacity management by leveraging improvement science methodology, sharing and learning across system hospitals, and the implementation of technology solutions to support process change. Before coming to Northwell Health, James served as a process engineer, industrial engineer, and business operations professional in IBM’s Microelectronics Division. In those roles, he had various responsibilities, including product quality and yield, cycle time, lean manufacturing implementation, staffing and capacity planning, and cost reductions. James holds an MBA from Pace University and a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University.

Jennifer Santoro Shickler, MSN, RN, NE-BC, started her nursing career at St. Francis Hospital in 2004 working as a staff nurse on a telemetry unit where her innate leadership skills were apparent from the start. In 2007, Jennifer transferred to Long Island Jewish Medical Center as an Assistant Nurse Manager and her leadership trajectory has continued ever since. Over the years, Jennifer has held multiple leadership roles and is well-known throughout the organization as a highly effective leader. She brings innovative ideas and ability to collaborate with all members of the interdisciplinary team. Throughout her tenure at LIJMC, Jennifer has risen to each opportunity and challenge presented to her. During the COVID pandemic, Jennifer oversaw and orchestrated the unit moves to accommodate the fluctuating COVID population. She has been a mentor to many leaders in the building who see her as a resource and confidant. Jennifer currently is the Deputy Chief Nurse for the Northwell Cancer Institute. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Nursing Education from Molloy College and is a board-certified Nurse Executive. In addition to Jennifer’s many hats within LIJMC, she is also a mother to Kaitlin, Riley, and Charlotte, and a wife to David.

Gregory D. Snyder, MD, MBA, is Vice President, Clinical Strategy and Quality Improvement, Medically Home, a technology-enabled health care venture providing acute care to patients in their homes. He serves as entrepreneur-in-residence for the Massachusetts General Hospital Healthcare Transformation Lab and is affiliate faculty at Ariadne Labs. Greg is a staff physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and an assistant professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Christine White, MD, MAT, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine and the Chief Capacity, Flow and Access Officer at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. White has led efforts on patient safety, including initiatives to raise rates of medication reconciliation completion, to improve communication at night, and to improve discharge efficiency through standardization of discharge criteria. This last project, which significantly decreased length of stay without increasing readmission rates, earned the Children’s Hospital Association Pediatric Quality Award in 2013.

Denise L. White, PhD, is the Senior Director of Access, Flow, and Capacity at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In this role, she works with the sites of care to improve patient access, patient flow and capacity management throughout the hospital. Dr. White also partners with hospital staff and analytic experts to promote and publish research on the application of improvement methodologies, operations management, and data analytics. Previously, she served as Director of Quality and Transformation Analytics at the Anderson Center. She is also an Associate Professor – Educator at the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches courses in analytics and health care operations management.

Patricia McGaffigan, MS, RN, CPPS, is President, Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety, and Senior Advisor, Safety, at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, where she serves as senior sponsor of the IHI Lucian Leape Institute, co-chair of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, and key liaison to IHI’s strategic relationships and initiatives for nursing and advancing a thriving workforce. She is the former COO and SVP of Safety at the National Patient Safety Foundation, graduate of the AHA-NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship Program and IHI Fellow, and nationally recognized speaker. Ms. McGaffigan serves on numerous national committees, taskforces, and technical expert panels, including the AHRQ Survey of Patient Safety Culture Technical Expert Panel, and the Joint Commission’s Journal on Quality and Patient Safety Editorial Advisory Board and Sentinel Event Alert Advisory Committee. She is Commissioner, ANCC Pathway to Excellence, board member of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, the Foundation to Advance Nursing in Massachusetts, and the I-PASS Institute, and a member of Planetree’s Person-Centered Certification Committee. She is the recipient of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Lifetime Member Award, the 2023 University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Mary E. Luibel Distinguished Service Award and was named to the 2024 and 2023 Becker’s Review List of Patient Safety Experts to Know. She received her BS in Nursing from Boston College and her MS in Nursing from Boston University.

P. Jeffrey Brady, MD, MPH, is an experienced leader in patient safety improvement and health care quality. He brings together people and organizations with different perspectives to collaborate, drive, and support innovation that advances health. From 2022 to 2025, Dr. Brady served as the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at Highmark Health. He was responsible for leading the organization’s overall research strategy and coordinating research activities that support Highmark Health’s mission as a national, blended health organization that includes one of America’s largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Highmark Health serves a broad spectrum of needs including health insurance, health care delivery, population health management, re-insurance solutions, and innovative, technology solutions. From 2014 to 2022, Dr. Brady directed the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He was as a member of AHRQ’s Senior Leadership Team and oversaw key agency activities, including: Patient Safety Research, Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections, and others focused on measuring and improving the safety and quality of health care. Dr. Brady has been engaged in national efforts focused on advancing health care safety and quality, including as co-chair of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety (convened by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, IHI), and as a member of boards and committees supported by the National Quality Forum, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, The Joint Commission, and other federal and non-federal initiatives. Before moving to AHRQ in 2006, Dr. Brady served as a medical officer for FDA’s Office of Vaccines and held positions as a medical epidemiologist for the Defense Department and as a primary care physician aboard the U.S.S. Coronado while serving on active duty in the US Navy. Rear Admiral Brady retired from active duty in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service in 2019. He attended the Medical College of Georgia, completed internship training in Internal Medicine at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California, and earned a master’s degree in public health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Brady completed the Navy’s General Preventive Medicine Residency, also at USUHS, and is board-certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.

Karen Garvey serves as the Vice President for Safety and Clinical Risk Management for Parkland Health in Dallas, Texas. She has health system oversight of Regulatory and Accreditation, Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, Quality and Safety Education. She is the Executive Sponsor for the Parkland Peer Support Program and Chairperson for Workforce Safety Initiatives involving proactive and reactive strategies to decrease violence against our employees and physicians. She serves on local, state, and national committees collaborating to collectively address this significant issue. She has been active on the IHI Workforce Safety, Well Being and Equity Workgroup and is a participant in the AHA Hospital Against Violence Workgroup.

Patti Groholski serves as the Senior Director of Operations for Ascension’s Associate Occupational Health national service line. She is also the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) Wisconsin Upper Midwest Chapter Secretary. She has presented for conferences on occupational health safety topics and worksite clinics. Patti has been a leader in the Associate Occupational Health industry since 2008. She has a Master’s in Business Administration and spearheads research and development strategies to develop quality improvement initiatives.

Marty Hatlie 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, the Chicagoland safety and quality improvement coalition, which is dedicated to using the voice of the patient to improve care. Drawing on experience as a civil rights attorney, He 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.

Helen Macfie is a seasoned health care transformation leader and patient advocate with deep experience in clinical and operational performance improvement (quality, safety, lean), strategic planning, and executive facilitation of large-scale clinical and patient safety redesign. Her aspiration is to foster the attainment of the safest and highest quality care for every patient and family. Since retiring from her 20-year role as Chief Transformation Officer for MemorialCare Health System (California), she continues to serve on the HHS/AHRQ National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, as Faculty and Consultant for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), as a member of the IHI Leadership Alliance, and as Board Member for CalHealthcareCompare. Ms. Macfie received the Patient Safety Movement Foundation 5* Award, has been named to Becker’s Healthcare Top 50 Patient Safety Experts and Top Transformation Officers. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy, her FABC for Transformational Leadership from the Advisory Board Company, and her IHI Fellow from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Stephen E. Muething, MD, is the Senior Clinical Director of the Global Advisory Services for Cincinnati Children’s. His work focuses on mentoring, coaching and advising health care systems nationally and globally. He has taught all over the United States and more than two dozen countries. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Muething was awarded the Michael and Suzette Fisher Family Chair for Safety. His research and national impact focus on high reliability, large-scale health care safety, system transformation, and development of learning networks. He has led or served on multiple national initiatives including the IHI National Steering Committee for Healthcare Safety, National Patient Safety Agency Advisory Panel, International Society for Quality Health Care and National Action Plan for Patient Safety.

Lori Pelletier, PhD, is Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer at Connecticut Children's and Associate Professor at University of Connecticut School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. She is Division Head of Excellence in Patient Safety and Clinical Quality in the Department of Pediatrics. She is also the Inaugural Popik Family Endowed Chair for Quality and Patient Safety and an IHI Faculty member. Dr. Pelletier completed her PhD in Manufacturing Engineering, focused on Health Systems Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She lectures nationally on her current research in suicide prevention and organizational excellence.

Shanda Price is a seasoned Registered Nurse and health care executive with 28 years of experience, currently serving as the Vice President of Associate Occupational Health at Ascension Healthcare. Her extensive nursing background encompasses critical care, emergency medicine, stroke program management, case management, quality and regulatory, as well as acute and ambulatory clinical operations. She is adept at leading organizational improvement aimed at enhancing patient quality care and safety to achieve better patient outcomes. She oversees associate safety efforts for the largest non-profit Catholic Healthcare organization in the United States. She earned her BSN and MSN at the University of Alabama and her doctorate from Capella University. Her dedication lies in advancing patient care and safety through a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach.

Kelly Randall serves as the Vice President for Patient Safety and Compliance with Ascension. She earned her PhD in Health Services Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In her research, she studied the impact of high reliability practices on patient safety outcomes in pediatric hospitals. Ms. Randall earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Auburn University and her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Alabama. She is a Licensed Master’s Social Worker, a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, and has extensive training as a Six Sigma Blackbelt and in Lean Six Sigma Healthcare.

Flor Tena is the Nurse Manager for Professional Nursing Practice at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida. She has oversight of the Clinical Practice Specialist Team, Patient Navigation Program, the Nursing Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) Program, Wound Care Program and the Lactation Program. She has over 20 years of combined professional experience in neonatal nursing, quality improvement and nursing leadership. Her clinical interests are focused on supporting families navigating health care systems with a focus on improving patient safety, outcomes and transitions of care. She is passionate about implementing best practices and collaborating with stakeholders in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Janice Yanez is the Director of Patient Safety and Patient Safety Officer at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida. She oversees patient safety programs, advancing safety culture and quality improvement. With nearly 20 years of experience in PICU, trauma, ED, IT, and patient safety, she drives high standards of care. A Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and CPPS, Janice is the Florida Culture Subject Matter Expert for Solutions for Patient Safety. She teaches as an Adjunct Professor at FIU and contributes to professional organizations like the Nursing Consortium of South Florida and the Florida Society for Healthcare Risk Management, advocating for safety and quality initiatives.