Lauren Hayden, an Improvement Advisor at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), serves on IHI's Improvement Science and Methods Team supporting and teaching in Quality Improvement programs across a variety of settings and topic areas. Ms. Hayden first started practicing improvement science with IHI in Ghana as part of the Project Fives Alive! initiative, a seven-year project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal to reduce mortality in children in Ghana under age five using quality improvement methods. After seeing the impact of improvement science in strengthening a health system and helping the daily lives of mothers and children, she grew inspired to teach and coach others to improve. Ms. Hayden serves as Director and faculty for IHI's Improvement Coach Professional Development Program and leads the curriculum development and teaching for IHI's internal staff improvement capability efforts

Auzewell "Auz" Chitewe, MSc, BSc Hons, is as a nurse and is an Improvement Advisor working as Programme Director of Improvement at the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). One of His most treasured moment in Quality Improvement was when his team had the privilege of being awarded the 2022 Quality Team of the Year award at the fifth International Quality Awards (IQA).

In addition to his support of frontline improvement projects, Auz is experienced in developing and delivering system-wide work programs, collaboratives and learning systems. Some of his work has centered on system-wide improving access to services, joy in work, improving population health, tackling inequalities.

He has experience providing strategic and operational leadership in organisations looking to building a culture of continuous quality improvement that involves everyone. He is a recipient of the NHS Leadership Academy Award in Senior Healthcare Leadership and is a member of faculty for coaching and teaching on improvement science across professional, communities and organisational boundaries.

His leisure interests include shooting 360º photography and exploring virtual reality worlds.

Christina Southey, MSc, is an Improvement Advisor with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and independent consultant. She currently supports IHI’s Age-Friendly Health Systems action communities, spread initiative and international work and has been involved in the movement since 2020. Additionally, she has supported multiple projects in various care settings including those focused on equity, chronic disease, and maternal care. She especially enjoys initiatives that include fostering community collaboration in partnership with those with lived experience. Christina has taught quality improvement in small and large group education sessions in North America and internationally. She is a seasoned facilitator and trained in the Lewis method of Deep Democracy to support groups working through conflict. Christina holds a Masters in Community Health and Epidemiology and lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Kelly McCutcheon Adams, MSW, LICSW, is a Senior Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and has been with IHI since 2004. She is the Director (and co-faculty) of the IHI Breakthrough Series College and the Director of the IHI Chief Quality Officer Professional Development Program. Ms. McCutcheon Adams has led and coached many BTS Collaboratives and has taught in the United States, Denmark, UK, and Australia. She is a medical social worker with experience in hospice, nursing homes, sub-acute rehabilitation, emergency department, and ICU settings. Ms. McCutcheon Adams served as faculty for the Organ Donation Collaborative of the US Department of Health and Human Services and for the Gift of Life Institute.​​​

Sue Butts-Dion is a quality improvement consultant with over 20 years of management consulting experience in health care. She successfully supports clients, including hospital systems and physician practices, in planning and implementing improvement objectives. Ms. Butts-Dion's practice areas include improvement planning, training, and group facilitation.

Program Team

• Lauren Cameron, Program Manager, IHI

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.

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.

Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAANP, has been a nurse practitioner for over 30 years. She is currently Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Chair of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Dr. Bonner received an AB from Cornell University, a BSN from Columbia University, an MSN from University of Massachusetts – Lowell and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Graduate School of Nursing. From 2015-2019, Bonner served as Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Bonner served as Director of the Division of Nursing Homes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, MD. Her research interests include home and community-based programs, nursing home quality, and nursing workforce development.

Andrea Wershof Schwartz, MD, MPH, AGSF, is an IHI faculty member and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she co-directs the Geriatrics Theme for medical students. Dr. Schwartz is a geriatrician at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Center in Boston, Massachusetts, where she serves as Associate Director for Clinical Innovation in the New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center.

Christina Southey, MSc, is an Improvement Advisor with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and independent consultant. She currently supports IHI’s Age-Friendly Health Systems action communities, spread initiative and international work and has been involved in the movement since 2020. Additionally, she has supported multiple projects in various care settings including those focused on equity, chronic disease, and maternal care. She especially enjoys initiatives that include fostering community collaboration in partnership with those with lived experience. Southey has taught quality improvement in small and large group education sessions in North America and internationally. She is a seasoned facilitator and trained in the Lewis method of Deep Democracy to support groups working through conflict. Christina holds a Masters in Community Health and Epidemiology and lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

Jesse McCall, MBA, Senior Director and Improvement Advisor, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 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. He joined IHI in 2007 and over his tenure has designed, executed, and evaluated programs and projects around the world. He is also a Teaching Fellow at The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Jesse 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.

Robert Lloyd, PhD, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), provides leadership in the areas of performance improvement strategies, building capacity and capability for improvement, statistical process control methods, and development of strategic dashboards. He also serves as faculty for various IHI initiatives and demonstration projects in the US and abroad. Before joining IHI, Dr. Lloyd served as the Corporate Director of Quality Resource Services for Advocate Health Care (Oakbrook, IL), Director of Quality Measurement for Lutheran General Health System, Senior Director at the Hospital Research and Educational Trust of AHA, and spent ten years with the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania in various leadership roles. He is author of numerous articles, reports, and books.

Rebecca Steinfield, MA, Senior Director and Improvement Advisor, has been with IHI since 1996. She currently serves as Director of IHI’s Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program, teaches IHI courses on improvement methods, and mentors “improvers-in-training.” Rebecca sits on IHI’s Improvement Science and Methods team and serves as an Improvement Advisor on results-oriented work.

Jesse McCall, MBA, Senior Director and Improvement Advisor, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 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. He joined IHI in 2007 and over his tenure has designed, executed, and evaluated programs and projects around the world. He is also a Teaching Fellow at The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Jesse 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.

Marianne Smith, MAS-PSHQ, BSN, RN, CPPS, Project Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), joined IHI in 2023 with over 25 years of health care experience in emergency nursing, patient experience, and patient safety. She is dedicated to integrating the tenets of high reliability and human factors engineering in her work to transform and ensure safe, high-quality, and equitable care in diverse environments. Marianne worked extensively as a travel RN across the US, relocating to Australia as an advanced practice and trauma RN in the Sydney Southwest Area Health System. Returning to the US, she devoted nearly a decade to UW Medicine Valley Medical Center in Seattle, where she led improvement initiatives in patient experience, developed novel processes to manage COVID assessment and tracking, and managed operations for the organization’s TeamSTEPPS program, in addition to facilitating root cause analyses and improvement projects to address serious patient safety events. In addition to her Certified Professional in Patient Safety credential, Marianne received her BSN from the University of Michigan School of Nursing and her MAS in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Alison Starr, she/her, an Improvement Advisor at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), lives in Armidale on the Anaiwan lands of Northern New South Wales. She has worked on several national and state-wide improvement collaboratives. She joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as Faculty in 2018, and since then has taught on multiple capability-building programs in the Asia Pacific Region, as well as supporting results-oriented programs including the Timely Emergency Care Collaborative in Victoria, Australia and the Diabetes Collaborative in Singapore. 

Kate Bones, MSW is Project Director within the Asia-Pacific region of Institute for Healthcare Improvement. In her role, Kate provides support across multiple improvement initiatives within the region to ensure robust application of improvement science that will lead to results. She first joined the IHI in 2000, during which time she was involved in a number of Collaborative programs including the national Health Disparities Collaboratives and a state-wide Collaborative to reduce hospital readmissions. Kate was staff to IHI’s Scientific Advisory Group, helping to launch this advisory function in 2009. In 2013, Kate left the IHI to gain experience applying improvement methods in the sector and has since done so within primary care, hospital-based settings, and mental health services. It was during this period that Kate moved with her family to Aotearoa New Zealand. She has served as teaching faculty with programs offered by Ko Awatea and the Health Quality and Safety Commission within New Zealand and, in 2021, Kate returned to IHI as a member of the Asia-Pacific team. Kate is a social worker by training and spent her early years working with consumers of mental health services.

Patricia A. McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, Senior Advisor, Patient and Workforce Safety, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is IHI’s senior sponsor for the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety and President, Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. She is the former Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Safety Programs at the National Patient Safety Foundation. Ms. McGaffigan is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a graduate of the AHA-NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship Program, and a member of the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Committee, the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety Editorial Advisory Board, and the Advisory Committee of the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis. She serves as a Board Member of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors and on Planetree’s Person-Centered Certification Committee. Ms. McGaffigan represents IHI on numerous committees, taskforces, and professional panels and is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences. A recipient of the Lifetime Member Award from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, she received her BS in Nursing from Boston College and her MS in Nursing from Boston University.

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 Consultant forensic psychiatrist & Chief Quality Officer at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT). He leads at executive and Board level at ELFT on quality, performance, strategy, planning, data and analytics. Amar has led the approach to quality at ELFT for the past 10 years, and has embedded a large-scale quality improvement infrastructure and quality management system, with demonstrable results across key areas of organisational performance.​ Amar is the first National Clinical Director for Improvement at NHS England, leading the application of improvement across England’s health and care system.​ He is the national improvement lead for mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, leading a number of large-scale improvement collaboratives on topics such as restrictive practice, workforce wellbeing and equalities. Amar is chair of the Scientific Advisory Group at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and also acts as faculty with IHI, teaching and guiding improvers and healthcare systems across the world. He is a member of the Q advisory Board at the Health Foundation and a member of the reference group for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. He is on the health advisory board for the UCL global business school for health, and a Council member for the Healthcare Costing for Value Institute. He is honorary visiting professor at City University (London) and the University of Leicester. Amar 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 over 50 peer-review articles in the field of quality management. He was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2024 for services to healthcare improvement.

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.