|
Home | Contact Us | Participant Log In |  |
|
|||||||||
| What We Do | |
Join Us | |
Resources | |
News | |
About Us | |
|
|
Vision, Mission, Goals and Guiding Principles Public Policy and Government Relations
Sign up for the Alliance Community Update
|
|
|
|
To contact a staff member, please click a name below. Mary McWilliams, Executive Director
Mary McWilliams was appointed as Executive Director of Puget Sound Health Alliance in June 2008, after serving three years as a member of its Board of Directors. Prior to taking the helm at the Alliance, Mary was president of Regence Blue Shield in Washington. When she joined Regence in 1997, she was Senior Vice President responsible for the Plan’s HMO, health care services, and services to The Boeing Company. In 2000, she was promoted to President and CEO. Before Regence, Mary held positions as the Northwest Regional Vice President for PacifiCare Health Systems, President and CEO of PacifiCare of Washington, and the founding Chief Executive Officer for the Sisters of Providence Health Plans in Oregon. Her health care experience also includes consulting for the American Health Management and Consulting Corporation and serving as the first Marketing Director for the Rocky Mountain HMO in Grand Junction, CO. As a business community leader, Ms. McWilliams is the past Board Chair for the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and chair of their Community Development Roundtable. She is on the boards of Safe Crossings (grief support for children) and the Seattle Branch of the Federal Reserve Board of San Francisco, which she currently chairs. In her leadership role at the Alliance, she brings an exemplary combination of experience in non-profit and public company governance, and effective approaches to finance, strategic planning, marketing, and motivating and managing high-performing leadership teams.
Susie Dade has worked in health care in Washington state since 1980. Ms. Dade has worked with the Puget Sound Health Alliance since early 2006. As the Alliance’s Director of Performance Improvement, Ms. Dade works to identify performance improvement opportunities and to stimulate and encourage system and practice changes that will result in improved delivery of care for patients with chronic disease and/or increased participation in prevention-related activities. Ms. Dade is also Project Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Aligning Forces for Quality Program in the Puget Sound area. From 1989 to 2005, Ms. Dade worked for Group Health Cooperative, serving for six years as an administrator for Group Health’s specialty services with ambulatory practices, surgical suites and diagnostic centers throughout the Puget Sound region. Ms. Dade also served for eight years as the administrative leader for Group Health’s physician group in King County. Prior to joining Group Health, Ms. Dade worked with the Central Seattle Community Health Centers to develop and manage federal and state grants that funded direct patient care at five neighborhood community health centers. During the 1980’s, Ms. Dade worked for eight years as a community health planner with the Southwest Washington and Puget Sound Health Systems Agencies. Ms. Dade has a Bachelor of Science in Health Planning and Administration and a Masters in Public Administration. John Gallagher, Director, Communication and Development
John Gallagher has 20 years experience in public relations and journalism and a background in biotechnology, physician membership organizations, and evidence-based medicine. Before joining the Alliance in January 2010, Mr. Gallagher served as the Director of Public Relations for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a membership organization of more than 26,000 doctors. While with the Academy, he led all media relations, public awareness campaigns and directed press coverage of the annual meeting, attended by over 25,000 people. Mr. Gallagher significantly increased visibility of the Academy, resulting in extensive coverage in national and major mainstream outlets such as the CBS Evening News, USA Today, Good Morning America and Wall Street Journal. Prior to the Academy, he served as the Director of Corporate Communications and as the Media Relations Manager for Chiron Corporation, a biotechnology company. Serving as the chief spokesperson, Mr. Gallagher led communications through major events such as a domestic terrorism threat upon the company, a major acquisition and a significant product launch. John was awarded with a PRSA Compass Award while at Chiron for his role in crisis communications. His strong understanding of media relations stems from 18 years in journalism, working with prominent publications such as The Advocate and Time Magazine. His many other awards and accreditations include being a Duke University Journalism Fellow and a published book author. Mr. Gallagher has a Master’s Degree from Vanderbilt University and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University. Mark Pregler, Director, Performance Measurement Mark Pregler has more than 20 years experience in Information Technology with an emphasis in data warehousing and business intelligence environments. Having developed a passion for data early in his career as a software developer, He has spent the past 15 years focused on health care data and information. With this experience, Mr. Pregler brings a strong foundation of both business and technology knowledge to the Alliance. Prior to joining the Alliance, he served as Director of Knowledge Services at Premera Blue Cross where he was responsible for the Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence program. In this capacity, he set the strategic direction of the program and led efforts in the design, development and implementation of reporting and analytic solutions for a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders. While at Premera, Mr. Pregler also served two years as the company's representative on the Alliance's Heath Information & Technology Committee as well as the Data Stewardship Sub-Committee. Before working at Premera, Mr. Pregler held similar roles at PacifiCare Health Systems in the Actuarial, Finance and Health Care Economics division, and also led efforts in the design and development of a claims adjudication system at Carl Warren & Company, a third party administrator for Property & Casualty claims and adjusting services. Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in Management Information Systems from California State University Fullerton. Gail Holznagel, Business Manager/Board Support
As the Business Manager and Board Support, Gail Holznagel supports the Board of Directors and Board committees and oversees and is responsible for office operations and administrative tasks. Before joining the Alliance she worked as a Resident Service Manager at Bonaventure Senior Living, a Residence Director at Assisted Living Concepts, and spanned a 15 year career at Microsoft as an Administrative Assistant, District Office manager, District Operations Manager and a Program Manager. Ms. Holznagel received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix. Avi Katzman, Consumer Engagement Specialist As Consumer Engagement Specialist, Avi Katzman works to empower consumers to become active participants in their own health and in the health care system. He brings a mix of health promotion, marketing, media and technical skills to the Alliance. He has worked as Media and Events Producer at Gay City Health Project, a multicultural gay, bi and trans men's health organization in Seattle. There he produced health-promotion community forums and media campaigns on topics including HIV/STI prevention, smoking cessation, hepatitis vaccination, domestic violence, body image, race, gender and aging. He's also served as Marketing Coordinator at Garvey Schubert Barer Law, a five-office firm with a substantial health care law practice. In addition, he's been a Content Manager for a Microsoft website. He studied creative writing and communications at the University of Pennsylvania, and copywriting and graphic design at the School of Visual Concepts. Reena Koshy, MD, MPH, Project Coordinator, Multi-Payer Medical Home Reimbursement Pilot Reena Koshy is a Family Physician practicing in Seattle since 1996. She completed her residency training at Sea Mar/ Providence Family Medicine program. She has worked in the U.S. and abroad in a variety of settings including community health centers, Group Health Cooperative, and a private micro-practice. Dr. Koshy received her Masters of Public Health from the University of Washington in 2006. In 2007, she worked for New Zealand’s Ministry of Health as Senior Policy Analyst on an information strategy to improve health outcomes and decrease health disparities. Dr. Koshy joined Puget Sound Health Alliance through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to serve as Project Coordinator for the Washington State Medical Home Reimbursement Pilot. She brings her clinical and public health skills to this innovative pilot project. Corrie McCuskey, Performance Improvement Specialist As the Performance Improvement Specialist, Corrie McCuskey is responsible for planning and coordinating regional program activities designed to build and support greater capacity within the community for quality improvement across the healthcare delivery system. Prior to joining the Alliance, she coordinated chronic disease research projects for the University of Washington and Washington Health Foundation. Before moving to Seattle, Ms. McCuskey worked as a prevention specialist with Tri-County Health Department in Colorado, where she convened and managed multi-stakeholder groups to develop policies and strategies to address chronic disease from a systems approach. She served in the Peace Corps as a Health Education Volunteer in Cameroon, Africa where she worked with women and youth groups to address water and sanitation improvements and HIV/AIDS education. Ms. McCuskey holds a Master in Public Administration and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado.
As the Administrative Coordinator, Natalie Moe supports the Executive Director and provides general administrative support to the Alliance. She is the primary contact for All Alliance meetings, and she also provides scheduling and other support to the Alliance’s various committees and work groups. Prior to joining the Alliance team, Ms. Moe spent two years working at Clegg & Associates, a health, housing and human services consulting company in Seattle. She received her Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University’s School of Communications in 2002 with an emphasis on musical theatre and spends her evenings and weekends performing at various theatres around the Puget Sound. Natasha Rosenblatt, Data Projects Manager
Prior to joining the Alliance, Natasha Rosenblatt served as an independent Data Systems Consultant providing project management, systems analysis, and report development for both non-profit and for-profit health care entities, including Milliman and Community Health Plan of Washington. She received her Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington’s Community Medicine program, and has worked with health care data and data systems for more than 15 years. After receiving her MPH, Ms. Rosenblatt worked in research and development for HBS International (now Solucient, a subsidiary of Thomson) where she developed and implemented data warehouse and reporting applications for hospital systems. She later joined Community Health Plan of Washington where she served as Systems Analyst. In this position she provided project management through the entire life-cycle of data warehouse, web-based reporting and case management system implementations, and also developed reports and internal applications for the company and its affiliated health centers. Ms. Rosenblatt is very excited about the Alliance’s work (and says it is the only job she knows of that would pull her out of independent consulting). As the Data Projects Manager, she works with vendors, stakeholders, and staff to coordinate and produce the Alliance Performance Reports. Lori Whittaker, MD, Quality Improvement Consultant
Dr. Lori Whittaker is a family physician with broad expertise and experience in clinical practice, quality improvement consulting, and health care policy. Dr. Whittaker serves as Quality Improvement Consultant for the Alliance, focused on issues such as heart disease, depression, prescription drugs, prevention and asthma. She practices at Swedish Physicians Division, and has provided medical and obstetrical care at locations in the U.S. and Canada. She was elected to the Qualis Health Board in 2008. She earned MD and PhD degrees from McGill University and completed her residency in family medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Whittaker holds a Master of Public Health in Health Services from the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Maria Wood, Health Information Analyst
|
|
|
© Puget Sound Health Alliance
|
Maria Wood has over 17 years experience in information technology and research. Maria comes to the Alliance from Community Health Plan of Washington, a non-profit managed care organization, where she managed and coordinated the HEDIS measurement and reporting functions, oversaw the annual HEDIS audit and led quality improvement efforts regarding the measures. She has a deep understanding of SQL and other data processing languages and report platforms. She has also worked directly with hospital staff to implement health care software, supporting numerous efforts by providing quality assurance, and processing hospital data as well as on-site implementation assistance and training for clients. Maria brings a solid foundation in molecular biology research and data analysis to the Alliance effort. In 1992 she graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, and in 2004 she completed the Health Information Administration Certificate program at the University of Washington.