Puget Sound Health Alliance

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 BlueShield 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 leadership roles in planning at Providence Medical Center in Oregon and in consulting for the American Health Management and Consulting Corporation. As a business community leader, Ms. McWilliams is the past Board Chair for the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and member of their Community Development Roundtable. She is on the boards of Safe Crossings (grieving support for children) and Port Blakely Companies (timber, real estate, and export). 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.

photo of Susie Dade

Susie Dade -- Director, Quality Improvement & Administration

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 Quality Improvement and Administration, Ms. Dade works to identify quality 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. In addition, Ms. Dade oversees the Alliance’s administration, budget and human resource activities. From 1989 to 2005, Ms. Dade worked for Group Health Cooperative, serving for six years as a strategic leader for GHC’s specialty services with ambulatory practices throughout the Puget Sound region. Her responsibilities included quality of care, patient experience, strategic planning, fiscal performance and improvement of practice efficiency. Ms. Dade also served for eight years as the administrative leader for Group Health’s medical group in King County with responsibility for business-related functions. 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. During this time, she worked with the Pierce and King County Health Councils and Consumer Advisory Boards. Ms. Dade began her career as a community health planner with the University of Wyoming where she had responsibility for establishing a network of primary care clinics in remote areas of central and south Wyoming. Ms. Dade has a Bachelor of Science in Health Planning and Administration and a Masters in Public Administration, with an emphasis in federal and state health policy.

photo of Diane Giese

Diane (Giese) Stollenwerk -- Director, Communication & Development

Diane Stollenwerk has more than fifteen years experience in health care strategic communication, including serving as Regional Director of Marketing and Strategic Communication for the Providence Health System, System Director of Government Relations for a coalition of Catholic health systems, and Manager of Public Policy and Compliance for King County Medical BlueShield (now Regence BlueShield). Outside of health care, Diane has been vice president of marketing and led public relations teams in industries including software, competitive intelligence and transportation. She is on the board of the Northwest Epilepsy Foundation, is a past president of the American Marketing Association for the Puget Sound area, and has served in board and other capacities with professional and community health organizations including the Association of Washington Healthcare Plans, Rosehedge Assisted Living, and the Association of Washington Business. She has a BA in English from San Diego State University and a Masters Degree in Public Policy, with an emphasis in health care business-government relations, from Harvard University. In the role of Communication and Development Director, Diane staffs the Alliance Communication Committee. She is also responsible for Alliance brand management, communication, recruitment, retention, media relations, public policy, consumer engagement, fundraising and grant administration. She is the Project Director for the Aligning Forces for Quality Program in Seattle, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Karen Onstad -- Director, Health Information photo of Karen Onstad

Before joining the Alliance, Karen Onstad was an independent consultant specializing in health care quality assessment and reporting quality information to purchasers and consumers. Clients included the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the National CAHPS Database, URAC (also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission) and several state and local health care initiatives including Minnesota Community Measurement.She has a wealth of experience in the implementation of performance measures. From 1995 through 1999, she was the Director of Policy and Product Development for HEDIS at the National Committee for Quality Assurance where she led a team responsible for developing policies to support implementation of HEDIS® and CAHPS®. She directed the HEDIS® Users Group efforts to clarify and refine the measurement set, provided technical assistance to organizations implementing HEDIS performance measures and conducted trainings and workshops. As consultant, she worked on numerous projects in the areas of developing performance measures and accreditation programs, performance reporting projects in several states, developing CAHPS reports, oversight of HEDIS auditors, and developing measures of health care service. She has a Master's degree in Public Health and a Master's degree in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley as well as a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Mary Caverly -- Business Manager & Executive Assistant

As the Business Manager/Executive Assistant, Mary oversees and is responsible for general business operations and administrative tasks for the Alliance. Before joining the Alliance she worked as a Project Manager at Providence Infusion and Pharmacy Services, a Business Analyst at Harrison Medical Center, an Administrative Supervisor in the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at Seattle Children’s (formerly Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center), a Project Manager at Group Health Permanente, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) Coordinator at Swedish Medical Center, and held varying positions at Group Health Cooperative. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of South Florida.

Sean McCliment -- Performance Report Analyst photo of Sean McCliment

As Performance Report Analyst, Sean is responsible for quantitative analysis of the Community Checkup reports. Other tasks include working with data vendors, consultants and various Alliance committees to ensure continuous planning, oversight, and management of the Alliance performance reports. Sean has been with the Alliance since 2005, starting as the Business Manager & Executive Assistant before he was promoted. Sean has worked as a Lobbyist and Assistant G.M. for the Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Olympia, WA. He received a B.A. in Political Science/Pre-Law from Washington State University in May of 2004.

Natalie Moe -- Committee Coordinator

photo of Natalie Moe

As the Committee Coordinator, Natalie Moe organizes and supports the ongoing activities of all Alliance 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 B.S. 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.

Kerri Petrin -- Research Analyst

photo of Kerri Petrin

As a Research Analyst, Kerri Petrin is responsible for various qualitative and quantitative research tasks for Alliance staff, committees, and clinical improvement teams. She has an MPH from the University of Washington’s Public Health Genetics program. During graduate school, Kerri developed her research skills working as a research assistant with the Health Services Department, the UW Center for Genomics and Public Health, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. After graduating, she worked as a Health Services Consultant with the Washington State Department of Health Newborn Screening Program, where she conducted follow-up for infants with abnormal screening results. Kerri also has a BS in Biology and Psychology from Duke University, where she spent a year doing research at the Duke Center for Human Genetics.

Natasha Rosenblatt -- Performance Report Project Manager photo of Natasha Rosenblatt

Prior to joining our team, 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 MPH 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, Natasha 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. She 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 Performance Report Project Manager, Natasha works with vendors, stakeholders, and staff to coordinate and produce the Puget Sound Health Alliance Performance Reports.

Sarah Shahrabani -- Consumer Engagement Specialist

Sarah Shahrabani brings extensive experience in community engagement, public policy and public relations to her work with the Alliance. As the Consumer Engagement Specialist, she plans and manages consumer engagement activities to increase awareness and involvement of individuals in the Puget Sound region. Prior to joining the Alliance, Sarah created strategic communications and public affairs campaigns as a consultant for a variety of organizations ranging from large global corporations to small startups and non-profits. Sarah holds an MPA from the University of Washington’s Evan’s School of Public Affairs. Her graduate work focused on global development and natural resource management. Sarah also received a BA in Economics from Brandeis University.

photo of Dr. Lori Whittaker

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 currently practices at Swedish Physicians Division, and has provided medical and obstetrical care at in several 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.