ELLEN L. BARTON, JD, CPCU, DFASHRM, principal, ERM Strategies LLC, is an independent consultant. Previously, she held positions as vice president, risk management, MedStar Health, Inc., an integrated health care delivery system (1999-2000); vice president, claims and health care practice leader, Aon Risk Services, Inc., of Maryland (1998-1999); vice president, legal services for American Radiology Services, Inc. (1997-1998); and vice president and general Counsel of New American Health, Inc. (1996-1997). She served as president, Neumann Insurance Company, and director of risk management, Franciscan Health System (1987-1996). She also served as general counsel for Franciscan Health System (1993-1996) and as senior vice president, legal services (1994-1996). Barton sat on the board of directors and served as chairperson of Preferred Physicians Insurance Company, a Nebraska stock insurance company; Consolidated Catholic Casualty Risk Retention Group, Inc., a Vermont-based captive insurance company; and Alternative Insurance Management Services, Inc., a captive insurance company management firm based in Colorado. Barton also served as a member of the Trinity Health System Insurance Management Advisory Committee. She is a graduate of Rosemont College and received her JD degree from the University of Cincinnati. She is also a chartered property and casualty underwriter. Barton has conducted numerous seminars on risk management issues on a national as well as regional level and has published articles in related areas. She is admitted to the bars in Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and holds membership in the Maryland Bar Association, the Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters; the American Health Lawyers Association, in which she currently serves as chairperson of the Risk Management Affinity Group of the Hospitals and Health Systems Practice Group; the Maryland Society for Healthcare Risk Management, of which she was president in 2002-2003, and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, of which she was president in 1990. She is also the 1993 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). In 2001, the ASHRM Modules Program, the Barton Certificate in Healthcare Risk Management, was named in her honor.

ROBERTA L. CARROLL, RN, ARM, CPCU, MBA, CPHRM, CPHQ, LHRM, HEM, DFASHRM, is senior vice president, Aon Healthcare, based in Tampa, Florida. Previously she was director of Risk Management Consulting Services and senior vice president and manager of the health care unit, Aon Risk Services of Northern California. She has held a variety of positions, including vice president of risk and insurance management for UniHealth in Burbank, California; senior vice president and manager of the health care unit for Corroon & Black of Illinois; vice president of risk management, claims, and marketing for Premier Alliance Insurance Company; trust administrator and risk manager for Premier Hospitals Alliance in Chicago; and director of risk management at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Florida. Carroll served on the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) board for six years and was president in 1995-1996. She was elected to the board of the Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management (SCAHRM) and was one of the founding members, first president, and board member of the Florida Society for Healthcare Risk Management and Patient Safety (FSHRMPS). In addition, she was one of the founders and an officer of the Florida Medical Malpractice Claims Council, Inc. (FMMCCI). She is a licensed healthcare risk manager (LHRM) in the state of Florida and faculty member for the health care risk management course at the University of South Florida (USF). Carroll is also a faculty member for the ASHRM-SPONSORED Barton Certificate program “Essentials” module. Previously, she was a faculty member for Module 1, “The Fundamentals of Health Care Risk Management: Constructing the Comprehensive Program,” for eight years. Carroll received a bachelor of science degree in health services administration and a certificate in emergency medical services systems administration from Florida International University and a master of business degree from Nova Southeastern University. She has earned the right to use the ARM, CPCU, HEM, CPHQ, and CPHRM designations. She is editor of the Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Organizations’ second (1997), third (2000), and fourth (2004) editions and the series editor for the fifth (2006) and student (2009) editions. Carroll has received numerous awards: in 1997, ASHRM’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award (DSA); 1998 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University; Most Contributing Member to Risk Management in 1996 from the SCAHRM; and Most Valuable Contribution to the Field of Risk Management in 1993 from that same organization. She is a member of ASHRM, FSHRMPS, and the Publication Committee of the Risk Management Affinity Group (RMAG) of the American Health Lawyers Associations (AHLA). She is a well-known author, speaker, and educator in the areas of alternative risk financing, risk mitigation strategies and solutions, claims administration, early intervention programs, enterprise risk management (ERM), strategic planning, and reengineering. Her activities are on a local, state, and national level. Her professional and committee activities are numerous.

HEDY COHEN, RN, BSN, MS, vice president for the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). She received an associate of arts degree in nursing from Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania; a bachelor of science in nursing from LaSalle University in Philadelphia; a master’s degree in health systems administration from Rochester Institute for Technology, in Rochester, New York; and is presently a doctoral candidate in health policy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Her clinical nursing background of more than eighteen years was focused in critical care and nursing management. She is a frequent speaker for health care organizations on current issues in medication safety and has written numerous articles on improving the medication use process. She also edits ISMP’s monthly newsletter, Nurse Advise-ERR; cowrote a handbook on high-alert drugs; and is on the national advisory board for the Nursing Advance Journal and Davis’s Drug Guide for Nurses. Cohen has been appointed adjunct associate professor at Temple School of Pharmacy and faculty fellow in the Executive Patient Safety Fellowship, which is offered through Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She also serves as a medication error clinical analyst for the Pennsylvania Safety Authority’s reporting program.

MARK COHEN, ARM, RPLU, CPHQ, CPHRM, DFASHRM, risk management consultant, Sutter Health Risk Services. Cohen began his career in risk management in 1982 at the UCLA Medical Center and Center for the Health Sciences and was subsequently appointed director of risk management. In 1987, he moved to Sacramento to become director of risk management for the University of California, Davis Health System. Cohen joined Sutter Health as a corporate risk management consultant in 1995. He provides a broad range of risk management consultation services to Sutter Health’s not-for-profit network of acute-care hospitals; physician organizations; medical research facilities; regionwide home health, hospice, and occupational health networks; and long-term care centers that serve more than one hundred Northern California communities. Cohen writes and lectures on Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) compliance and is a member of the faculty of the California Healthcare Association’s annual EMTALA seminars. He is a past president of both the Southern California Association for Healthcare Risk Management (SCAHRM) and the California Society for Healthcare Risk Management (CSHRM), and served as a member of ASHRM’s board in 2002 and 2003. He currently serves on the board of the Sacramento Risk Management Forum and the South Natomas Transit Management Association. Cohen has served on the faculty of ASHRM’s “Modules” and “Essentials” and CPHRM study session programs and on several ASHRM committees, most notably as longtime chair of the Online Education Committee.

DOMINIC A. COLAIZZO, MBA, is managing director of Aon’s National Healthcare Alternative Risk Practice, based in Philadelphia. He is responsible for directing Aon resources for the development, implementation, and servicing of alternative risk transfer programs for the health care industry. His sixteen years of experience in health care administration and nineteen years of broking and consulting experience with Aon have provided him with a broad understanding of the issues faced by all health care providers. He had served as chief operating officer and senior vice president of a community hospital and has held various administrative positions in a major teaching hospital. He has extensive experience in developing and servicing alternative risk financing and innovative insurance programs for profit and not-for-profit health systems, health insurers, managed care organizations, extended care organizations, and physicians’ groups. Colaizzo also serves as a key adviser for Aon’s National Healthcare Practice. He has earned a master of business administration for the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has also earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and mathematics from Washington and Jefferson College. Colaizzo is a diplomate of the American College of Health Care Executives and holds memberships in the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), the American Hospital Association, and the Health Care Financial Association. He serves on the faculty for professional development seminars and has cowritten an article for the ASHRM Journal titled, “Integrating Quality with Risk Financing Through a Risk Retention Group.”

HARLAN Y. HAMMOND JR., MBA, ARM, CPHRM, DFASHRM, assistant vice president for risk management services, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah. His responsibilities include oversight for Intermountain’s risk financing, loss prevention, loss control, and claims administration efforts and safety, security, and systemwide emergency response. Hammond received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Utah, followed by a master’s of business administration degree from the University of Washington. Hammond has served in various capacities with ASHRM, including twice as a member of the ASHRM board of directors and as a faculty member for the Barton Certificate in Healthcare Risk Management program. He received ASHRM’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

MONICA HANSLOVAN, JD, formerly was an associate of Horty, Springer & Mattern, PC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She focuses her practice exclusively on hospital and health care law, with particular emphasis on medical staff matters. She advises clients on a wide range of medical staff issues, including development of, analysis of, and proposed revisions to medical staff bylaws and related documents; development of hospital and medical staff policies; and management of issues related to protection of peer review documents and sharing of confidential peer review and credentialing information. Hanslovan received her doctor of law degree magna cum laude from Widener University School of Law and her bachelor of arts with high distinction from Pennsylvania State University. She is a member of the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and American Bar Associations and the American Health Lawyers Association.

JUDY HART is executive vice president of Endurance Specialty Insurance, Ltd., and heads the company’s health care practice. Hart has more than thirty years of experience in the insurance industry and has been dedicated to health care risk financing for the past twenty-six years. She spent most of her career at Alexander & Alexander Services, where she was a managing director and deputy national director of health care practice. During that time, she participated in the development of alternative risk financing programs for health care organizations across the United States. Before joining Endurance, she spent four years as vice president of Employers Reinsurance Corporation, where she was responsible for marketing, new product development, and the development of health care strategies and was a member of the health care senior leadership team. She is the current president of the Bermuda Society for Healthcare Risk Management. She is a frequent speaker and author on risk management issues associated with risk financing, managed care, and the evolving risks facing health care providers. She attended Southeast Missouri State University and Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.

PETER J. HOFFMAN, JD, is a partner of the Philadelphia law firm of McKissock & Hoffman, PC. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Washington and Jefferson College, his master of arts from the State University of New York Graduate School of Public Affairs, and his doctor of law degree cum laude from Temple University School of Law, where he was the executive editor of the Law Review. Hoffman was a member of the Pennsylvania Select Committee on Medical Malpractice from 1984 to 1986. He was a member of Governor Edward Rendell’s Medical Malpractice Task Force and is currently counsel to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute. He was the recipient of the Defense Research Institute’s Exceptional Performance Citation in 1989 and the Fred H. Sievert Award in 1989. Hoffman was a coauthor of the book Laws and Regulations Affecting Medical Practice. He was chairman of Hearing Committee 1.15, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, from 1993 to 1998 and serves on the faculty for the Temple University School of Law, Masters of Laws in Trial Advocacy, and Academy of Advocacy. He has been listed as a top attorney in Philadelphia Magazine each time the article appears and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1995. He was cited as one of the top hundred lawyers in Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, 2004 and 2005. Hoffman was a member of the Temple Inns of Court. He is a member of ASHRM, a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

JOHN HORTY, JD, is the managing partner of Horty, Springer & Mattern, PC, and the editor of all HortySpringer publications. He presently serves as chair of the board and a faculty member of the Estes Park Institute in Englewood, Colorado, and president and chair of the Indigo Institute in Washington, D.C. He is an honorary fellow of the American College of Hospital Executives, a recipient of the Award of Honor of the American Hospital Association, and an Honorary Life Member of the American Hospital Association. He is a founding member of the American Academy of Hospital Attorneys; a past board member of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania, the Health Alliance of Pennsylvania, and the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania; and was chair of Saint Francis Central Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1971 to 1999.

SANDRA K. JOHNSON, RN, ARM, LHRM, FSHRM, is director of risk services for Broward Health in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She began her career in risk management twenty-eight years ago, working for PHICO Insurance Group, Inc., in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Past positions include director, risk and insurance, for Keystone Health System in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania; director, risk and insurance, at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and system director of risk management at Intracoastal Health System, West Palm Beach, Florida. She has served on many ASHRM committees and as a faculty member of the 1988 annual conference and nominations committee. She has served two terms on the ASHRM board of directors. While in Philadelphia, she held various officer and committee positions with the Philadelphia Area Society for Healthcare Risk Management and the Pennsylvania Association of Health Care Risk Management. She has also been recognized on three occasions for outstanding contributions to the field of risk management by the Philadelphia Area Society for Healthcare Risk Management and the Pennsylvania Association of Health Care Risk Management. She is a past president and a board member of the Florida Society for Healthcare Risk Management and Patient Safety and was reelected as president for 2008-2009 term. Johnson is a member of the advisory board for the journal, Healthcare Risk Management, published by American Health Consultants, and has held positions on the Broward County Risk and Insurance Management Society board of directors. She was awarded the ARM designation in 1990 and the FASHRM designation in 1991. She is a licensed health care risk manager (LHRM) in the state of Florida.

TRISTA JOHNSON, PhD, MPH, is the director of performance measurement and analysis for Allina Hospitals and Clinics. Johnson provides coordinated, accurate analysis and results to drive organizational improvement. Previously, she served as the director of patient safety and coordinated initiatives and measurements across the eleven hospitals and forty-four clinics in the Allina system. She was involved in the creation of a standard data collection tool and taxonomy for patient safety events and continues to work with this system through analysis of the data and use of the results in safety collaboratives. A few examples of collaboratives conducted while leading patient safety include falls prevention, teamwork and patient safety, insulin safety, and the IHI trigger tool analysis. Johnson serves as a member of the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS), which is involved in implementing the mandatory statewide reporting of the twenty-seven National Quality Forum events. She completed her doctoral work on the application of epidemiology to the study of medical errors.

LEILANI KICKLIGHTER, RN, ARM, MBA, CPHRM, DFASHRM, principal, the Kicklighter Group, is an independent consultant offering health care risk management, patient safety consulting, and stress management education. She serves as a risk management consultant to ambulatory surgery centers and is the course coordinator and instructor for the health care risk management online certificate course offered by the University of South Florida. This is a preparatory course laying the foundation for licensure in Florida as a health care risk manager. Most recently, she served as the corporate director of risk management services and patient safety officer for a large long-term care and skilled nursing facility. Previously, she was a health care risk management consultant with a large global insurance broker and consulted throughout the United States and internationally. Kicklighter began her career as a registered nurse. Her experience in health care risk management spans more than thirty years and has afforded her experience in a variety of health care organizational settings, including a large teaching hospital, a university medical school, a large multispecialty clinic, a for-profit community hospital, a not-for-profit integrated health care multifacility system, and a large HMO. She has been a member of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), since its inception, serving on numerous committees, the board of directors, and as president in 1997-1998. Kicklighter has been awarded the DFASHRM designation from ASHRM. She is the past president and board member of the Florida Society for Healthcare Risk Management and Patient Safety. She has a master’s in business administration from Nova Southeastern University and has earned designations as an associate in risk management (ARM) and a certified professional in health care risk management (CPHRM). Kicklighter is a licensed health care risk manager (LHRM) in the state of Florida. She is a well-known author and lecturer in the fields of infection control and risk management on the local, state, national, and international levels.

JANE J. MCCAFFREY, MHSA, DFASHRM, is the director of Quality Management Services at Self Regional Healthcare in Greenwood, South Carolina. She has developed risk management programs at several South Carolina hospitals over the past twenty years. McCaffrey has served twice as president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (1985 and 2003). She participates on several state-level patient safety and risk committees and was a faculty member for fundamentals of risk management for over a decade. McCaffrey received ASHRM’s Distinguished Service Award in 1994. She also serves on the editorial advisory boards for ECRI’s newsletter Risk Management Reporter and American Healthcare Consultants’ Healthcare Risk Management. In 2005, she became a member of Health Research and Educational Trust’s 2005-2006 Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship Class.

DENISE MURPHY, RN, BSN, MPH, CIC, Vice President and chief safety and quality officer at Barnes-Jewish Hospital JC Healthcare in Saint Louis. Before taking that position, she spent seven years as director of health care epidemiology and patient safety for BJC HealthCare. Murphy went to nursing school in Philadelphia, received her bachelor of science in nursing in Portland, Maine, and holds a master of public health degree from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health. Murphy’s early nursing experience was in pediatric ICUs, surgical nursing, and nursing management. She entered the field of infection control in 1981, sitting for the first certification in infection control (CIC) exam in 1983. She has been an ICP in hospitals ranging from 100-1200 beds in rural and urban settings. Her presentations and publications are numerous on prevention of surgical site infections, bloodstream infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia and on redesigning infection control services, the business of infection control, and establishment of patient safety programs. Murphy is an active member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). She is a past president of the APIC Greater Saint Louis chapter and currently serves as a director on the APIC national board and chair of strategic planning. Murphy was a four-year member of the APIC annual conference task force and is currently the ICP representative on the SHEA educational conference planning committee. She graduated from the first AHA/National Patient Safety Foundation-sponsored leadership fellowship training program in 2003.

JUDITH NAPIER is corporate director, risk management and patient safety, for Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minnesota. Before joining Allina, Napier was senior director, patient safety and risk management services, for Children’s Hospitals and Clinics in Minnesota. Napier has held the position of senior vice president for MMI Companies, an international health care risk management firm, where she was responsible for an international consulting division and product innovation and customization, specifically introducing new risk management strategies and products to the health care industry. Before her work with MMI Companies, she practiced nursing in high-risk perinatal units and taught maternal child nursing in several academic accredited nursing programs at both the baccalaureate and associate degree level. Her career includes clinical practice, consultation, teaching, and more than twenty years as an executive in the health care industry. Napier holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Niagara University and a master’s degree in maternal child clinical specialty nursing from California State University at Los Angeles. She has received a certificate of completion from HRET and the Health Forum Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship. Napier has been a frequent national and international speaker in the area of patient safety, quality, and risk management.

PAMELA J. PARA, RN, MPH, CPHRM, ARM, FASHRM, is a nurse consultant for the Midwestern Consortium of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Chicago, Illinois. In this role, Para is responsible for the coordination of non-long-term care federal oversight functions in the Division of Survey and Certification for transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, end-stage renal dialysis centers, critical access hospitals, home care, and hospice providers. Para has served as the director of professional and technical services for the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management of the American Hospital Association in Chicago. Other experience includes evaluating a variety of health care organizations, nationwide and in Puerto Rico, for potential medical professional, general, and workers’ compensation liability exposures for a major commercial insurance carrier. She has also performed medicolegal reviews of potential and litigated claims, negotiated settlements, managed workers’ compensation claims, and served as adviser to risk managers and other corporate claims coordinators of various self-insured health care facilities in the metropolitan Chicago area and nationwide for a third-party claims administrator. Para has nearly twenty-five years of professional health care experience, beginning as a registered professional nurse in both civilian and military maternal-child clinical settings. She received a bachelor of science degree in nursing with a minor in Spanish from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and a master of public health degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds the designations of certified professional in health care risk management (CPHRM), associate in risk management (ARM), and Fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (FASHRM). Para is a published author, educator, and frequent presenter on risk management and workers’ compensation topics.

GINA PUGLIESE, RN, MS, vice president of the Safety Institute, Premier Inc., Chicago. She holds associate faculty appointments at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago. Pugliese is on the editorial advisory board of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety and is the senior associate editor of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. She is the codirector of the international Healthcare Epidemiology Training Program sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For eight years, Pugliese was the director of safety of the American Hospital Association, Chicago. She was a founding board member and past president of the national Certification Board of Infection Control (CBIC) and has served as a board member of the national Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). She is the author of more than 130 publications and has served on the faculty in more than 300 educational conferences in thirteen countries and has appeared in more than thirty videotape, television, and teleconference programs. Pugliese currently serves on several national committees, including the expert panel for the CMS National Surgical Infection Prevention (SIP) and Surgical Care Improvement Projects (SCIP), AHRQ’s Patient Safety Research Coordinating Center Steering Committee, and FDA’s Medical Product Surveillance Network (MEDSUN) Advisory Group. Pugliese is the 2001 recipient of the APIC Carole DeMille outstanding achievement award in safety and epidemiology. In 2004, the Gina Pugliese Scholarship was established for five clinicians to attend each of the SHEA-CDC international health care epidemiology training courses, held every other year, in recognition of her contributions to health care epidemiology.

MADELYN S. QUATTRONE, JD, is a senior risk management analyst for ECRI, Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. She is editor of ECRI’s publication Continuing Care Risk Management and is a regular contributor to ECRI’s Healthcare Risk Control System. She has been a panelist in ECRI audioconferences discussing risk management and legal issues involving the health information privacy regulations and the security regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Before joining ECRI, Quattrone was a shareholder in the law firm of George, Koran, Quattrone, Blumberg & Chant, PA, in Woodbury, New Jersey, concentrating on the defense of medical malpractice cases, from 1982 to 1999. A member of the bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court, Quattrone achieved certification by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a civil trial attorney in 1990 and was selected for membership in the American Board of Trial Advocates in 1993. Quattrone has also provided risk management consultation to physicians, hospitals, and professional liability insurers and contributed to the development of a clinical-legal correspondence course for the Medical Inter-Insurance Exchange of New Jersey. She has written regularly for numerous publications, including the Emergency Physician Legal Bulletin, the Emergency Nurse Legal Bulletin, and the Emergency Medical Technician Legal Bulletin. For many years, Quattrone cowrote a column on legal and risk management issues affecting emergency nurses in the Journal of Emergency Nursing. She has developed case scenarios and participated in mock medical malpractice trials for audiences of physicians, medical students, residents, and clinical engineers and has been a frequent speaker in numerous risk management areas, including informed consent, ethical and legal issues involving human reproduction, obstetrics, the provision of emergency care, and medical record documentation. Quattrone earned a doctor of law degree from Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, New Jersey, and a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

MICHAEL L. RAWSON is the former corporate director of safety, security, and environmental health for Intermountain Health Care (IHC) in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he has been employed for twenty-six years. His responsibilities include management of safety, security, and environmental health issues and compliance with regulatory activities specific to these areas. Rawson holds a bachelor of science degree in sociology with a certificate in law enforcement from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in administration of justice from Wichita State University. He is a certified health care safety professional (CHSP), a certified health care environmental manager (HEM), and a senior of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (SASHE). Rawson has served on various committees with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-Facilities (VA) and as president of the Mountain States Society for Healthcare Engineering (MSSHE). Rawson is a faculty member for ASHE-sponsored Environment of Care Joint Committee Survey Process Preparation programs and has presented programs on hospital security, safety, and emergency preparation and management throughout the United States.

ELAINE RICHARD, RN, MS, earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota, where she served on the faculty from 1972 to 1984. During her tenure there, she pioneered one of the first post-RN and ANA-accredited geriatric nurse practitioner programs before nurse practitioner programs were recognized by the National League for Nursing. In 1977, she developed a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) graduate-level program in occupational health nursing and was subsequently promoted to associate professor. Richard later served as a NIOSH consultant reviewing university applications for occupational health training programs in the fields of medicine, nursing, safety, and industrial hygiene. She has lived in Tampa since 1984. Richard served as executive director of Saint Joseph’s HealthLine and Community Care over a period of ten years. In this capacity, she planned and developed the occupational health program and clinic and corporate wellness programs. As part of the Hillsborough County initiative to serve the indigent population, she developed and implemented Saint Joseph’s first off-site primary clinics to serve this population. In 1995, she became the executive director and regional vice president of EverCare, a subsidiary of United Healthcare, and implemented the EverCare Program in Florida for residents in long-term care institutions. This successful Medicare demonstration project uses geriatric nurse practitioners to bring added value to patients residing in nursing homes. Since retirement, she has worked with the University of South Florida’s School of Aging Studies in the development and maintenance of the risk management course.

SHEILA HAGG-RICKERT, JD, MHA, MBA, CPCU, PHRM, DFASHRM, associate system director of risk management, CHRISTUS Health. She is responsible for oversight of CHRISTUS’s loss prevention, claims management, and risk financing programs. Previously, she served as corporate risk manager for both for-profit and not-for-profit acute care and long-term care health systems, as an insurance broker, and as a health care risk management consultant. She has served on the board of directors for the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) and has presented and written extensively on health care risk management and health law topics. She served as faculty for ASHRM’s Advanced Forum, the third learning module in the Barton Certificate program, for more than a decade. Hagg-Rickert holds a doctor of law degree from the University of Iowa and masters degrees in both business administration and health care administration from Georgia State University. She has earned chartered property and casualty underwriter (CPCU) and certified professional in health care risk management (CPHRM) designations and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management (DFASHRM).

FREDERICK “RICK” ROBINSON, JD, is partner in charge of the health law practice in Fulbright & Jaworski’s Washington, D.C., office. His cases cover all phases of trial and appellate practice in both criminal and civil matters, including qui tam or “whistleblower” lawsuits under the federal False Claims Act. He helps health care providers create and implement corporate compliance programs and with voluntary disclosure matters. Robinson graduated with honors from Duke University School of Law in 1982 and is admitted to the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia. He has written numerous articles and is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences regarding health care litigation and compliance matters.

JEANNIE SEDWICK, ARM, is a former health care broker for Aon Risk Services, Inc., based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Previously, she was director of risk management for Wake County Hospital System, Inc., in Raleigh, North Carolina, for more than twenty years. She held the position of vice president of marketing for the Medical Protective Company/Employers Reinsurance Company and was responsible for production of health care accounts for the southern United States. She served as managing director for property casualty for Insurance Resource, Inc., a division of the American Hospital Association, in Chicago, Illinois. She served on the ASHRM board for six years and was president in 1996-1997. She is a founding member of the North Carolina Chapter of ASHRM and has served as its president and board member and on many committees. She was recognized for her contributions to the North Carolina ASHRM chapter and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 1996. Sedwick was named to the Business Insurance Risk Manager of the Year Honor Roll in 1997 for her contributions to the field of risk management and for her achievements as risk manager at Wake County Hospital System.

KATRINA A. SHANNON, BA, JD, risk management coordinator for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, and adjunct professor at Maryville University in Saint Louis. Shannon received her bachelor of arts degree in business management and her certificate in health information management from Saint Louis University. She received her doctor of law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law and a health law certificate from the Saint Louis University School of Law Center for Health Law Studies. She is licensed to practice in Missouri. Shannon is a former law clerk for the BJC Health System, Armstrong Teasdale LLP, and a former associate attorney for Lashly & Baer, PC. In these roles, Shannon practiced corporate, government, education, and health care law. Shannon is a member of the Missouri Bar Association, the Mound City Bar Association, the Saint Louis Area Health Law Association, the Saint Louis Association for Health Care Risk Managers, and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management.

RONNI P. SOLOMON, JD, is executive vice president and general counsel at ECRI, a nonprofit health services research agency in suburban Philadelphia that focuses on the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of patient care. Solomon has approximately twenty years’ experience in health care risk management, patient safety, law, and regulation. She works with leaders at hospitals, health systems, government agencies, continuing care organizations, and insurance providers to implement patient safety and quality assessment systems. She has published numerous articles and book chapters and has lectured frequently in the United States and abroad. Solomon serves as the center director for ECRI’s Collaborating Center for the World Health Organization in patient safety, health care technology and risk management. She is a past member of ASHRM’s board of directors and has served in many other leadership roles for ASHRM. She received ASHRM’s first Award for Writing Excellence.

NANCY TUOHY, RN, MSN, is a medication safety specialist at ISMP. She is also the assistant editor for ISMP’s Nurse Advise-ERR and a contributor to the other ISMP medication safety alert publications. Tuohy’s interests include patient safety and health care systems analysis, including the evolution of health care informatics. Her prior work experiences cover a broad range of health care settings, including pediatrics, critical care, outpatient clinic, elementary school, pharmaceutical research, and prehospital care as an emergency medical technician. Tuohy obtained her bachelor of science in nursing degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her master of science in nursing degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University.

JOHN C. WEST, JD, MHA, DFASHRM, is a senior health care consultant with AIG Consultants Inc., Healthcare Management Division. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, a law degree from Salmon P. Chase College of Law, and a master’s degree in health services administration from Xavier University. He received the Distinguished Service Award from ASHRM in 2001, the highest honor bestowed by that society. He also received the designation of Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (DFASHRM) in 1999. West has been a frequent speaker at national and regional educational programs and has published numerous articles on various aspects of health care risk management. He currently writes the “Case Law Update” column on a quarterly basis for the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management.

KIMBERLY M. WILLIS, CPCU, ARM, is senior vice president of Endurance U.S. Healthcare Insurance Services. In this capacity, she is responsible for developing and executing strategy for the U.S. Healthcare practice. Prior to joining Endurance, Willis served as vice president, field underwriting, for Berkley Medical Excess Underwriters. She was responsible for management of underwriting strategy, achievement of profitability and premium volume goals, and oversight of distributor relationships. Willis also served as managing director, health care syndication, for Aon Risk Services. She managed a team responsible for the design, negotiation, and broking of over $500 million in health care professional liability premiums. Willis earned her bachelor of science degree in business administration at the University of Missouri and a master of business administration degree from Maryville University. She holds the chartered property and casualty underwriter (CPCU) and associate in risk management (ARM) designations.

SHEILA COHEN ZIMMET, BSN, JD, is associate vice president for Regulatory Affairs at Georgetown University Medical Center. Previously she was associate dean, research compliance, at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where she serves as the course director for the Tri-Institutional Responsible Conduct of Research course for Weill Cornell Medical College, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. She previously served as Director of Research Assurance and Compliance and as senior counsel for Georgetown University Medical Center. She started her professional career as a neonatal intensive care nurse after earning her undergraduate nursing degree from Georgetown University in 1971. After she received her JD from Georgetown in 1975, Zimmet pursued a legal career with the federal government in occupational and mine safety and health. She returned to Georgetown University in 1984, where her health law practice focused on clinical, bioethical, and biomedical research issues, professional liability and risk management, and other hospital and higher education legal issues involving patients, students, faculty, and staff that are common to academic medical centers. Zimmet also serves as a member of the National Advisory Research Resources Council to the National Institutes of Health.

The student of risk management is entering a field in health care filled with challenges, excitement, obstacles, passion, frustration, and confusion, all combined with a strong sense of purpose and commitment. You’ll either love it or be frightened by it. Risk management is not a stop on the road; it is a journey. For individuals who like a challenge, consider themselves change agents, understand organizational systems and processes, and have the ability to see the big picture and connect the dots, this is the profession for you.