Professional Experience

Throughout my career, I’ve assisted clients in defining their most complex obstacles and building long-lasting strategies. Take a look at my resume to learn more about my professional and educational experience, and get in touch today. 

Subject matter expert providing support, insight, and direction to address questions and develop innovative approaches to important health issues. Identifies issues and questions. Develops messaging for stakeholders. Researches topics and writes action plans, reports, and white papers.  Advises on working with health insurers and other key stakeholders in health care research and health care policy. Provides insight on using data sources including claims, electronic health records, and other real world sources. Supports implementation of projects, brings together collaborators, and identifies funding opportunities. Participates on advisory panels for projects funded by PCORI. 

Provided project management and oversight for a variety of government and private contracts focused on safety and effectiveness of medical products as well as infectious and chronic disease prevention and control initiatives.  Monitored issues and developed strategies relating to FDA, medical products, and value assessment frameworks, provided support and expertise to efforts focusing on wellness, chronic disease prevention and management.  Organized roundtable discussions on key issues.  Participated on discussion panels on a variety of topics convened by CDC, FDA, NAM, and PCORI. Wrote reports and other communications to disseminate results, findings, and promote awareness of projects. Also assumed leadership of a CDC funded project focused on diabetes prevention and an EPA funded project promoting home-based asthma management.

Projects included:

• Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington Engagement Award - Evaluating Feasibility & Requirements for Expanded Health Plan-based Ready Rapid Cycle Research Capacity: Project lead for this effort to create a rapid research capacity to identify and evaluate important questions about health care treatments. Engagement of health insurance plans as key stakeholders was the primary objective. Convened meetings with leaders of health plans, PCORI, and PCORnet to discuss engagement and expectations as stakeholders, identified challenges and potential barriers for collaborating, and provided guidance for health plan engagement. Worked closely with PCORI to sustain the process of engagement by health plans with PCORnet. Wrote white paper of findings and recommendations.
• PCORI National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network Coordinating Center (NCRN) (PCORnet):  Worked with PCORI on stakeholder engagement.  Represented AHIP to facilitate health plans’ engagement as partners with the networks in research projects.  As a subcontractor to the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, participated in activities establishing PCORnet including the Governance and Collaboration Task Force and the Health Systems Involvement & Sustainability Task Force to to develop the necessary mechanisms to enhance data exchange and use.  Participated in other meetings to facilitate discussion and engagement by key partners with PCORnet.
• FDA Sentinel:  Project lead for AHIP as a stakeholder in this multi-year effort led by the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute. Focused on health insurance plan engagement and collaboration.  Engaged in early development of the Mini-Sentinel initiative as well as prototype efforts including the Post-licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring (PRISM) effort developed to monitor safety of the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine.
• CDC Safety and Healthcare Epidemiology Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD) 2011 – 2016.  Project lead for AHIP on this five-year IDIQ contract focused on healthcare acquired infections (HAI) and other infectious disease topics. Partnered with subcontractors including health plans, academic medical centers, and contract research organizations. Awarded one task, for which I convened two roundtable discussions with health plans and state regulators regarding explanations of benefits (EOBs), privacy issues, and potential impact on accessing services for diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.  Produced a report and guidance materials based on the meetings. Developed a working group consisting of AHIP’s subcontractors to discuss issues, potential research topics, and approaches regarding HAIs and other infectious diseases.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Vaccine Safety Surveillance and Assessment Projects (VSSAP) 2002- 2013.  Administered subcontracts with health plans, academic medical centers and other contractors to carry out multiple scopes of work on this ten-year, multi-million dollar multi-site contract.  The statements of work included the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA and multiple supplemental scopes of work addressing vaccine safety topics including; smallpox, anthrax, and hypothesized connections between childhood vaccines and autism. Facilitated development of the Post-Licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring (PRISM) project which addressed safety concerns of the H1N1 vaccine introduced in 2009.  At the direction of the DHHS, AHIP established this public health collaboration of analysts, health plans, IT subcontractors, consultants, and local public health to monitor safety of the H1N1 vaccine in approximately 50 million U.S. residents.  PRISM ultimately became the vaccine safety component of the FDA Sentinel.  PRISM was adapted from an earlier study of Menactra and Guillain – Barre Syndrome (GBS) which I helped to establish and AHIP performed similar functions in this privately funded contract led by the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute.

Managed and coordinated cancer epidemiology studies. Participated in protocol development and negotiated financial arrangements. Prepared materials for approval by institutional review boards.  Developed site-specific plans with physicians, nurses, and other staff.  Developed questionnaires, procedures, hired and trained staff. Monitored activity and project progress. Developed specifications for databases. Coordinated preparation of final study data. Prepared project reports. Contributed to proposals and cost estimates. Development specialist for materials, systems, problem resolution, hiring and training of staff. 

Managed studies of public policy and business issues. Developed study specifications, sampling plans, questionnaires, training, and procedures for data collection, coding, and processing.  Established a new primary research facility at a remote location. Hired, trained, and managed a staff of up to 150.