Michael Bleich, PhD, RN, FAAN, CNAA, BC, is Associate Dean for Clinical and Community Affairs and an Associate Professor in Organizational Leadership and in Health Policy and Management, University of Kansas School of Nursing. He is also the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for KU HealthPartners, a not-for-profit faculty practice enterprise which promotes and supports the School of Nursing and School of Allied Health. A Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow (2000 2003), Dr. Bleich used the fellowship to develop innovative clinical and business models to promote and expand opportunities for Advanced Practice roles. He currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Nursing Education, the AONE policy committee, and The Joint Commission's Nursing Advisory Council.

Sue Ellen Pinkerton, RN, PhD
Creative Healthcare Management
Indialantic, Florida

SueEllen Pinkerton is a consultant with Creative HealthCare Management. Her focus area is leadership development, executive and personal coaching, and the creation of healthy and progressive work environments for staff nurses. She bases her consultation on the 20 years she has spent as a Chief Nursing Officer in both community and academic health center hospitals and integrated delivery systems. Dr. Pinkerton has numerous publications and presentations on integrated delivery systems, retention and recruitment, shared governance, political systems, and staff excellence. She has also been an appraiser with the Magnet Recognition Program. Given her years of experience, she has learned the politics of negotiation within hospitals and systems. Dr. Pinkerton has been a nurse ethicist in practice, persistently working at doing the right thing during difficult times.

Laura Lee, RN
National Institutes of Health
Washington, DC

Laura Lee is the Special Assistant to the Deputy Director for Clinical Care at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. The Clinical Center is the federal governments premier biomedical research facility. Ms. Lee is responsible for assuring that patients participating in one of the over 1,100 clinical research protocols at the Clinical Center receive the highest quality and safest care. Ms. Lee's responsibilities include the coordination of the Clinical Center's clinical performance improvement and measurement activities, directing patient perception surveys, and designing and operationalizing the organization's patient safety program and research activities. Ms. Lee received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Gettysburg College, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Catholic University of America, and, in 2003, completed the Executive Fellowship in Patient Safety Program at the Virginia Commonwealth University.

Randall L. Carter
Vice President Organizational Development & Strategy
Planetree
Derby, Connecticut

Randall Carter is the Vice President of Organizational Development and Strategy for Planetree, a not-for-profit healthcare organization founded in 1978 by a patient in San Francisco, California. The early goals of the organization remain at the heart of Planetrees work today; to fundamentally change healthcare from a cold, sterile, intimidating experience to one of patient empowerment, participation, choice and control. Planetrees Mission is to serve as a catalyst and partner in the development and implementation of new models of health care, which cultivate healing of mind-body-spirit; are patient-centered, value-based, and holistic, integrating the best of modern medicine with time honored healing practices and traditions. Prior to joining Planetree full-time in February 2002, Mr. Carter served for 11 years as the Administrative Director of Organizational Development and Facilities, and Executive Management Team member at Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon. Mid-Columbia was the first systemwide implementation of the Planetree philosophy of care in the United States, beginning in 1991. Mr. Carter, in his roles in organizational development and facilities, was a significant contributor in the successful integration of philosophy and practice in the organization. During his tenure at Mid-Columbia, the organization was recognized in numerous healthcare periodicals as well as Bill Moyers landmark documentary series Healing and the Mind.

Wendy Leebov, EdD
Wendy Leebov, Inc.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dr. Wendy Leebov has over 20 years of experience designing and instituting strategies to enhance patient satisfaction and customer service in healthcare organizations. She is a passionate advocate for customer-driven health care and healing environments. At the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, Dr. Leebov served as Vice President of Human Resources and Associate Vice President of Organizational Development, and was responsible for strategic human retention strategies and internal communications. She has co-authored several books, including Achieving Impressive Customer Service, Service Savvy Health Care, Service Quality Improvement, and Patient Satisfaction: A Guide to Practice Enhancement and is author of a book titled Service Excellence. Wendy obtained her Doctor of Education in Human Development from Harvard University and is a breast cancer survivor.

Donna Falvo, RN, Ph.D., CRC
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Donna Falvo is a registered nurse, licensed psychologist, and certified rehabilitation counselor. She has been a staff nurse, nursing instructor, counselor, and Professor of Family and Community Medicine, as well as of Rehabilitation Counseling. The author of numerous articles on patient education and patient compliance, she was named a Mary Switzer Scholar in 1986 and was elected to Sigma Xi National Scientific Research Society in 1995. She served for four years as Chair of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicines Group on Patient Education and served for six years on the Steering Committee for the Annual National Patient Education Conference sponsored by the American Academy of Family Practice and Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. In addition, Dr. Falvo has been an invited speaker at a number of national patient education conferences and workshops. She was elected president of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association in 1998. Dr. Falvo currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin and is author of two books, both in their third edition, Effective Patient Education: A Guide to Increased Compliance and Medical and Psychosocial Aspects of Chronic Illness and Disability.

Peggy O'Neill Hewlett, PhD, RN
Dean & Professor
University of South Carolina College of Nursing
Columbia, South Carolina

Peggy Hewlett has over 25 years experience in nursing education, administration, practice and consultation. Currently she serves as Professor of Nursing, Associate Dean for Research, and directs the Doctoral Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Nursing in Jackson the states only academic health sciences center. Prior to her work at UMMC, Dr. Hewlett was project director for the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Colleagues in Caring grant initiative. Under her leadership, outcomes of the program included a workforce development model to forecast statewide workforce needs, an integrated nursing competency-based educational mobility plan, a statewide healthcare career counseling program, and the initial development of an interdisciplinary Healthcare Leadership Institute. Dr. Hewlett recently was a coprincipal investigator in an analysis of the major national reports describing nursing workforce shortages. These findings were presented to the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice and are archived in the U.S. Congressional Record.

Richard L. Buck, MD, MPH, FACPM
Health Care Strategist
Saint Louis, MO

Dr. Richard Buck has over 25 years experience in leadership development, medical management and preventive medicine. From 2005-2006 Dr. Buck served in the newly created position of Corporate Vice President for Organizational Effectiveness and Executive Director of SSM University at SSM Health Care. From 1981- 2004 Dr. Buck served as Medical Officer in the United States Navy. His experience includes senior leadership positions in medical management, strategic planning, preventive medicine and research. From 2001-2004 Dr. Buck served as the Commanding Officer (CEO) of Naval Hospital Pensacola.  During Dr. Bucks tenure, the staff of Naval Hospital Pensacola received the Navy Surgeon Generals Award of Excellence in Force Health Protection, were recognized by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs for being in the top ten percent of all military treatment facilities in patient satisfaction, were recognized by the Florida Sterling Council as a state benchmark in staff training and development, received an award from the Picker Institute as the United States most patient-centered hospital in continuity and transition of care, and were the recipients of the Picker Institute International Symposium Institutional Award for Advancement of Patient-Centered Care. Dr. Buck was a finalist for the 1999 Frank Brown Berry Prize in Federal Medicine for his use of the tools of epidemiology to develop a population-based approach to health care. Dr. Buck graduated from Dartmouth College, attended Trinity College in Oxford as a Marshall Scholar where he obtained an M.A. in Physiology, and has studied at Imperial College in London where he was awarded an M.Sc. in Biochemistry. A graduate from Stanford University Medical School, he also completed a year as an Assistant Resident in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital; followed by a residency in Preventive Medicine at Yale University, where he was awarded an MPH in Epidemiology. Dr. Buck is Board Certified in Preventive Medicine and is a graduate of the Program of Management in Health Care, University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School at Chapel Hill. Dr. Buck has written and lectured in the areas of leadership development, medical management and preventive medicine.

Gail Neilson
Patient Safety Administrator
Iowa Health System
Des Moines, Iowa

Gail Nielsen is the Patient Safety Administrator for Iowa Health System, responsible for leading change for safer healthcare across eleven system hospitals in Iowa and Illinois. Ms. Nielsen is a Patient Safety Scholar and faculty with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She is currently a George W. Merck Fellow, working with IHI in Boston and attending the Harvard School of Public Health Program in Clinical Effectiveness.

Michael Pugh, MPH
Pugh, Ettinger, McCarthy Associates, LLC
Pueblo, Colorado

Michael Pugh, founder of Pugh Ettinger McCarthy Associates, LLC, has over 20 years of CEO experience in hospitals, health care systems and managed care organizations. He has been President of Foundation Health Systems Western Division, HCA Medical City Dallas and Parkview Health System in Pueblo, Colorado. He continues to be very active in health care leadership. As a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association and former Commissioner of the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, he is well positioned to provide expert support for health care leaders. He has also served as President of the Colorado Hospital Association and is a past member of the board of HealthForum, a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association. Under Pughs leadership, Parkview Health System was one of the early starters in the health care quality improvement movement and gained national recognition for its success. The first chapter of Striving for Improvement (The Joint Commision Press, 1992) is about Parkviews efforts. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national health care conferences on the subjects of continuous improvement, governance, managed care, health care strategy and health care trends. For many years, Mr. Pugh has been invited to address graduate students at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Mr. Pugh holds both a BS and MPH in health care administration from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

JoEllen Koerner, RN, PhD
Simulis Healthcare Services
Culver City, California

Dr. JoEllen Koerner has extensive executive level management/leadership experience in healthcare administration, education, regulation, and ecommerce. She has worked for several years in virtual education with curriculum modeling and delivery, taking some of these skills to the international healthcare market. While Chief Nursing Officer of a large health system, Dr. Koerner co-founded the Healing Web, a collaborative education-service model that facilitates service learning in the community. She then worked in the private business sector developing health programs for congregate living communities that included Internet applications. As Chief Clinical Officer of Simulis, she facilitated the development of a virtual clinical assessment and training center. This web-based application features scenario-based simulation training that combines assessment, intervention and device training to enhance the clinical reasoning capacity of healthcare professionals in complex situations.