Faculty
Get to know the thought leaders who create content that’s based on years of validated research, diverse experience, and leadership development expertise.
Stephen Beeson, MD
CEO & Founder
Clinician Experience Project by Practicing Excellence
As a successful family medicine physician, medical group leader, and physician coach, Dr. Stephen Beeson’s career has pioneered an approach to both the patient and clinician experience with demonstrated transformative results. Dr. Beeson is the author of two national best-selling books, “Practicing Excellence: A Physician’s Manual to Exceptional Healthcare” and “Engaging Physicians: A Manual to Physician Partnership.” Dr. Beeson has traveled across the country working with hundreds of health care systems to help engage, enroll and develop physicians to lead.
As the former Physician Director for the Sharp Experience at Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, in San Diego, Dr. Beeson helped improve physician performance in patient satisfaction from the sixth percentile to above the ninetieth percentile nationally, while the Medical Group was recognized nationally with four Honoree Acclaim Awards from the AMGA as well as the Malcolm Baldrige Award.
Dr. Beeson founded the Clinician Experience Project in 2013 and currently leads the development of clinician-designed curriculum within the Project.
Alison Tothy, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Chief Experience and Engagement Officer
University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Alison Tothy is a nationally recognized Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician dedicated to driving transformational change to align patient experience and engagement with organizational missions, visions, and strategies. With a focus on reconnecting clinicians to what matters most to them, Dr. Tothy is a forward-thinking innovator dedicated to constructing an engaging and collaborative culture that drives organizational growth while building clinician engagement and strengthening customer loyalty.
As an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, Dr. Tothy’s research interests revolve around work designed to gain a better understanding of the characteristics that drive patient experience and uses this data to improve patient experience, engagement, and outcomes. Dr. Tothy is the President of the Illinois Chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics and is a founding Executive Council member of the Institute for Innovation.
Currently Dr. Tothy contributes to patient experience, clinician well-being, and service recovery curriculum.
Paddy Barrett, MD
Cardiologist
St. Vincent’s University Hospital
Originally from Galway, Ireland, Dr. Paddy Barrett completed medical school at the University College Dublin. With his cardiology training at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, he has acquired extensive specialty cardiology training in world-class medical centers in New York and California.
Dr. Barrett spent four years at The Scripps Translational Science Institute in California working alongside the world-renowned cardiologist Eric Topol, MD in the fields of cardiovascular genomics and medical innovation. While there, Dr. Barrett played a pivotal role in the development of several novel digital-health technologies and large-scale clinical trials.
Dr. Barret has become a national thought leader in physician wellness and founded the critically acclaimed podcast, The Doctor Paradox, where he tackles the challenges of work-life balance, finding fulfillment in clinical work, and building cultures that support the caregiver.
Currently Dr. Barrett contributes to clinician well-being, resilience, and burnout curriculum.
Renee Oinonen, RN, BSN
Senior Consultant
Clinician Experience Project by Practicing Excellence
Renee originally joined the Practicing Excellence team as Vice President of Client Success and is currently a Senior Consultant. She partners with healthcare leaders and strategically advises them on how they can utilize the Clinician Experience Project to support their organizational goals.
Renee is a registered nurse and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has worked both in critical care and community care as a visiting nurse. Her expertise is primarily in diabetes education, health coaching, chronic disease management, and improving transitions of care. Renee most recently led clinical operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare in Boston as Director of Nursing.
Renee contributes to nurse leadership and quality and safety curriculum.
Mark Shapiro, MD
Hospital Medicine Physician
Associate Medical Director, St. Joseph Health
Dr. Mark Shapiro is a Hospitalist and Associate Medical Director at St. Joseph Health. Additionally, he is the founder, host, and producer of Explore The Space, a critically acclaimed national podcast that examines the interface of healthcare and society featuring a broad range of thought leaders ranging from the impact of EHRs on care delivery to the clinicians role in gun violence reduction to taking on the challenges being a physician today.
Dr. Shapiro received his medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine and went on to complete University of California San Diego’s Internal Medicine Residency Program.
Currently Dr. Shapiro contributes to hospital medicine, team collaboration, and patient experience curriculum.
Renee K Dversdal, MD
Academic Hospitalist
Associate Professor, Division of Hospital Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
Dr. Renee Dversdal is an academic hospitalist and Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland. She also holds roles as the Director of OHSU Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), General Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship Director, and is known nationally for her work with Internal Medicine POCUS.
She completed medical school at OHSU, and Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has been on faculty at OHSU since 2012.
Currently Dr. Dversdal contributes to hospital medicine curriculum.
Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP
Emergency Medicine Physician
Vice President of Patient and Clinician Engagement, Envision Physician Services
Dr. Stefanie Simmons is VP of patient and clinician engagement for Envision Physician Services. She resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan and practices at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. She has served as University of Michigan/St. Joseph Mercy core faculty and coordinated collaborative care between APPs and physicians.
Dr. Simmons is ABEM certified and received her medical and residency training at University of Michigan Medical school, where she was a medical education scholar. Her expertise lies in provider-patient communication and coaching clinicians, including improving clinician well-being in the Emergency Department and developing physician engagement strategies.
Currently Dr. Simmons contributes to emergency medicine, high performing teams, and clinician self-care curriculum.
Mary Sue Easmeil, CPXP
Chief Client Success Officer
Clinician Experience Project by Practicing Excellence
Mary Sue currently serves as the Chief Client Success Officer for Practicing Excellence. She is responsible for client life-cycle management from onboarding through renewal for client partners across the country. She leads the strategy and execution of programs that increase client engagement and accelerate organizational outcomes.
Prior to joining Practicing Excellence, Mary Sue served as the Director of Patient Experience for Sentara Medical Group. She led transformation efforts centered around partnering with clinicians and teams to improve their experience and those of their consumers. She founded, implemented, and led a myriad of experience programming including patient experience training, an expansive provider and employee recognition program, and provider and staff coaching programs. Under her leadership, Sentara achieved compelling results, rising from the 48th to 85th percentile in provider patient experience metrics and from the 37th to 98th percentile in staff patient experience metrics, while reducing physician turnover and improving well-being.
Before entering the healthcare industry, Mary Sue spent more than a decade working in a variety of roles for Chick-fil-A, Inc. These included hospitality strategy and consulting, marketing, customer experience, and public relations.
Currently Mary Sue contributes to leadership and patient experience curriculum.
Blaine C. Brackett
Client Success Consultant
Clinician Experience Project by Practicing Excellence
Blaine currently serves as a Client Success Consultant for Practicing Excellence. He is responsible for client life-cycle management from onboarding to renewal for more than 50 client partners across the country. Through programmatic innovation and operational support, he enables partners to achieve their organizational goals and outcomes.
Prior to joining Practicing Excellence, Blaine served as a Patient Experience Consultant and Physician Coach for Sentara Medical Group. As a former project manager of the Clinician Experience Project, he lead efforts to engage and educate clinicians, leaders, and team members to improve the patient experience. He helped create and lead system-wide patient experience training, onboarding sessions, progressive clinician learning programs, and formalized Sentara Medical Group’s clinician coaching program. Coaching more than 200 clinicians led to increased engagement, reduced clinician and team member burnout, improved clinician and team member retention, and improved patient experience metrics. While Blaine was a consultant and coach, Sentara’s provider experience metrics rose from the 48th to 85th percentile and its staff experience metrics increased from the 37th to 98th percentile.
Before entering the healthcare industry, Blaine spent nine years working as a Director of Operations with Chick-fil-A. Blaine specialized in building teams, training and coaching, process improvement, financial success, and brand awareness.
Currently Blaine contributes to leadership and patient experience curriculum.
KIMBERLY PETTY
Founder & CEO
Zoetify
Kimberly Petty is the Founder of Zoetify, a consultancy that specializing in supporting the strategic growth of healthcare technology companies and healthcare provider strategy and governance. Prior to founding Zoetify, Kim served as Sr. Managing Director of Vocera’s Experience Innovation Network research collaborative and Vocera Care Experience technology platform business units. Kim co-founded ExperiaHealth which was acquired by Vocera. It now serves as the organization’s thought leadership and innovation platform under the Experience Innovation Network.
Kim spent over nine years with General Electric where she had last served as VP Customer Programs at GE’s Healthcare Financial Services business. In that capacity, she led Net Promoter Score customer loyalty efforts, new product innovation planning, and delivery of consulting programs in talent development, process improvement and strategic planning to companies in the healthcare industry.
Kim’s work with healthcare organizations has delivered dramatic improvements in team and patient satisfaction, financial performance, and operational outcomes. As a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, she has executed many large process improvement projects reducing cycle times and inefficiencies that drive dissatisfaction. Kim holds a BBA in from Ohio University and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Currently Kim contributes to patient experience and governance curriculum.
DANIEL L. MELTZER, MD, MPH, FACEP
Emergency Medicine Physician
Chief Medical Officer, Healthwise
Dr. Daniel Meltzer is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Healthwise. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at Blue Cross of Idaho and as Chief and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Kaiser Permanente, San Diego.
Prior to completing his medical degree at Boston University, Dan earned a master’s degree in Health Services Administration and worked in healthcare consulting. Dan’s core strength is helping organizations understand and improve the clinician experience, resulting in sustainable improvements in patient care. Under his leadership, Dan led the highest Joint Commission quality ratings at Kaiser Permanente, San Diego to date.
Dr. Meltzer contributed to the Project through the development of patient experience, safety, and clinical leadership curriculum.
LARRY MCEVOY, MD
Emergency Medicine Physician
President & CEO, Epidemic Leadership
Dr. Larry McEvoy is an Emergency Physician and President and CEO of Epidemic Leadership. Dr. McEvoy taps his background in working with clinicians, leadership teams, and boards to foster environments defined by outstanding results and alignment across clinician groups and healthcare organizations.
Dr. McEvoy received his medical training from Stanford University School of Medicine. During his tenure at the Billings Clinic, Dr. McEvoy lead better quality and patient experience initiatives to one of the most-recognized examples of a multi-specialty, integrated health system.
Dr. McEvoy contributed to the Project through the development of clinical leadership, high-performing teams, and care quality and safety curriculum.
Christopher Gilligan, MD
Anestheia and Pain Medicine Specialist
Chief, Division of Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Chris Gilligan leads the Division of Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital within the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. Exceptional at treating patients with a broad range of pain conditions, Dr. Gilligan’s research revolves around the new interventions, devices, and medications for pain treatment Dr. Gilligan is a thought leader in tapping evidence based medicine in managing chronic pain patients, while bringing a bringing a compassionate, yet prescriptive approach to guide clinicians managing patients on opioids
Originally trained in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Gilligan focused on the subspecialty of Pain Medicine, specifically on the pain of spinal origin. After completing his medical degree at Yale University School Of Medicine, Dr. Gilligan received his master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Dr. Gilligan contributed to the Project through the development of opioid and pain management curriculum.
Marty Scott, MD
Senior Vice President, Quality and Patient Safety Officer
Grady Health System
As SVP and Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer at Grady Health System, Dr. Marty Scott is responsible for implementing high reliability principles to create a substantial improvement in safety culture and sustained reduction in patient harm. His focus is on not only on improving quality and safety cultures, but also change management, physician engagement, and leadership development to advance high reliability in care delivery.
Dr Scott has served in multiple quality and safety positions in nationally recognized organizations across the country, including Hackensack Meridian Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health.
Dr. Scott contributed to the Project through the development of building safety and high reliability curriculum.
Gabe Chaberneau, MD
Family Physician Physician, Providence Health & Services
Founder & CTO, Fluent Systems
Both a Family Physician at Providence Health & Services and Co-Founder and CTO at Fluent Systems, Inc., Dr. Gabe Charbonneau is passionate about the design and engineering of tech in health. He focused particularly on optimizing the use of the EHR to minimize clerical burden, improve care delivery and reduce burnout.
Dr. Charbonneau received his medical training at the University Of Utah School Of Medicine and completed a Family Medicine Residency Program at the University Of Washington.
Dr. Charbonneau has contributed to the Project through the development scribe utilization and EHR optimization curriculum.
Mark Weisman, MD
Chief Medical Information Officer
Peninsula Regional Medical Center
As Chief Medical Information Officer at Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Dr. Mark Weisman uses his years of experience to help care teams deliver the best healthcare possible through the use of technology and by improving clinician and staff efficiency.
With extensive experience as a board-certified internal medicine specialist, Dr. Weisman works to advance care quality and reduce unnecessary workload. He was most recently the Medical Director of Analytics, Informatics, Innovation and Strategy at Sentara Healthcare where he helped champion the “Home for Dinner” campaign with the Sentara Medical Group. Dr. Weisman has also served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at Sentara Hospital in Norfolk, Virg.
Dr. Weisman has contributed to the Project through the development of EHR utilization and optimization curriculum.
Richard Senelick, MD
Neurologist
Editor In Chief, Encompass Health Press
With a career spanning more than 40 years as an expert on neurorehabilitation, Dr. Richard Senelick leads as Editor In Chief of Encompass Health Press and has dedicated his life’s journey to advocating for people with disabilities.
Throughout his career Dr. Senelick has served as Major and staff neurologist at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas and was the Medical Director of HealthSouth RIOSA in San Antonio in the fields of general neurology and neurorehabilitation. Dr. Senelick also experienced a significant medical illness that he has used to advocate for compassionate care and more effective end-of-life conversations.
Dr. Senelick has contributed to the Project through the development of the Doctor-as-Patient and End-of-Life series.
Speaking
Practicing Excellence speaking events and workshops are designed to mobilize leaders and and clinicians in the enhancement and development of the patient experience, team collaboration, and organizational leadership. Find out more about speaking formats, topics, and programs.
