Board of Directors
Brandelyn Bergstedt, CPHQ
Jeffrey Catalano, JD
Jeffrey N. Catalano is a partner at Keches Law Group, P.C., where he represents victims of catastrophic injuries in medical negligence and other personal injury cases. Deeply committed to health care safety, Mr. Catalano serves on a number of patient safety organizations, including the Massachusetts Alliance for Communication and Resolution Following Medical Injury (MACRMI). Mr. Catalano, a former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, regularly speaks and writes on disclosure and transparency following medical injuries locally and nationally.
Barbara Gold, MD, MHCM, FASA
Barbara Gold, MD, MHCM, FASA is a Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota and Chief Clinical Risk Officer for University of Minnesota Physicians. Based on a longstanding interest in patient safety, she is implementing a communication and resolution program for medical staff, trainees, patients and families in partnership with Risk Management for the practice plan and the University of Minnesota School of Medicine.
Angela Green, PhD, RN, CPHQ, FAAN
Angela Green, PhD, RN, CPHQ, FAAN serves as the Vice President of Patient Safety and Quality for the Johns Hopkins Health System and a principal faculty member for the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She also holds a faculty appointment in the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Angela began her healthcare career as a registered nurse and has subsequently held a number of roles including advanced practice nurse, Director of Professional Practice, Vice President of Performance Improvement, and Chief Patient Safety and Quality Officer before assuming her current role. In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring a culture of high reliability, leading efforts to learn from and eliminate preventable harm, and advancing clinical excellence across the continuum of care. She has led the implementation of communication and resolution programs across Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Abdul Al Hamamsy, JD, MPH, MBBCh, ARM-E, CPHRM, CCI, AIC, AIS, AINS
Abdul has spent most of his professional career in healthcare working with patients and healthcare providers, including direct clinical care and in the trenches advancing patient safety and managing risk. For more than 15 years in claims, insurance, and risk management at large academic health systems, Abdul’s passion has been the design and implementation of communication and resolution programs in response to unanticipated significant adverse outcomes of care. A certified professional in healthcare risk management, Abdul is also a licensed California lawyer who received his juris doctor from Santa Clara University. He holds a master’s in public health with a focus on health administration and policy from Oklahoma University, and is a registered professional liability underwriter, with associate designations in enterprise risk management, claims, insurance services, and general insurance, as well as certificates in captive insurance and in strategic decision making and risk management.
Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH
Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH, is vice chair of Women’s Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is the director and fellowship director of the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, and is the second endowed chair holder of the Helping Hand of Los Angeles Miriam Jacobs Chair in Maternal Fetal Medicine. Her research interests include cesarean delivery, maternal morbidity and mortality, safety and quality of care in obstetrics, and developing patient reported outcome measures for evaluating maternal satisfaction with the childbirth experience.
Allen Kachalia, MD, JD
With nearly 20 years in medicine, Dr. Kachalia has focused on eliminating preventable harm, improving patient outcomes and patient experience, and curbing waste in health care delivery. Dr. Kachalia was formerly the chief quality officer and vice president for quality and safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he oversaw inpatient and ambulatory quality and safety initiatives. He was also a general internist, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an associate professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research has focused on how the law affects medical care, particularly how liability system reform and the disclosure of medical error relate to the quality and safety of health care.
Doug Mason, CCLA
Doug Mason is Vice President of Claims for COPIC Insurance Company and brings thirty years of experience in the management of professional liability claims. This experience includes the management of complex medical malpractice claims nationwide from both an underlying as well as excess exposure. He has spent his entire career in claims with experience in all lines of professional liability.
Beth Miller, MAOM-L, BSN, RN, CPXP
Beth Miller, MAOM-L, BSN, RN, CPXP is a seasoned healthcare leader with two decades of experience spanning patient safety, risk management, and patient experience. She currently serves as System Director of Patient Safety – Performance Improvement at CommonSpirit Health, where she leads systemwide initiatives in high reliability, safety culture, and event response, including CANDOR and peer support programs. Previously, Beth served as Director of Patient Experience at Dignity Health’s Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, where she led efforts that elevated HCAHPS scores from the 23rd to 78th percentile. Her career has included leadership roles in risk management, NICU nursing, and graduate nurse residency programming.
Caleshia Myles, MS, BHIT, CPC, CHERS, CBCS
Caleshia Myles has worked for MedStar Health for 18 years and is the current Director of Patient Access, Central Scheduling and Verification unit. She previously was the Administrator for the Medstar Transplant Institute. Caleshia received her bachelor’s degree in Health Information Technology from Catholic University of America, and a master’s degree from Georgetown University in Clinical Quality, Safety & Leadership. In her current role she uses her results-oriented way of thinking to make conversations more constructive and beneficial for patients. She is passionate about improving patient access and quality of care using technology and achieving this through collaboration and authenticity. She provides patient excellence in service by using her personal experience and leadership to improve the lives of the patients she serves. Caleshia has suffered emotional and physical harm from the healthcare system and looks to improve communication after harm events.
Barbara Pelletreau, RN, MPH
Barbara is an industry leader in the realm of patient safety and the successful implementation of transformative, large-scale initiatives that produce safer patient care, highly engaged teams, and reduced costs. She recently retired as the Patient Safety Officer at CommonSpirit Health, one of the U.S.’s largest nonprofit healthcare systems. She’s a results-driven leader who values collaboration, co-creation, investing in her team, and involving stakeholders to achieve the best results. At CommonSpirit Health, she spearheaded the system-wide spread of perinatal safety, high reliability, CANDOR (Communications AND Optimal Resolution), and Just Culture.
Urmimala Sarkar, MD, MPH
Urmimala Sarkar MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations. She is a general internist and primary care physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center’s Richard Fine People’s Clinic. Dr. Sarkar is an expert in outpatient safety, including diagnostic safety, health information technology, and health disparities. Along with leading patient safety improvement efforts in safety-net health systems that care for low-income and ethnically diverse patients, Dr. Sarkar served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Improving Diagnosis and advised the California State Department of Health Services and the National Quality Forum on measurement of outpatient safety, among other thought-leadership activities in this field.
Michael Stinson, JM
Michael Stinson is Vice President of Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Medical Professional Liability Association, where he leads advocacy efforts on behalf of professional liability stakeholders. With deep expertise in legislative and regulatory affairs, he works closely with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders to shape sound policy and legal strategies. Michael brings years of experience navigating complex legal landscapes and advancing key organizational objectives through strategic advocacy and collaboration. Known for his ability to build consensus and communicate effectively across sectors, he plays a vital role in protecting and promoting the interests of medical liability professionals nationwide.
Kyle Sweet, JD
Kyle Sweet is Chief Strategy Officer at Helio Risk. Prior to that, he was an Oklahoma-based defense lawyer represents healthcare providers in catastrophic injury cases around the United States. Kyle teaches in medical schools, dental schools and teaches seminars regularly to healthcare providers on how to avoid litigation by improving quality of care through more effective communication. Kyle is proud to serve on the CAI and looks forward to helping make Communication Resolution Programs the industry standard.
Deahna Visscher
Deahna Visscher is a mother that lost her infant son, Grant Lars Visscher, when he was 11 days old due to an avoidable medical error in 2008. Through her patient safety journey, she became a parent partner on the Patient Safety Committee at the hospital that he died at, became a member on the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) sub-committee NOVEL (seeking New Opportunities for Verification of Enteral tube Location) as well as a member of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
Albert W. Wu, MD, MPH
Albert W. Wu is a practicing general internist and Fred and Julie Soper Professor of Health Policy & Management and Medicine at Johns Hopkins. He is director of the Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research. He has worked in patient safety since the 1980s, was a member of the IOM Committee on Preventing Medical Errors, and was Senior Adviser for Patient Safety at WHO from 2007-2009. He is director of Strategic Collaborations for the Armstrong Institute. He also leads the online Masters of Applied Science in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality, and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management. He is co-founder and co-director of the RISE (Resilience in Stressful Events) peer support program.
Liane Yeager, MHA, MBA, CPHRM, FASHRM, CPPS
Liane has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of risk management, patient safety and patient relations. She is currently the Executive Director of Risk Management at the University of Washington. Liane is accomplished in risk financing, liability claims management, and enterprise risk management. She graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Business Administration and holds post-graduate degrees in Healthcare Administration and Business Administration from the University of Maryland University College.
Jane Yung, JD
Jane Yung is Vice President of Compliance and Risk Services and the Chief Compliance and Risk Officer for the University of Washington, where she has worked since 2017. In her current role, Jane oversees Civil Rights Compliance. Previously, she served for 14 years as counsel to the University, and as past president of the Washington State Society of Healthcare Attorneys. Jane earned her juris doctor from the University of Washington School of Law.
We thank our past Board members for their contributions to our mission
Staff
Thomas H. Gallagher, MD
Thomas H. Gallagher, M.D., is a general internist who is Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, where he is Associate Chair for Patient Care Quality, Safety, and Value. He is also a Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities. He also is Executive Director of the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement, an organization dedicated to advancing the spread of Communication and Resolution Programs (www.communicationandresolution.org). Dr. Gallagher’s research addresses the interfaces between healthcare quality, communication, and transparency.
Dr. Gallagher received his medical degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes Hospital, Washington University, St. Louis, and completed a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, UCSF.
Melissa Parkerton, MA
After receiving her BA at Dartmouth and a master’s degree from Bastyr University, Melissa had multiple important roles providing senior leadership for research and improvement projects. She led initiatives at Group Health in Washington, at UCLA and the VA in Los Angeles, and at the Oregon patient Safety Commission where she rose to the level of Interim Executive Director and served on the CAI Board. After her time at OPSC, she spent two years supporting quality improvement initiatives in India, followed by public health leadership roles in Oregon and Washington.
Melissa also serves as the Director of the Pathway to Accountability Compassion and Transparency (PACT).
Lauge Sokol-Hessner, MD, CPPS
Lauge Sokol-Hessner, MD, CPPS, is a hospitalist, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, QI Mentor at the UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality and Safety, speaker and consultant for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and a guest speaker for the Harvard Medical School Masters in Healthcare Quality and Safety (HMS MHQS). He has experience in operational quality & safety, developing leaders in quality & safety, teaching communication skills, coaching health care organizations to implement highly-reliable CRP programs, and he champions patient and family engagement, ethics, humanism, equity, and respect in health care. He completed medical school and residency at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sasha Walia, PhD, MPA:HA, CPHQ
Prior to joining the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement, Sasha served in various compliance, policy, strategy, and quality improvement roles for Providence and Legacy Health, leading regulatory and accreditation activities grounded in promoting and strengthening quality and patient safety. In addition to her work within health systems, Sasha is also an adjunct faculty instructor teaching Health Administration courses, and was newly appointed to the Task Force for Resolution of Adverse Healthcare Incidents in Oregon.
Sasha completed her PhD in Health Systems & Policy from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health in 2024, where she focused her research on patient safety and non-physical harm within the context of regulatory influences and organizational culture.
Nicole Moore, MPH
Nicole joined the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement following the completion of her MPH from the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program at the University of Washington. She also has a background in healthcare communication and marketing.
Lisa Leitzelar, LICSW
Lisa is a licensed clinical social worker who obtained a Master’s in Social Work from Fordham University in New York. Before joining CAI, she worked as an advanced heart failure social worker with UW Medicine. She is particularly interested in the intersection of patient safety and quality, bioethics, and healthcare worker well-being.
Maxine Chan, MSc
Maxine brings a foundation in public policy, program development and evaluation, and communications to her work at CAI. Prior to joining the University of Washington, she served in various roles in the Government of Ontario, contributing to the development and implementation of policies and programs in the province’s healthcare and postsecondary education systems. She holds a MSc in Public Policy from University College London.