Board of Directors
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.
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.
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.
Uma Kotagal, MBBS, MSc
Dr. Uma Raman Kotagal currently serves as Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics and Senior Fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She has been a pioneer in the application of system science to improve outcomes in health care delivery across the world including developing countries and in partnering to create the Learning Networks models to improve outcomes at scale. She is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Carnegie Foundation. She has received numerous awards for her contributions. Dr. Kotagal holds a MS in Epidemiology from Harvard University-School of Public Health, and a medical degree from Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India. Dr Kotagal was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine in 2009.
Dahlia Mak, MHA
Dahlia Mak has been in the healthcare industry for more than 20 years as a healthcare administrator and lean consultant, most recently serving as Managing Director in the Lean Health Care Practice at Moss Adams. Healthcare quality and patient safety have been focused areas of interest for Dahlia personally and professionally. In 2013, the urgent need for patient safety improvements hit home with the sudden death of her brother from a misdiagnosed medical condition and a distressing process of communication and resolution that followed. Dahlia has dedicated her career to improving quality and the healthcare experience, sharing her skills in lean methodology so that other patients and families need not suffer the loss her family experienced.
Julie Morath, RN, MS, CPPS
Julie Morath has over three decades experience as a healthcare executive, following her work as a registered and advanced practice nurse , specializing in psychiatry and mental health. She has held C-suite positions as Chief Nursing Officer and VP of Clinical Services, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer at major US health systems, including serving as President and CEO for the development of the Hospital Quality Institute of California.
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.
Leilani Schweitzer
Leilani Schweitzer is a Medical Harm Response Expert, helping health systems and insurers respond to medical harm with compassion, transparency and responsibility. She came to this work because of her son’s death after a series of medical errors. For 12 years she worked at Stanford Health Care, where her son died, collaborating with patients, their loved ones, clinicians and attorneys after harm events. Her lived experience, work at Stanford and hospitals around the US, has given her a unique view of challenges facing healthcare, including harm, disclosure and apologies. Leilani’s work has been discussed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, on CNN, the Ted Radio Hour and RadioLab podcasts. Her TedX talk has been viewed more than 226,000 times and is used in curricula around the world.
Michael J. Severyn, Esq.
Michael J. Severyn, Esq. is regional vice president of Claims at ProAssurance. He has worked at ProAssurance for 23 years and has directly managed and supervised thousands of medical malpractice claims files; more than 1,300 of those cases have gone through jury trials. Prior to joining ProAssurance, Mr. Severyn worked as an attorney in private practice defending MPL claims brought against hospitals, physicians, chiropractors, podiatrists, and nursing homes. He also has experience defending workers compensation and personal injury cases. Mr. Severyn has been an active member of the State Bar of Michigan continually since 1990.
Michael C. Stinson, JM
Mike Stinson is Vice President of Government Relations & Public Policy for the Medical Professional Liability Association. He received a Juris Master from George Mason University School of Law and an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire Wittemore School of Business and Economics. Mike co-chairs CAI’s Policy & Advocacy Committee.
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.
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.
UW Medicine Oversight Committee
Geetanjali Chander MD MPH FACP
Geetanjali Chander, MD MPH is Professor of Medicine and the Division Head of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington. Her clinical work and research are focused on the intersection of alcohol and other substance use and HIV risk and infection. With a transdisciplinary, collaborative team she conducts NIH-funded epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and implementation research, including community-based participatory research. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 2022, Dr. Chander was a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the research director for the Brancati Center for the Advancement of Community Care. Dr. Chander has been the recipient of numerous mentoring awards, including the Mid-Career Research Mentorship Award from the National Society for General Internal Medicine.
Barbara Jung, MD
Dr. Jung is currently the Chair of Medicine at the University of Washington, Department of Medicine.
Dr. Jung received her medical degree with thesis in 1996 from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego, she completed a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in gastroenterology at UC San Diego.
She has a strong track record of teaching and mentoring students, residents, and fellows and is currently a faculty mentor for longitudinal career advising to first year medical students.
Elizabeth A. Leedom, JD
Liz is an experienced trial lawyer who has represented hospitals, physicians and other providers in medical malpractice cases for over 33 years and has tried over 65 malpractice cases to verdict. She has special expertise on cases involving obstetrics, neurosurgery, anesthesia and emergency medicine. She is regularly selected to the “Super Lawyers”, “Top 50 Women Lawyers”, and Best Lawyers®lists.
Patricia Kritek, MD
Trish Kritek is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs for the University of Washington School of Medicine. In this role, she focuses on helping the School of Medicine faculty thrive by bringing them a broad array of resources including those focused on career development, leadership skills, well-being and more. Dr. Kritek is an attending physician in multiple ICUs at the University of Washington Medical Center and is a clinician-educator with diverse teaching interests ranging from ventilator management and patient and family centered care to feedback and mentoring. Her scholarship focuses on feedback, interactive teaching strategies, and the career development of clinician educators. She has written extensively and spoken locally and nationally on these topics.
Lisa Hammel, JD
Lisa Hammel is the Senior Director for UW Medicine Clinical Risk Management. She joined UWMC in September, 2018. Prior to that, Lisa spent 22 years as a defense attorney, with a primary focus on medical malpractice and professional liability defense. Before becoming an attorney, Lisa spent 10 years working as an engineer for Texaco and General Motors.
Anneliese Schleyer MD, MHA, SFHM
Anneliese Schleyer, MD, MHA, SFHM, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Interim Chief Medical Officer for UW Medicine. In this role, she partners with leaders across the health system to lead patient safety and quality improvement. A practicing hospitalist, Dr. Schleyer has been involved in quality and safety for more than 25 years.
Jane Yung, JD
Jane Yung is the Executive Compliance and Risk Officer for the University of Washington, overseeing management of a variety of claims and lawsuits; the risk financing and consulting operations; the University’s captive insurance company; and compliance services, which includes the internal investigation and resolution office. Jane previously served for 14 years as an attorney for the University at the Attorney General’s Office and team leader of the healthcare practice, and for two years at UW Medicine. She is currently President of the Washington State Society of Healthcare Attorneys (WSSHA) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Health Law Manual 4th Edition.
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.