Strategic Advisory Council
The CLEAR Strategic Advisory Council provides current information on the development and evolution of Lean management in healthcare organizations, and advises on the best ways to develop evidence-based, actionable knowledge about Lean. The Strategic Advisory Council works with CLEAR’s research team to identify research questions that are of greatest importance to the field, and develops strategies for communicating research findings to healthcare professionals in order to improve the use of Lean in hospitals and other healthcare organizations
Kathryn Correia
President and Chief Executive Officer
Legacy Health
Kathryn Correia’s work using Lean methodology has successfully transformed health delivery models, with a goal to deliver the best patient-centered and compassionate care. She is an expert in developing and transforming healthcare systems to create greater value for customers and communities. With more than ten years’ of experience teaching and leading Lean, Kathryn understands that taking on transformational change doesn’t happen by maintaining the status quo. Correia was selected as President and CEO for HealthEast in 2012. An advocate for community health and well-being, she embraced the opportunity to help create a vision that would inspire the organization to see the future of health care through a new lens, thus was born “Optimal health and well-being for our patients, our communities and ourselves.” The HealthEast Vision serves to engage and motivate employees, physicians and communities alike. An Ohio native, Correia received her undergraduate degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and her Master’s degree in Health Administration from Ohio State University. She previously served as president of Appleton Medical Center and Theda Clark Medical Center, and senior vice president of ThedaCare. While at ThedaCare, she formed ThedaCare Physicians and served as that medical group’s executive leader. Prior to joining ThedaCare, Correia was vice president for ambulatory care centers and administrative director for clinic operations at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania. Her work using The Toyota Production System and other lean principles to transform health delivery models has been featured in several national publications including, Health Affairs. While at ThedaCare, Kathryn’s work was published in Using a Positive Lens to Explore Social Change and Organizations, by Karen Golden-Biddle and Jane E. Dutton. Correia serves on the Catalysis Board of Directors and sits on the Leadership Council for the Center for Lean Healthcare Research (Ohio State University/Fisher College of Business). Correia also has board member roles with the Minnesota Hospital Association Board member and the YMCA Greater Twin Cities
Patrick Conway, MD
Chief Executive Officer
Care Solutions
Patrick Conway serves as the chief executive officer of Care Solutions at Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group. He leads a portfolio of care continuum businesses with over $30 billion in annual revenue serving over 50 million people across acute and post-acute care, care in the home in-person and virtually, mental and behavioral care benefits and delivery, broad population and complex disease health management, specialty care and government health services. From 2017 to 2019, Dr. Conway was president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, leading the organization to be recognized nationally for innovation, value-based payment and investments in better health outcomes. From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Conway served as deputy administrator for innovation and quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and as director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and the agency’s chief medical officer. He also served as principal deputy administrator and acting administrator of CMS. Before joining CMS, he oversaw clinical operations and quality improvement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He remains a practicing pediatric hospitalist. A respected leader, innovator and clinician, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2014, received the President’s Senior Executive Distinguished Service Award, and was a White House Fellow from 2007 to 2008. Dr. Conway received his MD with high honors from Baylor College of Medicine, residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Eric Dickson, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
UMass Memorial Health
Dr. Dickson is President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, the largest not-for-profit health care system in central Massachusetts. Dr. Dickson also serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Prior to being named President and CEO of the health care system, Dr. Dickson served as President of the UMass Memorial Medical Group and senior associate dean at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He served as the head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and interim chief operating officer for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Dickson completed his medical degree and residency training in emergency medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and has a master’s degree in Health Care Management from Harvard University. Dr. Dickson has served as a member of the Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners, lectures nationally on the use of the Toyota Production System in health care and is an active faculty member for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, where he works with health systems around the world to reduce health care costs while improving quality. Dr. Dickson is the Immediate Past Chair of the Massachusetts Hospital Association and this year will be the Board Chair Elect for the America’s Essential Hospitals, which is the national association for safety net hospitals
Marnee Iseman, MHA
Partner
Moss Adams
Marnee Iseman has more than 17 years of experience practicing lean, and brings firsthand expertise on the application of the Toyota Management System to healthcare organizations. She serves a wide range of health care clients, from those with ambulatory services to large integrated systems, guiding them on leadership development, kaizen, innovation, and access services. Marnee has received several health care awards and has presented to the health care community nationwide on topics including lean and the Toyota Production System as it applies to ambulatory care, process improvement, patient access, supply and demand, and quality.
Greg Jacobson, MD
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
KaiNexus
Dr. Jacobson is an emergency medicine physician and technology start-up founder. After entering the workforce as an ER resident and then as faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Greg quickly developed a passion for continuous improvement, Kaizen, and Lean. He recognized the absence of software systems to make this work easy, sustainable, transparent, reportable, inclusive and scalable. It was this observation and research of operational inefficiencies and unrealized opportunities for continuous improvement that resulted in the founding of KaiNexus. Jacobson is co-author of “Kaizen: A Method of Process Improvement in the Emergency Department” published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.
Dharani Rangaraj, PhD, MBA
President and Founder
Lean365
Dr. Rangaraj leads the overall vision and strategic initiatives of Lean365 as President and Founder. Prior to starting this company, Dharani recognized the opportunity to impact healthcare operations by combining technology and AI to sustain a continuous improvement culture. He is a serial entrepreneur with experience in healthcare holding management positions in academic, hospital system, and corporate organizations. Dr. Rangaraj received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri, graduated from the Washington University Saint Louis Radiation Oncology Physics Residency program, and earned an MBA from Washington University Saint Louis Olin Business School.
Ken Segel, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Value Capture
Ken Segel is a co-founding principal of Value Capture and serves as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the firm. In this role, he provides support to CEOs of healthcare organizations dedicated to eliminating injuries and improving quality as a means to dramatically raise the clinical and financial performance of the entire institution. Prior to forming Value Capture, Mr. Segel served as the founding director of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative (PRHI). PRHI achieved best-in-nation regional results in the elimination of several classes of risk for patients. Before helping to create PRHI, Mr. Segel served for five years as Senior Program Officer at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Pittsburgh, where he guided many community health improvement initiatives and initiated the Foundation’s formal public policy program. Earlier in his career, Mr. Segel served as an aide to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, directed the overnight operations in the 1992 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign “War Room,” and served as Policy Director and speechwriter for the Democratic Party. He also taught political organizing and election monitoring in Ukraine and Russia.
John Toussaint, MD
Executive Chairman
Catalysis
John is an Internist, former healthcare CEO and is one of the foremost figures in the adoption of organizational excellence principles in healthcare. He founded Catalysis a nonprofit education institute in 2008. Catalysis has launched peer-to-peer learning networks, developed in-depth workshops, and created many products – including books, DVDs and webinars. In addition Catalysis was a founding member of the Center for Lean Engagement and Research (CLEAR) at U.C. Berkeley. Catalysis sponsors the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit each year – both in the U.S. and in Europe. The Catalysis team has built C-suite coaching capability and partners with many organizations throughout the world advancing healthcare value by supporting teams that are transforming healthcare delivery. He was the founding chair of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality and of the Wisconsin Health Information Organization, as well as the non-executive leader of the Partnership for Healthcare Payment Reform in Wisconsin. He has participated in Institute of Medicine subcommittees and has directly worked with CMS leaders to broaden their understanding of lean for government. Dr. Toussaint’s healthcare improvement work has been well documented in articles published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Health Affairs, The Journal of Patient Safety, The Journal of Healthcare Management, Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation, Harvard Business Review and Frontiers in Health Services Management. His work on payment reform and the transparency of provider performance data has been featured in The American Journal of Managed Care, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Health Affairs, and the Commonwealth Fund publications. News publications such as TIME, The Wall Street Journal, the CNBC Blog, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Healthcare Finance News have featured articles about Dr. Toussaint’s work. Dr. Toussaint has been recognized for his work in transforming healthcare by organizations including The Business Healthcare Group of Wisconsin, which awarded him the “Driving Meaningful Change” award in 2014, The Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME), which inducted him into its 2012 Hall of Fame, and the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University, which hosts the Shingo Prize for Organizational Excellence. Dr. Toussaint was named a lifetime member of the Shingo Academy in 2011. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle also honored Dr. Toussaint with a Certificate of Commendation for Innovation from the State of Wisconsin in 2005. Dr. Toussaint is also the winner of ACHE’s 2014 Dean Conley Award for his article “A Management, Leadership and Board Road Map to Transforming Care for Patients,” published in the Spring 2013 issue of Frontiers of Health Services Management. He is also the recipient of the 2018 Cornell College Leadership and Service Award. He has been a featured speaker at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, The Shingo Prize, The Lean Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and many international conferences. He has presented extensively to legislators, Medicare leaders and government staff on the topic of healthcare value. Dr. Toussaint has written three books all of which have received the prestigious Shingo Research and Publication Award. His groundbreaking first book, On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry reveals how healthcare can be fundamentally improved at the point of delivery using the proven principles of enterprise excellence. His second book, Potent Medicine: The Collaborative Cure for Healthcare, describes the three core elements necessary to transform healthcare and deliver better value; delivery of care designed around the patient; transparency of treatment quality and cost; and payment for outcomes. His third book, Management on the Mend: The Executive Guide to System Transformation is a study of eleven organizations and the successful attempts to apply enterprise excellence principles in healthcare.
Peter Ward, DBA
Richard M. Ross Chair in Management
Chair, Department of Management Sciences
Director, Center for Operational Excellence
Fisher College of Business
Ohio State University
Peter Ward is Senior Associate Dean at Ohio State University’s Max M. Fisher College of Business, located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Peter is also Professor of Operations Management and holds the Richard M. Ross Chair in Management at Fisher College. Peter participates frequently in executive education programs including developing several successful certificate programs in lean management. He is the founder of the Lean Education Academic Network (LEAN), a global community of university educators dedicated to teaching systems thinking in universities. Peter is Academic Director of Fisher’s Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) program, an innovative degree program aimed at mid-career professionals involved in transforming their organizations through operational excellence. Peter is Director of the Center for Operational Excellence at Ohio State, a consortium of forty organizations dedicated to excellence and thought leadership in operations. He has served as a member of the advisory board of Ford Motor Company’s Lean Resource Center and as a judge for Industry Week’s America’s Best Plants Program. Peter has served as a consultant to a number of leading corporations. He currently serves on the board of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). Dr. Ward’s research has resulted in numerous articles which have appeared in leading operations management journals and he has been recognized with a number of awards, including the 2007 distinguished operations management scholar from the Academy of Management, Shingo Prize for research in 2004, and Fisher’s Pace Setters Research Award in 2003. He holds editorial roles for a number of leading journals, and his research focuses gaining competitive advantage through operations.
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF)
Dr. Karen Wolk Feinstein is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and its three operating arms, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI), Health Careers Futures (HCF), and the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal). Combined, they perform a unique mix of grantmaking, research, teaching, coaching, and project management in order to serve as a regional catalyst for progressive health care. Under her leadership, JHF and PRHI have become a leading voice in patient safety, healthcare quality, and related workforce issues. When Dr. Feinstein founded PRHI, it was among the nation’s first regional multi-stakeholder quality coalitions devoted simultaneously to advancing efficiency, best practices, and safety by applying industrial engineering principles. Dr. Feinstein founded HCF to assist the region’s healthcare industry in attracting, preparing, and retaining employees. WHAMglobal was established to empower women to lead efforts to advance healthcare systems that are transparent, respectful, accountable, and equitable. Dr. Feinstein is widely regarded as a leader in healthcare quality improvement and frequently presents at national and international conferences. She was a presenter at the 2016 TEDxBeaconStreet event, an independently organized Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) event with a global audience. She has served on the faculties of Boston College and Carnegie Mellon University, and taught at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of numerous regional and national publications on quality and safety. Dr. Feinstein is the editor of Moving Beyond Repair, which explores the conditions required to successfully apply Lean as a system-wide quality improvement philosophy. In 2015 she was named Pittsburgher of the Year by Pittsburgh Magazine, and in 2020 and 2021 she was recognized as a member of Pittsburgh Business Times’ Power 100, a guide to the region’s most influential business leaders. Dr. Feinstein is a founder and executive committee member of the Network for Regional Health Initiative, a past President of Grantmakers In Health and Grantmakers of Western PA, and founder and co-chair of the Pennsylvania Health Funders Collaborative. She serves on many nonprofit, governmental, and for-profit boards, including the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Allegheny Parks Foundation, the Highmark Health Quality, Safety & Value Board, and the National Board of Medical Examiners. She’s appointed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Health Research Advisory Committee, Board of Visitors of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside Board of Directors, and the UPMC System-wide Patient Care Committee. She is a founding member of the national Women of Impact coalition and a member of the International Women’s Forum where she established their Women in Health Care Special Interest Group. Dr. Feinstein earned her bachelor’s degree in American History at Brown University, her Master of Social Work at Boston College, and her doctorate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Dr. Feinstein has Honorary Doctorates from Chatham and Carlow Universities
Helen Zak
Research Director
Shingo Institute
Helen Zak’s 35-plus years of Lean leadership experience includes executive and advisory roles in the non-profit and healthcare industries, as well as engineering roles at General Motors and plant management at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Prior to joining Shinto Institute, Helen was also the Chief Operating Officer of Value Capture. Helen was also President of Catalysis, a not-for-profit educational institute with a mission to transform the healthcare industry using Lean thinking. Helen helped found and build the organization, and her most recent role included leading Executive Forums for CEO’s, Physician Leaders and Nurse Leaders, and developing a Network of Lean healthcare executives in Europe. Helen also served as COO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, where she worked with Jim Womack to expand the understanding and application of Lean principles and methodology throughout the world and to every industry. She has contributed to 20 published works, designed numerous educational experiences, including the annual Lean Transformation Summits, and is a frequent speaker on the topic of Lean. Helen helped to establish the Lean Education Academic Network, The Lean Global Network, the Catalysis Healthcare Value Network, the Center for Lean Engagement and Research, and the Catalysis Executive Forums under her leadership at the Lean Enterprise Institute and Catalysis. She serves as faculty at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, a coach for the Master of Business of Operational Excellence Program at Fisher College of Business at Ohio State, an examiner for the Shingo Prize, and she sits on numerous boards. Helen was inducted into the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame in 2017. Helen is passionate about developing leaders and their ability to solve problems and effecting change in the healthcare system.