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Mary N. Hennings
Chairperson
Mary Hennings is a senior healthcare executive with 35+ years of broad health care experience. Her expertise is in formulating and implementing product and organizational innovations that deliver desired business results while supporting better care, coverage, and customer experiences. Her leadership roles in both integrated health care delivery and health insurance settings have included: 1) business and product strategy; 2) product development, launch and management; 3) and operations/performance enhancement. She gravitates to the challenges of creating products and programs that are engaging to customers. Mary is motivated by the opportunities to deliver performance improvement for customers that innovation projects create.
Mary has worked in senior roles in both health insurance and care delivery settings as well as operated her own consulting practice. Her most recent insurance experience includes leading product strategy at DentaQuest, a national dental insurance company; and commercial product strategy, innovation and implementation at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, where she and her team created value-based benefit designs, tiered networks and wellness incentive programs. Prior to that, she was chief operating officer of Harvard University’s Health Service, an integrated, pre-paid delivery system that serves the University’s faculty, staff, retirees and students. Mary and her interdisciplinary project team reformulated the Health Service’s patient flow and processes to measurably improve access, efficiency, and patient satisfaction, as an IHI demonstration site. She has also held senior roles in tertiary and community hospitals, HMOs, a state health regulatory agency and in several health plan start-ups.
Mary has served on and been president of several not-for-profit boards in her community. She is a dedicated gardener and enjoys family time, hiking, travel, and friends.
Mary N. Hennings
Chairperson
Danny Sands, MD, MPH
Chief Advocacy Officer, Co-Founder
Dr. Danny Sands is passionate about healthcare transformation. A practicing physician with training and experience in clinical informatics, Dr. Sands has worked in a variety of capacities in the health care IT industry since 2004. Prior to that he spent almost 14 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he developed and implemented innovative systems to improve clinical care delivery and patient engagement, including clinical decision support systems, an electronic health record, and one of the nation’s first patient portals.
Dr. Sands is the recipient of numerous healthcare honors, including recognition in 2009 by HealthLeaders Magazine as one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.” He is the co-author, with e-Patient Dave deBronkart, of Let Patients Help.
Dr. Sands holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School and for twenty years has maintained a primary care practice in which he makes extensive use of health IT—much of which he helped to introduce during his tenure at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In addition to practicing, Dr. Sands is a speaker and works with a number of innovative companies.
Dr. Sands is a popular speaker and consultant, who blogs at DrDannySands.com and is active on Twitter as @DrDannySands.
Danny Sands, MD, MPH
Chief Advocacy Officer, Co-Founder
Eric Bersh
Secretary
Eric Bersh is an Emmy award winning editor, director and producer. He is a founder of Changeful LLC, a healthcare content creation company. The company’s first product, Changeful, is an innovative mobile app and data analytics platform designed to empower family and professional caregivers to take control of their own health and well-being, leading to cost savings for insurers, providers and ACOs.
Prior to Changeful, he was Executive Producer at The Academic Channel, producing several student videos surrounding substance abuse for University of Southern California, and a mental health DVD, A Penn State Suicide Primer: Parents Want to Know.
Bersh was Producer for the MAT@USC: University of Southern California Master of Arts in Teaching degree (online). Later, he was Course Producer for American Honors, producing the first four online honors courses for Spokane Community College.
Working for Newsweek Broadcasting, and as a network TV editor and producer, he won four Emmy awards for documentary specials and a children’s series. He won a fifth Emmy as Supervising Editor for The Barbara Walters Specials.
Eric Bersh earned his BSc in Communications & Theater at Temple University. He studied for a Master’s degree in Cinema at San Francisco State University.
Eric Bersh
Secretary
Liz Boehm
Board Member
Liz Boehm is executive strategist at Stryker, where she oversees the CEO Coalition, manages the Heart of Safety Learning Community, and hosts the award-winning Caring Greatly™ Podcast. Her life’s work is to restore dignity and respect to the healthcare experience. Liz has an extensive healthcare background including 15 years as leader of global healthcare research at Forrester Research. Her work focused on patient and consumer behavior, delivery and payment system management, and the role of technology in helping to transform healthcare. This experience has made her a national expert and sough after speaker on experience transformation. Beginning her career as a Peace Corps volunteer at a health center in rural West Africa, Liz is relentless in her pursuit to improve human connections and conditions in healthcare. Through professional and volunteer work in hospitals, she’s developed a profound respect for the dedication of the doctors, nurses, and staff who commit their lives to caring, as well as the courage of patients who survive and thrive as a result of their combined efforts. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.
Liz Boehm
Board Member
John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Board Member, Co-Founder
John M. Grohol, Psy.D. was the founder of one of the leading psychology and mental health resources, Psych Central. The site he founded in 1995 was sold to Healthline in 2020. He continues to run online mental health support groups at My Support Forums and support groups for neurological conditions at NeuroTalk.
Dr. Grohol is a behavioral psychology expert, technologist, developer, and has been a researcher in the area of online behavior and technology’s effects on human behavior. He won the Distinguished Professional Contribution to Media Psychology award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 46 in 2011, and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is the co-author of Self-Help That Works and author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online. He also publishes the quarterly trade publication for psychologists, New England Psychologist.
In addition to being a co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine and its first treasurer, he also sits on the boards of the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred) and the non-profit Help & Heal Mental Health Fund.
John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Board Member, Co-Founder
Cindy Hale
Board Member
Cindy Hale has deep leadership expertise across the healthcare industry, working alongside executive teams to determine disruptive market opportunities and translate that into brand, marketing, and partnership strategies that deeply engage providers, caregivers, and patients around a shared journey. Her professional history includes her most recent role as SVP, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer for SeniorLink, the country’s largest structured caregiving provider, as well as senior executive roles and/or advisory relationships with health-focused organizations including Walden Behavioral Care, Psychiatry Redefined, Franciscan Children’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Five Star Senior Living, Aleris Life, Ageility, Caregiver Homes, Mass General, Dana Farber, Quest Diagnostics, Aspen Dental, Goodcell, Wellforce, Circle Health, and others. In addition to her direct leadership within various healthcare organizations, her background includes strategy, advertising, and communications experience within two agencies, including KHJ Activation, where she was the Senior Vice President of Healthcare, and at OTW, one of New England’s fastest-growing advertising agencies, where she was the President and Founder, working with top consumer brands in healthcare, hospitality and retail.
When working with leadership teams in healthcare, Cindy builds market/growth strategies with a unique blend of science and creativity, focused on building accountable platforms based on deep insights and analytics as well as creative expression of how a care-focused brand connects with its stakeholders. She refreshes marketing teams to expand brand breadth and depth, including digital strength, customer experience, omnichannel demand generation, sales enablement programs, and partnership development for expansion in both current and new markets.
Cindy is an ardent supporter of Dana Farber, serving as co-captain for the PMC Team Flames which has raised over $10M for cancer research. She has served on multiple boards including A Better Chance, the YMCA, and Eating Disorder Information Network. Additionally, she has served on the Women’s Leadership Board and the Health & Science Board for The Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Cindy Hale
Board Member
Daniel Halpren-Ruder, MD, PhD
Board Member
Daniel H. Halpren-Ruder was awarded an MD (Tulane) and PhD (biochemistry, Northwestern) and trained in Internal Medicine (University of Vermont Medical Center). He “caught” the Emergency Medicine (EM) “bug” while @ UVM , earning Board Certification upon eligibility and has been recertified twice. After a 40-year career of clinical practice, EM practice management and entrepreneurialism, Dan spent an immersive 14 months @ Jefferson Med Ctr in Philadelphia learning and practicing in the digital health space.
While providing EM, Dan was recruited by the RI Medical Society to join the board of RI Quality Partners (now Healthcentric Advisors), a Federally (Medicare) mandated QIO. Over 14 years he served as Board Member rising to Board President. Dan remains a staunch advocate of healthcare QA and is Boarded by the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians.
Dan retired from clinical practice in 2020, committing to making a difference at the nexus of healthcare quality management, digital health, and healthcare reform. “The participatory patient has been shown to have better outcomes (optimizing quality) at likely less cost, the very backbone of the healthcare value transformation.”
Daniel Halpren-Ruder, MD, PhD
Board Member
Sarah Krüg
Board Member
Sarah Krüg is CEO/Executive Director of CANCER101, a patient advocacy organization she has been on the board of for two years, in a quest to help patients and caregivers navigate their cancer journey. Driven by the passion to make an impact in patient care and engagement, Sarah has held a variety of roles within healthcare.
She previously held the position of Global Education Director in the Medical Education Group at Pfizer, focused on establishing global health care improvement strategies and medical education standards worldwide. She also established the Global Investigator Initiated Research Program at Pfizer. Prior to joining Pfizer in 2001, Sarah spearheaded the development of the Pediatric disease management clinical pathways and conducted clinical research at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center. She is also on the board of the Cancer Patient Education Network, and serves as Research Chair.
Sarah Krüg
Board Member
Brenda Merriweather, MSN, RN
Board Member
Brenda Merriweather is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and current Doctoral student working on her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Walden University. She is originally from Huntsville, Alabama. She has 3 children, Joshua 25, Jeremy 25, and Alex 19. In 2007, Ms. Merriweather graduated from The University of Alabama at Birmingham with a Master’s degree in Nursing-Clinical Nurse Specialist, Acute Adults Program. In 1996, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Nursing from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1990, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Ms. Merriweather has a passion for working with the Sickle Cell population. In 2010, Ms. Merriweather was the Sickle Cell Program Coordinator at Baptist Health System in Montgomery, Alabama where she developed and Implemented the Proactive and Aggressive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Model. In 2013, she worked as a Case Manager II for the Sickle Center of Excellence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 2016, she was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 2018, she worked as a Nurse Case Manager with the Sickle Cell Team at Johns Hopkins University. In 2021, she worked as a Research Nurse Specialist with the Sickle Cell Branch at The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at The National Institutes of Health. Ms. Merriweather will be working in a new position at Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. in January 2023 as a Clinical Program Coordinator in Hematology for Sickle Cell patients.
Ms. Merriweather was approached by Mr. John Novak to write a blog for The Society for Participatory Medicine’s ePatient Blog in September 2021. Mr. Novak was looking for content from healthcare disruptors/innovators. Ms. Merriweather agreed and here is the article: https://participatorymedicine.org/epatients/2021/12/how-empathy-education-communication-and-the-past-model-transformed-sickle-cell-patient-care.html
Brenda Merriweather, MSN, RN
Board Member
Jay Spitulnik, PhD
Board Member
Jay Spitulnik, PhD, has been working in areas directly and indirectly related to managing health informatics in the corporate and academic communities for more than 35 years. His work has involved informatics operations as well as large and small system implementations. Currently, he directs the Health Informatics Graduate programs at Northeastern University. His teaching in this program is geared toward full-time project managers, those whose project management assignments will only be part of their work, and anyone who will be managing change initiatives in any type of organization. Jay holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Boston University and a PhD in Organizational Psychology from Walden University. He is certified as a Green Belt by the American Society for Quality and as a Certified Performance Technologist by the International Society for Performance Improvement. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Association for Healthcare Quality and the Society for Participatory Medicine. Jay is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Participatory Medicine.
Jay Spitulnik, PhD
Board Member
Past Presidents
Burt Rosen (2019)
Susan Woods (2018)
Joseph Ternullo, JD, MPH (2017)
Jonathan Wald, MD, MPH (2016)
Nick Dawson (2015)
Josh Seidman (2014)
Sarah Krug (2013)
Danny Sands, MD (2010 partial-2012)
Gilles Frydman (2010 partial)
Alan Greene, MD (2009)
The Founder’s Circle is the group of visionaries who founded the Society in honor of Dr. Tom Ferguson.
Mary N. Hennings
Chairperson
Mary Hennings is a senior healthcare executive with 35+ years of broad health care experience. Her expertise is in formulating and implementing product and organizational innovations that deliver desired business results while supporting better care, coverage, and customer experiences. Her leadership roles in both integrated health care delivery and health insurance settings have included: 1) business and product strategy; 2) product development, launch and management; 3) and operations/performance enhancement. She gravitates to the challenges of creating products and programs that are engaging to customers. Mary is motivated by the opportunities to deliver performance improvement for customers that innovation projects create.
Mary has worked in senior roles in both health insurance and care delivery settings as well as operated her own consulting practice. Her most recent insurance experience includes leading product strategy at DentaQuest, a national dental insurance company; and commercial product strategy, innovation and implementation at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, where she and her team created value-based benefit designs, tiered networks and wellness incentive programs. Prior to that, she was chief operating officer of Harvard University’s Health Service, an integrated, pre-paid delivery system that serves the University’s faculty, staff, retirees and students. Mary and her interdisciplinary project team reformulated the Health Service’s patient flow and processes to measurably improve access, efficiency, and patient satisfaction, as an IHI demonstration site. She has also held senior roles in tertiary and community hospitals, HMOs, a state health regulatory agency and in several health plan start-ups.
Mary has served on and been president of several not-for-profit boards in her community. She is a dedicated gardener and enjoys family time, hiking, travel, and friends.
Randy Houk
Executive Director
Randy Houk became Executive Director of the Society for Participatory Medicine on August 1, 2021. She brings five decades of leadership experience in nonprofit and corporate management to the organization, alongside a passion for health and open communication between patients, physicians, and caregivers. She began her career as a Senior Editor for Addison Wesley, an educational publisher, and then became Director of Publishing for National Public Radio. She founded and managed Soundworks, an audio publisher for five years, recruiting and publishing original works by best selling authors in the field of holistic health and wellness.
Randy then founded and for 23 years was CEO of The Benefactory, an award-winning publisher of true stories about animals, fostering environmental preservation in young children. In 2012, she joined More Than Wheels as Senior Vice-President, Development and Outreach, working within gateway cities to provide underserved families with financial literacy and access to low-interest car loans. She was Executive Director for Raising a Reader, MA and for The Curious George Collaboration with Reach Out and Read, a national early childhood literacy nonprofit.
Joseph Ternullo, JD, MPH
Treasurer
Joseph Ternullo, JD, MPH has focused the past 20 years of his career on healthcare. Joe is well known for his 17 years as the associate director of Partners HealthCare’s Center for Connected Health. He founded and chaired for 10 years the Connected Health Symposium, a two-day international conference with a prominent patient engagement focus. He was a co-founder of the Continua Health Alliance, a standards and interoperability organization. Joe has served on two federal advisory committees, including the US Department of Health & Human Service’s American Health Information Communities Chronic Care Workgroup. Joe has authored several publications focused on healthcare technology and served on several international and domestic boards. Most recently, he led a health technology start-up that established an exploratory US presence. Joe holds degrees from Boston College, Bentley University, Boston University School of Law and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Eric Bersh
Secretary
Eric Bersh is an Emmy award winning editor, director and producer. He is a founder of Changeful LLC, a healthcare content creation company. The company’s first product, Changeful, is an innovative mobile app and data analytics platform designed to empower family and professional caregivers to take control of their own health and well-being, leading to cost savings for insurers, providers and ACOs.
Prior to Changeful, he was Executive Producer at The Academic Channel, producing several student videos surrounding substance abuse for University of Southern California, and a mental health DVD, A Penn State Suicide Primer: Parents Want to Know.
Bersh was Producer for the MAT@USC: University of Southern California Master of Arts in Teaching degree (online). Later, he was Course Producer for American Honors, producing the first four online honors courses for Spokane Community College.
Working for Newsweek Broadcasting, and as a network TV editor and producer, he won four Emmy awards for documentary specials and a children’s series. He won a fifth Emmy as Supervising Editor for The Barbara Walters Specials.
Eric Bersh earned his BSc in Communications & Theater at Temple University. He studied for a Master’s degree in Cinema at San Francisco State University.
Brian Mack
Member-at-Large, Board Member
Brian Mack is a healthcare marketing strategist, with over 25 years of experience in various healthcare environments including Health IT, Long Term and Post-Acute Care, Family Medicine, and Managed Care.
Mack joined Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC), Michigan’s premier provider of health information exchange services and solutions, in 2014. As the Manager of Marketing and Communications, he is tasked with driving the organization’s integrated marketing strategy and implementation, brand management, public & community relations, corporate communications, and social media engagement. He also supports policy and legislative affairs for GLHC at the state and federal levels.
In addition to his role as “the man behind the curtain” of GLHC’s social media efforts, Brian also maintains an engaged personal social media presence in Health IT. He is an active contributor to the #HITMC, #HITSM, #HCLDR, and #PinkSocks communities on Twitter. In addition, he served as a HIMSS Global Conference Social Media Ambassador in 2018 and 2019, and was named to the #HIT100 in 2015 and 2017.
Mack has been an outspoken advocate and fundraiser for the Greater Michigan Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association since 2005. He is the only “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” volunteer in the nation to earn donations from all 50 states, all 7 continents, and multiple foreign countries in a single fundraising year; a feat he has accomplished twice – first in 2014, and again in 2019. He was the top fundraiser for his local walk in Grand Rapids, MI in 2018 and 2019, and has been among the “Top 5” annual fundraisers for this event since 2013.
Timothy Blevins
Board Member
Timothy L. Blevins is a healthcare executive with over 30 years of health plan experience, including clinical, behavioral health and healthcare delivery system innovation on behalf of Fortune 500 multi-national and US national companies globally and domestically. Tim is a national subject matter expert on Behavioral Health Digital/Technology Innovation, Clinical and Commercialization Strategy. He has held executive level positions with Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Rhode Island and most recently Senior Vice President, Employer Channel with Optum Behavioral Health. He currently works with healthcare digital start ups in ad He has an undergraduate degree from Stetson University in Deland, FL, a graduate degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Hartford.
John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Co-Founder, Board Member
John M. Grohol, Psy.D. was the founder of one of the leading psychology and mental health resources, Psych Central. The site he founded in 1995 was sold to Healthline in 2020. He continues to run online mental health support groups at My Support Forums and support groups for neurological conditions at NeuroTalk, and has been running online support groups and communities since 1991.
Dr. Grohol is a behavioral psychology expert, technologist, developer, and has been a researcher in the area of online behavior and technology’s effects on human behavior. He won the Distinguished Professional Contribution to Media Psychology award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 46 in 2011, and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is the co-author of Self-Help That Works and author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online. He also publishes the quarterly trade publication for psychologists, New England Psychologist.
In addition to being a co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine and its first treasurer, he also sits on the boards of the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred) and the non-profit Help & Heal Mental Health Fund.
Mary Quilty, SM
Board Member
Mary Quilty, SM is a consulting executive at Ernst &Young LLP in the Government and Public Sector, Health and Human Services space. At EY, Mary’s work focuses on digital transformation and both the constituent and organizational experience navigating critical health and social programs and their supportive technologies. Mary is also the Co-Director of EY Boston’s Digital Divide initiative with a focus on educating the next generation on the intersection of health and digital literacy.
Prior to EY, Mary was a consultant on strategic health data interoperability and whole-person health initiatives for several federal agencies, supported Atrius Health in their move from FFS to VBC with a focus on dual-eligible and senior populations, and engaged in clinical research at the intersection of chronic disease management and integrative health at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, she mentored MassChallenge HealthTech start-ups on increasing patient-centricity in their data use agreements and overall digital presence and served as Board Vice President at Springwell, an AAA/ASAP that enables individuals to age in place within their community through the provision of long-term social supports. Mary’s passion is the strategic integration of organizations and their data to support every individuals right to health. Currently, she is engaged with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Alumni Committee on a campaign to re-connect graduates working in roles not typically viewed as public health to gain their perspective on strengthening our greater public health ecosystem.
Judy Danielson
Board Member
Judy Danielson is a seasoned marketing and strategy executive with more than 18 years experience building innovative marketing and consumer engagement solutions. As a member of leadership teams in health and financial services, Judy’s work has been at the intersection of marketing and consumer engagement, using the principles and practices of marketing to understand the choices people make and what motivates them to make those choices.
Judy has a passion for developing insight driven strategies to help organizations grow in competitive and transformative markets. She does her part trying to understand where this transformation will take the health market and all its stakeholders — consumers, patients, employers, providers, and health organizations — all of which have a huge stake in the future of healthcare.
Judy’s career has been built on interpreting research and analytics to develop market, brand and customer engagement innovations and strategies. Judy built and led the Market Strategy Group at BCBSMA from 2011 to 2016, where she created a foundation for analytically and insight driven market and consumer engagement strategies. Before joining BCBSMA she was VP of Market Strategy at Aetna for 8 years, where she introduced a market planning approach adopted across the organization and was part of both the consumer engagement and innovation strategy teams. Prior to Aetna Judy held leadership positions in marketing and market research for Fleet and BankBoston. She has experience in consulting, including International Data Corporation and Venture Economics. Her love of analytics and market strategy came from working in political polling and consulting while in college.
Judy is a trustee and pro bono advisor to the Marketing Science Institute, a member and pro bono advisor to the Society of Participatory Medicine, a member of the Women’s Business Leaders in Healthcare, the American Marketing Association and the New England Health Care Executive Network.
Judy and her husband, Tom are outdoor enthusiasts and enjoy kayaking the rivers of Massachusetts and the coast of Maine. They can often be found outdoors hiking, but rarely without one of their dogs. They share passions for travel, cooking and music. They live in North Framingham, Massachusetts across the street from an endlessly entertaining field of cows.
Judy holds a Liberal Arts Bachelor’s Degree with a concentration in political science and attended the University of Maine at Portland/Gorham.
Matthew Holt
Board Member
Matthew Holt is the founder of The Health Care Blog and, with Indu Subaiya, runs Health 2.0, which has the leading conferences showcasing innovative technologies in health care, along with challenges, code-a-thons, innovation programs, and market intelligence. (In April 2017 HIMSS bought the conference side of Health 2.0 but not the rest of it which continues to operate independently).
Matthew has spent over 25 years in health care and health care IT as a generalist forecaster and strategist. After graduate work at Stanford, he spent the 90s at renowned forecasting group Institute for the Future and polling organization The Harris Poll. There he conducted several ground-breaking, in-depth studies about many aspects of health care, and delivered several keynote addresses. After that he spent two years (too long!) at personal health record startup i-Beacon before moving back into consulting, starting the best known (or at least best named) blog in health care, and then starting Health 2.0 in 2007.
He’s also on the Board of YTH, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives & health of teens and young adults, and on the advisory board of several small tech startups, as well as SPM.
Sarah Krüg
Board Member
Sarah Krug is CEO/Executive Director of CANCER101, a patient advocacy organization she has been on the board of for two years, in a quest to help patients and caregivers navigate their cancer journey. Driven by the passion to make an impact in patient care and engagement, Sarah has held a variety of roles within healthcare.
She previously held the position of Global Education Director in the Medical Education Group at Pfizer, focused on establishing global health care improvement strategies and medical education standards worldwide. She also established the Global Investigator Initiated Research Program at Pfizer. Prior to joining Pfizer in 2001, Sarah spearheaded the development of the Pediatric disease management clinical pathways and conducted clinical research at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center. She is also on the board of the Cancer Patient Education Network, and serves as Research Chair.
Daniel Halpren-Ruder, MD, PhD
Board Member
Dan Halpren-Ruder was awarded an MD (Tulane) and PhD (biochemistry, Northwestern) and trained in Internal Medicine (University of Vermont Medical Center). He “caught” the Emergency Medicine (EM) “bug” while @ UVM , earning Board Certification upon eligibility and has been recertified twice. After a 40-year career of clinical practice, EM practice management and entrepreneurialism, Dan spent an immersive 14 months @ Jefferson Med Ctr in Philadelphia learning and practicing in the digital health space.
While providing EM, Dan was recruited by the RI Medical Society to join the board of RI Quality Partners (now Healthcentric Advisors), a Federally (Medicare) mandated QIO. Over 14 years he served as Board Member rising to Board President. Dan remains a staunch advocate of healthcare QA and is Boarded by the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians.
Dan retired from clinical practice in 2020, committing to making a difference at the nexus of healthcare quality management, digital health, and healthcare reform. “The participatory patient has been shown to have better outcomes (optimizing quality) at likely less cost, the very backbone of the healthcare value transformation.”
Brenda Merriweather, MSN, RN
Board Member
Brenda Merriweather is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and current Doctoral student working on her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Walden University. She is originally from Huntsville, Alabama. She has 3 children, Joshua 25, Jeremy 25, and Alex 19. In 2007, Ms. Merriweather graduated from The University of Alabama at Birmingham with a Master’s degree in Nursing-Clinical Nurse Specialist, Acute Adults Program. In 1996, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Nursing from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1990, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Ms. Merriweather has a passion for working with the Sickle Cell population. In 2010, Ms. Merriweather was the Sickle Cell Program Coordinator at Baptist Health System in Montgomery, Alabama where she developed and Implemented the Proactive and Aggressive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Model. In 2013, she worked as a Case Manager II for the Sickle Center of Excellence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 2016, she was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 2018, she worked as a Nurse Case Manager with the Sickle Cell Team at Johns Hopkins University. In 2021, she worked as a Research Nurse Specialist with the Sickle Cell Branch at The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at The National Institutes of Health. Ms. Merriweather will be working in a new position at Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. in January 2023 as a Clinical Program Coordinator in Hematology for Sickle Cell patients.
Ms. Merriweather was approached by Mr. John Novak to write a blog for The Society for Participatory Medicine’s ePatient Blog in September 2021. Mr. Novak was looking for content from healthcare disruptors/innovators. Ms. Merriweather agreed and here is the article: https://participatorymedicine.org/epatients/2021/12/how-empathy-education-communication-and-the-past-model-transformed-sickle-cell-patient-care.html
Kistein Monkhouse, MPA
Board Member
Kistein Monkhouse, MPA is the CEO & founder of Patient Orator, a digital health platform addressing healthcare disparities by powering meaningful patient-clinician communication, between medically underserved communities and their healthcare teams. She is an internationally recognized equity advocate and former healthcare frontline staff who saw an urgent need to build bridges across communities in healthcare.
She is an award-winning documentarian of the documentary Humanizing Health Care, a narrative-driven emotionally paced film about healthcare experiences in the United States. Monkhouse places equity, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of her work, and it is her top priority to ensure everyone is well-informed on how to navigate the healthcare system. Her experience in the industry positions her perfectly to pave the way for a nation of informed individuals and eventually humanize healthcare in the United States.
Danny Sands, MD, MPH
Chief Advocacy Officer, Co-Founder
Dr. Danny Sands is passionate about healthcare transformation. A practicing physician with training and experience in clinical informatics, Dr. Sands has worked in a variety of capacities in the health care IT industry since 2004. Prior to that he spent almost 14 years at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he developed and implemented innovative systems to improve clinical care delivery and patient engagement, including clinical decision support systems, an electronic health record, and one of the nation’s first patient portals.
Dr. Sands is the recipient of numerous healthcare honors, including recognition in 2009 by HealthLeaders Magazine as one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.” He is the co-author, with e-Patient Dave deBronkart, of Let Patients Help.
Dr. Sands holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School and for twenty years has maintained a primary care practice in which he makes extensive use of health IT—much of which he helped to introduce during his tenure at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In addition to practicing, Dr. Sands is a speaker and works with a number of innovative companies.
Dr. Sands is a popular speaker and consultant, who blogs at DrDannySands.com and is active on Twitter as @DrDannySands.
Dennis Reilly
Board Member
Dennis Reilly is a marketing strategist and team leader specializing in helping companies connect their brand purpose and product value propositions to the customer experience. As an advertising executive at Digitas, Dennis worked with Fortune 100 brands across multiple industries including healthcare, financial services, business software, education, and retail. Dennis is now dedicated to transformative healthcare initiatives, including those health insurance, wearable devices, physician workflow, and online continuing medical education. Here he has a passion for working with challenger brands and market leaders who want to innovate at the intersection of healthcare data and customer engagement.
Liz Boehm
Board Member
Liz Boehm is executive strategist at Stryker, where she oversees the CEO Coalition, manages the Heart of Safety Learning Community, and hosts the award-winning Caring Greatly™ Podcast. Her life’s work is to restore dignity and respect to the healthcare experience. Liz has an extensive healthcare background including 15 years as leader of global healthcare research at Forrester Research. Her work focused on patient and consumer behavior, delivery and payment system management, and the role of technology in helping to transform healthcare. This experience has made her a national expert and sough after speaker on experience transformation. Beginning her career as a Peace Corps volunteer at a health center in rural West Africa, Liz is relentless in her pursuit to improve human connections and conditions in healthcare. Through professional and volunteer work in hospitals, she’s developed a profound respect for the dedication of the doctors, nurses, and staff who commit their lives to caring, as well as the courage of patients who survive and thrive as a result of their combined efforts. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.
Vera Rulon MS, RHIT, FAHIMA
Board Member
Vera Rulon is the founder and president of Tir Health Advisors, LLC. As part of Tir she currently serves as senior strategic advisor to the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).
Previously Vera served several different roles at Pfizer where she led the technology and aging workstream for the Center of Excellence for Active and Healthy Aging. Before Pfizer, Vera managed the clinical informatics team at Oxford Health Plans and was assistant director of medical records at Phelps Memorial Hospital. She has also served as chief content officer for a clinical trials recruitment start up focusing on underserved populations.
Vera is a past president of AHIMA, and is a recipient of AHIMA’s Distinguished Member award, AHIMA Visionary Triumph Award and was designated a PharmaVoice 100 change agent. Additional awards include Oxford Health Plans High Achiever Award and Pfizer Global Research and Development Achievement Award, and co-Winner of two Pfizer Innovation Awards.
She has served on both the AHIMA and AHIMA Foundation Boards, and was a founder and past president of the board of directors of Arts Angels Inc., a not for profit supporting the arts in public schools.
Vera has a passion for consumer engagement and participatory medicine. She serves on the Board of Directors and as policy committee chair for the Society for Participatory Medicine and is an artist and member of the Walking Gallery of Healthcare, spreading the word about the need to engage patients and give them access to personal health information. Vera also serves on the Executive Business Council for the Center for Healthcare Innovation which focuses solely on health equity.
While at Pfizer, Vera was the first to invite patients to participate in an innovation workshop on use of medical records, social media, and mobile health to improve patient experience. She was also a featured blogger for the Pfizer program “Think Science Now” often focusing on the importance of patient engagement and quality data, as well as a blogger and member of the core team of Get Healthy Stay Healthy, a program that reached consumers with quality health information through television integrations on The Doctors and Dr. Phil and its companion web site.
Amber Soucy, MSN, RN
Board Member
Known as @wheezynurse on Twitter, Amber Soucy has been a member of the Society for Participatory Medicine since 2017 and is currently the society’s Social Media Lead. She is a Registered Nurse working full time on a surgical intermediate care unit at Boston Medical Center, part time as a Clinical Instructor/Adjunct Faculty for Labouré College, and per diem in homecare. Amber graduated summa cum laude with a Master of Science in Nursing degree and concentration in Nursing Leadership in May 2018, and hopes to create and promote positive change within the inpatient hospital setting. She integrates participatory care models within her nursing practice to encourage patient engagement, foster nurse-patient relationships, and improve the overall patient experience. Through academia, she stresses the importance of treating every patient with dignity and respect, and how students can individually tailor care plans by actively listening and collaborating with patients and families.
Within the realm of activism and promotion of participatory medicine and patient empowerment, Amber has published blogs and video content, been a Guest Host for the #PatientsHavePower podcast, and is a Breakthrough Crew Ambassador for Clara Health. Amber was also an Executive Digital Advisory Board member and the first ever Digital Host for Healthsparq’s #WTFix 2018 healthcare conference.
Jay Spitulnik, PhD
Board Member
Jay Spitulnik, PhD, has been working in areas directly and indirectly related to managing health informatics in the corporate and academic communities for more than 35 years. His work has involved informatics operations as well as large and small system implementations. Currently, he directs the Health Informatics Graduate programs at Northeastern University. His teaching in this program is geared toward full-time project managers, those whose project management assignments will only be part of their work, and anyone who will be managing change initiatives in any type of organization. Jay holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Boston University and a PhD in Organizational Psychology from Walden University. He is certified as a Green Belt by the American Society for Quality and as a Certified Performance Technologist by the International Society for Performance Improvement. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Association for Healthcare Quality and the Society for Participatory Medicine. Jay is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Participatory Medicine.
Astra Titus, JD, MSW
Board Member
Astra Titus, JD, MSW is a law and social policy analyst and strategist, an activist, and a fervent mother and wife. Her career has focused on developing and implementing legislation, policy, and programs that serve and/or enhance social justice law and policy. Throughout her career Astra has worked with and within a wide variety of institutions: social service agencies, public interest law firms, small businesses, social policy foundations and think tanks, city and state governments and court systems, State Supreme Court Justices, and the US Congress.
In 2019, Astra purchased The Curious George Store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. With this, she merged her social service and policy expertise with a newfound love of entrepreneurship. Revamping the store’s concept into a mission-based business that created a safe place for early childhood learning, connection, and belonging, she worked closely with local small businesses, government, and other stakeholders to establish The Curious George Store as a community anchor in two different locations. Sadly, in March of 2021, she had to close the business due to the pandemic.
After closing The Curious George Store, Astra turned back to consulting. With her business, Collective Evolution Consulting, she carries on The Curious George Store spirit – currently working with local government and community stakeholders to transform social and governmental systems, community organizations, and other means of social service delivery into places of learning, connection and belonging.
Astra and Lee have 2 awesome boys – Jose, and Hank. They live on Seneca Lake in upstate New York.
Cindy Hale
Board Member
Cindy Hale has deep leadership expertise across the healthcare industry, working alongside executive teams to determine disruptive market opportunities and translate that into brand, marketing, and partnership strategies that deeply engage providers, caregivers, and patients around a shared journey. Her professional history includes her most recent role as SVP, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer for SeniorLink, the country’s largest structured caregiving provider, as well as senior executive roles and/or advisory relationships with health-focused organizations including Walden Behavioral Care, Psychiatry Redefined, Franciscan Children’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Five Star Senior Living, Aleris Life, Ageility, Caregiver Homes, Mass General, Dana Farber, Quest Diagnostics, Aspen Dental, Goodcell, Wellforce, Circle Health, and others. In addition to her direct leadership within various healthcare organizations, her background includes strategy, advertising, and communications experience within two agencies, including KHJ Activation, where she was the Senior Vice President of Healthcare, and at OTW, one of New England’s fastest-growing advertising agencies, where she was the President and Founder, working with top consumer brands in healthcare, hospitality and retail.
When working with leadership teams in healthcare, Cindy builds market/growth strategies with a unique blend of science and creativity, focused on building accountable platforms based on deep insights and analytics as well as creative expression of how a care-focused brand connects with its stakeholders. She refreshes marketing teams to expand brand breadth and depth, including digital strength, customer experience, omnichannel demand generation, sales enablement programs, and partnership development for expansion in both current and new markets.
Cindy is an ardent supporter of Dana Farber, serving as co-captain for the PMC Team Flames which has raised over $10M for cancer research. She has served on multiple boards including A Better Chance, the YMCA, and Eating Disorder Information Network. Additionally, she has served on the Women’s Leadership Board and the Health & Science Board for The Boston Chamber of Commerce.
