SPEAKERS

Conference Speakers

Todd Linden, MHA, FACHE

Todd Linden became president and CEO of Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Grinnell, Iowa in 1994 and retired on December 31, 2017 when he was named CEO Emeritus. Prior to that he was the administrator of Greene County Medical Center, Jefferson, Iowa from 1987 to 1994 after completing his administrative fellowship at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. He received both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Iowa and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Linden Consulting, established in 2008, is a boutique consulting firm specializing in presentations at national conferences and state hospital association meetings as well as working with healthcare organizations on strategic planning, constructive disruption, and building ingenuity, quality and safety into the culture. Other services include board retreat facilitation, governance education and training, and improving medical staff relationships.

Linden Consulting also consults with organizations that work with hospitals and health systems, focused on improving the “Quadruple Aim” (Improving the health of the community, reducing cost, enhancing the patient experience, and celebrating the joy of caring), by providing strategic advice and helping with relationship management. Current clients include SmartScripts, CuVerro, Bioscape Digital, So Sound Solutions, Bernie Lowe and Associates, and Trusted Energy.

Under his leadership, Grinnell Regional enjoyed dramatic growth and was nationally recognized for its innovation. GRMC has been cited by The Washington Post and USA Today for its optimal healing environment and by AARP Magazine as one of America’s Safest Hospitals. Collaborative research with Grinnell College at GRMC resulted in a study showing use of copper alloy touch surfaces in patient rooms dramatically reduced bacteria load and therefore reduced the chance for the spread of infection. Cited in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, along with over 120 other publications, this study is changing the way hospitals are thinking about keeping their patients safe.

Linden has received numerous honors including the University of Iowa’s “Outstanding Alumni Award”, the Iowa Hospital Association’s “Excellence in Leadership Award”, “The Board of Trustees Award”, by the American Hospital Association and most recently the “The Patriotic Employer Award” by the US Department of Defense. He has had the opportunity to testify in the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and special conferences with both President’s Clinton and Obama on health care and economic development issues.

Linden served on the American Hospital Association’s Board from 2000-2005, the Grinnell College board from 2000-2018, AHA’s Health Forum Board from 2008-2018, and the National Rural Advisory Committee for the US Department of Health and Human Services 2007-2011. He currently serves on the advisory board for the University of Iowa College of Public Health. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa, as well as a regular faculty for the American College of Healthcare Executives. At ACHE he teaches the CEO Bootcamp and is on the editorial board of “Frontiers” magazine.

Robert Aronson

Robert Aronson is an immigration attorney working at Fredrikson and Byron, located in downtown Minneapolis. In over 30 years of immigration legal practice, he has established himself as one of the leading practitioners specifically in the area of immigration law for physicians and allied healthcare professionals. He speaks and writes widely on the subject and has a long list of achievements attesting to his prominence in the physician immigration space, including having been named as the inaugural recipient of the Roberta Friedman Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of immigration law and policy for International Physicians. Robert holds his JD from the Indiana University School of Law and thereafter was a Fulbright fellow at the law schools of Harvard University and Moscow State University in Russia.

Donald Pathman

Donald Pathman, MD MPH is a researcher, teacher and practicing family physician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Professor of Family Medicine, Director of the Program on Primary Care at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, and Director of Curriculum Evaluation for the UNC School of Medicine, NC AHEC, and School of Medicine’s Office of Inclusive Excellence. He directs UNC’s NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship. In 28 years as a health services researcher, his work has centered on research and evaluation of organization, state and federal programs and policies that affect the work and lives of physicians and other practitioners, and on how these, in turn, affect patient care quality, access and clinicians’ careers. Specific areas of research have been in provider satisfaction and retention under various employment configurations and work controls, community medicine and physician-community relationships, rural health professional distribution, access to care, health disparities, medical education, and clinical guideline dissemination,

Michelle Levy

Michelle Levy is a Research Project Director at the University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare. She currently serves as Director of the Integrated Health Scholars Program and the Kansas Serves Native American Families initiative. She has over 25 years’ experience in social work education and research related to behavioral health and workforce development. She received her BSW from KU and Master of Arts in Social Service Administration with a Certificate in Health Administration and Policy from the University of Chicago. Growing up in a small Kansas town and experiencing barriers to care inspires her work and interest in rural health.

Kristy Johnston, MSW

Kristy Johnston graduated from the University Of Kansas School Of Social Welfare. Her current position is Director of the Center for Interprofessional, Practice, Education Research at the University of Kansas. Kristy’s expertise is working with organizations to build thriving educational programs. She has worked to create a new interprofessional education program across multiple University campuses and diverse departments. She has worked to develop the strategic initiative and programing for every stage of a learners education level at KUMC’s 4 campus sites. She works with faculty leads to create interprofessional education and collaborative practice efforts at KUMC, including leading the Interprofessional Foundational Program, Learning in Practice, Faculty Development, and Assessment and Scholarship committees for the university. She is a member of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative and has delivered presentations and published manuscripts regarding a variety of topics related to IPE.

Sasha Randolph, AASPR

Sasha's enthusiasm and go-getter approach, joined with her organizational and communications skills, has made her very successful first as a Senior Recruitment Coordinator with the Kansas Recruitment and Retention Center (KRRC), and now as the Recruitment & Retention Manager.

Sasha has over 15 years’ experience in business development, creating relationships to grow businesses, and recruiting business leaders. Sasha enjoys using her business and relationship skills background to assist Kansas health care organizations in recruiting providers. Sasha also works one-on-one with providers who are searching for a position in the great state of Kansas.

Christina Boyd, LSCSW, LCAC

Christina is currently the Western Kansas MSW Program Director for the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and serves as CEO and founder of Hope and Wellness Resources, a behavioral health consulting agency specializing in integration and co-occurring disorders. Christina has worked in several behavioral health settings over the last 21 years. She has provided trainings across the country regarding several behavioral health issues including SBIRT, Technology Based Clinical Supervision, Behavioral Health Integration and Ethics in the Age of Technology. She has participated in numerous grant projects focused on integration of behavioral health and prevention of substance use disorders, and continues to work towards improving the delivery of integrated services in Kansas and across the country.

Sarah Shrader PharmD, BCPS, FCCP

Sarah Shrader graduated from the University Of Kansas School Of Pharmacy and then completed two years of post-graduate pharmacy residencies at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her current position is Associate Professor and Director of Interprofessional Education at the University Of Kansas School Of Pharmacy. Her practice site is in the Interprofessional Teaching Clinic, a primary care clinic where she currently precepts interprofessional student teams. She is involved in a variety of interprofessional education and collaborative practice efforts at KUMC, including co-leading the Interprofessional Learning in Practice, Faculty Development, and Assessment and Scholarship committees for the university. She is a past chair of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative and has received several grants, delivered presentations and published manuscripts regarding a variety of topics related to IPE.

Ann Peton

For the past twelve years, Ms. Ann K. Peton has been the Director, National Center for the Analysis of Healthcare Data (NCAHD) located in Blacksburg, Virginia. She established the center in partnership with Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, DO, President of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. The mission of NCAHD is to provide data mapping and analysis support of your advocacy, medical education planning/expansion, research, and other healthcare workforce planning using both your data and ours which includes the nation’s most complete collection of physician and non-physician data, demographic, socio-economic, and political data.

In October of 2017, the FORHP agreed to the transition of the National Center for Rural Health Works (NCRHW) to VCOM with Ann as the Director in order to continue the important economic impact analysis research this center has created for the nation over the last 26 years. NCRHW’s work focuses in three areas of support: 1) creation/updating of economic impact tools, surveys and needs assessment for public usage, 2) education of rural stakeholders of these products through workshops, webinars and the website, and 3) technical support to the various stakeholders as they use the products and federal partners statistical requests.

With over 30 years’ experience working with local, state and national entities and individuals regarding geographic information systems (GIS) applications and usage, Ms. Peton established NCAHD in order to create and provide the most complete and consistent set of healthcare workforce data and mapping tools in the nation for physicians and seventeen other non-physician healthcare providers. Successful partnerships with AMA, AOA, HRSA and many other healthcare centers, national provider organizations and other stakeholders has affirmed NCAHD as a leader in support healthcare research, hospital network planning, grant writing and advocacy concerning healthcare workforce policy issues.

Ms. Peton is a former Missourian, having grown up in Jefferson City and worked for over 18 years in state government in various policy and IT positions, including state GIS coordinator for three different states: Missouri, Iowa and Colorado, before creating RUPRI’s Community Information Resource Center in 2001 at the University of Missouri. In 2007, Ms. Peton migrated to Virginia to establish NCAHD and continue her research in healthcare workforce analysis.

Along with her husband, Keith, have raised seven children (four still at home) and have had four successful bicycle/outdoor recreational equipment retail businesses in the Mid-Missouri area in the 1990’s called Cycle Sports.

Cindra Stahl

Cindra Stahl is the Assistant Director of the Montana Area Health Education Center, focusing on Workforce Development--particularly for rural and frontier healthcare facilities and across all education levels from K-12 to adult continuing education. She is also working with the Montana Graduate Medical Education Council to identify approaches to support, advocate and grow GME within the state. Cindra serves as facilitator for the Montana Healthcare Workforce Advisory Committee and is working on version 3.0 of the Montana Healthcare Workforce Statewide Strategic Plan, originally published in November 2011 and revised in 2016. Cindra is committed to developing a healthcare workforce that is appropriate to meet the needs of the very rural and frontier communities of her state.

Prior to moving to Montana, Cindra was Hospital Services Manager and Data Analyst at New Mexico Donor Services, the organ procurement organization for the state of New Mexico. She has also worked in state health policy at the New Mexico Health Policy Commission, and as a legislative analyst for the New Mexico Senate. She holds an MBA and MS in Audiology from the University of New Mexico.

Judd Mellinger-Blouch

Judd Mellinger-Blouch is the Director of the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center, which is part of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers. The Career Center helps community health centers, rural health clinics and other healthcare organizations recruit and retain physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other primary care providers. Judd has been working in healthcare since 19686, predominantly in areas of public relations, marketing, communications, provider relations, and recruitment. Prior to joining the Career Center in March 2014, Judd was Director of Marketing Communications at the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He holds two degrees from Pennsylvania State University: a Bachelors of Arts in Journalism (1982); and a Masters of Public Administration with a healthcare emphasis (1998). Judd lives in Hershey with his wife Ellen, a behavioral health social worker employed by Holy Spirit Hospital. Their children are Jake Blouch, Philadelphia, and Leah Mellinger-Blouch, Hershey. They also have one future daughter-in-law, one grand-dog, and two grand-cats.

Leah Henao

Leah Henao joined the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 2008 as a Public Health Analyst. She is currently the Chief of the Outreach, Recruitment, and Partnership Branch in the Bureau of Health Workforce. Her team is responsible for increasing awareness of programs like the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and other workforce grant programs. These programs directly impact the primary care workforce in rural and underserved communities nationwide. Before joining HRSA, Ms. Henao worked for the University of Pennsylvania Health System developing strategic plans for oncology, cardiology, obstetrics and organ transplantation services. Leah holds a Masters of Public Health from Temple University and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Health Administration from Arcadia University.

Heather Dimeris

Heather Dimeris serves as the Deputy Associate Director for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and she is a Commander (CDR) in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). She joined the FORHP in 2003 as a Public Health Analyst and managed operations as the Associate Director and Senior Advisor from 2007 to 2016. CDR Heather Dimeris currently oversees a broad range of rural health activities within FORHP, with an emphasis on telehealth, rural health policy, and rural health research. CDR Dimeris also serves as the Chair-Elect for the USPHS’s Dietitian Professional Advisory Committee.

Prior to working at HRSA, Heather Dimeris was dietitian for Malden Hospital in Massachusetts. She holds a Master of Science degree in public health nutrition from Case Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Science degree in dietetics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Michelle Rathman

Michelle Rathman founded Impact! Communications, Inc., in 1989, a leader in healthcare strategy and communications. Their focus includes academic, for-profit, Critical Access and Rural Hospitals, clinics, primary and specialty care provider practices, as well as organizations and associations serving the healthcare sector. Impact’s work across the U.S. includes strengthening hospital identity and brand, engaging the community and strategic partners, identifying opportunities to decrease outmigration, improve internal culture, communications and customer service across service lines and practices, as well as provide comprehensive leadership development that promotes sustainable positive change. Over the years, she and her team have logged several hundred hours of front line observation to give executives straightforward insight and a window in to the insensible behaviors (however unintentional) that drive complaints and concerns. Michelle’s unique facilitated process introduces a variety of innovative tools and contemporary approaches to help hospitals gain market share across the payer mix spectrum, and community support when it is needed most; particularly in the ballot box or the court of public opinion.

She and her team have won awards for a variety of their community engagement campaigns and programs. In 2009, Michelle wrote and produced an educational documentary about Critical Access Hospitals and the vital role they play in our nation’s healthcare delivery system, and, she has been a contributor to HRSA’s Critical Access Hospital Replacement Manual on the subjects of staff, community and media engagement. Starting in September 2018, Michelle will take on the role as host of the Rural Matters Podcast. She is a featured keynoteand workshop presenter at industry conferences across the U.S. on a variety of subjects, including several humor/motivational talks, and has facilitated over 5,000 hours of leadership, staff, board, group retreats and education sessions and is a master program developer and content designer.

Jerry Harrison

Dr. Harrison is Executive Director of New Mexico Health Resources (NMHR), a centralized clearinghouse for recruitment and retention of health professionals.  NMHR is a public-private partnership that brings in over sixty-five health professionals into the state annually, most to rural and underserved areas.
Dr. Harrison is a past Director and Commissioner on the New Mexico Health Policy Commission which identified health professional workforce and related issues to be the single issue to pursue for the foreseeable future.

Dr. Harrison is a past Chair of the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network (3RNET), an organization of all fifty states and several U.S. Territories and Tribal organizations.  The 3RNET offers an electronic vehicle for health professionals to seek practice sites in all of those areas, resulting in over 2,000 placements in rural and underserved America annually.
He has directed his career to health care administration, education and training.  He is a graduate of Wayne State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Tennessee.  He has been an administrator of outpatient and inpatient behavioral health treatment and prevention programs New Mexico and Arizona, has extensive experience with recruitment and retention issues, and has worked with the NHSC as a site administrator, recruiter of Scholars and Loan Re-payers, and is an active NHSC Ambassador.  His work requires that he collaborate closely with State Offices of Rural Health, but most importantly with the New Mexico office that has extensive work with the NHSC.  Because of the large concentration of Native Americans in NM, he has, and is, working closely with the Indian Health Service.

Dr. Harrison also has been a national speaker at various meetings, including the National Rural Health Association annual meetings, National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network functions, Indian Health Service council meetings as well as many local, state, and regional workforce initiatives.  He has performed many research projects for local, state, regional and national projects on health professional workforce issues.
He participated as a writer and speaker for NHSC recruitment trainings in conjunction with the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network, as well as co-author of the updated NHSC site visit manual.

Davis Patterson

Davis Patterson, PhD, is a sociologist and a research assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He is Director of the Collaborative for Rural Primary care Research, Education, and Practice (Rural PREP), Deputy Director of the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center, and an investigator in the UW Center for Health Workforce Studies. Dr. Patterson’s research and evaluation activities seek to inform policy and improve rural and underserved populations’ access to healthcare, with a particular focus on the health workforce. His current research includes studies examining the commitment of health professions schools to produce rural practitioners, graduate medical education for rural practice, rural emergency medical services, and factors affecting provision of home health services to rural patients. He is a member of the International Health Workforce Collaborative, Vice Chair of AcademyHealth’s Health Workforce Interest Group and an active member of the Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care of the National Association of State EMS Officials and the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. He is an avid traveler and fluent in Spanish.

Benjamin Anderson

Improving the health status of people in America’s most underserved communities is the mission and calling of Benjamin Anderson, MBA, MHCDS, who currently serves as CEO of Kearny County Hospital, a comprehensive rural health complex located in southwest Kansas.

Raised on the rougher side of California’s Bay Area, Anderson experienced poverty during his childhood years. These formative experiences played a major role in Anderson’s decision to find ways to improve the lives of underserved, distressed people.
His career in healthcare administration began in 2009 as CEO of Ashland Health Center, a struggling hospital and the only health provider in a Kansas town of 900 people. There, he led an effort that dramatically revitalized the community’s healthcare services, recruiting and retaining several medical providers to serve a multi-county area between Kansas and Oklahoma.

Since arriving at Kearny County Hospital, Anderson received national acclaim for his work in physician recruitment, health promotion, women’s health initiatives, and rural healthcare delivery innovation.

His speaking experiences range from being a keynote speaker at the Oregon Rural Health Conference to conducting strategy retreats for rural hospital boards, speaking to senior leadership teams in urban hospitals, intimate education sessions at physician residencies, being a panelist for hospital association conferences and webinars, tabletop discussion moderator for ACHE meetings, and serving as a panelist at the Dartmouth College Symposium on Healthcare Delivery Science.

Anderson is a talented storyteller, known for tying his own experiences to applicable lessons. His laid-back, humorous, narrative and interactive style leads his audiences toward embracing change and choosing their own destiny, interweaving a compelling moral case for serving our nation’s most vulnerable people.