Puget Sound Health Alliance

Mary McWilliams was appointed as Executive Director of Puget Sound Health Alliance in June 2008, after serving three years as a member of its Board of Directors. Prior to taking the helm at the Alliance, Mary was president of Regence BlueShield in Washington. When she joined Regence in 1997, she was Senior Vice President responsible for the Plan’s HMO, health care services, and services to The Boeing Company. In 2000, she was promoted to President and CEO. Before Regence, Mary held positions as the Northwest Regional Vice President for PacifiCare Health Systems, President and CEO of PacifiCare of Washington, and the founding Chief Executive Officer for the Sisters of Providence Health Plans in Oregon. Her health care experience also includes leadership roles in planning at Providence Medical Center in Oregon and in consulting for the American Health Management and Consulting Corporation. As a business community leader, Ms. McWilliams is the past Board Chair for the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and member of their Community Development Roundtable. She is on the boards of Safe Crossings (grieving support for children) and Port Blakely Companies (timber, real estate, and export). In her leadership role at the Alliance, she brings an exemplary combination of experience in non-profit and public company governance, and effective approaches to finance, strategic planning, marketing, and motivating and managing high-performing leadership teams.

Susie Dade -- Director, Quality Improvement & Administration photo of Susie Dade

Susie Dade has worked in health care in Washington state since 1980. Ms. Dade has worked with the Puget Sound Health Alliance since early 2006. As the Alliance’s Director of Quality Improvement and Administration, Ms. Dade works to identify quality improvement opportunities and to stimulate and encourage system and practice changes that will result in improved delivery of care for patients with chronic disease and/or increased participation in prevention-related activities. In addition, Ms. Dade oversees the Alliance’s administration, budget and human resource activities. From 1989 to 2005, Ms. Dade worked for Group Health Cooperative, serving for six years as a strategic leader for GHC’s specialty services with ambulatory practices throughout the Puget Sound region. Her responsibilities included quality of care, patient experience, strategic planning, fiscal performance and improvement of practice efficiency. Ms. Dade also served for eight years as the administrative leader for Group Health’s medical group in King County with responsibility for business-related functions. Prior to joining Group Health, Ms. Dade worked with the Central Seattle Community Health Centers to develop and manage federal and state grants that funded direct patient care at five neighborhood community health centers. During the 1980’s, Ms. Dade worked for eight years as a community health planner with the Southwest Washington and Puget Sound Health Systems Agencies. During this time, she worked with the Pierce and King County Health Councils and Consumer Advisory Boards. Ms. Dade began her career as a community health planner with the University of Wyoming where she had responsibility for establishing a network of primary care clinics in remote areas of central and south Wyoming. Ms. Dade has a Bachelor of Science in Health Planning and Administration and a Masters in Public Administration, with an emphasis in federal and state health policy.

John Gallagher -- Director, Communication & Development

John Gallagher has 20 years experience in public relations and journalism and a background in biotechnology, physician membership organizations, and evidence-based medicine. Before joining the Alliance in January 2010, John served as the Director of Public Relations for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a membership organization of more than 26,000 doctors. While with the Academy, John led all media relations, public awareness campaigns and directed press coverage of the annual meeting, attended by over 25,000 people. He significantly increased visibility of the Academy, resulting in extensive coverage in national and major mainstream outlets such as the CBS Evening News, USA Today, Good Morning America and Wall Street Journal. Prior to the Academy, he served as the Director of Corporate Communications and as the Media Relations Manager for Chiron Corporation, a biotechnology company. Serving as the chief spokesperson, John led communications through major events such as a domestic terrorism threat upon the company, a major acquisition and a significant product launch. John was awarded with a PRSA Compass Award while at Chiron for his role in crisis communications. John’s strong understanding of media relations stems from 12 years in journalism, working with prominent publications such as The Advocate and Time Magazine. His many other awards and accreditations include being a Duke University Journalism Fellow and a published book author. He has a Master’s Degree from Vanderbilt University and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University.

Mark Pregler -- Director, Performance Measurement

Mark Pregler has more than 20 years experience in Information Technology with an emphasis in data warehousing and business intelligence environments. Having developed a passion for data early in his career as a software developer, Mark has spent the past 15 years focused on health care data and information. With this experience, Mark brings a strong foundation of both business and technology knowledge to the Alliance. Prior to joining the Alliance, Mark served as Director of Knowledge Services at Premera Blue Cross where he was responsible for the Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence program. In this capacity, Mark set the strategic direction of the program and led efforts in the design, development and implementation of reporting and analytic solutions for a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders. While at Premera, Mark also served two years as the company's representative on the Alliance's Heath Information & Technology Committee as well as the Data Stewardship Sub-Committee. Before working at Premera, Mark held similar roles at PacifiCare Health Systems in the Actuarial, Finance and Health Care Economics division, and also led efforts in the design and development of a claims adjudication system at Carl Warren & Company, a third party administrator for Property & Casualty claims and adjusting services. Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in Management Information Systems from California State University Fullerton.

Mary Caverly -- Business Manager & Executive Assistant

As the Business Manager/Executive Assistant, Mary oversees and is responsible for general business operations and administrative tasks for the Alliance. Before joining the Alliance she worked as a Project Manager at Providence Infusion and Pharmacy Services, a Business Analyst at Harrison Medical Center, an Administrative Supervisor in the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at Seattle Children’s (formerly Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center), a Project Manager at Group Health Permanente, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) Coordinator at Swedish Medical Center, and held varying positions at Group Health Cooperative. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of South Florida.

Reeny Koshy -- Project Coordinator, Multi-Payer Medical Home Reimbursement Pilot

Reena Koshy is a Family Physician practicing in Seattle since 1996. She completed her residency training at Sea Mar/ Providence Family Medicine program and worked mainly in community health centers in Seattle, Group Health Cooperative and as a locums tenens physician here and abroad for 14 years. She is currently working in a micro-practice model with Fremont Family Practice. She received her MPH from the UW in 2006 and started work in health policy at the national level in New Zealand’s Ministry of Health. She was Senior Policy Analyst for New Zealand’s “Key Directions for the Information Environment” Project. The project recommended a time line for development of health information capabilities needed to improve health outcomes and decrease health disparities for the nation. She joined Puget Sound Health Alliance through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to serve as Project Coordinator for the Washington State Medical Home Reimbursement Pilot. She brings her clinical and public health skills to this innovative pilot project.

Natalie Moe -- Administrative Coordinator photo of Natalie Moe

As the Administrative Coordinator, Natalie Moe supports the Executive Director and provides general administrative support to the Alliance. She is the primary contact for All Alliance meetings, and she also provides scheduling and other support to the Alliance’s various committees and work groups. Prior to joining the Alliance team, Ms. Moe spent two years working at Clegg & Associates, a health, housing, and human services consulting company in Seattle. She received her B.S. from Northwestern University’s School of Communications in 2002 with an emphasis on musical theatre and spends her evenings and weekends performing at various theatres around the Puget Sound.

Natasha Rosenblatt -- Data Projects Manager photo of Natasha Rosenblatt

Prior to joining our team, Natasha Rosenblatt served as an independent Data Systems Consultant providing project management, systems analysis, and report development for both non-profit and for-profit health care entities, including Milliman and Community Health Plan of Washington. She received her MPH from the University of Washington’s Community Medicine program, and has worked with health care data and data systems for more than 15 years. After receiving her MPH, Natasha worked in research and development for HBS International (now Solucient, a subsidiary of Thomson) where she developed and implemented data warehouse and reporting applications for hospital systems. She later joined Community Health Plan of Washington where she served as Systems Analyst. In this position she provided project management through the entire life-cycle of data warehouse, web-based reporting and case management system implementations, and also developed reports and internal applications for the company and its affiliated health centers. She is very excited about the Alliance’s work (and says it is the only job she knows of that would pull her out of independent consulting). As the Data Projects Manager, Natasha works with vendors, stakeholders, and staff to coordinate and produce the Puget Sound Health Alliance Performance Reports.

Gayatree Sapre -- Quality Improvement Specialist

As the Quality Improvement Specialist, Gayatree Sapre is responsible for planning and implementing regional program activities to build and support quality improvement efforts across the healthcare delivery system. Gayatree brings a wealth of both clinical and healthcare administration experience to the Alliance. She received her Bachelors degree in Homoeopathic Medicine from the University of Pune (India) and her Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Washington in Seattle. On the clinical side, she has worked as a medical officer in various specialty hospitals in India and practiced as a homoeopathic physician. On the administrative side, she has worked in strategic planning and project management roles for Swedish Medical Center and SightLife.

Lori Whittaker, MD -- Quality Improvement Consultant photo of Dr. Lori Whittaker

Dr. Lori Whittaker is a family physician with broad expertise and experience in clinical practice, quality improvement consulting, and health care policy. Dr. Whittaker serves as Quality Improvement Consultant for the Alliance, focused on issues such as heart disease, depression, prescription drugs, prevention and asthma. She currently practices at Swedish Physicians Division, and has provided medical and obstetrical care at in several locations in the U.S. and Canada. She was elected to the Qualis Health Board in 2008. She earned MD and PhD degrees from McGill University and completed her residency in family medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Whittaker holds a Master of Public Health in Health Services from the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.