Dr. Nicole Brandt is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research and Executive Director of the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Since joining the university, she has expanded geriatric training opportunities, including the geriatrics/palliative care pathway, ASHP-accredited geriatrics residency, and a two-year post-PharmD fellowship. She has worked on interdisciplinary teams across numerous practice settings and is currently leading initiatives at the MedStar Center for Successful Aging to integrate sustainable pharmacist-directed services to help older adults with multiple co-morbidities. Dr. Brandt has been active in promoting optimal care for older adults through her educational, clinical, and healthcare policy work. She has directed projects with multiple stakeholders focusing on Medicare Part D Medication Therapy Management Programs, high-risk medications, and medication stewardship. Her public policy advocacy occurs on both a state and national level. She is one of the authors of the 2012, 2015, and 2018-2019 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria and the Past President and Board Chairman of American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.

Dr. Amy Helwig currently serves as the Chief Quality and Population Health Officer at Commonwealth Care Alliance, an integrated health plan and delivery system headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in managing individuals with complex, chronic disease, disability, and serious mental illness. In this role, she oversees all quality of care and regulatory programs for the health plan and provider facilities, population health, health equity, value-based care outcomes, and clinical education.

Dr. Helwig is recognized nationally for developing innovative programs in quality, safety, and information technology that drive value and improve patient outcomes. She has held numerous quality and care transformation leadership roles, including Executive Vice President of RTI International’s Commercial Health Division, an industry leader in design and evaluation of value-based care programs; Chief Quality Officer and Vice President of Quality Improvement and Performance at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Insurance Services Division; and Deputy Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, where she led the building and implementation of national patient safety event reporting and AHRQ’s Patient Safety Organization program. Additionally, while at the US Department of Health and Human Services, she was the Director of HIT Safety and Clinical Informatics and Chief Medical Officer at the US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Carol Keohane is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer for South Shore Health in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, where she is responsible for the integration of quality, safety, and patient experience. Ms. Keohane partners and collaborates with senior leadership and the Board of Directors to develop and execute a strategy that positions South Shore Health as an industry leader in delivering high-quality care. Ms. Keohane earlier served as Vice President, Quality, Safety, Experience, and Health Systems Performance Improvement for Kaiser Permanente, where she spearheaded enterprise-wide process improvement strategies, developed safety goals, and ensured strategic alignment of patient safety solutions throughout Kaiser Permanent’s vast system. During her tenure at KP, she provided health plan and hospital quality leadership for several national initiatives, working across functions and in partnership with operational leaders and dedicated staff to ensure quality oversight of key programs, including the advancement of perinatal care, high reliability, and performance improvement. She also served as a quality lead for the organization’s COVID-19 response and business continuity efforts. Previously, Ms. Keohane served as Assistant Vice President of Patient Safety for CRICO/Risk Management Foundation. In this role, she worked closely to promote quality and safety at all Harvard-affiliated academic medical centers and community hospital systems. Her experience also includes serving as Program Director for Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Ms. Keohane received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from St Anselm College and a Master of Science in Health Informatics and Management from the University of Massachusetts. She has published extensively on various patient safety issues, including the evaluation of various health information technologies and their impact on patient care and clinician workflow. Ms. Keohane has participated as a reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Association, Critical Care Medicine, and the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. In 2012, she was invited to serve on the editorial board for the Journal of Patient Safety.

Dr. Audrey Lyndon is the Vernice D. Ferguson Professor in Health Equity and Assistant Dean for Clinical Research at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing in New York City. Her equity work is focused on maternal health and the nursing science and healthcare workforce. Dr. Lyndon’s maternal health work has focused on patient safety and quality in maternity and neonatal care, including improving communication and teamwork among clinicians; identifying parents’ perspectives on safety during labor, birth, and neonatal care; developing nurse-sensitive outcomes for labor and birth; and research on severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality. Her team has conducted groundbreaking research on different perspectives on speaking up about safety concerns and developing an understanding of how women and parents conceptualize safety during childbirth and neonatal intensive care. Dr. Lyndon co-chaired the development of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative Obstetric Hemorrhage Toolkit, which became a national and international model for maternal safety bundles and collaborative quality improvement. She is currently focused on understanding the experiences of Black and Latinx survivors of severe maternal morbidity to better identify their support needs and research priorities and to identify community-driven prevention targets for severe maternal morbidity. Dr. Lyndon’s work on diversifying the nursing science and healthcare workforce includes mentoring and sponsorship of historically excluded clinicians and scientists and building effective pathways programs in nursing, nursing science, and clinical specialties for historically excluded individuals.

Dr. Kathryn (Kathy) McDonald is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Health Systems, Quality, and Safety at Johns Hopkins University. She holds primary appointments in the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine (General Internal Medicine), as well as academic affiliations in business, public health, and engineering. She leads the Knowledge to Action Initiative at Hopkins and serves as Co-director of the Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. 

Her interdisciplinary scholarship aims to improve healthcare delivery and relies on close partnerships with patients, frontline clinical teams, and delivery system leaders. Influential research products include over 100 evidence-based national quality, prevention, and safety measures and seminal publications on coordination of care, patient safety and quality improvement strategies, and human-centered design approaches to implementation science.

She values her early career experiences in semiconductor processing, technology optimization, business development, and new product development, all of which reflect her desire to move knowledge into action. As a lifelong learner, she loves reading new research, asking questions, and sharing her enthusiasm for advancing knowledge to solve challenging and complex problems.

Dr. Andrew Olson is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he practices hospital medicine and pediatrics. He serves as the founding Director of the Division of Hospital Medicine within the Department of Medicine.  Dr. Olson also serves as the Director of Medical Education Research and Innovation in the Medical Education Outcomes Center, focusing on linking education with clinical and workforce outcomes.  He has had multiple roles in medical education and clinical leadership throughout his career, including developing new medical school courses and clerkships, leading faculty development programs, and helping lead the health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Olson’s academic focus is to better understand clinical reasoning, especially diagnostic reasoning. He has published over 100 articles in medical education, diagnostic reasoning, and related areas. His research focuses on the interactions between individuals and the clinical environment and how teams make diagnostic decisions. He has led multiple national and international projects focused on characterizing clinical reasoning and understanding diagnostic error, as well as identifying pragmatic strategies to improve diagnostic performance and calibration, especially through performance feedback.

Barbara Pelletreau was the Patient Safety Officer at CommonSpirit Health, a large healthcare system, where she was responsible for regulatory readiness, medication safety, management of controlled substances, reduction of hospital-acquired conditions, voluntary events reporting, and loss control/prevention. Under her leadership, CANDOR (Communications AND Optimal Resolution) and Just Culture were spread across the CommonSpirit Health system. Barbara has also led system-wide employee safety efforts at the University of California, resulting in the reduction of workers' compensation costs. Ms. Pelletreau is known for her strategic and collaborative leadership, implementation of transformative and large-scale initiatives, patient-centric results, adoption of innovative technology solutions, and investment in her team and those she works with. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children. She enjoys hiking and cycling adventures, yoga, travel, and entertaining friends and family.

Dr. Matthew Scanlon is a Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Co-Director of the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Pathway at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has formal training in quality improvement, patient safety, and industrial engineering, with a focus on human factors engineering. A former Patient Safety Officer, he is the pediatric representative to The Joint Commission’s Patient Advisory Group. He has authored and co-authored numerous manuscripts and book chapters, presented on safety topics nationally and internationally, and participated in multiple safety-related research projects. Finally, Dr. Scanlon has an ongoing role in creating the content guidelines and exams for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Certified Professional in Patient Safety program.

Leilani Schweitzer is the PEARL Patient Liaison for Stanford Health Care. In 2005, her son Gabriel died after a series of medical errors at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Since 2011, she has worked on Stanford’s efforts to be transparent and learn after unexpected medical outcomes. She uses her own experience to navigate between the often insular legal and administrative sides of medical error and the intricate, emotional side of the patient and family experience. Her work with patients, families, care providers, and attorneys has given her a unique view of the importance and complex realities of disclosure and transparency. Leilani’s work has been discussed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on CNN.com. She has been featured on the Ted Radio Hour and RadioLab podcasts. Leilani’s TedX talk about the need for transparency and compassion in healthcare has been viewed more than 130,000 times.

Dr. Patricia Sengstack is an expert in healthcare informatics, the field that supports and transforms health care through the use of technology and the data it generates. With over 20 years of experience in the field of informatics, she now serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Informatics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. In this role, she teaches informatics at the master’s and doctoral levels and provides strategy-level consultation at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

Prior to her current position, Dr. Sengstack served as the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for the Bon Secours Health System and spent nine years as the Chief of Clinical Informatics at the National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a Past President of the American Nursing Informatics Association and has published extensively in the field of informatics. Her contributions have been recognized nationally through her induction as a Fellow into both the American Academy of Nursing and the American College of Medical Informatics. 

Throughout her career, Dr. Sengstack has been instrumental in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of electronic clinical systems in multiple health systems. Her knowledge and expertise in all phases of the system development lifecycle have ensured the employment of evidence-based strategies as part of clinical workforce automation that reduces documentation burden and supports patient safety.

Dr. Angela Thomas has over 20 years of experience in the scientific and administrative leadership of translational and clinical research. She currently serves as the Vice President of Healthcare Delivery Research at MedStar Health Research Institute.  Dr. Thomas is responsible for leading a team of experts to apply rigorous scientific methods to enable next-generation healthcare delivery.  She also ensures that these research activities leverage the collective leadership and unique strengths of MedStar Health and Georgetown University.

Dr. Thomas’ research interests focus on the intersection of health equity and patient safety.  She is the Executive Lead for the $30 Million Safe Babies Safe Moms initiative, funded by the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, which has reduced disparities in maternal and infant mortality in Washington, DC.  In addition, she contributes her research expertise in disparities, health equity, and patient safety to the initiative to uncover the contributing factors leading to disparities in maternal and infant harm.  Dr. Thomas’ research has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals and covered by several media outlets.   Dr. Thomas has been recognized by Becker’s Healthcare as one of the “Black Healthcare Leaders to Know” in 2024 and received the Health Equity Leader Award for the Washington Business Journal’s inaugural Innovators in Health Care Awards in 2024. 

Dr. Thomas received a Bachelor of Science in biopsychology and the cognitive sciences from the University of Michigan. She received a Master of Public Health in health behavior and health education, also from the University of Michigan. Later, she received her Master of Business Administration from the Walsh College of Accountancy and Business Administration and her Doctor of Public Health in Advanced Practice Leadership in Public Health from the University of South Florida.

Dr. Amy Vogelsmeier is an Associate Professor at the Sinclair School of Nursing at the University of Missouri and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Vogelsmeier received her PhD in leadership and health systems in 2008 and her Master’s Degree in Adult and Gerontological Nursing in 1997, both from the University of Missouri. Her undergraduate nursing degree was obtained in 1989 from the University of Central Missouri. She has 30 years of practice in both acute and long-term care with extensive experience in leadership, quality improvement, and patient safety. Dr. Vogelsmeier’s area of research is focused on patient safety with an emphasis on reducing adverse events such as rehospitalizations and emergency department visits among nursing home residents and improving medication safety in nursing homes. She has research expertise in nursing home processes, including technology implementation and advanced practice registered nurse care coordination.

Sam Watson is the Senior Vice President of Field Engagement for the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). In this role, Mr. Watson leads member services and develops strategic relationships with stakeholders to further the mission of the MHA. Additionally, he provides executive leadership for the Education Division and the MHA Keystone Center. Over the years, Mr. Watson has led numerous efforts to build collaborative relationships across multiple entities in Michigan and beyond. Most recently, he co-led the creation of the Superior Health Quality Alliance, an eight-organization consortium that addresses quality and safety through federally funded contracts. Prior to being named Senior Vice President of Field Engagement, Watson led the MHA Keystone Center in its efforts to improve patient safety and quality, including federally funded Hospital Engagement Networks, Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks, and many statewide quality initiatives, with focus areas such as surgery, obstetrics, hospital-associated infections, emergency departments, sepsis, falls, pressure ulcers, venous thromboembolism, and care transitions. 

Under Watson’s leadership, the MHA Keystone Center received the Eisenberg Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality Award and Dick Davidson Quality Milestone Award for healthcare improvement. Watson has been recognized as one of the 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety by Becker’s Hospital Review, a leading healthcare publication. Watson currently serves on several professional organizations and committees, including the Boards of Directors for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Christian Life Services–Holland Home, and Spectrum Health West Michigan.

Dr. Yan Xiao is a human factors engineer and patient safety researcher. He is a Professor of Nursing and Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches human factors in health care. He has an extensive record in research using human factors science in several clinical care areas, including primary care, intensive care, anesthesiology, and trauma. As an engineer at a non-profit healthcare system, he directed human factors and patient safety science programs on surgical patient safety, infusion safety, clinical alarms safety, unit-based safety improvement, venous thromboembolism prevention, and adoption of health information technology. His research has contributed to many key patient safety areas, such as medication safety, healthcare teams, video-based safety improvement, physician-nurse communication, and patient engagement. He is an elected Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Human Factors. He leads an AHRQ-funded Patient Safety Learning Lab on building partnerships between patients and their primary care professionals.

Dr. Yanling Yu received her PhD in Physical Oceanography from University of Washington.  Her research interest covers the variability of sea ice and climate change.  After her father died from medical errors, she has become a patient advocate promoting quality of care and patient safety, healthcare transparency, patient-centered care, shared decision-making, and patient and family engagement. Dr. Yu and her husband, Rex Johnson, were the architects of two Washington State laws that require state healthcare regulatory boards to be transparent to the public. They co-founded Washington Advocates for Patient Safety, a nonprofit and consumer-based organization. Dr. Yu is also a board member of Patient Safety Action Network (PSAN), a national coalition and successor to the historic Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. 

Dr. Yu’s experience includes serving as a member on the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a commissioner on the Washington State Medical Commission, a member of the Patient Safety Standing Committee of the National Quality Forum, a consumer representative on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee, and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement-Patient and Family Engagement Subcommittee. She also serves on the Washington State Healthcare-Associated Infection Advisory Committee, a member of the Federation of State Medical Boards Workgroup on Oversight of Clinical Decision-Making, a consumer representative on the American College of Emergency Physicians-Clinical Policy Committee, and a member of the Washington Patient Safety Coalition’s Steering Committee. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Patient Safety, and she teaches TeamSTEPPS at the University of Washington, School of Medicine, and student seminars at the University of Washington, School of Nursing.