FHCQ Staff Members
Management of day-to-day operations and general administrative or program management issues are handled by the Staff of the Foundation for Health Care Quality which houses and supports various programs and projects along with its own contract and grant work.
Chief Executive Officer
Terry Rogers, MD FACP
As the Chief Executive Officer for the Foundation, Dr. Terry Rogers is accountable to the Board of Directors for the Foundation’s performance in accordance with its Mission and annual objectives.
Terry served on the Foundation’s Board of Directors for 10 years, the last two as Chair, prior to assuming the CEO responsibilities. For the last six years he has been the Medical Director for Lakeside Milam Recovery Centers, and for Providence ElderPlace. Prior to that he was the Senior Medical Officer, then the Chief Operating Officer for King County Medical, then Regence Blue Shield. For the preceding 15 years, he was Director of Critical Care and Respiratory Services at Swedish Hospital Medical Center, and in the private practice of Pulmonary Medicine. Terry has been active in many professional organizations, and currently serves on a national committee of the American Thoracic Society. He is currently the board chair for Orchestra Seattle, Seattle Chamber Singers, and serves on the boards of the American Lung Association of the Northwest, and of Crooked Trails.
Born in New Hampshire and raised in New Jersey, Terry received a BA from Dartmouth College and a MD from Cornell University. Most of his post graduate training was at the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians.
Christopher L. Bryson, MD, MS
COAP Medical Director
Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System
Jon M. Counts, DrPH, MPH
Principal Investigator, Clinical Laboratory Initiative
Jon joined the Foundation in 2006 after six years as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington. He is the principal investigator for the Clinical Laboratory Initiative, which has a long history (>12yrs) in Washington of implementing several effective quality improvement programs for clinical laboratories engaged in diagnostic testing of importance to public health initiatives. Its educational intervention activities have increased the adoption of voluntary national laboratory testing guidelines, improved laboratory testing policies as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the public health and clinical laboratory delivery system.
Jon developed and directed the Clinical Laboratory Initiative during the period he was Director, Washington State Public Health Laboratories. The Initiative included the formation of alliances with laboratory and health related organizations and implementation of a statewide consensus process for the development of position papers, recommendations for quality improvement of laboratory practice, utilization of the public health and private clinical laboratory delivery system and development of clinical laboratory practice guidelines for physicians.
Prior to moving to Washington in 1990 he was Director, Arizona State Public Health Laboratories. He chaired the Arizona Governor's Task Force on state agency laboratories which developed a strategic and tactical plan to optimize the utilization and operation of diagnostic and analytical laboratories within state agencies, reducing overlap in services and duplication of staff, technology and physical facilities. He also directed a statewide disease prevention system in Arizona which provided consultation and technical assistance to local health professionals to identify, investigate and prevent acute and chronic diseases in their communities through the utilization of practice guidelines containing performance objectives and standards.
He is the former President, Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors, directing a number of Association national initiatives in collaboration with CDC. Jon was a member, Board of Scientific Counselors, National Center for Infectious Disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involved in the development of a national and international strategy for the prevention and control of emerging infectious disease, including recommendations for the infrastructure, core capacities and technologies for public health laboratories.
His global health activities are also extensive, he has participated in the evaluation and development of laboratory delivery systems in Mexico, US-associated Pacific Island nations, Ukraine and Ethiopia. Jon received his B.S. in Bacteriology at the University of Arizona, Master in Public Health at Tulane University and a Doctorate in Public Health at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He is a retired Colonel, US Army Reserve.
Peter Dunbar, MD
Principal Investigator, ODIN Project
Harborview Medical Center
David Flum, MD
SCOAP Medical Director
Dr Flum is a gastrointestinal surgeon and outcomes researcher at the University of Washington. He holds the rank of Associate Professor in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and serves as the Director of the Surgical Outcomes Research Center at the University of Washington. He has a Masters in Public Health in the field of health services research.
He is one of the Principal Investigators of the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS) study-the first NIH-funded study in bariatric surgery aimed at addressing fundamental issues in the field. He is the contributing editor for surgery at the Journal of the American Medical Association and serves on the editorial board of the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Disease.
Dave is a native New Yorker who completed a 6-year medical program at the University of Miami before training in surgery at New York’s St Vincents Hospital in 1997, After training he served for three years as a Staff Surgeon in the Public Health Service on the Navajo Nation in rural Arizona before joining the University of Washington as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar in 2000.
Dr Flum has developed a national reputation as a surgical epidemiologist and outcomes researcher. He is a leader in bridging clinical care and public health issues describing his work as “aiming to improve the healthcare of all Americans by promoting evidence-based care and in building an aviation-like system to track and reduce the impact of surgery”.
Rosa M. Johnson, ARNP MN
SCOAP Program Director
Rosa Johnson is responsible for the overall implementation of the SCOAP quality improvement initiative. Her responsibilities include recruitment of hospital participants, ongoing education of hospital staff involved in SCOAP, data management, support to the SCOAP Management Committee, development and management of the budget, and facilitation of relationships with internal and external stakeholders and partners.
Rosa is an advanced practice registered nurse with broad experience in clinical practice, health services administration, and project management. Additionally, she has a wealth of experience in teaching and training, both in academia as well as in continuing education and in-services for a variety of levels of providers. She is noted for her leadership, organizational, and communication skills.
Rosa has been in healthcare for more than twenty-five years and, prior to joining the Foundation for Health Care Quality, most recently served as the Hospital Quality Improvement Director at Qualis Health, a Quality Improvement Organization. She has also served as the Director of Clinical Services at an urban community hospital where she chaired the hospital-wide quality committee and served as co-chair of the Board level Ethics Committee. She maintains an ongoing psychiatric counseling and consultation practice.
Originally from the East Coast, Rosa has lived and worked in a variety of areas of the country and in various healthcare settings including public health, clinics and acute care. She did her undergraduate preparation at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, and completed her graduate degree in psychosocial nursing at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Ellen Kauffman, MD
OB-COAP Medical Director
Linda Lekness
Program Director, ODIN Project / CHITA
Linda Lekness brings to the Foundation her many years of administrative experience working with hospitals and medical groups as well as consulting and project management in a variety of settings. Specific experience ranges from consulting to operations management in large highly competitive metropolitan regions to small single hospital rural health care communities. She is familiar with most aspects of hospital and medical group management including ownership and governance, administrative and financial management, and patient care systems. Accomplishments include: the design and implementation of a unique and successful partnership between healthcare organizations for the delivery of in-patient care, and programs and services; the development of business plan for start-up statewide medical service organizations; the development and implementation of turnaround management plans for a medical center that resulted in stabilized workforce and consistent operating methods; and the successful implementation of one of the largest telehealth projects in the world.
Linda earned a BS in Nursing from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota and an MS in Nursing Education and Administration from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Later she earned an MBA from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Educational emphasis was in: professional clinical nursing; hospital and health care administration; and business administration with emphasis on healthcare.
Tom Lonner, PhD
Cross-Cultural Programs Director
Tom Lonner, a medical sociologist from the University of California San Francisco, brings to the Foundation an extensive set of useful experiences. As a government administrator in Alaska and Washington, he has constructed new agencies and repaired old agencies, implemented state legislation, advised legislatures, governors, and commissioners, represented state interests to federal authorities, and managed the progress of his agencies toward their missions. As an applied policy and program researcher in community health empowerment, cultural and linguistic competency in health care, and hospital policies, procedures, and practices, he has designed, conducted, managed, and audited major investigations for government agencies, foundations, and private industry. He is also an official reviewer of a coming publication on cultural competence and language access for the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.
Some of his areas of applied policy and program analysis and regulatory solutions include cultural competency and language access in health-care delivery, including hospitals, health care systems, managed health care plans, community health centers, and migrant health centers; community-based reform of prevention and intervention services for children, youth, and families; workforce health practices in major industrial developments; community social health and local empowerment; mental health and other services program, process, and outcome evaluation; institutional discrimination by sex and race; organizational strategy, practice, and evaluation; public, community, and workforce health policy, health services, long-term care, and health care reform; children's welfare, mental health, and educational services; and much more...
Miriam Marcus-Smith, RN MHA
Program Director, Washington Safety Coalition
Miriam returned to the Foundation as the Coalition’s Program Director in October 2007, having been the FHCQ’s Quality Improvement Program Director from 1999-2005. She brings a wealth of experience in program development and management and has worked in quality improvement since its very early days when it was hidden within “utilization management.” She has also managed health services and other research grants at the University of Washington in the School of Medicine and the School and Public Health and Community Medicine.
Miriam received her Associate Degree in Nursing from Bellevue Community College, her B.A. in Health Economics and Ethics from Antioch University, and her Master of Health Administration (focus on policy and ethics) from the University of Washington. Her prior clinical experience was in oncology nursing. As a contract faculty member Miriam teaches healthcare ethics to nursing students at Seattle University.
Ian Painter, PhD
Biostatistician, ODIN Project
Kristin K. Sitcov
COAP Program Director
Kristin Sitcov is responsible for the overall implementation of the COAP quality improvement initiative, including ongoing education of hospital staff involved in COAP, data management, support to the COAP Management Committee, development and management of the budget, and facilitation of relationships with internal and external stakeholders and partners.
Kristin is a registered dietitian who most recently served as the Senior Director of State Health Alliances for the American Heart Association. Her expertise lies in program development and project management. She has been recognized for her ability to put together strong collaborative partnerships and build teams with diverse and multiple participants.
A native Seattleite, Kristin received her education from Washington State University and has worked in various healthcare settings over the years including cardiac nutrition and eating disorders treatment.
Donal Sullivan
Accountant
Michael Taylor-Judd
Administrative Manager
