Speakers

Hillary Alycon, DrPH, MPH, CIC, CPPS, CPHQ, LSSBB
Associate Vice President, Quality Management and Infection Prevention
Glens Falls Hospital, Albany Med Health System
Dr. Hillary Alycon is a results-driven leader with more than a decade of experience in public health and healthcare quality. Alycon brings expertise in regulatory compliance, patient safety, infection prevention and performance improvement. She co-chairs the System Quality Alignment Council and plays a key role in advancing Albany Med Health System’s value-based care initiatives.
Alycon holds a Doctor of Public Health in epidemiology and is triple board-certified in healthcare quality, patient safety and infection prevention. Ask her about the more than 200 rubber ducks that adorn her office and learn how even a duck can positively impact patient experience.

Steven Berkowitz, MD
Founder and President
SMB Health Consulting
Dr. Steven Berkowitz has over 30 years of experience in executive healthcare management and consulting. As a healthcare quality consulting firm with over 200 clients nationwide, SMB Health Consulting specializes in artificial intelligence applications in clinical and operational performance improvement for healthcare systems and leadership development for administrators, physicians and trustees. Through SMB, Berkowitz has developed a successful chief medical officer one-on-one advisory program for new and experienced CMOs.
Before joining SMB, Berkowitz was the chief physician executive and president of the medical group for Northern Light Health, a nine-hospital system in Maine. For 13 years before that, he was the chief medical officer of St. David’s Healthcare, a six-hospital system in Austin, Texas, and the chief medical officer for the Central and West Texas Division of HCA Healthcare. He was chairman of the board of Capital Area Providers, a 501(a) Texas medical foundation with over 800 participating physicians. In 2008, St. David’s won the Texas Award for Performance Excellence and in 2014 was the national Malcolm Baldrige award recipient.
Previously, Berkowitz was national practice leader for physician services with the Hay Group. He was a senior executive for Harris Methodist Health System serving as medical director of the HMO and chief medical officer for the integrated delivery system. He also served as medical/executive director for The Travelers in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 2014, Berkowitz was appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve as chairman of the board of the Texas Institute for Health Care Quality and Efficiency. He has sat on the boards of the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care, the Texas Hospital Association, the Texas Health Care Information Council and the Texas Association for Healthcare Quality. He is board-certified in internal medicine and a prominent national speaker and writer in the healthcare arena. As a consultant, he specializes in healthcare quality improvement.
Berkowitz was awarded a Fellowship in the American College of Cardiology in 2016.

Florence L. Di Benedetto
President and Chief Executive Officer
Di Benedetto Solutions, Inc.
Florence (“Flo”) Di Benedetto has been a healthcare attorney for over 40 years. She spent 28 years in private practice representing health systems in California in litigation and business matters, medical staff in peer review and quality matters, and individual and group physicians in commercial transactions. From 2009 to July 2023, Di Benedetto served as the senior vice president and general counsel of Sutter Health, a $15 billion integrated delivery system in Northern California, where she had accountability for legal services, risk services and privacy and information security, as well as ethics and compliance from 2009-2018. She was a member of the executive leadership team and provided advice and counsel to the Sutter Health chief executive officer, Sutter Health board and board committees, and subsidiary boards.
As president and CEO of Di Benedetto Solutions, Inc., Di Benedetto focuses on leadership development training, executive coaching, governance advice, team effectiveness and culture assessments. She is a frequent public speaker on value-driven and accountable leadership, team management, culture, mental well-being and resilience.
Di Benedetto currently serves as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, and as a mediator for individuals and organizations interested in alternative dispute resolution. She also offers interim and fractional general counsel services.
Di Benedetto has a Juris Doctor degree and an MBA in healthcare management.

Rick Evans
Senior Vice President and Chief Experience Officer
NewYork-Presbyterian
Rick Evans oversees NewYork-Presbyterian’s ongoing strategy to improve and enhance the patient and family experience across NYP’s continuum of care and its eleven facilities in and around New York City. He also leads enterprise-wide efforts — collaborating with leaders from the Columbia and Weill Cornell Physician Organizations — to improve care access and customer experience across an extensive network of over 700 ambulatory sites.
Evans also served as the first chief experience officer appointed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization in Boston, MA. He is a member of the American Nurse Credentialing Center’s Magnet Commission, is the national co-chair for the Patient Experience Policy Forum with the Beryl Institute and is a regular columnist on patient and consumer experience issues with Becker’s Healthcare.

Bea Grause, RN, JD
President
Healthcare Association of New York State
As president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, Bea Grause is a passionate advocate for New York’s nonprofit and public hospitals, health systems and post-acute and continuing care providers. She also oversees HANYS’ nationally engaged for-profit business services. Since her tenure began in 2016, she has contributed her extensive clinical, political and legal know-how to the organization’s agenda and in discussions with state and federal healthcare stakeholders.
Throughout the tremendous challenges of the pandemic, Grause’s leadership ensured that New York’s hospitals and health systems had the resources, flexibility and government support needed to preserve care in communities across the state. Grause continues to advocate on behalf of New York’s hospitals and health systems as they face fiscal, workforce and payer challenges post-pandemic.
Prior to HANYS, Grause served as president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems for 14 years, successfully leading Vermont hospitals through a variety of reform initiatives, including the state’s single-payer debate, and building the hospitals’ brand as trusted, competent leaders.
Grause spent 10 years in Washington, D.C., in a variety of positions. She began her D.C. tenure as a legislative assistant, first in the office of Rep. Norman Y. Mineta and then for Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. After she left Capitol Hill, Grause simultaneously held senior governmental affairs positions with the Tennessee Hospital Association and Massachusetts Hospital Association. She spent three years working as counsel with the law firm of Foley, Hoag. In this role, she developed tailored legislative and regulatory strategies for many healthcare clients. Grause previously worked as a registered nurse, primarily in the emergency room and intensive care areas at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center of California.
She completed a three-year term (2012 to 2015) as an at-large member of the American Hospital Association board of trustees, including a 2015 term on the AHA Executive and AHA CEO Search Committees. As part of her AHA board responsibilities, she also served as chair of the AHA Allied Advisory Committee on Medicaid.
Grause earned her Juris Doctorate in 1991. She earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Boston College in 1979 and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is also a 2003 graduate of the Vermont Leadership Institute.

Thomas Hallisey
Director, Digital Health Strategy
Healthcare Association of New York State
Thomas Hallisey formulates and executes the state and federal health information technology regulatory and legislative advocacy agenda for the Healthcare Association of New York State. This includes working with government agencies, lawmakers and other organizations to advance HANYS’ HIT agenda on behalf of New York’s hospitals and health systems.
Hallisey’s career includes extensive HIT work in the hospital setting, beginning as an application analyst at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut, and then working at several hospitals in New York state. He served as director of information services at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, then as vice president, information management, and chief information officer at Cortland Regional Medical Center. Next, he joined Menusguide.com, a startup company, as chief technology officer, and served as CIO for United Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he was executive IT adviser and CIO at Hartman Executive Advisors, an IT consulting firm.
Hallisey serves as a trustee on the board of directors of Columbia Memorial Health and is an adjunct assistant professor at Downstate Health Sciences University. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut. He has an ITIL v.3 Foundation Certification and is an affiliate of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and Healthcare Information Management Systems.

Sharon L. Hanson
Chair, Board of Governors
HTNYS
Board Secretary
Erie County Medical Center Corporation
Sharon Hanson is the Secretary of the Erie County Medical Center Corporation board of directors. She has served in a variety of board leadership roles over the past 20 years. Currently, she serves as the chair of the governance committee and is a member of the executive, compensation and investment committees. Her leadership has had a profound impact at the region’s only designated Level 1 Adult Trauma Center. Hanson participated in developing the organization’s strategic plan, which successfully led to more efficient and effective day-to-day operations. She has proudly advocated on behalf of the thousands of caregivers, residents and patients of Western New York’s diverse community.
Hanson is also the president and chief executive officer of a successful healthcare consulting business. She continues to serve the Buffalo not-for-profit community as a member of the United Way, the Women’s Group and as a mentor to new and upcoming entrepreneurs.
Hanson served as chair of the board of trustees at Trocaire College, where she helped establish a partnership between Trocaire and ECMC to provide an employment path for matriculating nurses. She helped create the Health Sciences Charter School by providing a curriculum for Buffalo students to prepare and pursue future careers in healthcare. Hanson also served as a commissioner on the reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians, where she helped design a program to advance policies and procedures to improve healthcare for individuals suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and drug abuse.
Hanson is a graduate of Canisius College and holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in English and political science. She joined the HTNYS board of governors in 2017.

Nicholas Henley, MPH
Executive Director
Healthcare Trustees of New York State
Vice President, External Affairs
Healthcare Association of New York State
As executive director of HTNYS, Nick Henley is principally focused on assisting healthcare board members through education, communications and advocacy. In this role, Henley works directly with the HTNYS board and oversees HTNYS’ advocacy and educational initiatives.
As HANYS’ vice president of external affairs, Henley is point person for interacting with the senior leadership of hospitals and health systems across the state. He directs HANYS’ member services, including industry-leading member engagement efforts, analysis of healthcare system and market trends, and development of strategic public policy.
Henley also leads HANYS’ political action efforts, serving as treasurer of HANYS’ influential state and federal political action committees. He took on these roles in 2015 after working in the association’s governmental affairs division for ten years, including serving as director of governmental affairs.
Before coming to HANYS in 2005, he worked at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy in Albany and in various capacities at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. Henley graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and from the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany with a Master of Public Health concentrating in health policy and management.

Jeffrey A. Kraut
Executive Vice President, Strategy
Northwell Health
Assistant Professor and Associate Dean, Strategy
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Jeffrey Kraut has spent his more than 40-year career exclusively in health policy and strategy. He coordinates the strategy development activities of Northwell Health; the growth of its provider network through merger, acquisition or affiliated relationships; and is focused on developing the next generation of community health planning and strategic analytics. He also serves as associate dean for strategy for the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and is a board member of Northwell Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies and provides strategy and management services to a portfolio of healthcare and technology companies.
Kraut participates in developing and shaping statewide health policy by serving under the current and past four governors as chair of the Public Health and Health Planning Council, which oversees public health, health planning, regulatory and Certificate of Need activities in New York state. He has also led complex planning efforts involving multiple stakeholder groups to improve care organization and delivery for communities served by safety net providers. He is a board member of the New York eHealth Collaborative, the entity responsible for coordinating the development of the NYS Health Information Network, and he has been a vocal and active advocate to empower patients by promoting the interoperability and sharing of health data.
Kraut is nationally recognized for his health planning and policy development skills. He served on the board of the American Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development where he was the 2017 recipient of its Leadership Excellence Award, the highest award bestowed nationally for healthcare strategy professionals. He is a board member of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and served on the Standards Council of the Commission on Accreditation on Healthcare Management Education. He is also active in regional economic development and community building activities as a board member of the Long Island Regional Planning Council and past president of The Brookville Center for Children Services.

Kathryn K. Leonhardt, MD, MPH, CPHQ, CPPS
Principal Consultant, International Quality and Patient Safety
Joint Commission International
Dr. Kathy Leonhardt is the principal consultant for international quality and patient safety at Joint Commission International. She is a preventive medicine/public health physician with over 30 years of experience as a physician executive in public, private and academic healthcare organizations.
Leonhardt has held leadership roles in quality, patient safety and patient experience. Her research, publications and presentations have included epidemiologic investigations, Phase III clinical trials and quality improvement projects in ambulatory and hospital settings. Leonhardt was the principal investigator for and author of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded research project on patient advisory councils. Her patient safety initiatives have been recognized nationally, including the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Cheers Award. Recent publications include “The Joint Commission Big Book of Performance Improvement Tools” and “Leadership Matters: A Roadmap Toward Effective Governance of Quality and Safety,” published by the American Hospital Association. As the leader of the JCI training program on quality management and patient safety, Leonhardt has provided education to almost 4,000 healthcare professionals across 80 countries.
Leonhardt serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Patient Experience, is a clinical assistant professor for Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is involved with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Michigan Medical School, Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkley and Bachelor of Arts with honors from Williams College.

Thom Mayer, MD
Medical Director
NFL Players Association
In addition to serving as medical director for the NFL Players Association, Dr. Thom Mayer is executive vice president of leadership for LogixHealth, founder of BestPractices, Inc., clinical professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University and senior lecturing fellow at Duke University.
Mayer was named the 2018 winner of the James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award, the highest honor of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was recently nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. USA Today named him one of the “100 Most Important People in the NFL.” Tom Peters, the internationally acclaimed leadership guru, referred to his work as “gaspworthy.” When asked about these awards, Mayer simply says, “I have only one talent. I know how to hire people who are not only better than me, but much better than me. They won the awards, not me.”
Mayer has been the founder, CEO and principal shareholder of physician leadership, staffing and management, and ambulance transport companies with revenues in excess of $100 million, which were then sold with an average internal rate of return in excess of 38%. He continues to hold intellectual property rights to all the content developed by these companies.
He is one of the most widely sought speakers on healthcare patient experience, leadership and management, hardwiring flow, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, EMS/disaster medicine and sports medicine. His work in each of these areas has resulted in changing the very fabric of patient care.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Mayer served as the command physician at the Pentagon Rescue Operation and has served on three Defense Science Board Task Forces, advising the Secretary of Defense. Most recently, in 2022, Mayer helped lead a mobile team to Ukraine treating almost 350 patients and training over 1,700 Ukrainian medical staffers.
He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, over 100 book chapters and has edited or written 20 textbooks, including: “Leadership for Great Customer Service: Satisfied Employees, Satisfied Patients: 2nd Edition”; “Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow”; “Hardwiring Flow”; “The Patient Flow Advantage”; “Strauss and Mayer’s Emergency Department Management”; and “Battling Healthcare Burnout.”
Mayer was named the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of the Year and has been named ACEP’s “Over-the-Top” award winner three times. “Battling Healthcare Burnout” won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2022, and “Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow” won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2008. In sports medicine, his work to change concussion diagnosis and management in the NFL has changed the way in which athletes are diagnosed and treated.
Mayer was the originator of the entire NFL Concussion Guidelines program and thus has changed the nature of concussion diagnosis and management worldwide.

James V. McDonald, MD, MPH
Commissioner
New York State Department of Health
Dr. James McDonald has been the commissioner of health since 2023. Prior to joining DOH, McDonald served at the Rhode Island Department of Health since 2012.
At the RIDOH, he served in multiple roles, including interim director of health, chief administrative officer of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, medical director for the COVID unit, and medical director of the division of healthcare quality and safety and the Drug Overdose Prevention Program. He was also a member of the Governor’s task force on preventing overdose deaths. McDonald has faculty appointments at the UAlbany School of Public Health and Brown School of Public Health.
McDonald earned his MD from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, his pediatric residency in the U.S. Navy and his preventive medicine residency from the State University of New York. He earned his MPH from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and his BS in biology from Siena College. McDonald is board-certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine.
His diverse career includes officership in the U.S. Navy and private practice in rural areas where healthcare shortages existed. McDonald also served in the Indian Health Service in the Navajo Nation, serving as medical director of outpatient medicine in Chinle, Arizona.
McDonald was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters from Siena College in May 2024 for exemplary achievement, leadership and commitment to humanitarian ideals.

Laura Orr
Senior Partner and Global Board Advisory Leader
WittKieffer
Laura Orr is an accomplished executive and board advisor with two decades of healthcare operations, strategic planning and board governance experience, combined with deep expertise in facilitation and executive coaching. As a senior leadership advisory partner and WittKieffer’s global board advisory leader, Orr partners with clients to optimize board performance and leverage governance to drive strategy execution. Her areas of expertise include governance assessment, succession planning, board development plans, multi-year strategic plans and one-on-one executive coaching.
Prior to WittKieffer, Orr founded and grew her own firm, Forward Governance Consulting, providing support and guidance for boards of directors in healthcare, academic medicine and related industries. Before that, she spent ten years with Children’s Wisconsin health system, most recently as chief strategy and governance officer, and held leadership roles with Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center and Methodist Healthcare. Orr serves as an advisor for The Governance Institute and is a certified coach through the College of Executive Coaching, International Coaching Federation and BoardSource.

Kristen Phillips, CAE
Director, Trustee Education
Healthcare Trustees of New York State
Director, Community Health Policy
Healthcare Association of New York State
Kristen Phillips is responsible for developing educational programs for trustees, including HTNYS’ signature event, the Annual Trustee Conference. She is also responsible for planning the annual workshop for executive assistants and board coordinators. Phillips also serves as director of community health policy for HANYS, where she manages the association’s community health agenda, including policy development, advocacy and educational programming.
Before joining HTNYS, Phillips worked for 14 years in various roles at LeadingAge New York, an association that represents not-for-profit and public continuing care providers. In her most recent role as vice president of education, she oversaw the development of all educational programming, including multiple annual conferences, in-person seminars and audio conferences aimed at keeping long-term care professionals informed and providing continuing education credits.
Phillips holds a Master of Public Administration degree in healthcare policy and management and public management from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Siena College. She attended the Empire State Society of Association Executives Leadership Academy from 2014 to 2015 and earned her Certified Association Executive credential through the American Society of Association Executives in 2015.

Rubin Pillay, MD, PhD, MBA, MSc
Assistant Dean
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
Chief Innovation Officer
UAB Health System
Founding Executive Director
Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation
Dr. Rubin Pillay stands at the forefront of healthcare innovation as a respected medical futurist and leading specialist in managing healthcare innovation. His career, built on the foundation of his medical and business training, is dedicated to tackling some of the industry’s most complex problems. Pillay expertly navigates the nuanced fields of digital healthcare transformation, AI applications in healthcare and high-reliability healthcare, setting benchmarks for innovation in these sectors.
Pillay serves as assistant dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, where he also holds the distinguished Marnix E. Heersink Professorship in biomedical innovation. He is the chief innovation officer at the UAB Health System and the founding executive director of the Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation. His influence is not limited to academia or his own institution; his thoughts and insights reach far and wide through his role as a best-selling author and globally recognized speaker. His expert consultations have empowered organizations around the globe to embrace and thrive amidst the rapid changes characterizing modern healthcare.
Pillay’s unwavering commitment to fostering innovation in healthcare has won him several high-profile awards and recognitions in his field. As he continues to shape the future of healthcare, Pillay has become an instrumental figure in the evolution of health systems worldwide, continuously steering them towards a more innovative, reliable and digitized future.

Rachel Polhemus
Senior Partner, Healthcare
WittKieffer
Rachel Polhemus has vast experience as an executive recruiter, including more than 20 years at WittKieffer, combined with management consulting experience for leading healthcare and Fortune 500 firms. Polhemus recruits senior leadership roles in healthcare and the not-for-profit sector, with particular expertise in identifying CEOs and C-suite executives in the areas of strategy, operations, nursing and marketing, as well as chair positions. She also serves on WittKieffer’s board of directors.
Prior to WittKieffer, Polhemus was an associate vice president of a small healthcare consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. She specialized in helping clients assess and understand federal regulations and implement effective compliance strategies, including HIPAA administrative simplification and program infrastructure. Earlier in her career, she spent five years as a consultant with Accenture in Reston, Virginia. She developed key working relationships with clients, vendors and other project team members in creating technology solutions for leading companies and government agencies. In addition, she worked as a consultant in the human resource group and provided human resource management and operations support.

James Purvis
Associate Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer
University of Rochester/UR Medicine
Prior to joining the University of Rochester in 2012, James Purvis worked in security administration, auditing and compliance roles for companies including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bausch and Lomb, and RIT. With a career spanning over a decade at the University, Purvis has been a key contributor in shaping its security landscape and developing effective training programs, and he previously served as the director of risk and compliance. Purvis brings a technical background blended with process discipline and expertise in security governance.
Purvis holds a Bachelor of Science degree from RIT and holds information security management and information system auditing certifications from ISACA.

Kathy Rauch, RN, MSHQS, BSN, CPHQ
Vice President, Quality Advocacy, Research and Innovation
Healthcare Association of New York State
Kathleen Rauch has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare quality, patient safety, and regulatory and accreditation compliance. Working in the acute care setting, she has served as a lead on initiatives for adopting the Just Culture methodology, achieving zero preventable harm and implementing strategies to improve performance on value-based payment programs. Rauch has been published in the Journal of Healthcare Quality and has served as a presenter at regional conferences where she has shared readmission reduction strategies. As vice president of HANYS’ QARI division, Rauch provides strategic direction, planning, coordination and oversight for development and execution of HANYS’ quality and patient safety agenda. She oversees numerous quality improvement grant projects, directs the formulation of advocacy and education strategies for HANYS’ quality agenda, collaborates with HANYS’ members, advocates on their behalf with regulators and policymakers, and develops collaboratives and other educational resources. She holds a Master of Science in healthcare quality and safety from Thomas Jefferson University.

Todd Sagin, MD, JD
National Medical Director
Sagin Healthcare Consulting, LLC
Dr. Todd Sagin is a physician executive recognized nationwide for his work with medical staff, hospital boards and physician organizations. He is the national medical director of Sagin Healthcare Consulting, LLC, which provides guidance on a wide range of healthcare issues.
Sagin is a popular lecturer, consultant and advisor to healthcare organizations. He is frequently asked to assist hospitals and physicians in developing strong working relationships, as healthcare becomes a more integrated enterprise. Over the past two decades, he has been engaged by several hundred of the nation’s hospitals to work with their boards, medical staff and management teams to improve the quality of the care they deliver. This work ranges from leadership education to strategic planning, from strengthening medical staff affairs to creating new integration structures to bring hospitals and physicians together, and from the development of physician group practice models to the mediation of healthcare disputes. He has worked with numerous health systems to create more efficient physician leadership structures, including unifying medical staff. He publishes on these topics frequently; his books include: “Medical Staff Governing Documents: Bylaws, Policies & Procedures”; “Negligent Credentialing — Strategies for Reducing Hospital Risk”; “Managing Problem Practitioners: A Leadership Guide to Dealing with Impaired, Disruptive, Aging, and Burned-out Clinicians”; “FPPE, Proctoring and Physician Competency Assessment — A Clinician’s Guide”; and “Creating the Hospital Group Practice.”
Sagin has been a regular faculty member for organizations such as American College of Physician Executives (now AAPL), American College of Healthcare Executives, National Association of Medical Staff Services, CTI Physician Leadership Institute and Credentialing Resource Center. In 2012, he was appointed to the Baldridge Board of Examiners, which surveys healthcare institutions to recognize exemplary quality performance. He is a member of The Governance Institute’s advisors panel.
Sagin is board-certified in family medicine and geriatrics and has taught and practiced in community hospital and university settings. He currently practices at Community Volunteers in Medicine in West Chester, PA. He served for almost two decades as a board officer of the national organization Volunteers in Medicine America, which worked to establish clinics for the uninsured across America.
An experienced physician executive, Sagin has held positions as senior vice president and chief medical officer of Temple University Health System in Philadelphia; senior medical director of PennCare, a thirteen-hospital virtually integrated delivery system; chairman and clinical professor of the family medicine and community health department at Temple University Medical School; residency director at Abington Memorial Hospital; and medical director of physician hospital organizations, independent practice associations and hospital-physician networks. He served for over half a decade as the vice president and national medical director of The Greeley Company, a national healthcare education and consulting firm.
Throughout his career, Sagin has held strong interests in medical ethics and public policy. He holds a law degree and has trained as a mediator to address healthcare conflicts. He has also been active in organized medicine at the state and national level. He is a past president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and has served on numerous national committees of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He sat for several years as a physician representative to The Joint Commission Professional and Technical Advisory Committee and served on a JCAHO Special Credentialing Task Force. He is currently the medical director of the LifeGuard Program, sponsored by the Foundation of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. Lifeguard is a national physician competency assessment program that also works to develop remedial interventions for physicians who have developed clinical deficiencies that threaten their license or clinical privileges.

Michael J. Schoppmann, Esq.
Chief Executive Officer
MLMIC Insurance Company
Michael Schoppmann is regarded nationally for devoting his career to the defense of healthcare professionals in complex medical malpractice actions before state licensing authorities, federal healthcare agencies (i.e., the Office of Inspector General, Medicare, Medicaid, DEA, OSHA), hospital review boards (credentialing and disciplinary), billing/coding/fraud investigative units (both public and private) and in the myriad forms of complex healthcare litigation involving physicians and medical practices. Schoppmann has successfully defended physicians in actions involving state medical boards, Medicare fraud, fraud and abuse, hospital discipline, RAC audits, Medicare audits, OIG fraud, healthcare fraud, medical billing audits and health plan billing audits.
Schoppmann is a council member of the New York Insurance Association’s Innovation and Modernization Advisory Council and chair of the MPL Association’s Conference Committee. He has served as a faculty member of the Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management Executive Program in healthcare delivery management and the University of Rochester Simon School of Graduate Studies executive program in healthcare delivery management. He is a past two-term chairman of the State Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section. He has served as the featured speaker to national, state and county medical societies/organizations nationwide.
Schoppmann, honored by the Richmond County Medical Society, Westchester County Medical Society and Erie County Medical Society, is also the recipient of two professional service awards in recognition of a career devoted to serving and defending medical professionals. He was the recipient of the 2023 MPL Association Leadership Award and is a sustaining member of the NYSBA, an elite group comprising 1% of the New York State Bar membership of 74,000.