Appendix E
Speaker Biographies
Carol A. Aschenbrener, M.D., M.S., joined the Association of American Colleges (AAMC) in April 2004, after nearly 30 years as a medical school faculty member and administrator. After serving for 2 years as vice president of the Division of Medical School Standards and Assessments and Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) secretary, she assumed leadership of the Division of Medical Education. In January 2007, she was appointed to the new role of executive vice president and chief strategy officer, and spent nearly 5 years focusing on the implementation of AAMC’s strategic priorities and the development of systems to align people and resources with those priorities. In November 2011, she assumed leadership of the newly defined Medical Education Cluster, with the goal of developing and implementing a strategy to facilitate the transformation of medical education toward a true continuum of formation grounded in the health needs of the public. Dr. Aschenbrener has extensive executive experience, including 9 years in various dean’s office positions at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and 4 years as chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. As chancellor, she was responsible for four health colleges; the School of Allied Health; the Graduate Program, University Hospital; and a cancer institute. Before joining AAMC, she spent 7 years as a consultant to academic health centers, focusing on strategic planning, systems redesign, leadership development, and executive coaching. Dr. Aschenbrener has served on a variety of professional and civic boards and has held leadership positions in organized medicine at the state and national levels, including terms as appointed member of the LCME, the Accreditation Committee for Continuing Medical Education, and the Accreditation Committee for
Graduate Medical Education; as elected member of the Iowa Medical Society board, the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Council on Medical Education, and the Educational Commission on Foreign Medical Graduates; and as elected chair of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Her current professional interests include competency-based learning and assessment, interprofessional education (IPE), organizational culture, leadership development, and management of change. Dr. Aschenbrener holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa (1966), and a master of science degree in neuroanatomy from the University of Iowa (1968). She received her M.D. degree from the University of North Carolina (1971) and completed residency training in anatomic pathology and neuropathology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (1974).
Hugh Barr, M.Phil., Ph.D., is an emeritus editor for the Journal of Interprofessional Care and holds visiting chairs in IPE at Curtin in Western Australia and Kingston with St. George’s University of London, Greenwich and Suffolk in the United Kingdom. He served on the World Health Organization (WHO) study group on IPE and collaborative practice and until recently convened the World Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Coordinating Committee. Dr. Barr was awarded honorary doctorates by East Anglia and Southampton universities for his role in promoting IPE nationally and internationally.
Valentina Brashers, M.D., FACP, FNAP, is the founder and co-director of the University of Virginia Center for Academic Strategic Partnerships for Interprofessional Research and Education (Center for ASPIRE), which provides leadership and oversight to more than 25 IPE experiences for students, clinicians, and faculty at all levels of training. She is known nationally for her service and scholarship in the area of IPE and collaborative care. She served for many years as vice president for interdisciplinary care for the National Academies of Practice, where she received the Nicholas Cummings Award for Contributions to the Interprofessional Healthcare Field. Dr. Brashers currently is a co–principal investigator for numerous intra- and extramural IPE grants and serves as a consultant, editor, expert panel member, presenter, and workshop leader in many educational, clinical, and policy settings.
Stephan D. Fihn, M.D., M.P.H., FACP, is a general internist and serves as director of the Office of Analytics and Business Intelligence (ABI) in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and as a staff physician at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS). ABI is responsible for analytics and reporting of clinical,
operational, and financial data for the VA health system, which provides care to more than 6 million veterans. Dr. Fihn received his medical training at St. Louis University and completed an internship, residency, and chief residency in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington (UW). He was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and earned a master’s degree in public health at UW, where he has been on the faculty since 1979 and presently holds the rank of professor in the departments of Medicine and of Health Services. From 1993 to 2011, Dr. Fihn directed the Northwest VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence at VAPSHCS. His research has addressed a broad range of topics related to strategies for improving the efficiency and quality of primary medical care and understanding the epidemiology of common medical problems. He received the VA Undersecretary’s Award for Outstanding Contributions in Health Services Research in 2002. He served as acting chief research and development officer for the VA in 2004-2005. Dr. Fihn has always striven to apply the principles and findings of health services research to health care delivery. He served as chief quality and performance officer for the VHA, 2007-2008. In his current position, he is responsible for supporting high-level analytics and the delivery of clinical and business information throughout the VA health system. He remains an active clinician and was named a “Top Doc” by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine in 2011. He co-edited two editions of a textbook titled Outpatient Medicine. Dr. Fihn is active in several academic organizations, including the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) (past-president), the American College of Physicians (fellow), the American Heart Association (fellow), and AcademyHealth. In 2012, he received the Robert J. Glaser Award for outstanding contributions to research, education, or both in generalism in medicine from SGIM.
Afaf I. Meleis, Ph.D., Dr.P.S.(hon), FAAN, has demonstrated a profound passion for pushing the boundaries of nursing science, cultivating the next generation of health care leaders, and improving women’s health, over the course of more than five decades. During her tenure as the fifth Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (2002-2014), she fostered a community that is voiced, empowered, and dedicated to making an impact on global healthcare; launched multidisciplinary and global partnerships that are advancing nursing science, education, and practice; expanded research in critical areas; cultivated a culture of innovation where new programs and technologies are being developed to address emerging healthcare challenges; and strengthened its commitment to serving and supporting the local community. Prior to coming to Penn, she was a professor on the faculty of nursing at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, San Francisco, for 34 years.
Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., is trustee chair and Pegasus professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He also holds an appointment as program director for the Human Systems Integration Research Department at UCF’s Institute for Simulation & Training. Previously, he was a senior research psychologist and head of the Training Technology Development Branch of the Naval Air Warfare Center-Orlando for 15 years. During this period, he served as a principal investigator for numerous R&D programs focusing on teamwork, team training, simulation-based training, decision making under stress, learning methodologies, and performance assessment. Dr. Salas has co-authored more than 489 journal articles and book chapters and has co-edited more than 25 books. He is on/has been on the editorial boards of numerous journals. He is past editor of Human Factors journal and current associate editor for the Journal of Applied Psychology and Military Psychology. Dr. Salas has held numerous positions in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) during the past 15 years. He is also very active with the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)—Division 14 of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is past president of SIOP and past series editor of the Organizational Frontier and the Professional Practice Book Series. Dr. Salas is a fellow of the APA, the HFES, and the Association for Psychological Science. He received the 2012 Joseph E. McGrath Lifetime Achievement Award for the study of teams and groups from INGroup, the SIOP’s 2012 Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, and the 2012 Michael R. Losey Award from the Society for Human Resources Management for his applied contributions to understanding teams and groups as well as training effectiveness. He received his Ph.D. degree (1984) in industrial and organizational psychology from Old Dominion University.
Madeline Schmitt, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, FNAP, professor emerita, is a nurse-sociologist who, until retirement, was professor and independence foundation chair in nursing and interprofessional education at the University of Rochester (New York) School of Nursing. She remains active in research and publication, as well as limited teaching on interprofessional collaboration. She consults and presents nationally and internationally on the topic. Since the 1970s, she has focused her career on interprofessional collaborative practice models and IPE. Her work with collaborative practice came first, and involved training and teaching about interprofessional clinical teams, as well as research. She was co-investigator on a recently completed National Institutes of Health–funded 4-year ethnography study focused on the incorporation of a palliative care team into the hospital environment. In the IPE arena, Dr. Schmitt was part of a multisite national project co-sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): Community-based Quality
Improvement Education for the Health Professions. She was the local co–principal investigator for testing the RWJF-funded Achieving Competency Today interprofessional quality improvement curriculum. She was one of two U.S. members of the WHO Task Force that produced the report Framework for Action in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. In 2010-2011, Dr. Schmitt chaired an expert panel commissioned by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) to develop U.S. core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice. The Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice report and that of a meeting held to develop action plans for implementation of the core competencies were both released in Washington, DC, at the National Press Club. Dr. Schmitt is an editor emerita of the Journal of Interprofessional Care and a founding board member of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative. She is sole or co-author of more than 100 professional publications, many focused on interprofessional collaboration topics. Her multiple honors include induction as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 1977 and the National Academies of Practice in 2000, which honored her with its Award for Interdisciplinary Creativity.
Shirley Sonesh, Ph.D., is a research scientist at the Institute of Simulation and Training (IST) at UCF. She obtained her doctorate in organizational behavior at A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. At UCF, Dr. Sonesh leads a team of researchers investigating the effects of medical team training, the effects of telemedicine on teamwork in emergency management situations, simulation-based team training, and the role of IPE in patient outcomes, among many other health care–related initiatives. Dr. Sonesh also consults with organizations on how to improve teamwork in interprofessional medical teams to enhance patient safety. She is a member of the advisory board of Meditel360, a telemedicine firm specializing in home-based care. She has co-authored a number of published articles in the fields of medical team training, training evaluation, translational medical teams, and simulation in health care. Dr. Sonesh has been invited to a number of international and national conferences to present research related to these fields. She is a member of SIOP, Academy of Management (AOM), Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), and American Telehealth Association (ATA).
Esther Suter, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the director of workforce research and evaluation at Alberta Health Services. She holds a Ph.D. in natural sciences (1990) from the Swiss Institute of Technology and an M.S.W. (2003) from the University of Calgary. She has been a health researcher for more than 20 years. Being situated in a provincial health authority allows Dr. Suter to conduct in-depth examination of health systems issues and applied “real-
life” research. The focus of her research is on interventions to enhance collaborative practice, how to achieve integrated health systems, and innovative care delivery models. Dr. Suter is or has been the principal investigator on numerous research projects. She has more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Maria Tassone, M.Sc., is the inaugural director of the Centre for Interprofessional Education, a strategic partnership between the University of Toronto and the University Health Network (UHN). She is also the senior director, health professions and interprofessional care and integration at the UHN in Toronto, a network of four hospitals comprising Toronto General, Toronto Western, Toronto Rehab, and Princess Margaret. Ms. Tassone holds a bachelor of science degree in physical therapy from McGill University and a master of science degree from the University of Western Ontario, and she is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. She was the UHN project lead for the coaching arm of Catalyzing and Sustaining Communities of Collaboration around Interprofessional Care, which was recently awarded the Ontario Hospital Association’s international Ted Freedman Award for Education Innovation. Her graduate work and scholarly interests focus on continuing education, professional development, and knowledge translation in the health professions. She is the former co-chair of the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative Education Committee, and is currently the lead on the Collaborative Change Leadership program. Throughout her career, Ms. Tassone has held a variety of clinical, education, research, and leadership positions, both within physical therapy and across a multitude of professions. She is most passionate about the interface among research, education, and practice and about leading change in complex systems.
Jill Thistlethwaite, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., M.M.Ed., FRCGP, FRACGP, is a health professions education consultant and practicing family physician in Sydney, Australia. She is currently a Fulbright senior scholar at the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. Dr. Thistlethwaite is affiliated with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), the University of Queensland, and Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand). Born in the United Kingdom, she received her medical degree from the University of London and was a general practitioner in a semirural practice in the north of England for 12 years. She became an academic medical educator in 1996, and subsequently obtained her master’s degree in medical education from the University of Dundee and her Ph.D. in shared decision making and medical education from the University of Maastricht. Dr. Thistlethwaite’s major interests are IPE, communication skills, and professionalism. She has written a book on values-based interprofessional collaboration and
co-authored four books and co-edited four—the most recent being two volumes on leadership development for IPE and collaborative practice. She has also published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Dr. Thistlethwaite has been invited to consult and run workshops on IPE and collaborative practice in Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland. She has been involved with three major grant programs in Australia focusing on these topics. As co-editor of The Clinical Teacher and associate editor of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, she is heavily involved in editing and mentoring writers from many countries and of many levels of experience.
Deborah E. Trautman, Ph.D., R.N., assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in June 2014. At AACN, she oversees all of the strategic initiatives, signature programming, and advocacy efforts led by the organization known as the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. Formerly the executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Transformation at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Trautman has held clinical and administrative leadership positions at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. She also served as the Vice President of Patient Care Services for Howard County General Hospital, part of the Johns Hopkins Health System; and as director of Nursing for Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She also held a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Dr. Trautman received a B.S.N. from West Virginia Wesleyan College, an M.S.N. with emphasis on education and administration from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in health policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has authored and coauthored publications on health policy, intimate partner violence, pain management, clinical competency, change management, cardiopulmonary bypass, the use of music in the emergency department, and consolidating emergency services. As a member of the senior leadership at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, she represented the hospital on the Baltimore City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. Dr. Trautman serves as an advisory board member and chair for Academy Health’s Interdisciplinary Research Interest Group on Nursing Issues. She has served as a Magnet Appraiser Fellow for the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center Commission on Accreditation and as an advisory committee member for the navigator and enrollment committee of the Maryland Health Insurance Exchange. Dr. Trautman is a 2007/2008 RWJF Health Policy Fellow who worked for the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives.
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