Rick Brooks has served in the role of Director of Healthcare Workforce Transformation for the RI Executive Office of Health & Human Services since April, 2016. In this newly-created role, Rick is responsible for leading efforts to develop healthcare workforce development plans, programs, and partnerships that address the needs of healthcare providers and workers and support the population health and system transformation goals of the State.

Before coming to EOHHS, Rick served for 4½ years as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Workforce Board (GWB), where he was responsible for developing policies and programs to train and hire unemployed Rhode Islanders; expand work-opportunities for youth; promote internships, work-readiness, and career pathways; and develop employer-led, sector-based strategies to address the workforce needs of RI employers.

Prior to coming to the Governor’s Workforce Board, Rick served for 17 years as the Executive Director of United Nurses and Allied Professionals, the state’s largest union of healthcare workers, where he was responsible for collective bargaining, health policy, and communications. In this capacity, Rick co-founded the Stepping Up Program – a health care career ladder program for entry-level employees and unemployed workers. Rick also served for five years as the State’s first co-chair of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner’s Advisory Committee.

Rick received his undergraduate education at Brown University and Empire State College, SUNY. Rick has a Master’s Degree in Labor Relations from the University of Rhode Island, and has done post-graduate studies at Boston University School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Laura Finkelstein Chaise is Staff Vice President for Long Term Services and Supports at Centene Corporation in St. Louis. She leads Centene’s national team that drives product strategy for LTSS, sharing best practices and promoting operational improvements and innovation across Centene’s affiliate health plans. Prior to joining Centene in 2015, she was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C., where she worked with healthcare and public sector clients. She began her career at the Claims Conference where she was a Program Officer responsible for overseeing grants to home and community based service providers that support aging Holocaust survivors in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Israel. She also received a Fulbright Scholarship to work with Holocaust survivors in Israel. Ms. Chaise received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Yale University, and a Master of Business Administration degree and Certificate in Health Sector Management from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Kevin Coughlin has spent the last 25 years in the private and public sector working in the assisted living arena as an operator, a regulator and a public funder. Mr. Coughlin has been a speaker at numerous state and national conferences presenting on the subject of assisted living regulatory reform and quality improvement. In 2007 Mr. Coughlin was the Recipient of the “Public Official of the Year” by Governing Magazine (http://www.governing.com/poy/Kevin-Coughlin.html) for collaborating with key stakeholders and reforming Wisconsin’s assisted living regulatory process by rewarding assisted living communities striving for excellence.

Using her legal training to analyze the impact of laws and policies on the lives of persons with disabilities, Martha Hodgesmith, J.D. develops resource materials and tools to use in making such laws more effective. Her primary legal resource materials on key disability, health, and public benefits laws and policies have been used in continuing professional education, peer training, direct advocacy, and public testimony on state and national policy initiatives.

Hodgesmith has developed collaborative systems for information distribution and delivery of professional and consumer training for implementation at local, regional, and national levels. She has advises on public benefits law, elder law, Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) application to the state court systems, access to health care, and other public services and supports, health care fraud, patient/abuse neglect, and public financing of community based long term services and supports and primary health care. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University Of Kansas School Of Law.

Bob Kalin is the Vice President of Long Term Care Operations for Molina Healthcare of Texas. In this role he is responsible for the administration of both the STAR+PLUS and Medicare Medicaid Program (MMP) with nursing facilities across the state of Texas. He established and developed the Nursing Facility department and programs for Molina Healthcare of Texas in order to roll out nursing facility STAR+PLUS and MMP which started in March 2015. Bob has spent over 32 years in the long term industry as a licensed nursing facility administrator, with 22 of those years as a Regional Vice President of Operations for a national long term care company. He has served on the Board of the Texas Health Care Association (THCA), as well as held various positions within the organization. Additionally he has been on advisory boards for THCA, various managed care plans and Texas Health and Human Service Commission. Bob has provided private consulting to various long term companies. He has presented at various conferences and summits nationwide regarding the relationship between managed care and nursing facilities. Bob is a Licensed Nursing Facility Administrator and holds a BA in psychology as well as a Masters of Education from the University of Missouri.

Amy Kendall was appointed Chief Administrative Officer for Cardinal Innovations Healthcare in 2015. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the Community Operations, Corporate Communications, Government Relations, Cultural Competency and Human Resources departments.

Kendall previously was the company’s Senior Associate General Counsel, serving as the senior legal and regulatory advisor and focusing on a variety of legal, regulatory and policy issues, including corporate governance, regulatory compliance, corporate transactions and intellectual property matters. She also managed a team of legal and regulatory professionals who provided advice, counsel and support to the business. She started her career with Cardinal Innovations as Assistant General Counsel in 2011.

Kendall graduated magna cum laude from Charlotte School of Law in 2011, where she served as Senior Managing Editor of the Charlotte Law Review and as a founding member of the Order of the Crown.

Prior to obtaining her juris doctor, Kendall obtained a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2006, where she authored six peer-reviewed publications and served as Chair of the Neurobiology Graduate Student Seminar Series. She graduated with a bachelor of science in biology from Virginia Tech in 2000.

Kendall was recently nominated to serve on the Council of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Health Law Section for the upcoming year. She and her husband live in Charlotte with their two sons.

Debra J. Lipson is a Senior Fellow at Mathematica and a nationally recognized expert in Medicaid managed care policy and program design. She has over 30 years of experience as a health policy analyst and qualitative researcher, specializing in Medicaid and state health policy, managed care for vulnerable populations, and long-term services and supports (LTSS) for older adults and people with disabilities. For the last five years, she directed a project for CMS that strengthened federal oversight of state Medicaid managed care programs and provided technical assistance to state Medicaid agencies in the design and oversight of managed LTSS programs, development of provider network and access standards, and capitation rate setting. Ms. Lipson also launched a CMS project to develop new quality measures for Medicaid programs serving vulnerable beneficiaries, including dual eligibles and MLTSS enrollees. She has led studies for MACPAC, CMS and private foundations on Medicaid managed care rate-setting and value-based payment arrangements. She also led the design of an evaluation of MLTSS programs, and was co-investigator of the national evaluation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration. Before coming to Mathematica, Ms. Lipson held research positions at LeadingAge Center for Applied Research, the World Health Organization, AcademyHealth, and other organizations. She earned a master’s degree in health services administration and policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Marisa Scala-Foley is the Director of the Office of Integrated Care Innovations in the Center for Integrated Programs at the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), where she manages the agency’s efforts to build the capacity of state and community-based organizations for delivery system reform. She also identifies and analyzes emerging policy issues and trends related to health care, aging, and disability; advances innovative program strategies; and provides training and technical assistance related to the Affordable Care Act. Prior to joining ACL, she served as Director of the National Center for Benefits Outreach and Enrollment at the National Council on Aging, and has worked her entire career in the field of aging on issues related to health-care and long-term services and supports. Marisa holds a Masters in Gerontological Studies from Miami University (Ohio), and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Gerontology from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband and two sons.

June Simmons is President and CEO of Partners in Care Foundation. Over the past two decades, June has pioneered the development and scaling of innovative, evidence-based interventions for management of medications at home, self-management of chronic conditions, coordinated care to improve health outcomes, and care transitions.

Throughout her distinguished career, she has been instrumental in envisioning, creating, funding, and operating forward-looking health and social service programs that meet the mutual needs of patient populations, health care delivery networks and health plans. Her priority is sustainable, cost-effective, patient-driven integration of care across settings, from primary care and hospital to home and community in the 21st century.

Lori Tishler, MD MPH has always been passionate about the care of vulnerable populations and making health care work better for people. She is Vice President of Medical Affairs at Commonwealth Care Alliance; responsible for the oversight and management of medical policy, physician staff, behavioral health integration, clinical network provider engagement and clinical quality initiatives. In her role, Lori partners closely with CCA’s executive leadership to spearhead and further clinical redesign efforts, ensure quality care delivery and care management, respond to the concerns and needs of medical staff members, implement medical policy and help to drive clinical growth and transformation.

Lori comes to CCA from Brigham and Women's Hospital where she was an active primary care physician and Medical Director for the Phyllis Jen Center for Primary Care. She managed over 100 physicians and led the medical home transformation.

Lori graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She graduated from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges with an AB in History and Science and from Harvard School of Public Health with a Masters in Public Health. She loves to spend time with her husband and teenage daughter and to travel.

Patsy Tschudy is the Corporate Director of Managed Care for Cantex Continuing Care Network. She is a Registered Nurse and CCM with over 40 years of experience.

Ms. Tschudy has been in Long Term Care, working as a Charge Nurse, Supervisor, and Director of Nursing for over 11 years.

In 1995 she transitioned into Case Management and worked at Mariner Health Care (SavaSeniorCare). She was the Director of Case Management and then became the Division Director of Managed Care. While at Mariner/Sava she set up the Nurse Liaison program, infrastructure to support the Managed Care environment, including a Pre-Certification Department and Regional Case Management Department.

Ms. Tschudy transitioned to Cantex in 2013. At Cantex she completed all Managed Care Contracting and established the infrastructure to support the ever growing needs of the Managed Care environment for the in-patient SNF and Home and Community Based Services. She has been working on the Executive Managed Care Committee for Texas Health Care Association (THCA) and is a frequent speaker for this organization as well as local hospitals and Case Management Conferences.

Ms. Tschudy is a graduate of Mobile College School of Nursing. She has served as President and various Board positions at the Case Management Society of America. She was the Co-Chair for Elder Services Provider’s Network, has worked with the American Association of Managed Care Nurses and various other committees in health care. In addition, she has worked on projects with Texas Medical Foundation.