2024 Scottsdale Cluster Faculty

Laurie K. Baedke, FACMPE, FACHE

Author

Laurie K. Baedke is the founder and CEO of Growth Edge Holdings. Baedke is a well-regarded keynote speaker at international conferences, an executive coach and the host of a weekly leadership podcast, The Growth Edge. Baedke holds a master's degree in healthcare administration and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has been certified by the Gallup organization as a Strengths Performance Coach since 2006. Baedke contributed a chapter titled "The Clinician Entrepreneur" in The Handbook of Private Practice, a book published by Oxford Press in 2017. She has written two editions of  The Emerging Healthcare Leader: A Field Guide published by Health Administration Press as well as her most recent book released in February 2023, Mentor Coach Lead to Peak Professional Performance. Baedke serves as lead faculty for the ACHE Executive Program and faculty for the following ACHE seminars: <ul> <li>“Mentor Coach Lead to Peak Professional Performance”</li> <li>“The Emerging Healthcare Leader: A Field Guide”</li> <li>“Resilient Leadership: The Role of Well-Being in Individual and Organizational Performance”</li> </ul>

About Laurie K. Baedke, FACMPE, FACHE
Founder/CEO
Growth Edge Leadership

William Garrison

Speaker

William Garrison is a Chicago-based independent health care consultant. He previously led The RTI Center for Health Care Advancement, headquartered in North Carolina, where he leveraged RTI's payment/policy, care delivery and HIT/clinical informatics strengths, enabling transformation. Prior to RTI, he held executive roles with two regional health care systems and a private equity backed provider. With expertise in strategy and operations, he currently helps organizations identify and execute growth strategies. Mr. Garrison's skills in marketing, sales management, enterprise and business-unit strategic planning, and joint venture evaluation and execution puts him at the forefront of change management and business model redesign. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from Northwestern University. Mr. Garrison serves as faculty for the following ACHE seminar: <ul> <li>Applying Design Thinking to Healthcare's Most Pressing Challenges</li> </ul>

Michael Gitman, MD

Speaker

Since 2021, Michael Gitman has served as president of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, a Northwell Health company, where he is responsible for the medical center’s strategic, operational and financial activities. Prior to this role, Dr. Gitman served as chief medical officer of North Shore University Hospital (also a Northwell Health company) where he oversaw the hospital’s medical affairs, quality management and patient safety efforts.Dr. Gitman is an associate professor of medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Over the past two decades, Dr. Gitman has been extensively involved in physician education, has received multiple teaching awards and has published manuscripts furthering the knowledge of clinical nephrology.Dr. Gitman received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a medical degree from SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed an internal medicine residency, as well as fellowship in nephrology at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

John M. Harris

Author

John Harris is a managing director with VMG Health, a leading healthcare consulting firm for business performance. His work focuses on strategy, physician engagement, value-based care, governance as well as partnerships, mergers and acquisitions. He advises health systems and hospitals, physician groups, clinically integrated networks, accountable care organizations, health plans and others. Harris serves as faculty for ACHE seminars including Physician Strategy for Hospitals: How to Align Independents, Fix Employment, Beat Disruptors, Succeed in Value, Ensure Access and Grow; Hospitals and Health Systems of the Future: Transforming to Thrive; and Strategic Planning: From Formulation to Action. Mr. Harris has also co-authored <a href="https://www.ache.org/learning-center/publications/books/2337I" target="_blank">Healthcare Strategic Planning, Fifth Edition</a>, a Health Administration Press publication.

Rudd Kierstead

Speaker

Rudd Kierstead brings 25 years of experience in a range of provider settings to his work on physician initiatives. He has focused on enterprise performance improvement, medical staff planning, financial analysis, physician alignment, compensation planning, acquisition and employment analysis and FMV projects. Kierstead has worked in academic medical centers and done extensive consulting with health system and community hospital clients. Kierstead’s experience includes compensation evaluation and design; valuation of entities and services; specification and valuation of unique arrangements with physicians; physician enterprise formation and evaluation; design and management of partnering ventures and balancing academic missions and cross-subsidy opportunities. He has worked extensively with physician leadership in medical centers, managing physician networks, practices and departments in several academic medical centers and in different specialties. Before joining Veralon, Kierstead was a director in the Weill Cornell Physician Network where he recruited and onboarded physicians, negotiated compensation and transition arrangements with prospective physicians and coordinated business planning, space arrangements and credentialing. Prior to working at Weill Cornell, Kierstead was a consultant in one of Veralon’s predecessor firms. Previously, he was vice chair for administration in the Department of Psychiatry with Weill Cornell Medical College, a department with 180 paid faculty, where his responsibilities included compliance, staffing, practice, research and teaching concerns. Beforehand, while at Continuum Health Partners Health System, Kierstead managed the centralized business planning and compensation evaluation functions in the Finance Department. Previously, at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Kierstead was the administrator at an off-site dialysis center, staffed the medical board on ambulatory care issues and served as special assistant to the senior vice president for clinical operations. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, an MPP from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a BA from Wesleyan University.

Jason Lesandrini, FACHE

Speaker

Jason Lesandrini, FACHE, LPEC, HEC, is the Assistant Vice President for Ethics, Advance Care Planning and Spiritual Health at Wellstar Health System in Georgia, where he leads the strategy and implementation of ethics initiatives. He holds faculty appointments at Mercer University and South College. Jason is a widely recognized expert in outcomes metrics for ethics programs and served as an ethics expert to numerous professional organizations.  Jason is also founder and principal of The Ethics Architect. The Ethics Architect is an outcomes-driven healthcare consulting firm specializing in the assessment and execution of ethics programming, the creation of ethical cultures and developing ethical leaders.

Stephen J. Mrozowski, FACHE

Stephen J. Mrozowski, FACHE, CPPS, serves as partner and vice president, External Peer Review and Patient Safety, Chartis. He has more than 25 years of healthcare experience in prehospital services, quality, safety, high reliability organizing and education. In his role, Mrozowski assists organizations in optimizing their capabilities to deliver harm-free, patient-centered and high-quality care. His expertise and passion are most prominent in the principles of patient safety structures, just culture, cause analysis, Lean Six Sigma and high reliability. Prior to joining Chartis, Mrozowski served as senior director, safety and high reliability, Cleveland Clinic, where he led the enterprisewide patient safety program, high reliability organizing activities, environmental health and safety. Previously, he was the inaugural director of patient safety at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and led the organization to a reduction in serious safety events by more than 75% during his tenure. Mrozowski is an ACHE Dolan Scholar and received an ACHE Regent’s Award for Leadership. He also serves on the board of ACHE of Northern Ohio and as its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chair. Mrozowski earned a Master of Health Administration from Penn State University and a bachelor’s degree in emergency medicine from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also completed paramedic training. He also completed graduate education in organizational development from Penn State. Steve is an ACHE Fellow and is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety.

About Stephen J. Mrozowski, FACHE
Partner and Vice President, External Peer Review and Patient Safety
Chartis

Jonathan A. Sendach, FACHE

Speaker

Jonathan A. Sendach, FACHE, is the executive director at North Shore University Hospital where he oversees the overall executive management for the 800-bed quaternary care hospital. His responsibilities include strategy, financial stewardship and leadership of a facility that serves as one of the cornerstones of Northwell Health, as well as an academic campus for the Zucker Hofstra/Northwell School of Medicine. Prior to being named executive director, he served as deputy executive director and associate executive director for hospital operations. Previously, Sendach was the associate executive director for finance at Glen Cove Hospital, a 265-bed acute care community hospital. There, he managed financial operations, patient financial services and health information management, as well as directed the annual budget process. In addition to business plan development and financial planning, he was also responsible for the oversight of the hospital’s faculty practice, comprised of 40 physicians and allied health professionals covering a range of specialties. He began his career in healthcare at Northwell as a staff emergency medical technician, working in both the 911 and critical care interfacility transport divisions. Prior to joining Northwell Health, Sendach worked as a senior account executive in the New York health and medical practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, an international public relations firm serving a range of clients. He worked on publicity campaigns for products from Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca. Sendach began his career in public relations at the New York City offices of The Rowland Company, where he worked with the healthcare team and served as a co-director of the summer intern training program. Board certified in healthcare management as an ACHE Fellow, Sendach holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a Master of Public Administration from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, where he holds an appointment as adjunct associate professor of health policy and management. He completed a residency in healthcare administration at the corporate offices of Northwell Health, then known as the North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y.

About Jonathan A. Sendach, FACHE
President
North Shore University Hospital

Leslie Wainwright, PhD

Speaker

Dr. Leslie Wainwright is a nationally recognized strategist, educator and innovation leader who brings over two decades of experience applying design thinking to complex challenges in healthcare and beyond. As a frequent speaker and faculty member with the American College of Healthcare Executives, she has educated thousands of executives on how human-centered innovation tools can drive meaningful, measurable change; her work has guided leadership teams spanning from major health systems to local start-ups. Dr. Wainwright currently serves as faculty for the ACHE seminar “Applying Thinking to Healthcare’s Most Pressing Challenges.” Her expertise includes healthcare delivery, biotechnology, advanced analytics and entrepreneurship.Dr. Wainwright was a founding executive of several pioneering organizations, including Sg2 and AVIA and Do Tank, where she currently serves as partner and senior strategist. Her approach blends deep scientific training with practical strategy expertise.As an accomplished educator, Dr. Wainwright has designed award-winning executive education programs, including the Rush University Leadership Academy in collaboration with the Illinois Hospital Association. She has shared her expertise through keynote roles at the Hospital Association of Southern California, the ACHE Chapter Leaders Conference and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare Transformation Delegation. Internationally, she led design thinking-based innovation training through the U.S.-Pakistan Science & Technology Startup and Ideation Program as part of the GIST initiative. Dr. Wainwright holds a PhD from Northwestern University and completed a fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical School.