About

COLMR Staff

Martin Charns, D.B.A. is the Director of COLMR. Dr. Charns is a senior investigator in the field of organization and management research in health care and as educator to health care professionals. He is Professor of Health Services and Director of the Program on Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. He also is a member of the core faculty for executive development programs for physician leaders at the Harvard School of Public Health.

E-mail: Martin.Charns@va.gov

Richard C. Hermann, M.D., M.S. is Associate Director of COLMR and Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has conducted studies of practice variation, risk adjustment and methods of quality assessment and improvement. His current research focuses on organizational factors that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of measurement-based quality improvement. A practicing psychiatrist, he developed and led a quality management program for public-sector mental health care, and works with a variety of organizations on quality measurement initiatives, including JCAHO, NQCA, APA, AARP and WHO.

E-mail: rhermann@tufts-nemc.org

Gary Young, J.D., Ph.D. is Associate Director of COLMR and also a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. His active research agenda includes identifying best practices for organizing and managing health care services. A major portion of his current research focuses on pay for performance. He has published research in many leading health services research, health policy, and management journals, and has served on a number of national-level research and policy committees.

E-mail: Gary.Young@va.gov

Arlene Ash, Ph.D. is a COLMR associate investigator. She is Research Professor of Medicine and Research Professor of Public Health (Biostatistics) at the BU School of Medicine. She is a statistician and a nationally recognized expert in risk adjustment, particularly in its application to quality measurement issues, and has studied quality issues in VA extensively.

E-mail: aash@bu.edu

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Errol Baker, Ph.D. is a biostatistician at VA Boston Healthcare System, with research interests in computer-assisted treatment programs. At VA for 17 years, Dr. Baker is Director of the C-ViC computer treatment program and statistician in neuropsychology research. He brings his strong statistical expertise to COLMR.

E-mail: Errol.Baker@va.gov

Konique Ballah, M.P.H. is a project manager for the evaluation of the national Parkinson Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (PADRECCs). Ms. Ballah has experience in qualitative and clinical research. She graduated in 2004 from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University with an M.P.H. from the Health Policy and Management Department.

E-mail: Konique.Ballah@va.gov

Mark S. Bauer, M.D. is an investigator at COLMR. Dr. Bauer is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and is Director of the Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency Training Program. His research focus has been on developing person-centered care models for individuals with major mental illnesses, particularly bipolar disorder. His specific focus is in controlled clinical trials with an effectiveness-oriented design and in conducting implementation studies to ensure maximal public impact of efficacious treatments.

E-mail: Mark.Bauer@va.gov

James Burgess, Ph.D. is a COLMR senior investigator. He also is Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health, where he is the director of the masters and doctoral programs in health services research and director of the health economics program. He has research expertise in productivity of health care organizations, diffusion of knowledge, strategic alliances and quality evaluation, including physician profiling.

E-mail: James.Burgess@va.gov

Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D. is an investigator at COLMR. He is Executive Director of the Boston University Health Policy Institute and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the BU Schools of Management and Public Health. He also is national program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, and a co-investigator in the evaluation of the RWJF Pursuing Perfection Program, led by Dr. Charns. His research interests include evaluation of quality improvement initiatives and organizational transformation efforts.

E-mail: abcohen@bu.edu

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Paul Conlin, M.D. is an investigator at COLMR and co-director of COLMR’s newly-awarded MD post-residency fellowship program. He is the chief of endocrinology at VA Boston Healthcare System. His research currently focuses on the use of telemedicine applications and care management techniques to improve the care of patients with diabetes mellitus and is working with remote retinal examinations using digital imaging, to identify patients with diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Conlin is also investigating the role of web-based care management and patient education in patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus.

E-mail: Paul.Conlin@va.gov

Irene Cramer, Ph.D., MSSA is a COLMR investigator and Research Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. She is Co-PI for the HSR&D funded "Evaluation of the Parkinson's Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centers (PADRECC)". In collaboration with the Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC), she also has the lead role in the qualitative aspect of the "Evaluation of the Implementation of Supported Employment". As a co-investigator for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Evaluation of Pursuing Perfection", she focuses on organizational change in healthcare settings. She comes to this work with over 30 years experience as a clinician and manager in behavioral health.

E-mail: Irene.Cramer@va.gov

Larry Culpepper, M.D., M.P.H. is an associate investigator at COLMR. He is Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the BU School of Medicine and head of family practice at Boston Medical Center. He currently is Co-Director (with Dr. Young) of an AHRQ-funded Developmental Patient Safety Center and co-investigator on the AHRQ-funded “Organizations, Work Environment and Quality of Care” project. An experienced health services researcher, his research interests include patient safety, quality of care, and management practices for promoting continuity of care.

E-mail: Larry.Culpepper@bmc.org

Ryann L. Engle, M.P.H. is a project manager at COLMR. She is currently coordinating the "Strengthening Organizations to Implement Evidence-Based Practice" project. Ms. Engle has experience in both qualitative and quantitative methods and was previously associated with the VA Center for Healthcare Quality Outcomes and Economic Research (CHQOER) in Bedford. During her time at CHQOER she coordinated the "Better Jobs, Better Care" study which focused on cultural competence in long-term care settings.

E-mail: Ryann.Engle@va.gov

Preet Ghuman, B.S. is a Research Assistant at COLMR. He works on the "Strengthening Organization to Implement Evidence Based Practice" and "Predictors of QI Progress on Inpatient Mental Health Services" projects. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona in 2006. Mr. Ghuman is currently an MPH candidate at the Boston University School of Public Health with a concentration of Health Policy & Management.

E-mail: Preet.Ghuman@va.gov

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Michael Gormley, B.S. is the COLMR administrative officer. Mr. Gormley has over twenty years of experience in health care administration, and is responsible for all administrative aspects of the center and for supervision of the program assistants.

E-mail: Michael.Gormley@va.gov

Sally Holmes, M.B.A. is program manager for COLMR. In this role Ms. Holmes is responsible for staff professional development and organizational improvement. She is also co-investigator on several grants including the VA HSR&D funded "Strengthening Organizations to Implement Evidence-Based Practice" and the "Pursuing Perfection" evaluation projects. Additionally, Ms. Holmes is currently working with the Boston University Health Policy Institute on studies of hospital quality improvement sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund and the state of quality improvement training in the US, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

E-mail: Sally.Holmes@va.gov

Sandra Kaye is a Program Assistant in the Administrative Unit at COLMR and is responsible for many of the daily administrative functions of the Center.

E-mail: Sandra.Kaye@va.gov

Barbara Lerner, M.S. is the Project Manager for the RWJ funded Pursuing Perfection validation project titled "Transforming Healthcare Organizations to Improve Patient Care: Validation of an Approach". She also coordinates the project to disseminate the Conceptual Model of Organizational Transformation, developed by the Pursuing Perfection Evaluation Team. Barbara is currently a doctoral candidate in the Health Policy and Management Department at The Boston University School of Public Health.

E-mail: Barbara.Lerner@va.gov

Hai (Richard) Lin, M.D., MPH is a Statistician in the Methodology and Survey Unit and is expert in the fields of Biostatistics and various quantitative analyses. He has extensive experience in working with large databases.

E-mail: Hai.Lin@va.gov

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Alexis Maule, B.A. is a Research Assistant at COLMR. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Boston University and she is currently pursuing an MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.

E-mail: E-mail: Alexis.Maule@va.gov

Mark Meterko, Ph.D. heads the Methodology and Survey Unit in COLMR. In this capacity he and his staff serve as internal consultants and research collaborators to research and technical assistance projects with regard to instrument development, psychometric assessment, and statistical analysis. Dr. Meterko also co-chairs the COLMR Management Practices and Quality Research Team.

E-mail: Mark.Meterko@va.gov

David Mohr, Ph.D., is a COLMR investigator and a Research Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Mohr's degree is in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Dr. Mohr is focusing his efforts on leadership and workforce development projects as well as working on projects that utilize the national All Employee Survey, which he helped develop.

E-mail: David.Mohr2@va.gov

Marjorie Nealon Seibert, M.B.A. a member of the Methodology and Survey Unit, she is the Survey Administrator for COLMR. In this role, she assumes primary responsibility for the day-to-day administration of survey research projects for COLMR. She has extensive experience in all phases of survey design and administration including telephone interviews and web-based surveys. She is a member of the national interdepartmental team that develops, administers and analyzes the annual VA All Employee Survey.

E-mail: Marjorie.NealonSeibert@va.gov

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John Otis, Ph.D. is an investigator at COLMR as well as the Director of Pain Management Psychology Services at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Otis has conducted research and produced scholarly writing about pain throughout the lifespan and has focused his clinical research career on the development of innovative approaches to pain management, tailored to specialized patient populations. He has extended his research interests in working at COLMR to address coordination between primary care and mental health.

E-mail: John.Otis@va.gov

Victoria Parker, D.B.A. is a COLMR investigator, and is also the COLMR Fellowship Coordinator for postdoctoral fellowships. She is Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at BUSPH. Her research interests are in the organization of health care delivery systems, work group dynamics and patient-provider relationships. She recently led a Robert Wood Johnson and Atlantic Philanthropies-funded study of cultural competence, job experience and satisfaction of front-line nursing care workers in long-term care facilities and is currently working on an Avon Foundation funded study of patient navigation in cancer care.

E-mail: Victoria.Parker@va.gov

Erol Peköz, Ph.D. is a COLMR Associate Investigator and Associate Professor of Operations & Technology Management at the Boston University School of Management. Working in the area of Quantitative Methods, Professor Peköz studies stochastic problems in Finance and Operations Management. These include queuing models for congestion in operations, theory of rare events, Monte Carlo simulation, risk management, and statistical models for health care data.

E-mail: pekoz@bu.edu

Terri K. Pogoda, Ph.D. is a co-investigator for the HSR&D research effort to evaluate the national Parkinson Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Centers (PADRECCs) and a project manager for the qualitative component of a national study on the implementation of the Supported Employment program. She participates in both quantitative and qualitative research for the projects. Her Ph.D. from Tufts University is in experimental psychology, and her background is in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in basic and applied research of memory and cognition. Her research interests include using a multidisciplinary approach for identifying best practices and studying the implementation of evidence-based practices.

E-mail: Terri.Pogoda@va.gov

Patricia Resick, Ph.D. is a COLMR investigator and Director of the National Center for PTSD, Women’s Health Sciences Division, located at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Resick’s research focuses on the effects of traumatic events, especially for women, as well as developing and testing therapeutic interventions for PTSD. She is internationally recognized for her research to develop evidence-based treatments for PTSD that are currently used in the VA and Department of Defense healthcare system as well as in rape crisis centers and clinics across the world.

E-mail: Patricia.Resick@va.gov

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Joseph D. Restuccia, M.P.H., Dr.P.H. is an investigator at COLMR. He is Professor of Health Care and Operations Management at the BU School of Management. His research focuses on health care quality, appropriateness, utilization, and cost. He is co-developer of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) and currently is a co-investigator on the Pursuing Perfection project.

E-mail: jres@bu.edu

Peter Rivard, Ph.D. is a VA Postdoctoral Fellow and Instructor of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Rivard's research focuses on patient safety, organizational learning, and the work of middle managers in planning and implementing organizational change.

E-mail: E-mail: rivardp@bu.edu

Robert Rosenheck, M.D. is an associate investigator at COLMR. He is Deputy Chief of Psychiatry at the VA Connecticut Health Care System and Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine. Among his varied leadership roles, he is Director of the Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC). His research interests include service lines and other management practices for improving the quality of mental health care.

E-mail: Robert.Rosenheck@va.gov

Michael Shwartz, Ph.D. is a COLMR investigator and co-leader of the Management Practices and Organizational Change Research Team. He is Professor of Health Care and Operations Management at the BU School of Management. Active in health services research for over 20 years, the focus of his recent research has been on health care costs, payment, utilization, appropriateness and quality of care. He has extensive expertise in statistics and risk adjustment. Among other projects, he is co-investigator on the Pursuing Perfection evaluation.

E-mail: Michael.Shwartz@va.gov

Jason Silver, B.A. is a research assistant with COLMR and is working on analyzing the efficacy of pay for performance programs in community healthcare settings. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychology with a Business emphasis from California State University, Northridge and currently attends Boston University School of Public Health pursuing a concentration in Health Policy and Management.

E-mail: E-mail: Jason.Silver@va.gov

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Cheryl Stetler, RN, Ph.D. is an associate investigator at COLMR. She is an international consultant on evidence-based practice and evaluation, providing consultation to, for example, the VA QUERI program. She works with health services researchers to develop strategies to improve the nature of translation research. Trained as a nurse, she has extensive experience in hospital administration. She also has extensive experience in organizational change, having served as project director for an organization-wide patient-centered redesign program at Hartford Hospital.

E-mail: Cheryl.Stetler@the-spa.com

Jennifer Sullivan, Ph.D. is a COLMR investigator and a Research Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Sullivan's degree is in gerontology policy research. Her primary interests are in long term care, specifically focusing on access and quality of care in extended care settings.

E-mail: Jennifer.Sullivan@va.gov

Carol VanDeusen Lukas, Ed.D., is Senior Investigator at COLMR and Clinical Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. She also leads Boston University's Safety Net ACTION Partnership, a coalition of researchers and healthcare service delivery systems that participates in the Agency for Healthcare for Research and Quality's initiative, Accelerating Change and Transformation in Organizations and Networks. Her current research focuses on organizational change and transformation, implementation of innovative practices and health system integration.

E-mail: Carol.VanDeusenLukas@va.gov

Bert White, M.B.A., D.Min. is a COLMR project manager who is taking major responsibility for the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - funded “Rewarding Results” multi-year national evaluation project. His focus is on aligning incentives with high quality healthcare and health policy ethical issues. He is co-chair of the Managed Care Committee of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

E-mail: Bert.White@va.gov

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