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Maria DeGiglio |
Maria DeGiglio is a health advocate and the Executive Director of the International Coalition of Professional Patient Advocates (ICOPPA). For three years, she has been lead and adjunct professor for the Alfus Patient Advocacy Certificate (APAC) Program offered through the University of Miami's Division of Continuing and International Education (DCIE). Ms. DeGiglio received her Masters degree in Health Advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College. She graduated Cum laude from Cornell University and subsequently entered a Ph.D. program in Anthropology at The Johns Hopkins University. In addition to being a Health Advocate, Ms. DeGiglio is an experienced mediator and ethicist (supported by an Advanced Certificate in Applied Research Ethics).
Ms. DeGiglio has comprehensive knowledge of both the business and IT issues affecting the health care industry. She worked as a consultant to the Visiting Nurse Service (VNS) of New York for two years exploring the technical requirements as well as the ethical issues surrounding the creation of online personal health records. Ms. DeGiglio has investigated the legal, ethical, and regulatory aspects of creating, implementing and exchanging electronic medical records (EMRs) for both provider and payer organizations. She has extensive experience in online learning management systems (LMSs) and authoring Web site content. She has legal and policy expertise in privacy and regulatory compliance.
Prior to her appointments to ICOPPA and the University of Miami, Ms. DeGiglio was president and principal analyst of Maria A. DeGiglio and Associates. Ms. DeGiglio has been an IT executive and IT industry analyst for over 20 years working one-on-one with C-level executives to solve IT and business challenges. She is the author of over 1,000 published articles, reports, and white papers.
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Jenni Frumer |
Jenni Frumer is the Associate Executive Director at the Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service (AJFCS) and Jewish Residential and Family Service (JRFS) in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Mental Health Counselor, has National Board Certification in Geriatric Counseling and is a National Certified Guardian.
Frumer earned a Masters in Social Work from Catholic University, a MS in education from Old Dominion University and a BS from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has taught graduate courses in Gerontology and Administration at Nova Southeastern University. A Team Leader for the National Council on Accreditation for Family and Children’s Services, she conducts site visits of other social service agencies and Marine Corps installations, has served on the National Council on Accreditation for Family and Children’s Services committee to develop standards for guardianship services and the implementation of performance quality improvement at small organizations, and is an active member of the American Society on Aging.
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Shawna Irish |
Shawna Irish has a M.A. in Health Advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College, and further academic background in Women's Studies and Biology. She has worked previously with the Medicare Rights Center and the Community Service Society's Managed Care Consumer Assistance Program to provide direct advocacy for patients and training of community advocates. Additionally, she has coordinated health education campaigns, both in the US and internationally. Ms. Irish currently works as a Compliance Analyst for a pharmaceutical company.
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Jane Nyce |
Jane Nyce has a Doctorate in Psychology and a Masters in Health Advocacy. She is currently the executive director for an aging-in-place program (www.stayingputnc.org) in New Canaan, CT. The program, is in its fourth year of operation. The mission is to keep seniors 50 and over safe and independent in their homes as they age. This is part of a national movement to find a way for seniors to stay in the communities they love, outside of many of the institutional options that now exist.
In addition to her current position she has over twenty years experience in consumer insights and market research; she has worked for Information Resources (a national research firm), Tropicana and Kraft Foods.
Joyce Jacobson, M.A., P.A.-C.
Joyce Jacobson, M.A., P.A.-C., is currently the Health Administrator for the Township of Lyndhurst, New Jersey. She serves as Chair of the Lyndhurst Health Council, an advisory board to the township’s mayor. In these roles, Jacobson combines her clinical knowledge and advocacy skills to provide individual and population based health advocacy, as well as public health leadership. She develops health programs for all ages, with a special emphasis on the senior population.
Ms. Jacobson has been nationally certified as a physician assistant since 1980. With her clinical work concentrating in neonatology, Jacobson served on the Neonatal Bioethics Committee at Staten Island University Hospital. In 2006, Jacobson received certification in mediation. After completing her master’s degree in Health Advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College (2007), Jacobson participated in the Public Health Leadership Initiative for Emergency Response (PHLIER), a fellowship sponsored by the NJ Center for Public Health Preparedness, the CDC, and the Association of Schools of Public Health.
Jacobson successfully campaigned to have the Lyndhurst Bard of Commissioners adopt the Township of Lyndhurst’s Precautionary Principle (2008). With the passage of this ordinance, Lyndhurst became the second municipality in the U.S. to adopt this principle as a guide to municipal policy. The goal of the Precautionary Principle is to develop laws for a healthier environment, with the emphasis on preventing harms before they do damage.
As a co-leader of Bergen County’s Access to Health Care Task Force, Jacobson establishes collaborations to address deficiencies in access to health care. In 2010, she designed and sponsored Health Access 101: The Road to Health Care, a symposium at which professionals learned about free and low cost health services available in Bergen County. Jacobson organizes enrollment events for NJ FamilyCare, New Jersey’s version of S-CHIP, to help parents and their children gain access to health insurance.
Jacobson joins the National Patient Advocacy Foundation (NPAF) annually in Washington, D.C. to lobby for increased access to health care. As the New Jersey State Policy Liaison for the NPAF, Jacobson coordinated the first annual NPAF NJ Patient Advocacy Day (2010).
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Natalie Shasha |
Natalie Shasha is a registered nurse, attorney and certified professional healthcare risk manager. For the past seven years, Shasha has been working as a healthcare risk manager. She is currently the Vice President of Risk Management at a 340 bed hospital which provides acute care services as well as psychiatric and rehabilitative inpatient services.
Shasha’s responsibilities include the administration of the risk management program, mediating patient concerns, educating staff on patient safety and bioethical issues, collaborating with other hospital departments to ensure a safe and therapeutic environment of care for the patient population. She is a member of the hospital’s administrative and clinical care committees.
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Steve Pew, Ph.D. |
Stephen Pew is Director of the Health Advocacy Leadership and Learning Organization. He has his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Measurement, a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology and has over 30 years of leadership and teaching experience. He has worked with public and private, not for profit and for profit organizations and businesses in community health, continuous quality improvement, patient safety, Appreciative Inquiry, and performance management. He has most recently been an Associate Professor in the Graduate School at Park University and Executive Director of the Master of Healthcare Leadership Program. He has also taught Special Education at the University of Nebraska, Organizational Psychology at Creighton University and Quality Improvement in medicine at Rockhurst University.
He has been a licensed Nursing Home Administrator in Indiana/Kansas/Kentucky and holds a certificate in Civil and Family Mediation and Conflict Resolution from Texas Woman’s University. He is a published author, public speaker and holds copyrights on Diversity Measurement Tools for large organizations. His most recent co-authored book is Don’t Go There Alone..A Guide to Hospitals for Patients and Their Advocates.
Steve is the founder of Health Advocacy Leadership and Learning Organization (HALO) www.halo1.org, an organization dedicated to educating and training professionals and volunteers in health and patient advocacy in order to “bring out the best” in healthcare by teaching patients, families and advocates to be more informed consumers.