NAHQ Launches Employer Advisory Board

NAHQ launched an Employer Advisory Board earlier this year. The Employer Advisory Board is comprised of exemplary leaders from healthcare organizations that are committed to advancing healthcare through quality.  

The charge of the Employer Advisory Board is to provide insights to NAHQ about national trends and priorities in healthcare regarding workforce readiness to deliver on quality, safety and value. Additionally, the Advisory Board will offer insight to NAHQ about how to best leverage a coordinated, competent healthcare quality workforce to build capacity for quality within healthcare systems. 

In 2018, NAHQ developed and twice validated the industry-standard Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, representing eight dimensions, 29 competency statements and 486 observable behaviors. NAHQ published a peer–reviewed paper on the Framework in the Journal for Healthcare Quality  and in the profession’s first–ever Workforce Report on this topic in 2019. The Advisory Board will support discovery on future phases of NAHQ’s work.  

2020 Employer Advisory Board
Mary A. Dolansky, PhD RN FAAN 
Director, Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN)
Researcher at Case Western Reserve University

Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Joan L. Gelrud, RN MSN CPHQ FACHE
Senior Vice President of Quality Health-plan and Hospitals, Kaiser Permanente 

Carole Guinane, RN BA MBA CPHQ
Executive Director, Cedars-Sinai ASC Operations
NAHQ President

Sandra Jones, BSN MSM RN CPHQ CPHRM LNCC
Director Quality Management, Texoma Medical Center
NAHQ Past President 

Patricia Kirkpatrick, MJ RN CPHQ
Director II, Quality Management, Amerigroup Corporation
NAHQ Secretary/Treasurer 

Madhu Mallela, PhD RN BSN MBA CPHQ CIC
Strategic Advisor

David Mayer, MD 
Executive Director, MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety MedStar Health
Chief Executive Officer, Patient Safety Movement Foundation 

Lisa Maxwell, MD MHCDS 
Chief Learning Officer, ChristianaCare 

Pat Merryweather, MA BA 
Executive Director, Project Patient Care 

Istikram M. Qaderi, MD MPS
Chief Quality & Transformation Officer, Penn Highlands Healthcare 

Marian Savage, MSN RN NEA-BC CPHQ PMP
Associate Vice President of Quality/ Patient Safety Officer,
Virginia Hospital Center
NAHQ President-Elect