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The professional staff and consultants at PHRG is our most important resource. PHRG maintains a quality core team of professionals with a broad range of experience in program and policy analysis, research, and healthcare services consulting. Our complement of professionals includes leading health and medical specialists with expertise in epidemiology, disease surveillance, applied information technology, strategic and health services planning, toxicology, biostatistics, medicine, and program evaluation. Such a diverse field of experience and clinical backgrounds allows us to offer clients multidisciplinary teams with the highest level of expertise.
Professional Staff Biosketches
Ronald D. Deprez, Ph.D., MPH - Executive Director
William B. Stason, MD, M.Sci. - Clinical Director
Gary Cattabriga - Director of Technology Consulting
Dorothy Radziszewski - Product Manager and Data Analyst
Denise Yob, MPH- Senior Research Associate
Amy Kinner, MS- Research Associate
Consultants
John Gale, MA -
Consulting Principal - Behavioral Health
L. William Katz, DBA - Consulting Principal - Finance
Jo E. Linder, MD - Consulting Principal - Disease Control & Emergency Response
Peter McKenney , JD, CPA - Consulting Principal - Finance
C. Irving Meeker, MD - Consulting Principal - OB/GYN
Linda M. Niccolai, Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Epidemiology
L. Christine Oliver, MD, MS - Consulting Principal - Respiratory Medicine
James S. Smith, Jr., Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Toxicology
Lee Ann Baggott, MD - Consulting Principal - Pulmonology
Richard K. Thomas, Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Planning
Réal Deprez - Consulting Principal - Health Communications
Brian Robertson, Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Survey Research
Shalom Odokara - Consulting Principal - Health Care Disparities
Jeffery Muschell - Consulting Principal - International Health
Ronald D. Deprez, Ph.D., MPH - Executive Director
Instructor: Executive Education, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
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As Executive Director of The Center for Health Policy, Planning & Research (CHPPR), Dr. Deprez provides consultation on the development and application of health information tools for health services planning, disease surveillance, health information systems, and health care reimbursement, on a scale encompassing rural hospitals, urban American regions, and developing nations. He is the primary developer of the population based health planning tools used by CHPPR including those designed for strategic planning, heart health, reproductive health, child and adolescent health and behavioral health. The Center has extensive experience in health planning ranging from estimating health service needs to redesigning local health care delivery systems.
Dr. Deprez is an expert in chronic and infectious disease delivery systems-ranging from screening, detection, education, treatment and follow-up care for persons with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, selected cancers, asthma, COPD, malaria and water borne diseases. Dr. Deprez holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University and an MPH in Epidemiology from Harvard University. He also holds a certificate in survey research methods from the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
William B. Stason, MD, M.Sci. - Clinical Director
Faculty, Harvard School of Public Health
For the past 25 years, he has planned, managed, and evaluated health services with particular emphasis on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of medical practices and technologies. Dr. Stason is an expert in technology assessment and cost-effectiveness and in the techniques of quality improvement in health care. He was awarded the American Medical Writer's Association Book Award for co-authoring "Hypertension: a Policy Perspective" which has been widely acclaimed as a landmark in applying quantitative techniques to the investigation of national health policy issues. He co-developed the methodology of the resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS), an approach to physician reimbursement that has been adopted by the U.S. Congress as the basis for paying physicians under the Medicare program. Recently, he completed an evaluation for the Health Care Financing Administration of the effects of bundled pricing on the appropriateness, outcomes, and costs of coronary artery bypass surgery. Dr. Stason directed the development of clinical practice guidelines for "Post-Stroke Rehabilitation" which was published in 1995 by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Previously, he has been Senior Vice President of Medical Scientists, Inc., President of Health Systems Quality Institute, Vice President of Health Economics Research, Inc., and Director of the Northeast Health Services Research and Development Program in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1973 until 1990 and has been a member of the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health since 1975.
Dr. Stason received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan, a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Harvard Medical School, and a Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He trained in medicine and cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA and Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, NY.
Gary Cattabriga - Director of Technology Consulting
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Mr. Cattabriga has over 20 years experience in applying technology to business success. His expertise in Project Management, Application Development and Informatics has delivered solutions ranging from a Medical Claims Data Warehouse, Client/Server Claims Analysis application, to automated process control equipment.
Gary received his BS in Physics from Cornell University. His positions have included: Software and Hardware Engineer for several engineering firms, President and Consultant of his own technology consulting company, Director of IT for Fresh Samantha, a leading juice manufacturer, and VP of Technology for ecuCare International, a Healthcare Informatics company. He has personally designed and built database applications, complex process control computer equipment, and data extraction & transformation tools. He has experience in many programming languages, databases and hardware platforms.
Dorothy Radziszewski
- Product Manager and Data Analyst
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Ms. Radziszewski provides finesse for CHPPR's technical projects. She has previous work experience at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield as well as ecuCare International. In addition, as a former acute care staff nurse, she is able to synthesize the latest technical capabilities with the diverse data needs of the healthcare marketplace. One of Ms. Radziszewski's projects at PHRG is the serving as a Subject Matter Expert in developing an Oracle data warehouse to store national and state statistical data. Her technical software knowledge includes Demo It, Forest and Trees, InfoReports, Visual Basic, Crystal Reports, Visio, Power Designer, Track Record, CodeWright, Test Bytes, SQA Suite, SQL Plus, Business Objects.
Denise Yob, MPH - Senior Research Associate
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Denise Yob is a Senior Research Associate at CHPPR with a focus on mental health research, health services, community heath assessments, and evaluation research. She is skilled in quantitative and qualitative research methods and has extensive experience in researching the epidemiology, prevention, and health services of a diverse range of health conditions such as HIV, substance use, mental health, infant mortality, and women’s health and evaluating public health programs. Past employment includes positions with JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc, Friends of the Family, Inc., and the Women’s and Children’s Health Policy Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Denise has received training in epidemiology, biostatistics, mental health, and health services from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she undertook doctoral studies in the Department of Mental Health. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Health with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Science from Boston University School of Public Health, and a Bachelors degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Amy Kinner, MS - Research Associate
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Amy Kinner is a Research Associate at CHPPR with a focus on epidemiology, survey research, evaluation research and consulting. Amy has extensive experience in analyzing and evaluating public health programs. She has experience developing and coordinating technical analyses, managing and analyzing health data, and communicating the results of technical analyses to a wide variety of audiences. Amy also is proficient with Geographic Information System (GIS) software ArcGIS 9.x by ESRI. Her past employment includes appointments with the US EPA’s Aging Initiative and with EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. Amy holds a MS in Health, Environment, and Development from the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, where she received extensive training in epidemiology, statistics, economics, and risk assessment. She also holds a BA in Chemistry from Middlebury College in Vermont.
John Gale, MA - Consulting Principal - Behavioral Health
Mr. Gale work focuses on the development, delivery, and integration of primary care, mental health and substance abuse treatment services; financing and access issues; community development initiatives; rural safety net services; state health policy issues and, the development and maintenance of the health care infrastructure in rural communities. He is currently on the staff of the Muskie School of Public Health Policy. Recent projects have included an assessment of the Robert Wood Johnson Southern Rural Access Project; monitoring the implementation of Medicaid managed behavioral health programs in rural areas with special emphasis on the integration of mental health and general medical services; a national survey of Rural Health Clinics; participation in the Rural Hospital Flexibility Program National Tracking Project with a special emphasis on community development initiatives, the role of Critical Access Hospitals in the health care safety net, the use of the balanced scorecard as a management tool by rural hospitals, and state level efforts to support and sustain rural hospitals; the evaluation of the Maine Rural Hospital Flexibility Program; and a Commonwealth Fund project exploring state initiatives to expand health insurance coverage.
Prior to this work, he managed the delivery of a full continuum of inpatient, outpatient, and step-down mental health and substance abuse services. He also managed the delivery of primary care services in two psychiatric hospitals, the physician services in an in-patient substance abuse and eating disorders facility, and various hospital-based ambulatory practices.
Mr. Gale received his Masters of Science in Health Policy and Management and Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine. In addition, Mr. Gale serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Rural Mental Health.
L. William Katz, DBA - Consulting Principal - Finance
L. William Katz, DBA, is Financial Consultant for PHRG and President of Katz & Associates, Inc. He has over 30 years of successful health care management and financial consulting experience. Clients include medical groups, IPAs, hospitals, medical schools, managed care organizations, health insurers, physician/hospital organizations (PHO), pharmaceutical companies, health care start-ups, organizations new to health care, financial institutions, venture capitalists and governments.
Dr. Katz's experience includes being Director in the Compliance and Hospital/Physicians Practice of ZA Consulting, LLC Inc. and in the healthcare management and finance practice of Arthur D. Little, Inc. He has also and managed the consulting practices of two international accounting and consulting firms and a division of American Hospital Supply Corporation.
He earned his Doctor of Business Administration in finance and healthcare management from the George Washington University, his MBA in finance from the Amos Tuck School and his AB from Dartmouth College.
Dr. Katz is an advanced member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, Massachusetts Chapter Board member, and a member of the Physicians Practice, Decision Support/Improving Operations and Managed Care Committees; Vice President of Region 1 of the Health Care Compliance Association; Co-President of Health Care Consultants of New England; and a Certified Management Consultant and a board member, New England chapter of the Institute of Management Consultants.
Peter McKenney - Consulting Principal - Finance
Peter C. McKenney, BSME, MBA, CPA, JD, LLM (taxation), is a senior consultant with PHRG's partner firm Stroudwater Associates. Peter has 22 years of experience in the health care field. He has worked with physician multi-specialty groups and hospital systems on business planning and improving delivery systems. For 17 years, he was a partner with KPMG Peat Marwick, providing services to health care providers. He also served as the executive director of a 50-member radiology practice and assisted in forming a multi-specialty practice.
C. Irving Meeker, MD - Consulting Principal - OB/GYN
C. Irving Meeker, M.D. is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mercy Hospital and former Quality Assurance Officer at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. Dr. Meeker came to Maine as Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Maine Medical Center, a position he held for ten years. Dr. Meeker was a co-investigator, along with Public Health Resource Group, on the Maine Medical Liability Demonstration Project. This was a three year grant sponsored by AHCPR which protects physicians from liability in exchange for following practice guidelines. Dr. Meeker served as Chairman of the Committee on Quality Assurance for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and of the Task Force which wrote the manual "Quality Assurance in Obstetrics and Gynecology", published by that organization. As Chairman of the JCAHO Task Force, Dr. Meeker developed the Clinical Indicators for Obstetrics. He is a member of the Medical Advisory Forum of the AMA and a former member of the Medical Advisory Panel for the Program for External Civilian Peer Review of Military Commission of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Meeker received his medical degree at Cornell University College of Medicine in New York City. He had his residency training at the University of Vermont in Burlington and at the Boston Lying In Hospital in Boston. Following a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at McGill University he was on the faculty of the University of Vermont until he came to Maine.
Linda M. Niccolai, Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Epidemiology
As a Research Associate for Public Health Resource Group, Inc. and Public Health Research Institute, Dr. Niccolai conducted analysis and interpretation of quantitative data used to describe and understand health status characteristics and the health care delivery system. She has contributed to a variety of epidemiological studies, both hospital (clinical) and population (community) based, related to cardiology, pediatrics, HIV/AIDS, and osteoporosis. Her responsibilities have included primary data collection, database management, statistical analyses (including multivariate techniques), and report writing. She has worked on projects ranging from general community health needs assessments to the evaluation of physician practice guidelines in obstetrics and to the development of an asthma surveillance system for the state of Maine. Dr. Niccolai holds a Masters of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology from Tulane University. She currently teaches at Yale University and has taught graduate classes in survey research and data analysis. Her current research interests are in behavioral aspects of disease prevention, particularly among underserved populations.
L. Christine Oliver, MD, MS - Consulting Principal - Respiratory Medicine
L. Christine Oliver, MD, MS is President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. and its sister organization Occupational Health Institute. She is an Associate Physician in the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Board certified in Internal Medicine and in Occupational Medicine, Dr. Oliver's primary specialty is Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is the former Director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. There she evaluates and cares for patients with occupational and environmental pulmonary illness and disease, including both malignant and nonmalignant disease. Dr. Oliver has done research and published in the area of occupational lung disease. She has testified before the United States Congress about medical criteria for the diagnosis of asbestosis and asbestos-related lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. She presented on the same topic at the Global Asbestos Congress in Osasco, Brazil in September, 2000. For the past decade an important focus of her research has been health and safety hazards for construction workers in heavy and highway construction. As part of this research, she and colleagues developed a relational database for medical surveillance of these workers that included both primary health survey data and secondary insurance claims data.
James S. Smith, Jr., Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Toxicology
James S. Smith, Jr., Ph.D., President & Toxicologist of Oak Creek, Inc. Toxicology and Risk Assessment Consulting has 13 years of professional experience as a toxicologist and risk assessor. He also has 5 years within the Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and 8 years consulting in the environmental sciences. He has a multidisciplinary background in the biological and chemical sciences that includes extensive study and research in the fields of carcinogenesis, biology, immunology, biochemistry, molecular genetics, and neurobiology.
Dr. Smith has a thorough understanding of the toxicology of hazardous metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated dioxins, furans, and biphenyl. He has derived site-specific risk-based cleanup levels and performed human health risk assessments at CERCLA, RCRA, and state lead sites consistent with state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance.
Special areas of expertise in risk assessment include the derivation and use of chemical-specific information on bioavailability, endocrine disruption, toxic equivalency factors for dioxins and related compounds, and the estimated order of potency approach for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Dr. Smith has successfully negotiated the use of new technologies and alternative cleanup levels with regulatory authorities. Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Toxicology from University of Cincinnati, Medical College, in Cincinnati, Ohio and a BS in Biological Sciences from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Richard K. Thomas, Ph.D. - Consulting Principal - Planning
Dr. Thomas is an expert in health service planning. He has spent the majority of his 30-year career developing local health service plans for communities throughout the US, including the preparation of regional health service inventories, creation of planning documents and coordination of regional planning councils. Dr. Thomas has carried out planning studies and developed strategic and business plans for hospitals, clinics and physician groups throughout the Southeast. He also spearheaded the development of a computerized decision support system for the Community Health Agencies. In addition, Dr. Thomas has been actively involved in the development of community data warehouses that interface health and other community data, and in the development of methodologies for community assessments.
His current writing projects involve a revision of his earlier book on health services planning. He has taught sociology, marketing and health care administration courses for a variety of institutions and is currently on the adjunct faculties of the University of St. Francis, Central Michigan University, and the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences. Dr. Thomas has a master’s degree in sociology and in geography/city planning from the University of Memphis. He also holds a Doctorate in Medical Sociology from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Thomas has been a Consulting Principal with PHRG for the past 4 years.
Réal Deprez - Consulting Principal - Health Communications
Réal's work consists of developing effective health messaging and health information gathering tools for clients.
His visual design skills, experience in graphic arts, and knowledge of usability all contribute to his job of designing PHRG's
web applications and web-based surveying tools, as well as health-related web sites, print materials and other forms
of digital and printed communication. Réal uses a variety of design and creation software, but his preferred
tools include Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, Macromedia Dreamweaver & Flash, and Quark Xpress.
Réal is a graduate of Tulane University where he received his BA degree in Fine Arts.
