The AHCA Board of Governors established a Board of Overseers to oversee activities, ensure integrity, and sustain the vitality of the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program. The 11-member Board includes the best quality expertise available in long term care. These individuals dedicate their time and service to providing continuous support and improvement to the National Quality Award program.
Barbara Baylis, RN
Tel: 520.596.7920
Barbara Baylis, a registered nurse, has served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations for Kindred Healthcare since December 2002. From 1998 to 2002, she served in various executive capacities with Mariner Post-Acute Network, a long-term healthcare provider, most recent as Vice President Clinical Services. Prior to joining Mariner Health, she was Corporate Director of Nursing Services and Quality Programs of Living Centers of America. Barbara has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Molloy College in New York and a Master’s of Nursing Administration and Nursing Education from the University of Wyoming. Her areas of expertise include clinical practice, clinical and nursing administration, policy and procedure development, quality improvement and regulatory compliance. Barbara has served on various AHCA committees and subcommittees, presented at many workshops and conventions. She is currently Co-Chair of the AHCA Clinical Practice Committee and Past Co-Chair of the Nurse Executive Council. Barbara has been an AHCA Quality Award Examiner since 1996 and is a Master Examiner. She serves on the AHCA Quality Award Board of Overseers. Barbara is a Kentucky Quality Award examiner and member of the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence Operating Committee.
Christine Boldt
Tel: 651.388.2234
Christine Boldt, Vice President, Operations with the Benedictine Health System, has more than 25 years of health care experience. She has served in a variety of positions in her career including Social Worker, Director of Assessment and Transition and Director of Quality Care for the Benedictine Health System. Ms. Boldt is skilled in designing and implementing assessment and transition processes for newly acquired facilities, leading teams in facility turnaround situations, providing training to facility leadership teams in the process and principles of quality and organizational development. Ms. Boldt is responsible for overseeing and directing the operations of 11 long term care campuses including assisted living and independent housing to ensure compliance, profitability, high levels of resident, tenant, family and employee satisfaction and promoting the highest possible outcomes while assuring the mission and values of BHS are maintained.
Ms. Boldt has presented at national, state and regional meetings and conferences on the topics of facility turnaround, quality improvement, facility assessment processes and the AHCA Quality Award. She is a Master Examiner for the American Health Care Association Quality Awards Program, serving since 1997. Ms Boldt serves on the Care Providers of Minnesota’s Executive Management Committee, Service Corporation Board Chair and a board member for Care Provider’s Foundation. In addition, she serves on the American Health Care Association’s Quality Improvement Committee, AHCA Quality Award Board of Overseers and on the AHCA Not for Profit Committee
Ms. Boldt holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed Social Worker and Licensed Nursing Home Administrator.
Renée-Claire Norris
Tel. 301.975.6323
Renée joined the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award staff in 2005 as an Education Specialist for the Workforce Development Team. She has designed, developed, and facilitated training classes for Baldrige examiners and staff for several years. She has also served as project lead for training implementation, the examiner application process, and the evaluation of examiner training and award processes. In addition, she has participated in examiner selection. As a registered nurse, Renée has also maintained a health care focus within the Baldrige Program. She has worked on the Health Care Criteria writing team for four years, currently serves as a member of the Baldrige Program’s health care partnership, and has served as the Program monitor for numerous health care consensus and site visit teams.
Renée holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from George Mason University in Virginia. She has over twenty-five years of clinical nursing experience as a staff nurse, nurse manager, and house supervisor. She has worked in a variety of university teaching, community, and military facilities and in several specialties including PACU, ICU, and endoscopy. Prior to joining the Baldrige Program, she served as a Patient Safety Senior Program Analyst in Tricare Management Activity’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer, providing medical team training to military treatment facilities in the U.S. and abroad. She currently serves as a volunteer in Fairfax County, Virginia’s Medical Reserve Corps.
Ed McMahon, Ph.D.
Tel: 505.980.6146
Ed began his career in long-term care as a nursing assistant on the night shift while he was completing his doctoral studies. He currently serves as the National Director of Alzheimer’s Care/Quality for Golden Living. He has 33 years experience in the long term care profession in Alzheimer’s care development, research and development, sales and marketing, and corporate operations. Ed has served on the senior leadership teams of several corporations in multiple capacities. He was a pioneer in the development of special care units within the skilled nursing facility. He designed and developed the first Alzheimer’s Care Unit within a skilled nursing facility in the state of California. He is a much sought after speaker for national, state and local professional associations and has frequently been asked to key note conferences with a focus on culture change and quality of life issues for our customers.
Ed served on the AHCA Quality Committee that developed the Quality Award program and then served as an original, senior and master examiner. His passion for quality began in the 80’s when he lead a company of 120 facilities through the principles of Total Quality Management.
Dr. McMahon is a clinical psychologist and has degrees in modern languages and Asian History. He is also a licensed nursing home administrator. He has studied at Seton Hall University, the University of Madrid, Stanford University and Psychological Studies Institute.
Doug Olson, PhD
Tel: 715.836.5067
Dr. Douglas Olson is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Doug obtained his PhD at the University of Minnesota in Health Services Research, Policy and Administration with a dual minor in Management and Aging Studies. His dissertation topic was "How do Leadership Practices Influence Employee Satisfaction", which he completed in fall of 2000. Dr. Olson completed his MBA at the University of St. Thomas while working for Ecumen, formerly the Board of Social Ministry. His undergraduate degree in Health Care Administration was received from the UW-Eau Claire.
Dr. Olson has over twenty years of health care leadership experience, primarily in the field of health and aging services. Doug has given numerous national and regional presentations, and has an array of publication credits. He is currently involved in a variety of applied research and consulting efforts focusing on leadership, leadership development, organizational roles and best practices in the health and aging services field. At UW-Eau Claire, he serves as the Director of the Center for Health Administration and Aging Services Excellence, which has been instrumental in advancing the excellence of the health and aging service administration field. Dr. Olson is also the Vice-Chair of the Academy for Long Term Care Leadership and Development for ACHCA.
Dorothy Ray, RN
Tel: 402.660.6606
Dorothy Ray joined Alegent Health and Immanuel Health Systems in 2007 as the Senior Health Nurse Liaison, responsible for assessing the GAPS in senior health needs in acute care and in the continuum of care. In this role, she has initiated a program to train acute care nurses to care for seniors during hospitalization, developed a program to decrease rehospitalization of Medicare participants by improving discharge information and coaching the resident or care giver after discharge, and developed education packets for Advanced Directives for educating seniors in all levels of care including those in the community.
Prior to joining Alegent, Dorothy worked as the Quality Care Coordinator for Vetter Health Services for 19 years. Her responsibilities included assisting the nursing departments in quality assurance, in-servicing, and orienting new directors of nursing. She wrote policies for designated Alzheimer’s Units, trained the staff, and corroborated with the design department for appropriate environmental changes.
Dorothy received her RN degree from the Lincoln General School of Nursing in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has served as an AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Examiner for 13 years.
Christopher R. Schmidt
Tel: 334-273-9002
Chris has been involved in nursing homes and healthcare almost all of his life. He and his brother grew up in the nursing home business where their mother, Patti Wallace, worked as a social worker and then as administrator of a facility in Atlanta, Georgia. Chris went to school at Auburn University where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration in 1988 and a Master’s in Business Administration in 1990. He started working summers and weekends in 1987 at Capitol Hill Healthcare in Montgomery, Alabama while he was attending college. In 1988, he joined the family business full time as Administrator in Training and for the next 4 years he learned and performed almost every job in the facility. Chris completed his certified nursing assistant training in 1991. In 1991 at the age of 25 Chris moved to Talladega, Alabama and became the administrator of Talladega Health & Rehab Center, a 234 bed skilled nursing and rehab center. In 1996, Chris came back to Montgomery, Alabama to be the administrator of Capitol Hill Healthcare Center, a 284 bed skilled nursing and rehab center. In 1998, Chris moved to Gadsden, Alabama to run Mcguffey Healthcare Center, a 209 bed skilled nursing and rehab center. In 1999, Chris became administrator of Albertville Health & Rehab, a 159 bed facility in Albertville, Alabama. In 2005, Chris became the administrator of Shelby Ridge Health & Rehab, a 131 bed facility in Alabaster, Alabama. In 2010, Chris became the administrator of Hillview Terrace Health, a 143 bed skilled nursing and rehab center. All of the facilities Chris has been the administrator of have received quality awards from the American Healthcare Association and the Alabama Quality Award. Albertville Health and Rehab and Talladega Health & Rehab have both won the highest Alabama Quality Award at Level 3. Chris was a master quality award examiner for the American Healthcare Association for 10 years and a quality award examiner for the Alabama Quality Award for 4 years. Chris is the C.E.O. of Schmidt Wallace Healthcare which provide healthcare services for over 650 residents from over 900 employees in four skilled nursing and rehab facilities in Alabama.
Chris has two boys Brannon, age 18 and Mason, age 16. He enjoys outdoor activities such as snow skiing, soccer, sailing and international travel.
Ira M. Schoenberger
Tel: 413-821-0750
Ira M Schoenberger, FACHCA Senior Administrator with Genesis Health Care, with over 25 years operations experience in the for- profit post-acute rehab, long term care, and assisted living industries with a broad base of experience identifying new product lines of business, designing and operating program specialties in the post-acute and long term care delivery systems. Over the years Mr. Schoenberger has created implemented and directed complex projects including acute and long term care hospice services, dialysis services, building renovation projects, physician services, culture change initiatives and employee workforce education programs. He has direct operating responsibilities for the Heritage Campus (4- skilled nursing facilities and an assisted living center, Agawam Ma) and is responsible for the day to day operation of the 164 bed JCAHO accredited skilled nursing center on the campus which provides pulmonary and stroke rehab, acute and long-term care hospice programs; and long term care. He had lead his team at Heritage Hall East to received the first Gold American Health Care Association (AHCA) Quality Award in the state of Massachusetts and was the first awarded in the country to a proprietary nursing home in 2005. Mr. Schoenberger is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Administrator and serves on many boards including as a Board of Director for Regional Employment Board of Hampden County in Western Ma, Healthcare Workforce Advisory Board Western MA and is an Ambassador for his association the Massachusetts Senior Care. He is a Master and Senior Examiner for American Health Cares Association Quality Awards Programs and has presented at national and regional meetings and conferences on topics of workforce development and engagement; culture change initiatives; quality awards; and quality improvement process and performance.
Bradley Shiverick, CPHQ
Tel. 715.848.2713
Bradley N Shiverick, CPHQ is the Vice President of Healthcare Analytics for Team TSI Corporation. In that capacity he is involved in all aspects of the healthcare division, including product development, client relations, sales and marketing. Prior to joining TSI, he was the Chief Quality Officer of My InnerView, Inc. where he was responsible for the company's research agenda, information services activities, and development of strategic direction into new products and business lines. Before My InnerView, Mr. Shiverick was the Vice President for Quality Improvement with Harborside Healthcare. During his eight year tenure at Harborside, he was responsible for quality programs, customer service activities and performance measurement. Mr. Shiverick has 20 years of experience in long-term care quality and public policy development.
John M. “Chick” Stepahin, Ph.D.
Tel: 903.238.4463
Chick is a Quality and Organizational Development Consultant. He has over thirty-five years of professional experience in Quality Concepts and Application, Corporate Organizational Development, International and Domestic Human Resources, Compliance, Business Consulting, and various corporate management roles with several Fortune 200 organizations. His experience spans several sectors including education, health care, manufacturing, energy, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and private business entrepreneurship. He is a published author and past contributor to numerous publications.
Chick has been involved with Quality Management and Improvement activities since the early 1980’s starting in the industrial/manufacturing sector. He studied under Dr. W. Edwards Deming and was a member of Deming’s professional users group. He previously served in various quality and statistical improvement roles in manufacturing and service environments; responsible for quality assurance/improvement in the pharmaceutical industry and health care; taught statistical and quality applications and research methodology at the graduate level; and developed and implemented multi-facility company-wide business processes and improvement/statistical process control applications.
Chick has been actively involved in the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program for a number of years serving in the capacity of Member of the Board of Overseers; Senior and Master Examiner; Team Leader for the application evaluation/review process; facilitated/taught training webinars for Senior Examiners; along with facilitating educational sessions at the AHCA/NCAL National Conventions and the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Symposium.
LuMarie Polivka-West, MSP
Tel: 850-224-3907
LuMarie is Sr. Vice President of Policy with the Florida Health Care Association, representing a majority of the state’s long term care facilities. She is responsible for the planning and implementation of long term care related policies and programs and serves as the Principal Investigator for the $369,000 John A. Hartford Foundation Disaster Preparedness grant. Ms. Polivka-West is a past Florida Director of Licensure and Certification in the Agency for Health Care Administration, Medicaid Program Development Chief and Aging Community-Based Services Chief with over 20 years in state government.
Ms. Polivka-West serves as President of the Florida CHAIN Board of Directors, a statewide health care advocacy organization; and served for five years as the president of the Tallahassee Alzheimer Resource Center Board. She serves as Aging Services Chair of the Clearinghouse for Human Services; and is on the steering committees of the Florida Quality Improvement Organization and the Florida Pioneer Network, the Florida Teaching Nursing Home, AHCA’s Survey and Regulatory/Disaster Preparedness Committees; and the Milbank Foundation’s national project on difficult decision-making in nursing homes, and serves as a board member of the Florida Council on Aging. She has published in Health Affairs and several other national journals and is a national speaker on disaster preparedness and quality improvement in long term care.
LuMarie received a BA in English Lit from the University of Tennessee and an MS degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University, where she has been an adjunct faculty for the past twelve years teaching a graduate seminar on health care regulation.