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 9-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.
(From left to right) Brad Shiverick, Doug Olson, Dorothy Ray, Mary Bostwick, LuMarie Polivka-West, Barbara Baylis, John Stepahin, Bernie Dana and Bill Kubat
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. She came to Kindred with a strong clinical background. 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, quality improvement and regulatory compliance. Barbara has served on various AHCA committees and subcommittees, presented at many workshops and conventions. She is currently Chair of the Clinical Practice Committee and Co-Chair of the Nurse Executive Council. Barbara has been an AHCA Quality Award Examiner since 1996 and is a Master Examiner. She also serves on the Quality Award Program Board of Overseers.
Barbara has a clear picture of what she thinks needs to happen to improve care. “I believe our business is very simple - we take care of people who cannot take care of themselves. Unfortunately, we have made our industry very complex; we need to go back to the basics. I believe that when we do the basics, and do them well, our staff competency improves resulting in improved patient care.”
Christine Boldt
Tel: 651.388.2234
Christine Boldt, Operations Vice President with the Benedictine Health System, has more than 20 years of health care experience. She has served in a variety of positions in her career including Quality Director, Director of Assessment and Transition, interim Administrator, Corporate Director, Quality Care and Social Worker 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 improvement. Ms. Boldt is responsible for overseeing and directing the operations of 8 long term care facilities 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 and regional meetings and conferences on the topics of facility turnaround, quality improvement, assessment processes and the AHCA Quality Award. She is a Master Examiner for the American Health Care Association Quality Awards Program and serves on the AHCA board of Overseers, the Quality Committee and Not for Profit board. Ms Boldt serves as Care Providers of Minnesota’s Service Corporation Board Chair, board member for the Care Provider’s Foundation, a member of the Care Providers executive committee and a Care Providers board member. Ms. Boldt holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed Social Worker and Licensed Nursing Home Administrator
Mary Bostwick
Tel: 301.975.4280
Mary joined the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award staff in 1993 to assist in the development of a Baldrige-based national quality award for health care. In her role as health specialist, Mary participated in the development of the 1995 Health Care Criteria and subsequent annual revisions, selection and training of health care Examiners, the development of health care case studies, and in the oversight of the 1995 pilot review process for health care applicants. In her role as liaison to the health care community, Mary has provided guidance to collaborative study groups and organizations seeking to model their award programs on the Baldrige review and evaluation processes.
In addition to her health specialist activities, Mary has participated in the development of the Business Criteria for Performance Excellence, in the Award review process, and in the selection and training of Examiners for the Baldrige Award program. She has also led the Quest for Excellence annual conference, served as Champion for the state and local award programs, and delivered numerous presentations and workshops. In 1998 Mary received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for her contributions to the development of a team structure within the National Quality Program office.
Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Education from George Washington University. Prior to joining the Baldrige program staff, Mary worked at Alexandria Hospital in Northern Virginia. She has nine years experience as an internal consultant designing strategies for improving managerial and organizational effectiveness in a community hospital setting. In addition, Mary has extensive experience in using a systematic approach in the design of learning activities.
Bernie Dana, MQM
Tel: 417.848.8652
Bernie Dana is involved in long-term care as a consultant, researcher, speaker, and author. He is an Associate Professor of Business at Evangel University in Springfield, MO. Bernie holds a Masters Degree in Quality Management (MQM) from Loyola University – New Orleans. He teaches undergraduate and Masters level courses in management and leadership. He has served on the AHCA/NCAL Quality Improvement Committee since 1996 and he chaired the committee from 2001-2003. He has been involved with the development of AHCA’s Quality Award program since its inception and was presented AHCA’s “Friend of Quality” award at the annual convention in 2003. The AHCA/NCAL Board of Governors selected him in 2006 to lead the development of the newly formed Board of Overseers for the National Quality Award program. He is the author of numerous articles in Provider magazine and a number of resource materials on quality management including a book published by AHCA on Developing a Quality Management System. He is a frequent presenter of professional development seminars for national and state associations.
Bernie has served as a corporate leader and consultant in long term care and senior housing services since 1973. Prior to joining the Evangel University faculty in August 2001, Bernie spent 14 years as Executive Vice President and Director of Administrative Support Services with Vetter Health Services, Inc. (VHS). VHS owns and operates 31 nursing facilities and a retirement campus in a five-state region of the Midwest. At VHS, Bernie was responsible for strategic planning, resource development, and Total Quality Management. During Bernie’s tenure, four of the VHS nursing facilities were recipients of Nebraska’s Edgerton Award, the state quality award modeled after the Baldrige National Quality Award. Many of the VHS facilities are recipients of the AHCA Step I and Step II Quality Awards.
Bill Kubat
Tel: 605.326.3130
Bill joined the Good Samaritan Society on May 1, 1978. He served as administrator at Albion and Beatrice, Nebraska; and at Las Cruces, New Mexico. During this time he also served as an Expanded Staff representative, as a Preceptor in the Society’s Administrator-In-Training program and as member of the Society’s National Board of Directors. In May 1993, Bill joined the Central Office staff as Regional Director for the Society’s Eastern states. From August 1995 to October 1998, he served as Division Director for Resident Care and Services.
Under Bill’s leadership, the Division was reconfigured into Resident, Community and Quality Services, a name intended to provide sharper focus to daily activities and strategic planning. Bill was named Vice President of this division in October 1998, and is responsible for providing oversight and direction to a staff whose activities encompass education, survey support and management, new service development, quality assurance and consulting services in a variety of areas. Bill has been active nationally and regionally in quality and culture change initiatives.
Prior to joining the Good Samaritan Society, Bill graduated from Marquette University. In 1996, he completed studies toward a Master’s degree through a Society sponsored program with the University of North Texas at Denton and Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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.
Bradley Shiverick, CPHQ
Tel: 715.848.2713
Brad is the Chief Quality Officer of My InnerView, Inc. He is responsible for the company's research agenda, information services activities, and the development of strategic direction into new products and business lines. Prior to joining 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.
Mr. Shiverick is also a member of AHCA's Quality Improvement Subcommittee, and serves as an AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Master Examiner.
Before joining Harborside, Mr. Shiverick was with AHCA for five years in both the research and information group as well as directing the Facilitator Quality Management System project. Mr. Shiverick’s experience in long term care includes participation with the New York Quality Assurance System and the Multi-state Nursing Home Case Mix and Quality (RUG-III) Demonstration.
John M. “Chick” Stepahin, Ph.D.
Tel: 903.387.0847
Chick joined Stebbins Five Companies in 2003 and functions in the dual capacity of Compliance Officer and Director of Organizational Development and Human Resources. He has over thirty years experience in Corporate Organizational Development, International and Domestic Corporate Human Resources, Compliance, Corporate Business and Consulting, and various corporate management roles with several Fortune 200 companies. 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 W. Edwards Deming and was a member of Deming’s professional users group. He previously served in the role of Director of Statistical Process Control in manufacturing environments; responsible for quality assurance/improvement in the pharmaceutical industry and health care; he 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 active in the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program for a number of years serving in the capacity of Senior and Master Examiner; served as team leader for the Step II evaluation/review process; facilitated and taught the training webinars for Senior Examiners, along with facilitating an educational session at the AHCA/NCAL National Convention.
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.