Maria DeGiglio

Maria DeGiglio is the Executive Director for the National Alliance of Consumer Health Advocates (NACHA) and vice president of Advanced Services for Experture, LLC. She received her Masters degree in Healthcare Advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College and graduated Cum laude from Cornell University.

She works with IT and C-level executives to enable IT alignment with business goals and implement best practices and has worked with both large enterprises and small-and medium-sized businesses. During the last four years she has worked in the healthcare industry and in healthcare IT investigating the legal, ethical, and regulatory aspects of creating, implementing and exchanging electronic medical records (EMRs). Ms. DeGiglio is an expert in security, privacy, and HIPAA regulatory compliance. DeGiglio is also a prolific author on these issues.

	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.

	Shawna Irish

Shawna Irish is currently a Contractor working with a large pharmaceutical company to ensure regulatory compliance in interactions with external individuals and organizations globally, as well as provide support for developing policies in emerging markets.

Ms. 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.

	Carol Levine

Carol Levine is the Director of the Families and Health Care Project, a program that advocates family caregiving as the key consideration of health care planning, financing, and delivery.   Involved in research, program development, policy consultation, and advocacy with professional, caregiver and policy audiences, she is also involved in Next Step in Care, which focuses on facilitating family caregivers and health care professionals to work more effectively together.

She has written extensively about issues of family caregiving, supporting the caregivers, and working effectively with the health care industry.  She is an in-demand speaker for major health care professional, family caregiver and consumer groups across the country.

	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.

	Kevin Flynn

Kevin Flynn pioneered patient advocacy when he founded Healthcare Advocates, Inc. to help people navigate today's healthcare maze.   While a student at the University of Pennsylvania he was struck by a car and spent the better part of the next year in the hospital.  With insurance coverage exhausted he was denied care.  He founded Healthcare Advocates to help ensure that people are never denied care, and never receive substandard care.

Recognizing Flynn’s contributions to the healthcare industry, he has been recognized by Standard and Poor’s as a leading expert, a Board Member for Awards of the Heinz Family Foundation, and appointed to the Presidential Business Commission (George W. Bush administration). 

Flynn has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Weekend News, Forbes, NY Times, Business Week, NPR, American Medical News (AMA), Washington Post, Prevention Magazine, CN8, ABC News, NBC News, Philadelphia Magazine and other national media outlets.  

	Alice Herb

Alice Herb graduated from NYU Law School and after a short 11 years in private practice has spent her professional life  focused on the ethical issues involved in medicine.  She is an Associate at Law, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center with teaching responsibilities for third and fourth year medical students, medical residents, and PhD students.  She also serves as an Ethics Consultant for the Staten Island University Hospital. 

Focusing on the ethical issues facing medical personnel, Herb has been involved in organizing conference and professional activities, serving on the New York State Bar Association Subcommittee on Ethics, the Institutional Review Board, Bioethics Committee, and Infant Bioethics Committee of The Brooklyn Hospital Center among others.  She has developed several videos on health and ethics and has  written extensively on guardianship, care of the elderly, and end of life decision making.

	Marnie Poncy

Both a nurse and an attorney, Marnie Poncy specializes in bioethics and is the supervising attorney for the Bioethics Collaborative for End-of-Life Education, Outreach and Advocacy located in Palm Beach County.  She is active at the local, state and national levels giving lectures, workshops and presentations on end of life care, ethical and legal imperatives, the role of the guardian, and the importance for patient advance directives.

Poncy has been recognized by several awards given for her humanitarian work  and continues to be active in Ethics Committees for local hospices and hospitals, as well as the Palm Beach County Bar Association, the National Association of Nurse Attorneys, and the Florida Association of Women Lawyers.

	Christian Garcia

Christian assumed the role of Director of the Toppel Career Center at the University of Miami in June 2009. He served as Associate Director for Employer Relations since 2001 where he was responsible for creating and maintaining relationships with employers representing many industries. He now oversees the day-to-day operations of the Center. He earned his Master of Science degree in Higher Education from Florida State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Florida International University. Prior to the University of Miami he worked at the University of Michigan and Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

	Alicia Rodriguez

Alicia is the Associate Director for Career Development at the Toppel Career Center. She joined the Toppel staff in July 2000 and oversees the career development area including career advising, programs and workshops, and assessment testing. She conducts presentations in the career center and for the UM community on resume writing, interviewing skills, and dining etiquette. In addition, she coordinates Job Search Week programs for students and alumni. Alicia has a Master of Education in College Student Personnel and a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from the University of Florida. In addition to career services, she has also worked in Academic Advising and Residence Life.

	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 third 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.