Course 3 Faculty

ORGANIZING
Amer Kaissi

Amer Kaissi is an Assistant Professor of Health Care Administration at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. He teaches "Institutional Health Care Management" and "Health Care Strategic Planning & Marketing" in both the on-campus and executive programs. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Health Services Research, Policy & Administration from the University of Minnesota and his Master of Public Health degree from the American University of Beirut in his native Lebanon.

He lived in Beirut while he was pursuing his undergraduate and graduate studies. In 1999, he moved to the U.S., more specifically to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he pursued his doctoral degree. In 2003, he moved to San Antonio, Texas where he joined Trinity University as a faculty member.

His research interests are patient safety and medication errors, medical group practices, organizational culture and structure, application of organizational theories to health care, and uncertainty and strategic planning in health care settings. Amer is a Fellow of the Juran Center for Leadership on Quality and a member of the Academy of Management, AcademyHealth, and Delta Omega Pi Honorary Public Health Society. He has several publications in the Journal of Health Care Management, Health Care Management Review, the Health Care Manager, Journal of Health Administration Education, Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, Nursing Economics, Minnesota Physician and Minnesota Medicine and has presented extensively in professional conferences.

Before joining Trinity University, he worked as research assistant in the Division of Health Services Research & Policy and the Department of Healthcare Management at the University of Minnesota. He taught at ISP for three years while pursuing his Ph.D.. Prior to that, he worked in "Quality Measurement & Analysis" at Allina Hospitals & Clinics in Roseville, Minnesota. He also completed his administrative residency at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

He currently lives with his wife Wafaa and little girl Maria in San Antonio, Texas.

SOCIAL POLICY
Tess Settergren

Tess Settergren is the Director of Clinical Informatics at St Mary's Duluth Clinic

SOCIAL POLICY
Jeannette Ziegenfuss

Jeanette Ziegenfuss is a Ph.D. Student at the University of Minnesota

FINANCING
James Rice

James Rice, Ph.D., FACHE, is Vice Chairman of The Governance Institute (www.governanceinstitue.com) and also a Senior Advisor to Clark Healthcare Consulting, a leading provider of incentive compensation information and arrangements for hospital systems and medical groups. Dr. Rice focuses his consulting work on strategic governance, business planning and visioning charrettes for health sector and not-for-profit organizations; strategic capital financial planning; mergers and acquisitions; and enterprise risk management analyses for physician-hospital joint ventures. He is a former senior officer in the Minneapolis-based $2.2 billion integrated health system, Allina. He brings his expertise to Governance Institute members through governance presentations, writing, board retreat facilitation, board restructuring, and advisory services. His facilitation and advisory experience is focused on strategic planning for enhanced governance by boards and their committees, strengthening board-CEO relations, refining board-physician relations, managing philanthropy trends and best practices, leading governance model and infrastructure redesign, and harnessing the Internet for enhanced board work.

Dr. Rice draws upon extensive experience in integrated system development, managed care, and HMOs. His experience also includes important work as a teacher, author, speaker, and consultant to physician groups, boards of directors, and ministries of health in over 30 countries. He is active internationally in leadership development with the Cambridge International Health Leadership Program in England. (www.cambridgeihlp.org)

Dr. Rice has masters and doctoral degrees in management and health policy from the highly regarded graduate program of the University of Minnesota. He has received the University of Minnesota School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award; a National Institute of Health Doctoral Fellowship; the American Hospital Association's Corning Award for excellence in hospital planning as co-founder of the AHA Society for Hospital Planning and Marketing; and a Bush Fellowship to study international economics at the National University of Singapore with Stanford University.

He holds faculty positions in strategic management at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, and the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, and has lectured at The Thunderbird International School of Management in Arizona and Harvard University.

Human Resources
Mary Jo Graham

Mary Jo Graham is a nurse and licensed nursing home administrator with a MS in Nursing from the University of Maryland and a MS in Health Services Research & Policy from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. She is a healthcare consultant specializing in long term care operations and Critical Access Hospitals and campuses.

Ms. Graham's clinical and administrative experience spans nearly thirty years of health care operations, from acute academic medical centers to post-acute and long term care settings. She has consulted throughout the United States.