DFW Alliance for Healthcare Excellence

"Working together to improve health care in our community..."

Home

About Us

Events

Contacts

Membership

 

Alliance for Healthcare Excellence

VISION

 Grow a collective committed to improving healthcare to best benefit consumers, healthcare providers, and health systems alike.

MISSION

To provide educational opportunities that deliver immediately actionable strategies intended to drive optimal leadership and care delivery.

WELCOME

Welcome to the DFW Alliance for Healthcare Excellence.  DFW AHE is a group of individuals, healthcare systems, private physician practices, managed care organizations, non-profit organizations and corporations in the DFW area that are interested in understanding and supporting healthcare excellence. 

The Alliance has set out to support healthcare excellence in the DFW area in the follow ways:
  • Educational and Networking Luncheons
  • Awarding our community Healthcare Heros 
  • Supporting Healthcare Student Scholarship(s)

Alliance Board of Directors
Bernie O'Donnell , President

Bernie O’Donnell is Lead Consultant and CEO of Performisys LLC, a Dallas, Texas based strategic-leadership consultancy with a particular focus on creating high-caliber company cultures.  A highly regarded international speaker, Bernie’s high-impact sessions present intriguing ideas and new perspectives on those difficult issues that continually plague leadership.   

With a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Richmond and a foundation of sales and executive leadership experience with IBM, Bernie founded  Performisys LLC in 2001.  Active in the community, Bernie has served as chairman of a private school and as presidents of a political action committee, an economic development corporation, and an association of professional consultants He also served as international chairman of Sales & Marketing Executives Int’l..  Bernie holds a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, loves wine, and traveling with his wife Brenda.  He has two grown daughters. 


Carolyn Simons, Programs

Carolyn Simons, Vice President of Healthcare & Life Sciences

With more than 20 years’ experience in retained executive recruiting, executive coaching and succession planning, Carolyn Simons leads Pearson Partners International’s Healthcare and Life Sciences practice. She specializes in C-suite and board searches for healthcare, MedTech and pharma companies worldwide.

Carolyn partners with boards, CEOs and investors to gain an in-depth understanding of their companies, organizational structures and business strategies to deliver best-in-class executives to lead and grow their businesses in today’s rapidly evolving global economy. She has successfully placed hundreds of CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and Vice Presidents across the health care industry.

Prior to Pearson Partners, Carolyn helped launch a Dallas-based, boutique executive search firm serving as a founding member of the healthcare and life sciences practice and working extensively with private equity clients to build out executive teams for their portfolio companies. Earlier in her career, Carolyn spent more than 15 years leading executive search and interim management services for a national advisory and professional services firm focused on home-based and post-acute healthcare services.


Mari Tietze, Chair, Event Logistics

Mari Frances Tietze, PhD, RN-BC, FHIMSS, FAAN

Mari Frances Tietze is a professor at Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing, Program Coordinator for Interprofessional Informatics and the Doswell Endowed Chair in Nursing Informatics. 

Dr. Tietze’s contributions over the past 30 years, have been based on a combination of interprofessional informatics and telehealth technology.  For interprofessional informatics, she implemented one of the first bedside computer systems in the U.S. using barcode-based medication administration and a team of nurses, pharmacists and information systems professionals.  More recently in 2016, Dr. Tietze was co-investigator in a Texas-wide multi-method study to examine over 1,000 nurses’ experiences using their electronic health records (EHRs).  Dr. Tietze is also a co-author of the AJN Book of the Year, Nursing Informatics for the Advanced Practice Nurse: Patient Safety, Quality, Outcomes, and Interprofessionalism, She has been a long-standing member of the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER) global initiative, working on harmonization of informatics competencies, and Web site improvements.

Dr. Tietze received her BSN from Washburn University, her MSN from Kansas University, and her PhD from Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing.  She is certified in nursing informatics from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.  Dr. Tietze is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. 

Carrie Camin, Chair, Secretary

Carrie Camin, M.S. Associate Vice-President Operations, Premise Health

Ms. Camin has over 25 years’ experience in corporate health and wellness operations and program development. She currently has operational and client relationship management responsibilities Premise Health sites nationwide. 

She began her career in commercial fitness management and moved to manage corporate fitness centers and later wellness programs nationally. Her journey included overseeing account management, leading a wellness consulting division, and contributing to national growth. Her passion for health improvement led her to serve in an executive role for Methodist Health System creating and establishing direct to employer health and wellness services and managing internal benefit programs, then developing employer direct strategic growth initiatives for Texas Health Resources and Southwestern Health Resources. Ms. Camin attended the University of Texas at Austin for her undergraduate studies and earned her Master of Science in Healthcare Leadership and Management from the University of Texas at Dallas. 


Steve L. Whatley, Chair, Marketing

 Steve L. Wahtley, Ph. D.

Steve is owner and Chief Executive Officer of HomeWell Care Services of Collin County, a full-service in-home care management company. Prior to opening the first HomeWell in Texas, he served as an administrator in two large healthcare delivery organizations. Prior to his career in healthcare organizations, he had a long career as a police officer and police administrator.

Steve earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology from Louisiana Tech University, and a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from The Ohio State University.

Steve is an adjunct faculty member in the Business Psychology Graduate Degree Program at Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio. His research interests include employee assessment and selection, and employee engagement and commitment.

Active in his community, Steve has served on the boards of two not-for-profit organizations, and his church, First Frisco United Methodist. He also serves as a volunteer with Kairos Prison Ministry International and is presently Chair of the Kairos Advisory Council at Bridgeport Correctional Center, Bridgeport, Texas.

Steve and his wife, Leslie, have two sons and nine grandchildren.


Jim Jacobson, (A Previous President)

Dr. Jacobson was a previous President of the DFW Alliance for Healthcare Excellence and has been actively involved in the work of the Alliance for many years.  Jim Jacobson is President of Net Education Design, Inc., a company that specializes in developing healthcare processes and education materials for both patients and healthcare providers.  Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer for Foundation Health, a Texas Health Plan.  He has worked as Medical Director for hospitals, medical groups and insurance companies.

Dr. Jacobson has an extensive background in academic medicine, research, and management.   He has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.


Who We Are /Our Team / Our Board

Officers
  • Bernie O'Donnell - President
  • Carrie Camin - Chair, Secretary
  • Tim Paquette - Chair, Treasurer
Board Members
  • Carolyn Simons - Chair, Programs
  • Amanda Carter - Chair, Communications
  • Mari Tietze - Chair, Event Logistics
  • Steve Whatley - Chair, Membership
  • Rachel Williams - Chair, Marketing/Social Marketing
  • Jim Jacobson - Chair, Board Advisor (a past President)
Contributors
  • Alan Freeman - IT, Web Site Management, Facebook Presence, eMail blasts.

Alliance for Healthcare Excellence 2003-2020