Luis M. Ahumada, Ph.D., M.S.C.S.

Executive Director of Advanced Technologies and Data Science, Johns Hopkins Health System

Luis M. Ahumada has recently assumed the role of Executive Director of Advanced Technologies and Data Science at Johns Hopkins Health System, bringing with him a wealth of expertise. In this capacity, Luis will lead the strategic planning, execution, and dissemination of state-of-the-art analytics and data science solutions within the Armstrong Institute. His primary focus will revolve around strengthening the hospital's commitment to patient care, research, education, and advocacy by establishing and enhancing a resilient data science infrastructure.

With six years of experience as Director of Health Data Science and Analytics at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Luis has a proven track record of planning, implementing, and leading systemwide analytic solutions. Notably, he founded the Center for Pediatric Data Science and Analytic Methodology, a pioneering hub for artificial intelligence and machine learning research projects. Before his tenure at JHACH, Luis led the data science team at the esteemed Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Luis holds a master’s degree in computer science from Villanova University and earned his PhD in information science and technology from Drexel University. 

Scott Burkett, B.S., C.S.S.B.B.

Assistant Director, Lean Sigma Deployment

A Lean Sigma Black Belt, Burkett joined the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality in 2015, bringing more than 15 years of experience leading, coaching and mentoring projects in manufacturing, business and health care. During his career, Burkett has been able to share the tenets of Lean Sigma with numerous cross-functional teams and Green Belts to make improvements in perioperative care, intensive care units and pharmacies.

His experience includes work at Nabisco, Kraft and Loyola University Health System in Chicago.

Burkett earned his bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.

Shannon Cole, Ph.D., M.S.

Dr. Shannon Cole brings over 15 years of experience in psychological and biomedical research, with formal training in learning, motivation, and emotion. He earned his PhD in biopsychology from the University of Michigan and completed a 4-year postdoctoral fellowship in Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

At the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Dr. Cole serves as a strategic connector—facilitating storytelling, alignment, and collaborative momentum across research and clinical teams. His interests lie at the intersection of organizational behavior, communication, and the interplay of sensemaking and affect in dynamic, high-stakes environments. Whether he’s clarifying purpose, designing systems, or helping a colleague during a crisis, Shannon brings emotional intelligence, analytical depth, and a deep commitment to helping teams thrive.

Cheryl Connors, D.N.P., R.N., N.E.A.-B.C.

Program Director of Organizational Resilience

Cheryl Connors is the program director of organizational resilience for the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Connors fosters a positive culture for Johns Hopkins Medicine that allows the health system to anticipate, prepare, respond and recover within a dynamic, complex and challenging environment. She is responsible for assessing culture, collaborating with member organization leaders and planning interventions that effectively target safety issues. Her primary responsibility is as director for the RISE (Resiliency in Stressful Events) program, which she co-created in 2010. In this role, Connors established a partnership with the Maryland Patient Safety Center to help health care organizations implement RISE model programs globally. 

As a Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) leader, Connors empowers front-line staff members to learn from defects and work toward meeting safety goals. Additionally, she is responsible for safety culture assessments and serves as faculty for the TeamSTEPPS training program at the Armstrong Institute.

Connors received her doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Alabama. She has a clinical background in pediatrics, where she developed a passion to improve patient safety. Connors led the Josie King Pediatric Patient Safety Program at Johns Hopkins for several years before advancing her career in nursing leadership. Connors officially became a patient safety specialist in 2012. 

A presenter on safety topics both nationally and internationally (Qatar, Okinawa and Saudi Arabia), Connors has facilitated staff education and the establishment of safety teams in the military health system. She collaborates with the Johns Hopkins University schools of nursing, public health and medicine on teamwork and communication and patient safety programs.

Sarah Davis, Ph.D.

Sr. Special Project Administrator, Industrial/Organizational Psychologist

Sarah Davis is an industrial/organizational psychologist and senior special project administrator at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests are team effectiveness and communication in stressful environments and understanding organizational change.

Richard M. Day, M.S.

Richard Day is a former NASA senior executive with ongoing commitment to the successful development and operation of complex systems. At Goddard Space Flight Center, he led nation-wide teams in the development of state-of-the-art space systems. The most famous is the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) to determine the history and fate of the universe. Science magazine declared WMAP a “Breakthrough of 2003”. New Scientist reported in 2012 that Stephen Hawking told them “WMAP’s evidence for inflation was the most exciting development in physics during his career”.

Richard’s record of technical and programmatic excellence led to senior executive appointments including the first Director of Mission Success with oversight for the entire portfolio of Goddard space programs. His impact was NASA-wide through various leadership boards and task forces to promote rigor in program management, systems engineering, safety, and mission assurance. He championed NASA’s advancement as a learning organization and recruited the first NASA Chief Knowledge Officer, a role institutionalized across NASA. The U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Senior Executive Service and NASA Medals for Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Service are among his individual and team honors. 

Richard co-chaired the Steering Committee for Mission Assurance Improvement among the major U.S. space agencies and aerospace corporations during his tenure as Chief of Mission Assurance for Civilian and National Security Space programs at the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). He created an innovative graduate-level engineering course on high-reliability, mission assurance, and engineering leadership to achieve mission success. 

In 2012, he accepted the opportunity to apply this expertise to healthcare in leadership roles within the Johns Hopkins Health System and served on governance committees including clinical quality, mortality review, patient safety, regulatory affairs, and risk management. He led multi-disciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, administrators, and technologists to improve integration, precision, and efficiency in the complex system of healthcare. Richard founded the Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for Patient Safety and Quality. He served on councils and working groups including the Steering Committee for the Chief Quality Officer Network of Vizient, which serves 95% of US academic medical centers. 

Richard is currently part-time faculty in the JHU Whiting School of Engineering with a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine. His primary operational role in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality is senior technical advisor for the transformative deployment of artificial intelligence in operating rooms, ICUs, and other critical healthcare settings. JHU affiliations include: Data Science and AI Institute, Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, Institute for Assured Autonomy, Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science.

Ayse P. Gurses, Ph.D., M.S., M.P.H.

Director, Center for Health Care Human Factors, Armstrong Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Professor, Schools of Medicine, Bloomberg Public Health, Whiting Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Gurses is a globally recognized researcher, educator, and thought leader in infusing human factors and systems engineering principles and methods into health care work systems to improve safety, quality and equity in health care. She is the Founding Director of the Center for Health Care Human Factors at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and Professor in the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Bloomberg Public Health and Whiting Engineering. She is the author of more than 130 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Gurses's current research efforts include improving safety of care transitions/ handoffs, modeling cognitive and team work to improve diagnostic safety, human-centered artificial intelligence in health care, reducing healthcare-associated infections, and improving patient-care professional partnerships to enhance safety across the entire care continuum. Dr. Gurses has conducted research across the entire care continuum, including pre-hospital care, inpatient care, ambulatory care, long-term care, and home care, as well as transitions of care between these settings. She has been a principal/ co-principal investigator on numerous research grants and contracts- funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), other multiple foundations and private institutions. Dr. Gurses received multiple awards for her contributions to the science of safety, including the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences Foundation Award, Liberty Mutual Award on Safety, the International Ergonomics Association Best Paper Award in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, and the Robert R. Hoffman Award for Best Contributions to Naturalistic Decision Making Methodology.

In addition to advancing the science of safety, Dr. Gurses’s health care human factors program has had a wide practical impact in the frontline clinical work and public health. For example, when the Ebola epidemic hit in 2014, she led the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute’s efforts in partnering with the CDC to develop a web-based training to prepare health care professionals for potential Ebola cases by integrating human factors and industrial engineering, implementation science, and public health principles and methods with infection control and prevention and clinical expertise. Recently, as part of the CDC’s Project Firstline Initiative, and in collaboration with the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, Dr. Gurses led a large-scale, multidisciplinary, innovative project aimed at improving infection prevention and control in the peri-operative work systems using engineering-based approaches across the nation. 

Paula Kent, DrPH, M.S.N., M.B.A., R.N., CPPS

Patient Safety Specialist
TeamSTEPPS Program Lead

Paula Kent is a patient safety specialist for the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute (AI) for Patient Safety and Quality where she is responsible responsible for the oversight of the TeamSTEPPS training program at AI. She is also adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and associate faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is also an advisor for the MAS Program in Patient Safety (OPAL). Her primary roles involve teaching and working with teams to improve organizational safety. Kent works with organizational leaders on assessment and analysis of safety culture and implementation of programs that work toward improving culture and preventing patient harm.

Paula has a Doctor of Public Health, a Master's of Nursing and an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and has CPPS certification from IHI. She has worked in patient safety for 20 years and has an interest in measurement and monitoring of the performance of healthcare organizations to improve the culture of safety and delivery of safe patient care.

Kent has presented on safety topics both nationally and internationally (Mexico, Great Britain, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Korea) and has facilitated the education of staff and the establishment of safety teams in the United Arab Emirates. She collaborates with Johns Hopkins' schools of nursing, public health and medicine, and the Armstrong Institute on teamwork and communication and patient safety programs. 

Samuel Kim, B.A.

Samuel is a research program coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. His main project at Johns Hopkins is the BREATHE2 Study, under supervision of Dr. Hanan Aboumatar, primary investigator. His research focus is the evaluation of patient-centered communication and dissemination strategies and their impact on patients’ self-management behavior and quality of life. Broadly, Samuel’s interests lie in the development and implementation of health care policy and practice in private and public sectors.

Wilson Lamy, B.S., C.S.S.M.B.B.

Assistant Director, Lean Sigma Deployment

A Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Wilson joined the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality in 2016. Wilson has over 18 years of experience in the business sector leading, coaching, mentoring and facilitating teams in Operations cross-functionally from manufacturing to supply chain.

As part of the AI Lean Sigma Team, Wilson drives continuous improvement through the deployment of Lean across Clinical Communities, Academic and Community Hospitals. Through teaching and coaching, he builds the capacity of healthcare professionals, to enable the improvement of healthcare experience across the Johns Hopkins Health System.

Lamy earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Architectural Engineering from Drexel University.

Steven J. Meurer, M.B.A., M.H.S., Ph.D.

Director, Center for Healthcare Analytics & Improvement
Assistant Professor in Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Steve Meurer is a Healthcare Performance Improvement expert focused on improving health systems’ quality, safety, finances and operations. He brings 30+ years of education and experience in improvement science as well as 20+ years of teaching Masters students, and 1,000+ presentations to health systems providing leaders with an increased ability to improve performance.

Prior to his role at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Dr. Meurer was the Executive Principal of Data Science & Member Insights at Vizient.  Dr. Meurer was the senior-most subject matter expert in the use of data from Vizient’s Clinical Data Base to drive performance improvement, and presented improvement opportunities to leaders at almost every health system in the US. Prior to this role, Dr. Meurer was Senior Vice President at University Health System Consortium (UHC) where he led all aspects of UHC’s comparative data portfolio, including sales, support, methodology and information technology. UHC was a founding organization of Vizient, and Dr. Meurer spent 17 years at these organizations.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Meurer was Chief Quality & Information Officer at the DeKalb Health System in Atlanta, where he led the integration of Quality and Information Technology, and subsequently managed 200+ people. Dr. Meurer has also held positions of increasing responsibility at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, PA; BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, MO; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and Orlando (FL) Regional Healthcare System.

Dr. Meurer also spent 15 years as Associate Professor at Rush University, where he taught Quality & Operations in Healthcare to Master of Healthcare Administration students.  Dr. Meurer has also taught at Loyola University Chicago, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and Temple University. Dr. Meurer is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Medical Quality, and is the Administration Group Leader for the Health Professions Educators’ Summer Symposium (HPESS).

Dr. Meurer earned a PhD in Health Services Research at Saint Louis University with a dissertation entitled ‘Quality Improvement Implementation in Hospitals’; a Master of Business Administration & Master of Health Science at the University of Florida; and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the College of the Holy Cross. He holds a Certificate in Healthcare Quality & Informatics from Intermountain Healthcare.

Jane Miller, B.S.

Project Administrator, Organizational Resilience

Jane Miller is the organizational resilience project administrator for the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She maintains and updates various project calendars, records project progress and performance metrics, prepares contracts, processes invoices and serves as the liaison for partners and stakeholders. Her primary focus is the RISE (Resilience in Stressful Events) program, for which she is the project administrator across the Johns Hopkins Health System. She works closely with the director of organizational resilience to assess culture and collaborate with Johns Hopkins leaders to develop resources that foster a positive culture for all employees. 

Mohammad Naqibuddin, M.D.

Mohammad Naqibuddin is a research program manager at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. His current research includes the BREATHE and BREATHE2 studies, which seek to improve health-related quality of life and reduce health care costs for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Following his medical education from Dhaka University, Bangladesh, he pursued his postgraduate studies and postdoctoral research fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine, respectively. His current scholarly interests focus on COPD and patient-centered outcome research. Since 1999, he has been working at Johns Hopkins in different research projects that include prostate cancer, lupus, brain function, HIV, depression and diabetes.

His passion includes health education in different media. He was elected by the viewers as the best television host in Bangladesh for his general knowledge/health education show. He regularly participates in Voice of America services radio and television programs for international audiences.

Diane O’Connor, M.B.A.

Executive Director for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Diane guides Johns Hopkins Health System’s patient safety and quality to support the delivery of exceptional patient care wherever our patients access us. In collaboration with member organizations, health system leaders, clinical departments, service lines and external experts, Diane will work to improve patient outcomes and ensure the highest performance.  

Diane’s extensive background in healthcare management, quality and safety operations started decades ago in consulting. During the last 10 years, she has served as senior corporate director of quality and patient experience for Mass General Brigham. Her track record demonstrates that she consistently exceeds goals and improves processes while advancing multiple, concurrent programs to improve patient outcomes. She has guided the strategic development of an enterprise patient experience vision, established care policies and processes to advance the delivery of equitable healthcare, translated payer policy and negotiated incentives to succeed in value-based contracting and led hospital and ambulatory quality and safety improvement as well as practitioner credentialing and well-being.   
  
Before her work for Mass General Brigham, Diane held roles in engineering, investment banking, and hospital and nonprofit consulting, and she was the managing partner of a startup home care services company. She hails from Chicago and raised her family in Boston. She has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois.

Patience Osei, M.S.E.

Patience is the Quality and Innovation Project Administrator on the Human Factors team at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She is a Biomedical Engineer with a broad technical skill-set, research and project management experience, as well as extensive international exposure. She is passionate about patient safety, global health and the development of high-quality, low-cost medical devices and processes for different healthcare settings. Her research interests include the application of human factors engineering to infection control and prevention.

Phillip H. Phan, Ph.D.

Phillip H. Phan is the Alonzo and Virginia Decker Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in the Department of Medicine. He is director of Strategy for the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

His academic and professional work focuses on technological innovation on patient safety, quality and biomedicine. He serves as deputy editor of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, and the editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer.

He is co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Johns Hopkins Artificial Intelligence Collaboratory for Aging Research, and of the NIH-funded Johns Hopkins Innovation for Substance Use Disorder program.

David Rastall, D.O., Ph.D.

Dr. David Rastall is a physician-scientist and neurologist specializing in diagnostic accuracy, medical AI safety, and healthcare implementation science. He holds an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence and has decades of experience at the intersection of technology and medicine. As both technology lead and later implementation lead, Dr. Rastall led the successful development and deployment of Tele-Dizzy, a novel clinical technology that integrated advanced eye movement diagnostics for dizziness into real-world emergency department workflows across multiple healthcare systems. Under his leadership the first working technical prototype was developed, and deployed to the first out of Hopkins emergency department. His work successfully bridged diverse clinical roles—including nurses, ED physicians, and remote neurologists—demonstrating how technology can be adapted for high-impact, frontline care.

Currently, Dr. Rastall’s research focuses on the behavior of large language models (LLMs) in clinical decision-making, with an emphasis on diagnostic reasoning, patient safety, and the detection of AI alignment and deception risks. His broader work aims to set rigorous scientific standards for the safe and effective integration of AI into healthcare.

Alan D. Ravitz Ph.D., P.E.

Alan Ravitz, Professional Staff member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), is the Chief Engineer for APL’s Global Health Mission Area. In this capacity, Alan oversees technical aspects of a range of projects spanning biomedical and healthcare topics including neural prosthetics, precision medicine, systems biology, biomaterials, health surveillance, neurological health and human performance, patient safety, and systems engineering. Prior to involvement in these areas, he supported APL’s undersea warfare programs by developing signal and information processing technology for aircraft, surface ship, and submarine sonar and combat systems.

Alan is a Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) by The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and a licensed Professional Engineer (Maryland). He also serves as Chair of the Healthcare Systems Engineering Master of Science program in the JHU Whiting School of Engineering’s Engineering for Professionals program. Additionally, he is an Affiliate Faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

Dr. Ravitz has degrees in Biomedical Engineering (BS), Electrical Engineering (MS), Technical Management (MS), and Systems Engineering (PhD).

Mohamed Rehman, M.D.

Mohamed Rehman is chair of the department of anesthesia at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and professor of anesthesiology, critical care medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He holds the Eric Kobren Chair for clinical informatics and is internationally recognized for his expertise in medical and clinical informatics. Dr. Rehman leads the hospital’s Perioperative Health Informatics Unit and The Human Digital Twin lab, driving data-driven innovations to improve patient outcomes, safety and quality of care. He has authored over 100 publications and served as the anesthesia team leader for groundbreaking procedures, including the world’s first bilateral hand transplant.

Erica Reinhardt, M.B.A., M.S., R.D., C.L.S.S.B.B.

Assistant Director, Lean Sigma Deployment, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Erica Reinhardt began working in hospitals as a registered dietitian in 2006, transitioning into a food service director role, where she gained health care operations experience. During this time, Erica earned her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and led and participated in several Lean Sigma projects.

Currently, Erica leads continuous improvement efforts at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She mentors leaders through process improvement, educates on Lean tools and concepts, supports Lean Sigma projects and Lean Daily Management work, and leads Kaizen events.

Reinhardt received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Nutritional Sciences. She then attended Clemson University, where she completed her dietetic internship and earned her master's degree in Food, Nutrition, and Culinary Sciences.

Alli Rothwell

Program Manager, Just Culture

A program manager for the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Alli Rothwell primarily focuses on the implementation and sustainability of Just Culture across Johns Hopkins Medicine. Collaborating with Johns Hopkins leaders, she directs, plans and executes program initiatives to ensure the incorporation of Just Culture principles in JHM daily work.

Michael A. Rosen, Ph.D., M.A.

Michael Rosen is a Human Factors Psychologist and Professor in the Dept. of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with appointments in the Schools of Public Health, and Nursing. He is the Director of Research for the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Associate Director for Team Science at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Director of Research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Simulation Center, and Co-Director of the Applied Master of Science Program in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. His work focuses on how people and technology create safe operations in high-risk industries.

Laura J. Sigman, M.D., J.D.

Laura Sigman is the executive director for Strategic Solutions at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, where she leads efforts to expand the impact of the Armstrong Institute through program development and partnerships. She sees patients in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital and serves as the assistant chief for the Eudowood Division of Pediatric Quality and Safety. Her interests focus on driving innovation and improvement at the intersection of clinical medicine and the regulatory and financial structures that affect health care. She has worked previously with startup health tech companies; in hospital legal and risk management roles; on Medicare, Medicaid and FDA cases at the US Department of Justice and at the National Academies.

Anne Steele, M.S.N., R.N., A.C.C.N.S.-A.G., C.P.H.Q.

Anne Steele is a patient safety innovation coordinator with Johns Hopkins Medicine. Steele has a master’s degree in nursing and is certified as a clinical nurse specialist in adult/gerontology acute care acute care adult/gerontology . She has worked in the regulatory, quality improvement and safety culture domains for the last nine years and is passionate about coaching teams in cocreating healthy and supportive work environments. She loves teaching and facilitating programs for adult learners. Her clinical experience includes medical surgery, telemetry, correctional and intensive care nursing for adults and their care partners. Steele has worked at the Johns Hopkins Health System for 13 years, and she teaches in the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) as an Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality faculty member, and she is an adjunct instruction at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in the interprofessional practice program. 

Kristina Weeks, Dr.P.H., M.H.S.

Weeks is a member of the faculty in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and the Armstrong Institute. 

She is also one of the project managers of the national project On the CUSP: Stop BSI. Ms. Weeks holds a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Weeks's research interests focus on the translation of evidence-based medicine to safe and quality care at the bedside as well as effective health policy.

For more than a decade she has dedicated her efforts in health services research towards understanding health systems related to patient safety and health disparities in the clinical environment. She has contributed to publications on access to care, quality of care at the end of life, and patient safety.

Laura Winner, Dr.P.H., M.B.A., B.S.N., C.S.S.B.B.

Senior Director, Operational Excellence, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Laura Winner is the senior director of operational excellence in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for advancing continuous quality and safety improvement across the health system through the work of the Lean Sigma Program, the Project Management Office and the Human Factors Implementation Programs. She has a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

Dr. Winner holds a Doctor of Public Health in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

She is passionate about the role daily management systems can play in health care to create shared situational awareness, encourage problem-solving at every level and promote daily habits of high reliability.

Albert W. Wu, M.D., M.P.H.

Albert W. Wu is a practicing general internist and Fred and Juliet Soper Professor of Health Policy & Management, with Joint Appointments in Epidemiology, International Health, Medicine, Surgery, and Business at Johns Hopkins University. He is director of the Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research and PhD in Health Services Research. He has conducted research in patient safety since 1988. He was Senior Adviser for Patient Safety at WHO from 2007-2009 and continues as a consultant. He is director of Strategic Collaborations for the Armstrong Institute, leads the online Masters in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality, and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management. He coined the term “second victim,” and is co-founder and co-director of the RISE (Resilience in Stressful Events) peer support program. He has coauthored work on the development and evaluation of the TREWS AI-based early warning system the continuously monitors patients for risk of sepsis from routinely collected EHR data. He has proposed methods for safer implementation of chatbots by patients and providers in clinical practice. He recently advised a group of ministers of health on the benefits and potential harms of AI for patient safety.

Yuxin (Daisy) Zhu, Ph.D.

Yuxin (Daisy) Zhu is a primary faculty member of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and jointly appointed in the Department of Biostatistics in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She co-leads the SLAM working group in the Department of Biostatistics.

Dr. Zhu's research focuses on developing statistical methods for biomarkers and electronic medical records. She works on methods that combine biomarkers to predict cognitive decline related to preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease among normal individuals. She has also developed methods to evaluate misdiagnosis-related harm at institution or medical system levels using electronic medical records.

Methodologically, Dr. Zhu works on tree-based models, latent variable models, survival analysis and recurrent event analysis. She has general interest is in interpretable and robust statistical methodology that advances biomedical understanding and informs practices.