The Roadmap to Peer Support project team is comprised of a diverse group of investigators, leaders of Peer-to-Peer programs, patient and family advocates, caregivers and health care and community leaders.

Hanan J. Aboumatar, MD, MPH

Principal Investigator

Associate Professor of Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Dr. Aboumatar is an internationally recognized leader in improving patient-centered care. She is core faculty at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dually trained in family medicine and general preventive medicine, Dr. Aboumatar’s research focuses on improving patientcentered outcomes via increased patient and family engagement and activation, and employment of multilevel strategies to improve patient-centeredness of care delivery.

She has published more than 35 peer- reviewed manuscripts and won research awards from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Picker Institute/Gold Foundation. Examples of her recent research include a mixed methods study on treatment with respect and dignity in the intensive care setting; a national study on best practices in patient- centered care delivery in the hospital setting; and a randomized controlled trial to measure impact of a patient and family-centered transitional care program on patient-centered outcomes amongst patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Lee Bone, MPH, BSN

Study Co-investigator

Associate Professor, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Professor Lee Bone is a professor of Public Health at the Health, Behavior and Society Department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and health of urban African-American populations. She is currently engaged in studying the barriers to smoking cessation in inner-city African American young adults.

Professor Bone received her M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins. She earned her registered nursing degree from Columbia University. Professor Bone is the associate editor of the journal Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action. Her work has been recognized with the 2012 Johns Hopkins University Crenson-Hertz Award for Community-Based Learning and Participatory Research and the 2011 American Public Health Association Tom Bruce Award in Community-Based Public Health.

Joan Forte, MBA, BSN

Peer Support Program Partner and Co-Investigator

Joan Forte’s nursing career spans more than 35 years. During that time she has practiced in many roles: clinician, teacher, manager, researcher, finance director, consultant and administrator. She holds both a nursing degree and an MBA, a unique combination at the time she attained them. Joan's greatest passion is building the partnership between clinicians, patients and families by strengthening all sides of the equation.

While a Nurse Manager 20 years ago, Joan was a pioneer in the field when she co-founded the Family Centered Care Program at Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. In 2009, she initiated the Patient and Family Partner Program at Stanford’s adult hospital and developed the program to encompass 16 Patient and Family Advisory Councils, a Patient and Family Faculty Program, a Peer 2 Peer support program and over 150 Patient and Family Partners. The program develops many national best practices.

She left her most recent position as Administrative Director of Patient and Community Engagement at Stanford Health Care last year in order to share her experience more broadly through consulting and mentoring. Joan has consulted internationally as well as locally where she assists organizations to build programs and improve experience and engagement. She is published on many related topics, presents at conferences and conducts workshops regularly and was recently awarded the Orme Partnership Award for her innovative work on curriculum at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Christine G. Holzmueller, BLA

Medical Editor

Associate Professor, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Chris has worked as a medical writer and editor for more than 15 years and has been part of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins since it was established. She supports colleagues in the institute and has recently worked on several projects, including the PCORI-funded Roadmap for Establishing Peer Support Programs in Research and Real World, and a Fracture Liaison Service project. She has more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, has contributed to about 500 publications, and regularly speaks about organizing research manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals. Chris has particular research interests in patient engagement and patient-centered care.

Jin Hui Joo, MA, MD

Co-Investigator

Jin Hui Joo is a geriatric psychiatrist and health services researcher in the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She provides memory care and clinical psychiatric services to a diverse, geriatric population in Baltimore. Her research interests include alleviation of health disparities, use of mixed methods in intervention development, and development of psychosocial interventions involving peer mentors to alleviate depression. She is the PI of a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health devoted to developing interventions to increase engagement in mental health services among elderly minority communities.

Erin Kirley, BS

Sr. Project Coordinator

Erin joined the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality in August 2012. She currently works as a research coordinator on two quality improvement/patient safety research projects: the AHRQ funded Quality and Safety Review System Pilot Test in Hospitals; and the PCORI funded project A Roadmap for Establishing Peer Support Programs in Research and the Real World. She also worked on a collaborative project between the Armstrong Institute and the American Medical Association, as part of the AMA’s Improving Health Outcomes initiative, to develop a program to help clinicians identify and treat patients with undiagnosed hypertension. Prior to this, Erin provided administrative support on multiple research projects, including a national improvement project to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care units and the Armstrong Institute’s national initiative on surgical safety.

Thomas Lynch, PhD

Co-Investigator

Dr. Thomas Lynch is a qualitative researcher who has previously worked on peer-led support groups in the United Kingdom. He has been involved with a number of PCORI projects in the United States that have sought to advance patient and family partners’ capacity to be meaningfully engaged in the research process. Dr. Lynch recently spoke at an International Conference about the work of patient and family caregiver engagement within the BREATHE study ( PI: Dr. Hanan Aboumatar ) and has a related paper awaiting publication.

Dr. Lynch has worked with a number of international organizations (WHO, SOROS) and been involved in peer-led support groups in a number of resource-poor regions (CEE/FSU, Africa, Middle East) where he has engaged with a variety of underserved and extremely vulnerable groups (for example, palliative care patients, families from lower socioeconomic classes and disadvantaged populations) as central stakeholders in the research process. Dr. Lynch worked most recently as senior researcher on the ‘Development of PCORI Methodology Standards: Academic Curriculum’. He is currently Project Manager on the PCORI-funded COMET (Comparing Operative to Medical Endocrine Therapy) Study at Duke University.

Lisa Allen, PhD

Stakeholder Co-Investigator (health system leader)

Dr. Allen joined Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) in September 2014 as the first Chief Patient Experience Officer for the healthcare system and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. In this role she has oversight and responsibility for enhancing and continually improving the overall experience of patients and families throughout JHM by coaching, utilization of best practices and system collaboration. Her position sits within the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

Dr. Allen is passionate about patient and family centered care and engagement. Prior to joining JHM, she held roles as Vice President for Quality, Safety, and Patient Experience in large academic and community health systems in New England. She has spoken at national and international conferences and published articles in peer-reviewed journals on this topic. She has consulted with many different organizations on ways to implement Lean and patient and family centered principles.

Dr. Allen has over 25 years of experience in health care leadership. She has her Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology and Community Medicine, a Green Belt in Lean, and is a Certified Executive Coach. Dr. Allen was named in the annual Becker’s Hospital Review list as “130 women hospital and health system leaders to know” for 2015.

Thomas Bauer, MBA

Advisory Board Member

Thomas K. Bauer is the Senior Director of Patient and Family Education at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Mr. Bauer is a thought leader, speaker and advocate for health literacy and patient education programs to improve cost, quality and satisfaction, with his research being presented in over 30 publications or presentations. His work has been recognized by the Institute of Medicine for the successful deployment of health literacy tactics addressing the 10 attributes of a health literate organization, and has been featured in two case studies be published the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Kathy Brill, Med, MPS

Peer Support Program Partner and Project Advisor

Kathy Brill is Executive Director of Parent to Parent USA, serves on several healthcare and disability boards, and is mom to three daughters. Her youngest, Alexa, age 26, was born three months premature and uses numerous personal and assistive technology supports to assist her in being successfully and fully included in all aspects of her home, school, and community. In addition, her niece has Moya Moya Syndrome, a rare genetic condition, whose onset was not identified until age 10.

Kathy had been director of Parent to Parent of PA until 2002. Kathy received the National Council on Disability 2006 Leadership Award in appreciation of outstanding contributions to the improvement of disability policy in the US. She believes strongly in the necessity of quality peer support in the building of healthy, happy families, and the possibilities of positive systems change through collaborations with professionals. She holds masters degrees in Education (certification in Special Education) and Political Management (concentration in Grassroots Advocacy).

Kathryn S. Farinholt

Peer Support Program Partner and Project Advisor

Kathryn (Kate) Farinholt is the Executive Director of NAMI Maryland (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Over the last 30 years, NAMI was instrumental in assisting Kate’s parents to advocate for a relative with severe mental illness. Meanwhile, Kate practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (Delaware Office) and Semmes Bowen and Semmes Baltimore. In 1997, Kate was recruited to be a local and state NAMI board member and soon became local affiliate Board President. She became the affiliate Executive Director in 1999. Under Kate’s direction, NAMI-Metropolitan Baltimore was chosen in 2004 by the national NAMI Board of Directors as the “Outstanding Local Affiliate” from over 1500 local affiliates for its integration of consumers of mental health services at all levels, its advocacy and education on criminal justice and other issues, focus on diversity and its regional impact. In 2008, she was chosen by her peers to receive the national NAMI Executive Director Peer Excellence Award. In 2012, she received the national NAMI Family Support Group Leadership Award.

Kate became the Executive Director of NAMI Maryland in 2011. She is a Weinberg Fellow through The Schaefer Center for Public Policy- University of Baltimore, a graduate of the Georgetown University Leadership Academy on Mental Health Disparities, of Leadership Baltimore County (2001), and the Leader’s Circle sponsored by Maryland Non-Profits.

Kate has become a strong advocate on issues affecting people with mental illness and their families, developed ways to engage and empower these stakeholders in advocacy and systems improvement and helped fill gaps in programs and resources.

Kate has been a national trainer for several NAMI programs and the national NAMI Leadership Institute, and has developed nationally recognized resource materials, including the book Beyond Punishment: Helping Individuals with Mental Illness Navigate Maryland’s Criminal Justice System.

Corliss Jones

Peer Support Program Partner and Advisory Board Member

Mrs. Coriless Jones started peer services formerly known as outreach specialist at Rose Community Center in 2001 until 2007. She continued to pursue her endeavors to assist people seeking recovery by completing community advocacy and outreach through Americorps from 2007- 2009. While in Americorps she started to volunteer at Dee’s Place in 2007 and has continued their efforts in the community to stabilize the east Baltimore community by addressing the recovery population and others by acting as liaisons (peer recovery advocates).

Ms. Jones is currently Dee’s Place Certified Peer Recovery Coordinator and has earned her certifications as trainers of Supervising Peer Recovery specialist, CCAR Trainer of Trainers, Wrap Trainer and Smoke cessation Trainer. She feels that a person any person can seek and obtain recovery and move to lead a productive healthy life after addictions.

Peggy Riley

Family Caregiver Partner and Advisory Board Member

Ms. Riley taught Health Occupations for the Howard County public School System for 25 years. She is a caregiver for her husband who was diagnosed with COPD in 1988 and has been on oxygen 24/7 since 2002. She was a volunteer for 10 years at Mary Sands Pulmonary Clinic in Florida. After losing a daughter in 1978 she became active member at MADD and Compassionate Friends. Ms. Riley has been working on the Johns Hopkins BREATHE Study with Dr. Aboumatar since 2013.

Edna Shattuck

Patient Partner and Advisory Board Member

Ms. Shattuck was a retired Registered Nurse and Registered Respiratory Therapist who brought a wealth of experience and achievement in clinical care as well as in managerial positions at technology based health and wellness corporations. She was also a COPD patient who, since her diagnosis in 2007, has inspired and educated others as a Patient Advocate on behalf of the COPD Foundation. In 2014, she was elected to the Governing Board of the COPD PPRN. Upon its inception in 2013, Ms. Shattuck joined the PCORI funded “BREATHE” study at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution as the Patient Representative and a Co-Investigator. She contributed to development of the study intervention and was the editor-in-chief of the quarterly newsletter. Edna passed away in November.

Lillie Shockney, RN, BS, MAS

Peer Support Program Partner and Advisory Board Member

Lillie D. Shockney has been the administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center since 1997 and serves as the director of the Johns Hopkins Cancer Survivorship programs in November 2011. A two-time breast cancer survivor, Lillie has worked tirelessly to improve the care of breast cancer patients around the world. She has worked at Johns Hopkins since 1983. She is a registered nurse who holds a BS in Healthcare Administration from St Joseph’s College and a Masters in Administrative Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Lillie is a published author and nationally recognized public speaker on the subject of cancer with a focus on cancer survivorship as well as metastatic breast cancer. She has written 14 books and more than 250 articles on cancer care. Lillie is also editor-in-chief of Journal of Oncology Navigation and Survivorship. She is the founder and Director of the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+). She is the consultant for breast cancer for national ABC News and Good Morning America, and is also consulted regularly by the Today Show and CNN. Lillie serves on 34 medical advisory boards currently.

In 2008, The President of The Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Board of Trustees appointed her to a faculty chair as a University Distinguished Service Assistant Professor of Breast Cancer. By 2016, she was promoted to full professor. She has received 52 awards—46 national awards and 6 state awards including being inducted into the Maryland Women Hall of Fame, Women in Business Healthcare Trailblazer Award, and Johnson & Johnson’s most amazing nurse in America, and National Komen for the Cure’s Professor of survivorship award. Her research area of focus is preservation of quality of life for patients with metastatic breast cancer. being inducted into the Maryland Women Hall of Fame, Women in Business Healthcare Trailblazer Award, and Johnson & Johnson’s most amazing nurse in America, and National Komen for the Cure’s Professor of survivorship award. Her research area of focus is preservation of quality of life for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Christine Sweeney, LICSW

Peer Support Program Partner and Advisory Board Member

Christine Sweeney is a licensed clinical social worker with over twenty-five years of experience working with new moms and babies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA. First as a clinical social worker on the inpatient/outpatient OGN service, then in 1999, she initiated the Parent Connection, a free support service in the hospital’s obstetrics department offered to first time parents to support the adjustment to parenting after leaving the medical center.

Christine obtained her MSW from Boston University in 1998. She was voted by her peers as the first recipient of the B.K. Snyder award for social work clinical excellence at BIDMC. In 2010, The Parent Connection was honored by the New England Association of Directors of Hospital Volunteer Services with the President’s Award for Outstanding Program Development.

Carol Sylvester, RN, MS

Advisory Board Member

A member of the Johns Hopkins family for 34 years, Carol held major leadership roles in Johns Hopkins Care at Home (formerly Johns Hopkins Home Care Group) and Johns Hopkins HealthCare before she joined the Johns Hopkins Geriatrics Center leadership team on the Medical Center campus 15 years ago. In 2002, she was promoted to senior director of care management with responsibilities throughout the hospital. In this role, she quickly emerged as one of the institution's most expert champions for health care transformation and population health at Johns Hopkins. Since 2013, Carol has been the Medical Center’s leader for participation in the Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership (J-CHiP), a $20 million CMS Innovations grant that helped prepare for providing better care to patients under a new Global Budget Revenue system.

Serving as vice president of care management services since 2015, Carol works across the Johns Hopkins Health System and Johns Hopkins Medicine as we envision and engineer better care for our patients and those who live in the communities we serve. Sylvester has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Maryland. She is a member of the American Association of Case Management and the Case Management Society of America.

Stephanie Vander Veur, MPH

Peer Support Program Partner and Advisory Board Member

Ms. Vander Veur has been the Director of Behavior Change at Weight Watchers since 2014. Prior to joining Weight Watchers, she was the Director of Clinical Research at Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education. Ms. Vander Veur received her Master’s in Public Health from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.