Sherry Avila, MT ASCP is an accomplished healthcare leader with 30 years of laboratory experience including laboratory operations, risk management, and information technology. She has a unique background, because she has served as a Laboratory Director, Risk Manager and a health system Laboratory Informatics Director for one of the largest health systems in the southern United States.

Sherry has extensive operational experience including financial management and technical quality. She can guide you in accreditation readiness (CLIA, CAP, Joint Commission and NY State). She is also expert in laboratory chargemaster as well as risk assessment and providing seamless integration of new risk initiatives and best practices.

Sherry received a BS degree in Medical Laboratory Science from Arkansas State University. She is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certified.

Sherry resides with her family in New Hampshire

Maryam Baladi, MHS is an NMG consultant with extensive IT and Epic expertise who consistently delivers on projects at market demand speed.  

Prior to joining NMG, Ms. Baladi most recently served as Executive Director of Clinical Applications: Lab, Blood Bank, POC and Pharmacy (Epic & non- Epic) at Providence Health System in Portland, Oregon where she was responsible for envisioning and delivering their strategic initiative and transformation of the Clinical service $32MM portfolio of 51 hospitals in 6 states System wide through building and maintaining relationships with a large network of clinical and operational stakeholders and technical teams in the organization.  She also consolidated 18 Lab Information system into two on a hosted platform with multi facilities integration and redesigned the PSJH Lab and RX clinical applications from a complex and siloed system to a simplified end to end solution.

While at Providence, Ms. Baladi also  developed, implemented and oversaw a best in class lab and pharmacy application service line and integration with Epic HER and managed optimized complex clinical laboratory workflows to deliver accurate results and support improved patient outcomes in a SAAS model. Ms. Baladi also served as Senior Manager of Clinical Operations at Cardinal Health in Houston, Texas.

Ms. Baladi received her MHS from the Oregon Health Science University in 2013 and a BS from Long Island University in 1997.  She is a Wharton Executive Education Certificate candidate for June 2022.  She received MIT Sloan Strategy and Innovation Thinking Certification in 2019.

She resides in Oregon with her family.

Gary Bronstein CPA, NMG consultant brings extensive expertise in financial management and strategic planning to the realm of laboratory operations. Mr. Bronstein provides valuable insights and recommendations to key stakeholders, including C-suite executives, board members and executive partners.

Mr. Bronstein’s expertise includes over 38 years of experience in the clinical laboratory industry encompassing strategic planning, financial modeling, due diligence activities and valuations. He also has extensive experience in laboratory financial reporting, laboratory operations cost improvement, developing and managing value-based initiative and integration of healthcare capabilities.  

During his tenure at Quest Diagnostics, spanning over 24 years, Mr. Bronstein held various key positions, including Director of Emerging Markets and Senior Director of Strategy & Ventures. In these roles, he played a pivotal role in evaluating, analyzing, and devising strategic plans for emerging laboratory ventures. Additionally, he served as Executive Director for Finance of Anatomic Pathology Services, further demonstrating his multifaceted expertise in financial management within the healthcare sector.

Prior to his tenure at Quest Diagnostics, Mr. Bronstein served as Director of Business Development at SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories for 12 years. He also held positions as a Controller at International Clinical Laboratories and public accountant at Arthur Andersen and Company, where he honed his financial acumen and gained invaluable experience in financial reporting and analysis.

Mr. Bronstein earned his BS in Accounting from Villanova University in Villanova, PA, laying the foundation for his successful career in financial management. He currently resides in Pennsylvania with his family, where he continues to contribute his expertise to the field of laboratory operations and financial management.

Laura Chaney, NMG consultant, is a Certified Public Accountant and an experienced laboratory finance executive with more than ten years of experience running a large national physician services firm with an emphasis on pathology and laboratory revenue cycle management.  Ms. Chaney possesses expertise in financial, compliance and operational management, and also excels at deal structures, and exit strategies.  Ms. Chaney also has significant experience in hospital and payor relations relative to laboratory and pathology concerns.   Ms. Chaney holds a Master’s Degree in Health Law with a Compliance Concentration from Loyola University Chicago Law School and completed her thesis on Value-Based Care and the Laboratory

Marci Dop, MT, MBA, Senior NMG Consultant, is a laboratory management professional with more than 25 years of experience in health system operations and IT. She has received numerous awards for excellence and innovation.
Prior to joining NMG, she served as the System Vice President of Laboratory and Support Services for a large Ohio Health System. While there she was instrumental in the formation of a laboratory outreach program and also for the integration of laboratory IT for all hospital acquisitions. Ms. Dop managed multiple system implementations, hospital integrations and physician practice acquisitions.

An expert in process improvement, she also successfully migrated all of her areas of responsibility to “system” structures that supported all health system facilities. She also developed unique training programs for staff to enhance operations.

Ms. Dop received an MBA from Ohio State University with a concentration in Information Systems. She also completed her undergraduate study in Medical Technology at Ohio State University. She resides in Ohio with her family.

Eric Glassy, MD, FCAP is a pathologist, a key opinion leader in the anatomic pathology industry and an NMG consultant. Dr. Glassy graduated from the University of San Francisco summa cum laude in 1972 and from UC San Francisco Medical School in 1976. He completed his Pathology residency at UCLA-Harbor General Hospital in 1980 and completed a fellowship in Hematopathology.

He was the Medical Director at Bay Harbor Hospital and at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. He has also been the Medical Director at Little Company of Mary Hospital. He is currently medical director at Pathology, Inc. and San Pedro Peninsula Hospital. He is Board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology with a specific interest in Hematopathology and Information Technology.

His memberships include Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society, California Society of Pathologists, American Society of Clinical Pathologists and Collage of American Pathologists (CAP). He is former Chairman of the CAP Hematology Resource Committee, Publications Committee and Curriculum Committee. He has also served on the Council on Education, Committee on Professional and Community Engagement, Council on Scientific Affairs, and the Council on Membership and Professional Development. He was also a member of the CAP Foundation Board of Directors.

He has received several awards from the CAP, including President’s Honor Award (2012 and 2015), Distinguished Service Award, and Excellence in Education Award. Dr. Glassy is the editor and illustrator of the CAP Color Atlas of Hematology, the CAP Color Atlas of Body Fluids, Color Atlas of Urinary Sediment and designer and illustrator of the Color Atlas of Hemoglobinopathies. His specialties include hematopathology, medical photography, digital imaging, graphic design, and computer applications. He is a nationally known speaker on Digital Pathology and the value of Pathology in Clinical Medicine.

He has written several well-received computer programs for pathologists and is also involved in video projects (filming, editing, and DVD creation). He is the president-elect of the Digital Pathology Association and is current chairman of the CAP Digital Pathology Committee. He was recently appointed a Trustee of the American Board of Pathology.

 Richard C. Friedberg, MD, PhD, MHCM, FCAP, NMG Senior Consultant, is an award-winning Senior Executive with 25+ years of worldwide success in medicine, academics, biotechnology, and medical diagnostics. His direct experience in health care delivery, compliance, strategic planning, and risk mitigation includes key leadership positions throughout his executive career in diverse private, public, and academic sectors.

Dr. Friedberg’s private sector experience centers on the application of analytical tools for biomarker identification and probabilistic outcome prediction. In 2000, he helped start MedMined (now part of BD), one of the first commercially successful applications of data mining into the laboratory to optimize delivery, improve safety, and control expenses. More recent ventures include executive and leadership roles at Bionysis (healthcare data analytics), DecisionQ (applied algorithmic insights), EmpiraMed (patient engagement software for PRO in RWE), TractusMed (cross-platform data aggregation for nationwide databases), and QuantDiagnostics (Bayesian Belief Network diagnostic algorithms).

In the public sector, Dr. Friedberg has been deeply involved with the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the worldwide leader in laboratory quality assurance (20,000 customers, 100 countries) which is among the largest professional medical associations worldwide. He had 11 years of elected service on the CAP Board of Governors, including 4 years as an Officer. As CAP President (’15-’17), he led the organization through significant strategic, operational, and regulatory challenges, including a CEO transition, and interacted directly with health care leaders at the highest levels, including the White House, National Academies of Medicine (IOM), and foreign agencies. ThePathologist.com named him to their 2015 Top 100 Power List Worldwide. In 2018, the CAP formally recognized him with their prestigious Pathologist of the Year award.

Dr. Friedberg’s academic experience includes 25+ years of formal university medical school experience at Massachusetts (Professor, Chair), Tufts (Professor, Deputy Chair), and Alabama (Tenured Associate Professor). He was Professor and Chair for the Baystate Health Department of Pathology, and Medical Director for Baystate Reference Laboratories which grew 10x under his 17 years of leadership to became one of the largest clinical laboratories in New England. Previously, he was Chief of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine for the Birmingham VAMC (8 years), where he created and led the VISN7 Diagnostic Medicine Service Line covering AL, GA,

& SC. He holds degrees in Health Care Management (MS, Harvard), Medicine and Biochemistry (MD PhD, Duke), and Biology (BS Honors, Stanford).

As a CAP-approved laboratory inspector, Dr. Friedberg has performed over 50 regulatory inspections in 13 countries, with the vast majority of those as Team Leader. Altogether, Dr Friedberg has contributed significantly to the fields of medical diagnostics, with 260+ publications, 280+ invited lectures (12 keynotes, 31 states, 15 countries), and 120+ media presentations, interviews, and quotations.

Thomas Hirsch, MBA: A Senior Consultant for NMG, Mr. Hirsch has an extensive background in consulting, financial management, and operations of hospital and independent laboratories. From 1984 to 2002, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of PathLab, the second-largest laboratory in New England prior to its purchase by LabCorp for $110 million in 2001.

Mr. Hirsch has been an industry leader working with institutions and developing innovative solutions to enhance lab performance. PathLab managed six hospital laboratories and three major physician office labs, and had a joint venture with New York University Medical Center.

Mr. Hirsch also served as President of Diagnostic Laboratory Services in Honolulu from 1989-1994. The company was a joint venture with Queens Medical Center that Mr. Hirsch helped start in 1986. It soon grew into the largest laboratory in Hawaii, with $55 million in sales. Mr. Hirsch previously served as Associate in the Health and Medical Division of Booz-Allen & Hamilton in New York, where he performed strategic planning and financial management assignments. He also served as Vice President of Laboratory Operations for Metpath, Inc. (Quest Diagnostics).

Mr. Hirsch earned his MBA degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and his BA magna cum laude from Duke University

Harold Kisner, Ph.D., MBA: A Senior Consultant with NMG since 1987, Dr. Kisner has extensive experience in the technical and operational aspects of clinical and anatomic esoteric laboratories. From 1987-2003, Dr. Kisner was COO and Laboratory Director and had P&L responsibility for all institutional clients at Path Lab Inc., one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic integrated health network laboratories in the country. In that capacity he helped design, implement, and oversee the various management models servicing seven hospitals and six large group practice physician office laboratories, as well as all technical and medical aspects of the clinical and anatomic pathology laboratories.

Dr. Kisner is a nationally recognized expert in instrument selection, workflow design and optimization, and laboratory automation. He is a valued resource to several large integrated health systems and academic medical centers throughout the U.S. He also consults with several in-vitro diagnostic companies, serves on several scientific advisory boards, and advises private equity firms on investment in the diagnostics sector.

Dr. Kisner is a special advisor to the board of the Clinical Laboratory Management Review (CLMR), authors its “Talking About Technology” column, and has previously served as editor of the “Diagnostics Report”, a newsletter on the diagnostics industry. He has numerous publications on both scientific and management topics and frequently speaks on the subject of laboratory management.

Dr. Kisner received his Ph.D. in Clinical Chemistry from the University of Rhode Island, and his MBA from an executive program at Loyola College in Maryland.

Andrea Langston, MBA, SSM is NMG’s Project Manager who specializes in laboratory business development, management analysis and project management. Prior to joining NMG, she served as the service manager for a large west coast clinical and anatomic pathology laboratory. In this role she collaborated with both operations management and the sales team to continuously improve quality and service delivery to clients.

Ms. Langston has hands on knowledge and experience in laboratory field service, customer service operations and marketing. She is well versed in laboratory life cycles including mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation of operational services including both clinical and anatomic pathology services.

Ms. Langston has been a project manager for the Nichols Management Group for 10 years. During this time she has managed several multi-million dollar projects with teams of up to 30 on-site consultants. Recent client projects include Valley Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, Partners Healthcare, Mount Sinai Health System, Carilion Clinic, Hackensack Meridian Health, Wellforce, and Quest Diagnostics.

Andrea received her Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Biopsychology at the University of California Santa Barbara and her Master’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Organizational Change and Leadership from Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business. Andrea lives in Redwood City, CA.

Lisa Littleton is an NMG consultant with more than thirty years of IT experience in the healthcare industry. Lisa specializes in the project management, build, implementation, validation, and training of Epic Inpatient Orders, Beaker Clinical and Anatomic Pathology LIS, Sunquest LIS, and various other systems.

Ms. Littleton has experience in multiple roles throughout her career including Project Manager, Lead Project Analyst, Senior Systems Analyst, System Administrator, Laboratory Outreach Supervisor, and Medical Technologist. Her most recent engagements include:

• Inpatient Manager (Orders, Clin Doc, ASAP) for multi-hospital university medical center for implementation to CPOE
• Lead Beaker Analyst for major 2-year Big Bang implementation for a 3-hospital, 1 stand-alone laboratory (including Outreach) system, converting Sunquest and PowerPath laboratory systems to Beaker CP and AP
• Project Manager for major Sunquest conversion of multi-hospital university medical center, coordinating within both Meditech and Epic CPOE systems. Also managed large Epic clean-up of EAPs, LRRs, Preference Lists, and Order Sets for laboratory orders.
• Epic Beaker Analyst – Community Connect: Converted to Epic Beaker 2010. Data migration, system build, instrument interfacing (via Data Innovations Instrument Manager), Bi-directional reference lab interfaces to Quest and NorthWest Pathology (PowerPath), System validation, Post Go-LIVE support

Ms. Littleton earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Mathematics, an Associate Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology at Ohio University.

She is active with sea turtle rescue and preservation and coral reef preservation. A certified diving enthusiast, Lisa lives on the East Coast of Florida.

Chappy Manning, RN, CPC, CPMA, NMG Consultant is a dedicated and highly-motivated coding expert withs a broad background in multiple healthcare settings, including community health, hospital, third-party payer, medical device, and medical billing company.

She possesses superior communication skills with expertise working with coding staff, nursing staff, and physician education. She has strong public speaking skills, vast experience in conducting and presenting coding and documentation review audits and in-services to client physician practices as well as state medical societies and national conferences.

Prior to joining NMG, she provided both medical report auditing and nurse education services to McKesson Corporation, Pathology Services Associates, LLC, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and Providence Hospital.

Ms. Manning received her Bachelor of Science of Nursing from the University of South Carolina and is a Registered Nurse. She is a Certified Professional Coder and a Certified Medical Auditor.

Ms. Manning lives in South Carolina with her family.

Corrie McDonald, MLS is a seasoned NMG consultant specializing in laboratory and lab informatics solutions. With a robust background in Epic laboratory implementations, Corrie brings highly analytical and data-driven approach to her work.

Formerly serving as Senior Epic Lab Analyst at Providence Health and Services, Ms. McDonald played a pivotal role in implementing Beaker Micro and Bugsy applications. Her expertise extends to interface development and innovative data solutions for micro/molecular instrumentations. Corrie has also led discussions on standardization and best practices, contributing her insights to over 80 hospital laboratories.

Before transitioning to laboratory informatics, Ms. McDonald served as Clinical Laboratory Scientists at Clark Fork Valley Hospital and Marias Medical Center, where she held the role of microbiology lead.

Ms. McDonald holds a BS in Microbiology from Montana State University and a BS in Social and Behavioral Science from University of Mary. She is certified as a MT ASCP.

Ms. McDonald is based in Montana with her family.

Albert Nichols, PMP, specializes in laboratory management analysis and project leadership. He is PMP Certified and has worked on countless engagements with health systems, labs, and healthcare companies. Albert holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Tufts University School of Engineering with a concentration in computational modeling and business entrepreneurship.

MARILYN OWENS, PH.D., MBA:  A Senior Consultant for NMG since 2007, Dr. Owens is a healthcare executive with extensive experience in esoteric and anatomic pathology reference laboratories, including clinical trial studies.  She has a comprehensive scientific background in immunology, infectious disease, oncology, and genetics.  Throughout her career, she has established 13 laboratories over a broad range of scientific specialties and integrated 6 acquisitions.

A founding member of Nichols Institute (now part of Quest Diagnostics), Dr. Owens was responsible for establishing and growing 10 esoteric specialty laboratories, including flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, image analysis, cytogenetics, FISH, infectious disease, and molecular genetics.

As SVP of Operations at IMPATH, responsible for budgets to $50 MM and 575 staff members, she created a multi-site management structure and led operational improvements in quality, standardization, workflow re-engineering, and cost-savings across the organization.  After IMPATH was acquired by Genzyme Genetics, she became  responsible for Technology and Development, creating a process  to move innovative, profitable products to market quickly through multi-disciplinary evaluation and design control teams for prenatal, and oncology testing disciplines.

As SVP or Operations at Caris Life Sciences, Dr. Owens restructured the laboratories, increasing capacity and productivity in the anatomic pathology and oncology labs, while decreasing costs during significant transformational growth of the company.  She established a comprehensive Hematopathology service, integrating results from various technologies into a consolidated report.

Dr. Owens most recently created the infrastructure and strategy for commercializing molecular and genetic testing for Personalized and Precision Medicine at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University.  As Chief Operating Office of the Knight Diagnostic Laboratories, she led a rapid implementation for commercialization nationwide , increasing billable revenues by 300%, while accommodating shared operational processes with  the University and OHSU Hospital.

Dr. Owens is well-known for strategic planning, quality programs, interactive teams, technology transfer and innovative new products.  She has coached and mentored many laboratory professionals.

Dr. Owens earned her Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology (emphasis tumor immunology) from U.C.L.A. and an M.B.A. in Strategy and Management from the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University.  She currently resides in Elgin, Oregon with her family.

Julie Pantalone, a Senior Consultant with NMG, has over 35 years of operational, sales, and sales leadership experience in the laboratory industry. Ms. Pantalone has trained over 200 salespeople throughout her impressive career. Julie is a proven sales leader that helps companies to grow their business and people to grow themselves. She has extensive experience evaluating operational workflows in transportation, accessioning, and customer service in some of the largest laboratories in the country.

Ms. Pantalone’s career in this arena, started as a sales position in the laboratory field working for one of the largest clinical laboratories in the country. She continued working for Quest Diagnostics for more than two decades and won numerous awards in sales. Julie went on to serve as Corporate Sales Director for Beaumont Hospitals. As Vice President, Sales for Atlas Medical, she was responsible for national growth and sales team management for IT middleware product sold to commercial laboratories and large health systems. At Atlas Medical, Julie had extensive experience with EMR interfaces and workflow engineering to connect disparate systems enabling clean orders and results to outreach market. And, most recently as she spent time a Director of Sales and Marketing for McLaren Medical Laboratory. Julie has a bachelor’s in business leadership from Baker College.

In her capacity as a sales leader, Julie has helped businesses grow rapidly. However, she is most proud of what she’s accomplished in mentoring other professionals; helping them to develop and succeed in their careers.

Donata Random, MBA, is an NMG financial analyst with proven business, contract management and accounting experience. She has strong interpersonal and collaborative skills and excels at managing accounts payable and receivable, general ledger review, financial reporting and tax preparation.

Donata’s financial experience includes not only a wide range of industries but also virtually all levels of management.

Donata received a Bachelor of Science degree overseas in 2001 and received an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University in 2008. She lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with her husband.

Kurt L. Rogers, CPA, MBA, NMG consultant is a senior financial executive who possesses excellent business acumen and laboratory financial analysis skills. Mr. Rogers is solution-oriented and presents insightful financial recommendations to C suite executives, board members and executive partners.

Mr. Rogers’ expertise includes financial modeling, due diligence activities and valuations. He also has extensive experience in revenue cycle, financial reporting, auditing, laboratory management, forecasting, operations cost improvement, budgeting, benchmarking and cost accounting.

Mr. Rogers served as Director of Finance at Providence Health and Services where he compiled the five-year long-range financial plan for each service and successfully completed the $1.2 billion budget. He also served as CFO at Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML), the fourth largest laboratory in the US. During his 15 year tenure at PAML, he increased partnership and outreach revenue from $20 Million to $250 Million. He also held senior financial positions at Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. Mr. Rogers most recently served as the Director of Finance for Cleveland Clinic Laboratories, as well as managing the outreach program for Cleveland Clinic laboratories.

Kurt received his MBA at Western International University in Phoenix, AZ and a BS in Accounting at Arizona State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and resides in Seattle, Washington with his family.

Sarina Rodriques, FACHE, MSH, CLS, MT (ASCP) DLM, Senior NMG Consultant, is a laboratory management and healthcare expert with more than 28 years’ experience. She most recently served as Administrative Director for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for a large health system located in California, where she was responsible for laboratories with 1.7 million billable tests, 200 employees and gross revenue of $200 million. She implemented reference laboratory cost savings through standardization and utilization management. Rapid diagnostics in microbiology was implemented and resulted in reduced length of stay and overall pharmacy costs. Blood management and partnership with blood suppliers resulted in significant savings and improvement quality of transfusion services. Cost saving staffing models designed to address workforce shortages and sustain retention with succession planning as the cornerstone. Sarina has extensive knowledge in laboratory automation and implementation. She has built laboratories from ground up where she implemented a one of a kind total lab automation system. In addition to automation, Sarina’s expertise includes operations benchmarking of laboratories including productivity and expense review.

Sarina is a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives. In this role, she works on initiatives focused on the development of future workforce and healthcare leaders and promotes the contributions of the laboratory industry. Sarina has served on the Board for Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA). Sarina is the author of the finance section of the body of knowledge for clinical laboratory managers and teaches the prep course for the ASCP DLM exam.

Sarina has published a number of papers in laboratory publications, including a four-part series on total laboratory automation on a hospital laboratory setting, published in Clinical Laboratory Management Review in 2007. She also is an extensive speaker, presenting on laboratory automation, leadership and clinical topics at many conferences, including the AACC annual meeting, the CLMA ThinkLab and KnowledgeLab, the Executive War College, and G2 Intelligence’s Lab Revolution.

Jared N. Schwartz, MD, Ph.D., Senior NMG Consultant, is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology with subspecialty boards in medical microbiology and cytopathology. He is a distinguished medical professional, patient advocate and pathology leader who has paved the way for groundbreaking strategies that improve patient outcomes. He is listed in “Top Doctors in America” and has been recognized by the College of American Pathology as “Pathologist of the Year”. As a key influencer in the pathology community, he interacts regularly with key opinion leaders (KOLs), medical and advocacy societies, and medical directors of major clinical and regulatory organizations.

Sought after as an industry “Expert” by the media, Dr. Schwartz has given over a thousand lectures and media interviews on a variety of medical topics and has served on consensus groups for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on setting national laboratory testing standards. He has represented the College of American Pathologists (CAP), testifying before Congress and at the White House on laboratory quality issues. He was appointed as Chairman of the College of American Pathologists Committee on National Laboratory Preparedness following “9-11,” establishing worldwide laboratory protocols in only 24 hours. He testified before Congress in May 2003 on SARS, and was interviewed live on CNN during during the Monkey Pox outbreak. He has been on Good Morning America and CNN providing information on influenza and has given over 250 international media interviews.

Prior to his consulting career, Dr. Schwartz served as Director of Pathology for Novant Health in Charlotte, NC. He also served as Chief Medical Officer of Aperio. Dr. Schwartz was instrumental in strategic business matters and emerging medical technology solutions that impact patient care.

Dr. Schwartz currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), the American Pathology Foundation, and the Program Planning Committee of the Annual Harvard Symposium on Personalized Medicine. He previously served as Consulting Professor at Stanford University, School of Medicine, and a member of the Stanford Medical Center, Personalized Medicine and Genomics Committee. He has held numerous lead positions in state and national medical associations and served on Board of Governors of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and was the nationally elected President of CAP from 2007-2009.

Dr. Schwartz is a graduate of Duke University Medical School where he obtained an M.D. (1973) and Ph.D. (1975) and completed his residency and fellowship training serving as the 1st Chief Resident in Pathology in 1977.

Dr. Schwartz resides in North Carolina with his family.

Heidi Wagner, PA, BSc, NMG Consultant, is an industry expert in biobanking, surgical pathology and laboratory medicine.  She has over a decade of experience in leading central biorepositories at the largest cancer centers in both Canada (Princess Margaret Cancer Center) and the United States (MD Anderson Cancer Center). She currently serves as head of operations of biobanking services at the University Health Network (UHN). In this role, she has been responsible for opening the area's COVID-19 Biobank.

Heidi is considered a thought leader in the biobanking and surgical pathology workflow space.  Areas of interest and expertise for Heidi include bioregulatory policies, best practices and outcomes, biobanking vis-à-vis translational research, standardized sample management, risk assessment, quality assurance and quality control, waste management, biobanking protocol design, accreditation by regulatory agencies and hiring of clinical and research professionals. 

Heidi serves on various committees of the International Society for Biological and Environment Repositories (ISBER) and the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB).

Heidi received a BSc in Anatomic Pathology from Wayne State University, MI.

Ran Whitehead, NMG Consultant, is a seasoned laboratory executive with more than 40 years of experience. Mr. Whitehead has led laboratories in a variety of settings from founding a start-up venture capital backed laboratory in Tennessee to leading for-profit and non-for profit laboratories in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, New Mexico and Oregon.

Mr. Whitehead is expert at strategic development, lab construction and site development, LIS implementation and outreach development. He is well known for his technical and clinical excellence, collaborative partnerships, and innovative programs. He has also led initiatives such as the distance learning program that was later adopted by laboratories across the country.
Prior to joining NMG, he most recently served as CEO at PeaceHealth Laboratories where he integrated twelve laboratory operations in to one operating unit with standardized policies, procedures and equipment. While there he also developed new service lines to enhance future revenues, introduced Lean Assessment program for process improvement and implemented the EPIC/Beaker LIS.

Mr. Whitehead also served as CEO at SED Medical Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM and Oregon Medical Laboratories in Eugene, OR. He has also held senior leadership positions at Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL, Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, NC and at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.
He has presented at the Executive War College, Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine, California Clinical Laboratory Association and Roche Molecular Center of Excellence. He has also led numerous online seminars and has authored several articles for the Medical Laboratory Observer and released four podcasts focusing on the clinical laboratory industry.

Mr. Whitehead served on the Boards at Lane Workforce Partnership, Lane Memorial Blood Bank, New Mexico Workforce Partnership and Ascendant Diagnostics.

He earned his Master of Business Administration at Duke University and his Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology at Michigan State University.
Ran lives in Santa Barbara, CA with his wife.