Who We Are
Columbia University School of Nursing
Patricia Stone, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, CIC
Patricia Stone is the Centennial Professor of Health Policy and Director of the Center for Health Policy at Columbia Nursing. Her program of research is aimed at understanding cost and quality outcomes, specifically health care-associated infections (HAI). Dr. Stone will lead the Columbia team, oversee all aspects of the study, and collaborate closely with Dr. Andrew Dick and Dr. Lara Dhingra (fellow MPIs).
Uduwanage Gayani Perera, PhD, MS
Gayani Perera is the data manager for this study. She has expertise in analyzing survey data, CMS data and other national datasets.
Bridget Morse-Karzen, MPH
Bridget Morse-Karzen is a research manager with the Center for Health Policy at CUSON and serves as a coordinator for this study.
Khadra Dualeh, MPH
Khadra Dualeh is a research coordinator with the Center for Health Policy at CUSON and serves as a coordinator for this study.
Christine DeForge, PhD, RN, CCRN
Christine DeForge is a postdoctoral research fellow whose program of research aims to improve end-of-life care for patients and families who experience critical illness. Under the mentorship of Dr. Patricia Stone, her current work focuses on exploring variations in discharge disposition and hospice utilization for seriously ill hospitalized older adults.
RAND Corporation
Andrew Dick, PhD
Andrew Dick is a senior health economist at the RAND Corporation. He has expertise in the development of methods and empirical applications of quality assessment with a focus on applied econometric methods for drawing causal inference. As an MPI, he oversees all aspects of this study, in collaboration with Lara Dhingra and Patricia Stone, and leads the RAND team.
Denise Quigley, PhD, MA, MPhil
Denise Quigley is a health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She has expertise in mixed methods research methods and health services research. She will help lead the qualitative research aim of this study.
Mark Sorbero, MS
Mark Sorbero is a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation. He serves as the lead programmer at RAND for this study.
Catherine Cohen, PhD
Katie Cohen is a health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and improvements in post-acute and hospice care, especially among older adults. She serves as a co-investigator on this study.
MJHS Institute
Lara Dhingra, PhD
Lara Dhingra is the Director of Health Disparities and Outcomes Research at the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care and Associate Professor of Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Dhingra will work closely with MPI’s Dr. Patricia Stone and Dr. Andy Dick to assume overall responsibility for the proposed research, overseeing and coordinating all aspects of the design and execution of the study protocol.
Stephanie DiFiglia, PhD
Stephanie DiFiglia is a Research Project Manager for the Health Disparities and Outcomes Research Program at the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care. She is also an Applied Developmental Psychologist with expertise in health promotion and well-being throughout the lifespan. During her doctoral work, she investigated post-acute care transitions and risk factors for rehospitalization in ethnically diverse nursing home residents. Dr. DiFiglia has expertise with the preparation, management, and analysis of large federal and public datasets, and implementation of qualitative research.
Expert Consultants
Cordt Kassner, PhD
Dr. Kassner is a national leader in hospice research, policy, and advocacy, and former CEO of the Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care. He has expertise in analyzing hospice claims data and other CMS datasets.
Jasmine Travers, AGPCNP-BC, CCRN, PhD, RN
Dr. Travers is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing. She is dedicated to designing and conducting research to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities in vulnerable older adult groups using long-term services and supports. As a nurse scientist living in Harlem, Dr. Travers frequently works with and advocates for elderly Black Americans.
Robert Weech-Maldonado, PhD
Dr. Weech-Maldonado is a health disparities expert. As a health services researcher with expertise in improving the care for elderly Hispanics living in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Weech-Maldonado regularly works with nursing homes (NHs) serving high proportions of racial and ethnic minorities.
Russell Portenoy, MD
Russell Portenoy is a Professor of Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also the former Chief Medical Officer of MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care and Executive Director of the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care. He brings clinical hands-on experience as a hospice physician and hospice administrator, as well as decades of expertise in end-of-life care research. He will provide ongoing input to Dr. Dhingra, Dr. Stone, and Dr. Dick on implementation of the study.
Advisory Board
Sau (Lucia) Chan
Ms. Chan is a Chinese American community change agent. She has worked on numerous interventions to improve palliative care for the Chinese American immigrant population, including an American Cancer Society-supported quality improvement intervention for cancer pain that led to meaningful improvements in pain care services for numerous Chinese-speaking cancer patients with unmet healthcare needs across New York City.
J. Taylor Harden, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN
Dr. Harden is the Executive Director Emeritus of the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE) and a Visiting Professor at the University of Texas, Austin. She has expertise in translating knowledge generated from research into effective policy. Dr. Harden is driven to promote intradisciplinary research and scholarship in support of Black American elderly, diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.
Nicole McCann-Davis, MSC
Ms. McCann-Davis is a policy leader and chairs the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) Diversity Advisory Council. She is also the Research Director for Transcend Strategy Group. Ms. McCann-Davis’s work aims to ensure that equitable care is available to all patients, regardless of gender, ethnicity, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, language, gender identity, or social class, and that patients’ end-of-life experience reflects elements of a ‘good death’ and promotes peace of mind for them and their families.
Susan L. Mitchell, MD, MPH
Dr. Mitchell is a senior scientist and physician geriatrician at the Hebrew Senior Marcus Institute for Aging Research. Her work focuses on improving the experience of NH residents with advanced disease.
Hillary A. Loeffler
Ms. Loeffler is the Senior Policy Advisor in the Center for Program Integrity and previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Legislation. Prior to this, she was the Director for the Division of Home Health and Hospice at CMS. Ms. Loeffler has expertise in all aspects of policy development, including the Federal regulatory process and the Medicare hospice benefit.