Biographies
Martin Charns, D.B.A. is Professor of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Program on Health Care Organization Studies at Boston University School of Public Health, and Director of the Center for Organization, Leadership & Management Research (COLMR), a Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research Center of Excellence. He is also principal investigator on the series of projects evaluating the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Pursuing Perfection” Program and of studies investigating organizational factors associated with quality of care, organizational transformation and implementation of evidence-based practices.
Email: mcharns@bu.edu
Alan B. Cohen, Sc.D. is an investigator at COLMR. He is Executive Director of the Boston University Health Policy Institute and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the BU Schools of Management and Public Health. He also is national program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, and a co-investigator in the evaluation of the RWJF Pursuing Perfection Program, led by Dr. Charns. His research interests include evaluation of quality improvement initiatives and organizational transformation efforts.
Email: abcohen@bu.edu
Irene Cramer, Ph.D., MSSA is a COLMR investigator and Research Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. She is Co-PI for the HSR&D funded "Evaluation of the Parkinson's Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centers (PADRECC)." In collaboration with the Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC), she also had the lead role in the qualitative aspect of the "Evaluation of the Implementation of Supported Employment." As a co-investigator for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Evaluation of Pursuing Perfection" and associated initiatives to validate and disseminate the study’s findings, she has focused on organizational change in healthcare settings as a way to create patient centered and effective systems of care for people with chronic conditions. She comes to this work with over 30 years experience as a clinician and manager in behavioral health.
Email: Irene.Cramer@va.gov
Sally Holmes, M.B.A. is program manager for COLMR. In this role Ms. Holmes is responsible for staff professional development and organizational improvement. She is also co-investigator on several grants including the VA HSR&D funded "Strengthening Organizations to Implement Evidence-Based Practice" and the "Pursuing Perfection" evaluation projects. Additionally, Ms. Holmes is currently working with the Boston University Health Policy Institute on studies of hospital quality improvement sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund and the state of quality improvement training in the US, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Email: skholmes@bu.edu
Barbara Lerner, M.S. is the Project Manager for the RWJ funded Pursuing Perfection validation project titled "Transforming Healthcare Organizations to Improve Patient Care: Validation of an Approach" and involved in the data collection and analysis of the project. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Health Policy and Management Department at The Boston University School of Public Health.
Email: lerner@bu.edu
Alexis Maule, M.P.H. is a Research Assistant at COLMR. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Boston University and her MPH with a concentration in Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. She is involved in the data collection and analysis for the project titled "Transforming Healthcare Organizations to Improve Patient Care: Validation of an Approach" and the statistical analysis for the Pursuing Perfection projects.
Email: Alexis.Maule@va.gov
Joseph D. Restuccia, M.P.H., Dr.P.H. is an investigator at COLMR. He is Professor of Health Care and Operations Management at the BU School of Management. His research focuses on health care quality, appropriateness, utilization, and cost. He is co-developer of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) and currently is a co-investigator on the Pursuing Perfection project.
Email: jres@bu.edu
Michael Shwartz, Ph.D. is a COLMR investigator and co-leader of the Management Practices and Organizational Change Research Team. He is the Richard D Cohen Professor in Health Care and Operations Management at the BU School of Management. Active in health services research for over 20 years, the focus of his recent research has been on health care costs, payment, utilization, appropriateness and quality of care. He has extensive expertise in statistics and risk adjustment. Among other projects, he is co-investigator on the Pursuing Perfection evaluation.
Email: mshwartz@bu.edu
Carol VanDeusen Lukas, Ed.D. is Senior Investigator at COLMR and Clinical Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. She also leads Boston University's Safety Net ACTION Partnership, a coalition of researchers and healthcare service delivery systems that participates in the Agency for Healthcare for Research and Quality's initiative, Accelerating Change and Transformation in Organizations and Networks. Her current research focuses on organizational change and transformation, implementation of innovative practices and health system integration.
Email: cvlukas@bu.edu
