Physician Leader Profiles

Lourell Sutliff, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
OB/GYN
Chief Medical Officer
Shannon Clinic
San Angelo, TX


Dr. Sutliff completed his medical studies and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences in Memphis, Tennessee. He is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Medical Corps and has practiced in San Angelo, Texas since 1983. Dr. Sutliff is a member of the Board of Directors of the Shannon Clinic, a 105-physician multispecialty group. Dr. Sutliff has continued to practice obstetrics and gynecology since completion of PEMBA in 2000 and also serves as Chief Medical Officer of Legacy Health Plan, the Chapter 20 insurance company funded by the Shannon Health System. He is board-certified by both the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Board of Quality Assurance Utilization Review. Dr. Sutliff and his wife have been married over 30 years and have four grown children.

Ward Oakley, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Orthopedic Surgeon
Associate Professor, Associate Director
Pinehurst Surgical Clinic, P.A.
Pinehurst, NC


Since 1983, Dr. Oakley has practiced as an orthopedic surgeon in a multi-specialty surgical group in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He is a native Tennessean and graduated from the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences in 1975. He received his orthopedic training at the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Oakley is a veteran of the armed services, having completed his last tour of duty for the Army in 1983 at Ft. Devens and Ft. Stewart. Dr. Oakley is married and him and his wife have four children-Neal, Susan, John, and Willie. He is an active troop leader in the Boy Scouts, is involved with his church, and participates in community affairs. Dr. Oakley also works at a medical mission in Kenya.

Steve Paragioudakis, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Orthopedic Surgeon
President
UCSF/Stanford Health Care
Shrewbury, NJ


Dr. Paragioudakis received his medical education at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1993. He has been active in professional societies and has been published in medical journals and has made professional presentations. Dr. Paragioudakis is married and enjoys all sports activities and traveling with his family. He completed his spine surgery fellowship at the St. Mary's/Stanford University Combined Program. He was a faculty member of the Department of Orthopaedics at Stanford University and also served as the Assistant Director of the Orthopedic Spine Center. He currently leads an orthopedic practice in New Jersey.

Valerie Moore, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Pediatrics
Managing Partner
Neonatal Consultants, P.A.
Sugarland, TX


Dr. Moore is the Managing Partner of Neonatal Consultants, PA and has dual board-certifications in neonatal perinatal medicine and pediatrics. She graduated from the Albert Chandler School of Medicine at the University of Kentucky and completed her pediatric residency at Children's Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She completed her neonatal perinatal medicine fellowship at Kosair Children's affiliated with the University of Louisville in Kentucky. She has 18 years of clinical practice experience in neonatology. In April of 2001, she accepted the position of Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hermann Southwest in Houston, Texas. She was certified in health care quality management in 2002 and has extensive experience with quality improvement initiatives. In 2003, Dr. Moore was awarded Physician of the Year at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. Dr. Moore has held progressive medical leadership positions and belongs to several professional associations. She enjoys teaching and is progressive by nature. She has a passion for change management and healthcare informatics.

Kenneth Robertson, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Pediatrics
Medical Director for Care and Utilization Management
Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
Bartlett, TN


Dr. Robertson attended medical school at the University of Tennessee, Memphis College of Medicine. He began a residency at LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in 1990 in pediatrics and opted to enter private practice in 1993. He began serving as a managing partner at Memphis Children's Clinic in 1997 after becoming a full partner. He completed the PEMBA program in 2000 and went on to accept a position at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare as the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in June of 2006. His current role as associate chief medical officer includes normal CMO activities as well as direct supervision of the Infection Control and Care Management departments at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. He still considers the most enjoyable time in his educational experience to be the year spent in the PEMBA program and finds daily use for the information he received through it. He has received several awards throughout his career but considers his greatest honor to be the privilege of being a father and husband. He has three children and a wife who runs her own home business. His hobbies include golf, playing the saxophone, and walking.

John Lowry, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine
Medical Director
Kapi'olani Women's Outpatient Clinic
Mililani, HI


Dr. Lowry is a 1989 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He completed an internship in internal medicine at the University of Hawaii and residencies in Honolulu. Dr. Lowry worked for three years as a general practitioner in Hawaii, both in a private clinic in Waikiki and for a large HMO. He then traveled to Germany where he served as a CHAMPUS partnership physician on a U.S. army base for two years. Dr. Lowry returned to Knoxville to finish residency training in family medicine and graduated in October 1997. He is currently in a two-physician group practice in his hometown of Madisonville, Tennessee. He is married with two children, Houston and Andrew. He enjoys skiing, photography, and travel. His future plans are to apply what he learns in the Physician Executive MBA program to the quickly changing business of rural medicine.

Vijay Jethanandani, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Psychiatry
Medical Director
Psychiatric Associates PC
Knoxville, TN


Dr. Jethanandani is a geriatric psychiatrist in a group practice with Psychiatric Associates, PC, which is a five-physician group. He serves as a consultant/interim director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Unit at Morristown Hamblen Hospital, a start-up unit. Dr. Jethanandani completed his fellowship in geriatric psychiatry and two years as an instructor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His residency was taken in general psychiatry at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. He completed medical school at the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, a former French Colony now a part of India. He is a native of Ballarpur, India, and a naturalized citizen of the U.S. He is married with two children. Dr. Jethanandani's interests are reading, playing soccer and tennis, swimming, traveling, and learning new skills.

James Woody, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine
Private Practice
University of Kentucky Family Practice
Nicholasville, KY


Dr. Woody attended Columbia University in New York for medical school and completed his residency at the University of Kentucky. While at the University of Kentucky, he completed his family medicine residency and served as chief resident. He served as the National Chairman of the American Medical Association's Medical Student Section and has continued his active involvement in organized medicine. Dr. Woody is in private practice in Connersville, Indiana. He is married and has a beautiful daughter.

Peter Embriano, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Ophthalmologist
Professor
Fox Institute
Somers, CT


Dr. Embriano is a native of New York City. He earned his medical degree at New York Medical College. His post-doctorate training was in internal medicine. Dr. Embriano completed a forty-month training program in ophthalmology resulting in board certification. He ran a very successful private practice for seventeen years. Dr. Embriano drew great satisfaction and fulfillment in providing direct patient care, in managing the practice, and in participating in professional meetings and educational conferences during these years. He is a member and past president of his local chapter of the International Lions Organization. He served a four-year term as president of the Recreation Commission in Somers, Connecticut. Although retired from private practice, he remains active in investment research and online stock trading. His major recreational pursuits revolve around tennis, golf, skiing, reading, music, and antique automobiles. He lives in New England with his wife and their two children.

Ramy Yakobi-Shvili, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
OB/GYN
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine in Surgery
New York - Presbyterian / Weill Cornell
Nyack, NY


Dr. Yakobi earned his medical degree at the University of Padua, Italy in 1990. He is in practice at Cornell Medical Center as an emergency care physician. He is a member of Cornell Medical School's faculty as an assistant professor and clinical instructor. Dr. Yakobi was born in the U.S.S.R. but has lived in several countries. He speaks multiple languages fluently. He enjoys research and working on the publication of a booklet and website that will provide medical information. He also teaches at Cornell Medical Center.

Lawrence Marr, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Anesthesiology
Chairman
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Sewickley, PA


Dr. Marr is an anesthesiologist who lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also trained in internal medicine. He is Canadian by birth and spent most of his adult life in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1992 he moved to the United States and in 1998 became head of anesthesiology, Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Regional Hospitals. He is a member of many professional organizations including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada. He is an active member on many hospital committees and serves as Associate Medical Director for a large HMO in the Ohio Valley. His responsibilities at the HMO include setting policies and medical standards. Dr. Marr's leisure activities include reading, music, drawing, traveling, playing sports such as tennis, golf, and particularly hockey-which he played semi-professionally prior to attending university.

Miguel Nunez, Jr., MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine
CEO, President
Green Cross, Inc.
Miami, FL


Dr. Nunez is the founder, chief executive officer, and president of Green Cross, Inc. which has provided outpatient mental health services in South Florida since 1994. He participated in many a lobbying effort both in Washington, Baltimore, and in CMS regional offices in Atlanta, among other cities, to defend and try to preserve benefits for Medicare patients. Dr. Nunez is active in supporting various charities in the community. He has served on the board of directors of a large not-for-profit community mental health center from 2003 through 2004. He has also served on the board of directors of the Zoological Society of Florida from 2002 through 2004. Dr. Nunez is a 1991 graduate of Georgetown University Medical School and a 2000 graduate of PEMBA. He still practices primary care medicine part-time and spends the rest of his time in administrative, entrepreneurial, and investment pursuits. While his shift from medical practice to business started before PEMBA, the program accelerated the shift and, in his opinion, very likely improved the outcome.

Andrew Egol, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Internal Medicine
CEO
Cerner Corporation
Pembroke Pines, FL


Dr. Egol completed a residency in internal medicine at Brown University's Program in Medicine and a two-year fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Presently he is a physician executive in the Care Transformation Division of Cerner Corporation. In 2002, Dr. Egol joined a new venture, IntensiCare, as its chief executive officer. IntensiCare is a critical care management company that will focus on the goals of improving the quality of critical care delivered to patients. IntensiCare works closely with hospitals, healthcare providers, as well as other physicians to implement innovative and effective solutions toward achieving these goals, including the establishment of full-time intensivist programs. Formerly he was the Medical Director of Critical Care Medicine and Respiratory Care Services at Baptist Hospital of Miami, Florida, as well as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at both the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Egol is Chairman of both the Ethics Committee and Critical Care Committee of Baptist Hospital and serves on the Ethics Committee and Disease Management Committee for the Health Council of South Florida. He lectures frequently on medical futility and end-of-life decisions and is the author several national guidelines and protocols, amongst other publications. His medical interests are in quality improvement, critical care utilization, efficiency, and collaboration. The Society of Critical Care Medicine recently honored him at their 27th Annual Convention in San Antonio by making him the recipient of the 1998 Internal Medicine Specialty Award. Dr. Egol also has been honored and recognized by the Society of Critical Care Medicine with their Presidential Citation in 1997-1999 for organizational service.

Susan Thurmond, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Neurology
CMIO, Sr. Vice President Clinical Effectiveness
Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare
Memphis, TN


As Senior Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness, Gail Thurmond, M.D., MBA, is responsible for the Methodist Le Bonheur Medical Staff including credentialing, medical staff committees, and physician quality. She has oversight of other physician leaders in the system including the Chief Medical Officers. Dr. Thurmond also served as Chief Medical Information Officer beginning in 2002 and was instrumental in early PowerChart design and implementation at Methodist. Dr. Thurmond joined Methodist Healthcare in 1999 as Medical Director of Health Choice, LLC, the Physician Hospital Organization of Metrocare Physicians and Methodist; she subsequently served as Chief Medical Officer of that organization and developed a vibrant case management function for their managed contracts. Prior to joining Methodist, she served as Director of Medical Informatics, Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation, and practiced neurology for many years in Boston and later in Memphis. She has been a member of the Methodist Healthcare Medical Staff since 1986. Dr. Thurmond received her undergraduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her medical education at University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences in Memphis. She completed her internal medicine residency with the UT program at Memphis VA and John Gaston Hospitals. She then completed her neurology residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. While practicing neurology in Boston, she was a Harvard clinical teaching associate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Thurmond received her MBA from University of Tennessee Knoxville in 2000 and subsequently was appointed to their faculty, teaching Health Information Technology. She currently serves on their Physician Executive MBA (PEMBA) Advisory Council. A Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Dr. Thurmond is passionate about patient safety and reducing variations in care; she champions several ongoing quality improvement projects. In 2004, she completed the Advanced Training Program in Healthcare Delivery Improvement under the leadership of Dr. Brent James at Intermountain Healthcare.

Ramesh Gandhi, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Gastroenterology
President, Management Partner
Digestive Specialists, Inc.
Kettering, OH


Dr. Gandhi received his medical degree from the Medical School of Amritsar in India in 1972. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He practices gastroenterology in Dayton, Ohio and has been in practice for the past twenty-one years. He leads a group of over 20 gastroenterologists, anesthesiologists, and pathologists at Digestive Specialists LLC. His managerial and leadership duties have greatly intensified in the past three years. His hobbies include playing tennis and golf. He has three children-two sons and a daughter.

Yazdi Amaria, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine, Obstetrics, and Surgery
President, Chairman
Yazdi N. Amaria MD., PC
Sturgis, MI


Dr. Amaria was born in Mumbai, India, and completed medical school in 1973 where he trained as a general surgeon. In 1976 he married and moved to England where he practiced his specialty. In 1984 he and his family moved to Michigan where he completed a family practice residency and earned board certification in family practice. Since 1991 he has been in solo practice, providing patients with family practice and surgical services in a small, rural, community-based hospital. Dr. Amaria has served on the hospital's executive committee in a variety of capacities. He serves as chairman of both the credential committee and the surgical committee and is currently president of the medical staff. He is also a member of the hospital's Board of Trustees, having served for the past two years. Dr. Amaria is a founding member of his local physician organization. As a joint leader on his hospital's steering committee, he has been instrumental in the implementation of new endoscopic surgery procedures as well as the design and introduction of new clinical pathways for the hospital.

Toks Owo, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Internal Medicine
President
Nigeria's Choice
Dallas, TX


Dr. Toks Owo is a practicing board-certified internist in Lexington, Kentucky, and he also works in various emergency departments. He is a soccer player and enjoys traveling. Dr Owo is a member of various organizations geared towards the progressive improvement of Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. He enrolled in the Physician Executive MBA program to enhance his business and leadership skills and to position himself better for a job in medical management and administration. His spouse is a gastroenterologist at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

Timothy Burrell, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Emergency Medicine
Medical Director
Unity Physician Group
Bloomington, IN


Dr. Burrell is the vice president of clinical services at Unity Physician Group in Bloomington, Indiana. Dr. Burrell completed his medical degree at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1991 and his emergency medicine residency at Michigan State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1994. He currently holds clinical faculty appointments at the Indiana University and the University of Louisville Schools of Medicine. His professional focus has been to enhance the clinical practice environment while respecting administrative needs. To this end, he has sought to creatively employ information technology, process improvement, and service excellence principles. Dr. Burrell has successfully led electronic medical record implementation projects in the emergency department and urgent care environments and continues to seek new technology-based opportunities to support providers. He also has experience in the alternative insurance markets as a founding director of an offshore insurance captive in the Cayman Islands and of an Arizona-based risk retention group that insures 300 emergency medicine and urgent care providers. Dr. Burrell has been an active member of the American College of Emergency Physicians at both the state and national levels. Dr. Burrell sees the PEMBA program as a vital step in his development as a physician leader.

Francois Nader, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine
President and CEO
NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Morristownship, NJ


Dr. Nader has nearly 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in senior scientific, operational, and strategic leadership roles. He has been President and Chief Executive Officer of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since March 2008. Dr. Nader joined NPS in June 2006 and previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer. In that capacity, he was responsible for managing the company's worldwide research and development, commercial operations, and manufacturing and regulatory affairs. Before joining NPS, Dr. Nader was a venture partner at Care Capital, LLC and chief medical officer of its clinical development capital unit. Prior experience includes senior vice president, integrated Healthcare Markets and North America Medical and Regulatory Affairs with Aventis Pharmaceuticals. He also had similar positions at Hoechst Marion Roussel and served as Head of Global Commercial Operations at the Pasteur Vaccines division of Rhone-Poulenc. Francois Nader received a French state doctorate in medicine from St. Joseph University. He holds a master's degree in medical marketing from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris in addition to his MBA from the University of Tennessee.

Jose Antony, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Cardiology
Director of Medical Education
Twin Cities Cardiology Associates
Roanoke Rapids, NC


Dr. Antony received his medical degree from the University of Rome, Italy, in 1979. A native of Kerala, India, he came to the United States in 1979. After finishing his training in internal medicine and cardiology, Dr. Antony began practicing in North Carolina. While managing a busy practice, he served as chief of medicine, chief of the medical staff, and as a member of the hospital's Board of Trustees. Dr. Antony also enjoys teaching and is currently the director of medical education at his area's medical center. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Area Health Education Foundation.

Mariano Petilla, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Cardiology
President
Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons
Pittsburg, PA


Dr. Petilla's bachelor's degree is in the field of zoology. He earned his medical doctorate at the University of Santo Tomas. His post-doctorate training included work in public health, a four-year residency in general surgery, and four additional years in a thoracic and cardiovascular residency and fellowship. Since 1974, he has been in a thoracic and cardiovascular surgery group practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1998, Dr. Petilla earned a master's degree in health care policy and management at Carnegie-Mellon University. He also earned his master's in public management from Carnegie-Mellon in 1999. His hobbies include seeing movies, attending concerts, reading history-especially about World War II, traveling to other countries, and occasionally, sailing.

Ramanathan Raju, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Cardiology
Medical Director, Director of Medical Education
New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
Staten Island, NY


Dr. Raju is originally from Madras, India. He earned his medical degree in 1975 from Madras Medical College. He pursued general surgery post-graduation and a fellowship in pediatric surgery. Subsequent to his fellowship he received further training in surgery in England. Dr. Raju is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons. In 1982 he came to the United States and completed a residency in surgery and received a fellowship in vascular surgery. He held various administrative positions in the academic medicine and clinical professorships in various medical schools. He has served as a director of surgery, director of trauma, and senior vice president for medical education. He is an avid researcher and published widely in peer-reviewed journals. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Medical Officer for Health and Hospital Corporation in New York. Prior to that he was the Deputy Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Medical Officer of Coney Island Hospital. His wife is a practicing urologist. Together they have two children.

Scott Reeves, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Anesthesiology
Professor, Medical Director
Medical University of South Carolina
Mt. Pleasant, SC


Dr. Reeves is an Associate Professor at the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Reeves is a member of the Board of Directors of University Medical Associates. This university practice plan, at the Medical University of South Carolina, has 525 physician members. He received his bachelor's degree, Cum Laude, in biochemistry in 1983 from Clemson University and his medical degree in 1987 from the Medical University of South Carolina. He completed both internal medicine and anesthesiology residences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed a year of advanced training in echocardiography at the Medical University of South Carolina from 1993-1994, following his appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative in 1993. Since that time he has also been the Medical Director of Critical Care at the Medical University of South Carolina. In 1997 he was promoted to associate professor. He has been a guest editor of several journals including Southern Medical Journal and The Journal of Critical Illness and Critical Care. He has received several grants as principal investigator studying rocuronium bromide and propofol use in critical care patients over the last five years. He has also been principal and co-investigator in many intramural studies since 1993. He has authored 23 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Reeves has been active in many university, college, and departmental committees. He is the creator and director of the Clinical Preceptorship at the Medical University of South Carolina for Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography since 1998.

Jack Liao, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Family Medicine
Medical Director
WellStar Health System
Peachtree City, GA


Dr. Liao is the Medical Director for WellStar Health System. Previously, he served as Medical Director at The Emory Clinic, Fayetteville and an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his medical training at China Medical College in Taichung, Taiwan and his residency was completed at the Department of Family Medicine at East Tennessee State University. He has served as a member of the medical advisory board for Healthsource of Georgia and Prudential Healthcare of Georgia and is presently a leading member of several committees and councils at Emory University Health Care System.

Paul Kivela, MD, MBA
2000 Graduate
Emergency Medicine
Co-Founder of Emeds
Queen of the Valley Medical Center
Napa, CA


Dr. Kivela is a practicing emergency physician and currently lives and works in Napa, California, with his wife Madeline and three children. He grew up in Chicago and completed his undergraduate and medical school at University of Illinois and emergency medicine residency at the University of California-Los Angeles Harbor Medical Center. After finishing his residency Dr. Kivela completed an administrative emergency medicine fellowship in San Francisco and moved back to Chicago to help found an emergency medicine residency program and eventually became the Medical Director and Chief-of-Service of the Emergency Department at Michael Reese Hospital. Along the way he also started a medical software company, medical education company, and consulting practice. A little over a year ago he and his wife decided that they were tired of daily commuting and resolved to spend that time with their children; they both gave up their administrative and academic positions and moved to wine country.

Monte Masten, MD, MBA, MPH
2000 Graduate
OB/GYN
Medical Director
M-Care
Howell, MI


Shortly after graduating from PEMBA in 2000, Dr. Masten left a career in OB/GYN of 10 years and assumed a medical director position with Trigon, formerly BCBS of Virginia. Trigon was subsequently acquired by Anthem, which is his current employer. In his role, he is involved in credentialing, utilization management, disease management, quality improvement, network relations, and other medical management functions. Along the way, Dr. Masten completed a graduate program in medical informatics, as he also has an interest in clinical information systems. Dr. Masten now serves as Medical Director for M-Care in the University of Michigan Healthcare System. Dr. Masten's main interests in managed care are in population health management and disease management. He has done some consulting work with HMC, a disease management company. Dr. Masten adds that he is always grateful for the excellent education and skills acquired from UT!