Physician Leader Profiles

Luis Rivera Pomales, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Internal Medicine
Director, Managing Partner
San Juan
Arroyo, PR


After growing up in Puerto Rico, Dr. Rivera-Pomales received his medical degree from the Universidad Central del Este in San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic, in 1985. In 1989, he completed an internal medicine residency at Ponce Regional University Hospital in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He is currently Director of Emergency Medicine and Professor of Medicine at San Juan Bautista Medical Center in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

Suresh Nekuri, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Internal Medicine
Physician
Holston Medical Group
Kingsport, TN


Dr. Nekuri graduated from Rangaraya Medical College in Kakinada, India in 1992. He completed internships at both the Government General Hospital in Kakinada, India, and at Mercy Catholic Medical Center is Darby, Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at St. Luke's Hospital, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2001. Dr. Nekuri is currently an attending physician at We Care Medical Group in Tazewell, Tennessee.

Anandan Devarajan, MD, MBA, CPE, CH
2003 Graduate
Surgery
Clinician
Lutheran Medical Center
Green Brook, NJ


Dr. Devarajan graduated from Madras Medical College, at Madras University in Chennai, India, in 1977. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Stanley Medical College, Chennai, India in 1980. Subsequently, he began practicing as a solo internist at his hometown of Tiruppattur, India. In 1982 he started a small hospital providing primary and secondary level care facility and in 1986 he started Vignesh Hospital, a state of the art tertiary care facility. Apart from being the chairman and managing director of Vignesh Hospital he was also the attending physician and physician supervising the non-invasive cardiac laboratory and critical care unit. He actively organized academic programs for practicing physicians in the town. He moved to the U.S. and worked initially at the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is certified in adult echocardiography, vascular technology, holds an honors diploma in information technology, and proudly graduated from the Physician Executive MBA at The University of Tennessee. His wife is an OB/GYN.

Guillermo Herrera, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Epidemiology
Program Director - CDC
CDC
Shreveport, LA


Dr. Herrera was born in Guatemala and graduated from medical school at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala. Dr. Herrera was trained in surgery, then public health and epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently a medical epidemiologist working on HIV/AIDS in Ankara, Turkey. He has lived in several countries throughout the world where his focus has been on public health and the establishment of epidemiological training programs around the globe. To date, Dr. Herrera has worked in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, and Turkey.

Hank Schiffers, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Family Medicine
Managing Partner - Public Health
Stryker Corporation
Dusseldorf, NR


After completing the PEMBA program at the University of Tennessee in 2003, Dr. Schiffers made significant career moves. After working with Guidant as country manager of business solutions and medical services from 2003-2006, he was appointed business unit manager, Business Development Germany & Austria at Stryker GmbH in November 2006. Dr. Schiffers is member of the PEMBA faculty, teaching global/international health care during the summer residency periods. He is trained in Six Sigma and Lean. Dr. Schiffers has worked in a variety of health care settings (Philips HeartCare Telemedicines Services GmbH, Secumed telematik GmbH) to learn firsthand about many sectors of the health care industry. His experience includes eight years of management in eHealth start up companies, telemedicine services, and medical devices companies. He is active in numerous professional and community organizations and if desired you can meet him on www.schiffers-online.biz.

Roger Lucas, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Pediatrics
President
Roger F. Lucas, M.D., PC
Scarsdale, NY


After growing up in Manila, Dr. Lucas graduated cum laude from medical school at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center in the Philippines in 1961. He subsequently completed two residencies in pediatrics at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York; a residency in pediatric pathology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; and a pathology residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Lucas is in private practice in New York and is an attending pediatrician at Babies & Children's Hospital and Lawrence Hospital in New York. He is an instructor in pediatrics at Columbia University.

John Braxton, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Cardiac Surgery
Medical Director and President
Maine Medical Center
Cape Elizabeth, ME


Dr. Braxton received his medical degree from Howard University in 1984. He completed a general surgery residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1990 and a cardiothoracic surgery residency at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1997. Dr. Braxton is currently the Medical Director of the Cardiac Surgery Recovery Unit, a member of the hospital Executive Committee at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, and a cardiothoracic surgeon in private practice. He is actively involved with the Northern New England Cardiovascular Disease Study Group. He has co-authored articles that have resulted in local and national presentations, and articles for publication. Early leadership experiences with the Army have enabled him to ease into physician leadership roles and become a change proponent.

Robert Flora, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
OB/GYN
Residency Program Director and Section Head, Vice Department Chair
Summa Health System/Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Me
Hudson, OH


Dr. Flora is currently the residency program director/medical student clerkship director of OB/GYN at Summa Health System/Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. He also serves as head of the Section of Urogynecology and Reconstruction Pelvic Surgery. His appointment is at the level of associate professor in clinical obstetrics and gynecology and he serves as the vice-chair of the academic department. He also holds a joint appointment as clinical associate professor of urology. He was born in the Bronx, New York, but grew up in Ohio. He attended undergraduate school at the University of Michigan Medical School and OB/GYN residency at the Medical College of Ohio, and then went into private practice for three years. Returning to academics, a fellowship in urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery was completed at Mt. Sinai/University of Connecticut and Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. His wife, Linda, is also an OB/GYN.

Herman Gray, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Pediatrics
President
Children's Hospital of Michigan
West Bloomfield, MI


Dr. Gray leads the Detroit Medical Center's Children's Hospital of Michigan as its president and was promoted again in 2005. He formerly served as Vice President of Graduate Medical Education and Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the DMC and the Wayne State University School of Medicine, respectively, as well as Chief of Staff at Children's Hospital of Michigan. Dr. Gray has worked in a variety of health care settings to learn firsthand about many sectors of the health care industry. These experiences include ten years in private practice, academic medicine including several years as Vice Chair of Education and Residency Program Director in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Michigan, and five years in public health as Chief Medical Consultant for Children's Special Health Care Services at the Michigan Department of Public Health. He spent several years in managed care as the acting chief executive officer of DMC owned managed care plans, as well as Vice President and Medical Director, Clinical Affairs of Blue Care Network, a 600,000 member HMO that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Dr. Gray is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. He did his pediatric residency training and chief residency at Children's Hospital of Michigan/Wayne State University. He is active in numerous professional, civic and community organizations, particularly those that advocate on behalf of children, including being the president of a public charter school board in Detroit.

Eneida Roldan, MD, MPH, MBA
2003 Graduate
OB/GYN
Sr. Vice President, Associate CMO and Chief Administrative Officer
Jackson Health System
Coral Gables, FL


Dr. Roldan is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Jackson Health System in Miami, Florida. Prior to her tenure in health care administration, Dr. Roldan was the Founder and Medical Director for the Center for Bariatric Management in Miami, Florida. After being born in Cuba, Dr. Roldan migrated to the U.S. at the age of three and completed medical school in 1981, having served her residency at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Jackson Memorial Hospital in anatomic/clinical pathology from 1981-1985, later followed by a fellowship in pediatric pathology from 1985-1987. She remained as faculty at the University of Miami until 1989, at which time she decided to pursue the field of weight management, nutrition, and eating disorders. Dr. Roldan has participated in national clinical studies in adults, adolescence, and children in the field of obesity and has been involved in speaking nationally and internationally, and participated in media in Spanish and English concerning obesity. In 1999, she was appointed Chairman of the American Board of Bariatric Medicine. She currently sits on advisory boards in organizations in the field of Public Health and Bariatric Medicine. Dr. Roldan has been honored with several awards, including Bariatrician of the Year and most recently named Fellow of the American Society of Bariatric Medicine. She completed her master of public health degree with honors at the University of South Florida. She is a mother of three and is married to an ophthalmic surgeon.

Husain Saleh, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Pathology
Department Head - Pathology
Detroit Medical Center
Bloomfield Hills, MI


Dr. Saleh was born in 1955 in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from the Damascus University School of Medicine in 1980 and followed up with some postgraduate training in Syria. He completed his training in anatomic/clinical pathology at Western Reserve Health System, Ohio, and cytopathology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Saleh has been the chief of the Department of Pathology at Sinai-Grace Hospital (a 400-bed community teaching hospital, member of the Detroit Medical Center), Detroit, Michigan since the start of 2001. Dr. Saleh has published several articles in pathology, particularly in cytopathology. He is actively involved in residents and medical students teaching and currently holds an academic appointment at the level of Associate Professor of Pathology with the school of medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit.

Sharon Sneed, MD, MBA
2003 Graduate
Emergency Medicine
Medical Director
Henry Ford Health System
Detroit, MI


Dr. Sneed is a native of Detroit, Michigan. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Wayne State University. She is board-certified in emergency medicine. Four years ago she began practicing occupational medicine. Currently she is employed as a center medical director for a large occupational medicine corporation and practices emergency medicine one-fourth of the time.