Collaboration to strengthen healthcare quality & outcomes
The depth of our leadership talent encompasses a broad range of disciplines and expertise. We excel because of our capacity to offer highly customized solutions which precisely meet the cultural, geographic, and economic needs of our customers. Through exceptional skills, experience and integrated leadership, our capabilities are unrivalled in the industry.
Our leadership team is recognized nationwide for their expertise in the healthcare industry. We are the single source solution to ensure that our customers meet their program and business objectives.
Teri has successfully coordinated large-scale statewide projects in over 14 states, designing operational responsibilities and reporting protocols. She has designed managed care models, customized data management solutions, and reporting structures that continue to be used nationally for LTC, waiver, PASRR, utilization review, and other specialized assessment projects. She has over 20 years of national multi-state project management and contract oversight, serving as the former Director of Operations for a national managed care firm, where she was responsible for their multi-million dollar multi-state managed care division. Teri was the first full time employee of Ascend's managed care division in 2000. She has been integrally responsible for the direction, growth, and success of our business lines.
Pam has over 25 years in the managed healthcare industry providing national consulting, multi-level policy design, and oversight of managed care, treatment, and Quality Management plans. She has interacted extensively with all CMS current and former central office staff and was selected to participate in the CMS sponsored National Technical Assistance Center for PASRR/ Long Term Care as a consultant. She is the former Clinical Director of a national managed care company and participated in developing and implementing the landmark $185 million MH/SA Massachusetts’ contract, the first capitated full-risk Medicaid program of its kind and scope in the country. Pam was invited by CMS to participate in a national expert panel on PASRR, to contribute in development of the CMS Self Audit Tool and in development of MDS 3.0, and consulted with the OIG on designing their national study. Pam designed treatment and managed care assessment tools and procedures that continue to be used in several states and has conducted extensive national training on assessments and evidence-based practices. She has managed assessment services and provided consultation for 11 different state systems. She participated in Tennessee’s State’s Steering Committee for the Real Choice application, was the chief writer for the successful $1.76M CMS project award, and has leveraged more than $25M in federal grant dollars over the past 5 years for state government agencies and is the chief writer in Ascend's proposal submissions.
Rob offers over 15 years of managed behavioral healthcare programming experience, testing, and web-based program design. In his role as Senior Vice President of Information Systems and Software, Rob oversees development of IS infrastructure, including hardware resources and software development to capture service data, manage performance tracking, and provide quality data outcomes. Rob supervises Ascend’s team of web and data programmers and analysts.
Ms. Rousos is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Development. She works closely with states to identify needs and gaps to create potential synergies. Ms. Rousos establishes business relationships with prospective customers and tracks future opportunities for the company. As an expert in implementation and project design, Ms. Rousos oversees our recruitment division and chairs our Credentialing Review Committee.
Peter has a diverse background in business and legal affairs. He is the Senior Business Development Executive with the Vanderbilt University Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development that is responsible for transferring technology principally through licensing and start-up companies. He has been a principal in several start-up companies and has advised several others. Prior to that, he was the chief human resources officer and Senior Legal Consultant for Gaylord Entertainment Company, an entertainment conglomerate with approximately 6,000 employees, where he was responsible for Securities law and transactional matters. Before joining Gaylord Entertainment, Peter practiced law in the areas of general business, corporate, tax, employment, labor, transactional, securities and intellectual property law. He also has significant experience working with business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several non-profits including the American Red Cross. Peter received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
As VP of Information Technology, Jason is responsible for oversight and leadership of Ascend's application development, IT infrastructure, security, and support staff. Jason leads IT application development initiatives and life cycles, oversees organizational security, and supports technical research, development, implementation, and maintenance. He is responsible for both HIPAA and ISO compliance standards, and he oversees the backup architecture that safeguards a secure, recoverable system. Jason offers extensive technical and security experience through his former roles as Senior Enterprise Architect at Healthways, Senior Software Engineer at Edgenet, and Principal Software Engineer at Aspect Software. Jason earned his BE in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Jane Anne earned her M.S. in Health Care Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and her B.A. from Rhodes College in Urban Studies, with a minor in Business Administration. Prior to joining Ascend, Jane Anne was the Chief Operating Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer for Southwest General Hospital, a 327 bed acute care hospital with net revenues in excess of $115.5 M per year. Jane Anne provided oversight for all daily operations, led strategic planning initiatives, and successfully spearheaded Southwest General's transition from accreditation by the Joint Commission to the DNV. She is trained in LEAN Healthcare processes and CQI measures, among others. Jane Anne is the former co-chair of the Women in Healthcare Forum, and holds memberships in: the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Junior League of San Antonio, Alpha Omicron Pi National Sorority, and Trinity University Healthcare Alumni Association.
Lori earned her M.S. in Organizational Management from Tusculum College and her B.S. in Nursing from Mississippi College. Lori offers extensive experience in quality management, including accreditation in Project Management from the National Committee for Quality Assurance [NCQA]. She has had the opportunity to provide oversight of large-scale studies, (such as Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set [HEDIS] data collection and reporting) as well as disease management program development responsibilities.
She was formerly the Director of Case Management for Ameri‐Choice by UnitedHealthcare, where she led multiple program implementations for both case management and long term care. She has managed Medicare diabetes and congestive heart failure disease management demonstration projects. She is a Certified Case Manager.
Nancy has over 20 years of experience working with individuals with behavioral health, intellectual, and developmental disorders. She participated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSM] task force for development of criteria for Autism and Autism Spectrum disorders. She has managed implementation and oversight of large-scale assessment projects, website development projects, as well as oversight of several statewide assessment contracts in multiple states. Nancy received Person-Centered Thinking training designed by Michel Smull and The Learning Institute, the foremost experts in person centered planning in the nation. Nancy was trained as a Trainer for the Supports Intensity Scale® (SIS) tool by AAIDD. She has extensive experience testing and evaluating individuals with behavioral health, intellectual, and developmental disabilities and is versed in regulatory and management requirements of waiver and LTC services. Nancy has been invited to participate in national and local expert panels and consultation activities, including development of CMS standards within the MDS 3.0. She was invited by CMS to provide consulting services for the CMS sponsored PASRR Technical Assistance Center, was selected to participate in Tennessee's Task Force for Developmental Disabilities, and was invited to join Governor Bredesen's Steering Committee for Money Follows the Person. Ms. Shanley is an expert in behavioral health and ID/DD service systems and has provided extensive consultation to states regarding assessment, rates, and de-institutionalization model practices.
A Quality Management team oversees quality standards for each of our projects. These teams are responsible for monitoring and reporting about virtually all aspects of our projects, including our performance, indicators about provider compliance, and quality measures related to our field clinician network. Our QM teams use structured data collection and reporting protocols and conduct data analysis to help our customers make important decisions about the programs they manage.
We have recruited, credentialed, and trained a broad network of hundreds of clinicians across the country to conduct highly specialized assessments for the programs we manage.
These clinicians reside within our customer’s states, are experienced serving the people we assess, and are familiar with service systems and resources.
All national clinicians are required to participate in structured training modules and are supervised closely by our QM teams.