Staff

Peter J. Kramer, Executive Vice President and COO - Peter has over 21 years of experience as a business owner and senior‐level executive in medical manufacturing and Health Information Technology. During this time, he led teams that achieved certification in ISO 9001 Quality Systems and CE Mark certification. As one of the founders of Nursing Home Quality, LLC, Peter has directed the development of quality assurance software for nursing homes and several educational courses on the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS). He has a thorough knowledge of the scientific underpinnings of the statistical methods that drive the QIS, and of the implementation of the QIS process in State Agencies throughout the United States. Peter earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.

Danielle Holthaus, Sr. Vice President of Operations - Danielle has worked in the fields of health care and health policy research for over twelve years. She has directed several large-scale, federally funded research and training projects focusing on post-acute and long-term care, and served as a member of the University of Colorado management team for the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS) Demonstration project. She has extensive experience in project management, program operations, grant administration, and personnel management. Since joining Nursing Home Quality in 2007, Danielle has played a key role in overseeing the company’s general operations, and she directs the company’s federal contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to train state survey agency personnel on the use of the QIS process. She received her B.S. from the University of Illinois.

Matt J. Morris, Vice President of Engineering and Technology - Matt has led the design and development of the Nursing Home Quality's software and technology solutions, including the abaqis system, since joining the company in 2007. Before becoming a member of Nursing Home Quality, Matt managed software development and system architecture design for over ten years. His work in technology has ranged from data mining solutions for the health care industry to encryption for secure financial information to artificial intelligence for voice recognition and robotic control systems. Matt earned a B.A. from Emory University, where he also performed post-graduate work in mathematical modeling and data analysis.

Cindy Mason, Vice President of Provider Services - Cindy's professional background of over 25 years of advising nursing home administrators and staff make her ideally suited to assist nursing homes in assessing and refining systems for survey success. Cindy provides education, quality assurance system analysis and implementation, and consultation to nursing home providers. Licensed as a clinical social worker, nursing home administrator, health care risk manager, and accredited as a QIS instructor, she translates complex regulatory requirements into concepts that can be applied to managing the daily operations of nursing home life. As a long term care consultant, staff educator, and national speaker, Cindy has worked with all levels of nursing home staff on regulatory compliance and skill development. Cindy has worked extensively with consumers of care whose perspective is critically important in survey success.

Ellen Sandler, Vice President of Sales and Marketing - Ellen has over seven years experience in business-to-business sales, marketing, advertising, brand management and communications, with extensive experience in marketing to government-regulated medical industries. She directs the overall advertising, marketing, promotions, sales, and public relations initiatives at Nursing Home Quality, and develops and implements marketing and branding strategies that build upon Nursing Home Quality's position as the national leader in Quality Indicator Survey based quality assurance solutions and training. Ellen received her B.S. from the University of Colorado.

Bob Feurer, Director of Finance - Bob has over ten years of operations and financial management experience. He has extensive experience with high-growth technology companies in both the software and managed services industries. He has successfully raised venture funding rounds as well as secured large commercial debt funding. Bob's expertise is critical to ensuring Nursing Home Quality is able to grow and reach as many customers and facilities as possible. Bob earned his B.B.A. from Kent State University and his M.B.A. from the University of Arizona.

Jane Hermanson, RD, MBA, Master QIS Trainer, Director of Training Development - Jane has over 15 years of experience as a Long Term Care Surveyor and Program Manager in the State of Colorado, and is a Certified QIS trainer. Her expertise in nutrition and nursing home quality of life, combined with her extensive quality and regulatory background provides an important source of knowledge and understanding for Nursing Home Quality. Jane has played a central role in organizing and implementing State agency QIS training programs for Connecticut, Kansas, Ohio, Louisiana, California and Florida as part of the original University of Colorado training team. Specifically, she has conducted QIS classroom training, QIS mock survey training, both on-site and off-site compliance assessments for QIS surveys of record, and responded to questions about QIS protocol from agency and field survey teams. In addition, she has been instrumental in the development of web-based training modules, training materials, and classroom protocols for the QIS. Jane earned her B.S. from Iowa State University and her MBA from University of Colorado.

Operations

Laura Whalen, Manager of Customer Servicing - Laura is a Computer Science major with over ten years experience in application software support and data analysis. She has trained and provided daily support on various software applications, resolved issues and problems, provided solutions, created training manuals, and documented data elements, data work flow and processes. As the Customer Support Manager, Laura drives the development and implementation of customer support programs, trains and supervises other customer support personnel, maintains metrics and makes recommend strategies for ongoing customer support.

Vanessa Golembeski, Manager of Training - Vanessa manages the contract for Nursing Home Quality that trains surveyors and certifies survey agency trainers in QIS under contract to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as the QIS is expanded nationally. Vanessa works closely with states new to the QIS process prepare for their training as well as offering current QIS states support. Vanessa previously worked for a national trade association in the government affairs department in Washington D.C. with extensive experience in coordinating large-scale events and programming. Vanessa's concentration in government affairs, focusing particularly in legislative and regulatory matters led her to collaborate with local and federal air agencies on a variety of projects. Vanessa received her B.A. from the University of Colorado.

Laurel Brown, Project Director - Laurel has worked in health service and health policy research for the past fourteen years. She served as co-project manager for the QIS project, a national project designed to evaluate a revised nursing home survey process for the CMS. In this role, she was the primary point of contact for CMS and its software contractor on technical and training aspects of the QIS process. On this project she also served as technical trainer responsible for training long-term care surveyors and technical point-persons on the use of customized software employed in the survey process. Laurel received her B.A. from the University of Denver.

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Training

Robin Harper, RN, Master QIS Trainer, Director of Training - Robin has been a registered nurse for over sixteen years and has experience in private health care, long term care, and as a charge nurse in a hospital surgical unit. While serving as a long-term care surveyor for the Ohio Department of Health, Robin was chosen as one of two surveyors from the Dayton district office to participate in the QIS pilot project in Ohio. As the Ohio QIS Team Leader, Robin was involved in training new surveyors, technical troubleshooting, and assuring team compliance to protocol. Robin received her A.D.N from Sinclair Community College.

Tami Green, RN, Master QIS Trainer - Tami has been a Registered Nurse for the past fourteen years. She has worked as a Clinical Research Nurse and also worked in Long Term Care as a Nurse Supervisor, Quality Assurance Nurse, and Director of Nursing. After gaining experience in long-term care, she worked for the Ohio Department of Health as a Long Term Care Surveyor for five years. During her tenure as a surveyor, Tami was selected to join one of the first teams to participate in the QIS demonstration project in Ohio. As part of the pilot project in Ohio, she became a Registered QIS Surveyor, and she later assisted other new QIS team members in Ohio in learning the QIS process by assuring the protocol and team compliance was accomplished. Tami received her nursing degree from Kettering College of Medical Arts.

Tracy Cooley, RN, Master QIS Trainer - Tracy has been a Registered Nurse for fourteen years, and has held numerous positions within long-term care, including Director of Nursing, Assistant Director of Nursing, Restorative Nurse, Assessment Coordinator, and Staff Nurse. She served as Registered Nurse Health Care Surveyor with the Ohio Department of Health for five years, and became a Registered QIS Surveyor in February 2006. While with the Ohio Department of Health, she conducted numerous QIS surveys and functioned as a supervisor of a QIS survey team. Tracy received her A.D.N. from Sinclair Community College and her B.S.N. from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Glenna Massey, RN, Master QIS Trainer - Glenna has been a registered nurse for the past sixteen years. Before joining Nursing Home Quality, she served as Nurse Surveyor for the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment for seven years, conducting initial surveys, recertification surveys, and complaint investigations in long-term care facilities and dialysis units. Glenna has also worked as a Dialysis Clinic Manager, Director of Nursing, and staff nurse. She also operated a nursing consultant small business, where she educated long-term care facilities on Regulatory Compliance and Culture Change. Glenna received her B.A. from Barry University and her B.S.N. from Regis University.

Patrick Campbell, RN, Certified QIS Trainer  - Patrick has been a Registered Nurse for seventeen years, and has held numerous positions within long-term care, including Director of Nursing and Assistant Director of Nursing. He served as Registered Nurse Health Care Surveyor with the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Resources for six years, and became a Registered QIS Surveyor. Patrick then went on to become one of four CMS Certified QIS Trainers for the state of North Carolina. While with the NC Department of Health & Human Resources, he conducted numerous QIS surveys and trained numerous state surveyors as Registered QIS Surveyors. Patrick received his A.D.N. from Robeson Community College.

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Product Development

Ian Schreuder, Chief Scientist - Ian possesses an extensive background in managing software development, system administration, network configuration and technical staff. He has directed the development and deployment of Internet applications and large database systems, and is proficient in numerous data and analysis, as well as security and Web applications. Ian received his B.A. and M.S. from the University of Colorado.

Matt Emge, Senior Quality Engineer - Matt has ten years of experience in set-up, support and administration of high-technology applications on both desktops and servers. He works with software engineers to develop test plans, create automated acceptance tests, and conduct manual testing to ensure quality of software products. Matt also manages the Nursing Home Quality's bug tracking database.

Krishnan Kannan, Business Systems Architect - Krishnan has experience in various state-of-the-art computer programs. He is a certified programmer in several products such as Java and XML, and has technical expertise in a host of other well known applications. In addition to 16 years working in progressively higher level computer application positions, he has a Masters in computer information Systems, a Master of computer applications, and a B.S. in Physics. Krishnan is responsible for the development of Nursing Home Quality's software platform and product offering.

Kendra Lawlor, Senior Software Developer - Kendra has developed numerous Web, database, and data mining applications for the health care sector, as well as programs for statistical reporting and calculation through her work with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In particular, she has created applications to import MDS and CMS data in printable reports, as well as data mining programs that enable users to query patient data, specific outcomes, and case mix measures. Kendra received certification in Computer Programming from Denver University, and her M.A. and B.A. at St. John's University and Marist College.

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