Faculty & Staff

Ken is a Process Improvement Consultant for UC Health on the Anschutz Medical Campus. He has a dedicated passion for Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement and Organizational Development that has been the backbone of a diverse career spanning healthcare, engineering, software, manufacturing and service delivery companies.  Ken is a graduate from Colorado State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Technology and has also earned a Black Belt in Six Sigma from the University of Colorado. With a strong belief in the need for honest, cross-functional collaboration to achieve success, Ken’s achievements have included individual, team, and organizational training; goal setting; facilitation; and mentoring at all levels of the corporate hierarchy.  Combined with a commitment to the power of Process and with a focus on solutions, purposeful change and operational excellence, Ken has driven major improvements in the Industrial Management, Data Storage, Defense, Aerospace and Healthcare industries.  This has resulted in the realization of significant financial savings and improvements in product and service quality, efficiency, on time delivery, time to market, and customer satisfaction.

​Tyler Anstett, DO is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Colorado where he is the Assistant Director of Education in Systems Redesign and Quality Improvement. Through this role, and others, he has developed multiple curricula across all levels of medical education including students, residents, fellows, and faculty. His research interests include Quality Improvement and Health Systems Science education and Quality Improvement in the inpatient setting, particularly in the areas of efficiency and waste reduction. He spends his clinical time as a Hospitalist at the University of Colorado Hospital working on resident and non-teaching services. Originally from Colorado, Dr. Anstett completed all his education and training in the state: he received his DO degree from Rocky Vista University, completed his Internal Medicine residency and fellowship in Hospital Medicine with a focus on QI and Health Systems Leadership at the University of Colorado. He sits on several national committees including the Education Committee for the Society for Hospital Medicine and the Academic Hospitalist Commission for the Society for General Internal Medicine.

Lalit Bajaj currently serves as the Medical Director of Clinical Effectiveness at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In addition, he is a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Bajaj has been an attending physician in the Children’s Colorado Emergency Department for 15 years. He received his MD from the University of California, San Francisco in conjunction with a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. He then completed a pediatric residency, chief residency, and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at the University of Colorado/Children’s Hospital Colorado. Dr. Bajaj has served as Research Director of the section of Emergency Medicine; as well as the Medical Director in the CHCO Research Institute. In addition, he has also served on many national leadership committees including the Steering Committee of PECARN (Pediatric Applied Care and Research Network), and the AAP Executive Committee of the Section of Emergency Medicine. Most recently, he has joined the Children’s Hospital Association steering committee for value based care.

David Brumbaugh is the Associate Chief Medical Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where his primary focus in inpatient operations. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  He was previously the Clinical Medical Director for the Digestive Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He received his MD degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his pediatrics residency at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where he was also Chief Resident in Pediatrics. He was a general pediatrician for three years in the Yakima Valley, WA, before returning to Children’s Hospital Colorado for a fellowship in gastroenterology. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Amy Barton, Professor and Daniel and Janet Mordecai Endowed Chair in Rural Health Nursing, earned a BSN from the University of Toledo, an MSN from the Medical College of Ohio, and a PhD from the University of Florida.  As a national leader in nurse-led care, she provided the vision and strategic initiative to create Sheridan Health Services, a nurse-managed federally qualified community health center, serving low-income residents in an urban area southwest of Denver, Colorado. She was also instrumental in the development of i-LEAD, an online master’s option in nursing and healthcare systems leadership.

 Her publications focus on faculty practice, interprofessional education, patient outcomes, quality and safety, and informatics. She is Editor of the Journal of Nursing Education. She has successfully competed for over $8.5 million in grants to support research, practice, and education. Her work in national quality and safety initiatives include the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses initiative and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement/Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation initiative on “Retooling for Quality and Safety.” She was an invited participant in the 2018 Macy Conference on Clinical Learning Environments. Her most recent grants awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration concern the development of interprofessional teams to enhance patient outcomes and the integration of behavioral health services in primary care. Dr. Barton is a member of the 2005 cohort of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows. She is a Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice and is a Fellow in the Western Academy of Nursing, the Academy of Nursing Education, and the American Academy of Nursing. She received the University of Colorado Denver Chancellor’s Recognition for Promoting and Supporting Diversity as well as alumni awards from the University of Toledo and the University of Florida.

 

Sarah Caffrey first became passionate about process improvement as a paramedic struggling to provide great patient care in a system that was not always supportive.  Her quest to learn more about how to improve business processes led her to attend a 4-day seminar with W. Edwards Deming.  Within the next few years Sarah went on to graduate from the Deming Scholars MBA Program at Fordham University where she earned formal education in Dr. Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge as well as experience improving processes at Boeing’s Rocketdyne Division, American Express and the General Electric Corporation.  After graduating she joined GE where she earned her Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification and progressed through roles of increasing responsibility, culminating in the role of Global Quality Leader for a small division of the company with operations in both the US and Amsterdam.  While at GE, Sarah identified and led quality improvement projects that produced over $53 million in combined savings for the company.  She also taught and mentored both LEAN and Six Sigma to employees, built a high performing international team from the ground up, and led improvement teams in a variety of areas including lease/loan originations, large scale IT implementations, distribution, and cash flow. After leaving GE in 2007, she successfully launched her own process improvement consulting business where she continued to hone her process improvement skills and help companies realize the full potential of their business processes.  After assisting a large national ambulance service achieve reductions in days sales outstanding resulting in $52 million in cash carrying cost savings, Sarah was engaged by Children’s Hospital Colorado to improve patient access with the Neurosciences Institute.  This led to the role of CHCO Quality and Process Improvement Director where she spent 3 years working with the hospital to improve processes.  Sarah is currently a Process Improvement Director for the UC Health System where she brings her 20 years of process improvement experience and education to assist this Top 10 hospital system realize their continuous improvement goals.

Michael DiStefano is Chief Medical Officer for Children’s Hospital Colorado – Colorado Springs.  Prior to taking this position in 2019, he served as Director of Clinical Operations for Children’s Hospital Colorado Emergency Departments and Urgent Cares, and the Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In 2012, Michael came to the University of Colorado School of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine where he was the associate medical director for Texas Children’s Emergency Department. During his time at Baylor College of Medicine, Michael earned a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. He received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.  Michael completed both his residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Texas Children’s Hospital.   

Ethan Cumbler is an Internal Medicine and Pediatric trained Hospitalist at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH).  He is a pioneer in the study and practice of inter-professional team-based hospital quality improvement.  He created the Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) Service at UCH and is the Medical Director for UCH’s ACE unit.  This serves as a crucible for testing QI methods for reducing iatrogenic events such as falls or hospital acquired infections using teams of professionals across disciplines.  He spearheaded a series of initiatives reducing treatment time for stroke patients recognized by the American Stroke Association.  His QI programs for in-hospital stroke and hospital care for the elderly service serve as national models.  He heads the National Stroke Association’s In-hospital Stroke QI initiative and speaks nationally on how to improve systems of hospital care for stroke patients.  He also serves as faculty for the UCLA Leadership and Management in Geriatrics course and his invited lectures on improving care for the hospitalized elderly have been presented at the National American College of Physicians and Society of Hospital Medicine conferences. Within UCH, he chairs the Geriatric Hospital Leadership Committee and has served in many capacities for the Hospital Medicine Division over the years, including work on patient safety and medical error.  His educational approach to teaching patient safety is published by the Association of American Medical Colleges and has been utilized by academic medical centers around the world.  Ethan has been a recipient of awards at UCH for excellence in leadership, humanism, education, and quality improvement. He received the annual 2012 National Society of Hospital Medicine Award for Team-Based Quality Improvement for his work over 6 years improving response to in-hospital stroke.  Ethan seeks to bring a collaborative approach to system change such that physicians are partners with other disciplines, and the hospital, to create a culture which fosters continuous quality improvement.

Timothy Givens is the Vice Chair for Clinical Operations for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado. Prior to taking this position in September, 2017, he served as Section Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine/Urgent Care at Colorado for 8½ years, and the Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Children's Hospital Colorado. Before moving to Colorado, Tim held several administrative positions (Section Chief, ED Medical Director, PEM Fellowship Program Training Director) at a number of academic children's hospitals, including MUSC Children's Hospital in Charleston, SC; Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN; Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, KY; and The Children's Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham, AL. He received his MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Jeffrey J. Glasheen, MD, SFHM is the Chief Quality Officer for UCHealth, the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs—Quality and Safety Education and a Professor of Medicine with Tenure at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He directs the University of Colorado’s Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety and Efficiency. 

 Dr. Glasheen was an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and completed his residency training, including a chief residency year, at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. As the director of the University of Colorado Hospital Medicine Group from 2003-2015, he oversaw the growth of the program from 2 to 70+ members.

Emily Gottenborg is an Assistant Professor within the Hospital Medicine Group at the University of Colorado, with an interest in system redesign, patient safety, and leadership in the healthcare setting. She has received advanced training during a Chief Residency in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as through Intermountain Healthcare's Advanced Training Program, and the Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency. Dr. Gottenborg has served as the Director of the Medicine Ward Service at the University of Colorado since 2014, and has multiple educational roles within the University, teaching learners of all levels and across the health professions about principles of medical leadership, quality improvement, and patient centered care.

David M. Keller, MD is Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Strategy and Transformation in the Department of Pediatrics at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO). He is responsible for leading initiatives to improve practice efficiency and effectiveness, as well as developing the capacity of the faculty to provide comprehensive high-value care to children in Colorado and throughout the Mountain West Region. On a state level, he serves as Co-Chair of the Health Impact on Lives Subcommittee of the Program Improvement Advisory Committee of the Colorado Accountable Care Collaborative; Co-Chair of the Health Information Technology Workgroup for the implementation of the Colorado State Innovation Model (SIM) Award; and serves on the Physician Advisory Board of Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC), Colorado’s all-payer claims database. On a national level, he serves on the Standing Committee on Pediatric Measures of the National Quality Forum and is the Chair of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO). Prior to moving to Colorado, Dr. Keller spent 22 years on the faculty of the University Of Massachusetts School Of Medicine, where he practiced primary care pediatrics, initiated novel community-based programs with a variety of collaborators and served as an Associate Medical Director for Medicaid in Massachusetts. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services from 2009-10.

If Patrick had a mantra, he might steal the words of artist Clyfford Still: “It’s intolerable to be stopped by the frame’s edge.” He revels in challenging long-held assumptions to facilitate the human(e) potential of individuals and teams. His work cultivating thriving healthcare environments is anchored in a simple, if not easy, principle: start with human relationships. Patrick is the Executive Medical Director for Patient and Provider Experience at UCHealth, where he has led the development of a system-level interdisciplinary experience team and strategic blueprint. He is a founding faculty member of the University of Colorado’s Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency (IHQSE) where he has been instrumental in the creation of a groundbreaking healthcare leadership development program. After completing training in internal medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, Patrick completed a fellowship in Academic Hospital Medicine where he focused on the transformation of clinical delivery systems and the role of culture in improving patient safety. He is an experienced leadership coach, speaker, facilitator, system-designer and a zealous destroyer of all of those silos everyone always talks about. 

 

Andy Levy is currently an NIH-funded research fellow with an interest in healthcare delivery science. After completing both medical school and internal medicine residency training at the University of Chicago, he moved to Colorado to begin his Cardiology fellowship in 2015. He served as the Chief Fellow during the 2017-2018 academic year and participated in the American College of Cardiology's Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers (3T) program. In addition to helping develop the Quality and Safety Academy, he helps facilitate Morbidity and Mortality conferences for the Department of Medicine and Division of Cardiology. Most recently, he is a 2018-2019 awardee of a Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety (CEPS) grant.

Dr. Lyon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine for the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Currently serving as the Associate Program Director for the University of Colorado Family Medicine Residency Program and an Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Department of Family Medicine. Previously he served as the Medical Director of AF Williams Family Medicine Center, which is the academic clinic for the University of Colorado residents and faculty. While medical director, Dr. Lyon lead multiple quality and process improvement projects which led to NCQA Medical Home certifications and a large clinic model transformation re-design. Within the family medicine residency, Dr. Lyon leads the Evidence-Based Decision Making, leadership, and quality improvement curriculum and guide residents and faculty through process improvement projects.

Corey also completed a University of North Carolina Faculty Development Fellowship in 2009, National Institute for Program Director Development in 2014 and the Institute of Quality, Health, Safety and Efficiency program in 2015.

Dr. Hemali Patel is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed medical school, residency and chief residency at the University of South Florida followed by a fellowship in Academic Hospital Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco focusing on Quality Improvement. She is Assistant Director of Quality Improvement for the Division of Hospital Medicine and Physician Advisor for utilization and case management for the University of Colorado Hospital. Her main interests are in health systems re-design to improve efficiency and quality of clinical care and practice.

Kathy Shaw is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado College of Nursing. Her nursing specialty is community and population health with a particular interest in undeserved populations. She has practiced in a variety of settings including home health, diabetes self-management education, nonprofit clinics and older adult research. Dr. Shaw's teaching experience spans more than 15 years, including baccalaureate and graduate-level nursing education and staff education/development. She teaches primarily in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program and graduate level courses, and has been teaching quality improvement and guiding students and clinicians in QI projects since 2013.  She is also a Certified Diabetes Educator with a special interest in eliminating health disparities in diabetes self-management education and clinical care for adults.

Darlene B. Tad-y, MD joined the IHQSE faculty in 2014. As the Director for GME Quality and Safety Programs, Darlene has created GME-wide educational programs that integrate quality and safety initiatives into resident training. Her work with the Institute focuses on integrating residents and fellows into quality and safety initiatives with our clinical partners, and creating opportunities for learning in those activities. She has been instrumental in the development of educational programs around quality improvement and patient safety for the Department of Medicine and several residency programs.  Also, as the Associate Director for Education in the Hospital Medicine Division, she works closely with the program and service line directors to oversee the educational programs offered by the Division of Hospital Medicine. Darlene is a Fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine and a member of the Academy of Medical Educators.

Jennifer Wiler is UCHealth's Metro Denver Chief Quality Officer. She is a graduate of the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA.  She is the former Assistant Medical Director at Hahnemann University Hospital and Assistant Clinical Service Chief and Medical Director of Observation Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.  She has served in numerous state and national leadership positions and is currently an Alternate of the American Medical Association RBRVS Updates Committee (RUC), Immediate Past-Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) EM Practice Committee, Alternate Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates for Emergency Medicine, a former Chair of the American Medical Association's Women Physicians Congress, a member of the ACEP Quality and Performance and Reimbursement Committees, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Colorado Medical Society. She has been nationally recognized for her expertise in professional reimbursement, operations, quality, patient safety and health policy and has published widely on the topics.

Jessica Wilson is a UCHealth Process Improvement Consultant with a passion for designing systems that solve problems and delivering learning that inspires action. She earned her bachelors in Public Administration from Regis University. At NinjaTrader (NT) Jessica redesigned customer training and user help guides to reduce the time it took users to convert to a live trading license. She earned her Master’s in Education from Regis University where her capstone focus was the deployment of high needs instructional strategies to the general classroom setting. It was in the course of this project she discovered her love of universal design. This passion connected Jessica with Colorado Choice Transitions (CCT) where she used her process improvement and education skills to redesign key demonstration services and create a statewide training program for CCT service providers. At this time she participated in an IDEO Human Centered Design challenge with the Program and Policy Training Unit (PPTU) to increase total positive parent/child communications between the ages of 0 and 5. While completing her work with CCT and the PPTU Jessica developed the prototype of Go2Orientation. When this product was selected by Foothills Community College Jessica joined the Innovative Educators team to build what would become their flagship product. Go2Orientation used universal design in its UX/UI and its content, successfully improving Fall to Fall retention in both pilots. Jessica implemented this product with 20 colleges and universities while working to develop the custom StudentLingo service, Orientation for Online learners, Enrollment Checklist and ParentLingo products. After completing work on ParentLingo in partnership with Bryant University Jessica joined the UCHealth team as a Practice Transformation Coordinator. There she helped teams work together to set goals, work through change and improve workflows. After joining the Process Improvement team Jessica received formal Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Training and worked to develop the UCHealth Green Belt Program. 

James is currently the Director of Process Improvement for UC Hospital. He has a background in healthcare, consulting, and manufacturing. He led ambulatory access improvement efforts in his prior role with Nebraska Medicine. He has a proven track record of working collaboratively with physicians, leaders, and staff to identify improvement opportunities, facilitate common-sense improvements, and coach others to use improvement tools to sustain results over time. James served as Director of Clinical Effectiveness and Quality at Norton Healthcare where he developed and deployed a process improvement coaching and mentoring program for over one hundred leaders while supporting a $40M cost-reduction initiative.

 Prior to that position, he worked at Clark Memorial Hospital in several roles in Quality, Organizational Excellence and Strategic Planning. During that time, James became a National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award examiner for six years. James has served as Director of the Louisville Center for Quality of Management, where he oversaw the training, advising and networking of senior leaders in driving comprehensive performance improvement.

 As Quality Manager of two former automotive suppliers, he worked to meet the expectations of such customers as Ford, General Motors, and General Electric. James served as the Chapter Chair of the Central Kentucky Section of the American Society for Quality and has provided leadership training and support to numerous organizations in the United States and Japan. James is a Certified Professional Coach and has over 1,000 hours of individual and group coaching experience. James received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Bellarmine University and his MBA from the University of Louisville.