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Meet the Team Leads

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Kyle N. Campbell, PharmD, MS
Vice President, Healthcare Policy and Quality Measurement

Dr. Campbell oversees national projects related to quality measure development, healthcare policy and evaluation, and medication safety. His experience includes developing and maintaining clinical quality measures for use in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality programs, advising on national policy related to measure development, designing and implementing quality improvement interventions, and overseeing research studies related to medication safety. He has led and participated in several large contracts with CMS that resulted in National Quality Forum endorsement of multiple performance measures related to medication management, adverse drug events, and behavioral health. Dr. Campbell currently directs Measure & Instrument Development and Support (MIDS) tasks related to the National Impact Assessment of CMS Quality and Efficiency Measures. In this role, he also oversaw the development of the CMS Quality Measure Development Plan (MDP) and accompanying MDP Annual Reports, as well as the development of the Quality Measure Index (QMI), a novel tool to assess quality measures. He has been invited to speak at numerous national conferences on quality measure development and has served on national expert panels related to both measure development and medication safety. Dr. Campbell earned his pharmacy degree from the University of Florida and his Master’s degree from the University of South Florida.

Under Dr. Campbell’s supervision, the following team leads manage staff activities for contracts with CMS and other clients:

Kendra Hanley, MS, BA
Executive Director

Ms. Hanley is a nationally recognized expert with more than15 years of experience in the development and specification of clinical quality measures, with an emphasis on electronic clinical quality measures, or eCQMs. Currently at HSAG, she leads a multidisciplinary team investigating the impact of quality measures in CMS quality programs and developing the triennial Impact Assessment Report. She is the team’s key liaison with CMS and directs project management, research, and analytic activities, including acquisition of large, complex datasets; analytic methodology; data analysis; and reporting. Previously she led a team responsible for the CMS Quality Measure Development Plan (MDP) project, which is mandated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). She also has served as an eCQM subject matter expert for the Hospital Inpatient Value, Incentives, and Quality Reporting (VIQR) Outreach and Education Support Contract. Ms. Hanley has served on national committees examining methodological issues related to eCQMs. Prior to joining HSAG, Ms. Hanley was Director, Measure Specification Operations, for the PCPI® (formerly the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement), where she managed the team responsible for all aspects of specification development and maintenance for quality measures developed by the PCPI, including their use in federal quality reporting programs for eligible professionals. Ms. Hanley also managed the submission of inpatient quality measure data for three acute care facilities in the Chicago area. Ms. Hanley has a Master of Science degree in Health Systems Management from Rush University in Chicago, IL.

Susan Jentz, MS
Associate Director

Ms. Jentz has more than 20 years of experience in statistical analysis, problem solving, and data management. At HSAG, she provides analytical support for the MIDS Impact Assessment of CMS Quality and Efficiency Measures contract, working with CMS and its contractors to acquire data for all CMS quality programs. She supervises a staff of two analysts who conduct validation of data received, prepare standard analytic files, and perform trending and disparities analyses. Previously she led a project to refine and develop medication measures for the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program; seven of 13 measures submitted to the National Quality Forum received endorsement. Ms. Jentz also has eight years of statistical experience supporting healthcare quality improvement for the Florida QIO and thus has an expert understanding of Medicare data. She holds a Master of Science degree with a specialty in statistics from Clemson University.

Megan Keenan, MPH
Executive Director

Ms. Keenan has more than 10 years of experience managing and coordinating complex projects that focus on measure development, public reporting of quality data, stakeholder engagement, and evaluating the impact of socioeconomic status on patient outcomes. She currently manages measure development and testing projects to support organizations preparing quality measures for use in registries and CMS programs. She also assists with the development of manuscripts summarizing novel findings from CMS-funded measure development projects for publication in peer-reviewed journals. From 2015 to 2019, she directed the CMS Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Outcome and Process Measure Development and Maintenance Task Order under contract to CMS. The project resulted in the public reporting of three quality measures and development of six new quality measures, three of which were submitted to the National Quality Forum and subsequently endorsed.  Prior to joining HSAG, Ms. Keenan provided similar expertise for the development and maintenance of quality measures for acute care facilities as a Project Manager at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE). She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Northeastern University and a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Administration from the Yale School of Public Health.

Chiao Wen Lan, PhD, MPH
Social Scientist

Dr. Lan is a research scientist with more than10 years of experience in public health research conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis focusing on health equity in underserved communities. Her work includes processing, analyzing, and interpreting large, complex datasets and optimizing processes to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities among vulnerable populations. Currently at HSAG, she conducts research and supports clinical, technical, and analytic efforts focused on addressing health inequities and kidney disease for the End Stage Renal Disease National Coordinating Center (ESRD NCC). She is supporting CMS in identifying social determinants of health that affect the ESRD community, developing strategic approaches for the use and analysis of healthcare data, and targeting interventions for underserved ESRD patient populations. She supports the ESRD NCC in investigating innovation solutions to advancing kidney care nationwide. Previously she was an epidemiologist for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, where she served as the co-investigator for a National Institutes of Health grant and led the epidemiological assessment to examine the impacts of maternal substance misuse and neonatal opioid withdrawal symptom in tribal communities. She also evaluated COVID-19 impacts and supported a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project to prevent suicide, intimate partner violence, and adverse childhood effects in Indian Country during the pandemic. Dr. Lan has been involved in multiple NIH-funded randomized controlled intervention trials aimed at ameliorating the impacts of substance misuse and HIV/AIDS on patients and families around the world, especially in resource-limited settings. A certified public health professional, she holds a doctorate in Community Health Sciences from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a Master of Public Health from Brown University. She has a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Environmental Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Julia Montague Mackeprang, MPH, PMP
Associate Director

Ms. Mackeprang is a health services researcher with over 11 years of quality measurement experience, including technical and project management support for the development of the Quality Measure Index (QMI), development and reevaluation of facility-based outcome measures, and technical assistance to quality measure developers for the Quality Payment Program under cooperative agreements with CMS. Prior to joining HSAG, Ms. Mackeprang served for nearly eight years as a project manager and project coordinator for CMS quality measure development, reevaluation, and implementation contracts at the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation Quality Measurement Group. She has expertise in all aspects of the measure development process, including information gathering; developing business cases; recruiting, selecting, and facilitating technical expert panels (TEPs); coordinating and summarizing public comment; submitting candidate measures to the Measures Under Consideration List; supporting rulemaking; and participating in the National Quality Forum endorsement process. Ms. Mackeprang has a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Columbia University and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Allison Peel, DC, MHA, MPH, PMP
Associate Executive Director

Dr. Peel brings 20 years of measure development and measure maintenance experience to her role at HSAG. She currently serves as the project lead for the SUPPORT Act Section 2003 Planning and Implementation work added under the Impact Assessment Task Order. This involves performance of an environmental scan and development of a Strategic Plan to support implementation of a new CMS electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) program. HSAG also developed and executes a comprehensive Education and Outreach Plan to increase awareness of the new program rules among prescribers of controlled substances. Dr. Peel previously served as the primary point of contact on the MACRA Cooperative Agreement Technical Assistance (CATA) task order, successfully launching CMS’s initial support project for recipient measure developers. In this role, she directed a team of measure experts who identified and tailored support for recipients as they developed a variety of measures, including patient-reported outcome performance measures and electronic clinical quality measures. Dr. Peel directed the measure implementation and help desk teams for the CMS Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and Electronic Prescribing programs. She has extensive experience with development of educational products related to quality measures, including presentations, frequently asked questions, fact sheets, and guidance documents. She has led clinical analytics teams supporting CMS on physician quality measures since the inception of the national physician-based quality measures program in 2007. Her 15 years of clinical experience began as an owner and chiropractic physician. She developed quality assurance/control programs for clinicians in radiology and radiation safety and oversaw operations for internal medicine, physical therapy, mental health, and chiropractic services. Dr. Peel received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic, where she also completed a radiology residency. She holds Master’s degrees in Public Health and Healthcare Administration from Des Moines (Iowa) University and is certified as a Project Management Professional. She served two governor-appointed terms on the Radiation Advisory Council to the Ohio Board of Health, focusing on providing expert input on radiation quality and safety rules.

Michelle Pleasant, PhD, MA
Associate Director

Dr. Pleasant leads the CMS Quality Measure Development Plan (MDP) project and co-authors the MDP Annual Report, synthesizing information gathered from federal rules, measure stewards, and collaborations with CMS project and measure leads. As a researcher on the Impact Assessment of CMS Quality and Efficiency Measures contract for the past five years, she has overseen large-scale research and policy work. Dr. Pleasant has conducted literature reviews and environmental scans to support clinical quality measure development and evaluation. Her previous research focused on vulnerable populations (including older adults with dementia, residents of nursing homes, and persons taking antipsychotic medications), Dr. Pleasant led the study design, data collection, analysis, and application for IRB approval. She conducted and published multiple studies, including a systematic review and assessment of dementia caregiver training and a qualitative study using content theme analysis methodology. Dr. Pleasant holds a doctorate in Aging Studies and a Master of Arts degree in Gerontology from the University of South Florida. She also has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Religion from Florida State University.

Kristen Turner, MS
Associate Director

Ms. Turner is a healthcare analyst with over 20 years of analytic experience working with Medicare and Medicaid data and other large institutional databases. Currently she leads analytics for two CMS task orders: Inpatient Value, Incentives, and Quality Reporting (VIQR) Outreach and Education Support and Outpatient Quality Program Systems and Stakeholder Support. Her work includes operationalizing eligibility and reporting requirements and using CMS administrative databases to track data reporting activities of eligible providers across seven quality reporting programs. Previously she developed analytic plans and conducted complex statistical analyses for various quality improvement projects, including End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Networks, the ESRD National Coordinating Center, and the Florida Medicare Quality Improvement Network. While supporting HSAG’s development of a readmission measure for inpatient psychiatric facilities, she performed data management, code creation, validation, and testing. Prior to joining HSAG, Ms. Turner provided statistical analysis and database management for behavioral health research projects for the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy, Policy & Services Research Center, at the University of South Florida. Ms. Turner received her Master of Science degree in Statistics from Florida State University.

Robert Ziemba, PhD
Director, Statistics

Dr. Ziemba has more than 10 years of research experience in the life sciences and five years of experience with statistical analysis in the healthcare industry. As Director of Statistics, he provides research, data analysis, and statistical analysis support for measure development, quality improvement, and CMS policy development. He develops analytic plans based on the statistical methods needed to achieve project objectives and performs data management, code creation, validation, and testing. In addition to supporting many CMS projects, he has served as lead statistician on research projects focused on validating claims-based coding algorithms for identification of adverse drug events and on developing models to predict adverse drug events using claims data. Previously he taught undergraduate courses in introductory biology and genetics at colleges in Arizona and Kentucky. He holds a doctorate in Biology from Arizona State University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of South Florida.