NAMES IN THE NEWS

AAAHC Seats New Board Officers and Elected Directors

NOVEMBER 2023

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) of Deerfield, Illinois, recently announced its newly named officers and results for elected positions to its board of directors for the 2023-2024 term, according to a release.

“This is a strategically composed board whose members bring talents with nuanced expertise across a wide range of backgrounds and experience to our organization’s governance,” said Noel Adachi, president and chief executive officer of AAAHC, in the release. “Together and with our dedicated staff, we can accomplish key initiatives that drive growth and foster dedication to ongoing quality improvement.”

The new board officers’ one-year terms began November 6. While board members bring varied backgrounds, they share a common history of dedication to the provision of healthcare in the ambulatory setting.

Jan Davidson, RN, board chair, has worked as a perioperative registered nurse for more than 40 years. In addition to her OR experience in a large metropolitan trauma center, she has served as clinical director of a freestanding ASC. She began her work there from its groundbreaking through the first five years of its operation. Her role included management of the clinical staff, staff education and training, risk management, employee health and infection prevention. Davidson also was the practice administrator for a plastic surgeon with an AAAHC-accredited, office-based OR. Additionally, she has been employed in professional liability, risk management and patient safety roles throughout her career. This has allowed her to educate both the nursing staff and the medical staff on various clinical and ethical issues. Until her recent retirement, she was the director of the Ambulatory Surgery Division at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Davidson has been a surveyor for AAAHC for 13 years. In her free time, she enjoys golfing and spending time with her granddaughters.
David Shapiro, MD, CASC, former president and current member of the ASCA Board of Directors, immediate past board chair, contributes his extensive experience gained through many years as a department chair, medical director and board member of several ASCs. A Florida-based anesthesiologist, Shapiro currently serves on the board of the Florida Society of Ambulatory Surgical Centers. Additionally, he is a board member of the ASC Quality Collaboration, which develops, measures and publicly reports national ASC quality data. He also serves on the board of the Facility Guidelines Institute and participates as a member of its Health Guidelines Revision Committee. Shapiro applies his expertise as a member of the Florida State Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council, an appointed position within the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. He is credentialed as a Certified Professional in Health Care Risk Management, is licensed in Health Care Risk Management by the state of Florida and is certified in Healthcare Compliance as well as in Healthcare Quality Management. With 20 years of service as a surveyor for AAAHC, Shapiro continues to conduct surveys on behalf of the organization.
Joy Himmel, RN, chair-elect, has more than 40 years of experience in behavioral health working in hospital- and community-based programs, with more than 25 years in college health and counseling. She is a fellow of American College Health Association (ACHA) and served on the Continuing Education and Program Planning Committees for 15 years. She has been on the board of directors of AAAHC for five years, has served as a surveyor since 2009 and is part of the teaching faculty for the organization. In addition to her work with ACHA and AAAHC, she serves as a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration federal grant reviewer, reviewing proposals for substance abuse prevention and mental health initiatives. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, master’s in counseling psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and doctorate from California Southern University. Recently, she has presented on strategies to promote a trauma-informed organizational approach to wellness, building resiliency skills in today's youth, and innovative counseling treatment models in college health. She was the health and wellness center director at Pennsylvania State University-Altoona for 20 years, providing oversight for health services, counseling and psychological services, health promotion and education accessibility services. She served as the counseling center director at Ross University School of Medicine in the South Caribbean for two years before assuming her current position as counseling center director at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Lawrence Kim, MD, secretary/treasurer, was reelected for a second term. Kim specializes in gastroenterology (GI) and has developed wide knowledge of AAAHC through experience as a surveyor and committee chair. The first gastroenterologist to join the AAAHC Board of Directors in 2004, Kim is a partner at South Denver Gastroenterology, a 33-provider independent GI practice in Colorado. A graduate of Princeton University, he received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His postgraduate training included internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and GI fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the current vice-president of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and previously served as clinical practice councilor on the AGA governing board. He also is a member of the board of directors for the Digestive Health Physicians Association, an advocacy group for independent GI practices. Kim is committed to improving the quality of digestive care worldwide and has served on multiple medical missions to Vietnam, Cambodia and Peru.

The three elected directors, Kristine P. Kilgore, RN; Traci McMillian, MD; and Kelly Theodosopoulos, whose terms will expire in 2026, also assumed their positions on November 6. Together they bring decades of experience in ambulatory care and healthcare management:

“Our shared dedication to patient safety will continue to drive AAAHC’s commitment to serve primary care and surgery centers seeking to improve the quality of care they provide,” said Davidson, in the release. “Through our collective experiences, you can expect the leader in ambulatory accreditation to reach new heights in the delivery of standards and education that promote patient safety and quality improvement.”