Phoenix Children's Hospital Executive Bios
Robert L. Meyer, President and CEO
Dennis Lund, MD, Executive Vice President, Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and Surgeon-in-Chief
Betsy Kuzas, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Carmen Neuberger, Esq., Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel
Craig McKnight, Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Derrick E. Parker, Senior Vice President, Physician Practice Operations
Kyle L. Green, Senior Vice President, Planning and Business Development and Chief Strategy Officer
Pamela J. Carlson, MSN, RN, Senior Vice President, Patient Care and
Chief Nursing Officer
Thomas J. Diederich, Senior Vice President, Human Resources
David Higginson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Murray Pollack, MD, Vice President, Chief Medical and Academic Officer
David Bank, MD, Physician-in-Chief
Dennis Bruns, Vice President, Finance
Dave Cottle, Vice President, Planning, Design and Construction
Ethel Hoffman, Vice President, Managed Care and Business Development
Linda Flink, Vice President, Revenue Cycle
Vinay Vaidya, MD, Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer
Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation Executives
Steve Schnall, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Foundation
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Robert Meyer was appointed President and CEO of Phoenix Children's Hospital in October 2003, having previously served as Interim CEO since May 2003. As the chief executive of Arizona's only freestanding pediatric hospital, Meyer is responsible for planning, directing and managing the current operations, future growth and program development for Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Prior to joining Phoenix Children's Hospital, Meyer was Vice President and National Director for Health Strategy Practice for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, based in Irvine, Calif., the consulting firm hired by Phoenix Children's to assist the hospital regain financial viability. Meyer is credited for the rapid and significant turnaround of the hospital's finances and operations, and has been heralded for his strong operational and financial management skills, ability to unify diverse constituencies, and his strategic vision to realize the vision and mission of the hospital and advance pediatric health care in Arizona. Meyer joined Ernst & Young in 1985 and has extensive experience in health care administration.
Meyer is actively involved in the community both as an ambassador for Phoenix Children's Hospital and in a variety of roles outside his hospital duties. He serves on the Governor's Committee on Arizona Medical Education, the Ronald McDonald Capital Campaign Cabinet, the Arizona Biomedical Collaboration Board, the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Council on Government Relations, the NACHRI Council of Child Advocacy, and is the treasurer on the board of the Arizona Medical Education Consortium. Additionally, Meyer has been a guest teacher at the University of California at Los Angeles Anderson School of Business and the Arizona State University Carey School of Business. He also has been a United Way Tocqueville Society member for the past 10 years.
He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1981.
Executive Vice President, Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and Surgeon-in-Chief
Dennis Lund, MD, serves as Executive Vice President of the Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Hospital. Dr. Lund is responsible for providing strategic, financial and operational leadership for PCMG. As Surgeon-in-Chief, Dr. Lund oversees all aspects of surgical processes for the Hospital. Working with the CEO and members of the senior leadership team, Dr. Lund participates in the development and implementation of strategic growth for the employed physicians group. Reporting to Dr. Lund are Derrick Parker, Senior Vice President, Practice Operations; David Bank, Physician-in-Chief; Murray Pollack, Chief Medical and Academic Officer; and in Dr. Lund’s capacity as Surgeon-in-Chief, various surgical and medical division chiefs.
Dr. Lund came to the Hospital in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was Professor of Surgery and served as Chairman of General Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of the American Family Children’s Hospital. Prior to that, he spent 27 years at Harvard where he received his education and training and was a faculty member at Children’s Hospital Boston for almost a decade.
Dr. Lund is certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery, Surgical Critical Care and Pediatric Surgery.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Betsy Kuzas has over 20 years of industry experience with a concentration in consulting. She was a Senior Manager with Capgemini (formerly Ernst & Young) in heath care management consulting. Specific areas of experience and demonstrated results include strategic planning, operational improvement, and enterprise turnaround, ranging from strategic agenda development, program and services planning/growth development, operations assessments and implementation. Betsy was the Project Director for the Capgemini turnaround at Phoenix Children's. Following Capgemini, she was the Senior Vice President, Clinical Services at Beth Israel Medical Center – Continuum Health Partners, Inc.
Currently as Executive Vice President & Chief Operations Officer, her responsibilities include patient care organization, professional services, support services and construction. She is currently responsible for the master facility plan, including the $538 million Expansion Campus project and satellite development. Her accomplishments to date include implementation of the hospital’s satellite strategy specifically design, construction, operating budget and go-live, performance turnaround of outsourced Support Services, and assembling the team for the Master Facility Plan by developing an in-house Planning Design and Construction model, and implementation of the Thomas Campus Master Plan.
Betsy earned an MBA at Baldwin Wallace College, MT (ASCP) – University Hospital Heath System of Cleveland, and a BA from Miami University of Ohio.
Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel
Carmen Neuberger, Esq., joined Phoenix Children’s as General Counsel in 2007. As Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Neuberger is responsible for managing the legal environment at Phoenix Children’s. This includes providing legal guidance, developing hospital-wide policies and procedures, counseling the Hospital on business transactions, and managing complex contractual relationships. She also is involved in the legal aspects of medical staff privileging and credentialing, risk management, patient-related matters, regulatory compliance and privacy, clinical research and employment law.
Neuberger graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Duke University. She worked as a critical care nurse for five years before earning her law degree at the George Washington University National Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Neuberger comes to Phoenix Children’s with over twenty years of experience in health care law. She started her legal career with eight years in private practice and then joined the Georgetown University Office of University Counsel. She most recently served as Senior Corporate Counsel for MedStar Health, a complex tri-state health care system based in the Mid-Atlantic region and composed of nine hospitals and approximately 26,000 employees. Neuberger has served as an adjunct faculty member for the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies and is an active member of the American Bar Association and the American Health Lawyers Association.
Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer
With more than 30 years of experience in healthcare financial management, Craig McKnight oversees all aspects of financial operations, materials management, revenue cycle, treasury and information management, managed care contracting, and decision support. Before joining Phoenix Children's Hospital, he had built an extensive career in the healthcare sector, most recently as CFO for OSU Medical Center, an academic medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and interim Chief Financial Officer for Iowa Health System, a major integrated health system in Des Moines.
He also has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Centura Health System, Colorado; the Hillcrest Healthcare System, Oklahoma; and Magellan Health Care Services. Prior to his direct involvement in health management, he was the Partner-in-Charge of Healthcare for Coopers & Lybrand L.L.P.
McKnight earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Brigham Young University, is a Certified Public Accountant, and is an active member of Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Senior Vice President of Physician Practice Operations
Derrick E. Parker joined Phoenix Children's Hospital in 2009 as Senior Vice President, Practice Operations for Phoenix Children's Medical Group, the Hospital's group of approximately 200 employed pediatric specialists. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of physician practice operations.
Parker previously served in a similar role as Administrator/President of Children's Physician Services of South Texas/Driscoll Physician Groups in Corpus Christi, Texas. His prior positions also include Chief Financial Officer for The Care Group of Texas; Manager, Solutions Practice at Deloitte & Touche LLP; Chief Operating Officer for Cal Data Systems, Inc.; and management positions at Cook-Children's Health System, where he was responsible for the daily operations of their 180 pediatric physician group practice.
Parker received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Louisiana Tech University and his Master of Arts in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa. He is a Diplomat in the American College of Healthcare Executive (ACHE) and a member of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
Senior Vice President, Planning and Business Development and Chief Strategy Officer
Kyle Green is the senior vice president, planning and business development and Chief Strategy Officer for Phoenix Children's Hospital. He brings to the position a strong track record of cestablishing effective strategies for growth as well as creating operational processes to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of medical care at the local and national levels.
Prior to coming to Phoenix, Green served as System Vice President, Pediatric Services, at Norton Healthcare and Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Ky. where he was responsible for organizing the pediatric and adolescent services throughout Norton Healthcare, including the business development strategies and regional referral relationships for Kosair Children’s Hospital and pediatric services. Norton Healthcare is a five-hospital system with more than 10,000 employees and $1.4 billion in revenue. Before Norton Healthcare, Green led the opening of the first international standards hospital in Shanghai, China while working for Johns Hopkins International.
With Phoenix Children's, Green is responsible for providing overall leadership and direction to the Hospital’s government relations, marketing and strategic planning departments. He will also play a key role in expanding our service line development initiatives.
Green earned a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Kentucky and a B.A. in Biology from Transylvania University in Kentucky. He also completed Managing Healthcare Delivery at the Harvard Business School and was an Administrative Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Senior Vice President, Patient Care and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO)
Pamela J. Carlson oversees all nursing operations for Phoenix Children’s, including services for trauma and emergency, perioperative, medical/surgical and critical care, which includes neonatal intensive care, pediatric intensive care and cardiovascular intensive care. She also provides administrative supervision for respiratory care services, clinical and professional education, as well as patient and family services.
Carlson joins Phoenix Children’s after having served as vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, NE where she was responsible for strategic and operational oversight of nursing services. Prior to ending her 30+ years of leadership at Children’s of Omaha, the hospital was among five hospitals (and the only pediatric hospital) awarded the 2010 NDNQI Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality by the American Nurses Association. Carlson also led the organization through initial Magnet designation in 2006 and re-designation in 2011, and she has been a Magnet program appraiser for the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 2008. She was also appointed to the Nebraska State Board of Nursing as a Nursing Service Administrative Member and served as the Vice President of the Board.
Carlson is also an accomplished leader and presenter in the fields of shared governance, nursing peer review, lateral violence and patient safety.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Nursing from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska, then continued on to receive a Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Ms. Carlson is a Certified Nursing Executive and is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing at Creighton University.
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Tom Diederich has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the Human Resources field and has a personal area of expertise in employee compensation and benefit programs.
Prior to joining Phoenix Children's, Diederich had been Vice President of Compensation and Benefits since 1990 for the Advocate Health Care Network, a health care system of eight hospitals and 25,000 employees.
During his 15 years at Advocate Health Care, Diederich designed and implemented a new common benefits program and an updated and common approach to compensation management and administration including standardized and simplified pay practice.
Diederich graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology.
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
David Higginson is the chief information officer at Phoenix Children's Hospital where he brings to the position 20 years of experience.
Prior to taking his position at Phoenix Children’s, Higginson was Chief Information Technology Officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock, Arkansas. During his tenure at ACH, he implemented more than 500 systems and was instrumental in building the IT department as the hospital doubled in size. In 2003, Higginson was named one of the top 40 executives under 40 in Arkansas by the Business Journal.
As a polished speaker and recognized leader in eHealth initiatives within children’s hospitals and Meditech user communities, Higginson regularly speaks at conferences for the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) and Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA).
After obtaining his degree in accounting/finance from University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, he qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1994 while working as an investment analyst in London. Since the age of ten, he began developing computer systems and combined his keen interest in computing with his financial expertise when he developed systems for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and the UK’s Royal Mail.
Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
Murray Pollack, MD, MBA, a 28-year veteran of Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and a pioneer in pediatric critical care medicine, joined Phoenix Children's as CMO and Vice President, Medical Affairs in 2007. Pollack is responsible for planning, managing and evaluating clinical services at the Hospital. Departments and positions reporting to him include Research Administration, Medical Staff Services, Medical Education, and Quality Management. He also has a major role in implementing the Hospital's strategic plan and promoting patient safety, as well as helping to build research and medical education programs at the Hospital. Concurrently, he serves as Chair of the Department of Child Health at University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix.
Most recently, Pollack served as the Vice President for Medical Affairs at the HSC Pediatric Center as well as Director of their Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Evaluations. Concurrently, he served as Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine. Pollack is also the creator of the PRISM scoring system, which measures the acuity and status for PICU patients, a system now in commercial use in hospitals across the country. Pollack was named to the "Best Doctors in America® 2007-2008" database, a valued resource with approximately 40,000 of the best doctors in the United States, as chosen by their peers.
Pollack is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his residency in Pediatrics, as well as his fellowship in Intensive Care Pediatrics, at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. In his tenure at D.C. Children’s, Pollack led the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Evaluations, the Center for Hospital Based Specialties, the Critical Care Division, and the Center for Health Services and Clinical Research.
Physician-in-Chief
David Bank, MD, serves as Physician-in-Chief for the Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and Section Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine on the Phoenix Children’s Medical Staff. He came to the Hospital from the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, where he served as Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics.
Bank received his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, N.Y. He completed his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Calif., and his fellowship at Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and Subboard in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
Vice President, Finance
With more than 30 years of experience and specialization in financial leadership, Dennis Bruns brings an extensive knowledge of mergers and acquisitions, integrations and financial planning to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. His career in financial and operations consulting spans more than 20 years, including 10 years’ leadership experience. In his role as Vice President of Finance at Phoenix Children’s, Bruns is responsible for overall financial management, reporting and analysis of Hospital and Foundation operations.
Bruns served as Interim Controller at Phoenix Children’s for one year prior to being named Vice President of Finance in June 2010. Prior to working at Phoenix Children’s, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of a health insurance company with a multi-location medical group and as chief financial officer of a three-hospital healthcare system and as a partner with Deloitte and Touche.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Missouri and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Vice President, Planning, Design and Construction
With more than 40 years of construction and engineering field experience, including expertise with International Building Code (IBC), construction means and methods, site logics and planning and green-building strategies, Dave Cottle oversees all aspects of construction for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Cottle was brought on-board in 2006 to coordinate, plan and implement the Hospital’s five-year strategic plan. This included the development of the Planning, Design and Construction (PDC) department as well as supervising all architects, engineers, and the general contractor teams who recently completed $538 million Hospital expansion that included construction of a new, 11-story Hospital tower, four off-site specialty and urgent care clinics and several major renovations of Phoenix Children’s existing facilities.
Before joining the Hospital, Cottle worked for Poudre Valley Health System in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he managed the Medical Center of the Rockies hospital project; a $300 million LEED-certified building effort.
Cottle earned his Green/ Built Certification and Construction Management degree from Colorado State University and is an active member of the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE) and the local chapter of Central Arizona Society of Healthcare Engineers (CASHE ). Cottle has spoken at a variety of ASHE conferences across the country where he’s shared his expertise on sustainable design and large-scale construction management.
Vice President, Managed Care and Business Development
Ethel Hoffman, Vice President, Managed Care and Business Development, oversees the analysis, review and negotiations of all contracts between payers, physicians and other hospitals. She is also responsible for aligning the managed care strategies with the development and growth of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix Children’s Medical Group service lines, and the Centers of Excellence.
Hoffman joined the Hospital in March 2004 as Director of Managed Care and has been an integral part of the Hospital’s growth and transformation ever since. Before joining Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Hoffman held numerous leadership positions in health care institutions, including Saint Luke’s Medical Center (Cleveland, Ohio), Cleveland Clinic, and Wexford Health Sources. She completed an Executive Practice Management certificate program with the Cleveland Clinic and is a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional (CHEP). Hoffman has also achieved fellowship status (FHFMA) with Healthcare Financial Management Association. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Chapter of Healthcare Financial Management Association and the WellCare Foundation.
Hoffman earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Lake Erie College and a Masters of Business Administration degree with concentrations in health care administration, finance, and marketing from Cleveland State University.
Vice President, Revenue Cycle
Linda R. Flink, Vice President, Hospital Revenue Cycle, is responsible for the oversight of Patient Access, Health Information Management, Billing, Collections, Customer Service and Eclipsys AMPFM systems. She is charged with transforming the Hospital Revenue Cycle into a leading practice by improving, among other things, the Hospital collections process.
Flink has more than 25 years of experience in business operations and information technology implementations. She has directed many successful revenue cycle operations improvement initiatives and has also led health information systems implementations. Flink has direct managerial experience in both hospitals and physician practices, and she has managed many successful cash acceleration initiatives. She started her health care career at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and worked as a national healthcare consultant at Siemens, PwC, Ernst & Young and Accenture.
Flink received her Bachelor of Arts in history at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer
Vinay Vaidya, MD, is the chief medical information officer at Phoenix Children's Hospital. He brings to the position more than 20 years of clinical experience, including six as a general pediatrician and 14 as a pediatric intensive care physician. In addition, Dr. Vaidya has more than 11 years of experience in the development, implementation, dissemination, and support of innovative information technology solutions aimed at improving the safety, quality, and efficiency of medical care at the local and national levels.
In his role, Vaidya serves as a liaison between the Information Technology Department and the clinical staff, providing reviews of medical informatics experiences and approaches, while also developing technical and application implementation strategies. Additionally, he manages the implementation of advanced clinical information systems and works closely with Chief Information Officer, Robert Sarnecki in the development of strategic plans for clinical information systems. In a unique arrangement allowing him to work in clinic, Vaidya also spends up to 20 percent of his time serving as a critical care physician in Phoenix Children's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation Executives
Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Foundation
Steven Schnall has served Phoenix Children's since 1983. As Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation, Schnall provides leadership for all aspects of philanthropy for the Hospital, including principle gifts, events and planned giving. Under his direction the Foundation has led successful campaigns that supported development of the freestanding Phoenix Children's, as well as the Julie and Tim Louis Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Schnall's prior roles at Phoenix Children's included Vice President, Business Development and Outreach where his responsibilities included strategic planning, community relations, physician relations and grants. Schnall has also served as Vice President, Ambulatory Services and additional administrative posts for the Hospital.
Schnall is a graduate of Arizona State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts, Psychology. He received a Master of Arts in Organizational Management from University of Phoenix.
