Leadership Team

Vivek Garg, President & Chief Executive Officer

Vivek Garg, MD, MBA is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent nonprofit that has championed better health care for more than 35 years. NCQA defines and drives health care quality through accreditation, standards, performance measurement and expert support.

With more than fifteen years of experience as a physician and health care executive, Dr. Garg is passionate about building care models, systems, and cultures that help patients and clinicians thrive. He has served in senior leadership roles at organizations driving innovation in care delivery, including as Chief Medical Officer for CenterWell Senior Primary Care and for CareMore & Aspire Health. He also held clinical leadership positions at Oscar Health and One Medical, focusing on improving health outcomes, advancing value-based care, and developing future health care leaders.

Dr. Garg brings additional perspective from academia, consulting, and policy. He trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and worked at McKinsey & Company and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. He earned his MD from Harvard Medical School, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in Biology from Yale University. He is board-certified in internal medicine.

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Tom Fluegel, Chief Operating Officer

Tom Fluegel became NCQA’s chief operating officer in December 2012. He is responsible for all aspects of business planning and operations in support of the organization’s strategic plan.

Fluegel has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the health care industry. Prior to NCQA, he was COO of Dental Insurance at Coventry Health Care. From 1999–2008, he held diverse leadership positions within divisions of UnitedHealth Group, including two vice president posts, chief information officer and senior vice president for Client Operations.

Previously, he directed group administration and sales activities at CIGNA, as well as acquisitions, integration and operations at the California-based SafeGuard Health Enterprises.

Fluegel holds a BS in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MBA from the University of Miami.

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Sharon King Donohue, General Counsel

Sharon King Donohue is general counsel, compliance officer, and chief privacy officer for NCQA. In that capacity, she is responsible for the general oversight and coordination of all legal matters for the organization. She plays an active role in the development of policy related to NCQA’s quality measurement and assessment programs and is involved with strategic planning.  Sharon is a member of the leadership team and an officer of the company.

Prior to joining NCQA in 1996, King Donohue spent more than 10 years in private practice and was most recently affiliated with the firm of Climaco, Climaco, Seminatore Lefkowitz & Garofoli Co., LPA., in Cleveland, Ohio. During her tenure at Climaco, she specialized in the development of integrated delivery systems, mergers and acquisitions and other transactional and regulatory matters for health insurers, managed care organizations, hospitals and physician organizations.

Mrs. King Donohue received her JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.

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Daniel O’Connor, Chief Financial Officer

Daniel O’Connor became NCQA’s Chief Financial Officer in August 2018. He oversees the overall financial, administrative, and accounting practices.

Daniel has more than 20 years of leadership experience in financial and administrative operations. He spent the last 13 years as CFO of ACA Compliance Group, a firm that provides risk management, compliance and technology services. Prior to ACA, Dan held financial leadership roles at Internosis, Global Telesystems Group and Hughes Network Systems.

Dan earned an MBA from University of Baltimore, an MS in Finance from Loyola College and an MS in Information and Telecommunication Systems from Johns Hopkins University. He has also held various certifications, including Certified Public Accountant , Certified Managerial Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, and Certified Information Systems Auditor.

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Tia Butler, Chief People Officer

Tia Butler joined NCQA in January 2024 as Chief People Officer. In this role, she is building a people strategy that supports NCQA through this period of steady growth, innovation and organizational change. With an emphasis on Talent Management and Development, Employee Engagement, and Organizational Design, she serves as an internal cultural ambassador, driving positive change and energy while leading by example.

Before joining NCQA, Butler served over 15 years in government, mostly as a member of the Senior Executive Service. She began her career in public service with the Department of the Navy and was most recently the Chief Human Capital Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She also served as Deputy Associate Director for Retirement Services at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and was Executive Director of the Corporate Senior Executive Management Office at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she was appointed to the White House Advisory Group on Senior Executive Service Reform under President Obama.

Ms. Butler has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia and a MA in Education and Human Development, with a concentration in Human & Organizational Learning from the George Washington University.

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Lori Ferguson, Senior Vice President, Product and Customer Operations

Lori Ferguson joined NCQA in May 2022 as Senior Vice President, Product and Customer Operations. In her role, she leads the organization’s strategy and execution to implement, deliver and service our products. Her addition signals the organization’s commitment to our stakeholders with a focus on innovation, continuous improvement and the customer experience.

Lori is a proven operational leader with significant experience working with NCQA products during her 20 year career in Medicaid and Medicare managed care. As a change agent, she has led a number of successful turn-arounds, a start-up and has extensive M&A experience. With a focus in Managed Long-Term Care, Dual-Eligibles, and Special Needs Plans, she understands the importance of high quality healthcare. In her most recent roles, Lori has served as Chief Managing Director for VNS Health and Chief Operations Officer at Magellan Health, both servicing the most complex members in New York City.

Lori is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and earned a Master’s in Applied/Organizational Psychology at Christopher Newport University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Radford University.

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Eric Musser, Vice President, Federal Affairs

Eric Musser is the Vice President for Federal Affairs at NCQA. He works with CMS, ONC, Congress and other federal stakeholders to advance national health care quality priorities. Before joining NCQA, he held roles at the CDC and Emory Healthcare, and was a health care administrator with a group of primary care practices in Philadelphia. Eric’s passion for quality and improving patient experience is the result of his own 30-year journey through the American health care system.

Eric holds an MPH from Emory University and a BA in sociology and health policy administration from Penn State.

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Adam O’Neill, Senior Vice President, Market Engagement & Growth

Adam O’Neill is the Senior Vice President of Market Engagement and Growth at NCQA, where he oversees the organization’s marketing, communications and sales teams. Since joining NCQA in 2013, Adam has played a central role in advancing the organization’s visibility and market engagement strategy.

Adam is a respected leader in health care marketing and business development, with experience fostering meaningful engagement across organizations, teams and stakeholders. Prior to NCQA, he led digital and physician channel marketing at a national medication monitoring company and served as the digital marketing lead at one of the nation’s largest medical staffing, homecare and wellness organizations, where he managed online strategy for more than 20 brands.

Adam earned a Master’s in Management – Digital Health Transformation from Northeastern University and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.

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Sarah E. Saxton, Senior Vice President, Quality Services

Sarah Saxton leads NCQA’s Quality Solutions Group, where she oversees research and implementation initiatives that underpin NCQA’s evidence-based standards and performance measures.

Sarah brings more than 20 years of expertise in driving quality improvement, performance measurement and large-scale transformation across public and private health systems. In her role, she will strengthen collaboration with federal agencies to advance initiatives that deliver measurable improvements in health care systems and better outcomes for patients. Before joining NCQA, Sarah served as Senior Vice President of Federal Market Strategy at Aptive Resources. She has also held leadership positions at Ipsos Federal Services, Atlas Research and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Sarah earned an MBA from Virginia Tech and holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Business Leadership and Marketing Research. She is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

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Kristine Toppe, Vice President, State Affairs

Kristine Toppe, MPH is the Vice President for State Affairs at NCQA, leading strategic engagement with state governments to advance policies that drive quality improvement and meaningful evaluation of population health and healthcare systems. With over 25 years of experience in state and federal public health policy, Kristine is a recognized leader in health care performance measurement and accountability.

Since 2001, she has spearheaded NCQA’s public policy initiatives in California, collaborating with key stakeholders to shape health care quality measurement, equity, and accountability efforts. Her work spans Medicaid, commercial, public employee, and Exchange populations, with a focus on policies that promote transparency and improve outcomes.

In 2022, Kristine was appointed to two California Health Committees—convened by the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI)—to recommend equity measures for managed care plans and hospitals. She also served as an advisor to the Oregon Health Care Authority’s Social Determinants of Health Measure Workgroup, contributing to the development of a measure incentivizing screening for health-related social needs.

Kristine holds an MPH from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and a BS from the University of Oregon.

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Vik Wadhwani, Chief Product & Transformation Officer

Vik Wadhwani became NCQA’s first Chief Product & Transformation Officer in early 2023. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience in business and technology transformation. Vik has supported large-scale organizations and start-ups with expertise in strategy, design and implementation of technology and data/analytics-enabled capabilities.

Vik spent more than 15 years leading mature strategic execution capabilities in payer, provider, health care technology, emerging value-based care service and clinical content delivery organizations. At NCQA, Vik leads all Transformation Initiatives. He also leads the development of internal capabilities to position NCQA for delivery excellence as we expand our content, products and services.

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Edward Yurcisin, Chief Technology Officer

Edward Yurcisin leads NCQA’s technology strategy and execution, helping advance continued digital innovation. As Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for providing organization-wide leadership and direction across products and services, enterprise operations, IT infrastructure, and security.

Ed is a proven technology leader with significant experience implementing technology and data solutions for health care payer and provider customers. Ed joined NCQA in 2022, after serving in C-level positions across leading health care and technology organizations, including Chief Technology Officer at Embedded Healthcare, Chief Product Officer at Onyx Technologies, Chief Data Officer at CareJourney, and Chief Information Officer at PeraHealth. Ed also led several initiatives to improve diversity, including developing a technical recruiting pipeline in Latin America.

Ed holds a BA in Economics with a focus on Econometrics and Quantitative Economics from Duke University.