Margaret O’Kane

Since 1990, Margaret E. O’Kane has served as President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of health care everywhere.

Ms. O’Kane was named Health Person of the Year in 1996 by the journal Medicine & Health. She also received a 1997 Founder’s Award from The American College of Medical Quality, recognizing NCQA’s efforts to improve managed care quality. In 1999, Ms. O’Kane was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine, a highly-regarded organization of health care providers, researchers and others that is frequently called on to help shape national health care policy. In 2000, Ms. O’Kane received the Centers for Disease Control’s Champion of Prevention award, the agency’s highest honor. The CDC names a Champion of Prevention infrequently, and only when an individual has made a truly notable contribution to advancing preventive health care.

Esther Emard became the Chief Operating Officer of NCQA in 1999.  She is responsible for all aspects of business planning and operations in supporting of the organization’s strategic plan.  She serves as Chair of the Leadership Team and Management Team for the organization.  She also directly oversees Finance & Administration, Product Development, Product Delivery, Information Technology, Information Systems and Products in addition to Communications, Marketing and Customer Support services. 

Prior to assuming her current position, she was the Senior Vice President of Regional Operations for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care where she was responsible for all regional operations in the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She also served as President of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England, the Rhode Island affiliate of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

She has held additional positions as the Associate Director of Nursing for Morton Hospital and Medical Centers, Inc. of Taunton, Massachusetts.

She is currently a member of the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Medical Quality, a member of the National Honor Society in Nursing and an Affiliate Member of the American College of Medical Quality.

She is a member of Medical Reserve Core, serving as an Incident Coordinator, for Fairfax County, State of Virginia.

She is an adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island (URI). In addition, she serves as a guest lecturer for URI's Graduate Program in Labor.

She has served as a member of the boards of directors of the Urban League of Rhode Island, The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, The RIGHA Foundation and the Executive Board of the National Conference. She was appointed by the Governor of the State of Rhode Island to be a member of the Rhode Island Commodores as well as the Health Care Advisory Commission of Rhode Island. She was elected as a member of the Rhode Island Medical Women’s Association and the Hope Club. She served for two years as President of the Rhode Island Association of HMOs.

She received her masters' degrees in labor and industrial relations and nursing administration from the University of Rhode Island and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing form the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. She recently completed requirements for certification in international studies through the Smithsonian. She is currently licensed to practice as a registered nurse in the State of Virginia.

Prior to joining NCQA as the Executive Vice-President, Dr. Pawlson was at the George Washington University Medical Center, most recently as Senior Associate Vice President for Health Affairs, and as Medical Director for Quality and Utilization Management for the Faculty Practice.  Prior to that, Dr. Pawlson had served as Chairman of the Department of Health Care Sciences (DHCS) and Director of the Institute for Health Policy, Outcomes and Human Values at GW.  

Dr. Pawlson received his undergraduate degree from Penn State, his MD from the University of Pittsburgh and did his internship/residency at Stanford.  He was then a staff associate of the National Institutes of Health, and later an Endocrine fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Washington.  During that time, Dr. Pawlson completed an MPH degree with a focus on health systems and management, and did several studies involving systems at Group Health Puget Sound. Dr. Pawlson was a scholar in residence for one year at the American Association of Medical Colleges.  During this time, he worked with Dr. Paul Griner, a Senior VP of the AAMC, on research projects related to the adaptation of academic medical centers to changing markets, as well as on a new index of the intensity of competition fostered by managed care in large metropolitan areas.

Dr. Pawlson’s areas of policy and research include health professions education, health policy, health services and health care financing, especially as they relate to primary care and to the care of older persons.  He has maintained a clinical practice in geriatrics, both in direct patient care and as medical director of several nursing homes in Washington, DC.  Within organized medicine, Dr. Pawlson served as Chairman of the AGS Public Policy Committee, and later as President and Chairman of the Board of the American Geriatric Society.  He has also served as a member of the National Council of the Society for General Internal Medicine and as the Chairman of the Council of Department Chairs of the Society of Teachers of Preventive Medicine.  Dr. Pawlson is currently on the Board of Directors of several national organizations including the Bon Secours Hospital System and the United Soldiers’ and Airman’s Home.  He is also currently the associate director of the national program “Partnerships for Quality Education” funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and as PI on the HHS funded grant to develop an Area Health Education Center in Washington, DC.  He has over 80 publications in books, proceedings, and peer-reviewed journals, and has served on the editorial board of numerous publications.

Richard Sorian is NCQA's Vice-President for Public Policy. Mr. Sorian manages NCQA’s government relations efforts, develops public-private partnerships to advance health care quality and works to encourage the ongoing integration of NCQA Accreditation standards and performance measures into state regulatory and licensing strategies. Prior to joining NCQA, Mr. Sorian was the Director of Public Affairs and Senior Researcher for the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), a nationally recognized health policy research organization.

During his tenure at HSC, he worked to engage policy makers on the issues addressed in HSC’s research, including efforts to measure and improve health care quality and the effectiveness of consumer information initiatives. He previously was Project Director and Senior Researcher at Georgetown University’s Institute for Health Care Research and Policy and served in various advisory capacities in the Clinton administration, most recently as Deputy Director of the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.

Phyllis Torda is Vice President for Product Development at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She is responsible for NCQA’s efforts to develop new ways of evaluating the quality of health care provided by organizations and professionals. She is also responsible for updating requirements for current programs.

Ms. Torda is currently developing two new programs by which NCQA would evaluate care provided by physicians: a program evaluating care for low back pain and a program looking at the quality of care provided by clinical oncologists. She oversees the criteria for NCQA’s diabetes physician recognition program; heart/stroke recognition program; and for a program that evaluates how physician practices use electronic information to improve the quality of care that they provide. Ms. Torda works with employers, health plans and others developing programs used as the basis of pay for performance for physicians. 

Ms. Torda also oversees changes to the requirements for NCQA’s accreditation and certification programs for organizations. A significant current effort is adapting HEDIS performance measures for use by preferred provider organizations. 

Ms. Torda has been at NCQA since 1995. At NCQA major initiatives under her direction have included developing performance-based accreditation of managed care organizations that takes into account organizations’ HEDIS results; developing accreditation and certification programs for disease management programs; developing accreditation for preferred provider organizations and developing consumer-friendly health report cards. She has been responsible for NCQA's contracts with federal and state government.

Prior to coming to NCQA, Ms. Torda was Director of Health and Social Policy at Families USA, a consumer advocacy group focusing on health reform issues. Ms. Torda has worked for over 20 years on health policy issues, particularly those relating to vulnerable populations. She has completed all requirements except the dissertation for a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Ms. Mudd is currently Vice President for Product Delivery at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). In this position, she is responsible for the delivery of NCQA’s products and services, including Accreditation, Education, and Policy. Previously, she was NCQA’s Vice President for Accreditation. In that role, she led the implementation of Accreditation ’99 and directed the rollout of two new accreditation programs and one certification program. Ms. Mudd joined NCQA in 1995 as the Assistant Vice President of Education and Training.

Prior to joining NCQA, Ms. Mudd was Director, Quality Improvement, Health Services Quality Management for Aetna Health Plans, a division of Aetna Life and Casualty. In this position, she headed the Health Services Quality Management Department and was responsible for health services quality strategy development, HMO QM program development, implementation, and oversight, credentialing policy development and credentialing operations support, and the NCQA accreditation initiative for Aetna’s 24 HMOs. During her tenure at Aetna, she began serving as an Administrative Surveyor for NCQA.

Ms. Mudd has also held positions in the corporate offices of two national managed care organizations. In these roles, her responsibilities included implementing HMO and PPO QI programs on a national level, developing clinical risk management programs, and overseeing the implementation of a centralized credentialing program.

Ms. Mudd received a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Texas and a MBA from the University of Connecticut.

Ann F. Carson is an Assistant Vice President, Product Development for the National Committee for Quality Assurance. She is responsible for leading the development of new and revised programs to evaluate health plans and other health care organizations. She is currently leading the effort to redesign health plan accreditation for 2008, which will result in an accreditation model that responds to changes in the types of plans offered in the market.

Ms. Carson’s most recent efforts include leading NCQA’s “Quality Plus” initiative—three voluntary health plan evaluation areas designed to meet purchaser needs for more information on how plans engage members, manage chronic care and evaluate provider quality. Prior to this, she led NCQA’s Accreditation business process redesign, which included development and implementation of the Web-based Interactive Survey System which facilitates all aspects of the evaluation process. She also led the development and implementation of NCQA’s PPO accreditation and certification programs.  

Ms. Carson has been with NCQA since 1994, first as an Accreditation Manager and then as a Director in the Accreditation Department. In those roles, she conducted Accreditation surveys, managed the accreditation survey process and oversaw department process improvement.

Prior to joining NCQA, Ms. Carson was with Value Health, Inc. working at both the corporate level and with its behavioral health and pharmacy benefit subsidiaries.

Ms. Carson received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College and her Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. 

Mr. Renner is the Assistant Vice President for Quality Measurement (University of Arizona) Prior to joining NCQA, Mr. Renner was the Associate Director of H*Works at the Advisory Board Company. Mr. Renner's primary charge at NCQA is to ensure that developed measures adhere to the highest standards of scientific, clinical validity, reliability, and feasibility, and is also responsible for managing activities related to several of NCQA’s advisory groups, including the Technical Advisory Group and the Committee on Performance Measurement. He also assists in the procurement of external funds to assist NCQA in its measure development and research activities. He received an MBA from the University of Arizona’s Eller School and a BFA from the University of Arizona.

Mr. Tulloch is NCQA’s Director of Customer Resources, and has been with NCQA since 1997.  In his role, Mr. Tulloch helps develop and provide customized educational programs for organizations interesting in improving the quality of care they provide. Prior to this position, Bill was the Director of the Privacy Certification for Business Associates (PCBA) program, a joint offering of NCQA and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Mr. Tulloch helped develop both the PCBA and other new assessment programs in the health care field and improving existing NCQA products. Prior to joining the Product Development team in 2000, Mr. Tulloch was a Senior Accreditation Manager participating in and coordinating surveys for the MCO, CVO, and MBHO programs.  In addition to his other work, Mr. Tulloch has been a frequent faculty member for educational presentations for NCQA, and was one of the leaders of the team that adapted the MCO DCT/report template and electronic roadmaps for the 1998, 1999, and 2000 survey years.  

Mr. Tulloch attended Williams College for his undergraduate work, and has a Master’s in Economics from the University of Maryland.  For seven years prior to joining NCQA, Mr. Tulloch worked with a health care consulting firm, HTA (now Covance), in Washington, DC, helping medical product manufacturers work in the managed care setting.  During his undergraduate years, Mr. Tulloch co-authored two papers on the psychology of juror decision-making, based on original research.