Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion
Veteran Experience Center Staff
Director
Cari Levy, MD, PhD
Cari Levy, MD, PhD, is a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Denver, who trained in internal medicine and is board certified in geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. She received her medical degree and Ph.D. in clinical sciences from the University of Colorado. Dr. Levy completed residency at Vanderbilt University followed by a geriatric fellowship at the University of Colorado. She is currently division head of geriatric medicine and director of the Multidisciplinary Center on Aging at the University of Colorado. Dr. Levy is a past- president of AMDA, the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. She serves as a senior editor for the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. As a health services researcher, her research focuses on improving long-term care models of care and palliative care delivery to frail older adults.
Director of Operations
Dawn Gilbert, MS
Dawn attended St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, graduating in 2003 with a BS in Psychology and receiving an MS in Psychological Research in 2004. She worked on a grant sponsored by the William Penn Foundation for a year before joining the Veteran Experience Center team in 2005.
Associate Director, Analytics & Methods Core
Ann Kutney-Lee, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Kutney-Lee joined the Veteran Experience Center team as a Research Scientist in 2012. She is also an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and a core faculty member of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Dr. Kutney-Lee's scholarship is focused on the effects of nursing care organization on patient outcomes and how systems can be redesigned to work more efficiently to provide equitable and high-quality patient care
Health Science Specialists
Francis attended the University of Pennsylvania and joined the Veteran Experience Center in 2011.
Daniel Kinder, MPH
Daniel joined the Veteran Experience Center in 2017 after earning an MPH from Drexel University in Community Health and Prevention. Daniel also holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Hilary Griffin, MPH
Hilary joined the Veteran Experience Center in 2018. She received an MPH from the University of Colorado, as well as a BA in Human Services from Elon University.
Scientific Consultant
Mary Ersek, PhD, RN
Dr. Ersek was the director of the Veteran Experience Center (formerly PROMISE) between April 2011 and January 2017. She currently serves as a Senior Scientist focusing on BFS secondary analyses. She is also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Ersek has developed and led a program of research focusing on pain and palliative care in older adults, with an emphasis on nursing home residents. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D), New York State Department of Health, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and several foundations.
Analytics and Methods Consultant
Josh Thorpe, PhD, MPH
Dr. Thorpe is an associate professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, and a core faculty member of the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Health Equity and Research Promotion (CHERP). His teaching interests are in two main areas: (1) raising awareness of pharmacists about the needs of the communities in which they practice, and challenging future pharmacists to play a greater role in efforts to reduce disparities and improve public health; and (2) enhancing the scientific skills of pharmacists and graduate students by providing high-quality methodological training in the areas comparative effectiveness research, pharmacoepidemiology, and health services research.
Bereaved Family Survey Interviewers (Lebanon VA)
Charlotte Peffley
On 6/1/06, Charlotte retired with 40 years of service at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She started working as a Bereavement Phone Surveyor in the Office of Hospice and Palliative Care at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where she has been since.
Daisy Enck
Daisy worked at the Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation for 27 years. When Fort Indiantown Gap was on the federal base closure list, she started working at the Lebanon VA Medical Center for seven years until the time of her retirement. She started working as a Bereavement Phone Surveyor in the Office of Hospice and Palliative Care at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in June 2009.
Shirley Binner
Shirley retired on 12/31/2010 with 36 years of service at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, PA. She has been working as a Bereavement Phone Surveyor in the Office of Hospice and Palliative Care at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, PA since February 2011.
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