Archives: People

Craig joined Aquifer in 2018 and is responsible for all financial, information systems and administrative operations.  He has a varied and extensive background in finance, software development, medical and consumer product development, and manufacturing.  He’s also been a co-principal investigator on SBIR research programs and has published on product development risk management. Craig received his BS from MIT and his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.  He lives in NH with his wife and enjoys international travel and the outdoors.

Natalia Perez is a second-year student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She grew up in Puerto Rico, where her family resides. Natalia graduated from Georgetown University in 2017, where she obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology of Global Health. She went straight to medical school after college and is currently in the MD/MPH dual-degree program. Natalia is very involved with the Latino Medical Student Association and the Student National Medical Association. Her interests include the intersection between education and health fields, and working to reduce minority health disparities.

Rose Milando is a second-year medical student at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Before attending medical school, Rose worked at a non-profit organization in New York City for 2.5 years, providing case management services to New Yorkers with HIV and/or multiple chronic conditions. Rose is passionate about investigating and interrogating the ways in which medical school professors discuss race and culture with their students, and is currently undertaking a review of GW’s pre-clinical curriculum on this matter.

Priyal Gandhi is a second-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has lived in Northern Virginia for most of her life and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Priyal has been involved in education with refugees, children in Indian slums, and middle schoolers in Baltimore. She is also passionate about many social issues in healthcare, including advocacy for the healthcare of incarcerated people.

Stephanie Bi is a second-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Chicago with an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and English Language and Literature. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys reading poetry, rock climbing, and hip-hop dance.

Nkemdi Agwaramgbo completed his undergraduate career at Xavier University of Louisiana and is currently a second-year medical student at the University of South Alabama. His experiences as a Nigerian American have driven him to dive into social issues and push for a more just and humane society, whether it’s on a grand or micro scale. Throughout high school and his undergraduate career, Nkemdi made it his mission to improve his community. Nkemdi is very interested in preserving the realities and humanity of various marginalized groups through the improvement of healthcare and education.

Joyce Cappiello PhD, FNP, FAANP is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of New Hampshire where she teaches family nurse practitioner and pre-licensure nursing students.  Her approach to education is through case-based and inquiry-based learning. She is the editor and case writer for A Day in the Office: Case Studies in Primary Care (2017) as well as numerous cases and simulation for the classroom, for OSCE evaluation and for statewide AHEC projects. She practices as a nurse practitioner at the Joan G. Lovering Health Center where she provides comprehensive reproductive health care to men and women.

Cynthia Booth Lord, MHS, PA-C, is the Founding Director of the Case Western Reserve University Physician Assistant Program. She has been a PA educator for the past 24 years.  Cindy received her PA certificate from Yale University School of Medicine and her Master of Health Science from Quinnipiac University. Currently, Cindy serves as a preceptor for an interprofessional team of students at the Case Western Reserve University Student-Run Health Clinic. Cindy’s career is distinguished by numerous awards for excellence in teaching, service and leadership roles. She has served as president and chairman of the board for the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE).  Most recently Cindy has focused her efforts and experience in the area of interprofessional education.  She is a member of her institution’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) Steering Committee and has helped develop the health professions’ programs didactic and clinical curriculum.

Barbara Capozzi, DO, CNS, is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Assistant Dean for Clinical Education at NYITCOM.  Her career has focused on medical education spanning the entire continuum in osteopathic medical education including pre-clinical, clinical, GME, and CME, as well as interprofessional education (PA, nursing, and undergraduate). She is alumna of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM). In 2015 she joined NYITCOM from TouroCOM, where she was Course Director and Coordinator for the Clinical Systems course, and served as faculty in the Department of Primary Care. She is the recipient of several state and national teaching and leadership awards. Dr. Capozzi is the immediate past president of NYS Chapter of ACOPF, member of the board of directors for NYSOMS and NYCOMEC. She is the faculty advisor for Primary Care Progress group and Catalyst Team, “aimed at different groups in primary care offering training and coaching in relational leadership practices necessary to build teams, communicate with different stakeholders and advocate for change.”

Andrew Olson is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota where he practices hospital medicine and pediatrics. He also serves as the Director of the Medical School’s Subinternship in Critical Care and as the founding Director of the Medical School’s Becoming a Doctor course. Dr. Olson was recently named the Director of Medical Educator Development and Scholarship. He is currently serving in the Aquifer Consortium as the Senior Director for Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence. Dr. Olsen is the Primary Investigator of the DX: Diagnostic Excellence project, a national project to develop, implement, and evaluate a novel curriculum for medical students about diagnostic reasoning and error. He also is the Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and the co-Primary Investigator of a Macy-Foundation project to develop an Interprofessional Curriculum to Improve Diagnosis.

Raeann LeBlanc holds a PhD in Nursing and Doctorate in Nursing Practice in Public Health Nurse Leadership with board certification as an Adult Gerontological Nurse Practitioner and Hospice/Palliative care nurse. Raeann is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has nursing experience in collaborative clinical practice, education, and public health advocacy.  Her current scholarly interests include innovative approaches to chronic care, community-based caregiving, palliative care education, and social network influences on health. Raeann has been working with the StoryCenter over the past five years and uses digital storytelling in research, education, and practice. Raeann is currently a Nurstory Scholar, advancing clinical education with the power of story and a narrative approach to health, healing, and health care.

Daniel Weinshenker is a storytelling facilitator, writer, and proponent of deep listening, meaning making, and reflection in healthcare. Daniel has facilitated workshops for the past 15 years through Storycenter, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming lives and communities through the acts of listening to and sharing stories. He co-founded Nurstory, a national reflective-practice digital storytelling project with nurses that is being integrated into nursing education, has worked with researchers at the Mayo Clinic, patients living with HIV in S. Africa, educators and health communicators at the National Cancer Institute, and written a personal health blog for a global audience. At the University of Colorado, Department of Pediatrics, Daniel has facilitated workshops with medical students, residents, faculty, and staff to reflect on car –as a practitioner, a learner, an advocate, an educator, and a patient. He was the first recipient of the Colorado Independent Media award and the only non-MD to be the Miller-Sarkin lecturer for COMSEP.

Robert Trowbridge, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and hospitalist at Maine Medical Center (MMC) in Portland, Maine.  At MMC, he has a number of roles including Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Medicine, and Director of the Tufts Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship. He served as the Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) from 2013-2016, helping to develop and institute several educational initiatives centered on diagnostic error and aimed at all levels of medical education.  He additionally has been a longtime member on the Planning Committee for the International Diagnostic Error in Medicine conference and served as the Chair of the Planning Committee and Conference in 2016 and 2017. He has a specific interest in teaching clinical reasoning and is Co-Director of the course “Introduction to Clinical Reasoning” at Tufts as well as an editor of the book “Teaching Clinical Reasoning” from the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Scott first became involved with Aquifer (formerly MedU) in 2007, when he joined the fmCASES (now Aquifer Family Medicine) development group. He’s been an active member of the Aquifer Family Medicine Course Board (where he continues to serve) since the launch of the course, in addition to leading workgroups to support student and educator Aquifer users.

Dr. Stephen Scott recently became the Senior Associate Dean of Educational Affairs and Accreditation at the TCU School of Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas. He served a short term as the TCU and UNTHSC Chair of the Department of Medical Education and Director for the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship prior to earning a promotion. Previously, he served as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar. For more than 20 years, he has worked with medical students, residents, and faculty in the classroom and in clinical settings, including directing courses in patient-physician communication, clinical skills, public health, and other disciplines. Dr. Scott is the recipient of multiple grants and awards for educational leadership and innovation. He and his wife Melissa have two daughters. Steve enjoys playing the piano, the arts, reading, and exploring the world with family and friends.

Dr. Valerie J. Lang is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Hospital Medicine Division at the University of Rochester. Dr. Lang directed the Internal Medicine Clerkship for 13 years and the Medicine Sub-Internship for 15 years. She currently directs the Hospital Medicine Faculty Development Program and is the inaugural director of the Meliora in Medicine course and thread through all 4 years of the medical school curriculum.

Her current and past national committee work includes: Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) Council; CDIM President (2014-2015); Board of Directors, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM); and Co-Chair, High Value Care Working Group (AAIM); and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine’s Diagnostic Error Competencies development group. She is the recipient of the 2019 Ruth-Marie E. Fincher, MD, Service Award, presented by CDIM for outstanding service to the organization.

As the Aquifer Academic Director for Assessment, Dr. Lang provides strategic guidance to inform Aquifer’s non-profit mission of advancing health professions education. She is currently leading the development of innovative new formative assessments for a range of disciplines and led a multi-institution validation study of Aquifer Internal Medicine’s Clinical Decision-Making Exam (formerly the Key Features Exam) that was recently published in Academic Medicine. She is also a past Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Aquifer Internal Medicine course.

Dr. Lang earned her MD from SUNY Syracuse College of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Rochester. She graduated with a Masters in Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Val and her husband, a medical oncologist, have a son in elementary school who is an avid online learner. She enjoys 4-season biking (even in the Rochester winter), gardening, and traveling.

Alec Chessman, MD has been engaged in medical education since 1988. He has directed courses in all years of medical school, and has precepted residents in the inpatient and outpatient settings for over 25 years. He introduced Evidence Based Medicine into the preclinical curriculum in the early 1990’s. Through HRSA grant funding, he introduced such innovations as providing laptop computers for students on clerkship rotation at away sites during the 1990’s, prior to a required laptop requirement.

He has received several honors from his professional academic organization, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, including STFM President’s Awards for his participation in: the Predoctoral Directors’ Development Institute (faculty development fellowship), a faculty development newsletter called Teaching Physician (newsletter) for which he served as one of the Founding Editors for over a decade, the fmCASES Project Development Group, and the STFM Family Medicine Clerkship Curriculum Task Force that defined a national set of core objectives. He was part of the teams that won STFM Innovative Program Awards: for fmCASES in 2015, and for CERA in 2016. He received South Carolina AHEC’s James G. Halford, Jr. Award for the outstanding family medicine educator of the year in 2012, and STFM’s Excellence in Education Award in 2016.

He was part of the original team that developed fmCASES, now Aquifer Family Medicine. He authored one of the cases, and served as Co-Editor-in-Chief, and then Co-Senior Director until 2016. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Aquifer Trauma Informed Care (currently in development), a set of virtual patient cases developed under contract with the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Women’s Health. Designed for primary care practitioners, these cases seek to improve care for patients adversely affected by traumatic life events.

Javier leads the technology strategy and development of all software products at Aquifer. Prior to joining Aquifer, He was an Instructor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, and the president of an early stage software company developing the next generation of content distribution platforms. Javier holds numerous patents, approved and pending. He has published extensively in the areas of systems engineering, medical devices, emergency response processes, health policy, and health services research.

Javier has held academic positions at Dartmouth College and is an entrepreneur, inventor, and product management leader with more than 15 years of product development experience, including Software as a Service (SaaS), medical devices, and mobile software platforms.

After receiving his BS in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from San Francisco de Quito University in 2000, Javier completed a Master’s Degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Oregon State University in 2004, and a PhD in Biomedical and Health Services Research from Dartmouth College in 2010.

Bridie has been at Aquifer since 2008. She provides operational leadership for Aquifer’s assessment activities and oversees development and maintenance of our formative and summative evaluations. Bridie is responsible for ensuring clinical content accuracy, curricular consistency, and psychometric validity and reliability of Aquifer assessment tools.  She collaborates with the technology team to promote high-quality online delivery of examinations.  

Bridie graduated from Williams College with a degree in Biology, Psychology, and Neuroscience and received her MD from Dartmouth College of Medicine. She has three children and loves to hike, backcountry ski, and kayak.

Eileen Olszewski, MBA is an education technology professional with over thirty years experience in communications and marketing, product innovation, and strategy in higher education. She has held a variety of roles that combine customer and brand insight, new market analysis, strategy development, and product development support, most recently as Director of Market Innovation at Pearson. Eileen graduated from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst with a BA in Marketing, and holds an MBA from Bentley University.

Nat has been the Information Technology Lead since 2014, is responsible for the overall planning, organizing, and execution of all IT functions at Aquifer. This includes directing all IT operations, as well as the support and maintenance of existing applications, and development of new technical solutions. Nat graduated from Wesleyan University and completed post-graduate work in film at New York University.

Nancy joined our team in 2015. She is an education and training professional, and eLearning expert with more than 20 years’ experience. Nancy is experienced in online instructional design, learning experience design, curriculum design, content management, product development, and product management of online learning solutions and educational technology.

Nancy has a BA in Sociology, Mass Media, and Communications from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MS in Environmental Education from Antioch University New England. She and her husband have two children. She enjoys quiet days and nights at her mountainside home, reading, yoga, cooking, and being entertained by her very amusing cat and dog.

Blake Darcy has spent most of his career on Wall Street. He founded the online brokerage firm DLJDirect in 1987 and led the firm as its CEO from 1987 through 2001. During this time, he launched online brokerage joint ventures in Japan and in Hong Kong, while also launching a stand-alone online firm in the UK. In the late 1990’s, Mr. Blake formed a technology firm, iNautix, to provide Internet solutions to other financial services firms. As part of this venture, he formed an offshore facility in India, which now has over 4,000 employees. He took DLJDirect public in 1999 as one of the largest internet IPOs in NYSE history.

In 2008, Mr. Darcy co-founded an online money management firm, Formula Investing, with value investor Joel Greenblatt. Formula Investing created a series of mutual funds and investment strategies for individuals and institutions. The firm is now known as Gotham Asset Management and manages billions in assets through private investment vehicles and institutional class mutual funds.

Mr. Darcy graduated cum laude from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY with a degree in Government. He currently serves on six boards, including Aquifer. He is on the board of three start-up firms: Quantopian, a Boston-based crowd sourced hedge fund; CarNow, a Hanover, NH-based firm developing innovative chat solutions for the automotive industry; and Trading Ticket, a NYC-based financial services technology firm. He also serves as treasurer and board member to the Upper Valley Humane Society, and recently joined the board of Crossroads Academy in Lyme, NH. Mr. Darcy lives in the Upper Valley with his wife and three children.

Charles Prober, MD is the Senior Associate Vice Provost for Health Education and Founding Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Health Education. He is a Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology, and Immunology. He is an expert in pediatric infectious diseases with an academic career focused on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of infections in children.

Dr. Prober has been involved in medical education throughout his career. He has directed a number of undergraduate and graduate student courses in the classroom and at the bedside. Dr. Prober served as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education at Stanford from 2007-2017, and in that role he worked diligently to create a more diverse and supportive educational environment for students and graduate medical trainees. Some of the initiatives developed under his leadership included: the highly successful Educators-4-CARE (E4C) program, the Office of Medical Student Wellness, expansion of combined degree programs, and the creation of the Teaching and Mentoring Academy.

In addition to being a national advocate for enhancing the richness of interactions between faculty and students in medical education, Dr. Prober has advocated for a more measured approach to the use of national examination scores in the selection of residents, working with the leadership of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  He is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the 2016 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Outstanding and Innovative Contributions to Medical Education.

Jan Jones-Schenk DHSc is the Academic Vice President of the College of Health Professions at Western Governors University. The College of Health Professions offers degrees in nursing, health informatics and health administration and has over 25,000 students enrolled nationwide. Dr. Jones-Schenk originated WGU’s contemporary, multi-state, pre-licensure nursing program using an alternative clinical education model and competency-based learning. She recently served on the working group for the Macy Foundation report “Achieving Competency-Based, Time-Variable Health Professions Education.”

Dr. Jones-Schenk served six years on the Board of Directors of the American Nurses Association and is Past President of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). She is co-associate editor for the monthly Leadership column for the Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. Dr. Jones-Schenk is the 2015 recipient of the U.S. Distance Learning Association’s Award for Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning and the 2017 winner of the Digital Learning Innovation Award, a Gates Foundation-supported award and prize presented by the Online Learning Consortium. In addition to Aquifer, she serves on the Boards of The Council for Graduate Education in Nursing Education (CGEAN) and the leadership team of the National Education Progression in Nursing (NEPIN) Collaborative.

Sherilyn Smith, MD is a Professor of Pediatrics (Pediatric Infectious Disease) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She has been an active member of the Aquifer community since 2001, serving as a case author, member of the curriculum working group, member of the Aquifer Pediatrics integration working group, and an associate editor. Dr. Smith became the Aquifer Pediatrics Co-Editor-in-Chief in 2009 and served in that role until 2015. She was a founding member of the Colleges at the University of Washington School of Medicine, serving as the Head of the Big Sky College from 2001 to 2009. She was the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Washington from 2009 to 2013 and served as the Associate Clerkship Director there prior to becoming Co-Director of Medical Student Education in 2014.

Dr. Smith’s current and past national committee work includes: co-leader of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) Research and Scholarship Taskforce (2003-2008), member of the COMSEP Executive Committee (2007-2010), and COMSEP President (2015-2017). She is on the Pediatric Infectious Disease sub-board for the American Board of Pediatrics (2015-2020).

Dr. Smith graduated from Duke University with a degree in Spanish Literature and received her MD from Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her pediatric training at the University of California San Diego and her Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Washington. In 2000, she completed the Teaching Scholars Program at the University of Washington. Dr. Smith and her husband have one child. She enjoys reading, running, watching youth sports, and finds joy while hiking around the Pacific Northwest.

Margaret Mulley, CPA retired as a Senior Audit partner from Deloitte & Touche, LLP in 2012 with more than 30 years’ experience in leadership, governance, and client service roles in the firm. From 2009 to 2012, she was the Chief Learning Officer of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, leading an organizational transformation that involved recruiting and leading a team of professionals responsible for developing the technical, professional, and leadership learning for more than 12,000 auditors and risk consultants in the US to enable the successful launch of Deloitte University. In addition to her client service, she served as Managing Partner for Strategy, Innovation, Communications, and Marketing and as the Americas Leader for Emerging Growth Company Services for Deloitte & Touche, LLP.

Ms. Mulley currently serves as a consultant in global health care delivery, principally through the delivery of learning programs to develop and implement new models of care and advancement of accountable care systems and organizations. She served on the Board of Directors and as Board Secretary of Deloitte & Touche LLP from 2003 to 2012, and on the Board of Deloitte LLP from 1995 to 1999. Currently, Ms. Mulley serves on the boards of Marts & Lundy, Colby-Sawyer College, and The Family Place.

Margaret graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Mathematics. She earned master’s degrees from Simmons College and MIT. She is married to Albert Mulley, Jr., MD, MPP, who is the Managing Director for Global Health Care Delivery Science at Dartmouth College. They have two adult children.

Leslie Fall, MD is the Executive Director of Aquifer. Since the organization’s inception in 2006, Dr. Fall has been at the helm, working to advance Aquifer’s mission and innovate in health care education. Dr. Fall was the Principal Investigator on the federal grants that developed Aquifer Pediatrics, the first course produced and distributed by Aquifer and that served as the foundation for the organization.

Dr. Fall is also an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and practiced pediatric hospital medicine for twenty years until assuming her leadership role full time at Aquifer in 2015. A Dartmouth medical school graduate herself, she has completed a medical education fellowship at Michigan State University and the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program for women. Dr. Fall is a former pediatric clerkship and residency program director, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, and an inaugural member of Geisel’s Academy of Master Educators. While at Dartmouth she served on the medical school’s appointments, promotion and tenure committee for four years, and as the chair in her final year on the committee.

Dr. Fall has been both locally and nationally involved in the continuum of medical student, resident and faculty education throughout her career, particularly through the lens of expertise development. More recently she has turned her attention to transforming the teaching and learning of basic sciences in health professions education. Her work has resulted in numerous invited national workshops, visiting professorships, awards and publications.

Dr. Fall lives in Hanover, NH with her husband and has three children. She is an avid reader who enjoys cooking, running, and gardening.