Patti Adelman is the Vice President for the Center for Learning and Innovation, the Corporate University for Northwell Health, and the Physician Leadership Institute. She has been at Northwell Health since 1998 and the Center for Learning and Innovation since 2005.

In today's healthcare organizations, we operate in a rapidly changing environment. Consequently, one of the most important assets for an organization is the ability to manage change across the entity and for people to develop agility and the desire to learn. To achieve these goals and organizational objectives, Dr. Adelman is responsible for the assessment, development, implementation and evaluation of organizational and leadership development activities for both clinical and non-clinical team members. In conjunction with senior leadership and organizational stakeholders, Dr. Adelman plans appropriate interventions to grow organizational effectiveness. Dr. Adelman helped to develop and implement the Physician Leadership Institute, growing it from one small program for Medical Directors to an offering of over 17 consistent programs.

Dr. Adelman is responsible for collaborating with Physician Leadership to identify and develop educational activities for those physicians who possess both clinical expertise and substantial leadership abilities. This role grew as a result of the organization’s response to the nationwide shift to a more patient-focused and inter-professional and collaborative care model.

The Organizational Development and Learning team is responsible for developing and delivering numerous educational activities related to leadership development, interpersonal skills and communication, as well as change management to all levels of administrative and physician leaders within the organization.

Dr. Adelman received her Ed.D. from the Penn Chief Learning Officer program in May 2017. She obtained her master’s in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in May of 2016 and received her master’s in Social Work from New York University. Dr. Adelman holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Will is driven by a passion to help fix America's healthcare system. In early 2020 he rejoined Northwell Health as the Associate Executive Director of Hospital Operations at North Shore University Hospital. In his role, Will leads the hospital’s support services teams including Environmental Services, Transportation, Engineering & Construction, Security, Food & Dining, and Radiology with ~ 1,100 FTEs. Previously he led the NY Market for Shields Health Solutions, a Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe portfolio company, dedicated to partnering with hospitals and health systems to build their own outpatient specialty pharmacy programs to improve the quality of care delivered to their chronically and acutely ill patients and employees. Will launched Shield's partnership with NYU, followed by New York Presbyterian and eventually Montefiore. Over the course of 3 years, he grew the team to 115 FTEs, 163M in annual revenue, a 6.1% net operating margin and an 11% monthly compounded growth rate. Prior to joining Shields, Will transitioned into Healthcare from Oil & Gas after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s executive MBA program in May of 2012. During his first five years with Northwell he held numerous roles typically as the first team member of a new team or corporate initiative ranging from perioperative services, clinical joint ventures, and finally new venture investments designed to foster innovation and invest in opportunities that supported Northwell’s mission while generating enterprise value.

Nick Stefanizzi is the CEO of Northwell Direct, where he is responsible for the strategy, operations, growth and financial performance of Northwell Health’s direct-to-employer organization.

Prior to joining Northwell Direct, Mr. Stefanizzi served as chief administrative officer and interim CEO of Formativ Health, a for-profit joint-venture aimed at enhancing the patient and provider experience of and access to health care. Starting in 2016, Formativ grew to over $40M in revenue, 450 employees, 1,200 providers served and over 2 million patient contacts annually.

Prior to Formativ, Mr. Stefanizzi spent over eight years in various roles within Northwell Health, including assistant vice president for HR innovation and organizational effectiveness, responsible for talent management (assessment, succession, performance and engagement), culture, mergers and acquisitions, and emergency preparedness. He also oversaw the HR technology function.

Prior to this role, Mr. Stefanizzi served as director of management services for the health system’s ambulatory network of over 450 physician offices and ambulatory locations, where he was responsible for the direct development, coordination and administration of central administrative services, such as real estate and facility services, supply chain, biomedical engineering, security, and emergency preparedness, as well as the operational oversight and integration of the health system’s network of clinical joint ventures. Mr. Stefanizzi also served as the chief of staff for the health system’s chief information officer.

Mr. Stefanizzi received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Boston University and his MBA in Healthcare Administration from Hofstra University. He has previously served as chair of the Board of Directors of the International Model United Nations Association, a nonprofit organization focused on providing global issues education to high school students across the international community.

Douglas P. Barnaby, MD, MS is an emergency physician whose research explores the application of advanced analytic modeling and artificial intelligence to electronic health record data in order to enhance patient evaluation and monitoring, and support clinical decision making in the Emergency Department and inpatient settings. His work focuses on both developing the predictive models, as well as identifying optimal strategies for translating these models into action through clinical decision support, workflow analysis, and implementation science. He is also the Director of Clinical Transformation at Huntington Hospital where he leads a pilot initiative to realize the vision of a Learning Health System.

Karina Davidson, PhD is Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of the Institute of Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Endowed Donald and Barbara Zucker Professor in Health Outcomes at the Zucker School of Medicine and Senior Vice President, Research at Northwell Health. For more than 25 years she has served in leadership roles for teams focused on the advancement of scientific and patient care missions, through both the generation and implementation of research-based evidence.

Maxine Carrington, JD, is senior vice president and chief human resources officer for Northwell health — New York’s largest healthcare provider private employer with more than 80,000 employees.

Since joining Northwell in 2008, Ms. Carrington has served in progressively responsible leadership roles and has successfully driven team member engagement and development at every layer of the health system. Most recently, she served as deputy chief human resources officer where she was responsible for the design and implementation of strategic initiatives related to the team member experience, career and performance development, change management, workforce diversity, equity and inclusion, corporate social responsibility, and compensation. Previously, she held several regional and site HR roles.

Prior to joining Northwell, Maxine was a manager and attorney with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations.

In addition to mentoring within and outside of the organization, Ms. Carrington is an instructor with the Center for Learning & Innovation, Northwell’s corporate university and serves as a co-sponsor of the organization’s business employee resource groups. She is also a trustee of the 1199 Pension Fund serving employees for the New York Region and serves on the board of the Interfaith Nutrition Network (The INN), a not-for-profit organization that provides essential services to assist those challenged by hunger, homelessness, and poverty.

Ms. Carrington was named to Modern Healthcare's 2022 Class of Top Women Leaders in Health Care.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Africana Studies and a master’s degree in Educational Administration and Policy Studies from the University at Albany in New York. She obtained her Juris Doctorate degree from New York Law School.

Jill Kalman, MD, returned to Northwell as senior vice president and chief medical officer and deputy physician-in-chief. Dr. Kalman served as executive director of Lenox Hill Hospital for three years before departing the organization to pursue an opportunity in the digital health arena.

Under Dr. Kalman’s leadership, Lenox Hill elevated its reputation as a regional, national and global destination for top quality tertiary care. She and her team significantly expanded the breadth of clinical programs, successfully recruited physician talent and grew patient volume. She was instrumental in successfully leading the Lenox Hill response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its recovery efforts, and achieving 91st percentile in the most recent Workforce Engagement Survey. Lenox Hill also received coveted Magnet status last year for its commitment to nursing excellence.

Dr. Kalman also served as the medical director for the Office of Patient and Customer Experience and partnered to build initiatives such as Relationship Centered Communications that have successfully enhanced the patient communications skills of our physicians and providers.

Joseph Castagnaro, MS, H (ASCP), is currently a Vice President at Northwell Health Laboratories. His responsibilities include administrative, operational, clinical and financial oversight for our laboratory service line labs that include two central core lab facilities, seventeen Northwell owned hospital laboratories, a free standing Emergency Department laboratory and three non-owned hospital laboratories via a management services agreement.

Joe received his Bachelors degree from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook (1983) and received his Masters degree in Clinical Laboratory Management from L.I.U. CW Post Campus (1993) and is a licensed NYS Medical Laboratory Technologist. He has over 35 years’ experience in the field of laboratory medicine. His clinical/technical experience includes general laboratory, working in the Hematology, Coagulation, Urinalysis, Chemistry and Blood Bank sections of the lab. His past supervisory experience includes managing the daily operations of the Blood Bank, Coagulation and Urinalysis sections of the lab. Joe became the lab administrative director of a 475 bed medical center in 1992. He left that position and joined the Northwell Health System in 1999 to become the administrative director of the laboratory and pre-admission testing at one of their larger community, now tertiary hospital (Southside, now South Shore University Hospital). In 2006, Joe took on the role of director of the hospital’s service excellence program in addition to managing the lab. In 2007 he left his role at Southside and became senior administrative director responsible for the Health System’s community hospitals. In 2012 Joe became the Assistant Vice President of Hospital Lab Operations for all of the Northwell Health System facilities. In 2018, Joe was promoted to VP of Lab Services Integration and Operations. He also oversees the System wide laboratory Joint Standards/methods committees. These sixteen “expert” committees promote standardization, best practice, communication and teamwork throughout all of our Health System laboratories.

He is a certified Six Sigma Greenbelt and has been trained in Lean and Fast Track Decision making processes. He’s been involved in many performance improvement projects across the Northwell Health System. Included in one of his initiatives was the development of a Lab Leadership program, for which he is also one of the instructors. Joe was also one of the instructors that taught customer service to all of the phlebotomists in the laboratories across the Health System.

Melonie Pernice, MBA, RT (R), CAC Associate Executive Director, Hospital Operations Northwell Health- Glen Cove Hospital. Melonie is currently pursuing her doctoral degree from Pace University, in Professional Studies with an area of concentration in Management. She received her MBA in Healthcare Management and Health Information Technology from Saint Joseph’s College, and her BA from there as well. She graduated from Cornell University’s Academy for Healthcare Leadership Advancement in 2014. She attended the United States Army Warrior Leadership College in 2005 and the Radiology Specialist School at the Army Medical Center and School in Texas in 2004. Her professional interests include membership to many organizations. She serves as a co-chair for the Northwell Health Business Employee Resource Group, Veterans and Allies: Liaisons of Reintegration.

In her free time, she sits on the board for AMVETS Post 76. She is also active in several professional societies including the New York State Society of Radiologic Sciences, the American Educators of Radiologic Technologists, and the American Society of Radiologic Technologist. In her current AED position, she oversees the overall operations of Radiology, Cardiology, Neurology, Laboratory Services, Rehabilitation Services, Environmental Services, Materials Management, Engineering, Food and Nutrition and Retail Services. She focuses on improving the patient and customer experience and developing and mentoring the talent in her departments. She enjoys teaching and educating others.

She is an adjunct at Northwell Health’s Center for Learning and Innovation. She also facilitates the Corporate Mentoring and Professionalism in Training (MAP-IT) Program and the Eastern Leadership Manager Training Course. She is a Team Strategies to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety Master Trainer and a Northwell Health Culture of Care Facilitator. She worked closely with the Radiology Service line and developed, implemented and lead the Radiology Administrative Succession Program.

Her background includes nine years in the United States Army, where she was a Sergeant and an Operation Iraqi Freedom War Veteran. Her civilian employment included various roles within the Catholic Health System and Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center. She is a Registered Radiologic Technologist by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists, licensed by the New York State Department of Health, New York State Department of Health Injection Certified, and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Automated External Defibrillator Certified. She is certified with the International Organization Standardization 9001 and is a Six Sigma Green Belt. She published in the Journal of Hospital Administration after completing a successful Six Sigma Project. She graduated from Northwell Health’s Applied Leadership Effectiveness and Development Course and was a High Potential Program Participant. She was Syosset Hospital’s Leadership Award Recipient in 2015 and the Leader of the Year for Northwell Health in 2018.

A board-certified nurse executive with more than 35 years of nursing leadership experience, Margaret Duffy, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, oversees all aspects of nursing practice at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, a 206-bed pediatric tertiary facility.

Ms. Duffy’s progressive nursing career includes several leadership roles. She joined Northwell Health in 2016 as senior administrative director in North Shore University Hospital’s Department of Nursing Education, Professional Development and Outreach, where she was an integral member on the coordinating team that helped NSUH achieve Magnet status in April 2018. She also piloted a Nurse Residency Program that achieved a 77-percent reduction in new hire turnover, and she established an interdisciplinary Obstetrics Patient Experience Task Force that significantly improved recommendation scores.

Prior to NSUH, Ms. Duffy worked at Stony Brook University Hospital for more than 30 years, where she served as associate director of cardiac services and perinatal services, interim chief nursing officer of both the hospital and children’s hospital, and director of clinical education. Since 2017, she has taught nursing at the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies.

Ms. Duffy is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the New York Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders. She has presented at national conferences on nursing, quality and various other initiatives and has received numerous awards, including the Susan Pollack Award from the Roy Adaptation Association, Exemplary Academic-Practice Partnership Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the William Groom Award from the American Heart Association.

Holding a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Niagara University, Ms. Duffy earned her master’s from Stony Brook University and a PhD from Molloy College.

Tom Sclafani is senior vice president and head of internal communications at Northwell. In this role, he leads the health system’s internal communications function that is responsible for creating content that helps inform and inspire team members across enterprise communications channels. These include intranet, social media, email, internal newsletters, screensavers, and digital screens.

He and his team also provide communications support for large scale change initiatives across the health system.

Before joining Northwell in 2017, Tom spent 17-years at American Express across a number of regional and global roles supporting both internal and external communications. His focus was on creating integrated programs that helped drive employee engagement and enhance external brand positioning.

This includes inventing and launching Small Business Saturday in 2010 to encourage consumers to support independently owned small businesses during the holiday shopping season. The program was named in 2018 by PR Week as one of the top PR campaigns of the last 20 years and is now also running in the UK and Australia.

Prior to joining American Express, Tom served as Deputy Press Secretary for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. He began his career as a radio news reporter and anchor in Pennsylvania.

Tom lives in Floral Park, New York with his wife Kika and daughter Alicia.