Meet our leaders
Executive leaders
Meet the innovators, thought leaders, and pioneers shaping Human Experience.
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Patrick Ryan
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Patrick Ryan
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Pat is passionate about healthcare. An innovative and mission-driven leader, he has over 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and chief executive of healthcare service organizations. He keeps everyone at Press Ganey focused on designing the platforms, technology, and solutions necessary to meet the needs of today’s healthcare consumer. Pat has a direct impact on the safety, quality, and experience of care and engagement across the company as a whole.
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Nell Buhlman, MBA
Chief Strategy OFFICER

Nell Buhlman, MBA
Chief Strategy OFFICER
Nell has 35 years of experience advancing data-driven strategies to improve the experience for patients and the people who care for them. As Chief Strategy Officer, she has helped shape the company’s strategic direction as it expanded its measurement and analytic capabilities through acquisition and organic development. Under Nell’s leadership, Press Ganey became the first in the industry to offer integrated analytics that illuminate the connections between patient experience, caregiver engagement, and quality outcomes—creating powerful tools to transform care and support the healthcare workforce.
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Darren Dworkin
President and Chief Operating Officer

Darren Dworkin
President and Chief Operating Officer
Darren oversees Press Ganey’s organizational strategy, product development, data insights, and analytics platforms. He has more than 30 years of expertise in the technology space, including 20 solely focused on healthcare, and he is widely recognized for his innovation in healthcare operations and patient care.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Darren served as Chief Information Officer at Cedars-Sinai Health System, where he also led Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures and founded the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator.
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Kyle Ferguson
President and Chief Commercial Officer

Kyle Ferguson
President and Chief Commercial Officer
Kyle joined Forsta as CEO in 2020 with over 20 years’ experience in technology, banking, and payments industries. Prior to joining Forsta, Kyle was Chief Executive Officer at Fraedom, a global financial technology company, where he successfully led the company’s sale to Visa Inc. in 2018. Prior to this, he also served as Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director at the company, and previously spent 11 years with American Express. Kyle is a seasoned executive with a track record of developing and leading high-performing teams in the SaaS technology space, while supporting these businesses through necessary investment and growth stages.
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Devin Anderson, JD
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Devin Anderson, JD
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Devin manages all legal, contracting, licensing, and compliance aspects of Press Ganey’s business operations and corporate development activities.
Devin has over two decades of experience advising privately held and publicly traded companies in all aspects of corporate and securities law, as well as regulatory, compliance, and corporate governance matters.
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Clemente Cohen
Chief Financial Officer

Clemente Cohen
Chief Financial Officer
Clemente leads the global financial organization and financial activities, including accounting and controllership, financial planning and analysis, tax, investor relations, internal audit, and treasury. He has over 25 years of international finance and operations management experience for Fortune 500 organizations across Latin America, Europe, and the U.S.
Clemente most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Lionbridge. He previously held leadership positions at Empirix Inc., CA Technologies, Sun Microsystem, and Silicon Graphics Inc.
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Eric Wilson
Chief Technology Officer

Eric Wilson
Chief Technology Officer
Eric joined Press Ganey in 2022 and provides the technical vision that guides PGForsta’s global engineering, machine learning and infrastructure teams. As a proven transformational leader, Eric has more than 25 years of innovative engineering and product development experience. He has been a founder or founding team member at multiple start-up IPOs and acquisitions. Eric spent the last six years focused on the HealthCare domain and was granted two US Patents based on his work.
Eric is passionate about transforming data into insights and building high performing teams who operate on the cutting edge of technology.
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Thomas Lee, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Thomas Lee, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Tom develops clinical and operational strategies to help providers measure and improve the patient experience, with the overarching goals of reducing patient suffering and improving the value of care. Tom has more than three decades of experience in healthcare performance improvement as a practicing physician, a leader in provider organizations, researcher, and health policy expert. An internist and cardiologist, Tom continues to practice primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Author of “Social Capital in Healthcare: How Trust and Teamwork Drive Organizational Excellence” and “Healthcare’s Path Forward: How Ongoing Crises Are Creating New Standards of Excellence.”
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Chris Skiffington
Executive Vice President, Chief Growth Officer, Cross-Industries

Chris Skiffington
Executive Vice President, Chief Growth Officer, Cross-Industries
Chris has over 25 years of experience in building and scaling businesses across large brand-name companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), IBM, GE Healthcare, and Oracle. He’s also spent over a decade growing and scaling private equity and venture-backed health tech companies; leading and participating in successful exits and acquisitions.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Chris transformed Oracle’s North American Analytics commercial team and led their Financial Services Strategic Client Group to unprecedented growth in SaaS applications and cloud infrastructure during his six-year tenure. Chris holds an MBA from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and a bachelor’s from Westfield State University.
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Dan Litwer
Executive Vice President, Chief Growth Officer, Healthcare

Dan Litwer
Executive Vice President, Chief Growth Officer, Healthcare
Dan, along with his team, is responsible for nurturing client relationships. He oversees sales and client management, working closely with clients to help them understand what consumers expect, what caregivers need, and what patients experience.
Dan has been a trusted adviser to hundreds of healthcare organizations across the nation. -

Peggy Baxter
Chief of Staff

Peggy Baxter
Chief of Staff
Peggy is a multifaceted healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience driving strategic growth and operational excellence across high-impact organizations. As Chief of Staff at Press Ganey, she partners closely with executive leadership and cross-functional teams to accelerate business strategy, launch critical market initiatives, and identify new opportunities for value creation. Previously serving as Vice President of Strategy, Peggy brings a proven track record of building revenue-generating partnerships that deliver measurable results for both companies and the customers they serve.
Thought leaders
Meet the bright minds who are thinking big to solve your greatest challenges in better and bolder ways.
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Thomas Lee, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Thomas Lee, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Tom develops clinical and operational strategies to help providers measure and improve the patient experience, with the overarching goals of reducing patient suffering and improving the value of care. Tom has more than three decades of experience in healthcare performance improvement as a practicing physician, a leader in provider organizations, researcher, and health policy expert. An internist and cardiologist, Tom continues to practice primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Author of “Social Capital in Healthcare: How Trust and Teamwork Drive Organizational Excellence” and “Healthcare’s Path Forward: How Ongoing Crises Are Creating New Standards of Excellence.”
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Chrissy Daniels, MS
Chief Experience Officer

Chrissy Daniels, MS
Chief Experience Officer
Chrissy collaborates with teams across Press Ganey to design, develop, and deliver strategies to boost patient experience that are informed by over 400 million patient voices. Chrissy works closely with healthcare organizations nationwide as a strategic and operational partner.
Chrissy brings over 30 years of expertise in advancing the patient experience and building an engaging and collaborative culture. Frequently called upon as a guest speaker, she is widely recognized for her pioneering work in healthcare consumerism and physician performance data transparency. -

Jeff Doucette, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN
Chief Nursing Officer

Jeff Doucette, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN
Chief Nursing Officer
Jeff leads Press Ganey’s focus on improving patient and caregiver experience and developing nursing leadership at healthcare organizations nationwide. He also plays an integral role in the company’s workforce initiatives, including the Workforce Well-Being Collaborative.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Jeff served in various chief nursing officer roles at both community-based organizations and major academic medical centers throughout the U.S. He was the inaugural Vice President of the Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence® programs at the American Nurses Credentialing Center. -

Jessica Dudley, MD
Chief Clinical Officer

Jessica Dudley, MD
Chief Clinical Officer
Jessica leads efforts to support organizations in increasing clinician engagement and improving patient care outcomes, particularly among physicians. Her areas of expertise include leadership development, clinical care redesign through outstanding teamwork, addressing clinician burnout, and advancing professional fulfillment.
Jessica also leads Press Ganey’s Workforce Well-Being Collaborative, an initiative designed to help healthcare organizations identify, understand, and respond to the varied and disparate needs of their workforce.
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Nicole George, PhD, RN, NEA-BC
Assistant Chief Nursing Officer

Nicole George, PhD, RN, NEA-BC
Assistant Chief Nursing Officer
Nicole George, PhD, RN, NEA-BC is a seasoned nursing leader with a focus on improving patient experience, professional practice environments, and nurse engagement. As Vice President, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at Press Ganey, she partners with healthcare organizations worldwide to develop and implement effective nursing strategies. With a background in Magnet®️ recognition and clinical care, Nicole is a passionate advocate for nursing excellence and a sought-after speaker on nurse leadership and engagement.
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Deirdre Mylod, PhD
Executive Director, Institute for Innovation, and Senior Vice President, Research and Analytics

Deirdre Mylod, PhD
Executive Director, Institute for Innovation, and Senior Vice President, Research and Analytics
Deirdre is responsible for advancing the understanding of the entire patient experience, including patient satisfaction, clinical process, and outcomes. Through the Institute for Innovation, Deirdre partners with leading healthcare providers to study and implement transformative concepts for improving the patient experience.
Deirdre is the architect of Press Ganey’s Suffering Framework, which reframes the patient experience as a means to understand unmet patient needs and reduce patient suffering. -

David Shapiro
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Member Experience

David Shapiro
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Member Experience
David Shapiro is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Member Experience where he leads a team dedicated to advancing solutions, analytics, and insights aimed at enhancing the quality, experience, and retention of health plan members.
With a 25-year career marked by a focus on Health Plan Member Experience, David’s successful track record includes significantly improving consumer and provider satisfaction, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and Star Ratings during his leadership at UnitedHealthcare as Chief Experience Officer. His broad skill set spans consumer and provider experience, managed care experience strategy, engagement marketing, consumer data, and customer relationship management.
Consulting leaders
Navigate your challenges with experts in your industry who understand your pain points and opportunities, and know where your market’s going next.
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Brad Fetters, MBA
Executive Vice President, strategic Consulting

Brad Fetters, MBA
Executive Vice President, strategic Consulting
Brad is dedicated to transforming healthcare organizations. With over 30 years of experience in management and leadership, he leads the consulting business in driving financial and operational improvements. At Press Ganey, Brad leads the consulting business that drives workforce optimization, revenue cycle enhancement, clinical operations, and physician practice management. He empowers executive teams and clinicians to reimagine care delivery and the systems that support it.
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Jessica Assefa
Partner, strategic consulting: Payer and Member Experience

Jessica Assefa
Partner, strategic consulting: Payer and Member Experience
Jessica is a nationally recognized expert in Medicare Advantage Star Ratings, with more than 20 years of experience driving quality improvement across payer and provider settings. At Press Ganey, she leads Stars strategy consulting, guiding health plans to elevate member experience, meet regulatory goals, and improve performance. With deep knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid, and dual-eligible programs, she empowers clients to navigate complexity with confidence and achieve sustainable results.
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Mary Jo Assi, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Partner, strategic consulting: Nursing and Clinical Improvement

Mary Jo Assi, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Partner, strategic consulting: Nursing and Clinical Improvement
Mary Jo is an Associate Chief Nursing Officer and Partner in Strategic Consulting, partnering with clients to lead strategies to achieve nursing and caregiver excellence by delivering compassionate connected care, strengthening caregiver resilience and engagement, and improving the health care practice and work environment. Prior to joining Press Ganey, she has worked as a clinician, nurse educator, advanced practice registered nurse and nurse executive. More recently, Mary Jo held the position of Director of Professional Practice and Magnet Program Director for ten years in both community hospital and academic medical center settings.
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Charles Hagood, DSc
Managing Partner, Strategic Consulting

Charles Hagood, DSc
Managing Partner, Strategic Consulting
Charles, as president of Strategic Consulting, oversees the growth, strategy, and management of Press Ganey’s multifaceted consulting organization. He is an innovator, improvement expert, and entrepreneur that has overseen the design, introduction, and implementation of self-sustaining improvement systems within healthcare organizations.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Charles was the founder and CEO of Healthcare Performance Partners (HPP), now a Vizient company. He is the author of “Lean-Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future.”
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Susan Haufe
Partner, strategic Consulting: experience

Susan Haufe
Partner, strategic Consulting: experience
Susan is passionate about creating customer-centric healthcare environments. With 20 years of experience, she develops innovative strategies that drive cost savings, profitability, and long-term revenue growth. At Press Ganey, Susan aligns technology and expertise to transform the human experience in healthcare. Susan previously launched the healthcare vertical at Qualtrics and was the first Chief Experience Officer at Yale New Haven Health.
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Adam Higman, MS, DHA, FACHE
Partner, strategic consulting: Payer and Member Experience

Adam Higman, MS, DHA, FACHE
Partner, strategic consulting: Payer and Member Experience
Adam oversees the Payer solutions team in Strategic Consulting, partnering with clients for over 15 years to improve the consumer experience and outcomes and to make operations run more smoothly.
Prior to joining the Strategic Consulting team, Adam was a Vice President of Soyring Consulting, now part of Press Ganey.
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Lucas Higman, MBA, DSc, FACHE
Partner, strategic consulting: Clinical Improvement

Lucas Higman, MBA, DSc, FACHE
Partner, strategic consulting: Clinical Improvement
Lucas oversees the Clinical Improvement solutions team in Strategic Consulting, partnering with clients to deliver analysis and implementation. He brings deep clinical optimization knowledge and expertise from his work with more than 100 U.S. healthcare facilities—from large academic centers to small rural hospitals.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Lucas was a Vice President of Soyring Consulting, now part of Press Ganey.
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Steve Kreiser, CDR, USN (Ret.), MBA
Partner, Strategic Consulting: Safety and Reliability

Steve Kreiser, CDR, USN (Ret.), MBA
Partner, Strategic Consulting: Safety and Reliability
Steve oversees the Safety and Reliability solutions team in Strategic Consulting, partnering with clients to build safety into their culture, protect patients, and make leaders accountable for safety in their organization. He helps clients run peer reviews and get to the bottom of why things go wrong when they do. He’s also worked with many academic medical institutions to improve cultural indicators and commitment to patient safety.
Prior to joining Press Ganey, Steve was a naval officer and F/A-18 pilot, working to make naval aviation safer and more reliable. He retired as a commander with 21 years of leadership and management experience.
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Anita Opdycke, DNP, RN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, NP-C
Partner, Strategic Consulting: Assessment and advisory

Anita Opdycke, DNP, RN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, NP-C
Partner, Strategic Consulting: Assessment and advisory
Anita bridges data, strategy, and frontline care to lead system-wide transformation. A board-certified nurse practitioner with 20+ years of experience across nursing, clinical operations, and healthcare transformation, she brings deep expertise in access, equity, safety, and experience. At Press Ganey, she drives innovation by refining clinical operations, enhancing patient care, and expanding access to quality healthcare services. Previously, she led strategic growth and operations at Northwestern Medicine and Rush University.
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Marcy Vlachos
Partner, Strategic Consulting

Marcy Vlachos
Partner, Strategic Consulting
Marcy is dedicated to transforming healthcare organizations through human experience innovation. With over 20 years of leadership, she leads strategy and growth for Press Ganey’s consulting practice. Marcy partners with executive teams to drive breakthrough performance, foster cultures of excellence, and achieve strategic outcomes such as patient loyalty, market growth, clinical efficiency, and financial strength.
Her experience includes growing Baptist Leadership Group from start-up to acquisition as a national patient experience consultancy and serving as Chief Marketing Officer for a five-hospital Trinity Health system.
