Meet Our Management
When it comes to performance improvement, we lead by example. That's why we are led by a highly experienced and well-respected group of healthcare performance professionals who make quality and satisfaction the top priorities day in and day out.
- Patrick T. Ryan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
- Nell Buhlman, President and Chief Operating Officer
- Darren Dworkin, Chief Strategy Officer
- Gregory W. Freiberg, Chief Financial Officer
- Cassandra Willis-Abner, Chief Human Resources Officer
- Devin J. Anderson, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
- Dan Litwer, Chief Client Officer
- Stacie Pallotta, MPH, President of Client Success
- Charles Hagood, President, Strategic Consulting
- Thomas H. Lee, Chief Medical Officer
- Tejal Gandhi, Chief Safety and Transformation Officer
- Jeff Doucette, Chief Nursing Officer
- Chrissy Daniels, Chief Experience Officer
- Deirdre Mylod, Executive Director, Institute for Innovation, and Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics
- Jessica C. Dudley, Chief Clinical Officer
Patrick T. Ryan
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Pat is an innovative and mission-driven leader with more than 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and chief executive of healthcare service organizations. He is passionate about healthcare and focuses his team and the company on designing the platforms, technology, and solutions necessary to meet the needs of today’s healthcare consumer, and to advance the safety, quality, and experience of care and workforce engagement across the enterprise.
Nell Buhlman
President and Chief Operating Officer
As Press Ganey’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Nell has executive responsibility for daily operations at Press Ganey as well as the company's client- and market-facing teams. Prior to her current role, Nell served as PG’s Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing business strategy, product development and data and analytics. Under Nell’s leadership, Press Ganey introduced pioneering integrated analytics to the industry, demonstrating the powerful intercorrelation of patient, caregiver and business outcomes and the common factors that influence them.
Darren Dworkin
Chief Strategy Officer
As Chief Strategy Officer, Darren oversees Press Ganey’s organizational strategy, product development, data insights and analytics platforms. Prior to joining Press Ganey, Darren was Chief Information Officer of Cedars-Sinai Health System where he also led Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures and founded Cedars-Sinai Accelerator.
He has more than 30 years of expertise in technology, with 20 of those years solely focused in healthcare, and is widely recognized for his work in driving innovation across the healthcare ecosystem to improve workflow and patient care.
Gregory W. Freiberg
Chief Financial Officer
Greg brings to Press Ganey more than 30 years of experience working in finance at leading global technology companies. In his role as Chief Financial Officer, he is responsible for corporate development, financial planning, reporting, tax, and treasury.
Greg has 24 years of experience as CFO for public and private companies, successfully building relationships with employees, boards, investors, banks, oversight agencies, private equity funds, and clients. This experience has culminated in the creation of more than $2.5 billion of equity value while serving as CFO. Greg has closed more than 50 acquisitions during his career and established and run businesses in 17 countries.
Cassandra Willis-Abner
Chief Human Resources Officer
Cassandra (Casey) is responsible for leading Press Ganey’s talent management and human resources functions, as well as initiatives aimed at improving the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion. She also leads development of workforce engagement and equity strategies to help healthcare organizations measure and improve the caregiver experience. She is co-leader of Press Ganey’s Equity Partnership.
Casey’s more than 25 years of experience in healthcare inform her expertise in culture, quality care, patient experience, employee and provider engagement, profitable growth, and value optimization leveraging executive coaching and lean management improvement approaches.
Devin J. Anderson
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Devin is responsible for all legal, contracting, licensing, and compliance aspects of Press Ganey's business operations and corporate development activities.
Anderson joined Press Ganey in 2012 with more than 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.
Dan Litwer
Chief Client Officer
As Chief Client Officer for Press Ganey, Dan, along with his team, is responsible for ensuring ongoing strategic client partnerships. Dan oversees the Sales and Client Management teams across the PG enterprise. These teams work closely with clients to help them understand what consumers expect, caregivers need, and patients experience.
Dan has been a trusted adviser to hundreds of healthcare organizations from across the nation over the past decade, joining Press Ganey in 2016 through the acquisition of Avatar Solutions.
Stacie Pallotta, MPH
President of Client Success
As President of Client Success, Stacie provides thought leadership, strategic guidance, and operational oversight in shaping Press Ganey's solutions and delivery models.
She also leads Press Ganey's core account team functions of account management and advisory services, aligning expertise across employee experience, clinical outcomes, and patient experience.
Charles Hagood, Dsc.
President, Strategic Consulting
As President of Strategic Consulting, Charles oversees the growth, strategy, and daily operations of the safety & reliability, patient experience, workforce engagement, clinical improvement, operational & process improvement, payor improvement, and strategic outreach segment of Press Ganey’s consulting organization.
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 the book “Lean Led Hospital Design: Creating the Efficient Hospital of the Future.”
Thomas H. Lee, MD
Chief Medical Officer
As CMO, Tom is responsible for developing 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.
Tejal Gandhi, MD
Chief Safety and Transformation Officer
Dr. Gandhi, MPH, CPPS is responsible for improving patient and workforce safety, and developing innovative healthcare transformation strategies. She leads the Zero Harm movement and helps healthcare organizations recognize inequity as a type of harm for both patients and the workforce. Dr. Gandhi also leads the Press Ganey Equity Partnership, a collaborative initiative dedicated to addressing healthcare disparities and the impact of racial inequities on patients and caregivers.
Before joining Press Ganey, Dr. Gandhi served as Chief Clinical and Safety Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she led IHI programs focused on improving patient and workforce safety.
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 Press Ganey’s Workforce Well-Being Collaborative, which focuses on supporting caregivers as they deal with the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.
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 US. In addition, he was the inaugural Vice President of the Magnet Recognition and Pathway to Excellence programs at the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Chrissy Daniels
Chief Experience Officer
Chrissy leads Press Ganey’s transparency, consumerism, and medical practice solutions. She collaborates with teams across the company to design, develop and execute a coordinated strategy that brings together these three critical market elements and delivers solutions that are informed by and respond to the needs of healthcare providers.
Chrissy has more than 25 years of expertise in advancing the patient experience and building an engaging and collaborative culture. She is widely recognized for her pioneering work in the areas of consumerism and physician performance data transparency.
Deirdre Mylod, PhD
Executive Director, Institute for Innovation, and Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics
In this joint role, Deirdre is responsible for advancing the understanding of the entire patient experience, including patient satisfaction, clinical process, and outcomes. Through the Institute, Mylod 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 view of the patient experience as a means to understand unmet patient needs and reduce patient suffering.
Jessica C. Dudley, MD
Chief Clinical Officer
As 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 the varied and disparate needs of their workforce and enable them to respond to their physical, emotional, financial, and operational needs in both the near term and beyond.