MEDBRIDGE - Key Persons
Amanda Fay is a clinical education and evidence-based practice educator, MSN, and RN with more than 21 years of nursing and education experience. She is an innovator with a passion for creating engaging, relevant programs that support individuals reaching their highest potential in both personal and professional domains. In Amanda's current role as a clinical educator, she mentors and coaches other educators, helps them develop in their role, and facilitates opportunities for professional growth. Previously, Amanda worked as a manager of clinical education and evidence-based practices. In this role, she mentored and coached educators in developing transparency, authenticity, collaborative development, and emotional intelligence for professional growth. Amanda's vast skills include podcasting, Epic proficiency, simulation creation, team building, organization conflict management, culture transformation, clinical reasoning development, data analytics, education, and public speaking. Amanda also conducts presentations on evidence-based practices for LPNs, LNAs, RNs, and home healthcare professionals. Presentation topics include the rationale behind behavior strategies and improving the work environment, challenges in the classroom to facilitate critical thinking, and self-care for nurses. Amanda received her master of science in nursing education (MSN) from Walden University in Minneapolis. She is a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA).
Job Titles:
- Director of Compliance and Education at Concordia Community Support Services
Amy Shortall-Cardillo is the director of compliance and education at Concordia Community Support Services in Cabot, Pennsylvania. In this role, she is responsible for the quality, compliance, and education programs for multiple home health, hospice, and private duty agencies. Amy ensures that each agency is working effectively toward achieving agency goals in accordance with the organization's philosophy, policies, mission, and vision. Amy has been a registered nurse since 1998, when she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Amy received her Master of Science in Nursing Executive Leadership degree from Purdue University Global in 2018. Her clinical background includes a wide range of nursing experience, including pediatrics, cardiology, transplant, trauma, vascular surgery, bariatric surgery, home health, hospice, virtual care management, leadership, and quality assurance and performance improvement. She also has vast experience in creating and implementing training and orientation programs for various entities that meet regulatory requirements for nurses, aides, and therapists.
Cathleen Armato is an experienced executive with 22 years in the home care and hospice industry. She has served in various roles during that time, including VP of operations and chief compliance officer for a nationwide healthcare provider. In 2012, Cat became a consultant. Since that time, she has assisted multiple organizations with their compliance and quality efforts, from program assessment to full program development and implementation. Cat also has experience as a compliance consultant for large organizations under corporate integrity agreements. Cat has expertise in giving guidance and support to providers and their legal counsel during investigations by the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Zone Program Integrity Contractors, Specialty Medical Review Contractors, Medicaid Integrity Contractors, and Medicare Administrative Contractors. She also has extensive experience in due diligence evaluations and is an ELNEC Train-the-Trainer. Cat coauthored a portion of the 2022 Healthcare Compliance Manual. She also served as assistant author for The Nurse Manager's Survival Guide: Practical Answers to Everyday Questions by Tina Marrelli. She is a contributor/reviewer for multiple healthcare publications by Tina Marrelli, including Home Care Nursing (2017), Handbook of Home Health Standards (2018), Hospice and Palliative Care Handbook (2018), and A Guide for Caregiving (2017).
Job Titles:
- Professor at Duke University
Dr. Cook is a professor at Duke University with a Category A appointment in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and an adjunct appointment in the Department of Population Health Sciences. He is a clinical researcher, physical therapist, and profession advocate with a long history of clinical care excellence and service and academic experience. His passions include refining and improving the patient examination process and validating tools used in day-to-day physical therapist practice. He received his BS in physical therapy from Maryville University (St. Louis) in 1990 and his PhD from Texas Tech University in 2003. Dr. Cook received fellowship status at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists in 2006. He is a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Cook has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers, has been part of $11 million in external funding, and has keynoted on six continents and in numerous countries. He has two textbooks in their second editions and a third textbook in its first edition. Dr. Cook has a long-standing history of service roles as an editor in chief or associate/special topics editor for multiple journals, including JOSPT and BJSM. Dr. Cook has won numerous awards locally at Duke for teaching, is the 2009 Baethke-Carlin award winner for the American Physical Therapy Association, is the 2008 recipient of the Helen Bradley Career Achievement Award, and is the 2005 winner of the J. Warren Perry Distinguished Authorship Award. Dr. Cook was the Pauline Cerasoli lecturer in 2017 and received the John McMillan Mennell Career Award for Service from AAOMPT in 2021. In addition, Dr. Cook is the 2011 winner and the 2012 and 2013 cowinner of the AAOMPT Excellence in Research Award. Dr. Cook has also been awarded the APTA Helen J. Hislop Award for Outstanding Contributions to Professional Literature. Connect with Chad on LinkedIn
Cindy Krafft brings more than 25 years of home health expertise that started with direct patient care and evolved to operational and management issues. Cindy recognizes that providing care in the home environment is different from providing care in any other setting, which is evident in both her training and consultation activities. For the past 15 years, Cindy has been a nationally recognized educator in the areas of OASIS integration, defensible documentation, practical application of regulations, and patient focused clinical decision making. She has served in several national projects involving CMS and been an expert resource for OASIS updates. Her focus is on providing the knowledge and tools to operationalize external requirements while keeping the driver of care where it needs to be--the needs of each patient being cared for in the home setting. Cindy has been involved at the senior leadership level of the Home Health Section of the American Physical Therapy Association for more than 10 years and is the immediate past president of that organization. She has been working with APTA and CMS to clarify regulatory expectations and address proposed payment methodologies to ensure the long-term participation of therapy services in home health. She has written two books--The How-to Guide to Home Health Therapy Documentation and An Interdisciplinary Approach to Home Care--and coauthored a third, The Post-Acute Care Guide to Maintenance Therapy. More info about Cindy
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board
- Director for Undergraduate Nursing at Idaho State University
Diana (Dee) Kornetti, a physical therapist for 30 years, is a past administrator and co-owner of a Medicare-certified home health agency. Dee now provides training and education to home health industry providers through a consulting business, Kornetti & Krafft Health Care Solutions. She serves as chief operations officer with her business partners Cindy Krafft and Sherry Teague. Dee is nationally recognized as a speaker in the areas of home care and standardized tests and measures in the fields of physical therapy, therapy training, and staff development in the home health arena. Dee is the immediate past editor of The Quarterly Report, a publication of the American Physical Therapy Association's Home Health Section, as well as a member of the Home Health Section's Practice and Education committees. She currently serves as the president of the Home Health Section of the APTA and has been an active member in good standing since 1986. Dee also currently serves as the president of the Association of Home Care Coding and Compliance and is a member of the Association of Home Care Coders Advisory Board and Panel of Experts. Dee is a published researcher on the Berg Balance Scale and has coauthored the APTA's Home Health Section resources related to OASIS, goal writing, and defensible documentation for the practicing therapist. Dee has contributed chapter updates to the Handbook of Home Health Care Administration, 6th edition, and coauthored a book, The Post-Acute Care Guide to Maintenance Therapy. Dee received her BS in physical therapy from Boston University's Sargent College of Allied Health Professions and her MA from Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Her clinical focus has been in the areas of gerontology and neurological disease rehabilitation.
Dr. Cheryl Lehman has been a registered nurse since graduating from the Decatur Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1978. Since that time, she earned a BSN from Maryville University-St. Louis in 1990; an MSN in Adult Health Nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston in the Clinical Nurse Specialist role in 1994; and a PhD in Preventive Medicine and Community Health with a focus in Rehabilitation Science in 2005, also from UTMB. Dr. Lehman is board-certified in rehabilitation nursing (CRRN); gerontological nursing (RN-BC); and in the CNS role (CNS-BC).
Dr. Lehman's clinical nursing experience includes medical surgical, geriatric, and rehabilitation nursing in the roles of staff nurse, nursing educator, and clinical nurse specialist. She has worked in the rehabilitation nursing field since 1987. She is a past-president of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, and the Editor and a co-author for the 7th edition of The Specialty Practice of Rehabilitation Nursing: A Core Curriculum. Dr. Lehman's articles and chapters on rehabilitation and gerontological topics have also been widely published in national journals and textbooks.
Dr. Lehman retired in 2014 at the rank of Clinical Professor from the University of Texas system after 24 years of service. She worked in the clinical setting at UTMB for 17 years, and her most recent service was in the School of Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, where she worked for 7 years in the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Dr. Lehman currently serves as a nursing consultant in educational and legal endeavors.
Job Titles:
- Professor in the Physical Therapy Department at South College
Dr. J.J. Mowder-Tinney holds a bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder, a master of science in physical therapy from the University of Miami, and a doctorate in physical therapy from Nova Southeastern University. With nearly three decades of diverse clinical experience, her expertise primarily focuses on assisting individuals with neuromuscular impairments. She is recognized as a clinical specialist in neurologic physical therapy by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS).
Her professional qualifications include extensive training and certification in neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT), as well as certifications as a certified stroke rehabilitation specialist (CSRS) from the American Stroke Association and a certified exercise expert in aging adults (CEEAA) from the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy. Dr. Mowder-Tinney's contributions have been honored with the 2017 Excellence in Education Award from the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy and the Marilyn Moffat Distinguished Service Award from the New York Physical Therapy Association in 2021.
Currently serving as a professor in the physical therapy department at South College, Dr. Mowder-Tinney imparts her knowledge through courses focusing on neuromuscular practice and aging adults. She is also a sought-after presenter, conducting seminars across the nation on topics including the treatment of aging adults, patients with neurological deficits, spinal cord injuries, and balance challenges.
Jared Vagy received his doctorate in physical therapy (DPT) from the University of Southern California (USC) and completed a one-year residency in orthopedics and a one-year fellowship in movement science. Dr. Vagy is a clinical assistant professor of physical therapy in the DPT program at USC and is a mentor in both the orthopedic residency and upper extremity elite athlete fellowship programs. He is an international best-selling author and has published three books and numerous articles on injury prevention. Dr. Vagy delivers lectures and seminars worldwide on the topic of the movement system. He is an orthopedic clinical specialist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. Dr. Vagy is an innovator in the area of web-based education and remote learning. He held leadership roles in several courses during the conversion of the in-person USC DPT program into an online hybrid format and continues to teach patient management courses in the USC DPT hybrid pathway. He has developed 10 continuing education courses and a certification program on telehealth best practices and is a peer-reviewed published author on the implementation of telehealth in physical therapy. He has served as a physical therapist in China for the Chinese national track and field team and has worked with USA Track & Field at the Olympic Team Trials. He completed a rotation at the US Olympic Training Center, working primarily with USA men's gymnastics, and has provided medical care at international events, such as the International Weightlifting Federation World Championships. Dr. Vagy has rehabilitated several world champions, gold medalists, and Olympic athletes. His assessments and treatments are rooted deeply in an understanding of the movement system. Athlete Movement System | The Climbing Doctor | Connect With Jared on LinkedIn
Job Titles:
- Member of the Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board
Margherita Labson, RN, BSN, MSHSA, spent most of her career of 40+ years working to advance safe, quality home care, including home-based primary medicine, home care, skilled home health/infusion, and palliative and hospice care. During her 25 years at The Joint Commission as executive director of home care, she led the development and launch of the first certification for home-based palliative care providers and the first award recognizing franchisors devoted to promoting quality home care services. She left to continue her postgraduate studies and now works with CHAP as a strategic advisor and with other providers and associations to ensure compliance and to promote the advancement of safe, high-quality palliative care, hospice care, and home health care. She is an experienced educator, is a published author, is an experienced bereavement facilitator, and is currently completing work in spiritual direction. When not empaneled on committee as subject matter expert, she can be found working with groups to facilitate effective interdisciplinary operational performance and to coach leadership development, strategic planning, and bereavement and spiritual counseling.
Tonya Miller is a national speaker and founder of TYM Coaching. With more than 25 years of executive leadership experience and a PhD in leadership studies, Tonya combines real-world experience with academic expertise. From coaching frontline healthcare providers to educating others in her leadership academy, Tonya uniquely tailors her leadership coaching and educational programs to fit any individual or organization. She is passionate about personal growth and developing strong leadership cores committed to integrity, accountability, and self-awareness.
In addition to owning TYM Coaching, Tonya is the program lead for the DPT program at Harrisburg University. Tonya teaches courses in healthcare management, leadership, and professional issues. In this role, she guides young professionals in their leadership development and understanding of the healthcare industry.
Finally, Tonya believes in community engagement and is an active community volunteer. She serves on several boards, including Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and Perry Counties, Cumberland County Commission for Women, and PA Vent Camp, a camp for ventilator-dependent children, for which she also serves as the executive director.