Learn more about our Value Institute Learning Center faculty:
Victoria Adams, CSSBB
Vicky is a Senior Performance Improvement Consultant at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). She actively leads Blackbelt projects throughout the organization, coaches Greenbelt candidates, and serves as an instructor for our training programs. Vicky also consults and supports departments interested in undergoing 5S initiatives.
Vicky began her career at DHMC in Supply Chain, where she held a variety of operations leadership roles, including Supply Supervisor and Operating Room Inventory Coordinator. As a Value Performance Specialist in Supply Chain, Vicky led supply and logistics focused implementation and improvement projects across the institution and also helped to develop others on her team to gain experience in this area. She served as the designated Logistics Chief for the DHMC Incident Command System, where she worked with other DHMC leaders to mitigate, prepare, respond to, and recover from emergency events that significantly impacted hospital operations and services.
Vicky received her Six Sigma Blackbelt Certification from the American Society for Quality. She has also attended many courses to advance her knowledge and skillset in Lean and Six Sigma. She completed her Lean training with the Altarum Group & Valumetrix.
Raquel A. Chase-Kelly, LSSBB
Raquel is a Performance Improvement Consultant at Dartmouth Health. She is leading performance improvement projects, coaching greenbelt candidates, and teaching through the Value Institute.
Prior to joining the performance improvement team, Raquel spent the last 7 years in administration roles of ambulatory operations. Most recently, she was the Director of Ambulatory Operations at New London Hospital. She also managed several surgical sections at DHMC including, but not limited to, Vascular Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Otolaryngology, and Thoracic Surgery. Raquel was responsible for the strategic and operational activities for each of the clinical sections for which she managed. She also worked as a clinical research coordinator for Vascular Surgery for 2 years prior to moving into operations.
Raquel received her BS in Applied Studies Management from Granite State College and her AS in Business Computer Management from NH Community Technical College. Raquel completed her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.
Matthew McNally, BSRT, RRT, LSSBB
Matt is a performance improvement consultant at DHMC embedded in nursing/allied health, and actively leads projects throughout the organization.
Matt has spent his entire career in healthcare as a respiratory therapist. After working at a number of academic medical centers in the US, Matt came to DHMC in 2002 initially at DHART as a transport team member, then moved to the respiratory care department, where he served as the department clinical specialist for 12 years. In that role, he led improvement projects in neonatal, pediatric, and adult critical care, onboarded new respiratory staff, and managed the department’s clinical practice developing and implementing policies, procedures, and protocols. Matt also served as a faculty member for the neonatal fellowship program and the anesthesia critical care fellowship program.
Matt received his B.S. in respiratory therapy from Quinnipiac College and a certificate in health care administration from Franklin Pierce University. He completed his Greenbelt in Continuous Improvement through the DHMC Value Institute and his Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training with Moresteam.
Theresa Murray, MSN, RN-CPPS, LSSBB
Theresa is a Performance Improvement Consultant at DHMC and is currently completing her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training. She leads process improvement projects and is a coach and instructor for our training programs.
Prior to joining the performance improvement team, Theresa was a Quality and Safety Specialist Senior RN at DHMC. In this role, Theresa facilitated root cause and common cause analyses to identify patient/employee safety concerns, and she led large process improvement initiatives aimed at addressing identified systems issues. Theresa also supported other safety programs, including Daily Safety Huddle and the Safety Champion Program. In addition to her patient safety and process improvement experience, Theresa has worked in direct patient care as a clinical nurse in both inpatient and rehabilitation settings, caring for patients across the life span requiring care for conditions ranging from cancer to traumatic brain injuries.
Theresa received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Vermont and her Master of Science in Nursing degree from Norwich University. Theresa has demonstrated competence in patient safety science as a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) and is Lean Six Sigma Green belt certified.
Kristen A. Peck, MBA, LSSBB
Kristen is a Senior Performance Improvement Consultant at Dartmouth Health. She actively leads performance improvement projects throughout the organization, coaches Greenbelt candidates, and serves as an instructor for our training programs.
Prior to joining DHMC, Kristen worked for 11 years as a consultant in the Healthcare and Academic Health Center practices for Chicago-based Huron Consulting. Her work with Huron included projects in strategic planning and implementation, revenue cycle optimization, and academic research management and compliance. She also managed Huron Healthcare’s Project Management Office and led Huron’s diversity and mentoring programs focused on improving leadership and professional opportunities for women and working parents. After Huron, Kristen worked for three years at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, first as a Research Project Director in value-based care and then as a Research Grant and Program Director.
Kristen received her B.A. in English from Millikin University, where she was a James Millikin Scholar, and studied abroad for one year at Durham University in Durham, England. She received her MBA in Strategic Management, Econometrics & Statistics and Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has published multiple academic papers focused on value-based health care. Kristen completed her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training with Moresteam.
James J. Perry, OT/L, OTR, CHT, R. NCS. T., LSSBB
Jamie is a Performance Improvement Consultant at DHMC. He is actively involved in coaching Greenbelt candidates, assisting with project execution throughout the organization, and teaching through Value Institute.
Jamie has spent the majority of his career working in healthcare. He began as an EMG Technologist with the department of neurology, where he administered and assisted with the interpretation of nerve conduction studies and electromyography, managed the online patient database, and provided training to residents and staff.
As part of a team of occupational therapists in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, he provided direct patient care on a daily basis for 19 years. He was very active in mentoring staff and students, community outreach, training residents, developing policies, procedures, and performance metrics, and leading improvement projects.
Jamie received his B.S. in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Hampshire. He received his National Board Certification in Occupational Therapy in 2000. He is a Certified Hand Therapist through the Hand Therapy Certification Commission and a Registered Nerve Conduction Studies Technologist through the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Technologists. He completed his Greenbelt in Continuous Improvement through the DHMC Value Institute. Jamie completed his Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training with Moresteam.
Elizabeth J. Rizzo, MHS, LSSBB
Elizabeth is a Performance Improvement Consultant at DHMC. She actively leads Blackbelt projects throughout the organization, coaches Greenbelt candidates, and serves as an instructor for our training programs.
After ten years in private practice, Elizabeth began her career at DHMC in 2000 in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as a Pathologists' Assistant. As part of a team, Elizabeth processed surgical pathology specimens, trained residents, managed policies and procedures, assisted with improvement initiatives, and provided leadership for the Gross Room.
Elizabeth received her B.S. in Biology from Eastern Connecticut State University and her M.H.S., Pathologists’ Assistant training at Quinnipiac College. Elizabeth received her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth.
Samuel Shields, Jr., MBA, MHCDS, CSSBB, CPHQ
Sam is the Vice President of Strategy and Operational Excellence at the DHMC Value Institute. He leads the Operational Excellence team consisting of both Performance Improvement Specialists and Project Managers, oversees the Value Institute Learning Center, coaches Greenbelt Candidates, and serves as an instructor for our training programs. He also serves as an instructor for the Conaty Institute for Transformational Healthcare Leadership program.
Sam spent much of his career working in the supply chain in various industries. He has served in management and leadership roles at Cabot Corporation, Timken, and Labsphere, Inc. He spent three years as the Supply Chain Manager at DHMC before taking a role as the Director of Performance Improvement.
Sam received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his MBA from Texas A&M University. Sam completed his Master of Health Care Delivery Science at the Tuck School of Business and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI).
Sam received his Six Sigma Blackbelt certification from the American Society for Quality. He is also a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) from the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ).
Kathleen Stewart, MPH, LSSBB
Kathleen Stewart is a performance improvement consultant embedded within the infection prevention program at DHMC and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics. She supports the program and hospital through performance improvement, analytics and reporting, program and project management, and coaching and educating on process improvement. Kathleen is working towards her Blackbelt certification.
Prior to starting her role as a performance improvement consultant in 2022, she worked in different positions within Quality Assurance and Safety at DHMC. Part of her work included managing and coordinating Hospital-acquired Infection (HAI) programs, improving public flu clinic processes, policy writing and maintenance in infection control, and projects related to HAI prevention, hand hygiene compliance improvement, and environmental service products.
Kathleen received her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester and her MPH from The Dartmouth Institute. She completed her Greenbelt in Continuous Improvement through the Dartmouth Hitchcock Value Institute and her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training with Moresteam.
Nicole E. Szalay, MHA, LSSMBB, CPHQ
Nicole is the Director of Operational Excellence at DHMC overseeing the organization’s Performance Improvement Team, Project Management Office, and the Value Institute Learning Center. She actively leads projects throughout the hospital, provides consultative support to leaders on strategy deployment, and serves as an instructor for our training programs. She has also served as Program Leader for the Value Institute Learning Center, overseeing the curriculum development and delivery of both our Yellowbelt and Greenbelt training programs. Nicole is a co-author of the book Lean Six Sigma Guide for Improving Healthcare published in 2019 with co-author Danielle M. Potter and Mindstir Media.
Nicole began her career at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois as an Administrative Fellow. During her fellowship, she completed her Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt training and certification. Nicole then managed the patient billing call center, patient registration, and prior authorization departments for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation’s physician organization. Continued interest in performance improvement work led her to take a Senior Consultant role in Performance Improvement at the University of Minnesota Physicians and then the Director of Operational Excellence role at United Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she provided performance improvement consultation and expertise for the hospital’s senior leadership team.
Nicole received her B.A. in Chemistry and Violin Performance from Emory University and her MHA in Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.
Nicole received her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt training from Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and her Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt certification from The Value Institute at DHMC. Nicole completed her Lean Six Sigma Master Blackbelt with The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and Moresteam. Nicole is also a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) from the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ).