Atlanta Cluster 2024 Faculty

Britt R. Berrett, PhD, LFACHE

Speaker

Britt Berrett, PhD, LFACHE, is managing director and teaching professor, Healthcare Industry Collaborative, Brigham Young University. His recent book, Patients Come Second—Leading Change by Changing How You Lead, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He focuses on the importance of creating a vibrant and engaged leadership team that can orchestrate cultural change. Prior to academia, he served as the president of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, a 900-bed tertiary referral center, and executive vice president of Texas Health Resources, a network of 24 facilities and more than 250 ambulatory centers located throughout North Texas. He previously served as the president/CEO of Medical City and Medical City Children’s Hospital, the flagship medical center for the North Texas Division of HCA. He also served as a CEO within the SHARP HealthCare system in San Diego. His portfolio includes keynote speeches, leadership workshops, board retreats, executive coaching, strategic planning, organizational assessments, leadership development and organizational culture advancements. His clients include numerous healthcare organizations and professional associations.

Contact Info: Britt R. Berrett, PhD, LFACHE

Jennifer L. Bickel, MD

Speaker

Jennifer Bickel, MD, serves as the chief wellness officer at Moffit Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla. She works with senior leaders across the organization to ensure staff well-being is incorporated into all decisions. Dr. Bickel has real-world experience in assessing burnout across healthcare organizations and in developing effective, evidence-based strategies to reduce clinician burnout. Her innovative strategies to improve physician and healthcare worker well-being have been nationally recognized in publications and presentations. As an academic professor and a neurologist, she has won awards in mentorship, leadership and clinical program development. She currently serves as a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative for Clinician Well-Being and as the chair for the American Academy of Neurology’s Wellness Subcommittee. She is also a Berkeley-certified executive coach. Dr. Bickel received her medical degree at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and completed her neurology residency at the University of Kansas.

Florence L. Di Benedetto, JD, MBA

Speaker

Florence L. Di Benedetto is senior vice president/general counsel, Sutter Health, Sacramento, Calif. She joined Sutter Health in October 2008. She has accountability for the Office of the General Counsel, which includes legal services, risk services, Sutter Health Emergency Management System (a centralized incident command operation that provides an organized structure to assist affiliates in maintaining optimal patient care in the event of a catastrophe), and privacy and information security, including cyber security. She serves as a strategic business adviser to the president/CEO and other members of senior leadership. Di Benedetto provides primary advice and counsel to the Sutter Health board and board committees, including finance, audit and compliance, governance, and compensation. Additionally, Di Benedetto is the executive sponsor of the Leadership Academy, a 10-month intensive leadership development program for an elite group of rising leaders selected by the executive leadership team. She also serves as the executive sponsor of the Military and Veterans Inclusion Resource Group. Benedetto earned her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University and studied economics and economic planning at London University and the Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw, Poland. She earned her law degree from the University of San Francisco and her MBA in health services management from Golden Gate University.

Contact Info: Florence L. Di Benedetto, JD, MBA
Former Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Sutter Health

Jason Lesandrini, FACHE

Speaker

Jason Lesandrini, FACHE, LPEC, HEC, is the Assistant Vice President for Ethics, Advance Care Planning and Spiritual Health at Wellstar Health System in Georgia, where he leads the strategy and implementation of ethics initiatives. He holds faculty appointments at Mercer University and South College. Jason is a widely recognized expert in outcomes metrics for ethics programs and served as an ethics expert to numerous professional organizations.  Jason is also founder and principal of The Ethics Architect. The Ethics Architect is an outcomes-driven healthcare consulting firm specializing in the assessment and execution of ethics programming, the creation of ethical cultures and developing ethical leaders.

Brian Unell, FACHE

Speaker

Brian Unell is the CEO of VantageHealth.ai which focuses on simplifying the billing and payment processes for patients while reducing costs and increasing revenue for providers/vendors. As a hobby, Unell focuses on expanding leadership at home, work and in life as an author and speaker. His first book Everyday Leadership: You Will Make A Difference was released in the Fall of 2022. Previously, Unell focused on helping health systems achieve remarkable financial results mainly through large scale revenue cycle improvements as a consultant and executive. Unell has been described as a transformational healthcare executive who has a passion for cultivating talent and driving change to enable sustainable results. Unell is recognized as a visionary and collaborative team builder and servant leader who turns data into information, the complex into simple and chaos into focus. Unell defines opportunities, develops strategies; prioritizes initiatives and drives results via a belief that “Communications and Expectations are 90% of Success” while trying each day to solve more problems than he causes. Unell earned three degrees from the University of Florida: a BS in Statistics, MBA and a Master of Health Administration. Unell currently resides in his hometown of Atlanta with his wife Hilary, fifteen-year-old son Harris and six-year-old daughter Sara.

Dawn Z. Wright, JD, FACHE

Speaker

Dawn Zell Wright has a proven track record of aligning operations strategy with business goals, developing leaders and driving significant, sustainable organizational improvements. She is a transformative leader who brings together complex, growing healthcare systems through strategic partnerships. Her extensive experience includes designing, creating, building and implementing high-functioning, consistent, centralized, agile human resources services and teams. Wright leverages best practices and standardizations to deliver best-in-class solutions, positioning organizations to create incredible employee experiences, lead the market as a best place to work and realize sustainable growth with financial excellence. Wright is the chief human resources officer for New Orleans-based LCMC Health. Prior to joining LCMC Health, she served as system vice president of Human Resources Operations for CHRISTUS Health, vice president of Human Resources for the Northcentral Region of Pennsylvania at UPMC and director of Human Resources for CommonSpirit Health’s Catholic Health Initiatives Texas Division. Wright's Human Resources expertise is complemented by her background as an attorney, where she received numerous accolades for her work as a litigator and defense attorney specializing in minority rights issues. As a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, Wright is focused on removing artificial barriers and building a sustainable pipeline of diverse and inclusive healthcare leaders reflective of the communities served. Her legal and HR background equips her with a unique perspective enabling her to foster highly reliable organizations for patient outcomes, employee experience and community impact. Wright earned her undergraduate degree in behavioral science from Concordia University Texas, an MBA from West Texas A&M and a Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification.

Contact Info: Dawn Z. Wright, JD, FACHE
Chief Human Resources Officer
LCMC Health

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2024 Atlanta Cluster