Board Members

Joseph Moylan, MD
Dr. Moylan is Professor of Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine; Medical Director of the International Patient Center, Duke University Health Systems; and Faculty Scholar, Duke Institute For Care At The End Of Life.

George Rodeheaver, PhD
Dr. Rodeheaver is Director of the Wound Healing Research Laboratory at the University of Virginia Health System. His research interest for over 30 years has been how to optimize the management of damaged tissue to achieve the maximum rate and quality of repair. Management of chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers (bedsores), that frequently occur in frail individuals has been a primary focus of his recent research efforts. Outside the laboratory Dr. Rodeheaver has been an advocate for preventing pressure ulcers on residents in nursing homes.

Frank D. Ferris, MD
Dr. Ferris is Medical Director, Palliative Care Standards and Outcome Measures, San Diego Hospice, a teaching affiliate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He is a co-principal of the Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project based at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago; an author and editor of www.CAPCManual.info; and the lead author of A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care: Based on National Principles and Norms of Practice published by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, which he chairs. Dr. Ferris is a consultant to the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, Mount Sinai Hospital, a teaching affiliate of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and a co-founder of Toronto's HPCNet Project. He co-authored I Can't Stop Crying: It's So Hard When Someone You Love Dies with John Martin.

Marianne Bradley, RN, MS, CWOCN
Ms. Bradley is a wound/ostomy/continence Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Bronx region of Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). She is actively involved in wound telehealth consultation and education, and has developed an interdisciplinary wound resource team at VNSNY. Ms. Bradley has published and presented nationally and regionally with her most recent focus on palliative wound care. In addition, Ms. Bradley is a legal nurse consultant and recipient of the 2000 Visiting Nurse Association Clinician of the Year award.

William J. Ennis, DO, MBA, FACOS
Dr. Ennis is board certified in general surgery, vascular surgery, and family medicine. He received his MBA from the Keller Graduate School of management in Chicago. He is Medical Director for the Advocate Christ Medical Center wound treatment program and the Evergreen Healthcare Center advanced wound care program. In addition, Dr. Ennis is on the medical advisory board of National Healing Corporation located in Boca Raton, Florida and Advanced Therapy and Rehabilitation Corporation in Skokie, Illinois. Dr. Ennis has lectured and published extensively on numerous wound care topics.

Marge Meehan, RN, MIM
Ms. Meehan is Executive Director of F.R.A.I.L., a healthcare consultant, author, speaker, and health policy research associate. Ms. Meehan has been involved in the area of chronic wound care management and assessment for over 15 years.

Oscar M. Alvarez, PhD
Dr. Alvarez, F.R.A.I.L. chairperson, is Founder and Director of the University Wound Care Centers, LLC in Bronx, NY and Hudson Wound Care, Hoboken, NJ. He has been the recipient of many research grants and awards, including The National Institute of Health Training Award to study dermal epidermal interactions during wound repair. Dr. Alvarez served as a member of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, a panel for guideline development in the prevention and management of pressure ulcers. Dr. Alvarez has held faculty positions with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College and Rockefeller University. Dr. Alvarez has authored over 80 major papers relating to wound care.

Adolfo Fernandez-Obregon, MD (co-chairperson)
Dr. Fernandez-Obregon, co-chairperson for F.R.A.I.L., is Assistant Professor of Dermatology at New York Medical College, where he also serves as an attending physician at Bayley Seton Hospital in Staten Island. Dr. Fernandez-Obregon has a dermatology practice in Hoboken, NJ. He has conducted clinical research and clinical trials on the use of topical steroids in stasis dermatitis, the evaluation of debriding agents in the management of pressure ulcers, and the use of biological skin substitutes for the closure of wounds created following surgical excision of non-melanoma skin cancers.

David R. Thomas, MD, FACP
David Thomas is Professor of Internal Medicine & Geriatric Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Thomas is certified in both Internal Medicine and in Geriatric Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the American Geriatrics Society. He serves as Director of Clinical Research for the Division of Geriatric Medicine. His investigations have included topics that disproportionally affect the frail elderly, including chronic wounds, nutritional status, and changes in mental acuity. David Thomas is Medical Director for two teaching nursing homes and serves as Director of the Wound Care Team in both subacute facilities and multisite homes. He is a Certified Medical Director in long-term care. Dr. Thomas currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association and the Editorial Advisory Board for the Annals of Long Term Care. Dr. Thomas is a member of the National Council for Nutritional Strategies in Long-term Care.

Judith J. Baker, MA, MS, PhD, CPA
Dr. Baker is the Executive Director of Resource Group, Ltd., in Dallas, Texas and an adjunct faculty member of Case Western Reserve University. She has over 30 years of experience in the area of healthcare reimbursement, providing costing validation and rate setting consultation services to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. As an author, Dr. Baker has written extensively in the area of healthcare finance. She is the author of Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management for Health Care, and coeditor of the Journal of Health Care Finance. Dr. Baker has worked with the HCFA Nursing Home Case Mix and Quality Demonstration since 1990, with expertise in newly implemented national prospective payment system for nursing homes.

Karen Lou Kennedy, RN, CS, FNP
Karen Lou Kennedy became the first Family Nurse Practitioner in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1974. She gained certification as a Physician's Assistant in 1976. In 1984, while working at the Byron Health Center, then a 500-bed long-term care center, she started one of the first skin care programs. While collecting data, she became the first to discover a pressure ulcer that had certain characteristics that become evident shortly before death. This pressure ulcer is now known as the "Kennedy Terminal Ulcer." For more information visit her website, www.KennedyTerminalUlcer.com. After 25 years of working at the Byron Health Center she resigned to get married and move to Tucson, Arizona. There Karen Kennedy-Evans will pursue her consulting business, K.L.Kennedy, Inc.

Roisin Rogers, RN, MSN, CWCN
Ms. Rogers, a Home Care Coordinator with Visiting Nurse Service of New York, is certified in both wound care and hospice palliative care nursing. She actively participates in clinical and research activities at palliative care clinics and wound centers in the New York metropolitan area.