MODERATOR

Jeff Ritter

Assistant Professor, Healthcare Leadership

SUNY Empire State College

Dr. Jeff Ritter, DBA, MBA earned his DBA from Nova Southeastern University and has over 25 years of healthcare, consulting, marketing and business experience. He was a vice president for Cigna in Government Programs, corporate trainer for United Healthcare and marketing director for a few healthcare organizations. He manages a consulting group and is very active in the healthcare industry. He has published articles and has been a speaker at national and international conferences.

As an assistant professor at SUNY Empire, Ritter has developed several courses in the graduate school. He also has over 15 years of teaching and leadership experience in education. Areas of interest include strategic planning, leadership, operations, policy and marketing. Dr. Ritter is honored to be part of the Healthcare Leadership team at the college.

PANELIST

Courtney Burke

Chief Operating and Innovation Officer

HANYS

Courtney Burke oversees all of HANYS’ operations and ensures optimal alignment of the Association’s various functions—from healthcare policy and advocacy to quality improvement and data analysis. Ms. Burke comes to HANYS with an extensive background in healthcare operations and policy, with a career that has included executive positions in government and the healthcare provider sector.

Most recently, Ms. Burke served as senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Albany Medical Center. Before that, she served as New York state’s deputy secretary for health. In that role, Ms. Burke provided oversight for the state’s health and mental hygiene agencies. Ms. Burke previously served as commissioner of the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, an agency of nearly 20,000 employees. Before that, she served as director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s New York State Health Policy Research Center and as the senior research scientist in the Rockefeller Institute’s Health and Medicaid studies program. Before joining the Institute, Ms. Burke worked at NYSDOH and as the Senior Policy Analyst at the New York State Office of Advocate for Persons with Disabilities.

PANELIST

Barry Eisenberg

Associate Professor

SUNY Empire State College

Barry Eisenberg, Ph.D. (Temple University), is associate professor in the School for Graduate Studies at SUNY Empire State College and program coordinator and academic advisor for the MBA in Healthcare Leadership. Eisenberg has an extensive background in healthcare management. He established and oversaw a management development program at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and later served as vice president of human resources and vice president of operations at Union Hospital in New Jersey.

In addition to his appointment at SUNY Empire State College, Eisenberg consults with healthcare organizations on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and board development. He is co-author of Mastering Leadership: A Vital Resource for Healthcare Organizations. Most recently, Eisenberg has presented on and written about how the widespread consolidation of the healthcare industry can inform our understanding of similar trends in higher education and the media industry. Eisenberg’s first novel, Primal Calling, is due for publication in 2020. A book on societal challenges associated with caring for the elderly is in development. Eisenberg serves on the boards of nonprofit organizations dedicated to expanding access to scholarship and to promoting arts education.

PANELIST

Michael Gusmano

Fellow

Rockefeller Institute of Government

Michael K. Gusmano is a visiting fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government and an associate professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Dr. Gusmano is also a research scholar at the Hastings Center. His research examines the politics of health and social policy in the U.S. In addition, he co-directs the World Cities Project, which compares large city health systems across the world.

Dr. Gusmano is the author of Health Care in World Cities: New York, London and Paris (with Victor G. Rodwin and Daniel Weisz; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), Healthy Voices/Unhealthy Silence (with Colleen Grogan; Georgetown University Press, 2007), and Growing Older in World Cities (with Victor G. Rodwin; Vanderbilt University Press, 2006). From 1995-1997 he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Yale University. Gusmano received his doctorate in political science from the University of Maryland College Park in 1995.