Steering Committee Members
Cathleen Colón-Emeric, MD, MHS Dr. Colón-Emeric is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Aging and Human Development at Duke University. Her research program focuses on preventing or improving outcomes after osteoporotic fractures in older adults, promoting resilience, and implementing models of care in skilled nursing facilities. She is the Principal Investigator of PRISM.
Sarah Berry, MD, MPH Dr. Berry is an Associate Professor in Medicine at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife & Harvard Medical School. Dr. Berry is a geriatrician with more than 20 years of experience working in skilled nursing facilities. Her research focuses on falls, injury, and medications in older adults, particularly skilled nursing facility residents. She is the co-Principal Investigator of PRISM.
Lisa Gwyther, MSW, LCSW In her 40+ years of work at Duke in the Center for Aging, the Dementia Family Support Program and the Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Ms. Gwyther has made a lasting impact in the state and nationally for her ground breaking contributions in efforts to support individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementias and their families, and in caregiving advocacy, research and public policy. She represents the family caregiver perspective as a PRISM steering committee member.
Milta Little, DO Dr. Little is an Associate Professor in the Duke Division of Geriatrics and a Senior Fellow in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. She is also President of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Dr. Little has extensive experience in caring and advocating for older adults across care settings. She represents the skilled nursing facility provider perspective.
Thomas Travison, PhD Dr. Travison is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Scientist and Director of the Biostatistics and Data Science team at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. He is the PRISM study statistician.
Patient and Family Caregiver Stakeholders
Willetha Barnette Ms. Barnette was a caregiver for a family member in a skilled nursing facility who experienced a broken hip. She also also has experience with medication deprescribing.
Laura Olson Mrs. Olson is a caregiver for a family member in a skilled nursing facility who experienced a broken bone.
Bucky Waters Coach Waters has personal experience with a broken bone and recovery in a skilled nursing facility.
Provider Stakeholders
Hugh Davis, DNP, RN President and CEO of Greencroft Communities, a faith-based nonprofit senior living community, Mr. Davis is a nurse leader representing the perspectives of skilled nursing facility staff and administration.
Rowena Dolor, MD, MHS Dr. Dolor is a primary care clinician and researcher at Duke University. She is a member of the PRISM Stakeholder Advisory Board to bring perspectives of primary care providers on study implementation and to facilitate the dissemination of study findings to the primary care provider community.
David Gifford, MD, MPH Dr. Gifford is a geriatrician and the Chief Medical Officer for the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living. He helped create the AHCA Quality Department, which assists providers in their quality improvement efforts and established the Center for Health Policy & Evaluation in Long-Term Care. He also has overseen the development of the Long-Term Care Data Cooperative, a voluntary collaboration of nearly 3,000 skilled nursing facilities that contribute electronic health record information that is matched with CMS data. This data is available to conduct effectiveness research in long-term care and assist with public health surveillance.
Kenneth Lyles, MD Dr. Lyles is a Professor of Medicine in the Duke Division of Geriatrics and a Senior Fellow in the Duke Center for Aging and Human Development. He is also President of the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation. He represents bone health specialists and the patient advocacy perspective.
Shannon Mintz, BSN, RN Ms. Mintz is the former Vice President for Regulatory Affairs for the North Carolina Homecare and Hospice Association. She represents the home care perspective.
Research Stakeholders
Michael Cary, PhD, RN Dr. Cary is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing. His research focuses on health disparities, especially for hip fracture patients in post-acute care settings. He co-leads the stakeholder engagement component of the study, and will provide training and feedback to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.
Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH Dr. Mitchell is a geriatrician, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and senior scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife. She is the Principal Investigator of the NIA IMPACT Collaboratory and an implementation scientist studying pragmatic interventions in skilled nursing facilities.
Payer and Health System Stakeholders
Cheryl Phillips, MD Dr. Phillips is a senior program consultant at The John A Hartford Foundation. She has extensive experience in health policy, Medicare Advantage and the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). As a fellowship-trained geriatrician her clinical practice focused on the long-term care continuum.
Susan Spratt, MD Dr. Spratt is a Professor of Medicine in Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition at Duke University, and the Senior Medical Director at the Duke Population Health Management Office.
Co-Investigators
Richard Lee, MD Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Medicine, dual-trained in Geriatrics and Endocrinology, specializing in Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases. He oversees the PRISM Bone Health Service care model.
Eleanor McConnell, PhD, RN Dr. McConnell is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing, whose research focuses on factors that influence functional decline in very frail older adults, particularly among those with cognitive impairment. As a clinical nurse specialist in geriatrics she focuses on improving quality of life and quality of care in long-term care settings. She co-leads the stakeholder engagement component of PRISM.
Cara McDermott, PharmD, PhD Dr. McDermott is an Assistant Professor in Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. McDermott works to optimize medication use, improve symptom management, and reduce unwanted healthcare use among older adults with multiple chronic conditions, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for patients with cancer, COPD, or dementia and their caregivers. She is particularly interested in improving shared decision making in this population and medication deprescribing for adults with serious illness.
Maggie Syme, PhD, MPH Dr. Syme is a clinical psychologist specializing in older adult mental health and dementia caregiving at Massachusetts General Hospital. She oversees the Shared Decision-Making components of PRISM.
Mark Toles, PhD, RN Dr. Toles is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on transitional care of older adults in skilled nursing facilities and their caregivers. He also studies strategies to implement and sustain new health care practices in skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute and long term care settings. He is leading the Implementation Aim of PRISM.
Andrew Zullo, PharmD, PhD Dr. Zullo is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and an Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown University. He will oversee the administrative data analysis for PRISM.
Fracture Nurse Consultants
Brittany Costa, BSN, RN
Krista Garcia, BSN, RN
Rachel Passman-James, BSN, RN
Rob Treiber, BSN, RN
Sharon Verney, MSN, RN
Jyotsna Jadhav, BSN, RN
Core Research Staff
Emily Hecker, MSN, RN Emily is a Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator, Sr. at the Duke Center for Aging and Human Development. She was the nurse consultant for the PRISM pilot project, and she trains and oversees the PRISM nurse consultants.
Laurie Herndon, MSN, RN Laurie is a Project Director at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife. She provides field and front-line implementation support for PRISM.
Kylee MacLean Kylee is a Project Director at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife. She supervises PRISM data management and assists with data analysis.
