Today, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) announces its newly named officers and results for elected positions to its Board of Directors for the 2023-2024 term. Supporting AAAHC’s 1095 Strong, quality every day philosophy, the Board of Directors will advocate for patient safety, provide strategic guidance on program development and administration, and share ideas to ensure continued success of the organization.
“This is a strategically composed board whose members bring talents with nuanced expertise across a wide range of backgrounds and experience to our organization’s governance,” said Noel Adachi, president and CEO of AAAHC. “Together and with our dedicated staff, we can accomplish key initiatives that drive growth and foster dedication to ongoing quality improvement.”
The new Board Officers’ one-year terms begin Nov. 6. While board members bring varied backgrounds, they share a common history of dedication to the provision of health care in the ambulatory setting.
- Jan Davidson, MSN, RN, CNOR, Board Chair, has worked as a perioperative registered nurse for over 40 years. In addition to her OR experience in a large metropolitan trauma center, Ms. Davidson has served as clinical director of a free-standing ambulatory surgery center. She began her work there from its ground-breaking through the first five years of its operation. Her role included management of the clinical staff, staff education and training, risk management, employee health, and infection prevention. Ms. Davidson was also the practice administrator for a plastic surgeon with an AAAHC-accredited, office-based OR. Additionally, she has been employed in professional liability, risk management, and patient safety roles throughout her career. This has allowed her to educate both the nursing staff and the medical staff on various clinical and ethical issues. Until her recent retirement, she was the Director of the Ambulatory Surgery Division at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN). Ms. Davidson has been a surveyor for AAAHC for 13 years. She enjoys golfing and spending time with her granddaughters in her free time.
· David Shapiro, MD, Immediate Past Board Chair, contributes his extensive experience gained through many years as a department chair, medical director, and board member of several ambulatory surgery centers. A Florida-based anesthesiologist, Dr. Shapiro currently serves on the boards of both the Florida Society of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (FSASC) and the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) and is a past president of ASCA. Additionally, he is a Board member of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality Collaboration (ASC QC), which develops, measures, and publicly reports national ASC quality data. Further, he serves on the Board of the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) and participates as a member of their Health Guidelines Review Committee (HGRC). Additionally, Dr. Shapiro applies his expertise as a member of the Florida State Consumer Health Information and Policy Advisory Council (SCHIP), an appointed position within the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). He is credentialed as a Certified Administrator Surgery Center (CASC) and Certified Professional in Health Care Risk Management (CPHRM), is licensed in Health Care Risk Management (LHRM) by the state of Florida and is certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) as well as in Healthcare Quality Management (CHCQM). With 20 years of service as a surveyor for AAAHC, Dr. Shapiro continues to conduct surveys on behalf of the organization.
- Joy Himmel, PsyD, PMHCNS-BC, LPC, NCC, RN, Chair-Elect, has more than 40 years of experience in behavioral health working in hospital- and community-based programs, with over 25 years in college health and counseling. She is a Fellow with the American College Health Association (ACHA) and served on the Continuing Education and Program Planning Committees for 15 years. She has been on the Board of Directors of AAAHC for five years, has served as a surveyor since 2009, and is part of the teaching faculty for the organization. In addition to her work with ACHA and AAAHC, she serves as a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) federal grant reviewer, reviewing proposals for substance abuse prevention and mental health initiatives. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, master’s in counseling psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and doctorate from California Southern University. Recently she has presented on strategies to promote a trauma informed organizational approach to wellness, building resiliency skills in today’s youth, and innovative counseling treatment models in college health. She was the Health & Wellness Center Director at Pennsylvania State University-Altoona for 20 years, providing oversight for health services, counseling and psychological services, health promotion and education accessibility services. She served as the Counseling Center Director at Ross University School of Medicine in the South Caribbean for two years before assuming her current position as Counseling Center Director at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
· Lawrence Kim, MD, Secretary/Treasurer, was reelected for a second term. Dr. Kim specializes in gastroenterology (GI) and has developed wide knowledge of AAAHC through experience as a surveyor and committee chair. The first gastroenterologist to join the AAAHC Board of Directors in 2004, Dr. Kim is a partner at South Denver Gastroenterology, a 33-provider independent GI practice in Colorado. A graduate of Princeton University, he received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His postgraduate training included internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and GI fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. He is current vice-president of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and previously served as clinical practice councilor on the AGA Governing Board. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Digestive Health Physicians Association, an advocacy group for independent GI practices. Dr. Kim is committed to improving the quality of digestive care worldwide and has served on multiple medical missions to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Peru.
The three elected Directors, whose terms will expire in 2026, also assume their positions Nov. 6. Together they bring decades of experience in ambulatory care and health care management:
- Kristine P. Kilgore, RN, BSN, was elected for a three-year term after assuming the position in 2021 due to an unexpected vacancy. Ms. Kilgore graduated from Grand Valley State University and started her nursing career working in a hospital on a Medical-Surgical Unit for one year and then transitioned to the OR as the head nurse of the ENT, Eyes, Oral Surgery, and Plastics Team for five years. She then applied her knowledge to help design and build the Surgical Care Center of MI (Ophthalmology ASC). Ms. Kilgore’s employment with this organization spans more than 30 years as its administrative director.
· Traci McMillian, MD, is a board-certified family physician who has been in practice for 25 years. Dr. McMillian graduated from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in 1998 and initially practiced in a hospital-owned outpatient clinic before transitioning to college health 14 years ago. She was named the Medical Director/Chief Medical Officer of her AAAHC-accredited organization, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Student Health Services, in 2019. She is also an AAAHC Surveyor and has been a member of the Engaged Constituency since 2020. She is a current member of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American College Health Association (ACHA) and the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians.
- Kelly Theodosopoulos, MBA, MBOE, BSN, has over three decades of health care experience, with more than 25 years in advanced leadership roles. She currently serves as Chief Clinical Officer for SurgNet Health Partners, an ASC development and management company based in Nashville, Tenn. Prior to joining SurgNet, Ms. Theodosopoulos held key leadership roles in the acute care and outpatient ambulatory settings. She has been a AAAHC Surveyor since 2009 and a member of the AAAHC Engaged Constituency since 2019, with an emphasis on orthopaedic certification in total joint programs. A long-term Board Member and two-time Past President of the Ohio Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (OAASC), she obtained a BSN and MBA from Ohio University in Athens, as well as a Master’s in Business and Operational Excellence from The Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.
“Our shared dedication to patient safety will continue to drive AAAHC’s commitment to serve primary care and surgery centers seeking to improve the quality of care they provide,” said Jan Davidson, MSN, RN, CNOR, Board Chair. “Through our collective experiences, you can expect the leader in ambulatory accreditation to reach new heights in the delivery of Standards and education that promote patient safety and quality improvement.”
For more information about AAAHC leadership, visit www.aaahc.org/about-us/leadership/.
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