About the governWell™ Advisors

Ann Scott Blouin founded ‘PSQ Advisory’ to deliver strategic guidance to America’s health systems, hospitals and critical access hospitals. Dr. Blouin works with boards, community groups and senior leaders to help organizations achieve success on financial and clinical metrics through an organizational focus on effective governance, improvement science and harm avoidance. Prior to founding PSQ Advisory, Ann was the Executive Vice President of Customer Relations at The Joint Commission, providing guidance in understanding hospitals, health systems and stakeholders across the health care continuum. During her ten years at Joint Commission, Ann collaborated with multiple health systems,  across the country on leadership, patient care and quality/safety issues. With more than 30 years of health care administration, consulting and clinical nursing experience, Ann has held key senior leadership positions at community teaching hospitals, academic medical centers and prominent global consulting firms. Specific areas of expertise include strategic planning in rapidly changing environments, contemporary leadership, organizational design, regulatory compliance, business case development for quality and safety, high reliability, and clinical integration. Ann’s experience as a senior leader in operations and strategy roles brings a unique understanding of today’s challenges in health care. Ann has published and presented extensively on topics focused on health care leadership, patient care quality and safety, as well as nursing, and served as an adjunct faculty member at several Chicago area schools of nursing and medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives and is a certified Green Belt in Lean/Six Sigma/Change Management methodologies. Ann currently serves on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Board of Directors, a post-acute care company (Ensign Group) board and chairs the IHI Certification Board. Ann has also joined two healthcare technology start-up boards, Vitalacy and Elemeno Health. Ann has prior governance experience with ambulatory, community and federally qualified health clinic boards.

Todd Linden served as president and CEO of Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Grinnell, Iowa from 1994 through the end of 2017, at which time he was named CEO Emeritus. Today Todd works with governing boards on process improvement, best practice development, governance education, facilitating board workshops and retreats, and building optimal trustee/executive relationships. He also works with healthcare organizations on strategic planning, constructive disruption, and building ingenuity, quality and safety into the organization’s culture. Todd has received significant recognition for his leadership in healthcare, including the Iowa Hospital Association’s “Excellence in Leadership Award;” the American Hospital Association’s “Board of Trustees Award;” and Becker’s Hospital Review’s “50 Rural Hospital CEOs to Know,” among many others. He is a Fellow and member of the faculty of the American College of Healthcare Executives, serves on the board of the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Health Forum, and was a member of the AHA Board of Trustees from 2013 – 2016.

Angela Linden is a principal of Linden Consulting, dedicated to leading ways to improve the wellbeing of individuals and advance the quadruple aim for healthcare. Registered Nurse, seasoned executive, and entrepreneur, she received her nursing degree from Mercy College of Health Sciences, Bachelor of Science from the University of St. Francis, and is currently completing her Master of Health Care Administration from Des Moines University. Angela began her career as a critical care and emergency room nurse at UnityPoint Des Moines Hospitals and then worked for the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care (now Telligen). Her healthcare executive experience started at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines and included: strategic and operational planning, business development and government relations. She was then named CEO of Manning Regional Healthcare Center (MRHC) in Manning, Iowa, an affiliate of the Mercy Health Network. In just two years, her leadership at MRHC included development and implementation of a hospital and clinic replacement plan, recruitment of two physicians and two advanced practice providers, developed a new mission, vision, values and initiated a new branding campaign, and improved quality and patient satisfaction scores while achieving a 5% operating margin. Angela has served on numerous boards at the local and state level including the Iowa Hospital Association Council on Representation and Advocacy, the West Des Moines Leadership Academy and the Mercy College of Health Sciences Alumni Board.

Barb Lorsbach offers unique insights for this engagement based on her background as a former senior vice president of the American Hospital Association. In her role, Barb was responsible for several AHA divisions including constituency sections and member involvement, regional operations, executive and trustee education and member services. Barb has over 25 years of experience working with our nation’s health care systems and hospital leaders. She led the team that developed the AHA’s Center for Health Care Leadership and strategies to ensure member-driven governance and thought leadership. Barb has also held management positions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, and other organizations. In addition, Barb has been involved for many years with the Center for Diversity and Health Equity. That combined experience, coupled with her current work as president of Great Hearts Initiatives (GHI) makes her an outstanding resource for this assessment engagement. GHI organization brings together people and organizations that have a shared vision for improving communities. Barbara is a passionate advocate for governance and leadership education, community engagement, and increasing diversity and inclusion in management and governing boards. She is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives and has been a frequent speaker on health care issues and trends.

Nicole Matson has conducted board member and executive interviews, surveys and focus groups; assisted in planning and coordinating strategic planning retreats; and overseen many hospital, health system and hospital association governance evaluations. Nicole writes articles for governWellTM’s state hospital association governance newsletters, and has coauthored articles in Trustee Magazine and other specialty publications. She produces weekly summaries for the American Hospital Association (AHA) highlighting issues and positions used by the Association’s executives to help communicate AHA’s stands on critical issues. In addition, Nicole has conducted interviews and developed AHA member “case examples” on a broad range of issues used by the AHA in their advocacy and member relations efforts, and participated in the development of toolkits and research reports on several topics.

Anne Rooney brings 30+ years experience in global accreditation and standards development, health care quality strategy, process improvement, and patient safety consulting, education, and management through The Joint Commission, as well as in several senior consulting roles both in the U.S. and internationally. Anne currently has her own global healthcare consulting practice with special focus and expertise in health system strengthening, health policy, strategic and business planning, accreditation and quality systems development, clinical quality and patient safety, and process improvement. She has experience in serving in the governance of various non-profit organizations in various roles including Board President, Secretary, Chair of Human Resources and Compensation Committee and Chair of the Development Committee. Anne has extensive international experience with Ministries of Health, government agencies, and health care provider organizations in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Anne has published numerous articles, given many professional presentations, and is a strong leader with the ability to work effectively with healthcare providers, government officials, Boards of Directors, and health care professionals in diverse cultures and environments around the world.

Mary Rooney Sheahen has held management positions at Advocate Healthcare and was President/CEO of Provena Mercy Center, a leading acute care hospital and part of Provena Health. She has also served as CEO for two years to lead a successful financial turnaround at Midwest Medical Center, a critical access hospital, where she also assumed the role of the board chair from 2011 to 2020. Mary currently serves as President of the Sheahen group, a healthcare consulting practice specializing in providing senior leadership coaching, team-building, organizational culture change management, interim executive leadership, organizational training and special project management. Mary brings 40 years of leadership experience in a hospital setting with skills in overall operations, strategic planning, performance improvement, team facilitation, organizational culture change, and staff development. Effective in collaborating with medical staff and in setting strategic directions for the organization in conjunction with the Board of Directors. Mary currently serves on three boards: Board Chair of Northwest Community Healthcare, is a board member of Northshore University Healthcare, and is the Board Chair of Friendship Village, a large CCRC in Schaumburg Illinois.

Debra Stock is a nationally recognized health care leader with extensive experience working with hospitals and health systems to improve their boards’ performance.  For more than 15 years, Debra served as Vice President of Trustee Services for the American Hospital Association. In this role Debra served as the AHA’s national expert on governance issues, trends and best practices.  She oversaw the development of best-in-class governance resources, tools, education, products and services for boards and CEOs across the country, and was a sought- after speaker on many governance topics.  Debra also served as a senior leader with the AHA’s Center for Healthcare Governance where she led the Center’s board assessment service and worked with hundreds of health care systems, academic medical centers, and rural hospitals to conduct their board assessments and develop actionable development plans to help improve board performance.  Earlier in her career, Debra also served in other consulting, health care association, and hospital management positions.  Today, Debra is President of Debra Stock & Associates, LLC, a boutique consulting firm that helps hospitals and health systems across the country realize their potential for governance excellence through customized board assessments, board orientation, tailored board development programs, board retreats, board meeting evaluations and board leadership coaching.

Larry Walker has served in several elected health care governance positions, including as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mt. Hood Medical Center, (Gresham, Oregon), director of the medical center’s foundation board, and director of Legacy Health System (now Legacy Health), a diversified Portland, Oregon health care system, and two of Legacy’s predecessor organizations, Healthlink and Metropolitan Hospitals. Larry has presented educational programs on a broad range of governance topics to thousands of trustees at state hospital association governance conferences; planned and facilitated board of trustees retreats; carried out governance practices and performance assessments; and produced a quarterly newsletter for over 1,200 trustees in eight states for over 12 years. He has also performed a broad range of consulting work for 45 state and metropolitan hospital associations, including the American Hospital Association. Larry believes that better governance results in better health care, and is committed to assisting hospital governing boards to realize their full leadership potential.

Cynthia Washington is Vice President and Sr. Diversity Health Care Strategist with Diversity Equity Excellence Partnership (DEEP).  She develops strategies to increase diversity in leadership and governance, advance health equity, inclusion, and community engagement for corporate and health care organizations. Previously, she served as Interim President and CEO of the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity (IFDHE), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association (AHA).  With over 20 years of service with AHA/IFDHE, she led efforts to improve diversity on AHA’s boards, committees, councils, and task forces.  Cynthia skillfully executed IFDHE’s strategic priorities to empower health care organizations to provide equitable care for all persons.  She managed IFDHE’s Equity of Care Campaign, National Trustee Training sessions, Equity Training Symposiums, and national collaborative partnerships designed to promote health equity to eliminate health disparities. Cynthia is a sought-after speaker and has presented at national conferences, facilitated workshops, and hosted diversity and health equity webinars.  She leveraged relationships with industry leaders in health care, professional and national civic organizations and led the AHA and National Urban League’s historic alliance to increase diversity on hospital governing boards.

Cynthia serves on the Chicago Advisory Council of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and is the immediate past chair of Habilitative Systems, Inc.  She formerly served as the AHA Liaison on the board of the National Association of Health Service Executives, Diversity MBA Magazine, and was appointed by the Mayor to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Women.  Cynthia earned an undergraduate degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and completed advanced certification for board training and development from the University of Chicago.

Cynthia is deeply committed to supporting social justice initiatives and advocating on behalf of disadvantaged and underserved communities.