Four New Hires in Healthcare Planning
October 17, 2014 – To keep pace with recent growth and demand in the healthcare market, our Healthcare Planning group is expanding with four key hires. Joel Worthington and Olivia Pewzer have joined our Chicago office as Strategic Innovation Designer and Advanced Simulation Specialist, respectively; and Angela Chupa and Rhamey Sayed have joined our Denver office as Advanced Simulation Specialist and Strategic Analyst, respectively. They will serve not only their regional markets, but healthcare planning efforts throughout the U.S. and internationally.
“The growth of our Healthcare Planning practice is a testament to the quality of service this group provides,” says Scott Foral, Managing Principal of Healthcare Planning at HDR. “As healthcare in the U.S. and abroad continues to grow and change, our strategies serving our healthcare clients must change as well. Angela, Rhamey, Olivia and Joel are all incredibly smart and enthusiastic, and they have diverse and flexible skill sets that expand our group’s capabilities in significant ways. We’re very excited about the ideas and energy they bring to our team.”
Joel Worthington
Strategic Innovation Designer
Joel has joined the Strategic Innovation team to help organizations re-imagine their industries and their core business offerings. He’ll be joining David Grandy to lead ideation, development, and implementation of new product and service offerings for healthcare clients.
Joel comes to HDR with a Master of Health Services Administration and eight years of working experience for healthcare clients and consultants, most recently at Adventist Hospitals where he developed an ambulatory strategic plan for the region. His hands-on experience in a variety of roles, from administration and management to analysis and business development, provides him with a deep understanding of the health challenges communities face, particularly regarding ambulatory healthcare. Joel is particularly excited to work across disciplines to discover and implement human-centric ideas that directly, meaningfully, and compassionately engage people to live better lives. He also enjoys a good game of Scrabble and is terrible at riding a bike.
Angela Chupa and Olivia Pewzer
Advanced Simulation Specialists
As part of the Operational Design team, Angela and Olivia will work internally with Brandy Olson as well as directly with healthcare staff and stakeholders in to improve operations and processes. They will balance data gathering, analytic modeling, and statistical analysis to help clients find the best ways to improve efficiency and eliminate waste within their facilities.
Angela has four years of practical experience applying process improvement methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma through working internships for Rockwell Automation and research work at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. Her passion for data-driven design led her to pursue her Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering, which she received from the University of Wisconsin this Spring. In addition to outstanding analytic skills and a proven ability to lead measurable improvement, Angela is our resident tennis ace, having spent four years of her undergraduate career on the Big Ten Academic All-Conference Team.
Olivia has a deep intellectual curiosity that drives her to make things better. She is recent recipient of two Master’s Degrees—in Industrial Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and in Supply Chain Engineering from Polytechnic National Institute in Industrial Engineering in Grenoble, France. She has a unique perspective on process improvement, interning in a variety of industries including electronics, food service, and most recently, air travel. This broad background gives her valuable knowledge of methods of process analysis and control, making her an insightful and collaborative team member. She’s also fluent in French—born and raised in France—and 21-year violinist.
Rhamey Sayed
Strategic Analyst
Rhamey will be working with Troy Robertson and the Adaptive Analytics team to lead our efforts in predictive analytics. He will measure healthcare facilities’ ability to support supply-and-demand of patients, staff and materials, and help bolster HDR’s ability to link healthcare design to patient outcomes and quality of care.
Rhamey’s broad educational background includes a Master of Science in Applied Statistics, a BS in Economics, and a BA in Political Science. He’s amassed a cache of practical experience during his time at school through multiple professional internships—most recently at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he created statistical models of mortgage interest rates to gage compliance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Rhamey also had the privilege of interviewing Nobel Laureate Robert C. Merton about the role of financial derivatives leading up to the Great Recession during an editorial internship with NACD Directorship magazine.
SOURCE: HDR