Health Leader Forge

Today’s guest is Jen Gilkie, Chief Marketing Officer for Dartmouth Health, one of the largest health systems in northern New England. Jen has had a fascinating and surprising career journey from studying theater here at the University of New Hampshire to being the chief of staff for the 2014 Super Bowl Host Committee to finding her way to healthcare and marketing. In this podcast we discuss rebran...

Today’s guest is Chris Dougherty, President and CEO of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Brattleboro, Vermont. Chris knew from a young age that he wanted to be a healthcare leader to serve the most vulnerable in our communities. He has done exactly that, having been a hospital CEO on both coasts and in Texas. In this podcast, Chris shares his career journey and the lessons he learned from working i...

Today’s guest is Darin Roark, President and Chief Operating Officer of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire. Darin has an unusual path, from working in an insurance company to becoming a nurse specialized in emergency medicine and intensive care, to leading large organizations. His path also took him from Illinois to Florida to Dover, New Hampshire, just one town over from UNH. I re...

Today’s guest is Kelly Barton, President of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, part of the MaineHealth System. Maine Behavioral Healthcare offers a full spectrum of behavioral health care, from community-based counseling and rehabilitation to a dedicated behavioral health hospital.    In this podcast we talk about Kelly’s career journey starting as a unit coordinator in the emergency department through...

Today’s guest is Paul E. Fort, the CEO of  FedPoint . FedPoint is a fast-growing provider of benefit administration and technology solutions for large institutional sponsors, with focus on the federal government of the United States and its numerous departments and agencies.  In this podcast we talk about Paul’s unusual career journey to become an insurance executive – he first earned a PhD in Ren...

Today’s guest is Dr. Jeffrey Fetter, the Chief Medical Officer for the New Hampshire State Hospital. Dr. Fetter is a board-certified physician in both internal medicine and psychiatry, and has spent his career caring for some of the most vulnerable patients in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire State Hospital is a secure, inpatient psychiatric hospital for patients with serious mental illness. In th...

Today’s guest is Jason Dupuis, the Chief Patient Experience Officer for PM Pediatrics Health. In this podcast we talk about his early career at Boston Children’s where he rose to the director of the Emergency Department before he was thirty, and then how he got a job with PM Pediatrics when it was an emerging pediatrics urgent care chain because he had written his master’s thesis on the need for p...

Today’s guest is Dr. Bill Hudenko. Dr. Hudenko is a licensed psychologist who has extensive clinical experience working with children who have disruptive-behavior disorders and autism-spectrum disorders. Dr. Hudenko is is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of clinical psychology at Dartmouth's...

Colonel Peacock has had a fascinating career from being a medevac pilot flying black hawks to being the vice provost of the Army Medical Department’s facility for training the majority of medical specialties in the Army, to being the Commander of the BG Crawford F. Sams Army Health Clinic in Camp Zama Japan. In this podcast, Colonel Peacock shares her career journey, what it was like to command a...

Today’s guest is my colleague Dr. Tyler Jamison, associate professor of Human Development and Family studies here at the University of New Hampshire. Tyler is an expert in the field of young adult romantic relationships. I asked Tyler to join me today because romantic relationships are an important part of health and leading a meaningful and fulfilling life. In this podcast we talk about how Tyler...

In this podcast I had the honor of interviewing Major General (retired) David Rubenstein. Among the many duties of his career, General Rubenstein was the commander of the Army Medical Department Center and School, which was the unit where I was an instructor before I retired from the Army, and he was also the chief of the Medical Service Corps, the Army branch that I served in for 23 years. Althou...

Today’s guest is Dr. Seoka Salstrom, Founder & Director of the Hanover Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapies , in Hanover, NH. Seoka has a phd in clinical psychology and specializes in evidence-based behavioral health interventions, with a special interest in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. In this podcast we discuss how she grew up in a house without electricity, how she found...

Today’s guest is my colleague Dr. Anita Tucker, professor of Social Work, and associate director of the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) Center here at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a co-author of the recent textbook, Adventure Group Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Treatment . Anita was an early practitioner of adventure group therapy in the Social Work field, and through he...

Today’s guest is Andrew Calkins, the CEO of Sage Family of Companies. Andrew has extensive experience as a healthcare executive in a wide range of healthcare delivery organizations including long-term care, hospice, home health, and outpatient mental health. In this podcast, we talk about how he went from a clerk in the mailroom to managing complex, geographically dispersed organizations. Andrew’s...

Today’s  guest is Dr. Neil Meehan, the Chief Physician Executive of Exeter  Health Resources. Dr. Meehan is a board-certified Emergency Medicine  physician, and was the driving force behind the creation of the New  Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program, a joint effort  between the New Hampshire Medical Society, the New Hampshire Hospital  Association, and the University of New Hampshi...

Today’s guest is Dr. Neil Meehan, the Chief Physician Executive of Exeter Health Resources. Dr. Meehan is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician, and was the driving force behind the creation of the New Hampshire Physician Leadership Development Program, a joint effort between the New Hampshire Medical Society, the New Hampshire Hospital Association, and the University of New Hampshire. In...

This podcast is a recording of a live panel held jointly sponsored by the sponsors of this podcast, the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of New Hampshire and the Northern New England Healthcare Executives, the local chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. The panel was titled, COVID-19: What We Learned - Staffing & People Resources. I had the oppor...

Today’s guest is Mary Helen McSweeney-Feld. Mary Helen is an associate professor at Towson University in the Department of Health Sciences. Mary Helen is the author of one of the leading textbooks in the field of long-term care, Dimensions of Long-Term Care: An Introduction , and is a recognized leader in long-term care education nationally. In this podcast I talk with Mary Helen about her journey...

Today’s guest is Steve Ahnen, the President and CEO of the New Hampshire Hospital Association. The New Hampshire Hospital Association is an independent, non-profit association representing the interests of the hospitals in the state of New Hampshire. Steve joined the New Hampshire Hospital Association in 2008 after spending sixteen years in progressive leadership roles with the American Hospital A...

Today’s guest is Chris Sloan, the Chief Operating Officer of Capital Medical Center in Olympia, Washington. Capital Medical Center is a 107-bed hospital with about 600 employees. It is part of LifePoint Health, a for-profit hospital system headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. Chris joined Capital Medical Center after retiring from the Army Medical Service Corps in September of 2019, with 23 year...

Today’s guest is Chris Sloan, the Chief Operating Officer of Capital Medical Center in Olympia, Washington. Capital Medical Center is a 107-bed hospital with about 600 employees. It is part of LifePoint Health, a for-profit hospital system headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. Chris joined Capital Medical Center after retiring from the Army Medical Service Corps in September of 2019, with 23 year...

Earlier this fall, I was able to publish a paper with my colleagues Chris Mayhugh and Mark Mellott, based on the Health Leader Forge podcast interviews. The paper is called Learned the Hard Way: A Model of Executive Leadership Competencies. Using qualitative research methods, we analyzed the interviews and focused especially, though not exclusively, on answers executives gave to one of my favorite...

Today’s guest is Art Mathisen, the President of Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire. Memorial Hospital is part of the MaineHealth system, the largest integrated healthcare system in Maine. Memorial Hospital is the only member hospital not located in Maine. Art had a first career in the US Army as a Medical Service Corps officer, and retired after twenty years as a lieutenant colonel....

Today’s guest is Art Mathisen, the President of Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire. Memorial Hospital is part of the MaineHealth system, the largest integrated healthcare system in Maine. Memorial Hospital is the only member hospital not located in Maine. Art had a first career in the US Army as a Medical Service Corps officer, and retired after twenty years as a lieutenant colonel....

Today’s guest is Richard Corder, a healthcare consultant and Managing Director at the management consulting firm TiER 1 Performance Solutions. In this podcast we discuss Richard’s journey from his start as an apprentice in the hotel industry in London, England, following his heart to Boston, Massachusetts, his decision to enter the healthcare industry after his own experience as an inpatient, how...