Who We Are
The Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum is a private, not-for-profit organization. Our volunteer board represents a cross section of public and private insurance purchasers, patient advocates, providers, physicians and insurers in the state. Dozens of other stakeholders volunteer their time in committees that focus on health information technology, quality measurement, medical homes, and outreach and education.
Executive Director:
Cindy Munn, MHA
Board of Directors:
President, Michael O. Fleming, MD, FAAFP
President Elect, Karen Bollinger DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc
Secretary/Treasurer, Eric B. Taylor, MS
Board Members:
Gery Barry, MS, FSA
Joseph Bisordi, MD
Yakima Black, MS
Patrick C. Breaux, MD, FACC, FACP
L. Philip Caillouet, PhD
Claudia Campbell, PhD
Frederick P. Cerise, MD, MPH
Linda Gage-White, MD, PhD, MBA
Nancy McPherson, MPA
Raymond A. Peters, SPHR
Willie White, III, MPH
Executive Director:
Munn has more than 25 years of experience in health care leadership and operations management, most recently as vice president of care management at the Baton Rouge General Medical Center. She holds a bachelor's of science degree in medical technology from Louisiana State University and a master's of health administration degree in health services administration from the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois.
She will lead professional staff and manage the daily operations of the organization while assuring ongoing support for healthcare improvement missions such as medical home development, quality measurement, and outreach and education. In addition, Ms. Munn will oversee health information technology and exchange planning, as well as implementation and technical assistance programming. Before appointment as Executive Director, she served as chair of the LHCQF's Health Information Technology Committee. She is currently a member of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital's Rural Health Care Pilot Program Steering Committee.
President:
Michael O. Fleming, MD, FAAFP is a Family Medicine physician from Shreveport, Louisiana and is the Chief Medical Officer for Amedisys, Inc. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and graduated from the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport. Dr. Fleming is active locally, nationally and internationally in the promotion of family medicine and is past president of both the Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians, which represents almost 94,000 physicians and medical students in the United States. Dr. Fleming served on the prestigious Future of Family Medicine task force charged with developing a national strategy to transform and renew the specialty of family medicine to meet the needs of people and society in a changing environment; much of this work was incorporated into the recently released “Joint Principles of the Patient Centered Medical Home” released by the AAFP, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Osteopathic Association.
President Elect:
Karen Bollinger DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc is Chief of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine and Executive Director of the Tulane University Community Health Center at Covenant House. She is a graduate of the both Tulane University’s School of Medicine and School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine as well as Harvard University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Desalvo is a practicing internist, teacher and researcher – she is the C. Thorpe Ray Chair in Internal Medicine and co-Director of the Center for Health Equality Research at Tulane University Health Sciences Center, and currently serves as Vice-Dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy at Tulane University. She is active in the local and national medical community.
Secretary/Treasurer:
Eric B. Taylor, MS, Chief Executive Officer SWLA Center for Health Service, Lake Charles, Louisiana. He has served in this capacity on two separate occasions. The first occasion occurring in 2001 until the Fall of 2002. The second occasion occurring after serving as the CEO for a Chicago based Community Health Center for two years. Eric has also seraaved as a Chief Executive Officer of a Community Health Center, two Health Maintenance Organizations, and Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, spanning a period of more than thirty-two years. Eric has a Master of Science Degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brooks, New York in Health Services Administration.
Board Members:
Gery J. Barry, MS, FSA, is President and CEO of Barry-Global Strategic Services. He is a top-level health insurance and health management executive whose perspectives have been shaped by extensive North American experience and broad international exposure.
Prior to leading BlueCross, Mr. Barry gained extensive international experience as Liberty Mutual’s Country Leader for Canadian Operations. In this capacity he assumed direct operational responsibility for Liberty Health, turning it into Canada’s largest stand-alone health insurance and employee-benefits company
Mr. Barry is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and has degrees in advanced mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and Rutgers University.
Joseph E. Bisordi, MD, FACP is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Ochsner Health System since 2008. He is responsible for overseeing of all aspects of physician performance, quality and clinical integration within Ochsner's seven hospitals, 33 health centers and 740 physician group practice.
Most recently Dr. Bisordi served as Associate Chief Medical Officer of the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania and Chief Medical Officer of Geisinger Medical Center. Prior to assuming that position, Dr. Bisordi was Senior Vice President for Medical Informatics overseeing the implementation of clinical information systems including their electronic health records. A board certified nephrologist, he served as their Vice President for clinical research and was the former Director of the Department of Nephrology at Geisinger. He also spent many years in regional quality improvement and peer review efforts in dialysis and transplantation.
Dr. Bisordi received his BA from Manhattan College and his Medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. After his Internal Medicine training at the Geisinger Medical Center, he completed his nephrology fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was a Research Fellow of the National Kidney Foundation. Dr. Bisordi is a member of numerous professional societies and was appointed to the Louisiana Health Care Consumer's Right to Know Health Data Panel.
Yakima Black, MS is Executive Director of Mental Health America of Louisiana. She is a graduate of Southern University with a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling. Throughout her professional career, Ms. Black has focused on the rehabilitation needs of people with severe and chronic mental illness. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Mental Health Planning and Advisory Councils, is the immediate Past-Chair of the Louisiana Mental Health Planning Council, and was a behavioral health representative on Louisiana Healthcare Redesign Collaborative.
Dr. Breaux is past President of the Louisiana Chapter of the American College of Cardiology and has served on the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology. He is past President of the Orleans Parish Medical Society and is President of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He chairs the Medical Home Committee of LHCQF. He is Secretary of Ochsner MSOC/SEC and Medical Director of Cardiology of Ochsner Hospital. He has been named Tulane Medicine Department AOA Community Teacher of the Year. He is listed as a Top Doctor in cardiovascular diseases in New Orleans Magazine and Louisiana Life Magazine.
Frederick P. Cerise, MD, MPH is Louisiana State University System Vice President for Health Affairs and Medical Education. He is a graduate of Notre Dame, the Louisiana State University School of Medicine, and the Harvard University School of Public Health. Dr. Cerise was named in 2007 the Louisiana State University Systems Vice President for Health Care and Medical Education. Dr. Cerise previously had responsibility for the overall operations of DHH, which included Medicaid and the Offices of Public Health and Mental Health. A practicing internist, he has served as CEO and Medical Director of Earl K. Long Hospital as well as Secretary of the Louisiana State Department of Health & Hospitals. He is a member of the Louisiana State Medical Society and serves on the boards of Archbishop Hannan High School in New Orleans and the Hospice Foundation of Greater Baton Rouge.
Linda Gage-White, MD, PhD, MBA is a practicing Otolaryngologist and a Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. She holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University, is a graduate of the University of Miami MD-PhD program receiving her doctorate in biochemistry, and received her MBA from Centenary College in Shreveport. In addition to over 20 years of clinical practice, Dr. Gage-White served as Medical Director/Executive Director for Cigna Healthcare of Louisiana in the late 1990s. She is active in the local and national medical community including the Louisiana State Medical Society, has edited several medical journals, and is a former President of the Board of Directors of the Pelican Council Girl Scouts.
Raymond A. Peters, SPHR is Vice President of Human Resources for Roy O. Martin Lumber Company in Alexandria, Louisiana. He received a BA in Communication Arts from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, is a graduate of the LSU Executive Program, and holds a lifetime certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources awarded by the Society of Human Resource Management. During the majority of his thirty-year career in industry he has held a variety of human resources and commercial positions of increasing responsibility both nationally and internationally, including the management of large-scale employee health benefits programs. He is active in the community and most recently served on the board of directors for the United Way of Central Louisiana where he was Chairman in 2005.
