Chair: Christine C. Schuster, RN, MBA
President & CEO, Emerson Health

Christine Schuster has more than 25 years of health care experience. Prior to joining Emerson Health as President & CEO in 2005, she served as President and CEO of Quincy Medical Center and previously Athol Memorial Hospital. She also served as COO of the Tenet Saint Vincent Healthcare System, Extended Care Division, and Critical Care Director at New England Deaconess Hospital. She also worked as a healthcare consultant with Coopers & Lybrand. Ms. Schuster received her MBA, with honors, from the University of Chicago Booth Business School and a BS in Nursing from Boston University. 

She currently serves as Chairman of the MA Value Alliance, a leading supply purchasing consortium, Chairman of the MA Council of Community Hospitals, and a Board member of the MA Chapter of the ACHE and the MHA. Ms. Schuster serves on the Advisory Council of the Health Policy Commission and the Advisory Board of the Suffolk University MHA Program. She is also a Corporator for Middlesex Bank. She currently serves on the MHA Executive Committee and the Finance and Political Action Committees. 

Schuster received the 2008 Maynard Elks Distinguished Citizenship Award and the 2011 Concord Chamber of Commerce Businessperson of the Year Award. She received the Prescription for Excellence Award from the Mass Medical Health Law Report. She is a four-time recipient of the American Hospital Association Grassroots Champion Award. Ms. Schuster was named to the Commonwealth Institute’s 2017-2020 Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in MA List. Early in her career she was recognized by Modern Healthcare Magazine and Witt Kieffer Associates as one of their Up and Comer Award recipients.

Chair-Elect: Kevin Tabb, MD
President & CEO, Beth Israel Lahey Health

Kevin Tabb, MD, serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Lahey Health and is an ex officio member of its Board of Trustees.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), Dr. Tabb is responsible for leading a pioneering integrated health care system offering a full continuum of health care services, ranging from hospital to ambulatory to urgent to behavioral health care. Beth Israel Lahey Health was created as a transformational approach to health care delivery in the Commonwealth—its unique structure designed to advance meaningful collaboration across organizations, care settings, specialties and geographies to ensure patients receive the treatment they need in the communities where they live and work.

Dr. Tabb was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess system and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). 

Before joining Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Tabb was Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Stanford, California. There, he had broad strategic and operational responsibilities, which included physician network strategy, clinical quality and patient safety initiatives, regulatory and medical staff affairs, and graduate and continuing medical education. He was previously Chief Quality and Medical Information Officer at Stanford. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Tabb led the Clinical Data Service Division of GE Healthcare IT.

Raised in Berkeley, California, Dr. Tabb emigrated to Israel at the age of 18 and served in the Israel Defense Forces, the country’s military service. He received his undergraduate degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his medical degree from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School. Dr. Tabb completed his residency in internal medicine at Hadassah Hospital.

Dr. Tabb resides with his family in Newton

Treasurer: Michael K. Lauf, MBA
President & CEO, Cape Cod Healthcare

Michael K. Lauf, M.B.A., has served since December of 2010 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cape Cod Healthcare, a regional health system with more than 450 physicians and 5,300 employees which is comprised of two-acute care hospitals, the largest home health services agency on the Cape (VNA), a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, an assisted living facility and numerous health programs.

Lauf served as the Cape Cod Healthcare system’s Chief Operating Officer from 2008-2010. He was promoted to President of Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital in 2010, before being appointed to his current position as President and CEO of the system.

During his tenure, CCHC has made great strides in operational and financial performance, while also developing a strong strategy focused on quality, service, access, and process improvement. 

Prior to joining CCHC, Lauf served as Chief Operating Officer of Bristol Medical Center, a 348-bed hospital in Bristol, Tennessee, part of the Wellmont Healthcare System. At Bristol, Lauf developed a hospital performance scorecard and cultivated service improvement goals among employees that have resulted in dramatically higher patient and physician satisfaction scores.

From 1999 to 2006, he held a variety of positions for Conemaugh Health System in Pennsylvania, including President and CEO of one of Conemaugh’s hospitals, Miners Medical Center. From 1994 to 1999, he worked on the staff of U.S. Representative John P. Murtha, most recently as Rep. Murtha’s Director of Community and Economic Development.

Lauf earned his MBA from Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania and his BA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Secretary: Anne Klibanski, MD
President & CEO, Mass General Brigham

Anne Klibanski, MD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based integrated healthcare system that includes internationally known Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, nationally recognized specialty hospitals, including Mass Eye and Ear, McLean, and Spaulding Rehabilitation, seven community hospitals, a health insurance company, physician networks, community health centers, home- based care, and long-term care services.

Appointed to her role as President and CEO in 2019, Dr. Klibanski’s vision for Mass General Brigham is to build the integrated academic health care system of the future with patients at the center, by transforming care, improving outcomes, and expanding impact locally, nationally, and globally. As the largest private employer in Massachusetts with 82,000 employees and annual revenue of $16 billion, the non-profit healthcare system is the nation’s leading recipient of National Institutes of Health funding and is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, establishing its position as a national leader in medical research and teaching.

Dr. Klibanski has led clinical integration of services across Mass General Brigham and is responsible for the development of new digital platforms to achieve digital care, including virtual urgent care, to make it easier for patients to access the system’s world-class care. She has overseen increased investment in leading-edge research that has the potential to revolutionize treatments, such as gene and cell therapy, leveraging the system’s $2.3 billion in annual research funding. The system’s innovation team has created more than 300 companies that are making broad impacts on human health, in various spaces - from therapeutics to diagnostics and research.

Under Dr. Klibanski’s leadership, Mass General Brigham has also committed significant resources to community health, with a particular investment in mental health programs. She has established “United Against Racism,” a long-term multi-year commitment to address the impacts that racism has on Mass General Brigham patients, employees, and the broader community.

Dr. Klibanski served as the healthcare system’s Chief Academic Officer from 2012 to 2019 and as Chief of Neuroendocrine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is recognized internationally for her high-impact research in neuroendocrine disorders and pituitary tumors.

Dr. Klibanski received her B.A., magna cum laude in literature from Barnard College and her M.D. from New York University Medical Center. She is the Laurie Carrol Guthart Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Immediate Past Chair: Kevin B. Churchwell, MD
President & CEO, Boston Children's Hospital

Kevin B. Churchwell, MD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Children’s Hospital, providing leadership, vision, and oversight for a team that’s dedicated to improving and advancing child health through their life-changing work in clinical care, research and innovation, medical education, and community engagement.

Since joining Boston Children’s as its Executive Vice President of Health Affairs Chief Operating Officer in 2013, Dr. Churchwell has been instrumental in leading the hospital’s work to become a High Reliability Organization, one where zero avoidable harm impacts any patient, family member, or employee. He has brought to Boston the same passion for enhancing the patient family experience that defined his tenure as CEO of both Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, and Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital, part of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.

An advocate for equity, diversity and inclusivity, Dr. Churchwell is responsible for establishing three of the 11 Offices of Health Equity and Inclusion at hospitals across the U.S. and Canada, including the Office at Boston Children’s, which he founded in 2016. With the publication of Boston Children’s own Declaration for Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity in 2020, Dr. Churchwell has committed to the work required to make Boston Children’s a community that’s made stronger by our differences, and a leader in equity for all.

A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville, Dr. Churchwell completed his pediatric residency and a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at Boston Children's Hospital. He is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatric Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Churchwell is the Robert and Dana Smith Associate Professor of Anesthesia at the Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Churchwell is a member of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, a board member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, MIT Corporation, the Whitehead Institute, Advisory Board for The Boston University School of Public Health and the Boys and Girls Club of Boston. 

Past Chair Most Recently Retired: Eric W. Dickson, MD, MHCM, FACEP
President & CEO, UMass Memorial Health

Eric Dickson, MD, is President and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, the largest not-for-profit health care system in central Massachusetts with $3.3 billion in annual revenue, 1,700 physicians and more than 16,500 employees. The system includes three owned hospitals on eight campuses with more than 1,000 licensed beds; four affiliated hospitals; 70 office-based community practices; a behavioral health services agency and hospital; six urgent care centers; and an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). UMass Memorial trains 650 residents and fellows annually and performs world-class research in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Dickson also serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. 

Prior to being named President and CEO of the health care system, Dr. Dickson served as President of the UMass Memorial Medical Group and senior associate dean at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The UMass Memorial Medical Group is a subsidiary of UMass Memorial Health Care and is a 1,100-physician, 1,100-employee multidisciplinary medical group with revenues of over $535 million. He served as the head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and interim chief operating officer for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  

Dr. Dickson completed his medical degree and residency training in emergency medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and has a master’s degree in Health Care Management from Harvard University.  Dr. Dickson has served as a member of the Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners, lectures nationally on the use of the Toyota Production System in health care and is an active faculty member for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, where he works with health systems around the world to reduce health care costs while improving quality.  Dr. Dickson is the incoming Board Chair for America’s Essential Hospitals, which is the national association for safety net hospitals.