Deb Faulkner has been an active advisor and participant in health policy and program development for over 20 years. She has consulted with a variety of local and regional health insurers and state governmental agencies across New England and beyond, working on topics such as ACA implementation, Medicaid policy and strategy, payment model innovations, health system planning, and commercial insurance reforms. Deb’s ACA expertise stems from her work at Rhode Island’s health benefits exchange, HealthSource RI, where she acted as Project Director during the initial program design period, ultimately building both an operational team to staff core functions and an ongoing planning and design team to allow for continuous improvement as the organization matured. For Medicaid, Deb has supported a variety of initiatives, including the negotiations with CMS for the Rhode Island Global Medicaid Waiver, the design and implementation of a Medicaid accountable care program, multiple program and payment innovations in long term services and supports (LTSS), and most recently, producing a comprehensive behavioral health study that resulted in a combination of community-based program reforms centered around the implementation of a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program model. Deb’s health system planning experience includes providing expert assessment of a range of Certificate of Need (CON) service expansion applications for a state Department of Health, and the development of health insurance affordability standards for the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner.

Earlier in her career, Deb was the Assistant Vice President of Strategy and Business Planning for Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts. Prior to that, she was a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting in Washington, D.C. Deb holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

Merel Abruzzese has over 20 years of experience in financial and data analysis in healthcare and other industries. She has been supporting FCG with complex financial, policy and business analysis over the last fifteen years on projects for HealthSource RI, the Division of Medicaid, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, and other public and private clients. Merel uses detailed financial models to support and frame complex policy options such as supporting federal negotiations for a global Medicaid waiver, analyzing trends in the individual and small group health insurance markets, and evaluating state budget initiatives. Additionally, Merel serves as the Engagement Manager for FCG’s team at HSRI where she provides critical organizational, analytic and operational support to HSRI leadership, including monthly budgeting and forecasting, deliberative team assignment, and ongoing performance evaluation processes. Prior to FCG, Merel worked for Mercer Management Consulting, where she performed complex data analysis and financial modeling for projects for Fortune 500 companies in the energy, consumer products, and telecommunications industries. She has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and BA in Applied Math from Harvard College.

Robin Alssid has been part of the FCG team since 2013 and is responsible for all finance, accounting, company benefits and IT infrastructure. Previously, Ms. Alssid was Director of Finance and Administration for Workforce Strategy Center, a national consulting think tank that worked to make education and training more responsive to the economy. Ms. Alssid spent several years on Wall Street where she traded precious metals options and bullion. She holds a BA in Economics from Queens College.

Tiffany Alunan brings to FCG a diverse background in health policy research, revenue cycle management, payment and delivery reform, and stakeholder advocacy. Tiffany currently supports the design and implementation of Connecticut Medicaid’s maternity bundle payment program and primary care program. For the maternity program, she manages multiple teams to drive the development and execution of obtaining federal and state regulatory authority, facilitating stakeholder engagement to inform program design, and recommending policy and operational solutions. Given her interest in advancing health equity within payment and delivery reform, Tiffany has developed a health equity tool, drawing on best practice research, to center equity as a driving force in alternative payment models. Other projects include an assessment of primary care program opportunities, the implementation of a new rating structure for Medicaid Assisted Living providers and the development of recommendations around Functional Assessment Reform for Home- and Community-Based Services.

Prior to joining FCG, Tiffany worked as Senior Associate Consultant for Triage Consulting Group, where she audited and analyzed large amounts of hospital claims data to identify billing and coding inefficiencies, recover lost revenue, and recommend process improvements. She also participated in health policy research projects on a LA County Medicare-Medicaid dual eligible pilot program, primary care reform in Massachusetts, and single-payer healthcare reform in California. As a graduate student, Tiffany worked as a Summer Fellow for the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, developing strategies to publicly compare accountable care organization (ACO) performance. She also worked with Health Care for All (HCFA), where she supported Massachusetts’ COVID-19 vaccination awareness campaign and created resources for patients and providers for HCFA’s Immigrant Health Toolkit. Tiffany holds an MPH in Health Policy from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BA in Human Biology and Society from University of California, Los Angeles.

Amy Black, PhD, is an accomplished leader with over 15 years of experience in healthcare consulting, public health program management, evaluation, and data analytics. She currently serves as a Director at Faulkner Consulting Group, where she leads the firm’s engagement with Health Source RI, managing client relations, contracts, and staff allocation for strategy, data, and analytics projects.

Dr. Black has a strong background in applying an equity lens to processes, policies, customer experiences, and stakeholder engagement. She co-leads Faulkner Consulting Group’s Equity Action Committee, driving equity initiatives and strategies across the organization. Her expertise includes HIV/AIDS care and treatment, sexual and reproductive health, behavioral health workforce development, and health system transformation.

Prior to joining Faulkner Consulting Group, Dr. Black was a Senior Consultant at John Snow, Inc., serving as Project Director for statewide public health initiatives in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She has held leadership roles at the Economic Progress Institute, HealthRIght RI, and the Maine Center for Public Health. She earned her Doctorate in Behavioral Science from the University of Rhode Island.

Jessica brings a strong background in quantitative and qualitative analytics, financial modeling, and operational efficiency to FCG. Since joining FCG, she has worked with multiple clients to develop and evaluate new programs considering financial, policy, and community impacts. Jessica is currently supporting the design of a value-based primary care program and estimating resulting Medicaid savings using a model focused on chronic condition management. Other recent projects include the development of auto-enrollment programs for a state health exchange to encourage continued coverage following Medicaid unwinding; a reliability assessment of a state all payer claims database (APDC) to identify opportunities for improvement to support end-users; and an evaluation of Rhode Island’s current and future need for a state-run Long Term Acute Care Hospital. Jessica also supported RI EOHHS in its transition to managed long term services and supports and integrated managed care for dually eligible beneficiaries.

Prior to FCG, Jessica worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), supporting the financial management and operations of a $20M portfolio of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. At CHAI, she also helped lead global health financing initiatives, supporting technical assistance programs for ministries of health and finance. Jessica holds an MBA with a focus in social impact and MS in Global Health Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She also holds a dual BS in Finance and Economics from the University of Rhode Island.

Olivia brings an analytic perspective to the design, implementation, and assessment of state health policy initiatives. Her work with FCG has focused primarily on the design and implementation of alternative payment models for state Medicaid programs that advance population health and health equity goals. She has experience designing Medicaid payment models across settings and populations, having worked on models for primary care, behavioral health, and long-term care providers and populations. Olivia brings expertise in data analysis and financial modeling to the design of payment models and programs, and to the implementation of these initiatives through state and federal budget and authority pathways. In addition to her work with state Medicaid programs, she has led Certificate of Need assessments and conducted research and modeling for State-based Exchanges seeking to understand the impact of federal actions and COVID-19-related effects on individual and small group health insurance markets. Olivia previously served as part of HealthSource RI’s implementation team, where she played a key role in the design and development of analytic tools to support operations and financial controls.

Prior to FCG, Olivia worked as a research assistant at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, providing research and analytic support to various projects at the intersection of public health, environmental sciences, and cultural studies. Olivia holds a BA in Sustainable Development and Anthropology from Columbia College.

Carson has worked in the healthcare industry in New England for nearly a decade.  She brings a breadth of experience with a particular focus on stakeholder engagement, business process improvement and its intersection with system design, and evaluation and revision of communication plans and training curriculums.

Carson has extensive experience bringing together interagency teams to collaborate where shared programs intersect, ensuring that all parties, including external stakeholders, have a voice in the conversation and producing recommendations that can accommodate all policy and operational needs of the group.

Her recent project work includes supporting a MassHealth ACO in strategic decisions and planning for the implementation of the MassHealth Primary Care ACO Contract. She also conducted an evaluation of a MassHealth ACO’s Community Partner (CP) program to support behavioral health integration and improved primary care partnerships to better serve populations with complex behavioral health care needs. Additionally, Carson has led multiple projects for RI EOHHS in the Long-Term Services and Supports arena, focused on business process redesign including identification of gaps in current processes, best practices research, developing recommended process improvements, and the documentation and communication of these changes to relevant stakeholders.

Carson’s FCG experience also includes facilitation of stakeholder meetings for the design of a maternity bundled payment program and the evaluation of the Person-Centered Medical Home Plus program in Connecticut. Additionally, Carson led a study of long-term acute care hospitals (LTACH) availability in the state of Rhode Island intended to inform decisions about building a new facility for patients in need of these services.

Carson’s prior experience includes over six years as a consultant with HealthSource RI (HSRI) where she was responsible for the exchange’s functional system design, focusing on operational preparedness for system changes.  In this role, she provided subject matter expertise to the HSRI team regarding systems and operations. She also oversaw the implementation of the training curriculum across all channels.

Carson holds an MBA in Organizational Leadership from Johnson & Wales University and a BA in English and Education from Drew University.

Lani Cooper has over 25 years of experience in health care operations, including over 8 years at FCG working on both the Operations and Strategy teams.  Her expertise includes working at the state and provider levels in the areas of operational program design and implementation, program assessment, process documentation and business process improvement.

Her work at FCG has included working with Rhode Island’s health insurance marketplace where she collaborated across state agencies and partners to ensure the successful design and implementation of customer facing business processes, systems, and workflows. She later spearheaded the design and implementation of the state’s Customer Resolution Team.

Since joining the Strategy team in 2018, Lani has worked with multiple FCG clients to assess current programs, operationalize new policy initiatives, and design business process improvements. Most recently she worked on the implementation of Rhode Island’s new tiered rate structure for Assisted Living Residence Payments and supported the operational planning for RI’s Long-Term Services and Supports rebalancing initiatives.

Prior to joining FCG, Lani was responsible for new program development at the VNA of Care New England and managed the insurance processing operations of Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Lani has held management and operational positions at several other academic medical centers including Georgetown Hospital in Washington, DC, and Children’s Hospital in Boston. She holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a BA from Hamilton College.

Ryan Driscoll brings to the FCG team a background in health policy research on access to care and population health as well as experience in the design of state policy and programs. Most recently, Ryan has managed a project to conduct an equity study across 23 state executive branch agencies to identify any patterns of discrimination, inequality, or disparities in outcomes for underserved populations and make recommendations for improvement. Other recent project work includes the design of business processes and knowledge management to support the escalation team at a state health exchange; the development of a value-based payment methodology for Medicare-Medicaid Program (MMP) members; the development of health equity benchmarks for a Medicaid ACO; and the design of a statewide behavioral health initiative to address challenges of treatment access, equity, workforce capacity, and integration of substance use and mental health care.

Prior to FCG, Ryan worked for Vanderbilt University’s Department of Health Policy where they supported research on safety-net hospital financing and co-authored multiple publications on the impacts of policy on access to care measures, especially with regard to LGBTQ health disparities. Ryan has also consulted on several state-level health equity initiatives and programs, including working with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to transition to a state-based marketplace and with the CDC and the Louisiana Department of Public Health to improve access to expedited partner therapy for LGBTQ populations. Ryan holds an MPH in Health Policy from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BA in Government and Biology from Claremont McKenna College.

Jessie Hole has been a project leader and manager in healthcare operations for over 10 years, working with clients to develop, implement and improve health and human services and programs. Since joining FCG in 2021, Jessie’s work has focused on both building FCG’s project management expertise and toolkits across all clients and providing direct project management support for HealthSource RI for key initiatives, including oversight of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Medicaid unwinding, and QHP auto-enrollment.

Prior to Faulkner Consulting Group, Jessie was a Senior Consultant at Freedman HealthCare where she supported many departments under the Rhode Executive Office of Health and Human Services. As part of this work, Jessie was operational lead for the development and implementation of EOHHS’ Data Ecosystem, an integrated administrative and claims data system aimed to improve agency performance and operational analytics, quality improvement, and data-informed decision making for the State. Over the years, Jessie also led several technical assessments, strategic planning projects, and large-scale qualitative analytic projects for Rhode Island as well as other states and clients.

Earlier in her career, Jessie worked at Sachs Policy Group in New York City where she led financial and technical projects for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and supported client’s strategic planning for health care policy changes. Preceding this, Ms. Hole was a Program Officer for Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national community development investment fund. Jessie holds a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a master’s degree in public policy from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Kristin Larson brings a strong background in public policy analysis, project management, state and federal grants management, and regulatory compliance to her work with FCG. For FCG, Kristin recently led the qualitiative and quantative research effort for the State of Connecticut Equity Study and drafted the final report in conjunction with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. She also supported the development of an evaluation plan to measure the outcomes of an innovative pay-for-success permanent supportive housing program in Rhode Island, including the methodology for measuring housing stability, health care utilization, and justice involvement.

Prior to FCG, Kristin wrote and directed grants for K-12 schools and nonprofit organizations, with a particular focus on developing new innovative programs to support mental health and wellness, social and emotional learning, and trauma-informed practices in education. Kristin was also a senior project manager for RETEC/RPM Systems Group, supporting energy, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical companies in the design of environmental, health, and safety information systems and communicating the business value of sustainability initiatives. Prior to that work, Kristin conducted policy research on the use of risk assessment in state regulatory reform initiatives for the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. She started her career as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate.

Kristin has an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA in Public Policy from the College of William and Mary.

Tricia Leddy has over 35 years of experience in healthcare policy and state government healthcare program development and implementation. Tricia has been with FCG for the last seven years, assisting states and health systems in the areas of DSRIP, 1115 and 1332 waivers; health policy options; and cost allocation and financing for Medicaid, state Marketplaces, Medicaid HI TECH projects and state-owned hospitals. Prior to FCG, she did similar work for the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) for 2 years.

Before her consulting career, Tricia had an extensive career in state government. She served as Deputy Director of HealthSource RI and held several senior positions in policy and planning for Rhode Island’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). Projects she led at EOHHS included development of a statewide All Payer Claims Database, development of statewide health system performance measurement, the Medicare All Payer Medical Home Demonstration, and hospital mergers. Tricia served as the Director of RIte Care, RI’s nationally recognized Medicaid managed care program and one of the first 1115 waivers in the country, from its inception in 1994 to 2006. She designed and directed RIteShare, a premium assistance program to help Medicaid eligible families get health insurance through their employers, and RIte Smiles, now a nationally recognized managed dental care program, for Medicaid/RIte Care-enrolled children. Tricia held a position as a Teaching Associate in the Department of Community Health at the Brown School of Public Health where she helped develop a graduate fellowship partnership between Brown and the RI Medicaid program. Among many awards, Governing Magazine named her Public Official of the Year in 2004.

Ryan Nguyen brings a strong background in health policy research including Medicare post-acute care quality measurement and quality improvement to his work at FCG. Most recently, Ryan has provided project management support to a MassHealth ACO in implementing new 1115 demonstration waiver programmatic requirements, which involved the design and refinement of business processes and workflows. For multiple clients, he has conducted comprehensive research on health policy topics including Medicaid unwinding and the MassHealth Demonstration Waiver. Additional projects include the development and implementation of a statewide behavioral health initiative to address challenges related to workforce capacity, access to behavioral health services, and health inequity.

Prior to FCG, Ryan worked as a Public Health Analyst at RTI International where he supported CMS projects, including the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program as well as an initiative to reduce avoidable hospitalizations among nursing facility residents. While attending graduate school, Ryan worked with Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, a non-profit measurement and reporting organization, where he integrated a health equity lens into the organization’s clinical care guidelines. Ryan holds an MPH in Health Policy from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BSPH in Health Policy and Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Grant Porter’s expertise includes five years of academic work in quantitative analytics and healthcare policy research as well as over ten years of professional healthcare-related experience in policy development, strategic planning, forecasting, analytics and reporting, and budgeting/auditing oversight. For each task, Grant provides his clients with a unique complement of technical proficiency with relational databases (including Oracle SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and P/L SQL), a demonstrated facility with applied analytics and financial modeling, and substantive health policy expertise.

Grant has provided direct support to the Rhode Island Office of Health & Human Services and Office of Management and Budget since 2014 and the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance since 2023. In these capacities, Grant has been responsible for a variety of business critical projects, including financial oversight of managed care products, redesigning the state’s Medicaid caseload forecasting methodology, improving the efficiency of how the state staff approaches general analytic requests, and developing innovative business models to enable and support state budgetary targets. He is a principal author of a report and model establishing a national standard for the development of underwriting margins for Medicaid managed care. This project was sponsored by the Society of Actuaries and published in Summer 2022. A refresh of the model was sponsored in Fall 2023 and is anticipated to be published in Spring 2024.

Grant holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Quantitative Methods from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Science from Yale College. His research used game theory as a lens for interpreting the political history of Medicaid and how states leveraged federal financial participation to support state policy agendas.

Maayan Rosenfield brings a background in analytics, behavioral health and healthcare policy and a passion for improving healthcare for high-risk populations.

At FCG, Maayan has supported the development of a plan for CMS in Rhode Island to transition dual-eligibles from a Medicare-Medicaid Plan to an integrated dual-eligible special needs plan. She designed the stakeholder engagement plan to collaborate with community members on the upcoming changes. She also supported analysis of stakeholder engagement towards improving Medicaid primary care in Connecticut.

Prior to working at FCG she interned with EOHHS, where she supported stakeholder meetings and compiled data towards designing a new Child Behavioral Healthcare plan for the state. She holds an MPH in Epidemiology from the Brown University School of Public Health, where her thesis focused on the intersection of substance use, mental illness, and chronic pain.

Angela Sherwin joined FCG as a Managing Director bringing her deep experience and expertise in designing, building, implementing, and evaluating health policy and population health programs. Since joining FCG in 2020, Angela has led several studies for state government, including analyzing Rhode Island’s behavioral health care system capacity constraints, identifying opportunities for each Connecticut executive branch agency to advance equity for the Connecticut residents they serve, and documenting lessons learned from the COVID-19 response for Rhode Island’s Department of Health. Angela has also directly supported client programs and operations, including providing oversight to Rhode Island Department of Health’s procurement efforts for the COVID-19 response, managing a team for HealthSource RI, and working with provider operations teams to improve workflows and efficiency in healthcare delivery.

Angela previously served as President of Population Health for Steward Health Care Network, where she led the division that delivers population health services to Steward’s accountable care programs and its Medicaid Managed Care plan. She oversaw clinical and performance operations, quality, data/analytics, information technology, and member/provider services. Prior to this role, Angela designed and implemented Steward’s first Medicaid Accountable Care program in Massachusetts which successfully saved nearly 3% in total medical expense in its first year, and she scaled nationwide ACO operations as Steward grew from a Massachusetts health care system to become the largest private, physician-led health care network in the United States.

Prior to her tenure at Steward, Angela was Assistant Director of HealthSource RI, Rhode Island’s health insurance marketplace, where she was responsible for designing and developing operations, fostering relationships with federal and state agencies, and engaging target audiences in public dialogue about health reform. Leading up to HealthSource RI’s establishment, she led Exchange planning and implementation efforts on behalf of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, including leading grant submissions that resulted in Rhode Island receiving nearly $90 million in federal funds to support HealthSource RI’s start-up. Angela also served as the Program Director for Brown University’s Master of Healthcare Leadership program, a 16-month degree program that prepares executives, clinicians, and senior leaders to transform healthcare.

Angela was named to Providence Business News’ “Forty Under 40” professionals in 2014. Angela holds a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Ethics and Master of Public Health, both from Brown University, and a certificate in Climate Change and Health from Yale School of Public Health.

Min Tunkel brings a well-rounded background in mathematics and analytical work to FCG. Min uses their proficiency in data analysis and research to aid FCG in the business model development, literature review, and quantitative investigation. Their past projects include a data-driven review of the behavioral health system in Rhode Island as well as development of a dashboard to track progress around the Healthy Communities Transformation Initiative (HCTI). Previously, Min focused their work on the physical sciences, including a quantitative research internship at the Mount Washington Observatory in the White Mountains, NH. Min holds a BA in Astronomy from Brown University with a double major in Mathematics and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University.