Staff

Wendy Nickel, MPH

President

Wendy Nickel was appointed President of the Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF) in 2020. In this role, Wendy leads regional healthcare initiatives focused on improving the safety, outcomes, and care… Read more

Pamela A. Braun, BSN, MSN
Vice President, Clinical Improvement

Pam Braun joined HCIF in 2008 and currently serves as Vice President, Clinical Improvement. She leads patient safety initiatives funded by the Partnership for Patient Care… Read more

Susan Choi, PhD, CPHQ
Senior Director, Population Health

Since joining HCIF in 2012, Susan has directed learning collaboratives addressing a variety of topics, including health literacy, palliative care, and early identification management of hypertension and diabetes. Read more

Susan Cosgrove, MPA, CPHQ
Director, Health Literacy

Susan Cosgrove joined HCIF in 2013 and currently leads HCIF’s regional and statewide health literacy initiatives, building capacity to improve health literacy in Pennsylvania through programming… Read more

Barbara Cowden, MBA
Manager, Grants and Contracts

Barbara Cowden joined HCIF in 2008.  She is responsible for managing the financial and regulatory areas of grant awards and contracts.  In addition, she manages general financial functions including the annual audit and organizational… Read more

Claudette Fonshell, MSN, RN

Director, Clinical Improvement 

After a 22-year career in clinical nursing, infection control, and patient safety, Claudette Fonshell joined HCIF in 2013.  In her role as Director, Clinical Improvement, she supports HCIF initiatives including the Pennsylvania Urologic Regional Collaborative… Read more

Jibreel Oliver, CHES

Project Coordinator

Jibreel joined HCIF in June of 2019 as a Project Coordinator, supporting a variety of health literacy and population health initiatives that prioritize empowering patients, educating providers…  Read more

Liz Owens, M.S.

Project Manager

Liz Owens joined HCIF in March of 2017 as Project Coordinator and since then has been promoted to Project Manager. In this position, Liz supports the Partnership for Patient… Read more

Kelsey Salazar, MPH

Project Manager

Kelsey joined HCIF in 2017 as a project manager supporting several population health initiatives. These projects engage area health systems in identifying and addressing… Read more

Kaynaat Syed, MHA

Project Manager

Kaynaat joined HCIF in August of 2019 as a Clinical Registry Project Manager. In this role she supports the Pennsylvania Urology Regional Collaborative (PURC), a quality improvement initiative that.. Read more

Cassidy Tarullo

Administrative Coordinator

Cassidy Tarullo joined our team in September of 2019 as our new Administrative Coordinator, providing administrative and event support to our HCIF team. In addition, Cassidy provides project support for CPR Ready... Read more