Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation

Board on Health Care Services

Project Staff Bios

Cassandra Cacace, B.S., has recently joined the IOM as a Senior Program Assistant on the Board on Health Care Services to assist on the Committee on Resident Schedules and Patient Safety as well as assist on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation Forum.  She will provide administrative support to the teams, as well as logistical support for all committee and forum meetings.  Prior to the IOM, Cassandra worked as a research associate at Oxford Outcomes, a health care consulting firm, where she performed outcomes research on a variety of health conditions.  She graduated from the George Washington University in 2006 with a B.S. in Public Health.

Samantha M. Chao, M.P.H., a Senior Health Policy Associate at the Institute of Medicine, is the director of the Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation. Before that she staffed Pathways to Quality Health Care, a 2-year IOM project that comprised three reports. The Pathways series includes a review of performance measures to analyze health care delivery, an evaluation of Medicare’s Quality Improvement Organization Program, and an assessment of pay for performance and its potential role in Medicare. Prior to joining the IOM, she completed a master’s degree in health policy with a concentration in management at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. As part of her studies, she interned with the American Heart Association, where she helped develop the association’s position on pay for performance. She also worked with the Michigan Department of Community Health to promote the study of chronic disease and disease prevention.

Roger C. Herdman, M.D., born in Boston, MA, Phillips Exeter Academy, 1951; Yale University, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, BS, 1955; Yale University School of Medicine, MD, 1958. Interned at the University of Minnesota. Medical Officer, US Navy, 1959-61. Thereafter, completed a residency in pediatrics and continued with a medical fellowship in immunology/nephrology at Minnesota. Held positions of Assistant Professor and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and the Albany Medical College between 1966-1979. In 1969, appointed Director of the New York State Kidney Disease Institute in Albany. During 1969-1977 served as Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health responsible for research, departmental health care facilities and the Medicaid program at various times. In 1977, named New York State’s Director of Public Health. From 1979 until joining the US Congress’s Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was a Vice President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In 1983, named Assistant Director of OTA and then Acting Director and Director from January 1993-February 1996. After the closure of OTA, joined the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine as a Senior Scholar, and subsequently served as Director of the National Cancer Policy Board and the National Cancer Policy Forum. He is now the Director of the Board on Health Care Services.