Leadership

Joseph P. Ross

President and Chief Executive Officer
Meritus Health

Joseph P. Ross began as president and CEO in April 2011. He has more than 40 years of experience in the health care industry, including serving as president and CEO of Shore Health System of Maryland in Easton, Md., and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis. He is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives or FACHE, a member of the executive committee of the Maryland Hospital Association and a founding board member of Trivergent Health Alliance along with the CEOs of both Frederick Regional Health System and Western Maryland Health System. He holds a master’s degree in hospital and health system administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Carolyn Simonsen

Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Compliance Officer

Carolyn Simonson is vice president and chief administrative officer and also serves as the organization’s chief compliance officer. She is a nurse attorney with more than 30 years of health care experience in law, quality improvement, case and risk management, cardiac rehabilitation and critical care nursing. She was previously vice president of quality and care management at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., and also served in the Navy Nurse Corps. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, Health Care Compliance Association and the American Health Lawyers Association.

Thomas T. Chan

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thomas T. Chan serves as the chief financial officer or CFO. He began his health care career with KPMG and has 15 years of experience in Maryland’s health care rate setting system. He was previously vice president of finance management at Adventist HealthCare in Montgomery County, Md., and vice president and chief financial officer of Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Md. He serves on the boards of Trivergent Health Alliance and the Washington County Chamber of Commerce. He has bachelor’s degrees in economics and business administration from the University of Washington in Seattle, and completed his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Amy J. Dilcher

Vice President and General Counsel

Amy Dilcher provides in-house legal counsel to the organization, having served previously as associate counsel in the office of the general counsel at the University of Maryland Medical System Corporation in Baltimore, Md., and as an associate for Proskauer Rose LLP in Washington, D.C., representing long-term care providers. Prior to her positions in law, she was a registered nurse at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center in Texas, and Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. She received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

A. Lee Shaver Jr.

Vice President, Professional Support Services

Lee Shaver oversees organizational, professional, support services, including clinical and facilities engineering, durable medical equipment, environmental, home health, imaging, mail, nutrition, patient transport, rehabilitation, respiratory therapy, patient transport and security. He is the service liaison for three areas of the Trivergent Health Alliance Managed Services Organization - supply chain operations, laboratory services and inpatient pharmacy services. He was previously the chief of operations and programming for the Air Force Medical Operations Agency in Ft. Detrick, Md., and holds a master’s degree in health care administration from Baylor University in Texas. He is also a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives or FACHE.

Melanie M. Heuston, D.N.P.

Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

Melanie M. Heuston, D.N.P., RN, is vice president and chief nursing officer or CNO. She most recently served as director of nursing at UPMC Passavant in Pittsburgh, Pa., where she led a team of more than 800 nurses and co-led the Magnet® journey. In addition, she taught graduate-level nursing students and served as preceptor for clinical experiences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing where she also received her doctorate in nursing practice and her master’s degree in nursing. She completed her doctoral residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ill. She is a certified nurse executive and holds a certificate in the Fundamentals of Magnet®.

Carrie Adams, Pharm.D.

Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer

Carrie Adams, Pharm.D., is vice president and chief transformation officer or CTO, overseeing operations improvement, clinical informatics and the new electronic health record or EHR conversion. Previously, she was the corporate director of pharmacy services at Trivergent Health Alliance Managed Services Organization, in which Meritus is an affiliated partner. There, she successfully aligned and implemented best practice pharmacy models and led drug utilization initiatives for a cumulative, three-year savings of $11 million. She completed her doctorate at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., and her bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. She is also certified as a green belt in Six Sigma.

W. Jason Cole

Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Jason Cole is the vice president and chief information officer or CIO, responsible for all information technology for the organization. Previously, he served as senior director/CIO at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., a part of Johns Hopkins Medicine Health System. He also served as senior leader of information technology for Johns Hopkins Community Physicians with 42 ambulatory locations. Additionally, he held several key positions at MedStar, affording him vast exposure to hundreds of application and infrastructure projects across MedStar hospitals. He began his career in technology at two large finance companies, Bank of America and MBNA Financial and earned his bachelor’s degree from York College of Pennsylvania.

Douglas A. Spotts, M.D.

Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer

Douglas A. Spotts, M.D., FAAFP, is the organization’s first chief population health officer. Dr. Spotts is responsible for population and community health and wellness for the system’s accountable care organization or ACO and oversees Meritus Medical Group operations and clinical leadership for the 100 providers in the practices. Dr. Spotts has 25 years of experience leading medical operations for health care organizations, most recently serving as chief health information officer for the Evangelical Medical Services Organization in Lewisburg, Pa. He is board certified in family medicine and received his medical degree from The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. He is a fellow and president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation or AAFP-F and a member of the American Association of Physician Leadership.

Donald C. Thomas III, M.D.

Interim Chief Medical Officer

Donald C. Thomas III, M.D., is currently serving as the interim chief medical officer or CMO. He received his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., after completing undergraduate work at Harvard College at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He has served in numerous leadership roles as part of consulting companies for nearly three decades, including president and CEO, CMO, senior medical advisor and chief of staff. He is the founding director of the District of Columbia General Hospital’s emergency and trauma center and served as a supervisory instructor in the district’s fire department emergency medical services or EMS academy.