Healthcare Industry Advisory Board


Michigan State University’s Master of Science in Healthcare Management (MS HCM) Program incorporates the professional knowledge of healthcare industry experts through the MS HCM Industry Advisory Board. Comprised of healthcare and insurance professionals, the MS HCM Industry Advisory Board members serve as ambassadors for the program to the broader community and as advisors to program leaders, faculty and students. 

With an overall commitment to improving the healthcare industry, Board members provide career insights and a real-world perspective to students, program improvement advice to faculty, advise program leaders regarding access to high-quality healthcare education and actively engage in philanthropic and scholarship support of the program and its students.

Meet the MS HCM Advisory Board Members

Doug Dascenzo, MSN, RN, CENP is a healthcare executive who serves in the roles of Chief Nursing Officer and President of the Michigan Organization of Nurse Leaders and Kappa Iota Chapter of Sigma. He has attained certification in executive nursing practice by the American Organization of Nursing Leadership. He is also an active member of the Board of Visitors at Oakland University School of Nursing and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Goran Jurkovic is President and CEO of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Previously, he served as COO and CFO responsible for the financial operations of Delta Dental of Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio, as well as the position of Chief Risk Officer, developing a comprehensive enterprise risk management program.

Before joining Delta Dental, Jurkovic was an audit associate with Plante Moran, PLLC, a public accounting firm headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. He is a certified public accountant and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP). 

A proud Spartan, Jurkovic holds a BS in Accounting from Michigan State University.

Brian Peters holds the position of CEO at the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA), one of the nation’s largest state hospital associations. His responsibilities include executive leadership of the MHA Health Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit entity, as well as the MHA Service Corporation, which provides fee-based services to the healthcare field. 

In his 30 years with the MHA, Brian has served as the Executive Vice President, and the Senior Vice President of Advocacy. He has also served as the association’s director of the Legislative Policy Panel, the Business Advisory Council, the Council of Physicians, the Council on Small or Rural Hospitals, and the Council on Osteopathic Health Care. 

Brian serves on the MHA Board of Trustees, the MHA Health Foundation Board, the MHA Keystone Center Board and the MHA Service Corporation Board. He is a member of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Regional Policy Board (Region 5) and serves as the Chairman for the State Issues Forum Steering Committee. He is a member of the American Hospital Association Political Action Committee (AHAPAC), Board of Directors and a member of the State Hospital Association Executive Forum (SHAEF). He also serves on the AHA Nova Award Selection Committee, the AHA Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) for Urban Hospital Sustainability. 

He currently serves on the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Board of Directors and Executive Committee, including the BCBSM Health Care Delivery Committee and Audit Committee. Brian is a board member of The Capitol Club.  Most recently, he was appointed by Governor Whitmer to serve on the Michigan 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and recently became an advisor and member of Michigan Economic Recovery Council (MERC), a council of senior health and business leaders formed to provide guidance to Governor Whitmer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian holds a Master’s Degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Michigan State University.

Kirk Ray, MBA, brings a wealth of health care leadership experience to his role as President and Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Greater Lansing. He leads McLaren Greater Lansing’s two current hospitals while overseeing the construction and opening of a new, state-of-the-art $600 million health care campus in Lansing. Ray is the Executive Sponsor of McLaren Greater Lansing’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and is an active member of the local community through his service with a number of organizations focusing on patient safety and quality, population health, and economic development.

Previously, Ray was the Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Health Network and has held President/CEO positions at ValleyCare Health System of Ohio, DeKalb Health in Indiana, St. Joseph Hospital and Select Specialty Hospital, both in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. 

Ray earned a Bachelor of Science from Ball State University and a Master of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. An active member of the Ball State University Alumni Association, he received the Ball State University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012.

Paula Reichle is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sparrow Health System, responsible for all financial service functions, supply chain management, executive oversight of Physicians Health Plan and Government Relations and Advocacy. She previously held financial leadership positions at the former Ingham Regional Medical Center (now McLaren Greater Lansing) and was an executive in the financial services industry.

A certified public accountant and proud Michigan State alumna, she has served on the Accounting Advisory Board for MSU, as well as Lansing Community College.

Reichle most recently served on the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) National Board of Directors. Reichle received her B.A. in Accounting from the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University and her MBA from Northwood University.

Read more from Paula Reichle.

Todd Van Tol is the Senior Vice President of Health Care Value for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM).  In that role, he has responsibility for provider contracting and network management, medical and pharmacy management as well as end-to-end management of the total cost and quality of care for individual and group customers.   

Previously, he led the plan’s Commercial Group business with responsibility for the Autos, Key & Large, Middle & Small Group, and Private Exchange lines of business.  

Prior to joining BCBSM in July of 2017, Todd served as a Partner and North American practice leader for the Health & Life Sciences business of Oliver Wyman where he led the firm’s efforts across Payer and Provider clients.  

Todd has held senior roles at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association as well as Bain & Company.  

Todd’s experience spans a broad range of strategic issues facing health plans and providers including market reform planning, customer strategy, building new value-based payer/provider partnership models, and the development of next generation product offerings.  He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BS from Michigan State University.

John Young is the Lead Physician Assistant of Cardiovascular Surgery at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan.    Before joining Beaumont Health in 2013, John was a Nuclear Medicine Technologist at MED-SHARE Diagnostics.  

John is a Past President of the Michigan Academy of Physician Assistants (MAPA), Lansing, Michigan and is the current Chairmen of the Communications Committee. Mr. Young has previously served on the board of directors of SEMATA, a nuclear medicine association in Michigan, and former board member of the South Oakland Family YMCA. 

John holds an MS in Medicine, Physician Assistant from Western Michigan University and a BS in Nuclear Medicine from Oakland University.


Previous Advisory Board Members

Tina Freese-Decker is the President and CEO of Spectrum Health and hasserved in various leadership roles within the organization, including Executive Vice President and COO, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer and President of Spectrum Health Hospital Group. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, Michigan State University and Spectrum Health Alliance and the Economic Club of Grand Rapids. (These are just a few, which is fine)

Her work has garnered her recognition as one of Modern Healthcare’s 2019 Top 25 Women Leaders, 2018 Top 25 COOs in Health Care, Managed Healthcare Executive’s 2018 Emerging Leaders, Crain’s Detroit Business Notable Women in Healthcare 2018, and American College of Healthcare Executives Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year 2013.

Freese-Decker holds a MHA and a MSIE from the University of Iowa.

Samuel Flanders, M.D. is Senior Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Beaumont Health, overseeing quality, patient safety, and infection prevention. He previously served as Executive Vice President of Quality, Safety and Clinical Effectiveness of Beaumont Health System. Prior to joining Beaumont Health System, Flanders was Senior Vice President of Medical Quality at Clarian Health Partners (now Indiana University Health) in Indianapolis. 

Flanders is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is the co‐founder of the Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana.

Flanders received his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed his residency in pediatrics at Methodist Hospital of Indiana. He also holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

M. Christine Gibbons is a co-founder of HistoSonics Inc., an Ann Arbor-based maker of ultrasonic medical devices to non-invasively destroy cancerous tumors. In her eight years with the company, Gibbons served as President and COO, as well as CEO. Previously, she served as CFO of Ann Arbor-based Sensicore Inc., a developer of smart sensor systems and sensor networks, and Vice President of Finance at Ardesta, a private equity and venture capital firm.

Currently, Gibbons is utilizing her industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience as an independent consultant, partnering with early stage company leadership teams to support growth and value enhancement by providing strategic planning and financial modeling services, clinical strategies and trial execution, finance and operations system development and implementation.

She holds an MBA from Wayne State University and a BA in Accounting from Michigan State University.