FTCA Deeming Application Clinic

Adam has over 25 years of experience in technology including 14 years performing consulting services in Health Information Privacy and Security. Adam is experienced in conducting a variety of security and compliance assessments in health information security against standards such as HIPAA, MARS-e, IRS, SOC2, and ISO 27001. This builds on his experience as a Software Developer, Systems Administrator, Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Operations Manager. Adam has held a CISSP certification since 2010 and has focused primarily on Health Information Privacy and Security Consulting since that time performing Security Risk Assessment and Compliance services for Healthcare organizations focused on meeting HIPAA and Meaningful Use requirements. Adam has a proven ability to address the most technical aspects of information security while maintaining an ability to translate complex issues to non-technical audiences.

Christine Callahan RN, MBA has over 22 years of operational healthcare experience and has successfully launched many start up physician practices in the PA/NJ/DE area over the past 10 years. Ms. Callahan’s past work experience includes working as a Director of Ambulatory Nursing for Pacificare [FHP] Health Plan located in southern California and Assistant to the Regional Executive Director for a staff model federally qualified HMO in the New England area. Chris attended Boston College School of Nursing where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and then went on to get her Masters in Business Administration in Virginia. Chris brings a great deal of operational experience to physician practices and health centers by targeting high risk areas to help promote high quality and safe patient care.

Cara Wzorek is program manager for ambulatory risk management services at ECRI and editor of Ambulatory Care Risk Management. She has been with ECRI’s Patient Safety, Risk, and Quality team for more than 18 years, the last 10 of which have been working with programs in support of health centers and free clinics on behalf of HRSA. As part of that program, Ms. Wzorek leads development of ECRI's webinars, toolkits, guidance documents, and outreach to federally qualified health centers, providing evidence-based recommendations for improving patient safety and reducing risk to providers in FQHCs. She has written and spoken on a wide variety of topics, ranging from test tracking and follow-up to drug diversion and workplace violence prevention. Ms. Wzorek holds a Master's degree from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA); she is also a medical writer certified™ (MWC).

Sylvia Garcia-Houchins is the Director, Infection Prevention and Control in the Division of Healthcare Improvement. In this role, she is responsible for the oversight of infection prevention and control for The Joint Commission.

Ms. Garcia-Houchins has over 30 years of experience in infection control in both hospital and long term care settings, as well as eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Most recently, she served as the Director, Infection Control at University of Chicago Medicine and was also an intermittent consultant for Joint Commission Resources for 10 years. Ms. Garcia-Houchins has provided infection prevention and control consultation, assessment and education in a variety of health care settings including hospitals, health clinics, ambulatory surgery, and dialysis centers both domestically and internationally. Her specialty areas of interest include disinfection and sterilization, dialysis, infection prevention during renovation and construction, and control of Legionella. One of the highlights of her career has been training health care professionals in Saudi Arabia as Infection Preventionists. She served as a test writer and reviewer for the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, and has also authored numerous articles and book chapters related to infection control including a chapter in the APIC Text and the Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization Chapter in The APIC/JCR Infection Prevention and Control Workbook, Third Edition.

Ms. Garcia-Houchins earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a master’s of business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and her nursing degree from Truman College.

Linda Burke MD, MS, FACOG is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians-Gynecologists, and has over 35 years of clinical experience.

Dr. Burke received her Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine, a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in clinical informatics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

She has worked relentlessly to reduce preventable stillbirths and maternal mortality throughout her professional career, including the National Health Service Corps, county health departments, community health centers, and on Native American reservations. In addition, she was an HRSA contractor for almost two decades as a subject expert and is quite adept at managing high-risk pregnancies and women with complex medical conditions.

She is a former member of ACOG District 12 Perinatal/Morbidity Committee, a volunteer Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, and the author of The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy prenatal book. In addition, she recently founded WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!), an online database directory of Black Obstetrician-Gynecologist physicians.

Dr. Burke is from Brooklyn, N.Y. but has lived in Florida for over two decades and is the mother of two sons who continue to make her proud.

Mary Christofferson is a senior attorney in the Claims and Employment Law Branch of the General Law Division. Before joining GLD as a staff attorney in 2014, Mary was a contractor for HRSA reviewing and assisting in revising Free Clinic applications as well as redeeming applications submitted by Community Health Centers seeking Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) coverage under the Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act (FSHCAA). At GLD, Mary focuses on tort cases involving the FTCA, FSHCAA, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as well as Waiver and TOUHY requests. Mary is admitted to the New York Bar and received her law degree from Albany Law School in upstate New York.

Sarah Creswell joined ECRI in February 2019 and currently serves as a patient safety, risk, and quality analyst and consultant. Her roles and responsibilities in this position include maintaining expertise in malpractice claims trends and other topics of interest to HRSA-funded health centers and free clinics and researching and writing content for guidance articles, webinars, conference presentations, toolkits, and self-assessment checklists. She is a registered nurse with over 17 years of healthcare experience in a multitude of settings including pharmacy, clinical laboratory, behavioral health, ambulatory care, medical-surgical nursing, and healthcare quality. Ms. Creswell previously served as patient safety coordinator and quality coordinator for health systems, where she supported safety and quality processes across medical, surgical, nursing, ancillary, and ambulatory departments. She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Ms. Creswell has written and presented on topics such as coordination of care transitions and the role of ambulatory nursing leadership in mammography screening.

Ms. Comerford is a licensed occupational therapist and certified healthcare compliance professional with 25 years’ experience. She has served in clinical and managerial roles across a variety of settings including inpatient rehabilitation, home care, subacute/long-term care, and schools. She has additionally written medical policy for a large regional provider of health insurance and served as an independent consultant providing compliance analysis, research and writing, data abstraction, accreditation survey support, and web-based education to small and mid-size healthcare organizations.

A senior patient safety and risk management analyst/consultant, Ms. Comerford joined ECRI in 2015. Since 2017, she has specialized in providing clinical risk management and patient safety services to federally qualified health centers and free clinics under the Health Resources and Services Administration-funded Clinical Risk Management Program. Ms. Comerford supports both a nationwide audience and individual clients; she also serves as an analyst for the ECRI and ISMP Patient Safety Organization. She is passionate about educating and supporting providers who care for vulnerable patients.

Matthew R. Streger is a paramedic and attorney with more than thirty-five years of EMS experience. Matthew is a Partner at the law firm of Keavney & Streger in New Jersey where he focuses his practice on the needs of EMS agencies and healthcare providers. He is the recipient of the 2018 New Jersey State Bar Association Health Law Distinguished Service Award, the 2012 Service to the Bar Award, and led his agency to the 2014 New Jersey EMS System of the Year Award. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is also a Principal at the consulting and education firm of EMSaegis, LLC.

Matthew has practiced law since 2006. He is a past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association Health Law Section and a past leader in the Young Lawyers Division. Matthew previously worked in EMS systems in New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Ohio. He served as the Executive Director of Mobile Health Services (EMS) at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey and the Deputy Commissioner of EMS in Cleveland. He was a member of the Panel of Commissioners for the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) from 2015 to 2020, and is a principal member of the CAAS 4.0 Standards Committee.

Matthew completed his Paramedic Training at the UMDNJ School of Health-Related Professions in Newark, New Jersey. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Master of Public Administration Degree from Clemson University, and a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Matthew actively serves as a Per-Diem EMT for the Cherry Hill Fire Department EMS in New Jersey.