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Quality Staff
Rodel Alfonso RN, BSN
Stroke Center Quality Coordinator
Rodel is a bilingual nursing graduate with honors who has experience in ER, ICU, and Neurosurgery health care. He works as a nursing staff in Riyadh Military Hospital Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Rodel works collaboratively with physician, nurses, and the interdisciplinary teams to provide professional, clinical nursing skills and expertise required for the provision and continuity of Stroke Center.
Margaret (Meg) Armbruster, RN, MSN, ONC
Director Licensing, Accreditation & Policy
Meg’s back ground includes 26 years of nursing experience including ED trauma, Orthopaedics, and leadership. She received her MSN from UCLA and her areas of interest include health care accreditation and policy in relation to patient safety.
Tod Barry, CPHQ, RRT, MBA
Manager of Patient Safety
Tod’s background includes over 20 years experience in health care quality and patient safety as Director of Quality at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Tri-City Medical Center, and Queen of the Valley Medical Center. He is a Registered Respiratory Therapist and a Certified Just Culture Facilitator. In addition, Tod is on the California Hospital Association’s Executive Committee for Health Care Quality.
Catherine Bass, MHA
Quality Project Coordinator
Catherine joined UCLA Health System as the Administrative Fellow in summer 2011 after receiving her Master in Health Administration from Saint Louis University. During her fellowship, her project work centered on the management of new quality initiatives and UCLA’s five-year Delivery System Reform Incentive Pool (DSRIP) project. Prior to working at UCLA she completed her Administrative Internship at St. John Health System in Tulsa, OK and interned during graduate school in the Planning and Business Development Department at St. Louis Children's Hospital. After her fellowship, she joined the Quality Management Services department at UCLA serving the role of Quality Project Coordinator for the Health System.
Geri Braddock, RN, BSN, PHN, CIC
Clinical Epidemiologist
Geri’s background includes being an Infection Prevention consultant in Hospitals, clinics and out-patient settings for over 30 years. Her nursing experience includes Intensive care, neurology and nursing management. She was a board member for the Greater Los Angeles Association for Practitioners in Infection Control (APIC) group for over 20 years in various positions, including President. She developed an LA County-wide mentor program for new infection Prevention practitioners and has been a guest speaker on Infection prevention topics to local, State and National conferences, as well as TV and media interviews. Geri has participated in OSHA hearings on Tuberculosis and other California State healthcare initiatives.
Brandy Bryant, MPH
Antimicrobial Stewardship Project Manager
Brandy is the Antimicrobial Stewardship Project Manager for RRUMC and SMH and received her Master’s in Public Health in Health Services Management from the UCLA in 2011. Her background focuses on basic science from her work in the Department of Human Genetics at UCLA and includes fund management, grant management, and purchasing. She was previously the project coordinator for a multi-institutional NIH U24, the NIH Neuroscience Microarray Consortium.
Hallie Rose Chung, RN
Surgical Quality Specialist/NSQIP Coordinator
Hallie began her nursing career with the UCLA Health System at Ronald Reagan Hospital in the Neuroscience/Trauma Intensive Care Unit. With her extensive knowledge of stroke, Hallie also worked as a research coordinator for the FAST-MAG (Field Administration of Stroke Therapy – Magnesium) Clinical Trial. In addition, Hallie has experience in Surgical Care as a circulating and scrub nurse throughout the many Operating Rooms within the UCLA Health System. Hallie’s combined knowledge of clinical care and research was a perfect fit for the Department of Quality Management and she was hired as the first American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) coordinator for the UCLA Health System in January 2012. ACS NSQIP is the leading nationally validated, risk-adjusted, outcomes-based program to measure and improve the quality of surgical care.
Brenda Clemens, RN, BHA, CPHQ
Director of Quality & Patient Safety
Brenda has been actively involved in and devoted to improving the quality and safety of patient care for more than 20 years. She facilitates the implementation of evidence based practice, compliance with regulatory requirements and continuous improvement of systems and processes through the use of Lean/Six Sigma tools and promoting a team approach. Brenda assures all decisions are based on what is in the best interest of the patient.
Gina Floyd
Administrative Assistant
Gina has over 15 years experience working as an Executive Assistant in the entertainment, healthcare and information technology fields. Gina also has over 10 years experience working in meeting/event planning leading several conferences, workshops and network meetings. She has certification in Meeting/Event Planning and Project Management from Cal State Dominguez Hills. Gina joined UCLA Health System in 2010.
Kathleen Fragola, RN, CPHQ
Quality Management Specialist
Kathleen began her journey in healthcare as a Registered Nurse in 1983 working both in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Prior to joining the UCLA family, Kathleen worked in the Labor and Delivery Unit at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Kathleen joined the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital in 1990 as a Clinical Nurse III and preceptor. Her passion for healthcare quality led her to join the Quality Management team in 1997, after which she received her certification in healthcare quality in 1998.
Gelila Gizaw, RN
Clinical Epidemiologist
Gelila has been a registered nurse for over 12 years. Her experience includes working in the acute care hospital setting as well as in the public health sector in the San Francisco area. She has extensive knowledge in the areas of acute communicable disease control, prevention of infectious diseases, epidemiology, disease surveillance methodologies, principles of outbreak management, and intervention strategies. Her passion for infection prevention comes from her life experience growing up in a developing county. She firmly believes that most infectious diseases are preventable.
Lisa Granger, RN, MBA
Quality Management Specialist
Lisa’s professional experience includes quality management, nursing management, health plan experience, and clinical research. Lisa joined the Santa Monica Quality Management Department in November 2011 with over 6 years of QM experience. Prior to working at UCLA, Lisa worked as an independent QM contractor at various hospitals throughout Los Angeles. She also worked at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica for over 10 years and participated in a variety of research-based quality of care studies. Lisa is currently the Lead for Core Measures and also focuses on Hospital-Acquired Conditions and is participating on several CareConnect teams. Lisa is preparing for the examination to become a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ).
Carol Lee, RN
SCIP Coordinator & Surgical Quality Specialist
Carol began her career in nursing specializing in critical care in the Neuroscience/Trauma ICU at UCLA. Her development of performance improvement projects help increase performance in patient safety measures, patient satisfaction, work flow efficiency, and staff education. Carol also implemented plans for hospital survey preparedness and mentored new graduate nurses. Carol joined the Department of Quality Management in 2012 and has been working on surgical quality initiatives, such as SCIP, to help improve the quality of patient care and safety in all surgical areas.
David McKelvey
Administrative Resident
David is a third-year student in the Graduate Program of Health Services Administration at Xavier University. He completed the didactic portion of his MHSA in May of 2012 and is currently an administrative resident in our department working with preceptor Tod Barry. David’s interests include preventive health, reimbursement, HIT, process improvement, and strategic planning.
Denise (Niki) Miles, RN
Quality Management Specialist
Denise started her quality career in 1999 conducting site and medical record reviews for a managed care company. She went on to become a Department of Health Services Certified Reviewer in 2002. Denise was able to use her auditing skills to assist in Clinical Research Studies for Cancer Research. Since 2006, Denise has reviewed records for all Core Measures.
Kathy Morreale, RN, BSN
Surgical Quality Specialist
After a long career of patient care Nursing, Medical Coding, and Quality Management Specialist duties at another neighboring hospital, Kathy joined the UCLA Quality Management Department in November 2011 as a Surgical Quality Specialist with emphasis as the RR SCIP RN. Her responsibilities include ensuring the time sensitive SCIP Core Measures are met and accounts abstracted for validation. Working to ensure superior quality patient care and accurate documentation has always been a priority.
Dana Russell, MPH, CIC
Clinical Epidemiologist
Dana’s diverse background includes basic research in veterinary science, immunology, and molecular biology. Dana received a Master’s in Public Health degree in Epidemiology from UCLA in 2005. From 2005-2010, Dana worked as an Operations Manager supporting oncology clinical trials at local biotech company Amgen. Dana joined UCLA Clinical Epidemiology in 2010 and has since become certified in Infection Control. Dana’s areas of interest include critical care and device-associated infections.
Anet Sinanyan, MHA, CPHQ
Patient Safety Coordinator
Anet earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychobiology from UCLA in 2006. She later went on to earning a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from USC in 2010. Anet completed her administrative residency at Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, after which she worked as a Decision Support Analyst for the departments of Quality Management and Infection Prevention. Her interest and enthusiasm for healthcare quality and patient safety led her to become certified in healthcare quality. Anet joined the UCLA family in March 2012 as the Patient Safety Coordinator for the Santa Monica campus.
Susan Michalak, RN
Quality Coordinator
Susan has 17 years of experience in Leadership including Nursing, Laboratory, and Quality Management. In addition, she has 15 years of experience in Critical Care Nursing and was a Forensic Analyst for 4 years. She collaborated to implement the Rapid Response System and is involved in Sepsis abstraction. In addition, Sue currently works on Hospital-Acquired Conditions/Patient Safety Indicator reviews and many other Quality initiatives.
Loretta So, MSN, RN, CGRN
Quality and Patient Safety Specialist
Loretta brings along with her clinical, analytical and administrative experiences and joined the Ronald Reagan UCLA Quality Management team in 2008. Loretta has been participating and leading the efforts in performance improvement and FMEA projects in Ronald Reagan & Santa Monica UCLA Medical Centers and is currently serving as a member in the New EVR System Steering Committee of UCOP. Loretta received the degree of Master of Science in Nursing Administration from UCLA in 2011 and is now perusing a PhD degree at UCLA, with research concentration in Culture of Safety in Healthcare, promoting better patient outcomes and experiences.
Alisa Trout, RN
SSI Prevention Coordinator
Alisa spent numerous years in oncology research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute. A graduate of Texas Christian University, where she earned her BSN, Alisa has also worked at hospitals across the country in numerous settings, including the operating room and post-surgical units. Alisa works in areas throughout UCLA Health System with staff at all levels and leadership to identify best practices for minimizing surgical site infections.
Daniel Z. Uslan, MD
Director, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program for the UCLA Health System
Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine
He has a longstanding interest in antibiotic utilization, benchmarking, and optimization. Dr. Uslan directs the antibiotic oversight program for the UCLA Health System. His research is on antibiotic use, medical device infections including pacemaker infections, and epidemiology of infections. Dr. Uslan's clinical interests include bloodstream infections, surgical infections, endocarditis and other cardiovascular infections, and neurological infections.
Dr. Uslan received his medical degree from University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He also earned an M.S. in Biotechnology from Northwestern University. Dr. Uslan completed his internship, residency, and Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has numerous presentations and publications to his credit.
Deborah Winograd, RN
Manager, Surgical Quality
Deborah began her healthcare career in the U.S. Navy where she served aboard ship and infantry trauma units overseas. After six years of active duty service, she transitioned to civilian healthcare working in long term care and emergency medicine. Deborah joined UCLA in 2007 as a clinical nurse in the Neuro/Trauma ICU and she later worked as a surgical case manager and ER case manager. Deborah’s interests include surgical safety, infection prevention and healthcare culture.
