Arif Akram
Arif Akram is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. He is an experienced management-consulting executive with extensive experience in driving strategic change encompassing business process and IT capabilities development within the HealthCare and Financial Services industries. He has successfully led multiple Program/Portfolio Management Offices and large/complex domestic and international initiatives focused on strategy formulation, reengineering, and implementations for new product development, e-business, e-CRM, supply chain, content/workflow management, and integration services. Arif holds his Bachelors of Science Degree in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology and is Six Sigma certified at the Executive and Green Belt levels.

Zaida Aronovsky, PMP
Zaida Aronovsky joined Freed & Associates in March 2005. She has significant experience in IT project management and systems implementations in healthcare and retail environments. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Zaida was a Director at Gap, Inc. where she established and managed the project management office for Infrastructure Services. Zaida also led process improvement efforts for the company. Earlier in her career, she worked as a project lead for numerous systems implementations, including clinical systems and CPOE, in the healthcare and mental health arenas. She has a solid foundation in system methodology and excels in communication. She holds a PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, and is PMP certified.

Kathy Berry
Kathy Berry joined Freed & Associates in 2006 as the Human Resources Manager. She comes to F&A with 20 years experience in the human resource field. Kathy is an experienced senior level human resources professional with generalist proficiencies and is PHR awarded. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Kathy was Director of Human Resources of iMind Education Systems. Kathy’s broad leadership experience includes Director of Operations for an internet company with a national and international financial services client base, and Director of Human Resources for a large general practice law firm. Kathy holds a BS in Education from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.

Leeann Brady
Leeann Brady joined Freed & Associates in 2000. She has over 17 years experience in hospital accounts receivables, IPA and hospital managed care contracting and collections. While at the firm, she has conducted accounts receivable reviews, managed the implementation of patient accounting and contracting systems, redesigned a collections department and identified and implemented billing and collections process improvements. She also has experience in policy and procedure development and user training. Leeann possesses strong negotiation and analytical skills and has worked with multiple patient accounting systems. She spent over eleven years at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley before joining Freed & Associates. Leeann has a BA in Social Science from the University of California Berkeley.

Pam Bruckert
Pam Bruckert joined Freed & Associates in 1999 as the Office Manager. She came to F&A with over 12 years administrative experience in a large Bay Area based medical center. Pam supports the major operational functions of the firm such as Administration, Finance, Human Resources, Benefits Administration, Telecom, Sales and Marketing. Pam also coordinates meetings and events. Prior to her tenure at the medical center, she worked for a large Bay Area based newspaper where she began as a clerk typist in the Advertising Department and advanced over her 15+ year career to Executive Assistant to the General Manager.

Brian Callahan
Brian P. Callahan began his career with Freed & Associates over 17 years ago and is a member of the executive management team. Brian began his career with the firm as an analyst and has subsequently held lead and management roles on a wide variety of implementation projects. Brian currently serves in an engagement management capacity providing oversight to project teams and liaison to clients. His experience includes program and project management for large healthcare delivery networks, health plans and software vendors. Internally, Brian manages the recruiting and selection process for the firm. Brian holds his Bachelor of Arts in History from California Polytechnic State University.

Patty Caplan
Patty Caplan started working for Freed & Associates in 1998 and has several years of healthcare program planning, policy and project management experience. Her consulting experience includes clinical and patient accounting systems implementations, team development and meeting facilitation, business process re-design and training program development. Prior to joining the firm, Patty earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern. Before earning her graduate degree, she was the Development Director at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center (MNHC) in San Francisco. Prior to working at MNHC, Patty was a Presidential Management intern working on public health issues for the Federal Government. Patty has a BA in History from Cornell University.

Joann Chen
Joann Chen joined Freed & Associates in 2007. Joann is an experienced team lead and systems integration analyst and has led diverse teams of internal and external resources through the requirements, design, development, and testing project phases. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Joann was an Enterprise Solutions Architect and Design Lead with Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts. Her career includes several years at Accenture working both nationally and internationally in their Global Architecture and Core Technologies Practice. Joann’s focus was on integration strategy and business process automation. Joann has worked with large insurance groups, domestic and foreign government organizations, and global communications firms. Joann holds a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Binghamton University.

Melvin Chung
Mel Chung joined Freed & Associates in 2004. He has more than 14 years of experience in system and project management. Mel’s background includes system and interface design, configuration and QA testing, business change management, process re-design, and performance measurement. Prior to joining Freed & Associates, he worked in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and high-tech fields. He holds in Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Mark Clifton
Mark Clifton is a contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Mark has 25+ years in healthcare industry experience. Prior to his current role with Freed & Associates, Mark was an independent consultant with MRConsulting. Mark has a diverse background in hospital administration, information technology (IT), software development, customer services and IT professional services. He specializes in IT turnaround activities, interim CIO management, strategic and tactical planning, and outsourcing/vendor selections and contract negotiations. In his career, he has worked with a number of organizations including free standing hospitals, health care systems, software developers, and major outsourcing providers. Mark Clifton holds a Masters in Public Administration, with an emphasis in healthcare administration, from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Linda Dorety
Linda Dorety joined Freed & Associates in 2006. She has over 25 years of experience in healthcare management and consulting. Linda has worked with hospitals, physician group practices, health plans, pharmaceutical distributors, and healthcare technology companies. Previous to joining Freed & Associates, Linda was the Director of Medical Services for Brown & Toland Medical Group. She has been an independent health care consultant and held management positions at Johns Hopkins HealthCare, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Health Alliance Medical Plans. Her consulting experience includes business process design, system design, project management and strategy development. Linda has the ability to manage client relationships and work effectively with client teams. She possesses strong leadership, analytical, facilitation, and communication skills.

Matt Dutton, PMP
Matt Dutton is a sub-contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Matt has 16 years of experience in portfolio/program management, project management offices (PMOs), operations management, system implementation lifecycles, information systems management, system and interface design/configuration/testing, system and business change management, business process re-design, performance measurement and business development. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, Matt was a Senior Manager with The TriZetto Group. He also spent nearly five years with Accenture’s (formerly Andersen Consulting, L.L.P.) Healthcare Change Management consulting division. In his career, he has worked with numerous health plans and providers across the country, as well as manufacturers and retailers, and focuses on large-scale system implementations and project management. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from UC Davis as well as his PMP certification from the Project Management Institute.

Robin Figueroa
Robin Figueroa joined Freed & Associates in 2006. Robin has experience in Information Systems implementation and upgrades, functional requirements development, testing, training, and preparation of department and end-user documentation. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Robin was IT Manager of Applications and Projects in a major hospital setting . In her career she has worked with both inpatient hospital and ambulatory urgent care organizations. Robin holds a BS in Business Administration from California State University, Hayward.

Dava Freed
Dava Freed is the CEO and President of Freed & Associates. Dava focuses on quality of services, partnering with clients and overseeing the management of the company. She started the firm in 1991 after spending 10 years with Accenture’s Northern California Health Care group. During her tenure, she conducted many projects and worked for a wide variety of health care providers, including University Medical Centers, Kaiser Permanente, and numerous not for profit hospitals and physician groups. She joined Accenture after graduating from the University of California Berkeley, where she received an MPH in corporate management. This program is now the Health Services program in the School of Business and Public Health, and emphasizes the organization and management of health care institutions. She is a member of Vistage and on the advisory council for Operation Access.

Elise Giancola
Elise Giancola is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. Elise has over 20 years experience in healthcare and technology strategy, product and process design and execution. Prior to her affiliation with Freed & Associates, Elise was Vice President, Innovation with a national a disease management company. She obtained significant experience with software design, focus groups, end-user testing processes, behavior change models, analytic and outcomes modeling. This compliments her experience at a major healthcare software development company which focused on configuration, customization and integration of a proprietary practice management system for a broad range of organizations, but mostly large integrated delivery networks. Her past experiences as a clinician at a state hospital and as clinic manager at a free medical clinic help to give her a unique perspective. Elise holds a Bachelors of Science from the State University of New York and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rebecca Grayson
Rebecca Grayson is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. Rebecca has over 20 years experience in the design, usability and implementation of Electronic Medical Records. Rebecca held the position of Usability and Design Manager in the development of an EMR for a teaching hospital with distributed ambulatory care centers and a regional hospital network. She also held a similar position with a major national HMO. In her career, Rebecca has accrued extensive systems implementation experience working with clinical end-users from requirements gathering and design through go-live; she has specialized expertise in ambulatory care systems and software usability. Rebecca holds a Computer Science degree from San Francisco State University; she also has completed master’s courses in Medical Informatics at UCSF and in Human Factors at the University of Idaho.

Hallie Holtzman
Hallie Holtzman is a contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Hallie has significant experience in healthcare network development, contracting, business development and program implementation. Prior to working with Freed & Associates Hallie was an independent consultant developing business and provider relations processes in a non-profit health plan environment. In her career, Hallie has worked at the Director-level for medical groups, hospitals, and health plans. Hallie holds an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley.

Nikki Iantuono
Nikki Iantuono has over 10 years experience in business planning, program management, and competitive intelligence. Prior to joining Freed & Associates, Nikki was a Senior Program Manager with a large California health plan where she worked in various positions within their Corporate Finance, Channel Marketing, and Operations departments. In her career, Nikki has worked with companies ranging from start-ups to mid-size and larger scale organizations. Nikki holds her MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and her BA from the University of California, San Diego. Nikki also holds her Black Belt certification in Six Sigma.

Ellen Kaiser
Ellen Kaiser is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. Ellen has significant experience in health care policy and planning and in managed care operations. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Ellen held an executive position at a city-wide not-for-profit Healthplan. During her tenure Ellen worked in partnership with the city Department of Public Health to design and implement an innovative program which focused on the uninsured. In addition, she managed a portfolio of projects that addressed the organization’s goal of expanding health care coverage and expanding access to care. Previously, Ellen has worked managed care operations, principally in utilization management and quality improvement. She began her career as a registered nurse before moving into healthcare administration. Ellen holds a Masters degree in Health Services Administration from St. Mary’s College; a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of California, and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.

Adrienne Ladd
Adrienne M. Ladd has been with Freed & Associates almost since its inception 18 years ago and is a member of the executive management team. Through her work with health systems and providers, Adrienne has significant project management experience in systems design and integration, training planning and change management. Adrienne currently serves in an engagement management capacity providing oversight to project teams and liaison to clients. Internally, Adrienne is responsible for the development and management of Freed & Associates’ professional development program. Prior to joining Freed & Associates, Adrienne worked for a Big 4 consulting firm in their healthcare practice and was also an independent consultant in finance to a major health system and teaching medical center. Adrienne holds her MBA in Finance from the University of Southern California.

Jim Larente
Jim Larente joined Freed & Associates in 2007. Jim has extensive experience in systems development, quality assurance, and project management. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, Jim was Director of Systems Architecture & Applications Development at Spectera UnitedHealthcare Dental. His expertise includes developing software standards and methods, quality assurance and control, production systems management, project management and technical services. Jim also served as Interim CIO. Jim holds a BS in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco.

Julie Larson
Julie Larson is a Registered Nurse who joined Freed & Associates in 2000 with over 20 years of experience in health care. She was a senior manager for information systems in two health care delivery systems where she presided over numerous system selections and implementations of a wide array of administrative, financial and clinical applications. She has led network upgrades, strategic systems planning efforts, integration testing, training material development and go live management. She managed the process change team for improving the timeliness of cash collections throughout a hospital’s ‘front-end’ processes. Before joining the firm, Julie was an Applications Manager for NorthBay Healthcare System. Prior to that, she was the Director of Information Systems and Telecommunications for Mills-Peninsula Health Services. Julie has an MPA from the University of San Francisco and a BS in Nursing from San Jose State College.

Heather Lee
Heather Lee joined Freed & Associates in 1999. Since then she has managed interface development for systems integration projects, provided project oversight for a physician practice EMR implementation, managed the assessment and implementation planning for a large scale systems implementation and developed the security structure and training approach for a hospital EMR implementation. Prior to joining the firm, Heather was a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting, where she worked on custom application design and development, organizational redesign, change management and healthcare revenue enhancement projects. While living in the DC area, Heather conducted pharmaceutical reimbursement policy analysis and advocacy with State & Federal Associates and served as a Senior Research Associate with the Health Care Advisory Board. Heather has a BA in English with a concentration in Business from Georgetown University.

Suzanne Leupold
Suzanne Leupold joined Freed & Associates in 2007 with significant healthcare experience in operations, strategy and business process re-design. Suzanne has served as a director and consultant across multiple healthcare environments including hospitals, ambulatory care centers, physician practices, academic medical centers, and health plans. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Suzanne was a National Director of Product Development and Management with Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, specializing in the development and launch of consumer directed health care products. She has several years experience in revenue cycle management, systems requirements, financial analysis, business process re-design, operations management, and complex project management. Suzanne also spent several years with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young consulting firm in their health care consulting practice. Suzanne holds a Masters Degree in Healthcare Administration from Duke University.

Bradley Loose
Bradley Loose is a contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Brad is a senior level consultant and has significant experience working with physician groups, hospitals and healthplans providing project and program management as well as IT-related project management and oversight. He also has extensive experience in healthcare sales, marketing and business development. Prior to his current role with Freed & Associates, Brad was a Big 4 consultant culminating at the partner level in a health care practice. More recently he was a consultant to a national healthcare systems developer leading a high profile product launch. Brad holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English from the University of New Hampshire.

Bob Lucas
Bob Lucas joined Freed & Associates in 2007. Bob has significant experience in payor insurance systems that includes business integration, data modeling, system consolidation, methodology, Ecommerce and regulatory compliance. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, Bob was a Senior Business Analyst with United HealthGroup and Pacific Dental Benefits. He was also a technical Project Manager for the Caspian Consulting Group. In his career, he has worked with insurance companies, banks, brokerage houses, and a manufacturer of medical monitoring equipment. Bob holds a Masters degree from Harvard University.

Amy Luisetti
Amy Luisetti joined Freed & Associates in 2002 and has worked on several clinical system implementation and clinical process redesign projects. She has nine years of business experience in healthcare management and information systems consulting and has worked with hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical distributors, and healthcare technology companies. Her consulting experience includes project management, business process design, system design, and strategy development. Prior to joining the firm, Amy was a consultant with Primitive Logic and before that, a consultant with the Accenture Healthcare Practice group. Amy has an MPH from the University of California Berkeley and a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California Davis.

Tina Milinovich, PMP
Tina Milinovich joined Freed & Associates in 2008 and has spent her entire career in the healthcare arena with considerable experience in IT Project Management and clinical system implementations. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Tina was a Senior Project Manager with Palo Alto Medical Foundation overseeing a variety of outpatient system/software implementations. She managed clinical laboratory and internal business system software implementations as a Perot Systems Associate at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. Tina spent several years at the County of San Mateo assisting in the growth of their Information Technology department. Tina holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from California State University at San Francisco and is PMP certified.

Olga Milosavljevic
Olga Milosavljevic is a contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Olga has significant experience in product strategy, development and execution; offer development and research; channel integration; and web and technology management. Prior to becoming affiliated with Freed & Associates, Olga was a Director, eBusiness and Business Transformation for a large health plan. She also has experience developing strategies and executing programs in financial services and international political development. In her career, she has worked for a major national stock brokerage firm and a leading international development non-profit. Olga holds an MBA and BA from U.C. Berkeley and a MSc. from the London School of Economics.

Lori Moore
Lori Moore joined Freed & Associates in 2006. She has many years of experience prior to joining the firm in hospital and medical practice operations. Lori has worked directly with physicians to improve their practice and as a liaison to physicians from a healthcare provider perspective to create more synergistic relationships. Her consulting experience includes developing process improvements for physician groups as well as admitting, registration, financial counseling and insurance verification for a major San Francisco hospital. Lori is very detailed oriented and has great experience communicating to all levels of an organization. She has an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Lori is also a certified medical staff coordinator.

Samir Panchal
Samir Panchal joined Freed & Associates in 2005. Samir has significant experience in healthcare strategy, system selections, implementations and go-lives and revenue cycle work. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, he was a Senior Business Development Manager with Oracle working on the healthcare product development team for HTB which focused on healthcare mergers and acquisitions, strategy, vendor partnerships, and product development. During his career, he worked for Cap Gemini Ernst &Young (CGEY) in their healthcare strategy and transformation group. Samir also has two patents in telemedicine and five publications in various journals including JHIMSS and cardiology journals. He has an MBA from the University of North Carolina and an MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Eliza Paulling
Eliza Paulling joined Freed & Associates in 2000. While at the firm, she has directed the testing phase of several system implementations on a variety of platforms. As the testing lead she wrote test plans, managed a testing team, documented results and resolved issues. Eliza has also been a training lead, a role in which she wrote training materials, managed training logistics, and conducted training sessions. Her experience includes writing policies and procedures, analyzing and re-designing front end business practices, planning for data conversion, and managing the back loading of patients for a large hospital conversion. Before joining the firm, Eliza gained a wide range of project management experience as an Account Executive for Banc of America Securities and as the Associate Director of Development for the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School. Eliza holds a BA in European Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Katherine P. Redmond
Katherine P. Redmond joined Freed & Associates in 2006. She has worked in many environments including hospitals, health plans, and software providers. She came to the firm with five years experience in benefits consulting to major corporations and managing operations for a large California healthcare insurance firm. She possesses strong analytical and communications skills and has great attention to detail. Katherine holds an MBA and a Masters in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley.

Emily Petrick
Emily Petrick joined Freed & Associates in 2010. Emily has significant experience in implementing electronic health records (EHRs). Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, Emily was a Business Systems Analyst with the largest healthcare provider in Hawaii. While there, she earned her proficiency certification in Epic’s Ambulatory suite, served as a project manager and conducted training for physicians and staff. Emily was also a Senior Analyst and Team Lead on one of the first and most extensive electronic health record implementations for a major health plan in Northern California. In her career, Emily has worked with multiple health care organizations, a business communication consulting firm, and a law firm with offices throughout the West Coast. Emily holds a B.A. in English and Music from Pomona College and an M.S. in Communication from Boston University, with an emphasis on internal communication during organizational change.

Julie Richards
Julie Richards joined Freed & Associates in 1996 and has been with the firm in a variety of capacities over the years. Julie currently manages the Finance and Administration areas of the firm and is on the executive management team. She previously served in the rolls of manager of Business Development and engagement manager to project teams and clients. Prior to joining the firm, Julie worked in finance at large metropolitan hospitals in the Boston area and then transitioned to consulting. Julie has worked on a range of jobs and has extensive knowledge in hospital operations, accounts receivable and systems implementations in different healthcare settings including hospitals, large CBOs, medical groups and insurance firms. Julie holds her MBA in Finance and Business Accounting from the University of Rochester.

Mike Seel
Mike Seel first joined Freed & Associates in 1994. After a brief leave to earn a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, he returned to the firm in 2001. During his tenure with the firm, Mike has managed the implementation of a medical records module and associated interfaces. He redesigned workflow processes and systems functionality for the ADT and insurance modules of an enterprise patient management system. Mike also managed the functional design, systems modifications, testing and training aspects for the conversion of a follow-up and collection system. Other projects he has supported include a systems and revenue review at a multi-hospital health system, a strategic systems planning project, the development of RFPs for a Radiology system and a QM system, and planning for a service agreement between an HMO and medical center. Mike has a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame.

Michael Spiegel
Michael Spiegel is a contracting resource for Freed & Associates. Michael has over 20 years experience in program and project leadership and business process improvement. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, Michael was a principle consultant with ITA Consulting Group. In his career, he has worked with the healthcare/healthplan, insurance and financial industries. Michael holds a Masters degree in Economics from The London School of Economics and has been certified as a mediator with the Conflict Resolution Institute.

Alan Stadelhofer
Alan Stadelhofer joined Freed & Associates in 2000. Since then, he has been a project lead on several healthcare system implementations where he demonstrated extensive skills in managing teams as well as working at a detail level with data analysis and conversions. Alan communicates well with both business users and IT, often working in roles to help the two groups function effectively together. He has also worked on process redesign and user training in accounts receivable projects. Before joining the firm, Alan was an IT Systems Analyst at NorthBay Healthcare Systems. There he focused on finding technology methods to enhance business practices. Alan has a BS in Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Charles Stegner
Charles Stegner is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. Charles has previously been teamed with Freed & Associates for a large electronic medical records (EMR) implementation project. Charles has significant experience in the implementation of EMR and single sign-on solutions. He has previous consulting experience and project management experience with two national EMR and single sign-on development companies. Charles has strong Epic software knowledge and has been certified in EpicCare Ambulatory EMR. In his career, he has worked with numerous hospitals on projects that have varied from enterprise-wide EMR installations to single sign-on desktop solutions.

John Tanner, PMP
John joined Freed & Associates in 2008 and has over 20 years experience in healthcare. He has significant experience in healthcare IT projects and product management. John also has a strong healthcare software development and implementation background and is an experienced business analyst. John has exceptional communications skills and is a highly effective relationship-builder and manager. Prior to his position with Freed & Associates, John was a Senior Project Manager with Perot Systems at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. He has also held product management positions at LifeMasters and Oracle. His past experience at GE Healthcare (IDX Systems) and McKesson provided him with a strong background in IT development and implementation. John holds a BS in Allied Medical Professions from The Ohio State University, and he is PMP certified.

Jennifer Taylor
Jennifer Taylor joined Freed & Associates in 2005. Jennifer has significant experience in healthcare consulting, specifically with project and operations management, business process re-design, business change management, performance measurement, system selection and business development. Furthermore, Jennifer received certification in Six Sigma as a Green Belt. Prior to her position with Freed & Associates, she was a Senior Consultant with an industrial engineering and operational improvements company working in both hospital and pharmaceutical/biotech environments. She also spent over a year with a hospital management engineering consulting company developing process improvements for a 3-hospital network. In her career, Jennifer has worked with numerous hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the world, focusing on quality, operational excellence, and project management. Jennifer holds a BS from Western Michigan University.

Robert Thorwald
Rob Thorwald has been with Freed & Associates over 11 years and is a member of the executive management team. Rob specializes in working with company leadership to identify and troubleshoot organizational and operational issues. His career encompasses over 25 years experience in healthcare, banking, retailing, and engineering industries. He has managed all aspects of information systems at the Vice President level, including system selections & implementations, data center construction & management, company expansion and relocations, and voice & data technology implementations. Rob is highly skilled at explaining and communicating technical matters and their impact on business to executives uncomfortable with technology. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University, San Francisco, and completed the Executive Program in Health Care Information Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Elizabeth Townes
Liz Townes joined Freed & Associates in 2001 and has managed patient accounting projects and served as the interim billing manager for a leading Bay Area medical center. Previously Liz was a senior consultant at Compuware Corporation, where she was a project manager and business analyst for full application lifecycle projects at major HMO and telecommunications organizations. Before becoming a consultant, Liz spent nine years in transportation and logistics management at computer manufacturing and wearing apparel firms, where she worked on a variety of IT projects. Liz has a BA in Psychology from Smith College and an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Shani Trudgian, PMP
Shani Trudgian began her career with Freed & Associates over 10 years ago and is a member of the executive management team. Shani has extensive healthcare industry experience and currently serves as engagement manager to project teams and clients. Shani’s industry experience includes Project Managing information systems and business process re-designs, interim billing management and healthcare facility moves. She recently served as the Project Manager for the development and pilot roll out of the high profile Healthy San Francisco program. Prior to joining Freed & Associates, Shani was a consultant and senior consultant with two Big 4 consulting firms; both in healthcare practices. Shani holds her BA, Business Administration from The University of Washington and is PMP certified.

Florence van Geem, PMP
Florence van Geem is a subcontracting resource for Freed & Associates. Florence has significant experience in management positions for payer healthcare organizations. Her experience includes a broad range of management functions including analytics, Business Intelligence, data warehouse development, operations, pricing, product development and implementation, strategic planning and vendor/account management. Prior to her association with Freed & Associates, Florence was the Director for Product services and Analytics with Specialty Services at Blue Shield of California. She also was the Project Director for Business Adoption on a $50M strategic investment project to develop an Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) at Blue Shield. In her career, she worked over 20 years at Kaiser Permanente in the Program Offices and 2 years with an analytical start-up company during the dot.com years. Florence holds a Masters of Statistics from California State University of the East Bay. She is PMP certified.

Cecelia Weiss
Cecelia is the Payroll/Billing Coordinator at Freed & Associates. Prior to joining the Freed team Cecelia was the Business Development & Operations Manager for a high-profile plastic surgeon in Chicago. She developed all finance and administrative policies and procedures for this new, upscale office and clinic. Cecelia also worked as the Associate Director of the Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center which is considered one of the top ten family business centers in the country. She managed a multi-million dollar budget and all accounting systems. Cecelia has her MBA, Finance, from Loyola University Chicago.

Yeeling Wu
Yeeling Wu began her career with Freed & Associates in 2003. Yeeling left Freed & Associates between 2007 – 2009 to assume the Director of Operations position at San Francisco Health Plan; however, she returned to the firm in 2010. During Yeeling’s tenure with Freed & Associates she has worked with hospitals, medical groups and health plan clients on projects involving charge capture improvement, data analysis and business process redesign. Her experience covers a wide range of health plan operations, including claims administration, provider reimbursement, membership accounting, and medical management. Prior to joining Freed & Associates, Yeeling spent almost eight years with the Health Services Consulting Group at Accenture. She worked on projects ranging from large scale systems implementations to business process design efforts. Yeeling holds a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley.