The Affirmant Staff is here to support our local chapters and their efforts in Clinical Integration. We do this by bringing together subject matter experts from across our network to share the best practices; negotiating with health plan partners to bend the cost curve and share in the rewards; and using data from tools such as Epic, to help us make higher value decisions at the point of care.
Bill Mayer, MD, MPH, president and CEO
Dr. Mayer has over 25 years of leadership experience in health care and health-related organizations. His roles have included program director at the National Cancer Institute; co-leader of professional health care consulting at The Wyatt Company—now Towers Watson – in Washington, D.C.; corporate medical director, division president and executive vice president at Kellogg Company; medical director at United Health Care; and chief quality officer, chief medical informatics officer and senior vice president for Managed Care and Community Health at Bronson Healthcare. For over 20 years of his career, he also volunteered as a primary care physician at Community Health Centers in the Washington, DC area and Michigan.
Mayer has served on the faculty of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and the Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine, as a lecturer in epidemiology at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health, as a committee member at the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, and as a reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine. He has published a number of peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on such subjects as black/white differences in
cancers of the breast and bladder, cancer prevention in primary care, and assessing and improving health
care quality.
In addition to his professional responsibilities at Affirmant Health Partners, Dr. Mayer advises the director of the Michigan Medicaid program as a member of the State of Michigan Medical Care Advisory Council and is a volunteer with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He is board certified in Preventive Medicine.
Lawrence S. Green, A.M., MBA, director of payer strategy ACO operations
Larry Green, A.M., MBA, joined Affirmant in July 2017 from Judah Consulting which provided managed care contracting and strategy expertise to large urban-based practices. Over the last twenty years, Larry has served in various senior executive roles including Vice President of Operations at Presence Health Partners, Vice President of Managed Care at Ascension Health, Senior Director of Managed Care Contracting and Health Plan Relations at Advocate Physician Partners, and Director of Operations at HCA.
Larry graduated with honors from the University of Chicago with a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Northern Illinois University, and is currently completing a PhD at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. An avid golfer, Larry is beginning his exploration of Michigan’s challenging courses.
Dr. Karin Proos, director of clinical transformation
Karin Proos, Pharm.D., is Director of Clinical Transformation. As a clinical leader with 20 years’ experience, Karin facilitates collaboration among other health care leaders across Michigan focusing on post-acute care, care management, pharmacy, chronic disease management, quality and utilization outcomes. These programs have resulted in ACO shared savings across multiple health systems. Prior to working at Affirmant Health Partners, Dr. Proos spent much of her career at Spectrum Health working with over 3000 providers in more than 200 ambulatory offices. She developed sustainable pharmacy and medication-use services for these offices and led teams involved in direct patient care activities with MTM, PCMH and multidisciplinary care models. Karin developed programs for safety culture and ISMP/TJC/NPSG best practices as well as drove value through MACRA, MIPS and payer incentives. She also served as a clinical informatics resource for meaningful use, electronic prescribing and clinical decision support and alerts. Outside of work, Karin enjoys spending time with her husband, walking the dog, oil painting, cooking and reading.
Katy Velten, director of communications
As director of communications since June 2016, Katy has been instrumental in the successful launch of the Affirmant brand and messaging around our vision to achieve a healthy Michigan at an affordable cost. Katy is responsible for the engagement of education and communication with our six member systems, seven local Chapters, and over 6,000 participating physicians. Outside of Katy’s professional responsibilities, she serves on the board of directors for the Michigan Society for Healthcare Planning and Marketing, mentors with Southwest Michigan First and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Communications from Western Michigan University. In her free time, you can find her with her husband and two daughters enjoying a musical, reading, traveling or golfing.
Paul Peabody, information technology and business intelligence executive
In October 2017, Paul joined Affirmant following his retirement as chief information officer and senior vice president at Bronson Healthcare. Before his four-year tenure with Bronson, he served as the CIO for Beaumont Health, Michigan’s largest health care system, for 30 years. Paul is a highly regarded health care CIO and has installed and worked extensively with Epic electronic health records platform as an early adopter in Michigan and was instrumental in helping Epic develop the Community Connect program. Paul is active in numerous health industry councils and is a founding member and past president of the Detroit Chapter of the Society for information management. He also is a founding member and former VP and board member of the San Diego Chapter of SIM.
Andrea Charmley, clinical transformation consultant
Andrea Charmley, LMSW, MPH, comes to us from Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine where she was the program manager for a behavioral health and primary care integration project. She has experience working in a variety of health care settings and is passionate about making health care affordable and accessible for all people.
Andrea completed her master of public health and master of social work from the University of Michigan and is pursuing her Advanced Generalist social work licensure. At Affirmant she is responsible for supporting the coordination, integration and analysis of clinical priorities across Affirmant Chapters. In her free time she enjoys reading, knitting, sewing, running, being outdoors and camping with her partner.
Angela Johnson, communications specialist
Angela Johnson joined the Affirmant Team in January of 2018 as the Communications Specialist. Angela comes to us from Western Michigan University after finishing her BA in Public Relations in December of 2017. Prior to her current position with Affirmant she worked as our communications intern. Outside of work, Angela enjoys spending time with her daughter traveling Michigan to see family, attending special events and sporting events in their free time.
Rose Blackwood, executive assistant
Coming to Affirmant from Bronson Healthcare in 2018, Rose has over ten years combined experience in industry, NGOs, academia and health care. At Bronson, she spent the majority of her time travelling and providing support for more than 20 practices. During her time at Western Michigan University, she served as Assistant to the Director of Operational Services and succeeded in meeting the library’s core mission to “empower its community… and shape the information universe.”
A humanitarian at heart, Rose has volunteered in various capacities and organizations throughout Michigan: Kalamazoo Public Schools, Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan, Communities in Schools and American Red Cross, among others, have all benefited from her skills and expertise. She enjoys traveling, walking, quilting and other crafts, and is an avid reader. Rose graduated with cum laude honors from WMU with a B.B.A.
Erik Pye, executive assistant
Erik Pye joined the Affirmant Health Partners team in 2018. Erik brings with him ten years of education and eight years of hospitality experience. A true “helper,” Erik spent time in both industries developing training programs, increasing team unity and volunteering on diversity committees and active bystander trainings. While at WMU, he earned an M.A. in Socio-Cultural Studies in Education and has recently started an MBA. Erik brings a passion for teamwork, education, inclusion and an overall positive attitude.
After clocking out, Erik enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, experiencing nature, listening to music, traveling and reading.
Meghan Gaertner, manager of information technology
After joining the Affirmant team in May of 2018, Meghan prepares data extraction and visualization expertise to provide actionable information to health care professionals. She is no stranger to data analytics, having spent time at Bronson Healthcare and Metro Health where she was responsible for fulfilling complex data needs using Epic and supporting business intelligence tools.
A passionate believer in youth empowerment, Meghan supports the YWCA of Kalamazoo in teaching TechGYRLS, a program designed to promote STEM knowledge and gender equality. When she isn’t glued to a computer screen, she loves to spend time with her daughter, Maya. They savor their time by riding bikes, camping, traveling and playing softball.
Jeromy Timmer, clinical transformation consultant
Jeromy believes that improving quality and reducing cost in healthcare is one of the most important challenges facing the United States, which is why he left manufacturing to work in healthcare eleven years ago. Jeromy spent the past eight years as a Continuous Improvement Consultant at Bronson Healthcare, helping develop problem solving capabilities and assisting in building the Bronson Management System. He has a Bachelor of Science in physics from Western Michigan University; when asked how that applies to the challenges facing healthcare, he says it is all about solving complex problems using basic principles. Outside of work Jeromy enjoys spending time with his family, biking and playing music.
