Correctional Health Care Leadership Institutes 2014

Learn and connect!

The faculty includes experts with years of experience and leadership in administration, medicine, mental health and legal issues.

Dino Angelici, DMD, Chief of Dental Services, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

Dr. Angelici has been with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections since 1993. In his first assignment, he created the dental office for a newly constructed facility. He received his dental degree in 1985 from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a fellow of the American College of Dentistry and served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Academy of General Dentistry for three years.

Ty Bingham, PharmD, AAHIVP, Regional Consulting Pharmacist, U.S. Public Health Service

As a regional consulting pharmacist to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Capt. Bingham has oversight and mentoring responsibilities for the pharmacists at 14 federal correctional institutions. He has published and presented widely. He received his BS in pharmacy and his PhD in pharmacy from the University of Arizona. In addition, he is HIV-pharmacist (AAHIVP) credentialed by the American Academy of HIV Medicine.

Brent Gibson, MD, MPH, CCHP, Vice President of Operations, NCCHC

Dr. Gibson is a board-certified physician executive with broad experience in a variety of government and commercial positions. This includes serving as clinical director for the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, where he provided clinical and executive oversight of all nonpsychiatric clinical operations. He served for 12 years in the U.S. Army, mostly as an occupational medicine specialist. 

Deana Johnson, JD, General Counsel, MHM Correctional Services, Inc.

Since graduating from law school in 1993, Ms. Johnson has specialized in representing correctional medical providers and their employers. Cases include claims for state law medical negligence and violations of federal civil rights under 42 USC § 1983. Many cases involve complex medical issues and require multiple expert witnesses to support the care rendered by the providers. Ms. Johnson is actively involved with NCCHC and SCP, including lecturing at seminars and publishing in journals and magazines for correctional health professionals.

Carl Keldie, MD, CCHP

The former chief medical officer for one of the nation’s largest inmate health care providers, Dr. Keldie supervised health care delivery for contracts covering 395,000 inmates in 31 states. He has three decades of experience and was responsible for providing direct patient care in primary care and emergency medicine. He launched an extensive CQI program; developed information technology applications in emergency and correctional medicine; chaired a multidisciplinary pharmacy and therapeutics committee responsible for formulary management of over 250,000 patients and oversaw telemedicine services at more than 120 facilities.

Newton Kendig, MD, Medical Director and Assistant Director for Health Services, Health Services Division, Federal Bureau of Prisons 

RADM Newton Kendig has been with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since 1996. He served as medical director of the Maryland Department of Corrections and Public Safety for five years. He joined the BOP in 1996 as chief of infectious diseases and was appointed to medical director in 2006. RADM Kendig is the recipient of multiple USPHS awards, including the meritorious, outstanding and commendation medals. He is also a part-time faculty member in infectious diseases with Johns Hopkins University.   

Donald Kern, MD, MPH, CCHP, Corporate Medical Director, Quality Correctional Health Care 

Dr. Kern started his correctional health care career in 1995, holding positions as site medical director for several prisons in Massachusetts, as an associate state medical director for the University of Massachusetts Correctional Health Program and as the medical director for the New York City jail system. He has been a senior physician surveyor for NCCHC and a member of the NCCHC Board of Directors and the CCHP Board of Trustees. He is also an adjunct professor of public health organization and policy in the School of Public Health of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

William Kissel, MAS, MS, CCHP- MH, Regional  Vice President of Jail Operations, Correct Care Solutions

Mr. Kissel has more than 30 years of correctional mental health and health care experience. He has a master’s degree in mental health counseling and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He started his career in 1981 as a crisis intervention counselor at Tufts New England Medical Center before joining the Georgia Department of Corrections in 1985, where he spent 20 years, including 10 as the director of health services. He is a member of the Georgia CIT Advisory Board, a past two-term president of the NAMI Georgia Chapter and chair of the Metro Atlanta Sheriff's Jail Mental Health Task Force. He also is a surveyor for NCCHC.

Sharon Lewis, MD, Statewide Medical Director, Georgia Department of Corrections

Dr. Lewis is responsible for ensuring constitutional-level, cost-efficient physical health care and administrative oversight for clinical programs, including utilization and quality management, medical reprieves and clinical policy. She has more than 20 years of experience in health care and managed care. Dr. Lewis is a fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics, a diplomat of the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review, a member of the American College of Physician Executives and certified in health care quality and management.

Rebecca Lubelczyk, MD, CCHP, Medical Director, UM Physician Supervisor, Massachusetts Partners in Correctional Healthcare

Dr. Lubelczyk is the president of the Society of Correctional Physicians. She discovered correctional medicine during her general internal medicine residency at Brown University. After graduation in 1999, she did a general medicine fellowship focusing her research on infectious diseases in corrections. In 2001, she joined the Massachusetts state prison staff and currently is the utilization review physician supervisor. By mentoring students and lecturing at national conferences, she strives to further academics in the correctional setting and distinguish correctional medicine as a viable career choice.

Becky Pinney, MSN, CCHP-RN, Senior Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer, Corizon

Ms. Pinney started in corrections in 1991 as director of nursing for Powhatan (VA) Correctional Center. In 1995, she joined Corizon as regional director of nursing for the Georgia region and over the years has demonstrated her leadership ability in a variety of clinical and nonclinical roles, including senior vice president of metropolitan corrections, where she had operational leadership responsibility for Corizon’s large jails (Rikers Island, Philadelphia and Fulton County). As chief nursing officer, Ms. Pinney serves as a leader, role model and mentor for the company’s nursing leadership and provides vision and direction for nursing.

Matissa Sammons, CCHP, Director of Certification, NCCHC

Ms. Sammons has been with NCCHC since 2005 and oversees all activities associated with CCHP programs. She works with various groups to determine the needs of the field and to develop and improve specialty certification programs, most recently guiding a task force to develop CCHP-MH specialty certification for mental health. Previously, she held positions in psychiatric social services, industrial/organizational psychology, psychometric testing, and psychological test administration, assessment and interpretation. Ms. Sammons is earning a masters degree in industrial/organizational psychology.

Nicholas Scharff, MD, MPH, Former Chief of Clinical Services, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

Dr. Scharff practiced internal medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital for 28 years. From 2004 through 2013, he was chief of clinical services in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. In managing clinical quality, Dr. Scharff emphasizes frequent visiting, quick responsiveness to problems and questions, and data-driven quality measurement to motivate change. He has developed repeatable measurement tools and a reporting format to describe deficiencies, motivate, and document change in practice behavior.  He now consults in correctional health care and sees correctional patients part-time.  

Ronald Shansky, MD, MPH, Consultant, Former Receiver, Washington D.C. Department of Corrections

Dr. Shansky has been a correctional medicine consultant for 25 years and was the court-appointed receiver for health services at the D.C. jail. He is board certified in internal medicine and quality assurance. A fellow of the Society of Correctional Physicians, he received its Armond Start Award of Excellence in Correctional Medicine. He served on the NCCHC NIJ expert panel on chronic disease, as well as the task force that updated the prisons and jails standards for NCCHC and the American Public Health Association. He is associate editor and contributor to Clinical Practice in Correctional Medicine. Dr. Shansky is a former NCCHC Board member and an accreditation surveyor.

Steve Shelton, MD, CCHP-A, Medical Director, Oregon Department of Corrections

Dr. Shelton has been involved with health care in prisons for more than 30 years. He received NCCHC’s most prestigious award, the Bernard Harrison Award of Merit, for his work in organizing an outstanding system of health care delivery, promoting staff development and contributions to the field of correctional health care.

Donna Strugar-Fritsch, BSN, MPA, CCHP, Managing Principal, Health Management Associates

Ms. Strugar-Fritsch is a consultant with a national research and health policy firm where for 11 years she has worked with a with a wide variety clients across all health care sectors. She is the corporate practice leader in correctional health care, advising prisons, jails, policy makers and correctional health vendors in health care operations, best practices, emerging trends and how to translate efficiencies from the “free world.” She is a national expert on the interface between the Affordable Care Act and correctional health care and is working with many prisons, jails and vendors to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of health care reform.

Tracey Titus, RN, CCHP, Manager of Accreditation Services, NCCHC

Ms. Titus served as a staff nurse and nurse manager for a county jail for 18 years, where she was responsible for the overall health services operation including policy development, staff supervision, implementing electronic health records and training security staff in health-related issues. She has been a surveyor and lead surveyor for NCCHC since 2008 and served on the Board of Directors for the Academy of Correctional Health Professionals for three years. She is also a certified instructor for the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. As manager of accreditation services, she is responsible for all activities involving facility accreditation.

Todd Wilcox, MD, MBA, CCHP-A, Medical Director, Salt Lake County Jail System

When Dr. Wilcox joined the Salt Lake County Jail System 18 years ago, he led it through a transformation of health care that culminated in its being removed from probation as well as being named NCCHC’s 2001 Facility of the Year. He oversees all health care processes in the jail system and has worked extensively with other jurisdictions as a consultant and expert. Dr. Wilcox is active with NCCHC as a frequent speaker at conferences and he is a board member of the Society of Correctional Physicians. He is an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Utah and is on the admissions committee for the School of Medicine.