Our Expertise

Across the last several years, our firm has witnessed an expansive growth in our work and expertise in order to ensure that we are having meaningful impact on our members' most important strategic and operational issues.

A Deep Bench

Our 350-member research staff includes:

More than 50 physicians, clinicians, and former hospital executives
More than 100 PhDs, MPHs, MHAs, and MBAs
40 senior consultants from top health care and management consulting firms
25 health care industry managers

A sampling of our internal experts on these and other issues is included below.

Jim Field

Executive Director

DBA, Harvard Business School
MBA, Harvard Business School
BA, Boston University

Dr. Field has been with the Advisory Board for over ten years, and is recognized as a leading thinker on clinical service line technologies and procedures, organization, and economics. Dr. Field conducts and oversees research for a large membership of hospitals, health systems, device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and payers. Dr. Field has been a national fellow for the United States General Accounting Office, and a research fellow and associate fellow for Harvard University and Harvard Business School, respectively.

Ikenna Okezie

Managing Director

MD, Harvard Medical School
MBA, Harvard Business School
BA, Yale University

Dr. Okezie works with hospital members on operations improvement, profitable procedure growth, elevating patient safety, and best practice hospital-physician relationships. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Okezie was an engagement manager at McKinsey and Company and worked in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs.

Scott Fassbach

Chief Research Officer

MA, Harvard University
BA, Johns Hopkins University

Mr. Fassbach directs the Advisory Board's firmwide research efforts and is responsible for the overall quality and accuracy of its work. He has worked in health care for twenty years, both in hospital consulting and in health care research. Having worked at the Advisory Board from its inception, Mr. Fassbach has directed or participated in all of the firm's major research initiatives. In his current capacity as Chief Research Officer, he speaks regularly on topics related to health system strategy, health care market growth, clinical innovation, and national health care reform. Mr. Fassbach previously worked in the national health care practice of Ernst & Young, largely focusing on regulatory and reimbursement issues.

Amy Siegler

Managing Director

MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business
BA, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ms. Siegler leads research on oncology and cardiovascular service line management, with a focus on Medicare and private payer reimbursement issues, marketing strategy, and strategic planning. Previously, Ms. Siegler worked in the business development and product management divisions of Guidant Corporation.

Steven Berkow

Executive Director

JD, Harvard University
BA, Dartmouth College

Mr. Berkow directs the firm's research on nursing, human resources, and other strategic issues. Prior to joining the Advisory Board, Mr. Berkow served as a health care attorney with Kalkines, Arky, Zall, and Bernstein for hospitals and health systems in the greater New York City area. His legal practice included matters ranging from regulatory compliance to system building to strategic planning.

Ravin Davidoff

Special Advisor

MB, University of Witerwatersrand, South Africa
BCh, University of Witerwatersrand, South Africa

Dr. Davidoff serves as an advisor to Advisory Board members on issues related to cardiology innovations. He is currently a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, as well as the director of clinical cardiology at Boston University Medical Center Hospital. Dr. Davidoff is the associate editor of Circulation and executive director of network affiliations at Boston University Medical Center.

David Katz

Executive Director

MD, Duke University School of Medicine
JD, Georgetown University Law Center
AB, Duke University

Dr. Katz studies and presents findings on frontier clinical, technology, quality, economic, marketing, and physician-hospital relationship practices, including how these issues will impact the practice and administration of health care. Prior to joining the Advisory Board, Dr. Katz worked in full-time clinical practice and research where he published widely in peer-reviewed journals and authored multiple book chapters in neuroscience, medical-legal issues, and medical ethics. Dr. Katz also served as an attorney working within the intersections of medicine and law with one of the leading international law firms. Dr. Katz maintained a faculty appointment at the Harvard Medical School for twenty years.

Barbara Tannenbaum

Executive Advisor

MBA, University of Baltimore
MS, West Virginia University
BS, University of Iowa

Ms. Tannenbaum leads Advisory Board work on issues encompassing profitable surgical growth, clinical throughput, rapid margin recovery, and workforce efficiency. Prior to joining the firm, she served as vice president, worldwide marketing and sales for QED Solutions, expanding the company’s market share in the pharmaceutical industry. She was also vice president and general manager at Surgical Services, Inc., where she developed and implemented new product lines for improving surgical efficiency and productivity.

Mary Ann Fralic

Special Advisor

PhD, University of Pittsburgh
BSN, Duquesne University

Dr. Fralic serves as an advisor to Advisory Board members on nursing workforce and productivity issues. She is also senior consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program and holds an academic appointment with The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, where she was formerly vice president for nursing. Dr. Fralic is editor of the AONE book entitled Staffing Management and Method, and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Nursing Administration. She was appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and served as member and chair of the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice of the Health Resources and Service Administration.

Richard Schwartz

Executive Vice President

MBA, Duke University
BA, Stanford University

Mr. Schwartz serves as an Executive Officer of The Advisory Board Company and General Manager of the Advisory Board Academies Division, which is dedicated to developing a high-performance culture in American health care. He has been with the firm for more than a dozen years, until recently heading up the research function for the firm's flagship program, the Health Care Advisory Board, as well as a broader portfolio of membership programs. Prior to joining the Advisory Board, Mr. Schwartz worked for a think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as well as a boutique consulting firm, The Brock Group—focusing in both positions on international business.