Board of Directors

Gerald Holman, MD, BSc, FAAP, FRCP (CAN) - Chair
Dr. Holman was the Vice President of Medical Education (part time) for Crown of Texas Hospice from 1996 until 2004. He has held several distinguished positions nationally and internationally in hospice/palliative medicine.  He is a past President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and was the founding Chairman of the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Holman has been a faculty member for the American Medical Association’s Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care (EPEC) program. He has lectured and led workshops in hospice care for adults and children in the United States, Canada, China, and Great Britain.

Robert Allnutt - Secretary
Robert Allnutt joined the Foundation Board in 2003.  After a lengthy career in the Federal Government, where he served both as a senior attorney and in top management positions, Bob was Executive Vice President of the research-based pharmaceutical industry's trade association for 10 years.

In recent years he has been on the Boards of several biotech companies, and of several charitable organizations, including Partnership for Caring: America's Voices for the Dying, the National Health Council, and the National Council on the Aging.

Samuel Warburton, MD - Treasurer
Dr. Warburton is currently consulting professor of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center where he sees patients and teaches students and residents.  Prior to this position he was National Medical Director for Quality Management at Aetna, Inc.   He has been involved with a variety of health care quality initiatives in managed care.  He brings a primary care and managed care background and perspective to the board.  His interest and commitment stem from multiple personal experiences with hospice.  He has served on the board since 2001.

Grant Davies
Grant Davies, President of Davies Consulting, Inc. (DCI), founded DCI to focus on translating improvement strategies into bottom-line results. Mr. Davies has more than 30 years experience consulting to clients in energy, life sciences, telecommunications, financial services, and technology industries, as well as the public sector. He provides consulting services in process design and improvement, strategic and business planning, financial systems, operations improvement, and change management. His experience involves him in work with multi-cultural and multi-national organizations in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Dale Lupu, PhD
Active in the hospice field since 1978, Dr. Dale Lupu has been CEO of the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine since 1999.  Her more than twenty years of experience in the hospice field includes program administration, research and policy.  She was founding executive director of Montgomery Hospice Society in Maryland, held several leadership posts at Hospice of Northern Virginia, and served as the lead policy analyst for hospice at the Department of Health and Human Services during the early 80's when the Medicare hospice benefit was being formulated.  She is also the founder and principal of Daleview Associates, a consulting firm specializing in helping hospices meet the needs of their communities.  Dr. Lupu joined the Board in 2001.

John J. Lynch, MD
John J. Lynch, M.D. has been with the Board since 1997.  He is currently working as the Associate Medical Director for the Washington Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.  Dr. Lynch began his association with the Washington Hospital Center in 1964 and assumed his current position in 1989.  He has special interest and expertise in the areas of bioethics and cancer prevention.  Dr. Lynch is a member of numerous professional societies including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Medical Association and the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. 

Naomi Naierman, MPA - President and CEO
Ms. Naierman has been an executive in the hospice field for over 20 years.  Before coming to the Foundation, she served for 11 years as the Executive Director of the Hospice Council of Metropolitan Washington, a regional association of hospices dedicated to consumer education.  At the American Hospice Foundation since 1995, she has been responsible for forming its founding board of directors, developing long range plans, and raising the national visibility of the organization. 

Ms. Naierman is the author of numerous articles and has lectured before a wide variety of audiences.  She has been interviewed on national television, radio, and newspapers, including NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, ABC's Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the Wall Street Journal.   

Deneen Richmond, MHA, RN
Deneen Richmond is a health care executive with more than 18 years of experience in healthcare quality improvement, management, policy, operations, regulatory issues and clinical care in a variety of settings.  Currently, she serves as Executive Director of the Washington, DC office of Delmarva Foundation, a prominent Quality Improvement Organization (QIO).  Ms. Richmond is also the Senior Vice President for Delmarva’s Interventions Team. In this role as a strategic business unit leader, Ms. Richmond oversees Delmarva’s quality improvement and patient safety related work, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) QIO contracts in Maryland and the District of Columbia, the Maryland Patient Safety Center and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Knowledge Transfer contract.  Prior to joining Delmarva, Ms. Richmond was Assistant Vice President for Policy at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) where she provided oversight and direction for all policy issues for NCQA's accreditation programs and the HEDIS performance measurement set.  In 2004, Ms. Richmond was a recipient of the 2004 Witt Kieffer and Modern Healthcare Up and Comers Award.

James R. Sims III, Esq.
Jim Sims is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice at Morgan Lewis, where his practice focuses on virtually all facets of trademark, copyright, licensing and franchising issues.  Mr. Sims is a member of the American Bar Association's ("ABA’s") Intellectual Property Law ("IPL") Section, the ABA's Forum on Franchising, the Copyright Society of the USA, and the International Trademark Association.   A frequent speaker and author on intellectual property and franchise issues, he is currently co-editing an Intellectual Property Handbook cosponsored by the ABA's Forum on Franchising and IPL Section.  Mr. Sims joined the Board in 2003.

Margery E. Zylich, APR
As Assistant Vice President, Operational Communications & Special Projects, Margery Zylich is responsible for organizational excellence strategy for MedStar Health, one of the nation’s top integrated health delivery systems with $2.3 billion in revenues. She serves as senior communications counsel for MedStar’s president and other system executives, leading internal marketing communications and leadership development initiatives that mobilize MedStar’s 22,000 employees to achieve corporate goals.

Prior to joining MedStar Health in 1999, Ms. Zylich headed strategic communications for Washington Hospital Center (a member of the MedStar system) focusing on management communications, workplace transformation, and employee engagement. She was also the director of public affairs and marketing at The Arlington Hospital (now called Virginia Hospital Center). Earlier in her career, Ms. Zylich served in the political arena as the deputy executive director and director of communications for Citizens for America, President Reagan’s national grass-roots legislative lobby organization.