Strategic Partners
Ted James, MD, MCHM
Dr. Ted James is an internationally recognized speaker, leadership trainer, and executive coach who is passionate about transforming health care through leadership development and clinical innovation. Drawing on over 20 years of experience as a medical director, educator, and health care management consultant, he equips others to become engaged change agents who positively impact organizational culture.
Dr. James has worked on health care quality improvement initiatives with national organizations, including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the National Academy of Medicine. He believes that the only way to succeed in health care is to promote new ways of meeting patients' needs and creating clinical teams that thrive.
Dr. James is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator on change management, emotional intelligence, clinical burnout, and patient experience. He has trained groups from all over the world, sharing principles for building high-performing teams and developing leaders at all levels of an organization. Dr. James's unique combination of humor, insight, and experience makes him an engaging presenter whose workshops are always well-received.
As a medical director and lecturer within the Harvard health care system, Dr. James has extensive experience with the latest efforts to advance health care. In addition, he is actively involved in health care delivery research and developing strategies for transforming the health care ecosystem.
Dr. James has received numerous awards for his contributions to leadership, teaching, and quality. He enjoys collaborating with colleagues to re-imagine health care in ways that improve organizational performance and the well-being of patients, care teams, and communities.
Fred Tobis, MD
Center for Physician Leadership
A cardiologist, physician leader, and healthcare consultant for over thirty years, Fredric Tobis, M.D., has coached physician leaders and executives in building strong teams that consistently improve quality and contain costs in a variety of healthcare enterprises. He was one of the first physician leaders to integrate a specialty practice into a hospital system and develop a successful, integrated, cardiovascular service line within a highly competitive, mature urban market. The integration included recruiting and partnering with a team of intensivists, nephrologists, cardiovascular anesthesiologists, and cardiac surgeons.
Fred models and teaches the interpersonal qualities of leadership in practical ways. He connects with physicians and executives personally to coach them in refining skill through ongoing mentoring and follow-up.
Fred is a member of the American College of Physician Executives and the American College of Health Care Executives. A Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, he completed his residency in internal medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and his fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Washington.
Fred is a Certified Physician Development Coach™ and a member of the Association of Physician Speakers, Experts, and Consultants. As the past chairman of Washington State's Eighth District Healthcare Advisory Committee, he facilitates communication from local healthcare leaders into consensus recommendations for national health care policy.
Charles Charman, MD, FHM
Dr. Charles Charman is the Director of Faculty Development and a Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Medical Director of the Emerging Leaders and Compass programs at Sound Physicians. He is is an Internal Medicine physician by training, who is passionate about developing leaders and is an outcomes-oriented curriculum designer, change facilitator, and dynamic physician educator.
Dr. Charman actively applies learning science and an in-depth knowledge of healthcare to design, deliver and assess development programs for leaders. His passion is creating innovative, evidence-based programs that produce maximum impact for diverse audiences in healthcare organizations. He is a certified Crucial Conversations facilitator, and has acted as a Physician Champion of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) initiative at Sound Physicians.
In his words:
"I am intrigued by the crossover between great medical practice and the design and delivery of great healthcare development programs. As a physician, I help patients by applying scientific knowledge to obtain the best possible outcomes. In the field of learning and development, I have used the power of this strategy with similar success. Leveraging learning science ignites learner performance, resulting in exceptional outcomes.
I’ve had an exciting journey as I’ve learned about learning the last few years. It’s fascinating that many of the skills that clinicians use to take the best possible care of patients are the same ones we can use to design and deliver the best possible programs. The applications are endless, the potential is limitless. I’m excited about expanding this frontier."
Barry Silbaugh, MD, MS, FAAPL
Dr. Silbaugh is the former CEO of the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE), a professional organization for physicians with leadership and executive roles in the health care industry. As the first physician CEO of ACPE, he helped grow the organization by developing new educational content focused on patient safety, high reliability, and integrating the cultures of medicine and management. He was named to Modern Healthcare’s “Most Influential” lists from 2009 to 2011, and honored as a Distinguished Fellow of ACPE in 2012. He continues to teach as a faculty member of the American Association for Physician Leadership (formerly the American College of Physician Executives).
Barry served on the Board of Governors of the National Patient Safety Foundation from 2009 to 2012. He served on the board of New Mexico Healthcare Executives, the regional chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, in New Mexico, and is a guest lecturer in the University of New Mexico’s MHA program.
Barry is co-author of the article "Landing on the Hudson River: Lessons for Health Care" (PEJ May/June 2010) with Jeff Skiles, the co-pilot of Flight 1549, which outlines key principles of safety and teamwork important to health care. Passionately curious about people and their efforts to improve their world, he has represented ACPE on professional delegations to China, Tibet, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. In 2018, he spent several months in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan working with the clinical and administrative staff of the National Referral Hospital to improve patient safety, quality, and efficiency.
Barry's career has included full-time clinical work as an internist/hematologist, medical director of a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, vice president of medical operations for a large national health system, Chief Medical Officer of a consumer-focused Internet start-up, consulting, and executive coaching for physicians. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Medical Management. He has a BA and MD from the University of Iowa, and a Master's in Administrative Medicine from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Katherine Hendrickson, MA
Principal, KAH Consulting
Katherine is a Leadership and Organization Development consultant with 15 years of experience in managing organizational change initiatives and in the design and delivery of leadership training and development programs. She consults for Fortune 500 companies in the areas of leadership and organization development. Recent clients include Sutter Health, Yahoo!, eBay, Inc., and Cisco.
Prior to her consulting work, Katherine was the Sr. Director of Strategic Change for Agilent Technologies, where she led strategic change initiatives sponsored by the CEO, to create a culture of accountability and innovation for this spin-off of Hewlett Packard. Prior to that role she acted as the Sr. Director of Global Learning and Development for Agilent, where she managed a global team of learning professionals and consultants to deliver professional and leadership development to 16,000 employees worldwide. Prior to Agilent, Katherine acted as the Director of Executive Development for Hewlett Packard (HP), where she directed the enterprise-wide investments in executive development and managed a $10M budget.
Katherine is a valued partner with Physician Leader Group, collaborating in the areas of learning & development strategy development, leadership/executive development program design and delivery, executive coaching, and leading organization change initiatives.