Speakers List Coming Soon

Gregory is Board Certified in Surgery and Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. He is certified in Wound Care by the American Board of Wound Healing. He is a Fellow of the American Professional Wound Care Association with the Distinction of Masters, MAPWCA. He is an Assistant Professor of Surgery with Central Michigan School of Medicine. He is the President of the American Board of Wound Healing and Past President of the AAWC. He has published on a variety of Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine topics.

Tim was graduated with Honors from the University Of Connecticut, and has worked as a Physical Therapist in settings across the healthcare continuum. Additionally, Tim owned and operated an outpatient physical therapy clinic with specializations in the areas of orthopedics, neurology, chronic and acute wound care, as well as pre-hab and rehab for those with pulmonary and orthopedic conditions. He provided medical consultation services to skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies and legal consultation services to attorneys. Tim has been an active member of the Association for Advancement in Wound Care since 1998, and has held national certification as a Wound Care Specialist. He has been an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association. As part of these organizations, he has served on the board of directors, chaired numerous committees and task forces, published in national journals, lectured locally, regionally and nationally, and been recognized not only for his passion for collaboration, but also using his broad knowledge and experience to identify and solve problems.

Dr. Sarwat Jabeen earned her medical degree from Sindh Medical School in Karachi, Pakistan. She did her internship and residency in the Austin Family Medicine Residency Program of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) and completed a fellowship in geriatrics at UTSW in Dallas. Board certified in family medicine and geriatric medicine, Dr. Jabeen has been in practice since 2010. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Geriatrics Society and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Jabeen treats patients of all ages and speaks Urdu. With a focus on taking care of older patients and keeping them healthy, she has special clinical interests that include osteoporosis, urinary incontinence, wound care, and dementia and its associated behavioral issues. A good listener and health advocate, she focuses on building long-term relationships and partnerships with her patients. A resident of Sugar Land, Dr. Jabeen is married and the mother of two daughters. In her leisure time, she enjoys running, learning to play the piano, Zumba, traveling and photography.

Ms. Couch graduated with her Master of Science in Nursing (FNP) from Georgetown University in 2002. Since 2004, she has been credentialed as a Certified Wound Specialist by the American Board of Wound Management. She became a Certified Wound Care Nurse-Advanced Practice by the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses Board in August 2018. Her primary wound interests are in amputee care, wound infection and venous ulcers. Currently she works as an NP in the Wound Healing and Limb Preservation Center at George Washington University Hospital. In 2018, Kara became the director of inpatient wound care at George Washington University Hospital. She is an assistant research professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University and Clinical Associate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Ms. Couch is the current nurse board member of the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders and the Secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC). She is an editorial board member of Ostomy-Wound Management, Today’s Wound Clinic and WoundSource 2019. Kara is the liaison for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners to the Alliance. In 2017, she was voted onto the Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee of the Amputee Coalition. She became Chair in 2019. During her tenure as a board member of AAWC, she has continued her work as co-chair of the Guidelines Task Force, member of the Education committee and the Public Policy Task Force. She also has been working on the annual Pressure Ulcer Summit and the Pressure Ulcer Description Tool as a steering committee member. Teaching residents, medical, nursing and physical therapy students is one of her passions. Kara lectures nationally on various wound topics and is also the primary author or co-author on numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Dr. Bryant received her Baccalaureate in Nursing from Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota, her ET certificate from Jewish Hospital Washington University School of Enterostomal Therapy in St. Louis Missouri, a Masters in Nursing from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in Nursing from Washington State University in Spokane WA. Her dissertation focus was to identify factors contributing to adverse outcomes in the hospitalized patient with a present on admission or hospital acquired pressure ulcer. Dr. Bryant has a career as a board certified WOC Nurse that spans over 30 years. During her career she has been clinically active in acute care with adults and pediatrics in Minneapolis, Omaha, Nebraska, Oklahoma City and Spokane WA. She has influenced and shaped the role of the WOC nurse and patient care through her many positions on the Board of Directors of the WOCN Society, including 2 terms as President, and through her faculty and director positions in two WOC Nursing Education Programs. Dr. Bryant is the co-creator of the first web based WOC nursing education program, the webWOC Nursing Education Program, which was launched in 1999, in Minneapolis Minnesota. She is the co-editor of “Acute and Chronic Wounds: Current Management Techniques”, currently in its 5th edition. Ruth was in Spokane Washington for the past 6 years where she completed her PhD, worked in wound care and was the Nurse Researcher at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Ruth returned to Minnesota in October of 2017 to be the Director of Nursing Research at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis Minnesota. Currently, Dr. Bryant is President-Elect of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC).

Dr. Lisa Gould, Associate Medical Director and Director of Research at South Shore Hospital Center for Wound Healing, Weymouth, MA, earned her MD, PhD in the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been practicing plastic and reconstructive surgery with an emphasis on difficult wound problems since 1999. She is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at University of South Florida and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Gould brings her passion for research and education in wound care to her clinical practice and to the national organizations that she serves, including the Wound Healing Society, the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care and the American College of Surgeons. A past president of the Wound Healing Society, she has served on the executive board for more than 10 years and is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Association for Advanced Wound Care and the Wound Healing Society.

Dr. Levine is a practicing physician in New York City. He is Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative care at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, is a Certified Medical Director and Certified Wound-care Specialist Physician. Starting off as a fellowship trained geriatrician, he developed wound care expertise in the entire continuum of outpatient, hospital settings, and the PALTC environment. He has been actively involved in educational efforts promoting wound care skills among primary care practitioners. Dr. Levine’s is an alumnus of the National Pressure Injury Panel (NPIAP), and speaks widely and writes on the topic of wound care in older patients. His publications include the wound care chapter in the Geriatric Review Syllabus published by the American Geriatrics Society, and co-authored a book, Pocket Guide to Pressure Ulcers, published by the New Jersey Hospital Association, that is currently the wound guide of choice in many PALTC facilities across America.

Dr Sibbald is a dermatologist and internist with a special interest in wound care and education. He is a professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto and an international wound care key opinion leader (educator, clinician and clinical researcher). Dr Sibbald is co-founder of the Canadian Association of Wound Care and was the former Director of the Wound Healing Clinic, Women’s College Hospital (1994-2009). He is also a previous president of the World Union of Wound Healing Societies (2012 – 2016). In 1999 he co-developed the International Interprofessional Wound Care Course and has been the director for 33 courses worldwide. He has over 200 publications and is co-editor and chapter author of the Chronic Wound Care 5 textbook. Currently he is the Co-editor in chief of Advances in Skin & Wound Care. Professor Sibbald received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2013 and Honorary Doctor of Science from Excelsior College in 2014. Investigator, Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners. He his the project ECHO lead for Ontario Skin and Wound to develop interprofessional teams for all 14 Ontario Local Integrated Health Networks.

Mary Beth Welesko APRN-CNP is a board certified family and geriatric nurse practitioner with advanced practice certification in hospice and palliative nursing, and wound care. She is a graduate of Providence College, Rhode Island College, and the University of Rhode Island. Her clinical experience includes medical management of geriatric patients across a continuum of health care settings including primary care, acute inpatient consultation, sub-acute rehabilitation, long-term care, hospice and palliative care, acute inpatient geriatric psychiatry and homecare. An experienced educator, Mary Beth participates in the NICHE program at Kent Hospital and is a clinical teaching associate for the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Susan "Suzy" Scott, MSN, RN, WOC Nurse currently serves as Medical Educator with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), College of Medicine, Office of Graduate Medical Education, and Clinical Instructor in the College of Nursing in Memphis, TN. Suzy is a notable pressure injury expert, researcher and author from the Veterans Health Administration. Suzy has developed and disseminated the Scott Triggers® a concurrent trigger tool to identify at-risk individuals for pressure injury in surgery; www.scotttriggers.com. Suzy was recognized as an "Edge Runner" by the American Academy of Nurses for the "Perioperative Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program" (PPUPP). She currently serves as the Lead Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurse (WOC) Consultant for AORN’s Syntegrity Positioning/Pressure Injury Prevention Documentation Project and a contributor to AORN's Perioperative Pressure Injury Prevention Toolkit.

Karen Whitesell, PT, DPT has over 30 years of experience in physical therapy specializing in adult neurological rehabilitation. Her focus has been to provide expert seating and mobility rehab to promote optimal positioning, mobility, and function for adults requiring complex rehabilitation equipment. She has created and managed many seating clinics in various settings, and has lectured and mentored many health care professionals in the area of seating and mobility. She currently manages the George Washington University Hospital Outpatient Neurologic Clinic located in Washington, DC. She received her training at the Medical College of Virginia-Virginia Commonwealth University and her doctorate at A.T.Still University in Arizona. She is honored to again be a part of the AAWC PrU Summit.

Lisa provides system wound leadership for a large integrated health system in New England. She has accountability for wound related clinical, regulatory and financial outcomes, organizational strategy, clinical value analysis, inter-professional competency, contracts integration. Leads Nursing Research programs, Shared Governance Council, Advanced Practice Legislative Action. She is also a partner in a private WOC practice, Connecticut Clinical Nursing Associates, LLC and is a Lecturer at Yale University School of Nursing where she has taught “Quality & Safety in HealthCare Organizations” for 5 years in the DNP Program.

Holly Cline was born and raised in Dickson, Tennessee. In 2010, she received her Bachelor of Science in Biology degree from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee and began biomedical research at Vanderbilt University in pediatric medulloblastoma. In 2012, she obtained both Bachelor and Master of Science in Nursing degrees from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and became board certified as an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. In 2015, Holly began working at Neighborhood Health Downtown Clinic to provide primary medical care for individuals experiencing homelessness. While serving these individuals, Holly discovered a passion for chronic wound management and joined the Integumetrix team in 2019, providing advanced wound care consultations in her hometown of Dickson, Tennessee at HCA’s TriStar Horizon Medical Center and their outpatient Advanced Wound Care and Vascular Center.

Lisa Brening BSN RN CWON WCC is a Utilization Management Care Manager for myNEXUS, Brentwood TN. Lisa has been certified in wound care since 2008 and has been advocating for evidenced based care for patients in the inpatient and outpatient setting. In her current role, she identifies and monitors wound care delivery in the Home Health setting. Lisa graduated from Northern Illinois University and is a graduate of the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence program at Emory University in Atlanta.

Catherine T. Milne is an Adult Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist practicing across the continuum in acute care, long-term care, home health and outpatient settings. Employed by Connecticut Clinical Nursing Associates, she provides consulting to organizations wishing to improve wound outcomes, conducts clinical research, lectures nationally and internationally, has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed publications, and is the Co-Editor of the text Wound, Ostomy, Continence Secret. She is additionally affiliated with the Bristol Hospital Wound, Ostomy, Lymphedema Center. She serves as an Adjunct Clinical Professor for Western Connecticut State University and for the Yale School of Nursing.

Sharon Sonenblum, PhD is a Senior Research Scientist in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech where she studies wheelchair seating and mobility. Her work focuses on two primary areas: the use of assistive technology in everyday life, and tissue health and pressure injury prevention. Dr. Sonenblum’s work on tissue health uses imaging to investigate the tissue’s response to loading and positioning. She has used instrumentation to monitor how people move in their seats and use devices such as power tilt-in-space wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, and power adjustable seat height wheelchairs in their everyday lives. Dr. Sonenblum serves on the board of directors of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel.

Katherine Piette has spent the last 15 years in quality, marketing, and operational executive roles in Post-Acute Home Health and Hospice. She brings extensive experience in Telehealth, continuous process improvement, project planning, and organizational redesign for care management of high-opportunity, high-cost populations. Piette has operational experience in launching and leading new Post-Acute, tech-enabled service offerings by applying customercentric and quality improvement methodologies for aligning with emerging value-based care delivery – Accountable Care Organizations, Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiatives, etc. Piette has a BA in Biology from Agnes Scott College and a MS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She publishes and presents nationally on the Post-Acute Sector, Telehealth, virtual wound management, and value-based care management models.

Joe is the Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder at Corstrata where he is responsible for sales, marketing, product management, and strategic consulting services at Corstrata. Joe has 30 years of experience within the Healthcare Industry, including Corstrata’s direct target market of Post-Acute Home Health and Hospice. Joe has extensive executive management experience in Finance, Accounting, Operations, and Sales with P&L responsibilities running multiple lines of business. Joe has extensive experience developing strategies for emerging value-based reimbursement models of healthcare. Joe has successfully integrated the practice of Telehealth into home care operations, as well as other, innovative care models across the health care continuum resulting in improved clinical quality outcomes at a lower cost through improved operational efficiencies. Joe has a BBA in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and began his career as a CPA in large accounting practices, including Arthur Andersen and PwC. Joe has published and presented nationally on topics specific to Telehealth in wound care, chronic care cost management strategies, and transformation of care delivery models in the shift from volume to value-based care.

Dr. Warren Clayton is board certified in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is also a diplomate of the American Board of Wound Management. He currently performs endocrinology telemedicine consultations in greater Nashville, Tennessee, and practices outpatient wound care in the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He is also a physician reviewer with myNEXUS®, where he contributes to education and quality improvement initiatives related to healthcare management for diabetes and wound care.

Dr. Thomas E. Serena MD FACS FACHM MAPWCA, Founder and Medical Director of The SerenaGroup®, a family of wound, hyperbaric and research companies, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The College of William and Mary and Penn State Medical School. He completed his residency in Surgery at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and maintains board certification in Surgery. To date he has opened and operates advanced wound care centers across the United Sates and globally. Dr. Serena has been the lead or Principal investigator in over 100 clinical trials, including gene therapy, antimicrobial dressings, growth factors, topical and parenteral antibiotics and CTP therapy. He founded the first wound healing cooperative research group conducting clinical trials world-wide. In 2011 he developed a diagnostic technique that now bears his name (The Serena Technique©). He is one of the world’s leading experts in infection diagnostics. He holds numerous patents on wound care devices and dressings. He is recognized internationally as an expert in the field of wound healing: He has more than 200 published papers and has given more than 1500 invited lectures throughout the world. He has published two medical textbooks and authored numerous book chapters. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Wound Healing Society and served two terms on the board of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC) and is now the immediate Past-President. He has also been Vice-President of the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine and President of the American Professional Wound Care Association. Dr. Serena has done extensive medical relief work with Health Volunteers Overseas and served as chairman of the AAWC Global Volunteers/HVO Steering Committee until 2016. In 2016 in partnership with HEAL Foundation he opened a wound clinic in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Outside of wound healing, he consulted for the government of Rwanda on AIDS prevention research.