Michael E. Ring, MD, FACC, FSCAI is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Medical Director of the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute of Spokane. Dr. Ring received his undergraduate degree at UCLA and graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School. He received his internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Arizona and completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at Boston University. He has been a practicing interventional cardiologist at Heart Clinics Northwest in Spokane since 1990 and Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center since 1999. Dr. Ring serves on the Management Committee of the Clinical Outcome Assessment Program (COAP), a statewide quality improvement program for coronary revascularization procedures. He is a past president of the Spokane County Medical Society and the Spokane Society of Internal Medicine and is the incoming governor of the Washington Chapter of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Ring's interests include defining and improving quality in cardiovascular medicine, particularly as related to long-term outcomes.

Cindy Corbett is an associate professor in the College of Nursing at Washington State University where she teaches and advises graduate students and coordinates the nursing PhD program. Dr. Corbett's research activities focus on strategies to improve chronic illness self-management. In conjunction with an inter-professional team, one of her lines of inquiry is a program of research to improve the quality and safety of transitional care. The transitional care research has been funded by the American Society of Health Systems' Pharmacists, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research (AHRQ).

Jac Davies is Director of the Beacon Community for the Inland Northwest (BCIN), a collaboration of Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS). The BCIN is a federally funded program intended to improve health outcomes across Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho through care coordination supported by the innovative and collaborative use of health information technology. Prior to assuming that position in May, 2010, Ms. Davies was Director of Northwest TeleHealth, Regional Outreach and health@work for INHS, and was responsible for managing a large regional telemedicine network, providing continuing education and support for rural health care providers and promoting employee wellness. Before joining INHS, Ms. Davies worked at the Washington State Department of Health, where she served as Assistant Secretary for the Division of Epidemiology, Health Statistics, and Public Health Laboratories. She has an MS and an MPH from the University of Washington, and a BS from the Mississippi University for Women.

Nancy Magnuson received her BS in microbiology from UCLA and her PhD in immunology from Washington State University. Nancy's research involves the study of the serine/threonine kinase called PIM1 which when overexpressed promotes cancer. Her research has focused on determining how PIM1 contributes to the development of cancer. Nancy's lab, as well as others around the world, have determined that one of PIM1's major functions in cancer is to keep cells alive that should be destroyed by natural defenses of the body. As a professor she also teaches immunology to undergraduates and graduate students.

Anders R. Merg, MD, FACS received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota and a Doctorate in Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. He completed general surgery training at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. After practicing general surgery in the Spokane area a year and a half, he returned to the University of Iowa as a surgeon in the division of surgical oncology. This led to a two year surgical oncology fellowship at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.

Having developed an adoration of the Inland Northwest, Dr. Merg returned, joining the Surgical Specialists of Spokane and was named Director of Surgical Oncology of the Providence Regional Cancer Center in the Summer of 2006.His surgical oncology interests include hepatobiliary, pancreatic, gastrointestinal, sarcoma, and melanoma cancers. He is privileged at Sacred Heart Hospital, Deaconess Hospital, and Holy Family, and sees patients at the Sacred Heart Office. Dr. Merg also provides Acute Trauma Care, Critical Care and Acute Surgical Care at Sacred Heart, the only Level II Trauma center in Eastern Washington.

Raymond Reeve's research interests focus on the structure and function of eukaryotic chromatin and, more specifically, on the protein-DNA interactions involved in regulating the transcriptional expression of human genes. He primarily studies the HMGA group of "high mobility" proteins, founding members of what are known as "architectural transcriptional factors" that recognize and modulate the structure of DNA. He, and others, have demonstrated that over-expression of HMGA proteins induces normal cells to become cancerous and have proposed that increased levels of these proteins can potentially be used as diagnostic markers for identification of the metastatic potential of tumors. His laboratory employs a variety of biochemical, biophysical, and biological techniques to investigate how HMGA proteins function in both normal and malignant cells.

Ken Roberts is an Associate Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University and Director of the WWAMI Medical Education Program on the Spokane campus of WSU. He is an Assistant Dean for WWAMI Pre-Clinical Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Roberts received his PhD in biochemistry from the WSU in 1989 and did his postdoctoral work in the Division of Reproductive Biology at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Washington State University he spent 14 years on the faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School in the departments of Urologic Surgery and Integrative Biology & Physiology. His research focuses on role of the epididymis in mammalian sperm maturation and function, and research on other urologic diseases.

John Roll earned a Bachelor of Psychology degree from the University of Montana, a Master of Arts degree in psychology from Saint Bonaventure University, and a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Human Behavioral Pharmacology at the University of Vermont and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Substance Abuse Research at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

He has served as a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Wayne State University, Director of Behavioral Pharmacology in UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, and as Director of the Washington Institute for Mental Health Research and Training. He is currently a Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the WSU College of Nursing. He is also the Director of the Program of Excellence in the Addictions and the Program of Excellence in Rural Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment. Dr. Roll holds additional appointments in the WSU Department of Psychology and the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. He has been appointed by Governor Gregoire as an Executive Commissioner on the Eastern State Hospital Advisory Board and as a Vice Chair of the Governor's Council on Substance Abuse. Dr. Roll is a permanent member of the NIDA K review committee and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for many other NIH review committees. He has also served as a reviewer for CDC, SAMHSA, DVA, and the Parkinson's and Movement Disorder Foundation. Dr. Roll's work has focused on human behavioral pharmacology, the development and refinement of behavioral interventions for addiction and other psychiatric disorders, as well as technology transfer issues. His research is currently funded by NIH, DOJ, SAMHSA, and WA State Life Science's Discovery Fund. Dr. Roll is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and is President of the American Psychological Association's Division on Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse.

Joseph Schappert, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer at Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML) and the Medical Director for Providence Health Care System. He was previously the Global Medical Director at ICON Central Laboratories, where he was involved in innovative and state-of-art information technology, flow cytometric and molecular diagnostic solutions in support of clinical trials conducted worldwide. Dr. Schappert has also served as the Vice Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center. He has also worked extensively with major diagnostic companies.

He is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, as well as a member of the American Academy for Clinical Chemists (AACC). He has expertise in infectious disease testing, cardiac markers, coagulation testing, point of care testing, laboratory automation, and molecular diagnostics. Dr. Schappert has co-authored over 30 manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters, and has presented academically on both a national and international level.

Roger Stevens is the Senior Director over hospital computer applications for Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS). Roger's division with one hundred employees is responsible for systems implementation, service and support for over thirty five hospitals in Washington and Idaho. With his 26 years of service with INHS, Roger was instrumental in building one of the largest and nationally recognized, combined master patient indexes (MPI) in the country. A patient has one longitudinal medical record within the entire region of hospitals. In a current project the regional Veterans Administration, their medical records are being combined with the INHS medical record. This will clearly improve the health care of the veteran community population.

Katherine R. Tuttle, MD, FASN, FACP, is the Medical and Scientific Director of Providence Medical Research Center, Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, Washington and a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Nephrology Division at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her research interests are in the areas of diabetic kidney disease, hypertension, renal vascular disease, and nutrition. She co-chairs the NKF-KDOQI Workgroup for Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease and chairs the Healthcare Professional Workgroup for the National Diabetes Education Program.

Douglas L. Weeks, Ph.D., is Senior Research Investigator for Inland Northwest Health Services with responsibilities for company-wide consultation on research design and data analysis. He also has an appointment as Research Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy at Washington State University. Weeks holds a PhD from the University of Colorado in research design, statistical analysis, and evaluation methodology. Dr. Weeks has expertise in design and data analysis for experimental and non-experimental studies, including extensive experience in analysis of repeated measures data. He has developed a career-long publication record in peer-reviewed basic science and clinical research journals, and has secured funding to support his research from such agencies as the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, the Washington State Health Care Authority, and the American Heart Association. As well, Weeks has played an integral role as the director for evaluation on government and privately funded studies, including the Office of the national Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Robert Wood Johnson, and the US Department of Agriculture. Dr. Weeks' research interests center on the influence of medication on health outcomes, and the influence of therapeutic interventions on recovery of independence following injury to the central nervous system.

Stacy Wenzl completed her graduate degree in Health Policy and Administration from Washington State University at Spokane in 2006. Stacy worked as a certified histology technologist at a local clinical pathology laboratory in Spokane County before entering the field of public health as an epidemiologist in 2004. Stacy currently manages the Community Health Assessment and Communicable Disease Prevention Programs at Spokane Regional Health District. In this capacity, she oversees the analysis of health status data; directs publication and distribution of assessment data; assures adherence to federal, state and local laws, regulations and standards with regard to communicable disease control; and oversees systems designed to protect client and program data quality, confidentiality, and security, including compliance with Human Subjects protocols. Stacy is also actively engaged in quality improvement and performance management at the Health District.