William Artigliere, Esq.
William M. Artigliere is a civil trial lawyer and partner with Garcia & Artigliere, a national law firm specializing in elder abuse and nursing home neglect. He is dedicated to obtaining justice for elderly and infirm adults and their families when their care, rights and safety are put in jeopardy by their long-term caregivers. A native of Florida, Mr. Artigliere graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was commissioned in the United States Army as a second lieutenant in field artillery. Mr. Artigliere obtained a Juris Doctorate from Barry University School of Law in Orlando and was valedictorian of his class. He has consistently been recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer for his work in elder law.

Rima M. Badawiya, Esq.
Rima Badawiya is a partner in the San Bernardino office of Lewis Brisbois, co-chair of the Medical Malpractice and Long-Term Care & Elder Law Practices and vice-chair of the Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance Practice. Ms. Badawiya's civil trial practice focuses on the defense of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare and long-term care professionals and organizations. She also has considerable experience in the areas of complex litigation, business torts and contract law as well as defending claims brought under the American with Disabilities Act.

Ms. Badawiya has successfully defended many cases involving claims of professional negligence, elder abuse, fraud, products liability, unfair business practices and punitive damages. Ms. Badawiya also has extensive experience in the areas of healthcare regulatory litigation and compliance. She has litigated regulatory issues in Superior Courts and state and federal ALJ proceedings, assisted with abuse and unusual incident investigation and reporting and represented physicians, nurses and other health professionals in licensure matters. She has been a noted presenter at numerous conferences and seminars throughout the United States for senior care industry, assisted living organizations and university academic programs which have included mock trials. She has recognized expertise in all aspects of nursing home and medical malpractice litigation with a strong reputation for obtaining successful results for her clients through law and motion, mediation, arbitration and trial.

Alex Bardakh, MPP, PLC
Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for AMDA – The Society. Mr. Bardakh works for the Society’s extensive Public Policy agenda through Advocacy in Congress and numerous Federal Agencies. A graduate from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in Political Science/Psychology and Master’s Degree in Public and Legal Policy, Mr. Bardakh has extensive experience in health policy with a specific focus on areas such as payment models and quality of care initiatives. He has been a recognized national speaker on healthcare policy and has spoken at national conferences throughout the country. 

Ryan Canavan, Esq.
Ryan Canavan became an associate of the firm in June 2017. His practice focuses on the defense of Skilled Nursing Facilities against claims of elder neglect, wrongful death, professional negligence and violations of patient’s rights. He also pursues the dismissal of Federal deficiencies and State citations issued against the Firm’s clients. Ryan also spearheads the firm’s debt recovery efforts on behalf of its Skilled Nursing Facility clients.

Ryan was born and raised in Ireland and initially practiced law in Belfast, Ireland, before passing the New York Bar exam in 2006 and moving to NYC in 2007. It was in New York that Ryan developed skills as a litigator, specializing in general liability defense. Ryan's New York practice focused on the defense of property owners, general contractors and sub-contractors against claims of catastrophic personal injury following construction site accidents. While in New York, Ryan was a member of the Irish American Bar Association, Brehon Law Society and a committee member of both IN-NYC and the Manhattan Gaels Gaelic Football Club.

Ryan relocated to Southern California with his wife Katie, a native of San Diego, in September 2015. He initially worked as a claims analyst for a leader in the insurance run- off industry, and was responsible for evaluating and issuing coverage analysis opinions under a variety of historical policies. He was also responsible for managing highly volatile accounts with multi-million dollar exposures, in the fields of toxic torts, premises liability, products liability, construction defects and sexual molestation.

Ryan was admitted to the California State Bar in 2017 and is licensed to practice in all California State Courts. Ryan's attention to detail ensures that he leaves no stone unturned in providing the best defense available to his clients and he enjoys providing risk management advice to offset the potential for future litigation.

Alfredo Czerwinski, MD
Dr. Czerwinski began his professional career in working in Operations Research and Management Consulting, long before his interest and training in clinical medicine. After obtaining his undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Czerwinski joined the international management consulting firm of Arthur D. Little (ADL), where he was responsible for mathematical modeling and the development of computer-based decision support methodologies. Since that time, he has applied his remarkable communication skills at the interface of business and medicine.

Throughout his career, Dr. Czerwinski has worked with health care executives at all levels to help enable them to understand markets, determine strategy, and implement change. Working with health care providers, such as medical groups and hospitals, his consulting practice today spans a broad range of organizational challenges including strategy development and operational assessments. Many of his engagements involve facilitation and consensus building for senior leadership teams. His coaching work has always focused on physician leaders.

As Corporate Medical Director of the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, a large multispecialty medical group in Houston, Texas, he was responsible for physician recruiting, training, and development, as well as quality improvement, medical staff services, corporate and government business development, strategic planning, wellness programs, and clinical research management. He instigated the acquisition of the Clinic by Caremark International, Inc. and then supported Caremark with further mergers and acquisitions of large medical groups across the USA.

Subsequently, he became Senior Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer at Sutter Health, an integrated system that encompassed 25 acute-care hospitals, 30,000 employees, and approximately 6,000 affiliated physicians, as well as most aspects of the care continuum. Dr. Czerwinski’s broad responsibilities included system-wide quality measurement and reporting, as well as helping to foster the organization’s relationships with physicians, and working to develop broader and deeper physician leadership within the system.

Alfredo currently serves as Chief Medical Officer for Lawson & Associates, a consulting group that helps clinical and non-clinical leaders thrive in uncertain environments, move with agility and decisiveness, and better leverage an organization’s culture to drive superior performance. He attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and was a resident in General Internal Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Czerwinski is an active teacher. He co-founded the Leadership and Management in Geriatrics course at UCLA, now in its fifteenth year. He is a Life Member and presenter at the American Association for Physician Leadership (formerly ACPE). He also serves on the MIT Educational Council and interviews college-bound high school students, who seem to get smarter every year.

When not on the road working with clients, Alfredo and his wife divide their time between urban California and rural Texas, looking for new ways to inspire their grandchildren.

Rebecca Ferrini, MD, MPH, CMD
Dr. Rebecca Ferrini MD MPH CMD is a full-time medical director for the County of San Diego 192 bed distinct part skilled nursing facility serving a younger, safety net population for nearly 19 years. She received the 2009 AMDA Medical Director of the Year Award, and speaks and publishes in the areas of quality, leadership, decision-making capacity, behavioral management, Huntington disease and younger adults. She has specialty in Hospice and Palliative medicine and General Preventive Medicine. She has five children and plays competitive soccer. Her facility is 5 stars (CMS 20/20), has been named a top nursing home in the country for seven years by US News and World Report . Edgemoor received the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) Gold -- Excellence in Quality Award in 2017 and had a Baldrige site visit in fall 2018. San Diego, CA

Dolly Greene, RN, BSN, CIC
Dolly Greene is a registered nurse with a BSN and one who is nationally board certified in infection prevention and control. She is the co-owner of Infection Prevention & Control Resources where she provides intense training classes for nurses in long-term care facilities throughout California on a monthly basis.

Dolly has worked in the field of infection control for over 27 years and has been involved in long term care for over 30 years.

She is a member of APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Prevention & Control), and served as the Chair for their Long-term care section for 2 years. She is also part of the APIC Consulting faculty for trainings in LTC. Dolly was one of the creators of an infection control training program for Infection Preventionists in LTCFs in California. She collaborated with public health officials in California along with the California Association of Health Facilities to present this first-time 2-day training in 2012. This program is now an annual event which takes place in several venues in California.

Dolly has spoken at conferences and conventions for various organizations addressing nurses and physicians throughout the United States. Dolly is one of the co-authors of the APIC Infection Preventionist’s Guide to LTC which was released in 2013 and the latest version just released in 2019. Dolly was the 2013 recipient of the SHEA (Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America) Advanced Practice IP Award which was given to her at ID Week October, 2013 in San Francisco.

Albert Lam, MD
Dr. Albert Lam completed his undergraduate studies in Gerontology and Bioethics at the University of Southern California. He received his medical degree at the University of Southern California, trained in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles/University of California – Los Angeles, and completed fellowship in Geriatrics at the University of California – Los Angeles. He is at the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group serving as the Chair of the Department of Geriatrics with an appointment at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, caring for older adults in Skilled Nursing Facilities and developing real-world strategies for implementing best practices, such as INTERACT, in care.

Albert has provided physician leadership at the Avoiding Readmissions through Collaboration (ARC) initiative at El Camino Hospital since 2012 and at Dignity Health's Sequoia Hospital since 2013, developed SNF 2.0® providing a team mentor-based approach to INTERACT and Palliative Care Education since 2012, worked on the Board of Directors for the California Association for Long Term Care Medicine since 2013, and was on the Steering Committee for the CMS Bundled Payment Care Initiative at El Camino Hospital in Santa Clara County 2015-2017. A former Westinghouse Science Talent Search Semifinalist, he has more recently won top prizes at innovation challenges such as the Health 2.0 San Francisco Code-A-Thon.

Mark Levine, MD
Biography coming soon.

Andrew Lowe, Pharm. D., APh, FCSHP
Andrew Lowe, Pharm.D., is a Regional Vice President for Clinical Services at Comprehensive Pharmacy Services, and he serves as Clinical Director and Pharmacy Practice Residency Program Director at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in Colton, Calif.
Dr. Lowe received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy, then completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at San Bernardino County Medical Center.

He has helped establish a pharmacist-managed pain management program, and is currently working on establishing telemedicine programs in that area. As a licensed Advanced Practice Pharmacist, Dr. Lowe maintains a clinical practice focusing on pain management and on the prevention of prescription drug abuse. Dr. Lowe is a faculty member at several schools of pharmacy in California, and teaches the pharmacology course in the Physician Assistant program at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.

Laura Mosqueda, MD, FAAFP, AGSF
Dr. Laura Mosqueda is a professor of Family Medicine and Geriatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is a widely respected authority on elder abuse and care of the elderly and underserved. She is also an expert on medical education curriculum design, development, and implementation. Before joining USC, she served 16 years at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine. Since joining the Keck School of Medicine of USC her roles have included: Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Associate Dean of Primary Care, and Dean. She is the principle investigator of an NIA-funded R01 study to understand the causes of abuse of people with dementia and is the Director of the National Center on Elder Abuse a federally-funded initiative that serves as the nation's coordinating body and clearinghouse for information on research, training, best practices, news, and resources. Dr. Mosqueda is also a fellow in the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship Program. As a clinician, researcher, educator, and academic administrator, she has a unique perspective that is informed by her extensive experiences in the community, including her role as a volunteer long term care ombudsman

Thomas Olinger, DDS
Dr. Olinger graduated from The Ohio State University College of Dentistry in 1976 and immediately began serving his country in the United States Navy. He then pursued a successful career in private practice for 36 years here in San Diego County. He served in leadership roles for the San Diego County Dental Society, the California Dental Association and the American Dental Association. He served almost 5 years on the Dental Board of California and was an examiner for the Western Regional Board, which qualifies dentists to practice in California. He now serves a Chief Dental officer for San Diego County. Dr. Olinger is married and has two adult children who are presently practicing dental hygiene in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Steven L. Posar, MD
CEO, Founder, Chief Medical Officer
GuideStar Eldercare
Biography coming soon. 

David Quackenbush
CALTCM CEO

Diane Sanders-Cepeda, DO, CMD
Dr. Diane Sanders-Cepeda is a Geriatrician and Certified Medical Director who has focused her career on Geriatric care across the Post-Acute & Long-Term Care Continuum. She began her career at Nova Southeastern University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geriatrics. Her passion for program development and the practical application of medical models lead her to starting her own medical practice which focused on Geriatric Medical Care, Resource Management, and Transitions of care across the Post-Acute & Long-Term Care Continuum. As Dr. Sanders-Cepeda grew her practice, her expertise in Geriatric Medicine lead her to create an Inpatient Geriatric Care unit at South Florida Hospital, develop Palliative Care initiatives for Home Health’s and SNFs, and serve in the capacity of Physician advisor and Medical Director for multiple Skilled Nursing Facilities, Inpatient Units, and Hospice Groups. Dr. Sanders-Cepeda, then transitioned into United Health Group as an Optum Medical Director for the South Florida Market. While in Optum, she used her skills to focus on Clinical Strategic Planning, Educational initiatives, and Clinical Development of Optum’s Advanced Practice Clinicians. Currently, Dr. Sanders-Cepeda works with United Health Group as a Senior Medical Director for United Healthcare Retiree Solutions.

Dr. Sanders-Cepeda is an active member of the American Medical Directors Association. She sits on the Program Planning subcommittee (2015), the Education Committee (2015) and serves as chair of AMDA’s Online Education Subcommittee (2019). In her role as Online Education Subcommittee chair she has assisted in creating a robust schedule of webinars with diverse content and worked to create a virtual leadership symposium.

On the state level, Dr. Sanders-Cepeda remains an active member of the Florida Medical Directors Association and serves as the Vice-President of the organization (2019), and as the chair of FMDA’s Journal Club (2016). In her role as Journal Club chair, Dr. Sanders-Cepeda committed to providing in depth, high -yield content on a monthly basis. With the onset of this pandemic, Dr. Sanders-Cepeda reformatted the Journal Club sessions to be a vehicle for COVID updates and information. This expanded effort now provides content for a national audience with over 16,000 downloads since March of 2020.

Dr. Sanders-Cepeda also serves on the statewide Medical Care Advisory Committee for the state of Florida upon appointment in 2019 by the Secretary of State. Dr. Sanders-Cepeda has presented regionally and nationally on a multitude of topics.

David Scrase, MD, MHSA, MACP
David R. Scrase, MD was appointed as the Secretary of the Human Services Department by Governor, Michelle Lujan-Grisham, soon after her election in November 2018. In that role he oversees the provision of benefits and services to over half of the New Mexico population. Currently, he oversees the medical response of the State to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Scrase is a Board Certified Internist and Geriatrician, and at the time of his appointment was the Interim Division Chief for General Internal Medicine and the Chief of Geriatrics at UNM. His first love and understood calling is as a primary care physician, and he has continuously cared for patients for over 30 years, despite concurrent service in administrative roles. He continues to see patients while serving as Secretary of the Human Services Department.

Dr. Scrase has held a variety of administrative positions, including nine years in medical education, as well as numerous healthcare executive positions in Michigan and New Mexico. Since moving to New Mexico more than 20 years ago, he has been active in many New Mexico public policy committees and community organizations, including four years as Director and Treasurer of Equality New Mexico and as a member of the Board of Menaul School in Albuquerque. He served on Governor Richardson's Insure New Mexico! Committee and Health Care for New Mexicans Committee, on the national Ambulatory Quality Association setting quality metrics for professional practice, and on the Executive Committee of the New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry. He worked closely with the New Mexico Medicaid program for the three years prior to his appointment as Secretary, working to enhance the treatment of Hepatitis C for Medicaid members and to improve quality and reduce hospital readmissions in all New Mexico nursing facilities. He was named a Master of the American College of Physicians in 2019.

While not seeing patients and teaching, he also works as a popular public speaker, consultant and writer. He regularly provides entertaining talks at the local and national level on a wide variety of topics, including fascinating medical cases, successful aging, health policy, mindfulness, and happiness. Under the pen name of David Roberts, in 2013 he published the book, Practice Makes Perfect: How One Doctor Found the Meaning of Lives, which chronicles some of the lessons he has learned from his most interesting patients.

Karl Steinberg MD, CMD, HMDC
Dr. Karl Steinberg is an experienced clinician with over 20 years in practice in San Diego County. He is a geriatrician and board-certified family physician with a subspecialty certification in hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. Steinberg got his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard in 1980, then taught high school in New York City for three years. He attended medical school at The Ohio State University, graduating in 1987, then completed his family medicine residency at UCSD (San Diego) in 1990. Dr. Steinberg is the President of AMDA: The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine; CALTCM BOD member; Chief Medical Officer of Mariner Health Care and Beecan Health. Dr. Steinberg has been a hospice and nursing home medical director since 1995 and is probably best known for taking his dogs on rounds with him on most days. San Diego, CA 

Michael Wasserman, MD, CMD
Medical Director, Eisenberg Village, Los Angeles Jewish Home;
CALTCM Immediate Past-President; Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Michael Wasserman is a geriatrician who has devoted himself to serving the needs of seniors for the past thirty years. He has previously served as the Chief Executive Officer for Rockport Healthcare Services and as Executive Director, Care Continuum, for Health Services Advisory Group, the QINQIO for California. In 2001 he co-founded Senior Care of Colorado, which became the largest privately owned primary care geriatric practice in the country, before selling it to IPC in 2010. Springer has published his book, “The Business of Geriatrics,” which details how to succeed in Geriatrics in today’s healthcare marketplace, and recently published “Primary Care for Older Adults: Models and Challenges,” which he edited. He previously was President and Chief Medical Officer for GeriMed of America, a Geriatric Medical Management Company located in Denver, Colorado. While at GeriMed, he helped to develop GeriMed’s Clinical Glidepaths in conjunction with Drs. Flaherty and Morley of St. Louis University’s School of Medicine Geriatric Division.

Dr. Wasserman is a graduate of the University of Texas, Medical Branch. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at UCLA. He spent five years with Kaiser-Permanente in Southern California where he opened Kaiser's first outpatient Geriatric Consult Clinic. Dr. Wasserman was a co-founder and owner of Common Sense Medical Management (CSM2), a case management company that helped manage high risk beneficiaries of Cover Colorado. He was formerly a Public Commissioner for the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission. He has recently served on several Technical Expert Panels related to MACRA and Value Based Purchasing.

Dr. Wasserman was a co-founder of MESA (Medicare Experts and Senior Access) a multiyear grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to train primary care physicians in how to effectively care and bill for Medicare patients. He was the lead delegate from the State of Colorado to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. He also co-chaired the Colorado Alzheimer’s Coordinating Council. Dr. Wasserman has actively supported the Wish of a Lifetime Foundation
since its inception and now serves as Treasurer on its Board. He served on the Board of The Denver Hospice for fifteen years. He serves as a board member for the American Geriatrics Society’s Foundation for Health in Aging, and is the Immediate Past-President of the California Association for Long Term Care Medicine. He has spoken extensively and been published on a variety of topics involving geriatrics, quality improvement, geriatric workforce issues, healthy aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, the business of health care, practice management and managed care.

William C. Wilson, Esq.
William C. Wilson is a founding partner of the firm and holds an “AV” rating by Martindale Hubbell. He attended the University of San Diego School of Law (J.D., 1990), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A., 1985). While in law school, Bill participated in the Tort and Evidence Law Moot Court Competitions, and interned with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office.

Bill’s practice is devoted to the defense of all types of healthcare providers. It includes representation of physicians and the entire spectrum of post-acute providers. On behalf of these defendants, he has successfully tried, arbitrated and mediated numerous actions with claims of professional negligence, malpractice, and elder abuse/neglect filed by residents and family members. Bill regularly represents facilities in administrative hearings involving alleged regulatory violations. He spends significant time advising long term care clients in risk management strategies and on corporate compliance issues.

Bill’s published opinions in long term care litigation include Laswell v. Country Villa, a case that helps the long term care profession enforce executed binding arbitration agreements and Nevarrez v. San Marino, a case of first impression that limits recoverable damages in cases that include claims for violations of California Health and Safety Code section 1430(b) and narrows the admissibility of DPH citations in civil actions.

Bill is a long time active member of the California Association of Health Facilities, Litigation Subcommittee.