Executive Management

Cathy Hamel has over 20 years executive experience in healthcare management from small physician practice management to Fortune 500 business development and operations responsibilities, including acquisition and development activities. She held executive positions at NeighborCare At Home, Severn Healthcare, Inc., Columbia Healthcare Corporation and TeamCare. At Columbia HealthCare Corporation she participated on a team that submitted an application and subsequent survey for the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award for Healthcare. She was directly responsible for the Information Management survey responses. Cathy has been with Gilchrist since August of 2008 and started as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer. She was promoted to Executive Director in November 2009 and President in 2015. In addition, she was appointed to the position of Vice President of Continuing Care Services for GBMC Healthcare, in July 2011. Cathy serves as the President of the Hospice Alliance in Maryland where she was instrumental in building a state-wide program for children’s hospice services, Alliance Kids. She also serves on the Board of Global Partners in Care where palliative and hospice care is promoted internationally.

W. Anthony Riley, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of Gilchrist. He joined the organization in 1994 as founding medical director of Gilchrist Hospice Care. He also serves as Division Head of the Geriatrics Section at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where he has been a member of the medical staff since 1983. In these roles he provides medical leadership to a practice of over 40 physicians and nurse practitioners. This practice provides geriatric, palliative medicine, hospice, and medical director services in the home, residential facilities, long term-care facilities, the office, and hospitals in the Baltimore region. Dr. Riley also is the founding medical director of the Elder Medical Care Home Care program.

Dr. Riley serves as the Board Chairman of the Greater Baltimore Health Alliance, which is the accountable care organization (ACO) associated with GBMC. He also serves as Chair of its Quality Committee. Dr. Riley’s professional interests include: physician management, health care reform, and innovative health care delivery.

Dr. Riley is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in primary care at the University of Maryland.

He has served on the faculty of the residency programs at both University of Maryland and at GBMC. Under his leadership, Gilchrist currently serves as a training site for the Johns Hopkins palliative medicine fellowship program.

Dr. Riley is an expert and frequent lecturer on doctor-patient communication and medical decision-making in serious illness.

Elizabeth Lee, CPA, is the Chief Financial Officer at Gilchrist. In this role, she leads Gilchrist’s financial reporting, budgeting, investment management, purchasing, accounts payable and payroll. She oversees the finance team as well as the IT department to ensure systems support the organization’s business and clinical needs. Elizabeth has more than 30 years of leadership experience in financial healthcare management, with over 20 years as CFO. She joins Gilchrist from Park West Health Systems, Inc., a nonprofit health center in Baltimore, where she served as Chief Financial Officer since 2011. Prior to that, she was the Chief Financial Officer of Forest Haven Nursing Home in Catonsville.

Elizabeth has extensive experience covering all aspects of financial health system management, including financial statements, payroll, accounts payables, purchasing, billing/collections, Medicare and Medicaid regulatory requirements, reimbursement, and compliance.

Elizabeth is a CPA and graduated from Loyola University, Baltimore, with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

Shannon Wollman has been a development professional for over 20 years within the Greater Baltimore area. Her extensive background includes major gifts, annual and planned giving programs, special events, donor concierge services, staff development and management. Shannon began her career as a major gifts officer at Sinai Hospital and Levindale Hebrew and Geriatric Hospital, part of the LifeBridge Health system, and successfully oversaw a $20 million capital campaign for the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital. In 2011, Shannon joined Johns Hopkins and in 2013 became director of development for the Heart and Vascular Institute, where she oversaw all fundraising efforts for the program. Over the course of her six-year tenure there, more than $40 million was successfully raised for the research and programmatic priorities of the divisions of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. Before joining Gilchrist in December 2018, Shannon most recently held the position of Vice President of Development at Howard County General Hospital: a Member of Johns Hopkins Medicine. A graduate of Towson University, Shannon grew up in Baltimore and spent 10 years in New York City pursuing a theatrical career before returning to Maryland. Shannon and her family reside in Ellicott City.

Leana Hoover has served as a health care executive throughout Maryland in a variety of positions for more than 20 years. Throughout her diverse career, she has demonstrated broad-based management skills with strong planning, communication, organizational, and decision-making abilities. In 2005, Leana joined Genesis Catonsville Commons as their Nursing Home Administrator. During her tenure, she increased the facility’s CMS star rating from two stars to four stars at the time of her departure. In 2012 she took her talents to Northampton Manor where she was responsible for operating a 196-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. She reduced readmission rates from 19% to 10% and implemented a customer service team for facility residents. Since joining Gilchrist in 2014, Leana has served as Nursing Home Administrator, Director of Geriatric Services, and her current position, Chief Integration Officer. Her accomplishments at Gilchrist include implementing the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) resulting in a positive revenue variance of $220,000 along with the expansion of Gilchrist Elder Medical Care Home Services program reducing the per member per month health care spend by 26%. Leana grew up in Aurora, Colorado and received her MSN from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She and her family live in Frederick County.

Jessica Gabbard has more than 10 years of experience in the hospice industry, holding multiple executive roles in hospice business, strategic planning, quality improvement and clinical operations. Her prior positions include, National Director of Hospice & Palliative Care Operations at Trinity Health at Home, in Livonia, Mich. In that role, Gabbard oversaw service delivery and strategic direction for all hospice and palliative programs. She managed a $40 million annual budget for seven regions, achieving significant clinical, operational and financial improvements. Jessica has extensive experience in lean healthcare management and is currently finishing her MBA/MHA at South University. Jessica resides in Monkton with her family.

Education:

MSN: Masters of Science in Nursing, South University

BSN: Baker College of Flint

Certification: CHPN: Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse

Jason has more than 20 years combined experience in providing emergency and routine care, at the nursing and first aid/first responder level, to include lead/charge RN roles, triage and trauma, hospice and palliative care, utilization management, and crisis response in various settings, including Hospital, Military and Emergency services. Jason holds a BS in Nursing, as well as Education & Training and an MBA in Leadership & Advanced Management. He is an RN,  a certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse, and an experienced Executive Departmental Leader and Frontline Nursing Supervisor. 

Anne Evans has over 30 years of leadership experience in the post-acute provider arena where she has held management positions at Apria Healthcare, NeighborCare, Genesis Healthcare and Omnicare before joining Gilchrist in 2012.  As Senior Director of Business Development and Community Partnerships, she directs the business development team and partnerships within the health care delivery system.  Anne brings expertise in consultative sales, managed care contracting, market analysis, and program innovation.  She participated in an organization-wide application and survey that led to the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award for Healthcare in 2020.  Anne holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Towson University where she graduated summa cum laude. She grew up in Annapolis and currently resides in Westminster.

Stacy Bellmore has over 25 years of health care and marketing experience. She previously worked for Block, McGibony, Bellmore & Associates, a nationally known hospital consulting firm, as Vice President. She was responsible for strategy, marketing, continuous quality improvement and certificate of need. She also worked for Erickson Retirement Communities as Director of Financial Feasibility and then as Director of Sales Optimization. From Erickson, she moved to TESSCO Technologies, where she held multiple roles in product and marketing. Stacy joined Gilchrist in 2017, where responsibilities include rebranding, creating a new website, communication activities for service lines, advertising, publications, collateral and social media. Stacy resides in Owings Mills with her husband. They have five adult children.

Kathy Guggino joined Gilchrist in June of 2018. Kathy has held various positions within the Johns Hopkins Health System where she spent the majority of her career. Kathy has an MPA, with a Health Policy specialization, from New York University and is a Certified Joint Commission Professional. Kathy has over 15 years of healthcare quality, regulatory compliance, patient safety and strategic planning experience with expertise in performance improvement tools and methods. She and her team are accountable for advancing Gilchrist along its journey to become a High Reliability Organization through Leadership Engagement, Robust Process Improvement and improving the safety culture. The team responsibilities include the measurement of key quality metrics including the patient and family experience and subsequent improvement activities, the decrease of preventable harm events, accreditation and the orientation, education and development of staff.

Diane Sancilio is a clinical social worker with 16 years of management experience both in the public and private sectors of the field of child welfare as well as in hospice care. Her responsibilities included leading teams to develop and run programs, ensure high quality services, foster partnerships in the community, fundraising and business development. Most recently, Diane came from another hospice organization where she was the Director of Volunteer Services and Chair of the nationally recognized We Honor Veterans Program. She joined Gilchrist in May of 2017.