Board of Directors
Meet our Board of Directors
The Anticoagulation Forum Board of Directors represents a multidisciplinary group of health care providers, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and advanced practice providers. As leading experts in the field, our board members play a vital role in shaping our initiatives, actively participating in AC Forum’s mission to provide top-tier educational programming for our membership. Their insights and expertise help drive the high standards and innovative practices that define the Anticoagulation Forum.
We are grateful for the generosity of their service and the opportunity to benefit from such an extraordinary group of leaders. Their dedication and leadership are essential in overseeing and guiding AC Forum’s activities, ensuring that we continue to advance patient care and anticoagulation stewardship globally.
Geoffrey Barnes
(MD, MSc)
President
Geoff Barnes is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan where he specializes in cardiovascular and vascular medicine. He has completed internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and vascular medicine training at the University of Michigan where he also served as the chief medical resident. He also completed an NIH-sponsored T32 research fellowship and obtained a Masters in Health and Healthcare Research at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Barnes’ clinical and research interests focus on delivery of high-quality anticoagulant and antithrombotic therapy to patients with atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, and other cardiovascular conditions. He currently serves as the co-director of the Michigan Anticoagulation Quality Improvement Initiative (MAQI2) and leads several an AHRQ- and NIH-funded studies aiming to improve anticoagulation care and the care of patients with venous thromboembolism. His other research interests include quality improvement, implementation science, health systems engineering, and patient-provider shared decision making.
Dr. Barnes currently serves in leadership positions with the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Society for Vascular Medicine, and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Arthur L. Allen
(PharmD, CACP)
Treasurer
Dr. Arthur Allen is the Anticoagulation Program Manager at VA Salt Lake City Health Care System in Salt Lake City, UT. He has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of anticoagulation and thrombosis and has managed thrombosis programs and served as a subject matter expert locally, regionally, and nationally for more than 15 years.
In addition to his work on multiple VA initiatives, Dr. Allen served as a founding member of the AC Forum’s “Centers of Excellence” program and continues to serve on the oversight committee and as a regular content contributor. In addition to his service as an AC Forum Board member, Dr. Allen served as the AC Forum’s representative to the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Societies of North America Board of Directors from 2018 through 2020.
Dr. Allen has lectured extensively on anticoagulation and thrombosis topics, is authored on more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles and chapters and has served as a consultant to industry and to the legal community. He received his Pharm. D. from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tennessee with post-doctoral training through the VA Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Jack E. Ansell
(MD, MACP)
Founder, Past President
Jack Ansell, MD, MACP is former Chairman of Medicine, Lenox Hill Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine. He is a clinical investigator with a principal focus on the clinical problems of thrombosis, antithrombotic therapy, and the application of new modes of delivering and monitoring anticoagulants. Prior to his position in New York, Dr. Ansell was a Professor of Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Ansell has helped to identify and provide an understanding of the problems related to the management of warfarin therapy and was one of the first investigators to identify and show that patients can manage their own therapy through home monitoring.
He has been a leader in the promotion of high quality anticoagulation management through the development of anticoagulation clinics and Dr. Ansell is the founder and past president of the Anticoagulation Forum, and he is past Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Blood Clot Alliance, a patient advocacy group. Dr. Ansell has authored over 220 peer reviewed manuscripts and over 50 textbook chapters and a number of texts. He has been the lead author for over 10 years of the major consensus guidelines for antithrombotic therapy through the American College of Chest Physicians Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy, and is lead editor of a one-of-a- kind textbook entitled Managing Oral Anticoagulation: Clinical and Operational Guidelines. Dr. Ansell is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Heart Association. Dr. Ansell received his medical degree from the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine and completed his medical residency at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, followed by a fellowship in Hematology at Boston University and the Boston’s Veterans Administration Hospital.
Allison Burnett
(PharmD, PhC, CACP)
Immediate Past President
Allison received her pharmacy doctorate from the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy in 2003, then completed a general pharmacy practice residency at Boston Medical Center in 2004. She now serves as lead pharmacist of the Inpatient Antithrombosis Stewardship program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and as an associate adjunct clinical professor at the UNM College of Pharmacy. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on anticoagulation, thrombosis and bleeding management and has presented on these same topics at numerous national and international conferences. She sits on the National Certification Board for Anticoagulation Providers and has the distinct honor of serving as the current president of the Anticoagulation Forum.
Candace Bryant
(PharmD, BCPS, CACP)
Candace Bryant, PharmD, BCPS, CACP is a Clinical Pharmacy Practitioner and Anticoagulation Program Manager at VA Sierra Nevada Healthcare System in Reno, NV. She received her Doctorate of Pharmacy degree from Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN in 2016. She then went on to complete two years of postgraduate residency at VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System with a focus on ambulatory care and anticoagulation. She has continued to serve within the Veterans Health Administration system since that time.
Within Candace’s role, she oversees the provided anticoagulation services at VA Sierra Nevada Healthcare System with a large focus on multidisciplinary collaboration. She serves as the facility’s Anticoagulation Subcommittee Chair, is a member of the heparin workgroup, serves as the VISN 21 Anticoagulation Taskforce Co-Chair, and is a member of the national DOAC Subject Matter Expert group. Within AC Forum, she has had the privilege of co-chairing the Centers of Excellence committee.
Jean Connors
(MD)
Jean M. Connors, MD is a hematology attending at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; the Medical Director of the Anticoagulation Management Services, and the Hemostatic Antithrombotic Stewardship Program; and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
She received a medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, completed her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, as well as fellowships in transfusion medicine and hematology & oncology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Connors is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Basic to Translational Science. She is a member of or holds a leadership role in many professional societies, including ASH and ISTH. She has participated in numerous clinical trials for patients with venous thrombosis in cancer, and anticoagulation questions in general.
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Margaret Fang
(MD, MPH)
Margaret Fang is a cardiovascular outcomes researcher and Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She completed medical and research training at Northwestern University Medical School, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Margaret's research program helps patients and clinicians to balance the risks and benefits of antithrombotic medications. Her work helped delineate the risks of hemorrhage with anticoagulants, compare quality of life and treatment satisfaction with different medications, and describe outcomes in real-world patients with venous thrombosis. Her research aligns with her role as Medical Director of the UCSF Anticoagulation Clinic, which manages hundreds of patients taking anticoagulants.
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Gabriel Fontaine
(PharmD, MBA, FNCS, FCCM, BCPS, BCCCP)
Gabe Fontaine is the Clinical Pharmacy Manager of Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, and Telecritical Care and Associate Professor of Neurosciences & Critical Care Medicine at Intermountain Health. He practices in the Neuroscience Critical Care Unit and is the Lead Neurosciences and Stroke Pharmacist for the 33-hospital Intermountain Health System. Gabe is the system co-chair of the Hemostasis & Antithrombotic P&T Committee. He is active in multidisciplinary research within the Neurocritical Care Society and Society of Critical Care Medicine, holds committee appointments in both, and regularly presents at their international meetings. Gabe received his PharmD from Northeastern University and completed his PGY1 and PGY2 Critical Care Residencies at Intermountain Health. He is a Board Certified Critical Care Pharmacist and a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society and the American College of Critical Care Medicine.
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Andrew Geller
(MD, CAPT USPHS)
Government Liaison
Andrew Geller serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Medication Safety Program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His research interests include medication safety, chronic disease management, and the intersection of medicine and public health practice.
He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2009. After completing residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Emory University, he served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.
Dr. Geller is a Captain in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps; Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Emory University School of Medicine; and practices as a Board-certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician at the Emory Rehabilitation Hospital.
Tara Lech
(PharmD, CACP)
Tara is the Director of Anticoagulation Services & Stewardship for Beth Israel Lahey Health System. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston, MA in 2006 and completed 2 years of residency at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, where she specialized in cardiovascular medicine and anticoagulation management. She is a Certified Anticoagulation Care Provider and serves as the co-chair of the Anticoagulation Subcommittee for Beth Israel Lahey Health, where she is committed to developing system-wide antithrombotic policies and creating an integrated stewardship program.
Tara has written several peer-reviewed publications and is actively involved in clinical research and quality improvement projects. She is the current co-chair of the Medical Advisory Board for Vasculearn, and she had the honor of receiving the Massachusetts Society of Health System Pharmacist of the Year award in 2024. She has been actively involved in the AC Forum for many years, and she will continue to focus her efforts on the growth of the Stewardship Committee and the Centers of Excellence Program.
Jori May
(MD)
Jori May is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she specializes in non-malignant hematology, specifically caring for patients with thrombosis and coagulation disorders. She completed her medical degree at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and completed training in internal medicine and hematology/oncology at UAB, where she also served as chief medical resident.
Dr. May’s clinical and research interests focuses on systems-based hematology, a field that works to improve hematologic care delivery across health systems. Within her institution, she leads efforts to promote safe and effective use of anticoagulation and thrombosis prevention. She is also an active medical educator, including roles within UAB’s medical school, internal medicine residency, and fellowship programs. She also participates in national efforts to promote hematologic care excellence and education through the American Society of Hematology.
Ronni Nemeth
(PharmD, CACP)
Ronni Nemeth Pharm.D., CACP, DPLA is the manager of the Anticoagulation Clinics and chair/co-chair for the Anticoagulation Steering Committee for Confluence Health in Wenatchee Washington. Ronni earned her Pharm.D. from Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona and completed her PGY-1 community pharmacy residency with Safeway Pharmacy and Midwestern University with an emphasis in management and leadership. Ronni relocated to Wenatchee, Washington in 2015 to start her career in health system pharmacy and has particular interest in antithrombotic care, ambulatory care, and leadership and management. She is also actively involved as an ACE faculty member with the Anticoagulation Forum.
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Carlee O’Connor
(DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC)
Carlee O’Connor, DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Anticoagulation Service at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She received her nursing Diploma from University of Minnesota in 2004 and went on to get her Doctorate’s degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2017.
Carlee sits on the Executive Team of the Mayo Clinic Anticoagulation Stewardship Program providing program oversight in the development and growth at the enterprise level. She is a member of the Heparin Safety workgroup, leads the Nursing Convergence workgroup, and co-leads the Home INR Monitoring and the DOAC workgroups.
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Gregory Piazza
(MD, MS)
Gregory Piazza is Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and faculty in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is the Director of the Vascular Medicine Section at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Greg received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He completed a residency in internal medicine, Chief Medical Residency, general cardiology fellowship, and an advanced cardiovascular imaging fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He also completed a National Heart Lung and Blood Institute-sponsored advanced fellowship in vascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Greg’s research interests include the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of venous thromboembolism, thrombophilia-associated infertility, computerized decision support to improve cardiovascular outcomes, as well as stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.
Bishoy Ragheb
(PharmD, BCACP, CACP)
Dr. Ragheb received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Florida A&M University in 2008 and currently serves as an anticoagulation clinical pharmacist practitioner at the Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System.
He completed his pharmacy practice residency with a focus on anticoagulation and primary care at the Tallahassee Outpatient Veterans Affairs Clinic and continued to serve veterans there as a clinical pharmacy specialist until 2014.
Between 2014-2023, Dr. Ragheb served as the anticoagulation program manager at the Tennessee Valley Health Systems (TVHS) Veterans Affairs where he initiated and oversaw service operational initiatives including the development of the local anticoagulation stewardship program which led to the improvement of anticoagulation care across Tennessee Valley, resulting in more than a 10% absolute increase in time within therapeutic range as well as the oversight of more than 5500 patients on direct oral anticoagulants. These efforts culminated in TVHS receiving the distinction as an anticoagulation “Center of Excellence”. His site was one of the first VAs to adopt the use of the DOAC population-based management tool and is a pilot site for several improvement initiatives such as the VAs national bleed/clot report population-based management tool.
Dr. Ragheb serves on the VA DOAC population based management tool SME group and as a resource in assisting other VA facilities with developing their own outpatient stewardship programs
Dr. Ragheb has the privilege of serving on the Anticoagulation Forum’s Centers of Excellence committee and has contributed several resources aimed at improving anticoagulation care.
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Anita Rajasekhar
(MD, MS)
Dr. Rajasekhar is a professor at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, Florida. She is a clinician, clinical investigator, and medical educator with a focus on classical hematology, specifically thrombosis and hemostasis. She completed her medical degree, residency in internal medicine, and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Florida. She holds a Masters degree in Clinical Investigation and is a member of the Mentor Academy at the University of Florida.
Dr. Rajasekhar is the adult medical director of the UF Hemophilia Treatment Center. She is an active member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) with current and prior memberships on the Committee on Quality, Subcommittee on Stewardship and Systems-based Hematology, Scientific Committee on Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and Recruitment and Retention Working Group. She served as the Education Program co-chair for the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and organizational co-chair for the 2023 Anticoagulation Forum meeting. She is currently the Anticoagulation Forum’s Education Committee vice chair. Dr. Rajasekhar has helped develop various international evidence-based guidelines focusing on thrombosis and hemostasis in special populations.
Dr. Rajasekhar’s primary clinical interests include diagnosis and treatment of thrombotic and bleeding disorders. Her research has focused on the prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism.
Laurie Sardo
(MScN, DNP-PHC)
Laurie Sardo MScN, DNP-PHC is a Nurse Practitioner in the Thrombosis Service, Department of Hematology at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Canada.
Laurie graduated with her NP from McMaster University in 2014 and her DNP from D'Youville University in 2022. She holds degrees in Statistics (Western University) and Master’s of Business Administration (McMaster University). Her professional interests include patient and staff education and remains active on a number of education interest groups including the International Society of Thrombosis & Hemostasis Nursing committee. In 2009, Laurie initiated the Thrombosis journal clubs in Hamilton, an educationally diverse opportunity that aims to assess, critique, and incorporate new knowledge, and evidence-based findings into clinical practice.
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Deborah Siegal
(MD, MSc, FRCPC)
Deborah Siegal, MD, MSc, FRCPC is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Anticoagulant Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease. She received MSc degrees in Pharmacology and Health Research Methodology.
Dr. Siegal's primary research aims to improve clinical outcomes after bleeding and urgent surgery among anticoagulant-treated individuals including strategies for anticoagulant reversal and restarting anticoagulants. She is also investigating the diagnosis and management of ischemic stroke after cancer diagnosis, and the optimal cancer screening strategy among individuals with cryptogenic ischemic stroke. Finally, she has investigated blood conservation in critically ill patients including a recent a cluster randomized trial of 27,000 patients which showed that a simple switch to lower volume blood collection tubes reduced transfusion.
Dr. Siegal holds peer-reviewed grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CanVECTOR/Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, American Society of Hematology, Brain Canada, and Ontario Foundation for Innovation. She has published over 135 peer-reviewed articles including high-impact journals such the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Blood and Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis
Andrea Van Beek
(DNP, APRN, AGPCNP-BC, CACP)
Clerk
Dr. Andrea Van Beek is a Nurse Practitioner at Visalia Medical Clinic/Adventist Health Physicians Network in Visalia, California. Since 2017, she has led the Anticoagulation and Thrombosis Service. Her clinical interests include patient education, home INR testing, and managing warfarin and direct oral anticoagulants, and continuous quality improvement.
Andrea holds undergraduate nursing degrees from the College of the Sequoias and California State University, Bakersfield. She pursued further education at Duke University, earning her Masters and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees. She is certified as an Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, and is also a Certified Anticoagulation Care Provider. Andrea is a member of the Board of Directors for the Anticoagulation Forum, as well as the National Certification Board for Anticoagulation Providers.