Board of Directors
Tayeb Al-Hafez, MD, Founder and President
Tayeb Al-Hafez, MD, is a practicing physician and healthcare strategist who resides in San Francisco, CA.
He has served as a Regional Medical Director of the Pacific West Region while working with a healthcare delivery organization. He fostered communication and knowledge-sharing among hospitalist medical directors in several hospitals, and provided mentoring and coaching that helped them excel in their leadership positions. His work helped them improve their relationships with their hospitals and affiliated physicians.
He has served as Medical Director for the Hospitalist Program at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. During his time there he was responsible for several accomplishments that helped to improve efficiency, effectiveness and the quality of care throughout the organization.
Dr. Al-Hafez has experience leading successful hospitalist programs in other non-profit, for-profit and academic healthcare settings and has taken on a wide range of responsibilities for improving care and controlling costs. He has practiced in North Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii, South Carolina, Oregon and California.
Dr. Al-Hafez is continuously working to develop his knowledge and expertise in the areas of strategic planning and policy development through active participation in global forums and initiatives in health care.
Samara I. Hamze, Secretary & Treasurer
Ms. Hamze has an M.S. in Biology from East Carolina University and a B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill. She has extensive experience, including numerous publications, in vegetation mapping and plant ecology and has served as an instructor at University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh.
Gergana G. Haralampieva, MS
Ms. Haralampieva is a graduate of The George Washington University's Central European Health Leadership Program. She has master degree in Economy and Management of Social and Cultural Activities from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has worked with the World Bank in health, nutrition, and population and with the National Health Insurance Fund in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Todorka Ignatova Kostadinova, PhD
Ms. Kostadinova is a professor at the University of Medicine in Bulgaria. She holds a Ph.D. in Economy and Management of Social and Cultural Activities from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is an expert at the National Civil Council to the EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection and has worked with the World Health Foundation, the World Bank, and many other national and international agencies around the world. She has served as a professor of global health at The George Washington University.
Advisory Board
William A. Hogan, PhD
As prior CEO of a 501c(3) non-profit organization based in Washington DC, Bill brings much knowledge and passion to this field. His experience includes working with over 400 social entrepreneurs in 60 nations, and serving as a judge for the Social e-Challenge at Stanford University. He is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with twenty years of success in founding and managing high-tech companies in the global computer and information technology industries. As CEO at four start-ups he has successfully raised venture capital funding and had exits including M&A and IPO's. He has a strong background in worldwide markets including wireless, telecom, high-availability embedded systems, real-time systems, online information systems, and high-performance computing. Bill currently serves on Boards for Impact Advisors (a socially responsible investment banking group), the Youth Science Institute (providing hands-on science education for 30,000 school children), Arrupu (providing fuel-efficient stoves in Sri Lanka and India) and GlobalGiving (an international philanthropic organization that directly connects donors to grassroots development projects). Earlier he was a Physics Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Lois M. Takahashi, PhD (Department of Urban Planning, UCLA)
Lois M. Takahashi, PhD is Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. She has over 50 publications on her research interests, which include access to social services and overcoming the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome in the US, and community participation and environmental governance in Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She has also acted as an independent consultant since the mid 1990s, providing program evaluation and needs assessment assistance to community-based and nonprofit organizations working in homeless services, HIV prevention, and organizational capacity building.
Betty Till (LifeWork Solutions)
Betty Till has over 20 years experience in leadership positions in business and healthcare. As Vice President of Corporate Communications and a member of the Executive team at a variety of companies, Betty coached senior managers in crisis communications, developed corporate business and marketing strategies and communicated merger and acquisition goals and information to employees.
Betty currently provides executive coaching for physicians and healthcare executives who are preparing for new leadership roles, transitioning into a new company and role, and those who want to increase their probability for success in their current role. Throughout her career she has coached and counseled managers and employees on effectively communicating, creating alliances, making choices and building positive relationships. She has a unique ability to build rapport with her clients. She works collaboratively with her clients to help them design the impact and executive presence they want and to achieve specific outcomes in work and in life.
Betty is a Certified Professional Coach, a Physician Development Coach and is an Assessment Center Evaluator. She is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and has assessed over 250 physicians. She is certified in 360-degree Benchmarks assessment from the Center for Creative Leadership, the Lominger Choices Architect and Voices, as well as the Organization Systems International Polaris 360 Survey. She has published articles in Healthcare Leadership and Management Report, EMS Manager and Supervisor and several other publications. Her client companies include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, EmCare Emergency Dept. Medical Directors and Hospitalist Medical Directors, Salem Regional Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, Hudson Health Plan, American Medical Response, International Partnership for Microbicides, WarnerBrothers/Reprise Records, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Apple, TiVo, Network Appliance, and the City of Fremont.
With a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Texas at Austin, Betty began her career as a Registered Nurse where she provided care for critically ill patients at a major trauma center. With her critical care background, she soon began teaching in the Allied Sciences Department at Austin Community College and pioneered the one of the first Associate Degree programs for paramedics. She held a faculty position at Austin Community College for six years. A continuous learner, Betty has completed education in essential facilitation skills and programs in leadership development for senior executives. She is a member of the International Coaches Federation, and sits on the Community Advisory Council for Sequoia Hospital. She volunteers at Second Harvest Food Bank and Rebuilding Together, a non-profit that brings communities and volunteers together to rehabilitate the homes of low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled.