UMMS Leadership Biographies
Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA
President and Chief Executive Officer
Lisa Adkins, RN, JD
Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer
Lisa Adkins provides overall direction of the compliance program in support of the mission and strategic goals of UMMS. Reporting to the chair of the UMMS Audit and Compliance Committee of the Board of Directors, Adkins plays a critical role in proactively developing and optimizing relationships throughout the organization, continuing to maintain and evolve a culture that actively seeks compliance input to further its day-to-day operations.
Adkins also has oversight for ensuring the coordination and collaboration with affiliate organizations and other UMMS compliance programs.
She comes to UMMS from Children's National Health System where she served as the vice president of Compliance and the chief compliance and privacy officer. In that role, Lisa built and directed the organizational strategy for creating and implementing a best-in-class compliance and ethics program that elevated the business standards, ensured performance unity and reduced vulnerabilities.
Her background includes serving as vice president and regional compliance privacy officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. and corporate counsel for Anne Arundel Health System. A graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, Lisa received her Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing from Kent State University in Kent, OH.
Kara Bowman
Chief of Staff
University of Maryland Medical System
Kara Bowman serves as chief of staff for the System's executive leadership team. Ms. Bowman provides strategic management support and serves as a liaison with the UMMS Board of Directors and senior leaders to advance the strategic operational objectives of the organization. She partners with the senior executive team in all matters including program management, initiative implementation and assisting in the management of the day-to-day operations of the executive office.
Ms. Bowman joined the organization as the senior director for public affairs after serving for five years in Governor Hogan's administration as a key advisor to the Governor and then as director of public affairs. During that time, she was responsible for communicating with internal and external stakeholders in an effort to advance the Governor's priorities as well as advising on day-to-day operations of the executive office.
Kristin Jones Bryce
Senior Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer
University of Maryland Medical System
Kristin Jones Bryce, senior vice president and chief external affairs officer oversees the System's government relations and corporate social responsibility as well as public and regulatory affairs.
Ms. Jones Bryce joined UMMS in 2015 after serving for 10 years as chief of staff to Speaker Michael E. Busch in the Maryland House of Delegates. Before that, she was the Speaker's legislative counsel.
Ms. Jones Bryce began her career in Annapolis shortly after graduating from law school in 1997 when she was hired as a policy analyst by the Department of Legislative Services. In that capacity, she served as committee counsel to the House Economic Matters Committee focusing on health and insurance issues.
Kristin graduated cum laude with a BA from the University of Massachusetts and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law. She was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1998. Kristin was named one of the Baltimore Sun's "50 Women to Watch" in 2013. In December 2017, Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller appointed her to a 4-year term on the Governor's Salary Commission. She also served as a member of the UMBC Public Policy External Advisory Board and serves as a trustee on the Governing Board of the Living Legacy Foundation.
Jon P. Burns
Senior Vice President and System Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
University of Maryland Medical System
As senior vice president and system chief administrative officer (CAO), Jon Burns takes on a number of broad, strategic and operational responsibilities. Mr. Burns has executive oversight for organizational data and analytics, the UMMS Telehealth and Access Center, clinical informatics, corporate construction and facilities management, IT, supply chain and corporate operations.
Mr. Burns joined the UMMS team in 2006 as senior vice president and chief information officer where he implemented a system wide integration strategy of information technology resources, support systems, applications, and services, to include the implementation of the Medical System's first integrated electronic health record.
Prior to joining UMMS, Mr. Burns was senior executive of information technology for the Cleveland Clinic Health System. He was also responsible for technology services to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a number of emerging technologies initiatives across the Cleveland Clinic Health System. He served as the chief technology officer of eCleveland Clinic, an Internet-based care delivery model.
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic in 1997, he had served in a number of senior level administrative, financial and operational positions at Forum Health, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania. While at UNC, he was appointed as faculty associate at UNC's School of Public Health-Department of Health Policy and Administration.
Alicia Cunningham
Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Revenue Advisory Services
University of Maryland Medical System
Alicia Cunningham is senior vice president, corporate finance and revenue advisory services for the University of Maryland Medical System. Alicia has over 30 years of experience in healthcare finance and is an expert in the state of Maryland's unique hospital reimbursement environment.
As SVP, she is responsible for all aspects of both the strategic and operational activities for reimbursement and revenue advisory services and payer relations and contracting. In this role, Alicia ensures compliance to the state's hospital reimbursement regulations, directs the negotiations and establishment of all member hospital charge, or rate, structures, physician and non-rate regulated reimbursement rates and value-based care contracts. As an expert in Maryland's unique reimbursement model, she is responsible for the development of strategic revenue initiatives for hospital rate setting methodologies with the state's rate regulator, the Health Services Cost Review Commission.
Alicia joined UMMS in 1996 as the manager of reimbursement and clinical economics for the University of Maryland Medical Center and has been a significant contributor to the development of the $4.5 billion health system that UMMS is today.
Her prior board appointments include seven years on the CRISP board, the state designated health information exchange of Maryland, where she chaired the reporting and analytics committee. Before joining UMMS, Alicia was the director of financial planning and reimbursement at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore and a healthcare consultant in the Baltimore office of KPMG, the international accounting firm. Alicia earned her MBA at the University of Baltimore.
Matthew Clark
Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications
University of Maryland Medical System
Matthew Clark is senior vice president of marketing and communications for the University of Maryland Medical System, where he leads all system communications activities from conception to implementation, including executive communications, media relations and internal communications. Matt also manages and provides oversight of all external marketing, branding, advertising and public relations efforts throughout the System. As a senior vice president, Matt works closely with the executive leadership team to help set and implement UMMS' overall strategic direction.
Prior to joining UMMS, Matt served as chief of staff to Governor Larry Hogan since July 2017 and was Governor Hogan's communications director in 2015 and 2016. As chief of staff, Matt played a lead role in all strategic planning, crisis management, policy development, budgeting and political strategy for the administration. Prior to joining State government, Matt was a managing director in the Strategic Communications segment at FTI Consulting, based in Washington, D.C., advising across a variety of industries, including energy; financial services; life sciences; and telecom, media and technology.
Earlier in his career, Matt was a freelance journalist and deputy editor at an online news service in Dublin, Ireland, where he was twice nominated for the Irish Internet Association's Technology Journalist of the Year award and helped ENN to take home a European Online Journalism award in 2002.
Matt is a native Marylander and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and served on the UMBC Public Policy External Advisory Board. Matt also served as the Governor's designee on the UMMS Board of Directors until May 2020, helping the system implement a number of governance reform initiatives and navigate several major issues. Matt resides in Anne Arundel County with his wife and three sons.
Roderick K. King, MD, MPH
Senior Vice President, Chief Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer
University of Maryland Medical System
Roderick K. King, MD, MPH, is the senior vice president and chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer for the University of Maryland Medical System, where he oversees equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) efforts across the System to collaboratively develop a long-term plan for EDI that aligns with the System's strategic plan. Dr. King's responsibilities include developing EDI organizational goals; building a System-wide EDI infrastructure to foster institutional change; providing executive level guidance to integrate EDI best practices into our System operations; and developing and executing an ongoing training and education strategy focused on equity, diversity and inclusion.
Dr. King serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in their Department of Health Policy and Management. Prior to his current role, Dr. King served as an associate professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Department of Pediatrics and associate professor at the University of Miami Business School, Department of Healthcare Management and Policy.
Dr. King earned a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and his medical doctorate from Weill Cornell Medicine. He completed his pediatric training at Children's National Medical Center. After working in West Africa, he returned to complete a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard School of Public Health as a Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellow in Minority Health Policy. Dr. King has received numerous national and international awards and honors and previously served as chairman of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Minority Health, senior advisor for the Bureau of Primary Health Care for the Health Resources and Services Administration and the New England director for the Health Resources and Services Administration. He co-founded the Massachusetts General Hospital Disparities Solutions Center.
Joel Klein, MD
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
University of Maryland Medical System
Joel Klein serves as senior vice president and chief information officer with responsibility for system-level IT initiatives including Epic, applications, infrastructure, security and informatics. Dr. Klein formerly served as president of the emergency medicine practice and as medical director of Informatics at UM BWMC, starting in 2011. Dr. Klein joined the UMMS leadership team in 2014 as head of IT product development and was named vice president of information technology and associate chief information officer in 2017. He completed a residency in emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins, an MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and a B.A. from Yale University.
Dave McDonald
Senior Vice President, Integration Officer
Dave McDonald is UMMS senior vice president, integration officer. In this role, Dave focuses on supporting UMMS' collective efforts to further leverage our scale to serve Marylanders and beyond while we support our educational mission and assist with enhancing our emphasis on innovation. He also oversees key system-wide strategic priorities to help ensure alignment of integration efforts with member organizations.
He brings extensive healthcare experience in community hospitals, academic health systems and, most recently, a national healthcare performance improvement company where he worked with large academic and community-based healthcare systems nationally.
Dave previously had a 12-year tenure at UMMS ending in 2006. He served in a variety of corporate and University of Maryland Medical Center roles, his last being vice president for the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Andrew Pollak, MD
Senior Vice President, Chief Clinical Officer
University of Maryland Medical System
Dr. Pollak is The James Lawrence Kernan professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He also serves as senior vice president, chief clinical officer and chief of orthopaedics for the University of Maryland Medical System.
Dr. Pollak received BS and MD degrees from Northwestern University and completed an orthopaedic surgery residency at the integrated Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland program. In 1994, he completed a fellowship in orthopaedic trauma at the University of California Davis Medical Center. He has served in the past as treasurer, chair of the Extremity War Injuries Project Team and as chair of the board of specialty societies for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He is a past president of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association and the Maryland Orthopaedic Association.
Dr. Pollak has served on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine since 1994 and has held numerous leadership positions. He has served in the past as head of the division of Orthopaedic Traumatology and Chief of Orthopaedics at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center where he has spent the majority of his professional career in clinical practice.
Dr. Pollak is currently chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission and vice chair of the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium. His current responsibilities also include editor of the AAOS Orange Book Series, medical director of the Baltimore County Fire Department, and special deputy US Marshal.
Aaron Rabinowitz
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
University of Maryland Medical System
Aaron Rabinowitz, JD, PhD, MS, leads the System's legal team and provides guidance on all legal initiatives. He advises on corporate governance, corporate and commercial transactions, litigation, employment, regulatory matters, intellectual property and other aspects of system development and integration. He plays a critical role in the strategic leadership of the System and works closely with the executive leadership team and board of directors to help set and implement UMMS' overall strategic direction.
Prior to joining UMMS, Mr. Rabinowitz worked as an antitrust economic consultant, a health policy advisor on Capitol Hill and in private practice as a healthcare attorney. He is a frequent speaker and presenter on issues at the intersection of health care law, policy and economics. He has taught courses on corporate governance, health policy and quantitative analysis and empirical methods.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from Haverford College, Mr. Rabinowitz earned his master's degree in economic policy evaluation and planning from the National University of Ireland, Galway as a George J. Mitchell Scholar. His law degree from Harvard Law School, and his PhD in health policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts of Sciences.
Lisa Rowen, DNSc, RN, CENP, FAAN
Chief Nurse Executive
University of Maryland Medical System
As chief nurse executive for the UMMS since 2016, Lisa Rowen serves as the System's leader for nursing practice, standards of care, nursing professional development and the partnership with schools of nursing, in addition to her work supporting UMMS's strategic planning, nursing workforce development and continuous clinical improvement initiatives.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Rowen served as the senior vice president of Nursing and Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer for UMMC from 2007-2021, where she managed 5,500 nurses, advanced practice nurses and a variety of other health professionals. Before coming to UMMC, she was director of surgical nursing at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and vice president for Patient Care Services at Mercy Medical Center.
She is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) and also holds faculty appointments at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rowen has published more than 75 articles on patient safety, teamwork and communication, and other health-related issues. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Dr. Rowen earned a Bachelor of Arts in art history and a Bachelor of Science in nursing at the University of Delaware, a Master of Science degree at UMSON, and a Doctor of Nursing Science degree at Johns Hopkins University. She was inducted into the University of Delaware Wall of Fame and into the Circle of Excellence of Maryland's Top 100 Women, after inclusion on the Maryland's Top 100 Women lists in 2009, 2011, and 2013. UMSON selected Dr. Rowen as an inaugural recipient of the Visionary Pioneer Award, an award for outstanding alumni who have significantly impacted and contributed to the nursing profession based on entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. In 2017, UMMS created an endowed scholarship to honor Dr. Rowen.
Tammy Saunaitis
Chief Human Resources Officer
Tammy Saunaitis joined the University of Maryland Medical System in 2022, bringing more than 20 years of experience in health care human resources leadership to UMMS at a critical time in the System's growth. She is the vision behind the System's HR Transformation, a comprehensive initiative designed to position UMMS as a destination employer for top talent, aligned in excellence around our shared values.
As chief human resources officer (CHRO), Tammy oversees every aspect of the team member lifecycle: recruiting and onboarding; total rewards; organizational learning and development; team member engagement and well-being; individual growth and career development; and the HR systems and data analytics that support every phase of the lifecycle.
Tammy is committed to fostering a just culture, grounded in compassion and integrity. She holds numerous professional certifications and affiliations, including Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FAHCE), Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi), Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and others that inform her approach to guiding HR colleagues across the System.
Tammy was previously CHRO at SCL Health (now Intermountain Healthcare) and held long-term leadership positions at other health systems, including Meriter Health Services (now UnityPoint Health – Meriter), Ascension Health and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She holds an MBA in human resources and marketing from Lewis University and a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago.