• Pharmacy
Azra Behlim, PharmD, MBA
Associate Vice President, Pharmacy Sourcing & Program Services

Azra is responsible for pharmaceutical strategy for vaccines, brand, specialty, oncology and biosimilars. She also oversees Vizient partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Bringing over 15 years of healthcare experience in retail, hospital, academic and specialty settings, Azra is recognized in the industry for her expertise.

Media: Wall Street Journal, CBS News, ABC News

  • Operations & Quality
Eric Burch, MBA, RN, FACHE
Executive Principal

Eric is the executive principal leading operations and workforce at Vizient. His responsibilities focus on leading consulting and analytics team across the country focusing on efficiency, effectiveness and profitability of care delivery and workforce across the healthcare continuum. 

Media: The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Vizient Newsroom: Prepare Now for the Next Respiratory Season – 2023

  • Operations & Quality
Julie Cerese, PhD, RN, MSN
Group Senior Vice President, Performance Management and National Networks

Julie leads performance management programs and national networks for Vizient. In this role, she oversees quality, safety and clinical leadership programs, technical sales and solution delivery, and data science and member insights.

Vizient Newsroom: Vizient Performance Improvement Program Helps Generate $192+ Million in Value for Members and Communities – 2022, Understanding the Five Drivers of Quality and Performance for Every Health System – 2022

  • Operations & Quality
Ellen Flynn, RN, MBA, JD, CPPS
Associate Vice President, Safety Programs

In her role at Vizient, Ellen has oversight of the Vizient Patient Safety Organization (PSO), leading patient safety activities provided by the PSO to help members improve patient safety, health care quality and outcomes. She works with members on topics such as “Just Culture,” “High Reliability,” “Human Factors” and “Culture of Safety.”

Media: Relias Media – 2022
Vizient Newsroom: Patient Safety: Let’s Make It Hard to Make a Mistake - 2021

  • Operations & Quality
Gena Futral, MHA, RN, CPHQ, FACHE
Executive Principal, Reliability and Management Systems
In her role at Vizient, Gena is responsible for solutions supporting cultural transformations, building improvement and sustainability infrastructures, embedding regulatory compliance into the foundation of quality and safety programs, and collaborating and improving through a Patient Safety Organization to decrease harm events. Through her decade tenure with Vizient, Gena has developed and executed multiple strategic, operational and performance improvement solutions all aimed at supporting healthcare organizations’ journey to achieve and sustain performance excellence.
  • Operations & Quality
  • Data & Analytics
Beth Godsey, MSPA, MBA
Senior Vice President, Data Science & Methodology

Beth oversees analytical modeling, metric development, and the hospital ranking/scoring methodology and framework for Vizient members. Additionally, Beth supports member scenario and impact analysis regarding changes to the national landscape, including CMS Pay for Performance Program methods and publicly reported measures and methodology. 

Media: HealthData Management

Vizient Newsroom: Vizient Vulnerability Index™ is a Uniquely Big-Picture Look at Patient Outcomes and the Social Needs That Impact Them - 2023

  • Operations & Quality
Nicole (Nikki) Gruebling, DNP, RN, NEA-BC
Vice President, Member Networks

Nicole (Nikki) is responsible for the Vizient Chief Nurse, Quality and Medical Executives National and System Clinical Executive Networks. A nurse for over 25 years, with an emphasis on nursing leadership, Nikki joined Vizient in 2018 as a senior networks director with National Networks. In this role, she led the development of new networks, which hold strategic priority for Vizient including System Chief Nurse Executives and other network needs as they arose.

Vizient Newsroom: Vizient Vice President for Member Networks Charts Course in Healthcare Leadership - 2023

  • Pharmacy
Brian Hardy, RPh, MBA
Associate Vice President, Pharmacy Consulting

Brian provides direction and support for advisory work related to ambulatory pharmacy. He helps health care organizations identify opportunities for implementing or expanding outpatient retail ambulatory, central fill and/or home delivery and specialty pharmacy operations. With over 25 years of experience in the health care industry, Brian's expertise spans multiple retail and ambulatory pharmacy market segments. 

Media: Becker's Hospital Review
Vizient Newsroom: Is Your Hospital Interested in Joining the Specialty Pharmacy Trend? Here are Five Things to Consider

  • Supply Chain
Cristina Indiveri, MS
Associate Vice President, Core Tenet Programs, Environmental Sustainability

Cristina guides the strategy of Vizient's Environmental Sustainability Program while accelerating Vizient's leadership in sustainability practices across healthcare. She is responsible for collaborating across a wide set of functions to employ solutions and insights to reduce negative human and environmental health impacts while empowering smart, sustainable and resilient choices.

  • Pharmacy
Dan Kistner, PharmD
Group Senior Vice President, Pharmacy Solutions

Dan leads the Vizient pharmacy program, which assists customer hospitals in transforming their pharmacy program into a central point of integrated care with solutions that help manage cost and improve quality outcomes for patients

Vizient Newsroom: Coalition Working to End Drug Shortages, Together - 2022

  • Operations & Quality
Shoshana Krilow
Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Government Relations

As senior vice president of public policy and government relations, Shoshana leads Vizient government relations, monitoring federal legislative and regulatory developments of importance to Vizient and its members.

Media: United Press InternationalHealthcare Purchasing News

  • Operations & Quality
  • Data & Analytics
David Levine, MD, FACEP
Chief Medical Officer

Blending clinical leadership and informatics experience, David is responsible for driving numerous key initiatives for Vizient, including growing the Center for Advanced Analytics, leading the development of risk-adjustment methodologies and increasing the engagement of physicians and other clinicians. The Center brings together analytics from multiple clinical and operational offerings to provide insights to members across the continuum of care.

Media: Modern HealthcareBio IT WorldModern Healthcare

  • Pharmacy
Jim Lichauer, PharmD, BCPS, FASHP
Senior Performance Improvement Program Director, Pharmacy

As performance improvement program director, pharmacy, Jim is primarily responsible for developing and leading performance improvement collaborative programs focusing on medication safety and utilization.

Media: Drug Topics

  • Pharmacy
Steven Lucio, PharmD, BCPS
Senior Principal, Pharmacy Solutions

Steven leads the Vizient Center for Pharmacy Practice Excellence (CPPE) in providing Vizient members and the health care community with clinical and industry-related insights into pharmaceuticals that support the Vizient mission to manage costs, improve quality of care and grow market performance.

Vizient Newsroom: Breaking it Down: Biologics and Biosimilars with Steven Lucio - 2022, Insights Learned from the Biosimilars Survey: Q&A with Steven Lucio - 2022
Published: Biosimilars and Biologics: Implementation and Monitoring in a Healthcare Setting 1st Edition

  • Operations & Quality
Jim Reilly
Senior Vice Principal
With a health care career spanning more than 25 years, Jim has extensive experience in health care advisory services with hospitals, health systems and physician practices nationwide. The nature of his health care consulting includes hospital/physician alignment, value-based care initiatives, bundled payments, strategic planning, new service development and implementation services.
  • Operations & Quality
Aman Sabharwal, MD, MHA, CPHM
Managing Principal, Performance Improvement Consulting

Aman has over 20 years of healthcare experience and is a board-certified internal medicine hospitalist. His areas of expertise include optimizing clinical value analysis programs, hospitalist programs (and other physician practices), care coordination services, clinical documentation improvement services, clinical quality and utilization and hospital and health system transformational consulting services.

Vizient Newsroom: Vizient Launches Clinical Documentation Improvement Solution

  • Operations & Quality
Diana Scott, MHA, RN, CPHQ
Principal, Accreditation Advisory Services

Diana leads regulatory/accreditation advisory services with a team consisting of nurses, physicians, and life safety advisors. She provides education and coaching for member organizations’ compliance with The Joint Commission (TJC) standards and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Conditions of Participation, including compliance assessments, education, intra survey coaching and post survey response activities including clarifications, corrections and adverse decision response.

Media: Relias Media
Vizient Newsroom: Take a Team Approach to Managing Incoming Regulations

  • Supply Chain
Margaret Steele
Senior Principal, Indirect Spend

As Senior Principal, Margaret directs strategic planning, category management and consulting for the Indirect Spend team at Vizient, specifically around outsourced services and self op programs. She is responsible for ensuring the team delivers significant value and operational improvement for these services. Margaret also has oversight of both the Food and Environmental Services Member Councils and co-leads Vizient’s Supply Chain Strategic Council.

Media: RepertoireModern Healthcare - 2023Healthcare Purchasing News - 2022, The Journal of Healthcare Contracting - 2022
Vizient Newsroom: Whether in Business or Team Building, Vizient Senior Vice President is the Real Deal -  2023

  • Pharmacy
Mittal Sutaria, PharmD
Senior Vice President, Contract and Program Services, Pharmacy

Mittal leads oversight for the industry-leading Novaplus® Enhanced Supply program, which gives Vizient members access to more than 100 million additional units of essential medications warehoused in the U.S. She leads a team that develops key strategic sourcing programs that focus on transparency, redundancy and commitment to support a resilient supply chain for essential medications, and to date, over a million doses of these critical medications have been accessed by health systems during a supply challenge.

Media: PSQH, Freight Waves, Journal of Healthcare Contracting, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CBS News

  • Operations & Quality
Tomas Villanueva, DO, MBA, FACPE, SFHM
Senior Principal, Clinical Operations, Performance Improvement Consulting

Tomas is a board-certified Internist with an extensive background in the acute, subacute and ambulatory arena. He has an extensive national presence in hospital medicine with the Society of Hospital Medicine in multiple areas pertaining to this field, where he was part of the inaugural class of Senior Fellows. While chief of hospital medicine at Baptist Health South Florida, Tom also started the system’s first palliative care program and Hospice GIP. He also has extensive experience in ambulatory and subacute acute care, prior to coming to Vizient.

Media: The Hospitalist
Podcast: Modern Practice

  • Operations & Quality
  • Supply Chain
Molly Zmuda
Vice President, Product Strategy

Molly leads a team that advances the strategic alignment of spend management services with health system and supplier strategies through all areas of non-labor expense across the entire healthcare supply chain. Her team develops and executes programs with a focus on sustainability, supply assurance, price assurance and insights/intelligence.

Vizient Newsroom: In Supply Assurance and Price Assurance, Visibility and Collaboration Prove Invaluable - 2023