Gene Beyt, MD, MS

Founder - Care Collaboratory

Gene Beyt is a visual artist with a mission to put human flourishing and wellbeing at the center of all that we do. His initial interest in photography and pen and ink drawing began as a child and developed while in medical school. His photographs have been paired with poetry in the tradition of physician novelist Walker Percy, and his work has appeared in national publications and in gallery collections. Gene uses images, words, music, moments and memories to inform his art and storytelling. He discovers and shares the beauty of our human experience in Aesculapius Editions, and his current work can be seen here.

Gene is also faculty at Tulane University School of Public Health. He facilitates sessions on authentic leadership, organizational aesthetics, positive change, and designing innovative and learning healthcare organizations.  His honors include Alpha Omega Alpha, outstanding teacher in Tulane’s MMM Program, and outstanding MD/MPH faculty advisor at Tulane School of Medicine. His complete academic bio can be found here.

Gene is a member of the Care Collaboratory’s Guiding Coalition, and hosts our arts-based discovery events and partnerships.

Read Pierce, MD

Read Pierce loves intersections that evoke paradox. As a history and chemistry major in college, he became fascinated by different ways of seeing, thinking, and being in the world—and how inhabiting a “both and” space, rather than selecting a singular point of view, can allow us to create more sustainable, whole, and productive communities and systems. Uncovering powerful questions that ask us hold and engage interdependent opposites are one of his favorite and most energizing pursuits. 

Read serves as Denver Health’s chief quality officer and oversees the health system’s clinical quality and patient safety programs; and is a member of the Care Collaboratory Guiding Coalition. He recently was faculty at The Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was chief of hospital medicine, associate chair of internal medicine for Faculty Development and Wellbeing and an enthusiastic clinical collaborator with the Design Institute for Health. He simultaneously holds faculty appointments at the Tulane University School of Public Health and University of Colorado, Denver School of Business. He is an experienced clinician, healthcare leader, coach and facilitator who enjoys fostering transformation of organizational culture and complex clinical systems, with particular attention to the thriving of human beings working in those systems.

Sherry Bright, MSPH

Sherry is a life-long learner fascinated by the way things work – especially groups of people and organizations.  A love of history and commitment to learning from the past has fueled her focus on making things better through others.  Sherry’s expertise lies in the ability to bring individuals and organizations from diverse settings and viewpoints together to define common design challenges and align their efforts to make a human difference not only for the organizations but also for the communities they serve.

Sherry has lived and worked in many areas of the country, in small towns and major metropolitan areas, supporting large health care systems, critical access hospitals and physician practices, driving always for improved performance across multiple result areas.  As a member of C-suites, leading marketing, strategy and process improvement, she worked with boards, staff, physicians, community leaders to envision the possible and create sustainable results.  She has served as team member, lead and judge for Baldrige-based programs at national, state and regional levels as well as directly for the long-term care industry.

Sherry lives in western Colorado with her husband where they enjoy the beauty of the outdoors, hiking, biking, canoeing, and skiing.   

Anne-Claire France, Ph.D., FACHE, CPHQ, MBB

Anne-Claire France loves learning.  When she achieved her doctoral degree, her advisor wisely noted the primary accomplishment was not that she was an expert in her field but that she could “learn well;” and make the most of it to serve communities.  Her favorite way of learning well is to work with multiple perspectives and areas of expertise to bring innovative ideas to fruition. 

Anne-Claire serves as Principal of Houston Health Innovations, LLC (HHI), an organization specializing in improving performance in healthcare systems; and is a member of the Care Collaboratory Guiding Coalition. She has led many organization-wide efforts to optimize a culture of safety and well-being for the workforce as well as patients.  Her over 30 years of healthcare service include over twenty years of application, training and education in applied research, process improvement, and high reliability science. Her clients have included multi‐hospital health systems, physician organizations and group practices as well as the pharmaceutical industry and small rural hospitals. Before founding Houston Health Innovations LLC in 2001, she served as Executive Director of the Center for Healthcare Improvement at Memorial Hermann Health System, where she actualized the improvement ideas of front-line clinical staff.  She has taught applied research, quality analytics, statistics, and psychology; and trained hundreds of health professionals in Lean Six Sigma. She is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), has served for ten years on the Education Foundation Board of the ACHE Southeast Texas Chapter, and was awarded the ACHE Regent’s Leadership Award in 2018 and 2023.

Gary Oftedahl, MD

Gary has had a life long interest in exploring new  ideas, concepts, theories, and contemplating how one might apply them to addressing issues in innovative ways.  He is a voracious reader, and used his vast literary exposure to bring unique perspectives to his work.  He spent over 40 years in the health care sector, both as a provider of health care and collaborator in multiple initiatives across a wide range of topics and participants.   His 26 year experience as an internal medicine physician, and over 13 years as a chief knowledge officer (one of the great job titles ever) at the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement fueled his interest in innovation and creativity as he enters the encore phase of his life. 

While retired from ICSI, Gary has become a collaboration catalyst, spending some of his time pursuing creative and innovative approaches to addressing well being, including work with multiple universities, community organizations, serving Board chair of a social impact organization using dance as an example of participatory arts in engaging and supporting communities of all types of diversity  (Kairos Alive!).  He also serves on the Hennepin Health Quality Committee, and the Minnesota Community Healthworkers Alliance Board of Directors.

He is passionate in his pursuit in understanding how we can integrate aesthetics, participatory arts, and collaboration across diverse sectors into efforts to improve the health and well being of those who work in the health care arena, but also in the communities we serve.  He is a member of the guiding coalition of the Care Collaboratory, excited about the potential to be a part of the positive change we all crave in the world today.