Advisors

Roger Amato
Senior Partner

Roger has had a long career in media and communications in the healthcare sector.  During the 1980s, he owned and operated cable-television and radio stations in the eastern United States.  In the early 1990s, he joined Jobson Publishing as a principal.  During his time at Jobson, Roger served as CFO and was responsible for all merger and divestiture activity, as well as arranging all debt and equity financing. Roger was responsible for almost 20 transactions, valued at nearly $500 million. Jobson Publishing grew to become one of the largest privately held medical-information companies in the United States.  In 2004, Roger and Green Mountain Partners acquired AccessMed, a reimbursement-hotline-service provider. In 2005, Roger and Green Mountain Partners acquired The Aequitas Group.  AccessMed was sold to US Oncology in July 2006. 

Roger holds a degree in economics from Brown University.

Debby Berlyne, Ph.D.
Associate Director

Debby is a writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience. She currently writes and edits reports, journal manuscripts, peer-review summary statements, Web content, and patient education materials, primarily in the medical field. She has worked on documents in such diverse medical fields as cancer (including breast, pancreatic, prostate, gynecologic, and brain), diabetes, cardiovascular disease, epidemiology, health services research, hematologic disease, mental illness, organ transplant, and substance abuse.
Debby holds a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Brown University.

Roshawn A. Blunt, M.B.A., C.P.C.
Managing Director

Roshawn is a healthcare policy-executive with experience from the patient, provider and manufacturer perspectives.  As Vice President of Strategy, Planning and Communication at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital, the largest private hospital system west of the Mississippi River, Roshawn held responsibility for business development, marketing and physician partnerships.  She has held the position of Global Director, Health Economics and Reimbursement in the cardiology franchise of Johnson and Johnson, where her team was responsible for health-economics analysis and reimbursement strategy for 20 countries.  In addition, Roshawn spent many years at Amgen in strategic marketing roles of increasing responsibility.  Her final role was as a director in Amgen's Washington, DC Global Government Affairs office.  Roshawn was responsible for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services strategy across Amgen’s oncology portfolio.  She also worked in Strategic Planning, Analysis and Reimbursement; Marketing Promotions for the Hospital Division; Pricing and Reimbursement for the Nephrology Business Unit; and in the Competitive Intelligence Department.  Roshawn was a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group has spoken at numerous conferences and is a lecturer on Healthcare Policy. 

Roshawn graduated from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She has a degree in International and Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Elizabeth Conley
Senior Director

Liz joined Aequitas after spending 15 years in the healthcare industry at a variety of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.  Most recently, Liz was Director of Commercial Information and Sales Operations at Genentech.  In this role, she led a team that provided Sales, Marketing and Reimbursement reporting and analysis across all products for Sales, Marketing, and Managed Care.  She and her team supported multiple product launches, brand-performance reporting across products, and the development of new capabilities to support expanded commercial reporting and analytics.  In addition, during her tenure at Genentech, Liz did a field sales-force rotation to augment her Sales and Marketing skill set.

Prior to joining Genentech, Liz worked at Amgen in a variety of roles in Marketing, Information Management, and Sales Operations and Analysis. Her Sales Operations responsibilities included leading a team that supported sales reporting, sales analysis, incentive compensation, and territory design and alignment as well as defining and implementing launch tactics to support the launch of Aranesp® (darbepoetin alpha).  In marketing, Liz drove the development of the Aranesp® 3-year brand plan and life cycle plan, developed and implemented a new patient-based forecast model, identified key brand-performance indicators and metrics to measure brand performance, and led the implementation of a Medical Information call center. Prior to her work at Amgen, Liz spent more than 7 years at Muro Pharmaceutical in several positions. Her last position at Muro Pharmaceutical was head of Sales and Marketing Operations and Analysis.

Liz received her B.S. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She also received a certificate in Executive Development from the Kellogg School of Management.

Nancy J. Davidson, M.Ed., J.D.
Senior Director

Nancy is a professional with more than 25 years in the healthcare industry.  Nancy started her career with the Health Care Financing Administration ( now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) in 1980.  For more than 20 years, Nancy held various positions with Medicare, including overseeing appeals and audits, training presidential interns on the Medicare process and supporting Administrative Law Judges in their adjudication of Medicare cases.  In the mid-1990s, Nancy became the Senior Administrator for the Medicare program for southern California, where she administered the Data Analysis and Medical Review programs in conjunction with Noridian for southern California and the 11 states administered by Noridian.   Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, Nancy worked as a healthcare consultant, specializing in interpretation of legislative and regulatory issuances related to Medicare policy and assessing their impact on patients, providers,and manufacturers in all segments of the healthcare industry.  

Nancy received a J.D. from Southwestern Law School, an M.Ed. from the University of Illinois, and a B.A. from DePaul University. 

Emma L. Dugas
Manager

Emma has broad experience within the healthcare-reimbursement landscape. Early in her career, Emma partnered with hospitals to inform their market-expansion and technology investments. Emma also helped her hospital clients create physician-recruitment and compensation plans. For the past 2 years, Emma has supported pharmaceutical and device manufacturers in, coverage, coding, and reimbursement. Emma has significant expertise in developing tools for sales-force training, physician education, payor strategy, and market research.

Emma received her B.A. in Biology and Communication Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Neelima Firth, M.B.A.
Director

Neelima is an experienced biopharmaceutical executive with extensive scientific, reimbursement, marketing, and international experience in startup and Fortune 500 biopharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sandoz and Amgen. Neelima was Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at Amgen, where she led the strategic-planning and operations group.  She built strong relationships with alliance partners and managed the brand plan across Amgen and Wyeth. She is a skilled business-planning manager who leads change-management initiatives to solve critical business problems.

Neelima worked at Amgen for 16 years in a series of increasingly senior roles in clinical, marketing, and reimbursement in the United Kingdom and United States. Her accomplishments include developing compendia strategy, managing Medicare and Medicaid marketing strategies, creating alliance management governance, and managing brand-planning processes. In addition, Neelima was instrumental in building Amgen’s initial UK/European presence to support the launch of new products.

Neelima has worked in medical roles at Bristol Myers, Sandoz, and GSK in the United Kingdom, where she was actively involved in and responsible for launching products into European markets.  Neelima has an Information Science degree from Leeds Metropolitan University, a certificate in Legal Studies from Cambridge University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Robert A. Freeman, Ph.D.
Director

Bob has a unique blend of consulting, academic, and pharmaceutical-industry experience in health economics and outcomes research, strategic pricing and public policy. He is presently Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of Graduate Studies at Texas A & M University Health Sciences Center. Previously, he headed global and U.S. Health Economics and Public Policy functions at AstraZeneca, Sterling Winthrop (now Sanofi-Aventis), G. D. Searle and The Upjohn Company (now Pfizer) where he directed economic evaluations for all major therapeutic categories in all major markets and customer segments. Bob is the author of more than 70 publications, monographs, book chapters, and white papers. He is also the editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Finance, Economics & Policy.

Andrea Goicoechea, RN, PHN
Senior Clinical Analyst

Andrea is a registered nurse with 25 years of experience in various healthcare-delivery settings, where she has functioned as a clinical specialist and patient educator with medically high risk populations.  In addition, Andrea has broad experience as an educator in the public and healthcare professional sectors.  Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, Andrea was employed at Sharp Hospital Systems in San Diego, California, where she was engaged in direct patient care, operating-room management, peer-education, and public-outreach programs.  Her past employment experience also includes positions at the San Diego County Regional Occupational Program Licensed Vocational Nurse training program, the San Diego Regional Perinatal Group education program, and the University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver.

Andrea earned a Bachelor of Nursing degree from the California State University system, with specialization in public-health Nursing.  She also received certification as a clinical nurse specialist in obstetrics through Long Beach State University/Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.  Moreover, she completed certification in Clinical Trials Management through the University of California, San Diego.  She is a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals and the American Nurses Association.

Vikram Harish
Senior Business Analyst

Vikram specializes in identifying reimbursement solutions that ensure that patients and providers have access to specialty care and therapies. Specifically, Vikram develops and communicates strategies and tactics to address reimbursement challenges that drug and device manufacturers encounter in any phase of commercialization. Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, Vikram worked with a reimbursement-consulting firm and managed the reimbursement suite of services for an oncology drug account.

Vikram received a B.S. in Genetics with a minor in Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Deborah Hartzman, MLIS
Associate Director

Debbie has 25 years of experience as a researcher and information specialist in the corporate arena.  Her most recent position was as Senior Manager for Research in the Amgen Libraries.  Debbie is past chair of the Competitive Intelligence Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and has served in numerous capacities for the southern California chapter of SLA.  She has lectured at international conferences and provided local workshops on competitive intelligence, information management and research. 

Debbie received her Master's Degree in Librarianship and Information Management from the University of Denver and her B.A. in English from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. 

George Wayne Holley
Senior Financial Analyst

Wayne has more than 25 years of financial and accounting experience in both Information-Technology and Accounting departments. Wayne has a subspecialty expertise in project management. That experience, combined with his accounting and financial experience, gives him an excellent understanding of the requirements for designing a project plan and ensuring that it is completed on time and within budget. Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, Wayne was the Financial Manager for an architectural firm that builds public schools in southern California and the Director of Operations for a nonprofit foster-care facility for teenagers.

Wayne received his B.A. in Computer Science and Business Systems from the University of West Florida.

Hafsa Quadri, MS
Senior Business Analyst

Hafsa has a Master's degree in Pharmacy Administration with an emphasis on Health-Outcomes Research, Epidemiology and Biostatistics. As a graduate of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia Hafsa is well trained to adapt to the many changes that affect our healthcare system. Prior to joining the Aequitas Group, Hafsa coordinated publications and course design and development at the University of the Sciences.

Hafsa is an experienced healthcare database analyst who is extensively trained in Statistical Analysis System (SAS), Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Stata (general-purpose statistical software package). Hafsa is also skilled in accessing and manipulating various public-payor databases such as Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and other Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality databases the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Limited Data Set files.

Wendy D. Smith, Pharm.D., BCPS
Associate Director

Wendy is a clinical specialist in Drug Information within the Division of Pharmacy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  She also holds appointments as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences and Administration at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and as a Clinical Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin. Wendy is a licensed pharmacist in both Texas and Florida and is a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. Before joining MD Anderson, Wendy worked as a clinical specialist in drug information and formulary management at the Methodist Hospital in Houston.

Wendy is active in several local, state, and national organizations.  She served as Chair-Elect of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Drug Information PRN Group and was the recipient of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacist Pharmacy Resident Medication Safety Grant in 2002.  Wendy serves on several institutional committees related to drug use policy and medication safety.  She also serves as a preceptor for MD Anderson’s Specialty Pharmacy Practice Residency Programs as well as a preceptor for pharmacy students.

Wendy’s research interests include drug-interaction alert systems, medication safety-related issues, drug-information databases, and formulary management.

Wendy received her doctorate of pharmacy from the University of Louisiana, Monroe, in 2002. She then completed a pharmacy practice residency and drug information pharmacy practice residency at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida

Brooke B. Sowell, M.S.
Manager

Brooke received her master's degree in statistics from the University of Chicago. She then moved to the University of California in San Diego to work as a practicing statistician in the Department of Family Health and Preventative Medicine.  Brooke has been involved with numerous clinical trials, including Phase II, Phase III, epidemiological, and observational studies across multiple therapeutic indications, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple Systems Atrophy, Autism, Radiology, and HIV. Brooke has extensive experience in conducting statistical analyses, drafting methods sections for publications, writing grant proposals, overseeing data management, and designing experiments. Brooke has had numerous publications in peer-reviewed academic journals and is currently obtaining her master's degree in business administration, with a focus on operations and logistics research.

Beverley Swain
Associate Director

Beverley has 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical information, intellectual property, and marketing. The first 9 years of her career were spent as an information specialist for one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, where she dealt extensively with patents and peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature. She then spent an additional nine years working at a senior level for two of the most prominent pharmaceutical information-service providers. Beverley is particularly interested in intellectual property and how it relates to pharmaceutical life-cycle management and market analysis.

James Tam
Business Analyst

James Tam joined The Aequitas Group in 2008 as a Business Analyst. Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, James worked on pharmaceutical research using ultra-high-throughput assay technology at a San Diego biotechnology firm. While completing degrees in biotechnology and economics, James worked as a researcher in the University of California, San Diego’s Bioengineering Department. His work in support of cellular biophotonics was recognized as critical in the application of a laser optical trapping system to the study of cellular biochemical pathways and was subsequently published in the Journal of Cell Physiology.

Sandra Teixeira
Project Manager

Sandra joined The Aequitas Group in 2008 as a Project Manager, supporting The Aequitas Group's core business operations and client relations after a 14-year tenure at Roche Pharmaceuticals.  At Roche, Sandra gained extensive experience across a variety of business-support functions in Strategic Pricing and Contract Management, Reimbursement Support, Organized Customer Marketing, Market Analytics, Acute Care, and Analytical Research. Sandra's long-term pharmaceutical manufacturer experience, specifically in process management, external partner management, project budget management, and project committee business coordination, allows her to provide unique project-management value to The Aequitas Group’s clients.

Sandra attended Fairleigh Dickinson University where she majored in Business Administration.

Don Wentzel, MD
Senior Director

Don has nearly 20 years of experience as a physician executive for regional and national health plans.  At both Blue Shield and Blue Cross of California, Don served in leadership roles related to technology assessment, coverage policy, claims payment logic, provider negotiations, and clinical outcomes measurement.  More recently, Don was an independent medical coverage policy consultant for WellPoint Health Networks and a number of device and biotechnology firms.  He is a member of the National Pharmacy and Therapeutics Society and has been a managed care representative at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Regional Carrier Advisory Councils.  Don received his M.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine and is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine.  He is the recent recipient of a medical-informatics research fellowship from the National Library of Medicine and was previously awarded research fellowships from the California Heart Association and the University of California.

James Wheeler
Associate Director

James has been with The Aequitas Group since 2006 and holds responsibility for strategic planning, operations, finance, and new initiatives. Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, James was an independent consultant who conducted statistical, economic, and marketplace research for expert witnesses, medical-technology research and advisory firms, acute-care hospitals, and management-consulting firms. He has worked on a diverse array of projects, ranging from business-process documentation and reengineering to statistical analysis and literature-based research.  As a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy's submarine service, James has 5 years of experience using real-time critical decisionmaking skills in support of submarine operations around the globe.

James is completing his M.B.A. at the University of California, San Diego Rady School of Management where he is the recipient of both the Brandes and Rady fellowships.

Elyce Freeman, R.Ph., Pharm.D.

Dr. Freeman is a clinical pharmacist with more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Dr. Freeman started her career in managed care pharmacy with QualMed Plans for Health in 1996. For nearly 10 years, Dr. Freeman held positions of increasing responsibility with two managed care organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Her responsibilities included directing operations related to the pharmacy prior program, high-cost injectable program, and customer service support for pharmacies, providers and internal departments. Dr. Freeman was also involved in the design of the Medicare Part D formulary benefit for her private payer organization and she previously led the pharmacy systems support team responsible for pharmacy benefit coding, benefit testing and PBM vendor claim interfaces.

Before joining The Aequitas Group, Dr. Freeman worked as a healthcare consultant with a focus on payer policy research, strategic planning, and payer advocacy efforts for private payers to address reimbursement and managed care challenges for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device products.

Dr. Freeman is currently a licensed pharmacist in Pennsylvania and she has worked as a staff pharmacist in the hospital setting. She is a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. Dr. Freeman received a Pharm.D. and a B.S. in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Samantha Yu
Manager

Samantha has 9 years experience in the health care industry. Prior to joining the Aequitas Group she worked as a reimbursement consultant for various health care consultancies for 8 years. During that time, Samantha built a deep fluency in product commercialization planning and life cycle support strategy. Samantha specializes in providing creative and customized solutions for clients with products throughout the life cycle. She has experience with injectible as well as oral products in different therapeutic areas including oncology, rhematogy, virology, and others.

Samantha received her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the California College of Arts (and Crafts) in year 2000.

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