Meet the Reviewers

The Society of Chest Pain Centers is extremely proud of its Accreditation Review Team. Our professional faculty of reviewers have considerable knowledge, experience, and expertise and are dedicated to serving the community. Here is a brief background on each reviewer.

Accreditation Management Team

David Carter, RN, MBA, Director of Accreditation
Dave brings years of experience in emergency medicine, paramedic and emergency medical flight services, as well as ICU, trauma centers hospital and diagnostic center management. He served as a member of the Society's Board of Trustees and has demonstrated his passion for improving the care of the acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patient by serving on various committees such as the Accreditation Review Committee, Chest Pain Center Accreditation revision committee for Cycles II, III and IV, the Congress planning committee, and as a lecturer with a primary focus on prehospital care.

Donna L. Hunn, RN, MSc, MAN, ANP-C, Accreditation Clinical Manager
Donna joins the Society with an extensive background in Clinical Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research and academia. As a Adult Nurse Practitioner with a Masters of Science degree in Cardiology, she brings a unique skill set to the Society's management team.

Elizabeth Stokes, RN, BSN, Accreditation Field Manager
Beth joined the Society with a strong nursing background which has included care for patients across the healthcare continuum. She has provided management of and direction for cath lab outcomes data for a large tertiary care facility and was instrumental in driving metrics collection to support Chest Pain Center Accreditation for her hospital. She established compliance initiatives for the Institutional Review Board and monitored over 110 clinical research studies which have supported the data acquisition for the most current cardiovascular technologies, stents, drugs and practice.

Accreditation Review Specialists

Darice Allard, RN, MSA, FABC, CNOR
Darice has held staff and administrative positions within perioperative nursing throughout her career, with a focus in pediatric and adult cardiac nursing. Her nursing experience includes roles as an educator, manager, system coordinator, and director. She has led numerous process improvement initiatives as well as facility design construction projects. She has previously developed a cardiac surgery program and spinal surgery service line at a community hospital. In 2008, Darice completed a two year Executive Leadership Fellowship with the Advisory Board earning her the FABC designation. She speaks at regional and national workshops about preparing for accreditation as well as presenting the clinical accreditation criteria for Chest Pain Center Accreditation. She also leads the monthly Ask-the-Experts Sessions for the Society.

Philip D. Beckley, PhD
Dr. Beckley came to the Society with a clinical background in cardiopulmonary perfusion. He served as the Perfusion Education Program Director at The Ohio State University for many years and is currently appointed as Emeritus faculty in the College of Medicine. With his doctorate in Physiology, Dr. Beckley’s research efforts focused on the effects of artificial circulation devices on the cardiorespiratory system. During his tenure at OSU, he served on the national Joint Review Committee for Perfusion Education and was active in the accreditation of perfusion education programs nationwide.

Leela Beers, CVT, LPN, BSBM, MBA
Leela joined the Society with an extensive background and experience in the cardiac catheterization lab and noninvasive testing arena. In an administrative CV Director role, she developed and opened the first open heart surgery and interventional program within her institution.

Ruth I. Cantu, RN, BSN
Ruth came to the Society with a background in Cardiovascular/Thoracic Operating Room Nursing, and Organ and Tissue Transplant Coordination/Education. Most recently, she was a Clinical Specialist for a large laboratory diagnostics company where she worked with emergency departments, chest pain centers and laboratories to educate and facilitate process improvement and workflow development and assisted in developing methods to improve turn-around-times. Ruth continues to stay abreast of the latest laboratory practice guidelines and diagnostic regulatory requirements to further assist the Society in keeping pace with the advances surrounding acute coronary syndromes (ACS) where diagnostics are concerned. She also serves as a key contact and facilitator with many of the major laboratory diagnostics vendors.

Anna Ek, RN, BSN, CNOR, RNFA
Anna joined the Society with a strong background in cardiac, surgical, and PACU nursing. She began her nursing career during the time of thrombolytic trials which ignited her longtime passion for cardiology. She has a strong interest in EMS practices and has met with EMS throughout the United States. She is a strong advocate of EMS and the part they play in the pre-hospital care of the cardiac patient. In addition, Anna has a keen interest in induced hypothermia therapy and is working with the Society to research its effects on the post-cardiac arrest patient.

Sandy Engebretson, RN, BBA, CSSGB
Sandy combines a business degree with a solid background in nursing. She has experience in clinical and administrative positions including cardiology, ICU, utilization review, case management, home health care, QI/process improvement, and training/education. She has been actively involved in performing QA reviews for compliance with company procedures and identifying strengths, weaknesses, and training opportunities. Sandy also serves as the Society's Education and Process Improvement Coordinator and is a Certified Six Sigma Greenbelt.

Kathy Hess, RN, BS, MS
Kathy comes to the Society with a diverse background in PACU, surgical, cardiac catheterization lab and critical care nursing. Having experience in both staff and leadership roles, she successfully coordinated the clinical portion of a post-interventional catheterization and open heart recovery care for a start-up program. Additionally, she has served on multiple critical care/cardiac focused committees, Provision of Care & Treatment chapter leader for her institution as well as a clinical instructor for an RN-Associate Degree program and a clinical leadership mentor for a BSN program.

Kay Styer Holmes, RN, BSN, MSA, CPHQ
With a background in emergency nursing, nursing education, ambulatory coronary infusion clinic care, coronary care, home healthcare, and other areas of management. Kay has extensive knowledge in process improvement initiatives, cardiac and emergency medicine service line strategic planning and implementation, CMS rules and regulations on observation medicine, and Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) compliance. She has been a contributing author for several SCPC-based and national publications, including Critical Pathways in Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, and Contemporary Cardiology.

Michael L. Hutchison, MBA
Michael is a healthcare executive with an extensive background in diverse cardiovascular service leadership, heart program start-ups, strategic planning, marketing, facility planning, and program development. His background includes work with large hospital systems, rural hospitals, under-served markets, program evaluations, cardiac service line development, and research in domestic markets. His broad experience further encompasses start up and development of cardiac services in the European market.

Shawn Merhaut, RN, BS, MSN, ACNP-BC
Shawn brings to the Society an extensive background in cardiac nursing. His career experience includes working in community hospitals, private practice, large academic medical centers, and the medical device industry. As a cardiac nurse practitioner, Shawn has actively been involved in the direct clinical management of patients with all cardiac diagnoses with specific emphasis on the care of both HF and ACS patients. He has worked extensively within the private practice setting to streamline the care of HF patients focusing on collaboration with hospitals and the transition from hospital to home. Shawn has also worked within the academic setting to create inpatient teams to care for ACS patients with efforts to increase admissions directly to cardiology and streamline the care of low to intermediate risk ACS patients. He has also been actively involved in quality initiatives, research opportunities, and cardiovascular publication. In addition to serving as an Accreditation Review Specialist for both Chest Pain Center and Heart Failure Accreditations, he actively participates in criteria development, and is involved in both internal and external education including the Society’s Ask-the-Experts HF sessions and Heart Failure Accreditation workshops.

Linda Pullins, RN, MSA
Linda brings to the Society a wide-range of healthcare experience in clinical, administrative and executive roles. She has served as a community instructor in both EMT-P and RN-Associate Degree programs, with a clinical background in Critical Care. While serving as a CNO, the startup of Interventional Cardiac Cath services and the opening of an Open Heart Surgery program were accomplished. Linda also works as a consultant to health care organizations, with a focus on implementing patient-centered care processes with direct care staff.

Robin Trupp, PhD, APRN 
Dr. Trupp has extensive experience caring for adults with cardiovascular disease, from inpatient critical care units to outpatient disease management programs, and in both clinical and leadership positions. She has been actively engaged in clinical research in many landmark trials of pharmaceuticals and devices for patients with heart failure, including cardiac resynchronization therapy and beta blockers. Dr. Trupp remains a mentor and consultant to new practitioners, her colleagues and to industry; and is very active in many professional organizations including the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses and the American Heart Association. Dr. Trupp is well published in the arena of heart failure, chronic disease management, hemodynamic monitoring, and sleep apnea. She speaks nationally and internationally on heart failure, disease management, cardiac resynchronization therapy, improving outpatient standards of care, and other related topics.

Connie Watson, RN, BS, MPM, CPHQ
Connie joins the Society with a strong background in Quality & Risk Management, Performance/Process Improvement, Change Management and Organizational Development, Regulatory Compliance, and Patient Safety.  She continues her role as an instructor and facilitator for Leadership training and has taught at the university level in the RN to BSN program.  As an RN, her clinical background includes NICU and ICU Step Down/Telemetry. Connie's graduate degree is in Project Management and she is now pursuing her PhD in Organizational Performance and Change.

Kevin Wehrle, RN 
Kevin came to the Society with a solid background in cardiac nursing and a passion for the community hospital setting. He has a strong desire to improve the ACS and Early Heart Attack Care education that is needed for the public. During his extensive nursing career, he developed a strong commitment for the critical care patient while working in the Intensive Care Unit and the Catheterization Lab. While at the hospital he advanced from a staff nurse into a leadership role as a Manager, then on to Cardiovascular Service Line Director with the added responsibility of being on the Steering Committee for developing an Interventional Angioplasty program with Open Heart surgery. Since joining the Society, he has reviewed a multitude of hospitals and truly appreciates the great things that are being done to improve ACS patient care processes.

Michele Wood MSN, RN, CPHQ, LNC 
Michele comes to the Society with an extensive cardiac nursing background including open heart recovery, case management and quality management. She was most recently the Manager of Clinical Outcomes at her facility and was HF Coordinator for 3 campuses. Her background is filled with cardiac critical care patient care, process improvement and data management. She has co-authored multiple journal articles and abstracts related to achievement of door to balloon times. She is active in Indiana's Mission Lifeline program with the EHART program (Emergency Heart Attack Response Team) and participates in the Indiana ACC chapter. She is a Six Sigma Green Belt, and has her certificate in quality management and in legal nurse consulting.