A Team With Global Impact

Julie Manas is President of CommonSpirit Health’s Northwest Region, providing executive leadership to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Washington, and St. Anthony Hospital and CHI Mercy Health in Oregon.

Julie Manas is President of CommonSpirit Health’s Northwest Region, providing executive leadership to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Washington, and St. Anthony Hospital and CHI Mercy Health in Oregon. With over 30 years of extensive health care leadership experience, including roles as Division President for Quorum Health Corporation and Region President for Ascension Indiana, Julie is a proven leader in enhancing quality and patient safety, driving strategic growth, and achieving operational excellence. A dedicated advocate for mission-driven care, she served eight years on the Catholic Health Association Board of Trustees, including a term as Board Chair. Julie holds a Master of Arts in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University.

Ingrid Gerbino, MD, FACP is Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and Medical Director of the Virginia Mason Institute.

Ingrid Gerbino, MD FACP serves as Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer on the Senior Executive Team of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, where she oversees vision, strategy and the implementation of the Virginia Mason Production System® in the Northwest Region of CommonSpirit Health. As Medical Director of the Virginia Mason Institute, she provides leadership to support global clients in achieving cultural transformation and performance excellence.

Since joining Virginia Mason Medical Center in 1995, Ingrid has practiced general internal medicine and held various medical leadership roles including Chief of the Primary Care Department, and Senior Physician Faculty for the Virginia Mason Institute, where she coached providers on integrating key elements of the Virginia Mason Production System® into their practice. Dr. Gerbino is a Kaizen Fellow graduate in the Virginia Mason Production System®.

Wendy Korthuis-Smith, Ed.D., M.S., is Executive Director of the Virginia Mason Institute, leading global transformation strategy and continuous improvement initiatives.

Wendy Korthuis-Smith, Ed.D., M.S., is Executive Director at Virginia Mason Institute. Wendy provides leadership and oversees the development of new products and services to strategically assess, identify improvement opportunities, develop and implement transformation and transition plans, and continually evaluate continuous improvement for clients worldwide. Wendy holds significant experience developing and implementing large scale transformation and transition plans.

Wendy came to Virginia Mason Institute from Deloitte Consulting, and spent several years prior with the Washington State Governor’s Office where she led state government transformation through the development and implementation of Results Washington, a performance improvement initiative incorporating 53 state government agencies, boards and commissions across five priority goal areas. She worked with Virginia Mason early on in her career as a leadership development consultant. Wendy is trained in the Virginia Mason Production System®.

Gordon Sansaver, MBA, is Associate Executive Director of the Virginia Mason Institute, leading European partnerships and global operations.

Gordon Sansaver, MBA, is Associate Executive Director at Virginia Mason Institute. Gordon oversees the Institute’s partnerships in Europe while also holding responsibility for the global operations of the organization. He is an expert in strategic planning, culture change and project management and also has over a decade of experience in empowering and facilitating teams to realize meaningful and sustained improvement.

Prior to joining Virginia Mason Institute, Gordon served as an expert in Virginia Mason’s management system and quality improvement methodology – focusing on teaching, coaching and partnering with leadership to improve quality and reduce waste across the organization. In that capacity, he led numerous improvement projects and helped to achieve meaningful change in areas across the health system – including primary and specialty ambulatory, inpatient, and emergency care; facilities, supply chain, human resources, and finance. He is certified in the Virginia Mason Production System®.

Brenda McLeod, MBA, CCMP, PMP leads change management services at the Virginia Mason Institute, bringing 25+ years of consulting and transformation experience.

Brenda McLeod, MBA, CCMP, PMP, provides leadership and oversight in supporting our clients and expanding our service offerings and content in the change management space. She has over 25 years’ experience in consulting, strategic planning, change management, project management, leadership, and facilitation for privately-held companies, corporations and the public sector. She has been recognized for an outstanding ability to help businesses identify goals, guiding principles and roadmap to achieve operational objectives and ROI.

An effective facilitator in helping business lines identify current and future states with the ability to bring together people, process and technology. Brenda has her Masters of Business Administration, IT Management and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) as well as one of the first 88 in the world to be a Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP). She is a strategic planner with a keen sense for relationship management, executive coaching and process improvement.

Chris leads global improvement workshops and training for healthcare leaders and helped integrate lean methods into Virginia Mason’s hospital design using the VMPS®.

Chris leads improvement activities, workshops and training for healthcare leaders and providers worldwide. Prior to joining Virginia Mason Institute, he led the integration of lean methods into the design of Virginia Mason’s 350,000-square-foot hospital addition, the first environment of its kind to be built from the ground up using the Virginia Mason Production System®. He also led numerous improvement events using lean tools and methods to improve healthcare processes. Chris is certified in the Virginia Mason Production System® and 3P (Production, Preparation, Process) facilitation.

Robbi brings clinical and operational leadership experience, leading improvement and 3P flow workshops across care settings, with deep expertise in VMPS®, EBD, and innovation.

Robbi’s experience includes direct patient care as an audiologist, leadership within the Kaizen Promotion Office along with operational leadership in oncology, perioperative services, and ambulatory care. In addition to sponsoring and leading improvement events across the care spectrum, he has led flow (3P) workshops focused on inpatient and surgical facility design, ambulatory flow, patient safety, and future-state visioning. Robbi is a Kaizen Fellow graduate in the Virginia Mason Production System® and 3P (Production, Preparation, Process) facilitation. In addition, Robbi is trained in the use of experience-based design (EBD) and breakthrough innovation.

Alice partners with senior leaders to strengthen improvement leadership, drawing on experience in executive development, consulting, and advanced VMPS® training.

Alice partners with senior leaders at client organizations to transform their process improvement leadership and systems. She previously served as a senior program manager for Virginia Mason Medical Center’s leadership development, talent management and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts. Before joining Virginia Mason, she was a partner at a management consulting firm in Seattle, where she led executive development and organizational effectiveness engagements for public and private sector clients. Alice has an MBA from the University of Washington and is certified as an executive coach through Columbia University. She has completed advanced training in experience-based co-design and the Virginia Mason Production System®.

Neha brings clinical and ambulatory leadership experience, leading VMPS®-based improvement initiatives and teaching quality process management at UW.

Neha’s experience includes direct patient care as a nurse along with extensive experience leading teams in various ambulatory care settings. Most recently, she was the Senior Director of Ambulatory Medical and Surgical Specialties at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Neha is Certified in the Virginia Mason Production System ® (VMPS), and has led numerous quality process improvement initiatives and implementations at Virginia Mason since 2013. Neha also teaches Quality Process Management as an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health Executive Masters of Health Administration Program at the University of Washington.

Tara has led complex, enterprise-wide initiatives across U.S. federal health systems, translating strategic vision into practical, operational improvements that enhance patient outcomes, workforce engagement, and system performance. With a strong clinical foundation, she partners with senior leaders and multidisciplinary teams to drive sustainable change, foster cultures of continuous improvement, and strengthen patient-centered care.

His expertise spans emergency services optimization, ambulatory care operations, and operations and facility management, where he has successfully implemented lean methodologies and developed comprehensive leadership programs that have trained over 700+ healthcare professionals.

Before joining the Kaizen Promotion Office, Lee experienced the Virginia Mason Production System^® as a process owner in an operational role. This was the start of Lee’s 8-year journey and interest in learning VMPS . During this journey Lee has developed into a role leading the Kaizen Promotion Office, developing and supporting the delivery of a production system at UHCW.

This includes teaching, coaching and mentoring leaders at all levels of the organisation and facilitating improvement events around both process and culture.

Lee serves as a client partner on the VMI team, bringing his deep expertise to our clients.

As part of the development of the UHCWi management system Neil has been a key member of the Trust Guiding Team since its inception.

Having led multiple RPIW’s working across clinical inpatient, outpatient and administrative processes within the hospital, Neil has experience applying the VMPS into an NHS trust.

Prior to working in the KPO, Neil has over 25 years of operational experience either directly or indirectly managing most Acute hospital clinical services. Neil serves as a client partner on the VMI team, bringing his deep expertise to our clients.

Gabrielle engages with VMI’s internal and external stakeholders, helping to envision and strengthen processes, improve operations, and create meaningful programming.