Committee on Optimizing Graduate Medical Trainee (Resident) Hours and Work Schedules

to Improve Patient Safety

Staff Biographies

Study Co-Director

Dianne Wolman, M.G.A. is a Senior Program Officer in Health Care Services who was on leave for 8 months. Immediately prior to that leave, she contributed to projects in the Board on Children, Youth and Families and in Health Care Services. She was lead staff on a congressionally mandated evaluation of the Quality Improvement Organization Program of Medicare, part of Health Care Services’ Redesigning Health Insurance Project and participated in the other two reports of the series. Before that she co-directed a 3-year study of the Consequences of Uninsurance, which produced a series of 6 reports: Insuring Health. The first study she directed resulted in the IOM report, Medicare Laboratory Payment Policy: Now and in the Future, released in 2000. She joined Health Care Services at the Institute of Medicine in 1999 as a senior program officer. Her work experience in the health field has been varied and focused on finance and payment in insurance programs. She came from the General Accounting Office, where she was a senior evaluator on studies of the Health Care Financing Administration. Preceding GAO service, she was a policy specialist at a national association representing nonprofit providers of long-term care services. Her earlier positions included policy analysis and management with: the office of the secretary, DHHS; a peer review organization; a governor’s task force on access to health care; and a third-party administrator for very large health plans. In addition, she was policy director for a state Medicaid rate setting commission. She has a master’s degree in government administration from Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in sociology from Brandeis University.

Study Co-Director

Cheryl Ulmer, MS., is joining the Board on Health Care Services as a Senior Program Officer. She has most recently worked as an independent consultant on a wide-ranging set of health care issues, but with a primary focus on the delivery and content of health care services, disparities in health status across populations, options for financing and insurance, and quality of clinical care. Previously for the IOM, she interviewed CEOs of the state Quality Improvement Organizations and provided writing/editing services on the Pathways to Quality and the Consequences of Uninsurance series. Illustrative examples of overall project management, data gathering, analysis and report writing include: Serving Patients with Limited English Proficiency: Results of a Community Health Center Survey (funded by the California Endowment and National Health Law Program, 2007); Giving Back and Moving Forward, Finding a Future through Service in Community Health Corps (National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), 2006); Changing Lives through Service to Medically Underserved Communities (NACHC and the Corporation for National Service, 2005); Assessing Primary Care Content: Four Conditions Common in Community Health Center Practice–Hypertension, Diabetes, Otitis, Asthma (HRSA, 2000); The Role of Behavioral Factors in Achieving National Health Outcomes (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2004); Schools as Health Access Points for Underserved Children and Adolescents: Survey of School-based Programs (NACHC and HRSA, 2003). She was a Senior Associate with MDS Associates, a health care consulting firm with public and private sector clients. She was with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for 13 years serving in the Office of the Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation/Health; the Health Services Administration; the Health Resources Administration; Medicaid Services; and NIH. She has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a BS from Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia.

Research Associate

Michelle Bruno, M.P.P. is a Research Associate on the Board on Health Care Services. Michelle joined the IOM in 2007 to assist in the development of a report for the Committee on Reviewing Evidence to Identify Highly Effective Clinical Services, and has additionally contributed work to the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation Forum. Prior to joining the IOM, Michelle completed her master’s degree in public policy with a dual concentration in health policy and public and nonprofit management at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. She previously worked at RAND Corporation as a research assistant for a variety of health projects, including studies for the Department of Health and Human Services on disease outbreak and emergency response and preparedness in public health departments across the U.S.  

Administrative Assistant

Cassandra Cacace, B.S. joined the IOM in December 2007 as a Senior Program Assistant on the Board on Health Care Services where she assists the Committee on Resident Schedules and Patient Safety as well as assists on the Forum on the Science of Health Care Quality Improvement and Implementation.  She provides administrative support to both teams, as well as logistical support for all committee and forum meetings.  Prior to the IOM, Cassandra worked as a research associate at a health care consulting firm, where she performed outcomes research on a variety of health conditions.  She graduated from the George Washington University in 2006 with a B.S. in Public Health.