Richard J. Baron, MD, MACP, President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Baron, board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation. He was a former Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine's Board of Directors and served on the ABIM Foundation Board of Trustees.
Dr. Baron practiced general internal medicine and geriatrics for almost 30 years at Greenhouse Internists, P.C., located in Philadelphia. Greenhouse was a pioneer in the comprehensive adoption of electronic health records in the small-practice environment. Following that, from 2011 to 2013, he served as Group Director of Seamless Care Models at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center, where he led efforts related to accountable care organizations and primary care. Until joining the federal government, Dr. Baron also served on the board of the National Quality Forum and their Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, as well as the Standards Committee of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Dr. Baron served as Chief Medical Officer of Health Partners, a not-for-profit Medicaid HMO set up by four teaching hospitals in Philadelphia, from 1988 to 1996. He was the architect of the Best Clinical and Administrative Practices program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Center for Health Care Strategies, working with medical leadership of Medicaid health plans around the country in learning collaboratives to improve the quality of care for their members. This program reached plans serving more than half of the Medicaid managed care population in the United States. Dr. Baron is a member of the Commonwealth Fund advisory group on Health Care Delivery System Reform and has served as co-Chair of the Public Health – Health Care Collaboration Workgroup of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a member of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group.
Dr. Baron received an English degree from Harvard College and his medical degree from Yale University. He completed house staff training at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center and served a three-year obligation in the National Health Service Corps in rural Tennessee.
As of December 2022, Dr. Baron reported no ongoing external relationships.
Richard G. Battaglia, MD, FACP, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Battaglia, a board certified internist, is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). There, he leads ABIM's effort to incorporate feedback from practicing physicians and key stakeholders into clinical aspects of all of ABIM activities, including Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC).
Previously, Dr. Battaglia served as a primary care internist with Health Care Plan/Univera, a multi-specialty, staff model practice in Western New York before transitioning into leadership roles, including Medical Director of the Medical Centers Division and Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs/Corporate Medical Director. He also served as Medical Director/Chief Medical Officer of large multispecialty medical groups in Western New York. He has participated in national quality initiatives focused on physician group practice and health maintenance organizations. For more than 10 years, he devoted time to The National Committee for Quality Assurance, including a term as Chairman of the committee charged with accreditation decision-making. Most recently, he was a consultant for national and international organizations, including academic medical centers, health systems, community hospitals, medical groups, payers and national physician certification organizations.
Dr. Battaglia received a biochemistry degree from Canisius College, a Jesuit institution in Buffalo, NY. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Battaglia completed his residency through the University of Rochester Primary Care Program in Internal Medicine and also served as Chief Resident.
As of July 2022, Dr. Battaglia reported no ongoing external relationships.
Judith L. Cassel, MPP, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief of Staff
Ms. Cassel works within the President's Office as the Chief of Staff of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In that role, she has direct responsibility for overseeing ABIM's Human Resources; Governance; Customer Care; Strategy, Planning and Optimization; and Program Operations sections. She serves as a key representative of Dr. Richard Baron, ABIM's President and CEO, and helps to develop and implement ABIM's programmatic goals. Ms. Cassel also supports communication among all of ABIM's leadership team members, chairing the Senior Executive Team. Additionally, she acts as liaison to outside legal counsel and serves as ABIM's Chief Ethics Officer, ensuring adherence to ABIM's conflict of interest policies for governance members and staff.
Before coming to ABIM, Ms. Cassel worked for the City of Philadelphia as Project Director, OnePhilly, where she led the $40 million transformation of the City's human resources operations, which serves more than 28,000 active and 35,000 retired employees. She also served the City as Chief of Staff to the Finance Director, where she helped to lead the City's financial operations and set financial strategy for the City. Prior to that, Ms. Cassel served the City of Philadelphia as Chief of Staff of the Department of Human Services and as a Deputy Managing Director. Earlier in her career, she was Deputy Chief Strategic Planning Officer for the School District of Philadelphia.
Ms. Cassel graduated from Dartmouth College and has a master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She also completed a fellowship at the Education Policy & Leadership Center in Harrisburg, PA.
As of July 2022, Ms. Cassel reported no ongoing external relationships.
Rebecca S. Lipner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Assessment and Research
Dr. Lipner is Senior Vice President of Assessment and Research at the American Board of Internal Medicine, where she oversees a team of measurement and research design and analysis experts who employ measurement principles using both qualitative and quantitative methods to ensure and enhance the high quality of assessment programs across the ABIM enterprise while disseminating evidence-based research findings to the public. In this role she ensures that ABIM assessment products remain relevant to the practice of internal medicine and identifies new possibilities and innovations in assessment and technology that guide research and development initiatives.
Prior to joining ABIM, Dr. Lipner held a variety of teaching and faculty positions at Drexel University, St. Joseph's University and the University of Pittsburgh, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in statistics, tests and measurement, experimental design, systems analysis and design, and expert systems.
Her research interests include high-stakes testing and assessment, statistical modeling, experimental design, the use of procedural clinical simulations in testing, and health outcomes research. Dr. Lipner is a frequent speaker on these subjects and is widely published in professional journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, Applied Measurement in Education, and the Journal of Educational Measurement.
Dr. Lipner received her degrees from Drexel University and the University of Pittsburgh. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, National Council on Measurement in Education, AcademyHealth and is active in the Association of Test Publishing, where she served as Program Committee Chair and Vice-Chair from 2006-2008.
As of July 2022, Dr. Lipner reported no ongoing external relationships.
Vincent J. Mandes, CPA, MBA, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Mandes, a seasoned financial management professional with a strong background in strategic planning and business development, is Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation. He directs activities associated with the security and investment of the assets and funds of both organizations and is responsible for providing overall direction for the accounting, tax, insurance, budget, credit and treasury functions. Additionally, he ensures that financial transactions, policies and procedures meet organization short- and long-term objectives, as well as regulatory requirements.
Previously, Mr. Mandes served as Vice President of Finance at Lincoln Investment Planning, Inc., where he managed all aspects of financial activities: treasury, cash management, taxes, forecasts, risk management, and coordination of independent third party professional services. Before that, he spent twelve years at Rose Management Services, a multi-million dollar restaurant management company which operates 60 casual dining restaurants, where he served first as Controller and later as Chief Financial Officer. Early in his career, he was Controller at Wallquest/Design Directions Inc., and a CPA at K.P.M.G. Peat Marwick.
Mr. Mandes, a certified public accountant, earned his bachelor's degree in Accounting from Widener University and his MBA in Finance from LaSalle University.
As of July 2022, Mr. Mandes reported no ongoing external relationships.
Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President, Academic and Medical Affairs
Dr. McDonald, a board-certified internist, joined the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in 2014 after serving as Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine and Residency Program Director at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, one of the nation’s largest internal medicine residencies. While at the Mayo Clinic, he led the program's participation in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME’s) Educational Innovations Project, which investigated many concepts that would eventually become part of the Next Accreditation System. Since joining ABIM, he has continued his role in patient care and GME as an attending physician of the J. Edwin Wood Clinic and faculty of the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.
As a longtime member of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM), Dr. McDonald chaired the APDIM Survey Committee from 2007 to 2011, leading the development of longitudinally tracked surveys addressing areas of importance in GME. He was a member of the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine (RRC-IM) during the transition to the Next Accreditation System.
The focus of Dr. McDonald's professional career has been in the training of internal medicine residents and fellows to provide better care to patients by incorporating the best evidence available for both medical care and medical education. A well-respected leader in the field of GME and medical education research, Dr. McDonald has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications. During his tenure as Program Director, he was also recognized with the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine Diversity Champion award for his work increasing the numbers of women and those underrepresented in medicine in its residencies and fellowships. He also co-founded the Mayo International Health Program, which has subsequently funded hundreds of trainees to pursue educational rotations caring for medically underserved populations in international settings. Dr. McDonald continues to support this work.
He earned an undergraduate degree in physics with highest distinction (grade point average) and with highest honors (based on his thesis in atomic collision research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar. He went on to train as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Scholar at NIH’s Bethesda campus. He earned his medical degree from Mayo Medical School and completed an internal medicine internship on the Osler Medical Service of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed internal medicine residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he also served as Chief Resident. He later earned a master of public health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, while working as a full-time hospitalist at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. McDonald attained the rank of Adjunct Professor of Medicine at both the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2019, Dr. McDonald received the Alliance for Academic Medicine Special Recognition Award “…presented to an individual who has contributed most to helping the Alliance meet its mission which ‘promotes the advancement and professional development of its members who prepare the next generation of internal medicine physicians and leaders through education, research, engagement, and collaboration.’”
Dr. McDonald has been certified in Internal Medicine by ABIM since 2000. In addition to being a longtime, proud member of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and APDIM, he is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the Society of Hospital Medicine, and active with the ACGME and its RRC-IM, on which he served first as a voting member and then as ABIM’s ex officio member.
In his free time, Dr. McDonald enjoys visiting national parks, hiking, and spending time with his wife, who is a full-time, board-certified radiologist physician scientist investigating breast cancer, and their six children.
As of July 2022, Dr. McDonald reported the following ongoing relationships with other healthcare-related companies:
Dr. McDonald worked as an author or editor for following company, with compensation as listed below:
- Mayo Clinic Scientific Press, receiving compensation as an author, with all compensation donated to the Mayo International Health Program.
Dr. McDonald also reported that he is an American Board of Internal Medicine Ex-Officio Member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine. He served as a Member of the Inthealth (formerly ECFMG/FAIMER) International Graduate Support Committee.
Jeffrey Miller, MSIS, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Mr. Miller is the Chief Information Officer at the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), responsible for providing technical leadership and industry-leading solutions to facilitate the changing needs of the ABIM community. Mr. Miller leads the ABIM Application Development and IT Operations departments.
Before joining ABIM, Mr. Miller’s work centered around a variety of health and life sciences organizations. He has had the pleasure of working with LiquidHub, Hewlett-Packard, Cooper University Health Care, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
He received a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College and a master's degree in information systems from Drexel University.
As of July 2021, Mr. Miller reported no ongoing external relationships.
Jessica Perlo, Executive Vice President, ABIM Foundation
Jessica Perlo, MPH, is the Executive Vice President of the ABIM Foundation, a nonprofit focused on advancing medical professionalism and clinician leadership to improve the health care system.
Previously, Ms. Perlo led the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)’s work to support workforce well-being, which aims to reverse the worrying trend of burnout and moral injury in health care and support leaders at all levels in creating a positive work and learning environment that fosters equity, safety, meaning, choice, and a shared commitment to deliver high-quality care.
For more than 15 years, she has worked to design and implement health system improvement efforts, including roles at Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, Strong Memorial Hospital, Mass General Brigham, and the Atlantic Health Equity Fellowship. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience, trained in community organizing from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is an IHI Improvement Advisor.
Pamela Browner White, Senior Vice President, Communications and Chief DEI Officer
Ms. Browner White, Senior Vice President of Communications & Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and ABIM Foundation, has more than 30 years of experience in communications, public affairs, community relations and strategic development. She oversees all communications and diversity, equity and inclusion operations and activities for ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, working to expand and enhance outreach to physicians and external stakeholders, increase organizational transparency and effectively communicate the importance of board certification and medical professionalism.
Before joining ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, Ms. Browner White was Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Strategic Development at Esperanza, Inc., the largest Hispanic faith-based nonprofit organization in the U.S. There, she developed a dynamic communications strategy to build a local and national reputation with key internal and external stakeholders and managed relationships with top-tier media and advanced strategic partnerships to secure resources to support the organization's mission.
Previously, she was Vice President, Public Affairs for Cancer Treatment Centers of America, where she engaged various audiences, including patients, physicians, media and industry leaders on important health care issues. She also held senior leadership roles with the Philadelphia Eagles and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. In addition, Ms. Browner White has a history of community service and is Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors for the Marian Anderson Award and Former Chair of the Workforce Investment Board and Philadelphia Youth Council.
She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Youngstown State University.
As of May 2023, Ms. Browner White reported no ongoing external relationships.