2019 Advisory Board
Nancy Clover RN, COHN-S, FAAOHN
President Occupational Health Connections
Nancy is the founder of Occupational Health Connections, a leading staffing and recruitment agency for occupational and employee health nurses. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing and a board Certified Occupational Health Nurse Specialist. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (FAAOHN). Nancy has more than 20 years of experience as an occupational health nurse. She is an active member of the board of directors of the Massachusetts and North of Boston Association of Occupational Health Nurses, she has served in many leadership positions. Nancy is a member of the Massachusetts Safety Council, Healthcare Employee Health Nurses Association of New England and American Association of Health Professionals. She has earned considerable recognition for her contributions to occupational and employee health nursing, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, from the Massachusetts Association of Occupational Health Nurses.
Maria DelMuto, PT, CCM
Clinical Case Manager, Partners Healthcare System
Maria DelMuto is a 1982 graduate of Simmons College with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Therapy. After spending over 15 years practicing as an orthopedic clinical specialist and occupational rehab specialist, she transitioned to the workers’ compensation arena to specialize in utilization review and medical case management of the injured worker. In 1999, Maria was responsible for the development and implementation of the Utilization Review and Medical Case Management Services Program for Northern General Services. As a certified case manager, Maria was the managed care supervisor for the third party administrator, FutureComp for over 10 years. During that period, she was actively involved in new client presentations while providing case management services to multiple self insured groups, individual clients, and municipalities. Currently, she is a clinical case manager in the workers’compensation division of Partners Healthcare System where she interacts daily with injured employees from multiple entities.
Dean Hashimoto, MD, JD
Chief of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Partners HealthCare System
Dean Hashimoto is the chief of occupational and environmental medicine for the Partners HealthCare System and the chair of the Health Care Services Board at the Department of Industrial Accidents. He is a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School and is board-certified in occupational medicine. He also received his law degree from the Yale Law School, served as law clerk for Justice Brennan at the U.S. Supreme Court, and was an attorney for the Ropes & Gray law firm before becoming a law professor at Boston College. He is the coauthor of two large empirical studies of opioid utilization in 24 states at the Workers Compensation Research Institute and a co-investigator at the Harvard Center for Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing.
Alice Hathaway
Senior Claims Specialist, Corvel
Alice began her insurance career in September, 1987 as a Claim Representative. Prior to joining Corvel she worked at Royal Sun Alliance, AIG, Meadowbrook, Gallagher Bassett, and Sedgwick. She has handled the New England States: Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Omar Hernandez, JD
Senior Judge Department of Industrial Accidents
Omar Hernandez is currently the Senior Judge at the Department of Industrial Accidents. He was appointed as an administrative judge to the Department of Industrial Accidents in August 2003. He is the first Hispanic-American to serve as an Administrative Judge. He was honored in 2012 by the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys for many years of outstanding public service to the residents of Massachusetts through his service to the Department of Industrial Accidents as both an attorney and a judge.
He graduated from Cornell University in 1985 and Suffolk University School of Law in 1989. He went to work for Attorney Paul Gargano for approximately one year and then moved to Rainer & Rainer in Boston, handling workers’ compensation claims. In 1994, he was hired as an attorney in the Workers’ Compensation Litigation Unit for the state’s Human Resources Division, defending workers’ compensation filed against state agencies. In 2000, Judge Hernández was named Deputy General Counsel for the Human Resources Department, handling labor relations and civil service issues.
Karen Huyck, MD, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Department of Medicine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center/Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth *Activity Co-Director
Dr. Huyck, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Dartmouth in the Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is a former American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Occupational Physician Scholar and former Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow in the Biological Sciences. She completed her residency in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and her MPH in Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Vermont. Prior to her position at Dartmouth, she worked in diverse OEM settings in the Boston area, including as a staff physician, researcher, disability review consultant, impartial medical examiner, and expert witness. Her clinical and research interests include prevention of occupational and environmental injury and illness, gene-environment interaction, and molecular diagnostics.
Michael P. Kelley, AIC, ARM
Senior Vice President, Director of Claim Operations HUB International New England, LLC
Michael P. Kelley currently serves as Senior Vice President and Director of Claims Operations at HUB International New England, a leading insurance brokerage firm, in a position held since May 2014. HUB’s dedicated claim staff advocates for their policyholders when claim complications occur; Michael and the team of claim professionals guide HUB’s clients through the entire onerous and sometimes challenging claim process to efficiently manage the process to troubleshoot, as needed, to make it easier for their clients. Michael is based in HUB’s Wilmington, MA, office. As the leader of the Claims Management Department, his duties include: claim advocacy, meetings with clients, adjusters, and loss inspectors; and settlement strategies. Michael assists, as needed, in the settlement negotiations at all levels with adjusters and carriers, ensuring that clients receive maximum payments on all first party claims as well as full benefits of all coverages provided under their policies. Michael holds over 33 years of insurance industry experience, beginning his career with the American Mutual Insurance Companies in 1982. He was trained in all lines of claim investigation with a focus on both commercial and personal lines claims. He held various positions including Field Investigator, Claim Supervisor, Assistant Claim Manager and Regional Claim Manager. He became the Operations Manager for an independent consulting firm in 1993. He spent the next 20 years as the Vice President of Claims at the A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies. He is considered an expert in the area of workers’ compensation claim handling, and is a frequent speaker on the worker’s compensation claim process. Michael holds both an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and an Associate in Claims (AIC) designation from the Insurance Institute of America. He has been an instructor at the Insurance Library Association of Boston for the last ten years. He is a former member of the Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau (WCRIB) Claim Committee, as well as the Board of Governors of the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. In 2015, the Governor of Massachusetts appointed him to be the Insurance Industry Representative on the Workers Compensation Advisor Council at the Department of Industrial Accidents. He has dedicated his career to improving the workers compensation system and reducing the impact of claims on both the employer and employee community. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Merrimack College where he majored in accounting
Diane M. Neelon, RN, BSN, JD
Director of the Office of Health Policy Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA)
DIANE M. NEELON is the Director of the Office of Health Policy at the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA), where she oversees the workers’ compensation utilization review process. She also serves as Executive Director of the Health Care Services Board. She is a cum laude graduate of Boston College School of Nursing and a cum laude graduate of Suffolk University Law School. Employment prior to the DIA includes working as an associate at the law firm of Coyne, Hodapp & Linnehan and thereafter, Salisbury & Neelon, specializing in personal injuries. She practiced nursing at various Boston hospitals; and worked as a school nurse for the Boston Public Schools and Boston College Health Services.
Phyllis Phillips, Esq.
Administrative Law Judge Vermont Department of Labor's Workers' Compensation and Safety Division
Phyllis Phillips, Esq. is the senior Administrative Law Judge for the Vermont Department of Labor’s Workers’ Compensation and Safety Division. She has extensive experience in all facets of workers’ compensation, having previously co-owned a Vermont-based workers’ compensation insurance company and also represented both injured workers and employers while in private practice. She also has extensive experience in all matters pertaining to the Boston Red Sox, and considers their World Series victory in 2004 on a par with the birth of her children.
Chadi Tannoury, MD
Assistant Professor of Orthopedics & Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Medical Director of Outpatient Clinic & Director of Spine Research, Boston Medical Center
Dr. Chadi Tannoury was born in Lebanon and earned his medical training at the Lebanese University of Beirut, and completed his Orthopaedic residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and his fellowship training in Spine surgery at RUSH university medical center in Chicago. Dr. Chadi Tannoury is trained to treat a wide spectrum of spinal pathologies including degenerative conditions, deformity disorders, spinal trauma, tumors of the spine, and spinal infections. Dr. Chadi Tannoury is recognized as a clinician scientist and won multiple awards and honors underlining his outstanding clinical achievements and outstanding levels of kindness and compassion for the patient entrusted to his care. Additionally, Dr. Chadi Tannoury extensively investigated and published numerous basic science and clinical spinal researches on various spinal ailments and Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. Through his clinical and academic achievements, Dr. Chadi Tannoury serves as Editor to spine surgery textbooks, journals, and contributes to the spine surgery literature with plethora of publications.Moreover, Dr. Chadi Tannoury’s work expanded beyond the art of medicine into the art of medical illustrations, and his drawings complimented multiple landmark publications and contributed to better understanding of various spinal pathologies and surgical techniques. Dr. Chadi Tannoury provides patient care at the Boston Medical Center Campus at the Shapiro Center, 725 Albany St. Office number 617 638 5633.
Robert A. (Abe) Timmons, DO, MPH, FACOEM
Department Chair Dept. of Occupational Medicine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua Clinic/Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth *Activity Co-Director
Abe Timmons, DO, MPH, FACOEM is a board certified occupational medicine specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinics as well as Exeter Hospital in southern New Hampshire. Dr. Timmons completed his residency training in Occupational & Environmental Medicine in 2004 at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA. He has over 15 years of experience in both civilian and military medicine, and currently is the Chief of Aerospace Medicine for the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He has expertise in occupational medicine, musculoskeletal injuries and management, environmental exposures, aviation medicine, and impairment examination. He is certified as an FAA senior aviation medical examiner, a DOT medical examiner, a Medical Review Officer, and as a Civil Surgeon.
Thomas H. Winters, MD, FACOEM, FACPM
Principal & Chief Medical Officer Occupational & Environmental Health Network
Dr. Winters is the Principal and Chief Medical Officer for Occupational & Environmental Health Network (OEHN). OEHN delivers premier on-site leadership and program oversight for employee and occupational health departments across the country. Dr. Winters oversees a team of Board Certified Occupational Health physicians, program management staff, project managers and consultants. Dr. Winters has over 25 years’ experience in occupational and environmental medicine. He has served as Occupational Health Medical Director for several manufacturing companies and numerous hospitals, colleges and universities. His specialties include musculo-skeletal disease, toxic tort and radiation exposures, occupational and infectious diseases, research occupational health and corporate medical consulting. On these topics, he has provided training and published numerous articles. Dr. Winters is a graduate of the University of North Dakota, Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Winters is also a Certified Medical Review Officer, Medical Disability Examiner and Independent Medical Examiner. Dr. Winters is a devoted sportsman, including skiing, basketball and hiking.
Michela Capobianco
Program Director
michela@bostonmis.com