Leadership Team 2018

Robert Arnold, MD
Leslie Bonner, MEd
Beth Davis, SPHR
Paula Davis, MA
Melissa McNeil, MD, MPH
Jared Simmer, EdD, JD, MLIR
Ann Thompson, MD, MHCPM
Jennifer Woodward, PhD

Robert Arnold, MD is a Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and in the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law. He completed his medical school training at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and residency at Rhode Island Hospital. Subsequently he has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2000, Robert was named the first Leo H. Creip Chair of Patient Care. The Chair emphasizes the importance of the doctor-patient relationship, particularly at the end of life. He is the Director of the Institute for Doctor-Patient Communication and the Medical Director of the UPMC Palliative and Supportive Institute. He is clinically active in palliative care. 

Robert has published on end-of-life care, hospice and palliative care, doctor-patient communication and ethics education. His current research interests are focused on educational interventions to improve communication in life-limiting illnesses and better understanding how ethical precepts are operationalized in clinical practice. He also is working with the UPMC Health System to develop system-wide, integrative palliative services throughout the health system. He is the Past-President of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities as well as the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.


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Leslie Bonner, MEd is a consultant, coach, and facilitator with over 25 years of experience working with and in a variety of organizations -- including nonprofits, financial services, energy, professional services, healthcare, and small business. Her areas of expertise include nonprofit strategic planning, organizational assessments, guiding change and transition, and leadership, staff, and team development.

Ms. Bonner's experience includes 15 years as a consultant, including 11 years working exclusively with nonprofit organizations on Strategic Planning, Board Development and Governance, Succession Planning, and Leadership and Team Development. She has published research on Nonprofit Leadership Development and is a frequent speaker on Nonprofit Capacity Building and Talent Management topics. Her previous experience included leadership positions in Human Resources and Organizational Development with corporations such as PNC and Westinghouse. Ms. Bonner started her career working in Career Services in the MBA programs at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon.

Ms. Bonner's degrees include a MEd in Career Counseling and Group Coaching from the University of Pittsburgh and BA in Business and Psychology. She has taught graduate level courses in Strategic Planning and Leadership at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham. She has served on many Boards including: The HOPE Center, the YWCA, Family Services of Western PA’s Advisory Board, and the Advisory Board for the PA Dropout Prevention Network. Learn More

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Beth Davis, SPHR is a senior organizational and leadership development consultant with ThirdRiver Partners. Beth is known professionally for her ability to creatively align business strategy to people practices while keeping a passionate focus on workplace culture and values. Her experience spans the globe - from working in several technology start-ups to multi-billion dollar integrated healthcare delivery systems, financial services, higher education, and multi-faceted engineering, construction, and power industries.

Beth's passion is working with organizations and teams to create workplace cultures that focus on the retention and development of talent at all levels of the organization. Learning what matters most to those she serves and working to find creative and entrepreneurial ways to accomplish desired outcomes.

Typical projects have included:

  • Change Leadership & Serving Leader Development

  • Senior Leader Coaching & Creating Coaching Capability in Managers

  • Full cycle talent management (recruit, develop, performance management, compensation and rewards, retention, global mobility, and engagement)

  • Strategic planning and enterprise business performance management

  • Scrum implementation and coaching for product delivery & project success

  • Enterprise systems implementation and process improvement

Prior to ThirdRiver, Beth has held leadership roles in Human Resources and People Development in large complex, global organizations as well as entrepreneurial, start-up environments. She has served companies and clients in a wide variety of industries and settings: UPMC, Fresenius Medical Care, SCIO Health Analytics, Robomatter, Inc., Lucas Systems, ERIKS, PNC Bank, Highmark Health, The Shaw Group, Carnegie Mellon University, Ariba, and FreeMarkets.

She holds certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), is a Professional Certified Scrum Master, and she graduated from Westminster College with a BA in Sociology. She has also actively contributed as an advisory board member to several businesses.

Beth is a native of Pittsburgh, PA and enjoys spending time with her family exploring the world together. Learn More


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Paula Davis, MA is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Diversity at the University of Pittsburgh. Paula leads the Office of Health Sciences Diversity in promoting a diverse and inclusive environment throughout the schools of the health sciences. At the School of Medicine, she has served as assistant dean for admissions and financial aid, for student affairs, and director of diversity programs. Paula has worked in a variety of student-support fields over the past 20 years, including academic advising, admissions, alumni relations, and financial aid and has worked with pre-college, undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.

Paula received her BA in English and MA in communications from the University of Pittsburgh. She was director of admissions for Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management before joining Pitt's School of Medicine in 1994. Her professional activities included a term as director of the northeast region of the National Association of Medical Minority Educators, a position on the board of the LGBT Health, Education, and Research Trust, and advocacy for autism research and education. She received the 2003 Chancellor's Affirmative Action Award.


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Melissa McNeil, MD, MPH is currently a Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University with a degree in Public Policy and International Affairs and then pursued both her medical degree and her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She also completed a Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology in 1993 at the Graduate School of Public Health. Melissa has served as a clinician, an educator, and an administrator in a number of roles in her more than twenty years at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the chief of the Section of Women’s Health in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and in that capacity oversees a multitude of initiatives in the arena of Women’s Health including the VA sponsored Women’s Health Fellowship Program. She also serves as the program director for the Pittsburgh BIRCWH faculty development program designed to support junior faculty in the development of interdisciplinary research careers in women’s health. Melissa is a founding member of the Academy of Master Educators here at the University of Pittsburgh and has been an active member of the Academy, serving as the chair of the Educator Mentoring Task Force. She also serves as the Vice Chair of Education for the Department of Medicine. She has presented educational innovations nationally at the Society for General Internal Medicine Meeting, the Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine Meeting, and the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. In 2014 she was selected as the Distinguished Professor of Women’s Health for the Society of General Internal Medicine and in 2016 received the National Career Achievement Award in Medical Education.


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Jared D. Simmer, EdD, JD, MLIR serves as a mediator/arbitrator and conflict management trainer and consultant in a variety of health care-related settings including hospitals, clinics, medical/dental practices, nursing homes and academic medical centers.

His services are listed on a wide variety of dispute resolution panels including the National Health Lawyers Association, the UPMC Health Care Intermediation Program, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the American Arbitration Association, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Federal District Court, and the United States Postal Service.

Prior to entering private practice, Dr. Simmer served as manager of industrial relations for the Duke University/Duke University Medical Center, where his responsibilities included negotiating contracts, mediating employee grievances, serving as hearing officer in employee discharge cases, and providing supervisory training.

He is a frequent lecturer in the field of conflict resolution and has provided executive education programming for the Katz Graduate School of Business Center for Executive Education where he received the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2007, the Heinz College Chief Information Officer Institute, and the UPMC Emerging Physician Leadership Program.

Dr. Simmer teaches negotiation in CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and at the Katz Graduate School of Business prior to that. He chairs the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, and previously chaired its Lawyers in Other Professions Committee. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Calvin College, a Master in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University, a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and doctorate from Duquesne University. His research interests include examining how men and women differ in their view of the negotiation process, and their respective willingness to take advantages of opportunities to improve these skills. His wife is assistant dean of the Duquesne University School of Nursing.

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Ann Thompson, MD, MHCPM is Vice Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics. Ann was previously vice chair (professional development) of the Department of Critical Care Medicine and medical director for clinical resource management at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. She served as chief of pediatric critical care from 1981 to 2009 and was interim chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine from 2006 to 2008. She is a past president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine — only the second woman to hold that position — and she is a senior editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.

Ann received her BA in biology from the University of Chicago in 1969 and her MD from Boston’s Tufts University School of Medicine in 1974. After completing her pediatric residency training at the Tufts New England Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), she trained in anesthesiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and did a fellowship in pediatric critical care and research at CHOP, which is where she held her first faculty position. In 2003, she received a master’s degree in health care policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University.

In 1981, Ann became the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She continued in that position until October 2015, building and maintaining a successful clinical and academic program, with one of the country’s most distinguished records in clinical outcome, research productivity, and fellowship training. She is chair of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators Network, former chair of the subboard of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine of the American Board of Pediatrics and a past member of the RRC for Pediatrics of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Board of Directors of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies. She has lectured widely on a broad range of clinical issues in pediatric critical care at international critical care congresses in North America, South America, Asia and Europe. In the past several years, Ann has become particularly interested in institutional administration and public policy affecting the delivery of health care services, especially those for children, and those related to critical care in general.


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Jennifer Woodward, PhD is currently Vice Chancellor for Research Operations directing the Office of Sponsored Programs, which is charged with assisting faculty, staff, and students in their efforts to promote and secure sponsored research funding. The office reviews, negotiates, endorses, and provides administrative oversight related to proposals and awards in accordance with all applicable laws, policies and regulations. The Vice Chancellor for Research Operations serves as the designated university officer empowered for all sponsored research activities. 

Jennifer is Professor of Surgery and Immunology, and has served as Associate Vice Provost for Research Operations at Pitt, Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Executive Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. 

Jennifer’s academic career began in physiology-based orthopaedic research and evolved to the field of transplantation immunology where she explored the models and mechanisms of transplantation tolerance. Her teaching and mentoring have been multifaceted. From her breadth of experiences, Jennifer has a strong understanding of the academic landscape and a long history and commitment to the professional development of faculty, staff, and students. She frequently is invited to present lectures and workshops for faculty and trainees on academic success, networking, and negotiation.

Jennifer earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Presbyterian College, a Master of Science degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the Medical University of South Carolina.


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