Congratulations to the Bellwether Class of 2024

Ron Denton (1937-2023)

Ron Denton (1937-2023) applied his distinctive 20-year military medical services experience into a private-sector healthcare supply chain career that spanned healthcare providers, healthcare suppliers and a successful supply chain consultancy that emphasized the value of administrative and clinical customer service, low-unit-of-measure inventory, purchased services, technology adoption and value analysis. Denton was among the first to implement a cart exchange program in the late 1970s, low-unit-of-measure distribution and inventory management in the late 1980s and among the first to recognize and incorporate purchased services and interim management as key components of value analysis before the turn of the millennium. He was one of the recognized experts in such advanced supply chain management practices as automated purchasing/order management, logical-unit-of-measure/just-in-time distribution programs, clinical inventory management programs and total supply replenishment initiatives. His firm also co-developed and launched a new proprietary inventory and space optimization analytics software program.

Dave Hunter

Dave Hunter was an early adopter of expanding the traditional boundaries of supply chain to include branded strategic and capital sourcing services; branded consultative services, logistics and operations; accounts payable all within a consolidated service center that served a three-state area in the Pacific Northwest via a warehouse management system (WMS) application that used carousels and pick-to-light technology to deliver low-unit-of-measure totes directly to each facility’s point-of-care locations. Hunter’s system leadership also extended to clinical engineering, facilities management, environmental services and food and nutrition services under a branded operation with its own profit-and-loss filings. Through his system’s group purchasing organization (GPO), Hunter created and developed a regional custom contracting consortium that added healthcare facilities across two additional states (five total), solidifying West Coast coverage south and up north to Alaska. He also worked with IT to develop an IT asset distribution, reuse, recycle and repair program that centrally managed computers for distribution and life cycle management services.

Gail L. Kovacs

As a progressive healthcare supply chain management executive, Gail L. Kovacs poked through several barriers that historically challenged the profession. She worked directly with clinicians to improve their business operations, co-developing a five-year business plan with oncologists to launch, equip and supply one of the earliest dedicated cancer centers in the nation. Kovacs also led efforts to standardize contracts for products and services for her healthcare system and helped to develop a unified regional healthcare organization and a statewide purchasing alliance in Ohio. Throughout her hospital-based experience, she initiated an online equipment maintenance oversight program with consolidated purchasing at one facility, alternative clinical staffing programs at another facility that drew avid support from cardiac physicians and surgeons and led the conversion to PAR replenishment from exchanges carts. In the mid-1970s, Kovacs collaborated with IT to develop a daily screening tool that identified nosocomial infections.

Eugene S. 'Gene' Schneller, Ph.D.

In academic circles since the 1980s, Eugene S. "Gene" Schneller, Ph.D., has kept his fingers on the pulse of healthcare supply chain operations through educational and literary endeavors that elevated his name among the most recognized and influential experts in the areas of researching, tracking and communicating development and growth of an industry and profession. As an active proponent of cost reduction, distribution, group purchasing and health policy that links clinical, financial and operational functions to solidify and fortify healthcare organizational success, Schneller has molded himself one of the leading vocal advocates of supply chain effectiveness and efficiency through his university-supported center and consortium and his foundational lecture series. Schneller has completed and presented extensive operational research on identifying, managing through and preventing supply chain disruptions, based on the recent global pandemic, as well as ways to improve innovations and operations within the federal Department of Defense.

Celeste West

Celeste West was best known for bending traditional healthcare supply chain borders to centralize and standardize sourcing and analytics, along with IT, decades before it became fashionable and widely pursued. She viewed healthcare supply chain as a vertical market with a horizontal span, regularly recruiting supply chain professionals from outside healthcare to contribute and implement their ideas on distribution, inventory management, transportation and warehousing within the provider network. She developed dedicated supply chain teams to provide value analysis and service to multiple clinical specialties as well as nonacute care operations system-wide that earned C-suite recognition and respect for the department and function. This led her to establish an Executive Council that drew active participation by C-suite leadership in supply chain sourcing and value analysis initiatives. She was an early adopter of bar coding for inventory tracking, scorecards for supply chain savings and IT-infused contract management and value analysis processes.

2024 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2024 Future Famers Class of 2024 - Left to Right

Angie Bruns, MHA, Senior Director, Spend Management and Administration, The University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, KS

Chico Manning, MHA, System Vice President, Enterprise Supply Chain, PIH Health, Whittier, CA

Corey Schmidt, CMRP, MBA, Assistant Director, SHS Operations & Spend Management Integration, The University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, KS

2023 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2023 Future Famers Class of 2023 - Left to right:

Rachel K. Anderson, Corporate Director, Supply Chain, Baptist Health, Montgomery, AL

Jesse L. Stanton, Vice President, Supply Chain, Parkview Health, Fort Wayne, IN

2022 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2022 Future Famers Class of 2022 - Left to right

Ryan R. Burke, Vice President, Strategic Sourcing, Pandion Optimization Alliance, Rochester, NY

René A. Gurdián, Assistant Vice President, Supply Chain Finance and Strategy. Ochsner Health, New Orleans, LA

Caroline Marion, Manager, Supply Chain Clinical Engagement and Implementation, Novant Health, Wilmington, NC

Allison T. Tidd, Assistant Vice President, Contracts, Atrium Health/Atrium Health Supply Chain Alliance, Charlotte, NC.

2020 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2020 Future Famers Class of 2020 - Left to right:

Hunter Chandler, Director, Supply Chain Information Systems, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC

Jack Koczela, Director of Services, Supply Chain, Froedtert Health Integrated Service Center, Menomonee Falls, WI

Kenneth Scher, CMRP, Vice President, End-to-End Supply Chain, Nexera Inc., New York

2019 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2019 Future Famers Class of 2019 - Left to right: Geisinger Health’s Jun B. Amora, Memorial Health System’s Erin M. Bromley, Avera Health’s Sara M. Henderson, Mid-America Service Solutions’ Jessica Rinderle and Dartmout-Hitchcock Health’s Sidney L. Hamilton. Not pictured: The University of Kansas Health System’s Brian A. Dolan.

2018 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2018 Future Famers Class of 2018 - Standing (left to right): Troy Compardo, Amy Chieppa and Andy Leaders. Not pictured: Ryan Rotar.

2017 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2017 Future Famers Class of 2017 - Standing (left to right): Mark Growcott, Ph.D., Karen Kresnik, R.N., and Ben Cahoy. Not pictured: Derek Havens and Christy Crestin.

2016 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2016 Future Famers Class of 2016 - Standing (left to right): Erik Walerius, Nisha Lulla and Rob Proctor. Not pictured: Jimmy Henderson, Kate Polczynski and Baljeet Sangha.

2015 Future Famers Honored

Future Famers 2015 Future Famers Class of 2015 - Standing (left to right): University of Chicago’s Eric Tritch, Ochsner Health’s Will Barrette, Providence Health’s Justin Freed, Mercy Health/St. Rita’s Jason Hays, Parkview Health’s Donna Van Vlerah and Texas Health’s Nate Mickish (back and to the right).

2023 Dean S. Ammer Award for Healthcare Supply Chain Performance Excellence

Michael McCullough, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain, Wellstar Health System, Marietta, Google Analytics

Régine Honoré Villain, Vice President, Supply Chain Network and Chief Supply Chain Officer, Ochsner Health, Baton Rouge, LA

2021 Dean S. Ammer Award for Healthcare Supply Chain Performance Excellence

Ammer Award 2021 Donna Van Vlerah, Senior Vice President, Supply & Support Services, Support Division, Parkview Health, Fort Wayne, IN

2020 Dean S. Ammer Award for Healthcare Supply Chain Performance Excellence

Ammer Award 2020 Randy V. Bradley, Ph.D., CPHIMS, FHIMSS, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Haslam College of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management

2017 Ammer Award Honoree Organization

Ammer Award 2017 Mayo Clinic’s Jim Francis accepts the 2017 Dean S. Ammer Award for Supply Chain Excellence, on behalf of his Ammer Level 5 Supply Chain Organization.

2016 Inaugural Ammer Award

Ammer Award 2016 Michael Louviere accepts the inaugural Dean S. Ammer Award for Supply Chain Excellence on behalf of his Supply Chain team at Ochsner Health System.