Education
My college years for both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees were spent at the University of Buffalo (UB). As an undergraduate I majored in industrial engineering/operations research. My senior year capstone project was doing a computer simulation of the patient transportation department at a hospital. This model was a tradeoff between patient waiting time and staff utilization. I published a paper on this work, which I later learned was used as a case study at Boston University. My senior year I was elected President of the Student Chapter of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. I was also inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. UB did not have a lacrosse team. My first spring on campus many lacrosse players found each other. Another student and I went to administration and asked that the school fund a lacrosse club, which they agreed to starting the following Spring (undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty could play). We played all the regular college teams in Western New York and did quite well. I quickly became the player coach. That club team still exists today.
The Department Chair asked me to stay on for my master’s degree. For both year’s he found me assistantship money doing projects for the university, one of which was published and given a Library of Congress Number. I also taught undergraduate courses including Operation Research-Stochastic Models. My master’s thesis was entitled, Comparison of Methods for Analyzing Disproportionate Data. This work was published in a peer reviewed journal. During my years as a graduate student I still played and coached the UB Lacrosse Club.
Career
I had a 43 career as a healthcare operations consultant who personally served 400+ clients in 37states and DC. After receiving my master’s degree, it was my undergraduate work in healthcare that had qualified me to take a job at a healthcare consulting firm in Burlington, MA and quickly moved up the ranks. I was living and working in MA for three years when I was offered a position as director to live in Maine to open the Maine and New Hampshire market. After three years I had 21 clients in the region. Then I was asked to do the same in a region between New York City and DC, moving to South New Jersey outside of Philadelphia to manage this. This was a total success, so after three more years they asked me to come back to headquarters and manage the whole consulting arm, this is when I decided to move to Stratham, NH. Shortly thereafter, the five key associates running this division bought the Applied Management Systems (AMS) division from the parent company, which is when I became principal/ owner of AMS. We were a successful niche company competing against other niche companies but also all the large multinational consulting firms. In all my 43 years, we were always profitable, and as owners we were proud that every staff member received a year-end bonus. Not many people can say they knew and worked with many of their associates for over 40 years.
During my career I published many papers and presented others at professional society meetings. I wrote a book, “Bringing Computers to the Hospital Bedside”, with the VP of Nursing at the Washington Hospital Center a 900-bed medical center in DC. I also became a fellow and life member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Early Life
I grew up in Seaford, New York, which was an unincorporated village on the South Shore of Long Island. My dad was a WWII veteran union carpenter and my mother a homemaker who tended to me, my older brother, and two younger sisters. This was an era when kids created their own activities like sponge ball games on the street. In the summer the rule was to come home when the streetlights came on. The only organized sport was baseball. I was a catcher in Little League baseball and when I was older in Babe Ruth baseball as well.
I attended Seaford Junior Senior High School. In junior high I played the trumpet, but I was also on the football team, wrestling team, and lacrosse team. By the time I reached my high school years I had to give up trumpet but excelled at the three sports. My senior year, I was a starting pulling guard on offense and a nose guard on defense. I was a tri-captain of my wrestling team (154 pound weight class), and captain of the lacrosse team. I was the first person from my school to be selected to the all-league team in lacrosse. Academically, I was a good student, but excelled in math and science. I was one of two students who scored 100% on the NY state-wide regents’ geometry final exam. It is no surprise that I chose engineering as my major in college. My engineering professor uncle who taught at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now NYU’s engineering school) was a positive role model for me.
