The Susan McFarland Volunteer Award
The HDAA Board is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Susan McFarland Volunteer Award, revealed November 9 at the annual conference in Denver.
Congratulations to Elissa Malcolm of Dartmouth Health!
Elissa has been a willing volunteer at HDAA since she joined in 2017. She presented a poster on peer-review quality control at HDAA 2018 in Seattle. But it was really the pandemic era when Elissa made her presence felt. She participated in three different COVID town halls in 2020 and 2021 on regulatory reporting, vaccine analytics, and sharing data with the public.
In 2022, she served on two panels in our HDAA Insights series, which aims to attract the next generation of healthcare data analysts. And oh by the way, she's an active participant in our Data Governance SIG, served on the presentation review committee for HDAA 2024, and is a charter member of the Community Advisory Council.
Thank you, Elissa, for all you've done for the HDAA community.
Volunteering at HDAA
Volunteers are the lifeblood of HDAA, making possible everything from our annual conference to our website to our special interest groups and online forums. Each year, we honor one volunteer for outstanding contribution to our mission and dedication to the spirit of collaboration that informs everything we do.
The Susan McFarland award, named for the woman who was HDAA’s driving force for its first 17 years, recognizes our volunteer of the year. This individual has donated significant time and effort, often behind-the-scenes, to keep our organization running efficiently, our members engaged and informed.
Criteria
The HDAA Board will select the person who best demonstrates one or more of the following:
- outstanding support of one or more areas of HDAA operations
- commitment to HDAA’s mission and guiding principles
- innovative expansion of services to our members
Eligibility and nomination
- The nominee must be a current member of HDAA and have participated in at least one HDAA volunteer activity in the calendar year
- The nominee must be 18 years or older
- The nominee cannot be a current member of the HDAA board
- Previous award winners are not eligible
- Any HDAA member may nominate an individual for the Susan McFarland Award, subject to the eligibility requirements above.
To nominate someone, write a note describing the person’s efforts and contributions that support the award criteria. Send nominations to [email protected]. Deadline is one month prior to the HDAA annual conference.
Selection and recognition
The HDAA Advisory Board will announce the winner at the annual conference, during the members meeting.
Upon acceptance of the award, recipient will receive an award and public recognition through the HDAA website.
HDAA Honor Roll
Winners of the Susan McFarland Award
2024
Elissa Malcolm Director of Quality Analytics at Dartmouth Help
Charter member of HDAA Community Advisory Council, intrepid reviewer of presentations for HDAA 2024, enthusiastic participant on the HDAA Insights series.
2023
Peter Ivers IT Director at Johns Hopkins Medicine
Unflappable Epic SIG lead and charter member of HDAA Community Advisory Council
Wendy Soethe Senior Director, Data & Analytics - AI at Pivot Point Consulting
Stellar recruiter and manager of conference sponsors
2022
David Ding Assistant Professor of supply chain management and the director for Healthcare Analytics and Intelligence program, Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick
Father of the HDAA Insights series
2021
Anjali Ancy Student, Mount Carmel College, Autonomous, Bangalore
Devoted curator of HDAA on LinkedIn
Heather Wilson Business Analyst, Evergreen Health
Inspiring social media advocate and Slack administrator
John Peters Senior Business Intelligence Developer, Intermed
Conscience of the HDAA conference presentation committee
Mary Jo David Technical Writer, Michigan Medicine
Stalwart editor and steward of our presentation committee
2020
Lynsie Daley Senior Data Analyst and Team Lead, Intermountain Healthcare
Peerless lead of HDAA's Women in Analytics special interest group
Patrick Day Senior Advisor and Product Owner, Cigna
Equally distinguished lead of the Data Governance SIG
Michael Lewis Senior Director of Healthcare Analytics, Cleveland Clinic
COVID panelist extraordinare
Boris Tyukin Senior Big Data Strategy Manager, AdventHealth
First-rate and tireless presenter
2019
Beth Willmitch Senior Analytics Architect, Baptist Health of South Florida
Indefatigable maintainer of HDAA membership roster |
