A graduate of New York University, Lindsey Peckham worked in some of New York’s great restaurants (Minetta Tavern, estela, and more) before joining the team at Eleven Madison Park. She ultimately served as Director of Guest Relations at the restaurant, bringing a specialized focus on team building and customer service.
Alison Mallard is Founder and President of HRCatalyst, Inc., a consulting firm that aligns talent with organizational strategy through selection, performance measurement, and leadership/team development. Alison has over 20 years of experience in assessment, consulting, coaching, and organizational research. She is a licensed psychologist (GA002129) and works within a variety of industries. In addition to consulting throughout the US, she has on-site consulting experience in the UK, Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
HRCatalyst maintains a network of expert Alliance Partners to efficiently and reliably source coaches and consultants to scale projects with specialized professionals who best fit the needs of a project/engagement.
Enver began his culinary career in his hometown of Durres, Albania, on the Adriatic Sea, where he spent 9 years preparing Mediterranean cuisine at the Adriatic 2 Hotel. In 2004, he relocated to the United States, continuing his journey in Middle Eastern and fine-dining kitchens. His career includes leadership roles at prestigious country clubs, including The Lodge and Club and Sawgrass Country Club, where he blended his Mediterranean roots with Southern fine dining. Enver joined Compass Group as a Sous Chef and advanced through roles including Executive Chef, Senior Executive Chef, and Regional Executive Chef. Today, he leads the culinary team for the Sweizer Region at Morrison Healthcare. Fluent in Albanian, Italian, and English, Enver brings a global perspective to his work. Outside the kitchen, he enjoys time with his three children, who inspire him daily.
Brian grew up just outside Baltimore, Maryland, and learned early that good food brings people together. He honed his craft at the Baltimore International Culinary College, earning an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts before joining Compass Group, North America in 1999. Now serving as Vice President of Culinary for Morrison Healthcare, Brian helps set the flavor, standards, and culinary direction across the organization—making sure every plate served to patients, guests, and caregivers is both thoughtful and delicious. When he’s not leading kitchens and culinary strategy, Brian trades his chef coat for boots at his family’s farm in the mountains of Western Maryland, where he enjoys time with his wife and two sons.
Garrett serves as a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, specializing in foodservice operations. Alongside his military service, he works as a Sous Chef at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia, Maryland, where he continues to build his culinary experience in a fast-paced, professional kitchen. Garrett is currently enrolled at Howard Community College and is pursuing an Associate of Arts degree in Culinary Arts, which he will complete this spring. Guided by discipline, teamwork, and a strong sense of service, Garrett brings focus and dedication to every role he takes on—both in uniform and in the kitchen.
Arielle is a culinary leader passionate about innovation, hospitality, and people-first kitchens. With over a decade of experience in large-scale food operations, Arielle specializes in operational excellence, menu development, cost control, and creating meaningful dining experiences for patients, guests, and team members. Known for her collaborative leadership style, Arielle emphasizes training, coaching, and the development of culinarians at all levels. She believes that great food begins with a great culture, where consistency, pride, and accountability are integral to every dish. Throughout her career, she has supported multiple campuses, launched new concepts, improved compliance and safety standards, and elevated quality. Her work reflects a balance of creativity, structure, and heart. Outside the kitchen, Arielle enjoys exploring new flavors, mentoring future chefs, and discovering ways food can foster connection and community.
Stephen brings more than 25 years of culinary experience across both casual and fine-dining environments, with leadership roles at The Cheesecake Factory, Wegmans Food Markets, and privately owned restaurant concepts. Recently promoted to Director of Culinary Innovation at Morrison Healthcare, Stephen focuses on advancing culinary strategy while creating meaningful dining experiences for those served. His work centers on innovation, mentorship, and the development of chefs through certification, apprenticeship programs, and foundational culinary training. As a Certified Executive Chef and active member of the Harrisburg Chapter of the American Culinary Federation, Stephen values continuous growth both professionally and personally. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time outdoors with his family, sharing his love of food with his four children, and playing music as a third-generation drummer.
Sahina discovered her passion for food at an early age, cooking alongside her grandmother and working in her family’s East Indian restaurant, where she was already preparing breads and samosas by age ten. She went on to study Culinary Arts at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, graduating with honors, and joined Compass Group in 2007. Today, Sahina serves as Corporate Executive Chef supporting Morrison Healthcare’s Western Division, based in Southern California. Her culinary approach centers on wholesome, thoughtful cuisine with bold, layered flavors influenced by global traditions. Beyond the kitchen, Sahina is deeply committed to mentoring and developing chefs and is a strong advocate for advancing women in culinary leadership through inclusive, supportive environments.
Georg’s culinary journey blends classical training with a deep commitment to wellness and hospitality. After earning his degree from the State University of New York, he studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. His early career included influential roles at iconic institutions such as The Harvard Club and the Waldorf Astoria, followed by the launch of his own company, Panache Catering. Georg later led culinary operations for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Today, as Culinary Director for the Atrium/Advocate Health system, he drives innovation and mentorship across diverse dining programs. Outside the kitchen, Georg is an avid triathlete and serves on the board of Feeding Charlotte, supporting efforts to combat food insecurity.
Dana Weston Graves serves as Senior Vice President and Market President for Sentara Health’s Southeast Market in Norfolk, overseeing a $2.5 billion acute care market with 800 beds and over 6,500 team members. Her responsibilities include strategic and operational leadership for Sentara Leigh Hospital, a 274-bed community hospital, as well as the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital campus—home to Hampton Roads’ only Level 1 adult trauma center, the Sentara Heart Hospital, and the Nightingale Regional Air Ambulance. Mrs. Graves leads the alignment of acute care, ambulatory, and health plan services in the market, advancing Sentara’s mission to “improve health every day.” She also holds system-wide leadership roles as Executive Sponsor for the Sentara Clinical Appropriateness Committee (quality performance) and the Sentara Administrative Fellowship Program.
With nearly 20 years in healthcare management, Mrs. Graves previously held President roles at Sentara Princess Anne Hospital and UNC Rockingham Health Care, and served in strategic planning and partnership development positions at Novant Health. Her career is marked by a strong commitment to operational excellence, clinical quality, and community engagement.
Mrs. Graves has received numerous professional accolades, including the 2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Award, 2024 Virginia Women in Business Award, Becker’s Healthcare “Women Hospital Presidents to Know” in 2023 and 2024, Emory University’s “40 Under Forty” award, the National Association for Health Services Executives Young Healthcare Executive of the Year Award, and the UNC Gillings School of Public Health Alumni Leadership Award.
Dedicated to community service, Mrs. Graves serves on the Board of the YMCA of South Hampton Roads as Secretary and Chair of the Financial Development Committee, is a member of United Way of South Hampton Roads Women’s United 10 for 10 Council, is a graduate of the CIVIC Leadership Class of 2022, and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Mrs. Graves contributes to healthcare advancement through roles on the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board 3 and as chair of the CEO committee for the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Mrs. Graves holds a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University. She is recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).
She resides in Hampton Roads with her husband, Cornelius, and their two sons
Steve Downey is a healthcare expert with a passion for helping the industry treat and serve patients better. His experience includes organizations across the healthcare spectrum, including medical device, services, GPOs and health systems. He is a recognized supply chain expert, an in-demand speaker and well published author on the subject.
At Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Downey serves as the VP, Chief Supply Chain & Support Services Officer, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team that spans sourcing, materials management, technology/P2P, analytics and support services, including food services, linen and laundry, patient transport, Cleveland Clinic’s Red Coat program and service express (call center). He also leads the Excelerate GPO, a Cleveland Clinic joint venture with Vizient and OhioHealth, as the CEO.
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Downey led the Supply Chain Operations business for Vizient, which included operating multiple health system supply chains, setting national best practices and leading supply chain technologies. Mr. Downey joined Vizient from GEODIS, an international supply chain transport and logistics firm, operating in 67 countries where he served as vice president of both the consumer electronics and healthcare verticals. Prior to this position, he led commercial and supply chain teams at Integra Life Sciences and Scott Medical Products.
Mr. Downey graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in management of technology. He serves on the boards of the Evergreen Cooperative, MedWish and Friends Health Connection. He, his wife and twin boys reside in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Sara Bonnes, Professor of Medicine, is the medical director of Food and Nutrition Services and the Healthy Longevity Clinic at Mayo Clinic Rochester. She is board certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. She is also certified as a Physician Nutrition Specialist. Before starting her medical training, she pursued undergraduate and graduate training in nutrition at Kansas State University in Human Nutrition. She completed her medical training at the University of Nebraska Medical Center before moving to Rochester, Minnesota for residency and chief residency. She has been on staff at Mayo since 2014 and continues to practice in general internal medicine, integrative medicine and nutrition clinics.
Throughout her medical career, she continues to incorporate her nutrition and lifestyle medicine expertise into care of patients with a wide variety of health concerns, and interest in preventing chronic diseases. Given increased patient interest in how to improve their health span, she is working with the multidisciplinary team- including dietitians, exercise specialists, pharmacists, resiliency experts, and researchers- to provide clinical care that utilizes an individualized, patient centered, evidence based approach to healthy longevity and unique patient needs. She is active in the Healthy Longevity Medical Society. She also practices in the Mayo Home Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Program providing care to patients with Intestinal failure needing long term advanced nutrition support. She has been involved with the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and completed the Nestle Nutrition Institute. She continues to be active in research and publishes work in both of these areas.
Agustina currently serves Providence as Group Vice President, Chief Source-to-Settle Officer, where she continues to drive value generation, efficiency, and excellence across the enterprise. With more than 20 years of experience, she leads three verticals across the entire Providence organization: Source-to-Settle (which includes Sourcing, Contracting, Procurement, AP, and Cash Disbursement), Food & Nutrition Services, and Ancillary Services.
Agustina is passionate about creating best-in-class service experience focusing on people, process, and technology. Prior to joining Providence, Agustina had several roles in Supply Chain, Finance, and Operations including working for ExxonMobil as a Controller, and leading international M&A projects for Thomson Reuters. Agustina received her Bachelor of Business Administration from a prestigious university in Argentina. She was the recipient of merit scholarship to conduct her undergraduate thesis at the Berlin School of Economics and Law in Berlin, Germany. Agustina later received her MBA from the University of Washington.
Esezele Payne is the Enterprise Senior Vice President of Hospitality & Operations for Advocate Health’s Support Services Division, where she leads the strategy, performance, and transformation of a complex, multi-disciplinary enterprise portfolio. Her scope includes Environmental Services, Food & Nutrition Services, Patient Transport, Linen, and Guest Services, with accountability for a $700M operating budget, 6,000 teammates, and 67 million square feet across acute, ambulatory, general office, and specialty care settings.
As a senior enterprise leader, Esezele sets the long-term vision and operating model for hospitality and support services, aligning service excellence with Advocate Health’s clinical, financial, and growth strategies. Her responsibilities span enterprise financial stewardship, service standardization, workforce strategy, vendor and contract governance, risk mitigation, and scalable operating excellence across a geographically diverse system.
Throughout her tenure, Esezele has been a driving force behind enterprise transformation—delivering more than $49M in sustainable cost savings, leading system-wide talent and engagement initiatives, modernizing governance and communication platforms, and embedding disciplined change management across matrixed organizations. She has also led and influenced large, multi-year service agreements, balancing value creation with clinical quality, regulatory compliance, and patient experience.
A trained attorney, Esezele brings a rigorous legal and risk-informed lens to executive leadership, strengthening complex negotiations, contract strategy, regulatory oversight, and enterprise risk management. Her leadership elevates hospitality and environmental safety as strategic drivers of patient experience, infection prevention, and clinical outcomes—reframing support services as mission-critical to safety, healing, and trust.
Esezele brings more than 20 years of executive experience across cost transformation, strategic sourcing, negotiations, program leadership, process optimization, and vendor governance. Prior to Advocate Health, she served on CBRE’s Global Corporate Services team, managing $50M in annual vendor spend, negotiating hundreds of complex contracts, and implementing national sourcing and performance frameworks for global clients.
She currently serves as an Inlivian Commissioner (formerly the Charlotte Housing Authority) and a Pomfret School Trustee. Outside of work, Esezele mentors young women and has a fierce love for travel, fashion, and sports.
Esezele is married to Richard Payne and they are proud parents of two children, Tripp and Sloan.
Mike Vivoda serves as Senior Vice President of Operations for the Northwestern Health Network as well as President of Palos Hospital. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Administration and oversaw the Human Resource division at Northwestern Medicine (NM). Vivoda has also held the position of President, West Region overseeing the operations of the five NM hospitals in the west and far west suburbs of Chicago. Prior to the merger of Cadence Health (Central DuPage and Delnor Hospitals) with Northwestern Medicine in September 2014, Mr. Vivoda served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cadence Health.
Prior to joining Cadence Health, Mr. Vivoda served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Loyola University Physician Foundation, the 400-plus member physician group at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. Mr. Vivoda has also held various senior management positions at provider and managed care companies, including President and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Health System, a joint-venture company with University of Chicago, Vanguard MacNeal Health Network, and St. Elizabeth Hospital. Mr. Vivoda started his healthcare management career as a 2nd Lieutenant, Medical Service Corps Officer in the United States Air Force.
Mr. Vivoda earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a holds a Master of Management degree through the Executive MBA Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Mr. Vivoda was married to his high school sweetheart for almost 40 years until her passing in 2022. He is recently remarried and enjoys time golfing and spending time with family and friends.
Susan Carroll, FACHE, MBA, MHA, serves as President of Inova Loudoun Hospital and Sr. Vice President of Inova Health System.
Additionally, Susan provides daily direction and operations for the system-wide functions of Security and Emergency Management and Patient Support Service. Susan is uniquely qualified for these key roles as a highly accomplished health system executive with more than 25 years of experience with Inova across many hospitals and care delivery sites.
She began her career at Inova Loudoun Hospital in 1996 as Director of Business Affairs eventually rising to the level of Chief Operating Officer in 2005. Since then, she has been Vice-President of the Inova Cancer Service Line, CEO at Inova Alexandria Hospital, Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern Region, Interim President of Inova Fairfax Hospital and President of Inova Fair Oaks Hospital.
Susan holds a Master of Health Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Ohio University and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science and Finance from Radford University. Susan is on the Board of Trustees at Shenandoah University and a member of the Radford University Health Science Board and is a member of the Loudoun CEO Cabinet. An advocate of initiatives aimed at cultivating the development of future healthcare workforce, she is a founding stakeholder of Loudoun County Public Schools’ The Health and Medical Sciences (HAMSci) Academy.
Susan has served on various community boards over the years including the Loudoun Free Clinic, Children’s Science Center and the Loudoun Credit Union.
In 2022, Susan received the prestigious honor of being named the Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellow in appreciation of her community service in the fight against COVID-19 and has been recognized by the National Cherry Blossom Foundation as a Breast Cancer Champion.
Mark is Ochsner Health’s Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO). Mark is responsible for the overall operations, strategy development, and performance associated with his organization’s Supply Chain Division, which includes the following disciplines: Sourcing, Procurement, Logistics, Value Analysis, Analytics and Transformation, and Support Services.
Upon completion of his BS in Exercise Physiology at UC Davis, Mark served as the Co-Administrator at an Alzheimer’s residential care facility for approximately one year and then went on to a Staff Supervisor role in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UC Davis Medical Center. Mark entered graduate school at Tulane University in 1996, and upon completion of his MHA in 1998 he proceeded on to an administrative fellowship at Henry Ford Health System.
Mark joined Ochsner in January of 2000 and initially held leadership responsibilities for the Department of Renal Services. In January of 2002 Mark accepted the role as Director of Cardiovascular Services and served for approximately four years. Mark went on to serve as the AVP position over Surgical and Perioperative Services, the VP of Operations (which included responsibility over Surgical and Perioperative Services, Women’s Services, Cardiovascular Services, Radiology Anesthesia, and Transplant Services), and Chief Operating Officer, OMC – Jefferson Highway.
Mark joined Ochsner’s Supply Chain Department in June of 2014, initially serving as the Vice President of Vendor Management & Contract Services, next transitioned to the Vice President of Supply Chain & Resource Management in November of 2019, transitioned to the Chief Operating Officer of Supply Chain & Support Services in January of 2023, and was promoted to the role of Chief Supply Chain Officer in March of 2026.