Meet the Management Team
Affinity Health Services will help you achieve your goals
Denise McQuown-Hatter, NHA –President and CEO
Denise has more than 30 years of long-term care experience including financial consulting, nursing home administration, and corporate operations. She has worked at both the facility and corporate levels for large, publicly-held corporations as well as small, private companies.
In 1996, Denise was instrumental in forming Affinity Health Services, Inc. She currently serves as the President and CEO and is responsible for the operational, clinical, regulatory, financial, and marketing functions of both our managed and consulting clients. She has also acted as the labor relations’ manager for key union negotiations.
Denise is a co-founder of the Indiana County Career Consortium and a board member of the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board. She currently serves on the Healthcare Sector Ad Hoc Committee approved by the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board and is a board member for the AB Nursing Home Group.
Bryan Hagerich, NHA – Executive Vice President of Operations
Bryan provides day-to-day leadership and oversight of Affinity’s managed and consulting clients. Prior to joining Affinity Health Services, Bryan served as the Executive Director for multiple senior living communities in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors of post-acute care. His responsibilities encompass all areas of business operations including strategic planning, business development and fiscal performance.
In a previous role, he successfully led his community through the initial accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities – Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CARF-CCAC). Bryan is a graduate of the Leading Age Pennsylvania Fellows in Leadership Program, a distinguished honor within the not-for-profit senior living industry. He has been licensed as a Nursing Home Administrator in the state of Pennsylvania since 2011.
Bryan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware, where he was a four-year scholar athlete and a member of the Athletics Governing Board.
Candace McMullen – Executive Vice President of Consulting and Business Development
Candace oversees sales and marketing for Affinity Health Services as well as expansion of the consulting services line of business. She has experience in operations, consulting, clinical and regulatory management of continuing care retirement communities (CCRC), skilled nursing facilities, personal care homes, assisted living, independent living and home health.
She most recently served as VP of Operations for a non-profit organization and oversaw five CCRCs located in Pennsylvania and Maryland, caring for more than 2,000 residents with an annual operating budget in excess of $130M.
Candace’s degrees from Pennsylvania State University include a BS in Nursing and a Master of Health Administration. She holds certifications as a Registered Nurse, Nursing Home Administrator, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and Certified Nursing Director Long Term Care.
She currently serves as Executive Director/Board Chair of the Pennsylvania Directors of Nursing Association and recently finished tenure as Secretary of the LeadingAge MD board. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, American Nurses Association and National Association of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. Candace had served as Affinity’s VP of Operations from 2008-2014 and was a Nursing Consultant from 2004-2007.
Tammy Leister — Director of Operations
Tammy has built a career on a varied nursing background. She has 34 years as a registered nurse, 30 years of experience in long-term care, 11 years as a licensed nursing home administrator, and five years as the Regional Vice President of Operations for a long-term care management company.
Tammy began her career as a nursing assistant at the former Somerset County Nursing Home and worked there as an RN supervisor, nurse aide trainer, ADON, Director of Nursing, and Nursing Home Administrator. She advanced within the company and became Regional Vice President of Operations, where she was responsible for the oversight of clinical operations, regulatory compliance, and financial functions of skilled nursing, personal care, and independent living facilities. She is well-versed in Continuing Care Retirement Communities and was instrumental in obtaining that status for facilities.
Sheryl Byerly – Regional Operational Manager
Sheryl Byerly has 17 years of care facility experience and a wide range of responsibilities, such as Campus Director, Executive Director, Nursing Home Administrator, Personal Care Manager and Food Services Manager.
Sheryl works closely with the Affinity facility and corporate leadership to plan, direct, coordinate and evaluate the operations of the managed facilities. She will support the managed facility leadership through developing and implementing operational policies, procedures, and best practices.
She was previously the Corporate Director of Operations / Assistant Vice President of Operations at Redstone Highlands Senior Living Communities in Western PA, where she was responsible for overseeing the operations of three communities. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Greensburg, PA facility.
The Greensburg resident has a BS degree in Dietetics from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and is licensed as a Personal Care Administrator through Penn State University and as a Nursing Home Administrator through the Commonwealth of PA.
Garet Weston – Vice President of Operational Finance
Garet began his career in long-term care in 2013. Prior to starting in the healthcare industry, Garet worked in public accounting with both corporate financial statement preparation and tax accounting. After his public accounting experience, he successfully served as the finance director at a skilled nursing facility becoming experienced in all aspects of the business and finance office including billing, financial statement preparation and analysis, resident trust, payroll, budgeting and variance reporting. Garet also became proficient in PointClickCare.
Garet was promoted to a financial consultant position with Affinity Health Services in 2016. Garet provided client services in standalone personal care homes, skilled nursing facilities and continuing care retirement communities. Garet gained experience with all ownership types including non-profit, for-profit, hospital-based and government-owned facilities. Garet’s expertise includes knowledge and hands-on experience in multiple customized accounting and healthcare software packages, financial statement oversight and review, audit management, third-party billing and collections, reimbursement, internal auditing, and heading up Affinity’s training services for both managed and consulting clients.
Garet has a master’s in business workforce and development from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Garet is a certified swim coach and currently serves as a local high school head swim coach. Additionally, Garet is very active in Relay for Life, Make-A-Wish Foundation and is a volunteer football coach.
Jack Nelson — Director of Financial Planning and Project Management
With more than 30 years of experience as a finance professional in healthcare, Jack brings valuable knowledge regarding budgeting, financial planning, and reimbursement to the Affinity team. In his previous roles, he has served as the Vice President of Finance and Director of Financial Planning and Analysis in a community hospital setting, among other critical roles in healthcare finance.
As the Director of Financial Planning, he plays an important role in the overall financial management of Affinity, including budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning tasks. Jack holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Waynesburg University.
Daniel McCullough — Financial Consultant
Dan has nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare, more than half in long-term care. He began working as a residential program supervisor, where he held a Personal Care Home Administrator Certification. Additionally, he has served as a social services director and business office manager in long-term care facilities. Dan utilizes his diverse skills set to support the Affinity finance team by performing bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, and benchmarking compilation tasks.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and he is currently pursuing an MBA from his alma mater.
Julia Quashnock, NHA – Accounts Receivable Manager
Julia has more than 40 years of experience across the combined spectrum of business management and nursing home administration.
She began her career as a business office manager and moved up to senior management positions, ranging from reimbursement specialist to regional business manager to senior director of financial consulting.
Along the way, Julia became a licensed Nursing Home Administrator in Pennsylvania and has served in that capacity at five different facilities, including The Patriot, a Choice Community, in Somerset, PA.
She is a DuBois resident and a Pennsylvania State University graduate with a degree in Business Administration with emphasis in Financial Services.
Denise Gooden — Billing Specialist
Denise has more than 20 years of long-term care experience as a billing specialist. Prior to her tenure in long-term care, Denise worked in a contracted billing environment, primarily with physician services. She is responsible for aging reviews, credit and collection processes, and training and maintaining statistical data for various reports, including cost reporting. She has also served as both a HIPAA Compliance Officer and Corporate Compliance Officer.
Denise consults in regulatory compliance and trains new billing personnel in Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs, and other third-party billing.
Jean Fuehrer – Accounts Receivable Specialist
Jean has more than 35 years of business office management experience. She served as Business Manager at Beacon Ridge in Indiana, PA, for the past five years. She worked for Golden Living in Pittsburgh for 16 years, including 14 years as Senior Business Office Consultant in which she oversaw functions of 20 regional living centers.
She is well-versed in accounts payable, payroll and internal controls, among numerous business functions, and will provide leadership in training and orientation of new business office hires.
Karen Hartung — Accounts Receivable Specialist
Karen began her career in healthcare more than 20 years ago by serving as a practice administrator for a network of healthcare facilities in Pittsburgh. She has held both managerial and financial roles with several organizations, previously serving as Area Financial Analyst, Director of Business Office Services, and Office Manager.
She brings her diverse background in office management and financial support to the Affinity Health Services, Inc. team as our Accounts Receivable Specialist. In this role, Karen supervises billing staff and supports the development and maintenance of billing systems.
Karen earned her degree in Business Finance and Accounting from Westmoreland College.
Tammy Coleman, RN, CNDLTC, RAC-CT – Vice President of Clinical Reimbursement
Tammy began her healthcare career in long-term care in 2004 as an RN, a Nursing Supervisor, Assistant Director of Nursing and in 2009 evolved as a Director of Nursing for a skilled nursing facility. By blending her clinical experience and managerial roles, she has achieved expertise in nursing department operations such as budgets, staffing and human resources. In addition, Tammy has experience with development and implementation of quality assurance initiatives focused on improving residents’ quality of care and life in a long term care environment and has achieved a Certificate of Training in Infection Prevention in the Long-Term Care Setting. Tammy is a member of PADONA and a member of the Lycoming County Elder Abuse Task Force. She is also on the advisory committee for the Pennsylvania College of Technology nursing department.
In addition, Tammy is a member of the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination (AANAC) Tammy has been with Affinity Health Services, Inc. for 9 years.
Deborah C. Alabran-Blair, RN, WCC, RAC-CT, CDP, PCHA— Clinical Consultant
Deb began her career in long-term care in 1994. She has successfully served as a Clinical Consultant, Director of Nursing, Quality Assurance Director, Admissions and Marketing Director, Assistant Director of Nursing and Infection Control/Staff Development Coordinator, RNAC and Wound Care Nurse. Deb has worked for several major nursing home corporations and has working knowledge and proven ability in developing, teaching, and implementing strategies to promote positive outcomes. As a clinical liaison, she developed a clinical assessment/admission screening tool that was effective in her combined role in marketing and referral development, having a positive impact on staff, resident and family satisfaction.
Her areas of expertise include nursing department operations such as budgets, staffing and human resources. Regulatory expertise includes providing regulatory compliance services to Personal Care Homes and Skilled Nursing Facilities as well as providing Directed Inservice educator as approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Deb is an on-site trainer for the Department of Human Services Medication Administration course. She is a member of the Association of Infection Control Practitioners (APIC) and is a Certified Wound Care Nurse (WCC).
Michele Conner, RN, BSN, RAC-CT – Clinical Consultant
Michele brings more than 20 years of experience across the spectrum in long-term care, home care and post-acute care. In 1998, she began serving as an Assistant Director of Nursing, then as a Director of Nursing. Over the course of her skilled nursing positions, she also served as a Lead Registered Nurse Assessment Coordinator (RNAC). With her vast experience with facility based management, Michele assumed the position for a for-profit provider as a Clinical Reimbursement Specialist/Clinical Service Specialist with oversight of multiple skilled nursing facilities and personal care homes in western Pennsylvania.
She has extensive hands-on experience in regulatory compliance and survey management, clinical programming, comprehensions, and analysis to develop interventions to reduce high risk areas to enhance quality outcomes, Minimum Data Set (MDS) and Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) processes with completion of assessments and reimbursement factors.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and is a certified Dementia Practitioner and Infection Preventionist.
Denise Stayer, RN-BC, CCM, NHA, PCHA— Clinical and Operations Consultant
Denise brings over 30 years’ experience to her clinical and operations consultant role. She has extensive experience in nurse leadership and nursing home administration. Prior to joining Affinity, Denise worked as a corporate Director of Quality Assurance, providing oversight and assistance to the clinical and operations teams across four campuses. She also served as a consultant providing support with clinical and operations turnarounds. Additionally, she has assisted a number of nursing home and personal care home providers in interim leadership roles.
Denise is certified in Case Management and previously worked as an Intensive Case Manager in the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Bureau. She is also board certified in Mental Health/Psychiatric Nursing and holds additional certifications as an Infection Preventionist, Legal Nurse Consulting, and QAPI. She began her nursing career as a Licensed Practical Nurse before earning her Registered Nurse diploma from Altoona School of Nursing.
Kay Klotz, RN, BSN— Clinical Reimbursement
Kay joins Affinity bringing with her over 20 years of experience in the nursing field. Her nursing and supervisory experience extends within the long-term care industry, acute rehab, home health and hospice settings. Since 2007, Kay served in both RNAC/Lead RNAC roles. She has also provided interim RNAC support for nursing facilities in transition. She has extensive experience with the RAI process, MDS completion, admission screening, discharge planning, ADR Audits, UMR audits, insurance certifications/recertifications, and triple check and other compliance audits. Kay has working knowledge and vast experience of Medicare, Managed Care, Medicaid and third-party insurance payment systems.
Prior to her foray into the RNAC role, Kay served as a Clinical Liaison and Admissions Coordinator with HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Penn State University.
Cynthia (Cindy) Robinson— Director of Human Resources
Cynthia (Cindy) Robinson, Director of Human Resources, is a human resources professional with approximately 20 years of experience.
She most recently served as Director of Human Resources with Heritage Hospice in New Kensington, PA, for the past seven years. Her varied skill set includes recruiting, employee relations and both designing and facilitating strategic projects. Cindy is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-SCP).
She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Derry High School. She currently resides in Bradenville, Westmoreland County, PA.
Mary Colledge— Director of Marketing and Business Development
Mary Colledge is a licensed LPN and PCHA. During her 30-year health care career, she has served in various care home roles, including administrator, executive director, admissions coordinator, floor nurse, and regional coordinator. She previously served as Affinity’s Marketing Director from 2013 – 2014.
Ms. Colledge’s education ranges from studying health related services at the university level to personal care home administrator training and LPN licensure. She is also a 2018 graduate of Leadership Bedford County.
The Sidman native currently resides in Wells Tannery, PA. Ms. Colledge’s volunteer and community service includes her current status as board co-chair of the Bedford Chamber of Commerce. She is a past recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Women Non-Profit Award and a board member of the Greater Johnstown YWCA, and president of the Rotary Club of Johnstown
Joseph Hopkins— Communications & Marketing Specialist
Joseph specializes in graphic design, website development, and social media. Starting in the marketing industry in 2016, he has worked with numerous companies and non-profits in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as insurance agents throughout the country.
Some of his specific skillsets includes advertisement campaign management, establishing branding guidelines, authoring press releases, producing videos, and designing printable and digital designs that increase the success of companies.
Joseph resides in Pittsburgh, PA, and attended Kent State University. Working with numerous brands has helped prepare Joseph for his role at Affinity Health Services. His favorite part of his role is working with senior living leadership, and helping them succeed in their marketing goals.