Mammography Speakers

George Allen began his involvement with MQSA in October 1994. Since that time he has become a MQSA auditor and Radiological Health Representative. George has serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for MQSA and has provided training for the MQSA Course III for 15 years.

Dr. Berns is a Medical Physicist in private practice in Lone Tree, Colorado. Previous to this he was an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Hospital and Denver Health Medical Center and Director of Diagnostic Medical Physics at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Dr. Berns began his research career studying screen-film mammography in the mid 90’s publishing several papers on image quality, radiation dose, and optimization. He was then part of the study at the University of Colorado that helped the first full-field digital mammography unit get FDA approval. Since then he has continued to work in the field of digital mammography physics with numerous publications, abstracts, and invited lectures. He was also one of the physicists for the first clinically approved FFDM unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2000.

Dr. Berns previously served as the Chair of the ACR Subcommittee on Breast X-ray Imaging Physics under the ACR Committee on Mammography Accreditation of the Commission on Quality and Safety.

Laura P. Coombs, PhD, is the Vice President of Data Science and Informatics at the ACR. She is responsible for the informatics portfolio of the ACR including the Data Science Institute. She provides product oversight of the development of the AI-LAB and the Data Archive and Research Toolkit (DART), and other informatics products including ACR Assist and ACR Common. Laura started at the ACR as Director of Data Registries and was an Assistant Research Professor at Duke Clinical Research Institute and George Washington University Biostatistics Center prior to joining the ACR. She received her PhD in Statistics from Oklahoma State University.

Rachel Evans is a graduate of Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received a Bachelors Degree in Biomedical Engineering in 1985. She joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January 1989 as a Consumer Safety Officer in the Chicago District Office. She has held positions at the district, regional, and headquarters organizational levels of the FDA, with responsibilities in medical device, mammography, radiological and emergency response program areas. She currently holds the position of Compliance Team Lead at the FDA’s Division of Mammography Quality Standards.

Normica Facey began her career with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002 as a Consumer Safety Officer in the Baltimore District Import Operations Group. In 2005, she became a certified MQSA inspector and Compliance Officer for the Baltimore District. In 2007, she joined the Division of Mammography Quality Standards (DMQS) where she has held various positions within the division such as an Accreditation Body (AB) and Certification Agency (CA) Liaison and Compliance Officer. Currently, Normica is Branch Chief of the Program Management Branch (PMB) in DMQS. PMB is responsible for: inspector training, compliance enforcement, facility certification, the MQSA Facility Hotline, AB and CA oversight, and inspection-related procedural documents and guidance.

Allen Goode is the Chief Diagnostic Medical Physicist at UVA Health and joined the department in 2003. Allen received his Master’s Degree from the University of Virginia in Biomedical Engineering where his research efforts were focused on dedicated gamma camera imaging of the Breast. His research interests include operator and patient dosimetry during fluoroscopically guided interventions, image analysis, and breast imaging. Allen is active in both the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the American College of Radiology (ACR). Allen also provides the physics curriculum for Radiology Residents for board preparation and education. Lastly, Allen is also one of three qualified mammography inspectors for UVA Health System and is Board Certified in Diagnostic Medical Physics.

Dustin Gress earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. Gress then worked as a diagnostic medical physicist for over seven years at Upstate Medical Physics, where he also served as Associate Director of the first CAMPEP-accredited private practice residency program in imaging physics. Gress then spent six-and-a-half years in the Department of Imaging Physics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, supporting clinics providing patient services in nuclear medicine, PET, interventional radiology, mammography, and CT. Gress also served as a Clinical Coordinator in MD Anderson’s Residency Program in Imaging Physics, and as an Instructor in its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences’ Medical Physics Program. Since May of 2018 he has been Senior Advisor for Medical Physics at the American College of Radiology, providing internal medical physics expertise across ACR departments and projects, including government relations, public relations, registries, accreditation, guidance, among others. Gress is board certified in Diagnostic Radiologic Physics by the American Board of Radiology, and in Nuclear Medicine Physics and Instrumentation by the American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine.

Katie is a board-certified Diagnostic Medical Physicist at the Cleveland Clinic. She received her undergraduate degree in Physics from Duke University in 2007, and completed her graduate training in Medical Physics at MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2010. She joined the Cleveland Clinic as Associate Staff in 2010, and was appointed as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology with the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2016.

Katie currently serves as the primary physicist for mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis at the Clinic. Her responsibilities include, but are not limited to, acceptance testing, annual testing, post-repair testing, oversight of quality control, and support for MQSA inspections for the enterprise.

Katie is actively involved in the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) where she is a member of two task groups (TG) dedicated to the development of a new universal breast dosimetry method (TG 282) and breast dosimetry phantom (TG 323).

Daniel B. Kopans, MD, FACR is a radiologist specializing in mammography and other forms of breast imaging. Dr. Daniel Kopans is a leading expert in breast cancer detection and diagnosis. He is the founder of the Breast Imaging Division in the Department of Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Jaclyn Munsch joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January of 2009 and began her career as a Consumer Safety Officer in Minneapolis District, where she performed medical device and MQSA inspections. Beginning in 2011, Jackie transferred to FDA’s Central Region where she worked exclusively with the MQSA program as an Inspector, Compliance Officer, and Auditor; since beginning her career Jackie has performed over 500 MQSA Inspections worldwide. In 2016, Jackie joined the Division of Mammography Quality Standards as a Compliance Officer and a member of the MQSA training cadre. Jackie lives in Hawaii with her two children. Send help.

Dr. Brett Parkinson, Imaging Director for Breast Care Services at Intermountain Healthcare, has been in private practice since completing his fellowship in Breast Imaging at UCLA in 1991. In addition to serving on numerous ACR committees, he was the Chair of the Mammography Accreditation Committee, 2011-2016. He was also a member of the ABR Breast Certifying Exam Committee, 2010-2014. Active in outcomes research and quality improvement projects, he partners with administrators and physician colleagues at Intermountain Healthcare to standardize care across the system. He was recently appointed Medical Director for Intermountain Imaging Safety.

Pam Platt earned her bachelor’s degree at in Radiology Technology from Hood College and has been a radiologic technologist since 1984. Pam worked at a Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD, for 13 years; with most of her time as the lead technologist for Interventional Radiology. After leaving clinical practice Pam was a contracted employee with the MQSA Program prior to moving to the ACR in 2001. In her current role with the ACR, Pam is the FDA Liaison and a manager in the mammography accreditation program. She serves as ACR staff for several ACR committees as well as a liaison to the CRCPD’s H-11 Mammography Committee.

John Quan is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park Maryland. He received a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science in 1998. He began his work at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001 as a contractor in a software engineer capacity supporting various technical projects throughout the FDA. In 2004, as a contractor, he transitioned onto the Mammography Program Reporting Information System where he provided guidance and lead system and application enhancements. In 2008, continuing as a contractor, he shifted his expertise to Project Management where he assisted the mammography program with planning and forecasting system wide changes. In the summer of 2010, he became a federal employee of the FDA continuing to support the MQSA MPRIS program.

Tom is President of the Alliance team. He holds a Masters in Health Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He is licensed by the State of Florida as a Diagnostic Radiological Physicist and a Medical Health Physicist. Tom is currently certified by the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Radiological Physics (1993) and Nuclear Medicine (2005), the NMTCB (1985), and the AART (1985). He is also a member of the AAPM, the Society of Nuclear Medicine, the American College of Radiology, ACR Standards & Accreditation Physics Subcommittee, and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. Tom is the current chair of the ACR’s Breast Imaging X-Ray Physics Subcommittee with the ACR. Tom will be made a Fellow of the ACR at the May Annual Meeting.

Christine Waldrip is the Director of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria program. She is a registered nurse with a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration. She has worked in the Quality and Safety Department at the American College of Radiology for over 20 years and has expertise in clinical practice guidelines development, evidence-based medicine, and clinical decision support.

Lora Wang is a California native who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 with a degree in bioengineering. After undergrad, she continued her education in the northeast with a medical degree from Albany Medical College in upstate New York followed by residency training in radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Miami, Sylvester Cancer Center with a focus on treatment of breast cancer. Her primary research interests are in breast cancer, specifically how to individualize cancer care for patients as well as health disparities research.

Carly Williams is a licensed Diagnostic Medical Physicist with over 12 years of experience working as a consultant with Radiation Services, Inc. in Florida. She holds a MS in Nuclear Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida and is dual boarded by the ABR in Diagnostic Medical Physics and Nuclear Medical Physics. As a consultant physicist, Carly works with hospitals, imaging centers, VA facilities and military medical centers providing physics support for regulatory and accreditation programs in mammography, CT, US, nuclear medicine, x-ray and fluoroscopy. Carly also reviews phantom images for the ACR Mammography and CT Accreditation Programs.

Michael Yester, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is certified in Radiological Physics by the ABR and is a Fellow of AAPM and ACR. He obtained a PhD in Physics from Iowa State University in 1972. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University in Nuclear Chemistry, Dr. Yester went to West Virginia University and received training in Medical Physics. Dr. Yester joined the Physics Division of the Radiology Department at UAB in 1976 and became Head of the Division in 2002.

Dr. Yester has been involved in the AAPM Summer School Committee, Nuclear Medicine Committee as a member and as chair of the committee, chair of the Continuing Professional Development Committee, chair of the Maintenance of Certification Subcommittee, and the SAMs coordinator. Dr. Yester was Local Arrangements chair and Co-Director of the 1983 AAPM Summer School in Birmingham and Co-Director of the 1998 and 2004 Summer Schools. He has served as President and AAPM Board Representative of the Southeastern Chapter of AAPM and is a recipient of the SEAAPM Jimmy Fenn Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Yester presently serves as chair of the ABR Nuclear Medicine Physics Exam Committee. He is also a member of the ACR and currently serves on the Nuclear Medicine Physics Accreditation Committee. Dr. Yester is a past chair of the ACR Mammography Accreditation Physics Subcommittee. Dr. Yester has participated in the training of 25 medical physicists and has authored or coauthored 11 book chapters and 73 publications.

Warren Freier was a born and raised product of North Dakota. He has spent 44 years as a Registered Radiologic Technologist (RT). He is certified in Radiography, Radiation Therapy and Quality Management.

He also has 27+ years regulatory experience with North Dakota Radiation Control Program – Machines, and is an FDA certified Mammography Inspector.

Ashley Menard is from Lafayette, LA and a member of the CRCPD H-11 Mammography Committee. Ashley has been a Health Physicist with the State of Louisiana for the past 13 years conducting Mammography, X-ray, and Radioactive Material inspections. Ashley graduated from Oregon State University with a Masters in Health Physics in 2015. She is married and has two boys, ages 2 and 14.

Regina has been in the Radiology profession since 1991 starting out as a volunteer in Nuclear Medicine (that would never happen now), became a registered Radiologic Technologist in 1995 and a registered Mammographer in 2000. While working at various facilities throughout Western North Carolina, she was a Lead Technologist at several different types of facilities to include a hospital, doctor’s office, sports medicine clinic, orthopedic office, urgent care center and Lead Mammographer for a mobile mammography program. Regina has been an inspector with NC Radiation Protection since 2004. She was the state X-Ray inspector for the Western Carolina region of the state for 11 years along with performing MQSA inspections for the FDA. She has recently transitioned into the statewide technical consultant, along with performing FDA mammography inspections, and is the Healing Arts Health Physicist Supervisor For the Radiology Compliance Branch. In her current position with the North Carolina Radiology Compliance Branch, she brings knowledge from both sides of the “x-ray community”.

Mary Ann is a member or serves as chairperson for several healing arts related committees of CRCPD and is currently serving as the Treasurer and Council Chair for the Healing Arts.

Mary Ann works for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency where she is the program manager for the Electronic Products Section. In that capacity she oversees the x-ray and laser registration and inspection programs. Illinois is a certifying state for the MQSA program and falls under the Electronic Products Section. Other program areas include the technologist accreditation, industrial radiographer certification, registration of Radiation Machine Service Providers and approval of medical physicists within the state.

Mary Ann holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Gannon University Erie, Pennsylvania. She has also earned a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Illinois at Springfield.