Center Staff
 Jennifer Ruzek Director Jennifer's bio |
 Christi Zuber Director, Innovation Consultancy Christi's bio |
 Sherry Fry Coordinator Sherry's bio |
 Sean Chai Senior IT Manager Sean's bio |
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Jennifer Ruzek
Jennifer has been involved with the Garfield Center since January, 2005 when several KP leaders asked the question, "How might we create a 'Unit of the Future' at Kaiser where we can test how new technologies impact our front line staff?" Jennifer led the cross functional team to develop, fund, and launch what is now the Garfield Center with a multidisciplinary focus that also includes testing KP's new facility designs.
Jennifer joined Patient Care Services at Kaiser Permanente in 2004 from AdvancePCS where she was the Product Launch Manager for the iScribe electronic handheld prescribing device. She has held a variety of positions in the health care industry, including Blue Shield of California, the UCSF Center for the Health Professions, Montgomery Securities, and a career rejuvenation stint as a children's ski instructor at Squaw Valley, USA in 2001. Teaching four year olds on skis gave her the ability to deal with trying moments during construction of the Garfield Center.
Jennifer was an Edgar Kaiser scholar at the University of California, Berkeley where she received an MBA and an MPH from the Haas School of Business and the School of Public Health. At home she enjoys making beaded jewelry, experimenting with different concentrations of Miracle Grow on her geraniums, and competing recreationally in master's swimming.
Christi Zuber
As Director of the Innovation Consultancy, Christi Zuber is very excited about the positive influences that KP's innovation efforts will have on the experiences & safety of our patients and our staff. For the past 3 years, she has worked collaboratively with the design firm "IDEO" to learn of their Innovation Methodology and internalize this into several KP projects. These projects include the Perinatal Experience, the Nurse Knowledge Exchange, Orchards MOB and TCare. Throughout these efforts, she has spent a significant amount of time with KP's stellar clinicians and staff in the medical offices and hospitals during all hours of the day and night. Christi continues learning from the physicians, staff and our KP members about how things "really" work in our facilities and is amazed by KP's drive for excellence.
Christi has worked in a number of diverse areas within KP, including Finance and Human Resources where she did benchmarking and operational improvement, and more recently, the IDEO Innovation initiatives. She has significant experience in diverse Labor Management Partnership initiatives and strongly believes in strengthening the voice and the vision of both the healthcare provider and the healthcare receiver. Her work over the past 3 years with IDEO has helped to provide her the tools to succeed in that effort.
Prior to joining KP, Christi was a healthcare business consultant at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, an administrator at a Children's Hospital and has her clinical roots in home health nursing. She has a strong appetite for innovation, chocolate and world travel with her husband, Brian. Christi has a dream that their baby son, Austin, will grow up to be an "international man of mystery." Yeah, baby!
Sherry Fry
Sherry has joined KP to support the scheduling and operational needs of the Garfield Center. She comes to the center with extensive experience in meeting operations management having owned her own conference planning company for many years. As a small business owner, the need to innovate occurred on a daily basis! Sherry is delighted to have this opportunity to support the forward thinking that will take place at the Garfield Center.
Behind the scenes Sherry is sustained by her husband Gordon, and their "yours, mine and ours" family consisting of three wonderful sons, two beautiful daughters and their families. In her spare time she takes great pleasure in volunteering for an east bay soccer club whose objective is to help our youth develop into strong individuals while enjoying pursuit of "the beautiful game" at the highest levels.
Sean Chai
As Senior IT Manger of the Sidney R.Garfield Health Innovation Center, Sean’s focus is to identify and assess emerging clinical IT innovation. Sean also provides leadership and site management support of research and proof of concept testing of emerging information technology products and services related to health care and the evolution of support infrastructures delivering health care.
Sean is a member of Kaiser Permanente Information Technology‘s (KP-IT) Innovation and Advanced Technology Team which is chartered to identify and assess new and emerging care delivery technology that may be adopted by Kaiser Permanente three to five years from today.
Sean has over ten years’ experience in the information technology industry. His prior experience includes various management and development positions for Telephia, NaviSite, Agilent Technologies, HP, and IBM.
Sean holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Master of Science in Engineering Management and Leadership from Santa Clara University. In his spare time, Sean and his wife Diana take great pleasure in reading and singing with their baby daughter Amanda and traveling.
Claudia Brenner
Claudia is working to set up the operations of the Garfield Center as the Implementation Manager.
Previously at KP, she helped make information easier to access through the internet working on projects such as the Community Provider Portal and Enterprise Portal (employee).
Prior to KP, Claudia worked to deliver personalized, relevant information through the internet at companies such as Applied Biosystems and Scient, managing e-business teams, delivering applications, and creating new organizations. In a previous life she did sales, consulting and product management at companies such as IBM, Oracle and AT&T.
Claudia is an international traveler, "foodie" (trying all sorts of recipes), and outdoor sports advocate. She can be spotted ascending mountains on a bike in Marin and attending local farmer's markets on the week-ends.
