Our Dream Team

When we started this blog 10 years ago, one of the goals besides sharing knowledge, stories, and ideas was for the contributors to share something about themselves so that readers would get to know our team and its individual members. Usually something subtle, like “when on a hike” or “in my book club” or “during my recent kitchen rehab” set the stage for their blog post and gave a little nugget of information on the author.

Our team has grown quite a bit since those early blogging days. We have different personalities, roles, skill sets, work styles, experiences, and more. But no matter the differences, we are truly lucky to have a team that gets along and cares about each other, which in turn makes us more collaborative, innovative, and productive.

Working on performance reviews has me thinking about each team member. Instead of sharing something about myself, I’d like to share something about each of them in my post. In alphabetical order by *first* name so Izzy “Z” doesn’t always have to be last!

Agnes Chojnowska – Agnes is constantly looking back and forward for Epic training to keep things going now. She is a bridge between DFCI And MGB resources, taking best practices to give Epic trainees the best experience we can. She recently shared Polish holiday traditions with us and we all want to have dinner at her place.

Bridget McLaughlin – Bridget makes sure The AdvISor reaches our mailboxes and SharePoint site each quarter as a nicely formatted publication. She’s become adept at SharePoint Communications sites, and has expanded her role for Epic upgrades thanks to her organizational and communication focus. She is very family oriented and whenever I see her add vacation time to our calendar to go visit them, it makes me smile.

David Pesta – David cares immensely about providing professional development to everyone at DFCI and he researches opportunities endlessly, drawing on industry trends and his own insight. He takes his work seriously, but not himself. David’s sense of humor is both verbal and in his writing. I’m laughing just thinking about it now.

Dimitri Makrigiorgos – A colleague asked if I would consider Dimitri as a college intern, because even though he was a computer science major, he was more interested in project management. What a lucky stroke of fate. An incredible contributor since his first day, we hired him full time post internship. One year I jokingly “assigned BFFs” to pair our team up for internal projects. I assigned him to me so I could keep up with his generation. I learn as much from him as he does from me.

Doug Miller – One of the reasons Doug joined our team was his experience in numerous disciplines, skills we never thought we’d find in the same person. No surprise that he brings so much more than we realized, and he has quickly become a trusted advisor. Even though he doesn’t understand my use of postage stamps.

Islam Zinxhirija – Hundreds of people know Izzy for his incredible technical support skills, which are second only to his technical support “bedside manner”. He has a voracious appetite for learning and now also creates solutions for colleagues in addition to helping with fixes or training needs. Izzy lives in a multigenerational home that when I retire, that’s where I’m moving.

Janet Dougherty – After years as a teacher, Janet shifted to corporate training and even has her PMP. I haven’t found anything she can’t learn and create an educational resource for others. She is always happy and it’s infectious. I love meetings with Janet. And if she’s not in the office, she’s walking. She walks everywhere.

Jennifer Robinson – After working for several years at MGB, Jennifer was ready for a change. She reached out to me, knowing each other from MGB and the PMI Mass Bay Chapter. Soon after we had an opening that I thought she might be interested in. Onboarded 100% remotely, she hasn’t missed a beat in integrating with the team and I’m so appreciative of her project management skills and her knowledge of Office collaboration tools. Can’t wait to spend more time in person when we can.

Jess Cheng Schrepel – Also onboarded remotely, Jess didn’t have the luxury of already knowing some team members, but her personality quickly proved that to be a non-issue. She’s a mighty force in getting digital health projects off the idea board and onto the project dashboard. You may see her biking all over town. Although we’ve only met in person a couple times, her fun meter is conspicuously high.

Meagan Turner – Meagan has the longest DFCI tenure on our team, yet she is one of the most innovative. She’s always looking for new and better ways to manage projects, solve problems, and embrace opportunities. Meagan is outdoorsy. I texted her recently when I saw a sweatshirt that was perfect for me, because across the chest it read: Indoorsy. Despite that opposite aspect of our personalities, I adore spending time with her.

Ron Munroe – Ron was the first person I hired at DFCI and we’re so fortunate that he’s still putting up with us after more than a dozen years. He’s a gem – smart, thoughtful, and open. Ron is not only someone you want as your PM, manager, or colleague, he’s someone you want as your friend. Your brother. They just don’t make them any better.

Sandie Kimball – Hired only weeks after Ron, Sandie is another keeper. Over the years, she has managed projects for us in so many different areas; her experience is as wide as it is deep. We have a team of talented writers on our team, but Sandie is my grammar partner. We care about it way too much. And her sense of humor is heightened because of its unexpectedness, often having us in stitches.

Sandra Cadogan-Beebe – One of Sandra’s first projects when she joined us was the Technical Dress Rehearsal PM for DFCI Epic. Weird name, but at the time Partners and Epic emphasized the role’s importance. When I saw Sandra’s dedication to the project and role, I knew we hired the right person. Outside of work, she’s got so many interests and talents – loves dogs, has her motorcycle license, bakes delicious chocolate chip cookies, makes the smoothest gin & tonic…

Spyros Potiris – Spyros has packed more learning from work and school in his young life than most people I know, resulting in an amazing colleague to partner with. His process improvement background gives him an invaluable lens to look through tactically and strategically. Spyros got married during the pandemic, a happy event during a difficult period. And hopefully when traveling is safe, I will have a travel guide for Greece.

Tate Forgey – Another role that was proving difficult to fill due to its unique nature, Tate has been an amazing addition to our team. His technical aptitude is bottomless, but with that is an uncommon patience to explain anything to anyone. Even when something seems impossible or frustratingly difficult, he helps me look at it another way, or at a minimum helps me see the humor in the impossibility. As a fellow traveler, I call Greece first.

Theresa Falzarano – I met Theresa as a graduate student when I taught at Simmons, and she stayed in touch over the years. When she told me I influenced her career decision, she echoed why faculty teach. Those key students you make an impression on make it worth it. However, you normally impact them for other employers. I was thrilled when she applied for a PM position on our team and her peers selected her without reservation. She has helped implement project management improvements since joining, which will have a ripple effect throughout DFCI. Theresa has two adorable children whom we wouldn’t have gotten to know if it wasn’t for Zoom during COVID. Gotta look at the positives.

How did we manage to be on such a wonderful team with a mix of similarities and differences? Partly luck. And partly seeing wonderful qualities when interviewing. The one common characteristic that strikes me when I think about our team is kindness. You won’t see that under the list of job requirements on a job description. But if you consider it as non-negotiable when hiring, you won’t regret it.