CHAP is led by an accomplished Senior Leadership Team and governed by an expert member Board of Directors, both of which comprise thought leaders and professionals representing many aspects of the health care industry.
Many of our leaders have been where our customers are — working on the front lines of home and community-based health care.
This gives our leadership a unique perspective when designing programs and developing policies and procedures that help shape the home and community-based health care landscape.
Get to know us.
Senior Leadership Team
Our senior leaders are passionate about people and performance.
Each are creating and directing improvements in CHAP as an organization so that we continue providing the best accreditation service for our customers.
Nathan DeGodt is the President and CEO at CHAP. DeGodt is passionate about enhancing CHAP’s value to the entire healthcare ecosystem through groundbreaking educational offerings, best-in-class provider experience, and more substantial ROI for providers with a CHAP Accreditation. Under his leadership, the organization has seen some of its best years regarding revenue and growth.
DeGodt joined CHAP in 2019 and immediately implemented a training sector to inform and educate partners working towards positive accreditation experiences. DeGodt earned his MHA degree from The University of Southern California and is affiliated with The University of Southern California-Sol Price School of Public Policy as an adjunct professor, teaching advanced degree courses.
As Chief Financial Officer, Todd Rankin is responsible for protecting the financial solvency of the organization while strategically exploring service diversification, expansion, and leading new initiatives in the ever-changing healthcare payor landscape.
Prior to serving as CFO, he served in key roles on international expansion initiatives and system implementations. Rankin and his team are committed to streamlining processes and enhancing systems to ensure each partner’s experience with all financial matters is top notch.
Rankin feels the “Partner” in the name Community Health Accreditation Partner speaks to how we view our agencies. Not only does CHAP provide “best in class” accreditation services, but we also truly partner with each of our agencies, providing access to subject matter experts and other resources, helping each unique agency to provide exceptional quality care.
Rankin is a North Carolina State University graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.
Teresa Harbour is the Chief Operating Officer and brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience in the hospice and home health industries.
As a Registered Nurse with experience as a site visitor and hospice/home health director, she understands the complexities of home health businesses and her goal is to ensure they utilize CHAP resources to warrant ongoing quality and compliance.
Harbour serves on the American College of Education Healthcare Department Advisory Board, is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, serves as a Board Member and Treasurer of IDEAL and previously served on the Association of Home and Hospice Care of North Carolina’s Board of Directors.
Harbour has an associate degree in nursing from Wytheville Community College, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Winston-Salem State University, and a master of business administration/master of health administration from Pfeiffer University.
As the Senior Vice President of Corporate Accounts and Governmental Affairs, Fran Petrella provides primarily clinical and regulatory support to our largest accounts, as well as many of our moderately-sized accounts.
In her role as a primary CHAP liaison with CMS, she is in a position to send inquiries on interpretation of regulations, as well as general “process” questions to CMS in Baltimore and the CMS locations to help our customers and internal staff better understand the regulations in order to facilitate the delivery of safe, quality care.
Petrella believes that quality community-based care should be at the core of health care and that the increased focus towards “connecting the dots” through the continuum of care is helping us along the path to that change. Her goal has been to be involved in the path in whatever way she can; to facilitate bringing quality home care closer to becoming the center of the path along the continuum.
Petrella joined CHAP in 2012 after extensive work in the healthcare industry spanning from nurse’s aide to oversight and consulting roles in home health, hospice and home care for the VNA. In working at CHAP, she utilizes her past experiences to bring a different perspective to the table in facilitating the provision of quality care.
Petrella graduated Cum Laude from Washington State University with a bachelor of science in nursing.
Dr. Jennifer Kennedy is the Vice President of Quality and Standards. She spent many years as a leader and nurse in diverse healthcare settings with the past 20 years in hospice and palliative care.
Dr. Kennedy came to CHAP in 2021 with a vision of moving the organization’s quality forward as “the” accreditation partner of choice for the majority of community-based providers. She believes no matter what type of care a patient receives or how many times they receive care, every experience should be of the highest quality.
Kennedy leads the CHAP quality team and interacts with CMS related to regulatory and quality issues. Kennedy serves as faculty at national and state conferences, is widely published in medical trade journals, contributes to and reviews health care published materials, and teaches graduate healthcare administration courses at the university level.
She is also a member of the ANA’s national palliative nursing task group and has been honored by the UK’s St. Christopher’s Hospice as a Nursing Pioneer for their 2020 Palliative Care Nursing Project.
Dr. Kennedy has a doctoral degree in health care education and policy, a dual master’s degree in health education and case management, a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and is a certified healthcare compliance professional.
As CHAP’s National Medical Director, Dr. Khai Nguyen has a significant interest and passion for the intersection of health policy and medicine. He serves CHAP internally by providing a clinical perspective whereby we create relevant, emerging educational content; and externally in the training, sharing of current innovations, and helping partners evaluate how they care for people in order to be their best.
Nguyen is a board-certified physician in internal medicine, geriatrics, and a previous hospice medical director. He provides primary and specialty care to senior patients, with an emphasis on disease prevention, treatment of chronic illnesses/geriatric syndromes and preservation of function.
Dr. Nguyen completed a fellowship in geriatric medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a residency in internal medicine at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla. He earned his medical degree from University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington, Vermont, and holds a master’s degree in health policy and certification in health finance and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His health policy experience includes past work at CMS Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention where he worked on the Healthy Aging Project.
Daniel Stephens is Senior Vice President for CHAP’s Center for Excellence. Over the past five years, he has led a large sales team across fifteen states to quadruple annual revenue. His unique approach to business development ensures that the pursuit of new business is strategic, qualified, and ethical. He creates strategies and plans that set the standard for excellence across industries.
Stephens enjoys helping community-based healthcare advocates increase their impact and ability to help more patients receive care. He is passionate about helping healthcare leaders grow their businesses and advance their mission through strategy, innovation, and efficiency.
All this is possible through his extensive experiences in business development leadership and sales experience in the healthcare industry, focusing on DME/respiratory, home infusion, home health, hospice, and palliative care.
Stephens graduated with honors from Liberty University with a focus in healthcare management.
Nancy Reeder is the Vice President of Customer Relations. Since 2017, she has brought her business development skills and expertise in operations to the CHAP team, while developing a deeper understanding of how agencies can improve patient care by adhering to a set of proven standards.
Overseeing the hub of customer relations, her team strives to have one-to-one connections with our partners. Each partner has an Accreditation Specialist and Director of Accreditation responsible for regular outreach.
Reeder has been working in post-acute, community-based care for several years in home health, hospice and home care as well as other service lines. She later transitioned to the provider side, working for Providence Senior and Community Services as their Director of Business Development. There she became deeply involved in the mechanisms for care transitions, the referral process, understanding the needs of hospital Case Managers, and participating as a part of work teams regarding revenue cycle, team restructuring and operational improvements.
Reeder has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with a minor in Music from DePauw University.
As the Vice President of Human Resources, Lawton Samuels feels there is always room to improve the customer and employee experience. He prides himself in creating innovative ways to engage all employees and develop future leaders. Samuels also shares with many of us his passion about the quality of healthcare and believes that there has never been a more critical time.
He is intentional in building a cohesive and energetic culture that is people centric and supports connecting people to our mission and the communities we serve.
Samuels brings 20 years of progressive human resources experience to CHAP, including talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, cultural development, employee relations and development.
He is an active member of Society of Human Resources Professionals (SHRM), holds a Senior Certified Professional Human Resources certification (SHRM-SCP), and completed a Human Resource Management Certificate through George Mason’s Executive and Professional Education Program.
Samuels is a graduate of George Mason University with postgraduate studies in business administration at American University.
As Vice President of Innovation, Ellison is responsible for identifying new opportunities for CHAP and the Center for Excellence, while working with internal and external stakeholders to align resources and ensure that systematically we are positioned to pivot into emerging directions.
Kassi Ellison is responsible for identifying new opportunities for CHAP and the Center for Excellence while working with internal and external stakeholders to align resources and ensure that systematically we are positioned to pivot into emerging directions.
Ellison has been in the healthcare industry for over 15 years as a business development executive, primarily focusing on home health and hospice. Most recently, she maintained oversight of 16 locations and led a team of 45 business development representatives to achieve goals in Texas, Arizona, California, and Oregon.
During her career, she uncovered and maximized opportunities that grew the average daily census from 32 to over 890 in her region for a national hospice provider.
Ellison has extensive experience targeting facility contracts, creating managed care opportunities, and earning key preferred provider relationships.
Vice president of Learning Solutions, Jan Sweat comes to CHAP with over 25 years of experience in healthcare, with a focus in the post-acute industry. For nearly two decades, she worked for Kindred at Home in sales, sales leadership, operations, and talent development.
Prior to joining CHAP, Sweat directed the education and success of tens of thousands of healthcare professionals in Hospice, Home Health, and Palliative Care nationwide. In addition to her classroom impact, she spent several years as a growth strategist connecting corporate strategy to field implementation and interim area management. These roles equipped her with a unique perspective to solve provider problems with robust solutions.
After graduating from North Georgia College and State University earning a degree in Sociology with a minor in Psychology, she served as a case manager in a metro Atlanta hospital and a nursing home social service director for several years, where she supported countless patients and families.
Cliff Valenti is Vice President Information Technology and joined the CHAP team in 2012. He feels technology is the foundation that manages the accreditation process at CHAP, and his team has worked hard to make LinQ a useful tool that our partners can utilize to see how they are performing.
After graduating from the University of South Florida’s College of Engineering, Valenti spent more than 20 years leading teams in the development, implementation, and governance of technology solutions for companies such as AT&T, Arbitration Forums, and National Cooperative Bank.
Valenti is a member of the Washington, DC chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals, and believes healthcare is the next frontier for technology to conquer.
Dan McPhilemy is Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development and brings over fifteen years of post-acute care experience focusing on business development, sales and marketing with an emphasis on overall healthcare leadership.
Through evolving roles in home health and hospice, he has led and supported growth well above industry norms. His passion is helping those who care for their communities prosper.
McPhilemy is a graduate of Penn State University.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors is composed of leaders in the home and community-based health care accreditation industry, as well as the larger health care industry. Their insights and expertise keep CHAP’s services and initiatives relevant and forward-thinking.
CHAP’s Board of Directors is made up of leaders in the home and community-based healthcare industry.
Their insights and expertise keep our services and initiatives relevant and forward-thinking.
Heath Bartness
CEO St. Croix Hospice,
Oakdale, MN
Mary Ann Christopher, MSN, RN, FAAN
Christopher STH Consulting
Avon, NJ
Nathan DeGodt
President and CEO
CHAP
Washington, DC
Patricia T. Driscoll, BSN, MSN, JD, Vice Chair
Professor
Texas Woman’s University
Dallas, TX
Peter Freyer, Treasurer
Managing Director
Silicon Valley Bank
Sherman Oaks, CA
Kate Jones, DNP, RN, CENP, Secretary
Clinical Assistant Professor University of South Carolina College of Nursing
Columbia, SC
Cordt Kassner, PhD, Chair
Chief Executive Officer
Hospice Analytics, Inc.
Colorado Springs, CO
Daniel Maison, MD, FAAHPM, HMDC
National Medical Director, Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care
Grand Rapids, MI
David E. Matyas, Esq.
Member of the Firm
Epstein Becker Green
Washington, DC
Michael McMaude
CEO/Founder
Abode Healthcare
Durango, CO
Michael Rovinsky
President
Integrity Consulting Group, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
Maureen A. Spivack, Chair – Emeritus
Senior Industry Partner
New State Capital Partners
New York, NY
Michael Trigilio
Georgetown, MA