Ms. Zhang’s responsibilities are to maintain existing SAS programs and develop new programs for WCRI Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation(DBE) database and CompScope series of studies. Before joining WCRI, she worked as statistical analyst in Educational Testing Service. Ms. Zhang received her M.S. in statistics from Rutgers University. 

Dr. Yang is one of the lead authors of the CompScope™ studies that benchmark the performance of state workers’ compensation systems. She also co-authors studies that examine the prices paid for medical services in workers’ compensation across states, including the medical price index and hospital outpatient payment index studies. Additionally, she conducts research on the effect of fee schedule reforms in particular states. She also serves as the lead technical expert for the CompScope™ studies and oversees the data quality assurance process as well as research design and methods. Dr. Yang received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Ms. Wang’s research focus is on medical practice patterns and medical care delivered to injured workers. Her most recent research has been focused on physical medicine treatment for workers with low back pain and she is the lead author of a series of WCRI studies on timing and utilization of physical medicine services including manual therapy and chiropractic care. Her past research include impact of treatment guidelines and utilization management for low back pain, as well as several WCRI studies on utilization of workers compensation pharmaceuticals, physician dispensing and prescribing patterns of opioids.

She has a master’s degree in applied economics and did her graduate work in applied econometrics, labor economics an industrial organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Thumula conducts research on pharmaceutical use in the workers’ compensation system. She is the author of several studies evaluating prescribing patterns of opioids, drug formularies, and physician dispensing. She is also currently examining the self-reported outcomes of injured workers, including recovery of health and functioning, speed, sustainability of return to work and, access to care. Dr. Thumula received her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, School of Pharmacy.

Ms. Telles oversees all administrative functions at WCRI. Before joining WCRI, she worked for 20 years in K-5 Art Education both in the public and private sectors. Ms. Telles received her M.Ed. in Art Education from Lesley University and her BFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University.

Ms. Solorzano oversees the administrative side of the publication production process. She helps copyedit, format, and disseminate studies, as well as provides administrative support to WCRI staff. She joined the Institute in 2006 after a stint in AmeriCorps. She received a B.A. in English from Harvard University.

Dr. Savych analyzes issues related to labor and health economics, dispute resolution, and the design of income benefit systems. He currently conducts research that examines self-reported outcomes of injured workers and adequacy and efficacy of workers’ compensation benefits. His research also explores the role of provider choice policies in worker outcomes and compares payments for ambulatory surgery centers across states. In addition, he examines the performance of the workers’ compensation system in Virginia as part of the CompScope™ benchmarking studies. Dr. Savych received his Ph.D. from Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Dr. Rothkin studies state workers' compensation systems for WCRI’s CompScope™ benchmarking team. As a member of the technical team, she also creates statistical models for internal use, explains data anomalies, and validates claim data against external and internal measures. Recently, she began working with prescription drug data for future CompScope™ reports and is currently compiling an inventory of prescription drug regulations in all states. She earned B.S. degrees in engineering and political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also a Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Ms. Radeva is one of the lead authors of the CompScope™ Benchmarks studies that measure the performance of state workers’ compensation systems. Her research is focused on studying workers' compensation systems in numerous states, including Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. She is actively involved in innovation and product development of the CompScope™ series. Before joining the Institute, Ms. Radeva spent 10 years with Nielsen where she specialized in retail measurement services. Ms. Radeva holds a master’s degree in statistics and econometrics.

Ms. O’Brien supports the CompScope™ benchmarking studies, updating tools used for analysis and preparing the box plots and tables used in the published reports. She is also responsible for claim and medical data quality on the data submitted to refresh the Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation (DBE) database each year. She received her B.A. in political science from Providence College.

Mr. Monnin-Browder studies the performance of state workers’ compensation systems as part of WCRI’s CompScope™ benchmarking team. He previously served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council and as Legal Counsel to the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. Mr. Monnin-Browder received his B.A. from Tufts University and his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Ms. Liu currently researches fee schedules, pharmaceutical use, and self-reported outcomes of injured workers. She is a co-author of a series of studies on evaluating workers’ compensation medical fee schedules. She also co-authored several studies evaluating physician dispensing, prescribing patterns of opioids, and drug formularies. She previously conducted research on provider choice, return to work, permanent partial disability, medical costs and utilization, and benchmarks of system performance. Ms. Liu received her two master's degrees in economics and actuarial science from Boston University.

Mr.  Landry is responsible for reviewing Workers Compensation data received from numerous sources to ensure completeness and accuracy.  Tom spent over 20 years working for a large property and casualty insurance company supporting the workers compensation platform including claims and medical bill review as a business systems analyst.  He received his BS in Administration from the University of New Hampshire and his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriting designation (CPCU) from The Institutes.

Ms. Heffner’s responsibilities include reviewing the data received from our sources to help ensure its completeness and accuracy, providing assistance with the development of new metrics, and developing and maintaining process documentation. Additionally, she assists in the gathering of fee schedule information for various projects and has facilitated the presentation of data for several medical price index and hospital payment index studies. Beth received her B.A. in humanities with a self-designed program in culture and civilization from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA.

Mr. Giblin provides programming support for data processing of the WCRI Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation (DBE) database. He also pulls and aggregates data used by the data analysts and researchers in their analysis. Before joining the Institute, he worked as a data analyst and informatics specialist for clinical trials at Dana Farber. Bryan received his M.S. in sociology from Florida State University.

Dr. Fomenko is one of the lead authors of the studies comparing workers’ compensation and group health prices paid for professional medical services and payments for outpatient facility services. Dr. Fomenko is also involved in the designing and updating of a series of studies analyzing prices paid in workers’ compensation for common professional and hospital outpatient services. Her previous work at WCRI includes an analysis of workers’ compensation fee schedules. Dr. Fomenko received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mr. Duncan provides administrative support to the vice president of research, communications director, and a number of researchers at WCRI. He also helps proofread studies and other written materials. He has a B.A. in political science from Tufts University.

Mr. Dolinschi is a technical expert for the CompScope™ series of studies which makes interstate comparisons. He plays an important role in the data quality assurance process and contributes to research design and methods. Prior to joining WCRI, Mr. Dolinschi was an economist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto, Canada. He has contributed to the development of economic evaluation methodology for occupational health and safety and has experience undertaking economic evaluations of work injury prevention programs, as well as conducting systematic literature reviews. He completed his graduate work in economics at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Mr. Cawley supports his colleagues on WCRI’s CompScope benchmarking team with their research into state workers’ compensation system performance and policy. Before joining WCRI, he worked in technical editing and curriculum development. Mr. Cawley received his B.S. and MPH from Northeastern University.

Ms. Brown-Lyons provides programming support for data processing and analysis of the WCRI Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation (DBE) database.  Before joining WCRI, she worked as a senior statistical programmer and policy analyst at Abt Associates, Inc.  Ms. Brown-Lyons received her MA in Applied Sociology from the University of Massachusetts.

Mr. Hassett-Salley is director of revenue development. He is responsible for securing research funding nationally from industry payors, as well as funding for WCRI’s CompScope™ program from state workers’ compensation regulatory agencies and rating bureaus. 

Tim has held leadership and business development positions within the workers’ compensation industry for over 25 years. For many years Tim maintained a private psychotherapy practice. He was also an adjunct faculty member of the counseling department in Bridgewater State University's Graduate School of Education, where he previously earned an M.Ed. and C.A.G.S. in Counseling. Tim earned his B.A. at Providence College.

Ms. Fisher oversees membership engagement, event coordination, including WCRI’s Annual Issues & Research Conference, and state coordination in California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Ms. Fisher formerly served as an attorney for the City of New York, as well as a Workers’ Compensation Hearing Officer for the State of Alaska, Department of Labor. Ms. Fisher received her B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Seton Hall Law School. 

Mr. Kenneally’s responsibilities include promoting the Institute online and through traditional press, responding to requests from reporters, and exploring new technologies to help the Institute better communicate with its members and the general public. Mr. Kenneally spent over 10 years working in a legislative and press capacity for elected members of the Boston City Council, Massachusetts State House, U.S. Congress, and Northern Ireland Parliament. He earned his master’s degree in comparative ethnic conflict from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and another in urban affairs from Boston University.

Mr. Harrison leads the data acquisition and integration for the WCRI Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation (DBE) database. WCRI refreshes the DBE with the most recent data annually, providing WCRI researchers with fresh data to support core benchmark studies and impactful topical studies. Before joining the Institute, he led data acquisition for the Consumer Price Index at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mr. Harrison received his M.B.A. from Bentley University.

In his current role, Sebastian Negrusa oversees the ongoing research at WCRI, contributes to the development of the Institute’s annual research agenda, and ensures that WCRI’s public policy research has a high impact for the workers’ compensation stakeholders.

As an economist and expert in labor and health policy, he conducted a diverse array of studies focused in recent years on behavioral health in workers compensation, excessive heat’s impact on work-related injuries, or the impact of the labor market and the economy on the workers’ compensation system. His policy analyses also include studies on health care utilization and spending, labor market outcomes, substitutions across alternative sources of health insurance, impact of military deployment on divorces, or the effect of federal subsidies on veterans' demand for higher education.

Before joining WCRI, Sebastian worked as an economist at the Lewin Group, and previously at the RAND Corporation. He has a PhD in Economics from Clemson University.

Ms. Tanabe assumed the duties of president and CEO on May 1, 2023. Since joining the Institute in 1996, Tanabe has held a number of key leadership positions at WCRI, among them leading the Institute’s flagship line of core benchmarking studies, designing and conducting studies on workplace health policy, and managing WCRI’s data collection and technology investments. She has also provided legal counsel, testified at governmental hearings, and managed core operations on behalf of the Institute. Before joining the Institute, she was with a private law firm in Chicago, specializing in municipal financing and school law.