Foundation Board

Jill Batty joined CHA as Chief Financial Officer in January 2014. With more than 20 years of experience as a strategist, financial executive, and health care consultant, Ms. Batty has worked with a wide variety of providers, hospitals, and physician practices, including those in safety net and integrated health systems.

Prior to joining CHA, Ms. Batty served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene in Keene, New Hampshire. Her work there helped the organization transition from fee-for-service care to population health management, effectively adapting to state and federal reimbursement shifts while generating significant operating margin improvements.

Ms. Batty’s mission-driven values extend beyond the workplace. She serves as a volunteer for several organizations including Monadnock Family Services and New Hampshire Voices for Health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in hospital and health administration from the University of Iowa. She has been a certified public accountant since 1989 and is a fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Nancy Busnach is the President of Busnach Associates and a real estate professional with more than 25 years’ experience in facilities/asset management and construction. Nancy is a Certified Property Manager, IREM, licensed Mass. Real Estate Broker, past Chair of the Somerville Redevelopment Authority and member of CoreNet Global, New England Women in RE (NEWIRE). Ms. Busnach is a former member of the Board of Somerville Boys & Girls Club, Past Chair of Ground Works Somerville., and Aquinas College.

Ms. Busnach is a graduate of Suffolk University and was the recipient of the Somerville’s Chamber of Commerce’s 2003 Powderhouse Award for Distinguished Service.

RoAnn Costin is the founder and president of Wilderness Point Investments, a private equity company that focuses on investing in early and expansion stage consumer non-durable product and retailing companies. Ventures in which Ms. Costin has invested and sits or has sat on the board of directors include Lululemon Athletica, Genuine Health International, City Sports, Olly Shoes, 2020 Onsite Optometry and Sarah Flint, Inc.

Ms. Costin began her career in 1981 working for State Street Research and Management, Co. She was the first woman investment analyst, portfolio manager and partner in the firm. She then joined the Putnam Companies as a member of the Quality Growth group with joint account responsibility for equity portfolios of assets over $1.5 billion and where she co-managed the US equity portion of the Putnam International Fund. She then founded and was president of Reservoir Capital Management, a firm specializing in quality growth equities investments.

Ms. Costin has worked in government at the federal and local levels. She received an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. in government, cum laude, from Harvard University, where she was an All-American in swimming and rowing. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Stanford University, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Perkins School for the Blind, the American Repertory Theater and the Codman Academy Charter School.

Ms. Davidoff was born in Mexico City and came to the US to study mathematics at MIT, receiving her B.S. degree in 1976. After receiving an M.S. in education from Wheelock College, she trained to be a Montessori teacher, taught for 10 years and acted as interim head of school.

Currently, Ms. Davidoff serves on the Executive Board of the Friends of the Israel Museum, and on the International Board of the Rabin Medical Center in Israel. She sits also on the Board of the Jewish Community Day School in Waltham, and the Board of Visitors of the Summit Montessori School

Ms. Davidoff has had a lifelong interest in art, earning a Diploma from the School of the MFA and she continues to paint. She is married to CHA Foundation board member Dr. Joseph Kahan.

Dr. Kahan grew up in London, England where he studied mathematical economics at Leicester University and mathematical statistics at University College London. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in engineering. His main areas of interest were in probabilistic modeling, statistical analysis and operations research.

Dr. Kahan is married to CHA board member Claudia Davidoff. Since retirement, Dr. Kahan and Ms. Davidoff have been involved in charitable concerns including sitting on the International Board of the Rabin Medical Center in Israel. At the end of 2014, he raised money for Israel-Arab communication by traveling through Israel on bicycle.

Mr. Lahey is a partner at Anderson & Kreiger LLP in Boston, MA where he focuses on environmental, energy, and municipal law. Bill has over 35 years of experience handling complex environmental, energy and land use matters for clients throughout the U.S. and internationally, He is recognized by Chambers USA and Massachusetts Super Lawyers as a leading environmental lawyer. Prior to joining Anderson & Kreiger in 2006, he was a partner at Palmer & Dodge where he was chair of its litigation department. Mr. Lahey's clients include energy utilities, universities and major airports across the country.

His international work includes drafting environmental laws for the Royal Government of Bhutan and coordinating the litigation that successfully stopped offshore oil development in Belize on behalf of Oceana, Inc.

Mr. Lahey served as chairman of the founding board of Smith Leadership Academy Charter School in Dorchester and on the board of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, MA. He received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1982 and B.S. from the University of Wisconsin.

Mr. McTague is Transamerica’s senior director of client engagement for the mega/large market segments. His team owns all aspects of the client relationship inclusive of setting and executing short and long-term client goals, project milestones, adherence to service level metrics, product development and an understanding of Transamerica’s full spectrum of capabilities.

Chris joined Transamerica in 2008 with the acquisition of Mercer HR Services, LLC’s defined contribution business, bringing extensive benefits administration, implementation, and relationship management experience. He began his career in the defined contribution industry in 1996. Chris received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and he holds the FINRA series 6 and 63 registrations.

Assaad Sayah, MD, was named CHA's Chief Executive Officer in January 2020. Dr. Sayah, the health system's chief medical officer, served as the interim CEO since June 2019. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer since 2013 and was Chief of Emergency Medicine and Senior Vice President of Primary Care at CHA

Dr. Sayah's leadership has been a critical component of CHA's growth and success over the past decade. Before being named the chief medical officer, he served as the chief of emergency medicine and senior vice president of primary care. In the Emergency Department, Dr. Sayah led tremendous advancements at all three CHA hospitals, resulting in enhanced efficiency, quality, volume and patient satisfaction. He spearheaded primary care growth by more than 50 percent, expanding CHA's access in underserved communities and integrating primary care and behavioral health services and systems to address social determinants of health. He also plays a key role in CHA's commitment to the communities it serves, including his tenure as the co-chair of the Cambridge City Manager's Opioid Working Group established in 2018 to develop recommendations for strengthening the city's response to the opioid epidemic.

Additionally, Dr. Sayah served as chairman of CHA's Chiefs Council and president of the CHA Medical Staff, and he continues to serve on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. His research and publications focus on Emergency Department operation and emergency medical services, including design of the EMS system, continuous quality improvement, advanced directives, violence and weapons, disaster planning and pre-hospital thrombolytics.

Prior to joining CHA, Dr. Sayah held leadership roles at several area hospitals, including director of EMS for Brigham and Women's Hospital, associate chief for the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center. He received his medical doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and completed his residency in emergency medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan.

Dr. VanDeusen Lukas recently retired as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management in the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Senior Investigator in the Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR) in the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). At BUSPH, she was director of the Safety Net ACTION Partnership, a coalition of researchers and healthcare service delivery systems that conducted research to test strategies to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based practices for the federal Agency for Healthcare for Research and Quality. At CHOIR, she led research and evaluations in system redesign and medical center integration; developed strategies to sustain and spread innovative clinical practices from the national to local level and, more broadly, to drive organizational change; and led a consultation service to support senior officials in the Veterans Health Administration.

Dr. VanDeusen Lukas has a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an M.S. in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin. She was a member of the CHA Board of Trustees for 13 years, serving as chair for the last three years. She resides in Cambridge.