Commissioners

Joshua Sharfstein, MD Chairman

Chairman

Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is Professor of the Practice in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he also serves as Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement and as Director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

A pediatrician by training, he is a former health commissioner of Baltimore, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Public Administration.

James Elliott, MD Vice Chair

Private Practice Physician

Dr. Elliott is a board certified Pathologist and serves as the Medical Director in the Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Doctors’ Community Hospital in Lanham, Maryland. Dr. Elliott is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pathology at the George Washington University Medical School. He studied at the University of Liberia Medical School and did his pathology residency at George Washington University Medical School.

Adam Kane

Managing Director

Redwood Capital Investments

Adam Kane joined Redwood in 2019 and is responsible for Corporate Affairs, including government and regulatory functions. Adam was previously serving as a Senior Vice Present at one of Redwood’s portfolio companies responsible for government relations and regulatory affairs in the health care and real estate space.

Adam received a M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, and a M.A. from the University of Maryland.

Maulik Joshi, DrPH

President and CEO

Meritus Health

Maulik Joshi serves as the president and CEO for Meritus Health. With more than 3,000 employees and 500 medical staff members, Meritus Health includes Meritus Medical Center, a 300-bed regional hospital that is Magnet recognized; Meritus Medical Group, an enterprise of 100 providers; and Meritus Home Health. Meritus Health is also a 25% owner of Maryland Physicians Care, a 220,000 Medicaid member health plan. The mission of Meritus Health is to improve the health status of its region. Prior to Meritus Health, Dr. Joshi was the executive vice president of integrated care delivery and chief operating officer for the Anne Arundel Health System, a regional health system headquartered in Annapolis, Md. Previously, Dr. Joshi served as the associate executive vice president at the American Hospital Association and president of the Health Research & Educational Trust. He has also served as senior advisor at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, president and CEO of the Delmarva Foundation, vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, senior director of quality for the University of Pennsylvania Health System and executive vice president for The HMO Group. Dr. Joshi has a doctorate in public health, a master's in health services administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Lafayette College. He also co-edited The Healthcare Quality Book: Vision, Strategy and Tools (fifth edition to be released in 2022), co-authored Healthcare Transformation: A Guide for the Hospital Board Member and Leading Healthcare Transformation: A Primer for Clinical Leaders. Dr. Joshi is adjunct faculty at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the department of health management and policy and annually teaches two courses in their executive master’s program.

Ricardo R. Johnson

Executive Vice President for Strategy and Emerging Businesses

CareFirst

Ricardo R. Johnson is Executive Vice President for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), the Mid-Atlantic region's largest not-for-profit healthcare company. In his position, Ricardo leads a division focused on driving alignment throughout CareFirst to ensure the company is holistically meeting its mission of advancing accessible, affordable and equitable healthcare. Much of this is done through Healthworx, the innovation and investment arm of CareFirst, which invests in, supports and creates solutions to improve healthcare.

Prior to his current position, Ricardo served in a variety of leadership roles at CareFirst. He began his career in the industry by practicing healthcare law and joined CareFirst in 2011 as Associate General Counsel. He then worked as the Special Assistant to the CEO of CareFirst, where he laid the groundwork for what would become Healthworx in 2018.

Ricardo has served on a variety of professional and nonprofit boards throughout his career, including Mother Seton Academy, La Salle University and Central Scholarship. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Ricardo holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland and an undergraduate degree from La Salle University.

Nicki McCann, JD

Vice President, Provider/Payer Transformation

The Johns Hopkins Health System

Nicki McCann has served as vice president of provider/payer transformation for the Johns Hopkins Health System since 2019. In this role, she works alongside providers and community organizations to develop strategies and programs that improve patient-centered care, in alignment with the Maryland Total Cost of Care Model. McCann also works with providers, policy makers, and payers to explore value-based models of care. Her other role within Johns Hopkins includes overseeing management and expansion of affiliations and partnerships with regional hospitals and health systems.

McCann has many years of experience in program development and management, policy analysis and leadership advisory work. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Nicki served at the Department of Legislative Services, where she was committee counsel to the House Committee on Appropriations. She came to Johns Hopkins in 2010 as director of health policy for government affairs. In this role, she advised leadership on health policy issues and advocated to advance industry priorities under Maryland’s rate-setting system. In 2018, McCann was appointed chief of staff for The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

She is chair of the Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee and a fellow in the Carol Emmott Fellowship program for women leaders. She is also past chair of the Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System and a board member for NAMI Metro-Baltimore.

Farzaneh (Fazi) Sabi, MD

Board Certified Ob/Gyn

Associate Medical Director

Permanente Medicine

Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group

Commission and Meeting Information

Commissioners