Virtual Summer Series - Part 2

Wednesday, Jul 2, 2025

Rebuilding Public Trust Following Hospital Clinical and Managerial Errors

Harpreet Pal, MD, MBA (Panelist)

Chief Medical Officer

Hackensack Meridian Health

Dr. Pall is Chief Medical Officer at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital (almost 700-bed tertiary and quaternary academic medical center). He also serves as Academic Chair and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Chair of the Faculty Assembly at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.

Dr. Pall completed his medical degree from McGill University and pediatrics residency from Memorial University in Canada. He then completed a fellowship in gastroenterology from Harvard Medical School/Boston Children's Hospital. Following fellowship, Dr. Pall joined the faculty at Boston Children's for six years where he led endoscopy services at ASCs and assisted in EHR implementation. In 2011, Dr. Pall was recruited to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children/Drexel University College of Medicine as Chief of Gastroenterology where he served in numerous leadership roles including Executive Vice-Chair, President-Elect of the Medical Staff, and Pediatrician-in-Chief/Chair prior to joining Hackensack Meridian Health.

Dr. Pall has formal management and leadership training including an MBA from University of Massachusetts, year-long leadership fellowship, medical management coursework at Harvard, a Dean's internship at Drexel, the Certified Physician Executive (CPE) designation, and executive leadership training at Hackensack Meridian Health. Dr. Pall has been nationally recognized for his scholarship in healthcare innovation and delivery science. He serves as Chair of the Clinical Leadership Committee at ACHE-NJ. Finally, he enjoys his active clinical practice as a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist.

Major Lydia Cristobal RN, DNP, FACHE (Panelist)

US Army Reserve

Maj. Cristobal has 31 years of healthcare experience in various settings, long-term/post-acute care, medical-surgical, education, emergency care, home health, and ambulatory care, of which 29 years was in management. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and board certified in healthcare management. She is also board certified in advanced nurse executive practice and gerontology. Additionally, she is a licensed nursing home administrator.

Currently, she is an administrative manager in Atlantic Health System’s Western Region in NJ and also the System Chair of the Veterans and Allies Business Resource Group. A veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, she continues to serve after 24 years of service in the U.S. Army Reserve as a major in the Nurse Corps, a public affairs officer, and executive officer of the 361st Theater Public Affairs Support Element battalion in Fort Totten, NY. Making a difference in veteran communities is her lifelong mission, Maj. Cristobal recently joined the NJ Veterans Support Alliance as a board member and the Chief Operation Officer. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing Administration from New York University, and Doctor of Nursing Practice from Yale University. She finished her term as a member of the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors for the university and was the co-chair of the Alumni Communities Committee. She continues to serve as a board member of the Yale Veterans Association

Sophia Brown, RN, PHD, FACHE (Moderator)

Chief Executive Officer

Strategic Informatics Solutions

In her 30 years as a registered nurse with 20 of these years specializing in informatics, Dr. Brown has garnered a wide range of clinical, informatics, career development, leadership, and business experience locally and internationally. Dr. Brown's PhD is in decision support management, and she holds a doctorate in business administration specializing in healthcare. For over 20 years Dr. Brown has also been involved at the implementation level in strategic change management, digital transformation, patient engagement, leadership, and data science.

As the CEO of her firm, Strategic Informatics Solutions, she continues to provide informatics informed change management /performance improvement, and coaching, speaking and leadership development services powered by John C Maxwell leadership. Dr. Brown embrace the spirit of volunteerism and is affiliated with the following professional organizations: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) as an appointed Global Health Conference Education Committee Member, peer reviewer for the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, and a member of the Nursing Informatics Networking and Educational Task Force; American College of Healthcare Executive (ACHE) – Fellow and board of governors examination committee member, co-chair of ACHE New Jersey Chapter clinical leadership committee and board member; Project Management Institute (PMI) – annual conference presentation reviewer. She also volunteers in her community through her faith-based organization. She holds several certifications such as FACHE, NI-BC (Informatics), CPHIMS, PMP and Talent Development Coach. Lastly, Dr Brown is a Senior Contributing Faculty at Walden University and annually serves on various doctoral committees of nurses in pursuit of DNP and PhD degrees. Her research interest is in the areas of social determinants of health, change management, informatics, healthcare disparities, patient -provider engagement, and data science.