Mitchell S. Daitz
Chief Executive Officer
Mitchell has responsibility for the business and leads the overall development of the company. Throughout his career, Mitchell has distinguished himself as an architect and builder of organizations focused on bringing innovative healthcare services to the marketplace.
Prior to joining Vital Decisions, Mitchell was co-founder and the CEO of IntrinsiQ Research, a leader oncology electronic medical record and information company which was acquired by a leading private equity firm in 2006. Prior to this venture, Mitchell was the President of Datamonitor, Inc, an international healthcare market advisory firm, and management consultant with Deloitte Consulting. Mitchell holds an engineering degree from Rutgers University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Helen D. Blank, Ph.D., Founder
Director of Clinical Counseling
Helen D. Blank received her Ph.D. degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in the History of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics. She is on voluntary faculty at New Jersey Medical School-UMDNJ and teaches a course on the essential communication skills necessary to provide humanistic care for advanced illness patients. At the medical school she developed the Clinical Ethics, Medicine and Healthcare Law module and continues to serve as the ethics consultant to the Center for Humanism in Medicine. Dr. Blank is an Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken and provides lectures/workshops for hospitals, long-term care facilities, educational institutions, medical societies, professional organizations and healthcare plans on topics such as advance directives, end-of-life decision-making, palliative care, Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR/OOHHDNR/POLST) policies, truth-telling, privacy, confidentiality, communication skills and dispute resolution. Through the New Jersey Hospital Association, Dr. Blank developed the first Healthcare Ethics Certificate Training Program in New Jersey. She serves as a bioethics consultant to statewide groups, such as the Ethics Committee of the Medical Society of the State of New Jersey, the End-of-Life State Task Force organized by the New Jersey Bar Association and the Ethics Consortium of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly. Her recent presentations were in London at St. Christopher’s Hospice on Creative Arts in End-of-Life Care, the International Conference on Clinical Ethics Consultation in Portland, Oregon, and Stanford Medical Center, in April 2011.
Mark Zitter
Chairman
Mark is co-founder and chairman of Vital Decisions LLC. His interest in the field grew out of his background in healthcare quality, managed care, and disease management. He is CEO and founder of The Zitter Group, a business intelligence firm focused on the interface between life science companies and managed markets.
Mark is a pioneer in the disease management field. He wrote the opening chapter in the first book published on the topic, and produced and chaired the first major disease management conferences.
He is the author of four books and scores of articles on health care. He writes regularly for trade journals and is a frequent speaker at national meetings. He serves on the Healthcare Advisory Board for Riverside Partners, a private equity firm, and on the Strategic Advisory Committee of the Patient Access Network Foundation.
Elaine Cannizzaro
Director of Product Management
Elaine serves as the Director of Product Management for Vital Decisions. In this role she has responsibility for the maintenance and continued development of our Living Well Program methodology. Elaine also has responsibility for the organization’s counselor hiring and training activities.
She is a licensed counselor in the state of New Jersey. She has a master’s degree in psychology and counseling, with specialized training in serving patients with serious illness. Prior to Vital Decisions, Elaine provided individual and group counseling for patients living with HIV and AIDS. She also has experience in high growth company operations.
Leah Puccio
Director of Operations and Client Management
Leah serves as the Director of Operations and Client Management. She is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company as well as ensuring our clients receive the highest quality of account management and reporting.
Leah has spent the last 10 years specializing in sales and operations for organizations of varying sizes and stages of development from start-up ventures to Fortune 100 companies. As a result of her varied experience, Leah is a specialist in the successful growth of small businesses. She has extensive Project Management Planning (PMP) training and is Lean Six Sigma Certified.
Lee Ruszczyk
Director of Counseling Supervision
Lee is Responsible for the application of the Vital Decisions Living Well program methodology in day to day practice. This includes the maintenance of high quality clinical standards as well as the direct supervision of the counseling staff.
Lee is a Licensed Clinical Social in the State of New Jersey. He is credentialed as a clinical supervisor with the NJ Board of Social Work Examiners. He is also a Certified Clinical Supervisor through the Certification Board for Addiction Professionals and has specialized training in Client Directed Outcome Informed Treatment. Lee has fifteen years of clinical supervisory experience and 25 years of post MSW experience. Lee has worked with a variety of populations ranging from children to addictions. Prior to Vital Decisions he was responsible for an outpatient substance abuse program. Lee has specialized training in Client Directed Outcome Informed Treatment.