Lee brings her health care background and extensive experience, training and expertise as a facilitator and qualitative researcher to Good Group Decisions. She specializes in conducting listening sessions, stakeholder meetings and interviews, panel discussions and focus groups. She has a keen understanding of group process and the ability to quickly develop rapport with clients and participants. She can synthesize raw data into meaningful information, summarizing and analyzing significant findings to enable clients to use the information to make strategic decisions.Lee’s experience includes more than 25 years in the health care field. She has held both clinical and management positions in hospital social work at several large teaching hospitals. Her legislative and policy experience includes a position as a Congressional Health Fellow and as Assistant Director, National Health Policy Forum (Washington DC).
She gained extensive project management and research experience as Director of Field Development for the American Hospital Association (Washington DC) and as Vice President for Health Research at Frederick Schneider’s Research (Washington, DC).
She established her own consulting company, The Zacharias Group, in 1997. Clients include health care agencies (state and federal), trade associations, hospitals and health systems, research and consulting firms, universities and foundations. She has conducted large multi-site research projects, managing the entire project from selection of site, identification and selection of participants, collaborating with client on issues to be studied, and analyzing and reporting research results. Lee has also moderated policy-related meetings and panel discussions; facilitated training sessions and various types of group meetings, workshops, and conferences.
Lee has been recognized as a skilled moderator and facilitator. She served as the principal researcher for a multi-year public opinion research project conducted in 25+ states aimed at understanding the public’s perceptions of health care. She has moderated focus groups with many diverse participants including the physicians and other health care personnel, business leaders, the elderly, adults with physical and mental disabilities, people with varied cultural and economic backgrounds.
She has also been involved in numerous projects funded by both the public and private sectors related to issues such as long term care, health care to special populations, health care quality and environmental assessments for strategic planning.
A native of Texas, Lee earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. She has also received formal training in qualitative research techniques, group facilitation and mediation, and is a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association.
Lee resides in South Portland with her husband and their rescued greyhound Dante. Her interests vary from hiking to theater to trips back to her native state of Texas for family visits.
Click here to send an email to Lee.