The Creach Consulting Team

E. Dawn Creach, MS, President and CEO, Principal Consultant

Dawn is passionate about improving health and supporting providers. Her areas of expertise include patient-centered medical home transformation, behavioral health integration, value-based payments, addressing health disparities, health policy, and patient experience of care surveys.

Dawn has more than 19 years of experience in a variety of settings including state government, an independent physician’s association, leading a statewide child health quality improvement initiative, and research and evaluation at Oregon Health & Science University. She has worked with hundreds of primary care clinics, specialty behavioral health organizations and, more recently, supporting organizational wellness and staff vitality.

Creach Consulting Group (CCG) was established by Dawn in 2017 to focus on the intersection of payment and health care improvement. The team at CCG works with insurance plans and providers to improve healthcare by aligning payment with quality and outcomes.

Dawn is a founding member of Oregon’s Primary Care Payment Reform Collaborative, fulfilling the role of an “expert in primary care contracting and reimbursement.” She is also a member of the Integrated Behavioral Health Alliance and the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association.

As a sociologist, Dawn brings a systems-level perspective and a diverse set of skills to help solve complex problems with the needs of patients, families, providers, and communities at the forefront.

Bethany Higa, PsyD, Licensed Psychologist, Associate Consultant, Director of Behavioral Health

Dr. Higa is a clinical psychologist and behavioral health clinician who works in Portland, Oregon at a family medicine patient-centered medical home. She trains psychology doctoral students and medical residents in behavioral health. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and her doctorate in psychology from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She completed her internship at Reed College’s counseling center and her residency at Rosemont Treatment Center and School, a part of Morrison Child & Family Services. In addition to seeing patients in clinic and teaching, she has worked extensively on behavioral health curriculum design and workflows. Outside of work, you’ll likely find her spending time with her husband and children, cooking, or walking outside.

Dave Gilmore, MBA, Associate Consultant

Dave has more than 20 years of expertise in team-based primary care. He is certified as a practice coach, has a Lean Black Belt with an emphasis in health care and improving access to care, and served on the US Air Force Customer Service Task Force for 85 clinic and hospitals across the world.

Dave served as front-line manager to Chief Operating Officer in small clinics to large medical centers across the world. His expertise includes advanced primary care operations, patient and staff satisfaction, lean process improvement, project management and population health management.

Dave previously served on the Oregon Rural Health Association Board of Directors and completed his Health Care MBA with OHSU in 2020 including a Capstone Project: CAH Provider-Based Clinic Billing Comparative Analysis and Rural Health Clinic Application process. He also led an initiative to reengineer new patient registration process in primary care by completing all registration in person or over the phone, earning the AMA/MGMA 2015 Innovation Award.

His personal interests include spending time with his wife and Labrador retriever, Bella, hiking, fishing, golfing, and gardening.

Lauren Harper, PhD, Associate Consultant

Dr. Lauren Harper is a licensed psychologist specializing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and workforce wellness. She has obtained a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and a Qualitative Research certificate, both from the University of Georgia.

Since moving to Oregon Dr. Harper’s work has expanded beyond direct patient care to collaborating with stakeholders, supervising resources, as well as translating trends from survey data into new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She is an experienced facilitator for teams experiencing distressing professional events and focuses on open dialogue and developing feedback loops.

Dr. Harper is passionate about working with health care organizations on DEI strategies, workforce wellness, and culture change. She also has designed mental health and well-being retreats as well as group workshops for employee teams.

Dr. Harper shows true dedication to leadership by example through her service on diversity committees and task forces. During her tenure at Providence she served as the chair for the Anti-Racism Taskforce Steering Committee within Providence Portland’s Internal Medicine Residency Program, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for Providence Health and Services’ behavioral health department, and the Diversity Workgroup inside Providence Medical Group’s psychology team.

As a Georgia native, she enjoys exploring all of Oregon’s beautiful landscape, including Portland’s many wonderful food and wine options.