The Creach Consulting Team
E. Dawn Creach, MS, President and CEO, Principal Consultant
Dawn is passionate about improving health and health care delivery. Her areas of expertise include primary care medical home transformation, behavioral health integration, value-based payment & contracting, quality improvement, health policy, and patient experience of care surveys.
Dawn has more than 17 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 & evaluation at Oregon Health & Science University. Throughout her career she has worked with more than 300 primary care clinics and, more recently, with specialty behavioral health organizations.
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.
With a master's degree in sociology, Dawn brings a systems-level perspective and a diverse set of skills to help solve complex problems with the needs of patients and families at the forefront.
Jessica Young, Senior Operations and Project Manager
Jessica is dedicated to helping clinics succeed by developing high performing systems and teams. She has over 17 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including information technology, quality improvement, implementation, coaching, consulting, population health and telehealth. Jessica has a demonstrated track record of driving projects to success through identifying and sharing best practices, and supporting cross team collaboration and communication. Throughout her career she has managed projects in primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, and ambulatory care. With a bachelor’s in business administration (BBA) and a pre-medicine post-baccalaureate, Jessica is passionate about building strong teams and systems to support providers in caring for patients, along with building successful businesses. Outside of work Jessica enjoys spending time with her family, and enjoying outdoor life in the Pacific NW.
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.
James McCormack, PhD, MT(ASCP), Clinical Informatics Associate Consultant
Dr. McCormack has over 30 years of experience working with large and small organizations to implement, use, and optimize health IT on a variety of EMR platforms.
After 13 years with Cerner, he earned a Doctorate and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Informatics at Oregon Health & Science University before dividing his time between teaching, consulting, and supporting independent medical practices with their EMRs.
Most recently, James served for 3 years with a large Independent Practice Association providing expertise in health IT, supporting members with quality reporting and incentive programs (MIPS, PCPCH, CPC+, ACO), population health analytics, interoperability, and extracting and managing clinical data from a variety of EMR systems. In 2020, he returned to Portland and resumed work as an EMR consultant for small medical practices and continues to participate in applied informatics research as a Subject Matter Expert for AHRQ-funded research with the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network at OHSU.
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.