More industry leaders join AccessVR’s Advisory Boards
We’d like to welcome 4 new visionary leaders from healthcare and education who share our vision for the future of learning.
New Member to the Board of Advisors
We would first like to introduce Dana Oaks, who has become the newest member to our Board of Advisors.
Dana Oaks is a senior healthcare executive who has served in several key leadership positions. Dana led ERH Healthcare as the President of Operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that role, Dana oversaw five critical care hospitals and three nursing homes in Georgia and Texas and a behavioral health hospital in Las Vegas. Prior to ERH, Dana spent 14 years as an executive with HCA Healthcare. During his tenure, Dana was the Chief Executive Officer of University Hospital and Medical Center, now known as Woodmont Hospital, in Tamarac, Florida. Under Dana's leadership, the 317-bed community hospital enhanced several services, grew in profitability and weathered hurricane Irma.
Preceding his appointment at University Hospital, Dana was the CEO of JFK Medical Center North Campus, formerly known as West Palm Hospital. Dana led the 245-bed hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2011 to 2017. In 2016, he orchestrated the hospital's merger with JFK Medical Center, a 472-bed hospital, and the largest hospital in Palm Beach County. This merger created a 717 bed, two-campus, hospital with a common brand and identity to better assist the citizens of Palm Beach County. The merger paved the way for facility expansions and included the creation of a common governance structure including board, medical committees, and medical staff members.
Dana has also held positions as Chief Operating Officer of Ogden Regional Medical Center in Ogden, Utah, and Associate Administrator at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, CA.
Dana holds both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, he worked as Director of Business Development at Molina Healthcare of Utah. Dana currently enjoys teaching in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University where he is a professional in residence.
Our Strategic Advisory Board
Leaders shape their industries, by sharing their knowledge, experience and wisdom. Our strategic advisory board is comprised of just such leaders; experts in their fields who believe in immersive learning as the future of training. They have joined AccessVR because they share our vision and want to drive understanding, adoption and evolution of the technology and practices that will change the way we teach and learn.
Meet the newest members bringing their perspective to our mission of
making immersive learning accessible to everyone.
Robert Kiskaddon, MD
“Dr. Bob” Kiskaddon has over 30 years of clinical patient care experience, 15 years as a healthcare executive and 20 years as a healthcare educator with faculty appointments at some of the most prestigious medical colleges in the country.
Dr. Kiskaddon completed his undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College and Stanford University and received his medical degree at the University of Connecticut. He completed his residency training at the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC and subsequently received board certification in the field of Emergency Medicine. Additional professional activities have included: Medical Director of EMS for the City of Bridgeport, CT; helicopter flight physician; healthcare consultant; and FBI Medical Director for South Central Connecticut Regional SWAT.
His commitment to the future of virtual reality training is visionary and his contribution to support a paradigm shift in learning will benefit healthcare institutions, educators, students and the patients we serve.
As a physician educator, he was an early pioneer of medical case-based learning and has researched, published and presented topics on simulation learning and heuristic computer assisted training. In his role as the lead clinical executive in large complex health systems, Dr. Kiskaddon has had operational oversight over medical quality, patient and staff safety, infection control and regulatory readiness in the organizations he served.
Elizabeth Later, BSN, MHA, RN, CENP, CPPS
Elizabeth Later, RN is a seasoned nursing executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in healthcare specific to acute care hospitals. With a clinical background founded in cardiac and critical care nursing, Elizabeth brings strong nursing qualifications that complement her leadership expertise, and which inform her influence with a strong patient-centered focus.
Originally from the coast of South Carolina, Elizabeth found a new love for all things in the West when she married her husband, Kent, who is from Southeastern Idaho. Their forty year marriage, blessed with four children and seven grandchildren, has given her opportunities to work in hospitals in South Carolina, Idaho, and Utah as she and Kent sought to spend time with both of their families.
a strong passion for leadership development and work that promotes better care and a richer life for people suffering with mental illness.
Her accomplishments include nursing leadership and community awards including the Utah Business Magazine Healthcare Hero Award, Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Leader of the Year Award, and the March of Dimes Idaho Nursing Excellence Award. She is an accomplished pianist, published author, and has a strong passion for leadership development and work that promotes better care and a richer life for people suffering with mental illness.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Medical University of South Carolina, a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration from Independence University, and is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) as well as a Certified Nurse Executive (American Organization of Nurse Leaders). She is currently the Chief Nursing Officer at St. Francis-Emory Healthcare Hospital in Columbus, Georgia.
Dr. Shelton Ricks
Dr. Ricks has traveled the world in many capacities sharing the importance of leadership and followership, soft-skill development, the impact of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accountability (DEIA) and the power of using data analytics to support initiatives.
Shelton has worked for Verizon, Northrop Grumman, Huntington Ingalls, Federal Express, Norfolk Public Schools, The City of Newport News, and Bank of America, and as an entrepreneur for Shelton LR and Associates. Currently, Shelton is a Senior Leader in the US Federal Government in the area of leadership development and analytics. During his enterprise leadership assignment, he stood up two immersive learning courses on "Feedback", and "Interviewing".
Additionally, Shelton has endured over a decade of academic service, molding business-minded individuals as a professor at Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University, DeVry University, Keller Graduate School of Management, and Eastern Gateway Community College.
An advocate and influencer of sharing the power of immersive learning by sharing his research and serving on panels educating others on the benefits of using immersive technology.
Concerning building respect across differences, Shelton’s current interest is to build from his previous research on training transfer and understanding how to increase felt anxieties of diversity and inclusion experiences through immersive learning experiences.
Dr. Ricks wrote a whitepaper, Presence and Immersive Technology Adoption (PiTA): Exploratory Research -Simulation Soft-Skill Development Exploring Use Cases in Virtual Reality, which he will present at the Interservice/Industry Training Simulation Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in December 2023. The findings highlighted incremental gains from pre and post-assessments concerning comfort levels with discussing diversity and inclusion training and felt anxiety. In the past, Shelton has partnered with Kari Heistad at Culture Coach International, a key DEIA influencer on several key initiatives to build tools that allow increases in cultural competency.
Shelton holds a Bachelor's degree in Critical Thinking and Assessment, a Master's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management, and a Doctorates in Management/Organizational Leadership.
Shelton has been married for over 20 years and has three children. He moonlights as a softball announcer for his daughter's softball team in the spring and fall seasons.
You can see all of our Strategic Advisors here.
