Meet the Authors

   Leslie Ann Fox

Leslie Ann Fox, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA is CEO and co-founder of Care Communications, Inc., a national healthcare consulting and staffing company dedicated to advancing best practices in health information management, revenue cycle management and the transition to electronic health records, since 1976. She is a pioneer in the development and application of Systems-Based Leadership™, an approach to leading and consulting in organizations that addresses the challenge of managing anxiety provoked by an unrelenting environment of transformative change. She provides executive coaching to healthcare leaders and consultants.

She is the co-author of Leading a Business in Anxious Times: A Systems Approach to Becoming More Effective in the Workplace and frequently presents at national and local meetings on a systems-based framework for leading change. She is also the author of numerous articles and publications on best practices in health information management and currently co-authors with Patty Sheridan the “Hands-on Help” column that appears monthly in ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals.

Ms. Fox is on the faculty of the post-graduate training program at the Center for Family Consultation in Wilmette, IL where she lectures on the application of Bowen Family Systems Theory in organizations. She serves on the advisory board of the Health Information Technology program at Oakton Community College in Niles, IL, and she is a former adjunct professor of Health Information Management at the University of Illinois.

Ms. Fox is an active member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), where she has held numerous leadership positions including being a founding member of the AHIMA Practice Council on Personal Health Records. In 2003, she represented AHIMA on the Personal Health Record Working Group, a subcommittee of the Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health Care, a project that is advancing the National Health Information Infrastructure. Currently Ms. Fox is the Co-Chair of the AHIMA Foundation Campaign, Transforming Health Information. She received AHIMA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Member award, in 2007.

Since 2003, Ms. Fox has served on the board of directors of Save The Patient, a Chicago-Based Patient Advocacy organization whose mission is to educate and empower patients and the public to make effective and informed health care decisions through objective resources. You can also follow her on Twitter.

   Katharine Gratwick Baker

Katharine Baker is the co-author of Leading a Business in Anxious Times, published in 2009 by Care Communications Press. She has published additional book chapters and articles on a wide variety of business topics. She co-authored an article in Family Business Review entitled "Leadership, Legacy and Emotional Process in Family Business." She has also written an article entitled "Family Business in the New Russia" for Families in Business Magazine, and co-authored "Giving Harmoniously as a Family" for More Than Money Journal.

In addition to her publications, Dr. Baker is an experienced business consultant who has worked with family enterprises and closely held firms, providing executive and leadership coaching, strategic planning, organizational learning services, and time management seminars. She is tuned to the complexities of companies that operate in the global marketplace, and understands the historic multicultural, linguistic and systemic challenges of international business.

Dr. Baker currently is an independent scholar and executive coach with a solo consultation practice based in Western Massachusetts, but she includes national and international clients in her work. She is a former business partner with Kathleen Wiseman, MBA, the founder and director of Working Systems in Washington, DC, and she was senior consultant for The Metropolitan Group/Relative Solutions in New York from 1998 to 2006.

One of Dr. Baker’s particular interests is working with family foundations and family philanthropies. She facilitates family board meetings that deal with wealth management issues, and she coaches and trains family leaders and the non-family middle management of family businesses. She also coaches family businesses going through organizational shifts, such as rapid growth, downsizing and generational succession.

Baker is the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study, "Carol Brewer's Investments," and has developed this experience into a service called, "Getting Your Financial House in Order: A Consultation Service for Widows and Divorcees." Through this individually tailored service she coaches clients to build competence and confidence in effectively managing the emotional aspects of financial, business, and philanthropic decisions following divorce or the death of a spouse.

She graduated from Harvard/Radcliffe College, and received her master's degree in Russian Studies from NYU. She also holds masters and doctoral degrees in social work from Catholic University. Baker received many years of post-doctoral training at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC, where the focus is on understanding families, the workplace, and organizations through the lens of Bowen theory, a natural systems-based theory of human behavior.

She was a member of the Family Firm Institute for ten years and currently serves on a number of Boards, including the Planning Board of Northampton, MA.