Executive Staff

As president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, Bea Grause is a passionate advocate for New York’s nonprofit and public hospitals, health systems and post-acute and continuing care providers. She also oversees HANYS’ nationally engaged for-profit business services. Since her tenure began in 2016, she has contributed her extensive clinical, political and legal know-how to the organization’s agenda and in discussions with state and federal healthcare stakeholders.

Throughout the tremendous challenges of the pandemic, Grause’s leadership ensured that New York’s hospitals and health systems have had resources, flexibility and government support needed to preserve care in communities across the state. Grause continues to advocate on behalf of New York’s hospitals and health systems as they face severe and escalating fiscal and workforce crises post-pandemic.

Prior to HANYS, Grause served as president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems for 14 years, successfully leading Vermont hospitals through a variety of reform initiatives, including the state’s single-payer debate, and building the hospitals’ brand as trusted, competent leaders.

Grause spent 10 years in Washington, D.C., in a variety of positions. She began her D.C. tenure as a legislative assistant, first in the office of Rep. Norman Y. Mineta and then for Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. After she left Capitol Hill, Grause simultaneously held senior governmental affairs positions with the Tennessee Hospital Association and Massachusetts Hospital Association. She spent three years working as counsel with the law firm of Foley, Hoag. In this role, she developed tailored legislative and regulatory strategies for many healthcare clients. Grause previously worked as a registered nurse, primarily in the emergency room and intensive care areas at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center of California.

She completed a three-year term (2012 to 2015) as an at-large member of the American Hospital Association board of trustees, including a 2015 term on the AHA Executive and AHA CEO Search Committees. As part of her AHA board responsibilities, she also served as chairman of the AHA Allied Advisory Committee on Medicaid.

Grause earned her Juris Doctorate in 1991. She earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Boston College in 1979 and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is also a 2003 graduate of the Vermont Leadership Institute.

Mary Kay Hayes joined HANYS in 2015 and served as senior director of corporate finance before her promotion to chief financial officer in 2019. She became chief operating officer in 2023. With more than 25 years of financial management and accounting expertise, she directs all internal financial matters for the association, its affiliates and for-profit subsidiaries.

Her prior experience includes her time as chief financial officer for Blue Slate Solutions, a business process and information technology consulting firm in Albany, various financial analysis positions at FedEx, Promus Hotel Corporation and GE Plastics, and her time working as an auditor for Coopers and Lybrand.

She received a Master of Business Administration degree in finance and accounting from Union College, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of New York.

Cristina Batt serves as senior vice president, federal policy, in the Healthcare Association of New York State’s Washington, D.C. office. Batt oversees all of HANYS’ federal government relations and advocacy activity, working with lawmakers and HANYS’ members to advance the association’s legislative and regulatory agenda.

Before joining HANYS, Batt served as vice president, federal relations, for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association. In that role, she expanded the profile of IHA’s Washington office and advanced IHA’s advocacy agenda, including successfully securing federal approval of a comprehensive redesign of the state’s provider assessment program.

Batt served nearly eight years in the office of U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and as senior policy advisor she managed his health portfolio on the Energy and Commerce Committee. After leaving Capitol Hill, Batt spent three years managing the federal relations portfolio for the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and four years as a program analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focusing on HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis prevention and workplace safety. She graduated from Hamilton College.

Joseph Carr joined HANYS in February 2020 as senior vice president of information services, overseeing all corporate software development, technical infrastructure and telecommunications technologies.

Before HANYS, Carr spent 19 years as chief information officer for the New Jersey Hospital Association. Prior to NJHA he was senior vice president of software development at QuadraMed Corporation where he helped complete QuadraMed’s first and secondary public NASDAQ offerings.

Carr is a certified professional in healthcare information and management systems by the Healthcare Information and Management System Society. He helped form the NJ HIMSS Chapter in 2005 and served on their board from 2005 to 2014, serving as board chair in 2014.

Carr was appointed to the New Jersey State Health Information Technology Commission by Gov. Christie in 2010 and served a two-year term. Carr also served as chair on various New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance state-wide implementation task forces including:

• ASC X12 5010 (2013-2014);
• ICD-10 (2013-2014); and
• HIPAA Transaction and Code Sets Implementation Task Force (2003-2005).

As senior vice president, state policy, Amy Nickson oversees HANYS’ state-level legislative, regulatory and administrative priorities and related analyses and programs. She joined HANYS in 2018 as vice president, governmental affairs. Nickson’s extensive experience in the government and legislative arena allows her to navigate the complexities of state government and work to advance New York’s hospitals and health systems’ state-level priorities.

Nickson previously served as vice president, policy and external affairs, at Community Health Care Association of New York State. Before that, Nickson spent 10 years at the Department of Health, most recently as assistant commissioner of the Office of Governmental and External Affairs. In that role, she was responsible for advising the commissioner of health and senior officials in the governor’s office and the Division of the Budget on policy matters. Nickson also served as a key representative in executive budget development and annual negotiations with the Legislature. Prior to this, she served as deputy director of DOH’s Office of Governmental Affairs. Before joining DOH, Nickson spent a decade in the New York State Assembly, where she served as a legislative analyst working on a variety of human services-related issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Richmond.

Sandi Toll is HANYS’ General Counsel and is responsible for overseeing all of HANYS’ legal, compliance and contractual matters, including those of HANYS’ affiliated organizations and for-profit subsidiaries. She joined HANYS after serving as first assistant counsel to the New York state governor, a position she attained after serving as an assistant counsel to the governor for health-related matters.

Prior to joining the governor’s office, Toll was a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP. As a member of the firm’s healthcare litigation and complex commercial litigation practices, she represented clients on healthcare fraud and abuse matters, supervised and conducted internal investigations and maintained an extensive pro bono practice.

Toll has a J.D. magna cum laude from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a Bachelor of Science with Distinction from Cornell University.

Noah Buck is president of TruePlan BenefIt and Retirement Advisors, an industry-leading, full-service independent consulting firm, registered investment advisor and broker-dealer. He is responsible for TruePlan’s customized retirement and employee benefit services solutions, serving and consulting with clients and overall business strategy.

With more than 20 years of experience in the employee benefits industry, he brings wide-ranging expertise and an important focus on fiduciary governance and comprehensive benefits solutions to TruePlan.

Before joining TruePlan, Buck was a principal in Milliman’s employee benefits practice, where he worked closely with 401(k), 403(b), defined benefit pension and nonqualified plans. His background extends across compliance, investments, recordkeeping, insurance and client relations.

He is FINRA Series 6, 26, 63 and 65 licensed. On the insurance side, he holds life, accident and health, and property and casualty licenses with New York state.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management science and information systems from Penn State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

Al Campanella joined DataGen, a HANYS subsidiary that provides analytics to healthcare providers throughout the United States, as president in 2022. Campanella leads DataGen’s expert team of policy analysts, informaticists, consultants and software engineers as they provide insights on healthcare payment reform, regulatory updates, market dynamics and specialized healthcare topics.

Campanella’s 30 years of accomplishments in health systems and advisory firms underlie his expertise in healthcare operations and strategy, information technology and analytics. Campanella’s career began at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by a decade at the University of Pennsylvania Health System before joining two widely recognized advisory firms, CTG and Deloitte. Most recently, he served for more than 10 years at New Jersey’s Virtua Health as its chief information officer, chief strategy officer and chief operating officer.

Campanella earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University and a Master of Health Policy and Management degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also has a master’s degree in theology from Boston College.