Our Team
Brand Newland, PharmD, MBA
CEO and Co-founder
Brand Newland, PharmD, MBA, is the CEO and Co-founder of Goldfinch Health. Inspired by personal experiences with the pitfalls of surgery and a lack of proactive solutions to the Opioid Crisis, Brand helped to launch a vision toward a higher standard of care in surgery and recovery in 2018. Goldfinch Health optimizes the surgery and recovery experience for patients, saving companies and patients time, money, and addiction.
Brand has over 15 years of experience in bringing new healthcare solutions to payers, employers, healthcare providers, and patients. Brand joined OutcomesMTM, a pharmacy Medication Therapy Management company, as the firm’s fourth employee. He served OutcomesMTM in business development and operations leadership roles, seeing the company through rapid growth and eventually its acquisition by Cardinal Health in 2015. Brand received a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Iowa and holds a certification in pain management. He has also completed an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
John Greenwood
COO and Co-founder
John Greenwood is the COO and Co-founder of Goldfinch Health. He has a background in medical research and over a decade of experience in surgery, training and advising on thousands of advanced procedures with some of the most advanced and respected companies in healthcare. John has spent 15 years working with physicians and brings expertise in pain management, surgical techniques, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols, and clinical program implementation. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology degree from the University of Iowa.
Mario Leyba, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Leyba is a board-certified surgeon who performs a wide variety of surgical procedures, including robotic-assisted and minimally-invasive surgery. He specializes in complex robotic surgical procedures and has done many of the first robotic procedures in New Mexico. Dr. Leyba earned his medical degree from the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine and completed his surgical residency at Good Samaritan Hospital Level 1 Trauma Center in Phoenix.
Kate Emerson, RN
VP, Nurse Navigation
Kate has 15-plus years of nursing experience, including critical and post-anesthesia care as well as senior nurse executive roles. She is focused on developing, enhancing and fostering collaborative, multi-discipline patient care models with a patient and family-centered approach. Kate received the “Patient advocate award recognition” during her time practicing in Arizona. A certified critical care Registered Nurse, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Iowa.
“At the heart of my nursing practice is providing support through the healing processes and advocating for patients and their families as an active member of their health care team.”
Our Medical Advisory Board
Bret Alvis, MD, is Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is a published researcher and expert in Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols and opioid-sparing pain management approaches. Dr. Alvis earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa. He completed his anesthesiology residency and fellowship in critical care medicine at Vanderbilt.
Bulent Cetindag, MD, FACS, is a board-certified and nationally-recognized surgeon and Vice Chair of Surgery at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dr. Cetindag is a member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Hernia Task Force National Committee. He earned his medical degree from the Ege University School of Medicine in Izmir, Turkey, and completed his surgical residency at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois.
Vinod Dasa, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon and Associate Professor of Clinical Orthopaedics, Director of Research, at LSU Health in New Orleans. In his tenure at LSU, he has developed surgical techniques to allow outpatient total knee replacement and pioneered the use of cutting edge technologies such as iovera. Dr. Dasa has presented and published his research internationally in some of the world’s leading publications and meetings. He serves in leadership roles both regionally and nationally and was most recently involved in national expert panels to help CMS redesign the delivery of total joint replacements and establish national guidelines on the management of knee arthritis.
Dr. Dasa completed his undergraduate and medical school in the 7 year combined degree program at Union College and Albany Medical College in New York. After completing medical school, Dr. Dasa trained in the State University at New York (SUNY) at Buffalo orthopaedic surgery residency program. In 2006 he furthered his training at the Insall Scott Kelly Institute, Manhattan, New York, in Sports Medicine and Joint Replacement Surgery. This fellowship is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers in total knee replacement surgery.
Karen Gagnon, RN, is a Certified Case Manager with over 30 years experience in developing and implementing care management programs in payer, provider, and vendor settings, integrating predictive analytics to optimize clinical and qualitative outcomes. She is a recipient of the CMSA Case Manager of the Year Award and contributed to the initial case management Standards of Practice.
