Bridging the Gap OR and SPD Collaboration for Surgical Excellence

Barbara Ann Harmer is the Vice President of Clinical Services at Innovative Sterilization Technologies, LLC. Barbara is a highly skilled, knowledgeable, and visionary perioperative nursing leader with over 48 years of administrative and clinical management and internal and external consulting experience in both inpatient, outpatient, and multi-campus healthcare facilities. She is the founder and President of MedAssist Consultants Inc., a highly respected and experienced consulting company for over 45 years. She has successfully provided medical and surgical consulting services to over 325 clients nationally and internationally. Barbara Ann’s record demonstrates increasingly challenging healthcare leadership positions. She is sought after as a speaker for local, regional, and national symposiums and conventions. Ms. Harmer has been a member of AORN since 1977; she is an active voting member of four AAMI working committees, ST/WG 40 - Steam Sterilization hospital practices (ST79) and ST/WG 84 – Endoscope Reprocessing (ST91) and ST/WG 11, General criteria for sterilization processes and sterilizing equipment and the newly formed ST/WG 17, Cleaning and Disinfection. She has participated as a member of the Advisory Committee/WG 40 and assisted in the rework and redesign of ANSI/AAMI ST79: 2017 Comprehensive guide to steam sterilization and sterility assurance in health care facilities. Ms. Harmer has also worked on the development of the AAMI TIR 109, External transport of medical devices processed by health care facilities and AAMI TIR 99, Processing of dilators, transesophageal and ultrasound probes in health care facilities. Ms. Harmer is a past national president of the ophthalmic nursing organization, ASORN, Inc. She was a surveyor for AAAHC for twenty-four years and had conducted CMS surveys since the inception of deemed status surveys in 1996. She is a member of AORN, Inc., ASORN, Inc. and HSPA (formerly known as IAHCSMM).

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Lawayne Perkins is a nationally recognized healthcare operations and consulting leader with more than two decades of experience advancing patient-centered care across perioperative, sterile processing, and surgical services environments. He currently serves as President of Consulting Services, specializing in Central Sterile and Surgical Services, where he advises hospitals and health systems on operational reliability, regulatory readiness, and cross-functional alignment. What distinguishes Mr. Perkins' leadership approach is the intentional integration of healthcare expertise with outside-industry experience. In addition to his clinical and operational background, he brings experience as a real estate investor and marketing strategist, applying principles from asset management, systems engineering, performance economics, and brand strategy to complex healthcare operations. This multidisciplinary lens enables him to design scalable solutions that translate operational improvements into measurable organizational value. Under his leadership, hospitals have reduced operational waste, improved utilization of high-value clinical assets, and successfully prepared system-wide regulatory and accreditation surveys. He has led enterprise-wide assessments and transformation initiatives that align Sterile Processing, the Operating Room, Infection Prevention, Environmental Services, and supply chain teams around shared performance outcomes. Mr. Perkins is known for building functional operational ecosystems—intentional networks of leaders, departments, and partners designed to collaborate rather than operate in silos. These ecosystems consistently deliver measurable, repeatable, and defensible ROI, while strengthening patient safety, workforce engagement, and leadership accountability. His work positions collaboration not as an initiative, but as a disciplined operating model.

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Dan DeShane is the Director of New Business Development for the Sterile Processing Division at Southmedic Inc., where he brings over 20 years of experience in the medical device and sterile processing industry. In his role, Dan partners with Sterile Processing and Operating Room teams across North America to support effective reprocessing practices and product solutions. He is recognized for his expertise in manual cleaning techniques and device reprocessing, and serves as the lead instructor for Southmedic’s accredited CEU course “Brushes: The Mechanism to Clean,” helping healthcare professionals deepen their understanding of brush selection, manual cleaning strategies, and best practices aligned with current industry standards.

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Adam Okada has 19 years of experience in Sterile Processing and is passionate about helping improve the quality of patient care by giving SPD professionals and their infection prevention partners greater access to education and information. He has worked in just about every position in the Sterile Processing Department including Case Cart Builder, SPD Tech I, II, and III, Lead Tech, Tracking System Analyst, Supervisor of both SPD and HLD, Manager, and now as an Educator. Adam is currently a Clinical Education Specialist at Healthmark, a Getinge company, where he works on Healthmark webinars and hybrid events, educational videos, as well as the Ask the Educator Podcast with Kevin Anderson.

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Cindy Burleson, MBA, BSN, RN is the Administrator and CEO of Brunswick Surgery Center, a physician-owned Orthopedic, Spine, and Pain Management Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) located in Leland, NC. With a passion for building strong work teams through empowerment, mentoring, and servant leadership, Cindy has been instrumental in transforming the organizational culture and achieving remarkable milestones. Cindy's leadership has driven significant quality improvements and efficiency gains while reducing costs. Under her guidance, Brunswick Surgery Center became the first ASC in the nation to achieve Advance Certification in all four categories from Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Healthcare: Hip & Knee, Shoulder, Spine, and Foot & Ankle. Prior to her current role, Cindy managed an Orthopedic Hospital Surgical Services and Central Sterile Processing Department. Her extensive experience also includes serving as the Trauma/Neuro/Spine Surgery Department Coordinator, Manager of an 84-bed surgical/neuro unit, Risk Manager, Outcomes Manager, Coding/Billing Manager, and Trauma/Neuro/Surgical/Cardiovascular ICU nurse. With over 35 years in nursing, Cindy's comprehensive clinical background and dedication to excellence continue to inspire and lead her team along with other ASC’s toward greater achievements.

Brandi has over 16 years of experience in sterile processing and currently serves as the Sterile Processing and Materials Manager at Brunswick Surgery Center, a physician-owned Orthopedic, Spine, and Pain Management Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) located in Leland, North Carolina. She has a strong passion for sterilization and consistently applies AAMI standards to ensure safe, reliable, and high-quality patient care. Brandi leverages her organizational skills and frugal approach to minimizing excess spending and reduce waste within the facility. She works closely with vendors and product distributors to decrease the environmental impact of medical waste and to ensure only the minimum necessary instrumentation is used for cases, reducing the risk of bioburden. She is highly attentive to the performance and maintenance of all sterile processing equipment and proactively manages plans for equipment downtime. Prior to her role at Brunswick Surgery Center, Brandi worked at Cape Fear Orthopedic Hospital, where she helped implement Turbett Pods and played a key role in reconstructing the sterile storage area to align with company policies and AAMI standards, while creating an organized and user-friendly workspace.