Leadership

Phillip Franks, MBA, MASDesiree Thomas, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FACHERachel L. Tillman, SHRM-CPValerie Fryer, MBAVictor Jordan, MBARosalie ZollNicole Ramirez, MBA, MA

Phillip Franks is the Chief Executive Officer of Be Well OC.

Franks brings to Be Well OC more than 25 years of experience in healthcare and military leadership. He most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of OC Specialty Health & Hospitals, where he led two simultaneous new hospital projects through a complex and challenging process of planning, construction, and operation. Under his leadership, both Anaheim Community Hospital, a 98-bed General Acute Care Hospital and Outpatient Surgery Center, and Aliso Ridge Behavioral Health, a 119-bed Acute Psychiatric Hospital in Aliso Viejo, opened their doors in service to the community in 2022.

Prior to his work in Orange County, Franks served as COO of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second largest municipal health system in the nation. He began his career with 18 dedicated years of service in the United States Army where he rose to Chief Administrative Officer – 40th Infantry Division. He retired from military service in 2015.

Franks holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle, and an undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of San Francisco. He is a resident of Huntington Beach.

Desiree Thomas is the Chief Operating Officer of Be Well OC.

Desiree has more than two decades of healthcare leadership experience spanning several prominent organizations across Southern California. She most recently served as Executive Director of Emergency Department, Critical Care and Behavioral Health Services for Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange. In this position, she had oversight for more than 550 full time employees and 141 beds, including 53 ED beds with 90,000 annual patient visits.

Her responsibilities included not only fiscal management and programmatic growth for her units but also developing and maintaining physician alignment for local and regional initiatives such as clinical performance improvement and contract management.

After beginning her nursing career as a critical care nurse at LAC+USC Medical Center, Desiree spent 14 years rising through the nursing ranks at MemorialCare Health System. During her tenure, she served in several key roles including Director of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Services as well as System Director of COVID-19 Surge Planning in the initial months of the 2020 pandemic. She was also tapped to lead as Interim Vice President of Critical Care Services at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Desiree holds a Master of Science degree in Nursing from Mount St. Mary’s University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Biola University, and will complete the Executive Master of Business Administration program at University of California Irvine in June 2024. She has received several nursing and leadership accolades during her career is a member of several industry organizations including the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), and Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL).

Rachel Tillman is the Director of Human Resources for Be Well OC.

Valerie Fryer, MBA has served as Mind OC’s Director of Finance from the organization’s founding to the present.  Ms. Fryer has been a Principal at Miles Away Consulting since 2019. Valerie has more than 18 years of finance experience working with nonprofits & 10 years with corporate finance.

During her career, she has led all facets of operational & finance management including accounting, financials, budgets, information technology, human resources administration and audits.  At OneOC, Valerie led the Business Services Dept for 12 years which was responsible for the OneOC financials, over 100 community initiative oversight & financials, 30 nonprofit accounting / bookkeeping clients and 20 corporate foundation financials.

She is well versed in all levels of government contracts and financial audits.  Previously, she was the Controller for Olive Crest which provided services to care for abused and neglected children in 3 states that included mental health services, prevention, foster/adoption, and education (schools) programs.  Ms. Fryer holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Victor Jordan is the Chief Financial Officer of Be Well OC.

More than 20 years’ experience as a healthcare executive with progressive responsibility for regional and market operations, financial services and strategy for non-profit, faith-based integrated healthcare delivery systems, for-profit healthcare organizations and community hospitals. Expertise includes streamlining operations and improving financial performance, forging partnerships and joint ventures, acquisitions and integration as well as  clinical care improvement work and service line development initiatives. Possesses a strong background in developing and mentoring emerging leaders, building collaboration among teams and initiating strategies to respond to market and business changes.

Rosie Zoll has served as MindOC’s Director of Planning since January 2020.  Ms. Zoll is an experienced professional in the healthcare planning & design industry, with demonstrated success through the entire project lifecycle, from strategic space planning, design development, operational workflows, training, building activation, and stabilization.

She has over a decade of experience working in healthcare planning & development, most recently working as the Director of Transition Strategy for the new $2Billion Stanford Hospital.  Prior to that project, she led all aspects of Facility Planning for the Hoag Health System in both Newport Beach and Irvine, CA.

Ms. Zoll is passionate about creating environments that truly support, nurture and inspire the people who inhabit them. Ms. Zoll holds a Masters of Science in Human-Environment Relations with a Minor in Healthcare Administration. 

Nicole Ramirez, MBA MA is a Director of Quality Improvement and Network Development with over two decades of successful experience in program planning and implementation. Ms. Ramirez specializes in standing up new programs in the Behavioral Healthcare sector and has a wealth of program management experience on the public and managed care front, most recently serving in the non-profit capacity. Ms. Ramirez began her healthcare career in the children’s behavioral health clinic and administration offices for the Orange County Health Care Agency. Advancing through the agency, she served in lead roles within quality improvement and training fields, planning and implementation of the Orange County MHSA programs beginning with CSS through implementation of the Innovation department.

After completing her Master’s in Clinical Psychology and providing clinical intern services in the Children’s, TAY, and Crisis fields, she stepped into the managed care world where she held a successful Behavioral Health Management position for OC’s COHS plan. During her tenure, Ms. Ramirez completed her Master’s in Healthcare Management while leading the implementation and oversight of the behavioral health portion of Orange County’s Cal Medi-Connect program. During her career in Managed Care, she provided program management and oversight of the CMC plan, provided onboarding training to new hires to the company, responded to policy changes and requests, assisted with Board requests, held a lead role in the planning and implementation of transition from a delegated behavioral health model, served lead in Behavioral Health NCQA response and Audits, maintaining 4 stars on the BH side for the COHS plan and lead quality improvement groups. Most recently, as a Director of QI and Network Development, Nicole manages the Behavioral Health System Transformation project for Mind OC.

PF
DT
RT
VF
VJ
RZ
NR
Phillip Franks, MBA, MASDesiree Thomas, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FACHERachel L. Tillman, SHRM-CPValerie Fryer, MBAVictor Jordan, MBARosalie ZollNicole Ramirez, MBA, MA