Office of Performance Improvement (OPI)

About Our Office

Staff Profiles

Bernita “Bee” Frazier, M.P.A., Ph.D. (c.), is the Performance Improvement Manager with the Office of Performance Improvement (OPI). She provides leadership and management for OPI activities, and is responsible for providing consultation and technical assistance on a variety of quality improvement topics. She also helps to develop and implement educational quality improvement curricula. In addition, she helps programs to learn and apply quality improvement (QI) methods and tools. She is skilled in developing measurable program objectives, data collection and analyses, designing logic models and scopes of work, developing performance measures, process improvement, and identifying best practices.

Bee has over ten years of experience in quality improvement, including leadership, implementation and research in public, nonprofit, private and academic settings. Her research interests include: health disparities; cultural competence; maternal and child health, and chronic diseases and conditions. Bee received her Master’s in Public Administration from the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University, and she is currently completing her doctoral degree in Educational Psychology at Florida State University. She also holds graduate certificates in Public Financial Management, Measurement and Statistics, and Program Evaluation.

Robert Patterson, M.S., Ph.D., is the Public Health Informatics Specialist with the Office of Performance Improvement. Robert has a broad background in the application of evaluation and measurement tools and methods including: system design and development; process engineering / re-engineering; Six Sigma/Black Belt, and Lean Enterprise.

Robert’s expertise also includes IT project management, the development of management information systems, as well as work in the areas of strategic planning and organizational effectiveness including training, performance management, leadership assessment and organizational design.

Robert completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology. Robert’s primary focus area is the appropriate capture, integration and use of health information to enable effective evaluation and improve decision making within the Public Health domain.

Kristal Thompson-Black, M.P.A., is the Quality Improvement Consultant with the Office of Performance Improvement. She is responsible for providing consultation and technical assistance on a variety of quality improvement topics. Ms. Thompson-Black is experienced in developing training curricula, data collection and analyses, designing scopes of work, developing performance measures, identifying best practices, and sustainability planning.

Her public health research interests include: health disparities; cultural competence; maternal and child health, and chronic diseases and conditions. Additionally, Ms. Thompson-Black is skilled in strategic planning, program/policy development and implementation. Kristal received her B.S. in Criminal Justice and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Institute of Government at Tennessee State University. She also has a graduate certificate in Health Administration and Planning.