Onsite Training
Sharon E. Comden, Dr.P.H.
Sharon Comden received her doctorate in Public Health (Health Services Administration with a minor in Sociotechnical Systems
Engineering) from UCLA. She has years of experience working in healthcare, including community and academic medical
centers, Kaiser Permanente, Oregon’s state public health agency, and as a patient safety consultant.
Since 1992, her career has been focused on quality improvement and patient safety. In 1999, she retired from Kaiser
Permanente’s corporate offices as V.P. of Quality Systems, relocated to Bandon, OR, and has continued to consult and
volunteer on a variety of patient safety initiatives. In 2002, she was the lead author of Statewide Patient Safety
Coalitions: A Status Report, a monograph for the National Academy for State Health Policy. She was a consultant to
the Oregon Health Systems Policy unit, serving as senior patient safety advisor to the Public Health Officer, Dr.
Grant Higginson. During 2002-3, she staffed the work group that developed the legislation that created the Oregon
Patient Safety Commission, and was the Project Director for the recently completed AHRQ risk assessment study, Risk
Models to Improve Long Term Care Medication Safety. Sharon worked closely with Outcome Engineering on this project
and jointly authored articles about this work with David Marx and other members of the research team. She is
currently a consultant and healthcare editor for The Just Culture Community.
Zoe Sexhus, MS
Zoe Sexhus gained an appreciation and appetite for human factors while at Purdue University. She graduated from
Purdue with a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial Technology and a specialty in Aviation Maintenance Human
Factors. Throughout her masters program, Zoe worked extensively with airline maintenance organizations, and during
which time she worked at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) where she and former board member John
Goglia co-presented at the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) conference in Amsterdam.
She began her career at Boeing in the Human Factors group and later moved on to U.S. Airways as a Quality Auditor
within Quality Assurance. Zoe then made the transition to Alaska Airlines as Manager of Human Factors in the
Maintenance Division. There, she had the opportunity to roll up her sleeves and lay the groundwork to build a
foundation to implement a Just Culture in the maintenance division. She spent three years with Alaska Airlines in
Seattle.
Zoe joined Outcome Engineering in 2003. She continues to apply her experience in supporting both the healthcare
and rail industries in their journey toward building a Just Culture. In the international arena, she has represented
the consultancy group on risk management and human factors tasks.
John Westphal
John Westphal is a Human Factors Specialist at Outcome Engineering. John has over 18 years experience in military,
general, commercial and aero-space maintenance/flight operations as an aircraft technician and human factors
specialist. John worked at Northwest Airlines as Manager of Human Factors in technical operations closely working
with management, labor and the FAA to implement prevention strategies reducing the risk of flight safety events.
Additionally, John has worked with NASA, the airline industry, and multiple hospitals developing prevention strategies
at a systemic level for human error events using a Socio-Technical Probabilistic Risk Assessment model (STPRA). Outside
of Aviation and Healthcare, John was the Director of Safety for a large manufacturing firm. In that role John was
responsible for the over all safety program in the commercial glass fabrication plants. John is also a Six Sigma Black
Belt and managed Six Sigma Black Belt projects related to safety within manufacturing operations.
