Leadership Profiles

Lisa G. Hannusch :: CEO

Lisa knew her calling early on and had a single focus to dedicate her career to health care.  While working her way through college in various clinical roles including EMT, pharmacy and physical therapy services, she was driven to find a path to improving the health care economic delivery system.  She has spent the last 25 years serving the industry in various capacities, from health care reformer to managed care entrepreneur, with a special passion for developing technology solutions that drive health care efficiency and quality.  Lisa’s health care dedication created an environment for her to direct large scale insurance medical operations and the strategy behind a billion dollar corporation’s entry into workers’ compensation. She utilized her extensive experience while building her own managed care companies where she helped clients achieve a competitive edge through better operations. Ultimately, Lisa’s vast knowledge of the industry and her passion for leadership led her to join UniMed Direct in 2005 where she currently serves as CEO.

Karen S. Kyle :: Founder

Karen is a registered nurse who has spent much of her career building and supporting managed care operations in clinical and insurance organizations. She was an early inventor of return-to-work programs in a hospital setting and subsequently managed large scale utilization review and case management operations. She has vast experience in managing dynamic teams, constructing compliant processes and cultivating outstanding customer satisfaction. Karen formed UniMed Direct because she knew she could do utilization review better. Better than what she had seen during her years at other companies, better than what customers expected and better than what was required by law.

Karen Atkins :: VP, Operations

Karen has spent her career managing large multi-state operations using her extensive knowledge of strategic planning, business policies, systems implementation and marketing. She has exceptional expertise in improving processes through a Six Sigma style approach and a broad knowledge of technology in operational settings.  Prior to joining the UniMed Direct executive team, Karen managed national multi-million dollar workers’ comp operations in bill review, peer review, utilization review and PPO networks for Fortune 500 companies.  Her passion for finding solutions to rising health care costs and her focus on service delivery has brought her numerous accolades from clients, including circle of excellence awards. Karen’s passion for operations and in-depth knowledge of integrating medical cost containment services and technology ensures client satisfaction and impeccable customer service.  Karen is based in Dallas and oversees our national managed care operations.

Jaelene Fayhee :: VP, Strategy and Regulatory Services

Jaelene has spent her career in the insurance industry working with associations, agencies and carriers.  She has amassed tremendous expertise in multiple insurance markets and complex regulatory frameworks. For the last 20 years, Jaelene has been a leader for reform, especially in workers’ compensation, identifying stakeholder concerns and developing solutions for cost containment. In key executive positions at a large insurance company and state agency, Jaelene worked tirelessly to help build a system to better serve injured workers as well as employers. She has provided invaluable education to groups of employers, health care providers and legislators and has built key industry relationships. Jaelene’s passion for cost containment led her to UniMed Direct, where her expertise and dedication form a cornerstone of UniMed Direct’s ability to carry out its vision for a better healthcare economic system.  Jaelene is based in Austin and oversees regulatory functions including national licenses for UniMed Direct.

Stacey Jefferson :: VP, Client Solutions

Stacey has spent her career in the information technology field where she has managed multi-million dollar IT departments and project budgets.  With an extensive background in improving business processes through application development initiatives, Stacey has overseen the implementation of leading-edge technologies to support workers’ compensation and other insurance processes.   Having worked at a large insurance company and a state regulatory agency, Stacey has developed expertise in designing, implementing, supporting and securing complex IT networks and development architectures and applications.  Stacey’s enthusiasm for implementing IT solutions that improve business communications and processes led her to UniMed Direct, where her skills and devotion to continuous improvement are valued and encouraged.  Stacey is based in Austin and oversees all information technology operations for UniMed Direct.

Nicholas Tsourmas, MD :: Medical Director

Dr. Tsourmas is Board Certified in orthopaedic surgery, completing his residency work at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and an internal medicine internship at Penn State University Hershey Medical School. Dr. Tsourmas has extensive experience as a medical director in the workers’ compensation industry and has also served as a medical consultant for medical boards and regulatory agencies.  He has partnered with major property and casualty carriers to develop protocols for monitoring patient care including pharmaceutical care.  Dr. Tsourmas has been in active practice for 25+ years and has been a clinical assistant professor at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for more than 10 years.  Dr. Tsourmas brings practical experience both as an orthopaedic surgeon and medical advisor to help UniMed Direct ensure medical integrity for our clients.