AEPC Leadership Team

With a work history in health care economics and delivery systems going back over 30 years, Suzanne M. Daniels, Ph.D. is recognized as a distinguished leader committed to quality care and responsible, transparent fiscal management. Under her direction at AEPC, the complex process of vendor selection, auditing practices, and developing innovative benefit delivery models is based on sophisticated analytics meshed with concern for real-life positive outcomes. She is passionate about wellness, and has developed AEPC member education presentations on topics such as hospital patient safety and specialty pharmacy.

Daniels is well-versed in working within coalition environments: as Senior Vice President at the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) she expanded purchaser participation to create a coalition representing over 4.5 million covered lives in 85 health plans nationwide. At the Greater Detroit Area Health Council Daniels led the development of a managed care evaluation tool that provided a cross-market health plan evaluation process for multi-state Fortune 100 companies.

Daniels currently presides as Committee Chair for several United Auto Worker (UAW) Health and Welfare Trusts and VEBAs. Equally experienced with the public sector, Daniels created a new business model for the Public Employee Trust (PET), as well as developing an alternative health benefits delivery model for Michigan public education employees.

Daniels is a sought-after speaker and consultant for projects and organizations as wide-ranging as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the International Foundation of Employee Benefits, the Disease Management Association of America and the Michigan State Medical Society. She has provided testimony and technical expertise to legislators and state agencies, including officials on both sides of the aisle.

Tim Ochalek was elected AEPC Board Chair in December, 2022. Now retired from a career spanning 38 years with the Bricklayers and Allied Crafts (BAC) Local 2, Ochalek worked as a business agent representing tile, marble and terrazzo members throughout southeastern Michigan. Ochalek negotiated and serviced labor contracts, and also served as a Trustee on the Pension and Health and Welfare Funds for the Local. Before working as a business agent, Ochalek was an instructor at the Local’s Education Center, where he specialized in tile work.

Ochalek started attending AEPC meetings in the early days to learn as much as possible about the complex and constantly changing landscape of employee benefits. He realized AEPC’s coalition approach was a good fit with labor union philosophy, as it clearly demonstrated the power and benefit of coming together for the collective good.  With so much institutional knowledge about AEPC and the benefits industry in general, Board Chair Ochalek is well-suited to shape the big picture moving forward.

A key person in the founding and growth of AEPC, Philip Schloop was the organization’s first Board Chairman until he stepped down in June, 2022. It’s no exaggeration to say that without his vision and dogged determination, AEPC would not be in the strong position we are today. Schloop never flinched in the decades he spent guiding AEPC through numerous financial and political challenges. At the same time, he never lost sight of our ultimate priority: to assure that working families have a voice in the complicated world of healthcare.

Phil Schloop’s 40-year+ career in organized labor, government, and health organizations demonstrates that his practical nature has always been in service to high ideals. Starting out as a boiler operator in the Detroit Public Schools, Schloop rose to the rank of International Vice President of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). As the Business Manager of IUOE Local 547, a 6,000 member Local with over 250 public and private sector contracts throughout Michigan, Schloop was an early innovator in creating and working within coalitions to leverage workers’ collective power. He is the past chair of the Coalition of Unions for the city of Detroit and the Coalition of Unions at Michigan State University. He was a founding member of the Detroit Casino Council and member of the Detroit Public Schools Coalition.

Having served on the boards of a Taft-Hartley Benefit Trust and a public employee VEBA, Schloop sharpened his expertise in the health care arena through participation in International Foundation of Employee Benefits initiatives and as a board member of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council.

With a keen understanding of how government institutions impact workers, Schloop served as chair of the Governor’s Labor Management Committee, and also on the Michigan OSHA Health Standards Commission. Additionally, Schloop worked closely with state legislators on key issues affecting his members. In 2006 he successfully ushered the Michigan Boiler Registration Bill through the full House of Representatives, creating consistent and proper standards to protect the public as well as members of the trade.

Johnny Mickles is a Field Representative with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Michigan.

AFT Michigan is a statewide union of 96 locals and 35,000 members working for K-12 and intermediate school districts, community colleges, universities, and municipal government. Mickles began his career as a Field Representative in February 2004. He currently works with 20 locals throughout the state, where his many duties include negotiating and servicing contracts.

Mickles also serves as a Trustee for the Public Employee Trust, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mickles taught American history in the Detroit Public Schools and has been a member of Detroit Federation of Teachers AFT Local 231 since 1996, where he served as Building Representative.

Heather Carman has a wealth of care management experience, currently working as Senior Vice President of Plan Administration for Solxsys Administrative Solutions. Whether she is creating annual cost and benefit studies, ensuring compliance with government regulations, or crafting effective communications for Trust administrators and members, Carman combines her analytical background with an understanding that service to people matters the most.

Carman’s career path in care management has encompassed nearly every function within this complex field. As Director of Customer Relations at the Michigan Conference of Teamsters Welfare Fund she managed the Field Services Department where she was responsible for growing and strengthening relationships with Local Unions and contributing Employers. At BeneSys, a company specializing in Taft-Hartley Trust Fund Management, Carman also worked with multiple VEBA Retiree Trusts. Carman has written numerous articles for union publications and traveled the country explaining benefits to participants and retirees.

Rick Isaacson is a Trustee for the UAW Retirees of the Budd Company Health and Welfare Trust, which provides health care benefits for retirees and their surviving spouses of the Budd Company.

Isaacson has a wealth of experience representing the interests of retired union workers through his participation in the Voluntary Employee Benefits Associations (VEBAs) for a number of other groups including UAW Dana, UAW St. Joseph, and UAW Automotive Components Carrier (ACC).

A member of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union since 1977, Isaacson began his union career as a Plant Committeeman, moving on to become Plant Chair and then Local Union President. In 1998 he became a Servicing Representative in UAW Region 1, and in 2000 he moved to UAW International Headquarters, Solidarity House, where he led the Independent Parts Sector (IPS) Department. Isaacson was named Administrative Assistant to the President of the UAW in 2013 and served in that position until his retirement in 2018.

Isaacson has negotiated national contracts, serviced those contracts, and participated in all levels of policy and administrative functions of the UAW. His long and rewarding career is a source of personal pride and inspiration to continue striving for a better life for working people.

Nancy R. Papet is President of Papet-Westley & Associates LLC, a licensed insurance agency advising and managing employee benefits for clients. Before beginning her own agency, Papet had a successful 25-year career with Aetna in positions including Manager of the Small Business Market for the Great Lakes Region, and Sales Manager for Established Business. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Business Management.

Papet’s experiences include contract administration, technical reviews, benefit design, funding, and claims administration for employers, Taft-Hartley union-management groups, and associations.

Papet is a proven expert in limited access disability and health care design and administration. Using managed care medical plans and managed disability plans, she has reduced disability and health care costs for clients. In conjunction with a major retail employer, Papet developed Michigan’s first managed disability program.

Papet is certified in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) for individuals and small groups and has completed HIPAA Privacy & Security Training. After a technically difficult course, Papet earned certifications in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Self-Insurance, and Wellness from the National Association of Health Underwriters.

Gary J. Petroni has spent over 30 years planning and evaluating the organization, delivery, and financing of health care as well as the dynamics of health status within communities.

Currently, as the Executive Director of the Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) and the Center for Population Health (CPH), Petroni is responsible for the leadership of a 65-year-old non-profit which is dedicated to improving community health by providing grant management services, leadership development, health research, planning, health assessment activities for private and public sector organizations throughout the region.

Petroni’s professional responsibilities have included regional liaison and consultant to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for Community Health Assessment activities, the Uninsured Task Force, and Certificate of Need (CON) program activities.

Governance activities include: member of the Board of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council, and trustee on several UAW Health and Welfare Retirement Trusts.

Memberships include the Association of Health Services Research, American Public Health Association, Michigan Society for Health Care Planning and Marketing and the Michigan Association for Evaluation.

Prior to joining SEMHA, Petroni served as Director of Research and Information System for the Greater Detroit Area Health Council (GDAHC), 1985-1995.

Dawn Reck is Senior Director of Client Engagement with Remedy Analytics. An expert in pharmacy benefits management, Dawn’s excellence in client management across national accounts is based on a solid foundation.

Reck has over 30 years of pharmacy experience and has held multiple roles across the industry, including as a pharmacy technician at retail pharmacies, hospital pharmacies, and home health care. She has vast experience working in managed care and consulting.

At a large consulting firm, Reck managed over 25 clients across lines of business including direct self-funded employers, union and EGWP clients. Her responsibilities included managing day-to-day requests, interpreting analytical data, reporting benchmarks/trends and development/delivery of clients plan performance.

Her vast industry experience spans PBM vendor evaluation and procurement, PBM contracting and negotiations management, plan design and analysis, analytic reporting, and pharmacy benefit consulting.