Meet Our Executive Team

Lew Little, Jr.
Chief Executive Officer

Lew Little is chief executive officer and co-founder of Harden Healthcare, LLC, based out of Austin, Texas.

Harden Healthcare is a leading senior healthcare services provider. With services including home health, hospice care, assisted living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, Harden serves the entire post-acute continuum of care. The company strives to provide the best care for its patients, and a sense of pride and purpose for its associates. Today, Harden's family of companies serves almost 40,000 patients a day in 14 states.

Prior to the formation of Harden Healthcare, Little was president of Capstar Partners, LLC beginning in 2000. Before joining Capstar, Little was president of Bank of America in Austin, Texas. Little worked with the bank and its predecessors from August 1984 until December 1999. He began his banking career in 1981 with Texas Commerce Bank in Houston.

Little currently serves on the boards of Andrew Harper Travel, ECG Foundation, Austin Community Foundation, and the Seton Fund. Little is a current member and former chapter chair of the Austin chapter of the World Presidents Organization (WPO). In June 2005, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Austin by Ernst and Young.

Born and raised in Austin, Little earned his BBA in Marketing (1979) and his MBA, with a concentration in Finance (1981), from the University of Texas at Austin.

Scott Ellyson
Chief Financial Officer

Scott Ellyson is the chief financial officer of Harden Healthcare. Prior to joining Harden Healthcare, Ellyson served as a senior member of Houlihan Lokey's Healthcare Investment Banking Group. There, he was active in several areas of corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, private placements and financial restructuring.

Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Ellyson performed strategic consulting and valuation work for healthcare clients in the Transaction Services Group of KPMG, and he worked for Tenet Healthcare supporting its acquisition and integration of several physician group practices and ancillary businesses.

Ellyson earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington, is a certified public accountant and also holds Series 7 and 63 licenses with FINRA (formerly NASD).

Chris Roussos
Chief Operating Officer and President of Hospice Division

Chris Roussos is the chief operating officer of Harden Healthcare. Roussos brings more than 20 years of successful leadership experience to Harden from the private sector — including the healthcare industry — and as a U.S. Army Ranger Officer. Roussos previously held executive management positions with AseraCare Hospice and Home Health, Doctors Urgent Care, Matrix Outpatient Rehabilitation and Beverly Enterprises, among other healthcare companies. Additionally, he has significant recent experience with the Texas Medicaid Program.

Roussos' past responsibilities include overseeing operations, strategic planning, executive team selection and development, and financial performance. He designed and implemented several successful national growth strategies, while maintaining a focus on strengthening clinical care.

Roussos achieved the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army, in which he served from 1985 to 1990. He completed Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, earned an MBA from the University of Phoenix and received a BS from Clarkson University.

Roussos is a member of the Harvard Business School Health Industry Alumni Association and Valley Forge Military Academy Board of Trustees.

Ben Hanson
Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Ben Hanson oversees all legal initiatives for Harden Healthcare and its subsidiaries. Prior to joining Harden, Hanson was employed by DMX Holdings, an international company providing ambient music and other sensory services to retail and hospitality clients, where he was general counsel and secretary. Concurrently, he was principal and general counsel for Capstar Partners (one of Harden's primary investors).

Hanson has several years of prior legal experience, including chief of staff and general counsel for two Texas Secretaries of State (Roger Williams and Geoffrey Connor) and as an assistant general counsel and member of the senior staff for Governor Rick Perry. Hanson began his legal career in the corporate/securities group of Jenkens & Gilchrist, P.C.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in Plan II Honors and Government, and received his law degree from the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. Hanson is a member of the Board of Directors of Meals on Wheels and More.

Dr. Maryann Choi
Chief Medical Officer

As chief medical officer of Harden Healthcare, Dr. Maryann Choi provides high-level medical oversight to all of Harden's companies.

Dr. Choi has extensive experience in geriatric care. She was previously the founder and president of SunStar Geriatrics Healthcare, a physicians group dedicated to geriatric medicine serving Central Texas.

Following residencies in internal medicine at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore and at New Rochelle Hospital in New York, Dr. Choi completed a fellowship in geriatrics at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

She worked as a clinical instructor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and as an instructor of medicine at Albert Einstein Medical College in New York. She is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine, ABHPM certified in hospice and palliative medicine and is also a certified medical director.

In addition, Dr. Choi served as an assistant professor of medicine at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine.

Dr. Choi holds master's degrees in public health from the Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health and in computer science from Hofstra University. She was a Texas delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, was a board member of the Texas Department on Aging and currently serves on the Texas Health and Human Service Commission.

Lori-Don Gregory
Chief Compliance Officer

Lori-Don Gregory joined Harden Healthcare to serve as the chief compliance officer. She is responsible for oversight of the operation of the company-wide compliance program.

Prior to joining Harden, Gregory served as the deputy chief compliance officer and counsel for AMERIGROUP Corporation, a managed care organization participating in federal healthcare programs.

Gregory assumed increasing responsibilities during her thirteen-year tenure with Amerigroup, including implementation of the company's response to a corporate integrity agreement executed in 2008 and integration of compliance efforts across Amerigroup's Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program lines of business.

Prior to her role as the deputy chief compliance officer and counsel, Gregory was responsible for litigation management, provider contracting and coordinating responses to regulatory reviews. Before joining Amerigroup, Gregory practiced with the law firm of Shapiro and Burson.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in government and minor in history. She received her law degree from the Widener University School of Law.

Kim Layton
President, Harden Leadership Institute

As president of the Harden Leadership Institute, Kim Layton is responsible for leadership development training companywide. Since joining Harden in 2003, Layton has organized and facilitated promotion of leadership excellence throughout all Harden divisions. She works with company presidents to instill and promote Harden's values of compassion, motivation, communication, operational excellence and personal integrity in all associates.

Prior to her role as president of the leadership institute, Layton was president and founder of MBS Rehab. While at MBS Rehab, she was responsible for ongoing leadership for the rehabilitation contract company and its 25 locations.

Layton has a long career in the physical therapy field. Prior to founding MBS Rehab, she held numerous positions with Mariner Health Care, including director of risk management for the Texas region, national director of clinical training and national director of rehabilitation development.

Layton earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical therapy and a Master of Science degree in health professions with a major in health care administration from Southwest Texas State University. Layton also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Texas Lutheran College. She is a certified Myers-Briggs instructor and an adjunct faculty member at Texas State University in the School of Allied Health. Layton has completed all requirements but her dissertation for a Doctoral degree in education with a concentration in organizational leadership from the University of Incarnate Word.

Wayne Douglas
President, Community Care Division

Wayne Douglas is the president of the Community Care Division of Harden Healthcare. Prior to joining the company in 1991, he worked in the retail and wholesale grocery industry.

Douglas has served Harden Healthcare in many capacities with experience in both home health and community/personal care. He developed a community education staff for the private pay division and served as the community care coordinator supervisor — a liaison between all the primary care offices and the Department of Human Services. Douglas also developed a community education program for Girling's Medicare division.

In 1994, Douglas became responsible for the day-to-day operations for the primary care offices in Texas and for the Girling Medical Equipment & Supply Company. The job expanded in 1997 to include supervising operations for the Oklahoma Advantage and Personal Care programs. Douglas received his bachelor of arts in business management in 1974 from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kelly Jalowiec
President, Home Health Division

Kelly Jalowiec joined Harden Healthcare in 2001. She was brought on as a regional manager to open Girling's Chicago office. She subsequently grew the company's New York operations from 200 to 1,500 patients.

In 2008 Jalowiec served as vice president of operations and was responsible for day-to-day operations of Girling's 46 skilled home health agencies. She was then named senior vice president of Girling Home Health and Lighthouse Hospice. She helped to grow both divisions organically while implementing efficiencies, developing organizational leaders and paving the way for additional home health and hospice acquisitions.

Jalowiec has a 15-year history in the home health field. Prior to joining Harden Healthcare, she worked closely with physicians and other professional home care drivers to excel in her field of expertise.

Jalowiec earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois.

Jim Gilliam
President, Long-term Care Division

Jim Gilliam serves as president of Harden Healthcare's Long-term Care Division. Gilliam has worked in long-term healthcare for 35 years. He oversees the Long-term Care Division, which consists of senior care facilities, in-patient and out-patient therapy services and long-term care pharmacy services. Prior to joining Harden, he was vice president of operations for Aegis Therapies, an Atlanta, Georgia subsidiary of Golden Living.

Prior to his role at Aegis Therapies, Gilliam served as division president of Golden Living Centers. His responsibilities included managing 72 skilled nursing facilities with 7,400 beds and 7,000 employees. Additional experience includes owning his own long-term care consulting company and serving as an administrator for several nursing homes and senior facilities.

Gilliam earned a bachelor of science degree in financial management from Clemson University. He was a board member of the Georgia Health Care Association for eight years and previously served as chairman of their board.