Since 1972, Research & Planning Consultants has built a reputation for thorough research, thoughtful analysis, and extensive knowledge in economic damage analysis and Certificate of Need matters. More than 50 percent of our projects represent repeat business, a testament to the quality of our consultants and their work.

RPC healthcare consultants have degrees and professional certifications in law, medicine, business administration, public policy, economics, accounting, hospital administration, nursing, vocational rehabilitation, and life care planning. We carefully assemble our consulting teams to meet the unique needs of each client’s project.

RPC Consultants

Ronald T. Luke, JD, PhD

Ron Luke is a principal consultant and president of Research & Planning Consultants, LP. Ron joined RPC in 1976 and became its president and principal owner in 1979. He has consulted on proj…

Kim Beladi, BSN, RN, LNCC, CNLCP

Kim Beladi is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and Certified Nurse Life Care Planner with over 20 years of experience in examining and interpreting medical records in personal injury…

Emily Birmingham

Emily Birmingham

Emily Birmingham is an analyst with RPC. Emily manages RPC’s SQL server databases and obtains the many state and federal public use data files RPC holds for use in health care consulting…

Roslyn Caballero, BSN, RN, LNCC

Roslyn Caballero is a legal nurse consultant with several years of experience interpreting medical records, analyzing medical bills, and summarizing medical documents in claims and liability for major insurers…

Michelle Cannon, BSN, RN

Michelle Cannon, BSN, RN

Michelle Cannon is a Legal Nurse Consultant for RPC with over 20 years of experience interpreting medical records, analyzing medical bills, engaging in research, and summarizing medical doc…

Theresa Comer

Theresa Comer, BSN, RN, LNCC

Theresa Comer is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with over 20 years of experience in examining and interpreting medical records in personal injury cases for plaintiff and defense…

Susan B. Corcoran, BSN, RN

Susan Corcoran is a Legal Nurse Consultant with over twenty years of experience in medical records review and critical analysis, with a focus on preparing chronologies and summaries in mass tort litigation…

Randall Crouch PhD

Randy Crouch, PhD

Dr. Crouch is an economist with RPC. He is an experienced expert, providing testimony, reports, and affidavits on the issues of economic damages in personal injury and healthcare litigation…

Athenna Dill, CPC

Athenna Dill is a Certified Professional Coder and is RPC’s Personal Injury Case Manager. She provides project management, record review and consultant support…

Susan Farris, BSN, RN, LNCC, CNLCP

Susan Farris, BSN, RN, LNCC, CNLCP

Susan Farris is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant & Certified Nurse Life Care Planner with over three decades of experience in examining and interpreting medical records in personal injury…

Adam Garrison

Adam Garrison

Adam Garrison is an economic research assistant for RPC, with a Master of Science in Statistics from Stephen F. Austin State University. A specialist in regression analysis of complex datasets, he…

Peggy Hamilton

Peggy Hamilton, CPA

Peggy Hamilton is a licensed CPA with over 30 years of experience as a healthcare financial expert. She has served as the chief financial officer for hospitals in the United States and abroad. Her experience…

Cameron Holstead, CPA

Cameron Holstead, CPA, PhD

Dr. Holstead is a licensed CPA with over eight years of experience. As an economist and accountant with RPC, he provides accounting expertise and quantitative analysis for expert reports…

Logan James

Logan James

Logan James is an economic research assistant for RPC. He assists RPC’s economic and financial consultants by providing data analysis for RPC’s personal injury reports and…

Kristi Kosloski, BSN, RN, CLNC

Kristi Kosloski, BSN, RN, CLNC

Kristi Kosloski is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with 20 years of experience examining and interpreting medical records, analyzing medical bills, and summarizing complex medical literature in personal…

Melissa Lottinger, CPC, CCC

Melissa Lottinger, CPC, CCC

Melissa Lottinger is a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) with RPC. She provides medical coding and billing expertise in personal injury cases. Melissa has 25 years of experience reviewing and analyzing…

Jamie Myers, MSN, RN, RNC‐OB, LNCC

Jamie Myers is a legal nurse consultant with over a decade of experience interpreting medical records, analyzing medical bills, and summarizing.…

Hiral Patel, MHS, CRC, CVE, CLCP

Hiral Patel is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Certified Vocational Evaluator, and Certified Life Care Planner with RPC. Hiral has experience conducting vocational evaluations and providing…

Brian Piper, PhD

Dr. Piper is an economist with RPC. He specializes in quantitative analysis and modelling, and he works on a variety of cases including personal injury and certificate of need. He is experienced in data extr…

Darcy Schaeffer, MLS

Darcy Schaeffer has been with RPC since 2007, and is the CON practice manager. Darcy has been involved in health care projects in Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina…

Michael Scullin, MHS, CRC, LRC, CLCP

Michael Scullin, MHS, CRC, LRC, CVE, CLCP

Michael Scullin is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Certified Vocational Evaluator, and Certified Life Care Planner…

Rachel Short, MPH

Rachel Short is a data analyst who provides quantitative analysis for RPC’s economic, statistical and financial reports used in litigation and regulatory proceedings. She also assists in the preparation of Certificate of Nee.…

Craig Siwarga

Craig Siwarga, MBA

Craig uses his training in business and data analytics to prepare professional reports for personal injury and commercial litigation. He provides analytical support for Certificate of Need applications…

Angela VanDerwerken, PhD

Dr. VanDerwerken is an economist with RPC. She specializes in econometrics, health and disability policy, and labor economics. Angela provides expert testimony,analysis, affidavits, and…

Consulting Associates

RPC works with highly-qualified physicians, a rehabilitation counselor, a neuropsychologist and a statistician to round out our expertise on relevant cases. These individuals also have their own practices and careers, and lend their expertise to RPC on a part-time basis.

Gretchen Bakkenson MA, C.R.C., C.L.C.P.

Gretchen Bakkenson MA, C.R.C., C.L.C.P.

Gretchen Bakkenson provides life care planning and vocational consulting services as part of RPC’s personal injury team. She has extensive experience testifying for plaintiffs and defendants…

Bruce Bloom

Bruce Bloom is a forensic rehabilitation counselor who provides vocational consulting services as part of RPC’s personal injury team. Bruce’s expertise is used to determine an injured worker’s pre-injury and post-injury employabilit…

Brian C. Buck, M.D.

Dr. Buck is a consulting physician and contributes his expertise to RPC projects including life care plans. He has a private practice in Austin, Texas. Dr. Buck is experienced in providing disability and medical evaluations and has over two decades o…

Misty L. Coffman, RN, CLNC, MSCC, CNLCP

Misty L. Coffman, R.N., C.L.N.C., M.S.C.C., C.N.L.C.P.

Misty Coffman provides life care planning consulting services as part of RPC’s personal injury team. For over 24 years, she has operated a private practice providing life care planning and legal nurse consulting…

Robin B. Gage, MBA, MHA

Robin Gage, a healthcare consultant with RPC since 2001, has been involved in health care projects in more than 15 states. Experienced in examining development opportunities and assessing potential markets…

Todd Harden, MA, LPC, CRC, CLCP, ABVE/F

Todd Harden, MA, LPC, CRC, CLCP, ABVE/F

Todd Harden provides life care planning consulting services as part of RPC’s personal injury team. For over 20 years, he has offered life care planning and vocational rehabilitation counseling in his private practice…

Jim Lockart, CPA

As a CPA and financial consultant, Jim’s career spans over 40 years. He has testified as an expert witness for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of Thrift Supervision. He has industry-specific…

Janyna Mercado

Janyna M. Mercado, PhD

Dr. Mercado is a licensed psychologist and specializes in neuropsychology. She received her Ph.D in Counseling Psychology and graduated with honors in 2004 from Texas Woman’s University.  After completing her internship with Brooke Army Medical Center…

Suzanne Novak, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Novak is a consulting physician who contributes her expertise in pharmaceutical-related cases to RPC. A board-certified anesthesiologist with a Ph.D. in Pharmacy Administration, she is president of…

Adam Reeves

Adam Reeves is RPC’s Data Base Administrator. He oversees our computer resources and is responsible for obtaining and organizing the many state and federal public use data files RPC holds for use on health…

Thomas W. Sager, PhD

Thomas Sager is a consulting statistician and contributes his expertise to RPC projects including calculation of damages in medical fee disputes. He is a Professor of Information, Risk and Operations Management at the McCombs School of Business at th…

James “Jim” E. Stidham, MBA, CASC

Jim Stidham is CASC certified and has over 30 years’ experience in developing, and providing management guidance, strategic planning and direction to de Novo and existing ambulatory surgery …

Elizabeth Wheeler, M.Ed., LPC, LRC, CRC, CLCP

Elizabeth “Liz” Wheeler, M.Ed., LPC, LRC, CRC, CLCP

lizabeth Wheeler provides life care planning and vocational consulting services as part of RPC’s personal injury team. She has extensive experience testifying for plaintiffs and defendants…