Our proven experience with orphan patient populations includes working with start-ups, public companies and not-for-profits. The Optime Care team has been a partner on more than 40 successful product launches.
Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer
As Optime Care’s CFO, Larry brings more than 35 years of healthcare finance and accounting experience. Larry’s healthcare skills include hospitals, health insurance and pharmacies. Larry’s business entity capabilities include nonprofit, private, and public companies. Larry served as CFO of Centric Health Resources (Now DLSS) where he helped the company grow from 2,000 patients to over 10,000 patients.
Prior to Centric Health Resources, Larry spent 10 years in the Insurance/Managed Care space, working with insurance companies like Coventry Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, Wellpoint, Unicare, HealthLink and Anthem. During this period, Larry worked closely with finance, provider contracting, pricing and sales/underwriting teams. His managed care experience includes PPOs, HMOs, Staff Model HMOs and Medicare Advantage Plans.
Larry also has more than 10 years of experience in the U.S hospital space, including five years as a Hospital controller and five years in the financial audit arena with KPMG.
Larry is a Certified Public Accountant, with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loyola Marymount University.
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
Darcey is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer (CMCO). In this capacity, she is responsible for directing and overseeing the AscellaHealth Family of Companies’ including Optime Care’s, marketing and communications management strategy, including advertising activities, brand management, and marketing communications.
Darcey has more than 20 years of comprehensive Marketing experience including over a decade of experience within the Specialty Pharmacy/ Healthcare Services industry, holding key Marketing leadership roles focused on rebranding initiatives, positioning/ messaging strategies, communications, strategic partnerships, digital marketing and developing and implementing innovative programs and solutions to drive business growth of various healthcare organizations.
Prior to joining AscellaHealth, Darcey’s Marketing leadership positions included, Vice President of Marketing at City Drugs Specialty Pharmacy and Vice President of Marketing at Asembia, where she created pioneering marketing solutions for specialty pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers to achieve major business goals.
Darcey holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Hofstra University.
General Manager & Pharmacist In-Charge
Brandon Salke is the General Manager and Pharmacist In-Charge for Optime Care. In this capacity, he manages overall pharmacy operations and regulatory compliance as well as responsible for directing and overseeing pharmacy staff, formulating policies and procedures, clinical and quality programs and also guided organization in obtaining ACHC, URAC and VAWD accreditations.
Brandon possesses over 8 years of focused expertise in specialty pharmaceuticals, particularly ultra-orphan, orphan and rare disease where he has successfully managed specialty programs and products, from clinical trial to commercialization for major bio-pharmaceutical partners, contributing to overall business growth. Additionally, Brandon played an instrumental role in designing and executing Optime Care’s patient-first approach, a unique specialty drug management strategy to improve health outcomes and optimize the overall experience for patients with rare and orphan diseases and chronic complex conditions.
Prior to joining Optime Care, Brandon served as a team pharmacist for Dohmen Life Science Services, where he helped launch several new care programs and assisted in the management of clinical trial activities. Dr. Salke has been involved in all aspects of operations (planning, process integration, project management, etc.) for pharmaceutical manufacturers. This includes clinical trials to commercialization and assisting in commercial launches (and relaunch) of specialty pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Salke completed his PharmD from St. Louis College of Pharmacy (StLCOP) in St. Louis, MO and holds the Certified Specialty Pharmacist (CSP) credential from the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy. He is currently an active member of the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) and the Missouri Pharmacists Association (MPA). Dr. Salke currently holds a pharmacist license in 22 states and the US Territory, Guam, allowing him a deep understanding of state and federal pharmacy.
As an active clinician and researcher, Dr. Salke has contributed to studies on different therapies for rare and orphan diseases as well as co-authored publications. Most recently, he has been chosen finalist and nominated for several awards.
SVP, Program Operations & Client Solutions
Stephanie Wasilewski is the Senior Vice President, Program Operations & Client Solutions for Optime Care. In this capacity, she manages the overall planning, direction and coordination of the company’s day-to-day operations including overseeing the patient care teams, and developing quality and operation improvement programs to increase efficiencies and effectiveness of operations. Additionally, she oversees the daily activities of our branded Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Sponsored Programs and other large-scale client programs.
Stephanie possesses over 25 years of expertise in specialty, retail and mail order pharmacy where she has successfully managed pharmacy staff and operations as well as specialty programs and products for major bio-pharmaceutical partners, from conception through launch. Throughout her career, Stephanie has been involved in all aspects of pharmacy: strategic planning, operations, process integration, quality and patient assistance programs, patient care and account/staff management.
Prior to joining Optime Care, Stephanie served as a staff pharmacist for Accredo/Express Scripts, where she successfully developed relationships with prescribers and coordinated patient-centered care, while adhering to all requirements of the Xyrem REMS Program. In addition, Stephanie served as Staff Pharmacist for UBC Pharmacy, where she provided oversight and quality assistance to pharmacy technicians for the processing of patient assistance programs. She also ensured compliance with all regulatory requirements for dispensing controlled substances while consistently delivering high-quality patient care.
Dr. Wasilewski also held other pharmacy management roles such as Pharmacy Manager at CVS Pharmacy and Staff Pharmacist at Walgreen’s Pharmacy. She completed her PharmD from Purdue University and holds a pharmacy license from the State of Missouri.
Dr. Wasilewski has managed patients on different therapies for rare and orphan diseases such as Hereditary Angioedema (HAE). She has also managed patients with pulmonary hypertension, narcolepsy, Hepatitis C, neuropathy, and hypercholesterolemia.
SVP, Quality
Doug Carlson is the Senior Vice President, Quality for Optime Care. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for the planning, direction and coordination of the company’s quality management system, regulatory compliance, performance improvement, pharmacy accreditations, training and licensing, including the identification, implementation and administration of quality & training software and systems.
Doug comes to Optime Care as a degreed engineer with over 15 years of experience working in manufacturing, along with over 20 years of experience in quality systems and performance improvement, with the last decade focused on specialty pharmacy and life science services.
Prior to joining Optime Care, Doug served as a Global Project Manager for Sparta Systems, Inc. Doug also served as VP, Corporate Quality for Dohmen Life Science Services, where he successfully created and deployed an integrated Quality Management System (QMS) compliant with ISO-9001, cGxP, URAC and VAWD requirements and implemented a corporate wide audit program, including HIPAA, OSHA and cybersecurity as well as managed QMS across seven sites and 700+ employees.
In addition, Doug served as VP, Quality & Health Management at Centric Health Resources where he designed and implemented a web-based corrective & preventive action system to ensure effective documentation and follow-up of discrepancies and implemented the company’s Continuous Improvement Process utilizing tools from quality methodologies including Lean and Six Sigma.
Doug also held other quality management roles. Doug holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (BSEE) in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University.