Our Team
Dr. Milad Pooran: Principal and Managing Partner, PHI Medicine
Internal Medicine, Critical Care, Allergy/Immunology
Dr. Pooran is board certified in Internal Medicine with subspecialty board certification in allergy and immunology, as well as critical care medicine. Dr. Pooran completed his medical school training at the University of Maryland Baltimore and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Maryland Medical System. Following his internship, Dr. Pooran performed one year of active duty with the US Air Force as an operation Flight Surgeon. After residency, Dr. Pooran completed a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, followed by a fellowship in critical care medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During his tenure at the NIH, Dr. Pooran was engaged in translational research on HIV/AIDS for seven years. He then joined the Office of the Secretary for Health and Human Services, where he served under Secretary Sebelius as a senior medical advisor for biodefense and national security. Dr. Pooran is the State Air Surgeon for the Connecticut Air National Guard and holds the rank of Colonel in the United States Air Force.
Sarah Susalla: President and Chief Administrative Officer, PHI Medicine
A registered nurse for more than 25 years, Sarah began her career as an acute care nurse, followed by becoming a certified case manager and ultimately transitioned to operations and administrative roles. With more than fifteen years in operations and healthcare administration; including previous positions with national organizations as a regional vice president and business president of hospital medicine, telemedicine, and critical care, Sarah joined PHI Medicine in early 2018 to support the transformative approach of PHI and drive operational excellence.
John Hardesty, Vice President of Business Development and Recruiting
John has been recruiting for fifteen (15) years across many facets of the healthcare industry. He began his recruiting career with one of the largest healthcare staffing organizations in the country. The vast majority of John's recruiting career has been in physician recruitment where he was employed by a national provider where he recruited, developed, and retained highly-engaged clinicians and strong physician leaders across the United States. He exceeded all of his key performance indicators (KPI) and goals year over year earning his role as Director of Physician Recruiting. John has worked with health systems and C-Suites from the west coast to the east coast developing hospital medicine programs, recruiting quality physicians, and physician leaders.
Marjan Bahador: Program Medical Director, Meritus Medical Center
Mohammadali Ghassemi: Chief Data and Security Officer
As a data analytics professional, Mr. Ghassemi built intellectual properties and technology infrastructures that transformed companies into data-driven organizations by leveraging the latest advancements in analytics and BI. Prior to joining PHI Medicine, Mr. Ghassemi led the design and implementation of an enterprise-wide business intelligence platform for a global supply chain system. Mr. Ghassemi recently completed an Executive MBA degree from Columbia University NYC.
Justin Webster: Senior Director, Clinical Operations
Justin brings 13 years of healthcare knowledge and experience to the Vesper team. A Registered nurse for 5 years, including a background in emergency medicine, Justin began his career as a certified nursing assistant, followed by becoming an Emergency Medical Technician.
Well-versed in ambulance transport services, he spent 7 years as a 911 response EMT and also worked as a 911 dispatcher. More recently Justin served as a clinical nurse supervisor in the emergency department.