Our Leadership Team
Ashley Albers, DO
Vice President of Medical Services, HMD
A Hendersonville native, Ashley Albers, DO attended medical school at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO. She completed an internal medicine residency with UMDNJ-SOM in Stratford, NJ before moving back to North Carolina where she completed the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship here in Asheville. She joined Four Seasons in July 2013, first as a hospital-based Palliative Care provider, and is currently serving as the VP of Medical Services while caring for hospice patients.
Janet Bull, MD, MBA, FAAHPM
Chief Medical Officer
Janet Bull, MD, MBA, FAAHPM is the Chief Medical Officer at Four Seasons and holds a consultant assistant professorship at Duke University Medical Center. She is a Fellow of the AAHPM, board certified in hospice and palliative medicine and holds a hospice medical director certification. Janet has authored or coauthored several papers on palliative care and quality data reporting. She helped develop the QDACT (Quality Data Assessment Collection Tool), co-directed the Global Palliative Care Quality Alliance and is on the board of the Palliative Care Quality Collaborative. She directs the research department at Four Seasons and has served as the Principal Investigator on over 45 clinical trials in hospice and palliative medicine. She is Program Director of the Palliative Care Immersion Course and a principal of Four Seasons Consulting Group, which offers consulting services in hospice, palliative care, and research. Janet was the recipient of the Sharon O. Dixon Award in 2007, the Cuniff-Dixon Hastings Award in 2012, and the Josephino Magno Distinguished Physician Award in 2013. In 2014, she was recognized as one of the Top 30 Visionaries in the Field award by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and served as Principal Investigator on the 2014-17 Center of Medicare Innovations Grant demonstrating the value of palliative care. She was President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) in 2017 and sits as a core team member on the development of the Alternative Payment Model for Serious Illness Care for AAHPM.
Millicent Burke Sinclair, Ed.D, MBA, SPHR®, SHRM-SCP
President and Chief Executive Officer
Passion, Excellence, and Integrity are three key pillars that guide Millicent. With a passion for supporting individuals on discovering and living their cause and purpose – Millicent’s purpose is to engage all individuals so excellence through high performance becomes the norm. She demonstrates her purpose daily through a commitment to innovation and wellness as she inspires and sets a standard for lifelong learning and advancing professional competence and practice within healthcare. Millicent holds a doctorate degree emphasizing on adult learning/education and a Master's degree in Business Administration. She has an advanced certification in Business and Marketing Education and is certified from both HRCI and SHRM with the designations of SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) and SHRM-SCP (Senior Certified Professional). She is also a learner completing her second year in the Thayer Institute’s Executive Healthcare Masters’ Certification Program. As a published author on Adult learning and organizational improvement, she leverages data and resources ensuring that the entire workforce is committed to high performance as well as long-term strategic growth, innovation, and stewardship so excellence in care occurs at ALL times.
Millicent has served as Four Seasons’ President and Chief Executive Officer since 2017. Prior to accepting this role, Millicent served as the Chief Operating Officer for the organization. Previously, she also held the titles of Chief Operating Officer for Palliative Care, Home Care, and the Vice President of Employee and Volunteer Solutions at Four Seasons. For nearly fifteen years, she has been a leader in non-profit serious illness healthcare, business operations, strategic marketing, and higher education industries.
During Millicent’s tenure at Four Seasons, she has led the organization to incredibly positive and sustainable levels of census growth, service quality, patient and family satisfaction, and employee engagement. Including developing and expanding service areas, service lines, and service standards through both innovative, collaborative, and simplified methodologies within the organization, community, and health systems including related relationship formations across the healthcare spectrum. With this growth sustainment, increases in staffing, higher retention rates, and more satisfied staff have resulted enabling us to further strengthen our mission commitment of co-creating the care experience as evidence by satisfaction and quality results.
Prior to joining Four Seasons in 2014, from 2003-2007 she was the VP of Strategy and HR at a manufacturing company and drastically improved the organizational culture, market share, and quality product development and delivery. Starting in 2008 she ventured into the realm of education as a university professor and a local educator bringing awareness to the importance of constantly learning, growing, and challenging the norm. She developed complete programs and reinvented processes providing more opportunities for students to be prepared for their career within the community both locally and globally.
Millicent’s heart was home when she was blessed to join Four Seasons’ as she has known since she was a little girl that Healthcare was her calling and where her purpose could really come alive. But even more importantly Four Seasons served her family, makes healthcare possible for all regardless of the ability to pay, and is constantly listening to the community and improving therefore positively impacting lives, and that is what Millicent enjoys so greatly. Millicent’s dedication to hospice and palliative care has afforded her the opportunity to study alongside some of the brightest healthcare professionals within the Thayer Institute’s Masters certification program for Healthcare Executives and in Multi-View Incorporated’s CFO program where she obtained her certification last year. Together she partners with all of Four Seasons to ensure that all who are served receive the best co-created care possible.
Millicent’s commitment is to ensure that all patients have access to quality care regardless of their ability to pay. In order to make this commitment possible, relationships and results in the above areas, as well as strong donor, volunteer, and network collaborations, continue to be integral. These partnerships continue to strengthen and positively support Four Seasons in allowing and advocating for best care services, best staff training, and best stewardship possible.
As an avid learner and nationally known educator and consultant in areas of business strategy, non-profit management, human resources, operations leadership, and healthcare, Millicent sets the bar high and makes what is necessary possible for all she meets. Because of Millicent’s life purpose, she is a living example of her purpose as she learns daily, grows continuously, and lives a life of joy. This is the culture she creates for all around her.
Millicent was born and raised in Henderson County, Four Seasons even served her family with the passing of her grandfather at Elizabeth House in 1999. Even as a child, born one month premature, she was determined, driven, and had a heart to serve homeless, those imprisoned, in need, and those seeking a more well life by constantly improving and removing barriers. She is married, lives in Flat Rock, NC and is honored to be the mother of three children. Millicent and her family are dedicated to total health and wellness including living an organic lifestyle. She enjoys the outdoors, learning, researching, building the community, and art and music. She is a member of New Beginnings World Outreach Church and a Paul Harris’ Fellow of Hendersonville’s Rotary Club.
Chris Comeaux, CEO, Teleios Collaborative Network
Chris Comeaux (KO-mo) is an award-winning expert and lifelong student on leadership and the performance required to truly be a leader. He has spent his life and career researching, learning, coaching, and implementing the pushes and pulls necessary to create high performance leaders and high performance organizations.
Chris is currently the President/CEO of Teleios Collaborative Network which is a collaboration between Four Seasons, Carolina Caring, Hospice of Acadiana, Hospice and Community Care, Hospice of Rockingham County, Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care, Caldwell Hospice & Palliative Care, Compassionate Care Western North Carolina, The Hospice of Baton Rouge and Community Healthcare of Texas. The goal of the collaboration is to harness the best of each hospice and enable the network to better care in each community for the patients and families being served as well as introduce innovations across the membership network and work with payors for new innovative solutions for those dealing with serious or advanced illness.
Over the years, Chris has become nationally known as a leader in our country’s hospice and palliative care industry, where he has spent a large portion of his career as President/CEO of Four Seasons in western North Carolina, a 2009 American Hospital Association Circle of Life Award Winner. In 2005, the Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care honored him with the Peter Keese Leadership Award.
In 2006, Chris left Four Seasons for two years to build an alliance between the prestigious national healthcare consulting firm, the Studer Group, and Covenant Hospice in Pensacola. The vision was to transform, develop, and grow leaders throughout the hospice and palliative care world. Chris grew this venture from its infancy to an established coaching firm partnering with post-acute healthcare organizations from New York to California. He returned to Four Seasons in 2008 to apply what he learned in the trenches on leadership to an organization he knew and loved.
Chris’s hospice career began in 1997 at Covenant Hospice in Pensacola, Florida. Earlier in his career, he worked with KPMG Peat Marwick, a “Big Four” CPA consulting firm, and with Cooper Industries, a Fortune 100 Company, in its Executive Development Program.
Chris has a Masters in Leadership from the Thayer Institute for Performance Virtuosity.
Chris is married to Deshia and they are the proud parents of 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls) ranging in age from 20 to 10 years. Chris enjoys spending time outdoors with his family, reading, learning, and working on their 7- acre farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Rikki Nugent Hooper
Vice President of Palliative Care
Rikki is a strong believer in quality care at end of life and advocates for her patients and families to achieve their goals.
In 1991, Rikki immigrated to the U.S. after completing basic nurse education in England. As an RN, she worked in oncology and in critical care prior to becoming an FNP. As an FNP, she worked in critical care, sleep and pulmonary medicine before coming to Four Seasons in 2004.
Rikki is certified in Advanced Hospice and Palliative Nursing and provides care for patients in all settings, both pediatric and adult. She has presented at both regional and national meetings on a variety of topics. She also serves on the AAHPM Task Force for Quality.
Outside of work, she has volunteered at the Free Clinics in Henderson County and has been a Girl Scout leader for 17 years. She has 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren. She loves to spend time outside, gardening, hiking and generally enjoying the mountains. She also enjoys sewing, knitting
Christopher Morrissette, COO Palliative Care, Teleios Collaborative Network
Christopher has extensive operational experience within hospice, homecare and senior living. His career began over 20 years ago working as a nursing assistant/personal caregiver in a behavioral group home serving adults with developmental disabilities. He attests that this experience was foundational in understanding the needs of complex populations.
Christopher’s hospice career began at in the Midwest where he served as a part of the executive team that expanded the continuum of care from a single location into a 3-state area throughout the Region. Christopher built strategic partnerships within the regional market and led the growth in census from 30 to 350 patients within two years; laying the foundation for the organizations current average daily census of over 1,000+ patients.
Christopher joined Teleios Collaborative Network as Chief Operations Officer of Palliative Care in 2017. Christopher works in tandem with the CMO of Palliative Care in implementing operational and clinical Palliative Care Models where they partner to serve over 2,500 palliative care patients through excellence and innovated care delivery. Christopher has worked to expand the role and standard of community based palliative care, demonstrating the transformative role of Palliative Care in the care continuum.
Christopher holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration and an undergraduate degree in Ministry. He is passionate about healthcare and believes that hospice and palliative care is his true calling. Christopher and his wife have 5 children live in western North Carolina. He is an avid mountain biker and hiker and enjoys spending free time outdoors with his family.
Palliative Care / CMO, MD FAAHPM
John Morris is passionate about helping people and organizations develop excellent palliative care programs. His role is to teach, mentor and develop great palliative care clinicians and leaders as well as develop palliative care organizations that succeed. John’s expertise in building strong foundations for new programs, creating dynamic teams and his thoughtful mentoring have been key for success.
As a pulmonologist and critical care doctor, John witnessed just how stressful serious illness can be for patients and families. He started working for Four Seasons part time in 2003 to help start palliative care programs in the hospitals. He left pulmonary practice to work full time for Four Seasons as Medical Director of Palliative Care in 2005.
Four Seasons now serves palliative care patients in 11 counties in WNC, and also has 3 palliative care clinics and a strong home and NH palliative care program.
John has worked with many organizations to develop and improve palliative care services including Four Seasons, Pardee Hospital, Park Ridge Hospital, Transylvania Regional Hospital, Mission Hospital, Greenville Health System, Palliative Care of SC, Catawba Regional Hospice, Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care, Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care, Yancy County Hospice and UNC Health Care. As CMO of Palliative Care with Teleios he oversees over 30 providers caring for 3000 palliative care patients in NC, SC, VA and LA.
John received the Sharon O. Dixon Award for Clinical Excellence presented by Carolina Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in 2011.
John is co-director of the Palliative Care Immersion Course. This experiential learning experience for clinicians uses innovative techniques and role play to teach clinical palliative care skills to a national audience several times yearly. In 2016, John helped co-found Four Seasons Consulting Group (FSCG), a coaching and consulting company enabling health systems, palliative care programs, post-acute providers, and hospice programs to learn and develop best practices in palliative care. John also teaches palliative care program development, quality improvement and strategic planning. Over 30 organizations have attended these programs since inception in 2010.
John serves as TCN’s Chief Medical Officer for Palliative Care Services.
John has a Masters in Leadership from the Thayer Institute.
John is married to Peggy Noel MD founder of MemoryCare, a non profit established to help people caring for a loved one with dementia. They moved to Asheville in 1989 and have raised 3 children here. John enjoys running, hiking the NC mountains, fly fishing, gardening and bee-keeping. This activity allows him to enjoy dining out with Peggy in all the great Asheville restaurants.
Rhonda Oakes
Senior Director of Clinical Services: West
Rhonda is a certified hospice and palliative nurse and brings over 25 years of hospice experience to her current role. Throughout her 30-year healthcare career, she has grown and developed her expertise and understanding of the interdependencies among disciplines, learning designs, implementation science, and sustaining quality. Rhonda has a diverse background due to her various leadership roles throughout her career. Prior to joining the Four Seasons family, she was the Regulatory Analyst for Netsmart Homecare and Hospice EHR (Formerly Change Healthcare). Her role included providing guidance and overseeing regulatory and clinical analysis and integration for hospice and home care providers across the nation with diverse opinions and needs.
Rhonda is an active member of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA). She has served as chair on several HPNA committees, a past board member for region 2 of the Tennessee Nurses Association, member of the ANA, AHIMA, and HPNA. Rhonda is currently an appointed committee member finishing up her two-year term and current chair on the Situational Judgement Development Committee for the Hospice and Palliative Credential Center (HPCC). She is an active State Ambassador, following national and state level legislature as part of the HPNA State Ambassadors. Rhonda is a member of the SNOMED CT Nursing Virtual Clinical Reference Group. She has written for publication and presented at State Hospice and Palliative Care Associations for annual conferences and Omaha System International Conferences. Rhonda joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2017.
Rhonda has collaborated with hospices across the nation in finding best practices and championing their integration using the electronic health record. Rhonda is one of the collaborative co-authors of the ICNP® Catalogue – Palliative Care. https://www.icn.ch/sites/default/files/inline-files/Palliative_Care.pdf. The International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP®) is part of the World Health Organization Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC).
Rhonda’s volunteer work with Healthier TN sparked her desire to return to a not-for-profit organization and serve the clinicians and their communities. Rhonda’s personal goal is to be part of the solution to increase access to palliative and end-of-life care in underserved populations and rural communities.
Lauren Purdy
Vice President of Employee and Volunteer Solutions
Lauren Purdy has been a part of the Four Seasons Family since 2011 and has worn many hats in her tenure with the agency. She started as a Volunteer Coordinator at Four Seasons and has provided leadership over the Volunteer Team since 2013. She has led the Employee Solutions (HR) Team since 2015. She also oversees the Facilities & Payroll Departments and serves as the organization’s Safety Officer.
Lauren brings over 13 years of volunteer management experience, 8 years of human resources experience, and 15 years of leadership experience to her role at Four Seasons.
She started her career of service in 2005 when she dedicated two years of full-time national service through AmeriCorps working with at-risk youth in San Jose, CA. She’s called WNC home since 2007 and is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in History.
Lauren lives with her husband, daughter, two dogs, flock of chickens, and honeybees on their little homestead in Candler, NC.
Paige Wheeler
Foundation Executive Director
Paige Wheeler, a North Carolina native joined the Four Seasons Foundation team in 2019 as the Major Gifts Officer. In January of 2020, Paige transitioned into the position of Executive Director. Paige is a graduate of Brevard College and UNC-Asheville. Paige has held previous positions that include Interim Director of Advancement, President and CEO, Executive Director and VP for Marketing and Development for organizations such as Southern Highland Craft Guild, The Health Adventure, Brevard College and Christ School.
Paige has served as a member of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Board and chaired the Governmental Affairs Task Force for the Asheville Chamber of Commerce.
In 2008, Paige received the YWCA of Buncombe County Woman of the Year Award.
Paige appreciates staying current in fundraising trends, attending conferences and considers herself a life-long learner. She greatly values building long lasting relationships and enjoys matching the right person with the right project and feels that is when we experience true success.
Paige has felt a wonderful connection to Four Seasons because of the care her father received through Four Seasons hospice. Her father passed away at Elizabeth House during Christmas in 2005. The care her father received as well as her entire family during that time is a major catalyst for her desire to raise funds through the foundation so others may receive the same type of loving end of life care.
“No matter how much happiness my work will bring me, my greatest joys will always remain - my family and my faith.”
Harvey Nix – Regional Director of Palliative Care
Harvey graduated in 2006 from the Physician Assistant program at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston with a Masters of Physician Assistant Studies. After relocating from Charlotte, NC, he worked for the orthopedic spine specialty group, Spine Carolina, Asheville, NC. There, he worked as a surgical first assistant and performed histories and physicals for surgical patients in addition to patient post-op care.
After this experience, Harvey decided he would like to better use the breadth of his PA training in medicine. Also, his personal experience- as a cancer survivor and his mother’s dying from ALS influenced his desire to seek a position to assist patients in dealing with life-limiting illnesses. This decision led to Harvey joining the Four Seasons team in early 2008 as a mid-level practitioner in the Palliative Care Group.
Harvey is a Fellow member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, a member of the North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants, and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Harvey graduated from NC State University in 1986 with a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering. Prior to his career as a Physician Assistant, he was previously employed in Charlotte, NC, by First Union Corporation and Duke Energy. He worked as a project manager and business consultant at both companies. His work involved productivity improvement studies, process design, performance measurement, and strategic planning.
Harvey and his wife have been married for over 30 years. They have three sons and one granddaughter. Harvey has assisted as a leader with the Boy Scouts of America and relishes that his three sons achieved the rank of Eagle scout. He enjoys living in western NC and likes boating, snow skiing, hunting, camping, and hiking. He enjoyed performing as an actor in motion pictures, television, and commercials in the past.
Shannon Mullis, RN
Regional Director of Clinical Services: North Region
Shannon is a native of Asheville, North Carolina, born and raised. She graduated from TC Roberson High school where she obtained her CNA license and later obtained her nursing degree from Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College. Her career started with a focus in Long Term Care which is where she realized her heart for hospice. She admits during the beginning of her career to having little personal understanding with end of life experiences as her family has luckily been quite healthy though through working as a Floor Nurse, Weekend Supervisor, Assistant Director of Nursing and then Interim Director of Nursing, Shannon quickly became more and more aware of the value of palliative and hospice care and difference Four Seasons made to the patients and families in the facility she managed. When a position came available in 2007, she “knew in her heart”, Four Seasons was where she was meant to work. Since that time Shannon has served as a Primary Nurse on the Henderson County team before the Buncombe County team was formed and she transitioned to become the Clinical Team Leader in her hometown of Asheville, NC. During that time, she still carried a caseload providing hands-on care to many patients and families experiencing the hardest time of their life, providing an extra layer of support and often a shoulder to lean on. After that Shannon’s role shifted to become a Care Experience Coordinator which allowed her to be a voice and advocate protecting the overall experience the patient and family have while in our care. As a CEC she learned about leadership, teamwork, and how to persevere in the most difficult of times.
Most currently Shannon serves as the Four Seasons Director of Clinical Services for the North Region which allows her to build and sustain relationships with community partners while leading a growing team of over 40 clinical staff team members including nursing aides, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other support team members.
Shannon says what she treasures most about her work at Four Seasons is the honor and gratitude she feels when she can provide the most trusted and compassionate care for people when they need it most; when they are most vulnerable and sometimes hesitant to receive help in any way, that is when she sees her colleagues shine the brightest. “The end of life is one of the most personal and sacred times any of us will ever experience so I find it a true blessing and privilege to be part of that journey. We all begin as strangers but leave as friends with a connection that lasts a lifetime”.
In Shannon’s spare time you will find her side by side, arm in arm with her best friend, her daughter Kayla who is following in her mother’s footsteps having declared a major midway through her freshman year at Western Carolina University and is well on the way to become a nurse herself!
Having spent most of her adult life being a single parent Shannon’s devoted her time and attention to her daughter; supporting her through school, extra-curricular activities, and doing everything she could to raise a strong, independent, and confident young woman.
Now an empty-nester Shannon is finding her “new normal”; spending quality time with her family and friends. She also enjoys a little Carpool Karaoke with her daughter and Harley and Biggie, the family dogs, but says she can’t hit the high notes quite like she once could!
Laughter is the medicine to heal her soul, family is her favorite pastime and she bleeds nothing but Carolina Blue. Go Tar Heels!
