Cheryl Forino Wahl has been providing legal, regulatory and compliance advice in the health care industry for more than 25 years. She has served as the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for two Cleveland-based health systems as well as to a national pharmacy benefit management company and subsidiary of Rite Aid Corporation. She has extensive experience designing, developing and establishing award-winning compliance and data privacy programs in highly regulated organizations. Cheryl advised organizations through civil and criminal government investigations, negotiated settlement agreements and navigated the ensuing corporate integrity agreements/consent agreement process. She has helped two health systems rebuild reputations after government investigations to receive recognition as a World’s Most Ethical Company. She has helped organizations leverage the compliance function to influence culture and support corporate values and mission. Her interest in corporate culture led to her additional responsibility as the Chief Employee Engagement Officer at her last organization. She has shown that building an ethical culture not only helps drive profits but creates employee engagement, strengthens corporate and social responsibility commitments, builds vendor partnerships, community and customer loyalty.
Prior to her work in compliance, she served as in-house legal counsel at two health systems focused primarily on physician transactions, fraud and abuse laws and Medicare billing compliance.
Cheryl received her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Colgate University. She received her Juris Doctorate and Master of Arts in bioethics from the University of Pittsburgh as one of the first students to complete the dual degree program.