Market Insights

Heather Lavoie serves as Geneia’s President, with overall accountability for the leadership and day-to-day management of the company.

During her 30+ year tenure in healthcare, Heather has led start-ups, health plans and provider organizations. She has directed initiatives for private and public organizations on strategy, transparency, diversification, product innovation, operations and analytics. Previous to Geneia, Heather co-founded and served as Vice President of Product Development, Delivery and Engineering for Choicelinx Corporation, through its successful exit to CIGNA Health Care. During her tenure, she co-authored an adverse selection actuarial model with Milliman USA, used for evaluating custom-design benefit plans.

Heather is a graduate of Notre Dame College and received a Masters of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a sought-after national speaker on healthcare issues

As VP of Strategy, Innovation and Operations, reporting to the CEO, Lori helps to shape strategy and operations to drive the innovation required to change primary care in America. Lori’s role focuses on our client and patient experience, ensuring that our care teams have the platforms needed to deliver personalized primary care resulting in high B2B2C growth. Lori’s direct responsibilities include Clinical Excellence, Operations, Analytics, Technology, and Member Services.

Lori’s experience as a healthcare executive spans more than 20 years of improving the healthcare system for consumers, providers, and payers. Prior to joining Paladina Health, Lori lead the provider business of TriZetto, a Cognizant company focused on Revenue Cycle Management. Lori also held leadership positions at United Healthcare, Cigna, McKesson, and Choicelinx Corporation.

Lori holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, Entrepreneurship and Organization Behavior from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

In her free time, Lori enjoys the great outdoors of Colorado with her husband Todd, son Jackson, daughter Lizzy, skiing and biking.

Russell serves health plans, post-acute care providers, and suppliers and service providers to health systems within the Advisory Board’s Research & Insights division. He helps business leaders identify and implement initiatives to improve their financial and operational performance as organizations migrate to value-based payments.

Russell joined the Advisory Board in 2010 as a business and operational leader with the Health Care IT Advisor, where he was responsible for strategy, operations, consulting, and new product development. He worked to shape the research programs and introduce a new service designed to help providers realize their meaningful use incentives.

Russell earned an MBA from Loyola College of Maryland and holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from The Ohio State University.

Prior to joining the Advisory Board, Russell was managing director of the financial services practice at the Corporate Executive Board, a best practices research organization. He has also served organizations as a management consultant and has experience in strategic planning and M&A with an in-house corporate development team.

After working for 10 years to launch and grow WA State’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) grant, called Roads to Community Living (RCL) in Washington, Debbie Blackner was hired as the Ancillary Service Program Manager within the Home and Community Programs unit of WA State’s Aging and Long Term Support Administration (ALTSA). ALTSA is part of the Department of Social and Health Services, a consistent national leader in innovative and person-centered services.

Debbie helped transform lives as the RCL Systems Change Specialist by formulating and administering statewide rebalancing policies and long-range strategic direction of the Medicaid nursing facility program. WA State was one of the first MFP states and continues to be a leader in the demonstration grant.

As the Ancillary Service Program Manager, Debbie provides subject matter expertise, data analysis, contract expertise, training responsibility, reporting structures, performance measure development, and regulations and principles related to Wellness Education, durable medical equipment for waiver enrollees, and two MFP demonstration services that have been approved by CMS to continue in our 1915(c) waiver.

Process focused professional with over 30 years of experience helping healthcare providers to communicate with their clients. I intensely focus on: Improved Health Outcomes, Reducing Medical Costs, and Enhanced Quality. I focus on the basics for the best possible outcomes. The foundation of a good relationship between clients/members, providers, and payers always begins and ends with communication.

Across 35 years of business experience, Greg Padovani has been a military medical administrator, pharmaceutical representative, ad agency account executive, medical practice executive as well as an entrepreneur, marketing innovator and technology pioneer.

In 1986, Greg was recruited as the first Director of Marketing and Patient Relations for the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation (NMFF) – a multi-specialty medical group consisting of 800 physicians who are faculty of the Northwestern Medical School and on staff at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Reporting to the Dean of the Medical School and the Chairmen of the 14 clinical departments, Greg re-defined marketing in the academic setting based on his understanding the patient perspective. He had daily contact with patients assisting them with issues spanning all aspects of their relationship – from clinical care to operations to billing. Using the input of ~1,000 of patients per year, Greg was able to identify key factors that were crucial to positive, productive physician-patient relationships.

In the area of marketing, the feedback was clear and consistent...Patients want information that is relevant to them, brief and useful in solving their specific problems or meeting their needs. Unfortunately, health care communications at the time (and even currently) did/do not meet these patient requirements. So Greg developed an entirely new form of communications -- the first “One-to-One” newsletter in the nation. This new approach to communications was so successful that Greg founded a company to meet this need.

Since 1998, PENS Communications Systems, LLC (PCS) has provided true “One-to-One” communications for hospitals, medical schools and a state Medicaid department. Using a proprietary system (software, hardware, techniques and processes,) termed the Patient Education Newsletter System (PENS), clients have been able to provide clients, patients, prospects, and others with information that is relevant, brief, and useful to them - specifically.

PENS delivers multiple relevant messages to each person in whatever language is most appropriate – from English, Arabic and Cambodian to Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. PENS achieves this via an innovative post-relational database technology that transcends traditional systems. Just as important, PENS has been architected to adapt to the creative ideas and the changing needs of clients. Nothing about PENS is static or cookie cutter. So the technology and the techniques available to clients are continually evolving and adapting. Greg believes that this adaptability is key to success in a constantly changing world.

Greg received his B.S. from the University of Illinois and his M.B.A. from De Paul University in Chicago.

Back in 1996, Jon moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for a hot young start-up. Dashing his hopes for early retirement, the name of that start up was not Yahoo, Google or eBay. However, prior to co-founding EVERFI, Jon did work in a variety of operating, marketing and business development roles for Kaplan, Inc. A good deal of his work focused on how to harness learning technology as a key component of the curriculum within the K-12 space.

His contributions included running four different markets across the country with operating responsibility of up to $15 million. In each of these posts he championed initiatives that produced substantial and consistent top and bottom line growth. Having now worked in the education space for over 15 years, Jon’s role at EVERFI touches every part of the business. He is responsible for all product development, design and strategy involving all of EVERFI’s platforms, especially new initiatives that shape company direction. He spends a great deal of time on airplanes and is one step away from being able to fly a Southwest jet since there are no longer any travel perks he hasn’t earned with them. During that travel time, Jon can be found meeting with EVERFI customers and speaking at national events focused on the application and research related to the skills EVERFI’s platforms teach. Jon earned his MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College.

Sharawn Connors is the Vice President of Global Total Rewards and Diversity & Inclusion of Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX). Flex is a leading sketch-to-scale™ solutions company that designs and builds intelligent products for a connected world. With more than 200,000 professionals across 30 countries and a promise to help make the world Live Smarter™, the company provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes in various industries and end-markets.

Ms.Connors’ professional experience spans human resources, information technology, project management, and operations.

Ms. Connors joined Flex in 2013 as the Director of US Compensation and Benefits and was subsequently promoted to Vice President, Global Benefits in 2015. She pursued an HR leadership role at Gensler before returning to Flex in 2016. Prior to her current position, she was the Vice President, Human Resources Business Partner.

Ms. Connors holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the California State University and a master’s degree in human resource management from the Golden Gate University, San Francisco. She also has a Senior Professional Human Resources Certification (SPHR) from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), and Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from the Project Management Institute.

With a passion for education and coaching, Ms. Connors serves as an adjunct professor of human resources and project management and as a mentor to first generation and underrepresented college students.

Sean is an entrepreneurial executive dedicated to leading exceptional teams to distribute inventions that enhance our quality of life, the survival of our species, and the health of our planet. He is focused on forming and operating early to growth stage, high tech ventures to achieve significant scale, commercial success and fulfillment of a meaningful mission.

Sean is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at HealthTap, a digital health company transforming access to quality primary healthcare for millions worldwide. In the first 7 years of his tenure, he was Chief Product Officer and one of the founding members, helping to lead the organization from a seed-stage startup in private beta to a growth stage company with $85M in financing, eight-figures in annual consumer and enterprise revenue, and over 350 million consumers served.

Prior to that, Sean was Founder & CEO of PayoutHub, a social game-monetization platform that was acquired, and the Founder & COO of GXStudios, a venture-backed, team-based casual games platform. Sean advises startups regularly through VC firms, Stanford's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (now "TSAI City"), Yale University’s official incubator and fellowship program for entrepreneurs — which he co-founded. Sean holds numerous honors and inventions in the fields of health informatics, A.I., drug delivery, genetic testing, medical devices, and new industrial polymers.

Sean earned an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. (with Distinction) in Biomedical Engineering and Pre-Medicine from Yale University. He's an inventor at heart, a scientist by training, an engineer by trade, and a designer by hobby.

A thought leader who has helped bring to life and elevate some of the world’s most innovative brands, Kathy Savitt currently serves as Managing Partner at Perch Partners, a global strategic advisory firm for Fortune 500 and venture-backed start-ups. In addition to its management consulting arm, Perch runs a rising incubator for technology start-ups seeking to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.

Previously, Kathy was Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Media at Yahoo where she led the brand’s worldwide marketing, customer experience, and editorial teams. Before joining Yahoo, Kathy was CEO of Lockerz, a company she founded in 2009 with the mission of revolutionizing the way Generation Z discovers and consumes content and products.

Kathy also has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., where she ran both the global marketing efforts of the company’s portfolio of brands and the digital and e-commerce channels. She was also Vice President of Strategic Communications, Content and Entertainment Initiatives for Amazon.com including the development of Amazon's first original entertainment initiatives.

Kathy’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident early in her career. She founded her first company, an integrated marketing communications firm called MWW/Savitt, before she turned 30. Kathy currently is a Board member of Volta (US’ largest free electric car charging network); Picket (Transformation of residential living experience in America), Hey Charlotte (Subscription-based social network for women) and Flippable (People-powered movement to help restore state government voting rights and democracy). Over the past fifteen years, she has also served on numerous public boards including Alaska Air Group and Build-A-Bear Workshop. Savitt graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and government and is a frequent guest speaker at business schools and universities on entrepreneurialism, media, consumer focus and mentorship.

Jean Hippert joined PNC Healthcare in 2007, and currently is the south region treasury management director. As a member of the healthcare leadership team, she helps develop and implement strategy and tactics to expand the bank’s brand and presence, and is responsible for the bank’s healthcare treasury management sales staff in the south.

She is co-sponsor of the PNC Healthcare Advisory Board, and helps develop and direct strategic research and healthcare thought leadership for the bank. Jean represents PNC at national events and on the speaker circuit, and supports regional business development activities, sales teams and clients. Additional past responsibilities have included management of all treasury management client advisory boards, sales force administration and effectiveness, and data analytics.

Prior to joining the bank, Jean spent nearly 10 years with Premier, Inc., a strategic alliance of not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare systems. At Premier, she was responsible for relationship management with shareholder organizations, specializing in integrated delivery networks, academic medical institutions and faith-based healthcare systems. She also helped manage national business development and participated in the corporate Baldrige team. Before joining Premier, she was a healthcare consultant at Hyatt, Imler, Ott & Blount specializing in clinical resource management and operational productivity improvement

Jean holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in Economics from Mary Washington University and is a participating member of the Association of Financial Professionals, Healthcare Financial Management Association, and Women Business Leaders of Healthcare Foundation.

Juan Lopez is senior vice president of Finance Shared Services for Independence Blue Cross (Independence). In this role Mr. Lopez leads the Corporate Accounting, Investments, Treasury, Procurement, and Building Services, driving efficiency and effectiveness in these areas. He reports directly to the chief financial officer and treasurer, providing strategic guidance, and identifying opportunities for business innovation and process improvements.

Mr. Lopez previously served as the corporate controller and later as head of Investments and Treasury Services.

Mr. Lopez has more than 30 years of experience in finance, accounting, and audit in the health care, financial services, and banking industries. Before joining Independence in 2010, Mr. Lopez was senior director of IT Finance at CIGNA Corporation. Prior to CIGNA, Mr. Lopez held a variety of finance and audit roles at ARAMARK, GE Capital, and CoreStates Financial Corp.

Mr. Lopez is the chairman of the board of directors for the nonprofit Providence Center, which serves the Latino community in North Philadelphia, and he also serves on the board for the American Heritage Federal Credit Union. In 2017, Mr. Lopez was honored with Al Día’s Hispanic Heritage Month Pillar of Leadership Award in 2017, which recognizes Latino leadership in business in Philadelphia.

At Independence, Mr. Lopez actively supports the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts as an executive sponsor for the Latino Associate Resource Group, Latinos con Propósito, and as a member of the company’s Leadership Development Advisory Council. He also led the company’s United Way campaign as co-executive sponsor from 2017 through 2019.

Mr. Lopez graduated from La Salle University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and has post-graduate training in Six Sigma and financial leadership.

By analyzing Pharmacy Benefit cost trends and reconciling their vendor’s contractual obligations, Steve provides strategic cost-saving recommendations for our self-funded employers. He also works on various data analysis projects for our Managed Care clients and participates in new application development for our employee use.

Over his career at Health Strategy, Steve has negotiated over $175B in Pharmacy Benefit contracts for his clients. Prior to joining the Health Strategy, Steve was a Clinical Education Consultant at Pfizer, where he performed pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research, data analysis, clinical presentations, and academic detailing.

He has three degrees from the University of Minnesota: a PharmD, a BS in Pharmacy, and a BS in Medical Technology.

David Contorno is Founder of E Powered Benefits. As a native of New York, David began his career in the insurance industry at the age of 14, and has since become a leading expert in the realm of employee benefits over the last 21 years. The Hilb Group continues to grow organically by ensuring all management is handled locally, providing top notch solutions and supports, and through strategic acquisitions.

Among his many accolades, David received a Broker Spotlight in 2004 and was recognized as an outstanding Broker of Service in 2005 through 2014 by Blue Cross Blue Shield. He has continually received the Echelon Award by United Healthcare since 2003, reserved for the top 1% of agents nationally, and was a 2015 "40 Under 40" Award Winner presented by Charlotte Business Journal. Most recently, David was Benefits Selling Magazine's 2015 Broker of the Year and, in March 2016, Forbes deemed him "One of America's Most Innovative Benefits Leaders."

David is a member of the Board of Directors for both the Charlotte Association of Health Underwriters and Healthreach Community Clinic. He served on the NC Insurance Commissioners Life and Health Agent Advisory Committee, as well as participated in the Technical Advisory Group that helped with the Market Reforms required under the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina. He is a long-time member of the Lake Norman and South Iredell Chambers of Commerce as well as the National, North Carolina, New York and Long Island Associations of Health Underwriters. David contributes to numerous publications, including Forbes, Benefits Selling Magazine, Business Leader Magazine and Insurance Thought Leadership.

David is committed to giving back to his community and actively participates in the membership drive for the United Way, assisting the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and supporting The Dove House Child Advocacy Center. When he is not working, he enjoys boating, traveling, and being with his wife, Heather, and their two children, Hannah and Ethan.

Since earning earned his PhD in Quantitative Analysis from the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Scott has 23 years experience in the private sector and entrepreneurial ventures, and 7 years in academia. Over the past 6 years, most of Dr. Scott’s time has been spent in the healthcare industry, both consulting and co-founding Sonospine, LLC, a company that uses leading pain management and advanced surgical ultrasound technology to avoid most spinal fusions (below).

The University of Lynchburg contacted Scott in March of 2018 to direct the Health Informatics Management graduate program. After being granted curricular latitude to develop a world-class program, he spent the last year researching, interviewing, and surveying healthcare systems, benefits advisors, HR professionals, and industry experts, as well as attending national conferences. This work led him, with significant help from dozens of industry experts, to create the first Master’s Degree focused exclusively on value-based health benefit design.

This one-year, 100% online Master’s program, is extremely practical, and involves the ongoing contact of 21 CEOs and additional industry leaders. Students are expected to lower healthcare costs in their company, or in their clients’ companies. The program has three tracks: Benefits Adviser, HR and Administrators, and those new to healthcare. All three have the same objective: Provide better healthcare at significantly lower cost.

Chris Cashwell is Vice President of Healthcare Solutions at Digital Reasoning and oversees a dedicated team focused on deploying AI solutions that solve real-world healthcare challenges. He has more than 20 years of experience leading both large and small healthcare IT companies. Most recently, he served as chief executive officer at Lincor Solutions, where he was responsible for strategy and operations for the global patient engagement technology provider. Prior to that, Cashwell was a senior director at Nuance Healthcare, leading cross-functional strategies to bring new AI technology to the market. In his previous roles, Cashwell primarily focused on growing recurring revenue business models and expanding use cases for natural language processing (NLP) in healthcare.

Ken Botsford serves as Chief Medical Officer at naviHealth. Ken has over 23 years of experience in internal medicine and infectious diseases and has served in numerous consulting and Medical Director roles, as well as Chief of Staff for a hospital. Prior to joining naviHealth, Ken served as the Chief Medical Officer at HealthSpring, Inc. for Alabama, southern Mississippi, and northern Florida. In addition, he also co-founded an independent practice association (IPA) and an electronic medical records company.

Dr. Vincent Mor is Professor of Health Services, Policy & Practice and the Florence Pirce Grant University Health in the Brown University School of Public Health. He served as Chair of the Department of Community Health from 1996 until 2010. Dr. Mor has been Principal Investigator of over 30 NIH funded grants focusing on the organizational and health care delivery system factors associated with variation in use of health services and the outcomes frail and chronically ill persons experience. Dr. Mor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. In 2011 he was given the Distinguished Investigator Award From AcademyHealth, the premier health services research organization in the country. He has published over 400 peer reviewed articles and numerous books and book chapters on hospice, physical functioning, long term care and cancer treatment patterns among the elderly as well as the organization of AIDS health services.

Dr. Mor was one of the authors of the Congressionally mandated Minimum Data Set (MDS) for Nursing Home Resident Assessment and evaluated its implementation, focusing particularly on the manner it was implemented. Dr. Mor has developed several summary measures based upon MDS data to characterize residents' physical, cognitive and psycho-social functioning, all of which have been used in resident and facility level analyses of the quality of nursing home care in US and international populations. Dr. Mor was part of a team of researchers that developed and validate risk adjusted quality indicators for nursing homes, versions of which are currently being used in public reporting throughout the country.

He held a MERIT award from NIA for his research on organizational factors related to nursing home quality and residents' outcomes for 10 years and was a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Investigator award to examine the influence of managed care and integrated delivery systems on the strategic decisions of nursing homes and their quality consequences for residents. He examined the effect of state policies on the quality of care provided nursing home residents, including hospitalization, merging primary and secondary data from all nursing facilities throughout the United States.

Marty Joseph founded BAS, a subsidiary of HealthComp Holdings, in 1983. It was one of the first TPAs in the country to administer Reference-Based Pricing (RBP), and today it serves as a Center of Excellence for innovative RBP solutions. Marty has extensive experience in this field, working with over 200 employers and public entities to implement and administer RBP plans. His deep knowledge and years of experience make him a key resource for groups looking to implement these plans to achieve optimal and cost-effective health plans.

Matthew Lund has been in the employee benefits field for over 15 years, specializing in self-funded health and welfare plans, benefit design and management, individual disability income (IDI) combo’s and long-term care (LTC) for large corporate clients. Prior to founding Fortune Management, Inc. in 2019, Matt began his career at a national insurance carrier serving the Southwest and was then an executive for four large local brokerage firms in Seattle, Washington.

Louis Gagnon is CEO of Total Brain, a mental health and fitness platform. Louis has 25 years of experience as a high-growth global digital business leader, most notably at Amazon’s subsidiary Audible where he served as Chief Product and Marketing Officer. He also was recently appointed Advisor to TPG Capital following a short CEO assignment to turn around portfolio company Ride.com. Other past notable roles include Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Yodle and Senior VP of Global Products at Monster Worldwide.