Speaking Faculty

Alan Abramson is HealthPartners Senior Vice President for Information Services & Technology and Chief Information Officer.

Mr. Abramson is active as an advisor or board member to numerous regional and national organizations including: Normandale Community College, The Health Care Executive Group, University of St. Thomas Graduate Programs in Software, and BethelBiz mentorship program.

He currently co-chairs the Minnesota eHealth Advisory Committee and has chaired numerous eHealth Workgroups.

Throughout her career, Ms. Allen’s primary passion has been on serving the needs of those most at risk in our communities. She has served in a number of capacities in the nonprofit, education and workforce development arenas, and has worked across the generations to ensure vulnerable and at-risk individuals have access to the resources and services they need to thrive.

Ms. Allen began her career as a special education teacher and school administrator on Andros Island, Bahamas, and later accepted positions with AARP Foundation’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) as Project Director and Assistant National Director. She then served as Director, Workforce Programs, for AARP before being named Vice President, Income Security, for AARP Foundation in 2011.

In 2016, Ms. Allen was named Senior Vice President, Programs, and now leads a team of Foundation innovators and social entrepreneurs to develop effective solutions that address the social determinants of health and help vulnerable, low-income older adults secure the essentials. In this role, she oversees AARP Foundation’s longstanding national programs like SCSEP, Tax-Aide and Experience Corps, as well as new innovations designed to increase economic opportunity and social connections that help prevent and reduce senior poverty.

Ms. Allen holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Westminster College and a master’s degree in human and organizational learning from The George Washington University.

Gina Altieri is Enterprise Senior Vice President and Chief of Strategy Integration, responsible for Nemours’ strategic planning process and corporate services which includes information technology, enterprise intelligence, corporate information security, project management, and responsibility for Nemours’ websites, online patient access and video communications. Her latest endeavor is the launch of the Nemours’ Center for Healthcare Delivery and Innovation — a consumer digital health strategy including telemedicine and web-based patient education and related services.

Nemours was an early adopter of the electronic health record and today, under her leadership, Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Nemours Children’s Hospital in Florida and Nemours ambulatory locations in five states have all achieved the prestigious HIMMS Stage 7 top ranking. In addition to her Strategy Integration responsibilities, Gina also leads Nemours Corporate Services Division and serves as an executive champion for Strategic Planning Support, Associate Satisfaction and Engagement and Brand Management.

She is also responsible for The Nemours Mansion and Gardens, an estate museum owned by Alfred I. duPont, Nemours’ benefactor, and inspired by Versailles’ Petit Trianon with stunning gardens. The estate museum is open to visitors and gives travelers a peek into the long-lost world of splendor and beauty that is the hallmark of the Brandywine Valley.

She joined Nemours in 1996 as Practice Administrator of Nemours duPont Pediatrics (formerly Nemours Children's Clinic) in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to joining Nemours full time, she worked at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (N/AIDHC) on a consulting basis while she was an employee for the Thomas Jefferson University. As a consultant, she helped N/AIDHC formulate a central billing operation to bill for professional services performed by the employed medical staff.

Gina is a member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and American Medical Group Association (AMGA). She has also been recognized as a Woman of Distinction by the Philadelphia Business Journal, a Woman in Business by Delaware Today, Connected World Magazine’s Woman of M2M and the Internet of Things (IOT), and by the Balanced Score Card Hall of Fame.

Gina Altieri was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned a BS in accounting from Drexel University and achieved the CPA designation in 1988. She lives in West Berlin, New Jersey with her husband Augustine (Gus) and their daughter Bria. They all love spending time at their beach house in Ocean City, NJ.

Scott Anders, M.D., FAAFP, CPE, serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Tenet Physician Resources, supporting physician recruitment and retention, company and market growth, clinical and quality strategies, technology integration and improving the patient experience.

Dr. Anders works closely with Tenet’s CMO to enhance the organization’s position as a provider of holistic, high value care that meets the needs of patients across the care continuum. He is responsible for patient experience, clinical and quality strategies, including MACRA performance, employee and patient safety, virtual visits and clinical technology integration.

Dr. Anders has more than 15 years as a senior physician executive and his passion in healthcare is improving the physician work experience, enhancing the patient experience, and managing Tenet’s population health strategy. Prior to joining TPR, Dr. Anders was a division medical director for the Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA), where he helped drive dynamic growth from 100 to 180+ employed multispecialty physicians.

A physician by training, Dr. Anders is board certified in family medicine and is a licensed specialist in hypertension certified by the American Society of Hypertension. He has patient practice experience across many avenues, including emergency room, hospital, ICU, ambulatory and geriatrics.

Dr. Anders has an executive MBA from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business and received certification as a physician executive from the American College of Physician Executives. He graduated summa cum laude in aerospace engineering and mechanics from the University of Minnesota.

Charles Andres, Ph.D., RAC, is an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He focuses on patent prosecution, strategic patent counseling, IP due diligence, drug and medical device FDA regulatory counseling, invalidity and non-infringement opinions, life-cycle management, Supreme Court and Federal Circuit amicus briefs, and related business matters.

Charlie has significant experience drafting patent applications, prosecuting patent applications in the U.S. and abroad, and evaluating the claims of issued patents. He has won cases before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences by brief and on oral argument. Patents Charlie has obtained have been listed in the Orange Book and asserted against a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer, and he has drafted and filed multiple applications for patent term extension. Companies he has obtained patents for have been sold for a cumulative total of approximately $4 billion.

Charlie has also drafted and prosecuted patents covering three FDA approved drugs. He represented a client at a U.S. Senate HELP Committee full hearing on electronic health records and was part of a team that defended a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in an Actavis reverse payment enquiry at the Federal Trade Commission.

In addition, Charlie has authored and reviewed numerous freedom-to-operate, invalidity, and non-infringement opinions, including opinions supporting Paragraph IV certification for ANDA filers under the Hatch-Waxman Act. He has advised companies on the use of post-grant U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proceedings to achieve IP goals.

Prior to becoming a patent professional, Charlie spent a decade as a medicinal chemist and early-phase project co-chair at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, where he won a Presidential Award, among other accolades. He holds Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.

Robert E. Andrews currently serves as the CEO of the Health Transformation Alliance (HTA).

As CEO of the HTA, Andrews oversees the strategic direction of 45+ major corporations who have come together in an alliance to do one thing: fix our broken healthcare system. Formed by 4 founding members in September 2015, the HTA has grown to include more than 45 of our nation’s leading employers, who collectively are responsible for more than 7 million employees, dependents and retirees and an annual health care spend of $26 billion. Through Andrews’ leadership, the HTA has launched value-driven solutions specifically designed to improve patient care and economic value through world class data & analytics, pathbreaking pharmaceutical solutions, high quality medical networks and robust consumer engagement initiatives.

Andrews previously led the Government Affairs practice at Dilworth Paxson law firm for two years before joining the HTA. Prior to private practice, Andrews served as a Member of the United States House of Representatives for nearly 24 years. Upon his departure from the Congress, President Barack Obama praised Andrews’ service as “an original author of the Affordable Care Act...and a vital partner in its passage and implementation,” and cited his “tenacity and skill” in representing the people of New Jersey. Andrews is married to Camille Spinello Andrews, an Associate Dean at Rutgers Law School and former Dilworth partner, and they have two daughters, Jacquelyn and Josie.

During his time in the U.S. House, Andrews was a Member of the House of Democratic Leadership as Co-Chairman of the Steering Policy Committee; Senior Democratic Member and former Chairman of the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; Senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, with responsibility for all national defense matters; Senior Democratic member and the former Chairman of the Defense Committee Panel on Defense Procurement Reform; Senior Democratic member and former Chairman of the Defense Committee Panel on Audit of the Pentagon; Participant, White House Summit on Health Care Reforms (2009 and 2010); One of the Original Authors of the Affordable Care Act; One of the original authors of the Defense Procurement Reform Law (2009); and he holds the record for the highest number of votes ever received by a U.S. House candidate in the history of the state of New Jersey. Andrews’ professional and community activities include his time as former Director of Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Andrews has been a keynote speaker at charitable, educational and governmental events for 30 years, including: Bucknell University commencement; Rutgers Law School commencement; and Rutgers Camden commencement. He is a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC.

Education:

J.D., magna cum laude, Cornell Law School, 1982 • Cornell Law Review • Order of the Coif B.A., summa cum laude with honors, Bucknell University, 1979 • Phi Beta Kappa

Over the last 30 years, he has professionally continued to develop in the Tourism Industry; including Hotels, Restaurants, Destination Management Company.

He has developed knowledge and expertise on the design of strategies to be implemented in the organization, logistics, marketing, advertising, promotion and development of tourist products.

His portfolio of clients is integrated by domestic and foreign trademarks; such as: Pfizer Laboratories, 3M Mexico, Mercedes Benz Mexico, Novartis Mexico, Sandoz Mexico, Sara Lee Mexico, Playtex Apparel Mexico, Sun Microsystem Mexico.

Deborah Ault is well known and respected in the healthcare industry and has been the builder of successful medical management programs since 1996. Deborah has pioneered the “proactive,” “day-one, dollar-one,” and “progressive patient-centric” models of medical management. Most recently the creation of P3CM™ (patent pending) tops her resume. Deborah combines her proven success in the industry with her proven organizational leadership.

A registered nurse for 13 years, Deborah Ault has a diverse background in health care management and in all facets of nursing care. She worked in major hospitals, and acquired business development, management and marketing expertise at several prominent managed care organizations. Most recently, as vice president of care management for a national firm, she successfully utilized care management best practices to integrate two separate business operations into one company, while containing major health care costs.

Deborah began her nursing career upon graduation from Marion Technical College, and studied at several colleges and universities before earning her BBA degree and then MBA. Her leadership, multi-tasking and organizational skills, coupled with her advanced studies in mathematics and statistics, have proven invaluable in helping clients realize savings from medical management interventions.

Felipe Barganier is the founder of Atlanta-based GAB International LLC. After 15 years in the financial services and insurance industry, he started the firm as a direct result of seeing that there was a need in the insurance industry to not just sell insurance to groups and individuals but to help employers and individuals make more informed decisions and help them contain cost.

GAB International is rapidly expanding and is a fast-growing brand in the large group market and currently is expanding nationally as its reputation for excellence and value within Georgia has garnered Felipe national recognition.

Felipe was recognized as one of the top five employee benefit advisors in the country as a finalist for 2017 Broker of the Year in BenefitsPro magazine. He was also honored as a 2016 award recipient for GMBA Insurance Industry of the Year for the state of Georgia and in 2017 was featured in Who's Who in Atlanta.

He is the co-author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller, NextGeneration Healthcare: Proven Secrets of Managing the Healthcare Value Trend to Improve Outcomes and Reduce Costs.

Marilyn earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nevada (Reno), and taught high school for one year, an experience that sent her promptly back to school to complete the Accounting/Finance program at Montana State University (Billings). She then became a Certified Public Accountant, and followed that with the CMA, CGMA, and CFM designations.

Upon earning her CPA, Marilyn turned immediately to the business world and held financial management positions for a utility company, gold mining company and a public accounting firm. In 2001, she narrowed her focus to health care financial management, becoming Controller for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. In 2007, Marilyn became the CFO for EBMS, a regional TPA focusing on self-funded plans.

In late 2014, Marilyn became the Administrator of the State of Montana Employee Group Health Plan, when actuarial projections showed health plan reserves would be -$9 million by December 2017. Marilyn and her team implemented Reference Based Contracting with all the Montana hospitals; negotiated a transparent pass-through pharmacy benefit; and managed vendors for improved performance. In December 2017, plan reserves were at $112 million.

In July 2018, Marilyn left the state plan and took over as Special Projects Coordinator for State Insurance Commissioner, with the goal of peeling back the cloak of secrecy covering the never-ending, inexplicable costs of prescription pharmaceuticals. To date legislation and lawsuits have followed her research and data analysis with more to come.

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.

John Birkmeyer, MD is Chief Clinical Officer at Sound Physicians, a national physician organization specializing in acute care medicine and performance management. It comprises over 3,500 physicians and APPs practicing at more than 300 hospitals nationwide. In this role, he is responsible for clinical and financial performance and helping hospital partners succeed under value-based payment models. Before joining Sound in 2017, he was Executive Vice President of Integrated Delivery Systems and Chief Academic Officer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, responsible for clinical operations and academic affairs.

Dr. Birkmeyer is a graduate of Boston College and Harvard Medical School, and completed his general surgery residency and medical informatics fellowship at Dartmouth. He later moved to the University of Michigan, serving as Director of the Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy and founding Director of the Michigan Value Collaborative, a payer-funded improvement collaborative involving over 50 hospitals across Michigan. In 2011, he founded ArborMetrix, an analytics company focused on helping hospitals and providers succeed under new payment models.

Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006, Dr. Birkmeyer is a nationally recognized health services researcher with expertise in understanding variation in hospital and provider performance, scalable strategies for quality improvement, and value-based reimbursement. Many of his 250+ peer-reviewed studies have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Health Affairs. Dr. Birkmeyer was a member of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care Working Group and co-author on its watershed report, “The Quality of Medicare Care in the United States: A Report on the Medicare Program.”

As Senior Vice President of Health Services, Garrett Black develops strategies and programs to make health care easier to use and more affordable. In this role, Black leads innovation in payment for medical services; collaborates with medical providers to create new and transformative care models; and addresses the sustainability of healthcare costs.

In his Enterprise Solutions role, Mr. Black leads information technology, operating platforms and data/analytics.

Black joined Blue Cross in 2010 as Vice President of Network Management. In this role, he led Blue Cross’ provider relationship and payment strategies. In 2012, Black was promoted to Senior Vice President of Health Management, leading medical management and health analytics. In 2014, he began a new role focused on developing collaborative partnerships between Blue Cross and medical providers.

Immediately prior to Blue Cross, Black served as Chief Strategy Officer for Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota. Before his work at Children’s, Black was System Director for Strategic Development at Allina Health. Black’s experience also includes seven years as a national consultant, advising hospitals, physicians and integrated care systems across the country on strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions, and long-term financial planning.

Black earned his Bachelor's degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee and subsequent Master's degrees in business and healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota.

Lance Black, MD, MBID is the Associate Director of the Texas Medical Center’s TMCx Accelerator program. Within the TMC Innovation umbrella, Lance served previously as Medical Device Innovation Lead – where he utilized his extensive military, medical, and engineering expertise to support the resident companies of TMCx in developing innovative healthcare technologies.

Lance was born in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1979 and also grew up there. He spent many of his formative years in The Pelican State, attending Louisiana State University and then medical school in New Orleans. While at LSU, Lance experienced one of the most influential moments in his young life during the course of his senior design class. In the class, Lance had the opportunity to work with a team in designing a leg brace for an individual who had post-polio syndrome. The individual’s leg would randomly ‘give out’ -- causing him to fall without warning. Lance and his teammates on the project invented a brace that helped catch him during a fall without restricting his normal gait. At that moment of aiding the debilitated person in such a way, Lance knew he had to be involved in healthcare innovation.

After earning his B.S. in Biological Engineering from Louisiana State University and his M.D. from LSU Health Sciences Center of New Orleans, Lance entered the U.S. Air Force, where he completed a residency in family medicine with additional training in aerospace medicine. He had the opportunity to deploy twice during his service – first as Chief of the Medical Staff at Manas Transit Base in Kyrgyzstan – and then as a Squadron Flight Surgeon in Okinawa, Japan. During his time in Manas, Lance helped to create a mobile modular medical facility aimed to uplift the surrounding defunct healthcare system. In Japan, he responded to in-flight emergencies and orchestrated protocols ensuring the safety of F-22 pilots and their crew.

His work with wounded warrior amputees during his military career and his background in biological engineering prompted him to refocus his efforts from patient care to the design and development of medical devices. Following the completion of his commitment to the military, Lance attended Georgia Tech’s Masters of Biomedical Innovation and Development program – which included one year in its Masters of Industrial Design program.

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.

Alice Bonner has been a geriatric nurse practitioner caring for older adults and their families for over 30 years. She is currently Senior Advisor on Aging with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Adjunct Faculty and Director of Strategic Partnerships for the CAPABLE Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. From 2015-2019, she served in the Baker Administration as Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,

From 2011 to 2013, she served as Director of the Division of Nursing Homes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, MD. From 2009-2011, Dr. Bonner was the Director of the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality, at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Her research interests include policy development to promote quality and safety in health systems and community-based settings; elder abuse; falls prevention; improving dementia care and reducing unnecessary antipsychotic medication use; and improving care transitions.

Ray L. Bowman, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President for Talent and Team Development at MarineMax, headquartered in Clearwater, Florida. MarineMax is the nation’s largest boat and yacht retailer with approximately 70 stores and marinas from coast to coast with approximately 1700 employees, referred to as “team members”. MarineMax is self-insured. In his position at MarineMax, Dr. Bowman also oversees the company’s health care plan as well as executive development, various training functions, strategic planning coordination, and succession planning. Regarding MarineMax’s health care plan, Dr. Bowman has been instrumental in piecing together a set of cost saving strategies for both team members and the company.

Prior to joining the MarineMax team, Dr. Bowman spent nearly four decades practicing Clinical Psychology with four offices in three counties surrounding Tampa Bay, Florida. He is board certified (with Diplomate status) in Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Forensic Psychology, and Clinical Psychology. He has degrees from Eckerd College, Notre Dame, and the University of Georgia. He completed his internship at Shand’s Hospital at the University of Florida. He retired from clinical practice in 2011.

Dr. Bowman is married to his beautiful wife, Debra, of 43 years and has one son, Robert, who lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina with his wife, Ashley, and Dr. Bowman’s two extraordinarily gifted, talented and beautiful granddaughters, Hannah and Grace, ages eight and four respectively.

Jessica Brooks is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health, where she is leading the effort to redefine and advance the discussion around health care value, access and quality on behalf of employers. Jessica is responsible for the vision of the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health – spearheading new initiatives and measures that have resulted in improving the organization’s visibility and growth in the health care market space.

Under her leadership, PBGH has enjoyed consistent financial gains, the growth of the organization’s class-leading prescription drug management program – delivering more than $25 million in annual savings to employers, and the deployment of a comprehensive data strategy that enables employers to better leverage health care and benefits information with health plans, providers and other partners.

Ms. Brooks is also leading the effort to drive continuing education for health and human resource professionals with the launch of one of the country’s first online certification program designed to help HR and benefits practitioners improve how they deploy and track health care quality and cost. She has contributed to numerous news stories, opinion editorial pieces, and has appeared on National Public Radio, and in national health care and benefits publications. She has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Business Times as a Fast Tracker and was also named to the 2015 Smart 50 class by Smart Business Magazine.

She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and Carnegie Mellon University, where she received her Masters in Public Management. Ms. Brooks serves on the board of governors for the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, the Health Innovation in Pennsylvania Price and Quality Transparency Work Group, as well as the All-Payer Claims Database Subcommittee for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She is a board member of Lending Hearts and the National Business Coalition on Health, and a Fellow for the Employer-Provider Interface Council (EPIC) of the Hospital Quality Foundation.

Lauren Brueggen is a Principal at the Heritage Group, a healthcare-focused private equity fund backed by strategic investors including healthcare systems, payers and other healthcare service providers. Prior to joining Heritage Group, Lauren was a Principal for the growth equity fund of Spring Mountain Capital, a New York-based alternative asset management firm with $1 billion of assets under management. Lauren spent seven years at Spring Mountain Capital focused on making growth equity investments in healthcare and technology businesses. From 2007 – 2011, she was an Associate at The Wicks Group, a private equity firm with over $1 billion under management. Prior to Wicks, she was in the Restructuring and Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Jefferies & Company, a middle market-focused investment bank. In 2017, she was named to GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 list of growth equity investors.

Lauren graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics and currently serves on the regional Board of the Northwestern University Leadership Circle. She resides in Nashville with her husband and three sons.

JOHN B. BULGER, DO, MBA is the Chief Medical Officer of Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) and the Chief Medical Officer for Population Health for Geisinger. The Geisinger Health System has a clinical presence spanning central Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. GHP serves over 500,000 members throughout central Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maine. He is tasked with improving the quality of care and adding value for the people and populations that Geisinger serves.

Dr. Bulger served as the Chief Quality Officer for Geisinger from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that, Dr. Bulger founded Geisinger Medical Center’s hospitalist program with six physicians and lead the program’s development to include six hospitals and over 100 physicians and advanced practitioners.

Dr. Bulger is a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Juniata College, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Pennsylvania State University. His wife Michele is a pediatrician and member of Geisinger’s faculty. They reside in Danville with their children Ethan, Ben, and Ava.

As the EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence at REshape Innovation Center at Radboud University Medical Center and part of the Exponential Medicine team at Singularity University, Shawna brings the clinical, practical, and human sensibilities of a nurse to work with early-stage ventures, large-scale enterprises, and emerging and converging technologies. She listens, learns, finds, and activates the mavericks and projects with a serious chance of delivering better health outcomes and making society stronger.

At Exponential Medicine, the focus is on the opportunities presented by robotics, AI, VR, machine learning, supercomputing, genetic sequencing, blockchain, 3D printing, drones, crowd + cloud solutions, and other technology advances; convene the community experimenting with them; and accelerate the distribution of adoption and impact.

Projects Shawna has shaped and launched include the EntrepreNURSE-in-Residence role in the Netherlands, an enterprise-wide digital radiology solution, an international emergency medicine training rotation between a US medical school and a New Zealand hospital system, and the Cancer XPRIZE focused on early detection.

She serves as an advisor to a variety of local, national, and global initiatives including Food+City, End Well, Dutch Health Innovation School, SXSW Accelerator, MassChallenge Texas, Impact Pediatric Health, Nursing Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University, and Austin Chamber Music Center.

Her clinical nursing experience includes emergency, cardiac, critical care, international medical flight transport, and workplace wellness. Her talent is scanning the horizon for game-changing patterns and identifying + connecting the thought leaders provoking them. Shawna brings sharp wit, common sense, and deep caring to projects worth doing and ideas worth spreading.

Marni Jameson Carey is the executive director of the Association of Independent Doctors, a national non-profit designed to support America’s independent doctors, stop the trend of health-care consolidation and, thus, reduce health-care costs and improve access and quality. An award-winning journalist, Ms. Jameson was formerly a senior health reporter for Tribune Media, writing for the Los Angeles Times and the Orlando Sentinel. She is past president and founder of a medical marketing firm, author of four books, a nationally syndicated columnist, and frequent TV guest and speaker. Since joining AID in 2014, Ms. Jameson has been featured in over 50 media outlets including NBC, FOX, Bloomberg, Becker’s, Modern Healthcare and Medical Economics.

Mark Caron is the Chief Executive Officer of Geneia and Executive Vice-President of Business Platforms and Systems at Capital BlueCross. He has more than 30 years of business and technology expertise with more than 25 years in health care traversing both health care delivery systems and health insurers.

His experience also includes senior leadership roles as the CIO of the Collaborative Care division of OptumHealth, Senior Vice President & CIO at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Senior Vice President & CIO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Chief Technology Officer at Catholic Health Initiatives (a 78 hospital system), and Vice President of Information Systems at Healthsource.

He earned a bachelor‘s degree in Computer Science from Franklin Pierce College and has a MBA and a master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Southern New Hampshire University. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), certified as a Healthcare Chief Information Officer through the College of Healthcare Information Executives, and is a member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and of the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).

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.

Dr. Bill Cassidy is a United States Senator for Louisiana.

Bill is married to Dr. Laura Cassidy and they have three children. They attend church at the Chapel on the Campus.

Bill grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and attended Louisiana State University (LSU) for undergraduate and Medical School.

For nearly three decades, Bill has provided care for uninsured and underinsured patients in Louisiana’s charity hospital system.

During this time, he co-founded the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic, a clinic providing free dental and health care to the working uninsured. Bill also created a private-public partnership to vaccinate 36,000 greater Baton Rouge area children against Hepatitis B at no cost to the schools or parents. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bill led a group of health care volunteers to convert an abandoned K-Mart building into an emergency health care facility, providing basic health care to hurricane evacuees.

In 1990, Bill joined LSU Medical School following his tenure at Earl K. Long hospital, where he taught medical students and residents while treating the uninsured. Bill was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 2006.

In 2008, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives to represent Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District. In the US House, Bill served on the Energy and Commerce Committee and supported a conservative agenda.

Bill was elected to the United States Senate in December, 2014. He serves on the Energy and Natural Resources, Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP), Finance, Veterans’ Affairs and Joint Economic Committees.

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.

Mabel Jong is an award winning journalist with more than two decades of experience working in business and television production in the United States, Asia, and Europe. Prior to returning to the Boston area, she wrote and produced a weekly show out of London for CNBC Europe that focused on the strategies of a different CEO. In addition to her extensive production work, she has worked as an anchor and correspondent for CNBC, NBC News, and ABC News. She reported in Asia during a pivotal time in the region's history, landed a one on one interview with Britain's Prime Minister, and has done live shots out in the middle of the ocean aboard an aircraft carrier.

Norman H. Chenven, M.D., is the Founding Chief Executive Officer of Austin Regional Clinic (ARC), a 325 physician multi-specialty medical group that serves the greater Austin metropolitan area with 25 clinical locations. ARC provides care to approximately 470,000 Central Texans in ten cities and three counties.

He is also President and Chief Executive Officer of Covenant Management Systems (CMS), an Austin-based practice management company, third party administrator and medical management organization that provides technical support and services to hospitals, medical groups, provider networks and governmental and employer based health plans.

Dr. Chenven is a Board Member of a number of national medical organizations such as the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), America’s Physicians Groups (APG) and the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP). He also is the Vice Chairman of the Austin Healthcare Council. Dr. Chenven has been recognized as Physician of the Year, Travis County Medical Society; Physician Emeritus, Texas Academy of Family Physicians and Executive Leadership Award from the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Tony Chin has more than twenty years’ experience in the development and implementation of business intelligence tools focused on healthcare analytics and working with clients to maximize the value of their data.

Tony received his BS in Actuarial Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

John Clay is a business and insurance consultant with over 25 years of experience. John creates a unique strategic approach for each of his clients so they can achieve their business goals to drive more revenue to the bottom line while also giving them a meaningful competitive advantage. He has built BetterSource Benefits to deliver valuable solutions that solve critical business and HR problems

John is co-author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller, BREAKING THROUGH THE STATUS QUO: How Innovative Companies Are Changing the Benefits Game to Help Their Client and Boost Their Bottom Line.

He is a member of National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) as well as a former regional vice president of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA-Kentucky). He is also a Charter member of the Association for Insurance Leadership and a member of University of Kentucky Alumni Association.

Dr. Suzanne Sysko Clough, M.D. is the Chief Innovation Office at ArmadaHealth, a company dedicated to bringing transparent, accurate and relevant healthcare navigation to the masses. In her role as the CIO she is responsible for defining the clinical and data science strategy that powers ArmadaHealth’s physician evaluation and matching platform. Suzanne and her world class team of data scientists, clinicians, and researchers have enlisted the most knowledgeable clinicians in the U.S. to define quality at the diagnosis level. Supporting these clinical driven rules is a machine learning platform that helps inform rules with longitudinal data-driven insights. These inputs drive ArmadaHealth’s multivariate predictive modeling platform to enable the optimal matching of patients to physicians.

Prior to working at ArmadaHealth, Dr. Clough spent a decade as the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of WellDoc, a digital health company with the first FDA-approved digital health platform. She continues to advise digital health companies in their content and business strategies. Dr. Clough completed her medical training in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Maryland Medical Systems. There she continued her medical career as an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology as well as Medical Director and as the Founder and Medical Director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness.

Scott Code, Associate Director of LeadingAge Center for Aging Services Technology (CAST)

Scott assists with shaping and executing LeadingAge CAST’s strategies and work plans to expand and lead CAST’s network. He is responsible for increasing CAST’s exposure and coordinating technology initiatives that aim to identify barriers and opportunities to facilitate the use of technology in an aging society, including coordinating state-level activities in partnership with LeadingAge’s State Affiliates.

Prior to joining LeadingAge CAST, Scott spent 7 years at SelfHelp Community Services in NY. Scott has become an expert in leveraging technology to help older adults stay independent and socially engaged. Scott has master's degrees in gerontology and business, providing him with the ability to both evaluate and implement new technology across the care continuum. Scott's most recognized program, SelfHelp's Virtual Senior Center founded in partnership with Microsoft and New York City, provided unique programs for New York City's senior citizens and garnered both national and international attention.

Anthony V. Coletta, M.D., M.B.A, is President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Tandigm Health, LLC (“Tandigm”). A board-certified general surgeon and an experienced healthcare business leader, Dr. Coletta brings an exceptional depth of executive and clinical expertise to Tandigm. Tandigm is a Population Health and Physician Management Services Organization acting as a positive disruptor in the movement towards value-based healthcare. Dr. Coletta’s vision for Tandigm is to restore and maintain balance within our healthcare ecosystem, placing patients and their physicians at the epicenter of proactive, coordinated care, leading to ever improving outcomes, lower costs and enhanced experiences for all.

Dr. Coletta is an Executive Vice President at Independence Health Group and was previously President of Independence's Facilitate Health Networks where he led the transformation from volume to value for Independence. During his early years with Independence, he served as one of the principal architects of the Tandigm Health business plan. Prior to this, Dr. Coletta was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Holy Redeemer Health System in Huntingdon Valley, PA. In this role, he was responsible for promoting and facilitating communication among Holy Redeemer’s clinical departments to ensure the delivery of safe, high quality care. During his clinical career, in 2000, he led the formation of Renaissance Health Alliance, a joint venture between Independence and Renaissance, a large, Philadelphia-based Independent Practice Association. As one of the founding physicians of Renaissance, he served as Chief Executive Officer, as well as Chairman of the Board.

In addition to his executive roles, Dr. Coletta was an attending general surgeon for more than two decades at Bryn Mawr Hospital, as well as an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at Drexel University in Philadelphia. During his distinguished clinical career, he was recognized both nationally and internationally as a pioneer in minimally invasive surgical techniques and was recognized by Philadelphia Magazine as one of the Top Doctors in the Philadelphia area.

Since 2007, Dr. Coletta has been traveling to Haiti, performing general surgical procedures alongside others. Following the earthquake of 2010, he has lead a team of doctors, nurses, and medical professionals on these missions, traveling to the island annually with medical supplies performing general and pediatric surgery on hundreds of patients through the years. He is a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons, President of Blue Sky Surgical Inc., Chairman of the Board of Tandigm Scholars, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Cristo Rey High School.

Dr. Coletta received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Georgetown University and graduated from Thomas Jefferson Medical College. He completed his Surgical Residency and a Fellowship in Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He attained his Master of Business Administration degree from the Fox School of Business at Temple University in 2006 with the distinction of University Scholar.

Honored as a one of the Top 10 People Transforming Health Care in Philadelphia, Dr. Coletta is also frequently a featured speaker at top healthcare events throughout the nation. He has recently been honored as Fox Centennial Honoree by his alma mater, Temple’s Fox School of Business.

Jeffrey Conklin Vice President, Payer & Network Strategies President, Adventist Health Managed Care President/CEO, Adventist Health Plan, Inc. Jeff Conklin joined Adventist Health as a corporate vice president and president, Adventist Health Managed Care in 2008. In 2012, Conklin transitioned into a new role with responsibility for advancing Adventist Health’s payer and network strategies. Additionally, in 2014 he became president/CEO of Adventist Health Plan, Inc., a newly formed KnoxKeene Plan. His background includes more than 30 years of leadership in managed care and in developing/managing physician organizations. A health care executive with extensive experience in senior leadership roles for health care systems, hospitals, IPAs/Medical Groups and management services organizations, Conklin possesses expertise in managed care strategy and contracting, accountable care, Independent Physician Association (IPA) development and administration, medical group management, and business development.

After graduating with a degree in finance from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2006, Ben signed on with Conner Insurance as an insurance advisor. Using his strengths in strategic planning, finance, and communication, Ben’s exceptional vision and execution with his clients led him to be recognized as a top advisor in both the firm and the Indiana insurance industry. By his late 20’s, he had been hired by some of the largest and most reputable privately held and publicly traded companies in Indiana.

Because of his outstanding efforts, Ben was promoted to CEO in 2013. In 2015, Ben Conner and his business partners acquired Conner Insurance from the previous owners. In the 12 years since the joining the firm, Conner Insurance has retained 90% of its clients, the firm has grown 3x, Conner has tripled their number of insurance advisors on staff, and the firm has grown the average customer size by more than 10 times, positioning the firm as one of the highest-growing and most trusted consulting firms in Indiana. Utilizing his leadership, work ethic and expertise, Ben’s benefits clients have experienced best in class national results in managing their health plans. Eighty percent of Ben’s clients have experienced flat or reduced healthcare expenses over the last 5-10 years, which is unheard of in the benefits healthcare industry.

Through his guidance and focus on workplace culture, Conner Insurance was recognized as one of the 100 Healthiest Workplaces in American in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Conner Insurance was also named the Healthiest Employer in Indiana in 2016, and was a finalist in 2012, 2014, and 2015. Additionally, Conner Insurance was a Top 10 finalist for the Best Places to Work in Indiana in 2014 and 2015, and was a finalist in 2016. Ben has also been recognized in 2019 by Employee Benefit Adviser as a Rising Star in Advising, which is a national recognition of advisors who are making a difference in the benefits consulting field. Ben is also a Board Member and President for a local household goods moving company, Jay’s Moving, that was recognized in 2018 as a FAST25 Company by the Indianapolis Business Journal, which recognizes the 25 fastest growing companies in the Indianapolis market.

Ben lives in Fishers, IN with his wife, Alyssa, and their two children (Evie, 2; Quinn; 1). Ben loves to read, play/watch sports, travel, and spend time with his family.

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.

Since July 2014, Michael J. Consuelos, MD, MBA, has served as the senior vice president for clinical integration at the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP). Dr. Consuelos works with member hospital and health system leaders, as well as other stakeholders, to promote innovative ways of improving health care delivery.

Dr. Consuelos leads HAP’s physician leadership initiative. Through this, he engages physician leaders, supports hospital and health system leadership in developing new payment models, works to improve the quality of clinical care, and supports integration of care across the continuum. Dr. Consuelos also encourages the sharing of best practices and the involvement of thought leadership to strengthen the hospital-physician relationship.

Dr. Consuelos has held multiple physician leadership positions, encompassing physician practices and pediatric service lines since 1997. He has extensive experience leading health system capital planning, strategic business ventures, physician compensation plans, and community pandemic response. Dr. Consuelos has also coached physician leaders and lectured on a variety of leadership competencies.

Dr. Consuelos received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his pediatric training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He received his Executive MBA from the Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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.

Laurie Cooke is the president and CEO of the HBA. Laurie is a dedicated advocate for gender parity, speaker, thought leader, PharmaVOICE 100 most inspiring people in life sciences and ASAE Mentor of the Year. Laurie served on PMI’s executive management team; and prior to nonprofit management work, she served in increasing senior roles ex-US with Hoechst, Hoechst Roussel, Hoechst Marion Roussel, and Aventis working across all pre-clinical to post approval areas including phase I biometrics, project management, process improvement, and late stage team effectiveness. Laurie began her career as a head hospital pharmacist in Washington State. Laurie graduated with a degree in microbiology from University of Maryland, advanced scientific degree in pharmacy from University of Washington, masters in Software Engineering Management from University of Luton, England. She is a licensed pharmacist and certified association executive. Laurie has lived and worked in Europe, New Zealand and both U.S., coasts and currently lives in the Philadelphia main line with her husband and four active pets.

Vicki Cunningham is a graduate of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy. She has practiced pharmacy for the past thirty-nine years, working in hospital and community pharmacies, as a consultant for long-term care facilities, and an instructor of pharmacology in the University of Charleston, School of Nursing. Before coming to the Bureau for Medical Services, she practiced at West Virginia Health Right, a free clinic for the under- and uninsured, both dispensing and working on formulary development and access issues. She continues to serve there as a volunteer pharmacist.

Vicki joined the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services in 2001 where she served as the Drug Utilization Review Coordinator for 14 years and the Director of Pharmacy Services for the past five years. Her responsibilities include retrospective and prospective drug utilization review and special projects involving disease management. Vicki coordinated and served on the West Virginia Team selected to participate in the National Governor’s Association Policy Academy on Chronic Disease, served as project manager for West Virginia’s Medicaid Transformation Program, Mountain Health Choices and the Enhanced Medication Management Program for implementation of an automated prior authorization system, a clinical web portal and e-prescribing.

As the president and CEO of Northwest Permanente (NWP), Imelda Dacones, MD, leads more than 1,700 physicians, clinicians, and administrators at the largest independent, physician-led, and multi-specialty professional corporation in Oregon and SW Washington. Together they serve the more than 580,000 members of Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

During her time with Northwest Permanente, she’s received its once-in-a-career-time NWP Distinguished Physician Award in 2012. Her colleagues have also nominated and won her the distinction of a “Top Doc” for 2013, 2014, and 2016 in Portland Monthly magazine.

Dr. Dacones joined NWP in 1999 as a primary care physician in internal medicine and became a hospitalist full time in 2002. After five years as the lead hospitalist for the West Service Area, she became in 2011 the physician leader for the planning and opening of Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, Oregon. She became the chief of Staff and chief medical officer when the facility opened in 2013. In 2014, Dr. Dacones transitioned into regional leadership as NWP’s regional chief medical officer and director of Hospital Operations. In 2015 she was named CEO and president – the second woman to hold this position since the organization’s founding in 1942.

Dr. Dacones received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, where she also completed her internship and residency training.

She currently sits on the foundation board of Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, whose mission is to surmount social barriers to provide high-quality, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate primary health care to all community members of Washington and Yamhill Counties. This commitment stems from her passion to ensure than everyone has access to affordable and quality health care regardless of economic or residency status. Dr. Dacones also is committed to innovation in medical education and nurturing the future generation of physicians. She sits on the board of directors for the inaugural Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, planned to open in Pasadena, Calif.

For some of her written and opinion pieces, plus updates on Dr. Dacones’ most recent activities you can follow her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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.

Allison founded De Paoli Professional Services in 2015 to provide outstanding enrollment communication solutions to small and midsize businesses by utilizing best in class technology alongside best in class people to help ensure that employees receive information in the best manner for them.

De Paoli began her insurance career in the Greater Washington DC area and shortly thereafter moved to Florida to work in the family benefits business as Vice President of Operations. After moving to San Antonio in 2000, she began working as an Aflac associate quickly becoming a top 1% sales producer.

After a successful career as an associate and producer, Allison decided to put her knowledge and expertise to work with her own firm, De Paoli Professional Services, allowing her to deliver first class enhanced benefits as well as effective enrollment, implementation and communication strategies.

Alex Alex is a Managing Director based in Boston and joined the team in 2013.

Alex led investments in Labcyte, RainDance Technologies, Syapse, and Veracyte. He is focused on funding healthcare startups and helps build relationships between GE and innovation ecosystems on the East Coast. His portfolio spans precision medicine startups, including clinical diagnostics, life science instrumentation, bioprocessing, and data analytics.

Prior to joining GE, Alex was a Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, specializing in healthcare and life sciences startups. Before Mohr Davidow, he was a Senior Scientist at Pacific Biosciences, working on systems integration for their Single Molecule Real Time DNA sequencing technology. Alex started his career as a scientist at 454 Life Sciences, where he worked on sample preparation and emulsion PCR for what became the first of the next-generation DNA sequencers.

Alex has a PhD in Chemistry from m Stanford University, an MBA from UC Berkeley, and degrees in English and Chemistry from Amherst College.

He is a board observer at Labcyte, Nuvolo, and Syapse.

Outside of work, Alex fancies himself an amateur lumberjack and enjoys gonzo cooking.

Eric Decker, senior vice president, information technology, chief information officer, is responsible for planning, organizing and overseeing Independent Health’s information services activities to ensure our technology capabilities support business strategies. Decker also represents Independent Health when interfacing with clinical, community, vendor and regulatory organizations to create and maintain technical solutions that align with our business processes.

Decker has served as lead of IT since October 2014 and vice president, enterprise architecture (EA) and technology implementation since February 2012. He has been accountable for establishing and implementing the vision for Independent Health’s EA, which includes working with IT, eBusiness, Information Competency Center, Business Process Center of Excellence, and security/privacy representatives. Decker has led the IT organization through significant change, including construction of a new primary data center, migration of our core administrative platform (CAP) to HealthRules, creation of new enterprise data warehouse, and implementation of new analytical and integration capabilities.

In his previous role as director, technology implementation, Decker led the business analysts, quality analyst team, and IT project managers. Decker brought great changes, including significant improvements in business requirements and test automation. He also took on leadership of the EA team, which is a key role in managing our future architecture direction.

Decker was previously employed with Meritain Health, Inc. In his most recent position at Meritain, as vice president, IT Application Services, he was responsible foroverseeing the IT Application Services organization, which included numerous departments.

Prior to Meritain, Decker worked at Independent Health as an enterprise architect, IT Architecture/Engineering. In this position, he performed a variety of duties, including leading Independent Health’s product development and clinician teams through a market evaluation of consumer-driven health plan administration systems and online tools in support of this membership, including health assessment, provider transparency, and treatment cost estimator tools.

Decker received his bachelor’s degree in computer science and his master’s degree in computer science and engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo

Susan Dentzer is one of the nation's most respected health and health policy thought leaders and a frequent speaker and commentator on television and radio, including PBS and NPR, and an author of commentaries and analyses in print publications such as Modern Healthcare, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine and NEJM Catalyst. She is also the editor and lead author of the book Health Care Without Walls: A Roadmap for Reinventing U.S. Health Care, available on Amazon.com.

She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, the Washington, DC-based arm of Duke University that focuses on health system transformation, biopharmaceutical policy, and other key health policy issues. At the Center, she focuses on research and thought leadership for modernizing the health care system through the use of greater virtual care and a reconfigured health care work force; improving health and health care in rural areas; anticipating a future of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias; and other topics.

From 2016 to January 2019, Dentzer was President and Chief Executive Officer of NEHI, the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization composed of more than 80 stakeholder organizations from across all key sectors of health and health care. From 2013 to 2016, she was senior policy adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy focused on health and health care in the United States, and before that, was the editor-in-chief of the policy journal Health Affairs. From 1998 to 2008, she was the on-air Health Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. Dentzer also wrote and hosted the 2015 PBS documentary, Reinventing American Healthcare, focusing on innovations pioneered by Geisinger Health System and spread across the nation.

Dentzer is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and also serves on the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering. She is also an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance; and a fellow of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research institute. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, a leading global humanitarian organization; a member of the board of directors of Research!America, which advocates on behalf of biomedical and health-related research; and is a member of the board of directors of the Public Health Institute, a nonprofit organization addressing public health issues and solutions nationwide. From 2011 to 2017 she was public member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Specialties, which assists 24 medical specialty boards in the ongoing evaluation and certification of physicians. She also is a member of the RAND Health Board of Advisors, and serves on the global public policy advisory committee for Roche, the international biopharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland.

Dentzer graduated from Dartmouth, is a trustee emerita of the college, and chaired the Dartmouth Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2004. She has served as a member of the Board of Advisors of Dartmouth Medical School for more than two decades. Dentzer holds an honorary master’s degree from Dartmouth and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Muskingum University. She and her husband have three grown children.

For nearly two decades as a practicing physician, public health leader and health care executive, Dr. Amar Desai has worked at the intersection of direct patient care and health care systems to help patients lead healthier, more fulfilled lives.

At the heart of his work, Dr. Desai develops innovative and scalable delivery models that improve clinical outcomes, increase affordability, and transform the experience of being a health care consumer. By translating clinical excellence into economic value, these models enable more consistent patient engagement and compassionate care. Dr. Desai has thus improved care delivery in a range of settings, including early stage start-ups, organizational turnaround, Fortune 250 companies, and academic health systems.

Currently, Dr. Desai serves as President of HealthCare Partners, a leading medical group and integrated delivery network that delivers population-based health care to 700,000 patients across Medicaid, Medicare and commercial segments in Southern California. Nationally recognized a leader in the health reform movement from volume to value, HealthCare Partners continues to distinguish itself as a caregiving organization first, with steadfast commitment to its guiding principle of coordinated care.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Desai served as CEO of USC Care where he led transformative growth and helped position Keck Medicine of USC as a regional destination of choice for complex tertiary and quaternary care. From 2010 to 2014, Dr. Desai was as a senior executive at DaVita, a global leader in dialysis care, where he advanced integrated kidney care models and led corporate strategy and new business development efforts for the enterprise. Early in his career, Dr. Desai served as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, where he advised integrated health systems, hospitals, medical technology companies and governments in enhancing clinical, operational and financial performance and bringing new innovations to market.

Dr. Desai received his Bachelor’s and Medical Degrees from Brown University, and his Masters in Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Desai remains active clinically as a practicing nephrologist. He is currently an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Keck School of Medicine at USC and has previously held faculty appointments at Stanford School of Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Michael Docktor, MD is a pediatric gastroenterologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and specializes in caring for children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He serves as the Clinical Director of Innovation and Director of Clinical Mobile Solutions at the hospital and is passionate about the intersection of technology, design and medicine. Michael believes there is incredible power in thoughtfully designed systems, engaging user experiences and simplicity and strives to help clinicians do their best work in engaging, educating and caring for their patients. Michael is co-founder of Dock Health, a HIPAA-compliant task management and collaboration platform, Health Voyager, a patient educational tool using customizable virtual reality experiences and Hacking Pediatrics, the first pediatric-focused hackathon.

In his 27^th year with Microsoft, Kevin Dolan currently serves as Director, Health Industry Strategy and Solutions for Microsoft’s Health and Life Sciences (HLS) Industry Unit where he is responsible for working with US Healthcare organizations to identify their needs and assemble solutions incorporating the broad capabilities of Microsoft platforms, products, devices and services.

Kevin has deep experience in understanding the core challenges impacting our health and wellness industry. He has a passion for helping organizations accelerate through their digital transformation journey in areas such as clinical worker productivity and collaboration, virtual health, EMR optimization, patient engagement, care coordination, population health analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT and genomics.

He has a unique ability to understand and appreciate the critical business requirements for sustaining a health delivery system while technically proficient in his ability to align the appropriate information technology services from latest enterprise cloud models to secure and compliant mobile devices to personal wearable devices. He began his career at Microsoft in 1993 and has held various leadership positions throughout sales, consulting, business strategy and development, and partner alliance establishment.

Kevin has nearly four decades of experience in the technology industry. Prior to Microsoft, he led various projects, sales and business development activities and held global senior leadership roles for Compaq Computer Corporation since its’ startup phase to position as #1 computer company in the world. He began his career with Texas Instruments as a software programmer.

Kevin earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics from the University of Georgia. He resides in the Washington D.C. area.

Tom is the founder and president of Cypress Benefit Administrators, a Third Party Administrator and a member of the Lucent Health family of companies; CEO of Argus Claim Review, a claim auditing and negotiation organization; and Principal of Armada Business Services, a TPA consulting and Business Process Outsourcing service company. He has as his responsibilities overall direction of business development, sales, marketing, strategic planning, stop-loss market development and managed care relationships at each company.

Tom brings over 30 years of management experience in Third Party Administration, health insurance, consulting and managed care to Cypress. He has been at the senior level of several health care businesses, including TPA, HMO, PPO and insurance entities as CEO, Vice President and Director. Prior to founding Cypress in 2000, Tom spent several years as Director of Marketing and Provider Relations for one of the largest TPAs in the country and has successfully developed managed care networks throughout the nation.

Tom has served as the Chairman of the Board of the Society of Professional Benefit Administrators based in Washington, DC and is a member of the Health Care Administrators Association, Self Insurance Administrators Association and the National Association of Health Underwriters. His undergraduate degree is from the State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences at Geneseo, NY and his post-graduate work was done at Gannon College in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Jothi Dugar is a multidimensional executive, business owner, author, International speaker, and entrepreneur, whose diverse career has included leadership roles in Cybersecurity, IT, Project management, Training, and Engineering. A pioneer in her field, and one of the few leading women across the globe in the Healthcare Cyber Industry, she is the Chief Information Security Officer at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center located in Bethesda, MD. Her passion is to empower women and young girls to pursue technical & leadership jobs and break the glass ceiling.

Jothi is also the Director of a Dance School in Virginia called BollyNatyam Masala, where young girls and boys are taught to express themselves through the performing arts while giving back to community and helping those in need. She also owns a holistic healing practice called, The Power of Healing 360 that helps people learn about and heal themselves naturally minimizing the need for conventional medicine and invasive treatments. Jothi is a dedicated wife and mother of three. Her much anticipated new book will be out later this year.

Crystal Dugger serves as vice president of clinical operations where she is responsible for developing the solid tumor and nurse navigation programs for Sarah Cannon, the global cancer institute of HCA. Dugger has a rich background in oncology health. She created comprehensive breast centers, developed and implemented oncology services lines, and served as an oncology nurse. She received her Masters of Science in Business Administration in Healthcare from Western Governors University and her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Tennessee Technological University. She is the volunteer chairman for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and the women's chair for the East Tennessee Region Tennessee Cancer Coalition.

Danielle D. Duplin is Cofounder/Global Launch Director, AGENCY, Worldwide Innovation for Living Longer and Aging Better: a global initiative for collective impact that’s equal parts premium coworking space + strategic events + ecosystem connections for startups and enterprises to work side-by-side and make the aging journey better for all.

Danielle is a thought partner and producer to help clients catalyze innovation, and to inform, inspire and influence their audiences. She brings over 30 years of extensive cross-sector experience and a unique blend of expertise to her work including:

• as President/Founder, FreeWind Productions, an award-winning boutique innovation and public speaking consulting firm coaching over 1,200 leaders to take the stage with clarity and confidence
• as Vice President in leading strategic enterprise-wide corporate innovation initiatives at Fidelity Investments;
• as an Engineer/Intraprenuer in developing software to solve complex business problems and launch new lines of business and next generation products/services;
• as an Executive Producer in designing and producing over 750 events to explore and apply emerging trends in business and technology
• as a Cofounder/Host in convening communities and accelerating the adoption of big ideas via TEDxBoston, Telefest, and HUBweek (20+ million video-views worldwide);
• as a Mentor in advising startups and nonprofits on strategic messaging and innovation culture (e.g. Federal Reserve Bank Working Cities, MassChallenge, MassTech Leadership Council, FinTech Sandbox);
• as a Delegate with City2City on local and international innovation exchange missions with civic leaders and elected officials (5+ countries, 12+ cities), and as a Connector with Boston World Partnerships.

Danielle earned a Bachelor of Science in Math/Computer Science and a concentration in Theater Arts from Binghamton University in New York, along with wide-ranging post-grad executive leadership education from Adelphi University, Fidelity Investments, Rockport International Film & Video, and MIT Sloan School of Business. She keynotes conferences, emcees panels and streaming video shows, and teaches workshops on how to “Own the Moment” on stage.

Daniel J. Durand, M.D. serves as the Chief Innovation Officer and Chairman of Radiology for LifeBridge Health, a $2.5 B health care system with 4 hospitals, 500 physicians, and over 100 locations and joint ventures in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Dr. Durand earned his medical degree at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has over twenty years of experience in healthcare, science, and technology. Before becoming CINO, Dr. Durand led the LifeBridge Health ACO, LLC, one of the largest and most successful Medicare Accountable Care Organizations in the state of Maryland. Dr. Durand previously served as the first Director of Accountable Care for Johns Hopkins Medicine, where he led operations and strategy for one of the nation's largest ACOs. Prior to Hopkins, Dr. Durand was a Vice President and member of the executive leadership team at Evolent Health, a healthcare IT start-up where he helped grow revenues from $8 million to $130 million in the time leading up to Evolent's successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to Evolent, Dr. Durand worked as an Associate with McKinsey & Company out of the firm's Washington, DC office.

Keith Epstein has examined the world of health from many perspectives -- as an investment researcher, investigative journalist, nonprofit leader, and strategic advisor. He currently is practice leader for health at Blue Heron Research Partners, which does custom global qualitative due diligence, investigation and analysis of major healthcare companies, leaders and markets for large institutional investors. As a senior strategic advisor to leadership at AARP, he guided entrepreneurs and top executives of one of the nation's largest nonprofits, with actionable, forward-looking business and political intelligence on investment opportunities in health and technology. As a journalist for publications including BusinessWeek and the Huffington Post investigative fund, he led high-impact original investigative journalism for major news organizations on environmental and health issues on topics as varied as informed consent in clinical trials and insurance industry influence in shaping the Affordable Care Act.

Greg’s entrepreneurial spirit and passion for making healthcare affordable led to his vision of combining the right technology and the right people to create Payer Compass. With over 26 years in managed care and healthcare software, Greg brings relative knowledge and first-hand experience to both provider and payer organizations.

Under his direction, Payer Compass has developed numerous solutions to bring pricing transparency and affordability to healthcare. Offerings include Best-in-Class pricing, editing and compliance; deep analytics and modeling; bundled payments; patient advocacy; Care Management with URAC-accredited Case and Health Utilization Management; and Consulting and Education services. The company champions the initiatives of Third-Party Administrators, Self-Insured Employers, Benefit Advisors, Health Plans and Stop-Loss Carriers, and works to bridge the gap between payer and provider.

Greg is focused on charting a path for better price and better care through thought leadership, innovation and collaboration with like-minded people.

When he’s not wearing his reimbursement cape, you can find him on the beach with a cool drink in hand.

Despite today’s more regulated and enlightened business environment, we continue to witness “Enron-esque” failures of corporate governance and compliance. Enron’s former CFO will make observations about how the ambiguity and complexity of laws and regulations breeds opportunity for problematic decisions and will discuss what questions corporate directors, management, attorneys, fraud examiners and auditors should ask, in order to ensure that their companies not only follow the rules, but uphold the principles behind them. Finally, he will discuss ways in which technology can be deployed to illuminate such problematic situations.

Mr. Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer of Enron Corp. from 1998 – 2001. In 2004, he pled guilty to two counts of securities fraud, and was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He completed his sentence in 2011, and now lives with his family in Houston, Texas. Mr. Fastow currently consults with Directors, attorneys, and hedge funds on how best to identify potentially critical finance, accounting, compensation, and cultural issues. He is also a Principal of KeenCorp, an artificial intelligence software company.

Mr. Fastow received a BA in Economics and Chinese from Tufts University and an MBA in Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Enron, he was a Senior Director in the Asset Securitization Group at Continental Bank N.A.

Since his release from prison, Mr. Fastow has been a guest lecturer at universities and corporations, and at conferences for management, corporate directors, attorneys, accountants, and certified fraud examiners. Mr. Fastow was recently keynote speaker at the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Conference, the FBI’s Advanced Financial Crimes Seminar, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Annual Conference, the American Accounting Association Annual Conference, and the Financial Times’ Outstanding Directors Conference.

Patty Fennell has over 30 years of nursing experience with expertise in clinical quality, performance improvement, case management, safety, and administrative areas. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Florida State University, a Master of Business Degree in Healthcare Management, and a Master of Science Degree in Nursing. Ms. Fennell is certified in Lean, healthcare quality (CPHQ), quality assurance and utilization review (CHCQM), healthcare compliance (CHC) and is a licensed healthcare risk manager (LHRM).

Patty has worked for Adventist Health System (AHS) for over 10 years and most recently accepted a new position as the Executive Director of Service Line Bundles. In her new role, Patty will be responsible for both CMS bundled payment models and commercial payer bundles. Prior to her new role, Patty was the Corporate Director of Clinical Quality Improvement and was responsible for the System level quality initiatives, leading the Clinical Regulatory Committee, and was the Operational Lead for the CMS Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundle.

Current Responsibilities
Mary currently serves as the senior vice president of business development for Advocate Aurora Health. In this capacity, she is responsible for system-wide growth development, planning and implementation with financial responsibility for annual revenue growth targets for the system’s business units including hospitals, medical groups, Post-Acute Care, Children’s Health, Behavioral Health and pharmacy. Mary also serves on the system and regional operations leadership teams providing operational oversight of the system’s business units. She leads Advocate Aurora’s partnership and new growth strategies, creating a foundation for future system growth. She also leads the system’s strategic capital planning process for large-scale growth initiatives. Mary is responsible for the department management of Aurora’s Enterprise Business Group, the department responsible for business strategy, growth, strategic partnerships, managed care strategy and contracting.

Prior Experience
Starting with Aurora 29 years ago in media relations, Mary served in numerous leadership roles throughout the years of rapid growth of Aurora as an integrated delivery system. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies with system revenue accountability. She has also served on numerous operational leadership teams and boards for Aurora’s hospitals and medical groups.

Education, Awards and Professional Affiliations
Mary is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and is a graduate of the Administrative Fellowship Program with the Health Management Academy.

Joy currently serves as Lilly’s Chief Diversity Officer. In that role, she partners with the company’s CEO and senior leaders to attract top talent, develop future leaders, and ensure that all employees can thrive in an inclusive environment that is as diverse as the communities of patients we serve.

Joy has more than 20 years of leadership experience in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations in various industries. As a dynamic speaker and strategic thought partner, she has presented keynote speeches and workshops in more than 20 countries on five continents. She was recently published in Harvard Business Review. She is a highly sought-after executive coach, helping leaders fulfill their aspirations. She has served on boards for several organizations and was named by Diversity Journal as a Woman Worth Watching, by Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a Rising Star, and by Black Enterprise as a Top Executive in Corporate Diversity.

As Director of Operations, Tom is responsible for expanding the SkyMedicus network of healthcare providers and facilities internationally, as well as developing a domestic network. Additionally he is working with healthcare brokers, third party administrators, major corporations and employer coalitions to enable their clients to take advantage of the high quality, cost efficient healthcare services on a global scale.

His career began, at Grady Memorial Hospital, a 1,000 bed tertiary teaching hospital affiliated with Emory University School of Medicine, where he served 14 years as its Associate Executive Director. Following Grady, he was Executive Director at R.T. Jones Medical Center in Canton, GA, a rural hospital that was struggling financially. He successfully moved the hospital to a sound financial footing, completed an eight million dollar renovation/expansion of the facility, and recruited needed physicians to the community; he left the facility well funded and respected in the community.

He was recruited by Blue Cross Blue Shield Georgia to develop HMO Georgia, a for profit, managed care subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield Georgia, serving as its Chief Operating Officer, he secured the Certificate of Authority, developed the provider network throughout Georgia and established the marketing/sales plan. HMO Georgia ramped up rapidly and moved to a profitable status over a short number of years. He went on after this to develop and operate other managed care organizations in Georgia.

He was also a Partner and CEO of Prime Living, Inc., a real estate development company, developing and managing assisted living communities in Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee.

Tom holds a degree in Business Administration from Georgia Southern College and a Masters in Health Administration from Georgia State University. Tom served his administrative residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center, in Chicago, Illinois.

Dan is a Partner at Flare Capital Partners, where he sits on the Board of Somatus, a Flare Capital portfolio company. Prior to joining Flare Capital, Dan served as a Medical Director at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan, leading Population Health Analytics, Value Based Purchasing, and General Strategy. Dan is a practicing Internal Medicine Physician on the Faculty of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and has an appointment as an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dan currently serves on Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s Board of Nursing Home Administrators.

Previously, Dan spent time as an entrepreneur and operator in the Health IT Industry, cofounding and managing two separate businesses in the Electronic Health Records and Online Medical Education industries.

Dan’s other interests include Healthcare Policy and Global Health. He has served as a Senior Health Policy Advisor for the Campaigns of Governor Charlie Baker and Congressman Joseph Kennedy III. He has worked to expand healthcare infrastructure in the developing world, serving as a consultant for the Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Ethiopia.

Dan earned a B.S. with honors from the University of California, San Diego, an M.D. Summa Cum Laude from the Morehouse School of Medicine, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. Dan completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Richard Geer joined Sarah Cannon in 2012 and serves as physician-in-chief, surgical oncology for Sarah Cannon, the global cancer institute of HCA. His primary responsibility includes programmatic development of solid tumor malignancies in Sarah Cannon core markets. This is accomplished by a patient-centered multidisciplinary approach through physician engagement which serves to improve patient experience and the quality of care delivered.

He is certified by the American Board of Surgery. His surgical oncology fellowship was performed at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City, where he was also the chief administrative fellow. He is a member of the Society of Surgical Oncology, Nashville Surgical Society (past president), Fellow American College of Surgeons and American Society of Clinical Oncology. Geer received his medical degree from University of Alabama – Birmingham before completing his General Surgery residency at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.

Alonso’s 6 years of experience in patient care at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra is linked with developing agreements with Medical facilitators and Institutions both public and private where medical procedures are provided at closed and competitive prices.

His previous 28 year experience in Consumer Goods (P&G, Colgate Palmolive, SC Johnson’s Wax) has enabled him to understand the differences between targeting “consumers” and attracting “patients”. He is focused on developing the North and Latin American regions as sources of growth contributing to the increasing number of patients travelling to Pamplona and Madrid in Spain to be taken care of at CUN.

Dr. Sunnie Giles is President of Quantum Leadership Group. She is the author of The New Science of Radical Innovation (2018). She catalyzes leaders to produce radical innovation and redefine the game as individuals and organizations. She is a TEDx speaker on radical innovation.

She is an advisor at the Stanford Business School Institute of Innovation in Developing Economies. Her recent research on global leadership for innovation has been published by Harvard Business Review. She is a regular contributor on Forbes, and has been published on INC., World Financial Review, the Leadership Network, Training Industry, the Korea Times, and Management Matters Network.

Dr. Sunnie received her MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth school of Business and a PhD in systemic psychology from Brigham Young University.

Nicholas Gonzales, J.D., M.B.A., CHC, CHPC – Nicholas leads the compliance efforts for The Kroger Co.’s nearly 2,300 pharmacies and over 200 retail health clinics. Nicholas has oversight of compliance matters including fraud and abuse, billing, controlled substances, HIPAA, licensing and compliance education. Previously, Nicholas worked at the nation’s largest health law focused law firm, Hall Render, where his practice focused on compliance matters including pharmacy, AKS, Stark, beneficiary inducements, excluded providers, licensing issues and other similar matters. In addition, Nicholas counseled clients through the OIG and CMS self-disclosure process and internal investigations. In 2015, Super Lawyers recognized him as Wisconsin’s only Rising Star in health care. Prior to private practice, Nicholas worked for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Indiana Attorney General’s Office (MFCU). While at the MFCU, Nicholas handled a myriad of cases from qui tams to licensing matters and was responsible for some of the largest non-qui tam settlements in the MFCU’s history.

Scott Gottlieb, MD is a physician and served as the 23rd Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Gottlieb’s work focuses on advancing public health through developing and implementing innovative approaches to improving medical outcomes, reshaping healthcare delivery, and expanding consumer choice and safety.

Dr. Gottlieb is an aggressive advocate for advancing the health of patients, promoting healthcare access, and driving innovation. The agency’s historic and prolific advances in new policy distinguished his tenure as the FDA’s commissioner, in addition to a record-setting number of approvals of novel drugs, medical devices, and generic medicines.

Under his leadership, the FDA advanced new frameworks for the modern and safe and effective oversight of gene therapies, cell based regenerative medicines, targeted drugs, and digital health devices. The agency implemented new reforms to standardize drug reviews and make historic improvements of post market data collection and the use of real world evidence. They promoted policies to reduce death and disease from tobacco, improve food innovation and safety, and aggressively confront addiction crises.

Previously, Dr. Gottlieb served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs and before that, as a Senior Adviser to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he helped advance policies to improve healthcare quality and the promote the effective use of new medical technologies. A healthcare futurist, he has worked as a venture capitalist and founder and board member to companies that have developed new medicines and advance the delivery of healthcare.

Dr. Gottlieb is widely published in leading medical journals and periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has held editorial positions on the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association and appears regularly as a guest commentator on CNBC and Fox News. He was a practicing hospitalist and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Gottlieb is presently a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.

Garth Graham, M.D., MPH, is a leading authority on social determinants of health. President of the Aetna Foundation and Vice President of Community Health for Aetna, Inc., Garth is also a cardiologist and public health expert.

He oversees the community health initiatives for the Foundation and Aetna, Inc., bringing his experience as a former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama and Bush administrations where he also ran the Office of Minority Health. He directed the development of the federal government’s first National Health Disparities Plan released under the Obama administration.

He has been a contributor to The Hill, The Chicago Tribune, Fortune, Quartz, and Health Affairs and has been featured in CNN and The New York Times among others. His original research has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs and other publications. Along with his role at the Aetna Foundation, Garth is a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut.

Prior to joining the Foundation, in his role as the assistant dean for health policy at the University Of Florida School Of Medicine, Garth led several research initiatives looking at how to improve outcomes and readmission rates in cardiac patients in underserved populations. He contributes to several boards including being named by the President to the U.S. Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, the Institute of Medicine Board on Population Health, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associational National Quality Oversight Committee, the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Data Standards and many others

Dr. Graham holds a medical degree from Yale School of Medicine, a master’s in public health from Yale School of Public Health and a bachelor of science in biology from Florida International University in Miami. He completed clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins where he trained in cardiology and interventional cardiology. He holds three board certifications including internal medicine, cardiology and interventional cardiology.

Mr. Grahe is the Chief Executive Officer of the Trivergent Health Alliance MSO, a $220 million organization with 850 employees serving Frederick Memorial Hospital, Western Maryland Health System, and Meritus Medical Center. He also serves as the CEO of Advanced Health Collaborative, LLC which is comprised of 4 major independent Maryland based health systems with a combined total of 10 hospitals. Mr. Grahe is the treasurer for the Kids of Malawi USA organization. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants and a fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Formerly, he was the Senior Vice President – Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Meritus Medical Center, Inc. and was responsible for all financial services of Meritus Health Inc. He joined the administrative staff of Washington County Hospital (now known as Meritus Health) in 1979. Mr. Grahe is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of Maryland Physicians Care, a Medicaid HMO with 215,000 members statewide. He is also a past member of The Columbia Bank Board, chairman of the Colonial Regional Alliance Board of Managers, and Treasurer of the TriState Health Partners Inc. Board of Directors. Mr. Grahe has been a member of various committees of the Maryland Hospital Association for many years, largely on the finance committee and the rate negotiation committees. Mr. Grahe received a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Loyola College.

Mary Grealy is president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of chief executives of the nation’s leading health care companies and organizations.  The HLC advocates consumer-centered health care reform, emphasizing the value of private sector innovation.  It is the only health policy advocacy group that represents all sectors of the health care industry.  She was appointed to the position in August 1999.

Ms. Grealy has an extensive background in health care policy.  She has led important initiatives on the uninsured, Medicare reform, improving patient safety and quality, protecting the privacy of patient medical information and reforming the medical liability laws.  She testifies frequently before Congress and federal regulatory agencies.

From 1995 until she began her tenure at HLC, she served as Chief Washington Counsel for the American Hospital Association, a national organization representing all types of hospitals, health systems and health care networks.  In her position, she was responsible for the organization’s legal advocacy before Congress, as well as executive and judicial branches of government.

From 1979 to 1995, Ms. Grealy was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Counsel for the Federation of American Hospitals, a trade association representing 1,700 investor-owned and managed hospitals and health systems.  She coordinated legislative and regulatory policies as well as lobbying activities for the Federation.

Ms. Grealy has a bachelor degree from Michigan State University and a law degree from Duquesne University.  She served on the Board of Directors of TEAMHealth, one of the largest providers of outsourced physician staffing solutions for hospitals in the United States, and the Board of Directors of Duquesne University.  She is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association.  She also serves on the advisory boards of the David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship, Women Business Leaders in Health and the March of Dimes Public Policy Council.  She is a frequent public speaker on health issues and has been ranked many times by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare and has been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare.

Nelson Griswold has been called “visionary” by Art Dammers of Anthem, “an authority on voluntary benefits and consultative selling” by Employee Benefit Adviser magazine and “a well-recognized industry thought leader” by Ron Leopold of MetLife.

Nelson has been honored by the Voluntary Benefits Association with their prestigious Industry Leadership Award, for his “professional accomplishments that drive the voluntary benefits industry forward.” A nationally-known agency reinvention and growth expert, he is the author of DO or DIE: Reinventing Your Benefits Agency for Post-Reform Success, the industry bestseller that has been hailed as the only comprehensive blueprint for agency leaders to reinvent their firm to survive and grow in the post-ACA era. As a practice management and agency growth consultant, Nelson works with leading agencies across the country to grow their top- and bottom-line revenue.

Nelson serves as Managing Director of the Agency Growth Mastermind Partnership, a national executive peer-exchange network for non-competing benefits agency owners who collaborate and cooperate to identify best practices and proven growth strategies to remain relevant, profitable, independent & growing.

Nelson is also a leading strategic consultant to carriers and other industry vendors on broker distribution & activation, voluntary benefits, and next-generation engagement & enrollment strategies. Nelson writes a monthly column for Employee Benefit Adviser magazine, has written for Benefits Selling, Producers eSource and other leading industry publications, and writes a blog for Zywave. He is an in-demand keynote speaker and presenter at industry conferences. He is a board member and serves on the executive committee of both the Workplace Benefits Association and the Voluntary Benefits Association

Jason Gromley is the Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at Share Our Strength, a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty. In this role, Jason leads federal, state, and local advocacy efforts that effectively drive policy change on behalf of low-income and at-risk kids and families. Mr. Gromley utilizes the depth of knowledge he has amassed as a seasoned policy, government relations, and coalition development consultant to build and implement strategies that meet immediate community needs and nurture innovative solutions to long-term, systemic challenges.

Prior to joining Share Our Strength, Jason served as part of the leadership team of The Root Cause Coalition, a national nonprofit focused on reversing and ending the systemic root causes of health inequities through cross-sector partnerships. Jason played a critical role in the Coalition’s founding, rapid growth, and in the development and implementation of a long-term strategic plan to address health inequities. In addition to his role in the Coalition, Jason simultaneously held the role of Vice President of Government Relations and Health Policy at Strategic Health Care, a D.C.-based consulting firm serving the health care industry.

Mr. Gromley is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and received his law degree from the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law in Philadelphia.

Dr. Grundy known as the Godfather of the PCMH has spent 4 decades focused on population health built on a platform of a healing relationship of trust in primary care.

Winner of the Barbara Starfield Patient Centered Primary Care, the NCQA Quality and the Sappington, The Second order of the Panda from the Governor of Sichuan – awards for his work in primary care transformation.

Paul spent over 17 years as an executive at IBM where he was Chief Medical Officer and Global Director, Healthcare Transformation, IBM HCLS Industry and a member of the IBM Industry Academy prior to retirement from IBM in 2018.

He is a Healthcare Ambassador for the nation of Denmark, One of 7 given the Honorary Life Member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Only American award an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Irish National Association of General Practice and the National Association of Primary Care in the United Kingdom.

Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine and the University of Utah Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Member of National Academy of Science’s National Academy of Medicine and a member of its leadership forum, Director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) board which Accredits residency training in both the USA and Singapore

Dr. Grundy is the founding president of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Dr. Grundy served in the Carter, Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton administrations and is a retired senior diplomat with the rank of Minister Consular U.S. State Department. He served In Singapore for three years as a medical Director at International SOS.

Paul Grundy spent much of his youth in Sierra Leone, West African were his parents worked He went to Medical School at the University of California San Francisco did his residency training in Preventive Medicine and Public Health and post doc fellowship in International Occupational Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Paul is the Coauthor of Lost and Found: A Consumer's Guide to Healthcare and Provider-Led Population Health Management: Key Healthcare Strategies in the Cognitive Era.

Darcy Gruttadaro is the director of the Center for Workplace Mental Health. As director, she works with her team in developing and implementing the Center’s strategic direction in providing employers high impact tools and programs to support the mental health of employees and their families. The Center works with organizations of all sizes from Fortune 100 companies to small family owned businesses in creating effective approaches to improving the mental health and well-being of the workforce.

Before joining the Center, Ms. Gruttadaro served in senior level positions with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Ms. Gruttadaro has expertise in expanding evidence-based practices, improving early intervention, designing insurance coverage for mental health services and building an array of effective services and supports that promote resiliency and recovery. Ms. Gruttadaro has also worked with national organizations representing managed care organizations and practiced law with the Harris Beach law firm, concentrating her legal practice on health care and mental health issues. She served as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of NY. Ms. Gruttadaro earned a BS degree from Clarkson University and a JD from Western New England University School of Law.

Scott has over 34 years of employee benefits experience. Scott’s background includes the development prescription benefit management (PBM) solutions; provider network evaluation and valuation, and negotiation; product development and underwriting.

Scott was the Executive Vice President of a TPA with over $2.8B in assets under management. Scott has also started and operationalized a Third-Party-Administrator (TPA) and a PBM platform from scratch. Scott has worked in the arena of alternative funding for the majority of his career. Scott’s current role within USI Insurance Services is focused on support of PBM and Managed Care/Provider Excess national practices that transcends to self-insured plan sponsors. In addition, the Healthcare Operational Risk Consulting team has evolved multiple solution combinations and expertise in the Reference Based Reimbursement arena.

Scott has held officer-level positions within Blues plans and TPAs as Vice President of Sales and Marketing; Vice President of Underwriting; and President. Scott has also served as a trustee for both union and non-union health and welfare and pension plans.

Scott frequently shares his consulting expertise speaking at national events hosted by organizations such as the International Foundation of Employee Benefits; Health and Welfare Plan Management Conference; Western Pension and Benefits Council; and the Self-Insurance Institute of America.

Scott has authored and co-authored articles on various topics over his career.

Scott earned his B.S. in both Business Administration and Economics from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He holds Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) designations.

Steven Hall is a Founder, Owner, and the Finance Director of Babymoon Inn where he provides strategic direction and manages the birth center’s finances and accounting. In addition to his role at Babymoon Inn, Mr. Hall is a Managing Director of Maternity Care Solutions, LLC, a consulting, development, and management company specializing in birth centers and midwifery care.

Prior to his current roles, Mr. Hall spent much of his career as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), and Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF). He was a Managing Consultant with Navigant Consulting, an international consulting firm, a Director with FTI Consulting in Phoenix, a Vice President with BVA Group in Dallas, and an auditor with KPMG, a Big 4 accounting firm. Mr. Hall graduated with a BBA in accounting from Baylor University and an MBA in strategy and finance from Southern Methodist University.

Mr. Hall serves on the Finance, Government Affairs, Industry Relations, and Risk Management Committees of the American Association of Birth Center (AABC), and previously served as Treasurer and Executive Member of the AABC Board of Directors.

Mr. Hall’s experience has included contracting and credentialing for birth centers and OB/GYN practices, development and management of birth centers, as well as performance improvement consulting for birth centers. He has also provided assistance to numerous other clients with regard to the determination of economic damages, the valuation of businesses, transaction advisory services (such as fairness and solvency opinions), and interim management and bankruptcy/restructuring advisory.

Eric D. Hargan is the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS is dedicated to promote and enhance the health and well-being of the American people and as the largest department in the federal government has an annual budget in excess of 1.3 Trillion dollars and over 80,000 employees across 26 divisions. As Deputy Secretary, he is the Chief Operating Officer is a responsible for day-to-day operations and management of the department in addition to leading policy and strategy development.

Mr. Hargan was sworn into office as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on October. 6, 2017. He immediately served as Acting Secretary of HHS from October 2017 to January 2018.

From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Hargan served at HHS in a variety of capacities, ultimately holding the position of Acting Deputy Secretary. During his tenure at HHS, Mr. Hargan also served as the Department’s Regulatory Policy Officer, overseeing the development and approval of all HHS, CMS, and FDA regulations and significant guidances.

He received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard University, and his J.D. from Columbia University Law School, where he was Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review. In between his tours of duty at HHS Mr. Hargan taught at Loyola Law School in Chicago, focusing on administrative law and healthcare regulations.

Mr. Hargan lives in Virginia with his wife and their two sons.

Kimberly Hauge is Director for Employee Wellness at Kent State University. Kent State University has more than 214,000 alumni worldwide, 41,000 students enrolled in an eight-campus system supported by 6,800 full and part-time faculty and staff.

Kim received her M.Ed from Kent State University and is currently working on her PhD in Public Health. She has worked at Kent State for the past 18 years in benefits administration, communication and project management, talent acquisition, and employee wellness and health promotion. She is certified by the Society for Human Resource Management as a Professional in Human Resources and by the National Wellness Institute as a Certified Wellness Practitioner. Her current responsibilities include the strategic planning and management of a comprehensive employee wellness program and executive member of the Kent State healthy campus initiative.

Jeffrey Hausfeld, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., has served on the national board and committees of specialty medical societies since beginning his practice in Otolaryngology/Facial Plastic Surgery. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at George Washington University School of Health Sciences and an alumnus of the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Hausfeld is widely published in the medical literature, is the pioneer of innovative laser surgery techniques, is the author of a lay oriented medical book, and has appeared on numerous local and national television and radio shows as a medical expert. He has also served as a health care consultant, spokesperson, and executive coach for multi-national pharmaceutical companies, health care firms, as well as the U.S. military. Dr. Hausfeld stepped down from his clinical duties after receiving a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. He continued to refine his communication and team building talents by completing a graduate certificate program in Leadership Coaching and Organizational Development at George Washington University.

Dr. Hausfeld led the field in otolaryngology/facial plastic surgery for many years and is now a business operator and entrepreneur. He invests, manages and consults to a variety of healthcare businesses, including assisted living facilities for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, medical device companies, healthcare information technology and biotech firms, debt collection services for physicians, as well as syndicating and raising capital for health care related real estate ventures, including other life science entrepreneurial enterprises, both regionally and nationally. Dr. Hausfeld is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer of BioFactura, a Biotech firm specializing in the production Biosimilars as well as novel biologic drugs. He serves as President of Memory Care Communities LLC, a portfolio of Assisted Living facilities in the Midwest dedicated to the care of Alzheimer’s and dementia care patents. He is the Chairman and Founder of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (www.sopenet.org ), a global network focused on educating healthcare and life science professionals in Bioentrepreneurship and Innovation.

Dr Hausfeld invites healthcare professionals to use financial information and the “science of business” as valuable tools to nurture medical innovation at their institutions and private practice, as well as to enhance the ability to promote quality patient care and improve decision-making. Dr. Hausfeld will demonstrate that power, pleasure and improved performance can result from the ability to mesh the cultures of medicine and business in a comprehensive and strategic manner. “The exciting thing about life after the practice of medicine is that now I am able to draw upon the diversified fields of medicine, business, and organizational psychology, and implement novel solutions that have an immediate impact on patients, providers, and on the client’s bottom line”.

Tom Hawes is a Managing Director of Sandbox Industries. He serves on the Board of Directors of AbleTo, BehaveCare, Octave Bio, Oncology Analytics, and Patientco, as well as board observer for HeartFlow, Healthify, and Phreesia. He was formerly on the Board of InVivoLink, Nexidia, and Wellspring Healthcare. Before joining Sandbox, Tom matched at Yale School of Medicine for residency and completed his first year of medical training at Greenwich Hospital. During his medical training, he worked on clinical studies at the ISK Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and on outcomes research at the National Cancer Institute and NYMC’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Department. Tom holds a BA from Brigham Young University, an M.D. from New York Medical College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a Kauffman Fellow.

Over 15 years of health benefits and health policy experience in corporate,consulting and public policy creating arenas. Proven leadership capability and relationship building skills within a corporate environment and external organizations. Co-founder and President of the Maine Health Management Coalition, President of Care Focused Purchasing, Leapfrog Board Member, Executive Advisory Board for Express Scripts, Aetna, Definity Health and JNJ. Secretary of the Center for Health Value Innovation. Demonstrated innovation in developing strategies to improve the quality of care while achieving flat, multiple year medical cost trends. National presence in health care strategy and innovation. Frequent national keynote speaker. Recipient of national awards such as the NBGH Platinum Award for Health Promotion.

Specialties: Value Based Health Benefit Design, Medical Tourism, Minimally Invasive Procedures, Health Promotion and Wellness Programs, Incentives, Provider Tiering, Community Health Models, Provider Reimbursement Models, Innovative Strategies

Paul Heldman has written about health policy for investors for 25 years – for eight years as a reporter for Bloomberg News and then as an analyst for institutional investors for firms that included Citigroup and Schwab Washington Research Group.

During that time, he has covered and written for investors about the failed Clinton effort to overhaul health care, the 1997 Balanced Budget Law, the creation of the Medicare Part D drug benefit and the enactment of and later efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Paul is currently managing partner of Heldman Simpson Partners, which provides analysis for institutional investors and private equity firms on health legislative and regulatory issues. His coverage includes government policy on drug pricing and government insurance reimbursement and coverage issues concerning hospitals and post-acute, dialysis and other providers of health services.

Paul holds a BA from Clark University.

Kathleen Herath oversees Nationwide’s Wellbeing and Safety activities for its 30,000 associates across the country. In this role, she is responsible for developing the company’s Integrated Health and Productivity strategy, Occupational Health Services and on-site clinics, Substance Free Workplace, and Associate Safety.

She has 35 years of professional experience in the health care industry. The My Health program at Nationwide has been awarded numerous honors including the IBI Health Innovation Award, the American Heart Association’s Platinum Fit Friendly Employer Award and the prestigious C. Everett Koop National Health Award. In 2014, Nationwide was the first company in the country to receive the US Healthiest Health Lead Gold Medal for improving health outcomes. In 2018, the program won both Top Training Magazine’s Best Practice Award and Optum Health’s Spirit of Innovation Award.

Kathleen has become a frequently requested speaker within the health and productivity industry and has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars on various industry-related topics. She is active in community and national non-profit organizations including Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors and the Great Rivers Strategy Committee for the America Heart Association. She is a past Board Member and President for Equitas Health.

Mike Hill has been advising employers on health care cost reduction strategies for nearly two decades. An expert in self-funded medical plans, Mike has helped employers implement varied solutions focused on reducing the cost of health care, such as direct contracting, direct primary care, and others, as a means to return the crown jewel of employee benefit packages to its place of prominence rather than the liability that it has become. Understanding that pre-packaged fully insured medical plans eliminates all employer control over their health care supply chain, Mike wrote “Not Rocket Surgery, An Employers Guide to Controlling the Health Care Supply Chain” which introduced the concept of the Total Control Health Plan. Mike is passionate about putting employers in a position to use the same techniques they use to manage all other aspects of their business on their health plans. By doing so, employers have not only experienced dramatic cost reductions and flat annual increases, but they have done so while providing better plans to their employees. Mike is a member of the Next Gen Benefits Mastermind Partnership, and serves and has served his community as a Board member of multiple non-profit organizations.

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.

Mike joined ECU in April, 2008 as the Vice President of Sales. Prior to ECU, Mike was a member of the Senior Management Team with one of the largest Third Party Administrators (TPA) in the country. Working in the industry since 1997, Mike held various positions, including Director of Stop Loss for both Claims and Underwriting. He also spent time in Sales and Product Development.

Mike attended Canisius College and is a native of Buffalo, NY.

Drew joined Blue Cross of Idaho in April 2017 as the Vice President of Provider Partner and Payment Innovation where he led Blue Cross’ provider network functions including efforts to shift from a fee-for-service provider payment model to value-based payments. After demonstrating success in this role, he was promoted to the Sr. Vice President of Healthcare Economics and tasked with one of Blue Cross of Idaho’s top strategic priorities: make healthcare more affordable for clients and members. In his new role, he will lead the Healthcare Economics Division focusing on identifying, implementing and monitoring healthcare affordability initiatives.

Drew came to Blue Cross of Idaho from WellCare Health Plans, Inc., in Tampa, Fla., where he served in numerous roles, most recently as Vice President, Medicaid Network Management, where he was responsible for the national Medicaid network strategy. Drew received his Bachelor of Science in Business Process Management from Indiana University

Amy Holcomb has a multi-faceted, entrepreneurial track record in the public and private sectors. She is a high energy, fiscally conscious and goal driven healthcare technology executive that approaches each new business challenge with her intrinsic flair for innovation, creative problem solving and measured risk taking to drive consistent bottom line improvements and shareholder returns.

Amy began her career working for the US Government while obtaining masters degrees in Strategic International Management and Healthcare Administration. Her passion was to compliment her natural tech savvy background with a strong foundation in healthcare and international business. During her 7 year tenure with the Department of Treasury, she worked on the team that created the first e-file & tax CRM systems, managed multi-state training initiatives, and approved clearances for tax software developers yearly including Intuit and H&R Block. Amy was primarily responsible for managing and implementing all new technological advancements to rapidly grow the Department of Treasury’s product offerings. Through this work environment, she realized the importance of a proprietary CRM platform for both the private and public business sector success in the healthcare technology arena.

Recognized as a high potential executive by the US Government in 2004, Amy’s career took a leap out of the public sector in 2005 and into the private sector to focusing her skill on developing international health care initiatives through the medical tourism industry. Her broad depth of knowledge quickly led her to be known as the international expert in this field. Her ability to develop on a business to business level, as well as a customer to business model has landed her multiple awards and international recognition.

Her expertise has been instrumental in strategic planning and implementation of operations for many large medical organizations and international hospital chains over the last decade. She has consulted with world powers such as China and 60 other countries to implement medical tourism initiatives. She currently serves as an advisor to the Chinese, Indian and El Salvadorean governments to build a framework for government revenue through medical tourism.

There is a relatively small segment of leaders in the business world who are able to build relationships, trust and rapport with almost anyone and are able to broker the relationships and make connections between people to create partnerships, alliances and motivation for forward momentum. Amy consistently proves her ability to lead through diverse and challenging situations and has a track record of accomplishments that include turning around chaotic and struggling operations, launching startups, managing new healthcare facilities, creating and launching new and improved educational, clinical and operational programs, as well as supporting continued organization growth and expansion of mature, established operations.

As a media expert appearing on all major news networks across the country, as well as internationally, her expertise is in demand to educate on the cost saving solutions, benefits and expansion options of medical tourism. She brings a broad scope of experience in health care, internet commerce, and inter-cultural development to her business breadth. She was recognized as a top female Entrepreneur in several states by several organizations for her work since 2008.

Amy Holcomb's is the founder and CEO of SkyMedicus Inc., the world’s leading provider of Medical Tourism resources and information, having helped more than 50,000 clients to save money and access medical treatments not available in their local area. SkyMedicus encourages Domestic and International Medical Tourism. Her vision is to impact the healthcare industry, by providing healthcare information, alternatives and cost savings to make quality healthcare affordable to all, via an accessible platform.

Matthew O. Hurford, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health Organization part of the UPMC Insurance Services Division and one of the country’s largest not-for-profit behavioral health managed care organizations. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Community Care serves over one million Medicaid beneficiaries across Pennsylvania by facilitating the ongoing evolution of the behavioral health system toward one that embraces the journey of healing, transformation, and empowerment.

As Chief Medical Officer at Community Care, Dr. Hurford is responsible for the clinical and quality operations of Community Care through oversight of the departments of Clinical Management, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Quality Management. He also provides executive leadership for new business opportunities and program development in areas including physical health/behavioral health integration and innovative healthcare payment models.

Prior to joining Community Care, Dr. Hurford served as the Chief Medical Officer of the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services (DBHIDS). He has held leadership positions in academic medicine, community mental health and managed care.

Dr. Hurford graduated from Swarthmore College and received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine where he was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. Following graduation, Dr. Hurford completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he was named Chief Resident. He is currently a Clinical Associate at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry's Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research. His research interests focus on the interface of physical and mental illness as well as the implementation of evidence-based practices.

Dr. Hurford lives in Philadelphia with his wife and four children.