Speaking Faculty

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.

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.

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

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.

At SoonerCare, Dr. Beasley develops and monitors pharmacy operations and administration issues to assist the Medicaid population for the state of Oklahoma. This includes pharmacy benefit administration, drug utilization review, pharmacy claims analysis, project management, workflow development, communication, public speaking, medication safety, data analytics, and clinical pharmacy.

Dr. Beasley obtained his B.S. is in Pharmacy from the University of Oklahoma and subsequent Masters in Public Health in Health Policy and Administration from University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Next, he received his Master’s in Pharmacy from the University of Florida, specializing in pharmaceutical outcomes and policy.

Leah Binder is President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, representing employers and other purchasers of health care calling for improved safety and quality in hospitals. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, the Huffington Post, and the Wall Street Journal expert forum. She was named on Becker’s list of the 50 most powerful people in healthcare, and consistently cited by Modern Healthcare among the 100 most influential people and top 25 women in healthcare.

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

Dr. Sunil Budhrani is the Chief Medical Officer for Innovation Health, a uniquely successful partnership between Aetna and one of the largest health systems in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, INOVA Health System. Dr. Budhrani is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Neuroscience and English. He went on to complete his Medical Degree at the George Washington University, where he then pursued his Masters in Public Health due to an interest in Population Health Dynamics. Subsequently, he completed his Residency training in Emergency Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and went on to Chair and direct Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centers throughout the East Coast. Dr. Budhrani then served as the Chief Medical Officer of the Evergreen Health Cooperative Insurance for the State of Maryland and led the clinical course for medical technology, network development, member engagement, and Population Health for the Plan. He co-founded CareClix Telemedicine, a leading pioneer in Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring technologies with users throughout the United States and abroad. He as well served as the Chair of the American Telemedicine Association's Guidelines Committee for Practice of Primary Care and Urgent Care Telemedicine, has authored many papers on the subject of Telemedicine, and is a National Speaker on Virtual Medical Care on such topics as Reducing Hospital Readmissions and Employing Telemedicine in Medical Practices. He currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

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.

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).

Dr. Christopher Chen is the CEO of ChenMed, a physician practice that aims to bring concierge-style medicine and better health outcomes to the neediest populations – low-income seniors managing multiple complex chronic conditions. Dr. Chen oversees ChenMed’s operations through its senior medical centers throughout the southeastern United States and Chicago, as well as its portfolio affiliated primary care practices and groups. Raised in South Florida, home to ChenMed’s headquarters, Dr. Chen graduated from the University of Miami’s Honors Program in Medicine. Dr. Chen went on to complete his medical training at Beth Israel Deaconess, a major Harvard University teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His clinical skills and research accomplishments then led to a specialty position at Cornell University Medical College in Manhattan, New York, where he studied cardiology.

Dr. Chen brought these valuable skills and experiences with him to ChenMed, where he has served as CEO since 2009. Under Dr. Chen’s leadership, ChenMed has grown from four senior medical centers in Florida in 2010 to the more than 50 it operates in ten U.S. markets today. ChenMed’s innovative, physician-led model focuses on accountability and scalability, and the model has proven results. ChenMed patients have 38 percent fewer hospital days per year than the national average. As a fully capitated Medicare Advantage provider, ChenMed have succeeded in providing better care to patients at a lower cost by focusing on prevention, patient behavior modification, and practical solutions like increasing patient access to physicians and specialists and providing courtesy transportation, on-site imaging, and medication. Patient satisfaction is high, with Net Promoter Scores in the low-to-mid 90s.

Dr. Chen’s guidance has led to accolades for ChenMed from numerous sources including the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.K. National Health System, and publications such as Health Affairs, Forbes® Magazine, and The Economist®. In addition, the company was named “Best Primary Care System in the U.S.” by Medical Economics. Dr. Chen and ChenMed have earned private working discussions with President Obama, key cabinet members, senators, and congressmen. Honors like these reflect ChenMed's innovative and compassionate approach to caring for seniors with complex diseases, as well as ChenMed’s notable results in achieving better health care outcomes.

Dr. Bonnie Clipper is the Vice President of Innovation for the American Nurses Association. Prior to joining the ANA, Dr. Clipper has served as a Chief Nursing Officer for Cornerstone Hospital of Austin, the Medical Center of the Rockies, St. David’s Medical Center and RUSH-Oak Park Hospital.

Dr. Clipper completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice at Texas Tech University. She received a Master of Business Administration from Lewis University, a Master of Arts in Health and Human Services Administration from St. Mary’s University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Winona State University. She serves as Clinical Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso and at University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Clipper has been practicing for over 30 years, spending the majority of her career in leadership and executive nursing roles transitioning over the past four years to focus on innovation. In addition, she serves on the advisory board for Telehealth and Medicine Today and speaks throughout the country on topics of interest to nursing leaders. Dr. Clipper is a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow alumna, an ASU/AONE Executive Fellow in Health Innovation Leadership Fellow alumna and a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Her research interests include building cultures of innovation, importing the voice of the clinician into the design and development of technology and millennial leadership advancement. She has authored the book The Nurse Managers Guide to an Intergenerational Workforce and was a co-author of The Innovation Roadmap: A Guide for Nurse Leaders. She also has a very active social media presence as @ThoughtleaderRN.

Her superpower is being a super-connector!

Dr. Clough is responsible for defining the strategy for user and customer engagement initiatives and for the technology and data science product enhancements. Like her fellow ArmadaHealth® leaders, she is committed to improving healthcare delivery through innovation.

Suzanne is especially passionate about programs that deliver human-centric, evidence-based clinical and behavioral support to those touched by chronic disease. She was the co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of WellDoc, a rapidly growing pioneer in the digital health technology company. WellDoc’s FDA-cleared app BlueStar® was the first in a novel class of therapy, called Mobile Prescription Therapy, for people with type 2 diabetes. At WellDoc, Clough led the clinical and behavioral algorithm design and development efforts of the WellDoc platform. She also played a key business development role, leading the launch of several commercially successful digital health products within the healthcare ecosystem.

Dr. Clough continues to be very involved in the digital health community, serving as an advisor to other digital health companies, including CanSurround, a personalized web/mobile technology for people living with cancer as well as serving as the Chief Medical Officer of AmalgamRx.

Her zeal for pursuing innovative, evidence-based solutions for chronic disease management was triggered by her medical background in endocrinology. Clough completed her training in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Maryland Medical Systems. She served as an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology as well as Medical Director and Founder of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Medical Systems. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from James Madison University in Virginia.

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.

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.

The SI PPS was created to implement the state’s Medicaid redesign program under the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program (DSRIP). The PPS focuses on creating a virtual network of Medicaid providers covering the full continuum of care in collaboration with community-based organizations. The domains of cultural competency, health literacy, and work force development are core pillars of transformational change. Under Dr. Conte’s leadership, SI PPS was recognized by Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson as “leading the way” and the “most advanced” in New York. He has spearheaded the PPS’s advanced technology initiative to create a “360 view” of population health.

Joe is fully engaged in the drive towards integrative care and the fight against opioid abuse. Under his leadership innovative programs operating 24/7 such as peer recovery coaches in Emergency Rooms, the law enforcement HOPE program, resource and recover centers and behavioral health diversion program have been implemented. Tackling behavioral health, SUD, diabetes, asthma and other chronic disease prevalent in the community are PPS priorities. The preventable ER use for medical and behavioral health has declined over 50% in 3 years and the engagement and individuals for substance abuse treatment soared by 30%. PCMH practice and MAT certified practice penetration has tripled.

Prior to his position as Executive Director of SI PPS, Dr. Conte served as the Senior Vice President for Administration at Richmond University Medical Center. Other former positions held by Dr. Conte include Executive Vice President of the Catholic Health Services of Long Island, and Senior VP for Quality at Northwell Health.

He completed his doctoral dissertation at the Seton Hall University School of Health and Medical Sciences, analyzing the effects of Meaningful Use of EHR on cost, quality, and safety outcomes. Joe has experience in international projects and was recently invited to speak in the Netherlands and the U.K. to discuss healthcare innovation. He has published numerous peer review articles and authored a chapter in the bestselling Health Informatics an Executive Primer.

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.

Michelle Copenhaver is the Regional Vice President of Aetna’s Southeast Territories. She has 30 years of experience in the health care industry, both in the clinical realm as a Registered Nurse and as a Healthcare Executive in the payer space. Currently, she leads a team that manages multiple ACO and other Value-Based Model Commercial and Medicare Advantage Collaborations throughout the southeast region including Contracting, Relationship Engagement, Operations and Day-to Day Management Excellence, Strategic Expansion, Establishing Win-Wins for Provider Partnership Relationship, creating Continuous Improvement, Growth and Sustainability.

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.

Dr. Sanjay Doddamani is the Chief Medical Officer of Geisinger at Home, a home-based model of care for Geisinger’s population of medically complex patients. He leads a large clinical team across the primary service area in Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania. He also serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Keystone ACO, and is a Senior Director in Population Health. In this capacity, he works with the executive leadership to accelerate improvement of performance metrics across the system, working closely with the service line, hospital and community healthcare and operational leadership, to improve integration of population health initiatives.

His clinical background as a practicing heart failure cardiologist has helped provide deep insights in to chronic conditions and the struggles faced by patients and their caregivers. Dr. Doddamani is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, as well as in heart failure and cardiac transplant. He has served on numerous panels and committees and presented on diverse topics both nationally and abroad.

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.

Niyum Gandhi is the Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. In this role, he oversees Mount Sinai’s transition from a primarily fee-for-service model of care to one that is focused on value and risk-based population health.

Niyum leads Mount Sinai Health Partners and helps align the Health System’s clinical and economic transformations in support of Mount Sinai’s vision to be the leading population health manager in the competitive New York market, as well as the best possible partner to plan sponsors, health insurers, and other population health managers who are responsible for total cost of care of patient groups. This includes fostering care management and clinical model redesign to ensure that high-value care is delivered by the Health System and its partners, and working with payers and employers to establish the new economic models that support the delivery of value-based care.

Prior to his position at Mount Sinai, Niyum served as a Partner in the Health and Life Sciences consulting practice of Oliver Wyman in Chicago, where he focused on value-based health care strategy and transformation for physician groups, hospitals, and health plans. At Oliver Wyman, Niyum also worked with a variety of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other population health management companies, helping them design and implement value-based clinical models, develop value-based contracts and integrated product distribution strategies, align physician incentives toward value, and establish the appropriate infrastructure to support population health management.

Niyum holds an A.B. in economics and finance from Harvard University. He has authored several articles on ACOs, payer/provider partnerships, and physician engagement, and served as a conference speaker on a variety of issues related to population health and value-based care.

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.

Nancy Garrett joined HCMC in 2012 and was named Chief Analytics Officer in 2013. In this role, Nancy is aligning Analytics and Information Technology to develop information-driven solutions to managing the health of our population. Nancy has a Ph.D. in Population Statistics from the University of Illinois, and an extensive payer background, including building a centralized analytics function at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. She also served on the Board of Minnesota Community Measurement where she was instrumental in implementing its first cost measure, and currently is serving on expert panels for Cost and Resource Use measures and Socioeconomic Status and Risk Adjustment at the National Quality Forum.

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.

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.

Lee Green is Chief Architect for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the largest insurer in Massachusetts with approximately 2.8 million members and policyholders. Mr. Green is also an active member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield National Network of Architects and Innovation.

Prior to his move to Boston and joining Blue Cross of MA in 2016, Mr. Green led Architecture and Information Management for NASCO, an organization providing core Back Office Payer platforms and capabilities to multiple BCBS plans. Mr. Green also spent over a decade consulting for both Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in areas of Data and Technology.

Mr. Green holds a degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1997). With a background focused on Enterprise Information Management and Enterprise Architecture, Mr. Green has a passion for the power of information, insights and their combined ability to influence consumer-centered actions and their capacity to transform the healthcare and payer industry.

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

Diana is Chief Medical Officer at GE Appliances, a Haier company. She leads the Health Services team, which is responsible for onsite delivery of occupational and preventive health services and programs, employee health benefits, leave management, and wellness and health promotion. Prior to joining GE Appliances, Diana enjoyed a wide-ranging career in healthcare consulting, clinical practice, and healthcare administration at a series of leading institutions, including the Massachusetts General Hospital (Partners Healthcare), the Advisory Board Company, Carewise, Baptist Health, and Humana.

Bev Helkey is Executive Director of the Employers Healthcare Coalition and the Tri-State Purchasing Coalition. She has 30+ years’ experience in healthcare cost management strategies and employee benefits. She joined the coalitions in 2002. She provides management and oversight of two non-profit organizations. Employers Healthcare Coalition provides health education, health literacy, and healthcare cost and outcome resources to the community, and the Tri-State Health Care Purchasing Coalition which group purchases services to their members and the community.

With her extensive experience in healthcare cost management strategies, she has served the organizations through the design, development and implementation of their robust cost saving programs – including education-focused on health literacy, healthcare cost, outcomes and the patient experience.

Ms. Helkey’s career in healthcare cost strategies spans more than 30-years. Helkey holds a bachelor’s degree in Business. She is board member of Leadership Illinois, The Quincy Family YMCA, CDC - The National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (NLAPH) and the Association for Corporate Risk Management (ACHRM).

Katherine Hempstead, PhD, senior adviser to the executive vice president, joined the Foundation in 2011. Since late 2013, Hempstead has directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work on health insurance coverage. In addition, she works on issues related to health care price transparency and value.

Previously, Hempstead was director of the Center for Health Statistics in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. She also served as statistician/analyst in the Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, and as an assistant research professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, where she currently holds a visiting faculty position. Hempstead also held positions at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and at Catholic University, in Washington D.C. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

Born in New Jersey, Hempstead received a PhD in Demography and History from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also earned a BA in Economics and History.

Kathleen Herath oversees Nationwide’s Wellbeing and Safety activities for its 34,000 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, Crisis Management, and Associate Safety.

She has over 30 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. Training Magazine just announced that the Nationwide My Health program has been awarded a Best Practice Award as a top training program for associate learning and the program will be featured in the January/February 2018 issue.

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, the Great Rivers Strategy Committee for the America Heart Association, serving on the Board of Directors of the Central Ohio Ronald McDonald House and Equitas Health where she is the past President of the Board.

Brent Hicks is the Director of Clinical Solutions Technology at Cleveland Clinic. Brent has over sixteen years HIT experience specializing in EMR development and customization with a focus on SOA (Service Orientated Architecture), decision support, research and predictive modeling solutions. He has created clinical SOA systems, custom documentation tools, decision support tools and dynamic user interface modifications. He has also developed dynamic tools to improve enterprise wide disease reporting and CMS scoring. Brent has also designed and developed several large high profile clinical systems including national Hepatitis C, HIV registries and nationally deployed systems for the UK’s NHS.

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.

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.

Ms. Jenkins is the chief administrative and operating officer of UPMC Health Plan and the UPMC Insurance Services Division— the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania.

Ms. Jenkins oversees Service Operations, Claims Administration, Configuration, Ancillary Product(s), Third Party Administration, the Organizational Performance and Project Management Office, and Consumer Innovation. Her responsibilities include coordinating fiscal management, administration, and operations for multiple departments; managing budgeting and resource allocation with senior leadership, finance, and Human Resources; and providing matrix reporting oversight across the organization in support of multiple lines of business.

In addition, she translates strategic initiatives into business objectives to support the organization’s continued growth. Ms. Jenkins has driven operational efficiencies at UPMC Health Plan for more than 20 years, helping the company maintain low administrative costs and high customer satisfaction. She is a strong supporter of the Health Plan’s process improvement efforts and has a Green Belt certification in Six Sigma.

Ms. Jenkins serves on the board of directors for several nonprofit organizations and privately held companies and is recognized nationally as an expert on service excellence and claims optimization.

Teresa Johnson joined CDPHP in 1999 and currently serves as senior vice president of consumer experience solutions. She plays a lead role in the development and execution of the consumer engagement strategy, which includes direct responsibility for areas such as product innovation; marketing informatics and research; employer, community, and consumer engagement; sales and marketing technology solutions; and eligibility and enrollment functions. Throughout her tenure, Teresa has held various management positions in the sales, marketing, and corporate administration divisions. Teresa’s extensive experience and leadership at CDPHP have contributed greatly toward the development and success of the company’s strong product portfolio and strategic business initiatives. Her expertise helps CDPHP continuously engage employers and consumers by bringing innovative products to market that promote quality care, ease of use, healthy behaviors, and affordability.

Teresa holds a Master of Science in organization management from Sage Graduate School in Troy, NY, and a Bachelor of Science in marketing and management from Siena College in Loudonville, NY. Teresa is a graduating fellow from the America’s Health Insurance Plan (AHIP) Executive Leadership Program, earning the Certified Healthcare Insurance Executive (CHIE) designation. In addition, she is a certified project management professional (PMP) and has also received an executive scholar designation from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Taylor Justice is Co-founder & President of Unite Us and a U.S. Army Veteran. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army as an Infantry Officer and received an honorable medical discharge from active duty. In 2013, he co-founded Unite Us, an outcome-focused technology company that extends traditional healthcare delivery by powering networks of clinical and social service providers.

Unite Us helps systems and communities integrate physical, behavioral, and social services into care delivery. Their platform supports organizations along the continuum to collaborate in real-time, track the entire patient journey and report on outcomes together. Through their work with over 40 communities across the country, they have emerged as a leader in cross-sector collaboration. They have recently been recognized as an Amazon Web Services’ city on a cloud innovation award winner, a New York State Social Determinants of Health Call for Innovations Initiative Finalist, the New York State DSRIP Health Innovation Pitch Winner, as well as a Gartner Cool Vendor for health value delivery.

Taylor holds academic allegiance to both the United States Military Academy at West Point and Columbia Business School. He lives in New York City with his wife, Meghan.

Brian Klepper, PhD is Principal of Worksite Health Advisors and a nationally prominent health care analyst and commentator. He writes and speaks extensively about the structural dynamics of the US health care cost crisis, primary care clinics, high performance health care and the management of full continuum clinical and financial risk.

Jim Knutson has been Risk Manager and Human Resources Director of Aircraft Gear Corporation in Rockford, Illinois, a manufacturer of components for the aviation and auto industries, since 1989. He is responsible for all corporate risk management, compensation and benefit programs. Jim is a member of Catalyst For Payment Reform, the Business Advisory Group to the Joint Commission For the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a member of The Midwest Business Group on Health and served on its Board, a member of the Winnebago County, Illinois Crime Commission and a board member and treasurer of The Healthcare Incentives Improvement Institute. Jim received his bachelors degree from Marquette University and his law degree from Northern Illinois University.

Jim has been a member of the Advisory Council of Emcap, Berkley’s rent-a-captive program domiciled in Bermuda. He has also been on the State of Illinois Insurance Commission Working Group to revise the standard application for medical insurance and a member of the steering committee of The Illinois State Chamber of Commerce Health Council. He has testified before the joint state legislative committee on exchanges and presented before diverse groups including The Institute of Medicine, Captive Live conferences, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored events.

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

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

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

Rebecca Love, RN, MSN, ANP is the Director of Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Northeastern School of Nursing and an experienced Nurse Entrepreneur, founding HireNurses.com in 2013. Rebecca is passionate about empowering nurses and helping nurses innovate, create and collaborate to start businesses to transform healthcare.

Northeastern School of Nursing’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiative is to inspire nurses to be transformative leaders in healthcare. Through innovative events, programs, and new educational pathways, Northeastern School of Nursing is transforming traditional nursing education to incorporate innovation, entrepreneurship and business foundations to position nurses as the leaders in healthcare.

Rebecca’s community involvement includes serving on the board of NextGenVentures, the Regional Dir. for Show Me Your Stethoscope Foundation, ACLU Dinner & Host Committee, Charlestown Mothers Assoc., Harvard Kent Advisory Board, and the St. John School. Rebecca holds a M.S. in Nursing from Northeastern University and a B.A. in International Relations/Spanish from Boston University.

Luther joined Yelp in 2008 as an account executive on the company’s sales team and a year later moved into the role of Manager of Business Outreach, where he built a department that educates small business owners about the importance of Yelp. Since 2011, Luther has led public policy at the company. As Vice President of Public Policy, he manages and directs the company’s global outreach to policy makers about the vital role Yelp plays in driving economic activity to local businesses while serving as a platform to empower and protect consumers. Previously, Luther worked as a Special Assistant to retired four-star General Wesley Clark. He holds a B.A. in government from The College of William & Mary.

As a founding member of the Division of Community Health, Ms. Lyn was instrumental in designing its community-based clinical, care management, educational, and research initiatives. Clinical initiatives include neighborhood clinics; school-based health centers; and the Just for Us Program, which cares for chronically ill seniors in their homes. Care management services include a North Carolina Community Care Network, Northern Piedmont Community Care (NPCC) covering six NC counties linking primary care practices, hospital systems, and local departments of social services, health and mental health serving approximately 80,000 Medicaid beneficiaries; and the Local Access to Coordinated Healthcare Program (LATCH) which provides care management services for uninsured individuals in Durham County.

Recently, Ms. Lyn worked with Duke Health leadership to create the Population Health Management Office (PHMO) to unify and centralize ambulatory care management and services provided by NPCC, LATCH, and DukeWELL under one Duke University Health System entity. Ms. Lyn serves as Lead for Community Health Initiatives and Strategy for the PHMO. The PHMO will guide clinical care transformation initiatives as Duke Health transitions to value-based care.

In addition to her work in the Division and PHMO, Ms. Lyn serves as Co-Director of the Center for Community and Population Health Improvement (CCPHI) at Duke’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. A multi-disciplinary center, CCPHI leverages academic, health system, and community partnerships to improve community and population health. As Co-Director, Ms. Lyn focuses on identifying opportunities to create new evidence-based cross-sectoral models to improve health and inform policy.

Dr. Makary is a health care futurist, writing in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He has written extensively on the opioid crisis, organizational culture, and health care reform. He is the creator of The Surgery Checklist, developed at Johns Hopkins and popularized in the book the Checklist Manifesto. Dr. Makary has been named to America’s 20 Most Influential People in Health Care and Smartest People in Healthcare List by Becker’s Review.

Dr. Makary is the author of Mama Maggie—a book about his aunt, a nobel prize nominee—and Unaccountable, a book about health care transparency and Library Journal Book of the Year. A leading voice for doctors, he leads the national “Improving Wisely” project to lower health care costs in America and is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Opioid Research & Education (solvethecrisis.org). He is a frequent medical commentator of NBC and FOX News, commenting on policy and interpreting the latest health research for everyday folks. Dr. Makary is a cancer surgeon and teaches health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Using colorful stories and humor, Makary explains how lifestyle medicine, a new generation of doctors, and technology is shaping the future of health care.

Links:
Dr. Makary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Makary

Daniel Malone is the Executive Director of DESC, a homelessness service organization in Seattle providing survival and crisis services, behavioral health treatment, and permanent supportive housing for adults with significant disabling conditions and long histories of homelessness.? Daniel's 28-year career at DESC has been focused on developing, implementing, operating, and evaluating services and programs for people whose needs have not been met by conventional services and systems of care.

Susan Mani, M.D. has been Chair of The Department of Medicine and Chief Quality Officer at Northwest Hospital Center, Inc. since December 2014. In July 2017, Dr. Mani became Vice President, Medical Affairs at Northwest in addition to LifeBridge Health’s Vice President and Medical Director, Clinical Transformation. As of July 2018, she became the VP, Clinical Transformation and Ambulatory Quality for LifeBridge Health.
During her tenure, Dr. Mani played critical roles in performance improvement, quality and patient safety advancement as well as playing a crucial role in advancing Northwest Hospital’s Quest to be the Best in areas of clinical outcome performance, patient experience and efficient use of resources. Northwest Hospital was recognized by the Maryland Patient Safety Center with the prestigious Minogue Award under her lead.
Dr. Mani is board-certified in cardiology and is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she completed her residency and was chief resident. She completed her fellowship training in cardiology at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Melanie Matthews is the dynamic, creative and innovative CEO at Physicians of Southwest Washington (PSW) bringing more than 20 years of operations, financial, human resources and product marketing experience in health care services for specialty populations. With her personal capacity for energy, clear focus and performance excellence and her proven track record for operational, financial and market success, Melanie has been leading PSW through the waves of change in today’s health care climate.

Since she joined the company in 2016, she has maintained the core principals in which PSW was founded on and expanded business lines to include MSO services including credentialing, coding and compliance and the implementation of CMMI innovation models such as the Next Generation ACO. Melanie’s extensive knowledge in post-acute care provides strategic focus in reducing overall cost of care as well as provider and beneficiary engagement.

Her nationally recognized visionary leadership will assure that PSW continues its work to help integrate the ideas of health care reform into the lives of patients and physician practices. Prior to PSW, Melanie served for three years as Vice President of Operations for Prestige Care, Inc., where she was responsible for regulatory and financial operations and outcomes for 38 skilled nursing facilities and two Medicare home health agencies in a four-state northwest region. Among her other accomplishments, Melanie serves as the chair of the Washington Health Care Association, was selected by the American Health Care Association as a “National Political Ambassador” in 2013, and was named a national “Future Leader” in 2012.

Melanie holds a master of science, social gerontology, degree from Central Missouri State University and a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University. She is married with two children and has lived in Olympia since 2008.

Jo Ellen is the National Director of Housing Partnerships for the myConnections Housing team of United Healthcare. Led by Dr. Jeffery Brenner, former CEO of the Camden Coalition in Camden, New Jersey, myConnections is a national specialty work group within United Healthcare focusing on the Social Determinants of Health. Jo Ellen works to build relationships and collaborative efforts to identify housing opportunities for United Healthcare members who are homeless, medically vulnerable, and disconnected from community and family resources. Jo Ellen joined United Healthcare in July of 2016, and immediately began building partnerships across the country representing over 200 units of housing and intensive wrap around services. This investment is aimed at successfully reducing healthcare spend by more than 50% and improving healthcare outcomes for community members with a collective healthcare spend of over $18 Million dollars a year. Jo Ellen provides expertise around Non-Profit Management and Non-Profit Housing partnerships (financing, operations, and leadership structure), HUD financing and initiatives, Fair Housing, and Business Analytics.

Prior to her work with United Healthcare, Jo Ellen spent more than 20 years in community development and affordable housing work. Her work has included the role of Executive Director of a community development corporation within a hospital and Executive Director of a CDC in partnership with a Hospital. Both CDCs included services and programs targeting the single family development and rehab of housing and the social determinant of health needs of the communities surrounding them.

Additionally, Jo Ellen also served as the Operations Director for a transitional housing and drop in center for homeless youth and providing leadership for building community relationships, project support, and financing opportunities for affordable housing development and operations - including Senior Housing, Family Housing, LIHTC, Section 202, and Housing First.

Prior to her time in Phoenix, Jo Ellen worked for the City of Cleveland. Her roles included providing management and distribution of over $1 Million annually of HUD and local investment funds, development of Community Development and Community Economic Development strategies for the downtown and inner-ring neighborhoods, and working closely with small businesses and 13 local Community Development Corporations to address issues related to neighborhood safety, downtown development, resident services, housing and infrastructure, homeless services and facilities, and opportunities for private-public partnerships.

Jo Ellen also remains active in volunteerism supporting issues of affordable housing, homelessness, and disabilities. She is a board member of Family Promise of Greater Phoenix, Member of the Legislative Committee of Arizona Autism Coalistion, and a past member and Chair for the City of Tempe Neighborhoods Advisory Commission.

McVay is vice president and chief analytics officer for UnityPoint Health, a $4.5B, multi-state, integrated delivery system located in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Her passion for using data and information to improve care quality, efficiency, and experience has supported the system’s focus on analytics maturity. Under McVay’s leadership, her team focuses on mastering the use of descriptive and predictive analytics, which has helped position UnityPoint Health in the top decile for performance measures. Her work prioritizes partnering with clinical and business leadership to solve today’s health care challenges.

McVay’s team has been nationally recognized for innovation in analytics. McVay was recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Health IT by Health Data Management (2016) and as an Up&Comer by Modern Healthcare (2017). McVay earned her Master of Health Administration and Juris Doctorate from Saint Louis University.

Tom Meier is responsible for the development and management of market-leading products and services, consumer and member engagement and marketing communications for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Prior to joining the company in 2010, Tom served in a number of roles at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, where he focused on the development of national consumer-directed health plan products and services across the Blue Cross and Blue Shield system, as well as product and consumer tool development efforts for the Federal Employee Program.

Tom is a member of the board of directors for the Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions, which was established by the National Business Group on Health. Tom also serves on the advisory board of the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science and theatre from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Dr. Jennifer H. Mieres is a leading expert in the fields of nuclear cardiology, cardiovascular disease in women and patient-centered healthcare advocacy. As Senior Vice President of Northwell Health’s, Center for Equity of Care, She has oversight of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health, as well as all diversity and health equity initiatives and serves as the health system’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Dr. Mieres is also the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and a professor of cardiology, at The Zucker School of Medicine.

A graduate of Bennington College and Boston University School of Medicine; she is a Fellow of The American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and Master of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) and served as the first female President of the ASNC.

Dr. Mieres’ clinical focus and research are centered on the elimination of health and gender disparities and her current research is focused on cardiovascular disease in women. She is a leading advocate for patient-centered healthcare and medical education reform and has authored/co-authored over 60 scientific publications, including as lead author of the 2005 and 2014 AHA cardiac imaging guidelines for women. As an international speaker, she has presented her research as distinguished faculty at over 100 forums and conferences; both nationally and internationally including scientific sessions of the ACC, AHA, ASNC, the International Conference of Nuclear Cardiology and IHI/BMJ International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare. A true patient and community advocate; Dr. Mieres is actively involved in service. She serves as a national spokesperson for AHA’s Go Red For Women movement and has served as chair of several national AHA committees as well as the Scientific Advisory Board for WomenHeart.

A prolific communicator; Mieres recently co-authored Heart Smart for Women: Six S.T.E.P.S IN Six Weeks to Heart-Healthy Living, published in October 2017. Her previous book Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas: A Five Week Program for Living a Heart- Healthy Lifestyle was published in 2008. Following her Emmy-nominated documentary A Woman’s Heart, (2001); her creative ingenuity has evolved as an executive producer of a two part documentary series Rx: The Quiet Revolution and Doctors of Tomorrow, (2015). The films have forged a change in narrative while garnering placement on national TV network PBS and in educational institutions. Dr. Mieres is routinely called upon by national and local media for expert commentary and has been designated as a most-credible voice in the healthcare industry.

A recipient of several prestigious awards; Dr. Mieres has been recognized as a tireless force; fostering diversity in medical education as well as eliminating disparities in the delivery of healthcare to the community. The Association of Black Cardiologists recognized her work with the Walter M. Booker Sr. Health Promotion Award in 2015. The American Heart Association has also presented her with a number of awards, such as the Chairman’s Award; the Louis B. Russell, Jr., Memorial Award; the Award for Outstanding Service as President and the William Groom Award for Volunteer of the Year. Dr. Mieres has also received the National ACC’s Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award; the Woman’s Day Red Dress Award; the WomenHeart Wenger Award for Healthcare and the New York State Governor’s Award of Excellence.

Jason W. Mitchell, MD, is the Chief Medical and Clinical Transformation Officer for Presbyterian Healthcare Services, a not-for-profit health care system, integrating New Mexico’s largest health care provider and health plan. Dr. Mitchell leads a team of 1,000 employed providers spanning 50 ambulatory clinics and eight hospital campuses in addition to medical staff operations and provider clinical quality in a mixed medical staff model. Dr. Mitchell oversees $600 million in fully capitated delivery system risk arrangements, delivery system care and case management, clinical informatics and enterprise Population Health Services.

Dr. Mitchell focuses on re-designing clinical practice at the system level and is transforming the role of the physician executive to better serve clinicians and patients during a time of rapid healthcare change. He is a key leader in developing enterprise strategy across care delivery, the health plan and Presbyterian’s Fluent Health – a leader in partnering with delivery systems to start or strengthen their own provider-led health plans.

Under Dr. Mitchell’s leadership, Presbyterian has deployed new care models, processes and technology to help connect the care continuum, payers, providers and patients in a way never before possible and enabled intense evidence-based care design, process improvement, value-based care, health plan integration and standardization. Ultimately, the changes have yielded significant gains in disease management and overall management of population health.

Dr. Mitchell is passionate about the quadruple aim and continues to see patients as a family practice physician. He earned his medical degree from the University of New Mexico, where he also completed his residency in family medicine. Dr. Mitchell is board-certified in both family medicine and clinical informatics. He has been with Presbyterian since 2006.

Don Mordecai, MD is the Kaiser Permanente National Leader for Mental Health and Wellness. He has been with Kaiser Permanente since 2003.

Dr. Mordecai trained at Stanford University School of Medicine in child and adolescent, as well as adult psychiatry. His clinical work is with patients with developmental disorders, ADHD, and the range of general psychiatry issues. While he sees patients of all ages, he is particularly interested in working with adolescents and young adults.

Dr. Mordecai also Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.

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Don Mordecai, MD is the Kaiser Permanente National Leader for Mental Health and Wellness. His clinical work is with patients with developmental disorders, ADHD, and the range of general psychiatry issues. Dr. Mordecai is also Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Morris graduated from Hamilton College in 1996 with honors in Cellular Biology and started work at the MIT/Whitehead Center for Genomic Research as Director of Automation and Development for the Human Genome Project. During his tenure, Dr. Morris co-patented a DNA isolation process that was the foundation for Agencourt Bioscience Corporation, acquired by Beckman Coulter in 2005. Dr. Morris subsequently obtained his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine and completed training in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. In 2006 he joined the staff in the Section of Hospital Medicine of Cleveland Clinic.

He was named Director of Clinical Informatics in 2007, with an area of focus on implementation, optimization and innovation for healthcare related Information Technology and promoted to Vice Chairman of Clinical Systems in 2010. In 2008 Dr. Morris was named Innovator of the year for his work in implementing physician order entry for Cleveland Clinic and also received Innovator awards in 2010 and 2011 for work around development of a novel medical record. He is active on numerous Hospital advisory committees include medical-legal, quality and safely committees and several operational aspects within the health system. In addition, Dr. Morris sits on the Board of Directors and Leadership Council for eHealth Initiative. He continues his clinical role as a Hospitalist within the Medicine Institute as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

Dr. Steve Narang is CEO of Banner—University Medical Center in Phoenix. Serving as the CEO of Arizona’s largest hospital since 2013, Dr. Narang has helped lead the development of a new strategic plan and vision for the medical center, leading to a 30-year affiliation with the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, as well as over $400 million in investments toward building 13 multi-departmental specialty institutes, a new inpatient tower, and a new emergency department. He is deeply committed to a culture of physician leadership, especially in leading clinical process redesign to improve the value of consumer-focused care delivery.

Dr. Narang previously served as chief medical officer at Banner Children’s at Cardon Children’s Medical Center. Prior to Banner, he held several medical director and teaching positions in Louisiana, including medical director of graduate medical education and medical director of pediatric emergency services at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge.

He is founder and medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics-Value in Pediatrics National Quality Improvement Collaborative Network. He also served as a member of the executive board of the quality committee of the Arizona American Academy of Pediatrics Committee.

Dr. Narang received a medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and completed his pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He has a master’s in health care management from Harvard University in Boston.

Andy Neary is a healthcare strategist with The Olson Group. He has more than 15 years of experience in helping employers affect the rising cost of healthcare through innovative strategies. He works with his clients to move them from the benefits status quo with innovative and creative strategies that provide savings for employers and a rich benefit plan array for employees.

He recently was named to the “Boulder 40 Under 40” list, recognizing his professional and charitable contributions to that Colorado community. He was a former pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

As a former professional athlete, Neary understands the hard work and daily grind needed to perform at the highest level. His personal motto is, “It’s the work done when no one is watching that generates success”. He takes the same approach with his clients creating truly elite benefit programs.

Her responsibilities include strategic direction and oversight of Texas Health’s community health improvement initiatives which include community health needs assessments, Texas Health Community Impact, Medicaid 1115 waiver projects as well other key programs that educate and engage people in their communities. In her role, Catherine is also responsible for building strong relationships with public and private organizations pursuing the shared goal of improving community health and well-being.

Catherine joins Texas Health from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, where she served as director of community affairs where she developed strategies and collaborative partnerships to advance health and wellness, community engagement and business growth.


Catherine holds a doctor of public health and master of public health from Loma Linda University in California, as well as a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (1999-2017), the nation’s largest medical group, and former president of The Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (2009-2017). In these roles he led 10,000 physicians, 38,000 staff and was responsible for the nationally recognized medical care of 5 million Kaiser Permanente members on the west and east coasts. Recently named one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders, Pearl is an advocate for the power of integrated, prepaid, technologically advanced and physician-led healthcare delivery.

He serves as a clinical professor of plastic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and is on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on strategy and leadership, and lectures on information technology and health care policy.

In 2017 he authored “Mistreated: Why We think We’re Getting Good Healthcare—And Why We’re Usually Wrong” a Washington Post bestseller that offers a roadmap for transforming American healthcare. All proceeds from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

As a regular contributor to Forbes, Pearl covers the business of healthcare and the culture of medicine. He’s the host of a new podcast called “Fixing Healthcare,” which debuted in the iTunes top 100 list of science and medicine programs. He has been featured on CBS This Morning, CNBC, NPR, and in TIME, USA Today and Bloomberg News. He has published more than 100 articles in various medical journals and contributed to numerous books. He is a frequent keynote speaker at healthcare and medical technology conferences. Pearl has addressed the Commonwealth Club, the World Healthcare Congress, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Quality Forum.

Board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Pearl received his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, followed by a residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University. From 2012 to 2017, Pearl served as chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), which includes the nation’s largest and best multispecialty medical groups, and participated in the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT in Washington, D.C.

Connect with Dr. Robert Pearl on Twitter >@RobertPearlMD, LinkedIn and at his website robertpearlmd.com.

Dr. Richard Popiel serves as Executive Vice President, Health Care Services, Regence Health Plans. As a member of the company’s senior executive leadership team, he is responsible for the company’s clinical strategy with the goal to improve members outcomes and the experience they have as health care consumers. Dr. Popiel’s responsibilities include oversight for all medical, pharmacy and network activities, as well as all cost stewardship activities.

Dr. Popiel is a nationally recognized health care delivery expert and thought leader coming to Cambia from Horizon Healthcare Innovations, a Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey company, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, he served as Horizon’s Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and as Vice President/Senior Medical Director for The Permanente Company, a subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente.

Active in professional organizations advancing consumer-focused health care issues, Dr. Popiel chairs the National Council of Physician and Pharmacy Executives, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association council comprising chief medical and chief pharmacy officers. He also leads the Chief Medical Officer Leadership Group at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and serves on the AHIP board of directors. Additionally, Dr. Popiel serves as a member of the Board of Directors of The George Washington University’s Medical Faculty Associates. Previously he served as a member of the Board of Advisors of The George Washington University’s School of Medicine.

His philanthropic activities include board membership for the George Washington University Alumni, where he has also been honored as an Outstanding Alumnus. In addition, he is currently the Vice Chair of the Classic Wine Auction, supporting five non-profit partners benefitting children and families.

Dr. Popiel earned a B.S. in biology and his M.D. at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He completed residency training at both the George Washington University Hospital and the Georgetown University Hospital in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. He completed a toxicology fellowship at the University of Illinois. He is board certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Popiel also holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Russell Portenoy, MD is Executive Director of the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care, Chief Medical Officer of MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care, and Professor of Neurology and Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Prior to joining MJHS, he was the founding Chairman of the country’s first Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. Dr. Portenoy is a past-president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a past-president of the American Pain Society, and was chairman of the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine when it successfully applied for medical subspecialty status. In 2013, Dr. Portenoy was elected one of 30 “Visionaries” in palliative care by the membership of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is the recipient of the Academy’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award and 2008 National Leadership Award. He has received the 2017 “Hospice Hero” award of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State, the 2016 Ventafridda Prize for Research from the European Association for Palliative Care, and the 2015 Galen Miller Leadership Award of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. In 1998, he was given the Wilbert Fordyce Award for Lifetime Excellence in Clinical Investigation from the American Pain Society. Dr. Portenoy has been Editor in Chief of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management for more than three decades, co-edits the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, and is editor for the palliative care section of The Oncologist. He has written, co-authored, or edited 23 books and more than 580 papers and book chapters on topics in palliative care, pain and symptom management, and opioid pharmacotherapy.

Dr. Ryan originally trained as an emergency physician at the University of Cincinnati and simultaneously obtained his MBA while completing his residency. For over 10 years, Dr. Ryan has practiced in the Greater Cincinnati area, and for part of that time, he functioned as a hospital administrator. During this time, he became acutely aware of the issue of heroin/opioid abuse in the region and for the past 6 years has been working tirelessly to make a difference in his community. Dr. Ryan serves on many regional, state, and national committees/workgroups focused on turning the tide of this epidemic. He is the president of the Ohio Society of Addiction Medicine and the Chair of Payer Relations for ASAM. Dr. Ryan is very excited to continue to work in the field of addiction medicine and to have the opportunity to substantially impact the treatment needs of patients with substance use disorder.

Mr. Sadagopan joined Providence St. Joseph Health in 2017 as the vice president of Population Health Informatics and Government programs. As a health data scientist and seasoned health informatics executive, his experience in leading healthcare informatics management helps PSJH strive to achieve our goals in using data proactively to enhance the patient experience and improve health outcomes for those we serve.

He is known for his work in value based care and being one of the most forward thinking technologists focused on proactive clinical data aimed at providing whole person care. Most recently, Mr. Sadagopan served as general manager of value based care at Edifecs – a healthcare technology company focused on improving healthcare outcomes, reducing costs and accelerating innovation. He also led product management, interoperability and analytics at McKesson, as well as for Quest Diagnostics.

Deepak completed an executive program with MIT Sloan School of Management, holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Madras in Chennai, India.

In his role as president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and its parent company Stella, Dr. Craig E. Samitt is responsible for overseeing the strategy and operations of the state’s first and largest health plan.

Dr. Samitt came to Blue Cross in July 2018 from Anthem, Inc., where he served as executive vice president and president of their Diversified Business Group. He built partnerships within and outside of Anthem to provide new sources of growth for the enterprise and deepened Anthem’s relationships and impact across the healthcare ecosystem. Concurrently, he led and executed a nationwide clinical vision and strategy as Anthem’s chief clinical officer. Dr. Samitt’s numerous accomplishments at Anthem include advancing the company’s portfolio of provider partnerships and payment innovation models, leading quality improvements in patient outcomes and increasing the delivery of value-based care.

An internal medicine physician by training, Dr. Samitt has worked across multiple sectors within the health care industry. His career includes a number of senior executive positions, including partner and global provider practice leader at Oliver Wyman; president and CEO of HealthCare Partners, a subsidiary of DaVita HealthCare; and president and CEO of Dean Health System Inc., one of the largest integrated health systems in the Midwest.

For nearly 25 years, Dr. Samitt has been a nationally recognized expert and thought leader on health care delivery and policy. His record of collaborating across the health care system to deliver higher quality care at a lower cost led to him being named as one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders” by Modern Healthcare in 2018.

Dr. Samitt currently serves on the following boards: National Committee for Quality Assurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, Prime Therapeutics, Minnesota Business Partnership, Minnesota Council of Health Plans Board of Directors. He is a former commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment policy.

Dr. Samitt holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University, a medical degree from Columbia University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He completed a medical residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Ashley Schmidt is the President and Founder of the national non-profit professional organization, Women In Healthcare, Inc. In this capacity she oversees the startup and growth of chapters of the organization all over the country. Ashley believes in empowering woman and helping them to climb the corporate ladder. After spending nearly a decade serving on organizational boards and in the healthcare industry, Ashley knew there was a gap in education and mentorship offered to females in healthcare, and knew a platform needed to be developed to encourage and empower women to rise to the top

In addition to Women In Healthcare, Ashley also serves as an Associate and Director of Business Development at the architecture firm, SmithGroup. In this role she develops strategic business plans for the firm and implements client relations strategy for healthcare clients up and down the east coast.

Ashley has a certification in Evidence Based Design for Healthcare (EDAC) as well as a Certified Professional Service Marketer (CPSM) certification. Ashley has presented regionally at conference on topics such as developing a business development strategy and networking. Ashley was recently published in USA today, Women in Business Issue, regarding “Can Selfishness Break the Glass Ceiling”.

Ashley has a BA in Communications and Business from Loyola University in Baltimore and is pursuing her Masters in Healthcare Management at Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.

James Schuster, MD, MBA is the Chief Medical Officer for Behavioral and Medicaid Services and Vice President of Behavioral Integration for the UPMC Insurance Division.

In his role at the Insurance Division, Dr. Schuster provides medical leadership to both physical and behavioral health Medicaid products and has spearheaded development of multiple programs designed to address wellness and physical health concerns for individuals with serious mental illness and other disabilities. He leads a team that has secured 3 awards from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PRORI) to evaluate activities focused on health integration and shared decision making. Dr. Schuster is board certified in psychiatry and in the subspecialties of geriatric and addiction psychiatry. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Louisville and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Pittsburgh. He also received an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and has published numerous articles and book chapters.

Sheila Shapiro is senior vice president of National Strategic Partnerships for UnitedHealthcare Clinical Services. Sheila is responsible for the development, advancement and implementation of industry-leading models that will standardize how new types of data can be captured and used to improve people’s health outcomes, with an emphasis on connecting individuals to community and social services through local and national strategic partnerships.

Sheila joined UnitedHealthcare in 2009 as chief operations officer for the Community Plan of Arizona. She has also served as health plan president for the State of Washington Community Plan as well as national vice president of the myConnections program, a Medicaid program that builds new capabilities around transportation, housing and other social support services for UnitedHealthcare’s most vulnerable populations.

Sheila has more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry. Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, she held executive positions with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana, Molina and Premera Blue Cross. She has held leadership roles across a broad range of operations and strategic positions, including claims, customer service and financial operations.

Sheila holds a master’s degree in management from the University of Phoenix, a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and a financial management certificate from the Wharton School of Business. She is an Arizona Women in Business honoree and has served as vice chair on the board of directors for the March of Dimes.

David A. Shore is a leading authority on innovation and managing change initiatives to gain competitive advantage.  Throughout his career he has worked to combine research, teaching, consulting and writing to build constructive links between theory and practice.

Shore has been on the faculty of Harvard University for more than two decades. He is also Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Change at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (China) and Adjunct Professor of Organizational Development and Change at the School of Business, University of Monterrey (Mexico).  Shore is a faculty member of The Governance Institute and Executive-in-Residence at Enable East (United Kingdom).  He has held visiting professorships including in Amsterdam, Santiago, and Shanghai and consulted on six continents.  Shore offers executive education seminars and facilitates strategic planning and guided implementation retreats.  He has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses and workshops across multiple industries.

Previously, Shore spent two decades at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he served as associate dean.  He founded and directed the School's flagship programs:  Forces of Change; The Trust Initiative; and the Certificate Program on Launching and Leading Successful Change Initiatives.

He has served on and chaired numerous boards and committees, and currently is a founding member of McKinsey & Company's External Implementation Advisory Board which has a primary focus on operationalizing strategy for transformational change.   He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Marshfield Clinic Health System, as well as several editorial boards.  Among his honors is the Doctorate Fellow from the Academy of Multi-Skills (United Kingdom).  Along with innovation and change, Shore's body of work focuses on creating higher performing organizations including building and rebuilding trust; reimaging and reengineering meetings; and, strategic marketing and branding.

His most recent books include Launching and Leading Successful Change Initiatives in Health Care Organizations: (Jossey-Bass, 2014); Forces of Change:  New Strategies for the Evolving Health Care Marketplace (Jossey-Bass, 2012); and High Stakes:  The Critical Role of Stakeholders in Health Care, with E. Kupferberg (Oxford University Press, 2011).  He has also written a book on trust and edited a second.

Professor Shore has been recognized as a Top Thought Leader in Trust by Trust Across America – Trust Around the World.   He is also a multiple recipient of Harvard's Letter of Commendation for Distinguished Teaching Performance, including in 2017 and 2018; and was chosen to deliver a 2015 and 2016 Harvard Lecture That Lasts (Harvard's version of a TED Talk) and a TEDx Talk. 

Never known to simply :admire the problem," beyond intellectually stimulating, Shore provides executable advice, inspiring leaders and organizations to gain a unique and adaptable competitive advantage.

Bryan recently joined Adventist Health System as the Executive Director of Strategic Design. He believes that consumers deserve a health care partner that invests and embraces a culture of innovation to better the consumer experience. Bryan and the Design Center team are leveraging the design thinking methodologies of Empathy Research, Co-Creation, and Iterative Prototyping to unlock the organization’s most strategic challenges.

With over 15 years of design experience, Bryan has lead innovation for many of the world’s best consumer brands. He has impacted brands across multiple categories, partnering with companies such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Hospira/Pfizer, Bosch, and Motorola. The same design thinking methodology that led to over 30 patents is now being applied at Adventist Health System to transform the health care consumer experience.

Kate Sommerfeld is the president of the Social Determinants of Health Institute for ProMedica, a mission-driven, not-for-profit, health care system serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Kate is responsible for shaping ProMedica’s work in the social determinants of health, including clinical integration, medical education and training and strategic community initiatives. Prior to joining ProMedica, she worked for various community-based and nonprofit organizations including in the United Way system leading both rural and urban change. Kate has Bachelors of Arts degrees in political science and child psychology from Purdue University and a Master of Public Administration degree for Bowling Green State University.

Andrew Sorenson is a Senior Analytics Director at Intermountain Healthcare. This role includes accountability for the Corporate Decision Support, Operational Data Science, Population Health Analytics, and Strategic Analytics functions. Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in health care delivery science from Dartmouth College.

Charles W. Sorenson, MD, FACS, is President and CEO Emeritus of Intermountain Healthcare and the Founding Director of the Intermountain Healthcare Leadership Institute, a position he assumed in late 2016. Opening in October 2018, the Institute will offer a variety of leadership development courses, including a program designed for selected high potential health system leaders from the US and abroad. Staffed by a faculty of content experts from Intermountain and other distinguished health systems and academic institutions, this program will focus on principle-based decision making and leading at the critical juncture of clinical and administrative expertise.

Dr. Sorenson served as President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare from January 2009 until his retirement from this position in October 2016. Prior to that, he served for eleven years as Intermountain’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Dr. Sorenson, a graduate of the University of Utah (BA Biology) and Weill Cornell Medical College at Cornell University (MD), is a board-certified Urologic Surgeon and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He served as Chair of the Committee on Young Surgeons for the American College of Surgeons, as President of the Utah Urologic Society and as Speaker of the House of Delegates of the Utah Medical Association. He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah.

Dr. Sorenson has a long-standing interest in clinical process improvement and in the development of Intermountain’s integrated delivery system. He was the Founding Board Chair of the Intermountain Medical Group, an integrated practice now comprised of approximately 1,600 physicians and advanced practice clinicians employed by Intermountain.

Under Dr. Sorenson’s leadership as Chief Operating Officer and as Chief Executive Officer, Intermountain Healthcare implemented a disciplined and system-wide focus on best clinical and operational practices aimed at producing measurably better outcomes for patients at costs that are sustainable to the communities Intermountain serves.

In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Dr. Sorenson has continued to be involved in the practice of urologic surgery at the Intermountain Medical Center, with a primary focus on urologic oncology. Dr. Sorenson and his wife, Sharee, are the parents of four adult children.

Since joining Dignity Health in 2013, Dr. Gurmeet Sran has worked closely with leadership and IT staff to ensure proper deployment of EMRs, governance oversight, and ongoing innovation in the health IT space. Currently he is the Associate Enterprise Chief Medical Information Officer, overseeing a team of physicians and statisticians who are aggregating and analyzing clinical information across the organization to enable reduced variation of care, decreased cost, and improved outcomes. By leveraging machine learning techniques, text analytics, and “big data” computing architectures, his team has developed and implemented models to improve sepsis detection and help risk segment patient populations for ongoing interventions. Prior to Dignity Health, Dr. Sran completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics where he was active with members of the administration in trying to analyze and reduce expenditures in the hospital setting. In addition, he holds a Masters in Computational Biology from the University of Pennsylvania as well as a Bachelor’s of Science in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley.

Lisa is Managing Partner of Venture Valkyrie LLC, a consulting firm advising large corporations around corporate venture capital & innovation, new business creation and digital health strategy. Lisa is also co-founder of CSweetener, which matches women in and nearing the healthcare C-Suite with mentors. She is on faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Previously Lisa was Senior Managing Director at GE Ventures, leading the firm’s healthcare fund. Prior to that, Lisa spent 15 years as a Partner at Psilos Group, a venture capital firm, and 9 years at Merit Behavioral Care, an $800mm behavioral healthcare company where she held various leadership roles from its early start-up days through its successful IPO and exit.

Lisa is currently on several private company boards and chairs the board of the NASA -funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health.

Lisa writes the Venture Valkyrie blog and hosts the Tech Tonics podcast.

Lisa J. Sundean, PhD, MHA, RN is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Consultant for the Center to Champion Nursing in America, and former Director of the Connecticut Nursing Collaborative-Action Coalition. Her program of research and publications focus on healthcare governance effectiveness, organizational performance, the role of nurses on boards of directors and intersections with gender biases. She has expertise in health policy, health care quality and safety, health workforce data, and population health. She is frequently invited to speak about these topics of interest. She is an Associate Member of the New York Academy of Medicine, a Jonas Leadership Scholar, and a member of the Nurses on Boards Coalition. Lisa serves on several boards of directors including a hospital, a human services nonprofit organization, and a professional nursing association.

RE Sutton & Associates, a division of Brown & Brown of Indiana, LLC

As an independent broker/consultant, Richard works with a variety of small and large employers and specializes in working with school systems, libraries and other public employers. Richard is a graduate of Ball State University where he majored in Public Relations and Political Science. While at Ball State, Richard was active as President of his Fraternity and President of the Student Center Governing Board.

Prior to founding RE Sutton & Associates, LLC in July, 2001, Richard was a partner at the firm of D.B. Englehart & Associates. Before his consultant work, Richard worked ten years at Blue Cross/Blue Shield and The Acordia Companies, where he received numerous awards for new sales and service to existing clients.

RE Sutton & Associates was named as one of the Top 25 Largest Indianapolis-Area Independent Insurance Agencies/Brokerage firms by the Indianapolis Business Journal for five years. In 2008, RE Sutton & Associates merged with Brown & Brown of Indiana creating the Largest Indianapolis-Area Independent Insurance Agency in the Indianapolis area and the firm has remained at the top of that list.

Richard contributed to a book series “Inside the Minds: Employee Benefit Best Practices”. The book, written by leading executives across the country, is an authoritative perspective on key strategies for offering secure, affordable coverage, while continuing to attract, retain and award employees. Richard’s chapter is entitled: “A Transparent Effort for Servicing Clients in the Employee Benefits Industry.

Richard is a graduate of Leadership Hendricks County. Through that program he was instrumental in instituting the Summer Lunch Bunch for Kids in Brownsburg. This program brings lunch, activities and entertainment to the children of Brownsburg during the summer months. Richard serves on the advisory board for several insurance and health related corporations.

Richard was included in the 2011 Indianapolis Business Journal list “Who’s Who in Health Care and Benefits.” This list includes administrators, benefits experts, insurance executives, and doctors doing groundbreaking work, attorneys, CPAs and policymakers.

Ferris Taylor, Executive Director of the Health Care Executive Group (HCEG), has served on the board for 14 years. HCEG is a national network of select executives from across healthcare coming together to continually learn, grow, share and reshape the industry.

Taylor until recently was Chief Strategy and Chief Operating Officer at Arches Health Plan, a non-profit member-governed health insurance company that had been providing health plan options to 80,000 individual and group members throughout Utah. Unfortunately, Arches is one of the many CO-OPs who are being shut down by CMS and he is working as a consultant to wind down the Arches operations.

Taylor brings more than 40 years of business leadership including 30 years in health care, technology and consulting services to his executive roles. Prior to Arches, he founded Pragmatic Health Care Solutions, a health care strategy and market positioning firm. From 2003 to 2008, he was VP of Strategic Marketing and Payer Market Strategy for Ingenix (now Optum), one of the industry’s largest health information technology companies and part of UnitedHealth Group. Additionally, Taylor served 12 years as the head of Marketing and Information Services for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and 2 years as Vice President of Marketing and Planning for North Shore Medical Center, the six community hospital system of Partners Healthcare that includes Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals.

A graduate of Brigham Young University in Nuclear Physics with a minor in Spanish, Taylor holds an MBA with an emphasis in finance and quantitative economics. He is also a graduate of the GHAA/AHIP Executive Program in Managed Care from the University of Missouri.

Michael Thompson is the President and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance), an association of approximately 50 regional coalitions collectively supporting over 12,000 healthcare purchasers providing health coverage to more than 45 million Americans. The National Alliance helps to lead improvements in health, wellbeing and value for our companies and communities across the country.

Prior to joining the National Alliance, Mike was a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 20 years. Thompson is a nationally recognized thought leader for business health strategies and health system reform. He has worked with major employers and other stakeholders on sustainable cost reduction, integrated health, wellness and consumerism, retiree health, private health exchanges and health reform. Known for developing and promoting collaborative cross-sector health industry initiatives, Mike participated on the steering board of the World Economic Forum’s “Working towards Wellness” initiative and co-founded the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC). Prior to PwC, Mike served as an executive with diverse roles with Prudential Healthcare for over 17 years.

Mike is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, serving on the Health Practice Council, and chairs the Medicare Sub-Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA). He is also widely recognized as a leading national advocate for mental health and wellbeing and was Past President of the New York City chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI). Mike previously was an active member of the board of the Northeast Business Group on Health for 11 years.

Paul J. Tirjan, a seasoned and accomplished health care executive and entrepreneur, is president of AllSpire Health Partners and provides strategic leadership, start-up expertise and operational project oversight.

Prior to joining AllSpire Health Partners in August 2016, Tirjan served three years as vice president of ambulatory care at Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS), a Fortune 500 health services company located in King of Prussia, Pa. In his position at UHS, Tirjan was responsible for the overall ambulatory care strategy, development, growth and profitability for the hospital management company. UHS’ ambulatory portfolio under Tirjan’s direction included free-standing emergency departments, urgent care centers, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, radiation oncology, rehabilitation, wound care, retail pharmacy, home health, and telemedicine, as well as data, technology, infrastructure and programs to support population health management.

During his career, Tirjan has served in a variety of executive management positions with a diversified range of companies pioneering “state-of-the-art“ diagnostic cardiology and patient monitoring systems, and growing companies from small start-up operations to profitable publicly traded companies.

Immediately prior to UHS, Tirjan was chief executive officer at WirelessDx, where he launched a multinational diagnostic company from concept through acquisition. Previously, as vice president at CardioNet, he helped turn a $7 million revenue diagnostic service company into a $40 million revenue company ready for its IPO in just two years.

Earlier in his career he co-founded and led diversified healthcare provider Quaker Health Services as president for eight years and served as director of Venture Investments at San Francisco based life-science venture capital fund Burrill & Company.

Tirjan earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Brooke manages Cigna's collaborative strategy to improve the health of our under-represented and under-resourced customers and communities. Her responsibilities include raising awareness, leveraging data science to identify health disparities, and developing leadership and organizational capacity to close gaps in health care and health outcomes. Examples of projects she has led include: an initiative to reduce the gender disparity in cardiovascular disease management; interventions to eliminate disparities in breast and colorectal cancer screening for African-Americans and Hispanics; and the inclusion of a health equity metric in our value-based reimbursement contracts for hospitals. She has recently expanded her role to include leading an enterprise wide strategy to address social determinants of health as a means for driving more equitable care in local communities.

Prior to Cigna, Brooke worked for several commercial health plans that administer Medicaid and Medicare in the area of health education and cultural and linguistic services. She has extensive experience in research, quality management, program design and evaluation.

Ms. Tomblin received her Master in Public Health degree from Boston University, Boston, MA. She lives in Southern California.

Julie Eliopoulos Tsirambidis is the Director of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at Akron Children's Hospital, where she oversees nearly 350 APRN and PA providers in a hybridized employment model. Dr. Tsirambidis works closely with both the medical staff and nursing leadership to promote APP practice. She holds active medical staff membership and privileges with voting rights and is a voting member of the medical executive committee, credentials committee, and the medical staff Bylaw’s committee. She splits her director role at the organization with clinical practice, where she continues to practice in the pediatric primary care practice setting at Akron Children’s Hospital Pediatrics of Brecksville. She has been a practicing nurse practitioner for 18 years spending over half of that in primary care medicine, and has an extensive history practicing as an internal medicine/family practice hospitalist and in the Cardiothoracic Surgery setting. She continues to moonlight as an internal medicine hospitalist for a neighboring hospital system, Summa Health System. Dr. Tsirambidis has recently received several leadership recognitions, including a 2018 nomination for leadership as a nurse executive in Ohio, the 2017 Sigma Theta Tau Excellence in Nursing Leadership, & the outstanding nurse leader at Akron Children’s. She authored an article in 2015 on the development of a professional advancement model for advanced practice which was published in the NP Perspective in March 2015. She has given a TedX talk for women and was named Ohio’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner of the year in 2012. In 2014, she was given the distinction for The Greek American Foundation’s “40 Under 40” award and received national recognition for outstanding contributions to her community in a chosen profession for the development of a Nurse Practitioner program in Haiti. In 2016, she co-founded the APP executive forum with Children’s Hospital Association (CHA). Dr. Tsirambidis received her Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Kent State University. She completed a dual Master’s of Science track with pediatric and family practice concentrations from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and her undergraduate training was completed at Kent State University Honors College. Julie spends her free time being a soccer mom, and immersing her family in their Greek ethnic heritage. She is the Greek folk dance director for her parish community, and is actively involved in the Greek school program regionally. She enjoys spending summers in Greece with her husband and 4 children, where they maintain their ancestral home.

Martin VanTrieste brings over 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry – focusing on manufacturing and quality. He was ranked #2 on the 2018 Medicine Maker Power List of Industry Influencers.

Martin VanTrieste was the Chairman of the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) Board of Directors. The PDA represents over 10,000 members, and is the leading global facilitator of scientifically sound, practical technical information, quality systems and expertise to advance Pharmaceutical / biopharmaceutical manufacturing science and regulation so members can better serve patients. He recently retired as the senior vice president of quality at Amgen. He was responsible for quality assurance, quality control, compliance, operational excellence, environment, health and safety along with training at Amgen.

Prior to joining Amgen, VanTrieste was with Bayer Healthcare’s Biological Products Division as vice president of worldwide quality and Abbott Laboratories as the vice president of quality assurance for the Hospital Products Division. While at Abbott, VanTrieste held various positions in Quality, Operations, and Research and Development. He started his career at Abbott in 1983 after obtaining his Pharmacy degree from Temple University School of Pharmacy.

He is the founder of Rx-360 and first Chairman of the Board of Directors. Rx-360 is a nonprofit international supply chain organization that enhances patient safety by increasing the security and quality in the biopharmaceutical supply chain.

VanTrieste has been actively involved with various professional and trade organizations, including, United States Pharmacopeia (USP), Pharmaceutical Quality Research Institute (PQRI), Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America (PhRMA), and AdvaMed

PharmaVoice in 2012 named VanTrieste as one of the 100 most inspiring people in the pharmaceutical industry, calling him “a man with a mission”. The Medicine Maker in 2016, 2017 and 2018 named him one of the most influential people in the world of drug development and manufacture saying, “he is known throughout industry for his work on advancing quality assurance and helping to ensure a more reliable supply of high-quality medicines.”

Matt Wallaert is a behavioral scientist working at the intersection of technology and human behavior, designing products and programs that help people live happier, healthier lives and teaching others to do the same. An advocate for behavior change as the outcome of everything, he has a checkered past: academia, building and selling two successful startups, Microsoft's first behavioral scientist, director at Microsoft Ventures. He is currently the industry's first Chief Behavioral Officer at Clover Health, an insurance company focused on health outcomes. Wallaert sits on the board of a variety of startups and non-profits, prioritizes underrepresented founders and audiences, and continues to build side products like GetRaised.com, which has helped underpaid women ask for and earn over $2.3B in salary increases. And more important than all of that, he's a proud dad to a son named Bear.

Dr. Alan Warren is the CTO and SVP of Engineering for Oscar Health, the high-tech NY startup aiming to transform the healthcare industry. Prior to Oscar, Alan was Engineering VP in Google’s NY office and led efforts there spanning desktop and mobile search, AdWords, and Developer API's and tools, as well as starting products such as Google Finance, Blog Search and Google Health. While there, he also founded and led Google's collaborative applications area, including Google Drive and the Docs, Sheets and Slides suite. Before joining Google he co-founded and was CTO for the technology and engineering side of Juice Software, an enterprise software startup also in New York City. Prior to Juice, Alan spent 3 years as Chief Architect of Hyperion Solutions, two years in IBM's Software Solutions Division, and ten years in T.J. Watson Research. His early research spanned materials and device physics, computational physics and modeling, and circuit design. Since shifting to software and computer science full-time, Alan has been drawn to graphics and visualization, component-based architectures and systems design, and most recently, the collaboration and productivity applications space.

Alan majored in Physics and Math at Georgia Tech (’78) and received his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from MIT (’85).

Dr. Vindell Washington joined Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana in 2017 as chief medical officer. Previously he served as national coordinator for Health Information Technology in the US Department of Health and Human Services. He was responsible for the coordination of nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information.

Prior to that, Washington was at the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System in Baton Rouge for more than seven years, leaving as president of the medical group, which includes more than 500 medical providers and 1,400 employees. While at the health system, he also served as vice president of performance excellence and technology and chief medical information officer.

Washington is a board-certified emergency medicine physician. Before coming to Baton Rouge, he served as chief executive officer of Piedmont Emergency Medicine Associates, a large private group in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He received his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He also received a Master of Science degree in healthcare management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Vickie White had a dream. When she grew up, she wanted to sing and dance at Disney World. She imagined performing for big crowds and singing her heart out.

That is, until she realized that she had no talent to dance and no talent to sing. No, it turned out Vickie was actually destined for a career in healthcare.

Vickie White is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Innovation for Adventist Health System, soon to be AdventHealth. Adventist Health System is one of the nation’s largest faith-based health care systems, with nearly 50 hospital campuses and more than 80,000 employees. Vickie is responsible for the development and execution of AdventHealth’s brand strategy, as well as all aspects of marketing including digital engagement, strategic marketing, creative design and customer acquisition. In addition, she provides executive direction for the organization’s innovation strategy aimed at transforming the healthcare consumers’ experience. She has had the opportunity to successfully build and lead teams in business development, strategic planning, hospital operations, strategic partnering, innovation and marketing throughout her career in healthcare.

Yes, Vickie White has learned that a career performing at Disney is not in her future. She has decided to leave that work to the other Ms. White. Snow White that is.

Mary L. Wilson, MD, serves as the executive medical director of The Southeast Permanente Medical Group (TSPMG).

TSPMG is one of Georgia’s largest multi-specialty medical groups, with more than 600 clinicians caring for nearly 310,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the state. Services are delivered through a network of 26 medical offices and specialty centers, as well as at four contracted hospitals — Piedmont Hospital, Northside Hospital, Gwinnett Medical Center, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dr. Wilson, a pediatrician, received her bachelor’s degree from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., and her medical degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego and a fellowship in Ambulatory Pediatrics at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). She also holds a Master’s of Public Health from ULCA. Dr. Wilson is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Prior to her role in Georgia, she served as area medical director for the Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center in the east San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. In that position, she led 400 physicians and 3,000 employees in the care of 215,000 members at a 230-bed hospital, four other medical offices, and a mental health center. She has held several other leadership roles, including assistant medical director for Patient Care Experience, where she designed and implemented a strategy to help more than 5,000 physicians improve the care experience for over 3.5 million patients.

Dr. Wilson is active in the community, having served with non-profits that work with victims of domestic violence and on overseas medical mission trips. She promotes an active lifestyle and sets an example for her patients through travel, running, and competing in triathlons.

Lisa Woods serves as Senior Director of U.S. Health Care Benefits for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Woods oversees concepts of designing plan options and ensuring proper administration for a wide variety of plans and programs for about 1.2 million associates and their families. Currently, she plays an integral part in managing and designing health care benefits for all Medical, Pharmacy, Dental, and Vision Plans and includes the management of innovation initiatives.

Lisa led the effort with her team to design and implement the Centers of Excellence program for spine, joint replacements, and cancer with leading quality health systems. Lisa has also worked on developing narrow network plans including direct contracting with ACO’s.

In addition, Lisa serves on several Committees and Boards including several affiliated with National Business Group on Health (NBGH), Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR), and the Council of Employee Benefits

Jean oversees the strategic direction and business operations for Tufts Health Public Plans, Tufts Health Plan's managed Medicaid and state-sponsored plans division, which operates in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

With more than 15 years in health care, including provider, insurer and Exchange marketplace experience, Jean’s background gives her deep knowledge of the health insurance industry and its complexities. Prior to joining Tufts Health Plan, Jean served as the executive director of the Children’s Hospital Integrated Care Organization, a group representing Children’s Hospital Boston and its affiliated physicians. She is also a past executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, after initially serving as its chief financial officer. Jean began her work in health insurance at Tufts Health Plan in 2004, where she served on the contracting, strategy and analytics team.

Jean has served on the boards of the Health Policy Commission and Group Insurance Commission. She earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Peking University in Beijing, China and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.