Speakers

Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH
add_circle_outline

Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH

Dean
Sandro Galea is Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. He has been named an epidemiology innovator by Time, a top voice in healthcare by LinkedIn, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world. His writing and work are featured regularly in national and global public media. A native of Malta, he has served as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders and has held academic positions at Columbia University, University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Rich Bluni, RN
add_circle_outline

Rich Bluni, RN

National Speaker, Coach
Rich Bluni is an international speaker and best-selling author of several award winning books. Rich has more than 27 years of front-line healthcare and leadership experience across a broad range of areas, including pediatric intensive care, trauma intensive care, flight nursing, behavioral health and emergency medicine.
Elizabeth Adetoro, MPH
add_circle_outline

Elizabeth Adetoro, MPH

Research Manager
Ms. Adetoro joined AllianceChicago in 2014 and serves as a manager for multiple research projects. She works with health centers and academic institutions, as well as local and federal agencies, on research that aims to improve care for health center patients. Prior to joining AllianceChicago, Ms. Adetoro worked as a research assistant on various studies, including the Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-Tank (ADOPT), an initiative which supported organizations that provide services to Asian Americans with disabilities in the greater Chicago area to increase their access to the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation Services. In addition, she has assisted in research projects focused on childhood obesity, ADHD in elementary school-aged children, urban agriculture, and improving access to fruits and vegetables in underserved areas. Ms. Adetoro is a graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Jeff Allen, CPA
add_circle_outline

Jeff Allen, CPA

Partner
Jeff Allen is a partner with BKD National Health Care Group. He is the leader of the firmwide Center of Excellence for Community Health Centers to approximately 300 CHCs. He manages audit and cost report preparation and provides consulting services in the areas of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, federal grant reporting and operational issues. He serves as a resource to state primary care organizations and programs on Medicaid prospective payment system issues and the cost report submission and settlement process specific to state Medicaid programs. Allen also provides training to individual health center management teams and boards of directors on financial management issues.
add_circle_outline

Luis Belén

Chief Executive Officer
Sofi Bergkvist
add_circle_outline

Sofi Bergkvist

President

Sofi is the president of the Center for Care Innovation (CCI) where she is in charge of building critical partnerships and guiding the organization’s overall strategy.

Prior to CCI, Sofi co-founded ACCESS Health International, a think tank, advisory group, and implementation partner with a founding vision that everyone, everywhere in the world, has the right to access high quality and affordable health care. She started the organization in India, served as the Executive Director and grew the organization to more than 70 people and offices across the largest cities in Asia. Today, ACCESS Health is a leading think tank for health system transformation in Asia and a trusted partner to many governments for work on health care reform. Sofi has also co-founded and built several international partnerships including the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage, a network of policy makers across more than 30 member countries working to improve coverage, quality, and financing of health care.

Sofi received a master’s degree in economics and business administration from Stockholm School of Economics. When not working or playing with her two kids, you find her climbing mountains, skiing, or training for a triathlon.

Brian Bobo
add_circle_outline

Brian Bobo

Chief Information Officer & Chief Information Security Officer
Ingrid Brauer
add_circle_outline

Ingrid Brauer

Senior Consultant II

Ingrid is a member of BKD’s Health Care Performance Advisory Services division.  She has more than five years of experience delivering compliance support, carrying out audit procedures, and navigating cost-savings opportunities for health care organizations. 

She has extensive experience with the 340B Drug Pricing Program, including helping clients to assess, strengthen and expand program networks, improving pharmacy utilization, 340B vendor analysis, and navigating eligibility criteria.  She has experience with using data analytics tools to demonstrate needs and trends.

Prior to joining BKD, Ingrid promoted compliance and trended data on pharmacy and laboratory outcomes for one of the largest nonprofit community health centers in Illinois.  She also worked with an international pharmacy and wellness chain maintaining 340B inventory.  She has project management experience automating safeguards for opioid prescribing practices and pain management policies.  She also has worked within the specialty drug supply chain to increase patient access and client reimbursement.

She is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and a mentorship organizer for Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Ingrid is a graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. degree.

Paula Campbell
add_circle_outline

Paula Campbell

Director of Health Equity + Emergency Preparedness Response

Paula has been with IPHCA since 2014. Prior to joining our team, she served as Coordinator of Public Health Education and Community Development with Macoupin County Public Health Department for 16 years. Paula’s career in public health included working with public health issues like HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, substance use and prevention, emergency preparedness, and much more. Paula has always worked toward identifying ways to reach vulnerable populations with the goal of reducing their disparities in access to services and health care.

Paula made a commitment to her community and the greater community when she chose a path in public health. She was raised in a rural community, and still resides there. Paula has seen firsthand what the lack of access to good healthcare means to a community, family, and person.

Paula is a graduate of Illinois State University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Health.

Outside of the office, Paula enjoys spending time with her family—including her four children, coaching youth sports such as basketball and soccer, supporting community programs such as PTO, Post Prom and church committees. Paula is also the founder of Macoupin Montgomery Addiction and Behavioral Coalition.

Olveen Carrasquillo MD, MPH
add_circle_outline

Olveen Carrasquillo MD, MPH

Chief, Division of General Medicine
Dr. Carrasquillo is national expert in minority health, health disparities, community based participatory research, access to care and community health worker interventions. He has over twenty years of experience leading large NIH Center grants and randomized trials, totaling over $40 million in funding. His work includes research in cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, HIV, and most recently in precision medicine.
Margaret Castrovillari Image
add_circle_outline

Margaret S. Castrovillari, CPA, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Castrovillari is an accounting and finance professional with over 30 years of progressive financial reporting and management consulting experience. She joined AllianceChicago in 2014 and plays a strategic role in the overall management of the company. In her role as CFO, Ms. Castrovillari has direct responsibility for the financial, accounting, and administrative affairs of the company. She oversees day-to-day accounting, finance, treasury, human resource, budgeting/forecasting, legal and contract negotiations, Member/Partnership relationships, and corporate and governance compliance issues.

Prior to joining AllianceChicago, Ms. Castrovillari worked with senior management and outside consultants in implementing and administering some of the largest debt-restructuring, bankruptcy and merger deals in the real estate and financial services industries. In 2000, she started her own financial and management consultant business providing temporary staffing services to corporate, investment banking, financial services and non-profit organizations. She also co-owned and operated a wellness center that provided holistic fitness and spa services from 2005 to 2013.

Ms. Castrovillari has a BS in Accounting from the University of New Orleans and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business with concentrations in Analytic Finance, Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship. She is a serial entrepreneur that enjoys the diversity and challenge of creating and growing businesses with socially-redeemable values.

Monica Christmas, MD, FACOG, NCMP
add_circle_outline

Monica Christmas, MD, FACOG, NCMP

Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Monica Christmas, M.D., FACOG, NCMP is an Assistant Professor in the section of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery at the University of Chicago with several years of community-based clinical experience managing a diverse population of menopausal and post-menopausal women. She is the director of the Menopause Program and the Center for Integrated Women’s Health at UChicago Medicine and is a NAMS (North American Menopause Society) Certified Menopause Practitioner. In 2020 she chaired the NAMS Education Committee and recently was appointed to the NAMS Board of Trustees. She is a tireless advocate and pioneer championing the need to better understand unanswered questions about the optimal management of menopause in African American women. She was invited to serve with other experts in menopause on the International COMMA (Core OutCoMes in MenopAuse) Steering Committee and published a systematic review of outcome reporting and measurement tools in clinical trials of treatment for genitourinary symptoms in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Her work informed the COMMA Steering Committee in development of a core outcome.
Katherine Chung-Bridges, MD, MPH
add_circle_outline

Katherine Chung-Bridges, MD, MPH

Director of Research
Dr. Katherine Chung-Bridges is Director of Research at Health Choice Network. She is a Board Certified Family Physician and Health Disparities Researcher. She earned her undergraduate degree in History and Science from Harvard University, her MD from UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and completed her residency in Family Medicine at Montefiore’s Residency Program in Social Medicine. Dr. Chung-Bridges has a master’s in public health from UMDNJ-School of Public Health, which she earned while completing a National Research Service Award Fellowship in Primary Care/Health Services Research at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She has held faculty appointments at the Rutgers School of Public Health, University of Miami, and Florida International University. Dr. Chung-Bridges has previously worked in an HCN community health center, and she is committed to increasing health equity and eliminating health disparities through research.
Chris Clune
add_circle_outline

Chris Clune

Director, Provider Advisory Services
Chris Clune has worked for KLAS for the past 6 years, spending the first 4 years working with vendor executives to help them improve their software offering. In his current role in the Arch Collaborative, he leads KLAS’ provider advisory services where he leads engagements to help organizations make decisions regarding HIT.
David Cohen Image
add_circle_outline

David Cohen

Chief Product and Technology Officer

David Cohen is passionate about technology solutions that help practices thrive. He has more than 20 years of enterprise information technology leadership experience, with the most recent 15 years focused on healthcare. Service is core to David’s philosophy. He is committed to serving as a trusted partner to customers and helping them address the healthcare needs of their patients and communities.

Desmond_Creary
add_circle_outline

Desmond Creary

Health Business Leader of the Americas
As the Americas Health Lead on the Worldwide Healthcare team, Des develops industry points of view and go-to-market strategies to best position Microsoft’s Healthcare business for growth and future opportunities. In addition, he drives transformational change and industry revenue in partnership with the executional functions of the business. In fostering relationships with partner organizations and senior executives within provider groups, payors and pharma/life science companies, Des helps to position Microsoft as the enabling and empowering technology partner in healthcare. Prior to joining Microsoft, Des spent 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline where he held several roles in executive leadership including VP of Sales for the diabetes and respiratory franchises respectively in the US. In addition, Des joined the Office of the CEO as a member of the Future Strategies Group where he co-designed a new operating model for the Sub-Saharan Africa business. The new model included significant advancements to supply chain, R&D, manufacturing, commercial operations and the creation of Legal Operating Companies. This work became a cornerstone of the overall pharma strategy in a region tabbed as a must win market by 2025.

Des’ personal passions include volunteering for social causes such as childhood hunger, social and racial equality as well as the mentorship of young adults. His professional passion continues to be centered on making an impact on patient lives. As a coach, Des enjoys seeing others be successful and reach their personal and professional goals.

In addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Southern University, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix, Des has also earned an executive leadership certification from Stanford University.
Fernando DeMaio, PhD
add_circle_outline

Fernando DeMaio, PhD

Director, Health Equity Research and Data Use
Fernando De Maio, PhD, is Director of Research and Data Use at the American Medical Association’s Center for Health Equity, and a Professor of Sociology at DePaul University, where he teaches data analysis in the MPH program. His research and teaching interests lie primarily within medical sociology and social epidemiology, with a focus on the concept of structural violence. His work has been guided by the notion of 'radical statistics' – the idea that statistical analysis can be used to not just describe the world, but to change it. He is the author of Health & Social Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and Global Health Inequities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and co-editor of Latin American Perspectives on the Sociology of Health and Illness (Routledge, 2018), Community Health Equity: A Chicago Reader (University of Chicago Press, 2019), and most recently, Unequal Cities: Structural Racism and the Death Gap in America’s Largest Cities (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021). He is a founding co-director of the DePaul – Rush Center for Community Health Equity and currently serves as a commissioner on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems.
Chad
add_circle_outline

Chad Dodd

Vice President, Product Management

As Vice President of Product Management, Chad is responsible for product strategy while overseeing the company’s global product organization for athenaClinicals, athenaPractice and athenaFlow. He plays a critical role in continuing the company’s path of innovation and commitment to providing customer-centric solutions.

Chad is passionate about developing products and technology that can shape the future of healthcare and improve lives. For over 20 years, he has been responsible for bringing into focus the needs of providers, stakeholders and patients to drive development and commercialization of a wide range of healthcare products. Prior to joining athenahealth, Chad has held a variety of strategy, market development and product development roles in healthcare focused companies.

Chad earned a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from The Pennsylvania State University and he earned his MBA in Marketing and Finance from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management. Chad is married, has 3 children and is based in Seattle, Washington.

Warria Esmond, MD
add_circle_outline

Warria Esmond, MD

Chief Clinical Officer
Dr. Esmond serves as the Chief Clinical Officer of AllianceChicago. In this role, Dr. Esmond coordinates and promotes clinical leadership, advancing quality health outcomes through guidance and leadership on the optimal implementation and use of Health Information Technology. She employs a collaborative leadership approach that empowers clinicians and health centers to address challenges, promote best practices, and create clinical initiatives that result in practice transformation, quality improvement and clinical collaboration. Prior to this role, Dr. Esmond served as AllianceChicago’s Chief Medical Informatics Officer. She worked closely with the AllianceChicago Informatics Team to conceptualize workflows in conjunction with clinical and operational end-user feedback to design EHRS clinical and administrative content that aligns with evidence while adhering to best practices for user experience. Dr. Esmond also serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Settlement Health. Settlement Health is a community health center whose mission is to provide East Harlem and neighboring communities with high quality, patient centered, culturally sensitive and accessible primary healthcare and related services, regardless of ability to pay. Dr. Esmond is Chair of the New York Primary Care Association’s Clinician Committee (CHCANYS). In her collaborative work with CHCANYS, AC, HCN, and additional stakeholder groups, she works extensively with health centers around the country on issues such as joy in practice and workforce retention. She has a clinical background in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Mariel Fonteyn
add_circle_outline

Mariel Fonteyn

Associate Director of Emergency Preparedness
Mariel Fonteyn is the Associate Director of Preparedness for Americares – a nonprofit focused on ensuring access to quality medical care for those living in poverty or impacted by disasters. She has been involved in numerous disaster response activities since 2005 and has worked in disaster preparedness and response for the State of Alaska, Red Cross, and All Hands and Hearts Volunteers before joining Americares in 2018. She has a Master’s degree from the Brussels School of International Studies and a Bachelor’s from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Marielle_Fricchione
add_circle_outline

Marielle Fricchione, MD

Medical Director, Immunizations Program
Marielle J. Fricchione, MD, FAAP, is the Medical Director of the Immunization program for the Chicago Department of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL. She is a board certified pediatrician who completed her training in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. She earned her medical degree at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, completed her Pediatrics residency at Rush University Medical Center and is an active member of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In her current role, she seeks to strengthen relationships with local providers in order to decrease vaccine-preventable diseases in our communities.
Rosalyn Frazier
add_circle_outline

Rosalyn Frazier

Health Choice Network, Inc. Board Chair
Rosalyn Crawford Frazier, B.S. is the Chief Executive Officer of Broward Community & Family Health Centers, Inc. located in Pompano Beach, Hollywood West Park and Lauderhill, Florida. She received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from DePaul University (Chicago, Illinois) in 1983, a certification in Financial Management and Executive Development from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1990 and a certification in Health Care Executive Management from the University of California/Los Angeles in 2010. She is an adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University for its Master of Public Health Program.
Anna Gard
add_circle_outline

Anna Gard, RN, FNP-BC

Health IT and Quality Consultant
Dr. Jonathan Gates
add_circle_outline

Dr. Jonathan Gates

CMO for Accountable Care
Dr. Jonathan Gates is the CMO for Accountable Care at Providence Community Health Centers with 60,000 patients in addition to serving as the CMO for the Health Choice Care Medicare ACO. He has a passion for systems design, human factors inspired lean engineering, and clinical decision support cultivated while engaging physicians in deploying EpicCare Ambulatory for another Medicare/Medicaid ACO in Rhode Island, and maintaining Cerner Millenium and Greenway Intergy. “Population health analytics expand the abilities of providers and patients to make great decisions, and for organizations to dramatically improve health equity through data-driven processes.”
Rayid Ghani, MS
add_circle_outline

Rayid Ghani, MS

Distinguished Career Professor
Rayid Ghani is a Distinguished Career Professor in the Machine Learning Department and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Rayid is a reformed computer scientist and wanna-be social scientist, but mostly just wants to increase the use of large-scale AI/Machine Learning/Data Science in solving large public policy and social challenges in a fair and equitable manner. Among other areas, Rayid works with governments and non-profits in policy areas such as health, criminal justice, education, public safety, economic development, and urban infrastructure. Rayid is also passionate about teaching practical data science and started the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship that trains computer scientists, statisticians, and social scientists from around the world to work on data science problems with social impact. Before joining Carnegie Mellon University, Rayid was the Founding Director of the Center for Data Science & Public Policy, Research Associate Professor in Computer Science, and a Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Previously, Rayid was the Chief Scientist of the Obama 2012 Election Campaign where he focused on data, analytics, and technology to target and influence voters, donors, and volunteers. In his ample free time, Rayid obsesses over everything related to coffee and works with non-profits to help them with their data, analytics and digital efforts and strategy.
Ben Glisan
add_circle_outline

Ben Glisan

Chief Financial Officer

Ben Glisan has served as Legacy’s Chief Financial Officer since 2011. During this time he has provided leadership and supervision of all Legacy’s financial activities. This includes the opening of numerous new Legacy clinics, the introduction of new services such as Pharmacy, Endocrinology, Geriatrics and Sports Medicine, and the expansion of School Based Health Care – all of which have helped increase access to care in the communities Legacy serves.

Glisan earned both a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Texas. He has over 30 years of finance, banking, and executive leadership experience.

Prior to joining Legacy, Glisan worked as the Managing Director and Owner of Pinyon Advisors, which specialized in assisting small- and medium-sized companies gain scale. Separately, Glisan was a partner in ventures that focused on acquisition and management of distressed debt, development of hospitality and multi-family real estate projects, supervision of construction of owned properties, and financial consulting in the greater Houston, Texas area. Glisan also served five years as a managing director and treasurer in the oil and gas industry. In his role, he supervised 120 financial professionals and oversaw all global debt issuance as well as daily cash management. Prior to his career in oil and gas, Glisan served as a Manager at Arthur Andersen and Coopers and Lybrand, and as Assistant Vice President at Bank One.

Lisa Greene, D.O., M.P.H.
add_circle_outline

Lisa Greene, D.O., M.P.H.

CEO

Lisa Green, D.O., M.P.H. is the CEO and a co-founder of Family Christian Health Center and has been a physician at the health center since it opened its doors in 2000. As FCHC’s CEO, Dr. Green has more than 16 years of experience practicing family medicine and providing leadership as a physician and executive. Prior to assuming the role as CEO, Dr. Green served as FCHC’s Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Green received her M.P.H. in health, policy and administration from the University of Illinois, College of Medicine in 1995 and her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa in 1991. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice. Dr. Green received the Crain’s Chicago Business Healthcare Hero 2020 Award for her outstanding work with Black Maternal Health and addressing food insecurity within low-income communities. Her current professional affiliations include member of Institute of Medicine of Chicago (IOMC), Board Director for Ingalls Provider Group., voluntary faculty for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Associate Faculty for the University of Illinois, Nurse Practitioner Program, ECHO advisory board member, U of Chicago and a member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

Andrew Hamilton, RN, BSN, MS
add_circle_outline

Andrew Hamilton, RN, BSN, MS

Chief Informatics Officer
Mr. Hamilton is a master’s prepared Nurse Informaticist with 17 years of experience in both in-patient nursing care and outpatient community health as well as nursing administration. As the Chief Informatics Officer, Mr. Hamilton is responsible for developing clinical decision support and National Clinical Performance Measures and integrating them in to electronic health records.  He is leading the organization’s efforts related to developing Health IT support for Meaningful Use, Patient Centered Medical Homes, and Care Coordination. Recently, Mr. Hamilton launched, designed, and led the development of an innovative Enterprise Data Warehouse program to support quality reporting, research, and care coordination. Prior to working for AllianceChicago, Mr. Hamilton was a Pediatric Critical Care nurse and a member of a large academic hospital Health IT team supporting the implementation of clinical information systems. He has also served as the Director of Patient Care Services for Howard Brown Health, a FQHC. Mr. Hamilton is the Past President of the Board of the Centricity Healthcare User Group (CHUG) and is also a member of several local, state, and national working groups related to Health IT and performance measurement. In addition, he is as an adjunct faculty at Loyola University School of Nursing and the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Nursing. Mr. Hamilton holds a BS in Nursing and MS in Nursing Business and Health Systems Administration with a focus on Nursing Informatics from the University of Michigan School of Nursing. Mr. Hamilton is a Fellow of the third class of the Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Jill Herbold, FSA, MAAA
add_circle_outline

Jill Herbold, FSA, MAAA

Consulting Actuary

Jill Herbold is a principal and consulting actuary with Milliman, one of the world’s largest providers of health care actuarial and consulting services.  Since joining the firm in 2009, she has provided actuarial consulting services to commercial and Medicaid health plans, self-funded groups, Medicaid state agencies, and provider organizations. Prior to joining Milliman, Ms. Herbold worked for CIGNA for 16 years, where she gained experience with commercial pricing, financial projections, acquisitions, and provider reimbursement analysis and strategy.

Ms. Herbold’s experience includes developing premium rates, benefit plan design, provider contract evaluations, reserving, financial reporting, traditional and innovative uses of risk scores, and multi-year financial projections.  Since 2011, she has been involved with a variety of opportunities supporting provider payment reform and alternative payment models, such as reimbursement benchmarking, provider performance analysis, assessing health care expenditure savings opportunities, financial projections and evaluations, and shared savings/risk program design. Ms. Herbold has leveraged her diverse experience base in support of state Medicaid agencies over the last four years. She has a focus on populations receiving long term services and supports (LTSS), implementing innovative risk adjustment and managed care efficiencies into capitation rates and supporting 1915(c) waivers.

Cheryl L. Holder, MD
add_circle_outline

Cheryl L. Holder, MD

Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Community Initiatives; Associate Professor

Dr. Cheryl L. Holder, Fellow in the American College of Physicians, has dedicated her medical career to serving underserved populations.

She has served as a National Health Service Corp Scholar, Medical Director of one of Miami’s largest community health centers, and participated in NIH and CDC health advisory and programmatic review panels.

Since 2009, as faculty at Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, she focuses on teaching the impact of social determinants of health on health outcomes, addressing diversity in health professions through pipeline programs, increasing awareness of HIV prevention and health impact of climate change. In August 2021,  she was named Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity and Community Engagement.

Dr. Holder also serves in leadership roles in several other medical and climate change-focused organizations. Most recently, TED Talk selected her 2020 “The link between climate change, health and poverty” as one of 25, Editor’s Pick.

Chad Jones
add_circle_outline

Chad Jones

Chief Strategy Officer
Chad Jones has more than 25 years’ experience running small and large scale organizations in almost every dimension of business. His unique vision takes big ideas from inception through execution resulting in highly profitable outcomes including exits to companies such as Microsoft, VMware, Google, and Intel. As Chief Strategy Officer and Board Advisor at Orb Health, he oversees corporate strategy and go-to-market, efforts for the industry leading Enterprise Virtual Care solution that is transforming healthcare.
Jay Kaplan, MD
add_circle_outline

Jay Kaplan, MD

Medical Director of Care Transformation

Dr. Kaplan is Medical Director of Care Transformation for LCMC Health in New Orleans, LA. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Emergency Medicine, LSU Health Sciences Center, and an attending emergency physician and academic faculty for the Emergency Medicine Residency at University Medical Center New Orleans. Dr. Kaplan is a past President of the American College of Emergency Physicians and current national faculty for ACEP, as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. Dr. Kaplan is a past Medical Director of Studer Group and past Director of Service and Operational Excellence for CEP America. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, he was named ACEP’s Outstanding Speaker of the Year in 2003, and in 2007 Studer Group honored him with their Physician Fire Starter Award. Other honors include the Grace Humanitarian Award of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine (2011) and the University of Maryland Department of Emergency Medicine Outstanding Leadership in Emergency Medicine award (2014).

Dr. Kaplan served as Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine (1985-2001) and as a Medical Staff Officer including Chief of Staff (1992-2001) at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ. As Chairman of Emergency Services for his health system (1998-2001), he led his system’s emergency departments to the 98th percentile in patient satisfaction and his own emergency department was in the > 90th percentile for 6 years in a row (1996-2001). As an international speaker and facilitator, Dr. Kaplan has presented to and coached hospital and physician leaders, medical groups, emergency departments, and individual physicians for more than 25 years. His approach remains tactical and directed toward improved outcomes, emphasizing the importance of teamwork.

Dr. Kaplan continues to practice clinically because he loves the clinical practice of medicine and caring for patients helps him remain close to the patients’, the hospital staff’s, and the physicians’ current experience.

Joycelyn Lawrence
add_circle_outline

Joycelyn Lawrence

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Joycelyn Lawrence has served as JTCHS’ Chief Medical Officer since 2016.  She has a wealth of clinical and administrative knowledge as well as a comprehensive understanding of the needs of this community – her community.  Dr. Lawrence is a Board Certified, Family Practice Physician, an educator, and an accomplished administrator and researcher.  She grew up in Liberty City and attended Miami Northwestern Senior High School; she continued her education as a pre-med student at Spelman College in Atlanta and completed Medical School at the University Of Arizona School Of Medicine.  Dr. Lawrence returned home to complete her residency in Family Medicine at the University Miami/ Jackson Hospital. She continued her studies and preparation of her life’s work as an educator by attending University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a fellow in Faculty Development Programs.

Dr. Lawrence is devoted to serving underserved communities who are faced with adverse social determinants. She has held a variety of leadership positions at the University of Miami, Department of Family Medicine and Office of Community Affairs.  Prior to joining the JTCHS family, she was the Medical Director of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation School of Health Initiatives, provided hands on leadership to the Jefferson Reaves Family Health Center, as well as being the preceptor for University of Miami Family Medicine Residents. Dr. Lawrence continues to be involved in research on health issues pertinent to the community she serves. In addition to overseeing all clinical providers at JTCHS, Dr. Lawrence is intimately involved with Behavioral/Mental Health for direct JTCHS patients as well as JTCHS’ 40 school-based health suites. She has participated in the M-DCPS COVID-19 school reopening health initiatives and continues to be a pillar of support and experience to the community.

Jacki Leifer
add_circle_outline

Jacki Leifer

Senior Partner
Jacqueline C. Leifer, ESQ. is a partner and health law practice leader at Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP. She counsels national, regional and state primary care associations, and serves as general counsel to the National Association of Community Health Centers. Leifer advises federally qualified health centers, community-based healthcare providers, health center-controlled networks and managed care companies. She also helped create the graduate healthcare compliance certificate program at George Washington University, where she is a professorial lecturer. Leifer formerly was an attorney advisor in the Office of General Counsel of DHHS, where she served as principal counsel to the Bureau of Community Health Services.
Craig
add_circle_outline

Craig Limoli

CEO, Founder, and Chairman

Craig Limoli founded Wellsheet after working at IBM in their Watson Health division, where he led business development for their flagship care coordination product. After seeing deficiencies in existing healthcare technologies, he saw an opportunity to create a better experience for clinicians. Since Craig left Wharton to start Wellsheet, the company has raised millions in funding, created a product to accelerate clinician workflow, and earned the business of some of the largest health systems.

Saraswati lobst, MD
add_circle_outline

Saraswati lobst, MD

Internal Medicine Physician
Saraswati Iobst, M.D., completed her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and her internal medicine residency and hospital medicine fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. While in fellowship training, she focused her academic work on understanding hospital high utilizers and preventable readmissions. After training, she joined the Hospital Medicine Division as Assistant Professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she continued her academic work to improve care of hospital high utilizers, several of whom were experiencing homelessness. After moving to Miami, she joined Camillus Health Concern and has been a primary care physician there for over 5 years. She is currently focused on furthering her academic/clinical research career in order to improve care for complicated patients experiencing chronic homelessness.
Timothy Long, MD
add_circle_outline

Timothy Long, MD

Chief Clinical Officer
Dr. Long serves as the Chief Clinical Officer of Health Choice Network. He has been a part of the Health Choice Network team since 2018. In this role, Dr. Long coordinates and promotes clinical leadership, advancing quality health outcomes through guidance and leadership on the optimal implementation and use of Health Information Technology. He employs a collaborative leadership approach that empowers clinicians and health centers to address challenges, promote best practices, and create clinical initiatives that result in practice transformation, quality improvement and clinical collaboration. Previously, Dr. Long served as the Chief Clinical Officer for AllianceChicago from 2009 – 2021. Since 1997, Dr. Long has practiced as a primary care Internist at Near North Health Service in Chicago, specializing in preventive and community-based health care, chronic disease management, and HIV/AIDS care for the underserved. Dr. Long is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago (BS), Rush Medical College (MD), and completed his Primary Care-Internal Medicine training at John Stroger/Cook County Hospital.
Meredith Marsh
add_circle_outline

Meredith Marsh

Chief Value Based Services
Meredith Marsh serves as Chief Value Based Services for Health Choice Network (HCN) in which she provides oversight and management of the Network’s Value Based contracting, data analytics, clinical quality and credentialing operations.  Marsh has dedicated the last 20 years serving South Florida’s healthcare and nonprofit sectors. She joined Health Choice Network in 2011 under the South Florida Regional Extension Center and later transitioned to the role of Executive Director for HCN’s Accountable Care Organization, Health Choice Care, a Medicare Shared Savings Program formed in 2014 by HCN’s member centers and partners. Prior to joining HCN, Marsh specialized in health care compliance and coding in the private physician market. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Central Florida. Marsh is certified in Health Care Quality & Management (HCQM).
Sandro Martinez, PhD. CS.
add_circle_outline

Sandro Martinez, PhD. CS.

Director of Business Intelligence
Sandro is Director of Business Intelligence for Health Choice Network (HCN), a successful nation-wide collaboration among health centers, health center controlled networks, and partners. By providing key business services, strategic initiatives, and the latest in health information technology, participants can improve patient outcomes through increased efficiencies and more accessible care. He joined the organization in September of 2016 having completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is responsible for all HCN data and analytics strategies and solutions, to deliver excellent patient care and improve outcomes to our patients and Member Centers. In prior roles at HCN, he has led projects implementing enterprise business intelligence solutions and applications. He also, played a key role during the HCN data migration to the cloud in Microsoft Azure.
Lisa Masinter, MD, MPH, MS
add_circle_outline

Lisa Masinter, MD, MPH, MS

Director of Research
Dr. Masinter joined AllianceChicago in May 2018 as Director of Research. She is a board certified general obstetrician gynecologist. Prior to joining AllianceChicago, Dr. Masinter spent three and a half years as Medical Director of the Bureau of Maternal Infant Child and Adolescent Health at the Chicago Department of Health. While there, Dr. Masinter spearheaded the Bureau’s movement towards population health and data driven practice. She received her MD and MPH degrees from Emory University, did her residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and worked as a general Ob/Gyn at Alivio Medical Center for four years. After that, Dr. Masinter did a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University and received an MS in Health Services and Outcomes Research.
Frank Mazzeo, DDS
add_circle_outline

Frank Mazzeo, DDS

Health Choice Network of Florida Board Chair
Frank Mazzeo, Jr., is President and CEO of Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida, Inc. (FHC). He joined FHC in August 1999. Dr. Mazzeo received his B.A. degree from Adelphi University at Garden City, New York in 1967.

He earned his dental degree from Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971. His fellowship in Periodontics was completed in 1992 with the United States Navy. Dr. Mazzeo has worked with the Community Health Center system in Southwest Florida for 25 years. He has served as chair of the Board of Directors for the Migrant Clinicians Network and Board Chair for the Naples Marine Institute. He has served on Florida State Senate Health Sub-committees and Florida State Legislative Dental Health Councils. He is a board member of the Oral Health Policy Development council for the Federal Bureau of Primary Health Care.
Berneice Mills-Thomas
add_circle_outline

Berneice Mills-Thomas, RN, MSM, MPH, MBA

AllianceChicago Board Chair

Berneice Mills-Thomas has served as Executive Director of Near North Health (NNH) since 1991. Under Ms. Thomas' leadership, NNH has grown from one health center on the near north side to nine comprehensive full-service health centers and two Women, Infants and Children (WIC) ancillary sites that provide primary healthcare, social services and health and nutrition education to nearly 45,000 medically under-served and low-income men, women and children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.          

With a career in health care that spans more than 25 years, Ms. Thomas is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of individuals and families who reside in low-income, medically underserved communities. Prior to NNH, she held managerial and clinical positions in several community health centers and two community hospitals in Chicago. 

An influential and active leader in the community, Ms. Thomas serves on the boards of AllianceChicago and Illinois Primary Health Care Association, and holds memberships with the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Female Executives, and the American Management Association.

Ms. Thomas has been honored by public and private entities for her devotion and unparalleled commitment to empower communities, and for her ability to develop and implement human service health programs that improve the quality of life for many of Chicago's forgotten citizens.
 

Nivedita
add_circle_outline

Nivedita Mohanty, MD

Chief Research Officer
Dr. Mohanty is a pediatrician with experience in community health, federal policy, clinical research, academic medicine, and international volunteerism. Dr. Mohanty joined AllianceChicago in 2015 after spending a year in Washington, DC as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in a program supported by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. As a fellow within a federal agency, she gained firsthand exposure to synergies between policy, health research, and clinical practice as well as the role of HIT in advancing national health priorities. At AllianceChicago, she works closely with the Research, Practice Transformation, and Informatics Teams. Her role is to lead efforts that leverage our HIT infrastructure and partnerships to enhance high quality, evidence-based practices in community health and generate new evidence through patient outcomes and health services research. Dr. Mohanty has provided clinical care to patients at Erie Family Health Center since 2007 and is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine with clinical responsibilities at Lurie Children’s Hospital and Prentice Women’s Hospital. She has been a volunteer with multiple organizations for children with HIV, disabilities, burns, congenital heart disease, and cranio-facial defects on medical service trips to Africa, Asia, South America, and Central America.
Seferino Montano
add_circle_outline

Seferino Montano

Chief Executive Officer
Jin Nam, RN, MS
add_circle_outline

Jin Nam, RN, MS

Director of Practice Transformation
Jin Nam, RN, MS oversees and engages support to the network CHCHs in quality improvement initiatives. Her clinical background and experience in data driven operations and process improvement serves as a core tenet in the network efforts to support the health centers. She received her B.S. in Nursing, M.S. in Nursing Administration, and M.S. in Health Informatics at UIC. She also holds a Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Implementation Science at IUPUI.
Matthew J O'Brien, MD
add_circle_outline

Matthew J O'Brien, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine
Matthew O’Brien, MD, MSc is a primary care physician and researcher at Northwestern University whose work focuses on eliminating health disparities and promoting health equity. From 2004-2014, Dr. O’Brien co-founded and co-directed a community health center in Philadelphia called Puentes de Salud. It was there that he discovered a passion for research, recognizing the power of research data to improve clinical care and inform policies focused on health equity. Since moving to Chicago in 2014, Dr. O’Brien has partnered closely with AllianceChicago and its network of community health centers to improve the care and prevention of diabetes in the local ambulatory safety-net. Dr. O’Brien’s work has been funded from the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in addition to other governmental and philanthropic funders.
Margarita Ollet
add_circle_outline

Margarita Ollet, RN, BSN, MBA

Chief Operating Officer
Margarita Ollet, RN, BSN, MBA, is the Chief Operating Officer of Health Choice Network, Inc. (HCN) and Health Choice Network of Florida (HCNFL) and Chief Executive Officer of Health Choice Care (HCC). Ollet has more than 25 years of experience in South Florida’s dynamic health care arena. Her extensive and diverse background both as a health care executive and a registered nurse gives her a unique perspective in addressing the health care challenges faced by the neediest members of the communities served by HCN’s member centers. Ollet joined Health Choice Network in 1996 after serving as Vice President of Managed Care for Jessie Trice Community Health Center. Prior to assuming this position, she worked in similar positions at Management Utilization Review Associates and Jackson Memorial Hospital Health Plan, having launched her clinical nursing career by serving as a Clinical Registered Nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Jason Patnosh
add_circle_outline

Jason Patnosh

Associate Vice President
Jason works with NACHC’s divisions and external partners to align goals and projects that mutually benefit all parties. Jason began at NACHC in 1999 with Community HealthCorps, eventually growing to the role of Deputy Director by 2006. Jason has served as NACHC’s lead liaison for the field and partners responding to natural disasters across the country. Jason has helped to strengthen partnerships for NACHC and health centers with national relief organizations like Americares and Direct Relief, along with connecting new partners with health centers to support disaster relief. Jason received his Bachelor’s of Science in Emergency Health Services at The George Washington University.
Oscar Perez
add_circle_outline

Oscar Perez

Chief Applications and Innovation Officer

Mr. Oscar E Perez is the Chief Application & Innovation Officer at Health Choice Network in South Florida.  He is a transformational and innovative leader with extensive experience in a healthcare executive leadership role. He has a proven record of achievement in strategic planning and digital transformation. Known for developing and building high performing teams that enable technology throughout the entire organization. Mr. Perez is accomplished in addressing business and clinical critical issues, utilizing technology and innovative approaches while managing costs and reducing risks.

Mr. Perez has been in healthcare IT for over 25+ years.   He’s worked at various healthcare systems including academic medical centers like the University of Miami Healthcare System and large public healthcare systems like Jackson Memorial.  Most recently he was Vice President of IT at Memorial Healthcare System, a 6-hospital public healthcare system that includes Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s Hospital in Broward County, Florida.  In addition, he’s consulted at many large healthcare systems throughout the country like Emory in Atlanta, MD Anderson in Houston, and many more.  His well-rounded Healthcare IT experience has allowed him to make an impact wherever he’s been.

Mr. Perez currently lives with his family in South Florida where he received a Bachelors’ in Management Information Systems (MIS) from FIU and a Masters’ in Healthcare Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Miami.  He also serves on the board for South Florida HIMSS and is a member of CHIME and NACHC

Matt Pickens
add_circle_outline

Matt Pickens

Vice President
Matt has worked in health care for over 20 years in the pharma, medtech and digital health sectors. He comes to Mytonomy most recently from Press Gainey where he was President of the South Region. Prior to that he led the West Region. Press Gainey is a leader in patient experience measurement and improvement. In these recent sales roles, Matt built sales teams, culture and processes to deliver enterprise surveying and SAAS solutions to C-suite clientele. He also brings broad experience, having served in product management, marketing, and sales leadership roles for large and small companies in healthcare and med-device. You'll immediately be struck by Matt's passion for creating a more patient-centric approach to health care.

Matt has a BA in History of Science from Princeton University and an MBA in Health Care Management from the Wharton School of Business.
Fred Rachman, MD
add_circle_outline

Fred Rachman, MD

Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Rachman has been with AllianceChicago since its inception in 1997, assuming the role of CEO in 2003. In his role as CEO, Dr. Rachman has overall responsibility for AllianceChicago programs, including strategic direction, assurance of appropriate resources, and external relationships. He also serves as co-director of the Chicago Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (CHITREC). Dr. Rachman is an attending physician in pediatrics at Lurie Children’s and Northwestern Memorial Hospitals and sees patients at Erie Family Health Center. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Health Information Management Systems Society and serves on the Illinois Health Information Exchange Advisory Committee. Dr. Rachman is a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine (MD) and Johns Hopkins University (BA), and completed post-graduate courses in Ethics, Economics, and Healthcare Management at Harvard University School of Public Health. He is board-certified in Pediatrics.
Alejandro Romillo
add_circle_outline

Alejandro Romillo

President & Chief Executive Officer
Alejandro Romillo is President and Chief Executive Officer of Health Choice Network. He oversees the strategic direction and leads a team providing operational efficiencies, clinical innovations, technology solutions, and managed value-based care across the country. Romillo has held leadership roles at Community Health of South Dade and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Romillo uses his expertise and leadership strategies to implement cost effective and leading-edge technology solutions to reach the most vulnerable patient populations. His passion lies in community health, focusing on primary care integrated models supporting behavioral, oral, school-based health, and homeless health integration.
Sam
add_circle_outline

Sam Ross

Director of Interoperability
Sam Ross is a Health Information Technology Policy Analyst for AllianceChicago and Senior Practice Facilitator for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He has a deep subject matter expertise with regulations from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid providers (CMS), and a wealth of experience supporting a variety of health care providers with electronic health record technology, quality improvement, and practice transformation. He is currently leading AllianceChicago’s efforts to comply with the information blocking components of the 21st Century Cures Act, while providing network health centers with guidance on their own compliance journeys.
Howard Rubin
add_circle_outline

Howard Rubin

CIO
Mr. Rubin has over 30 years of experience in information technology operations and management, including over 17 years specifically in healthcare IT. He managed information technology operations for companies in the retail, technology, telecommunications, government and education industries. As Chief Technology Officer, he managed the technical infrastructure for a large hospital system in New England. More recently he developed and implemented the information technology strategy for a start-up organization building and managing proton beam radiation therapy clinics across the United States. Mr. Rubin has been a long-standing member of the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) and has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Eddie Saffile
add_circle_outline

Eddie Saffile

Vice President of Talent Management
Eduardo “Eddie” Safille is the Vice President of Talent Management for Arc Broward, and co-founder / managing member of Kaito Consulting, LLC. As an adjunct professor in Florida International University’s Master of Science in Human Resource Management program, he teaches a graduate level course on Labor Issues and Conflict Management. He also serves as Editor of the HR Florida Review for the HR Florida Council, and previously served as the President of the Human Resource Association of Broward County.

Eddie earned his law degree (JD) from Washington and Lee University School of Law, a Master of Laws (LLM) in international arbitration from the University of Miami School of Law, and an advanced certificate in strategic human resource management from Cornell University. He holds multiple HR certifications, and is a certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) practitioner.
Maylee Sanchez, CHPSE
add_circle_outline

Maylee Sanchez, CHPSE, CHCIO

Chief Information Officer
Maylee is Chief Information Officer for Health Choice Network, a successful nation-wide collaboration among health centers, health center-controlled networks and partners. By providing key business services, strategic initiatives and the latest in health information technology, participants can improve patient outcomes through increased efficiencies and more accessible care. She joined the organization in January of 2018 and is responsible for all HCN Health IT strategies that deliver excellent patient care and improve outcomes through technology innovation for all member centers across the country. She also serves as the Organization’s HIPAA Security Officer. In prior roles, she has delivered cutting edge BI solutions, Mobile applications for both patients and care teams to include global telehealth solutions, patient and customer engagement, and has led projects implementing ERP and enterprise business applications that span across multiple countries.
Dale Sanders
add_circle_outline

Dale Sanders

Chief Strategy Officer
Dale Sanders serves as Chief Strategy Officer at IMO. He closely analyzes market needs and challenges to set IMO’s strategic direction developing products that deliver critical data quality improvements and insights to improve patient care.

Dale has over three decades of experience as a technology leader and strategist, including with the US Air Force, the National Security Agency, and in the healthcare industry. Dale served in leadership positions at Intermountain Healthcare, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and the Cayman Islands National Health System, implementing electronic health records and designing and developing enterprise data warehouses. Most recently, he served as Chief Product and Technology Officer at Health Catalyst. Dale graduated from Fort Lewis College with a BS in Chemistry and Biology and served as a Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) officer in the United States Air Force.
Michael Sanguily
add_circle_outline

Michael Sanguily

Director of CISO Services
Michael Sanguily is currently serving on the Chief Information Security Offices Team at Health Choice Network.  Michael has been with HCN for over 10 years and holds certifications across 3 disciplines of Information Technology with a strong focus on Cybersecurity. His main goal is to empower every NonProfit Health Center with the security knowledge and assistance they need to protect patient data. Michael takes charge in helping FQHCs improve their security posture, maintain compliance and educate CHCs on Cybersecurity topics.
Scott Selman
add_circle_outline

Scott Selman

Senior Director, Brand & Events
Scott began his career as a theatrical designer; a job that has since broadened his interests in film, lighting, sound, photography, and digital media design. When Mytonomy found Scott - he discovered great synergy in being able to use his knowledge gained in 15 Years of Content Creation to help make a difference in a patient's healthcare journey. Working alongside Mytonomy's fearless leadership team - Scott has driven the process and roadmap behind over 1,500 pieces of Microlearning Video Content. Mytonomy has received over 40 Telly awards for their content, as well as Three Digital Health Awards. Past clients include the American Film Institute, Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), The International Food & Beverage Technology Association, Potomac Community Resources, The Levine School of Music, Arena Stage, The Blackwall Barn & Lodge, ChangeRoot, and Uniglobe Travel. Having spent several years working on the American Film Institute’s AFI DOCS Film Festival, Scott served as their Festival Producer for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. As a product of the digital generation, Scott is always on call and yet still makes time for Syracuse Basketball and Penn State Football.
Ed Stellon
add_circle_outline

Ed Stellon

Executive Director

During his years at Heartland Alliance Health (HAH), Ed has held numerous positions. Most recently, Ed served as HAH’s Chief Program Officer where he was responsible for oversight of the organization’s comprehensive array of supportive and specialty services, systems integration activities, training and technical assistance programs, and its cross-cultural interpreting services. He has worked within the substance use, mental health, primary care, and homeless service systems providing direct care as well as overseeing outreach, behavioral health treatment programs, supportive housing, food and nutrition services, systems change initiatives, and training projects. He is committed to innovative service models that promote human rights and is a founding member of the Midwest Harm Reduction Institute.

Ed joined Heartland Alliance in 1991. Before joining Heartland Alliance, Ed was a counselor at Interventions/Northside Clinic where he initiated the organization’s first HIV prevention activities for its methadone maintenance participants. Ed received his Bachelors of Arts from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science degree in Human Services Administration from Spertus Institute, and a Master of Arts in Counseling from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.

Tangina Sultana
add_circle_outline

Tangina Sultana

Cybersecurity Analyst
Tangina Sultana serves as the Cyber Security Analyst of AllianceChicago. Sultana is responsible for improving the security posture of the organization, protecting confidentiality and integrity of customer, employee, and business information in compliance with the organization policies and standards. She has also held positions as Data Analyst, Information & System Security/Compliance Analyst, and Information Security Specialist & Analyst. Sultana is very passionate about Cyber Security and constantly strives to learn new skills and implies them into her work to improve process. Sultana utilizes acquired education and experience in Information & System Security, Compliance, Risk management, & Third-party Management to gain personal and professional growth.
Jessica Sweeney Platt
add_circle_outline

Jessica Sweeney-Platt

Vice President, Research and Editorial Strategy

Jessica Sweeney-Platt is a Vice President with athenahealth, where she leads the Research and Editorial Strategy team, and sets strategy for the company’s original research programs. Prior to this role, Jessica led the Enterprise Segment Strategy team, which determined the company's approach for large health systems. She also worked with the athenaResearch team, where she analyzed data from across athenahealth’s platforms to uncover best practices in client performance. Her particular passion is using stories from the network to help prospects and customers see the extraordinary value that athenahealth can bring to their organizations.

Before joining athenahealth in 2015, Jessica was a Managing Director with The Advisory Board Company, a Washington, DC-based health care research and technology provider. There, she was a national spokesperson, responsible for sharing the company’s research findings with members at annual meetings and on-site. With specific terrain expertise in accountable care strategy, medical group growth strategies and inpatient care redesign, Jessica focused much of her time working with research teams to create and deliver interactive teaching modules, onsite presentations and workshops.

Jessica was also formerly a Managing Director with the Corporate Executive Board, a for-profit network of executives at the world’s largest and most progressive organizations. She ran the HR Executive Forum, a membership program for human resources executives at mid-sized firms and was a leading expert in the field of HR strategy. She also was responsible for executive education in the company’s Strategy and Innovation practice.

Jessica earned a B.A in History from Yale University. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, three children, cranky-old-lady-dog and overly-energetic toddler-dog, where she runs, cooks, and tries to keep informed about college football.

Richard Taaffe
add_circle_outline

Richard Taaffe

ACRES Board Vice Chair
Richard Taaffe has been CEO of the West Hawaii Community Health Center since 2005. As the first Executive, he has grown the agency from a single site with 3 exam rooms and 6 staff to 5 sites, 190 staff serving 25% of the service area population (17,000+ patients). Richard currently serves on several non-profit boards of directors including the Hawaii Hospital Systems Corporation, Hawaii Primary Care Association (HPCA), AlohaCare Health Plan, HMSA BC/BS Foundation, and Health Choice Network Inc. (Florida).
Amit Trivedi
add_circle_outline

Amit Trivedi

Director, Informatics and HIT Standards Technology and Innovation
Amit Trivedi is the Director, Informatics & Health IT Standards at HIMSS. In his role, Amit leads HIMSS’ interoperability strategy across the health IT standards ecosystem and acts as a liaison to standards development organizations around the globe. Amit and his team manage HIMSS-sponsored activities within the HIMSS Developer Lab, IHE International, IHE USA, Continua Health Alliance, and the Global Consortium for eHealth Interoperability. Amit is also responsible for the IHE North American Connectathon, one of the largest health IT interoperability testing events in the world. Before joining HIMSS, Amit led health IT testing and certification programs at Verizon’s ICSA Labs and the Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT). Amit holds an undergraduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology and an M.S. in Cyber Security Operations and Leadership from the University of San Diego. Amit’s mission as an interoperability and cyber security health IT leader is to foster industry collaborations to advance safer and more timely, efficient, effective, and equitable patient-centered care.
Jenene R. Washington, MD, MBA, FAAP
add_circle_outline

Jenene R. Washington, MD, MBA, FAAP

Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jenene R. Washington, MD, MBA, FAAP is a board-certified pediatrician who has over 20 years of healthcare experience and over 15 years of success in practice management, practice transformation and operational excellence of healthcare organizations. She is a project management professional (PMP) and is a PCMH Certified Content Expert (NCQA).
Tim Weldon
add_circle_outline

Tim Weldon

Chief Engagement and Development Officer
Tim Weldon has an industry track record distinguished by 30+ years of corporate development and change management accomplishments. Tim brings exceptional insight and experience to his role at Health Choice Network. A leader with a passion for helping health centers create the fastest path to sustainable growth and sustainability, Tim blends his deep industry knowledge with strong financial and operational acumen to develop strategies that result in measurable improvements.
Rebecca Wiedmeyer
add_circle_outline

Rebecca Wiedmeyer

Director Health Information Technology Solutions
Ms. Wiedmeyer joined AllianceChicago in 2021. Prior to joining the Alliance, Ms. Wiedmeyer has worked with over 70 healthcare sites, nationally and internationally, implementing and advancing healthcare technology solutions. Ms. Wiedmeyer began her career working for a large EHR vendor, then expanding to solutions in the imaging space, along with patient engagement, telemedicine, and avant garde digital technologies. She led clients through the Meaningful Use regulations, as well as the ICD-10 upgrade. Additionally, she has provided consultative services to venture capitalists and private equity firms seeking to invest in the HIT space. Most recently, Ms. Wiedmeyer served in the Office of Health and Wellness at Chicago Public Schools, the third largest district in the United States. Ms. Wiedmeyer holds a Masters from Duke University and a Bachelors of Arts from University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Gianna Van Winkle, MBA
add_circle_outline

Gianna Van Winkle, MBA

Director of Emergency Preparedness
Gianna Van Winkle is a Florida-native who began working with Community Health Centers in 2009, as Director of Regulatory Services at a Miami-based Health Center before transitioning to an Emergency Management role at New York’s Primary Care Association in 2014. Last year, she joined the Florida Association of Community Health Centers (FACHC) as Director of Emergency Preparedness. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Gianna has worked closely with Federal, State, and regional partners to support Community Health Centers, while overseeing FACHC’s all-hazard training/technical assistance programs, situational awareness, and response efforts.