Rebecca Adkins is currently serving as SVP of population health at Jefferson Health. Jefferson includes Jefferson Health Plans, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. Jefferson Health provides over 5.6 million outpatient visits a year in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ms. Adkins has over 20 years’ experience in health care working in telehealth, quality, community health and value-based care. She received her bachelors and masters of health administration from Indiana University.

Brandi Apodaca is the COO at Community Health Provider Alliance. She has been an RN for over 27 years, with 18 yrs experience in implementing CINs, ACOs, and value-based care initiatives for commercial, Medicare, MA and Medicaid contracts. She has led teams supporting up to fully-capitated medical management and developed care coordination, UM, DM, risk adjustment and practice transformation programs. She previously served as a US Air Force RN and held management positions with Aetna, Physician Health Partners, and HealthONE Colorado Care Partners. Since being at CHPA, she has expanded the VBC portfolio to 10 contracts, implemented practice transformation and risk adjustment programs and successfully collaborated with FQHC leadership to save Medicare over $52 million in 4 years.  

Shannon Banks is the chief operating officer at MaineHealth ACO.  She is an experienced healthcare administrator and organizational development professional who served in senior leadership roles at Martin’s Point Health Care and Central Maine Health Care before founding her own consulting firm, Banks Bellwether, where she partnered with healthcare and social service leaders to help them clarify their visions and accomplish their goals. Ms. Banks holds faculty positions at Bates College and the University of Southern Maine, teaching strategic planning, organization development and healthcare administration. She also serves as a member of the board of the MidCoast Hunger Prevention Program, a hunger relief and prevention agency in the midcoast region. Ms. Banks received her BA degree from Bates and a MS in organization and management from Antioch New England University.

Pranam Ben boasts over two decades in the healthcare informatics industry and has made significant contributions to healthcare technology, tackling some of the industry's most significant challenges. He has been the driving force behind numerous award-winning software products and has played a crucial role in the vision, design, and architecture of cutting-edge technologies throughout his career. With his passion for innovation, he continues to develop solutions for some of the most pressing issues in healthcare today at population health management platform company, The Garage, where he serves as Founder & CEO.

Robert A. Berenson is an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute. He is an expert in health care policy, particularly Medicare, provider payment, and provider market consolidation, having authored or coauthored 100 publications. From 1998 to 2000, he was in charge of Medicare payment policy and managed-care contracting in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In the Carter administration, he served as an assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy staff. He served on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, from 2009 to 2012, the last two years as vice chair. He was an initial member of the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. Berenson is a board-certified internist who practiced for 12 years in a Washington, DC, group practice. He helped found and was co–medical director of National Capital PPO, a rental model PPO that served 150,000 people in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. With Walter Zelman, Berenson coauthored The Managed Care Blues and How to Cure Them, published in 1998, and with Rick Mayes he coauthored Medicare Prospective Payment and the Shaping of U.S. Health Care, published in 2008. He is an adjunct professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. Berenson serves on the boards of Catalyst for Payment Reform and DCPCA (District of Columbia Primary Care Association).

Henish Bhansali is a physician executive in Medicare Advantage (MA) and a practicing internist. He joined Duly Health and Care in 2021 as their SVP of MA, overseeing care model design and delivery, TCoC management, HEDIS, payor relationships, risk adjustment and MA expansion. Prior to Duly, he was Oak Street’s SMD and VP of care navigation leading clinical strategy for diagnostic and specialty care for 100K+ patients across 20 states. Prior to Oak Street, he led primary care education of over 50 internal medicine residents as an associate program director with the University of Chicago for five years. Dr. Bhansali trained in internal medicine and was chief resident at Washington University-Barnes Jewish Hospital. Post-residency, he directed BJH’s readmission reduction program and WU’s Global Health Program. His current focus is on improving the MA care model and he is pursuing a masters of public policy from the University of Chicago. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the AOA Medical Honor Society and is board certified in both internal and obesity medicine.

Sue Birch serves as the director of the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), the state’s largest healthcare purchaser, and its behavioral health authority. Ms. Birch oversees efforts to transform the healthcare system, leading efforts to combat the opioid crisis through increased access to treatment and education. Ms. Birch also led efforts to eliminate hepatitis C through value-based drug purchasing and implemented a Medicaid benefit for supportive housing and supported employment. Under Birch’s leadership, Washington implemented Cascade Care, the first-in-nation public option, as well as being an integral partner in Washinton achieving the first ever long-term care state insurance program, WA Cares. 

Ish Bhalla is medical director of behavioral health value transformation at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Dr. Bhalla leads the design and delivery of innovative payment arrangements for people with behavioral health disorders. He is passionate about using policy and financial incentives to drive access to high quality behavioral health care with a focus on prevention and population health. Prior to joining Blue Cross NC, Dr. Bhalla conducted research at UCLA regarding health care utilization patterns of people with behavioral health disorders. He was a medical director at Landmark Health, a value-based provider for a complex Medicare population.

Jenn Booker is the senior vice president of population health at Upperline Health, a national, multi-specialty practice participating in ACO REACH. She is a strategic operations executive and licensed clinical social worker. Ms. Booker has spent the last 10+ years of her career in leadership roles supporting value-based care operations across different settings ranging from large clinically integrated networks of hospital health systems to niche startups. She has an extensive background in program design and development, operational management, patient engagement, payer contracting, strategic initiatives and change management. 

Tori Bratcher is director of alternative payment models (APMs) for Trinity Health. She is responsible for the strategy and operations of Trinity’s national alternative payment models, including being the ACO executive for the Trinity Integrated Care MSSP, one of the nation’s largest ACOs. Within the ACO, she is accountable for compliance, quality reporting, network management and ACO governance. Ms. Bratcher works collaboratively with system and local physician and business unit leaders to drive population health and clinical integration success with the providers and practices across the system. Prior to her role at Trinity, she was the executive director of population health operations at Indiana University Health where she managed a portfolio of risk contracts and the teams that drove population health success. Ms. Bratcher graduated with a masters in health administration from University of Illinois Chicago and bachelors in biology and pre-med from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Allison Brennan, MPP, is a healthcare consultant specializing in value-based care and ACOs. She has twenty years of experience in healthcare policy, with a focus on Medicare and the shift from fee-for-service to value-based care. From 2015 to 2022, she served as the senior vice president of government affairs for NAACOS. In her role at NAACOS she led a team responsible for advocating for policies to benefit ACOs and educating ACOs on complex government policies and programs. Prior to NAACOS, she was a senior advocacy advisor at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) where she advocated on a range of health policy topics to support medical practices. Before joining MGMA, she worked at the Brookings Institution and the National Patient Advocate Foundation, and she began her career interning in the United States Senate. Ms. Brennan has a bachelors degree in government and economics from the College of William and Mary and holds a masters degree in public policy from Georgetown University, with a focus on health policy. 

Emily Brower serves as SVP of clinical integration and physician services for Trinity Health, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation, serving more than 30 million people across 22 states. In this role, she provides leadership and strategic direction within the evolving accountable healthcare environment, with an emphasis on clinical integration and transformation under alternative payment models. Ms. Brower joined Trinity Health from Atrius Health, where she last served as VP of population health, building and executing the essential capabilities required to achieve strong financial and clinical outcomes within integrated care models under value-based reimbursement, particularly for publicly insured populations. Her Medicare ACO team delivered year over year improvement in cost and quality, and the highest per-capita savings in an independent evaluation of the Pioneer model. Prior to Atrius Health, Ms. Brower spent fifteen years in operational, financial, and contracting leadership roles at Urban Medical Group, a Massachusetts non-profit healthcare organization specializing in the care of medically complex, chronically ill populations across a community-based, long-term care continuum. She launched a PACE program and other innovative, capitated contracts for medically complex populations and served as principal investigator for a multi-year research project analyzing cost and quality outcomes to support payment reform. Ms. Brower received her BA from Smith College and MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Travis Broome is the senior vice president of policy and economics at Aledade, Inc. He guides Aledade and partner physicians through the policy, strategy and economics of value-based health care. Joining Aledade shortly after its start, he worked on nearly every aspect from business development for both practices and payers, to early analytics, to serving as an ACO executive director for Aledade Louisiana ACO. Prior to Aledade, he spent seven years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in roles ranging from regulation writing to quality improvement to management. Mr. Broome earned his masters of public health and business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Mark Calderon, MD, is the medical director of integrated care at Atlantic Health System. He is the clinical leader of ACO operations for over 420,000 patients and over 2,700 physician practices participating in commercial, Medicaid and Medicare markets. As an experienced physician executive, he has been a leader in multiple large, complex payer settings where he honed his skills in population health management. Dr. Calderon earned his doctorate in medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine and completed his family practice residency at Overlook Medical Center.

Diwen Chen is senior director of payer policy for NAACOS and leads work in accountable care arrangements across payers, identifying policy and sharing operational solutions that encourage adoption, growth and success in value-based contracts. She has 15 years of experience in value-based care and payment model design and implementation. Previously, Ms. Chen served as the VP of payment innovation and value-based solutions for Elevance Health. She was also senior director of payment models at Aetna/CVS, launching programs such as the next generation of commercial ACOs, prospective ortho bundled payments and hospital at home care programs and home recovery. Ms. Chen currently serves as a managing director and advisor for Monarch Advisory Services, a firm supporting community-based organizations and risk-bearing entities for vulnerable populations. She received her MPH in health care management from Yale School of Public Health and BS in biology from Texas A&M University.

Sarah Coombs is director for health system transformation at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she manages policy and programmatic work on health access and system transformation, including health equity, health coverage and affordability, and payment and delivery system transformation. Prior to her work at the National Partnership, Sarah worked in the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she contributed to the policy development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act and delivery system transformation initiatives. Before that, Sarah worked at the Office of Management and Budget, where she coordinated the Health Division’s development of the federal health budget and oversight responsibilities of Medicare, Medicaid and Marketplace coverage. Sarah received her master’s in public health from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University and her bachelor’s in government and legal studies and French from Bowdoin College.

Eric Cragun is the executive director of government programs for Castell, an Intermountain Health company. In his role, Mr. Cragun leads Castell’s efforts to succeed in risk-based contracts with government payers. This includes guiding Castell’s strategy in Medicare and Medicaid programs, managing participation and collaborating with operations teams to drive performance. Mr. Cragun and his team have experience participating in a range of models including ACO REACH, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement – Advanced and Idaho Medicaid Value Care Organization. In addition, Mr. Cragun helps Castell support Medicare Advantage and Medicaid products operated by SelectHealth. He also contributes to Castell’s work advancing national and state health policy discussions. Prior to joining Intermountain, he led health policy consulting for Advisory Board, serving as an advisor to executives at health systems around the country. Mr. Cragun earned an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Robert Daley is the director of legislative affairs at NAACOS where he contributes to developing the association’s federal advocacy strategy on legislative, political and regulatory issues. He has over a decade of experience in government relations and advocacy. Prior to joining NAACOS, he worked in the public policy practice at an Am 100 law firm consulting on a wide range of health care issues. He also spent six years working on Capitol Hill, where he gained a thorough understanding of the legislative process and the role stakeholders play in the development and implementation of public policy. He draws on this experience to help manage relationships with lawmakers to effectively communicate the association’s priorities during the policymaking process. Since joining NAACOS, Mr. Daley has helped secure favorable policy changes on several value-based care initiatives, including the passage of legislation extending financial incentive payments for ACOs participating in Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs).

William Dempsey, M.D., is deputy chief medical officer for The Wright Center. He provides comprehensive whole-person primary health services as a board-certified family medicine physician and serves as medical director at The Wright Center for Community Health Clarks Summit Practice. He is also medication-assisted treatment-waivered to treat substance use disorder. Dr. Dempsey graduated from St. George’s University School of Medicine and earned his bachelors degree in biology from The University of Scranton. He completed residency training at Tallahassee Memorial Regional Hospital Center and joined The Wright Center in 2014, overseeing the expansion of pediatric services at the Clarks Summit Practice. He is a faculty member and associate program director for the Family Medicine Residency Program at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education.

Bijal Desai is a manager on the value based care team at Northwestern Medicine. Bijal has experience in implementation of government and commercial alternative payment models at Northwestern Medicine since 2016. Prior to this, she worked at NYU Langone Health System operationalizing population health initiatives for the clinically integrated network. Bijal holds a BA in economics and an MPA in health policy and management from New York University. 

Deb Dittberner, MD, MBA, is a physician leader passionate about value-based care and innovative primary care models that deliver team-based, patient-centered care. She serves as a regional medical director for Aledade supporting eastern North Carolina and large primary care clinical systems throughout the state. She also works with numerous teams within Aledade that develop system approaches to diabetes care, patient engagement, patient experience and star performance. She graduated with her MD from the University of Minnesota and completed her MBA through the University of Texas. She practiced full spectrum family medicine in rural Minnesota including obstetrics and served her health system as chief medical officer for more than ten years. She was one of the founding physician board members and eventually board chair of the Central Minnesota Health Network ACO. She has also served as president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians and as physician delegate to the American Hospital Association regional policy board.

Seth Edwards manages PINC AI’s population health collaborative utilizing his expertise in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). He has successfully assisted over 80 accountable care organizations (ACOs) with applying and contracting with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the MSSP, Next Generation ACO and ACO Pioneer programs. Prior to this role, Mr. Edwards was the director of federal affairs for Premier, working with lawmakers and their staff to advocate for Premier’s legislative priorities and assist in developing policy positions. He primarily focused on delivery system reforms (ACOs, bundled payments, etc.) and quality outcomes (readmissions and healthcare-associated infections). In addition, he previously worked with national thought leaders, such as Dr. Rick Gilfillan and Lynne Rothney-Kozlak, to develop, implement and manage the PACT Collaborative.

Christopher Elfner is the vice president of Bellin’s Accountable Care Strategy. In this role, he is driving Bellin into a new payment model where they are reimbursed for the health and well-being of the populations, they serve rather than being paid for services performed. This involves contracting in a different way with payers and employers to make value-based lives and incentives available to Bellin, and then evolving the delivery system to focus on high quality outcomes with a better experience at an affordable to cost to the buyers. Prior to Bellin, he spent 20 years partnering with organizations to drive higher impact from their limited energy and time by distilling data to knowledge that drives smarter actions. He has industry experience in business services, distribution, finance, healthcare, insurance, and manufacturing.

Jason H. Feuerman is the founder, president and CEO of LTC ACO, the first MSSP of its type dedicated exclusively to management of the full Medicare spend of nursing facility residents throughout the United States. As the only MSSP ACO serving residents throughout the country, LTC ACO has been able to produce consistent and predictable results generating more than $60m in shared savings since 2016. It currently operates in more than 1,500 skilled nursing facilities within excess of 2,500 participating providers. As the largest MSSP ACO of its type, it presently assumes risk for nearly 20,000 Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries which consume in excess of $400m annually. Prior to founding LTC ACO, Mr. Feuerman served as president of the health plan and public sector divisions of Value Options, Inc. Prior to joining Value Options, Mr. Feuerman served as president of Bravo Health, a subsidiary of Cigna, Inc. and as president of Senior Care Centers of America, a leading provider of adult day health services. He holds a bachelor of science in Finance and economics from the University of Maryland.

Robert Fields, MD, MHA, is a family medicine physician and serves as the EVP, chief clinical officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health, a Harvard affiliated, 14 hospital system. In this role, Dr. Fields leads system efforts for quality and safety as well as the strategy and operations for primary care, behavioral health, post-acute service services, and other divisions such as system lab and pharmacy.  He also leads the system’s 1115 Medicaid waiver response in addition to other managed care and population health initiatives.  Dr. Fields began his career as an independent primary care physician with a particular concentration on underserved Latino patients in Western North Carolina. He spent 5 years at Mount Sinai most recently as the system’s chief population health officer and joined Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) in March 2023.  Dr. Fields also hosts a podcast called Healthcare360 focused on healthcare transformation with a focus on BILH’s journey to becoming a system. Dr. Fields has previously served as the board chair of NAACOS and a board member of America’s Physician Groups (APG) and Healthfirst.  He is also a member or chair for various national committees on quality and measure development for the National Quality Foundation and CMS.   He earned his medical degree from the University Of Florida College Of Medicine, and completed a family medicine residency at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, NC where he was chief resident.  Dr. Fields earned his master of health administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Ben Forrest is the co-founder and CEO of Olio.  He has a passion for creative problem-solving and effectively creates and sets the vision for company growth and future innovation.  After obtaining his degree from Indiana University, he spent 18+ years in healthcare.  Following his experience with innovative companies like Stryker and Medtronic; he created Olio with a specific focus on solving for how at-risk providers can better co-manage their patients in siloed environments including post-acute. 

Elizabeth Fowler, PhD, JD, is the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). Liz previously served as executive vice president of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and vice president for global health policy at Johnson & Johnson. Liz was special assistant to President Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council. In 2008-2010, she was chief health counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where she played a critical role developing the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act. She also played a key role drafting the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Liz has over 25 years of experience in health policy and health services research. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Liz is a fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Linda Fraunhofer holds a master of science in biotechnology and is currently studying as a doctor of philosophy in public health at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Her career in health and life sciences spans more than 20 years, with her current role being director of population health initiatives at Labcorp. She has been at the forefront of developing cross-sectional collaborations that use lab data to support health initiatives with national partners, such as the CDC's Chronic Kidney Disease Surveillance program, Medicare's Quality Improvement Organizations, and the National Kidney Foundation.

Wilson Gabbard, FACHE, is the vice president of quality and clinical risk adjustment for Advocate Aurora Health, where he is responsible for enterprise population health and medical group quality for over 1.3 million value-based lives and risk adjustment strategy for over $3 billion in system risk-based revenue. He co-leads the system’s Medicare Advantage (MA) core team that is responsible for driving performance in MA joint ventures, full risk and shared savings contracts. Previously, Mr. Gabbard spent seven years leading population health operations for UNC Health Care where he was responsible for strategy and operations during its transition from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement.

Jennifer Gasperini is the director of regulatory and quality affairs for NAACOS where she works on federal regulatory issues facing ACOs. Ms. Gasperini brings 10 years of health policy experience on both the state and national levels. She came to NAACOS from the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) where she served as the director of health policy, working on a variety of state and federal health policy issues concerning physicians. Before joining the NCMS, she worked at the National Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) where she focused on federal legislative and regulatory issues pertaining to physician quality and payment including ACO issues, and value-based payment programs such as PQRS and the Value Based Payment Modifier. Ms. Gasperini holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, minor in political science from the Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in legislative affairs from the George Washington University.

Clif Gaus, Sc.D. is currently president and CEO of the National Association of ACOs which he helped found in 2012. NAACOS is the only national organization owned and managed by ACOs. It advocates for ACOs on policy and offers shared learning experiences through conferences, webinars, forums and work groups. Dr. Gaus has a diverse background as a public servant, entrepreneur and health executive. He served in senior health positions under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton. In the 1970's and 80's, as associate administrator of HCFA (now CMS), he directed the development of a broad range of innovations in health care financing and delivery, including the DRG hospital payment system, RBRVS physician payment system, Medicare Hospice Programs and Medicare payment of Physician Assistants. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now AHRQ).  In the late 90's Dr. Gaus held the position of executive vice president and chief administrative officer of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. Prior to WellPoint, he was senior vice president of the national Kaiser Permanente Health System in Oakland, California. From 2002-10 he served on the Board of Directors of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University. In recent years he has consulted for a number of prominent organizations, including a six month engagement with the Administrator of CMS working on the ACO regulations and the start-up of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). He holds a master's degree in health administration from the University of Michigan and a doctorate of science in health care management from The Johns Hopkins University.

Rick Goddard, MS-HSM, is the vice president, head of commercialization and strategy for Lumeris, an operating partnership company, that supports organizations where they are at in the journey to managing value-based care risk. Lumeris' comprehensive value-based toolkit, experienced human capital and technology services provide end-to-end support for our partners. As the head of commercialization and strategy, Mr. Goddard serves in a subject matter expert and utility role across many facets of the business. His current role includes leading partnership strategic alliances, business model expansion and go-to-market commercialization. Mr. Goddard serves as a national thought leader in value-based healthcare strategy and frequently presents to higher education and association organizations. 

Christian Gomes serves as senior director, population health and managed care for Valley Health System in Virginia where he oversees population health, value-based care, clinical integration, credentialing, and payer relations functions. He is primarily responsible for leading strategy and key initiatives for managing our at-risk lives and value-based care relationships. Christian also provides leadership of contracting and insurance credentialing processes. Prior to joining Valley Health, he led care transformation and value-based care programs at Frederick Health in Maryland. Christian is a graduate of Wheeling University (B.S. accountancy) and Marshall University (M.S. healthcare administration).

Megan Guinn is the director of clinical improvement for BJC Healthcare ACO and BJC Medical Group. Ms. Guinn has 18 years of clinical nursing experience in a variety of healthcare settings including inpatient, outpatient, health plan, clinical operations and value-based care. She is an experienced healthcare administrator with a demonstrated history of executing value-based care performance strategies, including Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO clinical operations, quality measure performance and improvement initiatives and achievement of strategic directives.

Dave Henriksen serves as vice president of clinical operations for Castell, where he leads the company’s efforts to operationalize value-based clinical care models. He also works as the COO of a new clinically integrated network with UCHealth and Intermountain in Colorado. Mr. Henriksen brings many years of experience in clinical operations at Intermountain Healthcare, as well as targeted leadership in advancing Intermountain’s understanding of value-based care. He has been integral to the early successes of its value-based care model called Reimagined Primary Care, having led the development and implementation in clinics across the health system. He has served in various operational roles at Intermountain including, region operations officer and assistant operations officer. Prior, he worked at Kaiser Permanente where he managed clinics and completed an administrative fellowship. Mr. Henriksen received an MHA from the University of Minnesota. 

Jake Hochberg is the vp of analytics and chief analytics officer at Arcadia, where he works with Arcadia’s customers to deliver ad-hoc analytics that help them overcome hurdles and reach their healthcare goals. He also acts as a subject matter expert on risk adjustment analytics, medical economics and he oversees the delivery of new IP in Arcadia’s Bindery and Vista product offerings. Mr. Hochberg’s favorite thing about his role is the ability to deeply analyze such a massive, comprehensive data set and the discoveries that process yields.

Michaela Holmes has served the role of clinical informatics consultant with IowaHealth+ for the past 6 years, an ACO in Iowa with 11 FQHCs as members.  IowaHealth+ has value based contracts in the Medicaid, Medicare, and Medicare Advantage spaces.  Michaela grew up in rural South Dakota where she saw first-hand the way barriers in health care access and social drivers of health can impact a small community.  She started her health care career by achieving an associate degree in nursing becoming a registered nurse and then advancing her education achieving a master’s in nursing and a masters in health care administration.  She has experience in geriatric care, inpatient health care, as well as quality improvement in the commercial and Medicaid insurance space. 

Jennifer Houlihan is the vice president of value-based care and population health for Wake Forest Baptist Health, where she focuses on operational and financial performance in value contracts, engagement with community partners and leveraging best practice from innovation and translating into new care models.  With 20+ years as an experienced healthcare leader, her role is to understand and develop the capabilities needed to implement and sustain population health management and community engagement to minimize care fragmentation, improve quality and reduce costs. Ms. Houlihan earned a masters in planning from Florida State University with an emphasis in health policy and a masters certificate of population health from Thomas Jefferson University.

Dora Hughes, MD, MPH, was named the acting chief medical officer and acting director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2023. CCSQ is primarily responsible for executing all national clinical, quality, and safety standards for healthcare facilities and providers, as well as establishing coverage determinations for items and services that improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries. Previously, Dr. Hughes served as chief medical officer at the CMS Innovation Center. She led the Center’s work on health equity, advised on care delivery, payment and data collection strategies for the Center’s models and initiatives, and represented CMS on clinical and cross-agency working groups within HHS. Earlier in her career, Dr. Hughes served as the counselor for science & public health to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In addition to federal service, Dr. Hughes was an associate research professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University (GWU), where her work focused on the intersection of clinical and community health, health equity, healthcare delivery and teaching. She remains on faculty at GWU’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Hughes also has served as senior policy advisor at Sidley Austin, where she advised on regulatory and legislative matters in the life science industry. Dr. Hughes began her career in health policy as senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund, and subsequently as deputy director for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee under Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She then served as the health policy advisor to former Senator Barack Obama. Dr. Hughes received a B.S. from Washington University, M.D. from Vanderbilt and M.P.H. from Harvard. She completed internal medicine residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Joshua Israel completed his psychiatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry at UCSF. He was the director of inpatient and psychiatric emergency services at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and clinical professor at UCSF. Dr. Israel is currently senior medical director for quality support at Aledade, Inc.

Kimberly Kauffman is vice president of clinical performance at Aledade, Inc.  In this role, she supports value-based care (VBC) contracts with CMS/CMMI, Medicare Advantage, commercial health plans and Medicaid managed care by working with teams that specialize in clinical documentation integrity, quality reporting, pharmacy, clinical outcomes improvement, patient outreach and post-acute coordination. Prior to joining Aledade, Ms. Kauffman was the chief VBC officer for MaxHealth, a primary care group based in Florida with over 120 providers, and, before that, was chief VBC officer for Summit Medical Group, a primary care group with over 300 providers based in Tennessee.  Her background includes a leadership role in a large independent physicians’ association (IPA) in Florida and in a multi-hospital physician hospital organization (PHO). Ms. Kauffman received her masters degree from the college of public health at the University of Florida.

Emily Levi is a public health professional specializing in value-based care programs, policy and advocacy. For the last eight years, she has led healthcare organization participation in various CMMI and CMS programs. In her current role with the MaineHealth ACO, Ms. Levi manages “all things CMS”, supporting learning and decision-making for both the health system and the ACO on new VBC models, as well as manages VBC model participation in various programs, including MSSP, MIPS and Primary Care First. 

Pauline Lapin is the director for the Seamless Care Models Group (SCMG) in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS. Ms. Lapin oversees and provides guidance in the development and implementation of innovative payment and delivery models related to advanced primary care and accountable care organizations, namely the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) and CPC Plus initiatives, the Pioneer ACO and Next Generation ACO Models and the Comprehensive ESRD Care initiative. Her group also manages Health Care Innovation Awards related to primary care redesign, "hot-spotting," and ACO-like models. She has been in federal service at CMS for over 24 years. Ms. Lapin has spoken at national conferences and written articles on health promotion and disease prevention for various journals and newsletters. She holds a master of health science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Ania Lesiak is the manager of post acute and care transitions at Atlantic Health System. Under the integrated care department her team supports population health initiatives and transitions in value-based care. In her role, she collaborates with hospital and skilled nursing facility teams to support and strengthen their collaborative relationships ensuring seamless transitions along the care continuum. She oversees the PAC liaison team who support AHS discharges to SNF through active participation in UR meetings, onsite bedside visits, and mutual EMR access, with a goal of bridging the gap from hospital to home and reducing unnecessary utilization. Ms. Lesiak’s background in the arts led her to join the AHS ‘Healing Arts Program’ in 2014. The paradigm shift in health and wellness incorporating mind, body, and spirit as an integral component of patient healing sparked her interest in transitioning to population health in 2018. Her initial role as a project coordinator quickly expanded to support the development and expansion of the post-acute care and transitions team supporting patients in value-based care as well as managing the health system’s participation in the DSRIP and NJQIP Medicaid pay-for-performance quality improvement programs.

Todd Liu is a senior administrator who has held progressive roles at Griffin Health Services.  In his current role as vice president, accountable care and general counsel, he has administrative responsibility for the hospital’s ambulatory services division, division of population health, division of legal affairs, and is the designated institutional officer for Griffin’s residency training programs.  Mr. Liu oversees the system’s health transformation efforts to provide high quality, value-based care, including managing Griffin’s accountable care contracts with commercial insurers, Medicare Advantage plans, and Medicare’s ACO REACH program.

Danielle Lloyd is the SVP of private market innovations and quality initiatives for America’s Health Insurance Plans. She is responsible for policy development and trend analysis in provider payment models, quality measurement, health information technology and privacy. She serves as chair of the steering committee for the Core Quality Measure Collaborative (CQCM). With 25 years of experience in healthcare policy, Ms. Lloyd has also worked on health care issues for a congressional committee, governmental agency, for-profit company and hospital associations. She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and a certificate in technology and innovation advancement from the MIT xPRO. 

Ellen Lukens is the deputy director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). In this role, Ms. Lukens leads policy development at the CMS Innovation Center. Ms. Lukens has deep experience both within and outside the government tackling complex health policy issues. Prior to this role, Ellen served as the group director of the Policy and Programs Group (PPG) within the CMS Innovation Center, where she led the team that provides cross-cutting support for Center-wide policy and portfolio management, including related to the Advanced Payment Model (APM) portion of MACRA. Ms. Lukens also served as the division director for ambulatory payment models, where she led development of physician-focused specialty care models, including the Oncology Care Model. Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Lukens led the provider practice at Avalere Health. In that role, she worked with hospitals, physician groups, and post-acute care providers on many policy and strategy issues, including developing analytic tools to improve provider performance and to evaluate participation in CMMI models. Prior to Avalere, Ms. Lukens held policy roles in hospital associations. Ms. Lukens began her health policy career as Presidential Management Fellow at CMS. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master’s of public health from the University of Michigan.

Cheryl Lulias is the president and CEO of Medical Home Network (MHN), a leader in value-based care enablement, which is dedicated to transforming care in the safety net, reducing disparities and building healthier communities. Ms. Lulias also serves as the president and CEO of MHN REACH ACO and MHN Health Alliance ACO, which partner with federally qualified health centers across the country to help them build the capabilities to succeed under value-based care. Today MHN operates in seven states impacting 300,000 lives in Medicaid and Medicare.

Robert Mechanic, MBA, is executive director of the Institute for Accountable Care, where he is responsible for leading its research agenda, data analytics and health care learning and improvement activities. Mr. Mechanic is a senior fellow at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, where he serves as executive director of the Health Industry Forum. His research focuses on health care payment systems and the adaptation of organizations to new payment models. He has helped hospitals, physician groups and integrated delivery systems evaluate financial, strategic and policy considerations under risk-based payment models. He was previously senior vice president with the Massachusetts Hospital Association and vice president with the Lewin Group, a Washington D.C.-based health care consulting firm. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs. He is a trustee of Atrius Health, and he is a senior fellow of the Estes Park Institute. Mr. Mechanic earned an MBA in finance from The Wharton School and a BS in economics with distinction from the University of Wisconsin.

Francis Mercado is the ambulatory associate chief medical officer for medical specialties for Franciscan Medical Group, part of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. He is also the current board chair and former CMO of Rainier Health Network, an ACO participating in the MSSP.  Dr. Mercado received his training in internal medicine at Akron General - Cleveland Clinic and received his medical degree from the University of the Philippines.

Cathy McCarron, RN, BSN, CPHQ serves as Vice President of Clinical Programs at Jefferson Health Plans for Medicaid, CHIP and Individual and Family plans.  In her 15 years with Health Partners Plans/Jefferson Health Plans, Cathy has improved the organization’s clinical care management programs, overseeing clinical operations and care coordination services. She has championed many community health programs in collaboration with primary care providers to improve member health outcomes, including the Food is Medicine program, which provides medically tailored meals to those in need.  She is also responsible for NCQA Accreditation, ensuring the organization meets the Standards for Health Plan Accreditation and Health Equity.

Stacy Meyr serves as president of the Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance, a clinically integrated network sponsored by Saint Alphonsus Health System, part of Trinity Health. Her role includes oversight for community impact improvements and community benefit for the mission-driven organization. She has more than 20 years’ experience in managed care, population health management, new health plan launches and market expansion.  Other prior roles include VP of value-based strategy and operations for Athletico Physical Therapy and national director of provider engagement and population health for Lumeris and national director of population health (Medicaid) for Aetna. Ms. Meyr holds a DC degree from Logan University and a BS from Southeast Missouri State University.

Adam Myers has the great fortune of having led in nearly every component of the health care delivery system. Dr. Myers is a frequent advisor, speaker and advocate in key conversations at all levels. Most recently, he served as the chief clinical transformation officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Previously, Dr. Myers served as the Cleveland Clinic’s chief of population health, chief medical and operations officer of Texas Health Resources Physician Enterprise and board member of the Joint Commission.

Nathan Moore is a general internist with BJC Medical Group and the medical director for the BJC ACO, which has accounted for more than $65M in savings for Medicare in the past 5 years.  He is a graduate of Washington University School of Medicine and the author of the best selling book The Health Care Handbook: A Clear and Concise Guide to the US Health Care System.

Alyssa Neumann, MPH, is senior analyst of regulatory affairs at NAACOS, where she works on a variety of regulatory issues related to ACOs and value-based care. Prior to NAACOS, Alyssa served as program coordinator at the Primary Care Collaborative, writing and managing grant projects related to primary care transformation and providing support for policy work and communications. She is an active volunteer in the community, working as a mentor with the Big Brother Big Sister program and a teaching fellow with Girls Health Ed, providing vital health information to vulnerable youth. Other prior experiences include work as a graduate teaching assistant in Biostatistics at the George Washington University, a Federal Affairs internship with the National Association of Community Health Centers, and university research focused on topics such as behavioral health, health literacy, and the social drivers of health. Alyssa earned her Master’s in Public Health in Health Policy and Management at the GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health, and she holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Sociology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of South Florida.

Geoffrey Nicholson, Jr., MD, is the senior vice president for population health at WellSpan Health. He previously served as vice president and chief medical information officer (CMIO) since 2011 of WellSpan. Prior to that, he served as hospital informatics specialist and as a hospitalist physician at WellSpan. As CMIO for WellSpan, Dr. Nicholson served as lead executive on Project One, a multi-year project to integrate and unify the organization’s electronic health systems to one common platform. He also led WellSpan's achievement of recognition for adoption and utilization of electronic health records - a designation reached by just five percent of hospitals and health systems nationally. As senior vice president for population health at WellSpan, he is responsible for the development, planning and execution of WellSpan’s value-based strategy across the organization. He oversees WellSpan’s efforts in the areas of overall population health, risk contracting, case management and continuing care. Dr. Nicholson earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland and his bachelor's degree from Lock Haven University. He completed his residency in internal medicine at WellSpan York Hospital. He is board-certified in internal medicine and preventative medicine with a subspecialty in clinical informatics. He completed Lean for Healthcare training at the University of Tennessee.

Stephen Nuckolls is the chief executive officer of Coastal Carolina Health Care, PA, and its ACO, Coastal Carolina Quality Care, Inc. His responsibilities include the direct management of the 60 provider multi-specialty physician-owned medical practice and its ACO. They currently participate in the MSSP’s Enhanced Track and have value-based contracts with Medicare advantage as well as commercial plans. Mr. Nuckolls facilitated the formation of the group in 1997 and has served in his current role since that time. Prior to the formation of this organization, Mr. Nuckolls helped guide physicians and integrated hospital organizations in the formation of larger systems. Mr. Nuckolls earned his BA in economics from Davidson College and his MAC from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is a founding member of the National Association of ACOs and served in a number of roles on the executive committee including board chair from 2016-2017. In addition to these responsibilities, he serves on the board of Community Care of NC as well as several advisory boards and committees for the North Carolina Medical Society and is a frequent speaker on ACOs and related topics. 

Gabe Orthous, MBA, is the director of value-based services performance and analytics at Health Choice Network and a federally qualified health center advocate with a passion for supporting and elevating the work of health centers.  He is an HIT executive offering 25+ years of progressive experience as a value-based care strategic thinker and executor with a history of scaling and driving return on investment of complex HIT solutions. Gabe is currently an adjunct professor at Georgia State University informatics department and former adjunct at Sacred Heart University informatics department. He is also a contributor as a SME for Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies.

Shelley Overholt-Thiesen is the SVP of savings initiatives at Aledade. She leads a team that works across departments to facilitate continuous improvements in Aledade's health care information technology platform. They focus primarily on reducing total cost of care in Medicare programs, inclusive of MSSP, MA, and CMMI pilots. This work is in service to the >1900 independent primary care practices and community care centers that partner with Aledade to participate in value based care contracts across all lines of business, in 46 states.  She started with Aledade as a full-time medical director in 2018. Before Aledade, she spent 20 years as a practicing family physician in Kansas and Minnesota. 

Ashish Parikh is the chief population health officer of Village MD, Summit Health. Dr. Parikh is responsible for developing strategies for delivery of the highest quality of care with a focus on value through reduction in practice variation, evidence-based clinical care delivery, population health management, as well as provider and patient engagement across all VillageMD and Summit Health practices. Prior to joining Summit Health, Dr. Parikh was the senior health and quality advisor at IBM and the internal medicine residency program director at Saint Barnabas Medical Center.

Lee Pellecchia is a seasoned senior business intelligence analyst at the MaineHealth ACO (MHACO). Lee brings over a decade of experience in analytics to their role. Prior to joining MHACO in 2022, Lee specialized in homeowner's insurance analytics, where they supported catastrophic risk management and actuarial rate reviews. In this capacity, Lee developed interactive dashboards for monitoring key performance indicators (KPI) and facilitating overall portfolio management. Now, at MHACO, Lee leverages their expertise to develop insightful dashboards used at all levels of the organization for monitoring critical metrics such as cost and utilization drivers, trends, risk, and membership demographics, to support success in an array of value-based care agreements. Outside of their professional endeavors, Lee is an active volunteer firefighter and EMT, dedicating their time to serving and protecting their community. Currently pursuing a master's degree in analytics from Northeastern's Roux Institute, Lee brings a unique blend of analytical prowess and interdisciplinary knowledge to their work. Prior to their career in analytics, Lee earned dual bachelor's degrees in English literature and philosophy from Roger Williams University.

Jennifer Perloff, PhD, is director of research at the Institute for Accountable Care and a senior scientist at Brandeis University with over 15 years of evaluation and health services research experience. In addition to supporting ACO analytics for IAC, Dr. Perloff directs a variety of research projects analyzing population health models including beneficiary attribution, nurse practitioner/ACO staffing and low value care. She is a national expert in episode-based payment and led the design of analytic reports for health systems participating in CMMI’s bundled payment for care improvement (BPCI) model. Dr. Perloff helped lead the team that developed the Episode Grouper for Medicare (EGM), a comprehensive system with over 800 chronic, acute and treatment episodes. She has done extensive research on the cost and quality of nurse practitioner led primary care. Dr. Perloff currently sits on the National Quality Forum’s Scientific Methods Panel and the Heller School Information Security Committee. 

Melanie Phelps, DrPH, JD, is an experienced leader in health policy and advocacy who is passionate about promoting health and wellbeing for all people through transforming the healthcare payment and delivery system and rethinking how we look at health. Ms. Phelps currently serves as senior advocacy advisor of health system transformation for the American Heart Association and is focusing her efforts on elevating the consumer/patient perspective in alternative care delivery and payment models.

Matthew Press, MD, MSC, is a nationally recognized physician and leader in primary care, population health and value-based payment. Dr. Press is an associate professor and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. For six years, he led Penn Medicine’s primary care network, driving unprecedented growth, integration and transformation. He served as interim chair of the department of family medicine and community health. He was awarded the Luigi Mastroianni, Jr. Clinical Innovator Award for his work in integrated mental health. Prior to his positions with Penn, Dr. Press was a member of the senior leadership team at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS, where he helped develop and implement several new payment and care delivery models including ACOs, bundled payments, integrated mental health and medical homes. His work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs and has been covered by The New York Times and the Associated Press. He received his MD from Brown University and completed his internal medicine residency and the RWJF clinical scholars program at the University of Pennsylvania.

John Pilotte, MHPM, is the director of the Performance-based Payment Policy group (P3) within the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mr. Pilotte manages policy development and operations teams for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Medicare’s national ACO program with over 500 ACOs accountable for over 10.9 million Medicare beneficiaries.  He also managed the development and implementation of Medicare’s Physician Value Modifier, the predecessor to the current Merit-based Incentive Program (MIPS), as well as resource use measures for physicians, hospitals and post-acute settings. Prior to joining P3, Mr. Pilotte served as the director of the division of payment policy demonstrations in the predecessor of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation where he managed the development and implementation of the physician group practice demonstrations and care coordination demonstrations. Prior to joining CMS, he was a senior healthcare consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and part of the government relations team at the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. Mr. Pilotte has a master’s in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins University and a BS from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Aisha Pittman, MHP,  is the senior vice president of government affairs. In her role, Ms. Pittman leads NAACOS’ work to promote legislative and regulatory policies that will advance ACOs. She has 19 years of experience in healthcare payment, alternative payment models, healthcare quality measurement and health information technology. Ms. Pittman was previously vice president of policy with Premier, Inc., a group purchasing organization of more than 4,400 hospitals and 225,000 other provider organizations, since September 2019. During her eight years with Premier, she was responsible for working with policymakers, providers and other healthcare stakeholders to reduce costs and improve the quality of health care. Prior to Premier, Ms. Pittman held senior management roles with the National Quality Forum, the Maryland Health Care Commission and CenterLight Healthcare, in addition to experience at the National Committee for Quality Assurance. She holds a BS in biology, a BA in psychology, and a master’s in public health from The George Washington University. Ms. Pittman received GWU’s School of Public Health and Health Services Excellence in Health Policy Award.

David Pittman is senior policy advisor at the National Association of ACOs, where he works on various regulatory policy and legislative topics involving ACOs and CMS Innovation Center models. He also works on communications matters for NAACOS. He joined NAACOS in August 2018 as health policy and communications advisor. Before that, he worked as a healthcare journalist for nearly a dozen years, including at POLITICO where he helped launch the website’s eHealth coverage in 2014. He was a fellow of the Association of Health Care Journalists in 2014, researching how states were adopting payment and delivery system reforms as budgets struggled to recover from the recession of the late 2000s. David holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and chemistry from the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 2006.

Bob Rauner, MD, MPH, splits his time between two jobs, chief medical officer of OneHealth Nebraska ACO and president of Partnership for a Heathy Nebraska, as well as serving on the board of directors Lincoln Public Schools. Dr. Rauner received his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Creighton University, his medical degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, his residency training in family medicine at the Lincoln Family Medicine Program, and his master of public health degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Prior to his current roles he was a small town family physician including obstetrics and inpatient care in Sidney, Nebraska from 1998 to 2003, then served on the faculty of the Lincoln Family Medicine Program from 2003 to 2010, and then transitioned into health leadership and policy roles after finishing his MPH in 2010. His wife Lisa is also a family physician.

Purva Rawal, PhD, is the chief strategy officer at the CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As part of the senior leadership team, she provides guidance and leadership on the execution of the Innovation Center’s strategy.  Most recently, she was a principal at CapView Strategies, where she developed evidence-based public policy and business strategies and conducted policy research on health system transformation and sustainability issues. She was also an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University. In 2016, she published a book, The Affordable Care Act: Examining the Facts and has published book chapter, blogs, and papers on value-based care. Previously, Dr. Rawal served as professional staff on the Senate Budget Committee during the passage of the Affordable Care Act and as the health and social policy advisor to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). She was also a director in the health insurance and reform practice at Avalere Health. She began her health policy career as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and as a Congressional Fellow for the Society for Research on Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Rawal received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Nesha Records is a care transitions and post-acute consultant that specializes in value-based care and ACOs. She has 20+ years experience in healthcare and has spent the last 8 years leading care transitions strategies for multiple VBC and ACO organizations. she is passionate about improving America's healthcare system through teaching and implementing strategies to better manage Care Transitions. 

Jenny Reed is the senior vice president of value-based care for Baylor Scott & White Health and the executive administrator for the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance (BSWQA), BSWH’s clinically integrated network and accountable care organization. As the leader of the BSWQA’s senior leadership team, Jenny guides the strategy development, long and short-term goals as well as overall alignment and organizational initiatives. She also oversees quality management for government programs as well as value-add contracts for local and national employers. During Jenny’s tenure, BSWQA has generated more than $410 million in savings over the last five years (2018-2022) and is consistently among the top savers in the nation. Jenny is a Louisiana native who earned her bachelor of science degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and holds a master of social work from Louisiana State University.  

Harry Reese Jr. serves as vice president and chief financial officer for Ochsner Health Network (OHN).  In this role, he oversees finance and accounting activities in support of value-based care delivery within OHN and Ochsner Accountable Care Network (OACN). His responsibilities include contract performance analysis and projections, clinical documentation, program ROI assessments, provider distributions as well as support for key initiatives.  From 2016-2021, Mr. Reese served as vice president for Post-Acute and Home Care, leading the strategic planning of post-acute services along with the development of innovative home-based programs.  From 2010-2016, he was vice president and chief financial officer for Ochsner Medical Center, the flagship campus of Ochsner Health. Prior to his time at Ochsner, he was president and chief operating officer of a home health company and spent 17 years with a healthcare system in central Florida. Mr. Reese earned his BBA from Hofstra University and his MBA from the University of Central Florida.  He is a graduate of the Health Management Academy’s CFO fellowship.

Joann Sciandra, MHA, BSN, RN, CCM, is the vice president of care coordination and integration at Geisinger. Ms. Sciandra is accountable for the oversight of outpatient care management, behavioral health and special needs services. She is charged with managing medical trends, designing, implementing and administering best practice disease and case management programs, and collaborating with Geisinger’s Community Medicine and other provider groups in the clinical transformation. Ms. Sciandra earned her master of health care administration degree from Grand Canyon University and her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Wilkes University. She is a certified case manager and has been a co-author for several publications. Ms. Sciandra presented nationally in Singapore regarding medical home and case management.

Eric Schneider is executive vice president for quality measurement and research at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and an internationally known expert on health care quality. Prior to joining NCQA in 2022, Dr. Schneider was senior vice president at the Commonwealth Fund.  He previously held the RAND Distinguished Chair in Health Care Quality at the RAND and was research faculty at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He practiced primary care internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the National Academy of Social Insurance. He is a graduate of Columbia University (B.S.), the University of California, Berkeley (M.Sc.), and University of California, San Francisco (M.D.).

Katherine Schneider CEO Two Canoes, is nationally known for her work in the field of accountable care and population health. She served as President and CEO of the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization, leading one of the nation’s largest multipayer ACOs. During her tenure she also served as Chairman of the Board of NAACOs. Dr. Schneider is a former member of the National Advisory Council to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). She is a graduate of Smith College and Columbia University. She is a board-certified Family Physician with an additional degree in Epidemiology and is also in the first cohort of US physicians to achieve subspecialty certification in Clinical Informatics in 2013.

Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD is an accomplished, strategic leader with a deep understanding of health economics and a heart-felt commitment to outstanding patient care. Her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician and health policy expert has given her a unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives of patients. She most recently served as vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualized, designed, and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on the senior leadership of the 10 hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health system. The care models and service lines under her leadership, including community health, geriatrics, and palliative care, have been nationally recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others. She also cared for patients as an assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris Transition HHS Agency Review Team. Prior to MedStar Health, she was director of the office of health reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and led implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the Department, including coverage policy, delivery system reform, and public health policy. She received her B.A. with honors in business economics from Brown University, her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. in health economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She completed her residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.

Margaret Senese oversees Medicare and Medicaid ACO strategy and operations and all-payer medical expense oversight at Atrius Health.  Her public payer ACO portfolio currently includes MSSP, Primary Care First at 22 sites, and MassHealth ACO in partnership with Fallon Health.  Prior to joining Atrius Health in 2018, she spent five years in public service at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission managing programs investing in care delivery transformation at community hospitals. Ms. Senese holds an MS in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health and a BS in mathematics from Tufts University.

Beth Souder, PT, MSPTis the VP of clinical operations at Delaware Valley ACO.  In this role, Beth is responsible for the oversight and execution of the care coordination, quality improvement, and post-acute strategies and serves as the clinical lead to payors, health-system leadership, and the community. She provides integral clinical insight and direction to the practice transformation, operations, and analytics teams. Prior to joining the DVACO, Beth served for 17 years in progressive executive operational executive leadership roles at Main Line Health. She holds a BA in cognitive science, artificial intelligence and an MS in physical therapy with active licensure in the State of PA. Beth is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Family Research Council at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Pediatric IBD.

Leslie Southworth is the director of the health center-controlled network for the Montana Primary Care Association (PCA) and a health care leader focused on how data, technology and quality matter in rural frontier areas.  She has also been the clinical informatics manager for the PCA.  Prior to PCA, she was the chief executive officer and the chief operating officer for the Cascade County Community Health Care Center.  She brings over 15 years of executive leadership experience to her current work as the leader of a Montana rural/frontier ACO creating teams that drive quality and as a result save cost. She received her BS in community health from Montana State University and is working on her MHA at George Washington University.

Nate Sowa is a clinical assistant professor and associate vice chair within the UNC department of psychiatry. Dr. Sowa serves as a psychiatric consultant in several collaborative care partnerships with the departments of internal medicine and family medicine at UNC.  He is also associate vice chair of virtual and integrated care within the department of psychiatry, coordinating the department’s virtual care strategy and integration into the healthcare system as a whole.  His primary clinical interests are in the development and practice of collaborative care models, as well as the use of telepsychiatry to expand access to care. 

Mary D. Strasser, MHL, brings over three decades of expertise to the healthcare arena, specializing in managed care programs within health plans and health systems. Currently serving as the senior vice president of population health at Essentia Health, Ms. Strasser is at the forefront of steering the organization towards innovative solutions that not only enhance health and well-being but also effectively manage costs. Her role encompasses the oversight of community health, community relations, payer strategy, care management and telecare strategies.

Dana Strauss is the senior director, government affairs for CVS Health. She's responsible for VBC and Medicare FFS Policy, primarily supporting the CVS Healthspire/health care delivery business lines. She’s a doctor of physical therapy with 15 years of clinical experience prior to moving into the population health space. She has deep expertise in health care delivery, traditional and alternative payment methodologies, post-acute and home health, as well as VBC policy, program development and implementation all along the care continuum. She began work in VBC in a population health department in a NJ health system, building and managing a successful, multi-APM program managing acute episodes of care (both standalone and as a component of TCOC models). She has since held roles in client success and business strategy, and her SME in Medicare and VBC policy led to a career shift into public policy.

Nina Taggart MA, MD, MBA, FAAO is the senior medical director for accountable care for the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) and medical director for the LVHN ACO.  Bringing extensive health insurance experience to a provider network, she joined LVHN in July of 2015 to lead the design, development and delivery of LVHN’s Population Health initiatives in the Innovation Division.  Dr. Taggart supports all aspects of Value Based Reimbursement programs (VBR) for the network including payer contracting, risk contracting design, analytics, and care management operations. In her role as medical director for the LVHN ACO, she leads a team of professionals on all aspects of MSSP program operations and strategy, including authoring recommendations under the Pathways to Success program.  Dr. Taggart works to educate physicians in the PHO on key aspects of VBR performance.  She supports the development and deployment of the PHO’s physician incentive program used as a method to align incentives and distribute VBR dollars to participating primary care and specialty physicians.  She leads a clinical operational team dedicated to managing patients assigned through all VBR contracts, including both commercial and governmental programs.  Dr. Taggart also works closely with Populytics, LVHN’s informatics and analytic subsidiary, to improve our system wide approach to Population Health. She provides clinical direction to Populytics and is responsible for the development of analytic processes to improve both the quality of care and financial performance under VBR programs.  Prior to coming to LVHN, Dr. Taggart served in physician executive roles with increasing responsibility working for a regional Blue Cross plan, culminating with her position as chief medical officer.  Dr. Taggart has published/presented on computer graphics, molecular biology and ophthalmic plastic surgery as well as managed care and population health.  She has held multiple leadership positions on medical staff and served on the Board of Penn Care Board and the Board of the Luzerne County Medical Society.  Dr. Taggart holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (AB), Haverford College (MA), Alvernia University (MBA) and Weill Cornell Medical College (MD) and is a certified professional in healthcare information technology. She completed her internship at Bryn Mawr Hospital, and her residency at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.  She is a board certified ophthalmologist.

Anna Taylor is the director of operations for MultiCare Connected Care (MCC) and leads the operational team in the day-to-day functions of the MCC governance committee structure and stewards the business side of the value-based technology platforms and their interoperability functions. She oversees the performance measurement for MCC's organizational key performance indicators, strategic framework and operational program management.  Ms. Taylor has been with MultiCare Health System for the over 11 years and has held positions in the Institute for Learning and Development, information services and technology and strategic planning. She holds a BS from the UW School of Engineering in technical communication and a MS in clinical informatics and patient centered technology from the UW School of Nursing. 

Adam Ternet is an executive director with Indiana University Health’s Value Based Care organization, responsible for the management of IU Health’s ACO REACH.  With over 40,000 aligned beneficiaries, the ACO is an important component of IU Health’s strategy to expand the number of patients served under a value-based care arrangement.  He has 20+ years of experience in the healthcare and insurance industries.  He received an MBA in finance from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Purdue University. 

John Torontow, MD, is the VP of product for clinical data integrity at Aledade Inc.  He was previously the medical director at Aledade for the mid-Atlantic region.  He has also served as the COO of CCI Health and Wellness and the director of population health at Piedmont Health Services.  Dr. Torontow received his masters in public health from Tulane University and his medical degree from UNC School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency at Natividad Medical Center and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas.

Ray Thivierge is a seasoned executive in Post-Acute care with over 30 years of leadership in the sector.  Ray spent much of his career with some of the country’s largest skilled nursing providers including Genesis Healthcare, Sun Healthcare and Sava SeniorCare a well as several smaller regional organizations.   Ray has served on the board of several state associations and on the advisory boards with The National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care (NIC), The LTC 100 and SunServe in South Florida.  For more than half of his career  Ray has served in C-suite level positions including Operations, Business Development and Strategy.  Ray has been significantly involved with innovate payor relationships throughout his career including engagements with several ACOs and other payor partnerships.  Ray is currently providing leadership and advisor services through his consultancy, Loadstar Leadership Advisers working with several organizations involved with Senior Care and Housing. 

Stephanie Turner, RN, MSN, is vice president of population management with UNC Health Alliance. Ms. Turner began her career as a family nurse practitioner for more than 16 years prior to transitioning into healthcare leadership. She has directed the transformation of UNC Health Alliances’ embedded and centralized care management teams that deliver care within ambulatory and independent practices. Ms. Turner’s team has exceeded targets for reducing patient utilization through a variety of interventions including complex case management of the highest risk patients in outpatient and post-acute settings, a robust transitional case management program, and care coordination services such as annual preventive visits, implementation of an integrated behavioral health model and nutrition therapy services in primary care practices. Her operational teams support those potentially lost to follow-up, gap closure and resource coordination through strategic scheduling, abstraction, go-live implementation and community services. Ms. Turner earned both a BN with honors and an MSN from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

David Van Winkle, MD, is vice president of clinical network transformation at Tandigm Health. In his current role, he serves as the clinical leader for Tandigm Value Partners ACO and Doylestown Health Partners ACO, and he also leads specialty integration work for Tandigm Health with a network of over 500 specialists. Prior to joining Tandigm Health, Dr Van Winkle served as the CMO for Affinia Health Network, a clinically integrated network wholly owned by Trinity Health. In that role, he was accountable for improving the quality and efficiency of the network, while developing its capacity to adapt to dramatic changes in the healthcare landscape. Dr. Van Winkle was accountable for clinical integration, physician relations and improving network clinical performance, and in that capacity he oversaw specialty and primary care physician engagement and directed quality, care management and care coordination programs. He was accountable for the clinical programs that supported value-based contracts in Affinia Health Network including the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization, Medicare Advantage programs, CMS BPCIA programs at member hospitals, and commercial and Medicaid accountable systems of care. Dr. Van Winkle is a board certified family physician and practiced the full spectrum of primary care, including OB, for 2 decades. Until relocating to Philadelphia in 2022, he continued to provide patient care on a part time basis.

Brandon Webb serves as chief medical officer for OneHealth Nebraska ACO.  In this role, Dr. Webb supports 23 independent member primary care clinics in the Lincoln area to achieve quality and cost metrics over multiple value-based contracts including MSSP, commercial ACO and MA plans. He also assists with policy and negotiations between OneHealth Nebraska and payers, health systems and other physician leaders. His background includes 25 years as a practicing family physician and owner of his multi-site independent practice, Primary Care Partners.  Dr. Webb is the president and senior partner of Primary Care Partners and serves as their lead physician for value care.  He is a fellow of the American Board of Family Medicine. He is a graduate of Baylor University in Waco, TX and McGovern Medical School in Houston, TX.

Debbie Welle-Powell, MPH, CEO, DWP Advisors, is a health care consultant, thought leader, educator, and national speaker in delivery systems models of care, population health and digital care. As the former chief population health officer at Essentia Health, an integrated delivery system with 14 hospital, 1,500 provider health system. She and her team designed and operationalized Essentia’s $2.5 billion dollar transition from a primarily fee-for-service model to one that focused on value, the patient and risk-based contracting with payers. The results led to 45 percent of the system’s fee-for-service revenue tied to financial and clinical performance which produced record earnings on shared savings. Her experience in multi-state delivery systems and insights into emerging opportunities have been valuable to health systems seeking to promote strategies in population health and value-based care. Ms. Welle-Powell serves on many boards including the National Committee on Quality Assurance – Clinical Program Committee, Summit Community Care Clinic, and past chair at NAACOS. She is an adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado. Her work has earned her many honors including being recognized as 1 of 58 Top Leaders in Population Health by Becker’s in 2022, Women of Distinction from Girl Scouts Colorado, Colorado’s Most Powerful and Influential Women Award, the Frances Wisebart Jacobs Award for Philanthropy from Mile High United Way, and the Health Care Champion award from Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved. 

Phyllis Wojtusik
With over thirty-five years of health care experience, Phyllis draws on her experience as a Registered Nurse in acute care, ambulatory care, and post-acute care to bring vital input and client-side perspective into the development of Real Time’s Interventional Analytics solutions. A true expert in the field of long-term care, Phyllis is also an integral part of Real Time’s coordinated care effort, working to bring skilled nursing facilities and hospitals/health systems together for the benefit of the patient. Prior to joining Real Time Medical Systems, Phyllis led the development of a preferred provider SNF network for PENN Medicine Lancaster General Health. In this network she developed and implemented strategies that reduced total cost of care and readmissions while improving quality measures and patient outcomes. She utilized system approaches, clinical standards, and care management tactics to improve coordination and transition of care while reducing post-acute length of stay in a network of non-owned SNFs. Phyllis speaks nationally and regionally on transitions of care, care coordination, and post-acute network development and management. Phyllis graduated from Lancaster General School of Nursing and Franklin and Marshal College with degrees in nursing and science.