Past IDN Summit Faculty
Jean Marie Abraham is currently the Wegmiller Professor of Healthcare Administration in the Division of Health Policy and Management located within the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota faculty, Dr. Abraham completed her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001.
Dr. Abraham’s area of expertise is health economics and policy. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles investigating issues including access to and cost of employer-based health insurance, the effectiveness of employer wellness programs, competition in insurance and hospital markets, and the impact of federal health reform on individuals, insurers, employers, and providers. During academic year 2008-2009, Jean served as the senior economist on health issues for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in Washington, D.C. In this non-partisan role, Jean provided technical expertise to White House senior leadership and participated on the Obama Administration’s inter-agency work group to develop policy positions later adopted in the Affordable Care Act.
Beginning February 2016, Dr. Abraham assumed the role of Director of the Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) Program, which is currently ranked third nationally by U.S. News and World Report. The Minnesota MHA program has graduated more than 2,500 individuals, many of whom have pursued leadership roles in healthcare delivery and financing organizations. In her position, Jean has responsibility for all aspects of the full-time and executive cohorts (approximately 130 students total), including curriculum, instructional quality, and student performance.
Tim Alba is a Partner with Caldwell Butler and Associates (CBA), a leading resource in the strategic application of advance quality methods in healthcare that bolster leadership development and drive margin improvement. Prior to CBA Tim served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Business Analytics with Aramark Healthcare where he developed and managed relationships with group purchasing organizations, consulting firms, shared services organizations and leading industry professional associations.
His healthcare experience includes management consulting – operational and clinical performance improvement – cost accounting, patient throughput improvement and purchased services contracting. He previously worked at Premier, Inc, and TrecaHealth. He began his career at SunHealth Alliance providing operational management consulting services in hospitals. Throughout his career, Tim has created partnerships, bringing organizations together with common objectives and aligned incentives. The results are new solutions and services that address unmet needs; identifying and solving for opportunity gaps that others don’t see. He led the development of new solutions that address operational and clinical quality including an approach named as Honorable Mention for AHA Nova Award. His publications include insights into benchmarking (operational and clinical) and frameworks for managing patient populations across a continuum, such as: Journal for Clinical Engineering, Managed Care Quarterly, Topics in Health Care Financing, Journal of Cardiovascular Management, and Quality Management in Healthcare. His background provides the expertise to rapidly analyze clients’ needs and match them to applicable methods to optimize performance.
He holds degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia. Tech, has completed the Aramark Strategic Leadership Program (provide by Smeal College of Business at Penn State) and is a certified facilitator for Juran Business Process Quality Management. Tim is a Fellow in the ACHE and a member of HFMA. Tim lives in Charlotte NC, enjoys outdoor sports with his family and regularly volunteers with community service organizations supporting high school youth.
Jon Albrecht became VP and Chief Pharmacy Officer for Methodist Health System in Dallas, TX in January 2019. Jon was Director of Pharmacy Services for Methodist Dallas Medical Center from in 2008-2016, and then served as Chief Operating Officer from 2016-2018. Previously he spent 23 years at Parkland Memorial Hospital. In his pharmacy career, Jon has worked in almost every hospital pharmacy role from pharmacy technician to director.
Jon is also Clinical Assistant Professor for University of Texas College of Pharmacy and Clinical Associate Professor for Texas Tech University Health Science Center. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacy and a Board Certified Nutrition Support Pharmacist.
Jon graduated with a B.S. in Pharmacy from Auburn University. Jon completed a Specialized Pharmacy Residency in Nutrition Support at Rhode Island Hospital. Jon has also completed a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from Walden University.
Debora Alessi, MBA, C.P.M.
Director of Contracting, Surgical and Nursing, Commited Contracting Group (CCG), Premier, Inc
Debora Alessi is the director of contracting for the surgical and nursing service lines for CCG, a Premier member. She is responsible for the negotiation, planning and consensus building for about half of the current CCG contracts.
Throughout her 30-year career in health care supply chain management, she has been called on to led projects involving process improvement, change management and leadership development. During her tenure with CCG, she has driven the process to develop several supply formularies. In addition to CCG, her collaborative experience includes serving on the board of a regional collaborative of 14 competing health care systems.
She is a lifetime Certified Professional Purchasing Manager and an adjunct professor and lecturer for the College of Business Administration at Niagara University. She is a past president of ISM-Buffalo and has won numerous awards from that organization.
Maggie is a senior healthcare analytics consultant with the New York office of Milliman. She joined the firm in 2015. She has provided consulting services to a wide range of clients, including commercial insurers, healthcare tech start-ups, ACOs, healthcare systems, and bioscience companies.
Maggie has an extensive background in both healthcare data analytics and alternative risk contracting strategies. She combines these two areas to provide expert advice on designing alternative risk contracting strategies and how to use healthcare claims data to support them. She has developed tools to help develop and execute such arrangements.
Prior to joining Milliman, Maggie worked as a technical lead, developing patient identification and treatment algorithms for a population health technology start-up. Maggie also previously worked for a large medical group in compliance and patient satisfaction analytics.
Kimberly Anders, MBA, is Group Vice President of Strategic Supplier Engagement at Premier. In this role, she provides the expertise and thought leadership necessary to create and drive strategic engagement with contracted suppliers to maximize the value of the Premier relationship, capabilities, and reach.
Anders serves as the primary liaison for Premier business partners and their executive team, working in concert with Premier’s spend advisors, clinical and technical talents, and supply chain professionals to transform providers’ performance and propel growth opportunities for suppliers.
Anders has more than 15 years of leadership experience delivering and sustaining revenue growth in the healthcare and insurance industries from entrepreneurial organizations to Fortune 15 companies.
Jeff Ashkenase oversees the Value Analysis, Sterile Processing, and Workforce Solutions services at Nexera. He has worked in the healthcare industry for more than 20 years in the nonprofit, managed care, group purchasing, and government settings. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for managing costs, implementing systems, optimizing the supply chain, and improving decision support and the budgeting process through the use of technology. Jeff has a track record of managing change effectively and improving the financial performance of both his clients and his company.
Jeff also serves as Executive Vice President of Acurity, Nexera’s sister group purchasing organization, where he oversees the Business Solutions, Strategic Contracting Services, Project Management, Technology, and Analytics divisions. Jeff is a seasoned speaker and educator. He has given presentations at national healthcare conferences, such as the Becker’s Hospital Review Annual Meeting, the Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition, AHRMM Conference and Exhibition, IDN Summit and Reverse Exposition, PeopleSoft’s HEUG Conference, and the Puerto Rico Hospital Association Annual Meeting. He has served on Premier’s Strategic Advisory Committee, the Global Healthcare Exchange Product Council, the Coalition of Healthcare eStandards, the Federation of American Hospitals Exposition Advisory Committee, and the Healthcare Supply Chain Association Exposition Steering Committee in addition to various Premier technology committees.
He has also served as an adjunct professor for Long Island University’s Master of Public Administration program. Before joining the Greater New York Hospital Association family of businesses, he was Associate Vice President of Finance at Maimonides Medical Center, where his responsibilities included overseeing the budget, decision support department and materials management, and business information systems. Jeff earned his Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Albany and his Master of Public Administration from NYU Wagner.
Vice President of Talent and Organizational Development
Biltmore Center for Professional Development
As part of Navigant’s Healthcare performance excellence practice, Rob Austin works with health systems on rapid improvement of the supply chain, focusing on reducing cost and improving quality.
Prior to Navigant, Rob worked at Allegheny Health Network, a seven-hospital system based in Pittsburgh. At Allegheny Health Network, he held various leadership roles including director of supply chain and director of business development. Rob also helped grow Provider Supply Chain Partners, a regionally- focused group purchasing organization, from 12 hospital members to 74 members during a three year period. This regional GPO managed over $1.3 billion in clinical and nonclinical spend.
Previously, Rob worked for the supply chain consulting firm, The Denali Group. Rob also served in various supply chain delivery, sales, and leadership roles at SAP Ariba. Rob received his BA from Stanford University and his MBA from Case Western Reserve University.
John Bass is the Founder and CEO of Hashed Health, a healthcare blockchain innovation firm focused on building new digital infrastructure for healthcare. John has over 23 years of experience in healthcare technology with expertise in shared operating systems that build trust, transparency, and incentives across health value chains. Since 2015 John has been a leading voice in the development of the global healthcare blockchain market.
At Hashed Health, John’s team focuses on community development, enterprise services, and blockchain solutions development. John is an internationally recognized speaker on value-based care, blockchain and decentralized healthcare technology.
Prior to Hashed Health, John was CEO at InVivoLink, a care management start-up which sold to HCA in 2015. John’s experience also includes healthcare B2B startup empactHealth.com which was acquired by Medibuy/Global Healthcare Exchange.
John is a native of Nashville and has a Chemistry degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
John Becker leads Vizient’s Strategic Growth Solutions, including Sg2’s Intelligence, Analytics and Advisory Services, and the Vizient Research Institute. His oversight ensures Vizient delivers market-differentiated points of view and provides thought leadership, intellectual rigor and intellectual integrity to its members. His oversight also advances Sg2 thought leadership across cost, quality and market performance strategic pillars.
Prior to his current role, John served as general manager for Sg2’s strategy business and led various service, sales and strategic accounts teams over his more than 15-year tenure with the company. In his pre-Sg2/Vizient life, he held multiple sales and management positions with Merck & Co, Inc.
John earned his MBA from Loyola University Chicago and was awarded the Graduate Business School’s Outstanding Graduate. He also holds an MS in organic chemistry from Indiana University. As an undergraduate, he majored in psychology and chemistry, earning a BA with departmental honors from Northwestern University.
Toni Benner is a coach, speaker, instructor, and advocate for change. Toni has over 20 years of experience in facilitation, training, team development, and continuous improvement from manufacturing, product development, and supply chain within both the automotive and healthcare industry. She is an international presenter on applying Lean Six Sigma within healthcare and excels as a Lean transformation coach.
She has served as a Senior Consultant and trainer on a variety of continuous improvement initiatives using Lean Six Sigma methodology in areas of operational excellence and supply chain management. Toni excels as a Lean Healthcare transformation coach by focusing on the patient and people aspects of Lean. Results have been achieved across patient flow, clinical workflow, and health information technology.
Toni holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University, a Master of Science in Engineering Management with a focus on Lean Enterprise Systems from Eastern Michigan University, and an Executive Supply Chain Management certification from the University of Michigan.
Derrick Billups, MSM, FACHE, Director of Value Analysis for UC Health including the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, West Chester Hospital and the Daniel Drake Center. As system Director for Value Analysis, he has accountability for working collectively with the medical staff investigating products and processes that will improve operational or clinical efficiency, increase the quality of patient care and reduce supply expense.
Duties include the management of the Value Analysis committee structure and process within UC Health supporting financial savings and efficiency targets. Process efforts include the evaluation of products / technologies to support opportunities related to utilization, standardization and cost reductions.
Value Analysis structure committees include but are not limited to the service lines of Surgery, Nursing, Cardiovascular, Anesthesia, Wound Care, Critical Care, Orthopedic, Respiratory and Spine. Derrick has been at UC Health for 2 years.
He previous work experience in the same field include Coastal Carolinas Health Alliance, Illucient Purchasing Alliance and Charleston Area Medical Center.
He is board certified in healthcare management by the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Ali Birjandi has over 25 years of experience in healthcare performance optimization, and implementation of turn-around plans. Ali is nationally recognized as an expert in the design and deployment of system-wide Performance Improvement (PI) functions in major healthcare systems.
He is an expert at developing corporate PI strategies, Six Sigma training programs, PMO development, and CQI expense reduction programs. Prior to joining CHRISTUS Health, Ali worked for Tenet Health System and ProMedica Health System as the VP of operational efficiency.
Ali earned his BS degree in Operations Management along with MBA and MHA degrees from the University of Florida. Ali is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt through ASQ and is a Certified Professional in Health Information Management Systems through HIMSS.
Ali has been published numerous articles in national journals. Ali also co-authored the Discharge Planning Handbook for Healthcare, Productivity Press, New York 2008.
Gen. Vincent Boles is a career Army officer with over 35 years of experience. Highlights include managing the nation’s $27 billion ammunition account, assuming command of the Army’s War Reserve equipment six weeks before the attacks of 9-11, and flexing into operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations, as well as deployment to Kuwait in preparation for the invasion of Iraq with 142 personnel, growing to a force of 8,000 soldiers, civilians and contractors in 90 days.
From Kuwait, the General was forward deployed into Iraq where he assumed command of the 16,000 personnel responsible for providing all logistical support and services to the 150,000 members of the coalition. Following redeployment from combat operations, Gen. Boles led the training of 120,000 soldiers before his final Army assignment, serving as the Army’s Chief Operating Officer for Logistics Operations, overseeing the logistics strategy for the 1.1 million soldier Army. Today, Gen. Boles is president of Vincent E. Boles Inc., a leadership and logistics consulting service.
System Director, Perioperative Services, and Transformation Team Officer
Trinity Health
Chris Box is the Senior Supply Chain Analyst for the Surgical Procedure Value Alignment Program (SPVAP) at Banner Health and assists in system level product standardization.
He is responsible for cost comparison between comparable product lines, tracking trends in supply utilization and compiling standardized supplies for procedure card benchmarking.
Chris has over 6 years of experience in supply chain analytics and 17 years in health care. Chris holds a BS in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University.
Laura Bozell
Senior Vice President, Cornerstone Government Affairs;
Former Staff Member; United States Ways and Means Committee's Health Subcommittee
Randy Bradley
Associate Professor of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
University of Tennessee
Dr. Randy V. Bradley is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management in the Haslam College of Business at The University of Tennessee. He is also EVP, Digital Transformation in Life Sciences for Bio Supply Management Alliance (BSMA) and Principal Owner of RV Bradley, LLC.
He holds a Ph.D. in Management of Information Technology and Innovation, an M.S. in Management Information Systems, and a B.S. in Computer Engineering, all from Auburn University. Dr. Bradley is a preeminent thought leader and highly sought-after speaker for professional and corporate conferences and events.
Dr. Bradley has 20+ years of industry experience as a consultant and healthcare supply chain and IT strategist and researcher. His expertise includes digital business transformation, supply chain digitalization, and the strategic application of business analytics and IT in the supply chain, with an emphasis on the healthcare sector.
Jocelyn Bradshaw has more than 25 years of healthcare experience in optimizing supply chains, driving operational growth and in building and leading best-in-class sourcing processes and teams. In her role as the senior vice president of Strategic Sourcing for HealthTrust, Bradshaw is responsible for the operational activities of the GPO and the sourcing of its national products and services portfolio in the areas of nursing, surgery, laboratory, radiology and medical device.
She also manages the member-led Supply Chain and Clinical Advisory Boards that drive the organization’s contracting processes as well as HealthTrust’s global sourcing and environmental sustainability initiatives. Bradshaw’s previous experience includes senior-level supply chain, contracting and/or finance positions with MedAssets, Broadlane and Johnson & Johnson Medical.
In his role as Senior Vice President of Member Field Services, Andy Brailo oversees overall growth and service delivery of Premier. He leads the Premier field service delivery team, which is charged with helping Premier’s members find solutions to improve cost and quality.
With more than 20 years of experience, he has a diverse background in sales, training and development, operations, process management, and customer service delivery working with Comcast Inc., medibuy.com and C.R. Bard Inc. During his Premier tenure, Andy has successfully partnered with members, suppliers and staff to develop and design customized and scalable solutions to quickly meet evolving needs in a dynamic healthcare industry.
Over the last several years, he has been dedicated to managing field staff who serve Premier’s alliance members in the east charged with driving the integration of our supply chain, quality, safety and operational tools and staff to benefit the membership.
Martina Brooks is the Senior Surgical and Procedural Standardization Program Manager with the Care Management department at Banner Health, where she has served for over 16 years. She graduated from Arizona State University with a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Innovation with a concentration in Healthcare Administration and Management
Dr. Allen Broome completed his Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Tennessee at Memphis in 1996. After graduation, Allen completed a General Practice Residency with Methodist Hospitals of Memphis. In 1997, he started work with Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, TN. After three years, he moved to a community-based practice where he participated in traditional community pharmacy, closed-door long-term care pharmacy, and compounding.
Returning to his hospital roots in 2007, Allen became a clinical pharmacist with Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, TN. His responsibilities included general medicine and cardiology. The opportunity soon came to start an inpatient anticoagulation service that is still serving Erlanger patients to this day.
After a brief stint in operations in 2012, he became the Senior Director of Pharmacy in 2013, advanced to Associate Vice President of Pharmacy Services in 2018 and continues in this position leading his team to numerous clinical and operational improvements across six facilities.
Burdette Brown is an innovative, collaborative and inspirational leader in the Supply Chain World. He is an industry leader in using RFID and RPA to automate supply chain processes.
Burdette has converted multiple hospitals to offsite distribution, par levels to two bin KanBan, capital purchasing programs and worked with multiple EHR’s, including converting and building new EHR’s.
With a Black Belt LEAN Six Sigma, as well as an entrepreneur, Burdette and change go hand and hand.
John has recently retired as President of the Seton Family of Hospitals in Austin, Tx. He has over 36 years of executive leadership experience in operations and complex systems management. He has been a consistent contributor to quality, physician alignment, strategy, employee engagement, efficiency, productivity, and market growth.
He has delivered results in progressively challenging roles and rapidly changing environments by effectively teaming with governing boards, management, and clinical staff to identify and implement solutions to diverse business challenges.
John received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his Masters in Healthcare Administration from The George Washington University.
Deborah Brown is an Associate Director in the Healthcare practice of Navigant Consulting. She is an experienced strategic healthcare executive in hospital operations, clinical practice and supply chain. Most recently, she supported a large supply network with their activities towards Clinical to Supply Integration and their efforts to transform to value-based healthcare.
Prior to her supply chain leadership experience, she was a Chief Nursing Officer for a top 100 hospital, where she was able to lead with “Quality as a Business Strategy.” She has been noted for innovation, adaptability and resilience.
Deborah’s successful healthcare career has delivered large multimillion dollar savings and strong operational efficiencies. Deborah has a unique skill that allows for cross functional integration that is essential in reducing the cost of healthcare.
Pamela Bryant is the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain for Parkland Health & Hospital System. Parkland is one of the largest public hospitals in the country with more than 1 million patient visits annually. Pamela leads a team of over 200 personnel and is responsible for all aspects of the supply chain, including procurement, strategic sourcing, informatics, logistics, distribution, vendor management and equipment/asset management.
She has more than 20 years of healthcare experience and a proven track record in driving cost reductions, supporting dynamic growth, implementing new initiatives, improving operational efficiencies and driving supplier diversity.
Pamela earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and Master of Business Administration degree from Averett University in Danville, Virginia. She is a member of The Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) where she previously served as president of the local chapter. Currently, she serves as the Board Chair of the Women’s Business Council Southwest (WBCS).
Director, Specialty Pharmacy Services
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Michelle Bush
Resource Utilization Manager, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOL HS)
Amy Campbell is responsible for Yankee Alliance’s Contracting, Analytics, Information Technology, Marketing and Human Resources departments. She oversees the development and effective implementation of the strategic direction for the Analytics and Contracting teams, including oversight of the development of new business intelligence tools and strategic sourcing programs. She is responsible for Information Technology policies, initiatives, and efficient management of IT resources. She aligns Human Resources programs with Yankee Alliance’s business strategy to maximize organizational effectiveness. Amy also acts as Yankee Alliance’s Chief Compliance Officer and directs all aspects of the organization’s legal affairs.
Amy’s experience has included over twenty years of Human Resources leadership in varied industries, such as biotechnology and insurance. Amy has a Master’s of Arts degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire. She currently serves on Premier’s Strategic Advisory Committee.
Mark Campbell is the vice president of supply chain at Tampa General Healthcare (TGH), a nationally renowned nonprofit academic medical center. Campbell has been serving as vice president of supply chain at TGH since 2006. In his position, Campbell is responsible for all aspects of the supply chain including, strategic sourcing, distribution, value analysis and minority business inclusion.
Prior to this role, Campbell served as director of health information management at TGH. Before joining TGH, Campbell was as a senior associate at KPMG LLP and a manager of health information management at Florida State Hospital.
Campbell received his Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management from the University of Tennessee and Master of Business Administration and Health Administration from the University of Florida. He is a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives and a certified materials and resource professional with the Association of Healthcare Resource and Materials Management.
Health Care Resource, Supply Chain, Materials Management, and Interim Staffing
R B Carlson and Associates, LLC
Bruce provides interim staffing to health care providers in the area of supply chain and materials management. Interim staffing assignments include seeking opportunities to identify substantial, long term savings and efficiencies for the health care provider.
Bruce has over 30 years of progressively complex healthcare supply chain management experience in materials management, purchasing, logistics, supply chain, self-warehousing, performance improvement and performance measurement areas.
These experiences have been earned by serving health care systems including: Tenant Healthcare Corporation, University of Indiana Medical Center, Ascension Health, and Valley Health System.
Bruce earned his Master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University and his Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Central Methodist University.
David Chan graduated from Midwestern University in 2005. He started his acute care track as a per diem in 2007 while managing a retail pharmacy local to Phoenix, AZ. In 2008, he transition to hospital directorship at Arizona Heart, then middle management at Banner University Medical Center for 4 years. In 2016, David was able to move to a system director role where he continued through to Texas and Philadelphia.
He was able to reconnect with family back in Arizona when the COVID crisis first arose and moved to Texas for a director role with Christus Health where he is rebuilding the clinical and residency program.
During his career, he has obtained his MBA and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He has applied these skills in facilities as systems as small as 300 beds to 1000 where results improved workflow and optimized on-hand inventory.
Maya serves as associate vice president of enterprise data management at Vizient, where she leads the teams that manage product and customer data. Maya has been at Vizient for over a decade and has had several roles in developing a business intelligence platform to support the sourcing and contracting activities.
Prior to that, she led the business development for an IT staffing startup.
Maya graduated with a BA in Statistics from India and an MBA from Pittsburg State University in Kansas. Maya and her husband have two boys, ages 9 and 11 and reside in Dallas.
In his role as Associate Vice President, Perioperative Portfolio for Providence St. Joseph Health, Dr. Jimmy Chung is responsible for system-wide collaborative development and integration of perioperative best practice and processes, working with physicians and operational stakeholders across the 51-hospital system.
Dr. Chung is also responsible for clinical value analysis of perioperative products and devices and has integrated physician leadership into developing strategic plans for system-wide supply chain standardization initiatives, using physician-specific cost and quality data analytics.
Dr. Chung received his MD at UC San Diego and completed his surgery residency at University of Washington. He completed his MBA at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Frank Cirillo is vice president, business strategy, Acurity, Inc. His main duties at Acurity are to bring value to health systems’ supply chain operations through group purchasing program participation and process improvement. Additionally, Frank provides consulting services to health systems with Acurity’s consulting arm Nexera.
For the previous 25 years, Mr. Cirillo held several senior management positions at HHC. During the latter two years of his tenure, Mr. Cirillo, HHC’s first chief restructuring officer, led HHC’s priority project—the restructuring of HHC’s clinical and operational programs—yielding HHC an implementation change roadmap resulting in savings and additional revenues of over $300 million annually.
For the prior 13 years, Frank was HHC’s chief operating officer responsible for a far-reaching span of control, including, but not limited to, supply chain operations and all contracting.
Frank received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, graduate training from St. John’s University, and holds certification from the “Top 40” executive management program administered by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also president/CEO of the Cirillo Consulting Group.
Armin Cline has 35 years of experience working for companies that supply healthcare providers with products and services. He joined Medtronic in early 2002 where he is currently President of Health Systems, responsible for Medtronic, Covidien Group commercial contracting activity with aggregate healthcare provider organizations including Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO’s), Purchasing Coalitions, the Federal Government and select integrated delivery networks.
Prior to joining Medtronic, Armin spent 18 years with the American Hospital Supply and Baxter in sales, sales and marketing management and corporate sales positions. He has been responsible for contracting activity with aggregated provider purchasing organizations, including national GPOs and regional coalitions, since 1985. Armin was also with Bergen Brunswig for three years where he was Executive Vice President of Corporate Sales, and worked for Neoforma in 2000 as Vice President Supplier Relations.
Armin graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Whitman College. He and his family live in the Boston area.
Shaun has spent more than 20 years in the healthcare supply chain. He joined Texas Health Resources in 2011 and his current role is Sr. Vice President, Supply Chain Management. In his current role as at Texas Health Resources, Shaun leads a team that has responsibility for logistics operations at facilities across North Texas, procurement of over $700M of supplies and equipment annually, MMIS management, courier services, equipment planning, clinical engineering, and a team of strategic sourcing and category management directors.
During his tenure, he has implemented new and innovative ways for front-line staff to interact with Supply Chain Management and has consistently produced economic value across all categories. His experience also includes time at Cardinal Health in a variety of management roles including e-business, logistics consulting, sales management, and business strategy. Shaun has also spent time doing market research for a patient experience organization where he was heavily involved in highlighting patient satisfaction metrics for large IDN’s around the country. He has also worked as a Senior Director for Premier, calling on IDN’s in order to maximize their relationship and value with their GPO contract portfolio and analytics tools.
Shaun holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Dallas Baptist University and a Master’s degree in Supply Chain Operations from The University of Liverpool. He has presented on the future of the healthcare supply chain, process improvement, and data standards to a wide variety of audiences during his career.
Alexandria Combs is a healthcare catalyst passionate about defining strategies that create new value by working at the intersection of tough healthcare business challenges with operational limitations in dynamic environments. Leveraging her experience in leadership of academic medical centers, healthcare consulting, and large-scale program growth and development, Alexandria consults on strategy and clinical transformation as well as with start-ups and companies focused on new market segments; Oregon Health & Science University, Stanford Health Care, and Kaiser Permanente are all recent/current clients. She is adept at establishing rapport and credibility with diverse groups ranging from clinical to technical teams.
Alexandria has a history of consistently surpassing organizational performance goals by growing clinical business, maintaining strong financial performance, and enhancing the patient experience and employee engagement. Alexandria also has a strong commitment to improving health and health care systems globally, particularly focusing on countries with lean economies. She actively volunteers in medical missions in Africa and Asia, assisting with strategic planning, fundraising, and operational execution of the missions.
Alexandria earned both her Masters of Science degree in Health Systems/Industrial Engineering and bachelor’s degree with honors in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech with a certificate in Organizational Psychology. Alexandria was selected as a fellow in the California Health Leadership College, participating in a year-long program dedicated to the development of “Next Generation CEOs”. She also holds a certificate in LEAN performance improvement training from BMGI and Joan Wellman Associates.
Karen Conway
Vice President, Healthcare Value & Former National Chair, GHX & Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM)
Karen Conway advances the role of supply chain as a critical enabler of value-based healthcare. She applies her extensive knowledge of supply chain operations and systems thinking to align processes, data and incentives across stakeholders and generate evidence on what improves the health of people and populations and the performance of organizations upon which an effective healthcare system depends.
A past chair of the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM), Conway serves on the boards of the Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) and the Bellwether League, the GS1 Global Healthcare Leadership Team, the expert advisory council for SCANHealth, and the healthcare advisory board for CAPS Research.
She is a co-author of the global leadership book, Leading from the Edge, a contributing author to eBusiness in Healthcare, and a monthly columnist on “Standard Practices” in healthcare.
Conway holds a Masters in the Science of Healthcare Delivery from Arizona State University.
Sara E. Cosgrove, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
She serves as the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Cosgrove currently serves as President-Elect on the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s Board of Directors and was the previous Chair of its Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. She is Assistant Deputy Editor of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
She was a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Working Group on Antimicrobial Resistance and was recently appointed as a voting member to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
Joshua Curtis is the AVP of Pharmacy Sourcing at HealthTrust. He is responsible for the planning and implementation of pharmacy strategic sourcing initiatives within an $8B spend portfolio across 170 different contracts. He also works closely with the Clinical Services team on drug shortage mitigation strategies to protect supply for HealthTrust members.
Throughout his 9 year career at HealthTrust, he has developed and implemented a wide array of contracting strategies across multiple categories – from Pharmacy Distribution, Brand and Generic Pharmaceuticals, Med-Surg Distribution, Advanced Energy Products, ENT Equipment and Supplies, and Powered Surgical Equipment. Before joining HealthTrust, Josh worked as an accountant at AmSurg, where he managed the full accounting cycle for targeted outpatient surgery centers.
Josh has his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from the University of North Alabama and his MBA in Supply Chain Management from the University of Tennessee.
Jodie Curtis has more than 25 years of experience in government, congressional affairs, and representing the legislative and regulatory interests of for-profit, nonprofit and global organizations. She works across a broad range of policy, appropriations and regulatory issues, including health and life sciences, digital health, global health, agriculture, manufacturing, trade, transportation, insurance and environmental issues. Jodie helps clients foster meaningful relationships with officials and their staffs and is deeply involved in the federal appropriations and authorization processes.
Highly attuned to the changing regulatory and legislative landscape, she has earned recognition as one of The Hill’s Top Lobbyists 2017-2019. Prior to joining the District Policy Group, Jodie served as an assistant director with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Representative Thomas M. Barrett (D-WI), executive assistant for U.S. Representatives Lynn Rivers (D-MI) and Peter Barca (D-WI), and district director/legislative assistant for Wisconsin State Senator Barbara Ulichny.
Jodie credits her interest in politics to her high school civics teacher and an internship for a state representative of Wisconsin. Jodie lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her Chicago−sports fan husband, Greg, where you might find her biking or cheering for her favorite Wisconsin or Chicago sports teams.
Senior Project Manager - Supply Chain
The University of Vermont Health Network
Dr. Arash Dabestani currently serves as the Dean and Professor at LIU Pharmacy. In this role, Dr. Dabestani builds on transformational synergies in drug discovery and generics with LIU’s health and science programs, including solidifying major digital health, clinical, and digital drug discovery partnerships with leading industrial, clinical, and educational entities.
Prior to coming to LIU, Dr. Dabestani served as Senior Director of Pharmacy at NYU Langone. While at NYU Langone, Dr. Dabestani was responsible for leading a staff of 300 and managing an annual budget in excess of $250M, as well as transforming his department into one of the most well-regarded automated and technologically advanced departments of pharmacy worldwide. He is an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Fellow and has served multiple terms on the ASHP Section of the Pharmacy Practice Manager’s Leadership Development.
Deborah Dahl is the Vice President, Patient Care Innovation, at Banner Health. Debora’s significant introductions to Banner include iCare, an extensive acute care Telemedicine program including Tele-ICU, MED/Surg, eConsult and Primary Care for patients with chronic diseases. The eICU provides physicians and nurses to Banner ICUs and the iCare Med Surg monitors Med Surg patients 24/7 and is the beta for the eHospital concept. Prior to this, she was an Administrator for Banner Desert Medical Center, one of the largest and most comprehensive hospitals in Arizona.
Deborah has also served as the Vice President of Technology and Materials, where she led the Technology Management and materials and Purchasing Services. She began her career with Samaritan Health System (prior to its merger, becoming Banner Health) in bioengineering and has held various engineering and management positions since.
Deborah holds a BSE and an MBA from Arizona State University.
Paulina Deming
Associate Professor - College of Pharmacy Assistant Director, Viral Hepatitis Programs - ECHO Institute, The University of New Mexico
Dr. Paulina Deming is an Associate Professor-Clinical Educator within the Pharmacy Practice and Administrative Sciences Department at the College of Pharmacy at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. In addition to her teaching, she has co-authored papers and book chapters on the management of HCV infections. She also serves as the assistant director of Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) HCV programs, which include HCV community, corrections, and Indian Country teleECHO clinics.
In January 2018, she helped launch and serves as the co-director for the Great Plains HCV teleECHO clinic which was originally geared to support pharmacist led HCV treatment in Indian Health Services/Tribal/Urban clinics. At Project ECHO since 2006, Dr. Deming serves on the expert faculty panel to inform clinical decisions on HCV therapy, trains other providers how to comprehensively care for patients with chronic HCV, and advises on maximizing HCV therapy.
She is licensed as a pharmacist clinician and sees patients in the university based HCV clinic as well as at Truman Medical Services.
Melanie Dodd
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs & Associate Professor of Pharmacy in Geriatrics, The University of New Mexico
Melanie A. Dodd, Pharm.D., Ph.C., BCPS, FASHP is Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Associate Professor in geriatrics at The University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Pharmacy. She is a pharmacist clinician with prescriptive authority at the UNM Senior Health Clinic providing chronic disease and medication management. She is responsible for extensive didactic and clinical teaching activities in the Doctor of Pharmacy program and the UNM Health Sciences Center, including interprofessional education. She also plays an active role in operations and establishment of pharmacy practice clinical services. She is an active advocate for advanced pharmacy practice services at the local and national level.
Dr. Dodd received her B.S. in Pharmacy from Purdue University, Pharm.D from UNM, and completed a pharmacy practice residency at Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, NM.
As vice president of Enterprise Analytics and Data Services, Curtis and his team are responsible for designing and deploying solutions that drive clinical, operational, and financial performance improvement. He oversees the identification and use of tools, technology, metrics and dashboards across the entire care continuum, driving more predictive and dynamic decisions that help optimize the Mercy experience for caregivers and patients.
Curtis has more than 20 years’ experience in healthcare, supply chain and information technology. He has held various positions with Mercy that include management positions in the operating room, warehousing and distribution, regional supply chain leadership, and IT.
Curtis is a member of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM). He also has served as an advisory board member to a number of different health care technology companies.
Melissa Skelton Duke is responsible for the design, deployment, and oversight of innovative pharmacy strategies that provide value to healthcare consumers, providers, and populations. This includes a variety of pharmacist-provided clinical services, population health management services, and patient advocacy programs.
She has extensive experience in the design and deployment of innovative clinical strategies in acute care, primary care, ambulatory infusion, and population health.
Prior to her current role, Melissa led a comprehensive specialty, home delivery, and ambulatory pharmacy services for Banner Health and was responsible for the development of acute care and ambulatory clinical pharmacy services at Intermountain Healthcare.
Melissa is also passionate about healthcare policy and leadership. She has held a number of elected and volunteer leadership positions at the state and national level and is always eager to help others engage in the profession of pharmacy.
JIM ECKLER, Co-Founder, Healthcare Supply Chain eXcellence, provides advisory services with practical strategic and operational advice to management teamsand Boards. His background includes over 40years of experience in supply chain management, shared services,andbusiness strategy development.
Prior to establishing his advisory practice, Jim wasCOO of the shared services organization for a major healthcare systemcomprising over 100 hospitals.For18 yearsprior to thatJim held senior executive roles in operating companies including 14 years as CEO of a leading outsourcing services company, providing logistics services for major technology, healthcare, and retail companies such as Amazon, Lowes, Walmart, Siemens,and Xerox. Prior to theseleadership positions, Jim was a supply chain management consultant with Booz Allen and with KPMG.
Jim is a graduate in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and in Management Science from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
With nearly 30 years of experience in healthcare sales, marketing, and management, Dave Edwards is an enthusiastic champion of creating win/win scenarios through collaboration, particularly between healthcare providers and suppliers. He is an energetic leader with a proven record of sales success with a Fortune 50 company, a start-up-device company and as a partner in a small medical manufacturer.
Now an executive with the Premier healthcare alliance, his talents for motivating people, synthesizing complex ideas and building strong relationships across the healthcare supply chain, along with his engaging personality, make Dave one of the industry’s authorities on driving strategy, collaboration and organizational improvements.
During his 16-year tenure with Premier, he has been the principal architect of Premier’s field force strategy and has been instrumental in propelling the alliance’s purchasing volume from $12 to $44 billion.
Jon Ellsworth has extensive knowledge and expertise in the development, assessment, and improvement of non-clinical or Purchased Services sourcing. With experience at both Premier and Vizient as a member of their non-clinical consulting teams, Mr. Ellsworth has done pioneering work in locum tenens, legal, marketing, revenue cycle and transplants to name a few.
Having worked with and led work at 30+ health systems nationwide, he is uniquely qualified as an expert in the Purchased Services space. He received his BS in Business Administration from Arizona State University and MHA from University of Colorado Denver.
Director of Innovation and Integration for Shared Clinical Services
Fairview Health Services
clients engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. In his provocative, inspiring and always entertaining talks, #1 bestselling leadership author Chester Elton provides real solutions to leaders looking to manage change, drive innovation, and lead a multi-generational workforce. Elton’s work is supported by research with more than 850,000 working adults, revealing the proven secrets behind high-performance cultures and teams.
Amir Emamifar’s career spans more than 30 years as a clinical pharmacist, academician, health system clinical pharmacy coordinator, director of pharmacy, health system vice president/chief pharmacy officer and global health executive. He has a strong collaborative leadership style and is a metric driven executive who measures performance based on achievement of deliverables. Dr. Emamifar was the Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Temple University Healthcare System and has an appointment as Distinguished Clinical Scholar in Pharmacy at Temple University College of Pharmacy. He is currently the Senior consultant with ASHP and serves as healthcare consultant with several startup and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Emamifar has been responsible for pharmacy services in several health care organizations and two large academic medical centers. His experience includes inpatient services, clinical services, cancer care, clinical trials and investigational drug services, health system IT, supply chain, prescription benefit management, retail, and infusion pharmacies. |
Jim Eppel is President and Chief Executive Officer of UCare. Before joining UCare in June 2015, he was Senior Vice President of OptumInsight, a division of UnitedHealth Group. As such, Eppel provided internal and external consulting services in a variety of areas, including health insurance exchanges, patient engagement, and the assumption and management of health care services rick by provider entities.
Prior to his work at Optum, Eppel was Chief Operating Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota after serving five years in executive leadership roles for the health plan’s commercial markets, health management, revenue management for Allina Health, UnitedHealth Group, Medica, and MedCenters Healthcare. He began his career with KPMG Peat Marwick.
Marisa Farabaugh is Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer for AdventHealth. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of supply chain withinthesystem,including contracting, field operations, data and analytics, value analysis, affiliates program, corporate pharmacy and RxPlus, and corporate construction management. Farabaugh recently joined AdventHealth and started in July of 2019.
Prior to this transition, Farabaugh held severalroles within healthcare supply chain, most recently as the ChiefSupply Chain Officer for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. During her time at Wake Forest, she also served as Head of the M&A and led the organization through major corporate initiatives including an overhead study. Prior to joining the healthcare industry, Farabaugh worked as an industrial engineer at The Hershey Company in Hershey, PA.
Farabaugh received her bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida and her MBA from Pennsylvania State University.
Clinical Pharmacist/Associate Professor
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences & The Center for Rheumatology
Dr. Farrell is currently employed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her practice site is The Center for Rheumatology in Albany, NY where she provides a variety of clinical pharmacy services including pharmacotherapy consult services, self-injection counseling visits, off-label insurance approval service, and adverse event monitoring and reporting. She also serves as an associate medical officer for the Steffens Scleroderma Center.
Dr. Farrell presents nationally and internationally on numerous rheumatic conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, scleroderma, pregnancy and lactation in rheumatic disease. She is affiliated with several professional organizations, including the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ACR/ARHP), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), and previously held officer positions for the New York State Council of Health-System Pharmacists (NYSCHP)-Northeastern Chapter.
Dr. Farrell received her Doctor of Pharmacy Degree at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, NY.
Jeffrey Feit, MD
A consultant in the healthcare industry with expertise in GPOs, Pharmacy and Supply Chain, Freeman joined Trinity Health in August 2019. Previously Freeman served as Vice President of Pharmacy for Intalere (formerly Amerinet) a national healthcare supply chain and group purchasing organization. There he was accountable for the efficient day-to-day operations, strategies, and performance of Intalere's Pharmacy Division. Responsibilities included managing the program and the overall development, negotiation, and administration of contracts for products, services, and distribution; development and marketing of the contracts; support for members’ and markets’ needs; assistance to sales in educating potential and current members to the benefits the program. Freeman collaborated with the pharmaceutical industry to investigate areas of mutual interest and benefit; represented the company to manufacturers, wholesalers, members, as well as regional, state and national associations and agencies.
With over 30 years of healthcare experience, Freeman served more than eight years as the Director of the Pharmacy Program for AllHealth, a regional group purchasing organization serving the Mid-Atlantic States. Additionally, Freeman has significant hospital experience serving as the pharmacy director in three facilities. With an interest in pharmacy automation, Gary has worked for several information technology companies as well as in the information services department of a large multi-hospital healthcare organization. Rounding out his experience is service as a staff pharmacist in a retail community pharmacy.
A member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Freeman has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Temple University, a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from Temple University School of Pharmacy and a master of business administration from St. Joseph’s University.
Scott Gasiorek is the director of supply chain informatics at Trinity Health. His current role includes reference data management, supply chain systems administration and business intelligence. He has over 15 years of experience in healthcare systems management with large IDN's and as a consultant.
Scott graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Miami and a Master's of Accountancy from Arizona State University.
Jessica Gehrke RN, BSN, MBA, MHA is the Manager of Contract Portfolios for Procedural Areas at Froedtert Health. In her role Jessica is responsible for strategic direction of her portfolio. Jessica ensures contract compliance, data integrity, as well as vendor relations for her entire portfolio. As a clinician Jessica not only serves as the clinical liaison for supply chain, but also helps lead Froedtert’s Value Analysis Program. Jessica works with leadership and clinical staff to insure Froedtert Health utilizes superior clinical products at the best price.
Prior to coming to Froedtert Health Jessica was a Critical Care Nurse at Prohealth Care for 11 years. She also worked at Wisconsin Donor Network as an Organ Procurement Coordinator. Jessica received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Alverno College, and Master’s degrees in Business and Healthcare Administration from Colorado Technical University.
Jessica is ACLS, BLS, and CCRN certified. She is a member of the American Association of Certified Nurses, American Nurses Association, and Wisconsin Nurses Association.
Nila has worked at Kettering Health Network for over 30 years and has held her current role as the Strategic Sourcing Manager for the past 15 years. She has responsibility for value analysis and contracting for multiple clinical areas and facilitates several VA teams.
Nila began her career at KHN as a staff nurse, moving into the role of Clinical Nurse Manger with a background in ICU and ED nursing. Nila is very active in the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP) and is a past president of the organization. She participated on the committee that coordinated the implementation of the AVAHP certification exam.
She has spoken on both clinical and value analysis topics at state and national meetings, including the Ohio Hospital Association, the IDN Summit, The Association of Healthcare Value Analysis annual conference and Premier Breakthroughs.
Nila earned her BSN from Miami University of Ohio and her Master’s degree from Andrews University in Michigan. She is one of first 35 people nationally to hold a certification in value analysis, the CVAHP.
As a Director with the Advisory Board’s Spend Performance Solutions division, Elizabeth Goodman-Bacon focuses primarily on clinical supply sourcing. Most recently, Elizabeth has led sourcing projects at major health systems across the country including MetroHealth, Intermountain Healthcare, Legacy Health, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Hurley Medical Center. In addition to her project-based work, Elizabeth currently serves as the lead strategic partner for all supply chain related work with the Advisory Board’s largest portfolio client.
Previously, Elizabeth worked in Legislative Affairs & Strategic Management developing and executing strategic project related to state and federal reform implementation. Prior to her work within healthcare systems, Elizabeth had worked in the Research & Insight division of the Advisory Board Company, specifically focusing on service line strategy and new clinical technologies.
Dr. Deepak Manmohan Goyal
Monument Health
Dr. Deepak Manmohan Goyal is an Executive Physician with more than 20 years of progressive responsibility in various medical fields. His diverse medical experience spans surgery, orthopedics, emergency services, primary care, and hospitalist services.
Deepak’s executive experience includes Medical Director, Chief of Staff, Program Director of Hospital Medicine and Physician Advisor. These various disciplines provide Dr. Goyal an excellent insight to the supply chain and revenue cycle fields.
Dr. Goyal is the recipient of several honors and awards including The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief which is the equivalent of a 4-star General in the US. Deepak was also named Program Director of the month achieving Best New Program of the year.
Dr. Goyal and his family live in Rapid City, SD, where he is currently the Physician Advisor and Executive Medical Director Revenue Cycle with Monument Health, Rapid City Hospital.
Vice President Emergency Preparedness
Hospital and Healthsystem Association of PA
Erin Gruwell is a teacher, an education activist, and the founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation. Inspired by Anne Frank, Gruwell and her students captured their collective journey in The Freedom Writers Diary. Through poignant student entries and Gruwell’s narrative text, the book records their “eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding.” Gruwell and her students have appeared on numerous television shows, including Oprah, Barbara Walters’ The View and Good Morning America, to name a few. Gruwell and the Freedom Writers have earned dozens of awards, including the prestigious Spirit of Anne Frank Award.
Gruwell is a graduate of the University of California Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.
Abel Haile is a Deloitte Advisory Manager with nearly 10 years of health care experience. Abel works in the Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory practice and has experience project managing multi-faceted and cross-disciplinary health care engagements including: (1) analyzing health care data to identify opportunities and compliance concerns; (2) reviewing relevant governance and oversight documentation, including policies and procedures, as well as; (3) assisting with third party audits and performing fraud waste and abuse analysis.
Abel has assisted hospital systems with their 340B Drug Pricing Program, and he has worked in tandem with his clients to optimize and increase compliance within their 340B Drug Pricing Program. By leveraging his background in pharmacy and data analytics he has been able identifying system inefficiencies potentially leading to non-compliance.
Prior to Deloitte, Abel worked for one of the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chains and led their performance and decision support team. His role(s) included automating business processes, improving system inefficiencies, and performing data analysis on pharmaceutical claims to identify areas of opportunity.
Neil Halpern
Director, Critical Care Center ; Chief, Critical Care Medicine Service; Medical Director, Respiratory Therapy, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Neil Halpern is Director of the Critical Care Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is a Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, a Master of Critical Care Medicine of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and a Fellow of the American Colleges of Medicine and Chest Physicians, respectively.
He serves on the Editorial Boards of Critical Care Medicine and Critical Care Nursing Quarterly and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Facilities Guidelines Institute and the Healthcare Chaplaincy Network. Neil chairs the Clinical Device and Product Evaluation Committee at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
His ICU won the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s 2009 ICU design citation award as well as the 2014 Honorable Mention for the Family-Centered Innovation Award. Neil specializes in innovations in ICU design, ICU informatics, and the cost, use and providers of critical care in America.
Neil was honored by the Society of Critical Care Medicine as the recipient of the 2019 Barry A. Shapiro Memorial Award for Excellence in Critical Care Management. Neil is a Principal of Critical Care Designs, LLC, a New York based ICU consulting group.
Executive Director and Associate Dean of Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Bouve' Health Science College
Northeastern University
As senior vice president of supply chain, David A. Hargraves leads Premier’s core supply chain business, including sourcing, contract management, operations and business analytics. Hargraves joined Premier in 2015 to lead the negotiation teams responsible for developing contracts within Premier’s $50 billion portfolio. He was promoted to group vice president of strategic sourcing in 2016 assuming responsibility for all of Premier’s strategic sourcing initiatives.
Hargraves has over 25 years of leadership experience, including more than 15 years in supply chain. Before joining Premier, Hargraves worked at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for nine years as vice president of clinical supply chain. Hargraves served as adjunct professor of sustainable supply chain management at Chatham University and held supply chain leadership roles with Alcoa and Ariba. He was also a hospital corpsman and biomedical equipment technician for the U.S. Navy.
Hargraves received his MBA with a concentration in healthcare finance from Waynesburg University and his BS from Duquesne University. He also has an AS in biomedical engineering technology from Penn State University.
AVP, Professional Services, Clinical Pharmacy, Clinical Laboratory and Disease Management
Martin Health System
Professionally, Dr Harlow is the Assistant Vice President for Professional Services at Cleveland Clinic – Martin Health System in Stuart Florida with responsibility for Pharmacy, Laboratory and Chronic Care Management. Dr. Harlow joined the Martin Health System as the Chief Pharmacy Officer coming from Carilion Clinic’s ACO as the Regional Director of Pharmacy Operations for Southwestern Virginia. Additionally, Dr. Harlow was previously the executive officer of PharmaDym PA, a clinical pharmacy consulting firm. His experience has also included Retail Pharmacy ownership, Home Infusion as well as Pharmacy Benefit Management.
Currently, Dr. Harlow serves as the Chair of the Florida Society of Health System Pharmacists Legislative and Regulatory Committee and has been a legislative resource for ASHP and has either been quoted or contributed to a variety of publications.
Recent accomplishments include:
Guest Speaker for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals National Sales Meeting 2019 on Drug Shortages
Featured in Forbes Magazine May 2018 – commentary on Drug Shortages
Janssen Pharmaceuticals - Health Systems Advisory Board - 2016
Project Designer of Martin Health Systems Comprehensive Health Management Program – ChaMPs 2014 – Research Publication Pending
CoAuthor of (IHARP) Improving Health of At Risk Rural Patient – A CMS Innovations center granted project ($4.6 million).- 2012
Contributor to: Supporting Health Care Reform through Advanced Pharmacy Practice – A Report the Surgeon General 2012
Currently, Dr. Harlow serves as the Chair of the Florida Society of Health System Pharmacists and has been a legislative resource for ASHP and has either been quoted or contributed to a variety of publications.
As vice president and chief supply chain officer, Tom Harvieux is responsible for leading BJC HealthCare’s supply chain and logistics strategy to deliver efficient, cost effective and high-quality services and outcomes. His responsibilities include executive leadership of 390 team members and $1.7 billion non-labor spend management.
With more than $6 billion in net revenues and more than 31,000 employees in the greater St. Louis area, BJC HealthCare is one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States and one of the largest employers in Missouri. BJC includes 15 hospitals and multiple community health locations.
Prior to joining BJC in 2018, Harvieux was the vice president of corporate supply chain management for Sanford Health, a $5 billion health system headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There he had responsibility for $1.3 billion in non-labor spend management and lead a team of 445. Before joining Sanford in 2008, he served as director of supply chain operations at Fairview Health Services – Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minnesota.
Prior to entering healthcare, he spent 22 years in supply chain leadership roles in the military. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a master’s degree in logistics management from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. He serves on multiple industry boards.
Paul Helmering is Vice President of Clinical Informatics at HealthTrust. In his role, Paul works with the CMO and other clinical leaders to provide HealthTrust’s clinical analytics technology, data management, and data science capabilities including strategy, development and operations. Paul joined HealthTrust in 2019 and brings 25 years of experience across various industries in the areas of business intelligence, data management, systems development, finance, and enterprise architecture.
Prior to HealthTrust he spent 14 years at Mercy Health and ROi’s GPO. He also consulted at numerous companies including Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto and Anheuser-Busch.
Paul received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University.
Malcolm Henoch, M.D. is senior vice president and associate chief medical officer, acute care at Beaumont Health. In this role, Dr. Henoch is responsible for promoting excellence in clinical care at all Beaumont Health acute care hospitals.
He comes to Beaumont Health from Oakwood, where he served as senior vice president and chief medical officer. He has provided executive leadership in clinical and medical staff affairs, graduate medical education, clinical strategic direction, and physician leadership development. He has also been chairman of Oakwood Physicians, providing leadership in the governance of that physician group practice. He is a member of the Beaumont Health board and is chairman of Oakwood Assurance Corporation.
Prior to his position with Oakwood, Dr. Henoch served as president and CEO of University Mednet, a large multi-specialty physician group operating as a unit of University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH.
Board certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Dr. Henoch holds a Master of Business Administration from Case Western Reserve University and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland.
Kevin Hines
Clint Hinman serves as Centura Health’s Chief Pharmacy Officer and Vice President of Pharmacy, with expanded responsibilities in Shared Services, ranging from Pharmacy and Purchased Service to Imaging, Clinical Nutrition and Respiratory Therapy. He has over 20 years of healthcare experience committed to high-quality outcomes, clinical standardization and patient safety.
Clint served in the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Nation as a Commissioned Corps Officer and performed in a number of leadership roles within the University of Arizona’s Health Network prior to joining the Centura Health team.
Clint earned his Doctorate of Pharmacy at Creighton University in Omaha, NE, and Masters in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Michael joined CHRISTUS Health in August 1994, after serving in the United States Marine Corps. His supply chain journey began at CHRISTUS Spohn region (Corpus Christi, TX) for 8 years. He then transferred to the CHRISTUS Gulf Coast region (Houston, TX) for 10 years, and has been with Corporate Supply Chain for the past 4 years.
During his career his experiences include procurement, contracting, inventory management and MM operations and logistics. In his current role he managers over $364 Million in annual spend related to purchased services. The Contracting Purchased Service Lines are all purchased services related but not limited to Facilities Management, Clinical Engineering, Housekeeping, and Food Service. Other top services include Managed Print Services, Integrated Waste Management, Dialysis Service, Linen and Laundry, Blood Management, and Elevator Services.
David Hunter
Dan Hurry joined Mercy Health in 2016 to lead the ministry's Supply Chain operations, including procurement, logistics, sourcing and accounts payable in all acute and non-acute facilities.
Hurry came to Mercy Health from Tenet Healthcare where he was responsible for the Texas region supply chain operations, as well as strategy and logistics development for the Tenet enterprise of 85 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient facilities nationwide.
He also served in a variety of leadership roles at Valero Energy’s headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, specifically in the areas of consolidated logistics, wholesale capital, project management and supply chain across the country. His varied experience in a host of supply chain areas brings a valuable point of view to Mercy Health.
A native of upstate New York, Hurry earned his bachelor’s degree from State University of New York at Fredonia and his MBA from University of Texas at San Antonio.
Mr. Jackson has spent 16 years in various healthcare leadership roles including operations, supply chain, and finance. He has worked with hospitals in New York, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama on projects such as, Physician Preferred Item utilization and cost analysis, Strategic Supply Chain planning, supply expense reduction, financial system implementation, payroll and labor productivity analysis, and inventory and distribution management.
Mr. Jackson began his healthcare career with Ernst & Young implementing large ERP supply chain and financial software systems for hospitals. He then moved to First Consulting Group advising hospitals on issues such as strategic supply chain management, supply expense cost reduction, and labor productivity analysis. Joe has spent the last eleven years focusing on reducing hospital costs for total joint, spine, trauma, and cardiac implantable devices. He has worked with numerous surgeons and manufacturers to achieve and sustain implant cost reductions.
Chuck Jensen currently serves as the director of sourcing and contracting at Froedtert Health. Within this role, he leads the purchasing team as well as the sourcing/contracting team. Jensen developed and led a major departmental restructuring 18 months ago that dramatically improved the capabilities and results of the department. Previously, Jensen served as director of supply chain at Comanche County Memorial in Lawton, Oklahoma, and director of materials management at McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey, Michigan. |
Brent Johnson has been one of the most successful and recognized supply chain leaders in healthcare in the last 13 years. He has over 30 years of experience developing supply chain strategies for major companies in three industries.
Brent has a passion for supply chain best practices and wants to help the healthcare industry recognize the value of managing supply chain more strategically. He has spoken over 100 times at major conferences, written many articles, received key industry awards and served on the board of directors of some of the leading industry organizations. From 2005 to 2015 Brent was Vice-President of Supply Chain at Intermountain Healthcare, creating an industry “Top 25 Gartner” Supply Chain Organization (#1 in 2016 & 2015) that achieved over $500 million in savings over ten years. In 2012, Intermountain Healthcare opened a new $40M, 325,000 sq. ft. Supply Chain Center considered one of the best in the industry.
In 2014 Brent was inducted into the Bellweather League, which is a Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership. In August, 2015 AHRMM named Brent the recipient of the 2015 George R. Gossett Leadership Award. He has served on the boards of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) 2012-2015 and Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) 2011-2015). Before retiring Brent served one year as the President and CEO of Intalere when Intermountain Healthcare completed the purchase of Amerinet.
Upon retiring in July, 2016, Brent and his wife spent 18 months in Oaxaca, Mexico as service missionaries for the Mormon (LDS) church. He has an MBA from the University of Utah. He resides in Centerville, UT and has four children and eighteen grandchildren.
Lori is responsible for the implementation of all supply chain savings opportunities for Shared Services partners. This includes working with partners to analyze, identify and track supply chain savings. Lori is also instrumental in managing and leveraging vendor relationships for the benefit of our partners.
Since joining Novant in 1997, Lori has held several positions within corporate finance, most recently as the director of finance within supply chain. She led the supply chain integration for all mergers of new facilities. She was also responsible for strategic sourcing implementation, supply chain information services and purchasing functions. Lori is currently a member of the NCACPA and AICPA, having served in the past as a board member of the local NCACPA chapter. She has served as treasurer for several community associations. She is a member of the United Way Women’s Leadership Council and volunteers within Forsyth County Public Schools.
Christopher Jones
Director, Division of Science Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Russell has over 25 years of experience working with health care providers, biotech and pharma companies, tech companies and medical device manufacturers addressing a wide variety of information security, cybersecurity, OT security, data privacy and IT risk management problems.
Russell has led various types of projects with the following providing a representative sample: the assessment of the security and privacy posture of healthcare related systems and infrastructure, implementation of a connected device total lifecycle cybersecurity solution, implementation of Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, implementation of cyber threat intelligence and SIEM solutions, implementation of Cisco’s NAC solution (ISE) and cybersecurity assessments of complex ICS/OT manufacturing sites.
Russell is one of the leaders of Deloitte’s Cyber IoT/Industrial IoT practice and focuses on connected device safety and security. Russell has been published numerous times in periodicals such as the ISACA Journal, Information Security Magazine, and ISC2Information Systems Security Journal. Russell also has been quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Minnesota Star Tribune, InformationWeek, and Healthcare IT News and in 2016 was interviewed by ABC KSTP Minneapolis for a live healthcare segment focused on cybersecurity and implantable medical devices.
Russell is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP), AWS Certified Security Specialty and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in California and Maryland.
Annette Karageanes, MS, RPh, is currently the assistant Director of Pharmacy Supply Chain for Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak, MI. She has held both hospital – and corporate – level leadership positions in pharmacy at multiple institutions. She has significant experience in pharmacy operations and supply chain management and was instrumental in developing the specialty pharmacy program at Beaumont.
Karageanes received her bachelors of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Michigan and her Masters of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Management from Wayne State University.
Considered one of the elite quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League, Jim Kelly led the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs eight times and to four consecutive Super Bowls from 1991-1994. Jim shared his story of perseverance and overcoming obstacles including his insights on teamwork, leadership, having a special needs child, and fighting cancer.
Kelley Kieffer, RN, BSN, MSN-L, CNML
Kirchenbauer is passionate about bringing innovative new approaches to the health care industry, and using new technology-based approaches to increase efficiency and reduce cost at hospitals nationwide. Over the past two decades, he has led the development of key strategies that have resulted in advances in e-commerce, GPO contract management and analytics.
Over his 20 plus years with Vizient he served in numerous roles focused on leveraging data and technology to assist hospitals in maximizing the value of supply chain contracts. Prior to his current role, Kirchenbauer served as the founding general manager of aptitude, the first direct contracting marketplace in healthcare, focused on advancing committed supply relationships between providers and suppliers. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Vizient, aptitude met a strategic need within the industry that is unmet by the traditional contracting model. In prior roles within Vizient, provided leadership and direction for Vizient’s master data management area, led product development efforts for various analytics and contract management solutions including the development of Vizient’s contract management and e-commerce platform.
Since 2011, Kirchenbauer has been an active fundraiser, volunteer and member of the advisory board for Integrity Mentors, a non-profit, 501(c)3 charity dedicated to improving the lives of young men and women who live in challenging socioeconomic conditions.
Kirchenbauer received a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on business strategy and leadership from the University of Dallas, and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management from Texas A&M University at Commerce.
Jennifer Kleabir
Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Sustaining Care Services, Memorial Sloan Kettering
Ramesh has 20+ years experience as a transformational consultant and industry specialist (MS, MBA, Six Sigma) focused on Supply Chain Management, Strategic Sourcing, Outsourced / Shared Services, and Business Process Reengineering in the Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Goods and Financial Services industries. Ramesh joined Prime Healthcare in April 2017 as their VP of Supply Chain to focus on re-visiting their GPO and distribution strategy. Prime owns and manages 45 hospitals across 14 states. In his current role, Ramesh oversees a spend of more than $1.1B and is actively engaged with the C-Suite to develop an expense management framework to improve EBITDA and drive value across supply and purchased services categories.
Prior to Prime, Ramesh served as Vice President of Supply Chain at Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In that role, he governed the supply chain organization through an outsourced service provider and driving year over year reduction in operating expenses. Ramesh's technical degree and initial roles related to optimization and modeling distribution, sales, and logistics for CPG supply chains. Upon graduation from Rutgers' MBA program, Ramesh spent a few years with Schering Plough and Bristol Myers Squibb doing business and financial analyses. Ramesh has consulting experience with several firms in New York and London working on large transformational projects in procure to pay, shared services, outsourcing, marketing strategy and technology assessment and implementation. Ramesh joined Credit Suisse as VP Shared Services & Supply Management where he developed commodity management strategies to identify, capture and realize savings.
Ramesh has spent 7+ years with Amgen and has had several roles within the Global Strategic Sourcing Group at Amgen across various categories such as Clinical Trials, Regulatory & Safety, IT, Indirect Services, Call Centers and wholesaler distribution. Ramesh resides in Orange County in the Los Angeles area where he lives with his wife and 2 daughters. Ramesh enjoys the outdoors and going to the gym.
Ken has been in the Healthcare Industry, including medical imaging distribution and capital equipment, physician distribution and imaging startup, for over 33 years.
Ken has held VP level positions in sales, national accounts and marketing for major companies like Picker International and PSS/World Medical Diagnostic Imaging Division as well as Riverain Medical. He has been successful in developing and implementing strategic plans for distribution channel strategy as well as national and federal accounts.
Ken has a Business Administration Degree from Jacksonville University.
Rob Kurtz is a Sourcing Manager at Intermountain Healthcare. He has 15 years of supply chain experience, including 10 years in the health care field that includes hospital and supply chain operations. In his current role, Rob provides his stakeholders with supply chain analytical support specific to the perioperative service lines.
Rob earned his undergraduate degree in Business Management from Utah Valley University and an MBA with emphasis in hospital administration from Western Governors University. Rob holds a CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management) certification from the Institute for Supply Management.
Rob makes his home in Lehi, Utah with his wife Dani and their two children Bronson and Alaina. In addition to spending time with family, he enjoys spending time in the many beautiful landscapes that Utah provides.
Roger Larkin is the Director Supply Chain for Maury Regional Medical Center (MRMC) in Columbia, TN. Roger joined MRMC in July 2011 and has over 25 years’ experience in Healthcare Supply Chain. Roger has responsibility for Contracting, Purchasing, Operations, Logistics, MMIS, and Value Analysis for MRMC's three hospitals, three ASC’s, five clinics and twenty-two physician’s offices. During his career, Roger has planned, procured, implemented and relocated two acute care hospitals and has installed two multi-hospital ERP systems.
He graduated in 1988 from the University of Tennessee with a degree in Economics and Business Administration. He is a Certified Materials & Resource Professional (CMRP) and is a member of the Association of Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM) and the Tennessee Association of Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (TAHRMM). Roger is Lean Certified from the Lean Healthcare Certificate Program Series at the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University, in conjunction with Healthcare Performance Partners. He also teaches Basic and Advanced Lean Classes at MRMC. Roger excels in pursuing, negotiating, implementing, driving compliance and standardization to produce cost savings throughout the system.
Todd Larkin provides leadership to the Intalere contracting division in the development and enhancement of the Intalere portfolio of contracts and total cost reduction solutions. With more than 20 years’ experience in contracting, procurement and supply chain management, Larkin brings his expertise to Intalere to ensure members are receiving the best portfolio offerings to enhance operations and reduce costs. Prior to joining Intalere, Larkin was the senior director for Corporate Procurement at Express Scripts and was responsible for leading a 50+ person organization managing $2B in annual indirect spend.
Prior to Express Scripts, Larkin spent five years at MasterCard Worldwide, leading a global team focused on improving systems, processes and governance of the procurement function. Prior to MasterCard, Larkin held a number of progressively challenging positions with global responsibilities over 10 years in IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain organization.
Larkin received his MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Larkin is also a Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM).
JoAnne Levy is Vice President of Supply Chain Operations for ROi. JoAnne is responsible for all hospital-to-patient supply chain operations in Mercy’s many acute and non-acute healthcare facilities across a four-state region, helping drive ROi’s accountable supply chain organizational model. She also leads ROi’s transportation function for its customers, including a wide variety of over-the-road, courier and backhaul services, as well as its Integrated Services team, which provides customer service, purchasing and item master management for multiple customers. JoAnne also serves as ROi’s legal and regulatory liaison.
Prior to serving in current role, Joanne led ROi’s Integrated Sourcing Solutions (ISS) team and was responsible for ROi’s distribution and warehousing operations. Before joining ROi about five years ago, JoAnne was Vice President of Global Logistics with Covidien/Mallinckrodt in St. Louis. She managed the customer service, distribution, transportation, compliance and planning functions for the $2 billion global pharmaceuticals/imaging business. Before moving into Covidien/Mallinckrodt management, JoAnne served in various legal roles focused on controlled substance, environmental, and safety and health law.
JoAnne received her undergraduate, law and masters of business administration degrees, all with honors, from Washington University in St. Louis.
Howard has been in the Healthcare Industry, including medical supply, medical device, and the laboratory supply and service industry for over 33 years. He has held Vice President and Senior Management positions at such prestigious companies as Quest Diagnostics, SIEMENS Medical Systems, Getinge/Castle and Fisher Scientific. He has extensive experience in developing National Account and Integrated Delivery System business strategies. Howard is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a degree in Chemistry/ Business Administration. |
Gina serves as a managing director for Advisory Board’s research team. She currently leads research for the Pharmacy Executive Forum across topics such as ambulatory pharmacy strategy, pharmacy benefit management, pharmacy business strategy and leadership. Previously, Gina led best practice research for other Advisory Board research memberships on topics including reducing COPD readmissions, improving perinatal patient safety, developing a palliative care program, and strategic planning within the imaging and women’s health service lines. Prior to joining Advisory Board, Gina worked within the health care team at the Government Accountability Office. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Johns Hopkins University, where she focused on health policy and nonprofit management. She earned her bachelor’s degree with honors from Iowa State University. |
Dr. Lucenti is currently the acting Chief Medical Officer for Vizient. He brings a wealth of experience to Vizient. Prior to joining Vizient, Dr. Lucenti ran MedAssets Clinical Operations Consulting segment. He combines unique backgrounds in both medicine and operational engineering.
Dr. Lucenti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He completed the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois where he earned both a MD from the University’s College of Medicine and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the College of Engineering. He did his Emergency Medicine residency at Harvard Medical School where he served as Chief Resident. He has been deployed three times to Iraq, in addition to his deployment to Afghanistan. Dr. Lucenti serves in the Vermont Army National Guard.
Michael Maguire is a vice president of strategic sourcing at Premier, with over 20 years of experience in healthcare supply chain and consulting. He leads the clinical sourcing teams' contract strategy execution. Possessing an uncanny ability to flex and pivot with changing marketplace dynamics, he has guided the expansion of our national purchased services program and works closely with Premier members to meet their special contracting needs.
Prior to his current role, he led the sourcing operations of CCG and grew the contract portfolio by 300 percent over a four-year period. Before joining Premier, he served on the Corporate Operations team at MedStar Health, where he developed the Supply Chain Global Measures Program while also providing operation assessment of clinical services to ensure financial viability. He worked collaboratively with leading pharmaceutical companies to provide needed medicines for 1.5 million Central American children during his tenure with the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB).
As Vice Chair of Supply Chain Category Management, Bruce Mairose has oversight for teams that are responsible for contracting and sourcing, performance consulting, and value analysis of $4.0 billion in products and services for Mayo Clinic, as well as an additional $6.0 billion in contracts for Captis.
Prior to his current position, Bruce served as Vice Chair of Supply Chain Operations, Director of Procure to Pay, and Director of Operations Improvement for Mayo Clinic Supply Chain Management. He has also worked for Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis, Minnesota (within Supply Chain Management, Ambulatory Clinic Operations, and as Manager of Respiratory and Neurology Departments). Bruce began career as a Registered Respiratory Practitioner.
He earned his bachelor’s in business administration in 1990 from the University of North Dakota and received his Master’s in Healthcare Administration in 1995 from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Stephen co-leads DuckerFrontier’s healthcare practice, which works with 55 global healthcare clients on their growth, commercialization, market-access, and innovation strategies. Stephen partners with clients across the full range of practice offerings, from business development through delivery. In doing so, he leverages his industry knowledge, expertise in the firm’s solutions, and ability to place clients’ strategic challenges in the relevant macroeconomic, political, and policy contexts.
With a diverse educational and professional background, Stephen takes a multidisciplinary approach to addressing client challenges. Prior to joining DuckerFrontier, Stephen worked for seven years at Eurasia Group, where he led the firm’s business development and client services efforts for the healthcare sector.
He previously worked as an Associated Press journalist covering state politics and policy—including healthcare—in Florida and Ohio, and has reported internationally on health policy. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Maryland.
New York Times best-selling author and gastrointestinal surgeon, researcher and associate professor of health policy & management at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Marty Makary is leading healthcare expert. Join him as he discusses common-sense reforms for healthcare and transparency of medical information, as well as his book Unaccountable.
Dan Maloy is the Founder of The Maloy Group, an independent Marketing and Sales firm with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies, to start-up ventures.
He has held leadership positions with public and private organizations ranging from large companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Owens & Minor and McKesson, to development stage enterprises. Dan has provided expert opinion, industry guidance and service to companies, governments, and investment management firms. He has addressed domestic and international audiences, and served as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
Dan received his MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and his BA from Allegheny College.
Santalynda Marreo
Currently serves as Procurement Manager and Supplier Diversity Coordinator for the CHRISTUS Health System. In this role, his responsibilities include management of centralized procurement operations for the western regions of CHRISTUS Health as well as lead the supplier diversity efforts system-wide.
Having spent over 20 years serving healthcare provider organizations focused in Supply Chain, he is well diversified in all aspects of Supply Chain Management. He has a proven track record of being a strong leader, accountable, dependable and results driven.
He is a certified Materials & Resource Professional, an active member of the North Texas chapter of AHRMM and is currently pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Masters of Business Administration from Western Governors University.
Vice President Sourcing, Purchasing and Value Analysis
Beaumont Health
Senior Director, Talent & Organizational Development
Biltmore Center for Professional Development
John Mateka
John Mateka currently serves as the System Executive Director of Supply Chain Services and Chief Procurement Official for Greenville Health System in Greenville, South Carolina, with system-wide supply chain responsibilities, including recent deployment of the Recent Distribution Center.
Previously, Mateka served as the Regional Vice President of Supply Chain for Catholic Health East-Southeast Division. Throughout his career, he has held senior leadership positions for Materials Management and Purchasing for multi-state healthcare systems in the North and Southeast.
He earned an MBA degree from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio; a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Northeast Illinois University, Chicago; and completed the Executive Program in Healthcare Administration at Ohio State. He is a former member of the board of Directors for the Association for Healthcare Materials/Resource Management (AHRMM); chaired numerous committees there; and served as the organization’s president in 2004. Mateka was awarded AHRMM’s 2007 George R. Gossett Leadership Award. His supply chain operation at GHS has won several awards and recognitions, including most recently in 2013, the prestigious ‘Healthcare Development of the Year’ award by Healthcare Purchasing News.
Vice President Managed Care & Payer Relations
Stanford Health Care/Stanford Children's Health
David McCombs
Vice President, Enterprise Resource Planning/Supply Chain Operations, Bon Secours Health System, Inc.
Greg is responsible for ROi’s financial operations, corporate development, strategic planning and strategic relationships. Greg joined ROi as a proven senior financial and operations executive with 25 years of experience in health care and finance at companies such as Express Scripts, Inc., Valitas Health Service, Inc., and Ernst & Young.
His background includes extensive experience in supply chain, pharmacy, primary care behavioral services, network development and underwriting. Greg is a member of HFMA, the American Institute of CPAs, the Missouri Society of CPAs, Financial Executives International and the Association for Corporate Growth.
He is a Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Global Management Accountant and hold bachelor’s degrees in accounting and finance from Truman State University.
Stephanie Meier
Charlie Miceli
Chief Supply Chain Officer & Network Vice President, University of Vermont Health Network
Miceli has set the vision and mission for the University of Vermont Medical Center Supply Chain operation, ranked #1 and #2 by the University Health System Consortium/Vizient in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The effectiveness of the supply chain has supported the clinical mission and operations of the University of Vermont Medical Center, OneCare Vermont, and the University of Vermont Health Network. Miceli has also served as the Vice President of Information Systems for the University of Vermont Medical Center as well as the CIO for the OneCare Vermont Accountable Care Organization and Interim CEO for Interlakes Health a clinical affiliate of the University of Vermont Medical Center.
Key accomplishments include sponsoring the successful integration of biomedical devices with the EPIC EHR, as well as championing interoperability of key clinical applications with EPIC (McKesson PACS). Prior to joining Fletcher Allen/University of Vermont Medical Center in 2008, Miceli held leadership positions in supply chain, biomedical engineering, and support services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Loyola University Medical Center, The University of Chicago Hospital and Health Systems, and Partners Healthcare System in Boston. He has also served as an expert consultant in change management/turn around, cost management, and information systems. An avid guitarist, Miceli and colleague McKenna Lee founded the musical group McKenna Lee and the Microfixers in 2010.
Over the past 7 years, the group has helped raise over $20k for charitable causes. He has two adult children with wife Mari, an RN and fellow patient safety advocate who designed and developed the PatientAider app that the Miceli’s donated to the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
Nate Mickish is the vice president of strategic sourcing for Texas Health Resources (THR) and the acting president of Texas Health Supply Chain Services, a joint-venture between THR and Premier, Inc. (PINC). Nate also currently serves on the board of the Bellwether League.
Angela Miller is Executive Director of Medical Contracting for ROi. Angela oversees ROi’s entire portfolio of medical products and devices, along with ROi’s Lab contracting team. She works closely with industry suppliers to develop contracting opportunities which focus on improving the clinical, operational and financial outcomes for ROi Members. Angela has more than 25 years of experience in the health care supply chain industry.
She spent 9 years in the U.S. Air Force as a medical logistics manager for several Air Force medical centers before moving into management positions with several industry Group Purchasing Organizations dedicated to providing cost savings opportunities to both acute and non-acute facility types. Angela is a member of the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses and the Association of Healthcare Resource and Material Management.
Ms. Miller joined Jefferson in 2010 as the organizations first Director, Value Analysis. Prior to this, she worked for VHA (now Vizient) for 11 years, first as a Supply Chain Utilization Manager in VHA’s Performance Consulting Division, then as an Account Executive in the Supply Chain Services division. In these roles she managed the supply chain relationship with multiple member organizations including academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks and community hospitals. Ms. Miller provided individualized support to assist members in achieving their supply chain goals by implementing member specific strategies including managing cost reduction efforts, analyzing and synthesizing data, developing and implementing savings tracking mechanisms and developing, implementing and supporting Value Analysis efforts.
A seasoned healthcare professional, Ms. Miller has been a Registered Nurse for more than 40 years. She started her career in tertiary pediatrics where she held a variety of staff and management positions at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Penn State Medical Center and St Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Her current position serves as a return to Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals where she worked for 10 years, first as Manager, Nursing Staff Development and Continuing Education and then as Director of the Executive Redesign Implementation Team. She holds both BSN and Master of Nursing degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, and is both Certified Materials Resource Professional (CMRP) and a Certified Value Analysis Healthcare professional (CVAHP).
Ms. Miller has been an active member of the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP) since 2010, chairing the organization’s Membership Committee for the past several years. She has served on the AHVAP Board of Directors as President Elect and, is its 2019 President.
Greg Milton is Director of Project Management for Supply Chain at Piedmont Healthcare. Greg leads the project management team dedicated to value analysis (STARS) process at Piedmont Healthcare. As part supply chain he has directly managed a number of strategic initiatives for Piedmont including, Alternate Site Distribution and Standardization, Outsourced Hemodialysis agreement, IV Pump Standardization, and new facility integration.
Greg Currently is leading the initiatives to reduce clinical lab test utilization and blood utilization.
Dr. Tina Moen has spent the last 18 years in the healthcare information technology industry providing clinical leadership to colleagues and clients in the US and abroad. Dr. Moen serves as Senior Deputy Chief Health Officer & Chief Pharmacy Officer within IBM Watson Health. In this role, Tina works across the business providing clinical leadership and support for strategy and sales. Additionally, she leads efforts to educate the business on the published evidence that supports Watson Health solutions, as well as broader IBM technology.
Prior to IBM, she was VP of Client Strategy for Health Language, part of Wolters Kluwer Health. In this role, she collaborated with clients to identify their terminology needs and worked to deliver a solution to "unlock" data and drive semantic interoperability across the enterprise. Previously, Tina worked at Truven Health Analytics in a variety of roles. She served as the VP of Provider Analytics, leading a team of data scientists and researchers responsible for creating/maintaining data and methodologies. As Chief Clinical Officer for the Truven Provider business, Tina was responsible for clinical leadership for the business, ensuring clinical representation for internal and external conversations. Tina led and contributed to a team of clinicians responsible for communicating the value proposition of Micromedex Solutions in domestic and international markets. In addition, she led the Truven editorial staff, who are responsible for creating/maintaining content for evidence-based medicine solutions, including drug, disease, toxicology, patient education and surveillance solutions.
Dr. Moen received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Creighton University. Prior to moving into the healthcare information technology industry, she worked as a clinical pharmacist in the specialty areas of pediatrics, home healthcare, HIV, and organ transplantation.
System Chief Nursing Officer & Vice President of Quality,
Ochsner Health System
• Physician engagement to implement PPI (physician preference item) supply standardization
• Supplier PPI negotiations
• Implementing and maintaining a value analysis process as well as new technology analysis.
• Understanding of system-based thinking as well as the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS); the Toyota Production System based process improvement program.
Dr. Sue Moravec graduated from the University of Arizona with PharmD in 1990. During her University of Arizona College of Pharmacy school years, Sue served as Vice President and Kappa Psi President. After graduation and for the past 28 years, Sue has primarily practiced as director/VP executive pharmacy leader positions for various practice sites and cardiovascular research.
Since Feb 2019, Sue served as AVP/CPO for HonorHealth providing leadership for multi-hospital sites, medication management ambulatory clinic, ASHP residency programs, oncology infusion clinics, specialty retail pharmacy, 340B, and more. However, Sue’s is most proud of the many hours volunteering with youth, providing spiritual care to hospital patients and international pilgrimages to provide medical care poor areas across the globe.
In 2017, Sue received “Women of the Year” award from Diocese of Phoenix and this summer received the 2019 Arizona State Pharmacy Association’s Pharmacist Hall of Fame award.
Dave Morgan has serviced the healthcare industry over the past 15 years in multiple capacities, including the last 10 years at HealthTrust and today as an AVP for Strategic Sourcing. During his tenure at HealthTrust, Davie has negotiated a multitude of agreements ranging from clinical supplies and equipment to software licenses to non-clinical commercial products and services including oversight of the Food, Facility Infrastructure and Information Technology portfolios.
Prior to joining HealthTrust, Dave worked at Ernst & Young in their Technology Security and Risk Services group assisting both healthcare and non-healthcare companies. He began his career at Medifax EDI (now Emdeon) as a project manager handling healthcare eligibility transactions for 20+ state programs.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Accounting and a Masters in Accountancy and Information Systems information from Arizona State University.
Ken founded HealthCare Links in June of 1993 with a simple mission: to become a sales/marketing resource focused on Corporate Accounts – matching companies with quality and cost effective products and services to major Healthcare Systems, Alliances, Integrated Delivery Networks and Group Purchasing Organizations.
An industry veteran since 1975, Ken was with Kendall Healthcare for 16 years handling a variety of products throughout the acute and alternate care markets including OR, Critical Care, Anesthesia, Urological, and Wound Care. As Director of National Accounts for the last three yeast at Kendall, Ken had Profit and Sales responsibility for over 25 national and regional buying groups and $300 million in group sales.
Since then, he has helped clients grow their sales through relationships and strategic approach. With expertise in sales, sales management, sales training, executive sales training/coaching, marketing promotion and contract implementation, Ken is seen as a strategic partner of the clients he serves.
Michelle O’Connor is President and CEO of CMR Institute. For the last 24 years she has increased the Institute’s ability to provide education needed in a rapidly evolving healthcare market. From new hire, leadership, sales, market access, to managed markets, Michelle ensures that CMR Institute creates resources that improve the performance and effectiveness of commercial sales teams. Michelle has a strong interest in and passion for working with organizations to develop and implement innovative learning and development initiatives that increase ROI.
CMR Institute is sought after by life sciences companies to increase sales and market share through our applicable blended learning resources. Over the past 50+ years, the company has provided expert training for more than 150,000 biopharmaceutical, medical device, and other life science professionals worldwide. These training resources are created in partnership with industry experts, assuring the content is relevant and actionable.
Neil Olderman
President, Innovative Health Strategies™ and Partner, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Neil Olderman is a transactional health care lawyer who has developed significant capabilities in generating value for his health industry clients through cost savings initiatives that he manages. Specifically, Neil helps hospital and health system clients negotiate group purchasing arrangements, capital equipment acquisition, and clinical and purchased services agreements. He also helps negotiate outsourcing arrangements and enterprise-wide strategic affiliations with vendors.
Neil draws on his background as associate general counsel to one of the largest group purchasing organizations in the United States in his current role as president of Innovative Health Strategies LLC (IHS), Faegre Drinker’s healthcare consulting firm. Neil assists provider clients in divesting clinical service lines or joint venturing with third parties to improve performance of certain clinical services. He facilitates the competitive bid process and assists in the selection of purchasers and vendor or joint venture partners and negotiates terms and conditions of the definitive agreements.
Jim Oliver has been with Yankee Alliance since 1989, joining the organization as its 5th employee serving as the Director of Materiel and Distribution Services. Jim served in a number of positions becoming the President and CEO in 2008. He has overseen the organization as it has grown to 14,500 members located in all 50 states. Yankee Alliance members buy $3.5 billion in products and services through the Yankee contract portfolio. Jim began his healthcare career as a Management Engineer with the Massachusetts Hospital Association.
Prior to joining Yankee he was the Director of Materiel Management at University Hospital in Boston and Miriam hospital in Providence, RI. Jim has an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston.
He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Engineering from the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Jim has served on numerous committees assisting in developing strategies and services for Premier, Inc. During his time with Premier, he has served as Chairman of the Laboratory Committee and the Strategic Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the Member Value Improvement Committee for Premier.
Dennis is Senior Director for SMI, a non-profit industry organization dedicated to advancing the future of healthcare supply chain. Dennis has over 30 years of healthcare supply chain management experience, having worked in purchasing, central sterile processing, distribution, OR supply, value analysis, and logistics at integrated provider organizations including Boston City Hospital, Partners Healthcare in Boston, and Caritas Christi Health System in Boston.
As a consultant, he has successfully worked for BD Healthcare Consulting and VHA Improvement Services. Dennis is active in AHRMM and Supporter of the data standards movement, serving as a member of the GS1 Healthcare US Leadership Team for the last seven years.
Ali Pabrai, MSEE, CISSP (ISSAP, ISSMP), Security+, a cyber security & compliance expert, is the chief executive of ecfirst. A highly sought after professional, he has successfully delivered solutions to U.S. government agencies, IT firms, healthcare systems, legal and other organizations worldwide. Mr. Pabrai served as an Interim CISO for a health system with 40+ locations in USA. Mr. Pabrai has led numerous engagements worldwide for ISO 27001, PCI DSS, NIST & HIPAA/HITECH security assessments. ecfirst is an approved HITRUST CSF assessor, a PCI Qualified Security Assessor, and a Konica Minolta Partner in the areas of cyber security & compliance.
Mr. Pabrai has presented passionate briefs to tens of thousands globally, including the USA, United Kingdom, France, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, India, UAE, Bahrain, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Japan & others. Mr. Pabrai is the author of several published works and is a proud member of the InfraGard (FBI).
Manager, Consolidated Pharmacy Services,
Greenville Health System
Ryan P. Parker is the Chief Diversity Officer for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ). Ryan is responsible for building a strategy that enhances RWJ’s vision to be a nationally distinguished academic medical center and benchmark hospital for diversity and inclusion – while aligning this critical business component with RWJ’s strategic business objectives. In this position, he reports directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson Health System. Ryan is a member of the RWJ Community Relations Board Committee.
Ryan joined RWJ in 2013 as Director of Diversity and Inclusion and was appointed to Chief Diversity Officer in 2014. In 2014, Ryan was acknowledged by The Network Journal and Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the nation’s leading healthcare leaders under age of forty. Ryan received a BS degree in Psychology from Jacksonville State University and is currently pursuing graduate studies in hospital administration.
System Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer,
CHRISTUS Health
Steve Patton, MA, CMRP
Ilisa Halpern Paul is President of the District Policy Group, a bipartisan public policy and government relations practice at international law firm Faegre Drinker. Ilisa has nearly 30 years of experience and success in influencing the outcomes of federal health policy, with a focus on legislative and regulatory issues, including health care financing and delivery system reform, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, public health, federal budget and appropriations, the Affordable Care Act, and other health care funding, coverage and payment matters.
Her work has earned her recognition as one of The Hill's Top Lobbyists 2015-2019. Prior to becoming a consultant in 2001, Ilisa served as director of federal government relations for the American Cancer Society and as director of federal affairs with the American Public Health Association. She began her public policy career in Washington, D.C. working on the legislative staff for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Ilisa holds a B.A.degree in English from UCLA and a master of public policy degree from Georgetown University. Ilisa lives with her husband, Scott, and their twin boys in Maryland, where their active lives include weekend hikes and regular walks with their dog, Coco.
Brent Petty is the Chief Relationships Officer at Healthcare Business Media. Petty previously served as an executive industry consultant for Lexmark International following a 12-year career as the System Vice President of Supply Chain for Wellmont Health System.
Petty is a respected leader in the healthcare industry with distinct honors as 2015 Chairman of the Board of the Association for Healthcare Resource Materials Management (AHRMM). Petty holds a professional designation as a Certified Materials Resource Professional (CMRP).
Known for his industry knowledge and first-hand experience on both the supplier and provider side of healthcare, Petty is passionate about bridging the gap between these two groups.
Richard Philbrick was named CEO of HealthTrust’s Southwest Region in 2011. He is responsible for business development and HealthTrust member accounts for clients in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico. In addition, Richard has oversight of HealthTrust’s outsourced supply chain operations in those states with manages over 750 employees and almost $2 billion in annualized supply expense.
Previously, Richard served as supply chain CEO for HCA’s Gulf Coast Division where he led all aspects of supply chain services for 13 hospitals, including self-distribution, contracting, purchasing, accounts payable, facility supply management and centralized pharmacy order entry. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Richmond, Robins School of Business.
Mark Phillips
Vice-President, Innovative Health Strategies™ and Counsel, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
With more than 15 years of in-house health care industry contracting experience and a master’s degree in finance, Mark Phillips advises clients on the financial, operational and legal issues that arise in connection with complex contract negotiations and strategic affiliations with hospital vendors.
Mark focuses his practice on counseling hospital and health system clients on group purchasing arrangements, outsourcing and purchased services arrangements (including food and nutrition services, environmental services, plant operations and maintenance, and clinical engineering), capital equipment acquisition, software licensing agreements and other strategic arrangements with vendors. Mark is also a consultant for Innovative Health Strategies LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Faegre Drinker.
Martha Pickens is an independent Healthcare Supply Cost Management Consultant. During her progressive career path spanning 30 years in healthcare, Martha has worked closely with many healthcare organizations to meet or exceed their Medical/Surgical, Pharmacy, and Physician Preference Item cost management goals, leveraging her solid clinical background, supply cost leadership, and results-oriented facilitation and negotiation skills.
In her recent role as Senior Director for Supply Cost Management at VHA Southeast in Tampa, FL, Martha led a regional committed supply strategy for more than eight years that delivered in excess of $159M in savings and 17:1 ROI, and provided clinical leadership and operations support for a committed supply network for over six years that delivered in excess of $44M in bottom-line value and 9:1 ROI.
Dennis Pierson has more than 38 years of experience in the healthcare industry. His diverse experience within healthcare has proven him a top performer in the Pharmaceutical and Medical/Surgical arena as it relates to Sales, Sales Management, National Accounts and Contract Management, specifically focusing on Distribution, GPO’s, Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN’s), Extended LTC, Alternate Site, Non Acute and Strategic Influential Health Care Centers.
He has held VP and Director level positions with Pharmacia (Pfizer), PDI, The Dial Corporation, and SDI Diagnostics. A true Healthcare advocate throughout his career, Dennis has served time on the Boards of both HIGPA and HealthCareers Foundation/Hired Heroes.
As Vice President of Client Services for the Pharmaceutical and Laboratory segments at NCI, Dennis is responsible for managing client relationships with GPOs, IDNS, Coalitions, Hospitals, Distributors and Partner targets. He will also support and implement the day to day operations and initiatives of these unique Clients.
Joseph has over eighteen years of successful experience in initiating and administering business developments and is a proven healthcare executive with strong ties to the community that consistently produces results and maintains corporate focus.
As Vice President of Network Operations at St. Luke’s Hospital and health Network, he is responsible for Network operations (6 hospital systems) including the following services; Oncology Service line, Materials Management, Wound Care, Urgent Care, Occupational Management, Pathology, Laboratory Outreach, Accreditations and Standards, Patient Experience, Sterile Processing & Grounds.
Medical Director of Surgical Services and Orthopedic Service Lines,
Trinity Health
Kate Polczynski is the Vice President, Enterprise Supply Chain Services at Geisinger Health in Danville, PA. The Geisinger Supply Chain team is responsible for platform based and system services in areas inclusive of Logistics, Strategic Sourcing and Clinical Use Evaluation, Procurement, and System Integrity. Kate had previously held various positions within Supply Chain Services, as well as the Division of Quality and Safety, at Geisinger Health and has over 13 years of healthcare experience.
Kate has her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and her Master of Business Administration from Shippensburg University. Kate also has a Certificate of Achievement in Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University and she is a Certified Materials and Resource Professional as administered by the American Hospital Association. Additionally, Kate has served as an Adjunct Professor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Zeigler College of Business.
During her career, Kate has received numerous awards including the 2016 Bellwether League Inc., Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership. Kate has a passion for exploring innovative healthcare strategies with an emphasis on how data can improve patient outcomes thru both clinical and financial performance optimization.
Laura Polson, RN, BSN, CVAHP - AHVAP
Laura Polson, RN, BSN, CVAHP - AHVAP Northeast Region Director & Co-Chairperson for the Marketing Committee has held local, regional, and national leadership roles in nursing, supply chain, value analysis, and process improvement for 35 years.
Past management roles in multi-hospital groups include education, critical care, recovery, cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and surgical services. Her nursing expertise spans multiple specialties (CVAHP, ACLS, BCLS INS, CCRN, CVN, RCIS, & RCVT).
Pioneered early value analysis roles as one of the first HCA Product Utilization Directors in the early '90s and continues today in her role as Clinical Quality Value Analysis Facilitator at Baptist Health Floyd in New Albany, IN.
Mary (Beth) Potter is an Independent Value Analysis Consultant. She has been heavily involved in AHVAP for the past 15 years. She currently serves as Secretary, a member of the Education Committee, Marketing Committee, Newsletter Editor and has served on the Conference Planning Committee for the past nine years. In 2015, Mary served as President of AHVAP.
Throughout her professional career, she worked in a range of roles. Mary worked as a staff nurse and then as Nurse Manager at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa in Med/Surg and Cardiac Telemetry for 20 years. She then went on to serve as Director of Clinical Value Analysis and Pharmacy Contracting at UnityPoint Health in Des Moines for 11 years before retiring in April 2016. She graduated from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing and received a Bachelor of Science in Health Arts in 1993.
Kerry Price is the Senior Vice President, Marketing and Management, Federation of American Hospitals (FAH). She is responsible for managing the FAH’s annual Public Policy Conference and Business Exposition. Her responsibilities also include membership and supplier relations, marketing and brand awareness fro the FAH and leading the FAH’s Exposition Advisory Committee.
Prior to joining FAH, Ms. Price served as Vice President of Strategic Customer Engagement at Amerinet. In this role, she led Amerinet’s strategic engagements and corporate events as they relate to enhancing the image and brand of the company. She also developed strategic initiatives to support the broader short-and long-term marketing strategies that enhanced the overall perception of Amerinet within the industry. She is a past Co-Chair of the Healthcare Supply Association and Steering Committee member for the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association.
Ms. Price received a BS in Marketing from Robert Morris University and an AS in Marketing from Allegheny Community College.
Kevin is the third president and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development in Durham, NC. The Institute, a 34-year old nonprofit management consulting and services firm, is focused on business diversity and inclusion. They are trusted advisors to businesses large and small, government agencies, policy makers and organizations that understand the key roles diversity and inclusion play in ensuring business and economic success. Their client services include customized one-on-one assistance, training, knowledge, networks and solutions that create diverse, globally competitive companies. The Institute is an award-winning organization and leading voice and constant advocate for public policies and business practices that promote marketplace diversity and inclusion. Recently, Price successfully merged The Institute with the North Carolina Community Development Initiative becoming CEO of both organizations. The Initiative is a community development financial institution, providing vital financing to diverse businesses, community development corporations and HBCUs throughout the state.
Price’s almost 30-year career has been steeped in community economic development. He joined The Institute as a veteran business leader in healthcare, supplier diversity, faith-based affordable housing, community development and commercial banking operations. Immediately prior to joining The Institute March 9, 2020, Price was Senior Director of Supplier Diversity & Performance Analytics for Novant Health for 14 years. While there, he launched their supplier diversity activities, growing spend by more than 500% utilizing over 550 diverse suppliers resulting in over $1 billion in spend since its launch in 2006, automated Tier I and II reporting, encouraged numerous majority/diverse joint ventures, collaborated with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth to add a healthcare component to their Minority Executive Training program for six consecutive years and launched a $5 million loan guarantee program for diverse suppliers, in partnership with M&F Bank. Price also served as a master diversity and inclusion facilitator/trainer for the company.
Prior to joining Novant Health, Price spent many years in banking as a commercial lender and business development officer, real estate developer and community development and CRA leader. He served as Vice President/Senior Business Development Officer for M&F Bank, Vice President/Director of Faith-Based Initiatives for Regency Development, a subsidiary of SunTrust Bank and Group Vice President/Corporate Community Development & CRA leader for SouthTrust Bank.
His banking experience was preceded by several years spent working as Vice President of Special Programs at Project Homestead, a community development corporation, in which he managed credit lines with nine banks and produced more than $40 million worth of single family, multi-family and retail developments.
Price is a US Army veteran. After completing military service, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science/Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He also completed his Masters in Health Administration and Masters in Business Administration, both from Pfeiffer University. He is married to Michelle Y. Price and they have three young adult children.
Share Moving Media (SMM) is the publisher of Repertoire Magazine and The Journal of Healthcare Contracting and National Accounts Weekly.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting is the only publication solely focused on the healthcare-contracting arena. Collaboration amongst stakeholders in the contracting arena is vital for efficiency, profitability and sometimes even the survival of members in this arena. The Journal of Healthcare Contracting facilitates open, meaningful communication for its community. No other publication reaches all the people responsible for the success of contracting initiatives for their organizations.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting reaches the executives involved in the healthcare contracting business. Readers include 5,000 Hospital CEOs, 7,500 IDN Executives and 1,300 GPO Executives.
National Accounts Weekly is the only publication dedicated to National Accounts Executives calling on GPOs, IDNs, RPCs and national and regional distribution. This weekly newsletter is read weekly by over 7,000 National Accounts Executives.
Muddy Waters explains in full detail the healthcare supply chain. Insights from experts across the supply chain from physicians to GPO leaders are a powerful part of this intuitive manual. Organizations that contributed include Mayo Clinic, Geisinger Health System and WNC Health Network (WNCHN). Other contributors include GPOs Premier and MedAssets, and other first rate organizations like the Council of Accountable Physician Practices. This book is an asset to any member of the healthcare supply chain who wants to understand the complexities in today’s fluctuating marketplace.
John lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Sarah, son Charlie, and daughters Mary, Molly and Margo. John is an avid photographer and dog trainer, and enjoys golfing, skiing and watching his children play sports.
Matt Putman serves as the Director of Supply Chain Operations for the Northern Colorado Market of UCHealth, which includes 4 hospitals. His oversight also includes the non-acute and medical clinic locations which totals over 400 locations. Having served in other roles within the UCHealth organization, Matt has been in Supply Chain for over 10 years.
Originally from Nebraska he moved to Fort Collins in 2001. He graduated from Hastings College (NE) 2001 after enjoying an athletic career of playing football as a Tight End and competing on the track & field teams throwing Discus and Hammer. His undergraduate degrees were in Sports Medicine and English. In 2013, he graduated with an MBA from Colorado State University.
Matt is currently working on completing an Educational Doctorate in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration.
Dave Reed retired from Cook Medical in March 2020. He served for more than 35 years in the life sciences industry. Previously, he oversaw Cook’s North American customer and distribution services. In his most recent role as vice president of Healthcare Business Solutions, he collaborated with various governing bodies and industry leaders to help adjust policies that make supply chains more effective.
In 2019, Reed also received the very first Chuck Lauer Award, a recognition given to a healthcare supply chain industry professional who is dedicated to serving others. One hallmark of Reed’s career was his dedication to collaboration between suppliers, providers and clinicians to increase patient access to high-quality medical products.
What happens when a four time all-American collegiate track athlete; 2 times Olymipc Trials Qualifier; and United States Army Gulf War Veteran; suffers a career ending injury by having his left leg amputated?
Well, John Register, just 18 months post surgery swam in the Paralympic Games. Then, taught himself how to run on and artificial leg and ran and jumped into the history books by winning the Paralympic Long Jump Paralympic silver medal in Sydney, Australia.
His 10 key action steps to overcoming adversity inspires audiences around the world.
John's courage in the face of uncertainty has inspired audiences young and old. He has been featured on numerous television shows such as, "Morning Blend" with former host Soledad O'Brien, "It's a Miracle" with host Richard Thomas, "The Weekend Today Show" and "The Edge" with former host Paula Zahn!
In 2007 he was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as one of eight members to advise the Secretary on Foreign policy Issues regarding disability. He continued to serve in this capacity under Secretary Hillary Clinton - (another Razorback).
John is a dynamic speaker who commands his listeners' attention with a mix of humor, emotion and enthusiasm. His anecdotes are applicable to any audience. And, while his stories are presented in an amusing fashion, the learning outcomes and tie backs are clearly achieved and easily recognized.
Robert L. Rice M.D., Ph.D. is the Medical Director of the Oncology Service Line at WellSpan Health. Dr. Rice has responsibilities specific to developing and implementing service line strategic plans. His role is to utilize knowledge of current and future policies, practices, trends, competitive threats and other information affecting the business and organization to advance the service line.
He also aids in the development of strategies to implement new services and emerging treatment options and that current standards of care are maintained throughout the organization.
Dr. Rice received his medical degree and Ph.D. as a combined program at University of Pittsburgh Medical School. His Ph. D. is in Pharmacology. He completed his fellowship in Oncology and Hematology from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Mark Richardson is Director of Medical Products and Devices for ROi. As a member of ROi Integrated Sourcing Solutions Team, Mark serves as a liaison for contract opportunities to ROi customers through specialty Service Line programs for Surgery, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery/Spine, and Cardiology/Interventional Radiology. In addition to obtaining clinical feedback, Mark is also responsible for reporting utilization and contract compliance to the ROi Contract portfolio.
In his role, Mark supports the voice of the customer in ROi contracting strategies as well as high compliance commitment to high cost/high preference initiatives. Mark previously served as the Perioperative Business Director at Mercy Hospital St. Louis for 14 years. Additionally, he served at SSM Healthcare in St. Louis for 10 years in a similar role.
Mark earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from St. Louis University.
Frank Ripullo runs the most respected medical consulting firm in the healthcare sector representing both suppliers and providers. As the Founder and President of Essential Healthcare Management, Inc., Ripullo has managed to turn small to medium suppliers into manufacturing powerhouses. Known for keenly negotiating GPO and IDN agreements that have increased clients’ market share 300% in short time frames, supplier contracting is just the beginning of EHM’s offerings.
Mr. Ripullo’s distinctive strength has been the ability to create value for both suppliers and provider in a marketplace dominated by sky rocketing costs. Ripullo’s focus and strategic direction of EHM has been to bring clarity and transparency to the convoluted healthcare market resulting in the creation of strong channels for suppliers to succeed while enabling providers to lower their overall operating costs.
Associate Director; Clinical Assistant Professor
Center for Quality Medication Management,
Edmondo J. Robinson, M.D., M.B.A., FACP, is the chief transformation officer and senior vice president, consumerism for Christiana Care Health System. He has responsibility for transformation of healthcare delivery to advance population health initiatives and move from volume-based to value-based care with a special focus on developing and managing Christiana Care’s consumerism strategy including development of consumer digital and virtual health service offerings.
Dr. Robinson is an associate professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, an adjunct senior fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a senior fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
He received his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, his master’s degrees in health policy research and in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania.
Claudia R. Rosales is an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at University of Arkansas. Her research interests include healthcare operations, risk management, inventory management, cross docking/logistics, optimization, simulation modeling, and analytics.
Prior to her academic career she worked in manufacturing holding several engineering positions such as productivity, process, and packaging engineer at Colgate Palmolive, C.A. She obtained a Master of Science in Quantitative Analysis and a PhD in Operations Management from University of Cincinnati. Her research publications have appeared in journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Research, Transportation Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Interfaces.
Claudia received two best paper of the year awards for publications at Decision Sciences and Transportation Journal. She is currently a member of the Editorial Review Board of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and an Associate Editor for Decision Sciences Journal.
Wayne is currently Vice President of Pharmacy for Premier, Inc. and is responsible for the contracting relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. He also oversees the pharmacy fee for service program that offers educational and other services to the pharmaceutical industry. He works extensively with the Premier team based in Washington, DC on a variety of legislative and regulatory and policy initiatives affecting the pharmaceutical market.
Wayne also is a Clinical Professor, University of Florida, College of Pharmacy. Prior to joining Premier, Wayne has had multiple areas of responsibility in healthcare. He was Corporate Director of Pharmacy for the Bon Secours Health System; Director of Pharmacy for Novation, LLC. in Dallas, Texas; Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, St. Louis College of Pharmacy and St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri; and lastly he has held various positions with Shands Health System, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
Kris Russell is president of KSR Publishing, Inc. and Publisher of Healthcare Purchasing News. In publishing for over 25 years, Ms. Russell was formerly VP of operations and executive publisher of the healthcare division at Nelson Publishing, Inc., overseeing 12 publications in various business-to-business technologies, including: healthcare informatics, clinical lab, corporate IT, product/equipment design, OEM electronic engineering, metalworking and fabrication as well as other manufacturing areas.
Kris formed KSR Publishing, Inc. in January 2003 and purchased Healthcare Purchasing News from Nelson Publishing in February 2003. Ms. Russell graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in merchandising and minors in textiles, business and art from Northern Illinois University. Ms. Russell is also on the advisory board for the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management, and a member of the Associate for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management.
Director of Nursing, Surgical and Emergency Services, Cleveland Clinic – Avon Hospital
Steven Schnelle focuses his practice on regulatory and transactional matters involving healthcare providers and suppliers, pharmacies, pharmaceutical firms, device manufacturers, and market innovators. Steven provides counsel on a variety of healthcare regulatory and transactional matters, primarily focusing on issues involving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and state agencies.
He advises clients on complex reimbursement matters involving governmental and commercial payors, and he provides counsel on state licensing and credentialing issues, as well as corporate practice of the health professions. Steven represents clients in False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam matters, investigations and audits, and in matters involving compliance with the federal and state Anti-Kickback statutes.
Steven regularly advises private equity firms, investment banks, commercial lenders, and healthcare and life science companies on healthcare regulatory issues relating to mergers and acquisitions, securities filings and financing in the United States.
Director - Industry Advisory Group
CAPS Research & Arizona State University
Senior Medical Officer, Supply Chain Management,
Adventist Health System
Dr. Scott received his Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of California, San Francisco. He completed a Residency in Clinical Pharmacy at the Buffalo General Hospital and a Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacokinetics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was awarded the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Fellowship in Cardiovascular Therapeutics.
During his more than 35 years in healthcare, he has practiced in both acute care and ambulatory care settings in both academic and community organizations. In his current role with St. Joseph Health System, a 14 hospital IDN, he is provides clinical and contracting oversight for each of the hospital’s pharmacy departments, is responsible for all contracting and clinical research for SJHS.
Pinak Shah
Pinak Shah is responsible for the operation of the 18-hospital North Shore LIJ Health System innovative supply chain model, which includes their Integrated Distribution Center (IDC). As Assistant Vice President of health system purchasing, contracting and materials management, Pinak is engaged in contract negotiations and the development of strategic relationships with manufacturers and distributors. He also leads supply chain expense reduction, inventory improvement, and product standardization initiatives.
Prior to his experience at NSLIJHS, Pinak was with the healthcare consulting practices of Deloitte and PeopleSoft. Pinak is a graduate in Engineering and earned an M.B.A. from India.
He has joined the faculty at Hofstra University, Frank G. Zarb School of Business and is currently teaching operations and supply chain management.
Perry Sham is responsible for practice leadership for Nexera’s financial improvement, performance improvement, technology optimization, strategic advisory services, and project management services in facilities throughout the U.S. and internationally. With over a decade of healthcare experience, Mr. Sham has served as an advisor to numerous provider organizations. Among them are leading academic health centers, accountable care organizations, integrated health systems, community hospitals, and non-acute care facilities. His work has encompassed financial improvement in large-scale cost-reduction and comprehensive revenue cycle management, data management, analytics, and process redesign. At Nexera, Mr. Sham has helped healthcare facilities reduce costs by over $65 million.
Mr. Sham received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Baruch College. He has been published by the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors and the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). He is also a member of the HFMA.
Tali Sharot
Neuroscientist, Author and Human Behavior Expert;
Lindsey Sheeran is a Sr. Category Manager on the Medical/Surgical, Laboratory Team at Mayo Clinic. This team negotiates Commodity, Clinical Preference & Laboratory contracts for Mayo Clinic and the Upper Midwest Consolidated Services Center (UMCSC). As a Sr. Category Manager, Lindsey has an integral role in driving the Category Management strategy at Mayo Clinic while working with internal and external stakeholders, identifying business requirements and negotiating the best value for the clinically chosen products.
Lindsey has been at Mayo Clinic for 12 years in multiple roles, primarily in Supply Chain. These roles have given her experience in Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Project Management, Supervision and Contracting. Lindsey has a Master of Business Administration degree from Cardinal Stritch University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Winona State University.
Mark Slater, Ph.D. has served as Vice President for Research at HonorHealth and Chief Executive for the HonorHealth Research Institute since 2007, when the organization was known as Scottsdale Healthcare. In this capacity, Dr. Slater has developed a collaborative institute without walls to bring tomorrow’s cures to our community today through accelerating translational and clinical research in precision medicine. Collaborative relationships with TGen, ASU, UA and many other top local, national and international organizations have resulted in international recognition for breakthrough innovations in medical care, attracting patients from 49 states and two dozen countries to our community for trials.
With over 100 scientific publications, 30 years of continuous grant funding, and his doctoral students now in leadership positions in major academic institutions, Dr. Slater is a recognized leader in fields of pain, behavioral medicine and clinical research.
Joshua Soliman
Associate Director, Pharmacy Operations and Transformation, NYU Langone Health System
Joshua Soliman is the Associate Director, Pharmacy Operations and Transformation at NYU Langone Health where he is a leader in pharmacy operations. His responsibilities include overseeing medication distribution, sterile and non-sterile compounding, as well as participating on various institutional committees. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor at the NYU Steinhart School of Physical Therapy.
Joshua is certified in change management and a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma methodology. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2013, at the Long Island University- Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy, where he graduated at the top of his class.
Chris Stewart is the Assistant Vice President, SourceTrust Solutions Advisory Group, HealthTrust. In his role as leader of the Solutions Advisory Group within SourceTrust, Chris leads his team in their focus on the development and delivery of customized CSI (Clinically Sensitive Implants) cost saving programs through strategic physician/hospital leadership engagement and the functional redesign of the implant delivery model.
Chris originates from Johannesburg, South Africa and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee. He also participates in international masters swimming events.
Chief, Supply Chain Management,
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Mittal Sutaria is the Vice President of Pharmacy Sourcing at Vizient where she provides executive leadership over pharmacy contracting and distribution activities as well as oversight for the Vizient Pharmacy Business Council. In addition to Mittal’s primary responsibility of growing the industry-leading pharmacy sourcing program, she plays a critical role in the strategy development and execution of the Vizient integrated pharmacy solution.
For the past seven years, Mittal has provided leadership for Vizient’s expanding pharmacy program and contracting team. She has held positions within clinical solutions and plasma teams, and most recently she served as senior director, pharmacy contracting, managing various programs and contracting activities including plasma, contrast media and radiopharmacy distribution, and leading our strategies for non-acute, biosimilars and oncology to drive enhanced value for our members.
Prior to joining Vizient, Mittal served in various health care roles within retail and hospital settings, including service as associate director of pharmacy at a member institution in New York. Mittal’s early pharmacy experience helped shape her unique perspective and comprehensive understanding of how her current work positively influences our industry.
Mittal holds a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Business Foundations certification from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.
Morgan Swink is the Eunice and James L. West Chaired Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Supply Chain Innovation at the Neeley School. He teaches in areas of supply chain management, project management, innovation management, and operations strategy. Dr. Swink’s current research projects address digital transformation and cutting-edge competencies in supply chain management, financial impacts of supply chain management, collaborative integration, supply chain organizational structures, innovation initiatives and project success factors. He was recently ranked among the top ten innovation management scholars in the world, and among the top 75 most productive operations management scholars.
Dr. Swink is the former Co-Editor in Chief for the Journal of Operations Management, a top academic supply chain management journal. He serves as associate editor for several other journals. He has served as president of the Decision Sciences Institute, as well as chair of the Research Strategies Committee and a member of the board of directors for CSCMP. He has co-authored two supply chain operations text-books, one managerial book on supply chain excellence, and more than 75 articles in a variety of academic and managerial journals.
He has won several research and teaching awards, including the 2016 Research and Creativity Award at TCU. Dr. Swink consults and leads executive workshops and seminars in supply chain management best practices, cross-organizational integration, project management, operational flexibility, and breakthrough thinking for innovation and productivity.
Kristin Tapley Bailey leads the Purchased Services Supply Chain Sourcing team at Trinity Health Corporation. Kristin led a national strategic sales team for account-based benefit and insurance (e.g. HRA, HSA, FSA) consulting with national insurance companies and Fortune 500 employers. Kristin has a proven ability to initiate, manage, expand and successfully deliver complex health care projects by approaching problem solving with use of 6-Sigma methodology.
While widely known as a natural thought leader and motivator, Kristin is a recognized professional with a proven track record of consistently exceeding company objectives related to: 1) strategically procuring and sourcing clinical and non-clinical purchased services in excess of $1.4B 2) managing and delivering large cross-functional projects 3) developing and monitoring measurable performance criteria for vendor, employee and employer oversight 4) developing and structuring contracts to support long term partnerships 5) educating, communicating, and marketing product solutions.
Jack Temple
Manager, Information Technology and Medication Use System, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
Senior Corporate Vice President, Ancillary Operations,
Scripps Health
Susan Toomey
Senior Value Analysis Coordinator & President-Elect, Lehigh Valley Health Network & AHVAP
Susan Toomey, Sr. Value Analysis Coordinator at Lehigh Valley Health Network has over 33years of professional experience with current responsibilities of overseeing the health network’s integrated Perioperative Services Department Value Analysis initiatives. Highlighted by her successful performance sand several years of Supply Chain experience, she has been highly engaged in the Perioperative Services department as proactive team member managing the value analysis process and surgical specialty product formularies. Sue facilitates clinical product evaluations and assessments, coordinates in-services, educates colleagues, surgeons, suppliers and staff on value analysis processes, identifies, monitors, and measures value analysis initiatives, assesses procedure product variations, assists in contract negotiations, attends operational and capital budgeting meetings, manages product recalls and supplier substitutions, participates in supplier business reviews, and is a member of surgical division committee meetings.
She collaborates and communicates with surgeons, staff and multidisciplinary teams to achieve quality decisions and outcomes. Sue has been instrumental in obtaining $6.1million in network cost savings for the Perioperative Services Value Analysis Team over the past three years as facilitator and committee co-chair implementing process improvements beneficial to the operations of the network’s Perioperative Services department. Her achievement demonstrates quality leadership by engaging staff and clinicians in process disciplines and has proven success by supporting the organization’s strategic, operational and cost reduction initiatives.
Sue is a Certified Value Analysis Healthcare Professional (CVAHP) with the Association for Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP),Certified Materials Resource Professional (CMRP) with the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM), and is currently serving as AHVAP’s Northeast Regional Director and 2021 President Elect. Sue received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix.
System Vice President, Supply Chain Management and Biomedical Engineering,
Main Line Health System
Marianne Udow-Phillips is Director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT) at the University of Michigan. CHRT is a non-profit partnership of the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to promote evidence-based care delivery, improve population health, and expand access to care.
From 2004 through 2007, Marianne was director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, Appointed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm. Marinna came to state service from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, where she served in leadership role for over 20 years, most recently as senior vice president of Health Care Products and Provider Services.
She holds a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from the U-M School of Public Health; she is a lecturer at the U-M school of Public Health. She serves on numerous boards and commissions.
Ms. Van Vlerah was named Senior Vice President of Parkview Health Support Division on December 3, 2015, managing Supply Chain, Pharmacy, Real Estate/Property Management, Environmental Services, Nutrition Services, Facilities, and Mirro Conference Center within Parkview Health. She is responsible for all logistics, acquisition, distribution and demand planning for all Parkview Health entities. Ms. Van Vlerah is also serves as the chairperson for Hospital Laundry Service and Community Harvest Food Bank.
Ms. Van Vlerah joined Parkview Health in 2010 from ITT where she served as their Chief Compliance and Ethic Officer in the Space Systems Division located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Prior to this Donna served a 20-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Logician. She served in various positions within the logistics and acquisition community specializing in Supply Chain, Facility Maintenance, and Change Management. She served as the Deputy Director for the Maritime Supply Chain for the Defense Logistics Agency serving worldwide customers.
Ms. Van Vlerah holds a Master of Art in Military Science from the Marine Corps University and a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Bowling Green State University. Ms. Van Vlerah is also accredited by AMP and SCCE as a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP) and is a practicing Six Sigma Black Belt.
Meg Voorhis
Brett Warner is a healthcare executive consultant and margin improvement expert. He works with hospital supply chain teams to implement rapid cost reduction initiatives, specializing in strategic sourcing for purchased services, GPO, and health IT categories.
Brett has 10 years’ professional experience collaborating with hospital leaders and national vendors; scrutinizing departmental costs and cost structures and surfacing creative ways to safeguard sustainable savings, quality improvements, and programmatic enhancements.
Cheryl Watkins-Knowles
Director of Purchasing, Supplier Diversity and Integration, Supply Chain, Palmetto Health
Cheryl Watkins-Knowles has over 15 years as a leader in the field of supply chain, consulting and business development. Her expertise is in procurement, distribution, transportation, inventory management and supplier diversity allows her to identify opportunities that bring financial value to organizations, with increased earnings and identification of savings potential. Her project management skills have allowed her to successfully implement ERP systems like SAP and Lawson Supply Chain Management. She is recognized for solidifying partner relationships through vertical and horizontal communications within large organizations such as Ernst and Young, Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health and several large healthcare systems to include Palmetto Health.
Experienced in planning, developing, and implementing analysis of activities relating to Supply Chain policies. Utilizes ERP Financial systems (Lawson Supply Chain Management) to manage procurement, purchased services, contracting, budget plans, and contract negotiations. Knowledgeable with the architecture and specifications of ERP's to include source documentation, system flows, system interfaces, and related internal controls.
Cheryl is also responsible for the development and implementation of the Corporate Supplier Diversity strategy, infrastructure, initiatives, procedures, policy and processes within Palmetto Health. She is a key member of the leadership team and is accountable for all supply chain activities. Additionally, she directs and develops sourcing strategy consistent with the culture and strategic business plan while leveraging continuous improvement activities to maximize cost reduction efforts.
Cheryl has a BS in Business with a concentration in psychology and Women’s studies. She is Co-Author of Bruised not Broken that was released in 2012. She was the South Carolina Chapter President of the National Association of Professional Women and the National President of the American Association of Business and Professional Women.
Dr. Rodney Whitlock is an accomplished health care advisor with more than two decades on the Hill where he specialized in rural health, the health care safety net and disability policy. While working in Congress, Rodney served as former US Representative Charlie Norwood’s (R-GA) health policy director where he managed the Patients’ Bill of Rights (S.1890), among other notable health policy matters.
Rodney then went on to serve Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in the Senate. He first joined the Senate Finance Committee Staff as a health policy advisor to Chairman Grassley, and ultimately joined the Senator’s personal office as health policy director.
For the last 20 years, Rodney has been an adjunct faculty member at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, and the Graduate School of Political Management’s Department of Legislative Affairs.
Dr. Whyte is a board-certified practicing physician who has been communicating to the public as well as private sectors on health and health policy issues for nearly 25 years. As someone who has been a regulator, researcher, educator, and media executive, Dr. Whyte brings a unique perspective – having spent time in government, academia, and the private sector. He is passionate about changing how we think about health.
He is currently the Chief Medical Officer, WebMD. In this role, Dr. Whyte leads efforts to develop and expand strategic partnerships that create meaningful change around important and timely health issues. He is particularly interested in evaluating consumer trends in digital health, and how innovations – especially in technology – change the way health care is delivered.
While at FDA, Dr. Whyte served as the Director of Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at the Center for Drugs Evaluation and Research. Dr. Whyte worked with health care professionals, patients, and patient advocates, providing them with a focal point for advocacy, enhanced two-way communication, and collaboration. He helped them navigate the regulatory process in a way they could comprehend. In addition, he launched the Drug Trials Snapshot program that details the participation in clinical trials for all new drug approvals – the first in a series of efforts by the FDA to help improve diverse representation and streamline the clinical trial process.
Prior to FDA, Dr. Whyte worked for nearly a decade as the Chief Medical Expert and Vice President, Health and Medical Education at Discovery Channel, the leading non-fiction television network. In this role, Dr. Whyte developed, designed, and delivered educational programming that appealed to both a medical and lay audience. This included television shows as well as online content that won over 50 awards, including numerous Tellys, CINE Golden Eagle, and Freddies.
Dr. Whyte is a frequent commenter on healthcare topics and has written extensively in the medical and lay press, including two best-selling books, Is This Normal: The Essential Guide to Middle Age and Beyond and AARP New American Diet: Lose Weight, Live Longer. He has also edited a book on medical device regulation, and authored numerous articles on drug development/regulation and personalized medicine.
He writes a monthly column for WebMD magazine, and hosts a podcast that often talks about the latest trends in medical innovation.
Luke Williams is a globally recognized authority on innovation leadership. He works with
organizations on challenges ranging from creating new products and services, to transforming organizational processes and behaviors.
He is professor of Innovation and executive director of the W.R. Berkley Innovation Labs at New York University's Stern School of Business and a fellow at frog, one of the world's most influential innovation companies.
Williams is a sought-after commentator on disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship and cultural change. He is invited to speak worldwide, and his views are regularly featured in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fast Company, GQ, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, NPR and MSNBC.
He is the inventor of over fifty United States patents and the best-selling author of Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business.
Michael Williams is a Director in the Healthcare practice of Navigant Consulting. Michael is a Strategic Executive with a successful record for the implementation of solutions to transform organizations faced with complex supply and logistics concerns. Michael has over twenty years of experience in hospital supply chain. He is a resourceful leader with a history of successfully leading operational functions for complex Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs). Adept at delivering the successful implementation of sophisticated consulting engagements, he has developed, directed, and delivered supply standardization and consolidation programs.
In addition, Michael has experience in leading large multi-disciplinary work groups to define and achieve targeted savings opportunities. He has worked closely with hospital Administrators, as well as their medical staff, to identify projects and programs and coordinate their completion. He is skilled in project planning, management, team leading and facilitation.
Retired SR VP Supply Chain Manangement
Senior VP Supply Chain Management,
University Health System
Jeff Woodyard is senior vice president of strategic sourcing at MedAssets. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic development and leadership of the GPO portfolio (excluding pharmacy) totaling almost $18 billion in annual spend.
Prior to his current role, Jeff held positions as vice president of MedAssets’ National Collaborative Program, as well as the medical service line.
Before his career with MedAssets, Jeff practiced corporate and transactional law at Thompson & Knight, LLP. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center. In his spare time, Jeff enjoys playing golf and spending time with his two children, Avery Grace and Walker Levi.
Dale Wright brings more than 40 years of healthcare experience to his role as chief contracting officer for Amerinet Inc., and as president of Amerinet Choice. Recognized industry-wide as a healthcare innovator, Wright has executive experience working for provider’s manufacturers, distributors and group purchasing organizations across the U.S. At Amerinet, Wright serves as chief purchasing officer, responsible for ensuring that the company’s portfolio of agreements is cutting-edge and competitive. He develops and implements the strategy for contracting in all disciplines, including Amerinet’s exclusive Custom Contracting division. In addition, and he is responsible for executive leadership of Amerinet Choice, the private label and sourcing company of Amerinet.
Prior to joining Amerinet, Wright was owner and president of Ni-Med Inc., a market leading medical device manufacturer; now a division of Cardinal Healthcare. Wright also served as vice president of sales at the Health Services Corporation of America.
CEO for Banner Baywood, Banner Gateway, Banner Heart, Banner MD Anderson
Banner Health
Kenny is the Senior Director of Pharmacy Services at NYULH. He provides executive leadership and coordination for all pharmacy services provided within NYU Langone Hospitals to promote standardization and alignment of practices across all pharmacy sites.
Kenny began his tenure at NYU Langone Hospitals in 2010 and was the Interim Senior Director of Pharmacy Services at NYU Langone Hospitals while still serving as the Director of 340B Pharmacy Services and Pharmacy Business and Analytics. Prior to assuming his 340B Director’s role, Kenny served as the Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Ambulatory Services, where he had a dual role of managing an infusion center pharmacy and handling all medication management for NYU Langone Hospitals in the ambulatory care setting to promote safety and standardization.
Before he stepped into pharmacy leadership, Kenny was an oncology pharmacist at the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Kenny received his doctorate of pharmacy from Rutgers University in New Jersey and his master’s in business administration with a concentration in healthcare from George Washington University in Washington, DC.