The healthcare industry is becoming more diverse as a whole, and women are increasingly represented in the health IT field. Women are helping to streamline the burdensome behind-the-scenes work of patient care and leading their healthcare organizations into a new age of digital transformation.
Note: This list is not an endorsement of included leaders, hospitals, health systems, companies or associated healthcare providers. Leaders cannot pay for inclusion on this list. Leaders are presented in alphabetical order.
Contact Anna Falvey at afalvey@beckershealthcare.com with questions or comments.
Jodi Amendola. CEO of Amendola Communications (Scottsdale, Ariz.). Ms. Amendola is a public relations and marketing communications leader focused on health IT. In 2003, she founded Amendola Communications, a full-service agency with more than 50 clients, with the goal of impacting healthcare, health tech and life sciences. She leverages her more than 30 years of experience and a vast network of media, analyst and industry influencers to promote companies of all sizes and stages to increase brand awareness and thought leadership, accelerate the sales cycle and strategically position companies for acquisition, initial public offering or organic growth. She has led major campaigns for industry giants and start-up companies.
Teresa Andrea, RN. Vice President and CIO at Silver Cross Hospital (New Lenox, Ill.). Ms. Andrea oversees all information technology functions for Silver Cross, including technical and infrastructure services, cybersecurity, applications and integration services, clinical applications, financial and administrative applications, end-user technology support and physician support and regulatory compliance. She also leads the organization's digital strategy team and oversaw the rollout of the hospital's online appointment and scheduling tool.
Paola Arbour. Executive Vice President and CIO of Tenet Healthcare (Dallas). Ms. Arbour is executive vice president and CIO of Tenet, overseeing leadership and strategic direction for the health system's IT systems. She also identifies opportunities to support the company's care network with digital technology, data automation and customer experience. In 2018, she headed four strategic imperatives, including the Voice of the Consumer strategy, which made IT a business enabler to achieve companywide objectives and outcomes. She also helped the system launch a vendor revitalization program, re-contracted with Cerner and Microsoft, and launch a self-funded innovation team. Ms. Arbour also serves on the Dallas CIO Governing Board and speaks at many Women in Technology forums.
Denise Basow, MD. Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Ochsner Health (New Orleans). Dr. Basow is executive vice president and the inaugural chief digital officer for Ochsner Health, where she is tasked with growing an expanding suite of digital programs like virtual care and remote patient monitoring. An ultimate goal in her role is the enhancement of access and convenience of primary and specialty care. She brings over 25 years of experience in digital health innovation to her role, having long been driven by her passion to improve healthcare.
Heather Bassett, MD. Chief Medical Officer at XSOLIS (Franklin, Tenn.). Dr. Bassett brings over 20 years of experience in healthcare to her role as chief medical officer at XSOLIS. She heads the company's team of physicians and worked with its data science team to create the Care Level Score, which combines clinical expertise and data science for a numerical representation indicating the appropriate care status for each patient. She also oversees XSOLIS’ denials management team, data science team, and its physician advisor program.
Therasa Bell. Co-founder, President and Chief Technology Officer of Kno2 (Boise, Idaho). Combining her passion for healthcare and extensive technology expertise, Ms. Bell created Kno2 as market forces began to drive more effective, lighter-weight healthcare solutions. She is known for three things: her focus on driving interoperability, her ability to simplify the complexities of data sharing and clinical workflows, and her commitment to serve that infuses her interactions with everyone and powers the company’s purpose to democratize healthcare communication for all, enabling the secure, effortless, and maximized exchange of patient information. A true inventor at heart, Ms. Bell is responsible for Kno2’s innovation, vision and engineering, and holds six patents for patient information exchange.
Sherry Buxton. Associate Vice President and Epic Program Executive at Orlando (Fla.) Health. Ms. Buxton oversees more than 250 team members and consultants assigned to a wide array of roles in the implementation of the Epic EHR. In addition to directing a team of 11 directors and managers, she works with Epic executives and implementation leaders from Accenture, the organization serving as Orlando Health's Epic implementation partner. Her oversight also includes the execution of a comprehensive plan for training more than 31,000 team members and community physicians affiliated with Orlando Health on the new EHR.
Bobbie Byrne, MD. CIO of Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.). Dr. Byrne has more than 15 years of experience in clinical informatics and 10 years of professional practice experience. She is CIO of 67-hospital Advocate Health, the nation’s 5th largest not-for-profit, integrated health system, formed by the combination of Milwaukee and Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Aurora Health and Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health. Before the combination, she was CIO of Advocate Aurora Health.
Debora Cancilla. Executive Vice President of Data Strategy and CIO of Temple University Health System (Philadelphia). In her role at Temple University Health System, Ms. Cancilla provides strategic planning, daily management, and oversight for all technology-related activities and services. While serving as senior vice president and CIO for Grady Health System in Atlanta, Ms. Cancilla developed and delivered a two-year IT strategic plan designed to elevate quality and patient experience and completed a wholesale replacement of the system's network, phone system, and desktop computing environment. She has previously served as vice president and CIO for Atlantic Health System and senior vice president and CIO for Pinnacle Health.
Kirsten Carlson. Chief Marketing Officer at Biofourmis (Boston). Ms. Carlson leads the marketing and public relations program for the 650-person global technology-enabled healthcare delivery company, focusing on building a global brand and expanding in the U.S. market. Since entering her leadership role in 2022, Ms. Carlson has implemented a major rebrand that reflects Biofourmis' business evolution.
Michelle Charles, MSN, RN. Senior Vice President and CNIO of Virtual Care at Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Ms. Charles oversees all nursing informatics and virtual care at Parkview Health, which entails the disciplined and standardized management of various projects. She is also responsible for the virtual care department, which handles virtual sitting, virtual nursing and telemetry monitoring. She assisted the system with its plan to instsall cameras in patient rooms, initiated a virtual sitting program, helped with a clinical mobility project for improved communications via IPhones and more. Over three years, her work in virtual nursing has helped Parkview Health achieve an 81 percent reduction in C. difficile and a 76 percent reduction in the standardized infection ratio, ultimately leading to safer patients and less costs.
Cynthia Church. Chief Strategy Officer of Xealth (Seattle). Ms. Church is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience driving growth, building brands, and launching products in the healthcare, asset management, insurance, retail, and consumer goods industries. With Xealth, she collaborates with the team to execute on the company’s strategy and marketing, working with health systems and partners to achieve their digital health goals. Her experience also includes U.S. and international mergers and acquisitions activity, corporate venture capital, strategy/planning, human resources and change management. Before her time at Xealth, Ms. Church served as the senior director of marketing and communications for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the executive director of the Center for Connected Medicine.
Rhonda Collins, DNP, RN. Chief Nursing Officer at Vocera Communications (San Jose, Calif.).As the CNO at Vocera, Dr. Collins works with nurse leaders around the world who are on the same mission to make healthcare better. At Vocera, she has promoted ways to use technology to take on much of the burden of obtaining, tracking and sorting information, bringing what's most urgent to the top rather than treating everything with equal weight. Dr. Collins is the co-founder of the American Nurse Project. She was named to the Top 25 Women in Healthcare Software by The Healthcare Tech Report in 2020; the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT list by Health Data Management in 2019; and she won the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Women of Influence Award in 2019.
Diane Comer. Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.). Ms. Comer is executive vice president and chief information and technology officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. She previously led Kaiser Permanente's Health Plan IT organization. She led the implementation of the technology systems needed to support the Affordable Care Act and health insurance exchanges for Kaiser Permanente, in addition to the delivery of a nationwide claims platform, a telephony system which now supports a million calls a month to their multiple contact centers — among the highest call volume in the nation. Ms. Comer is a 2012 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award winner.
C. Beth Cooper. Vice President of Sales and Marketing of KNB Communications (Stamford, Conn.). Ms. Cooper heads up a full-service integrated PR and marketing firm specializing in health tech. An expert in full-stack marketing, social media, and regulatory/legal compliance, Ms. Cooper uses her decades of experience to tell the stories of innovative, growth-stage companies who are changing the landscape in the U.S. healthcare system. She is responsible for growing the agency by 30 percent in 2021. Ms. Cooper and KNB focus on partnering with companies who improve the patient experience via technology, and ensure they are leading conversations in healthcare.
Sandra Cosler. Executive Director of Strategic Reimbursement at the University of Chicago Medicine. Ms. Cosler maximizes the University of Chicago's reimbursement strategy using Epic System's general ledger reporting system. She has led a consolidation project for University of Chicago Medicine, analyzing Epic's system and making future recommendations for its uses.
Terri Couts. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at The Guthrie Clinic (Sayre, Pa.). As chief digital officer, Ms. Couts is exploring avenues for digital expansion at The Guthrie Clinic. In addition, she is responsible for not only adopting new digital technologies but also influencing how people, processes and technology can enable the final vision. She is helping to redefine healthcare delivery by implementing virtual care teams, patient monitoring tools, transmission of imaging results and more. Ultimately, the new care delivery system she is working to create in the Guthrie Pulse Center is a unique, one-of-a-kind method of attaining shorter hospital stays, improved results, fewer transfers and improved patient satisfaction.
Myra Davis. Senior Vice President and Chief Information Innovation Officer at Texas Children's Hospital (Houston). Ms. Davis acts as senior vice president and chief information innovation officer at Texas Children's, the largest pediatric hospital in the nation. She guides over 500 IT professionals and biomedical engineers and advances the information services department. Recently, she launched and proliferated the hospital's new innovation strategy, one that will drive growth for the organization via a portfolio of investments. Ms. Davis has served in a variety of roles during her 19-year tenure at Texas Children's, including director of customer support and vice president of information services.
Sherry de Cuba. Vice President of Compliance at Greenway Health (Tampa, Fla.). Ms. de Cuba has led Greenway in meeting the regulatory requirements for its software and digital products. She manages Greenway's Corporate Integrity with the Department of Justice as well. She helped Greenway to achieve an EHR certification in 2023, showing a commitment to CIA compliance.
Wendy Deibert, BSN, RN. CNO for Caregility (Eatontown, N.J.). Ms. Deibert's role as chief nursing officer allows her to help vendors, health systems and clinicians integrate virtual care into their care delivery methods. She wields both clinical and technical expertise, which she applies to ensure that Caregility's virtual care platform, applications and telehealth solutions are clinically sound and meeting the needs of end users. She also heads the virtual care program development for Caregility hospital and health system customers, acting as a consultant for virtual care strategy, roadmapping, implementation and project management. Throughout the course of her career, she has developed telehealth teams, converted critical care beds to electronic technology, launched telestroke site programs, launched telehealth initiatives and more.
Elizabeth A. Delahoussaye. Chief Privacy Officer of CIOX Health (Alpharetta, Ga.). With over 20 years of healthcare experience, Ms. Delahoussaye is responsible for all aspects of the company’s privacy functions, planning and directing compliance functions, and ensuring the organization is compliant with all federal and state regulations. She and her team provide training to our HealthSource users to make sure they understand how to follow compliance rules. She has served on the AHIMA board of directors, house of delegates, ROI toolkit and annual program committees, and the Privacy and Security Council. She is also a past president of THIMA and received their Distinguished Member award. Ms. Delahoussaye holds a B.S. degree in health information management from the University of Louisiana.
Bridget Duffy, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Vocera Communications (San Jose, Calif.). For more than 25 years, Dr. Duffy has been unrelenting in her mission to humanize healthcare. She is the founding partner of the CEO Coalition, which started a movement to redefine safety and set new national standards to improve the physical safety, psychological and emotional well-being, and health justice for all who work in healthcare. Dr. Duffy is also the country’s first chief experience officer in healthcare, establishing that role at the Cleveland Clinic.
Nada Elbuluk, MD. Director of Clinical Impact at VisualDx (Rochester, N.Y.). Dr. Elbuluk joined the VisualDx team to support the company's mission of improving the healthcare experience for patients of color and enhancing diagnostic accuracy, a mission that has driven most of Dr. Elbuluk's career. At New York University School of Medicine in New York City, she spearheaded the founding of the pigmentary disorder clinic for the dermatology department and was the diversity ambassador. At the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, she trains both students and residents on how to diagnose and treat patients of color and works to raise awareness of where medical education continues to fall short.
Sandra Elliott. Chief Innovation and Commercialization Officer at Hackensack (N.J.) Meridian Health. Ms. Elliott is responsible for developing a culture of innovation within Hackensack Meridian Health and bringing in transformative solutions to support the system's strategic planning. She is always thinking about growth and adding value to her organization, making risks or investments, and finding the best opportunities for future growth. Ms. Elliott is also involved in emerging research and publishes articles in healthcare and business magazines.
Kolaleh Eskandanian, PhD. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Children's National Health System (Washington, D.C.). Dr. Eskandanian is responsible for Children's National's Office of Innovation and Technology Commercialization as well as the research operations for the Sheikh Zayed Institute and the Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, which will open in 2020. Dr. Eskandanian is also the executive director of National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation, an FDA-funded consortium focused on accelerating the time to market for pediatric devices.
Judy Faulkner. Founder and CEO of Epic Systems (Verona, Wis.). Ms. Faulkner founded Epic in 1979 and continues to serve as CEO. The company has grown significantly over the past decade and reported $2.9 billion in 2018 sales. The EHR vendor of choice for many of the top hospitals and health systems in the nation, Epic supports medical records for more than 250 million patients. She was named one of Forbes' America's Top 50 Women in Tech 2018.
Virginia Feldman, MD. Co-founder and CEO of Nexus Health Resources (Middletown, N.Y.). Dr. Feldman is responsible for the strategic direction of Nexus Health Resources, a company she co-founded, which is focused on automating communications and optimizing reimbursement. Prior to founding Nexus, Dr. Feldman co-founded Hudson Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center, which generated $5 million in revenue.
Helen Figge, PharmD. Chief Strategy Officer at Medicasoft (Arlington, Va.). MedicaSoft named Dr. Figge chief strategy officer in 2018. She also serves in senior advisory roles to organizations across the U.S. and sits on committees and boards for HIMSS, NAHDO and other organizations. She also is the executive in residence for MCPHS University and first woman elected president of the HIMSS NYS Chapter in its 32 year history. Prior to joining MedicaSoft, Dr. Figge worked for AmerisourceBergen, Allscripts and Alere; she also supported and guided several health IT start-up companies.
Rebecca Fletcher. Technology and Digital Vice President of EHR and Patient Financial Systems at Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables, Fla.). Ms. Fletcher acts as a point person for all digital and technological matters within Baptist Health South Florida. She works to promote EHR adoption and success, while navigating any challenges that arise internally or externally. To further support the success of new technology integration, she builds and maintains close relationships with stakeholders throughout the organization. Ms. Fletcher champions innovation by choosing technologies that greatly improve clinical outcomes or streamline workflows.
Renee Fosberg. Vice President and CIO of Emerson Hospital (Concord, Mass.). Ms. Fosberg has over 20 years of experience in healthcare information systems. In her current role as senior director and CIO, Ms. Fosberg implements Emerson Hospital's IT and telecommunication systems strategy and has guided the health system through adopting an EMR platform. Under her leadership, Emerson Hospital was named a HIMSS Analytics stage 6 hospital, the second-to-last stage in HIMSS' measurement of EHR adoption and usage.
Angie Franks. President and CEO of About (St. Paul, Minn., and Salt Lake City, Utah). Under Ms. Frank's leadership in recent years, About, formerly known as Central Logic, has expanded its health system engagements and secured its first government contract. Her work in building the business resulted in Rubicon Partners, a private equity firm, making a strategic majority investment in Central Logic in 2020. She has served in executive leadership roles at Healthland, acquired by CPSI; Lawson Software, acquired by Infor; and GeoAccess, acquired by Optum.
Kathy Dalton Ford. Chief Product and Strategy Officer of Project Ronin (San Mateo, Calif.). Ms. Ford serves as the chief product and strategy officer of Project Ronin, which collects, correlates, and contextualizes data to support efficient cancer treatment decisions at the point of care. She handles the ideation and commercialization of the solution to the market and also oversees strategy and customer success operations. She also volunteers as an advisor on the HLTH Foundation CSweetner Program, where she was selected with other healthcare industry veterans to offer guidance on a range of business growth and professional growth for members within the healthcare industry. She is a member of the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation.
Linn Foster Freedman. Chair Privacy and Cybersecurity at Robinson+Cole (Providence, R.I.). Ms. Freedman focuses her law practice on data privacy and security, cybersecurity and complex litigation across multiple sectors, including healthcare. She works with her clients for data breach preparedness and assists with developing and training data breach response teams. She is nationally ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the privacy law area. Ms. Freedman also chairs the firm's data privacy and security team.
Cindy Gaines, MSN, RN. Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Lumeon (Boston). In 2021, Ms. Gaines assumed the role of chief clinical transformation officer at Lumeon, believing that the organization's care orchestration technology had the potential to truly transform healthcare systems and patient care by automating manual tasks. As she leads the company's team of clinical and operational experts, she is bolstered by her 30-plus years of healthcare experience and knowledge. Ms. Gaines works with clients to optimize the solution's ability to integrate real-time data, apply clinical knowledge and employ intelligent automation, all with the end result of helping providers give the end patient personalized, quality care.
Ashley Glover. CEO at WebPT (Phoenix). Ms. Glover joined WebPT as CEO and board member in November 2021, bringing with her extensive experience in successfully developing, scaling, and operating large software-as-a-service and technology companies. As CEO, Ashley focuses on developing innovative strategies to guide WebPT to its next stage of growth, and continuing to improve upon the ways in which WebPT serves the rehab therapy industry at large.
Kim Gordon. Senior Vice President of Care Delivery Applications at Corewell Health (Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich.). Ms. Gordon is responsible for integrating Corewell's new digital solutions and applications to transform healthcare for patients in Michigan. Under Ms. Gordon's leadership, the system delivered virtual care integrated with its core platform and streamlined virtual tumor boards that saved 800-plus hours of clinician time annually. She also established a multi-year plan for integrating Epic software system wide.
Lisa Goss, MD. CMIO at Washington (Pa.) Health System. As chief medical information officer at Washington Health System, Dr. Goss acts as the administrative and physician interface of the health system's medical staff and IT departments. Among her chief responsibilities are designing and integrating IT systems, coordinating health and medical informatics, leveraging health analyzing technology to optimize EHRs and training providers on technology platforms. She also works closely with senior leadership to formulate and apply health IT goals and directives.
Lisa Grisim. Vice President and Associate CIO of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Medicine Children's Health (Palo Alto, Calif.). Ms. Grisim has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare technology. She joined Lucile Packard Children's in 2002 with a background in nursing as well as information systems. She focuses on EMR optimization and helped lead the hospital to develop an adopt Lean tools and techniques. Ms. Grisim's team of more than 100 employees and consultants helped the system earn HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Level 7 and the HIMSS Davies Award for the use of EMR data to improve patient outcomes and decrease costs.
Joy Grosser. CIO of SSM Health (St. Louis). Ms. Grosser has more than 20 years of experience in senior IT leadership. In her current role, Ms. Grosser oversees SSM Health's IT infrastructure across 23 hospitals. The system has more than 290 physician offices, 11,000 providers and 40,000 employees. Before joining SSM Health in January, Ms. Grosser was the CIO of UW Medicine in Seattle and Cleveland-based University Hospitals.
Mandy Halford, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and CMIO at Covenant Health (Knoxville, Tenn.). Dr. Halford is responsible for leading consumerism, virtual care and overall information strategics at Covenant. She also leads technology and operational processes at the system. She has developed and implemented Covenant's new EHR records system, redesigned workflows and overseen physician and staff technology training. In 2023, she was appointed to her current role.
Amanda Hansen. President of AdvancedMD (South Jordan, Utah). During Ms. Hansen's tenure, she has held multiple positions in business development, sales, service, finance and strategy which have yielded a host of professional accomplishments. She is passionate about increasing operational effectiveness and profitability and driving continual growth while improving patient care and access to healthcare through innovative software solutions. Ms. Hansen’s competitive edge, positive outlook and solution-oriented approach have made a noticeable impact on the vision, direction and achievements of the organization. She played a critical role in Global Payments’ recent $700 million acquisition of AdvancedMD from Marlin Equity Partners.
Leanne Harvey. CIO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston). Ms. Harvey serves as CIO for Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, where she leads the planning, support and implementation of enterprise information systems. Ultimately, her work aims to improve efficiency, support expansion of the organization into the community, enhance data and operations visibility, and mitigate risks. She also supports clinical and business operations at the local and clinical level to achieve effective and affordable IT solutions. Notably, Ms. Harvey and her team debuted a custom-built telehealth platform that melds with the organization's EHR, enabling providers to easily schedule, launch, document and bill for visits.
Tamara Havenhill-Jacobs. CIO of Bozeman (Mont.) Health. Ms. Havenhill-Jacobs oversees IT for Bozeman Health, a two-hospital health system with around 2,000 employees. She has more than 25 years of experience in management and in her current role also oversees the health system's technology and innovation efforts. In the next year, she plans on building partnerships for digital initiatives.
Amanda Heidemann, MD. Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Information Officer at KeyCare (Chicago). Dr. Heidemann handles engagement, adoption, standardization and optimization of clinical systems at KeyCare and serves as the main liaison between the clinical staff and the internal and external technical teams. She led the creation of and implementation of KeyCare’s informatics strategy for integrating data and optimizing care across Epic’s electronic health record platform and related technologies. She is currently working in partnership with other IT executives to guide and support teams building and optimizing KeyCare’s virtual care platform and leads efforts to enhance its functionality and usability.
Donette Herring, BSN. CIO of Vidant Health (Greenville, N.C.). Ms. Herring has served in her current role with Vidant Health for more than eight years. Before that, she served as the CIO of Catholic Health East, now known as Trinity Health. Ms. Herring was pivotal in developing and executing Catholic Health East's system-wide IT strategy. She has more than 27 years of experience in healthcare CIO roles.
Melissa Hosey, MSN, RN. System Director of Clinical Workforce at Adventist Health (Roseville, Calif.). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Hosey took steps to revolutionize the health system, initiating a digital journey, achieving short-term staffing goals and laying the groundwork for a long-term staffing model moving forward. She overhauled the system's talent acquisition strategy and expanded in-house staffing technology to manage recruitment and retention.
Sheeza Khawar Hussain. Chief Growth Officer at SteadyMD (St. Louis, Mo.). Ms. Hussain leads the commercial team at telehealth company SteadyMD, including business development, sales and marketing. She has a strong business background, starting out as an engineer and moving into marketing and general management.
Karen Ignagni. President and CEO of EmblemHealth (New York City). Ms. Ignagni leads EmblemHealth, a nonprofit health insurance company that serves around 3.1 million people in New York. She joined the company in 2015 after serving as president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans where she worked with the White House and Congressional leaders to develop healthcare reform legislation. In addition to her work with EmblemHealth, Ms. Ignagni sits on the Governor's Council on Women and Girls as well as the New York Department of Financial Services Insurance Advisory Board.
Heidi Jannenga, PT, DPT, ATC. Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of WebPT (Phoenix, Arizona) Since the company launched in 2008, Dr. Jannenga has guided WebPT through exponential growth. It is now the fastest-growing physical therapy software in the country, employing more than 800 people and serving more than 100,000 therapy professionals at more than 27,000 clinics. In 2017, she was honored by Health Data Management as one of the most powerful women in IT, and she was a finalist for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2018, she was named the Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year at the Arizona Technology Council’s Governor’s Celebration of Innovation. Her latest venture is called Rizing Tide, which is a foundation dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusiveness in the physical therapy workforce.
Zereana Jess-Huff, PhD. Senior Vice President of North American Operations at United We Care (Gurgaon, India). Dr. Jess-Huff, senior vice president of North American operations at United We Care, has held executive positions at several digital mental health companies and also brings over 15 years of experience as a licensed clinical practitioner. United We Care provides comprehensive app-based services and solutions to those seeking behavioral and mental health support. In her role, Dr. Jess-Huff explores clinical innovation, operations strategy, and digital health product development. She is renowned in the clinical and digital health business industry, and is passionate about United We Care's leverage of ethical generative AI.
Sandra Johnson. Senior Vice President of Client Services at CliniComp (San Diego, Calif.). Ms. Johnson oversees the client services division at CliniComp, overseeing six departments including application support and cybersecurity. She is responsible for the implementation of CliniComp's EHRs across its market segments. She also maintains relationships with clients and further integrates EHR solutions while sustaining the overall product suite. Over a period of 18 months, she helped transition over 100 CliniComp clients over to its new and updated health records system.
Anjali Kataria. CEO and Co-Founder of Mytonomy (Bethesda, Md.). Ms. Kataria is a serial entrepreneur and healthcare executive, bringing extensive expertise in both public and private sectors to her role as the CEO and co-founder of Mytonomy, her third venture-backed company. She leads the rapidly growing enterprise software firm that is revolutionizing patient engagement for improved well-being and access to care. Mytonomy’s video-based patient-education technology is currently used in more than 70 hospitals, 200 clinics, and 15 academic medical centers across the US. Thanks to her guidance, Mytonomy was listed on the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing US companies in 2020-22. Recognized for her innovative mindset and impactful contributions, Ms. Kataria has garnered prestigious awards such as the FDA Commissioner's Award for Innovation and the "Top 40 Under 40" in Washington, D.C. in the Washington Business Journal.
Rebecca Kaul. Senior Vice President of Chief Digital Innovation and Transformation of Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.). Ms. Kaul is responsible for digital innovation and transformation at Northwell Health. Ms. Kaul has previous experience as the vice president and chief innovation officer of MD Anderson in Houston. She has also served as chief innovation officer and president of UPMC Development Center, where she developed the program's portfolio of partnerships, investments and new companies.
Janice Kelly, RN-BC. President of AORN Syntegrity (Denver). Ms. Kelly leads AORN Syntegrity, which provides evidence-based perioperative information for EHRs. The solution includes standardized scheduling procedure list, standardized nursing documentation content and care planning. Ms. Kelly has experience as the governing director for AORN and regional chief nursing informatics officer at Providence Health & Services Alaska Region.
Gail Keyser, BSN, RN. Senior Vice President, Associate CIO and Chief Application Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). Ms. Keyser brings over 30 years of experience in healthcare to her role as Hackensack Meridian Health's senior vice president, chief application officer and associate CIO. During her tenure with Hackensack Meridian, she has established an efficient IT organization delivering $3 million in yearly savings. She directed the implementation of Epic's electronic health record to nine acute care hospitals in 14 months, being the first in the industry to achieve that milestone.
Lee Ann Kincaid-Wood. Director of Clinical Applications at Memorial Hermann Health System (Houston). As the director of clinical applications at Memorial Hermann Health System, Ms. Kincaid-Wood engages clinical and operational decision makers, ideates and implements the Epic Ambulatory strategy, and designs teams to support the application afterwards. In alliance with operations and executive leadership teams, she helmed the design of the Community Connect model, which is a ground-up approach to technology integration, contracting, payment scheduling and design. She also provides leadership support for the legacy Cerner application, acts as a liaison for the Texas Medical Center for Innovation and contributes to the Memorial Hermann Innovation Committee.
Amy Knight, MD. CMIO at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (Baltimore, Md.). Dr. Knight has served as CMIO for Johns Hopkins Bayview since 2016, and co-chairs three committees for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Knight is a practicing hospitalist, caring for patients and increasing practice efficiency. She is also the chair of the American Medical Informatics Association's CDS working group. She is dedicated to EHR excellence, leading several initiatives for Johns Hopkins including ensuring attention to incidental imaging findings and documenting peri-procedure code status and patients’ goals for their care.
Jeri Koester. CIO of Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System. Ms. Koester has worked with Marshfield Clinic for years, and is now overseeing the long-term information services needs and technology vision for the system. She has experience developing IT strategy, software development and hardware acquisition and integration. Ms. Koester was able to generate at least 6 percent savings with her team in 2019 on operational improvements. She has led several key initiatives, including expanding IT business management practices to support the system's strategic planning and a 50 percent reduction in cost for data connectivity between remote sites and its data center.
Lauren Koniaris, MD. Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). Dr. Koniaris serves as chief medical informatics officer of Hackensack Meridian Health, where she helped lead the Epic rollout at network hospitals. Dr. Koniaris continues to work clinically after hours on nights and weekends with the medical critical care team at Hackensack University Medical Center, the network's flagship hospital that was at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in its region. In December 2013, Dr. Koniaris was part of the inaugural group of physicians to become board-certified in clinical informatics, a new subspecialty offered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine.
Julie Lamoureux. Senior Healthcare Consultant at Dimensional Insight (Burlington, Mass.). Ms. Lamoureux is a performance and quality improvement expert, and her role at Dimensional Insight is to help healthcare organizations operationalize their measures and to create dashboards that monitor key metrics. Each client has specific clinical business intelligence expectations, and she ensures that Dimensional Insight's analytics platform provides the biggest possible positive impact. Her professional background as a statistician in performance improvement in a hospital setting informs her current role, as she once worked at West Miami-based Kendall Baptist Hospital.
Sarah Larcker. Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at MediFind (Ambler, Pa.). As the chief marketing officer of MediFind, Ms. Larcker is responsible for driving product growth. Ms. Larcker and the team of co-founders launched MediFind on Rare Disease Day, Feb. 29, 2020, in support of the rare disease community. She has led the MediFind team to be honored as finalists for the Vesalius Innovation Award, from Karger Publishers; Reuter's Most Valuable Service or Digital Therapy; Startup50/Sierra Ventures' Top Startups; the Shorty Awards for Social Good; and Healthcare Tech Outlook Top Healthcare Startups.
Melissa Lawlor. Director of Cybersecurity Governance, Risk and Compliance at Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). Ms. Lawlor focuses on designing, developing and deploying security initiatives that contribute to a better security posture for the whole organization. She has developed and executed a multi-year plan to remediate security assessment findings, lead efforts to adapt and develop security controls and sponsor the first enterprisewide cybersecurity incident management plan.
Jan Lee, MD. CEO of Delaware Health Information Network (Dover). Dr. Lee oversees the Delaware Health Information Network, a statewide clinical health information exchange with a budget of around $8.5 million. She has experience working with hospital, ambulatory practice and health plan leaders to aggregate clinical data into a longitudinal health record. Dr. Lee has a background as a family practice physician and spent time as vice president of knowledge base and content for NextGen Healthcare before taking on her current role.
Tzielan Lee, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Ambulatory Practice at Stanford Medicine Children's Health (Palo Alto, Calif.). Dr. Lee supports clinical informatics and information systems for Stanford's ambulatory services. Since 2021, Dr. Lee has worked with the ambulatory care team to deliver high-quality, coordinated and efficient care across departments. She strikes a balance between information system innovation and connecting with patients to improve outcomes. She understands how to use technology systems and emerging technology capabilities like telemedicine to develop effective care models that support both patient and workforce experiences.
Chun Li, PhD. Vice President of Informatics at Availity Clinical Business Unit (Jacksonville, Fla.). Dr. Li guides the design and development of Availity Clinical Business Unit’s data upcycling platform and associated applications. Under her leadership, the company has achieved dual certification for their quality measure reporting application by the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Dr. Li has co-authored several research articles in peer-reviewed journals about interoperability and data quality.
Nora Lissy, BSN, RN. Vice President of Healthcare Consulting and Implementation at Dimensional Insight (Burlington, Mass.). Ms. Lissy's role as vice president of healthcare consulting and implementation involves working with healthcare clients to achieve their desired business intelligence goals. She guides clients through the business journey, from the very inception of a project to overall project implementation and post-implementation. She aims to ensure that clients are able to use the company's platform successfully. She brings over 30 years of experience in healthcare settings to her current position.
Sophy Lu. Senior Vice President and CIO for Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.). Ms. Lu serves as the senior vice president and CIO for Northwell Health. Her role requires her to handle the strategic direction, talent, information, security, technology and services delivery as it pertains to digital transformation for the health system. Before joining Northwell Health in 2010, Ms. Lu accumulated over 20 years of experience in healthcare and global IT. She served in several roles during her time with the system before her appointment to CIO in July 2022.
Mandy Mason. Global Solution Lead for Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.). Ms. Mason leads the development of creative solutions that aim to tackle the toughest challenges facing healthcare utilizing the best-in-class Microsoft technology. Her work is backed by her deep expertise of healthcare operations, financial transformation, strategic planning, human-centered design and more. Most recently, Ms. Mason led product development on a groundbreaking healthcare staffing tool that uses AI and machine learning. The achievement earned national recognition.
Novlet Mattis. Senior Vice President, CIDO of Orlando (Fla.) Health. As Orlando Health's CIDO, Ms. Mattis offers executive leadership for IT, digital capability supply chain, and systems that promote optimization. Since joining Orlando Health in 2018, Ms. Mattis and her team's accomplishments include the development of a screening tool that identifies high-risk traumatic brain injury patients. Before joining Orlando Health, Ms. Mattis served as vice president of IT at Ascension Information Services in St. Louis.
Shereese Maynard. Chief Marketing Officer at HIT Like A Girl Pod and Founder of AskShereese.Tech (San Diego). Ms. Maynard brings over 20 years of experience in the health IT field to her roles. She acts as an advisor to companies nationwide, guiding their growth and development. In addition, she creates content for health IT brands to bridge the gap between complex technology and end-users. As chief marketing officer for the HIT Like a Girl Pod brand, Ms. Maynard carefully constructs strategic marketing plans and content initiatives to help the brand uplift and celebrate women in the industry, elevate the brand's reach and impact, and inspire future generations of women in the field. Her deep experience navigating the health IT landscape as a woman of color injects a fresh, much-needed perspective to a field often dominated by a homogenous viewpoint.
Reagan McFarland. Clinical IT Specialist at Wayne General Hospital (Waynesboro, Miss.). As clinical IT specialist at Wayne General Hospital, Ms. McFarland provides direct support to IT projects. As part of her role, she helps with setting up electronic charting systems and working with software providers to provide solutions. In addition, she works with patients to provide access to their patient records. She brings a positive, client-focused attitude to her position.
Sheree McFarland. CIO of West Florida at HCA (Tampa and St. Petersburg, Fla.). Ms. McFarland oversees health IT for 16 hospitals and more than 50 physician practices and other facilities for HCA's West Florida region. In this role, Ms. McFarland provides strategic planning, budgeting and project management support for the health system. She has previous experience as director of IT for Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Pamela McNutt. Senior Vice President and CIO of Methodist Health System (Dallas). Ms. McNutt has nearly 30 years of health IT experience. In addition to her responsibilities as senior vice president and CIO of the four-hospital Methodist Health System, Ms. McNutt serves as a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Data Initiative Executive Committee and the State of Texas' Health Care Information Council Hospital Data Collection Workgroup.
Theresa Meadows, BSN, RN. Senior Vice President and CIO at Cook Children's Health Care System (Fort Worth, Texas). Ms. Meadows leads a team of more than 350 members covering areas such as infrastructure, applications, telecommunications and program management. She served as a regional director for Ascension Health Information Services, where she led software implementations. Ms. Meadows served as the co-chair for the Health and Human Services Healthcare Cybersecurity Task Force. In 2019, Ms. Meadows received the CHIME Federal Public Policy Award for her work in cybersecurity.
Danielle G. Meglaughlin. Director of IT, Project Management and Governance at Atlantic Health System (Morristown, N.J.). Ms. Meglaughlin oversees the project management practices and processes for Atlantic Health System's IT department. She manages a portfolio of over 100 active projects and a team of 16 talented project managers. Tasked with leading the IT project governance process, she ensures that all potential projects align with the health system's strategic goals, policies, procedures, technical requirements and cybersecurity standards. Ms. Meglaughlin helped found the system's project management office in 2003 and has spent the past 20 years contributing to its development.
Kim Mendez, EdD, RN. Corporate CIO at NYC Health + Hospitals (New York City). Dr. Mendez assumed the role of corporate chief information officer at NYC Health + Hospitals in April 2020. She has continuously acted as an industry pioneer throughout her career, blazing new trails in her previous roles as chief health informatics officer and corporate chief nurse executive as well as her current position. Her main goal is to transform the organization into a fully integrated, equitable system that has accessible services, cutting edge technology and unparalleled access for community members. In pursuit of this goal, she applies a patient-centered approach to the system's IT strategies.
Amy Merlino, MD. Enterprise Chief Medical Information Officer at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Merlino joined Cleveland Clinic in 2010 as director of clinical informatics and became CMIO in 2017. Her medical background is in obstetrics and gynecology, and she has certification in preventative medicine as well as clinical informatics. In 2018, Crain's Cleveland Business named Dr. Merlino among its list of Notable Women in Technology.
Tiffani Misencik. Chief Revenue Officer at Greenway Health (Tampa, Fla.). Ms. Misencik is responsible for sales operations, marketing and client success at Greenway. She focuses on improving the patient experience driving provider success. She has also implemented growth strategies and led cross-functional teams for Greenway. She has more than 20 years of experience in health IT.
Wendy Mortimore, MD. CMIO at UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa). Dr. Mortimore is board-certified in clinical informatics and has been practicing primary care and pediatrics for over 15 years. At UnityPoint, she focuses on EHR governance, strategy and optimization. She also leads technology projects and co-chairs the digital governance council for UnityPoint, which focuses on achieving data-informed goals and enhancing the care experience at the health system.
Michele Mui. Director of Nursing at New York City Health +Hospitals Corporation - Metropolitan. Ms. Mui serves as the director of nursing at NYCHH. She is responsible for all informatics for nursing, respiratory and more. As an incredible informaticist, she identifies problems and ideasts creative solutions. She has taken the initiative to rollout programs that give nurses access to critical information via handheld devices, resulting in better outcomes for patients and safer clinical practice. Recently, she readjusted focus so that the handheld devices would have telemetry alerts and strips sent directly to nurses.
Karen Murphy, PhD, RN. Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer of Geisinger (Danville, Pa.) and Founding Director of the Steele Institute for Health Innovation. Dr. Murphy is the founding director of the Steele Institute for Health Innovation at Geisinger and executive vice president and CIO of the health system. In her role, Dr. Murphy supports the system's four principles to fulfill its mission of caring through technology and innovation. She previously served as the secretary of health for the state of Pennsylvania and the director of the State Innovation Models Initiative at CMS, leading the agency's $990 million investment.
Kristin Myers. Executive Vice President, Chief Digital and Information Officer, and Dean for Digital and Information Technology at Mount Sinai Health System (New York City). Ms. Myers is leading efforts to reinvent and transform technology and digital at Mount Sinai Health System. Among her key goals are driving organizational agility to meet business needs, optimizing technology operations, and enabling innovation in the technology and digital space. She is working to accelerate digital transformation and has led efforts to partner with Accenture and Microsoft, which could lead to millions of dollars in savings. She implemented robotic process automation, which configures software to mimic human interaction to automate processes and has saved the health system 75,000 annual hours of labor. Ms. Myers is also a member of the Diversity Innovation Hub Advisory Board and the corporate leader for the Anti-Racism Roadmap program.
Ivana Naeymi-Rad. COO of Intelligent Medical Objects (Rosemont, Ill.). Driven by a desire to drive change and improve the patient care journey, Ms. Naeymi-Rad joined Intelligent Medical Objects in 2012. In her role as COO, she leads the company's software engineering, content development and delivery, project management and enterprise IT departments. She has built best-in-class teams that are driving significant change in healthcare, from improving clinical documentation at the point of care to making patient information fit-for-purpose across the healthcare ecosystem. Ms. Naeymi-Rad is also a thought leader in the health IT industry as well as a mentor for women in their early careers.
Jamie Nelson. Senior Vice President and CIO of Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City). Ms. Nelson took the helm of Hospital for Special Surgery's IT department in April 2012. Since then, she has revamped the team, growing ranks and creating new leadership positions like CMO, chief technology officer and chief information security officer. Under her leadership, the orthopedic hospital completed an EHR installation in January 2016 and earned HIMSS stage 7 certification in November 2017. The hospital earned the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence for IT last year. Before HSS, Ms. Nelson held IT leadership positions at Norwalk (Conn.) Hospital, where she served as CIO, and NewYork-Presbyterian, where she served as vice president of IT.
Colleen Nicewicz, CEO of Groups Recover Together (Burlington, Mass.). Since taking over as CEO in January of 2020, Ms. Nicewicz has grown the footprint of Groups Recover Together by 38 percent, opening 21 new care locations throughout the United States in 2020, with an additional 50 locations on the horizon. She was the visionary behind the company’s transition to virtual care, which led to a 56 percent increase in membership year over year – all during a time when the pandemic is making it more difficult to access effective treatment. She oversaw a $60 million series C funding round in 2021, led by Oak HC/FT, and she leads a nationwide clinical team with a curriculum that drives an ongoing patient/member NPS score of 82.
Anne Nies. Director of Machine Learning at Cohere Health (Boston). Ms. Nies leads a team of machine engineers at Cohere who are focused on refining and optimizing the company's engineering practices. Ms. Nies is also focused on deploying new machine learning models within Cohere's digital intelligent prior authorization platform. In the last year and a half, she has brought more than 40 new machine learning models into production. Her new machine learning models have proven to operate faster and with less risk than the company's existing prior authorization platform. Her software has saved 11,000 manual review hours.
Jeana O'Brien, MD. CMIO of Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas and Temple, Texas). Dr. O'Brien plays a key role in driving Baylor Scott & White's data-driven future as CMIO. She has a background in information services and clinical informatics, and works to deliver technology solutions to support clinical practice and research. She was part of the health system's efforts to unite 51 hospitals and more than 7,500 providers under a single EHR system and continues to strive for transparency in her approach to organizational change management. Throughout her career, Dr. O'Brien has helped the health system achieve HIMSS Level 7 Award for multiple hospitals and clinics.
Natalie Pageler, MD. CMIO of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and Stanford Medicine Children's Health (Palo Alto, Calif.). Dr. Pageler brings experience as a pediatric and obstetrics physician and administrator to the role of CMIO. She leads the hospital's digital health program, which aims to transform the model of care for pediatrics and obstetrics. Dr. Pageler helped lead Stanford Medicine Children's Health to achieve HIMSS Stage 7 recognition for inpatient and ambulatory surgery in 2015 as well as the HIMSS Davies Award in 2017. Dr. Pageler is an advocate for thoughtful and appropriate patient engagement tool development for pediatric patients and families. She is also the program director for Stanford School of Medicine's clinical informatics fellowship.
Gail Peace. Founder, President and CEO of Ludi (Nashville, Tenn.). Ms. Peace is founder and CEO of Ludi, a company focused on providing technology to hospitals to optimize physician spend. She has spent her career in healthcare technology, business development and sales leadership with hospitals and health plans. Prior to founding Ludi, Ms. Peace was vice president of business development at Vanguard Health in Chicago and vice president of client solutions for WebMD Health Services.
Maggie Pena. Chief Experience Officer at Interlace Health (St. Louis, Mo.). Ms. Pena is responsible for the overall leadership, management and strategic direction of the client services team at Interlace, a privately held IT firm that automates healthcare and paperwork processes. She leads one third of Interlace Health’s employees, leads the customer support team, its customer implementation strategy and the company’s managed services program. In 2018, she launched the Interlace Health Customer Success Council, a council comprising 15 customers who meet quarterly to advise on products, solutions and share best practices.
Nancy Pratt. Senior Vice President of Clinical Product Design at CliniComp (San Diego, Calif.). Ms. Pratt is dedicated to making sure that CliniComp's EHR system works for, not against physicians. She is responsible for product development and quality regulation for CliniComp, designing and developing new EHR products. She also leads the organizational performance improvement and clinical leadership teams. Previously, she served as CliniComp's vice president of clinical services, supervising product design, implementation, training, testing and quality of newly developed software and enhancements.
Laura Purdy, MD. Chief Medical Officer of OpenLoop (Des Moines, Iowa). Dr. Purdy not only serves as chief medical officer of OpenLoop, but also as a board-certified family medicine physician. Thanks to her clinical experience, she brings a nuanced perspective to her leadership role and is able to provide OpenLoop with advice regarding all of their medical-related operations. This includes the company's expansive clinician network, licensing and credentialing services, and telehealth support services. Another facet of her responsibilities is ensuring that OpenLoop stays abreast of changing regulations as the telehealth world continues to expand and adjust.
Aimee Quirk, CEO of Ochsner Ventures (New Orleans). Ms. Quirk was CEO of innovationOchsner, the innovation lab associated with New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System, before becoming CEO of Ochsner Ventures in October. Opened in 2015, the lab is an accelerator that aims to reimagine the healthcare delivery experience, improve quality of care and reduce costs. Prior to joining Ochsner that same year, Ms. Quirk spent time as the senior advisor for economic development in the Office of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
Heidi Raines. Founder and CEO of Performance Health Partners (New Orleans, La.). Through the foundation of Performance Health Partners, Ms. Raines has played a role in developing a high-security healthcare safety technology and leading its growth and expansion. She leads the evolution of PHP's software, overseeing a team that drives improvements in the healthcare space. PHP's mission is to empower everyone involved in the healthcare experience to make it a safer place for all. Since 2015, PHP has seen a 50 to 75 percent annual growth under Ms. Raines' leadership, and has a 97 percent client retention rate over seven years. Additionally, Ms. Raines is dedicated to equality in healthcare, with 93 percent of PHP employees being women.
Aarti Ravikumar, MD. CMIO at Atlantic Health System (Morristown, N.J.). Dr. Ravikumar serves as CMIO at Atlantic Health System, acting as a key link between the information services and support departments and the system's over 4,800 physicians. Her role entails overseeing multiple teams and workgroups to ensure that physicians are educated properly ahead of any upcoming initiatives that impact how technology is used to improve patient care, streamline documentation or maintain regulation compliance. Under her leadership, dozens of technology solutions have been implemented to improve patient experience, patient privacy, and patient diagnosis and treatment. She has been at the helm of the Epic electronic medical record system implementation at Atlantic Health, which has in turn helped combat physician burnout by reducing the load of documentation.
Nishi Rawat, MD. Chief Clinical Officer at Bamboo Health (Louisville, Ky.) and Co-Founder of OpenBeds. Dr. Rawat is Bamboo Health’s chief clinical officer, where she evolves Bamboo Health’s solutions to address the needs of customers and partners across healthcare. She has been fundamental in scaling the company’s behavioral health solutions, which support the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline and connect individuals to care in real-time. Dr. Rawat also co-founded OpenBeds, which provides insight into local inpatient and outpatient bed availability, improving access to treatment. OpenBeds, which was acquired by Bamboo Health, is currently live in 15 states. Previously, Dr. Rawat partnered with the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Shatterproof to create the Addiction Treatment Needs Assessment. Dr. Rawat also served as a critical care physician and faculty within Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Allison Reichenbach. President at Interlace Health (St. Louis, Mo.). Ms. Reichenbach is the president of a 30-year-old privately held healthcare IT firm that automates paperwork and workflows for physicians. She joined Interlace in 2012 with limited healthcare experience and has since built up Interlace's company culture, organizational development and has doubled the number of female executives at the company. She is currently leading Interlace's migration to cloud-based platform Nova.
Rose Ritts, PhD. Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Jefferson Health (Philadelphia). Dr. Ritts oversees innovation efforts at Jefferson Health, including initiatives to develop products and services for commercialization. She heads partnerships to transform patient care delivery and bring new therapies to market. Dr. Ritts also has responsibilities with the system's Office of Technology Transfer and Jefferson Accelerator Zone. She has more than 20 years of experience in leadership roles, previously serving as the director of biotechnology and materials at Sarnoff Corp., as well as working with Duke University in Durham, N.C., to create partnerships with emerging technology companies.
Jackleen Samuel. President and CEO of Resilient Healthcare (Plano, Texas). As president and CEO of Resilient Healthcare, Ms. Samuel drives strategy, sales, corporate development and more for the early-stage company. Her leadership and ability to improve patient care using cutting edge technology has established Resilient Healthcare as a leader at the intersection of healthcare and technology. The company is focused on providing high quality hospital-at-home services and simultaneously optimizing operational efficiency and profitability. An entrepreneur and leader at her core, Ms. Samuel has also started and led a post-acute rehabilitation company and a neurology therapy clinic, while being part-owner of a physical therapy management company as well.
Julie Sarinelli, MSN, RN. Executive Director of IT at Atlantic Health System (Morristown, N.J.). Ms. Sarinelli leads all activities related to staffing, budgeting, planning, execution and support of clinical teams at Atlantic. She is responsible for overseeing application maintenance for the company's Epic system as well. She also oversees clinical application system management, support, optimization and over 40 integrated clinical systems. She has been with Atlantic for 28 years.
Roberta Schwartz, PhD. Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Houston Methodist. Ms. Schwartz is responsible for addressing the needs of Houston Methodist using novel technologies and unique approaches. Artificial intelligence, data sharing and patient-focused systems are all innovations that she aims to implement in order to transform healthcare. She has been with Houston Methodist since 2001 and has been praised for her incredible work ethic and generosity with her time.
Laura Smith. Vice President and CIO of UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa). Ms. Smith is responsible for the IT division of UnityPoint Health, which includes a team of 600 IT professionals in several locations, the oversight of a $179 million IT operating budget and delivery of an IT portfolio of projects each year. Her team spent 2018 launching a multifactor authentication system to all team members, providers and independent providers to ensure hospitals are safe from cyberattacks.
Susan Solinsky, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Ellipsis Health (San Francisco): Through her work at Ellipsis Health, Ms. Solinsky helped create a multidisciplinary team through her commitment to recruiting talent from different training backgrounds and diverse dimensions of society. She empowers Ellipsis to help reduce crisis events for every person, regardless of socio-economic status, pre-existing health conditions or geography, to access mental health care. She has helped Ellipsis raise $26 million in series A funding to further its measurement-based approach to identifying and quantifying behavioral health conditions and expand its voice vital sign to address the mental health of children and adolescents.
Leah Sparks. CEO and Founder of Wildflower Health (San Francisco). Ms. Sparks is CEO and founder of Wildflower Health, a company with over 100 full-time employees delivering digitally-enabled care for women and families across the U.S. The company also partners with health plans like Anthem and Cigna, as well as almost 150 hospitals. Ms. Sparks has led the company in analyzing $1.65 billion worth of healthcare claims and over 150,000 birth episodes. Using this data, the company launched a value-based maternity bundle to help payers and providers customize the actuarial model to their patient population, the first-ever in the industry. Ultimately, Ms. Sparks and her work with Wildflower allows the company to predict and therefore mitigate complications in high-risk patients.
Bronwyn Spira. CEO and Founder of Force Therapeutics (New York City). Ms. Spira is focused on offering patients access to remote musculoskeletal care opportunities. She founded Force Therapeutics to achieve better patient outcomes, connect patients to care teams and reduce patient complications, readmissions and length of stay. She is also focused on giving women opportunities in leadership as a company founder and CEO. About 70 percent of employees are the director level and above are women.
Tressa Springmann. Senior Vice President and CIDO for LifeBridge Health (Baltimore). Ms. Springmann became CIDO of LifeBridge in 2019, overseeing the health system's digital transformation, telehealth, and health information management. Prior, she was CIO for the system since 2012. She has previous experience as CIO for Greater Baltimore Medical Center and in IT leadership with Georgetown University Hospital. Ms. Springmann is also a past president of the HIMSS Maryland Chapter and serves as chairman of the technology committee for Maryland's state-designated health information exchange.
Michelle Stansbury. Vice President of Innovation and IT Applications at Houston Methodist. Ms. Stansbury oversees innovation projects for Houston Methodist's eight hospitals while also overseeing day-to-day operations of systemwide IT applications. She helped the health system to deploy the digital program Epic, and launched its center for innovation in 2018. She focuses on combining innovation and technology to address the nation's biggest healthcare challenges.
Jennifer Stemmler. CIO at Adventist Health (Roseville, Calif.). Ms. Stemmler leads the systemwide strategy for technological and digital transformation, overseeing all technology for the health system including operations, digital solutions, clinical and business applications, cybersecurity, virtual care platforms and innovation. In the last 18 months, she had led the development of Adventist Health’s digital forward, consumer-centric transformation designed to create exceptional experiences for providers, patients and consumers across the care continuum.
Kristin Stitt, DNP. Chief Clinical Officer at Vector Remote Care (Bend, Ore.). Dr. Stitt has spent more than 20 years on the front line working in hospital and clinical environments. After earning a degree in marketing and economics, she worked as an auditor for a major airline. Eventually, she was promoted to a more analytical role focusing on capacity management and revenue maximization. She participated in first-responder training and loved it, which prompted a major career change. Dr. Stitt went back to school for a nursing degree and again for a doctorate in systems management to further build upon her background in evidence-based care delivery and analytics.
Lisa Stump. Senior Vice President, Chief Information and Digital Transformation Officer at Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, Conn.). Ms. Stump is responsible for all ITS at Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine. While crafting strategy with system leadership, she must consider information and digital solutions as well as operational efficiencies and improvements. As CIO, Ms. Stump has led the effort to transition to electronic medical records, and has utilized AI, data and new technologies to drive the overall growth of the health system. She is also involved in the creation of the health information exchange at the state level.
Tammy Taylor. CEO of Advantum Health (Louisville, Ky.). Ms. Taylor is the CEO of Advantum Health, a revenue cycle management company providing tailored solutions for hospitals and healthcare organizations. In her role, she owns all aspects of revenue generation, resource management, strategic growth and operational excellence. She manned the launch of Advantum Health's software platform, which features a suite of applications to streamline workflow, enhance accuracy, improve efficiency and deliver actionable insight to clients. Due to her leadership skills and deep expertise in technology, the company is positioned as a leader in the RCM industry.
Phyllis Teater. Former Associate Vice President and CIO of The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center (Columbus). Ms. Teater began her career at the OSU Wexner Medical Center more than 25 years ago and was instrumental in the adoption and rollout of the seven-hospital system's ambulatory and inpatient EHR systems. She also provided technological support for the hospital's research IT services and education initiatives. Before becoming CIO, Ms. Teater worked as deputy CIO at the hospital and oversaw all of its EHR, financial and human resource systems. She recently retired from her role.
Wendy Thorpe. Executive Director of IT at McAlester (Okla.) Regional Health Center. Ms. Thorpe's role at McAlester Regional Health Center consists of overseeing clinical application, technology management and internal communications. She manages IT security and multiple IT committees. A believer that IT security is the biggest threat in IT today, she works to combat these challenges with education and training.
Tanya Townsend. Senior Vice President and CIO at LCMC Health (New Orleans, La.). Ms. Townsend oversees management information systems, identifying technology trends and worthwhile IT investments. She also oversees the management of information systems, the organization's data management strategy, the design and implementation of the IT infrastructure, protecting the IT system from data threats, overseeing vendor contracts and partnerships and guiding the IT department.
Catherine Turner, BSN, RN. Chief Marketing and Nurse Executive at Meditech (Westwood, Mass.). As a registered nurse, Ms. Turner was instrumental in implementing and now supporting Meditech's nurse informatics program. As of June 2023, she now serves as chief marketing and nurse executive. She is an adjunct professor at Boston-based Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences master's in health informatics program. She helped develop and teach the course "Introduction to Health Informatics" at the University of Miami for their master's in health informatics program.
Sara Vaezy. Chief Strategy and Digital Officer of Providence (Renton, Wash.). Ms. Vaezy is responsible for system strategy and digital innovation for the integrated delivery network, which includes 52 hospitals, over 900 clinics and 5 million unique patients. She is the architect of Providence’s digital innovation model, which has resulted in over 150 partnerships and the incubation of valuable technologies for Providence and other health systems. She is also active in the broader healthcare industry, serving as a board director for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a member of the Frist Cressey Ventures Collective’s inaugural class, a member of Forbes Business Council and more.
Tejal Vakharia. Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Marketing and Government Affairs at Allscripts (Chicago). Ms. Vakharia was named to her current position at Allscripts on June 22, 2020, though she's been with the health IT company since 2011. Before that, Ms. Vakharia was an attorney at multinational law firms Foley & Lardner and Dentons and served in business, compliance and legal leadership positions at General Electric and Abbott Laboratories. She is on the board of directors of United Way of Lake County (Ill.) and is chair of the Little Kids, Big Futures Fund.
Kristen Valdes. Founder and CEO at b.well Connected Health (Baltimore, Md.). In 2016, Ms. Valdes launched B.well Connected Health, named after her daughter Bailey, to empower healthcare consumers. In 2020, B.well was announced as the only startup to participate in real-world testing of the CARIN Blue Button data model and draft implementation guide. The other organizations were Anthem, Apple, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and several regional BCBS plans, Google, Humana, Microsoft, UPMC Health Plan, and the states of North Carolina and Washington. Accenture and Springboard Enterprises named Ms. Valdes one of four "2020 Women Transforming Industries" award winners on Oct. 22.
Grace Vinton. Account Director and Media Relations Specialist at Amendola Communications (Scottsdale, Ariz.). Ms. Vinton brings expertise in healthcare communications, patient advocacy, public relations, sales, marketing coordination and implementation to her role at Amendola Communications. She is passionate about helping innovative thinkers in the healthcare field showcase their transformational ideas. She has worked with a number of clients and also serves as a guest host for San Diego-based HIT Like a Girl Pod via "HITea With Grace", which highlights the contributions of women in healthcare.
Ashley VonNida, DNP, MSN. Chief Nursing Officer for Equum Medical (New York City). Dr. VonNida leads all nursing, clinical leadership, and quality performance activities across the Equum Medical business and professional services portfolio. She has become a critical thought leader in telehealth and the emerging field of virtual nursing, having acted as a source for virtual care knowledge and innovation with podium, panelist and podcast speaking sessions across the nation, including American Telemedicine Assocation, Texas Nurses Association, AONL, National Rural Health Association and the podcast series Slice of Healthcare. She brings over 25 years in the healthcare setting to her current role.
Kathy Weiler. Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial and Growth Officer at Amwell (Boston). Ms. Weiler is the executive vice president, chief commerical and growth officer at Amwell. She is responsible for directing the company's growth strategy, leading strategic initiatives, and driving business development, sales, account management, commercial enablement, marketing, and strategic and channel partnership teams. Before joining the Amwell team, she acted as chief consumer officer at Boston-based Optum.
Laura Wilt. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.). Ms. Wilt joined Sutter Health as its senior vice president and chief digital officer in March 2023. In her role, she is responsible for the health system’s digital strategy, information services, design, innovation and data analytics. She is also guiding the system’s improvement of its EHR system using AI and machine learning. Prior to joining Sutter Health, Ms. Wilt served as system vice president and CIO of Ochsner Health in New Orleans.
Deanna Wise. Senior Vice President and CIO of Banner Health (Phoenix). Ms. Wise became CIO of Banner Health in 2019, responsible for developing the health system's consumer and clinician experience. She has a background in working with teams that leverage innovative technologies, including robotic process automation, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. She has previous experience as CIO of Dignity Health, where she oversaw the implementation of its EHR and creation of its clinically integrated predictive analytics program. She was named among the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2019.
Mariann Yeager. CEO of The Sequoia Project. Ms. Yeager is an industry leader and health IT visionary who founded The Sequoia Project, a public-private collaborative formed to advance secure nationwide health information exchange. The project has served as the Recognized Coordinating Entity to support the implementation of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, established the eHealth Exchange as the largest nationwide health information exchange, and created and advanced other initiatives such as Carequality, Interoperability Matters, and other programs to advance electronic health data access for U.S. citizens. Ms. Yeager has contributed to virtually every major health interoperability initiative that has occurred during the past 20 years.
Angela Yochem. Former Executive Vice President, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer at Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.). In her recent role as Novant Health's chief digital and technology officer, Ms. Yochem oversaw efforts to implement digital solutions across the system. She was responsible for protecting patient health records while delivering differentiated digital products and services that improve patient care. Her focus was on a consumer-centric digital health business model and she co-founded the system's Institute of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence. In 2019, HMG Strategy named Ms. Yochem a Top Technology Executive to Watch.
Karley Yoder. General Manager and Chief Digital Officer, Ultrasound at GE Healthcare (Chicago). Ms. Yoder spent time as vice president and general manager of artificial intelligence at GE Healthcare before moving into her current role. She has experience overseeing artificial intelligence strategy and product implementation for GE Healthcare's product portfolio. She leads internal project management as well as partnership activities related to developing a healthcare-specific platform for creating deep learning models that are integrated into the company's product lines. She has previous experience at Apple Health and Doctor on Demand.