Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Vatsala is a strategy, innovation and operational excellence leader with business, technical and organizational skills focusing in the biopharmaceutical industry, with 16+ years of experience. She has worked in 4 different biopharmaceutical companies, from R&D to clinical and commercial manufacturing operations.

Worked in 4 different biopharmaceutical companies across 3 continents. Skilled at driving transformation roadmaps from R&D to commercial manufacturing. Expertise around process simplification and optimization, implementation of best in-class technology and digital solutions and developing high performing organizations. A strategic thinker who is able to translate vision and strategy into operational solutions. Passionate about innovation and technology, global networking, benchmarking and experience in multicultural environments (North America, South America, Europe and Asia).

Vatsala is currently the Operational Excellence Lead for Sanofi’s R&D North America Hub, where she is responsible for driving Operational Excellence roadmaps in North America and global R&D. Prior to her current role, she held various Operational Excellence roles within Sanofi Genzyme in the Commercial Manufacturing Operations business. Before joining Sanofi Genzyme, Vatsala worked for Shire and Millipore in various functions from R&D to clinical and commercial manufacturing operations.

She holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University-Boston and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has a digital mindset and is passionate about AI applications for the life science industry and has completed the Executive Program in Artificial Intelligence - Implications for Business Strategy from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Biography

Bill Wong is currently the AI and Data Analytics Practice Leader for Dell Technologies responsible for supporting Canadian commercial businesses and public institutions. He spends his time developing AI strategies for firms, providing guidance on how to accelerate AI development, worked with universities in advancing AI research, and publishes a quarterly AI newsletter focused on AI adoption in Canada.

Previously, Bill has held roles an enterprise architect in consulting and AI and analytics roles in development, and product management during his tenure at Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. He also published numerous books and whitepapers on advanced analytics and data management and often speaks at conferences.

Biography

Biography

Cristina Duta is the Intelligent Automation Director at Aecom, passionate about Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Business Intelligence and business transformation. Cristina capitalizes on more than 10 years of experience in software development and more than 6 years in Intelligent Automation, delivering significant Digital Transformation programs across Telecom, Life Science, Banking and Manufacturing companies. 

In her current role, she focuses on leading, developing, championing, and building an automation first enterprise by identifying Intelligent Automation opportunities, ensuring an end-to-end governance and building a scalable operating model.  Cristina is an Intelligent Automation evangelist and thought leader and specialize in helping organizations to automate and scale their CoEs. She takes a holistic approach to digital transformation that brings humans and technology together, seamlessly.

Biography

My current role as Global Vice President of Manufacturing Strategy involves bringing outside-in and innovative improvements. Includes knowledge, expertise and process standardization across the Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain network focusing on critical choices on key technologies and capabilities aligned with customer needs.

Global Network footprint, Digital Manufacturing Strategy, End to End supply chain optimization, Agility programs, Culture of innovation, Change management, Operational Excellence and Performance/Program management are core foundational elements under my leadership. 

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Biography

Andy Tilstra, co-founder of Creativity Effect, is by nature is a collaborator, innovator, who’s always up for a ’safe' risk. Andy has five years experience facilitating design thinking projects in healthcare, government and universities. Andy also has extensive experience in launching and leading innovation projects for the AdventHealth Innovation Lab.  

Andy is the co-author of the Orchard Model of Innovation and is currently rolling it out for both government and university sectors. Andy earned a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago graduating in 2019, with his thesis focusing on power dynamics of public space in downtown Chicago. Currently Andy is an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and is co-writing a design thinking curriculum with Dr. Karen for Rollins College Currently Andy co-hosts a podcasts. 

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Sam is the Executive in Residence and the Program Director of the master’s in healthcare management at American University in Washington, DC. He is also the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Divurgent, a unique and a trusted advisor consulting firm focused on digital transformation and innovation in healthcare. He is an industry visionary and has developed a unique approach of bringing key industry best practices that represent the future direction of where the entire healthcare industry is headed. He is a sought-after advisor, mentor and speaker, and has provided consulting services to various organizations in the governments, industry, startup and the non-for-profit fields

Biography

David Qu is an accomplished business leader with 25 years of experience in healthcare management, strategy, technology and innovation.  He currently serves as the Global Vice President of Publications, Education and Electronic Products at Joint Commission Resources (JCR) and Joint Commission International (JCI).   JCR/JCI is the global leader in improving healthcare quality and patient safety. 

At JCR and JCI, David is responsible for our overall strategy, digital publication, online education and cloud-based software and mobile solutions to transform healthcare accreditation, certification, quality improvement and patient safety.  In previous 15 years, David held Vice President and General Manager role at Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, a leading Electronic Health Record company, and Chief Executive Officer role at CellTrak Technology, a VC funded technology pioneer in workflow automation and GPS tracking for home care industry.  David has substantial international business experience. 

David is a Fellow of American College of Healthcare Executive (ACHE) and a Certified Professional of Healthcare Quality (CPHQ).  He earned recognition of Executive Scholar of Professional Achievement from Kellogg Business School of Northwestern University and certification of Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford School of Business.  He has held Board of Director and business advisory roles for numerous healthcare and technology organizations.   

Biography

Donald Kuk is an innovative, multiple industry award winning Global Transformation, Cognitive Automation and Operational Excellence Senior Executive with 20 plus years of delivering record setting top line growth, customer and employee satisfaction, and margin improvement leading rapid Enterprise Transformation and Intelligent Automation for the world’s most highly regarded manufacturing, retail and centralbanking, insurance, technology, health care and health sciences industry leaders.

Widely published successes include advanced metrics, analysis, strategy, mission, vision, opportunity identification, milestones, budget and roadmap development, multi-tiered communication, transformation and improvement program management, training, change and performance management, and results verification.

Named the “Enterprise Whisperer” by Fortune Magazine, Donald is a frequent invited Conference Chairperson, Keynote Speaker, Session Chairman and Tutorial Presenter at CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, Operational Excellence and Enterprise Strategy events worldwide.

Biography

My current role as Global Vice President of Manufacturing Strategy involves bringing outside-in and innovative improvements. Includes knowledge, expertise and process standardization across the Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain network focusing on critical choices on key technologies and capabilities aligned with customer needs.

Global Network footprint, Digital Manufacturing Strategy, End to End supply chain optimization, Agility programs, Culture of innovation, Change management, Operational Excellence and Performance/Program management are core foundational elements under my leadership. 

Biography

Bill Wong is currently the AI and Data Analytics Practice Leader for Dell Technologies responsible for supporting Canadian commercial businesses and public institutions. He spends his time developing AI strategies for firms, providing guidance on how to accelerate AI development, worked with universities in advancing AI research, and publishes a quarterly AI newsletter focused on AI adoption in Canada.

Previously, Bill has held roles an enterprise architect in consulting and AI and analytics roles in development, and product management during his tenure at Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. He also published numerous books and whitepapers on advanced analytics and data management and often speaks at conferences.

Biography

Kat Voetelink is a certified lean six sigma black belt with over 10 years of experience in a largeacademic healthcare institution in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. Kat received her lean six sigma black belt certification through the American Society for Quality in 2015 and holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from Temple University and a Masters of Business Administration from Wilmington University.

In her role as a Lead Performance Improvement Advisor at Penn Medicine, Kat serves as an internalconsultant leading large-scale, entity-wide initiatives. She won best poster presentation at the 2017 Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit for her work on an initiativeto decrease the utilization of continuous observation of patients for safety precautions. Kat is also published in the September 2019 volume of the Journal of Nursing Administration for the sameinitiative.

As a certified black belt, Kat developed and teaches the hospital-wide yellow belt six sigma process improvement training program and mentors green belt candidates and hospital staff inprocess improvement initiatives.

Biography

William J. Maples, M.D. - Dr. Maples is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Excellence, a national organization supporting care redesign and cultural transformation in delivery systems across the United States. 

Dr. Maples earned his undergraduate, Masters in Oncology, and medical degrees at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed his residency and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Maples practiced Medical Oncology for 25 years at Mayo Clinic and helped lead the Mayo Clinic quality, safety, and experience journey.

He then served as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina where he helped Mission Health navigate cultural transformation and become a leading healthcare organization recognized for its impeccable quality and safety. Dr. Maples more recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Professional Research Consultants, Inc. Dr. Maples is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the Mayo College of Medicine and a Clinical Professor at Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Biography

Jennifer Ford, Director of Product Effectiveness at Veteran's Health Administration, possesses nearly two decades of health care experience. Ms. Ford optimizes health care investments by producing evidenced-based assessments to maximize the intended value for America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,255 health care facilities and serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.

Enhancing health care performance through a whole systems approach entails the expertise to improve patient care delivery and experience for the demonstration of positive patient outcomes while remaining cost effective. Ms. Ford deploys proven methodologies tailored to the health care industry to extract and maximize value throughout the health care continuum. She specializes in high reliability organizations, access to care, whole health and health IT programs which supports the mission of VA's healthcare model. Director Ford ensures that health care organizations learn and adopt the products and programs in which they invest to achieve the expected valuation, while maintaining a culture of quality improvement and patient safety.

Jennifer Ford is a published author and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Ms. Ford is a frequent contributor to congressional inquiries and data requests. In addition to her work at VHA, she is an adjunct professor at both Georgetown University and George Washington University. Director Ford is a graduate of American University and holds an MBA from George Mason University. Jennifer Ford has earned a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation and is a Whole Health Coach.

Biography

Scott Whitmire is a senior enterprise architect with over 40 years of system architecture and development experience, including a number of major applications. He has designed and built large applications for several industries, including healthcare, research, aerospace, manufacturing, professional practice management, financial services, wholesale, retail, and telecommunications.

Mr. Whitmire serves on the Boards of Directors for the Association of Business Process Management Professionals International (ABPMP International) and Iasa Global, the association for IT architects. He is an industry thought leader on the practice of business architecture with expertise in troubleshooting and measurement, and has developed both full courses and multiple parts of multiple bodies of knowledge.

Mr. Whitmire is a Senior Member of the IEEE, an Iasa Fellow, and holds the CITA-P and CITA-D certifications. He has mentored many architects and engineers. He has published one book (so far), "Object Oriented Design Measurement," as well as numerous papers, articles, and presentations. He is a frequent speaker at business and IT architecture events. He has written extensively on business and IT architecture at https://scottwhitmire.wordpress.com.

Biography

Dr. Karen Tilstra, Ph.D., believes everyone is creative with leadership potential. She thinks the world would be happier if everyone embraced this truth. Until that happens, she wants to help anyone who’s interested develop their inner wellspring of creativity.

Karen co-founded the award-winning AdventHealth Innovation Lab (priorly knows as FHIL), co-created the Orlando Magic’s Innovation Lab, and helped launch the San Diego State U Idea Lab. She co-designed one of the nation’s first undergraduate degrees in Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Rollins College.

Karen has designed innovation labs and developed design thinking teams at Santa Clara University, Pioneers International Institute, Seminole County Health Department, and Orange County. Over the last ten years, Karen and her team have facilitated over 610 Design Thinking projects for healthcare, government, universities, and Fortune 100 companies. Karen and her team have earned three innovation awards.

Karen has presented both nationally and internationally and has taught at the university level in both the US and Asia. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and a visiting professor for Rollins College.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Innovation and is a licensed Educational Psychologist. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BS in Journalism. She currently serves as the Executive Fellow for Innovation at the University of Santa Clara.

Biography

Vatsala is a strategy, innovation and operational excellence leader with business, technical and organizational skills focusing in the biopharmaceutical industry, with 16+ years of experience. She has worked in 4 different biopharmaceutical companies, from R&D to clinical and commercial manufacturing operations.

Worked in 4 different biopharmaceutical companies across 3 continents. Skilled at driving transformation roadmaps from R&D to commercial manufacturing. Expertise around process simplification and optimization, implementation of best in-class technology and digital solutions and developing high performing organizations. A strategic thinker who is able to translate vision and strategy into operational solutions. Passionate about innovation and technology, global networking, benchmarking and experience in multicultural environments (North America, South America, Europe and Asia).

Vatsala is currently the Operational Excellence Lead for Sanofi’s R&D North America Hub, where she is responsible for driving Operational Excellence roadmaps in North America and global R&D. Prior to her current role, she held various Operational Excellence roles within Sanofi Genzyme in the Commercial Manufacturing Operations business. Before joining Sanofi Genzyme, Vatsala worked for Shire and Millipore in various functions from R&D to clinical and commercial manufacturing operations.

She holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University-Boston and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has a digital mindset and is passionate about AI applications for the life science industry and has completed the Executive Program in Artificial Intelligence - Implications for Business Strategy from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Biography

Andy Tilstra, co-founder of Creativity Effect, is by nature is a collaborator, innovator, who’s always up for a ’safe' risk. Andy has five years experience facilitating design thinking projects in healthcare, government and universities. Andy also has extensive experience in launching and leading innovation projects for the AdventHealth Innovation Lab.  

Andy is the co-author of the Orchard Model of Innovation and is currently rolling it out for both government and university sectors. Andy earned a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago graduating in 2019, with his thesis focusing on power dynamics of public space in downtown Chicago. Currently Andy is an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and is co-writing a design thinking curriculum with Dr. Karen for Rollins College Currently Andy co-hosts a podcasts. 

Biography

Jennifer is a fierce advocate for connecting things, concepts and people, seen and unseen, that positively move the patient experience forward. Before joining The Institute for Healthcare Excellence in 2016,  her obsession with the voice of the patient and family helped several health systems in Minnesota achieve and sustain remarkable patient experience performance. Jennifer also worked to help organizations generate revenue, inspire engagement and drive positivechange.

Jennifer, often described as a social chemist, believes that kindness and thoughtfulness is a key ingredient for creating meaningful relationships while still being focused on generating growth and loyalty for the organization. Her ability to lead, inspire, manage and mentor employees, providers and community made her a perfect fit for Chief Experience Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Excellence.   While Jennifer takes great pride in her work, her true north remains her family, friends and relationships she develops. A graduate of the College of St. Benedict, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies/Communications.

Biography

Matt has been leading strategic transformation programs for 15 years, driving organizations to increasing higher levels of sustained performance. Under Matt’s leadership, the Business Efficiency team at BCBSM has managed all aspects of a series of enterprise-wide programs, comprised of hundreds of individual initiatives, delivering operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Matt has deep expertise in establishing and operationalizing program management offices, as well as the supporting cultural and communication efforts to drive successful implementation of transformational initiatives within business process and technology applications.

Over the past 10 years at BCBSM, enterprise programs under Matt’s leadership have delivered over $1 billion in economic value to the enterprise. Matt resides in Novi, Michigan and is a Certified Public Accountant. He has industry expertise in automotive manufacturing, financial services and healthcare.

Biography

Paul has spent over 20 years in business intelligence, process mining and analysis and process automation technologies.

He holds a Six Sigma Black Belt and has worked extensively with process improvement and automation teams focused on managing complex revenue cycle and business operations, achieving financial and strategic targets at leading management consulting firms such as Deloitte Consulting. 

Biography

Kenya brings over 16 years of experience in marketing, solutioning, R&D, consulting, training, and support – all within the healthcare industry.

Kenya’s research interests are in the areas of technology and solution integration. The healthcare industry continues to experience a significant degree of consolidation, with healthcare organizations combining to achieve greater market power. Kenya plans to analyze this trend extensively and develop case studies for how ABBYY solutions can help address solution integration deficits.

Kenya is a current Doctoral of Business student at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems and an MBA from Meredith College. Kenya currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, but you can find her visiting friends and family every chance she gets in her hometown of San Diego, California.

Biography

Geoffrey “ Duff “ Glaser lives outside Boston, MA with his wife Dr. Laura Myers and two kids Lauren and Garrett. He leads Healthcare at Blue Prism, responsible for combining technologies to build Intelligent Enterprise Workflows that transform Healthcare.

Outside of work, he can be found hiking with his five rescued dogs, supporting his Hockey infatuated children and writing the quintessential book on “Environment Friendly Cooking”

Biography

Matt Williams the lead Healthcare Business Development Manager at ABBYY. He’s a Continuous Process Improvement Yellow-Belt and will be moderating today’s discussion.

Biography

Jennifer Ford, Director of Product Effectiveness at Veteran's Health Administration, possesses nearly two decades of health care experience. Ms. Ford optimizes health care investments by producing evidenced-based assessments to maximize the intended value for America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,255 health care facilities and serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.

Enhancing health care performance through a whole systems approach entails the expertise to improve patient care delivery and experience for the demonstration of positive patient outcomes while remaining cost effective. Ms. Ford deploys proven methodologies tailored to the health care industry to extract and maximize value throughout the health care continuum. She specializes in high reliability organizations, access to care, whole health and health IT programs which supports the mission of VA's healthcare model. Director Ford ensures that health care organizations learn and adopt the products and programs in which they invest to achieve the expected valuation, while maintaining a culture of quality improvement and patient safety.

Jennifer Ford is a published author and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Ms. Ford is a frequent contributor to congressional inquiries and data requests. In addition to her work at VHA, she is an adjunct professor at both Georgetown University and George Washington University. Director Ford is a graduate of American University and holds an MBA from George Mason University. Jennifer Ford has earned a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation and is a Whole Health Coach.

Biography

Erich Heneke is currently Director of Business Integrity and Continuity in Mayo Clinic’sSupply Chain Management (SCM). His financial emphasis is in Enterprise & Supplier Risk Management, Audit/Controls and Financial Planning & Analysis. Erich has workedin Mayo SCM for 11 years, focusing his efforts on sound SCM controls, fraudprevention/detection, accuracy of balance sheet accounting and other controls relatedwork, including Mayo’s voluntary Sox compliance.

During his time at Mayo, Erich and his team have completed several projects addressingproper controls with Supply Chain, including: development of an award-winning creditcard risk scoring platform, completion of a segregation of duties project mappingemployees’ accesses across multiple applications, detection of several types ofoverpayments to vendors – including detection, collection and prevention of futureleakage, automated management of pharmaceutical pricing and several other initiatives.

Biography

Erin Pelletier is employed at Care England, the second largest health system in Rhode Island, as the Director of Operational Excellence. Here, she has led multiple transformation projects yielding savings over $100 million. As the organization continues to improve, she is installing an integrated approach to system-wide performance improvement activities designed to drive transformational change and maximize financial results.

Erin holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of New Haven, B.S. degree in Mathematics with a concentration in statistics, and is a certified Project Management Professional and Six Sigma Green belt.

Erin lives in scenic Connecticut with her husband and three children. She enjoys cooking and any activity outdoors such as hiking, passing the football, or lounging on the beach.

Biography

Jason Warrelmann has been transforming healthcare operations for over 15 years  with some of the largest healthcare provider, payer, and pharmacy organizations. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Manager, and Agile coach, which gives him a unique view into what works in a healthcare environment.

Currently, he leads the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice at UiPath, which focuses on transforming the Healthcare landscape and developing capabilities, integrations, and reusable components that make UiPath a healthcare automation platform and not just a tool that works in healthcare.

Biography

Ms. MacTaggart is the HealthInformatics@GWU Program Director and Health Services Policy and Management Teaching Instructor at George Washington University (GWU).  MacTaggart has an appointment at the Veteran’s Health Administration. 

Professor MacTaggart previously completed a three-year appointment at HHS in the Office of the National Coordinator as a senior adviser in the Office of Care Transformation and has been a county, state, and federal public servant for over 40 years, including serving as Minnesota's Medicaid director. She has been an executive for a nonprofit insurance, an IT vendor, and a for-profit consulting firm. She is on multiple national advisory committees, including HIMSS, e-HI, NASI, and AcademyHealth Education Council.

Biography

Teena Wilson, is currently the Executive Change Management Coach, for the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. Ms. Wilson has over 25 years of project and operational leadership experience. She is an experienced Joint Commission certified Master Change Leader and Green Belt with strong leadership and communications skills.

Ms. Wilson has more than 10 years of experience in developing, utilizing and teaching Robust Process Improvement (RPI®) methodologies and tools to internal and external audiences. Currently, she is responsible for teaching, mentoring and coaching on the Robust Process Improvement® tool set with emphasis on Facilitating Change™, Meeting Facilitation, and Advanced Meeting Facilitation methodologies, and tools to positively affect process improvement, change management, leadership effectiveness and team development.

Biography

Dr. Karen Tilstra, Ph.D., believes everyone is creative with leadership potential. She thinks the world would be happier if everyone embraced this truth. Until that happens, she wants to help anyone who’s interested develop their inner wellspring of creativity.

Karen co-founded the award-winning AdventHealth Innovation Lab (priorly knows as FHIL), co-created the Orlando Magic’s Innovation Lab, and helped launch the San Diego State U Idea Lab. She co-designed one of the nation’s first undergraduate degrees in Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Rollins College.

Karen has designed innovation labs and developed design thinking teams at Santa Clara University, Pioneers International Institute, Seminole County Health Department, and Orange County. Over the last ten years, Karen and her team have facilitated over 610 Design Thinking projects for healthcare, government, universities, and Fortune 100 companies. Karen and her team have earned three innovation awards.

Karen has presented both nationally and internationally and has taught at the university level in both the US and Asia. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and a visiting professor for Rollins College.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Innovation and is a licensed Educational Psychologist. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BS in Journalism. She currently serves as the Executive Fellow for Innovation at the University of Santa Clara.

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Cliff Tironi is Executive Vice President - Strategic Accounts. Thinaer is an IoT platform that integrates actionable data from highly-calibrated sensors and real-time employee and client feedback to give their clients unparalleled insight into their operations, predictive analytics to see the future, and consultative business process redesign to get improved results. (https://thinaer.io/)

Prior to working with Thinaer, Cliff was the Manager of Performance Analytics at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.  At Fox, Cliff was the chief architect and co-creator of RoadMap™, a Microsoft-supported tool for students to visualize their progress on competencies across courses. 

Cliff understands the challenges of harnessing never-ending data—and the need to leverage it in imaginative yet impactful ways.  He regularly conducts data visualizations workshops to business professionals across all industries, coaching others to embrace a humanized mindset as a means to making data more relatable and, most importantly, actionable. 

Fluent in Spanish, Cliff earned his M.B.A. from Arcadia University and his B.S. in Marketing from Siena College. 

Biography

Maggi Savo, Ph.D. is the Healthcare Improvement Analytics Director for the Quality Alliance at Baylor Scott and White Health. The Quality Alliance is the accountable care organization (ACO) affiliated with the health system.

In this role she leads a team to build machine learning models and implement value-based analytics that enable the Quality Alliance to achieve high quality, cost effective care. This work has contributed to tens of millions of dollars in savings and success in risk-based contracts.

Maggi holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Biography

Daniel Weaver spent the first fifteen years of his career advancing through various departments at an international BPO organization. With experience managing multiple disciplines including analytics, business development, operations, financial modeling, and performance management, Daniel advanced to the Director of Analytics and Vice President of Corporate Planning prior to accepting a role in the Healthcare industry with Highmark Inc. in 2013.

Dan helped establish and grow a Stars Quality organization within Highmark, serving as the Director of Programs and successfully achieving 4.0+ Stars ratings for over 5 years. Dan joined the Gateway Health team as the Vice President of Stars, Quality, and Risk Adjustment. In his first year at Gateway, Dan led the company to its first 4.0 Star Rating, improved the NCQA Accreditation rating, and implemented a complete organizational redesign.

Throughout his career, Dan has overseen the development and implementation of analytic-driven and customer-focused programs. Leveraging deep analytics expertise and a strong focus on team development, Dan has created methodologies and infrastructure that drive consistent results. Dan is an industry thought leader that believes in challenging the status quo and embracing innovation.

Biography

Mohan, SVP and Chief Innovation Officer at Cambia Health Solutions, guides the Innovation Force (IF) an enterprise wide incubator/accelerator creating and launching 5 companies in 5 years. He reports to the CEO who is accountable for 25 businesses totaling $9 billion.

Mohan joined Regence Group (now a subsidiary of Cambia) as Executive VP and Chief Marketing Executive with the mission to bring consumer-focus, transparency, digital transformation and new business models to the company. Mohan was then assigned the leadership of three health plans for three years. Before joining Cambia, Mohan founded both a venture and a consulting firm; led as President of two software companies, ABC Technologies (sold to SAS) and ProTools Inc. (sold as McAfee).

He is also shaped by senior roles at Intel and Mentor Graphics Corporation at the defining years of the tech industry. He has been an adjunct professor of business at Kellogg School of Management and authored three books – Essentials of Balanced Scorecard, Activity-Based Information Systems, and Strategic Business Transformation. (Wiley & Sons) Mohan has served the Government's Committee on Performance and Accountability for the State of Oregon.

He was also called to serve on the Chronic Care Workgroup under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His community activities include board roles in United Way and National University of Natural Medicine. He serves as advisor to the Presidents of George Fox University and Great Lakes Institute of Management in India. Lost at America’s Got Talent.

Biography

Recruited to build an enterprise wide automation CoE to deliver and enable efficiency improvements for business operations and customers. Change Healthcare supports 5.5k hospitals, 900k physicians, 118k dentists, and 600 laboratories with $14B transactions, $1T claims and 2.2k payer connections. Change healthcare touches 1 in 3 US patient records. Achieved $5mm savings in the first year and achieved annualized savings of $18mm in 18 months with 7 direct reports and 50 contractors.

Biography

Andy Tilstra, co-founder of Creativity Effect, is by nature is a collaborator, innovator, who’s always up for a ’safe' risk. Andy has five years experience facilitating design thinking projects in healthcare, government and universities. Andy also has extensive experience in launching and leading innovation projects for the AdventHealth Innovation Lab.  

Andy is the co-author of the Orchard Model of Innovation and is currently rolling it out for both government and university sectors. Andy earned a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago graduating in 2019, with his thesis focusing on power dynamics of public space in downtown Chicago. Currently Andy is an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and is co-writing a design thinking curriculum with Dr. Karen for Rollins College Currently Andy co-hosts a podcasts. 

Biography

Dr. Hammami, a senior health executive and chief health stratgist served as the Senior Vice President for Safety Net Transformation, Community Benefit, Health and Well-Being at Trinity Health. In this role he led the strategy to improve health for individuals and improve the underlying social determinants of health in communities served.

He also led work for Trinity Health's community-based delivery models and public health initiatives and partnered closely with state and national experts to integrate health caredelivery with public health activities. Prior to joining Trinity Health, Dr. Hammami served as Chief Health Officer and Director of the Department of Health, Veterans and Community Wellness in Wayne County, Michigan for almost ten years.

A graduate of Aleppo University, Syria, Dr. Hammami completed his post doctoral research in Pediatrics at the Newborn Center of the University of Tennessee in Memphis, and then accepted a faculty appointment at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan and a research position at the Detroit Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics. He then received his Master's degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan.

Biography

Kurt Alexander, HCA - My entire career has been focused on healthcare in various capacities. I have worked in data informatics, finance, and most recently information technology as part of HCA’s Enterprise Technology and Architecture team.

I am passionate about technology and understanding how we leverage both existing and upcoming tech to improve the care we provide to our patients. As it relates to automation, the name of the game is delegation. Machines are capable of performing much of the tedious (but necessary) work it takes to keep the lights on. My goal is empowering the myriad teams of HCA with the tools they need to work smart, deliver results quickly, and love the work they do.  

Biography

Gary Grena BCBS NC - Gary began his career with Caterpillar, Inc. where he worked while completing his engineering degree.  After graduation, he progressed thru many supervisory and management positions in Operations and Planning where he helped build some of the biggest construction machines in the world.  After moving to a project leadership role, he was on the team that created the construction Industry's first Internet build and quote configurator.  Gary earned his Lean 6 Sigma certification in 2005 after leading over a dozen successful continuous improvement projects that produced over $2MM in SOX-compliant savings.

After earning his MBA from the University of North Carolina, Gary was recruited to become a Partner at a startup focusing on high-temperature plasma applications.  Gary directed the accounting and financial investment functions for the firm where he worked to raise over $5MM in investment capital.  Gary gained an expensive education in the necessity of driving hard-dollar value and cash flow during his 5 years working at this eventually unsuccessful venture.

Gary has worked at Blue Cross, North Carolina for the last 5 years where he has been part of the team that launched the Digital Process automation program at BCNC in 2017.  This program has delivered over $7MM in annual hard-dollar, auditable value.  Gary has created a financial reporting framework that accurately communicates the financial value of automation to executive leaders.  This framework has been instrumental in gaining our internal investor support for continued year-over-year investment.  Gary is currently leading a team to expand and accelerate robotic development beyond IT by developing our employees to become Citizen Developers who can build their own robots.

Biography

William J. Maples, M.D. - Dr. Maples is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Excellence, a national organization supporting care redesign and cultural transformation in delivery systems across the United States. 

Dr. Maples earned his undergraduate, Masters in Oncology, and medical degrees at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed his residency and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Maples practiced Medical Oncology for 25 years at Mayo Clinic and helped lead the Mayo Clinic quality, safety, and experience journey.

He then served as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina where he helped Mission Health navigate cultural transformation and become a leading healthcare organization recognized for its impeccable quality and safety. Dr. Maples more recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Professional Research Consultants, Inc. Dr. Maples is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the Mayo College of Medicine and a Clinical Professor at Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Biography

Jennifer is a fierce advocate for connecting things, concepts and people, seen and unseen, that positively move the patient experience forward. Before joining The Institute for Healthcare Excellence in 2016,  her obsession with the voice of the patient and family helped several health systems in Minnesota achieve and sustain remarkable patient experience performance. Jennifer also worked to help organizations generate revenue, inspire engagement and drive positivechange.

Jennifer, often described as a social chemist, believes that kindness and thoughtfulness is a key ingredient for creating meaningful relationships while still being focused on generating growth and loyalty for the organization. Her ability to lead, inspire, manage and mentor employees, providers and community made her a perfect fit for Chief Experience Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Excellence.   While Jennifer takes great pride in her work, her true north remains her family, friends and relationships she develops. A graduate of the College of St. Benedict, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies/Communications.