2019 Speakers

Jessica Assefa

Tricia Barrett

Ellen Beckjord, PhD, MPH

Dr. Beckjord did her training in clinical psychology at the University of Vermont, where she worked with cancer survivors and their families delivering evidence-based behavioral medicine interventions from time of diagnosis through end-of-life care. After completing her internship at the Vanderbilt-VA internship consortium, she entered the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and spent her first year of fellowship getting a Masters in Public Health focused on Epidemiology and Biostatistics. At the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Beckjord did her post-doctoral research in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch within the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. From NCI, Dr. Beckjord spent three years in research consulting with RAND Corporation before spending nearly five years in academic medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and Hillman Cancer Center, where she received a Career Development Award to develop and test a context-aware mobile application for smoking cessation. In February 2015, she joined the UPMC Health Plan where she serves as the Associate Vice President of Population Health and Clinical Affairs. Her current work is focused on behavioral informatics and population health; specifically, the use of digital tools in clinical operations to promote health, wellness, and health behavior change. She is particularly interested in the role of consumer generated health data in an informatics-enabled learning health care system.

Kelly W. Brown, MPH, MBA

Kelly W. Brown, MPH, MBA is the Senior Director for Medicaid Product Development and Programs in the Government Business Division at Anthem. Currently, she is responsible for managing value added benefits, vendors, and specialized programs for 20+ Medicaid health plans and 6+ million members to support those with complex medical and social service needs; as well as alignment to growth objectives and RFPs. She has over 15 years in healthcare with experience in operations, finance, cost of care, benefits, claims, and reimbursement in managed care. Mrs. Brown received her B.S. in Finance from Virginia Tech, and Master of Public Health from Eastern Virginia Medical School where she serves as the Chair of the Alumni Board of Directors since 2009; in addition to a Master of Business Administration from Old Dominion University. She also consults as an economics researcher for the State of the Region Report under Dr. James Koch, ODU President Emeritus and the department of economics.

Caraline Coats

Caraline Coats is Vice President of Humana’s Bold Goal and Population Health Strategy, leading Humana’s mission to help improve the health of the communities it serves by making it easier for people to achieve their best health.

Coats has been with Humana for over eleven years. She started as a Regional Director of Medicare Operations in Arizona and relocated to Florida, where she became the Vice President of Network Management and subsequently, the Regional Vice President of Network Management for the East Region. In her role before joining the Bold Goal team, Coats served as Vice President of Humana’s Value-Based Strategies, leading the organizational advancement of innovative payment models that enable Humana to support providers as population health managers in value-based care relationships.

Prior to Humana, Caraline was Vice President of Operations with a hospitalist company and Assistant Vice President of Managed Care for IASIS Healthcare in the Arizona and Nevada regions. She credits her understanding and experience working directly with physicians and hospitals for the opportunities she has had with Humana.

Caraline holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a Masters in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan. She and her husband have two sons, Michael (4 years old) and Nicholas (3 years old). Outside of Humana, Caraline spends her time with family and enjoys running.

Helene S. Forte, RN, MS, PAHM

Noreen Hurley

Dr. Jeanne James

Dr. John Johnson

Frances Martini, BSN, MBA

Steven R. Peskin, MD, MBA, FACP

Steven R. Peskin, MD is the Executive Medical Director Population Health at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. His expertise encompasses physician leadership, medical delivery management, performance improvement in health care, contracting; applications in technology include mobile/social media, clinical/scientific communications for health care professional and consumer audiences.

Dr. Peskin is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for MediMedia USA, CEO of Pharmaceutical Research Plus, President/COO of Nelson Managed Solutions and has worked in multiple executive positions in health plans at PacifiCare Health Systems, CIGNA Healthcare, and John Hancock. Dr. Peskin has authored industry and scientific articles, book chapters and spoken at various conferences and events about physician leadership, the medical home, mobile health and social media.

Dr. Peskin is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is a clinical preceptor at The Eric B, Chandler Clinic for interns and residents in Internal Medicine. Dr. Peskin assists with the Population Health and business of medicine training for the Rutgers RWJ Internal Medicine physicians in training.

Dr. Peskin is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, serves as Governor for the Southern Region of the ACP in New Jersey, Board of Trustees for Friends of the National Library of Medicine, editorial advisory boards of The Journal of Population Health Management and Managed Care and is a Senior Scholar in the School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University. His community service includes the Boards of the Greater Donnelley Neighborhood Initiative and Young Audiences of New Jersey.

Dr. Peskin received a bachelor’s degree from The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. He completed residency at Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston and holds an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Maria Pugo, DrPH, MPH

Dr. Maria Pugo is an accomplished public health professional with extensive involvement across several sectors in healthcare administration. As a lead for numerous access-to-healthcare initiatives, Dr. Pugo has been an integral part in the collaborative efforts in bridging the gap of health equity across the region. At Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), a not-for-profit Medi-Cal and Medicare health plan and one of the fastest-growing health plans in the nation, Dr. Pugo provides leadership in research and evaluation. Alongside a team of healthcare data analysts and doctoral fellows, she delivers analytical and programmatic support to the organization. Originally from Los Angeles, Dr. Pugo’s educational career has provided her residence across California – San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco exposing her to the diversity of public health and adding to her appreciation of resource-based collaborative efforts and research focused on disease prevention. She has a Doctoral Degree in Public Health with a focus on Healthcare Policy and Leadership from Loma Linda University.

Oraida Roman

Oraida Roman, MA, serves as Vice President of Value Based Strategies for Humana. Her experience with Humana spans more than 17 years, holding various management roles, including Provider Contracting Manger, Director of Operations and Regional President. Prior to being Vice President of Value Based Strategies for Humana, Oraida worked for several years with DaVita Medical Group as the Chief Operating Officer of Florida and Market President of Colorado.

Oraida holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Florida State University and a Master's in Health Administration from University of South Florida.

Lisa Truitt

Lisa Truitt is the Director of the Health Care Delivery Management Administration at the DC Department of Health Care Finance (DC DHCF). In this role, Lisa monitors performance of service delivery to residents enrolled in the District of Columbia Medicaid managed care and non-waiver fee-for-service (FFS) programs. The managed care contracts are priced at over $1B, across three risk-based managed care organizations (MCOs) and a single shared-risk special needs organization. Lisa is responsible for policy development, program administration, planning, implementation and evaluation of performance by the MCOs, FFS providers and staff.

Ms. Truitt has many years of experience within the healthcare industry, ranging from claims processing to Quality and Disease Management in both commercial and Medicaid Managed Care. This range of experience has been the cornerstone for maneuvering through the ever-changing health care industry.

Dirk Wales