Frances Martini, BSN, MBA
Noreen Hurley
James Schuster, MD, MBA
Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD, CMQ
Gabriel L. Medley, MHA, MBA
Joseph Crimando
Laura Sankey
Dr. Jeanne James
Katarina Powdrell
Jonathan Weedman
Amy Parkhurst
Rose Maljanian
Peter Aran, M.D.
Alexander Shekhdar
Saeed Aminzadeh
Allison Hess
Helene S. Forte, RN, MS, PAHM
DaShawn Groves DrPH, MPH,
Tricia Barrett
Bill Jonakin, MD
Bjorn Thommesen
Mark Gregory RPh
Nancy Harrison RN MPH
Michelle Bicket
Catherine Macpherson, MS, RDN
April Canetto, MSW
Derdire Coleman
Frances Martini, BSN, MBA
Frances Martini is the director of government clinical programs for BlueCare Tennessee, the Medicaid subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. She is responsible for overseeing integrated population health management and utilization management. Prior to joining BlueCare, she was the senior director of medical management at Emblem Health in New York and the Vice President of Medical Management for Health Net. She has extensive experience in medical management in multiple states and for multiple lines of business. Ms Martini is an RN with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing and a Master's Degree in Business Administration. She is a member of the American Society for Quality, the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Case Management Society of America and the Association of Managed Care Nursing. She is a board member and past board chair of the A Step Ahead Foundation, Chattanooga. She Lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Noreen Hurley
Noreen has spent her career in the healthcare arena. She blends operational, strategic and technology perspectives as well as payer and provider expertise to lead major initiatives and strategies. She started in hospital operations and was Director of the Admitting & Registration department in the New England Deaconess Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital in Boston. Transitioning to IT, she implemented the EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) when the Deaconess merged with the Beth Israel Hospital to form what is now the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. From there she moved to the vendor world and ran implementations of EMPI's, HL7 integrations and HIPAA EDI transactions for SeeBeyond Technologies. Most recently, she has focused on the payer space. She started and oversaw the Star program at Tufts Health Plan, as well as working in IT, developing a senior products PMO and managing the member call center. Moving back to technology, she developed data driven solutions in the healthcare space while working at Informatica. Her current role is developing the Star program at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which has recently re-entered the Medicare Advantage market. As a leader in the Clinical Informatics Division, the program focuses on leveraging non-traditional data and analytics to craft targeted initiatives to improve performance in the Star program and the Harvard Pilgrim Stride product
James Schuster, MD, MBA
In his role at the Insurance Division, Dr. Schuster has led development of multiple programs designed to address wellness and physical health concerns for individuals with serious mental illness and other disabilities. He is currently a principal investigator on a contract from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) focused on health homes in behavioral health settings, and an investigator on another PCORI contract focused on shared decision making.
Dr. Schuster is board certified in psychiatry and in the subspecialties of geriatric and addiction psychiatry. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Louisville and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Pittsburgh. He also received an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and has published numerous articles and book chapters.
Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD, CMQ
Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD, CMQ, is Senior Vice President/Chief Quality Office at Texas Children's Hospital. Prior, Giardino served as the Chief Medical Officer for Texas Children's Health Plan, a provider-sponsored HMO that serves over 430,000 Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in Texas. He earned a Master's in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts, and is a Certified Physician Executive (CPE) within the American Association for Physician Leadership. He completed the Patient Safety Certificate Program from the Quality Colloquium, is certified in medical quality (CMQ) as designated by the American Board of Medical Quality and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Medical Quality. A Professor of Pediatrics and Section Head of Academic General Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). Dr. Giardino is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Health Finance and he recently completed a three year term on the Quality Improvement committee for the Children's Hospital Association and worked on quality measurement and the role of value- based alternative payment models in the pediatric setting. Dr Giardino received his medical degree and doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania, completed his residency and fellowship training at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He received his Master's in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts. He holds subspecialty certifications in Pediatrics and Child Abuse Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics. He is a recipient of the Fulbright & Jaworski L. L. P. Faculty Excellence Award. His academic accomplishments include publishing several textbooks on child abuse and neglect and presenting on a variety of pediatric topics at national and regional conferences.
Gabriel L. Medley, MHA, MBA
Gabe Medley brings over 15 years of progressive healthcare experience leading diverse multidisciplinary teams and projects in the most challenging settings to achievement. Gabe's background includes a combination of healthcare, business, and data analytic leadership roles and is currently serving as the Vice President of Quality and Risk Revenue for Gateway HealthSM headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. He is the executive owner and department head for all quality improvement and risk adjustment related activities covering the Medicare and Medicaid populations in six states. Prior to Gateway, Gabe's previous professional experience includes Sr. Director of Quality and Risk Revenue (Gateway Health), Director of Risk Revenue, Manager of Risk Adjustment Program (Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ), Manager of Healthcare Data Analytics (Inovalon Inc.), Senior Manager of Patient Access (Military Health System, National Capital Region), and Captain (Medical Service Corps, U.S. Army). Gabe's education includes the following: Master of Science in Healthcare Administration (MHA) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi, Maryland; Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Military Science from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana
Joseph Crimando
Joseph provides operational and analytic solutions to identify and address patient care needs for preventative and disease management. He works closely with clinical teams to build programs that complement our Electronic Health Record (EHR) bringing relevant patient data together for action. The analytic products provide insight into patient care across different dimensions to improve patient outcomes. At Kaiser Permanente, he has implemented patient risk scores to prioritize patient care for the most needy. He has worked closely with disease care teams to build an order management system for lab and radiology based on carefully crafted protocols helping care teams save many hours of manual order entry. While he has worked in Healthcare for only the past 5 years, he has decades of data analytics expertise in many different industries. He has worked to bring advanced research technologies to meet operational needs within that industry. Joseph is a graduate of the State University of New York, College at Fredonia with a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Physics.
Laura Sankey
Laura Sankey has more than twenty-five years experience in the managed care industry across a wide range of functional areas including commercial and government claims, training and auditing and health plan operations.
Ms. Sankey has been at Centene for fourteen years and joined the Complex Care team in May of 2014 to lead the Duals Demonstration product. As Staff Vice President of Operations for Centene's Complex Care Department she has implemented three of Centene's six Medicare- Medicaid Plans (MMP) and continues to serve in an oversight role over the MMP Product in the Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Michigan and California markets. She leads the MMP Membership Operations team focusing on enrollment and call center support. In addition, she is tasked with identifying and sharing best practices across the organization, working with the federal and state regulatory bodies to provide feedback on the integration efforts of the program and testing care management models to improve the health outcomes and reduce costs for this vulnerable population.
Dr. Jeanne James
Dr. Jeanne James'was recently appointed Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for BlueCare Tennessee, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee that manages care and provides quality health care products, services and information for government programs. Before assuming the chief medical officer post, James served as medical director for government programs with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, where she supported medical management and administrative operations activities related to select managed statewide accounts and government programs. She also ensured compliance with government regulation and contract agreements related to these programs. Prior to joining BlueCross, James served as medical director for Coventry Health Care of Georgia, performing prior authorization and utilization management review. She served as medical director for Bureau of TennCare for more than five years, supervising the division of quality oversight and monitoring the quality of services provided to enrollees by the contracted managed care organizations. James has more than 20 years of experience, including pediatric academic medical positions and hospital leadership roles. As chief medical officer at Tulane, James was part of the leadership team on-site during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. She helped to safely evacuate over 200 patients and 1500 staff during the one week disaster. In 2006 and 2007, James was a consultant and speaker on issues related to experiences during Hurricane Katrina, with emphasis on disaster readiness. James is a member of American Association of Physician Leadership, Tennessee Public Health Association, and a fellow of American Academy of Pediatrics. She is board-certified in general pediatrics. James earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics at Tulane Medical School. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and anthropology from Emory University. She received the Friend of Children Award from American Academy of Pediatrics in 2008, Certificate of Appreciation from Tennessee March of Dimes in 2009, and Innovations for Children and Families Award from Tennessee Voices for Children in 2010.
Katarina Powdrell
Katarina Powdrell, born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico began her career in healthcare over two years ago with Molina Healthcare of New Mexico. While receiving her Master of Science in Psychology with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology/Counseling from New Mexico Highlands University she worked with members and providers throughout the state to support behavioral health interventions for two key HEDIS measures. Overtime with more experience and knowledge of the health plan's deliverables, Katarina now functions as the Sr. Specialist for Quality Interventions overseeing several other measures and managing vendor interventions throughout the state.
Jonathan Weedman
Jonathan Weedman, LPC, CCTP is the current Director of Clinical Operations for the Population Health Partnerships Department at CareOregon in Portland, Oregon. Jonathan holds a Masters in Art from Lewis and Clark College in Counseling Psychology, is a Licensed Professional Counselor with the state of Oregon, and is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. He has a breadth of clinical experience including secured residential treatment, outpatient mental health counseling, school counseling, and private practice. Jonathan is a former adjunct professor at Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College. His leadership experience includes being the Director of Portland's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender young adult center (SMYRC), a founding member of the board of directors for the QCenter, and a former board member of PFLAG Portland. He is a trainer of trainers on Resiliency and provides numerous community trainings on trauma-informed care.
Amy Parkhurst
Amy Parkhurst is the Integration Manager for Population Health at CareOregon where she facilitates connections across and among clinical teams and departments to continuously improve care coordination for CareOregon's most vulnerable members. Prior to joining CareOregon in 2015 Amy worked in various leadership and consulting roles with organizations that focus on the social determinants to health, primarily for at-risk youth in the realms of education, workforce development and housing. Amy is on the board of Bridge Meadows - a nationally recognized intergenerational housing model that provides safe, stable and supportive communities for youth in foster care, adoptive parents, and elders and she is a volunteer mediator for small claims court. Amy has an M.A. in Organization Development from Sonoma State University.
Rose Maljanian
Rose is an accomplished senior executive with over 30 years of experience in the health care
industry. Rose's leadership experience spans corporate managed care, specialty population
health management delivery systems and public health settings, and includes product strategy,
design and development, M&A; operations and fiscal management; and quality improvement
and outcomes research.
Rose, founder of HealthCAWS, Inc. serves as Chairman and CEO. HealthCAWS, Inc. is a
privately held corporation focused on improving health and making health care more affordable
by aligning accountability models and supports for success. While preparing for the launch of
HealthCAWS, as President and CEO of Strategic Health Equations, LLC, initiatives included
market exploration and due diligence for venture and private equity firms; and for existing
companies, product portfolio development and strategic planning.
Prior, Rose served as Senior Vice President Product Innovation at Magellan Health Services, a
multi-specialty managed care company, leading initiatives such as medical-behavioral health
integration with major positive impacts on the company's revenue base. Before joining
Magellan she served as a senior member of the Innovation Center leadership team in the
capacity of Vice President, Clinical Interventions at Humana where she was responsible for
program strategy and operational and fiscal oversight of Condition Management, Health and
Wellness, Personal Nurse, Maternity and Transplant, Outcome Evaluation and ISO certification.
While serving Hartford Hospital she founded an Institute for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
served as chief executive of the Institute and Director of Outcomes Research Management.
Rose was responsible for program innovations including co-development of a Diabetes
Management program and a Stroke Center of Excellence. She also developed city'wide
programs and conducted numerous Population Health Assessments along with the Hartford
Health Director and Public Health Advisory Council. Prior to this role she held a number of
positions in Critical Care and Long Term Care and Rehab.
Nationally, Rose serves as Chairman of the Board for the Population Health Alliance, Co-chair
the URAC Measurement Advisory Board and serves on the RISE Quality and Accountability
Board. Rose's work has resulted in numerous grant and leadership awards and publications.
She holds a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Saint Joseph College, was Critical Care
Certified and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Peter Aran, M.D.
Peter Aran, M.D.: Doctor Aran is the former chief medical officer of the Saint Francis Health System. He has been the medical director of a disease management initiative as well as a population health management medical director for a health insurance company. He has held a number of leadership roles nationally in organized medicine as well as leadership experience in quality measures related to MACRA/MIPS. He was the clinical lead in a 26 health system ACO collaborative. He has been an active participant in multiple CMS/CMMI care innovation programs and has been invited to speak on the importance of provider-payer collaboration in care transformation initiatives.
Alexander Shekhdar
Alexander Shekhdar is in-charge of Federal and State policy for the Medicaid Health Plans of America (MHPA). In this role, Mr. Shekhdar is responsible for assisting in the promulgation of the association's policy positions, as well as analyzing and responding to regulatory matters governing and implicating Medicaid managed care plans. Mr. Shekhdar has 15 years of business and policy experience in the government payor space with various providers including managed care companies, pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), and healthcare providers, as well as digital technology companies. He has provided strategic counsel as a consultant to Fortune 50 companies, as well as multimillion dollar enterprises. In the managed care space, Mr. Shekhdar has been responsible for business development for both Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans. In addition, he has worked on product development for various specialty health business including behavioral health and consumer healthcare companies. Mr. Shekhdar has also been both a federal and state lobbyist, as well as, a subject matter expert engaged by multiple healthcare trade associations. Mr. Shekhdar is a professional lecturer and adjunct faculty associated with The George Washington University and universities within The University of Maryland system. Finally, Mr. Shekhdar has presented on issues related to health policy at numerous industry trade meetings, gatherings of state health plan associations, and audiences of financial analysts. Mr. Shekhdar holds his undergraduate and graduate degrees in public health from The Johns Hopkins University and his juris doctorate from the Seton Hall University School of Law.
Saeed Aminzadeh
Saeed founded Decision Point with the mission of improving health plan clinical, financial and operational performance through informed, data-driven predictions on strategic decisions. He has more than 25 years of health information technology experience, with a track record of developing innovative approaches to solve complex business problems. He has held key senior management positions at Eliza Corporation, Ingenix (currently Optum), IHCIS and ProVentive, where led high-performing teams focused creative uses of technology for practical problem-solving. Saeed is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Economics.
Allison Hess
Allison Hess is the Associate Vice President of Health and Wellness Programs for Geisinger.
In this role, she is responsible for the oversight of health and wellness programs for commercial,
Medicare and Medicaid populations, community based programming and programming for the
Geisinger employee population.
Ms. Hess earned her bachelor of science in Health Education with a concentration in
Psychology from Bloomsburg University and is currently pursuing her MBA. She is a Certified
Wellness Practitioner (CWP) and has additional certifications in the wellness and health
education field.
Ms. Hess has worked for over 15 years in the specialty of community health and worksite
wellness. Her most recent work involves community based strategies impacting food insecurity
and focusing on social determinants of health and the impact on condition management.
Helene S. Forte, RN, MS, PAHM
Helene is responsible for leading Tufts Health Public Plans Rhode Island Medicaid Program. Prior to
her current position, she was vice president of care management for all Public Plans members. Prior
to joining Tufts Health Plan in 2014, Helene held positions in clinical program support and
engagement strategy, care advocacy and medical management for Aetna, a national health plan.
She also has served as vice president of medical operations at APS Healthcare Inc., a health
management organization servicing commercial, Medicaid and state employee members, and
served consecutively as manager of health programs and manager of case management for Tufts
Health Plan. She began her career as a staff nurse, and has taught classes in nursing at Mount
Wachusett Community College and Montachusett Vocational School.
Helene earned a B.S. with a concentration in nursing from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S.
in nursing from Boston University, and status as a Professional, of the Academy for Healthcare
Management.
DaShawn Groves DrPH, MPH,
DaShawn Groves is a Lead Project Manager in the Health Care Reform and Innovation Administration (HCRIA) within the District of Columbia's Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), the District's Medicaid Agency. HCRIA creates and tests new delivery system and payment models among Medicaid providers in the District with the goal of enhancing health care quality, improving care and outcomes, promoting health equity, and increasing the value and efficiency of DHCF's programs. For ten years, Dr. Groves has worked closely with safety net providers providing technical assistance on various Medicaid issues including delivery system and payment reform initiatives. He is now applying that practice at DHCF where he leads the agency's efforts to identify opportunities to develop and implement robust strategies around quality performance measurement and the collection and use of social determinants of health. Dr. Groves has played an integral part in formulating a stakeholder engagement strategy to build consensus around the agency's value-based purchasing initiatives such as creating pay for performance programs for Federally Qualified Health Centers and nursing facilities. Dr. Groves received his DrPH degree in Health Policy at the George Washington University and his MPH degree from Emory University.
Tricia Barrett
Patricia Barrett joined NCQA in 2008 as the Vice President for Product Development and Policy. In this role, she is
responsible for exploring new product concepts and evolving existing products to meet the needs of a changing
health care environment. She also ensures proper development, communication and interpretation of NCQA
Accreditation standards, HEDIS measures and Survey Vendor Certification.
Prior to joining NCQA, Ms. Barrett was the lead consultant for General Motors on managed care. As HAP Associate
Vice President and the Program Director for the HAP/GM Managed Care Consulting Team, she was responsible for
evaluating the quality and efficiency of GM's managed care offerings nationally and for establishing supplier
development activities with all of GM's HMOs. In this role, she participated on the NCQA Purchaser Advisory Council,
the National Business Coalition on Health eValue8 Steering Committee and served as an author and scorer for the
eValue8 RFI.
Ms. Barrett joined Health Alliance Plan (HAP) in Detroit, Mich. as an Analyst in the Quality Management Department
in 1993. During her 14 years with HAP she served in a variety of roles including Manager of Research, Analysis and
Program Development, Acting Director of Managed Care Information and Director of Quality Management. As
Director of QM, she had responsibility for all clinical quality improvement and disease management programs as well
as HEDIS production and NCQA accreditation for the organization as a whole. In addition, Ms. Barrett was a member
of the NCQA HEDIS Policy Panel and served as the Chairperson for the Measurement Committee of the Michigan
Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC).
Ms. Barrett attended the University of Michigan receiving her Bachelors degree in Sociology and a Masters Degree in
Health Services Administration from the School of Public Health.
Bill Jonakin, MD
Dr. Jonakin received his undergraduate degree at Emory University and his medical degree from the University of Alabama. After a Pediatric residency and subsequent training in Emergency Medicine, he practiced in Albuquerque, NM, and Manchester, NH, before practicing in Boise, ID. Currently, Dr. Jonakin is Medical Director for Medicare Advantage and Risk Adjustment for St. Luke's Health Partners. He also is a Certified Professional Coder and a Certified Risk Adjustment Coder. Dr. Jonakin has been intimately involved with the transition from volume to value for the largest healthcare system in Idaho. In his spare time, he enjoys outdoor activities and aviation.
Bjorn Thommesen
Bjorn Thommesen has over a decade of experience in consultative selling to Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial health plans and employers. His focus has been on solutions that improve healthcare delivery and patient health outcomes while reducing costs for payers and increasing quality and member satisfaction scores (Star, HEDIS, CAHPS, etc.). Before that Mr. Thommesen gained skills and experience over two decades working for industry leaders like HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, Amerigroup Corporation and Express Scripts. He has seen how personal service and care coordination makes a big difference over time, which is why he joined Omnicell to provide health plans, ACOs, employers and hospital health systems with advanced clinical programs delivered through face-to- face relationships over time between community pharmacists and patients.
Mark Gregory RPh
Mr. Gregory joined Omnicell in July 2014. Most recently Senior Vice President of Store Operations previously Vice President of Pharmacy and Government Relations for Kerr Drug, Inc based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Responsibilities included all store operations, oversight of pharmacy systems and automation, managed care contracting, store support, pharmacy administration, operational policies and procedures, patient care and compliance programs, university relationships and government affairs activities. He also served as Kerr Drug's Privacy Officer and Chairman of Kerr Drug's PAC. Mark Gregory graduated in 1982 from Ohio Northern University and in October 2011 was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award. He was a practicing pharmacist for 11 years when he assumed corporate positions as Manager of Pharmacy Systems and Third Party Programs at Thrift Drug Company in Pittsburgh, PA. After the acquisition of Thrift Drug by the Eckerd Corporation, Mark worked for a brief period of time in pharmacy operations for Eckerd. Other pharmacy involvement include: Past President of North Carolina Association of Pharmacists, Past Chairman Executive Committee North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, Member and Past Chair of NACDS Policy Council, Past Chairman of the Board of Visitors for Campbell University School of Pharmacy, Past Chairman Board of Advisors MUSC School of Pharmacy, Board member of the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy Board of Advisors, Board member of Wingate University School of Pharmacy Advisors and immediate past Facilitating Chair for Coalition for Community Pharmacy Action (CCPA).
Nancy Harrison RN MPH
Nancy is responsible for operations and oversight of the [email protected] program, an interdisciplinary team based model of care consisting of Nurse Practitioners, Community Health Workers, a Registered Nurse, and a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who provide in home primary care services for Neighborhood's most complex high risk patients. Nancy previously served as Director of Health Services with United Healthcare and Director of Case Management for CIGNA Healthcare . She holds a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from the University of Rhode Island and earned a Masters in Public Health from the University of Connecticut.
Michelle Bicket
Michelle is responsible for evaluating internal disease and care management programs, including the [email protected] program, and oversees a wide variety of other quality measurement and analysis activities. Michelle previously worked as a program evaluator for Public Health Management Corporation and as a bioethics researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, both in Philadelphia, PA. She holds a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in the History and Sociology of Science.
Catherine Macpherson, MS, RDN
Catherine is a senior leader in healthcare product strategy and product management. She is a product innovation leader who has launched successful multi-channel, consumer-focused, technology-enabled health, wellness and condition management products at leading healthcare companies and organizations. Catherine is the VP of Product Strategy and Development and Chief Nutrition Officer for PurFoods, the leading national provider of home-delivered meals that allow people to recover and age at home. She also served as Vice President over the Medication Adherence and Immunizations businesses at Walgreens, led Healthcare Product Strategy at WebMD and managed health and wellness products and programs for Ceridian, the National Institutes of Health and the American Institute for Cancer Research. Catherine earned her Masters of Science degree in Human Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and her BA from the University of Michigan. She is a Registered Dietitian and has training and expertise in product management, behavior change, weight management, tobacco cessation, medication adherence, health coaching, disease management and culinary arts.
April Canetto, MSW
April Canetto is the Manager of Cultural and Linguistic Services at Health Net. April has
a graduate degree in Social Work, with an emphasis in Macro practice. April has 10
years' experience in systems design, program development and the application of the
social determinants of health toward improving outcomes. April has designed and led
community mobilization efforts to improve social conditions for vulnerable populations
with expertise in the field of health disparities, school readiness and poverty reduction.
Her skills include the development of comprehensive systems change strategies
targeted at the community, neighborhood and institutional level to improve family and
individual outcomes. April leads health disparity reduction efforts across Health Net and
has been successful in integrating departments toward collective action. April
developed a health disparity reduction model, improved the collection of race, ethnicity
and language data and has successfully led the organization in decreasing disparities in
targeted HEDIS measures. Through her leadership, Health Net has been recognized as a
leader in health disparity reduction and received the Disparity Leadership Program Best
Overall Project Award and the Innovation in Addressing Health Equity Award from the
National Business Group on Health.
Derdire Coleman
De Coleman is a Management Analyst in the Division of Quality and Health Outcomes at the District of Columbia's State Medicaid Agency, the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF). Ms. Coleman Joined the DHCF in July 2014. Her responsibilities include implementing the quality Improvement process across all service delivery areas within the agency in compliance with all State and Federal regulations and to ensure the agencies commitment toward the triple aim for all of the beneficiaries served. Prior to joining DHCF, Ms. Coleman worked with multiple MCOs is the Washington DC area within Quality assisting to obtain various accreditations, management of HEDIS projects, leading practice transformation activities for providers, educating and training of staff to the quality improvement processes and utilizing and implementing technologies to increase accuracy and efficiencies. Ms. Coleman has also worked as a nurse in various clinical settings across long term care, skilled nursing, home heath behavioral health and the acute inpatient setting in her 32 year career. Her passions include ensuring all people have access to high quality health care that meets their needs regardless of where they live and integrating technology, data analysis and clinical expertise in healthcare to achieve the best health outcomes. She has also served two terms as President for the DC Association for Healthcare Quality and presented at multiple CMS and IHI conferences. Ms. Coleman was born in Hamilton, Bermuda. She received her nursing degree at Prince Georges Community College. He currently lives in Silver Spring, MD.