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Getting To The Right Scale: The OPEN MINDS Executive Seminar On Successful Mergers, Acquisitions & Affiliations
How big is big enough for your organization to sustain talent, market reach, and financial resources? In deciding the right path for staying competitive in the constantly shifting health and human services marketplace, many executives from specialty provider organizations are pursuing merger, acquisition, and affiliation (MA&A) strategies. In the last few years, the field has experienced a record number of MA&A among specialty provider organizations serving consumers with complex conditions. Join us for this information packed seminar examining growth strategies and successful implementation plans from previous mergers and collaborations occurring in the health and human services field. Learn from industry leaders how to position your organization for sustainability and growth as we move forward into the “post-pandemic” world. This seminar will focus on:
- Designing an effective MA&A strategy
- Identifying opportunities and prospective organizational partners
- Challenges faced and overcome to create successful MA&A partnerships
Joe Naughton-Travers
Joe Naughton-Travers, Ed.M. has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. During his tenure as a Senior Associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
How To Build (& Succeed With) Value-Based Payer Partnerships: An OPEN MINDS Executive Seminar On Best Practices In Marketing, Negotiating & Contracting With Health Plans
Sponsored By 
Across the country, managed care organizations are successfully delivering treatment services to large populations and doing it in a way that saves states significant sums of money. These demonstrated savings show that value-based reimbursement and managed care arrangements aren’t going anywhere. For executives, this means they must find a way to position themselves to work closely with managed care companies. And provider organizations need to move from an understanding of the key competencies required in the VBR model to tactical initiatives for implementing the talent, technology, and systems that deliver quality and value.
How? By developing relationships with the payers in your market, considering what metrics they are tied to and how you can help them to meet their performance requirements, discussing how you can align programs and services with the goals of the payers and health plans in your market, and providing data that proves your service lines can achieve both high quality outcomes and lower costs. In this crucial seminar, we will discuss:
- How to start strategic conversations with health plans
- How to confirm the foundational components of infrastructure needed for VBR are in place and demonstrate your organization’s value in a way that will capture health plan’s interest
- How to secure and optimize service agreements with health plans and implement approaches to realign service models to ensure success in a value-driven market
Richard Louis, III
Richard Louis, III has extensive experience as a behavioral healthcare administrator, business development specialist, and innovator of new service lines for behavioral healthcare organizations and currently serves the Vice President – Western Region at OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Mr. Louis was the Director of Development – Behavior & Addiction Medicine at Southern California Healthcare Systems Inc. / Prospect Medical. There, he was involved in many consulting projects focused on health care integration, developing new service lines, and health plan contract development. Most recently, he pioneered the development of a series of innovative and profitable integrated behavioral health treatment and population health management solutions that target high cost and complex behavioral health populations. These solutions have shown to reduce payer spend while improving client outcomes for acute care hospital systems, health plans, managed care organizations (MCO), managed service organizations (MSO), managed behavioral healthcare organizations (MBHO), medical groups (IPA) and social service agencies.
Mr. Louis was also the Executive Director of Strategic Development and Planning at Pathways – Molina Healthcare, a national for-profit behavioral healthcare company operating in 23 states. In this role, Mr. Louis developed and launched population health management program strategies that included in-community care management and in-home coordinated care services to reduce hospital readmissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and improve HEDIS scores for national health plans and Managed Care Organizations.
Mr. Louis is also a former Psychiatric Hospital Administrator and Assistant Director of Mental Health for San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health in CA, where he was responsible for behavioral health program management, clinical operations, strategic alliances, and outcome-based service delivery models for complex adult and youth populations.
Mr. Louis also served in various positions at College Health Enterprises (CHE), a Los Angeles based for-profit hospital system, most notably serving as Vice President of Government Operations. While in this role, he created the first public sector division for CHE by establishing new service lines, contracts, and new profit/revenue streams. His responsibilities included business and program development as well as administration of inpatient, outpatient, and residential continuums of care for public payers (i.e. county mental health systems, state department of developmental disabilities, county jail, state prison, and federal government agencies).
Mr. Louis is in his 32nd year as an active duty reserve police officer (volunteer) currently holding the rank of Captain, City of Monterey Park Police Department in Los Angeles County. He has worked closely with police, county sheriff’s departments, and healthcare systems to educate and craft “treatment versus incarceration” collaborations promoting treatment and cost-effective crisis triage interventions for persons with mental illness.
Mr. Louis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Whittier College and is a Police Academy Graduate from Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California.
Leadership’s Role In Mitigating & Managing Clinician Burnout: Building A Resilient Workplace
Sponsored By
Clinician burnout is not a new concern for mental health agencies and providers. The COVID-19 pandemic and political/social unrest are continuing to drive demand for mental health treatment in record numbers.
Factors such as increased workloads, lack of support from coworkers and leadership, as well as problematic organizational structures can leave clinicians without the ability to mitigate burnout. Without the time to care for themselves, clinicians cannot continue to effectively care for others. As a leader in your organization, how can you build a workplace culture that rallies against burnout?
In this session, we will discuss:
- How leadership can promote a culture of self-care within the organization.
- The importance of leaders identifying their own burnout and practicing self-care.
- Strategies to develop effective supervision and mentorship programs.
- The role of EHR software in reducing clinician burnout by improving documentation workflows.
- The impact of burnout on employee retention as well as the related financial and operational consequences of high turnover rates.
As a leader in a mental health organization looking to improve the work environment, this presentation will provide valuable insights and practical tools to help you address the growing problem of clinician burnout and its effect on employee retention. Complimentary snack will also be included before this brief 30-minute session.
*Cookies and brownies will be served!
Jenny Blake, BSN, MS, RN
Jenny Blake BSN, MS, RN has been a nurse for 11 years and has her master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision at Virginia Commonwealth University, with a research focus on clinician burnout and prevention. She is currently working for Qualifacts as a Solutions Consultant for their behavioral health, rehabilitative, and human services EHR technologies. Her areas of interest and experience include staff education, staff retention and wellbeing, advocacy for the clinical workforce, nursing in the geriatric population, and narrative therapy interventions.
Grand Opening Of The Exhibit Hall
Join us for an unveiling of all of our great exhibitors while enjoying a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres!
Morning Beach Walk
Begin your day by joining us for a refreshing hour long walk along the ocean on Clearwater Beach! Bottled water to take on your walk will be provided by OPEN MINDS. Meet at the beach entrance by the towel stand at the swimming pool.
Murray Beachtel
Murray Beachtel, MS, brings over five years of program evaluation and data analysis to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Beachtel currently serves as a Consultant and Research Analyst in the OPEN MINDS consulting practice where he supports Senior Advisors on a variety of strategy, technology, and program development projects. His areas of expertise include quality assurance management, data analytics, human service program evaluation, and psychological studies.
Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Beachtel served as a Data Analyst of Quality for the Summit Container Corporation, a start-up design and manufacturing company that specializes in protective packaging for circuit boards, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. As the key operator for the organization’s production system, Mr. Beachtel oversaw the operations of special projects that utilized lean strategies and financial analyses that helped increase overall production. In addition, he created and maintained the data flow between all departments of additional location sites and lead company compliance efforts with respect to data security and transfer. Throughout his tenure with Summit, Mr. Beachtel improved process completion time over 10% in 3 months, reduced downtime of temporary labor, and developed several quality improvement programs.
Previously, Mr. Beachtel served as the Program Evaluation Consultant with the Dauphin County Department of Human Services, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In this role, he was responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of over 80 different county programs, developing information databases, and implementing data quality improvement strategies. He also modified and implemented a funding algorithm that is now responsible for the distribution of over $22 million in funding to county nonprofits.
Mr. Beachtel previously served as a Front Desk Auditor for Country Inn & Suites, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He was responsible for the overseeing day-to-day activities, provided accurate financial reports, and was a liaison for customers and hotel staff.
In addition to his professional experience, Mr. Beachtel has been involved in a number of research projects throughout his academic and professional careers. His most notable research project, titled Resilience and Locus of Control on Mentorship, evaluated the impact of mentorship intervention on two children/youth programs. As a result, he developed a data collection and reporting systems to track interventions and the effects on quality over time.
Mr. Beachtel earned his master’s degree in Psychological Science from the University of Shippensburg, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Messiah College, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Breakfast & Registration
If you haven't registered yet, check in with us at the registration desk and then enjoy breakfast in the exhibit hall!
Using Technologies & Analytics To Improve Behavioral Health Access & Outcomes: Lucet’s Approach To Integrated Care Management
Originally created as a managed behavioral health organization (MBHO), Lucet pivoted to becoming a behavioral health optimization company. While Lucet still performs its core services, it has reoriented its business around using technology and analytics to achieve engagement and access measures: 1. Reach (getting as many people as possible into care), 2. Speed of care (connecting consumers into care more quickly), and 3. Quality of care outcomes (matching consumers with high quality providers). Part of this strategy has centered around New Directions acquiring Tridiuum, and together forming Lucet, a digital behavioral health company dedicated to advancing behavioral-medical integration. In this keynote presentation, hear examples of services and technology coming together to solve for better whole person care outcomes.
Shana Hoffman, MBA
Shana has a passion for behavioral health and well-being that aligns with the core values of Lucet and its employees. Her background combines a unique understanding of the healthcare industry through her experience in Fortune 500, private equity-backed, and early-stage healthcare companies. As part of Lucet, she hopes to make high-quality mental health care more accessible and is inspired by her team to innovate unique ways to deliver better results. Before joining Lucet, Shana served as senior vice president of corporate transformation and chief operating officer of the Tri-State Mid-Atlantic Region at Beacon Health Options. Leading client and provider operations for a region serving over 20 health plans, state-direct customers, and over nine million members, Shana improved operational performance for clients and the organization.
Before joining Beacon, Shana directed client development and growth efforts at Kyruus, a leader in provider search and scheduling solutions for hospitals and health systems. She was instrumental in establishing key client relationships, developing go-to-market strategies, and increasing revenue five-fold.
Shana graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote and take this time to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Shana Hoffman, MBA
Shana has a passion for behavioral health and well-being that aligns with the core values of Lucet and its employees. Her background combines a unique understanding of the healthcare industry through her experience in Fortune 500, private equity-backed, and early-stage healthcare companies. As part of Lucet, she hopes to make high-quality mental health care more accessible and is inspired by her team to innovate unique ways to deliver better results. Before joining Lucet, Shana served as senior vice president of corporate transformation and chief operating officer of the Tri-State Mid-Atlantic Region at Beacon Health Options. Leading client and provider operations for a region serving over 20 health plans, state-direct customers, and over nine million members, Shana improved operational performance for clients and the organization.
Before joining Beacon, Shana directed client development and growth efforts at Kyruus, a leader in provider search and scheduling solutions for hospitals and health systems. She was instrumental in establishing key client relationships, developing go-to-market strategies, and increasing revenue five-fold.
Shana graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S., Chief Executive Officer and Senior Associate, is the founder of OPEN MINDS. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. Ms. Oss is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field. She has unique expertise in payer financing models, provider rate setting, and service pricing. She has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, managed care programs, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology, and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
How To Radically Re-engineer Your Service Portfolio – Creating Innovative New Options
Consumer and payer service needs are continually changing – and the speed of this change is increasing as a result of new technology, competitors, and service models. Delivering relevant and preferred services in an increasingly competitive market requires frequent, systematic, and sometimes radical changes to your portfolio of services. But how do you perform an actionable service portfolio analysis that identifies the opportunities for growth? Attendees in this session will learn practical insights for:
- Performing a service line analysis
- Aligning internal services with changing market needs and opportunities
- Communicating the rationale for change to internal and external stakeholders
Thomas Grant, MBA
Tom Grant was appointed Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer for Woods Services in March, 2016. Mr. Grant engages in short and long-range strategic and operational growth planning for the organization. He brings more than 20 years of finance and strategy consulting experience to the organization. Prior to coming to Woods, he ran his own management consulting firm specializing in efficiency initiatives, leadership, strategic planning, turn-arounds, and business development needs of both non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses. In this role, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for Archway Programs in New Jersey.
Before launching his own company, he held similar management consulting positions with a number of business development companies. Mr. Grant has counseled clients on a wide range of topics including process optimization, cash flow management, fund raising, structure, best practices, profitability and pricing arrangements. He also has worked as an emerging markets analyst in Thailand, Hong Kong, and a number of South American countries. Mr. Grant holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Ray Wolfe, J.D.
Raymond “Ray” Wolfe, J.D. brings over 40 years of experience in the health and human services sector to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Wolfe currently serves as a Senior Associate, a position in which he utilizes his expertise to successfully lead varying projects for OPEN MINDS. His areas of expertise include financial analysis and management, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, and strategic planning.
Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Wolfe served in a 22 year tenure with Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he was responsible for oversight of all system operations, strategic planning, and performance management. Under his direction Pittsburgh Mercy achieved over $850K in value-based reimbursement contract quality bonus awards, integrated three organizations through merger/acquisition, and adopted a new performance management program for managers.
Before acting as Pittsburgh Mercy’s COO, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was responsible for the development of internal costing methodologies, contract rate negotiations, and financial forecasting activities. In addition, he coordinated an integrated care program with local partner hospitals to develop a series of diversion and respite programs, as well as, specialized primary care, integrated care management and high utilizer teams, while maintaining 15 straight years profitability.
Mr. Wolfe was promoted to CFO after serving as the Director of Fiscal and Information Security/Compliance for the health system. In this role, he was responsible for managing the transition of service contracts from fee-for-service (FFS), leading all compliance activities, and implementing a next generation electronic health record (EHR) system.
Prior to his time at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Mr. Wolfe served as Chief Fiscal Officer with the Summit Center for Human Development in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he was responsible for reporting and budgeting functions and preparing Summit Center’s programs for FFS billing.
Previously, Mr. Wolfe served in billing and collections for two Pennsylvania-based hospitals. First, as an Accounts Receivables Manager for Brownsville General Hospital in Brownsville, PA, where he managed the accounting and billing system transition systems. Later as a Patient Account Manager for St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where he improved collections to hit 95% rate through the implementation of new billing software and department reorganization.
Prior to working in the health and human services market, Mr. Wolfe spent five years practicing as a Lawyer with at Law Offices of Arch A. Moore in Moundsville, WV. In this role he provided general legal practice, created and established bylaws for multiple corporation, and handled West Virginia licensing of first vision insurance plan.
Mr. Wolfe earned his Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University School of Law in Morgantown, WV and his Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Political Science and Sociology from West Liberty University, in Wheeling, WV, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
What Health Plans Want: Measuring & Communicating Performance To Payers
The health and human services field is shifting toward value-based payment systems. Specialty provider organizations are having conversations with health plans and payers on different strategies, partnerships, and contracting opportunities. Some have just begun, others are down that path of engagement, and some have secured contracts. What comes next and how do you measure and show value to deliver on what health plans want? Hear from organizations on case study examples of how to:
- Become a metrics focused and data-driven organization
- Achieve efficiency by utilizing dashboards and training tools
- Understand the link between measuring results and revenue
Monica Collins, MA, MBA
Monica Collins is the Sr. Director, System Transformation for Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania where she is responsible for leading the strategy and planning efforts in system transformation. Her responsibilities include engaging providers, state agencies and stakeholders in a collaborative approach to develop a high value service delivery system. She brings more than 20 years of behavioral healthcare experience to this role both from a provider and then a payer perspective. Monica earned her Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her Masters of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. Unique qualifications include certification in Primary and Behavioral Healthcare Integration.
Susanna Kramer, MA, CPHQ
Susanna Kramer has been working in research and evaluation of public behavioral health systems for over 20 years and is passionate about using data to drive service quality improvement and inform policy. She currently serves as Director of Performance Evaluation at Community Behavioral Health (CBH), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania County’s Behavioral Health Medicaid Managed Care Organization, where she oversees provider performance measurement and evaluation initiatives, including value-based purchasing. Prior to joining CBH, Ms. Kramer worked at Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice in developing trauma-informed systems of care and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Mental Health in evaluating public behavioral health systems. She has worked clinically with children in Philadelphia and adults in Portland, Oregon. She holds a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from West Chester University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality.
Jason Lippman
Jason Lippman brings over 15 years of executive experience in the health and human services field to the OPEN MINDS team, with expertise in health care strategy, public policy and government relations, managed care, and communications. Prior to his role with OPEN MINDS, Mr. Lippman served as the Vice President of Strategy & Development for Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Lippman developed strategic relationships and solutions to facilitate new growth. He also identified opportunities to integrate physical and behavioral health services to improve both quality and affordability.
Before his time with Beacon Health Options, Mr. Lippman served as the Executive Vice President of The Coalition for Behavioral Health, a New York-state based behavioral health provider association. In that role, he was responsible for operations, development, financial management, and member services. Mr. Lippman also secured $263,000 to drive provider business transformation and established a Regional Addiction Resource Center and an e-learning system for over 6,000 users.
During his tenure at The Coalition for Behavioral Health, Mr. Lippman also served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he developed and implemented a strategic restructuring plan that achieved 23% savings and realigned $1.5 million in contracted training programs into a center for excellence to maximize value and achieve operational efficiencies.
Prior to his role with The Coalition for Behavioral Health, Mr. Lippman was the Director of Public Policy & Government Relations for Amida Care, a New York City-based Medicaid health plan. In this role, Mr. Lippman served as the lead for Medicaid redesign strategies and delivery system reform initiatives. He secured a $500,000 DSRIP planning grant and over $100,000 in New York City Council funding for member-driven health and wellness programs.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lippman served as a Director of Policy and Advocacy for The Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, where he advanced policy strategies to increase opportunities for membership under healthcare reform. Mr. Lippman’s efforts increased the number of advocates and members by more than 30%.
Mr. Lippman received a Master of Arts in Public Affairs and Policy from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University of Albany. He also received Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University.
The Race Is On – Staying Ahead Of The Workforce Curve (Part I)
Sponsored by Netsmart 
Healthcare organizations across the country are competing for top talent from a clinical perspective but also from an operational point of view. Leaders are realizing that to remain competitive, they must differentiate themselves beyond a positive “culture.” They must understand what they do well, what would make their environment better and how to strategize for now and the future. In this session, Danielle Ross will dig into the key elements required to be successful in today’s market. You will learn how data can help you fill gaps and develop a resource model that aligns to your true business needs versus a one size fits all approach. In this session, you will:
- Learn about the four key elements critical to workforce strategy
- Understand how data can help you drive a “unique” strategy
- Gain insight around the role technology plays
*Assorted granola bars will be served!
Danielle Ross
Danielle has over 19 years of experience working in leadership and consulting roles within the behavioral healthcare system and in post-secondary education in the state of Virginia. Roles include CIO, COO, Transitional CEO, Director of Quality and Compliance, and Director of Education for various organizations. Her experience includes service delivery leadership for intellectual/developmental disorders, mental health, and addiction treatment organizations. She is a sought-after advisor for helping organizations align their strategic initiatives and organizational operations. In addition, Danielle is often called upon to provide leadership and staff development training and consultation services for organizations across the United States. She oversees Netsmart’s managed services division and currently serves as an executive strategist and advisor for multiple organizations across the United States. She is passionate about her work leading organizations to stability and performance while also cultivating healthy and positive work cultures. As a skilled speaker and presenter, Danielle is sought after to provide workshops and keynote presentations for a variety of conferences and events each year. She has received many awards and certifications, including HIMSS Certification, Noftsigner Leadership Award, Qualified Intellectual Disabilities Professional, and Qualified Mental Health Professional.
Linda Donovan-Magdamo
Linda Donovan-Magdamo is an accomplished leader in non-profit social services, committed to social justice issues and accessibility of services. She currently serves as Chief Program Officer at Resources for Human Development Inc, a non-profit multi-state organization supporting individuals with Behavioral Health, Substance Use Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities services. Linda received her MS from Villanova University in Human Organization Science with a concentration in Human Service Administration. Her graduate studies provided a foundation for her collaborative leadership style, her commitment to undertake the complexity of nonprofit administration and her desire to put values into action. She received a BS in Biology from St. Joseph’s University. Her experience at St. Joe’s demonstrated the value of a spirit of curiosity, the benefit of using data to inform decisions, and engagement with thought partners for optimal outcomes.
In her work as CPO, Linda creates an environment where new approaches and information are welcomed, and continuous learning is incorporated into system operations. Respect for team member contributions has enabled Linda to lead diverse and high performing teams through difficult situations, including the Covid pandemic, program expansion, and the national staffing crisis.
Linda has a long-standing connection to RHD. One of the primary drivers of her tenure is the RHD Values along with the corporate commitment to Trauma Informed Care. Respect for the dignity and worth of every individual, multi-level thinking, creativity, diversity, and quality service align with and drive her work.
Jessica Fenchel
Jessica Fenchel is the Executive Vice President and COO at Access Services, where she supports the delivery of diverse community-based programming for children, adults, and families in Eastern Pennsylvania. Access Services is a nonprofit organization building community through the delivery of services in Behavioral Health, Children and Families Services, and Intellectual Disability and Autism Programming.
Jess has been at Access Services for over 10 years, during which she was key in the startup of innovative initiatives across multiple service spaces including crisis, forensics, schools, and homelessness. Jess believes that help should be helpful and that the people we serve deserve our best. She has led in partnership building to realize integration between behavioral health and physical health, driving solutions for vulnerable populations. Jess’ work to develop new models of partnership between law enforcement and crisis systems has led to overall reductions in arrest for those experiencing mental health crisis.
Jess received her undergraduate degree from Messiah College, her master’s degree from Lasalle University in Clinical Counseling Psychology, training in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas, a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Lasalle University, and a certificate from the Global Trauma Recovery Institute. Jess is an avid sports fan, especially the Buffalo Bills, and loves being active outside with her husband, three kids, and dog.
Emily Del Vecchio
Emily Del Vecchio brings over 14 years of experience in strategic, customer-focused, and results-driven marketing in retail and the behavioral health field. Ms. Del Vecchio is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships for OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Ms. Del Vecchio was the Marketing and Communications Manager II for Cleveland Clinic. As Cleveland Clinic’s global interests grew, Ms. Del Vecchio was promoted to manage international marketing and support for International Operations, Global Patient Services, international business development, and global expansion efforts. She was instrumental in setting up the London Marketing and Communications function ensuring the UK-based team was connected to US resources and providing corporate oversight for all foundational marketing elements including recruitment advertising campaigns, grand opening promotional strategy and events, and the creation of a localized website and online tools for patients and referring doctors. She also served as a senior member of the cross-departmental “Digital Optimization Team” that was responsible for strategic oversight of all digital lead generation campaigns, designing, executing, and analyzing testing strategies to roll out scalable programs; and managed day-to-day relationship with digital agency and marketing automation partners.
Prior to Cleveland Clinic, Ms. Del Vecchio was Senior Manager, Affiliate Marketing for Gen3 Marketing. Ms. Del Vecchio led the day-to-day management and strategic development of affiliate marketing programs for some of Gen3’s highest-profile clients ranging from financial services to high-end, luxury retail. She operated as an extension of the client’s internal marketing team to support key initiatives, drive increased sales and maintain set budgets. Ms. Del Vecchio established strong relationships with publishers and network teams on behalf of clients to effectively structure and negotiate terms, secure paid placements, and ensure overall brand presence across affiliate sites. She tracked campaign performance, identified trends and growth opportunities, and analyzed key metrics.
Before Gen3, Ms. Del Vecchio advanced to Online Marketing Specialist, Affiliate Marketing for QVC, Inc. Here she managed QVC’s affiliate marketing program, which had 1K+ publisher partners and generated over $200M in annual revenue. She oversaw daily program activities, implemented strategic plans and offer strategies, managed a multi-million dollar budget, and exceeded aggressive revenue goals. Ms. Del Vecchio ran QVC’s most successful publisher optimization campaign at the time, which generated $300K+ in incremental sales among mid-tier publishers in one month. Ms. Del Vecchio and her team provided creative briefs for print and television, attended photo and video shoots, and oversaw projects from concept to execution.
Ms. Del Vecchio received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for Marketing at Elon University, Elon, NC.
Briefing & Discussion: Results Of The 2023 OPEN MINDS Performance Management Executive Survey
OPEN MINDS will be sharing the results of this year's survey, The 2023 OPEN MINDS Performance Management Executive Survey: Where Are We On The Road To Value, and discussing its implications for health and human service organizations.
OPEN MINDS surveyed specialty provider organizations in the health and human services market to determine where they are on the road to value-based contracting adoption. The survey provides information on:
- Performance-based contracts for staff by market and organizational size
- Trends in value-based contracting arrangements by market and organizational size
- The number of organizations with contracts with managed care plans or accountable care organizations by market and organizational size
A full copy of survey results, The 2023 OPEN MINDS Performance Management Executive Survey: Where Are We On The Road To Value, will be available to all Elite members in the OPEN MINDS library following the session.
Paul M. Duck
Paul M. Duck brings more than 40 years of experience in leadership and management focusing on managed care, health information technology organizations, strategy, business development, and market expansion, and customer experience optimization to the OPEN MINDS team.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Duck served as the Vice President, Strategy & Development at Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Duck led the organization’s strategy and business development efforts, which led to a 30% increase in net revenue and initiated more than $1 billion in revenue generation. Mr. Duck was active in national behavioral health initiatives as an executive of Beacon Health Options, including participating as a speaker at national and state association meetings.
Before joining Beacon Health Options, Mr. Duck was the Vice President of Business Development at Netsmart Technologies. During his tenure, Mr. Duck was responsible for business planning including the oversight of strategic activities including acquisitions, development, and execution of strategic initiatives, and positioning, and sales of large strategic customers. He also led the rollout of the company’s benchmarking and data analytics product suite.
Prior to Netsmart, Mr. Duck served as the Chief Executive Officer for Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, a large group practice with five clinic locations and two ambulatory surgical centers. As the organization’s chief executive officer, Mr. Duck was responsible for significant positive changes in leadership and corporate culture, financial and operational performance, compliance, and governance. Mr. Duck improved net collections by over $1 million per month and grew the practice through negotiating better contract rates with payers. He also implemented an organizational rebranding initiative and launched a new marketing campaign.
Prior to Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, Mr. Duck served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Florida Radiology Imaging, one of the largest outpatient diagnostic imaging service companies serving the greater Orlando market. During his tenure, Mr. Duck led the construction of three new, full modality, diagnostic imaging locations. Mr. Duck revolutionized the company’s culture by creating a highly attractive and functional work environment.
Mr. Duck earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Associate of Arts in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Electronic Technology Institute. Mr. Duck received an award by Inc magazine for leading Florida Radiology Imaging as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mr. Duck recently served as a contributing author to the book The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America.
Reimagining The Consumer Experience: Process Optimization From The Consumer Perspective
Effective consumer engagement leads to better consumer health care experiences and healthier outcomes. With better informed consumers who are more proactive in their own care—preferring ‘individualized’ care plans, quick and convenient access to digital communications, transparency, and privacy—it’s time to take consumer participation to the next level. Hear from specialty provider organizations who work with consumers that are driving their own care, and how these strategies can be better utilized by health care professionals to:
- Improve organization-wide performance and service outcomes
- Deliver on successful consumer experiences and engagement strategies
- Integrate care and technology in consumer-centric ways
Deborah Sikes, LPC, LSATP
Deborah Sikes is the Chief Clinical Officer for ncgCARE, parent company to 7 behavioral healthcare organizations spanning Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. As a licensed professional counselor and licensed substance use treatment practitioner, Ms. Sikes has over 3 decades of experience in behavioral healthcare, to include the provision of direct care, clinical supervision, and administration of community and outpatient services, treatment foster care, crisis and residential services. Ms. Sikes currently oversees the ncgCARE Institute which is responsible for quality improvement, accreditation, management and leadership development, trauma-informed initiatives and oversight of clinical practice standards, evidence-based practice, clinical training and clinical outcomes.
Prior to ncgCARE, Ms. Sikes served in clinical roles at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, DC, the Loudoun County CSB and the Fairfax County CSB. Ms. Sikes joined NCG in 1996 and was instrumental in the expansion of programs and services throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Ms. Sikes is currently the immediate past chair of the Virginia Association of Community Based Providers, having served as chair from 2019 to 2021. Ms. Sikes earned both a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters of Counseling Psychology from the University of Kansas.
Julie Greenlee
Dr. Julie Greenlee has nearly 20 years of experience working in the behavioral health industry both providing and managing direct client care to individuals across the continuum. She has worked as the director of an Emergency Diagnostic Center for children, served as a child-placing director for therapeutic foster care, and has experience providing and supervising community-based services with adults, youth, and their families. She also has an affinity for technology, and while working as the Director of IT and Systems Administration oversaw the successful implementation of several electronic-health records blending her clinical and technical expertise. She is energized when innovating solutions that leverage technology to elevate care.
She is currently the Senior Director of Clinical Quality for ncgCARE, a parent company to a network of behavioral health organizations in the South Atlantic region. She has a certificate in Quality and Safety from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement which has guided her in performing clinical analytics and facilitating quality improvement initiatives. Dr. Greenlee is passionate about engaging individuals with lived experiences as the experts on how the care they receive can be improved - this is especially true for those individuals who are generally oppressed, vulnerable, or otherwise suffering in the context of their community.
Dr. Greenlee graduated magna cum laude with her doctorate in Advanced Studies in Human Behavior from Capella University, earned her Masters in Clinical Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University, and has a Bachelor of Arts in both Psychology and Family Studies from Alderson Broaddus University.
Lara Klick, MBA, CPXP
Lara Klick is Vice President and Patient Experience Officer at Tampa General Hospital, a 1040 bed academic medical center and a health system with over 100 locations throughout the state of Florida. In her role, Lara provides strategic and operational oversight of all aspects of the patient experience. This includes the analysis of performance and opportunities for improvement, the provision of support and communication during healthcare crisis, the spiritual care of patients and team members and the resolution of issues and recovery of relationships.
In her 25 plus years of experience in the acute healthcare arena, she has been a part of the evolution of the role of the patient experience professional. She is passionate about the inclusion of the patient voice in the strategic and operational aspects of healthcare delivery and is an expert in the science which drives patient engagement. Her ability to leverage data and analytics with behavioral tactics to drive change makes her well known as one of the pioneers of a multi-faceted approach to patient centeredness.
Recognized by Becker’s Healthcare as one of the 52 outstanding health system Chief Experience Officers in 2022, Lara believes in creating collaborative approaches to delivering the optimum patient experience.
Joe Naughton-Travers
Joe Naughton-Travers, Ed.M. has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. During his tenure as a Senior Associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
The Financial Opportunities Of Understanding Your Unit Costs – A Tool For Driving Competitive Advantage, Margin & Service Development
Understanding your unit costs by services is a key tactic for reengineering them to drive great margins, ensuring that you are competitively positioned in your service market, and being prepared to negotiate new service development opportunities – especially those tied to the risks of alternative payment methods. Thoroughly understanding how to calculate and reengineer unit costs enables an organization to better achieve financial sustainability. Do you know your unit costs? Have you analyzed them to identify opportunities to drive greater margins? What role do unit costs play in designing new services and new payment methods? Attendees in this session will:
- Discuss the steps for calculating unit costs
- Examine the role of unit costing in service redesign
- Determine how unit costs impact contracting strategy
Tom Kmetz
Tom Kmetz, CFO, Volunteers Of America Indiana & Ohio, oversees the full range of accounting, finance, and investment management functions, while providing strategic recommendations to ensure all financial solutions positively support the two Volunteers Of America state organizations’ evolving strategy, vision and mission. He has extensive experience transforming financial and business practices to align with the mission of achieving organizational health and growth with a strong focus on a performance-oriented culture. Mr. Kmetz has held senior financial positions at Critical Access Hospitals within St. Vincent Health (an Ascension Health system), including, Budget Director, Controller, and CFO. In addition, Mr. Kmetz was CFO at Mid America Clinical Laboratories, LLC, a large clinical laboratory that serviced most of Indiana. Mr. Kmetz is a Certified Public Accountant with a degree in Accounting from Purdue University.
David Wawrzynek, MS, MBA
David is a Senior Director Fiscal Practice Improvement for CCSI and for 32 years was Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Spectrum Human Services which is a private, nonprofit community mental health organization in Western NY. David has more than 44 years’ experience in public behavioral health and in his career, has worked as a Substance Abuse Counselor, Mental Health Clinician/Supervisor, Clinical Program Director and Executive Management CFO. David has joined his clinical training and experience with his business/financial training and experience to bring a unique perspective and set of skills to the efficient and effective management of behavioral health services. As a member of Executive management David has designed, implemented, and monitored systems to support Information Technology, Human Resources, billing, budgeting, financial modeling and reporting, site operations, risk management, security, and change management. Over the last 15 years David has focused on the development of analytic data and financial modeling tools and communication and knowledge management supports to transform raw data into meaningful information to enable more effective strategic and operational insights and decision-making.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Ray Wolfe, J.D.
Raymond “Ray” Wolfe, J.D. brings over 40 years of experience in the health and human services sector to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Wolfe currently serves as a Senior Associate, a position in which he utilizes his expertise to successfully lead varying projects for OPEN MINDS. His areas of expertise include financial analysis and management, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, and strategic planning.
Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Wolfe served in a 22 year tenure with Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he was responsible for oversight of all system operations, strategic planning, and performance management. Under his direction Pittsburgh Mercy achieved over $850K in value-based reimbursement contract quality bonus awards, integrated three organizations through merger/acquisition, and adopted a new performance management program for managers.
Before acting as Pittsburgh Mercy’s COO, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was responsible for the development of internal costing methodologies, contract rate negotiations, and financial forecasting activities. In addition, he coordinated an integrated care program with local partner hospitals to develop a series of diversion and respite programs, as well as, specialized primary care, integrated care management and high utilizer teams, while maintaining 15 straight years profitability.
Mr. Wolfe was promoted to CFO after serving as the Director of Fiscal and Information Security/Compliance for the health system. In this role, he was responsible for managing the transition of service contracts from fee-for-service (FFS), leading all compliance activities, and implementing a next generation electronic health record (EHR) system.
Prior to his time at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Mr. Wolfe served as Chief Fiscal Officer with the Summit Center for Human Development in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he was responsible for reporting and budgeting functions and preparing Summit Center’s programs for FFS billing.
Previously, Mr. Wolfe served in billing and collections for two Pennsylvania-based hospitals. First, as an Accounts Receivables Manager for Brownsville General Hospital in Brownsville, PA, where he managed the accounting and billing system transition systems. Later as a Patient Account Manager for St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where he improved collections to hit 95% rate through the implementation of new billing software and department reorganization.
Prior to working in the health and human services market, Mr. Wolfe spent five years practicing as a Lawyer with at Law Offices of Arch A. Moore in Moundsville, WV. In this role he provided general legal practice, created and established bylaws for multiple corporation, and handled West Virginia licensing of first vision insurance plan.
Mr. Wolfe earned his Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University School of Law in Morgantown, WV and his Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Political Science and Sociology from West Liberty University, in Wheeling, WV, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
The Great Balancing Act: Employee vs. Client Engagement
Sponsored by 
The findings from this year’s 2023 Behavioral Health Industry Trends Report indicate organizations are struggling with competing priorities and limited resources to address them. In this interactive panel session, we’ll discuss where organization’s stand with improving employee engagement, recruiting, patient outcomes, and operational efficiency – as well as innovative strategies you can use to find common ground and effectively prioritize initiatives to make 2023 the best year yet for your organization.
*Freshly baked cookies will be served!
Mellisa Talley
Mellisa Talley is the Executive Director of Texas Panhandle Centers Behavioral & Developmental Health.
Prior to taking on the role of Executive Director in 2019, Mellisa has served in various capacities at Texas Panhandle Centers over the past 30 years including, most recently, the Center’s Deputy Executive Director. Mellisa has also held the roles of Chief Administrative Officer and Director of Data Management during her tenure. She earned her business degree from Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and first worked for Lubbock National Bank as Assistant Vice President.
Mellisa is married to Don and has two adult children, David and Elizabeth, a dog named Lily, and a grand-dog named Ellie. She enjoys taking the dogs for walks, spending time with family, and is a huge Texas Tech fan.
Kellee Webb, SPHR
Kellee Webb is Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Cenikor Foundation.
Kellee previously worked as a Human Resources Consultant and began her non-profit experience as the Human Resource Manager at Boys and Girls Country of Houston, a residential program for at-risk youth ages 5 – 22. She came on board with Cenikor in July 2009 and was the first female officer for the Foundation. As a member of the executive leadership committee, Kellee is responsible for all functions of the human resource department, including a specific focus on Cenikor’s culture, organizational productivity and leadership development of staff to support the strategic goals of the Foundation.
Kellee graduated from University of Houston with a BS in Psychology and has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources and Operations. Kellee is certified as SPHR, and is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management and HR Houston, including volunteering on the HR Gives Back and HR Ambassadors committees.
Ms. Webb is also a board member for the Functional Life Performance Foundation, whose mission is to help disadvantaged populations overcome barriers to improve their health and fitness.
Maggie Labarta, Ph.D.
Maggie Labarta is Founder and Consultant at Impact Non-profit Consulting, having previously retired as Chief Executive Officer of Meridian Behavioral Healthcare. Dr. Labarta holds a Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology and has extensive experience in both administration and clinical practice. She also has particular expertise in strategic planning, data and analytics as management tools, and organizational development. She provides consultative services for numerous community organizations.
Sharon Hicks
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. There she was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition, Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hicks started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, she managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Lunch On Your Own
Measuring Financial Efficiency & Productivity Across The Organization
Sponsored By:
Less than 15% of behavioral health leaders feel confident they can measure the costs associated with specific programs and services. In this session, we'll explore how to leverage Position Control, labor costing & allocations, and productivity data to power innovative insights into the financial sustainability of your organization. Attendees will learn how to:
- Increase visibility into budgets and costs, down to the position level, with Position Control
- Accurately and automatically track labor costs across multiple organizational dimensions
- Combine service delivery data with labor costs data to measure the financial performance of programs and service lines
Join us for this interactive discussion to discover the strategies you need to achieve financial sustainability in 2023 and beyond.
Brian Kutmas
Brian Kutmas joined ContinuumCloud in 2022 as the Vice President of Product.
He currently oversees product management for all product lines at ContinuumCloud including the EHR platform, powered by Welligent, the HCM & Payroll system, powered by DATIS e3, and the Patient Engagement platform, powered by CaredFor. He has over 20 years of experience in planning, building, and delivering industry-leading Enterprise SaaS solutions.
With deep expertise across the software development and product management functions, his prior experience has been focused on business process automation, integration enablement, strategic alignment of technology with business goals, and application modernization. Brian has a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Marquette University.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Post Lunch Pick Me Up
Join us in the exhibit hall for a post-lunch ice cream bar. Come build your own sundae!
Building The Workforce Of Tomorrow: New Strategies For Recruiting, Retention & Performance Optimization
With hybrid and remote workforces, organizations are rethinking new ways to recruit, engage, and manage staff—whether in the field, office, or at home. In this shift, organizations are addressing the workforce crisis with different recruitment, retention, and performance management solutions. This can include various incentives and requirements to maximize results and revenue, and create alternative benefits that workers value. There are of course cultural and financial aspects to consider with developing performance-based initiatives to attract, grow, and meet ‘whole employee’ expectations, as well as the diverse needs of the communities being served. Join us for this informative discussion on:
- Understanding performance-based strategies and recruitment and retention incentives
- Fostering a culture of healthy communication, trust, and engagement
- Providing opportunities and resources for diversity, creativity, and innovation
Karen Kaplan, MS, SHRM-SCP
Karen Kaplan serves as the Chief Human Resources Officer for People Incorporated. In 2003, Karen decided to shift her career trajectory from the for-profit sector and instead align her values with a mission-driven organization.
Kaplan found her place with People Incorporated in November of 2017 and, prior to that, had served other nonprofits in various HR roles. She is known for her strong commitment to integrity, social justice, and inclusive leadership. These values align with those of People Incorporated, and she especially appreciates the organization’s commitment to continuous learning and the ability to create development opportunities for our employees.
Kaplan brings her expertise in transformational human resource strategy, leadership, and organizational development to our organization by leading the charge of numerous employee development programs and fostering a workplace culture built on a framework of respect, trust, transparency, and inclusion.
Kaplan builds her team and department policies informed by these values. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in business management from Bethel University, a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Touro University and holds the Senior Certified Professional designation from the Society of Human Resources Management. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with her family, hiking, and volunteering to develop future business leaders.
Deanne Cornette
Deanne Cornette, MHA, GPC, brings over 20 years of experience in the behavioral health field. Ms.Cornette currently serves as a Senior Associate for OPEN MINDS and brings to the OPEN MINDS team noted expertise in strategic planning, grant writing and revenue development.
Previously, Ms. Cornette was the Vice President of Strategic Development for Tampa Family Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center. In this role, she managed grants, contracts, front desk operations, training, quality assurance special assignments (risk assessments and responses to complaints), credentialing and billing functions. In a very short time period, she successfully procured funding to integrate behavioral health services, brought a system of processes to track health indicators and improve value-based care payment and service and became proficient in utilizing HRSA’s reporting portals.
As Counsel for Strategic Development at Agency for Community Treatment Services, Inc. (ACTS) and Vice President of Business Development for Gracepoint (merger), Ms. Cornette directed strategic development, contract negotiations, revenue development, marketing and grants. In this capacity, she targeted funding sources and built a lucrative cash flow that provided needed services to vulnerable populations in need of behavioral health treatment.
Some of her most successful negotiations created best practice services for veteran’s programs, women’s services, as well those involved with the criminal justice system. Her portfolio includes a wide array of awards from a multitude of agencies including, but not limited to: SAMHSA, HUD, Centers for Medicaid, and the Department of Transportation and collaborations with private, non-profit and government entities. Most recently, she worked with Gracepoint to develop Hillsborough’s Centralized Receiving Facility, one of the first funded in the State of Florida. From a system of care for jail diversion to evidence based practices for individuals who are homeless with behavioral health needs, her awards have netted over $80 million dollars to our community.
In addition, Ms. Cornette served as the Vice President for the National Contract Management Association Suncoast Chapter, Vice President of ACTS Affordable Housing Board of Directors, Vice President of ACTS Foundation Board of Directors, and was a member of Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board. She is the recipient of University of South Florida’s 2018 Florida Outstanding Women of the Year in Public Health. Her Centralized Receiving Facility collaborative won a 2018 WEDU PBS Be Brilliant / Innovation Award. Her concept of Housing, Engagement and Retention Tenancy (HEART) program won the 2018 Heart for Homeless award through the Housing and Education Alliance.
Ms. Cornette received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and her Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of South Florida.
The CFO Role In Preparing For Value-Based Contracting – How The CFO Helps Lead Through The VBR Process
The movement to a value-based reimbursement (VBR) business model for specialty service organizations is steadily increasing. Value-based contracting provides opportunities to redesign and create new services, increase revenue, and competitively position your organization – but it also requires the processes and infrastructure to manage financial risk. Transitioning to this business model where revenue is maximized by delivering quality outcomes is key for building financial sustainability. Attendees in this session will learn practical insights for
- Understanding the CFO role in moving to VBR
- How to assess readiness for value-based contracting
- Practical considerations for negotiating and assessing the financial risk of value-based contracts
David Wawrzynek, MS, MBA
David is a Senior Director Fiscal Practice Improvement for CCSI and for 32 years was Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Spectrum Human Services which is a private, nonprofit community mental health organization in Western NY. David has more than 44 years’ experience in public behavioral health and in his career, has worked as a Substance Abuse Counselor, Mental Health Clinician/Supervisor, Clinical Program Director and Executive Management CFO. David has joined his clinical training and experience with his business/financial training and experience to bring a unique perspective and set of skills to the efficient and effective management of behavioral health services. As a member of Executive management David has designed, implemented, and monitored systems to support Information Technology, Human Resources, billing, budgeting, financial modeling and reporting, site operations, risk management, security, and change management. Over the last 15 years David has focused on the development of analytic data and financial modeling tools and communication and knowledge management supports to transform raw data into meaningful information to enable more effective strategic and operational insights and decision-making.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Ray Wolfe, J.D.
Raymond “Ray” Wolfe, J.D. brings over 40 years of experience in the health and human services sector to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Wolfe currently serves as a Senior Associate, a position in which he utilizes his expertise to successfully lead varying projects for OPEN MINDS. His areas of expertise include financial analysis and management, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, and strategic planning.
Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Wolfe served in a 22 year tenure with Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he was responsible for oversight of all system operations, strategic planning, and performance management. Under his direction Pittsburgh Mercy achieved over $850K in value-based reimbursement contract quality bonus awards, integrated three organizations through merger/acquisition, and adopted a new performance management program for managers.
Before acting as Pittsburgh Mercy’s COO, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was responsible for the development of internal costing methodologies, contract rate negotiations, and financial forecasting activities. In addition, he coordinated an integrated care program with local partner hospitals to develop a series of diversion and respite programs, as well as, specialized primary care, integrated care management and high utilizer teams, while maintaining 15 straight years profitability.
Mr. Wolfe was promoted to CFO after serving as the Director of Fiscal and Information Security/Compliance for the health system. In this role, he was responsible for managing the transition of service contracts from fee-for-service (FFS), leading all compliance activities, and implementing a next generation electronic health record (EHR) system.
Prior to his time at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Mr. Wolfe served as Chief Fiscal Officer with the Summit Center for Human Development in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he was responsible for reporting and budgeting functions and preparing Summit Center’s programs for FFS billing.
Previously, Mr. Wolfe served in billing and collections for two Pennsylvania-based hospitals. First, as an Accounts Receivables Manager for Brownsville General Hospital in Brownsville, PA, where he managed the accounting and billing system transition systems. Later as a Patient Account Manager for St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where he improved collections to hit 95% rate through the implementation of new billing software and department reorganization.
Prior to working in the health and human services market, Mr. Wolfe spent five years practicing as a Lawyer with at Law Offices of Arch A. Moore in Moundsville, WV. In this role he provided general legal practice, created and established bylaws for multiple corporation, and handled West Virginia licensing of first vision insurance plan.
Mr. Wolfe earned his Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University School of Law in Morgantown, WV and his Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Political Science and Sociology from West Liberty University, in Wheeling, WV, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Beyond The ACO – Building An Integrated System Of Care (ISOC) To Maximize Value-Based Performance
Sponsored by Alera Health (Formerly Blaze Advisors) 
If Accountable Care Organizations bring like-minded providers together, an Integrated System of Care is a multi-disciplinary care delivery system designed to create a “virtual care team” for the patient. Building off a foundational CIN, the ISOC partners and affiliates with specialists, acute care, long-term care, and social service organizations in financial and/or strategic relationships to maximize value-based incentives. Learn what defines an ISOC, how it is supported, and how MCO/payers are leveraging ISOCs to manage cost and improve performance.
- The audience will learn what differentiates an ISOC from an ACO or Clinically Integrated Network.
- The audience will better understand the value propositions of an ISOC. . .for a participant, MCO/payer, and the patient.
- The audience will be able to better articulate the infrastructure required to support an ISOC as well as the differing roles of the manager, participating providers, and MCO/payers.
*Popcorn will be served!
Mike Rhoades
Mike Rhoades is CEO and Founder of Alera Health, the largest population health manager of behavioral health Integrated Systems of Care (ISOCs) in the US. As CEO of Alera Health, Mike oversees the assemblage, governance, technology, analytics, and APM contracting departments supporting 13 ONEcare networks supporting over 3M patients to improve health outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. Mike was former VP of Population Health at Community Care of NC and COO or RHA Health Services.
Don J. Fowls, M.D.
Don Fowls, M.D. is a nationally known psychiatrist and health care consultant who works with organizations across the country to develop solutions for the many challenges they face today, including integration, value-based reimbursement, managing complex, special populations, and strategic partnerships. Dr. Fowls has worked with several national and regional health plans, health systems and providers to address these areas. He has also helped a number of start-up companies with product and business development, enabling them to strategically identify their best opportunities and then successfully pursue them as customers.
Dr. Fowls previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development for Value Options and its parent company FHC Health Systems for eleven years. He also worked at Schaller Anderson Inc. as Executive Vice President, Business Development, and President and CEO of its behavioral health subsidiary.
In Arizona, he recently served as the behavioral health advisor to the Practice Innovation Institute, one of the CMS Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative grant awardees to transform the practices of health care providers. As part of this process he co-led the Behavioral Health Affinity Group nationally. He also served as Chief Medical Officer of Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care, the first fully integrated behavioral health plan in the nation.
Dr. Fowls is recent past Chairman of the Board of Copa Health, an Arizona-based community provider of services for behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disorders and continues as a Board member. He is also immediate past President and current Chair of Government Affairs for the Arizona Psychiatric Society and a Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association.
Matt Miles, M.D.
Dr. Miles brings expertise in developing and implementing clinical delivery models for complex patients and in developing financial models to support innovative care delivery. Previously he was Chief Medical Officer of the Innovative Health Alliance of New York, a clinically-integrated network and ACO, spanning three health systems, and was Regional Medical Director with Landmark Health. He is also a Board-certified Emergency Medicine physician.
Dr. Michael Franczak
Michael Franczak currently serves as the Director of Population Health Services for Copa Health, Mesa, Arizona. Dr. Franczak has been involved in Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Intellectual Disability services in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona for the past 40 years. Dr. Franczak has served as an expert witness in many landmark cases concerning Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities and currently serves as an expert to the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Dr. Franczak has been the primary investigator on numerous grants from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration including Housing Approaches for Persons with a Serious Mental Illness, Jail Diversion for Persons with a Serious Mental Illness, Integrated Substance Abuse Mental Health Treatment Models, System of Care Practices for Children and Adolescents and Substance Abuse Services for Adolescents. His current work focuses on using and analyzing data to create actional information to improve individual outcomes.
Emily Del Vecchio
Emily Del Vecchio brings over 14 years of experience in strategic, customer-focused, and results-driven marketing in retail and the behavioral health field. Ms. Del Vecchio is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships for OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Ms. Del Vecchio was the Marketing and Communications Manager II for Cleveland Clinic. As Cleveland Clinic’s global interests grew, Ms. Del Vecchio was promoted to manage international marketing and support for International Operations, Global Patient Services, international business development, and global expansion efforts. She was instrumental in setting up the London Marketing and Communications function ensuring the UK-based team was connected to US resources and providing corporate oversight for all foundational marketing elements including recruitment advertising campaigns, grand opening promotional strategy and events, and the creation of a localized website and online tools for patients and referring doctors. She also served as a senior member of the cross-departmental “Digital Optimization Team” that was responsible for strategic oversight of all digital lead generation campaigns, designing, executing, and analyzing testing strategies to roll out scalable programs; and managed day-to-day relationship with digital agency and marketing automation partners.
Prior to Cleveland Clinic, Ms. Del Vecchio was Senior Manager, Affiliate Marketing for Gen3 Marketing. Ms. Del Vecchio led the day-to-day management and strategic development of affiliate marketing programs for some of Gen3’s highest-profile clients ranging from financial services to high-end, luxury retail. She operated as an extension of the client’s internal marketing team to support key initiatives, drive increased sales and maintain set budgets. Ms. Del Vecchio established strong relationships with publishers and network teams on behalf of clients to effectively structure and negotiate terms, secure paid placements, and ensure overall brand presence across affiliate sites. She tracked campaign performance, identified trends and growth opportunities, and analyzed key metrics.
Before Gen3, Ms. Del Vecchio advanced to Online Marketing Specialist, Affiliate Marketing for QVC, Inc. Here she managed QVC’s affiliate marketing program, which had 1K+ publisher partners and generated over $200M in annual revenue. She oversaw daily program activities, implemented strategic plans and offer strategies, managed a multi-million dollar budget, and exceeded aggressive revenue goals. Ms. Del Vecchio ran QVC’s most successful publisher optimization campaign at the time, which generated $300K+ in incremental sales among mid-tier publishers in one month. Ms. Del Vecchio and her team provided creative briefs for print and television, attended photo and video shoots, and oversaw projects from concept to execution.
Ms. Del Vecchio received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for Marketing at Elon University, Elon, NC.
Addressing Social Determinants Of Health To Achieve Whole Person Outcomes
Specialty provider organizations are showing they can improve health outcomes by addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) from housing to work, education, and nutrition. Furthermore, health plans are seeing value in organizations that can impact social factors and reduce the use of high-cost services. In this case study session, hear from organizations that are implementing innovative programs that incorporate social determinants of health into their whole person care strategies and are showing results.
- Creating access and engaging consumers with social care needs
- Measuring and reporting SDOH results
- Embedding SDOH strategies into whole person care initiatives
Janikaa Sherrod, Ed.D., MPH
Dr. Sherrod joined Volunteers of America Mid-States in May 2021 as the Director of Community Health and Equity and was promoted to Associate Vice President of VOA Health & Justice in 2022. Janikaa comes to VOA Mid-States from the Kentucky Cancer Program University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center where she led community-based health equity initiatives. Dr. Sherrod has served the community working to advance health equity and address root causes of poor health outcomes for almost 10 years. Janikaa is a member of many local and state boards serving her community in multiple capacities. Janikaa holds a Doctor of Education in Leadership from Spalding University, a Master of Public Health Degree in Behavioral Sciences and Health Management, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from the University of Louisville. Janikaa is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. In 2021, she received the Dr. Eileen Egan award from Spalding University for her doctoral research on advancing health equity in Kentucky.
Jorge Petit, M.D.
Jorge R. Petit, M.D. is a community psychiatrist and the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Services for the UnderServed (S:US). S:US drives scalable solutions to transform the lives of people with disabilities, people in poverty, and people facing homelessness: solutions that contribute to righting societal imbalances. Founded in 1978, S:US works with more than 37,000 individuals and their families every year to create pathways to rich and productive lives by offering housing, employment, skills-building, treatment and recovery services.
Prior to joining S:US, Dr. Petit was the President and CEO for Coordinated Behavioral Care (CBC), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of care for individuals with serious mental illness, chronic health conditions and/or substance use disorders, through a Health Home, an Independent Practice Association (IPA) and an Innovations Hub.
Dr. Petit was the Regional Senior Vice President for New York State for Beacon Health Options and before that was the Founder and President of Quality Healthcare Solutions, a consulting firm that provided training and consulting services for healthcare systems including community-based behavioral health agencies, hospital systems, and local and state regulatory entities. He was the former Associate Commissioner for the Division of Mental Hygiene in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Dr. Petit has been the primary lead on several large-scale grant-funded implementation projects including Integrated Care Models to Improve Health Outcomes and Reduce Poverty funded by the Robin Hood Foundation; the Depression Care Management in Primary Care funded by Forest Laboratories; the Behavioral Health Care Collaborative (BHCC) funded by NYS OMH and the BHCC expansion grant funded by NYS OASAS.
Dr. Petit sits on the board of Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) and Mental Health News Education (MHNE); is a Distinguished Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and a member of the Committee on Psychiatric Administration & Leadership in the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) as well as a member of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute.
Dr. Petit is the author of Handbook of Emergency Psychiatry and The Seven Beliefs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Help Latinas Recognize and Overcome Depression and the recipient of the Schiff Community Impact Award from The Jewish Board, the 2017 Greater Good Honoree, Corporate Social Responsibility Award, 2018 Heritage Healthcare Organizational Leadership Award and the Community Partnerships Award, Virtual Community Partners Award from Federation of Organizations (FOO), Crain’s New York Business 2022 Notable LGBTQ Leader, City & State New York 2022 Nonprofit Power 100, and City & State New York 2022 Responsible 100.
Charles Gagnon
Charles was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of Volunteers of America of Massachusetts (VOAMASS) in 2019. He is just the third President at VOAMASS in the past half-century. Known across Massachusetts as a leader in community development and as an advocate of innovative services, Charles has extensive experience in the areas of affordable housing, economic development, workforce development, and behavioral health.
Before taking the helm at VOAMASS, Charles served as the Chief Operating Officer for South Middlesex Opportunity Council, Inc. (SMOC). Since joining SMOC in 1994, he held a variety of positions at the agency, including in economic development, project management, real estate development, behavioral health services, program development, and strategic planning. Charles was also instrumental in leading the SMOC Housing Corporation to develop and manage over 2,000 units across the Commonwealth.
Charles received his Bachelor of Science at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, MN, and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Mindy Miller, LMHC, LADC1
Mindy Miller has been with Volunteers of America of Massachusetts (VOAMASS) since 2011. As COO, she uses her years of programmatic and operational leadership experience to oversee program planning, development, and implementation across multiple service areas, including residential treatment, outpatient behavioral health, veteran services, and re-entry. This includes the implementation and compliance for a diverse portfolio of state contracts and federal grants.
Prior to becoming COO, Miller served as Vice President of Integrated Services at VOAMASS, and was responsible for the integration of behavioral health services throughout the organization; configuring the agency’s electronic health record system; guiding VOAMASS as a trauma-informed care organization; and continued implementation of evidence-based practices.
Miller was honored in spring 2022 with a National Leadership Award from Volunteers of America. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Colorado, a Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology from Roger Williams University, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Mental Health Counseling from Bridgewater State University. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and Licensed Substance Use Disorder Counselor (LADC1).
Sharon Hicks
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. There she was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition, Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hicks started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, she managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Strategies For Integration – Optimizing The Experience For Consumers & Payers
There is a lot of talk about where the service market is heading in terms of providing value, whole person, and integrated care. Hear from organizations on their pathways taken to succeed in ensuring care integration and service coordination for specific populations, addressing social determinants of health (SDOH), achieve whole person outcomes, and meet consumer and payer expectations.
- Strategies for integrating behavioral health with primary care and social services
- Incorporating SDOH strategy into programs to achieve whole person outcomes
- Building a portfolio of preventative services with sustainable funding streams
Lantie Elisabeth Jorandby, M.D., DFAPA
Dr. Jorandby graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. She attended medical school and completed her residency at the University of Florida. For seven years, Dr. Jorandby worked as a staff psychiatrist and mental health supervisor at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Viera, Florida. After completing her Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale University, Dr. Jorandby became Medical Director for the dual diagnosis unit at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She also served as faculty at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry. After relocating to Washington, DC, Dr. Jorandby worked as the Chief Psychiatrist of a mental and physical health clinic, where she held the position for four years before joining Lakeview Health. Dr. Jorandby is one of less than 200 physicians in the United States who is dual board certified in addiction medicine, and psychiatry and neurology.
Yvette Jackson, LMSW, DBH
As Devereux Arizona’s executive director, Yvette Jackson, LMSW, DBH, oversees the care and treatment of more than 4,500 children and adolescents each year. Jackson joined the organization in 1998 as a foster parent recruiter/trainer and, in 2002, was promoted to program manager of foster care services. In 2003, Jackson moved into the role of director of community-based services and, six years later, was promoted to assistant executive director. She assumed her current role in November 2019.
Jackson has earned the following degrees: Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Arizona, and a Master of Social Work and Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) from Arizona State University. She is a licensed social worker (LMSW).
As a DBH, Jackson works to advance the triple-aim by implementing non-medical interventions designed to improve overall healthcare outcomes for specific populations. Jackson is deeply committed to advancing issues of health equity through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in healthcare, and is a critical leader in Devereux‘s national efforts around DEI.
One of her passions is health equity for the LGBTQ+ population. In 2015, she received the “Leadership in LGBTQ Health Care Award,” and in 2021 she received the “Champion of Change Award” for her work on behalf of LGBTQ+ individuals in healthcare. In 2022, she was awarded the “Integrated Health Excellence Award” from Integrated Health Magazine.
Lisa Suttle
Lisa Suttle is the Regional Vice President of Clinical Services for Delaware and Madison Counties at Meridian Health Services. Meridian Health Services is a regional private, not-for-profit health care system specializing in “whole person” health, integrating physical, mental and social well-being. Prior to her employment with Meridian Health Services, Ms. Suttle worked at Universal Health Services as a Chief Nursing Officer, Reid Health as Director of Psychiatric Services/Strategic Initiatives, and Richmond State Hospital as Service Line Director. She has been in the health care industry since 1986. Ms. Suttle received her Registered Nurse license from Indiana University East and Master of Science degree from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is a board certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
Deanne Cornette
Deanne Cornette, MHA, GPC, brings over 20 years of experience in the behavioral health field. Ms.Cornette currently serves as a Senior Associate for OPEN MINDS and brings to the OPEN MINDS team noted expertise in strategic planning, grant writing and revenue development.
Previously, Ms. Cornette was the Vice President of Strategic Development for Tampa Family Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center. In this role, she managed grants, contracts, front desk operations, training, quality assurance special assignments (risk assessments and responses to complaints), credentialing and billing functions. In a very short time period, she successfully procured funding to integrate behavioral health services, brought a system of processes to track health indicators and improve value-based care payment and service and became proficient in utilizing HRSA’s reporting portals.
As Counsel for Strategic Development at Agency for Community Treatment Services, Inc. (ACTS) and Vice President of Business Development for Gracepoint (merger), Ms. Cornette directed strategic development, contract negotiations, revenue development, marketing and grants. In this capacity, she targeted funding sources and built a lucrative cash flow that provided needed services to vulnerable populations in need of behavioral health treatment.
Some of her most successful negotiations created best practice services for veteran’s programs, women’s services, as well those involved with the criminal justice system. Her portfolio includes a wide array of awards from a multitude of agencies including, but not limited to: SAMHSA, HUD, Centers for Medicaid, and the Department of Transportation and collaborations with private, non-profit and government entities. Most recently, she worked with Gracepoint to develop Hillsborough’s Centralized Receiving Facility, one of the first funded in the State of Florida. From a system of care for jail diversion to evidence based practices for individuals who are homeless with behavioral health needs, her awards have netted over $80 million dollars to our community.
In addition, Ms. Cornette served as the Vice President for the National Contract Management Association Suncoast Chapter, Vice President of ACTS Affordable Housing Board of Directors, Vice President of ACTS Foundation Board of Directors, and was a member of Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board. She is the recipient of University of South Florida’s 2018 Florida Outstanding Women of the Year in Public Health. Her Centralized Receiving Facility collaborative won a 2018 WEDU PBS Be Brilliant / Innovation Award. Her concept of Housing, Engagement and Retention Tenancy (HEART) program won the 2018 Heart for Homeless award through the Housing and Education Alliance.
Ms. Cornette received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and her Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of South Florida.
Merger, Acquisition & Affiliation Strategy – Gaining Economic Scale In A Rapidly Changing World
Is your organization large enough to achieve financial sustainability? Organizational size alone does not result in financial sustainability, however size that is managed well can be leveraged to lower unit costs, access capital for technology and growth, and create a competitive place in your service market. Merger, acquisition, and affiliation has been used by many organizations as an effective growth strategy. But where do you start? How do you create an MA&A strategy? How do you build a merger partner pipeline? And how do you build success into the process? This session will focus on:
- Understanding the opportunities of implementing an MA&A growth strategy
- Creating a merger strategy
- Planning and implementing an effective MA&A process
Keith Neal, MBA, MHL, CHFP
Keith Neal is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Advocates Inc., headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. Mr. Neal holds an undergraduate degree in economics, a master of business administration, and a master of healthcare leadership. He is a certified healthcare financial professional through the Healthcare Financial Management Association. He has over 25 years of finance and accounting experience, including more than a decade in the non-profit healthcare sector.
Prior to joining Advocates, he was the chief financial officer for Brown Emergency Medicine. While there, he oversaw the integration of an independent physician group that cared for over 31,000 patients annually. He also led the development of value-based and quality reimbursement contracts with managed care and commercial payers. Before Brown Emergency Medicine, Mr. Neal held several financial and operational leadership roles at EMC Corporation, a Fortune 200 company. In this role, he was the financial lead on a cost transformation program that reduced information technology (IT) expenses by $100M and moved the organization towards an IT as a service business model.
From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Neal was a faculty member in the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Chair Development Program, a leadership training initiative. He is currently a part-time teaching associate at Brown University and Duquesne University, teaching health care accounting and financial management courses in the Master of Healthcare Leadership and Master of Healthcare Administration programs. His professional interests include developing and implementing innovative value-based care and payment models focused on improving patient outcomes and integrated care management.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Ray Wolfe, J.D.
Raymond “Ray” Wolfe, J.D. brings over 40 years of experience in the health and human services sector to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Wolfe currently serves as a Senior Associate, a position in which he utilizes his expertise to successfully lead varying projects for OPEN MINDS. His areas of expertise include financial analysis and management, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, and strategic planning.
Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Wolfe served in a 22 year tenure with Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he was responsible for oversight of all system operations, strategic planning, and performance management. Under his direction Pittsburgh Mercy achieved over $850K in value-based reimbursement contract quality bonus awards, integrated three organizations through merger/acquisition, and adopted a new performance management program for managers.
Before acting as Pittsburgh Mercy’s COO, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was responsible for the development of internal costing methodologies, contract rate negotiations, and financial forecasting activities. In addition, he coordinated an integrated care program with local partner hospitals to develop a series of diversion and respite programs, as well as, specialized primary care, integrated care management and high utilizer teams, while maintaining 15 straight years profitability.
Mr. Wolfe was promoted to CFO after serving as the Director of Fiscal and Information Security/Compliance for the health system. In this role, he was responsible for managing the transition of service contracts from fee-for-service (FFS), leading all compliance activities, and implementing a next generation electronic health record (EHR) system.
Prior to his time at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Mr. Wolfe served as Chief Fiscal Officer with the Summit Center for Human Development in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he was responsible for reporting and budgeting functions and preparing Summit Center’s programs for FFS billing.
Previously, Mr. Wolfe served in billing and collections for two Pennsylvania-based hospitals. First, as an Accounts Receivables Manager for Brownsville General Hospital in Brownsville, PA, where he managed the accounting and billing system transition systems. Later as a Patient Account Manager for St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where he improved collections to hit 95% rate through the implementation of new billing software and department reorganization.
Prior to working in the health and human services market, Mr. Wolfe spent five years practicing as a Lawyer with at Law Offices of Arch A. Moore in Moundsville, WV. In this role he provided general legal practice, created and established bylaws for multiple corporation, and handled West Virginia licensing of first vision insurance plan.
Mr. Wolfe earned his Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University School of Law in Morgantown, WV and his Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Political Science and Sociology from West Liberty University, in Wheeling, WV, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Networking Reception
Take this time to relax with a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres, and mingle with your peers, speakers and vendors during our executive networking reception, located in the exhibit hall!
Executive Breakfast
Join us for a hot breakfast and coffee in the exhibit hall to start your day!
WakeMed’s Path To Value & Whole Person Care: The Development Of The WakeMed Behavioral Health Network
With its innovative approach to addressing whole person health needs by utilizing a population health approach to behavioral health, WakeMed is meeting the needs of people living with complex medical and behavioral health conditions throughout Wake County, the largest and fastest growing region of North Carolina, and third fastest growing county in America. WakeMed Health and Hospitals drives a model that integrates behavioral health treatment (inpatient & outpatient), primary care, and social determinants of health (SDOH) across its network of thirty-seven (37) partner organizations. The model is based on four pillars: use of common screening tools, mitigation of social and medical obstacles, application of best-practice, patient engagement techniques, and coordination at all levels of follow-up care. Hear about the strategy, market drivers, results, and issues encountered in developing the WakeMed Behavioral Health Network (WMBHN), and what our keynote sees as their future.
Rick Shrum, MBA, MHA
Rick Shrum, Sr., is a member of WakeMed’s executive leadership, serving as Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, Rick is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing market opportunities and strategic initiatives to help WakeMed achieve its mission and aspirational goals. He also has operational responsibility for all Behavioral Health Services, WakeMed Innovations, and Corporate Planning divisions.
During his tenure at WakeMed, Shrum has led efforts to expand and form the WakeMed Behavioral Health Network (WMBHN)– a collaboration to connect the community and better address mental health and substance use issues. He also played a key role in developing WakeMed Innovations and their inaugural pilot project, a collaboration with UPS, FAA and NCDOT to use drones to transport medical packaging specimens across our market, as well as WakeMed’s new novel Walk-in Primary Car service, MyCare 365, along with many other strategically important innovations.
Rick Shrum has more than 25 years of leadership experience in both acute and behavioral health care. Prior to coming to WakeMed, he was the chief operating officer of Diamond Healthcare Corporation in Richmond, Va. Rick holds masters’ degrees in Health Administration and Business Administration from Xavier University.
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote and take the opportunity to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Rick Shrum, MBA, MHA
Rick Shrum, Sr., is a member of WakeMed’s executive leadership, serving as Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, Rick is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing market opportunities and strategic initiatives to help WakeMed achieve its mission and aspirational goals. He also has operational responsibility for all Behavioral Health Services, WakeMed Innovations, and Corporate Planning divisions.
During his tenure at WakeMed, Shrum has led efforts to expand and form the WakeMed Behavioral Health Network (WMBHN)– a collaboration to connect the community and better address mental health and substance use issues. He also played a key role in developing WakeMed Innovations and their inaugural pilot project, a collaboration with UPS, FAA and NCDOT to use drones to transport medical packaging specimens across our market, as well as WakeMed’s new novel Walk-in Primary Car service, MyCare 365, along with many other strategically important innovations.
Rick Shrum has more than 25 years of leadership experience in both acute and behavioral health care. Prior to coming to WakeMed, he was the chief operating officer of Diamond Healthcare Corporation in Richmond, Va. Rick holds masters’ degrees in Health Administration and Business Administration from Xavier University.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
An Expert Panel Discussion On Trends In Behavioral Health & Human Services
Be part of the discussion on the most up-to-date information impacting health plan management trends for consumers with behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disabilities. In this session, we will look at the latest industry trends as well as survey data from the top health plan executives. Our experts will offer additional insights into how these trends have and will be impacting organizations across the health care landscape. The implications of the dynamic shifts in the market are having a profound effect on how payers and providers are contracting, interacting, and ultimately partnering. In this session we will be revealing many of the potential opportunities in these trends and how payers are evolving in their relationships with provider organizations. In this session, we will be:
- Discussing several of the major trends in the behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disabilities markets
- Discovering what is top-of-mind for payers and discussing some of the best practices organizations are undertaking to prepare
- Learning about possible positioning options for your organization in light of new out-of-market competition and technology-driven therapeutics
Melissa Reilly
Melissa Reilly is the Chief Growth Officer for Evernorth Behavioral Health, leading strategy and business development. Grounded in a passion for measurement based, high quality care that supports individuals through every step of their health care journey, Melissa strives to elevate health for all. Whether through directing the development of strategic partnerships, identifying new opportunities to expand Evernorth’s reach, or driving market strategy, her efforts are directed towards improving the health, well-being, and peace of mind of the members we are privileged to serve.
Prior to Evernorth, Melissa worked for an AI-based, venture-backed start up where she held the role of Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships. In addition, Melissa spent over a decade in several leadership roles at UnitedHealth Group, most recently supporting the Optum Ventures portfolio as Vice President, Business Development and Commercialization. Before her time with Ventures, she was the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Behavioral Health leading the digital product transformation, championing the development of integrated offerings within the organization, and supporting innovation and enterprise partners across multiple lines of business. Melissa also held various product and partnership development roles bringing new products to market with key customers, and managing strategic enterprise sponsorships and alliances.
Melissa earned her Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management and Juris Doctor with a Health Law concentration from Quinnipiac University. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from James Madison University. Melissa resides in CT with her family.
Don J. Fowls, M.D.
Don Fowls, M.D. is a nationally known psychiatrist and health care consultant who works with organizations across the country to develop solutions for the many challenges they face today, including integration, value-based reimbursement, managing complex, special populations, and strategic partnerships. Dr. Fowls has worked with several national and regional health plans, health systems and providers to address these areas. He has also helped a number of start-up companies with product and business development, enabling them to strategically identify their best opportunities and then successfully pursue them as customers.
Dr. Fowls previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development for Value Options and its parent company FHC Health Systems for eleven years. He also worked at Schaller Anderson Inc. as Executive Vice President, Business Development, and President and CEO of its behavioral health subsidiary.
In Arizona, he recently served as the behavioral health advisor to the Practice Innovation Institute, one of the CMS Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative grant awardees to transform the practices of health care providers. As part of this process he co-led the Behavioral Health Affinity Group nationally. He also served as Chief Medical Officer of Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care, the first fully integrated behavioral health plan in the nation.
Dr. Fowls is recent past Chairman of the Board of Copa Health, an Arizona-based community provider of services for behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disorders and continues as a Board member. He is also immediate past President and current Chair of Government Affairs for the Arizona Psychiatric Society and a Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association.
Paul M. Duck
Paul M. Duck brings more than 40 years of experience in leadership and management focusing on managed care, health information technology organizations, strategy, business development, and market expansion, and customer experience optimization to the OPEN MINDS team.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Duck served as the Vice President, Strategy & Development at Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Duck led the organization’s strategy and business development efforts, which led to a 30% increase in net revenue and initiated more than $1 billion in revenue generation. Mr. Duck was active in national behavioral health initiatives as an executive of Beacon Health Options, including participating as a speaker at national and state association meetings.
Before joining Beacon Health Options, Mr. Duck was the Vice President of Business Development at Netsmart Technologies. During his tenure, Mr. Duck was responsible for business planning including the oversight of strategic activities including acquisitions, development, and execution of strategic initiatives, and positioning, and sales of large strategic customers. He also led the rollout of the company’s benchmarking and data analytics product suite.
Prior to Netsmart, Mr. Duck served as the Chief Executive Officer for Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, a large group practice with five clinic locations and two ambulatory surgical centers. As the organization’s chief executive officer, Mr. Duck was responsible for significant positive changes in leadership and corporate culture, financial and operational performance, compliance, and governance. Mr. Duck improved net collections by over $1 million per month and grew the practice through negotiating better contract rates with payers. He also implemented an organizational rebranding initiative and launched a new marketing campaign.
Prior to Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, Mr. Duck served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Florida Radiology Imaging, one of the largest outpatient diagnostic imaging service companies serving the greater Orlando market. During his tenure, Mr. Duck led the construction of three new, full modality, diagnostic imaging locations. Mr. Duck revolutionized the company’s culture by creating a highly attractive and functional work environment.
Mr. Duck earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Associate of Arts in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Electronic Technology Institute. Mr. Duck received an award by Inc magazine for leading Florida Radiology Imaging as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mr. Duck recently served as a contributing author to the book The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America.
Improving Hybrid Service Delivery: Experiences From The Field
How to design a hybrid service delivery system that meets the needs of both consumers and health care professionals? Achieve a ‘digital health advantage’ by integrating both virtual and traditional service options for physical and behavioral health and social care needs. In this session, discover:
- Which services and consumers are appropriate for telehealth (and which are not)
- How to optimize service delivery for consumers and clinical professionals
- Assess clinical professionals’ abilities for hybrid service delivery
Teri Herrmann, MA
Teri Herrmann serves as Chief Executive Officer of SPARC Services and Programs with its corporate office located in Charlotte, NC. In this role, Teri is responsible for the company’s program and business development strategy, policy and political strategy, and oversight of the agency’s clinical, quality, and financial performance. SPARC is currently providing a unique and customer driven continuum for children, families and adults with the mission of keeping individuals out of institutionalized care. SPARC continues to be innovative with service delivery/programming and prides itself with strong partnerships with stakeholders, which has resulted in the development of new and innovative services to meet the needs in the community. SPARC is currently providing this continuum of care in 26 counties across North Carolina. SPARC is currently engaged in Value Based contracting with multiple payers. In her role, Teri participated in the development of the Value Based contracts.
Teri sits on multiple committees and collaboratives with the goal of continuing to advance the Behavioral Health system to be inclusive of trauma informed care, Evidence Based Practices, and whole person/integrated care. Teri has been working in the Behavioral Health field since the late 90’s and has worked with children, families, adults in residential and community-based settings. This worked has spanned individuals with mental health needs, I/DD needs, and those that are dually diagnosed. She is passionate about services and supports that allow individuals to remain in the community.
Teri holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY, and a Masters in Forensic Psychology from Sage Graduate School in Albany, New York.
Dwayne Stevens, MBA
Dwayne Stevens is the Chief Information Officer of WestCare Foundation, Inc. In this role, Mr. Stevens provides leadership and direction in developing, implementing, and maintaining WestCare's technology infrastructure and information management systems, including the certified electronic healthcare record (EHR). Mr. Stevens is also responsible for overseeing marketing and communications, providing direction for WestCare’s corporate branding, print and electronic publications, social media, and websites. Before assuming the role of CIO, Mr. Stevens served WestCare as the Vice President of Information Security.
Mr. Stevens has spent nearly 25 years in diverse roles as a successful technology leader, practitioner, and instructor in the higher education, telecommunications, financial services, and healthcare industries. Before joining WestCare in 2017, Mr. Stevens was the Corporate Information Security Officer (CISO), leading the information security, physical security, and data analysis teams for a $4 billion regional bank serving Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Mr. Stevens resides in White Pine, Tennessee, and is an active member of several professional organizations including HIMSS, H-ISAC, InfraGard, ISACA, ISSA, and NTEN. He holds over two dozen technology, privacy, security, and audit-related certifications, including Certified Associate in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CAHIMS), Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).
Mr. Stevens received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology from Pikeville College and obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) from Morehead State University.
Jason Engel, DBH, MBA, LCSW, LCADC
Dr. Jason Engel serves as Chief Clinical Officer for WestCare Foundation. As a member of the Executive Leadership team, Dr. Engel is responsible for overseeing clinical operations in 17 states and 3 U.S. territories.
In this role, he provides leadership and direction for all aspects of clinical services delivery. This includes the management of clinical integration, quality, and systems improvement.
Dr. Engel is a highly accomplished leader with vast experience in quality management and service excellence. He possesses a wealth of expertise in clinical operations, performance improvement, regulatory and compliance. He is an avid proponent of initiatives aimed at improving safety, reducing cost, and minimizing variation in the delivery of patient care across diverse settings.
As a respected leader in the field, he has an extensive background in developing collaborative community programs, policy and advocacy efforts, and building strong relationships across non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors.
His work focuses on addressing social influencers of health, health equity, and implementing programs to improve health in communities. His other work includes improving outcomes and overall patient experience, focusing on performance improvement, and oversight of the enterprise-wide clinical delivery of care.
Dr. Engel holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix, and a doctorate in behavioral health from Arizona State University.
Sharon Hicks
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. There she was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition, Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hicks started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, she managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
The Race Is On: Staying Ahead Of The Workforce Curve (Part II)
Sponsored by Netsmart
Staying competitive, improving culture, improving work efficiency and accelerating revenue are challenges for most organizations and behavioral healthcare is no exception. To evolve and stay ahead of the curve, organizations are looking to RCM technology to help solve some of these challenges. As a result, automation, bots and AI are creeping their way into every aspect of healthcare operations because it makes good business sense, especially when they reduce the human factor needed for repetitive or routine tasks and boost revenue. Erica Gregory will review the current trends around RCM technology and what you need to know to take your operations in to the future. In this session, you will:
- Learn about the RCM technology landscape and current trends around automation, bots and AI
- Understand the RCM process and where technology automation best fits within the cycle to optimize quality and quantity from your workforce
- Gain insights about the value both humans and bots can bring to your operations through a client case study
*Freshly baked cookies will be served!
Erica Gregory
As vice president of Revenue Cycle Management Operations, Erica oversees all billing and back-office operations for healthcare organizations across the country. Through strategy, measurement and execution, she works with internal teams to ensure the client achieves optimal financial performance. Erica is an expert in operations and business development, displaying a track record of consistent, substantial and measurable success across healthcare and technology. She is dedicated to exceeding goals by delivering results that directly impact the bottom line. She accomplishes this by collaborating with teams across Netsmart who bring expertise and technology innovation. Prior to joining Netsmart, Erica was an executive at Center Corporation for more than 10 years. Her roles spanned from financial management to business development/automation. Erica is a long-standing member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and is a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional (CHFP). Erica received her bachelor's degree in economics and accounting from the University of Kansas.
Matt Beasley
Emily Del Vecchio
Emily Del Vecchio brings over 14 years of experience in strategic, customer-focused, and results-driven marketing in retail and the behavioral health field. Ms. Del Vecchio is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships for OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Ms. Del Vecchio was the Marketing and Communications Manager II for Cleveland Clinic. As Cleveland Clinic’s global interests grew, Ms. Del Vecchio was promoted to manage international marketing and support for International Operations, Global Patient Services, international business development, and global expansion efforts. She was instrumental in setting up the London Marketing and Communications function ensuring the UK-based team was connected to US resources and providing corporate oversight for all foundational marketing elements including recruitment advertising campaigns, grand opening promotional strategy and events, and the creation of a localized website and online tools for patients and referring doctors. She also served as a senior member of the cross-departmental “Digital Optimization Team” that was responsible for strategic oversight of all digital lead generation campaigns, designing, executing, and analyzing testing strategies to roll out scalable programs; and managed day-to-day relationship with digital agency and marketing automation partners.
Prior to Cleveland Clinic, Ms. Del Vecchio was Senior Manager, Affiliate Marketing for Gen3 Marketing. Ms. Del Vecchio led the day-to-day management and strategic development of affiliate marketing programs for some of Gen3’s highest-profile clients ranging from financial services to high-end, luxury retail. She operated as an extension of the client’s internal marketing team to support key initiatives, drive increased sales and maintain set budgets. Ms. Del Vecchio established strong relationships with publishers and network teams on behalf of clients to effectively structure and negotiate terms, secure paid placements, and ensure overall brand presence across affiliate sites. She tracked campaign performance, identified trends and growth opportunities, and analyzed key metrics.
Before Gen3, Ms. Del Vecchio advanced to Online Marketing Specialist, Affiliate Marketing for QVC, Inc. Here she managed QVC’s affiliate marketing program, which had 1K+ publisher partners and generated over $200M in annual revenue. She oversaw daily program activities, implemented strategic plans and offer strategies, managed a multi-million dollar budget, and exceeded aggressive revenue goals. Ms. Del Vecchio ran QVC’s most successful publisher optimization campaign at the time, which generated $300K+ in incremental sales among mid-tier publishers in one month. Ms. Del Vecchio and her team provided creative briefs for print and television, attended photo and video shoots, and oversaw projects from concept to execution.
Ms. Del Vecchio received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for Marketing at Elon University, Elon, NC.
Planning For Financial Sustainability
Achieving sustainability and growth during turbulent times requires new tools and knowledge to drive organizational performance, achieve excellence in outcomes, and make quick decisions. And what worked for you in the past may not work now. By examining strategies for maximizing revenue, including analyzing your funder mix, exploring new ways/funding, paying for consumer engagement, and reaching out to payers. This session will take an extensive look into how prevailing practices will meet the needs of the future, including:
- Ways to increase productivity, work with payers, and market to them
- Strategies to increase revenue and decrease unnecessary costs
- Investing in maintaining and redeploying resources
Mikel Briggs
Mike joined Little Friends, Inc in January 2016 as a Board member and in March 2017, was asked to come out of retirement and serve as the President/CEO. He has been doing this for nearly the past six years.
Prior to joining Little Friends, Mike spent his career in the for-profit sector. Graduating from Millikin University in 1979, Mike started his career with IBM Data Processing in sales. He left IBM to join a family business in 1984 and within 3 months was running a $40 MM company. Over the next 30 years, Mike ran four different manufacturing businesses as President/COO, three privately owned companies and one owned by private equity. Two of the four businesses grew to be in excess of $100MM in revenues, and one just shy of $90MM.
Throughout his career, he has been involved with multiple boards of organizations, including being an Emeritus Trustee of Millikin University that includes having served two years as Chairman of their Board. Currently, besides being CEO of Little Friends, he serves as Chairman of the Board for a global company headquartered in Australia, President of his Country Club, and Chairs the City of Naperville Advisory Commission on Disabilities. In total, he is active with nine organizations as a board member today. Mike’s background until joining Little Friends has not been in social service. Rather, his story today comes from his experiences running different organizations and how these lessons apply to social service.
Ken Carr
Ken Carr brings more than 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis, and reporting experience in the health and human services field to OPEN MINDS. He currently is a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he has served as a subject matter expert leading numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.
Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.
Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.
Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.
Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.
Options For Integration – Achieving Whole Person Outcomes, Best Practices & More!
Integrated care models have proven successful in bringing primary care, behavioral health, and social services together and improving outcomes for consumers with complex needs. In deciding which model is right for the organization to pursue, executive teams have chosen various types of integrated care solutions. Why did they choose such paths, and what are the differences and requirements? Join us to hear from organizations about their journey to integrated care, including a discussion on the:
- Best practices for information sharing and whole person health planning
- Pros and cons of different models for integrated care
- Future of integrated care and how to deliver coordinated services effectively
Julie Schilz
Julie Schilz is a Senior Director on the Clinical and Quality Partners team. She joined PCDC in 2022 to support initiatives focused on Primary Care Integration. Prior to PCDC, Julie held several executive leadership roles with community, provider and payer organizations developing and implementing strategy focused on value, delivery system reform and primary care transformation. Julie has dedicated her career to working on innovative solutions within health care and communities that are person and family centered with a focus on equity. She has led multiple national, regional and local improvement initiatives concentrating on innovative interventions for care delivery in the context of community, primary care and public health. Her experience covers a variety of patient populations including Commercial, Medicaid and Medicare in rural and urban settings. She has provided expert opinion to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations (CMMI), Health Care Payment Learning and Action (HCP LAN), and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She currently serves as an Executive Member Liaison for Primary Care Collaborative and on the Board of Tri-County Public Health Department and Colorado Center for Primary Care Innovation. Julie holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Master of Business Administration from Regis University.
Deanne Cornette
Deanne Cornette, MHA, GPC, brings over 20 years of experience in the behavioral health field. Ms.Cornette currently serves as a Senior Associate for OPEN MINDS and brings to the OPEN MINDS team noted expertise in strategic planning, grant writing and revenue development.
Previously, Ms. Cornette was the Vice President of Strategic Development for Tampa Family Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center. In this role, she managed grants, contracts, front desk operations, training, quality assurance special assignments (risk assessments and responses to complaints), credentialing and billing functions. In a very short time period, she successfully procured funding to integrate behavioral health services, brought a system of processes to track health indicators and improve value-based care payment and service and became proficient in utilizing HRSA’s reporting portals.
As Counsel for Strategic Development at Agency for Community Treatment Services, Inc. (ACTS) and Vice President of Business Development for Gracepoint (merger), Ms. Cornette directed strategic development, contract negotiations, revenue development, marketing and grants. In this capacity, she targeted funding sources and built a lucrative cash flow that provided needed services to vulnerable populations in need of behavioral health treatment.
Some of her most successful negotiations created best practice services for veteran’s programs, women’s services, as well those involved with the criminal justice system. Her portfolio includes a wide array of awards from a multitude of agencies including, but not limited to: SAMHSA, HUD, Centers for Medicaid, and the Department of Transportation and collaborations with private, non-profit and government entities. Most recently, she worked with Gracepoint to develop Hillsborough’s Centralized Receiving Facility, one of the first funded in the State of Florida. From a system of care for jail diversion to evidence based practices for individuals who are homeless with behavioral health needs, her awards have netted over $80 million dollars to our community.
In addition, Ms. Cornette served as the Vice President for the National Contract Management Association Suncoast Chapter, Vice President of ACTS Affordable Housing Board of Directors, Vice President of ACTS Foundation Board of Directors, and was a member of Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board. She is the recipient of University of South Florida’s 2018 Florida Outstanding Women of the Year in Public Health. Her Centralized Receiving Facility collaborative won a 2018 WEDU PBS Be Brilliant / Innovation Award. Her concept of Housing, Engagement and Retention Tenancy (HEART) program won the 2018 Heart for Homeless award through the Housing and Education Alliance.
Ms. Cornette received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and her Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of South Florida.
The Kaiser Approach To Managing Behavioral Health Care
With growing demand for behavioral health care, Kaiser is innovating across the full spectrum of mental health and addiction care resources to connect adults, teenagers, and children to the right services. By offering complete support in one holistic ecosystem, including through the use of feedback informed care, measurement-based treatment, and collaborative care models, Kaiser is creating a team-based pathway to treat mental health and addiction needs. Hear more on how Kaiser is integrating and scaling up to reduce the burden on primary care and hospitals, while achieving cost savings in the behavioral health continuum of care.
Stuart Buttlaire, Ph.D., MBA
Stuart Buttlaire, Ph.D., is regional director of inpatient psychiatry and continuing care for Northern California Kaiser Permanente, the lead mental health representative within Kaiser’s State Program Initiatives, and the designated resource management director for behavioral health. He is also the Permanente Medical Group lead in the design and development for the new inpatient psychiatric hospital in Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center, set to open in 2010. Prior to coming to Kaiser in 1987, Dr. Buttlaire was chief of acute and subacute services for Marin County Mental Health. He has more than 30 years of clinical and management experience, providing leadership and direction in health care delivery in both the public and private sectors.
Dr. Buttlaire was elected to the California Hospital Association Behavioral Health Board in 2008, and served as co-chair of the IBHI Collaborative on Emergency Department and Behavioral Health in 2007- 2008. He has been on numerous national quality panels, most recently involving involuntary seclusion procedures, and is a member of IHI. In both 1997 and 2002, Dr. Buttlaire was awarded “Most Valuable Psychologist in Northern California” by the Kaiser Permanente Regional Psychological Society, and he received the 2005 Chair of the Chiefs of Psychiatry Award. Dr. Buttlaire also served as behavioral health representative on the State Programs Policy Implementation Group.
A graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Dr. Buttlaire has a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado’s Institute of Integral Studies and a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on health care management, finance, and marketing
Richard Louis, III
Richard Louis, III has extensive experience as a behavioral healthcare administrator, business development specialist, and innovator of new service lines for behavioral healthcare organizations and currently serves the Vice President – Western Region at OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Mr. Louis was the Director of Development – Behavior & Addiction Medicine at Southern California Healthcare Systems Inc. / Prospect Medical. There, he was involved in many consulting projects focused on health care integration, developing new service lines, and health plan contract development. Most recently, he pioneered the development of a series of innovative and profitable integrated behavioral health treatment and population health management solutions that target high cost and complex behavioral health populations. These solutions have shown to reduce payer spend while improving client outcomes for acute care hospital systems, health plans, managed care organizations (MCO), managed service organizations (MSO), managed behavioral healthcare organizations (MBHO), medical groups (IPA) and social service agencies.
Mr. Louis was also the Executive Director of Strategic Development and Planning at Pathways – Molina Healthcare, a national for-profit behavioral healthcare company operating in 23 states. In this role, Mr. Louis developed and launched population health management program strategies that included in-community care management and in-home coordinated care services to reduce hospital readmissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and improve HEDIS scores for national health plans and Managed Care Organizations.
Mr. Louis is also a former Psychiatric Hospital Administrator and Assistant Director of Mental Health for San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health in CA, where he was responsible for behavioral health program management, clinical operations, strategic alliances, and outcome-based service delivery models for complex adult and youth populations.
Mr. Louis also served in various positions at College Health Enterprises (CHE), a Los Angeles based for-profit hospital system, most notably serving as Vice President of Government Operations. While in this role, he created the first public sector division for CHE by establishing new service lines, contracts, and new profit/revenue streams. His responsibilities included business and program development as well as administration of inpatient, outpatient, and residential continuums of care for public payers (i.e. county mental health systems, state department of developmental disabilities, county jail, state prison, and federal government agencies).
Mr. Louis is in his 32nd year as an active duty reserve police officer (volunteer) currently holding the rank of Captain, City of Monterey Park Police Department in Los Angeles County. He has worked closely with police, county sheriff’s departments, and healthcare systems to educate and craft “treatment versus incarceration” collaborations promoting treatment and cost-effective crisis triage interventions for persons with mental illness.
Mr. Louis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Whittier College and is a Police Academy Graduate from Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California.
Lunch On Your Own
Advancing Clinical & Economic Outcomes In Schizophrenia: The Janssen LAI Portfolio
Sponsored by Janssen Pharmaceuticals 
Join us for two sessions over lunch.
The first: Advancing Clinical & Economic Outcomes in Schizophrenia: The Janssen LAI Portfolio, is a discussion of how a holistically focused approach to treatment of serious mental illness can result in both financial savings and improved outcomes measures, including HEDIS standards presented by Jack Sheehan, Ph.D., MBA, Senior Director, Neuroscience Real World Value & Evidence, Janssen Scientific Affairs.
The second: Measurable Improvements In Care: The Power Of Collaboration with Suzanne F. Conroy, MS, Senior Director, National Clinical Value Optimization, Optum Health Behavioral Solutions, and Jason Kan, PharmD, Vice President Of Product, Genoa Healthcare.
Jack Sheehan, Ph.D., MBA
Jack Sheehan, Ph.D., MBA, Senior Director, Neuroscience Real World Value & Evidence, Janssen Scientific Affairs, specializes in using real-world evidence to improve patient outcomes. He is an expert in understanding both the burden of illness and also in understanding effective ways to address neurologic and psychiatric for patients.
Suzanne F. Conroy
Suzanne Conroy is an accomplished healthcare leader with 20 years' experience in measuring the value of transformative health care initiatives, quality improvement, and execution of initiatives through engagement with partners at all levels of the organization. Trained in organizational psychology, she has built strong working relationships and improved strategic processes with cross-functional teams, physicians, and leaders within highly matrixed mental health organizations.
Jason Kan, PharmD
As the Vice President of Product, Jason is responsible for driving strategic direction related to novel products for patients who have complex, chronic conditions and expand the scope of pharmacy practice for current and past products including long acting injectables, immunizations, HIV, hospice and primary care pharmacies. These products include Optum integration projects as well as partnering with industry to scale products across Genoa pharmacies.
Prior to his most recent three years leading Product, Jason led pharmacy operations for 8 years as the East Division, Vice President of Pharmacy Operations and Director of Pharmacy Operations for the Northeast. While in operations, Jason led many pilots including pharmacist LAI administration, MAT, pharmacist naloxone dispensing, immunizations, medication therapy management, prescription delivery, and relationships with many colleges of pharmacy.
Sharon Hicks
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. There she was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition, Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hicks started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, she managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Post Lunch Pick Me Up
Don't miss the popcorn bar for an afternoon break located in the exhibit hall!
Making It With Performance-Based & Risk-Based Contracts: Keys To Success
Behavioral health provider organizations are lagging in the move to value-based contracts as compared with other health care specialties—22% in mental health, while 80% of health plans report paying cardiovascular specialists using some value-based contract—that is. This session will focus on value-based payments in the nonprofit/behavioral health provider organization field, including realigning service portfolios, measuring for outcomes, attribution, etc. Learn the:
- “How-tos” on moving into value-based contracts
- Elements in negotiating rates that pay for whole person outcomes
- Navigating integrated care settings to ensure attributions and payments for results
Ashley Gibson
Ashley Gibson MA, LADC has been part of Hazelden Betty Ford since 2006, starting as a direct-care clinician. Shortly into her tenure she shifted her focus to using her clinical experience and expertise to improve a patient’s access to treatment services by supporting Hazelden Betty Ford’s work with third party payers. Having direct clinical experience, coupled with a payer and a provider utilization review background, Ashley’s knowledge has lent itself well to maximizing the relationships with payers and enhancing the patient experience as it relates to access, utilization and network management.
Ashley has been with Hazelden Betty Ford throughout their transition from an organization focused on residential care with a fixed-length-of-stay mindset to an organization focused on a patient-centered, individualized experience. Using a holistic health model, Hazelden Betty Ford supports patients’ overall engagement in services throughout the continuum of care, guiding them from clinical management into self-management of their disease. Ashley is passionate about upholding this model through building collaborative relationships with national, regional and local payers and securing creative contracting models to include: value based reimbursement, case rate agreements and Center of Excellence programs across all of Hazelden Betty Ford’s sites and programs.
Brian Holzer, M.D., MBA
Dr. Brian Holzer currently serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aware Recovery Care, a pioneer of In-Home Addiction Treatment Services (IHAT) that is changing the face and place of recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Dr. Holzer joined Aware Recovery Care in April 2022 and is spearheading strategic planning and commercial expansion efforts as the company now operates in nine states and is poised for national expansion in partnership with established national and regional payers, and other stakeholders.
Dr. Holzer comes to Aware with over 20 years of diverse experience, including strategy, operations, marketing, and sales in large and small public and private healthcare companies. Most recently, Brian was President of Innovations at Kindred Healthcare in Louisville. In this role, Brian also founded and served as CEO of Lacuna Health which provides patient engagement solutions to physician groups, hospitals, and insurance providers.
Before Kindred, Dr. Holzer served as an executive with Pittsburgh-based insurance and healthcare company Highmark Health and its hospital system Allegheny Health Network. There, he led the formation of multiple home-based and post-acute care businesses including Home Health, Hospice, Home Infusion, and Home Medical Equipment. Brian has also held positions in healthcare consulting and various strategy, operations, and sales and marketing roles in the biotechnology industry.
Dr. Holzer graduated from Pennsylvania State University, earned a Medical Degree from the Drexel University College of Medicine, and an MBA, with a major in healthcare management, from the Wharton School of Business.
Joe Naughton-Travers
Joe Naughton-Travers, Ed.M. has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. During his tenure as a Senior Associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Preparing For CalAIM: Success & Sustainability – The Data-Driven Path Forward
California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) is a long-term commitment to transform and strengthen Medi-Cal, offering 14M+ beneficiaries a more equitable, coordinated, and person-centered approach to maximizing their health. CalAIM’s mission to transform Medi-Cal will require the investment and sustained commitment of a broad network of health partners, payers, specialty providers, and community-based organizations.
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is transforming the Medi-Cal delivery system moving Medi-Cal towards a population health approach that prioritizes prevention and whole person care. CalAIM will offer Medi-Cal enrollees coordinated and equitable access to services that address physical, behavioral, developmental, dental, and long-term care needs. In the multi-year implementation, some of the provisions went live in 2022 including new managed care plan contracts with specialty provider organizations/CBOs to deliver Enhanced Care Management and Community Support services for adults. Similar contracts will begin in 2023 for youth and the final provisions of CalAIM are projected to go live by 2027.
The big question is what are the new measures needed for success under CalAIM? Does your organization have a strategy for measuring key organizational and management performance outcomes for health plan contracts, access to care, service and consumer performance? This session will provide an overview of the likely changes in performance measures in Medi-Cal – and how specialty provider organizations, community-based organizations and primary care organizations can prepare to meet the new measures of performance and value initiatives.
This session will cover:
- An update on the CalAIM initiative 2022 - 2023.
- How specialty provider organizations, CBOs and primary care organizations can build a metrics-based management system and the new culture for success under CalAIM.
- Likely changes in the measurement of ‘value’ under CalAIM with possible new value-based reimbursement models and their metrics.
- Review of organizational management best practices and strategic initiatives providers will need to position, plan and implement services under evolving payer performance expectations.
- Case Study: Illumination Foundation – Pooja Bhalla, DNP, RN - Co-Chief Executive Officer
Illumination Foundation is a Southern California based, non-profit, fully integrated recuperative care organization providing, coordinated behavioral health, substance use disorders and primary care treatment services, as well as multiple levels of housing, for chronically homeless adults with complex behavioral health (SMI) and medical conditions.
Pooja Bhalla, DNP, RN
Pooja Bhalla, DNP, RN, serves as Illumination Foundation’s Co-Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Bhalla joined Illumination Foundation in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer and most recently served as Executive Director of Healthcare Services. Under her leadership, Illumination Foundation has become a recognized and innovative leader in healthcare services for those experiencing homelessness.
Over the past five years, Dr. Bhalla has created a highly advanced approach to addressing the healthcare needs of the homeless population and has firmly established Illumination Foundation as a true safety net, not only for housing but for healthcare, including an innovative partnership with the Illumination Foundation Medical Group. Dr. Bhalla has more than 20 years of health administration experience working with individuals experiencing homelessness.
Dr. Bhalla joined Boston Health Care Homeless Program in 1997 and has worked with the homeless population since the beginning of her nursing career. In 2002, Dr. Bhalla, led the efforts in establishing shelter clinics throughout Boston to bring health care to homeless individuals. Today, the program operates over 50+ clinics throughout the city. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Bhalla has focused on bringing innovative practice models of care such as walk-in access for behavioral health visits and access to preventive care measures during patient encounters.
Dr. Bhalla is a graduate of Simmons College of Nursing. She received her Master’s in Leadership, Health Policy and Nursing Administration from Northeastern University, and earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice at Northeastern University and her research focus is on “Emerging Leaders and Homeless Health Care.” Dr. Bhalla is also a graduate of UCLA’s Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program. Dr. Bhalla is a member of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
Stuart Buttlaire, Ph.D., MBA
Stuart Buttlaire, Ph.D., is regional director of inpatient psychiatry and continuing care for Northern California Kaiser Permanente, the lead mental health representative within Kaiser’s State Program Initiatives, and the designated resource management director for behavioral health. He is also the Permanente Medical Group lead in the design and development for the new inpatient psychiatric hospital in Kaiser Santa Clara Medical Center, set to open in 2010. Prior to coming to Kaiser in 1987, Dr. Buttlaire was chief of acute and subacute services for Marin County Mental Health. He has more than 30 years of clinical and management experience, providing leadership and direction in health care delivery in both the public and private sectors.
Dr. Buttlaire was elected to the California Hospital Association Behavioral Health Board in 2008, and served as co-chair of the IBHI Collaborative on Emergency Department and Behavioral Health in 2007- 2008. He has been on numerous national quality panels, most recently involving involuntary seclusion procedures, and is a member of IHI. In both 1997 and 2002, Dr. Buttlaire was awarded “Most Valuable Psychologist in Northern California” by the Kaiser Permanente Regional Psychological Society, and he received the 2005 Chair of the Chiefs of Psychiatry Award. Dr. Buttlaire also served as behavioral health representative on the State Programs Policy Implementation Group.
A graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Dr. Buttlaire has a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado’s Institute of Integral Studies and a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on health care management, finance, and marketing
Richard Louis, III
Richard Louis, III has extensive experience as a behavioral healthcare administrator, business development specialist, and innovator of new service lines for behavioral healthcare organizations and currently serves the Vice President – Western Region at OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Mr. Louis was the Director of Development – Behavior & Addiction Medicine at Southern California Healthcare Systems Inc. / Prospect Medical. There, he was involved in many consulting projects focused on health care integration, developing new service lines, and health plan contract development. Most recently, he pioneered the development of a series of innovative and profitable integrated behavioral health treatment and population health management solutions that target high cost and complex behavioral health populations. These solutions have shown to reduce payer spend while improving client outcomes for acute care hospital systems, health plans, managed care organizations (MCO), managed service organizations (MSO), managed behavioral healthcare organizations (MBHO), medical groups (IPA) and social service agencies.
Mr. Louis was also the Executive Director of Strategic Development and Planning at Pathways – Molina Healthcare, a national for-profit behavioral healthcare company operating in 23 states. In this role, Mr. Louis developed and launched population health management program strategies that included in-community care management and in-home coordinated care services to reduce hospital readmissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and improve HEDIS scores for national health plans and Managed Care Organizations.
Mr. Louis is also a former Psychiatric Hospital Administrator and Assistant Director of Mental Health for San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health in CA, where he was responsible for behavioral health program management, clinical operations, strategic alliances, and outcome-based service delivery models for complex adult and youth populations.
Mr. Louis also served in various positions at College Health Enterprises (CHE), a Los Angeles based for-profit hospital system, most notably serving as Vice President of Government Operations. While in this role, he created the first public sector division for CHE by establishing new service lines, contracts, and new profit/revenue streams. His responsibilities included business and program development as well as administration of inpatient, outpatient, and residential continuums of care for public payers (i.e. county mental health systems, state department of developmental disabilities, county jail, state prison, and federal government agencies).
Mr. Louis is in his 32nd year as an active duty reserve police officer (volunteer) currently holding the rank of Captain, City of Monterey Park Police Department in Los Angeles County. He has worked closely with police, county sheriff’s departments, and healthcare systems to educate and craft “treatment versus incarceration” collaborations promoting treatment and cost-effective crisis triage interventions for persons with mental illness.
Mr. Louis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Whittier College and is a Police Academy Graduate from Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California.
DEI & Psychological Safety: The Future Of The Workforce Is Empowerment
Sponsored by Relias 
A workplace culture that embraces diversity and fosters inclusion benefits employers, increases employee productivity, and is good for the bottom line. In healthcare, this bottom line includes the crucial outcome of patient health and retention of passionate, competent staff.
Proper integration of DEI and psychological safety improves the work experience of staff, fosters a sense of belonging, and encourages an understanding of the diverse needs of patients. Successful organizations will need develop empowered staff by creating workplace culture that prioritize psychological safety and DEI.
In this session, we will discuss why DEI and TIC programming need to be core components of your healthcare business strategy. We will explore manageable strategies to ensure that DEI and TIC initiatives are consistently woven into daily workflows.
Learning Objectives:
- Articulate the need for a diverse and inclusive healthcare workforce
- Share strategies for creating psychologically safe work environments
- Explain the impact of proper DEI & TIC initiatives on staff well-being and patient health
*Brownies will be served!
Rola Aamar, Ph.D.
Rola Aamar, Ph.D., is currently the senior clinical effectiveness consultant at Relias for behavioral health, bringing her clinical and operational knowledge of integrated care, data analytics, and behavioral healthcare to support client use of analytics to improve clinical performance and patient health. In this role, she provides clinically-informed, data-driven consulting to clients to promote performance improvement. Rola began her career as a behavioral health clinician in integrated care working with multidisciplinary healthcare teams to develop comprehensive treatment programs for comorbid chronic health and mental health condition. Rola completed her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University, where she focused her clinical research on the importance of treatment alliance between patients and healthcare providers to address treatment attrition and treatment adherence. Prior to Relias, she developed and managed integrated care programs in primary care clinics, specialty clinics, community health centers, schools, and hospitals.
Emily Del Vecchio
Emily Del Vecchio brings over 14 years of experience in strategic, customer-focused, and results-driven marketing in retail and the behavioral health field. Ms. Del Vecchio is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships for OPEN MINDS.
Previously, Ms. Del Vecchio was the Marketing and Communications Manager II for Cleveland Clinic. As Cleveland Clinic’s global interests grew, Ms. Del Vecchio was promoted to manage international marketing and support for International Operations, Global Patient Services, international business development, and global expansion efforts. She was instrumental in setting up the London Marketing and Communications function ensuring the UK-based team was connected to US resources and providing corporate oversight for all foundational marketing elements including recruitment advertising campaigns, grand opening promotional strategy and events, and the creation of a localized website and online tools for patients and referring doctors. She also served as a senior member of the cross-departmental “Digital Optimization Team” that was responsible for strategic oversight of all digital lead generation campaigns, designing, executing, and analyzing testing strategies to roll out scalable programs; and managed day-to-day relationship with digital agency and marketing automation partners.
Prior to Cleveland Clinic, Ms. Del Vecchio was Senior Manager, Affiliate Marketing for Gen3 Marketing. Ms. Del Vecchio led the day-to-day management and strategic development of affiliate marketing programs for some of Gen3’s highest-profile clients ranging from financial services to high-end, luxury retail. She operated as an extension of the client’s internal marketing team to support key initiatives, drive increased sales and maintain set budgets. Ms. Del Vecchio established strong relationships with publishers and network teams on behalf of clients to effectively structure and negotiate terms, secure paid placements, and ensure overall brand presence across affiliate sites. She tracked campaign performance, identified trends and growth opportunities, and analyzed key metrics.
Before Gen3, Ms. Del Vecchio advanced to Online Marketing Specialist, Affiliate Marketing for QVC, Inc. Here she managed QVC’s affiliate marketing program, which had 1K+ publisher partners and generated over $200M in annual revenue. She oversaw daily program activities, implemented strategic plans and offer strategies, managed a multi-million dollar budget, and exceeded aggressive revenue goals. Ms. Del Vecchio ran QVC’s most successful publisher optimization campaign at the time, which generated $300K+ in incremental sales among mid-tier publishers in one month. Ms. Del Vecchio and her team provided creative briefs for print and television, attended photo and video shoots, and oversaw projects from concept to execution.
Ms. Del Vecchio received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for Marketing at Elon University, Elon, NC.
Raffle Prize Drawing
Join us in the exhibit hall to see if you've won any of the great prizes provided by our generous sponsors! Drop your raffle card off at the registration desk by 3:00 pm on Thursday to be included in the drawing. (Must be present to win!)
Lauren Evangelist
Lauren Evangelist brings more than 15 years of experience in marketing and business strategy, brand development, product launch and digital marketing to OPEN MINDS. Ms. Evangelist currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Partnerships
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Evangelist was the Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations for Tridiuum, where she developed and implemented the company’s new go-to-market sales and marketing strategy. Ms. Evangelist also developed and launched Tridiuum’s provider recruitment program in partnership with New Directions Behavioral Health (NDBH). She created the program’s acquisition strategy, marketing collateral and recruited behavioral health providers to accelerate access to care for 4M NDBH members. NDBH acquired Tridiuum based on program’s immediate impact and success.
Previously, Ms Evangelist, served as Vice President of Partnership & Loyalty Marketing with OneMain Financial in Wilmington, DE. In this role, she launched OneMain’s strategic partnerships and customer loyalty programs to generate demand for loan products, provide financial literacy, create customer engagement and enhance the OneMain customer experience.
Prior to her role at OneMain Financial, Ms. Evangelist was Senior Manager of Strategic Partnership Marketing for ShopRunner in Conshohocken, PA. In this role, she developed and executed strategic marketing programs with corporate partners like American Express, Mastercard and PayPal to acquire new ShopRunner members and drive member activation within the ShopRunner network.
Previously, Ms. Evangelist was at QVC (Qurate Retail Group) in West Chester, PA for 12 years, where she held several instrumental roles within Marketing and eCommerce. In her last role as Manager of Partner Marketing, shepiloted and launched QVC’s first Co-Op Marketing program, which accounted for over $2M in incremental marketing contributions from national retailer partners like Dell, Dooney & Bourke and Vera Bradley.
Ms. Evangelist received her Bachelor of Arts in Commercial Design from Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA. She has also been a member of the Lycoming College Athletics Advisory Board since 2018.
Paul M. Duck
Paul M. Duck brings more than 40 years of experience in leadership and management focusing on managed care, health information technology organizations, strategy, business development, and market expansion, and customer experience optimization to the OPEN MINDS team.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Duck served as the Vice President, Strategy & Development at Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Duck led the organization’s strategy and business development efforts, which led to a 30% increase in net revenue and initiated more than $1 billion in revenue generation. Mr. Duck was active in national behavioral health initiatives as an executive of Beacon Health Options, including participating as a speaker at national and state association meetings.
Before joining Beacon Health Options, Mr. Duck was the Vice President of Business Development at Netsmart Technologies. During his tenure, Mr. Duck was responsible for business planning including the oversight of strategic activities including acquisitions, development, and execution of strategic initiatives, and positioning, and sales of large strategic customers. He also led the rollout of the company’s benchmarking and data analytics product suite.
Prior to Netsmart, Mr. Duck served as the Chief Executive Officer for Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, a large group practice with five clinic locations and two ambulatory surgical centers. As the organization’s chief executive officer, Mr. Duck was responsible for significant positive changes in leadership and corporate culture, financial and operational performance, compliance, and governance. Mr. Duck improved net collections by over $1 million per month and grew the practice through negotiating better contract rates with payers. He also implemented an organizational rebranding initiative and launched a new marketing campaign.
Prior to Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, Mr. Duck served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Florida Radiology Imaging, one of the largest outpatient diagnostic imaging service companies serving the greater Orlando market. During his tenure, Mr. Duck led the construction of three new, full modality, diagnostic imaging locations. Mr. Duck revolutionized the company’s culture by creating a highly attractive and functional work environment.
Mr. Duck earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Associate of Arts in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Electronic Technology Institute. Mr. Duck received an award by Inc magazine for leading Florida Radiology Imaging as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mr. Duck recently served as a contributing author to the book The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America.
Deliberate Proactivity – Making Strategy Work In A Turbulent Market
To go the distance and stay on track with daily market trends is a struggle many health and human service executive teams face. But improving performance begins with an internal examination of programs and services, finances, technology systems, staffing, operations....and the list goes on. Balance and growth come from monitoring and managing these internal processes and identifying the need to make strategic adjustments along the way. In her closing keynote, Monica E. Oss will discuss planning not only for success and sustainability, but for performance excellence and the necessary characteristics for becoming a performance-based organization.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S., Chief Executive Officer and Senior Associate, is the founder of OPEN MINDS. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. Ms. Oss is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field. She has unique expertise in payer financing models, provider rate setting, and service pricing. She has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, managed care programs, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology, and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.