Rise

Lela Criswell Member Engagement Manager

Kern Health Systems

Shannon Decker Founder & CEO

VBC One

Dr. Shannon Decker is Founder & CEO at VBC One, a consulting firm assisting physician groups, health plans and vendors maximize the performance of their value based contracts and offerings. Dr. Decker has more than 25 years experience in health care and most recently led teams in risk, quality, data and analytics, telehealth, COVID response and delegation compliance. Of her more than 25 years of experience in healthcare--17 include working with risk adjustment, quality and Medicare. Dr. Decker has a PhD. in Interdisciplinary Studies, dual MBA degrees--in Finance and in Marketing, as well as an M.Ed. in Secondary Education and a M.Ed. in Administration and Leadership. Dr. Decker is on the faculty at Arizona State University and is also an associate professor in the social and behavioral sciences for Walden and Capella Universities where she chairs and oversees the dissertations of doctoral students. An author of two books and several peer-reviewed articles, and a prolific national public speaker, her interests include the study of human behavior and how social and behavioral theories may be brought to bear in value based care and population health management as a whole. 

Tina Dueringer CEO, Principal Advisor

Dueringer Advisors, Inc

Tina is the Vice President of Clinical and Quality at Rebellis Group, a consulting firm that specializes in health plan operations, pharmacy benefit management, government consulting and technology. Tina has extensive experience in Medicare, Medicaid, SNP, Marketplace and commercial business. Her expertise includes case management, medical management, utilization management, clinical quality, Stars, HEDIS and accreditation including NCQA and URAC. She has health plan experience in strategic planning, joint ventures, partnerships, delegated relationships, value-based care including development and implementation. Tina previously served as the Head of Health Plan Operations for Cityblock Health, a value-based care, risk-based startup serving underprivileged populations. She was also the Director of Clinical Quality, Accreditation, Appeals and Grievances at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Previously she held leadership positions with both the payer and provider. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a post graduate certification from Duke University in Population Care Coordination and is a

Jennifer Hawkes Manager, Member Engagement

Blue Cross of Idaho

Jennifer is a Manger of Member Engagement at Blue Cross of Idaho, for the previous 8 years she was a key player in vendor contracting, planning, developing, monitoring, and improving Medicare and ACA risk adjustment programs. She is responsible for the success of several risk adjustment prospective and retrospective programs. She brings over 27 years of experience in the health insurance, auditing and healthcare industries and holds certifications in professional and risk adjustment coding. She’s been focused on Risk Adjustment since 2017 and now has a tremendous opportunity to improve member health outcomes and create understanding. Her current focus is on strategic planning around member education and adoption of healthcare activities and collaboration with other stakeholders to combine efforts, eliminate duplication, map the member’s journey to maximize outcomes.  

She is also passionate about bringing understanding, education, and awareness to managing type 1 diabetes and living an active love and laughter filled life.  

Carol Haywood Assistant Professor

Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research in the Institute for Public Health and Medicine | Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Samrat Kulkarni Data Scientist and AI Consultant

Former Al @CVS Health

Jake Mead CEO

Impact Sales Partners

With over 23 years in healthcare, Jake Mead brings deep expertise across the payer, provider, and vendor landscapes—spanning Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits, STARS & quality programs, health plan sales, managed Medicaid & MLTSS, care management, home health & hospice, and DME. He has led sales teams, optimized processes, and driven marketing initiatives to scale organizations of all sizes—delivering exponential growth, margin improvement, and higher valuations by building the systems and strategies that sustain it. He is also on the cutting edge of health-tech innovation, having advised AI and robotics companies to integrate intelligent automation into care delivery.

Beau Munoz Independent Healthcare Technologist

J. Beau Muñoz, MD is a former Navy combat physician, battalion surgeon, published scientist, and patent holder in machine learning applications for ICU clinical decision support tools. He is a California native and a graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in Economics. Upon completing his undergraduate degree, he was a recipient of the congressionally awarded Fulbright Fellowship which funded 2 years of full-time graduate work overseas. He graduated from Duke School of Medicine in 2010 and attended Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital General Surgery residency. In addition to multiple combat deployments and extensive international service, in 2018, Dr. Muñoz was the recipient of the Department of Defense Exchange of Scientists and Engineers Program (ESEP) award which supported a 1-year trauma surgery research fellowship at Queens Elizabeth Hospital in England. Prior to venturing out into the health-tech startup field, Dr. Muñoz was the Director of Operational Medicine for the US Naval Special Warfare Command (Navy Seal Teams) in Coronado, Ca. Dr. Muñoz has both a professional and academic interest in the application of machine learning technologies to clinical and population-based medicine. His works have been published in The Lancet and the journal Surgery. 

Reva Sheehan Sr. Director of Customer Insights

mPulse

Reva Sheehan is the Senior Director of Customer Insights at mPulse, a company specializing in digital solutions for the healthcare industry.  

With over 15 years of experience in health plan operations, Medicare quality, long-term care, and compound pharmacy management, Reva is dedicated to enhancing member experiences and outcomes.   

In her role at mPulse, Reva focuses on leveraging data-driven insights to improve healthcare consumer experiences. She has been instrumental in developing strategies to navigate changes in Medicare Star Ratings and has shared her expertise through webinars and industry events. 

LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reva-sheehan-2625ab177 

Melissa Smith Founder, Senior Advisor

Newton Smith Group

For more than a decade, Melissa Smith has been at the forefront of leading Medicare Advantage and Star Ratings teams. As the founder of Newton Smith Group and a Senior Advisor to Oliver Wyman, Melissa is a widely recognized thought leader and healthcare strategist. Her proven track record of success lies in developing comprehensive enterprise-wide solutions that enhance Star Ratings, quality performance, health outcomes, and the overall member experience. 

Melissa excels in crafting strategic and tactical solutions to meet client needs, forging productive partnerships across internal teams and external vendors, and improving performance on various quality measures.  Her unique background in business, finance, regulatory compliance, and healthcare quality provides clients unparalleled access to healthcare strategy, quality performance, and revenue optimization. 

As the former Chief Consulting Officer at Healthmine and Senior Vice President at Gorman Health Group, Melissa's leadership spans across prestigious organizations like Cigna-HealthSpring and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Graduating from Purdue University, Melissa began her career at KPMG, LLP and is a Certified Public Accountant. 

Matt Wallaert Chief Experience Officer | Founder | Former Chief Behavioral Officer

Oceans | BeSci.io | Clover Health

For almost 20 years, Matt Wallaert has been applying behavioral science to practical problems.  After leaving academia, his career as an executive lead from startups (Thrive, Churnless) to the Fortune 500 (Microsoft, CapGemini) and back again, before founding BeSci.io (Behavioral Science in organizations), where he and the world’s most experienced behavioral science leaders help companies grow applied behavioral science capabilities within their organizations.

These days, he is the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Oceans, helping to bring high-quality job opportunities to international markets so that talented people don’t have to emigrate to grow.

In his book Start At The End and other writings, as well as hundreds of talks from the UN to SXSW, Wallaert details how the cycle of behavioral strategy, insights, design, and evaluation can help us build products and services that change behavior.  From the janitor to the CEO, his approachable frameworks show how everyone can incorporate behavioral science into what they do, no PhD required.

Wallaert’s side projects consistently focus on creating greater equity in the world, like GetRaised, which has helped underpaid women ask for and earn over $3.6B in salary increases, and his research reports, like MediocreWhiteMen, blend humor and science to help work toward change.  He can usually be found wearing cowboy boots and gesturing wildly.

Rick Whitted Chief Executive Officer

US Hunger

Rick Whitted is the President & Chief Executive Officer at U.S. Hunger, a global nonprofit whose mission is feeding families today and uniting them to a healthier tomorrow. In total, U.S. Hunger (USH) has provided over 150 million meals to families in need. Before his appointment as CEO in March 2020, Rick served on USH’s board of directors. Rick has overseen the launch of several of the organization’s initiatives: expanding home delivery of fresh produce into its supply chain; aligning its Full Cart® program with the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services’ (CMS) health equity framework; and, developing a cloud based SaaS solution that uses A.I. and Machine Learning to identify root causes of food insecurity in the U.S. and provide real-time actionable intelligence on social determinants of health (SDOH). Rick is a graduate of Stetson University and Nova Southern University where he received a BA in Political Sciences/American Studies, and an MBA, Business Administration and Management, respectively. Prior to joining USH, he spent 27 multi-faceted years in banking; focusing on small business, government and non-profit banking. He is also an accomplished author and speaker with expertise in leadership, workplace culture and individual and team development. 

Andy Witt Director, Quality

AMC Ambulatory and Medical Group | Northwestern Memorial Healthcare