Rise

Lela Criswell Member Engagement Manager

Kern Health Systems

I began working in health care in 2001. I currently oversee the Member Engagement Program for Kern Family Health care, a Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) Managed Care Plan in Kern County, California. I began my career at Kern Family Health Care in 2006 and have held varying positions which greatly improved my understanding of the Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan responsibilities and regulatory requirements as required by the California Department of Health Care Services and the California Department of Managed Health Care to serve the vulnerable population of Kern County. I am mainly responsible for member communications and outreach campaign content. I work collaboratively with all department disciplines to engage members in being owners of their own care. My primary goals include increasing member utilization of services for closing gaps in care, improving the transportation benefit to curb fraud, waste, and abuse and bridge access issues, increasing our presence in rural communities to grow member trust, identify and address potential health care disparities, and member retention. Strategic outreach campaigns and coordinated efforts help to break down departmental silos help to create an environment of success in meeting these goals. 

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. 

Ryan C. Dodson Chief Operating Officer/Co-Founder

New Vision Healthcare Solutions

Ryan Dodson’s background is in management and operational processes for 15 years, and he began working in the risk adjustment arena 15+ years ago. Ryan has proven himself by helping medical groups and health plans to accurately improve their documentation with a solid track record of provider engagement. Ryan uses a unique blend of comedy and deep risk adjustment knowledge to get buy-in from providers to improve their documentation. His track record of results of improving documentation and thus improving revenue streams and patient care brings value to any group he works with. Having worked on the provider, payer, and now the vendor side Ryan is able to bring a unique perspective to the conversation and develop out-of-the-box ideas to help any size group. In 2020 Ryan co-founded New Vision Healthcare Solutions to fill a niche in the market on providing provider education with data stemming from analytics and provider chart data. Ryan has a Certified Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC) credential through the AAPC. 

Tina Dueringer CEO, Principal Advisor

Dueringer Advisors, Inc

Tina Dueringer is a board-certified nurse strategist and the CEO of Dueringer Advisors Inc., a nationally respected consulting firm serving health plans, providers, private equity, and healthcare innovators. With deep expertise spanning Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Duals, ACA, and commercial markets, Tina brings over two decades of clinical and operational leadership to the most complex corners of the healthcare industry. 

As Principal Advisor, Tina partners with executives, boards, and investors to architect scalable strategies that drive growth, compliance, and care transformation. Her advisory focus includes Stars performance, risk adjustment, population health, delegated entity management, joint ventures, M&A strategy, and AI-driven health system redesign. Whether guiding payer-provider integration or decoding regulatory landmines, Tina is known for turning complexity into competitive advantage. 

Previously, Tina served as Vice President of Clinical Quality & Stars at Rebellis Group and held senior leadership roles at Cityblock Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Her work has shaped policy, built infrastructure, and improved outcomes at every level of care delivery. 

Tina holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a post-graduate certification in Population Care Coordination from Duke University. She is a Board-Certified Case Manager (CCM) and a certified professional in care coordination (PCC), with a strong foundation in regulatory compliance, quality strategy, and health equity. 

Kathleen McQuade Ellmore Cofounder, Managing Partner

Engagys

As Managing Partner of Engagys, Kathleen Ellmore brings the best of consumer marketing and data-driven methodologies to healthcare to motivate better health decisions.  Prior to founding Engagys, Kathleen led the consumer engagement consulting practice for Silverlink for 12 years leveraging Silverlink's data repository of over a billion consumer health interactions, the best of behavioral economics and the latest in clinical research to help health plans and PBMs close the last mile of consumer engagement.  

Kathleen is an award-winning engagement expert who speaks regularly on the national stage on many topics including: driving consumer health engagement, creating better consumer experience in healthcare, motivating and inspiring consumers, and using data to drive consumer behavior. She has been recently named as a consultant to the first ever FDA Patient Engagement Advisory Committee (PEAC).  

Kathleen has an undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern.  

SriVani Ganti Sr. Director of Content & Creative Services

MPulse

SriVani Ganti is a health communication leader with over a decade of experience designing strategies that engage and inspire action among hard-to-reach populations. As Senior Director of Member Experience at mPulse, she develops programs that bridge the gap between complex health information and clear, culturally resonant messages—improving engagement, health outcomes, and organizational performance. Her initiatives advance health equity while helping healthcare organizations achieve business objectives, boost quality metrics, and deliver significant cost savings. With expertise in content strategy, digital health, and behavior change communication, SriVani combines data-driven insight with human-centered storytelling to build trust and transform the member experience.

Eric Hammond VP of Business Intelligence

Helping Hand Health

Eric earned a Bachelor of Science degree at DeVry Institute of Technology in 2000.  He worked with Cigna Medical Group for fifteen years gaining experience in healthcare and business intelligence, analytics, quality, and data visualization.  He was honored to receive the Chairman’s Champion Award and Circle of Excellence Award for delivering on Cigna’s strategic imperatives.  He helped to develop an in-house referral management tool to replace a paper process.  He maintained electronic data interfaces that connect electronic health records with eligibility, lab orders and results, imaging, and other healthcare data.  Eric then joined Tenet’s health plan division where he was part of a team that created the technical infrastructure to support Medication Therapy Management and medication adherence programs in support of Medicare Star measures. He consulted for HealthSpring to provide reporting and technical support for their Medicare special needs plan, including health risk assessments and individualized care plans.  Eric joined Helping Hand Health in 2019 where he oversees the technical infrastructure including databases, interfaces, automation and business intelligence. He still loves to dig into the details to create tools that help clients achieve their quality and financial goals.

Ana Handshuh Principal

CAT5 Strategies

Ana Handshuh, Principal at CAT5 Strategies, is a government programs executive with expertise in creating and implementing corporate programs for the healthcare industry. Her background includes Quality, Core Measures, Care Management, Benefit Design and Bid Submission, Accreditation, Regulatory Compliance, Revenue Management, Communications, Community-based Care Management Programs and Technology Integration. Ms. Handshuh currently serves on the Board of the Resource Initiative and Society for Education (RISE), the preeminent national professional association dedicated to managed and accountable care financing and delivery. She is a sought after speaker on the national healthcare circuit in the areas of Quality, Star Ratings, Care Management, Member and Provider Engagement, and Revenue Management. Her recent consultancy roles have included assisting organizations create programs to address the unmet care management needs in the highest risk strata of membership, document their processes and procedures, achieve accreditation status, design and submit government program bids, institute corporate-wide programs and create communications strategies and materials. She possesses sophisticated business acumen with the ability to build consensus with cross-functional groups to accomplish corporate goals. Ms. Handshuh served as the Vice President of Managed Care Services at Central Florida Inpatient Medicine (CFIM). In this role, she provided leadership and strategy on CFIM projects and collaborations with physicians, risk entities, hospital health care systems, and health plans. CFIM is the largest Hospitalist group in Central Florida, with 70 providers discharging over 50,000 patients annually from multiple hospitals across two health care delivery systems and 24 skilled nursing facilities. At CFIM Ms. Handshuh previously served as the Vice President of Operations. Prior to those assignments, she worked with Precision Healthcare Systems as their Vice President of Quality Improvement. In that capacity, she led the IPA’s Quality efforts and collaborated with payers on implementing programs to move the needle on Quality and Star Rating initiatives. Ms. Handshuh also served as the Director of Corporate Program Development at Physicians United Plan. In this role, she led the Quality Management and Corporate Communications departments and spearheaded the development of innovative integrated technology solutions to drive business excellence and Star Rating achievement initiatives. For the past fifteen years Ms. Handshuh has taken an active role in redefining and implementing changes that have led to improvements and greater efficiency within Government programs and healthcare delivery. Prior to joining Physicians United Plan Ms. Handshuh was the founder of I-Six Creative. Under Ms. Handshuh’s vision and leadership, I-Six Creative provided expertise in the areas of managed Medicare benefit design, MSO/IPA operations, provider network strategy, new market launches, technology integration, corporate communications and quality improvement.  

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

Carol Haywood, PhD, OTR/L, is Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences in the Determinants of Health Division and core faculty in the Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. She worked as an occupational therapist in physical rehabilitation, where challenges for individuals and their families with acute and chronic disability motivated her pursuit of research steeped in real-world experiences of people with disabilities. She completed a PhD in occupational science at the University of Southern California and a postdoctoral fellowship in health services and outcomes research at Northwestern University. Using qualitative, mixed methods, and community-engaged research approaches, she studies disability in a variety of contexts, as well as health care access, coordination, and quality. She is driven by a vision of health care that facilitates equity for people with disabilities.

Stephan Kallus SVP of Client Success

Healthmine

Stephan has led client-facing teams for more than 18 years in a variety of roles across strategy and operations consulting, data analytics, and the health tech sector. He has partnered with some of the largest insurers and healthcare providers in the U.S. as a leader in client success, go-to-market planning, product and program management, and business operations teams. In his most recent role at Get Well, he was the Vice President of Go to Market Strategy and prior to that, he led the account management team at Inovalon and was a consultant at Deloitte and FTI consulting.

Samrat Kulkarni Founder & CEO

ERaaS Health Inc

Katie Lavelle VP of Health Plans

Medline

Katie has over 15 years of experience in health care business development.  She currently works as the Vice President in Medline’s Health Plan division, and has partnered with plans across the continuum of insurance to provide them with effective strategies and solutions to deliver the highest quality of care to their members. Katie has spearheaded and developed numerous programs within Medline's Health Plan division that work to improve plan Star Ratings/HEDIS Scores, enhance member satisfaction/engagement, and boost member outcomes.

Nate Lucena President, Managing Director

RWC

Nate Lucena serves as President and Managing Director at Rex Wallace Consulting, focusing on data-driven, equity-centered solutions that improve outcomes and reduce disparities in payer and provider Quality programs. With master’s degrees in Experimental Psychology (College of William & Mary) and Cognitive Neuroscience/Aging (Washington University in St. Louis), he spent over a decade in academic research exploring the neural bases of schizophrenia, brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and human cognition—work published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology and Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience.

Before joining RWC, Nate held executive analytics and strategy roles at Centene Corporation, where he built and led the enterprise analytics department, managed a national vendor portfolio, and directed quality performance improvement strategy across Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace lines serving 1 in 15 Americans. A sought-after speaker on health outcomes, analytics, and equity, Nate brings a rigorous research background and deep commitment to disparity reduction to every client engagement.

Katie Martin VP, Quality Management

Parkland Community Health Plan

Katie Martin (she/her) received her Masters of Healthcare Informatics from the University of San Diego. She is currently Vice President, Quality Management with Parkland Community Health Plan in Dallas, Texas. Katie is passionate about developing integrated quality programs; collaborating with population health, wellness, care management, member engagement and analytics to drive improvement. Some of her achievements involve leading plans to achieving CMS 5 Stars, Pinnacle of Excellence awards from Press Ganey for Member Experience, and achieving overall #1 with JD Power for Commercial Member satisfaction.

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. 

Kalee Raymond Consultant

BCBSAZ Health Choice

Kalee is a licensed pharmacy technician that began her pharmacy career in an independently owned retail pharmacy where she learned the importance of personal connection and cultural awareness in delivering care.  Kalee has a passion for helping people from all walks of life.  Kalee joined the Helping Hand Health team in 2017 where she became an expert in closing clinical gaps and helping patients coordinate care. Kalee advanced into a clinical trainer position where she was responsible for creating and delivering clinical training programs to all staff. She helped Helping Hand Health create a 5 Star medication adherence program that is used by health plan clients such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Health Choice Pathway. Kalee now manages several quality related programs such as medication therapy management, medication adherence, statin programs and mobile mammography.

Leslie Rodriguez Consultant

BCBSAZ Health Choice

Leslie earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. She worked as a clinical pharmacist for Cigna Medical Group for eleven years where she gained experience in multi-specialty medical practices with in-house retail pharmacies and learned to manage pharmacy benefits. She worked as an instructor for the University of Hawaii College of Pharmacy in Hilo, Hawaii. She served as co-investigator and clinical pharmacist for the Pacific Island Mobile Screening Unit and was awarded Teacher of the Year.  She later served as Pharmacy Director for Tenet owned commercial, Exchange, Medicare and Medicaid health plans in Arizona, Texas and Michigan.  She founded Helping Hand Health in 2016 after helping Tenet sell their health plans.  She now supports clients such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Health Choice with many aspects of health plan pharmacy and quality functions. 

Heidi Salerno Member Experience Consultant

RWC

Heidi has deep expertise in helping health plans improve their Member Experience. Prior to joining RWC, she led the CAHPS and HOS national strategy for Cigna. 

Melanie Taub Experience and Access, Stars Program

Devoted Health

Melanie Taub currently leads Experience and Access efforts at Devoted Health, as part of the Stars program. Working across payers and providers for nearly a decade, she's also led patient experience and contact center technology optimization at Oak Street Health. She's worked in managed care delivery, product development/management for the Medicare population, and program management for UnitedHealth Group/Optum, as well as virtual care at Amwell. Melanie holds an MBA and MPH from the Yale School of Management (SOM) and the School of Public Health (YSPH), as well as a B.A in Economics from Carleton College. 

Rex Wallace CEO

RWC

Rex Wallace is the founder and principal of Rex Wallace Consulting, LLC, a firm that specializes in improving Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage health plans. Rex assesses plans and guides them in the development and implementation of leading strategies to drive material Quality Improvement. Since its inception in 2017, RWC has helped multiple Medicare Advantage contracts achieve significant improvements in Star Ratings, including single-year full-Star improvements. Prior to launching RWC, Rex spent twenty-three years in strategic healthcare roles, with a strong focus on Medicare Advantage. Most recently, he led Stars for a large, multi-state plan that consistently achieved 4 and 4.5 Stars across its multiple contracts. 

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 Regional Director, Quality

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare

Andy Witt (he/him) is the Regional Director of Quality for Northwestern Medical Group, a multi-disciplinary academic medical group that is part of Northwestern Medicine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from DePaul University and a master’s in healthcare administration from the University of Illinois Chicago. Prior to joining Northwestern Medicine, Andy has held quality and leadership roles at multiple healthcare organizations focused on acute care, home health, and pharmacy services.