2020 Speakers

Robert Babin
Chief Information Security Officer | St. Peters Healthcare System

Bob has over 40 years of experience in manufacturing, financial and healthcare technologies, serving in various management capacities from senior vice president/vice present and “C”/ director level positions bringing strategic experiences to information technology and operations. As CISO, he oversees the information security efforts around regulatory IT audit/ compliance, policy development, technology risk mitigation, vulnerability management and administeration of the information security program at St. Peters. Bob holds three Masters of Science degrees and two post-graduate certificates in business, operations and technology management, He also has earned his CISA and CISM security certifications along with a CPM and CPD project management certfications. Bob, is member of ISACA, NJHIMSS, CHiME, ISSA, AEHIS, NJHA/CTISO, NHISAC, NJCCIC, MS-ISAC, NJ InfraGard organizations.

Russell P. Branzell
CEO | CHIME

Russell P. Branzell is the CEO and President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and its affiliate associations, the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Technology (AEHIT) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Applications (AEHIA). In addition to his position at CHIME, he serves on the faculty at Columbia University, where he teaches executive classes in health information technology. He also is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a position that was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce.Mr. Branzell joined CHIME as President and CEO in April 2013 after being an active member for 15 years. He served on the CHIME Board of Trustees from 2004-2008, as chair of the CHIME Education Committee from 2004-2008 and as chair of the CHIME Education Foundation. He is currently a member of the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp.

Prior to taking his position at CHIME, he was the CEO at the Colorado Health Medical Group; Vice President of Information Services and CIO for Poudre Valley Health System; President/CEO of Innovation Enterprises (PVHS’ for-profit IS entity); and Regional Deputy CIO and Executive Director of Information Services for Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Mo. He served on active duty in the United States Air Force and retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2008. While on active duty, he held numerous healthcare administration positions, including CIO for the Air Mobility Command Surgeon General’s Office.

Kimberly Burress

As Assistant Vice President (AVP) and Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO), Kimberly is an executive level leader in the Information Services department at the globally recognized Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Kimberly provides visionary leadership and establishes the strategic direction for the Biomedical Engineering, Nursing Informatics and the IS Training Teams. As a key member of the Information Services Executive Committee (ISEC), supporting the CIO, the committee provides overall leadership for all IS functions supporting CHOP, focused on delivering excellent patient care through clinical decision making, improved efficiency, patient safety, and secure information use.

Andrew Cohen, MD
Medical Director | Virtua Health

Dr. Cohen is a Board Certified Family Physician at Virtua Primary Care in Cherry Hill and, previously, at Washington Township, NJ where he worked for more than a decade.  His entrance into population health stems from participation and leadership of the Virtua Medical Group’s Quality and Utilization Committee as well as from the development of a progressive Primary Care model that emphasized longitudinal care, patient navigation, and clinical quality.

He was then asked to become Medical Director of Virtua Health’s division of Integrated Care Management followed by being tapped as Medical Director for both of Virtua’s Clinical Integrated Networks – VirtuaPhysicianPartners and Lourdes Health Network.

In this current Medical Director role, Dr Cohen provides strategic and clinical operational guidance for numerous value-based programs involving Commercial, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid plans.  In all, he oversees value-based care for more than 240 Primary Care physicians, 1100 Specialists, and over 100,000 patients.

He is currently focused on the growth of Virtua’s Remote Patient Monitoring Program.  Sparked by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, this novel program has the potential to support numerous value-based initiatives.

Dr. Cohen is a multiple time winner of Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Doc” for Primary Care, a regular contributor to the Virtua Foundation, and a proud graduate of the Health Management Academy’s Physician Leadership Program.  He is also a regular attendee of the Academy’s Population Health Collaborative as well as a member of the Horizon and AmeriHealth Physician Advisory Board.

Dr. Cohen grew up in Cheltenham, PA.  He earned his degrees from Dickinson College (’99), Penn State College of Medicine (’03), and the Abington Family Medicine Residency Program (’06).  He is currently in school for his M.B.A. through the University of Delaware.  He currently resides in Haddonfield with his wife (Courtney) and two children (Hannah and Jake).  In his spare time, Dr. Cohen enjoys jogging, golfing, gardening, and walking his best buddy (dog – Zoey).  Dr. Cohen is an avid fan and longtime sufferer of all four Philadelphia major sports teams.

Kat Collard
Chief Nursing Informatics Officer | Christiana Care Health System

Katherine Collard is currently the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Christiana Care Health System in Delaware. She has been a leader in informatics over the past 20 years, holding positions in other organizations. Kat has been a nurse for almost 40 years graduating from Russell Sage College with a B.S. and holds a Master’s Degree as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner from Stony Brook University. Kat holds certification from ANCC as an informatics nurse and is a legal nurse consultant.

Jennifer D’Angelo
Senior Vice President and General Manager | New Jersey Innovation Institute

Jennifer oversees the entire healthcare division, which manages federal and state grant programs focused on improving healthcare delivery. The division also runs the New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN) on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Health and includes Healthcare Innovation Solutions (HCIS) — the Healthcare Division’s for-profit subsidiary — which helps thousands of physicians across the country navigate the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Merit-Based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS). Jennifer has more than two decades of experience in the healthcare field, and most recently served as senior vice president and chief information officer at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, NJ, where she led cybersecurity, HIPAA security and privacy, Information Services, Clinical Informatics and Telecommunications. 

Cletis Earle
Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
| Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine

As senior vice president and chief information officer, Cletis Earle provides vision and leadership for developing and implementing information technology (IT) initiatives across Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine.
Prior to his 2019 arrival in Hershey, Earle was senior vice president and chief information officer for Kaleida Health/Great Lakes Health of Western New York. There, he provided leadership for the IT team, overseeing strategic and tactical planning, plus development and coordination of the IT platform.
Earle previously served as vice president and chief information officer at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Cornwall, N.Y. He began his IT health career as a support manager at Brooklyn Queens Health Care Inc. in Brooklyn, N.Y., eventually taking on roles as director of technology and vice president, chief information and privacy officer within the organization.
Earle is a member and former chairman of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, N.Y., and a master’s degree in information systems from Strayer University in Washington, D.C.

Matthew Gardiner
Principal Security Strategist
| Mimecast

Matthew Gardiner is a Principal Security Strategist at Mimecast and is currently focused on evangelizing cybersecurity both inside and outside of Mimecast. With more than 20 years focused in security, Matthew’s expertise in various roles includes email security, threat detection & response, network monitoring, SIEM, endpoint threat detection, threat intelligence, identity & access management, Web access management, identity federation, cloud security, and IT compliance at RSA, Netegrity, CA Technologies, and Mimecast. Previously he was President and a member of the board of trustees of the security industry non-profit, the Kantara Initiative. Matthew has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an SM in Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Vikas Khosla
Chief Digital Health Officer
| Intraprise Health

Vikas Khosla is the Chief Digital Health Officer of Intraprise Health. Vikas works with the leadership team and partners to develop strategies and market differentiation for the advancement of security risk management programs across the healthcare industry.

Vikas was formerly the President and CEO of BluePrint Health Information Technology and was responsible for guiding BluePrint through decades of exponential success. Working in healthcare technology since 1999, Vikas developed one of the first hospital roadmaps for compliance with HIPAA Security and Privacy regulations in 2005. In 2008, building on his knowledge of health system, payer and business associate workflows, Vikas and BluePrint introduced a suite of software products and NIST-based professional services supporting security, privacy, compliance and health data management. In 2011, Vikas lead BluePrint through the rigorous process of becoming one of the first HITRUST Certified Assessors. Vikas frequently speaks on healthcare technology and cybersecurity issues with a focus on building holistic, framework-based risk management programs. As a long-standing member of HIMSS, Vikas has focused on advocacy events nationally and regionally to increase legislative awareness and funding for healthcare technology.

Tara Matthews
Chief Information Security Officer,
| Einstein Healthcare

Tara Matthews is currently the Chief Information Security Officer for a large academic healthcare network.  She is a long-term veteran of the healthcare technology industry, both from vendor and client perspectives and currently responsible for providing leadership and vision for the organizations cybersecurity and assurance program.Tara has more than 30 years of first-hand industry experience and has held executive-level positions in several profit and non-profit organizations.

Tara’s background also includes leadership roles in multiple startups, supply-chain companies, hospitality industry and real-estate investment.  She has been a serial entrepreneur from an early age, and in her spare time, mentors small business owners and start-up entrepreneurs.  Her vast experiences in the broader health care industry, and unique incorporation of business commerce expertise, provide the competitive advantage to help others identify, understand and address the major challenges facing today’s health care leaders.

Laura McCrary Ed.D
President and CEO,
| Kansas Health Information Network, Inc.

Dr. Laura McCrary is the President and CEO of the Kansas Health Information Network, Inc. (KHIN) and its d/b/a KONZA.  KHIN/KONZA is a Kansas not for profit organization that provides health information exchange services, a clinical enterprise data warehouse, aggregated data services, data conversion, clinical alerting, quality reporting and analytics for medical Societies, HIEs and healthcare providers across the nation.

Laura completed Post-Doctoral work at Kansas University and a Doctorate of Education from Kansas State University.  Laura served as an adjunct professor at Rockhurst University-Helzberg School of Management and taught courses in Health Information Technology and Quality.  Laura is the Past-Chair of the National Policy Steering Committee for eHealth Initiative and the Past-Co-chair of the Advisory Board for the Sequoia Project. Laura served on the Governance Group for the National Syndromic Surveillance System.

Tom Moore
SVP of Innovation,
| HealthIx

Tom has worked in information technology for over 20 years including software development, business process re-engineering and management in government, life sciences and health care. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Innovation for Healthix, a leading health information exchange (HIE) providing services in metro New York City to millions of patients. In addition to leading several major interoperability initiatives, Tom works closely with Healthix members to design information services to support improvements in care coordination.

Stephen Nardone
Director Security Practice,
| Connection

Stephen has more that 40 years of Information Security experience and is a Certified NSA Cryptologic Engineer and member of the ISC, ISSA and IEEE. Prior to joining connection, Stephen worked at NSA for 15 years, directing the Trusted Product Evaluation Program for the National Computer Security Center and was the NSA liaison to both the Director j-6, Joint Staff, and Director Defense Information Systems Agency. He was also a Sr Director for several professional security services practices, including Exodus Communications, AimNet Solutions, and Unisys and was the CTO/CSO for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Sean Slovenski
Chief Executive Officer,
| BioIQ

Sean Slovenski is recognized as a healthcare industry innovator with a 30 year history of success. Sean is a proven senior executive and entrepreneur with an established track record in defining and building businesses from concept to viability within the healthcare field, demonstrates strong leadership presence and the ability to motivate employees and stakeholders around a shared vision; both within large mature companies and in early stage businesses.

Sean started his career by helping to build and then lead one of the nation’s first large-scale wellness efforts for Fortune 500 clientele. Envisioning the widespread usage of the Internet, Sean pioneered the development and delivery of wellness coaching online by inventing the first of its kind personal coaching product, MyHealthCoach.com. This effort led to being a co-founder and the CEO of the industry leading, positive psychology based, coaching company Hummingbird Coaching Services. Hummingbird was acquired by Humana, Inc. in July, 2010.

Sean also adds to his credit the development and operations for two of the largest health system based Integrative Medicine and Wellness centers in the US, The Mercy Centers for Health & Wellness located in Cincinnati, Ohio as well as being the CEO of the international joint venture between Humana and Discovery Health of South Africa to create one of the largest and most proven wellness incentive companies in the industry.

Sean served as the CEO of Care Innovations, an Intel-GE joint venture in the Tele-Health and Remote patient Monitoring space.

Getting back to his wellness roots, Sean then took on reinventing the industry leading population health health company as the President of Population Health at Healthways, which Sean sold to ShareCare In 2016.

Sean served as the SVP and President of Walmart Health and Wellness, which serves nearly half of all Americans each year through its 4,700 pharmacies, 3,000 optical centers and the newly launched multi-disciplinary healthcare clinics known as the “Super Centers for Healthcare.”

Sean now serves as the CEO of BioIQ. BioIQ is modernizing the diagnostic testing industry through a national network of labs and customized solutions that support health plans, employers, and consumers. By aggregating testing solutions, optimizing lab capacity, and integrating testing with customers’ needs and strategies, BioIQ helps ensure stability and resilience for employers and health plans by detecting disease to protect their workforces and members.

Hussein Syed
VP & CISO IT&S Security | RWJBarnabas Health

Hussein Syed has a background in Information Technology and Information Security comprising of more than 20 years of progressive technical and business experience. His knowledge and methodologies have developed through years of working in diverse environments utilizing technologies and business processes. His experience culminates in a rich set of credentials and certifications for his concentration in information security and information risk management.

Rich Temple
Vice President / Chief Information Officer | Deborah Heart and Lung Center

Rich Temple has over 30 years of healthcare experience at all levels. He is currently the Vice President / Chief Information Officer for the Deborah Heart and Lung Center, an 85-bed nationally renowned cardiovascular specialty hospital in Browns Mills, NJ. Rich also serves as Deborah’s HIPAA Security Officer. Prior to his role at Deborah, Rich spent a number of years in the consulting space including stints as the founder of Richard Temple & Associates, a consultancy specializing in healthcare advisory and strategy as well as serving as the National Practice Director for IT Strategy for Beacon Partners (now KPMG). Additionally, Rich has also worked as Vice President / Chief Information Officer for both the Saint Clare’s Health System in Denville, NJ and for AristaCare Health Services, which runs several long-term care facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Earlier in his career, Rich worked for McKesson Provider Technologies and Health Management Systems on revenue cycle optimization projects.
Rich has also served as President, Secretary, and Board Member of the statewide Chapter of HIMSS in New Jersey.

John Ulett
Sr. Solutions Architect | New Jersey Innovation Institute

John Ulett has been delivering innovative solutions to problems in healthcare for over twenty years. Mr. Ulett has pivoted from the role of hospital Chief Information Officer to focus directly on interoperability, the most important challenge facing all of healthcare today. Utilizing both his healthcare knowledge and his breath of business and technical knowledge he is leading a team of experts in delivering the right data in the right places at the right time.