Joseph G. Gaudio, C.P.A.
Joe brings a diverse managed care and financial background to his current role as CEO of
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Arizona. Joe began his career with UnitedHealth Group in
1998 serving as Chief Financial Officer of United Healthcare of Arizona, and as West Region and
Public Sector CFO for United Healthcare. Subsequent roles included Vice President of
Affordability for UnitedHealthcare National Accounts and Central Region CFO for
UnitedHealthcare Community & State.
Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Joe served as Chief
Financial Officer of Arizona Physicians IPA, Inc., a Medicaid managed care organization. Joe is a
Certified Public Accountant who began his career with Arthur Andersen & Company in the Audit
Division after attaining his B.S., Accounting, from Arizona State University, magna cum laude, in
1987. In 2004, Joe was one of 35 employees selected annually to participate in
UnitedHealthcare’s President’s Leadership Development Program and in 2011 Joe was selected
to participate in UnitedHealth Group’s General Manager Program. In April, 2017, at the annual
UnitedHealthcare Community & State CEO Forum, Joe was honored as the CEO of the Year and
at the Community & State CEO Forum in 2018, the Arizona Community & State Health Plan was
the recipient of the Health Plan Achievement Award, Large Health Plan category.
Jim Milanowski
Jim Milanowski has over 22 years' experience in the management of mental health, substance abuse, behavioral health managed care and medical care coverage programs. Mr. Milanowski currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Genesee Health Plan (GHP), administering a community based indigent health care plan. The health plan has covered over 70,000 Genesee County residents since 2001. Since the start of enrollment into Affordable Care Act in 2013, GHP has conducted outreach and enrollment sessions with over 15,000 Genesee County residents. The health plan received the 2015 Pinnacle Award from the Michigan Association of Health Plans for this effort.
As a strong advocate, his expertise includes working to reduce racial disparities, uncompensated care, and the impact of chronic disease. During his leadership, Genesee Health Plan has received the national quality award from URAC for Best Practices in Patient Empowerment and Protection, the Greater Flint Labor Council's Community Partnership Award and the Robert M. Pestronk Excellence in Public Health Award. He is a founding member of the Health Net Collaborative, and a member of the Greater Flint Health Coalition Access, Dental and Medical Group Visit Committees. He is the Treasurer of the Michigan Association of County Health Plans and is on the Board of Directors for the Genesee Community Health Center.
Mr. Milanowski received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Spring Arbor University and his Master's of Science degree in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Michigan University. He is a limited-licensed psychologist in the state of Michigan, and has extensive counseling experience with adult, child, and adolescent populations.
Karyn Wills, M.D.
Dr. Karyn Wills is the Chief Medical Officer of Trusted Health Plan, District of Columbia, a
Medicaid MCO and brings over 26 years of clinical and managed care experience. She is
responsible for all components of the medical management operations at Trusted Health Plan,
District of Columbia. Dr. Wills help develops clinical programs for populations to improve their
health outcomes and improve the member experience. She has developed, implemented,
support, and promoted population health strategies and tactics, policies and programs that
drive the delivery of high-value healthcare. These strategies, policies, and programs comprise of
care management, utilization management, quality improvement and network management.
She is well versed in data analytics to evaluate population health outcomes and medical cost
drivers.
Before joining Trusted Health Plan, District of Columbia, she was a medical director at Aetna and
has commercial and Medicare experience. She supported many initiatives and provided clinical
expertise and business direction in support of medical management programs through active
collaboration and participation in clinical team activities.
Dr. Wills is a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine, board certified in Emergency
Medicine and a Certified Health Insurance eExecutive through American Health Insurance Plans.
She completed the graduate certificate program in Population Health at Thomas Jefferson
University.
Stacey Staudenmeier, MSW, LSW, MHA
As the Associate Vice President of Behavioral Health and Health Choices for Geisinger Health Plan, Stacey Staudenmeier is responsible for the oversight of the Behavioral Health Care Management, Special Needs Unit and Community Health Assistant program within Population Health. Stacey’s team focuses on high risk women’s and pediatrics, coordination of physical health and behavioral health, and addressing Social Determinants of Health to improve access and quality of health care. Stacey joined Geisinger Health Plan in 2013 as the Behavioral Health Coordinator and in 2015 joined the Population Health team. Prior to joining Geisinger, Stacey worked for a Pennsylvania Behavioral Health Managed Care Organization as a Senior Care Manager for 4+ years and has an additional 8 years’ experience working in Behavioral Health with over half of that time providing direct patient care as well as management and oversight in an Outpatient setting. Stacey is a graduate of the Temple University School of Social Work Master’s Program and currently holds a Pennsylvania Social Work License. Additionally, Stacey holds a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from Saint Joseph’s University.
Denise Kress M.S., APN, BC, CHIE
Denise is an accomplished Healthcare executive with over 35 years of experience in healthcare
delivery specializing in the fields of geriatrics and physical rehabilitation. Denise has practiced as
a Nurse Practitioner in a variety of settings: developing, implementing clinical programs and
providing primary care to multi-morbid older adults in both community and inpatient post-acute
settings.
She has been employed within the Senor Products division of Tufts Health Plan for the past 19
years collaborating with providers and internal plan stakeholders to develop and implement
clinical programs and interventions to improve quality while reducing avoidable cost and
utilization. Her most recent areas of focus include:
• Providing clinical and business insights and expertise to the cross functional THP Senior
Products Provider Performance team in assessing the financial, utilization and quality
performance of all contracted provider organizations. Accountable for achieving performance
results in value-based contract arrangements by developing meaningful collaborative
relationships, engaging, influencing and supporting the group/IDN providers and care
management team.
• Leveraging clinical, cost, utilization data to identify specific opportunities for improvement
and making recommendations for interventions to reduce unnecessary utilization while
improving the health outcomes of chronic, complex and frail members. Consulting, advising and
collaborating with providers and THP staff to develop and support implementation of high
impact interventions, strategies, programs and models of care to achieve desired outcomes
within specific risk bearing practice/group/IDN as well as alternative approaches for providers
on early path to risk.
• Developing and documenting processes, protocols, best practices and interventions for
effective provider organization population health and care management performance.
• Advising and participating in identification and assessment process of Medical Cost and
Innovation team on potential programs, vendors, services, technology and interventions
designed to improve care and reduce medical cost
Tonya Perry
Tonya Perry is the Associate Vice President of Integrated Care at CareSource. She leads the design and implementation of clinical care management programs for the MyCare Waiver, Home and Community Based Waiver and Specialized Recovery Services Program. She has also been responsible for the design and implementation of a duals demonstration in a large national health plan. Tonya has built strong clinical and operational teams and collaborative partnerships with the Area Agencies on Aging and other community partners to positively impact the health and quality of life of vulnerable populations. She has twenty years of combined Social Work and Nursing experience in Long Term Services and Support settings including acute care, nursing facility and home and community based settings. Tonya is a graduate of Hocking College and Ohio University and lives near Buckeye Lake in southcentral Ohio near her six children and three grandchildren.
Amy Riegel
Amy Riegel is the Director of Housing at CareSource. She plays an integral role in designing a new division of CareSource, Life Services, which addresses the Social Determinants of Health. In this position she is focused on creating innovative and sustainable approaches to integrating health and housing. She is focused on building collaborative partnerships to address affordable housing through development, financing, and policy with an emphasis on improving health outcomes. Prior to joining CareSource, Amy lead Community Development efforts for ten years providing policy leadership in the areas of housing development, asset based community development, education, and homelessness reduction. During this time she oversaw the administration of over $200 million dollars in HUD funding and used forward thinking strategies to provide a 3:1 leverage with private, local and state dollars. She works tirelessly for the underserved within the community. She has served on numerous Boards within Ohio and nationally that are focused on poverty elimination, affordable housing, and neighborhood revitalization. Amy is a graduate of Wright State University. She is proud to live in Dayton, Ohio with her husband and three young daughters.
Camilla Lettini, LCSW
Camilla Lettini is relatively new to CenCal Health, joining the organization in March of 2018.
She is an Adult Case Management Social Worker, and brings a vast array of experience with her.
Most recently, she was a social service program lead in an ICU Adult Psychiatric unit in Ventura,
CA. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and has background and
training in Drug and Alcohol Counseling. Additionally, she holds an MSW from University of
Southern CA with a Mental Health concentration and holds an LCSW issued by the California
Board of Behavioral Sciences. Camilla has over 10 years of clinical experience working with
substance abuse, and has also provided clinical supervision to MSW students during their field
placement. She has enjoyed collaborating with members on care plans with concrete goals and
interventions. She is currently responsible for the case management of CenCal Health plan
members who struggle with complex psychosocial challenges that are exacerbated by physical
health challenges. She recently has participated in a care transition project, which led to the
formulation of the Care Transition care plan.
Robert Janeway
Robert has been the Provider Contracts Manager for CenCal Health since 2017. His role includes facilitating provider network development, value-based payment design, financial and utilization analytics, and program development. He has spent over a dozen years working in both the private and public health sectors. Previously, Robert worked in private facility and practice management, overseeing managed care contracting, revenue cycle management, and State and CMS advocacy work for a client base including ambulatory surgery centers, private specialty care, physical therapy practice, and diagnostic imaging. He enjoys board service with a local mental health and social service nonprofit organization, volunteering with other local nonprofits, and public committee service. Robert is a proud alum of the University of California Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies, and a recent alum of Santa Barbara’s Katherine Harvey Fellows program for community leadership.
Cindy Colligan, RN, BSN, MBA, CCM
Cindy Colligan, RN, BSN, MBA, CCM, is a Certified Nurse Case Manager (CCM). Currently she is the Director of Clinical Care Services, Government Programs, for Optima Health in Virginia Beach, VA. Her responsibilities include managing teams that include: Preauthorization, Appeals & Complaints, and Integrated Case Management for Government Programs. Cindy holds a Bachelors' of Science in Nursing from Old Dominion University, as well as Masters' of Business Administration from Averitt University. Her leadership experience includes Home Health, Home Infusion and a variety of Health Plan roles. She started her career in the United States Army as a Pediatric Nurse for 4 years active duty.
Shelley L. Grimm, BSN, MBA
Shelley L. Grimm, BSN, MBA, is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business. She is the Director of Product Strategy and Innovation at Gateway Health where she manages a team of Clinical Specialists who design programs and interventions to meet the needs of members with complex medical, behavioral and psychosocial needs. Shelley has over 20 years’ experience in disease management, population health, program development and project management.
Cheryl L. Holtzman
Cheryl L. Holtzman, MSW, LSW, is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh-School of Social
Work. She is the manager of the Perinatal Case Management Team with Gateway Health’s
Special Needs Unit. She manages a team of both clinical and non-clinical staff who work directly
with Gateway’s maternity population, in addressing the Behavioral, Economic, Environmental,
Medical, Social and Spiritual needs of individual members and connecting them to appropriate
medical or community supports. She also assists with program implementation of new
programming, and interventions. Additionally, she is an adjunct member/manager of the
Pediatric Shift Care Team at Gateway Health. Cheryl has over 15 years’ experience working in
hospital settings (OB/NICU), behavioral health and substance use disorder, early intervention
and in the child welfare system.
Melanie Cavaliere
Melanie Cavaliere serves as the Chief of Innovative Care Delivery at the Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC). Melanie has over twenty years of professional experience in health care policy and employee benefits consulting. Current projects include designing and implementing statewide practice transformation efforts in Maryland for primary care and specialty practices. Melanie previously worked as a Vice President at Discern Consulting in Baltimore, Maryland where she developed and implemented PCMH and ACO incentive plan and reward programs and Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) strategies. Melanie has also held consulting positions at Mercer and Aon. Melanie received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from West Virginia University.
Karissa Smith, LPC, CADC I
Karissa Smith, LPC, CADC I is the Senior Operations Manager and leads the Regional Care Teams who provide care coordination services to CareOregon’s most vulnerable and underserved members. overseeing the care coordination functions for CareOregon. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor within the state of Oregon. Karissa received her BS in Psychology from Oregon State University and her MA in Marriage and Family Therapy from George Fox University. Over the past 12 years Karissa has worked with individuals of all ages and in a variety of settings within the healthcare field including residential substance use treatment, outpatient individual and family therapy, crisis services, and behavioral health care coordination. She enjoys working collaboratively with teams to develop and implement processes that reduce barriers to care and promote effective efficient systems.
Summer Sweet
Summer Sweet is the Triage and Data Integration Manager of Population Health at CareOregon.
Summer received her BS in both Neuroscience and Psychology from Washington State
University in Pullman, Washington. She was a recipient of Psychology Dean’s Research
Scholarship to develop and support a Longitudinal Study of Decision Making with persons
diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease led by Dr. Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe and continued to
support the project as a post graduate. Summer has a broad knowledge base from her diverse
experience across the spectrum of healthcare. She has experience in direct patient care,
customer service, billing and coding, insurance, care coordination and technical systems. She
has a unique understanding about how to integrate systems, assist with data analysis, and
coordinate care. She is extremely passionate about the healthcare service industry and utilizing
the technological tools available to improve process, reduce cost and utilization impacting our
most vulnerable and underrepresented populations.
Julie Scott RN, MSN
Julie Scott received her BSN from the University of TN at Chattanooga in 2000 and her Masters in Science in Nursing concentration in Family Practice in 2003. She has over 15 years’ experience in Oncology in the clinical setting and in Clinical Trials. Julie has been with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee for over 3 years as a Nurse Supervisor in the Patient Centered Medical Home Program. In this role, Julie assists in the oversight of 13 RN and LPN PCMH Care Coordinators and provides Quality Data Review to identity areas of opportunity for Family Practice/Internal Medicine Practices as it relates to their clinical quality scores as well as operational processes to improve their overall quality scores – concentrating on Primary Care measures.
Ashley N. Davis, MSN, RN
Ashley Davis is a Registered Nurse from East Tennessee with 12 years of nursing experience.
She started her nursing career in 2007 as a Licensed Practical Nurse and in 2010 she obtained
her Associates Degree in Nursing from Roane State Community College. In 2016, she graduated
from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a Masters of Science in Nursing with a
concentration in Nursing Administration. She has a diverse healthcare background which
includes emergency medicine, coordinated school health, and population health care
coordination.
Davis has been employed with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee for 3.5 years and currently
serves as the Nursing Supervisor in the East TN Region for the Patient-Centered Medical Home
Program. In this role, Ashley assists with the oversight, direction, and quality data review of RN
and LPN PCMH Care Coordinators, of which are embedded within Primary Care Practices.
Ashley is married to her husband Nathan of 12 years with one son, Greyson. She resides in rural
East Tennessee where she enjoys travel, music, the outdoors, and spending time with her
family.
Jose Diaz-Luna, PharmD, RPh
Jose Diaz-Luna is the Corporate Director of Pharmacy at Trusted Health Plan in Washington, DC. He received his pharmacy degree from St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions. Jose is a proud veteran of the US Army Medical Corps. During his career Jose has worked in both clinical and managerial positions as Pharmacist in Charge, Pharmacy District Manager, and Director of Pharmacy. Jose has practice pharmacy in a varied setting including hospital, retail, long term care, compounding and managed care. Jose is also Adjunct Faculty at Howard University College of Pharmacy. Jose was selected as the Howard University Administrative APPE Preceptor of the year in 2015 and received the Washington DC Pharmacy Association Excellence in Innovation award in October 2015. Jose is an active member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy and the American Society of Consultant Pharmacies.
Gary Melis R.Ph.
Gary Melis is a Clinical Pharmacist for the past six years at Network Health, a local
health insurance provider in Northeast and Southeast Wisconsin. He is currently one of
two pharmacists involved making MTM calls in-house. His responsibilities also involve
NCQA, pharmacy appeals, P&T Committee, Member and Provider relations.
Gary’s also has experience as pharmacy manager for a national long term care company,
pharmacy manager for retail pharmacy chain, and Pharmacy Director for a National
Health Care provider. He has also been a pharmacy instructor at local medical college
family practice clinic.
Saeed Aminzadeh
Saeed founded Decision Point with the mission of improving health plan clinical, financial and operational performance through informed, data-driven predictions on strategic decisions. He has more than 25 years of health information technology experience, with a track record of developing innovative approaches to solve complex business problems. He has held key senior management positions at Eliza Corporation, Ingenix (currently Optum), IHCIS and ProVentive, where led high-performing teams focused creative uses of technology for practical problem- solving. Saeed is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Economics.
Elizabeth Lagone
Elizabeth Lagone is the Vice President of Government Programs at CipherHealth. In this role, she oversees strategy and partnerships with health systems across the U.S. participating in Medicaid 1115 Waiver programs and focusing on high-risk populations. Prior to joining CipherHealth in 2017, Elizabeth both served as the DSRIP Director of Primary Care Strategy and Improvement and the Director of the Medicaid Health Home Program for New York City's public hospital system. She has over 10 years of experience working within health systems, with a focus on strategy and innovation addressing the unique needs of vulnerable and complex patients, care management, and the integration of primary care and behavioral health services. Elizabeth earned her Masters in Public Health from Columbia University.
Joseph Jasser, MD
As Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Complex Care Management, Dr. Joseph Jasser is responsible for overseeing the complex care management program at Signify Health. Prior to Signify Health, he served as president of Humana’s Care Delivery Organization, where he was responsible for a $3.3B integrated clinical delivery system and oversaw all of the ambulatory clinics, population health management department, physician recruitment and retention, and organizational alignment across multiple constituents. Jasser also served as the President and CEO of Dignity Health Medical Foundation, where he was responsible for the strategic design and implementation of the ambulatory clinical infrastructure and network for each of Dignity Health’s service areas, with focus on implementation and clinical integration with IPAs, CI Networks, and physician groups and was responsible for the strategic design and implementation of clinical growth, patient engagement initiatives, physician engagement initiatives, and clinical improvement programs.