AVALERE HEALTH - Key Persons
Alessandra Fix supports clients with research and analysis that span a variety of healthcare sectors and stakeholders.
She applies her background in public policy and healthcare communications to a broad range of client projects.
Prior to joining Avalere, Alessandra was a communications assistant with the Massachusetts Essentials for Childhood, supporting the work of a CDC-grant-funded team conducting research on adverse childhood experiences as well as assisting with communications to community partners and the public. Prior, she served as an intern at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where she supported initiatives to build cross-discipline professional capacity around infant and early childhood mental health.
Alessandra has a BS in public health and a minor in sociology from the George Washington University.
Prior to joining Avalere, Alex was director of Digital Analytics at Navigation Arts|EPAM, where he conducted extensive analytics audits, designed and implemented tracking schemas, and worked with clients to develop predictive models and forecasting. Prior to that, Alex was the director of Digital Analytics at Vetstreet|VCA Antech, where he was responsible for providing full life-cycle analytics for various online B2B and B2C properties.
Alex earned an MS in predictive analytics from Northwestern University and a BS in decision science and management information systems from George Mason University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director in Avalere 's Health Economics
She covers health policy, payer coverage and reimbursement, state drug coverage legislation, and provider prescribing behaviors impacting oncology, rare diseases, and diabetes. Amy has 30 years of healthcare experience, including positions as a pharmacist and medical writer, and in drug information, payer coverage and access, and consulting. She serves as a patient advocate on the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) at CMS and on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Pathways.
Her clinical experience began in cancer research, followed by positions in specialty and home infusion pharmacy, leadership roles at clinical and pharmacopeial drug compendia, and industry. She contributed to the initial USP Medicare Model Guidelines, to guide Part D plans in developing and maintaining their drug formularies, and drafting Level I clinical pathways content for US Oncology. Following that, she independently consulted on the impact of clinical drug data on payer coverage and reimbursement, then became a senior consultant for Lash Group Healthcare Consultants and DK Pierce & Associates, Inc. At Resolution Health, Inc., a subsidiary analytics firm under Anthem, Inc., she was the assistant director of Clinical Pharmacy R&D, assessing alignment of claims data to evidence-based clinical guidelines, identifying cost-savings opportunities and safety concerns for members. Amy is the only pharmacist who has contributed to the content of 3 clinical drug compendia (United States Pharmacopeia Drug Information, American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Drugs & Biologics Compendium), recognized by CMS and commercial payers.
She has a BS in science/microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and a BS in pharmacy from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She is a licensed pharmacist and has served as a preceptor to pharmacy students.
Anjali Chhatre provides strategic healthcare advice to life sciences, health plans, and pharmaceutical clients, helping them navigate the complex legislative and regulatory policy environment.
Prior to joining Avalere, Anjali was associate health policy counsel under US Senator Pat Roberts. As an advisor on health policy, Anjali has extensive experience working on issues in and with both the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Finance Committees. She advised on policy issues such as Medicare and Medicaid programs, Food & Drug Administration approval protocols, user fee acts, biosimilar and generic pricing and compliance, and Orange and Purple Book modifications. During her tenure, Anjali was involved in a variety of major legislative efforts, including the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, the Lower Health Care Costs Act, the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019, and the Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020.
Anjali holds an undergraduate degree from Creighton University, a JD from Suffolk University Law School, and an LLM in Health Policy and the Law from Northeastern University School of Law. She is a licensed attorney in the District of Columbia.
Anne supports clients with evidence-based research and analysis that spans healthcare sectors and stakeholders.
With a background in quality improvement and health plan reporting and tracking, she contributes to the development of client analysis and insights.
Prior to joining Avalere, Anne was an administrative intern at UPMC Health Plan, where she established a tracking and reporting system for Medicare Advantage (MA) ESRD discrepancies, developed monthly premium recovery reporting for MA ESRD members, and partnered with Coordination of Benefits to develop a process of claims data sharing to ensure patient care management. Additionally, as a program analyst with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, she provided operational support to the financial services team and produced monthly loan pipeline analyses and forecasting reports for senior management.
Anne has an MSPH from the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health and a BA from Washington University St. Louis.
Ashley Graham focuses on project management and budgetary analysis for large scale data analytics projects.
With her background in project management and clinical research, she brings her skills to assist internal and external clients meet their project timelines and goals.
Prior to joining Avalere, she served as senior manager on the Statistics and Analytics team at Inovalon, where she was responsible for providing management support of internal and external research projects, including assessment of scope, resource requirements, and schedule for completion of research project deliverables. Prior to joining Inovalon, Ashley worked at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she managed a multi-faceted congressionally mandated research study examining outcomes from traumatic brain injuries in service members.
Ashley earned an MS and a BA in psychology from Eastern Washington University. She also is a certified project management professional (PMP).
Bar Stern supports clients with research and analysis that span a variety of healthcare sectors and stakeholders.
Utilizing his background in market access consulting, statistical analysis, and creative problem solving he provides clients with valuable insights.
Prior to joining Avalere, Bar worked at The Dedham Group, a consulting agency specializing in market access in oncology and rare disease spaces. His work focused on the cell and gene therapy space, conducting interviews with key opinion leaders and analyzing data to support the launch of upcoming therapies. He previously worked on his own medical-device start-up that was aimed at improving long-term health for people in wheelchairs by preventing pressure ulcers. Bar worked on the development of the device in the lab, as well as in a more client facing role to understand the customer pain points and how to make sure their device met the market needs.
Bar has a MS and BS in biomedical engineering from Binghamton University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Bethany Houpt supports a variety of healthcare sector clients and stakeholders with research and analysis to understand quality landscapes and healthcare transformation initiatives.
She applies her background in public health and mixed methods research to support clients in a broad range of projects.
Prior to joining Avalere, Bethany was a consultant with the Lewin Group where she provided technical assistance to health plans and providers serving individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, conducted analyses on alternative payment models through qualitative and quantitative methods, and supported learning communities aimed at improving population health.
Bethany holds an MPH focused on maternal and child health and epidemiology from Washington University in St. Louis and a BA in public health and human service studies from Elon University.
Blair Burnett supports clients with research and analysis that span a variety of healthcare sectors and stakeholders.
With experience in provider associations, management consulting, and advocacy groups, she assists clients with analysis on a range of federal health policy topics. Blair has particular expertise in policy issues related to oncology and Medicare Part B.
Prior to joining Avalere, Blair was senior policy analyst at the Association of Community Cancer Centers where she oversaw the legislative and regulatory advocacy priorities at the federal and state level for over 2,500 cancer care programs in the association's membership. Prior to that, Blair was a healthcare analyst with Huron Consulting Group where she assisted clients in care access and revenue cycle projects.
Blair has a BA in public policy with a minor in information science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Brian Cooper advises life sciences clients on commercialization strategies, market access, and the implications of policy developments.
Prior to joining Avalere, Brian held multiple positions at Sanofi and most recently served as the corporate sales lead for Bloomberg Government. At Sanofi, Brian managed the diabetes portfolio with several customer segments in the Washington, DC, area and developed messaging strategies to communicate the organization's position on the Affordable Care Act. At Bloomberg Government, Brian launched and led business development of an innovative government information solution to executives and policy professionals in the healthcare community.
Brian holds a BS in business communications and journalism from the University of Kansas.
Brigit Kyei-Baffour advises clients on issues related to market access policy and reimbursement strategies for digital health, diagnostic, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies.
She helps clients design and optimize patient support services, assess the impact of social determinants of health on specific patient populations, and evaluate market dynamics shaping coverage, coding, and reimbursement throughout a product's life cycle via primary and secondary research. Her work spans life sciences, medical device, diagnostic, and digital health clients.
Prior to joining Avalere, Brigit held consulting roles at The Lewin Group where she managed project tasks related to Medicare's Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model and Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative, and at Covance Market Access Services working with the Access and Commercial Strategy practice.
Brigit holds an MBA in health management and policy from the George Washington University School of Business and a BS in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Brook supports clients with evidence-based research and analysis that spans healthcare sectors and stakeholders, contributing to the development of client analysis and insights.
Brook's experience covers research and internship positions, including a study on the impact of tobacco advertising that tracked and analyzed social media interactions and coinciding market trends. At Free At Last: Community Recovery and Rehabilitation, she created and delivered HIV/AIDS training for internal delivery, wrote grant proposals, and produced material for the organization's website. Additionally, as a leader in the Health Advocacy Program, she developed interactive lesson plans on nutrition for elementary-school-aged children and researched healthy food alternatives for low-income children.
Brook has a BA in human biology from Stanford University.
Brooke Fruman supports clients with research and analysis that span a variety of healthcare stakeholders.
She applies her background in health policy and public health to assist clients as they strategize marketplace and policy decisions.
Prior to joining Avalere, Brooke held a variety of internship positions, most recently as a health policy associate at the Maryland General Assembly. In this position, Brooke conducted extensive research on health policy legislation in Maryland and evaluated the impact of policies that were established in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, focusing on telehealth services. Additionally, Brooke has also held positions as a consulting services intern at RAINN and as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
Brooke has a BS in community health and an MPH with a concentration in health policy analysis and evaluation from the University of Maryland.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Health Plan Sales
Bryan Mowell leads Avalere's Health Plan, Provider, Pharmacy & Digital Health Client Solutions Team and advises clients on corporate strategy & operations, market strategy, data analytics, policy implications, quality/value, performance, and payer engagement.
Bryan has over 15 years of leadership experience spanning different industries including human capital management, employee managed spend and medication management. Prior to joining Avalere Health, he led strategic business units at Automatic Data Processing for 12 years, at SAP Concur for 3 years, and at DrFirst for 1 year.
Bryan holds a BS in kinesiological sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Job Titles:
- Senior Talent Acquisition Partner
Camille Mundell is excited to be supporting Avalere in full life-cycle recruitment of talent acquisition.
With more than 7 years of recruiting experience, she has experience with full life-cycle recruiting including sourcing, interviewing, filling technical and specialized SME roles. She provides guidance and direction to internal clients on talent acquisition and candidate engagement.
Prior to joining Avalere, Camille was with Inovalon for 4 years where she supported both field and corporate recruitment. In addition, she supported the legal department in preparing and filing legal documents and their immigration process. Also, she assisted in HR functions including employee relations and administration.
Camille has a BA in sociology from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
Chani S. Seals, JD, is a committed healthcare consulting professional with over a decade of progressive leadership in healthcare advocacy, regulatory development, and strategy and operations consulting.
Her work spans federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and healthcare-focused corporations.
Chani supports clients with regulatory and legal strategic consultation that includes providing guidance and analysis on operational impact and contractual risk assessments. Her experience includes government affairs, disability advocacy, administrative law, appeals management, and audit and operational compliance as a senior healthcare consultant. Most recently, she served as a senior appeals and regulatory consultant and trusted advisor with a consulting firm with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Center for Program Integrity as her primary client. During her tenure, she developed CMS operational guidance, provided training, managed risk adjustment data validation appeals, consulted with the Department of Justice and Office of the General Counsel on impending litigation, and drafted the impending risk adjustment data validation rule addressing payment methodology.
At Avalere, she has used her foundational knowledge and transferable skills to provide research and strategic guidance to life science companies. She provides support to companies who are interested in the impact and intersection of federal and state policies and regulations on corporate policy initiatives, health equity, and operational and technical process efficiencies. She is equipped with a perspective that helps her develop strategic solutions for complex Medicare and Medicaid payment related issues, corporate regulatory impact, and corporate operations and compliance.
Chani is an honors graduate of The Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and also a graduate of The Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist
Katie Turner supports the marketing team, leveraging multiple communication channels to execute Avalere's outreach and content strategy and promote advisory services and products.
Job Titles:
- Senior Sales Lead Manager
Job Titles:
- Health Policy Research Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Senior Systems Administrator
Ryan Urgo - Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Consultant in Avalere 's Market Access
Job Titles:
- Junior Project Accountant