CONTEXTURE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Customer Operations & Service Management Team
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- VP, Analytics Services and Finance Data & Analytics, Kaiser Permanente
Alexis Sgouros is vice president of analytics service delivery. He leads the IT organization's analytics delivery team, which supports enterprise analytic platforms and tools, as well as develops and maintains key data assets for the analytic community. He partners with the health plan and care delivery technology services in engaging with stakeholders across the organization, as well as with the chief data office and digital team to align on data technology strategy for Kaiser Permanente.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Spectrum Healthcare
- Chairman of the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers
April currently serves as chair for the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers board of directors, Yavapai County Board of Health and the Prevent Child Abuse AZ board of directors. April is considered a subject matter expert on topics relating to leadership, whole person healthcare, value-based purchasing, access to care and community-based services.
Job Titles:
- President & CEO, Solvista Behavioral Health
- President and Chief Executive Officer for Solvista Health
Brian Turner is the president and chief executive officer for Solvista Health, the nonprofit community mental health center providing integrated mental health, substance use and primary care in Lake, Chaffee, Custer and Fremont counties in Colorado. Prior to this role, Brian served as deputy director for the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, the statewide advocacy organization for community behavioral health, where he directed a range of programs and efforts focused on strengthening services, increasing funding and improving outcomes for behavioral health in Colorado.
He's dedicated to advancing purpose-driven, nonprofit organizations and initiatives and has held roles as president for the Colorado Public Health Association, director of Mental Health First Aid Colorado and development director for an international NGO working in education.
Born and raised in Colorado, Brian earned his undergraduate degree in business from the University of Colorado - Boulder and a Master's of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health - Anschutz. Brian and his wife, Sara, an ICU nurse, are parents to two young adventurers and making the most of living in beautiful Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Cabinet Executive Officer and Executive Deputy Director, AHCCCS
- Executive Officer and Executive Deputy Director of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
Carmen Heredia serves as the Cabinet Executive Officer and Executive Deputy Director of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), Arizona's Medicaid and CHIP Program, overseeing the provision of acute, behavioral health, and long-term care services; they support more than 2.5 million Arizona residents at an annual cost of $22 billion. Throughout her career, Ms. Heredia has passionately advocated for access to quality health care and education for underserved populations. Directly prior to joining AHCCCS, Ms. Heredia was the CEO of Valle del Sol, a provider organization delivering integrated behavioral health and primary care health as a federally qualified health center and a federally certified community behavioral health center. Ms. Heredia has served on a variety of government task forces and boards, including St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers, the Center for the Future of Arizona, the Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers, National Council of Behavioral Health, the Phoenix Community Development and Investment Corporation, Contexture Health Information Exchange, and the ASU College of Health Solutions. She is a 2021 Virginia G. Piper Fellow and an alum of the Hispanic Leadership Institute. Ms. Heredia holds a master's degree in social work from Arizona State University with a concentration in planning and administration.
Job Titles:
- CAO, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing
- Deputy Chief of Staff for the Department of Health Care Policy
Chris Underwood serves as the deputy chief of staff for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. He joined the department in 2000 as a statistical analyst. During his time with the department, Chris has held leadership positions in various areas, including developing strategies for systems development and operations for client eligibility, health care claims processing, and health information technology. Previously, he had oversight of the various safety net programs, and projects to maximize federal Medicaid revenue.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief
- Information Officer
- Member of the Data Management Team
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
- Information Technology Professionals
Expertise: Health IT, strategic planning, security risk assessments, capabilities-based planning, data security, project management, executive IT leadership
Deanna Towne oversees Contexture's team of information technology professionals, as well as the development of new products to meet the needs of the Colorado and Arizona healthcare communities. All of Contexture's vast IT functions fall within the CIO's purview -- including network support, security, system administration, server management, data management, development, project implementation and management, and security. She oversees all IT systems required to support Contextures' objectives and goals, as well as leads the digital transformation of the organization.
She joined CORHIO, Colorado's largest health information exchange, as CIO in 2019. In 2021, CORHIO formalized a merger with Health Current, Arizona's HIE, to become Contexture and Deanna assumed the CIO role for the larger organization.
Prior to Contexture, Deanna was the deputy chief customer officer and IT director for the Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology. She has also served as the budget director for the Colorado Department of Revenue and the deputy director of the Colorado Governor's Office of Homeland Security.
Deanna received her MBA and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree from Regis University in economics and politics. She also graduated from the Executive Leaders Program for the Center of Homeland Defense and Security and completed coursework for a Certificate in Public Administration from the University of Colorado. She's also an EMC Certified Expert Cloud Architect and brings Lean/Six Sigma training to her role.
She resides in Castle Rock, Colorado, with her husband, Marc, and young son. In her free time, she loves being outside and spending time with family, including a family dinner every Sunday night. In August 2022, Deanna was honored as CIO of the Year in the Corporate category of the ORBIE awards.
Dr. Donald Kane, FAAP, is the chief medical informatics officer for Dignity Health in Arizona and Nevada. In this capacity, he oversees the clinical IT systems used by physicians, advanced practice practitioners, resident physicians and all other clinical staff. Donald is also an assistant professor of clinical informatics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. His primary board certification is in pediatrics from the American Board of Pediatrics, secondarily certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in clinical informatics.
Donald is a graduate of Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center. He completed his training in pediatrics at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. While in clinical practice, he served on active duty in the Air Force for three years at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. After completing his active duty tour, he practiced as a pediatric hospitalist and then as an attending physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Tucson Medical Center.
His informatics career began in 2006 when he joined Cerner Corp. He continued that work with Tenet Health and joined Dignity Health in 2015. In Arizona, Donald participates on the clinical advisory board for Contexture and is actively involved in interoperability around HIE technology for Dignity Health.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Addiction Medicine for SummitStone Health Partners
Dr. Lesley Brooks serves as the Chief of Addiction Medicine for SummitStone Health Partners and as the Assistant Medical Director for the North Colorado Health Alliance in northern Colorado. Dr. Brooks, a board-certified family physician, has practiced full-scope family medicine including prenatal care, chronic pain, and substance use disorder/addiction in northern Colorado for more than a decade. Since her transition to SummitStone Health Partners in 2020, she specializes in substance use and mental health. As the Chief of Addiction Medicine at SummitStone, Dr. Brooks leads the design, development and implementation of Larimer County's Behavioral Health Services facility, which is set to be open in 2023.
Dr. Mark Radlauer is a 30-year emergency physician and clinical informaticist. He's the chief medical information officer for the HCA Continental Division and medical director, informatics, for the 600-member CarePoint provider group.
Mark's focus is providing clinical perspective and input on various information technology-related programs within HCA regionally and nationally, and driving successful, clinically nuanced implementations. He's particularly interested in improving and maintaining clinician efficiency, which he feels is a significant quality driver. To achieve this, he strives to collaboratively engage clinicians, IT organizations, business leaders and vendors in the organization's planning, development, communication and implementation processes.
Job Titles:
- Application Development & Support
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer for the United Healthcare Community Plan
- COO, UHC Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare
Heidi Kemmer has been the chief operating officer for the United Healthcare Community Plan in Arizona since April 2020. She's a seasoned managed care executive with over 25 years in the industry, holding a number of positions in network contracting and provider service, operations, and health plan leadership. This includes serving as regional contract and area manager for John Deere Health, vice president of operations and executive director for the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan in Tennessee, national director, community and state provider experience leading several national initiatives impacting provider service and operations; and director, west region operations supporting UnitedHealthcare Community Plans in Hawaii, Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona with operations oversight and regulatory change management.
She received her bachelor's degree from Wichita State University in Kansas and a dual-degree master's in business (MBA) and healthcare administration from the University of Iowa. Heidi is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, is active in her local church and community, and enjoys supporting Arizona sports teams. Heidi and her husband, Karl, have lived in Phoenix since 2014, after relocating from Tennessee.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Data Quality & Management Team
- Accounting
Job Titles:
- Member of the Data Management Team
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Communications
Kelly Joines - Chief Strategy Officer
Expertise: Operations management, IT strategy, healthcare and enterprise architecture
Kelly Joines is responsible for furthering the overall vision and mission of the company, focusing on conceptualizing and formulating strategic initiatives that further that mission and make sure that the day-to-day activities of the company support those initiatives.
She ventured into CORHIO, Colorado's largest HIE, during its 2009 inception, driving IT operations and becoming the chief information officer. She eventually assumed the role of CORHIO's chief strategy officer, with the goal of improving healthcare in Colorado through HIE. After a decade of consistent growth, CORHIO announced plans to merge with Health Current, Arizona's HIE, forming the regional organization Contexture in 2021, with Kelly leading the merger integration activities. As chief strategy officer, she serves on Contexture's executive leadership team.
Prior to CORHIO/Contexture, Kelly worked as an IT and management consultant. She has considerable systems development, implementation and operations experience across multiple industries, as well as large scale IT project and program management expertise. Kelly received her Bachelor of Science in information systems from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Her extracurricular activities include gardening, hiking, paddleboarding, yoga and world travel with her husband. She's a devout foodie and speaks fluent German.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Customer Operations & Service Management Team
- Contracts & Grants Administration
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Valleywise Health
Kelly Summers is a senior vice president and chief information officer of Valleywise Health (FKA the Maricopa Integrated Health System). He has more than 20 years of transformational senior IT leadership experience and a track record of producing innovative technology solutions and capabilities.
As CIO, Kelly leads the definition, creation and execution of Valleywise Health's information technology strategies, ensuring alignment to the clinical and business strategies of Valleywise Health. In addition to IT responsibilities, He also provides executive leadership to the clinical engineering/bio-med functions. His passion is to drive the effectiveness of Valleywise Health's technology portfolio toward industry leading solutions improving the quality, predictability and efficiency of patient care.
Before joining Valleywise Health, Kelly was vice president, information technology, and CIO for Medicis, a leading publicly traded specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, he was a senior IT executive for St. Jude Medical, a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar medical device company where he was initially the vice president and CIO of their largest division (> $3 billion annual revenue) and ultimately was a corporate vice president responsible for global IT shared services across the enterprise.
Kelly began his career in software development with Goodyear Aerospace, where he was part of a highly classified Air Force program developing high-altitude electronic intelligence (ELINT) and reconnaissance mission planning software applications.
He holds undergraduate degrees in business administration and computer information systems and is recognized by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives as a certified healthcare CIO.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Mercy Care
- Mercy Care CEO
Lorry Bottrill, Mercy Care CEO, has been a leader in Arizona's healthcare community for more than 25 years. Mercy Care serves more than 425,000 Medicaid and Medicare Dual SNP members throughout Arizona and manages six contracts serving as the Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Maricopa County and the sole health plan for children in the child welfare system. Prior to her role as CEO, Lorry served as Mercy Care's chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
Lorry is a Certified Public Accountant. She earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Arizona. In the community, Lorry has served on the board of directors for the Desert Southwest Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation since 2011 and is currently the vice-chair. She's a board member for Contexture, Arizona's health information exchange, and for the Foundation for Senior Living. Lorry also chairs the Arizona Association of Health Plans.
In 2019, Lorry was recognized by the Arizona Capitol Times through the Women Achievers of Arizona award. She was named one of Arizona's Most Influential Women in Business by Phoenix Business Journal in 2017. Lorry was also awarded the Aetna Chairman's award in 2016. Teen Lifeline honored her with the 2021 Alfredo J. Molina Community Lifeline Award for her extraordinary efforts over the past 25 years in supporting the healthcare needs of her community.
Expertise: Health policy and finance, data analytics, strategic planning, legislation and regulation
Matthew Isiogu leads Contexture's initiatives to develop breakthrough innovations and business strategies that leverage data and technology to support value-based care, advance health equity and control costs.
In a variety of public administration and healthcare management roles, he's led strategic planning and financial management for organizations adapting to growth and change, including during the Great Recession, implementing the Affordable Care Act and responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Before joining Contexture in 2021, Matthew served as assistant director for finance and data at the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona's Medicaid agency serving 2.2 million members with an annual budget of $18 billion. At AHCCCS, he oversaw actuarial analysis, data analytics, reimbursement rates and budget. Previously, Matthew managed human services programs at the Arizona Department of Economic Security. In Michigan, he served in the governor's State Budget Office and as assistant to the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Matthew is a 2016 Fellow of the Flinn-Brown Civic Leadership Academy. He received his Bachelor of Arts in political theory and social policy from James Madison College at Michigan State University. His volunteer work includes project coaching for fellows from Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo and Zambia through the Mandela Washington Fellowship program.
Expertise: Health policy, health information exchange, social determinants of health and interoperability
Through Melissa's vision and leadership, Contexture is celebrated as a collaborative partner of hospitals and health systems, health plans, healthcare providers, healthcare associations and other stakeholders.
In 2007, Melissa joined Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHeC) as an associate director before assuming the role of CEO in 2010. In 2014, AzHeC merged with the statewide HIE, Health Information Network of Arizona (HINAz) and in 2017, the organization became Health Current. In 2020, Health Current announced it would join CORHIO, the largest Colorado HIE, forming the regional HIE Contexture in 2021.
Prior to joining Contexture, Melissa worked as a consultant and health policy analyst at Deloitte Consulting. She holds a Master of Public Health in health policy from The George Washington University and Bachelor of Arts from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Melissa serves on many boards and advisory councils, most notably on the Board of Civitas Networks for Health - a national collaborative of HIEs and other health data stakeholders. Melissa serves as a Civitas Networks for Health board member and was the inaugural board chair from 2021 to 2023. She also serves as a member of the Consortium for State and Regional Interoperability (CSRI) Board of Directors, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Americas Advisory Board, the Employers Council Board of Directors, the Arizona State Medicaid Advisory Committee and the Advisory Council of Solari Crisis & Human Services.
Melissa enjoys spending time with her family, especially on off-road and fishing adventures throughout Arizona, and keeps an impressive catalog of those memories thanks to her love of photography.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Data Management Team
- Compliance & in - House Counsel
Job Titles:
- Member of the Data Quality & Management Team
Patrick Guffey is an associate professor of anesthesiology and practices pediatric and obstetric anesthesia. He's chief medical information officer at Children's Hospital Colorado, as well as performance improvement and informatics officer at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado. Patrick also serves as medical director of perioperative performance improvement and manages the quality programs for Perioperative Services and the Colorado Fetal Care Center.
Patrick is board certified in clinical informatics, the chair of Epic system's steering board for pediatric anesthesiology and president of the Colorado Chapter of the Health Information Management Systems Society. Patrick's work with Epic centers on the use of perioperative protocols to improve safety and outcomes. He also partners with Epic, GE Healthcare, Codonics and Omnicell to improve interoperability and decrease medical errors. Patrick serves as the medical director of the Anesthesia Quality Institute's Patient Safety Organization, where he helped develop the first national specialty specific reporting system for adverse events.
He's also a member of the Children's Hospital Association's Patient Safety Team. His research interests center on application of the electronic health record and clinical informatics to improve quality, safety and outcomes. Patrick is particularly interested in using Lean principles, informatics and strong safety cultures to drive highly reliable patient care.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
- CIO, Colorado Access
Paula Kautzmann, chief information officer, is responsible for managing the development and execution of the IT direction of Colorado Access, including providing vision and leadership for corporate IT operations and infrastructure and for developing and implementing an IT strategy that supports company growth and strategic initiatives.
Paula's experience includes more than two decades in the Medicaid health plan space, where she created and maintained a successful IT program that met the regulatory, financial viability and quality requirements of the plan.
Prior to joining Colorado Access, Paula served as the chief information officer at Upper Peninsula Health Plan in Marquette, Michigan, a company for which she worked for more than 20 years. While there, Paula led all IT operations for the health plan, managed multi-million dollar budgets and created or improved processes that brought great value to the company. As such, Paula was awarded accolades from the board of directors for "Creative and Innovative Use of Technology to Propel Cost-Effective Business Expansion for the Health Plan" during the plan's formative years. Paula excels at building strong internal and external partnerships and successfully identifies new areas of business expansion leveraging technology solutions.
Paula received her bachelor's degree in computer network and systems administration from Michigan Technological University.
Pedro Cons is a thoughtful, visionary leader with expertise in strategy and organizational management.
His diverse leadership and academic experience provides a unique perspective for creating strategic partnerships across corporate, nonprofit and government sectors to better integrate the delivery of services and more effectively address the holistic needs of families and create sustainable, positive change.
Named Chief Executive Officer at Adelante Healthcare in June 2020, Pedro Cons now leads a network of nine community health centers which provide primary healthcare to more than 77,000 individuals across Maricopa County.
Before joining Adelante, he spent more than 14 years at Chicanos Por La Causa (also known as CPLC). Most recently, he served as the Executive Vice President of Integrated Health and Human Services, overseeing CPLC's primary care partnerships, home healthcare program, behavioral health, HIV testing and case management, 340b pharmacy and a host of other programs across Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Other previous roles at CPLC include Vice President of Multi-Family Housing Operations, Vice President of Corporate Strategic Initiatives, Vice President of Human Resources, and Vice President of Recovery and Resiliency.
He holds a bachelor's degree in social work, a master's degree in Professional Counseling, and advanced graduate studies in school guidance counseling and marriage, family and child therapy. He has also received training in community mobilization and facilitation methods and has participated in leadership development including the Kellogg Foundation Multicultural Leadership Institute and the Hispanic Leadership Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chief Legal Officer & Privacy Officer
Expertise: Compliance, privacy, healthcare, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence law
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resource Officer
- Health Current in 2011 As Chief Financial Officer
Expertise: Corporate communications, recruiting, onboarding and training
Overseeing the administrative, recruitment, onboarding and training aspects of Contexture, Sharon Burdett helps ensure that the organization's culture aligns with its values.
As a member of the executive leadership team, she helped navigate the merger of Colorado-based CORHIO and Arizona-based Health Current to form Contexture in 2021. The merger created the largest health information exchange in the western United States.
Sharon joined Health Current in 2011 as chief financial officer when the company was known as Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHeC). Sharon earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Prior to joining AzHeC, Sharon was the president of Independent Hydro Developers, an independently owned corporation that developed, owned and operated hydroelectric facilities.
After hours, Sharon enjoys camping and fishing with her family. She also restores classic automobiles with her husband. Their collection includes a 1966 Ford Mustang, a 1930 Ford Model A, a 1956 Nomad wagon and a few other "works in progress."
Job Titles:
- Chief Nursing Officer
- Vice President
- BCBSAZ Representative
- Chief Adviser
- CNO & VP Operations Engineering, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
As the chief nursing officer and vice president of clinical quality and wellness, Sheri Jackson serves as the chief adviser within the Health Quality Assurance division for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ). In this role, she develops and implements strategies and policies to ensure continuous quality improvement drives efficient daily operations and lower operating costs.
Sheri provides support to the chief medical officer to plan, coordinate and communicate new strategies, tools and systems that improve and streamline the operations of UM, HEDIS outcomes, medical policy and wellness programs. She has oversight for the quality program and chairs the quality management committee, which provides direction and oversight of the organization's quality management activities related to clinical and non-clinical services. The committee identifies quality improvement programs that result in measurable outcomes and ensures all activities adhere to regulatory requirements under NCQA or URAC and any requirements as an issuer of Quality Health plans.
Sheri serves as the BCBSAZ representative on the Contexture board of directors to influence decision-making and provide insight about healthcare trends and health plan customer issues and concerns, product development needs and service requirements.
Sheri joined BCBSAZ in 1988 and has held numerous executive roles overseeing healthcare quality, healthcare operations, provider capitation arrangements, value-based care program development and medical policy development during her tenure with the organization.
She earned a master's degree in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer at Sonora Quest Laboratories
Sonny Varadan is the Chief Information Officer at Sonora Quest Laboratories, Arizona's leading provider of diagnostic information services. Mr. Varadan is an established executive with decades of experience leading companies through the monumental opportunity shift technology has created.
As the CIO, Mr. Varadan will meld operations and innovation, while keeping the focus on enhancing the patient experience, making it easier and more convenient for customers to navigate through their journey with Sonora Quest - from scheduling appointments to get their blood drawn, to securely obtaining and understanding their test results on SonoraQuest.com. His focus will be to implement data analytics and machine learning processes to enable decision support systems and automation to assist healthcare providers with population health management for improved patient outcomes.
Job Titles:
- Director of Clinical Outcomes, Every Child Pediatrics
Dr. Meharena has been caring for patients at Every Child Pediatrics since 2011 and sees patients at the Aurora office. She began her role as Director of Clinical Outcomes in May 2020. She recieved her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry from Mount Holyoke College, followed by her medical education at Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine. She then completed her residency at Children's Hospital Colorado. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer for UCHealth
Steve Hess is the chief information officer for UCHealth, a nationally recognized nonprofit health care system with operating revenue of $5.4 billion and a workforce of more than 26,000 people. UCHealth includes 12 Colorado hospitals, with about 2,000 inpatient beds and more than 150 clinics in Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska.
Steve is responsible for the management of information systems across the enterprise, including Epic, an electronic medical record system; The Source, UCHealth's employee intranet; and My Health Connection, a patient portal.
Previously, Steve was the chief information officer for University of Colorado Hospital, a partner of UCHealth. Prior to joining UCHealth, he was the chief information officer for Christiana Care Health System, one of the country's largest health care providers.
Expertise: Fiscal management, risk management and business strategy
Tina Hogeman is responsible for Contexture's financial strategy and for managing Contexture's financial risk. She leads a team that guides Contexture's financial planning and analysis, accounting operations, banking and investments, and contract lifecycle management.
Tina has nearly 10 years of experience in both large national and small local public accounting firms. She boasts seven years as a hospital controller and even started her own small firm to follow her passion for providing physician practices with comprehensive accounting, tax, consulting and business planning solutions. Over the course of her 20+working years, she has provided services to the healthcare industry in the following areas: strategic planning, practice profitability analysis, new practice set-up, fraud and embezzlement review and analysis, practice management, structuring shareholder compensations agreements, structuring buy/sell arrangements, retirement plan evaluation, business valuations, accounting system implementation, accounts receivable management, medical practice turnarounds, personal tax planning, business tax planning and contract compliance testing