As the Senior Vice President of Health Services at Gateway Health, Dr. Pomerantz provides transformational leadership to teams impacting the most critical elements of care delivery to Gateway’s 340,000 Medicare and Medicaid members while managing $2.4B in medical cost. Serving as a physician and member advocate, he provides strategic direction and leadership over key clinical and operational areas including Network Management and Provider Relations, Care Management, Clinical Innovation, Pharmacy, Quality/Stars and Risk Adjustment.

Dr. Pomerantz has collected nearly 30 years of experience in healthcare, serving as a pioneer of value-based reimbursement and population health holding leadership positions.

Originally from Massachusetts, Dr. Pomerantz graduated from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the Boston University School of Law, and completed his residency at Faulkner Hospital in Boston. He is also a board-certified internist. He and his wife, Pamela, enjoy traveling to England.

Will Brady is Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary and Senior Advisor to the Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. As Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary, he advises on policy and program matters and assists the Deputy Secretary in the management and operations of the department. In addition, he is responsible for strategic policy initiatives focused on innovation, deregulation, and healthcare financing. In his Senior Advisor capacity, Will works with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary to develop and implement policies that improve Health IT and advance HHS’s technology, administrative and financial priorities. Prior to HHS, Will was legal counsel for a large health insurer and focused on federal healthcare law, insurance law, and corporate transactions. Will also has experience as an entrepreneur founding a software company that provided mobile ordering and fundraising platforms.

Will has a law degree from DePaul University and studied accounting and finance at the University of Dayton. Will is also a Captain in the DC Army National Guard and lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Manik Bhat is the CEO of Healthify, a New York-based startup that provides leading solutions to address the social determinants of health at scale. Manik co-founded Healthify in 2013 while working as a community health worker in East Baltimore clinics. He saw how social needs - like access to food and housing - dramatically impacted health outcomes in the community and was moved to create Healthify. Since Healthify’s founding, Manik has become an avid speaker and advocate for addressing the social determinants of health through equitable and collaborative partnerships between healthcare and social service organizations.

Caraline Coats is Vice President of Humana’s Bold Goal and Population Health Strategy, leading Humana’s mission to help improve the health of the communities it serves by making it easier for people to achieve their best health.

Coats has been with Humana for over twelve years. She started as a Regional Director of Medicare Operations in Arizona and relocated to Florida, where she became the Vice President of Network Management and subsequently, the Regional Vice President of Network Management for the East Region. In her role before joining the Bold Goal team, Coats served as Vice President of Humana’s Value-Based Strategies, leading the organizational advancement of innovative payment models that enable Humana to support providers as population health managers in value-based care relationships.

Prior to Humana, Caraline was Vice President of Operations with a hospitalist company and Assistant Vice President of Managed Care for IASIS Healthcare in the Arizona and Nevada regions. She credits her understanding and experience working directly with physicians and hospitals for the opportunities she has had with Humana.

Caraline holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a Masters in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan. She and her husband have two sons, Michael (5 years old) and Nicholas (4 years old). Outside of Humana, Caraline spends her time with family and enjoys running.

Karin VanZant is the Vice President of Integrated Community Partnerships at CareSource. Since 2015, Mrs. VanZant oversees the work of Social Determinants of Health at CareSource and the full integration into the Population Health Model. Specifically, Mrs. VanZant has built the JobConnect Program - a workforce development program that assists CareSource members to enter into full-time, permanent employment. In 2015, JobConnect started in Ohio and has expanded to Indiana and Georgia as of 2017. Karin is currently working on food access and food insecurity pilots; in addition to establishing housing partnerships as a part of the SDOH integration into Population Health.

Prior to joining CareSource, Karin was the co-founder and Executive Director of Think Tank, Inc. For ten years as this organization’s leader, Karin assisted the team to live out the mission of equipping and facilitating collaboration among people and organizations seeking ways to promote greater connectedness and a more thriving community.

Karin VanZant has a MPA in Public Administration (2008) and a BA in Social Work (1998) from Wright State University. Karin is certified in various curriculums that address comprehensive poverty issues in the United States. She has helped author presentations and curriculum for use within nonprofit, business and faith based organizations seeking to become relevant and holistic in their approach to poverty alleviation. Mrs. VanZant is an Adjunct Professor at Antioch Midwest University and Wright State University on a variety of subjects including US Hunger and Poverty, Introduction to Human Services, Grant Writing, Leading Change, Coaching as Management, Holistic Case Management and Emotional Intelligence. She lives in Springfield, Ohio with her husband and her son.

Lynda is the Senior Fellow, Behavioral Health for the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The mission of the fund is to improve the health of Michigan residents, with special emphasis on health and wellness of children and seniors while reducing the cost of care. Her work is focused specifically on cross cutting goals of strengthening the workforce in behavioral health systems and seamless integration of services including social determinants of health and wellness.

Previously, she served seven years as the deputy director for the Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In this position, Lynda functioned as the State Authority for all community based mental health, substance use disorder, intellectual and developmental disabilities policy and services; including all publicly funded treatment, prevention and supports; and was responsible for the five state psychiatric and forensic hospitals For the three years prior, she served as the Health Services Administrator for the Michigan Department of Corrections, overseeing provision of all health, behavioral heath and dental services for the state’s prison system. Immediately prior to Michigan Department of Corrections, Lynda was the Chief Executive Officer for the Kent Health Plan, a safety net health coverage plan in Michigan.

In total, Lynda has more than 30 years of service in fields of indigent health care, developmental disabilities support and services, community behavioral health, and managed care. Her job responsibilities across those years are wide-ranging and include direct care residential, case management, information technology, quality, government relations strategy and more. Lynda’s most recent national board experience includes: National Association for State Mental Health Program Directors (immediate past president), The Council of State Governments Justice Center, and the National Research Institute (current Vice President). Lynda is also a sister of persons receiving services in intellectual/developmental disabilities and behavioral health service systems. She counts her siblings as sources of important strength, encouragement and learning throughout her life’s work.

Jon Barley, Ph.D., is the Chief of the Bureau of Health Research and Quality (BHRQ) for Ohio Medicaid. The bureau uses quality improvement science to improve health care through the promotion of evidence-based practices and care innovations. Prior to this position, Dr. Barley worked within Medicaid as the Chief of the Bureau of Managed Health Care where he administered full-risk managed care programs for the Covered Families and Children and the Aged, Blind, and Disabled populations. He has a background in health research and earned his BS and PhD from The Ohio State University.

Parul Mistry is the Senior Vice President for the Medical Excellence and Clinical Solutions division of AmeriHealth Caritas.

Dr. Mistry is responsible for AmeriHealth Caritas’ quality programs, NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) Accreditation, delegation oversight and evaluation as well as implementation of clinical solutions that assist in the delivery of efficient care to our members. The success of the programs is essentially reflected within our NCQA Accreditation Scores (Standards, CAHPS, HEDIS). We rely on our HEDIS measures as a consistent way to evaluate the quality of care our members receive. These measures:

• Allow us to identify and acknowledge areas of excellence and also create opportunities for improvements to generate better health outcomes.
• Enable us to evaluate care and service performance to help keep our members healthy.
• Are a requirement of our state customers and key selection criteria in requests for proposals.
• Can be used in member auto-assignment algorithms.

Prior to this role she was the Chief Medical Officer for AmeriHealth Caritas Region II, which included AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, AmeriHealth Caritas of Iowa, AmeriHealth Caritas Northeast, AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania and Keystone First. She was responsible for the successful implementation and effectiveness of AmeriHealth Caritas’ Integrated Care Management program and all other medical management activities in the region, overall performance for the region and leading regional efforts to partner with physicians in providing patients with access to quality, cost-effective health care.

Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas Dr. Mistry served in various strategic roles including Chief Medical Information Officer and Chief Clinical Officer, Northeast Region, at Corizon Health in New Jersey, and Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations at Optum/Executive Health Resources.

Dr. Mistry completed her medical school through the University of Bombay, Mumbai, India. She did her internal medicine training at Abington Memorial Hospital in PA and earned her Master’s Degree in Bioethics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Elizabeth Hinton is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, where she focuses primarily on Medicaid delivery system and payment reform issues and tracking Section 1115 Medicaid waiver activity. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Hinton served as a Research Project Coordinator at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Health Services Research and Development in Primary Care. During graduate school, Ms. Hinton served as a Research Analyst at the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. Prior to returning to graduate school, Ms. Hinton was a Senior Associate at ICF International, where she worked on a wide range of projects to assist federal clients on issues involving affordable housing and homelessness. Ms. Hinton received her B.A. from James Madison University and holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Mike currently leads an independent consulting practice providing strategic advice on Medicaid health policy and long-term services and supports. He has more than 30 years’ experience in health and human services at the state, local, and national levels, most recently leading the Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group at the federal Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS).

Mike previously led the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services as Acting Secretary and was the state’s Medicaid Director. He served on the executive committee of the National Association of Medicaid Directors and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Medicaid Leadership Institute Fellow. He also chaired the Governor’s Long-Term Living Council, a cabinet level group charged with rebalancing the state’s long-term care system.

After leaving Pennsylvania state government, Mike joined Health Management Associates as a Managing Principal and led establishment of the HMA Harrisburg office.

Mike also has extensive experience in housing policy, serving as the City of Philadelphia’s Deputy Managing Director for Special Needs Housing. Early in his career, he held government relations positions in health policy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Dave Richard is the Deputy Secretary, NC Medicaid, where he leads North Carolina’s $14 billion Medicaid and NC Health Choice programs for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Richard’s vision for Medicaid is to ensure a sustainable, personcentered and innovative Medicaid program for more than two million North Carolinians who use Medicaid. As the programs undergo transformation to even better fit the needs of state and its residents, he is committed to the fundamental goal of improving the health and well-being of all residents. Richard believes the right way to achieve success is to work closely with stakeholders in all aspects of Medicaid.

Prior to leading Medicaid, Richard was the Deputy Secretary for DHHS Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Services and the State Operated Healthcare Facilities divisions. He joined DHHS in May 2013 as the Director of the Division of Mental Health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. Richard joined DHHS after leading The Arc of North Carolina, an advocacy and service organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as its Executive Director for 24 years.

Richard has a bachelor’s degree in education from Louisiana State University.

As VP of Marketing at mPulse Mobile, Brendan brings over 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He leads the development of mPulse’s go-to-market and solution strategies that address some of healthcare’s biggest consumer engagement challenges. His experience includes leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic Diabetes spanning North America, EMEA and Australia and NZ.

Jason Thomas is the Corporate Director of Special Projects and Facilities Management at Trusted Health Plan (THP). He has held a broad range of roles at THP including leading the creation and development of their 360-degree Wellness Center concept, and as the project lead for HEDIS improvements, outreach and the highly successful LANE program that lowered non-emergent ER visits by 25%. Mr. Thomas was drafted in the 2000 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers. His six-year NFL career includes winning the AFC North championship in 2003 with the Baltimore Ravens. Jason graduated from Hampton University with a degree in Sports Management. He is a certified CSSMBB.

Dr. Connor Norwood is the Chief Data Officer for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), which administers the state’s Medicaid and social service programs. He oversees the agency’s enterprise data warehouse (EDW), which houses the data required to support the reporting, business intelligence, and advanced analytics for Indiana’s health and human services programs. Norwood’s vision is to apply enterprise-wide governance, build a culture of inquiry, and utilize data as an asset to inform policy decisions that have the power to impact population health and improve the lives of the people served by the State of Indiana. He also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public health and teaches in the Healthcare Innovation Leadership Institute.

Thomas is the Medicaid Interoperability lead in the Office of Policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT where he supports the advancement of Medicaid interoperability in the drafting and review of Federal regulations. He is detailed part time to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – Medicaid Data and Systems Group – where he provides direct support to state Medicaid agencies and state governments on Health Information Exchange funding and strategy.

Mohit Ghose is a health care executive and healthcare policy expert with 20 years of experience working with business leaders to anticipate, respond to, and influence the changing health care landscape. He has managed a wide range of contracting, planning and implementation, advocacy and policy programs designed to improve results and position a company for success in an ever-evolving marketplace.

Mohit currently serves as vice president of government relations for Beacon Health Options (Beacon). In this role, Mohit focuses on the western states and is accountable for organizing, developing and leading government relations strategies and policy initiatives in support of the company’s strategic plan and business development goals. Mohit serves as an advocate for Beacon positions on policy and program design with senior legislative and executive branch officials across the West. In his role, Mohit works to promote awareness of Beacon’s brand, its mission and though leadership, and its capabilities in delivering high-quality behavioral healthcare services to government and private payers.

Prior to this role, Mohit was on the senior leadership team of Molina Healthcare of California as vice president of government contracts, policy & strategic initiatives where he led the government contracts team, served as the plan’s primary point of contact with regulatory agencies while also directing the company’s policy team covering legislative, public policy and regulatory challenges and opportunities. The strategic initiatives department under his direction was responsible for implementation of new initiatives and projects impacting all business units, including Molina’s annual operating plan.

Earlier in his career, Mohit was vice president of public affairs for Aetna, Inc. and led Aetna’s internal and external efforts for policy advocacy and communications through health care reform and its implementation.

Mohit started his career in health care policy and advocacy in Washington, DC at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). As senior vice president of public affairs, Mohit managed all aspects of media and crisis communications and served as national spokesman on industry issues over several years of legislative and policy campaigns, including the landmark Medicare prescription drug law, the genetic non-discrimination law and the mental health parity law of 2008.

Kevin joined Alkermes as a Product Director, VIVITROL in January 2009. He has served in various roles at Alkermes including Director Pharmaceutical Operations & Reimbursement and now as Vice President of Managed Markets.

In this role he is responsible for improving access to VIVITROL (addiction specialty injectable) and ARISTADA (schizophrenia specialty injectable) through national/regional payers and behavioral health plans, major self-insured employers and federal accounts. He leads a 30-person team of field-based Managed Markets.

Prior to Alkermes, Kevin worked in pharmaceutical sales, sales training, sales management and marketing for Cephalon and Johnson and Johnson in a variety of disease areas including CNS disorders, Anti-infectives and biologics among others. He is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel.

Gary Weiskopf is the Associate Commissioner for Managed Care for the NYS Office of Mental Health. In this capacity he oversees the development and implementation of behavioral health Medicaid managed care.

Previously, Mr. Weiskopf was the Director of Weiskopf Consulting Services - a public policy consulting company - and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Mr. Weiskopf has also served as Executive Director of the NYS Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors. As Executive Director, Mr. Weiskopf worked with counties, state agencies, the legislature, professional groups, and advocacy organizations to achieve policies, laws, regulation, and funding necessary to ensure effective systems of care for mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

Prior to working for the Conference, Mr. Weiskopf served as Acting Director of SUNY's Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, Center for New York State and Local Government Studies.

Mr. Weiskopf has over 25 of years of public policy analysis and management experience. He has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University (1987) and a B.A. from SUNY Albany (1985).