Yener Balan, MD, DFAPA is a board-certified psychiatrist and is currently the Executive Director of Behavioral Health for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California.

He provides health plan oversight and direction to the NCAL Behavioral Health Program as they develop an integrated model of 21st century behavioral health care – investing in technology, people and research to drive market leading performance; engaging members and families in quality improvement efforts; implementing processes that focus on proactive intervention and prevention; and engaging with organizations in the community to help shape the growth, education, and training of the behavioral health workforce.

He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, serves on the board of directors for Health Right 360, has extensive years of experience working in high volume community emergency departments, is an expert on hospital operations, and has given lectures and workshops worldwide.

He is the bestselling author of the “Big Book of Emergency Department Psychiatry: A Guide to Patient Centered Operational Improvement.”

Dr. Balan was born and raised in New York City, and while he still misses the East Coast, has made a home for himself in Oakland, CA, where he lives with his wife and 7-year-old son.

Natasha is the new AVP, Telehealth Solutions for UPMC Health Plan. In this role she will support the health plan’s strategy and delivery of telehealth solutions, with an eye to driving value for health plan members and stakeholders. Natasha comes to us from Aetna, where she spent the last 11 years in a variety of leadership roles in business transformation, strategic initiatives, and digital health products, most recently building Aetna International’s virtual primary care program, vHealth by Aetna. She is a graduate of Duke University and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Stephen Smith is the founder and CEO of NOCD, a digital health company focused on identifying and managing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)- one of the most prevalent, costly, and misidentified behavioral health conditions. Inside the NOCD mobile platform, members can access evidence-based therapy from a network of OCD trained licensed mental health providers, as well as 24/7/365 support from peer communities and therapeutic tools in-between treatment sessions. By identifying and managing OCD early, NOCD's focused on preventing severe comorbidities from developing in the population, such as substance use disorders and depression. The platform now holds the largest OCD treatment community in the world.

Prior to founding NOCD, Stephen personally struggled with OCD while also playing football as an NCAA quarterback at Pomona College.

Prior to joining CMS, Paul Mango had a long and successful career at McKinsey & Company as a Senior Partner and also having filled additional leadership roles within their U.S. and global healthcare practices and as the head of McKinsey’s U.S. Center for Health Reform. He is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division and a graduate of U.S. Army Ranger School; the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was a Distinguished Cadet; and of Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Chris Molaro, named a top 10 transformational leader of healthcare in 2018, is the CEO and Co-Founder of NeuroFlow. Chris is an accomplished military veteran - earning a Bronze Star after serving five years as a Field Artillery Army Officer - a serial entrepreneur, and public speaker. While witnessing firsthand the devastating toll of an error-prone and inefficient mental health system in the United States, he channeled his passion and energy into launching and running the Veteran literacy non-profit Things We Read. Afterwards, Chris went on to complete his MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently launch NeuroFlow after graduating.

Chinwe Nwosu, MS, is a Director in Clinical Innovations department at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the national association whose members provide coverage for health care and related services. At AHIP, she is focused on performance measurement, health plan accreditation, health information technology, and specific policy and regulatory issues pertaining to quality, measurement, and payment. She coordinates AHIPs efforts on the Core Quality Measures Collaborative, a broad-based coalition of health care leaders working together to achieve an industry consensus on core measure sets to measure the quality of American health care.

Michael Thompson is the president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance), the only nonprofit, purchaser-led organization with a national and regional structure dedicated to driving health and healthcare value across the country.

Prior to joining the National Alliance, Mike was a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 20 years. He is a nationally recognized thought leader for business health strategies and health system reform. Mike has worked with major employers and other stakeholders on sustainable cost reduction, integrated health, wellness and consumerism, retiree health, private health exchanges and health reform.

Prior to his work at Independence, he served for five years as a senior staff member to U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, both on Capitol Hill and in Pennsylvania. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Delaware County Child Advocacy Center and is a member of the regional Narcotics Overdose Prevention & Education Task Force. He is a graduate of Susquehanna University and recently completed his Master’s in Business Administration at Villanova University.

Ben has a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and a Certified Case Manager. He began his behavioral health career in 1998, where he spent approximately 7 years in various facets of the public mental health sector. During this time, he also began his own private practice, which he held for approximately 7 years. In 2007, Ben started his first job in managed care working in Behavioral Health Utilization Management. In 2010, he began working for Health Care Service Corporation, also in their Behavioral Health Utilization Management program. In December 2018, he was invited to become Director for HCSC’s new Risk Identification and Outreach (RIO) program. He is a husband and father of 4 and a lifelong Dallas Cowboys and Arkansas Razorbacks fan.

Shannon Cosgrove is the Director of Community Health for Blue Shield of California. In this newly created role, she oversees innovative pilots and initiatives related to Community Health Advocates, Behavioral Health, Social Determinants, technology platforms and health equity. By 2020, her team will invest over $6m to improve the health of communities where members reside by finding ways to support existing efforts linking physical, mental and social health for all.

Previously, Shannon was the Director of Health Policy for Cure Violence where she led the national Movement towards Violence as a Health Issue. She has consulted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Leaders and was a Master Trainer for CommonHealth ACTION’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Institute.

Shannon served as the Deputy Director for the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice in Baltimore City. Her past roles include: Health Equity Manager on the Healthier Communities Team at YMCA of the USA, Project Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health team and Health Disparities Coordinator at the Baltimore City Health Department through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Prevention Fellowship Program where she also served as the Chair of the Health Equity and Social Justice Committee

While receiving her MHA and BSc in Health Policy and Administration from the Pennsylvania State University, Shannon served as a peer behavioral interventionist and as the grant coordinator at the Centre for Volunteers in Medicine. Ms. Cosgrove resides in Oakland where she teaches spin class and serves on the advocacy board for YouthAlive!.

An experienced health care leader, Chris Esguerra, MD, MBA, CHCQM has worked in health care provider and systems leadership, managed care, case management, utilization management, quality, and pharmacy. His work also addressed health care and health plan operations alongside compliance with Medicare, Medi-Cal, and Knox Keene lines of business. He has led significant efforts around integration of care, addressing social determinants of health, and helping people remain and age in the community with appropriate long terms services and supports. He led the primary and behavioral health care integration work at San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services called Total Wellness, addressing not only primary and behavioral health care for those with serious mental illness, but also establishing peer supports, addressing nutrition, enhancing social connectedness, and improving physical activity in this cohort. At Health Plan of San Mateo, he facilitated the effort to transition institutionalized members into the community with a combination of intensive case management, housing services and support, government services support, and community based services. This effort included addressing nutrition, housing, social connectedness, independent living skills support, in home support services needs, and promoting self-management in addition to strong primary care supported by strong care coordination. He has helped provider organizations enhance their care delivery strategy and shaped strategic growth. He has also helped other organizations evolve their capabilities in identifying social determinants of health as they interact with physical and behavioral health conditions to better target and improve services and interventions.

Dr. Esguerra is board certified in both Psychiatry and Health Care and Quality Management and is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He attended the University of Southern California as both an undergraduate (B.S. Chemistry) and for medical school. He completed his residency training in Psychiatry at San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Psychiatry Residency Training Program. He also received his MBA in business management from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As Director of Care Transformation at Blue Shield of California, Gina leads the Health Care Model of the Future pilots for change across the Los Angeles ecosystem. These pilot programs partner payers, physician practices, various care providers and community-based organizations to test innovative interventions, payment models and technologies, transforming healthcare as we know it.

Much of her career has been dedicated to improving the quality of care for older adults and underserved populations. As Associate Director of Care Coordination and Special Projects at HSAG, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for California, Gina led CMS funded efforts to merge clinical and social models of care, through the development of community coalitions, to implement and test innovative patient-centered care programs.

Prior to her work at the QIO, Gina was the Director of Health Innovation Programs at Partners in Care, responsible for leading the dissemination of evidence-based self-management programs statewide. Gina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from California State University, Northridge and a Master’s degree from the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.

Joycelyn is the Senior Manager of Social Services for Blue Shield of California (BSC) Promise Health Plan. In her current role, she oversees the quality and clinical operations for the delivery of social services to Plan members. In the last year, she successfully implemented the Health Plan’s Community Health Advocate Pilot Program, which expanded the Health Plan’s ability to address the Social Determinants of Health for Plan members. Other positions Joycelyn has held at BSC Promise Health Plan include Social Services Manager and Clinical Social Worker. Prior to BSC Promise Health Plan, Joycelyn worked in education as a Pupil Services and Attendance (PSA) Counselor with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). At LAUSD, she worked to address barriers to improved individual and school-wide attendance, engagement, and graduation. Joycelyn has also worked as a Clinician and case manager, with extensive experience providing direct services to adults, children and families with developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs.

Joycelyn, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology. Joycelyn holds a Master of Social Work degree from California State University Long Beach, where she also earned her Pupil Personnel Services Credential in School Social Work and School Child Welfare and Attendance.