June 28, 2021 • 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET

Paige Minemyer is a senior editor at Fierce Healthcare, overseeing the team’s coverage of payer trends and news from across the country. Since joining the Fierce team, she’s covered the spectrum of the healthcare industry, including providers, technology and policy, and prior to moving to the District, she earned multiple awards as a local newspaper reporter.

Mack McGee is the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the region’s largest not-for-profit healthcare company. He is responsible for leading CareFirst’s marketing functions, including communications, branding, advertising, public and media relations, and customer experience and insights.

Mack has nearly 20 years of industry experience helping businesses define their voice and value, bridging the gap between brand, customer experience, sales and marketing to drive new and meaningful growth for organizations.

Prior to joining CareFirst, Mack served as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for management consulting and accounting firm SC&H Group. In his role, he was responsible for revamping the firm’s brand strategy, website and online presence, customer relationship management platform. Before joining SC&H Group, Mack was the Executive Vice President and Principal for an award-winning, Baltimore-based creative agency. He was instrumental in the agency’s growth, driving internal leadership development and overseeing the client experience for companies in varying industries, ranging in size from middle-market to enterprise.

Mack is passionate about serving the community, a commitment CareFirst shares through its not-for-profit mission. For more than a decade, he coached Special Olympics teams in Maryland. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors, helping Special Olympics of Maryland develop corporate partnerships, raise funds and drive awareness. Mack is also the Vice-Chair of the Maryland Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Since 2008, he has chaired the foundation’s “Passion for Food and Wine” and “Feastival” events, helping to raise more than $2.5 million for the organization to date.

Mack earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Maryland College Park.

As Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Aspire Health Plan, Cyndie O’Brien provides strategic direction, and leadership support to increase visibility and membership for a start-up, Medicare Advantage Plan in Monterey County. Cyndie joined Aspire in May of 2017 and is working to increase market share for the MA Plan. She is responsible for lead generation, member communications and member experience.

Prior to joining Aspire, Cyndie was Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Member Service for Inter Valley Health Plan, one of Southern California’s regional MA plans. During her 25 year tenure at Inter Valley Health Plan, Cyndie rose through the ranks to the role of Vice President. Her duties included increasing brand awareness, sales management; and working on strategies to improve the overall member experience.

Cyndie has served on numerous boards including, VNA of Southern California, RISE and President of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Outside of work, Cyndie hiking throughout Monterey County, traveling and listening to live music anytime she can with family and friends. Cyndie has three adult children.

Kate Duncan is a Director of Product Solutions for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Kate is responsible for the strategy and management of market-leading products and services that meet and exceed the needs of Blue Cross Blue Shield clients and members, focused on the Health Management & Advocacy portfolio which includes a blend of clinical care management and high-touch customer service solutions such as Health Advocacy Solutions, Wellbeing Management, Benefits Value Advisor, Behavioral Health and Virtual Visits.

Kate has worked at HCSC for 10 years. Prior to her position in Product Solutions, Kate worked in the Enterprise Project Management office where she managed timeline, resources and scope of key program efforts at Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Before joining Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Kate was a Business Consultant at West Monroe Partners where she worked with a variety of healthcare organizations in order to optimize their business products and operational processes.

Kate holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Marketing from Miami University in Ohio, is currently getting her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Laurie Evans serves as a director in the Information Delivery department at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

In this role, Laurie is responsible for the daily operations of multiple teams. She oversees IDStrat and Integrated Outreach Solutions. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of multiple initiatives to improve outreach efforts, processes and drive positive outcomes for consumers.

Prior to joining BlueCross in 2014, Laurie worked at OptumHealth/UnitedHealthcare for 21 years where she was the Senior Director of Reporting and Analytics. Prior to that role Laurie held multiple other leadership positions within reporting and analytics and medical management/care management and has a background in customer consultation as well.

Laurie has more than 38 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with a background in clinical nursing, medical management as well as reporting and analytics.

Laurie earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi and has completed graduate courses at Austin Peay State University. She is currently on the Executive Board of the Tennessee State Chapter of P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization). She also volunteers at the Tennessee Aquarium.

Karen is a Staff VP, Enterprise Data Science at Anthem, Inc. She is an experienced thought leader, strategist, and innovator in healthcare with extensive knowledge and success in business operations, solutions, and process design. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked with healthcare organizations to transform their operational strategy, analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities to support improving the customer experience, increasing organizational cost savings and enhancing workplace productivity to remain competitive in the evolving marketplace.

As Anthem has committed to becoming a digital-first organization, Karen is responsible for identifying opportunities for and facilitating implementation of digital and AI technologies in support of the Medicare/Medicaid lines of business, specifically as it relates to clinical quality (MA Stars/HEDIS) and member experience.

Karen was previously the Managing Director, Health Plan Data & Intelligence at NTT DATA Services and has extensive experience in the health care market, from both a business operations and information technology perspective. She has built and led successful, effective teams that deliver best in class solutions to improve client satisfaction, organizational cost savings and workplace productivity. Her experience includes Advanced Analytics, Total Population Health and Disease Management. In addition, Karen has experience in the public sector regarding Medicare and Medicaid programs, including policy development and compliance.

She has also worked in the population health/disease management space as the Director of Data Quality at Health Dialog. During this time, she provided leadership for the organization’s healthcare data management and information use processes including managing overall corporate data assets and acting as business operations liaison to IT. Her public sector healthcare experience includes managing and supporting the NH Department of Health & Human Services data warehousing environment for various healthcare programs, including Behavioral Health

Karen received her M.Sc. in Healthcare Administration from New England College and her bachelor's degree in Biology from University of New England.

Meredith Rutala Williams is Geneia’s senior product portfolio manager. In this role, she drives member engagement initiatives across the product, sales and client organizations to package new offerings and bring them to market for early stage adoption.

Prior to joining Geneia, Meredith led the consumer experience, member services and marketing teams at venture-backed, value-based primary care organization Paladina Health, now called Everside Health. At Paladina, she drove membership growth, retention and advocacy. Before Paladina, Meredith spent nearly a decade at a collegiate marketing and media company.

Meredith holds a Bachelor of Arts in management and society and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mike Davis is a founder of Dominion National and has overall responsibility for the company. Davis has nearly 30 years of experience in dental benefits and had served in various executive positions with MIDA Dental Plans, a successful DHMO in the Mid-Atlantic region, prior to establishing Dominion.

Davis has been instrumental in driving the innovation of Dominion’s systems, services and plans since its inception in 1996. Most recently he has led the company’s pursuit into teledentistry to improve outcomes, member satisfaction and experience.

Under Davis’ leadership, Dominion has grown to serve over 900,000 members, offer access to over 350,000 national dentist listings and employ a staff of over 200. Dominion’s expansion offering benefits to commercial groups, individuals and health plans resulted in the company’s 2016 re-brand to Dominion National.

Davis helped Dominion become one of the first dental benefits providers in its region to introduce interactive, online benefit administration and other groundbreaking models and technologies to improve the client experience. Over the past decade, Dominion also became known for its innovative online dental programs for individuals and associations.

Davis participates on several boards, including Dominion National and a regional DSO.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Radford University.

Chekesha Kidd is a senior health and wellness executive with a results-driven mindset and proven, year-after-year success achieving revenue, profit, and business growth objectives within start-up, turnaround, and rapid-change environments for businesses exceeding $1 billion revenue. She has extensive experience with highly complex healthcare and group benefits organizations, and has a demonstrated understanding of critical business drivers in multiple markets and product segments, within an evolving consumer driven environment. Highly successful in driving process efficiency while building relationships across matrix organizations, she has led, developed and motivated global teams, that ranged from 15 to more than 300 employees.

Chekesha is currently focused on the development and launch of DigiBite LLC, a teledentistry platform focused on improving access to care and supporting dental care delivery, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, transfer of dental information and education resulting in a reduction in costs.

She was most recently the SVP, Chief Commercial Officer and General Manager of Delta Dental of Minnesota and has direct P&L leadership experience having served as Vice President, Group Life and Voluntary Products at The Hartford as well as President of Aetna'a student health business. Chekesha is also a former investment banker responsible for structuring and managing the deal process for M&A, debt and equity transactions totaling over $5 billion in value. She also has diverse health administration experience working in clinical research, state policy and federal lobbying efforts over the course of her career.

Chekesha earned her MBA in finance and corporate strategy and a Master's of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan and is a magna cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University.

Her areas of specialization include: Growth Strategy Development, Organizational Redesign, Business Process and Technology Transformation, M&A, Private Equity and Operational Turnarounds.

Jeff Schwab is Vice President of Marketing for Dominion National, a leading dental and vision insurer and administrator that serves over 900,000 members. He has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, public relations and corporate communications.

Schwab is responsible for leading Dominion’s marketing, public relations and advertising efforts, as well as overseeing the company’s new product launches and individual product lines both on and off the health insurance exchanges.

He has led the development and execution of Dominion’s teledentistry pilot program with the goal of improving member engagement, satisfaction and access to dental care. He has also helped spearhead studies that reinforce how integrating dental and medical coverage and care can be associated with improved health and lower costs for those dealing with chronic medical issues.

As Chair of Dominion’s Corporate Giving Committee, Schwab works to increase oral health awareness in Dominion’s communities through annual donations including dental health kits for children to local clinics and other charitable efforts.

Schwab serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) to support NADP's mission to promote and advance the dental benefits industry to improve consumer access to affordable, quality dental care. This includes advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill.

He is also a guest speaker at national industry conferences to discuss teledentistry trends and the importance of preventive dental care.

Schwab holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland Global Campus and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Maryland. In 2019, he was a Leadership Center for Excellence “40 Under 40” award recipient.