2018 Speaking Faculty

Ashok Chennuru is a veteran Anthem employee with over ten years’ experience. He currently serves as the Vice President, IT Clinical Analytics for the Market Place Solutions/Heath Care Analytics team. In this role he over oversees the following:

• Technical delivery of all capabilities in Provider Collaboration/Enablement & Analytics. This includes all value based arrangements, Population Health Management, Bundled Payments, Provider profile, provider management analytics and Accountable Care Solutions.
• Clinical and Member Management analytics including delivery of clinical care gap engine with Resolution Health, Inc (RHI).
• Technical delivery of Commercial and Government Risk Adjustment initiatives, Medicare revenue Management including STARS, Clinical quality Management(HEDIS)
• Program Integrity(Fraud, Waste and Abuse) for Commercial and Government markets
• Health Information Technology strategy, execution of Longitudinal Patient Record and enterprise Clinical data acquisition and clinical interoperability.

In addition, Ashok has experience with implementing EMR/EHR systems in a wide variety of provider settings ranging from small provider groups, IPAs and integrated delivery systems.

Prior to joining Anthem, Ashok led the Information Management/Business Intelligence team at Liberty Mutual and focused on delivering analytics to key business areas like Actuarial & Finance. Preceding Liberty Mutual, Ashok worked in software giants SAP and Oracle as a software development engineer of Business Intelligence products.

Ashok holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Missouri and BS in Computer Science and Engineering from Madurai University in India.

Petrina Hackett-Cherry is a marketing executive with over 20 years of experience specializing in branding, ROI-driven strategy, entertainment marketing, and media training. She is highly regarded as a consulting resource across multiple industries, including consumer product goods, healthcare, television and entertainment. In addition to her corporate relationships, Petrina has become an expert at developing brands for celebrities and non - profit organizations. She is currently the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan where she leads and coordinates corporate sales, marketing strategy and community outreach functions.

Petrina has formed strategic relationships with her clients and major corporations such as Coca-Cola, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Honeywell, Perkin Elmer, Disney, Universal Studios, NBC, Sony, and Sara Lee to improve their short and long-term growth strategies. She has led numerous high-profile communications initiatives, including corporate restructurings, new product introductions and grassroots engagement efforts. She excels in helping brands create great ideas and bring them to life through integrated experiential programs that leverage online, mobile and physical brand interactions. Clients rely on her to help them compete more effectively on a global basis by creating and accelerating relationships with customers, employees, partners, media and other influencers.

Her involvement in new media and branding is significant. She has shared her expertise on entertainment marketing, strategy, PR and media training on numerous panels and to business groups and associations and was featured in an Ebony magazine article on “Raising Stars”. She is a Board member for The Urban League of Eastern MA, The Artemis Circle of the Boys and Girls Club, The Freedom House and My Sister’s Keeper. She is an active member of The Links Inc., Jack and Jill of Boston and Delta Sigma Theta Inc. Petrina holds an Executive MBA from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson School of Business.

Jeremy Duncan currently leads Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island's brand and marketing efforts across consumer, commercial, and ancillary lines of business. With annual premium revenue in excess of $1.5B, Blue Cross has been recognized nationally for its consumer-focused products and services. The brand's strong consumer appeal has made it one of the fastest growing Medicare Advantage plans in the country in recent years.

Through his leadership, Blue Cross has developed key consumer marketing capabilities including customer experience design, retail storefronts, innovative product design, marketing automation, digital commerce and mobile engagement platforms. Jeremy leads a team which is focused on ensuring members have a differentiated experience across all channels of healthcare delivery and financing.

Holly has over 30 years’ experience in health care clinical programs, services, and managed care strategy. She is a nurse executive with deep industry and consulting experience in government programs managed care product innovation and development, strategic planning, program/ product and operational design, market and opportunity analysis, financial feasibility, network strategy, quality and performance improvement, revenue management. Holly specializes in managed care programs serving Medicare, Medicaid, dual eligibles and other specialized populations, and is a nationally-recognized thought leader and speaker on specialized managed care programs. Holly was responsible for building and leading the first and still largest managed LTC plan in NYS, and is a former NYS Medicaid managed care plan President and CEO. Holly received her Masters in Public Health Administration, Masters of Science in Urban Planning, and Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Columbia University

Robert’s career spans 25+ years with experience in marketing consulting, brand advertising, direct marketing, CRM, digital marketing, B2B lead generation and sales promotion. He has a long track record of success in building healthcare brands; driving transformational thinking and leading teams in the development of multichannel campaigns that drive significant results for clients.

Over the past 17 years in the health and wellness space, Robert has earned a reputation as an industry expert and consumer-marketing pioneer. Among his many accomplishments, he led transformation of the Humana brand on behalf of Omnicom across 7 agencies: developed the 1st social media effort in the pharma space for Gardasil and was the 1st to sell an Rx product through eCommerce channels, among others. Robert has held leadership positions at Y&R; Advertising, Wunderman and Rapp Worldwide.

As Director, Marketing Strategy & Campaigns, Kelly Kimberland is responsible for all marketing strategy, campaign management and digital marketing initiatives for UPMC Insurance Services Division and UPMC Health Plan. Kimberland joined UPMC Health Plan in March 2010 as Director, Social Marketing where she designed and launched the organization’s digital marketing initiative and first mobile app – making UPMC Health Plan the first in the region to have a robust digital marketing presence. In the past six years, Kimberland’s responsibilities have grown to include the management of all business-to-business and direct-to-consumer marketing strategies and campaigns for acquisition, member engagement and retention. She has served as a business lead in the implementation of the department’s marketing automation capabilities.

Kimberland has been in the marketing and public relations industry for more than 20 years with experience in digital marketing, strategy & campaign development, crisis communications, media relations, analyst relations and branding within the health care, technology, cyber security and energy industries.

Jonna Kurucz is Staff Vice President for Anthem’s clinical client development. In that capacity, she is responsible for commercial business clinical strategy, business development and innovation. She frequently presents clinical strategy and custom solutions in finalist meetings with Fortune 500 companies, and delivers updates on Anthem’s total population health approach to national benefit consulting firms.

Prior to joining Anthem, Jonna was with Resolution Health, Inc., a technology company Anthem acquired in 2008. There she managed the relationship with Anthem, which was Resolution Health’s largest customer and strategic investor prior to the acquisition.

Jonna’s previous roles include being a member of Nextel’s Leadership Team, where she led the Strategic Business Solutions unit focused on the financial, insurance, health care, pharmaceutical and professional services industries. She was a key contributor in developing strategic direction for the Business Solutions teaming with cross-functional organizations.

Jonna was also a member of the Executive Team of BenefitPoint, Inc, a start-up technology infrastructure company. Her sales, account management and sales support organization managed executive relationships at the largest consulting customers, including Mercer Human Resources Consulting, Marsh Employee Benefit Services, Aon Consulting and Willis as well as large carrier customers, including UNUM. She grew the customer base to150 large brokerage/consulting firms including six of the top 10 in the U.S. Jonna created and supervised strategic and tactical project plans for 400 broker offices representing 52,000 employers, 120,000 employer benefit plans accounting for over $80B in employee benefits revenue.

Jonna’s career began at Prudential, where among various roles she developed and communicated corporate public policy positions reporting to consecutive CEOs. In that role, she represented Prudential Enterprise on national trade associations during height of health care reform including The Business Roundtable and the American Association of Health Plans (now AHIP). Jonna also served on national advisory groups for the American Academy of Family Practice Physicians and the National Business Coalition on Health.

Jonna earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College.

As Executive Director of Operations Integrity for Aetna, Audrey leads efforts to ensure organizational success and operational compliance. Responsible for mobilizing business resources to identify, mitigate, and remediate challenges leading to compliance and business risk, she has supported the execution of strategic goals. Prior to this role, Audrey served as the Medicare Compliance Officer of the Amerigroup Corporation, and held Product Management and Compliance roles at Healthfirst and Centerlight Health Systems before that. She has continued to bring her health insurance expertise and leadership skills to guarantee the success of the projects she joins.

Kate McEvoy-Zdonczyk is Vice-President for the Central & Western Massachusetts Markets at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. In this role she is responsible for managing Harvard Pilgrim’s presence in the community and the development and implementation of regional strategies that will increase Harvard Pilgrim’s market share and membership in the central and western areas of Massachusetts.

Prior to joining Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Kate served as the Senior Director for Government & Community Relations at Fallon Community Health Plan, a role that included oversight of FCHP’s legislative affairs, issues related to public policy, as well as FCHP’s philanthropic activity. In Addition, Kate served in an interim capacity as Marketing Director for Summit ElderCare, FCHP’s P.A.C.E. program where she created and implemented a multi-year sales and marketing plan and led the entity’s rebranding effort.

An active volunteer in central Massachusetts’ political and non-profit communities, Kate is well-known for her success in the fundraising arena, and was selected as one of the Worcester Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award winners in 2002, as well as being named one of the “25 to Watch in 2005” by Pulse Magazine. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Destination Worcester, the Women’s’ Initiative at the United Way of Central MA, the Young Professional Woman’s Association, and is currently involved with many other non-profit organizations. Past volunteer affiliations include service as a Board member for many central Massachusetts agencies including the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester, Girls Inc, the Montachusett Girl Scout Council, and Worcester State University’s Alumni Advisory Board. Kate received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Worcester State University. Kate is married to Gary Zdonczyk and they reside in Auburn, MA with their two dogs Hope and Snickers.

Adam Mintz is the VP of Sales and Retention for Gateway Health. In this role he is responsible for developing and closing enrollment leads for the MCO’s Medicare plans, as well as managing program to attract and retain current Medicaid members.

A tenured healthcare professional with 25 years in the managed care industry, Adam began his career in 1992 with New York based US healthcare. Over the ensuing years, Adam held senior leadership positions with some of the larger payers in the nation while maintaining a strong focus on government healthcare programs.

The major focus of Adam’s career has been helping healthcare organizations to grow both membership and revenue while actively promoting their brand. His successes include helping to launch three new health plans and position them to significantly increase their market share.

With a background that includes deep experience in both commercial and government insurance programs, Adam is among an elite group of sales and marketing professional who can speak to all lines of consumer health insurance. His expertise includes a wide knowledge of both Medicaid and Medicare, especially Dual Special Needs plans (DSNP), programs. Adam resides in New Jersey with his wife and two teenage children.

Denise J. Pesich, Chief Marketing Officer of Affinity Health Plan, is responsible for ensuring that all marketing communications convey its unique brand voice, with messaging that engages their members/customers. Prolific in all mediums, from digital and print to broadcast and collateral, Ms. Pesich leads multi-disciplinary teams of professionals in brand, communications, digital strategy, advertising, creative services, public relations, signature events and corporate meetings, strategic development, consumer and member engagement, and a range of partnerships and initiatives. She has developed campaigns that have revolutionized the customer experience, engaging and supporting Affinity’s healthcare mission.

An innovative, creative marketing executive with superior leadership and problem-solving abilities, Ms. Pesich has more than 25 years as a results-driven senior executive in the nonprofit and corporate space. Before joining Affinity, Ms. Pesich served as Vice President of Communications and National Spokesperson at Girl Scouts of the USA, leading her teams to numerous public successes and accolades. She served as chief architect, developer and executor of the boldest advocacy and fundraising effort dedicated to girls’ leadership in the nation’s history. As the iconic organization mobilized communities of champions to advance the world-changing impact of female leadership on the advent of its 100th anniversary, Girl Scouts of the USA was named Equitrend Youth Brand of the Year and earned Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored Brand of the Year in 2012. Prior to Girl Scouts, Ms. Pesich capped a near 20-year career as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Development for the United Ways of Tri-State consortium, helping to establish the New York-based footprint for United Way of America.

Robin Randall-Lewis is a rule breaker, Rock-n-Roll Mom of 5 who is half of the fun couple and a seasoned healthcare strategist. She has spent the latter part of a 30 year career in healthcare helping to find ways to engage consumers in navigating and managing the complex terrain of healthcare. Building on years of core foundation of clinical information technology in hospitals, Robin moved over to consulting at Ernst & Young where her marquis solution was developing a consumer engagement portal that was ahead of its time. Leveraging that experience she jumped into the dot com foray and designed self-scheduling solutions for hospitals and Providers. Squarely ensconced in the vendor world, she moved over to be a P&L; owner for Clinical Solutions at Thomson Medstat/Truven/now IBM. Here she “leapfrogged patient safety” and elevated provider ranking methodologies to consumers and other healthcare stakeholders. Fast forward to the last 10 years where Robin has been working at engaging consumers at United/Optum Health, Consulting for J&J; and WebMD, and building out technology enabled consumer engagement solutions at Anthem. She is a published author and speaker on consumer engagement, Wellness, incentives, and healthcare data acquisition.

Susan helps companies facing massive change solve problems and capitalize on opportunities more effectively, through more creative thinking. Some of the world’s largest corporations call on Susan to consult with them on innovation initiatives, strategy, and culture. Clients include Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Florida Blue, & Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

She was a keynote speaker at the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center Innovation Expo, and is a frequent speaker in creativity and innovation across the U.S. and around the world. She has spoken at conferences and led innovation initiatives in places as diverse as South Africa, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, the U.K., China, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Greece.

She teaches executive education and graduate level courses in creative thinking at Harvard University, as well as being a senior faculty member at the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute, the largest and longest-running innovative thinking conference in the world.

Burt oversees all marketing for HealthSparq. He is responsible for developing and telling HealthSparq’s story: what we do, who we do it for and how we do it. He is extremely focused on helping HealthSparq’s health plan partners be successful. Prior to HealthSparq, Burt spent five years at Knowledge Universe, the leading provider of early childhood education in the US (KinderCare is its biggest brand). He started there as VP of Digital and Customer Experience and eventually took on all of marketing, from market and customer research, to creative, PR, acquisition and everything digital. Before Knowledge Universe, Burt was at Starwood Hotels for four years leading a digital and call center strategy team that serviced each of Starwood’s nine brands, and eventually leading all marketing for Starwood’s award-winning loyalty program, Preferred Guest. For fun, Burt hikes and climbs mountains (both literally and figuratively) and can often be found tweeting about #whatthehealthcare and #WTFix from his handle, @burtrosen.

Sue Schick is Chief Growth Officer at UnitedHealthcare Community & State. In this role, Sue is responsible for designing and building innovative strategies to support state government customers that make the health care system work better. UnitedHealthcare Community & State proudly serves nearly 6.4 million Medicaid members in 26 states, plus Washington D.C. UnitedHealthcare is a division of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) which is a diversified health and well-being company with a mission to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone.

Prior to serving as Chief Growth Officer, Sue was the Chief Executive Officer of the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Pennsylvania where she managed both Medicaid and Commercial products. Before this role, Sue held a variety of business development leadership positions, including National Vice President of Distribution Strategies and Regional Vice President of Sales. She joined UnitedHealthcare over ten years ago and has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the health and employee benefits industry. Sue is also a Culture Facilitator and Coach, and was recognized with the UnitedHealthcare Values Token in 2015.

Sue is active in the community, serving in leadership roles with health-related organizations, including the national March of Dimes Board of Trustees. In addition, Sue works to lead change and guide healthcare delivery improvements across the country. In recognition of these efforts, Modern Healthcare recognized her as a finalist for their national Community Leader Award in 2013, and honored her as one of 10 Women Leaders to Watch in 2017. Sue is also active in supporting state governments, most recently serving as Chair for the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, and serving on the Governor’s Innovation & Privatization Task Force.

Sue earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics/Business from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where she is an active volunteer serving on the Board of Trustees and as past President of the Society of Alumni. Sue also holds her Master of Science degree in Healthcare Delivery Science from Dartmouth College.

As one of the youngest Vice Presidents at Avera Health, Jennifer Schultz manages a multimillion-dollar budget, oversees strategic marketing for the major service lines and business units of the entire health system, physician communications, population health initiatives, leads a team of over 20 people, and has led numerous successful and award-winning campaigns. In 2015, she completed her MBA through the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Jennifer is skilled at connecting dots before other people see the overall vision. She has become a trusted resource for the physicians and leaders of Avera Health. Jennifer has volunteered for committee work for the South Dakota Symphony and was on the steering committee that founded Dress for Success in Sioux Falls. She has a passion for being involved in programs that improve the lives of women and children. She's also a graduate of the EmBE (formerly YWCA) Women's Leadership program and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the EmBe Marketingtz

As Senior Director of Dual programs for Aetna, Karen employs strategic leadership skills and industry expertise to provide strategy development and operations oversight for Dual Eligible Products at Aetna. Karen joined Aetna in 2012 and has led end to end operations for their dual demonstrations and dual special needs plans in multiple states. She has successfully led multiple programs and process improvement initiatives that includes successful CMS data validation audits as well as plan program audits. Prior to this role, she worked as the Senior Director of Clinical Programs at XLHealth Corporation where she developed strategies and programs to support dual eligible beneficiaries that reduced medical costs and readmissions by 25%.

Mary Woods is vice president of marketing and communications for Kaiser Permanente’s National Medicare line of business.

Mary is a seasoned health care industry professional with communications and marketing experience spanning more than three decades in the managed care and care delivery sectors – mostly at Kaiser Permanente (KP). A substantial part of her career at KP has been in corporate and marketing communications with leadership positions in the Southern California and Mid-Atlantic States regions, and Program Office.

In her current Program Office role, Mary is accountable for ensuring that KP’s national Medicare marketing is aligned with business strategies and achieves membership goals. Additionally, Mary is responsible for ensuring the compliance of KP’s Medicare marketing programs and materials with all Federal government regulations. She also provides internal communication leadership for the Medicare line of business.

Mary joined KP in 1982 as a public affairs representative in the Orange County, California service area. After taking on increasing responsibilities throughout the Southern California region, she ultimately became assistant director of public affairs. In 1992, she relocated to KP’s Mid-Atlantic States region as director of public affairs. Her responsibilities were expanded to include marketing and communications for the region – and she eventually became director of corporate and marketing communications for both the Mid-Atlantic States and Ohio regions. From 2000 to 2004, Mary supported KP’s senior vice president of brand and communications in the redesign of the national communications structure, the launch of KP’s Thrive brand, and the naming of KP HealthConnecttm, KP’s online medical record.

Mary is a magna cum laude graduate from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, with a bachelor of science degree in journalism and business administration. She resides in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and two sons. She is an avid runner and golfer; and active in her church, children’s school, and other community organizations.