2018 Speaking Faculty

Jennifer McGuigan Babcock is ACAP’s Vice President for Medicaid Policy and Director of Strategic Operations. She was recently appointed to direct ACAP’s Medicaid policy work after spending over four years as ACAP’s Vice President for Exchanges. And this is her second tour at ACAP; in 2010, she served the Eligibility and Enrollment team within the Office of Health Insurance Exchanges in the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (OCIIO, now known as CCIIO), focusing primarily on the interplay between Medicaid and Exchange coverage.

Before joining OCIIO, Jennifer served as ACAP’s Director of Policy, working primarily on Medicaid and CHIP health plan issues. Previously, she worked on policy related to Medicaid, CHIP, the uninsured, and private health insurance in the Office of Health Policy for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the Department of Health and Human Services. She has also held positions with CHIP at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as special assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and as an associate consultant with The Lewin Group in Falls Church. Jennifer also served as an MPH Fellow at the Consumer Health Foundation in Washington, D.C., and as Executive Director of the Lovelight Foundation, an anti-poverty organization in Detroit.She has a Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan, Department of Health Management and Policy, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kalamazoo College in Michigan.

Dr. Richard M. Celko is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine. He completed his General Practice Dental Residency at Montefiore Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA. He received his MBA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his private practice of general dentistry, he was also a part time Clinical Instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Dental Medicine for four years. Dr. Celko worked at Aetna for 11 years and was their National Dental Director of Utilization Management. He is a Certified Dental Consultant and former president of the American Association of Dental Consultants. He is a Fellow in both, the International College of Dentists (ICD) and the American College of Dentists (ACD). He is a veteran lecturer for the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) and continues to lecture nationally on dental fraud. He is currently the Dental Director for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health Plan.

Cyndi started her career as a Social Worker serving a number of community agencies prior to beginning work in public sector managed care. For over 15 years she has held executive leadership roles in healthcare services for large insurers, including providing strategic direction for implementation of managed Medicaid programs in 18 states. She led the delivery of behavioral health/specialty services as the SVP Clinical Operations for Cenpatico, (a fully owned subsidiary of Centene) until 2014 and then served as the Vice President, Behavioral Health and Re-Entry services for Corizon Health, delivering health care services to those incarcerated.

Cyndi served as the VP, Clinical Operations launching Medicaid and Population Health programs nationally for Optum, focused on comprehensive solutions for individuals with limited resources and high risk/needs and designing case management, disease management and long-term supports and services prior to joining Molina as VP, Healthcare services in 2017 .

Marilyn Eckley has nearly 30 years of experience working in the health and human services field, holding a variety of key executive leadership positions in both the public and private sectors.

Eckley spent 15 years working for the Pennsylvania state government in various capacities. She was the Director of HealthChoices, the state’s Medicaid managed care program, and she served as the Bureau Director of Operations and Quality Management, overseeing community behavioral health programs. As the state’s Human Services Policy Director, Eckley worked on a broad spectrum of human services policies and programs, including the development of the state’s long-term plan for transitioning persons in long-term care facilities into home- and community-based settings. Eckley also was Deputy Secretary of the Office of Children, Youth and Families for the child welfare, adoption, family support, and juvenile justice programs.

Eckley moved to the private sector, working as the National Director of Operations for one of the largest health care insurers in the country. She also held chief operations officer and chief executive officer positions, overseeing managed care health plans in a number of states. Eckley held an ad hoc professor position in the Department of Health Care Administration at the Pennsylvania State University and has been an instructor for several leadership development workshops and institutes.

Eckley is currently the Senior Vice President of Operations for the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies, overseeing health services payment, provider and member services, and other critical operations functions.

Blythe FitzHarris is the Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) of Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care, the Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Maricopa County, and parts of Pinal County. As CCO, Blythe is responsible for clinical program development and oversight of multiple large service delivery systems. These include the Adult and Children’s Systems of Care, the Office of Individual and Family Affairs, and Clinical Operations. In addition, Blythe oversees coordination of care with system stakeholders.

Prior to stepping into the Chief Clinical Officer role, Blythe served as the Adult Systems of Care Administrator for Mercy Maricopa. In that role, Blythe oversaw Adult SMI System of Care, which included housing and rehabilitation services, and was the lead for the Arnold vs. Sarn settlement agreement.

Blythe has more than 20 years of experience working in public behavioral health in a variety of clinical and operation positions. Blythe has also taught social work at the university level and is currently an associate faculty at Arizona State University’s School of Social Work. Blythe is a licensed clinical social worker, has a master’s in social work and a Ph.D. in social welfare, with a focus on mental health and recovery, from Arizona State University.

Dr. Charissa Fotinos was named Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Washington State’s Health Care Authority in October of 2013. In that position, she provides support to both the Health Care Authority and the Department of Social and Health Services in support of the Apple Health/Medicaid programs. She is actively involved in the chemical dependency/mental health and the chemical dependency/mental health and primary care integration efforts with a particular focus on improving the access and care of persons with substance use disorders.

Dr. Fotinos has focused her career on providing care to and improving the systems of care for underserved populations. She has helped to develop mobile medical programs to deliver health care to persons living homeless and has spent a number of years providing care in the field for persons living homeless.

Prior to her current position, Dr. Fotinos was the Chief Medical Officer for Public Health Seattle-King County, a position she held since 2003. Dr. Fotinos is board certified in Family and Addiction Medicine. Before joining Seattle- King County, she was a physician-faculty member at the Providence Family Medicine Residency in Seattle, Washington.

She holds a Master of Science degree in evidence-based health care from Oxford University, Kellogg College, in England and is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Family Medicine.

Andrea Gelzer, MD, MS, FACP, is the senior vice president and corporate chief medical officer for AmeriHealth Caritas. She is responsible for setting and overseeing the organization’s overall population health management, informatics, quality and provider network contracting strategies, as well as clinical policy development and data analytics oversight for all AmeriHealth Caritas’ health plans and ancillary businesses. Previously, Dr. Gelzer served as the chief medical officer for Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan. She also served multiple roles, including senior vice president of clinical public affairs at CIGNA Corporation, and for 16 years worked in private practice in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Gelzer serves on several national committees including the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Committee on Performance Measurement, Health Care Payment and Learning Network (LAN) Guiding Committee, and the National Quality Forum (NQF) Coordinating Committee for the Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Project. She also serves as the Board of Directors Chair of HealthShare Exchange, Board member for the Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) and is the past-chair of the Chief Medical Officer Leadership Council at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

Dr. Gelzer earned her undergraduate degree from Tufts University and her doctor of medicine from St. George's University. She also received a master’s degree in preventive medicine/administrative medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She is a board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in clinical informatics.

Jon Hamdorf is the Division of Health Care Finance Director and State Medicaid Director. Jon holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and management information systems from the University of Iowa, has an M.B.A from Baker University, and is a doctoral (PhD) candidate at the University of Kansas Medical School in the department of Health Policy and Management. In his professional career, Jon has spent 15 years managing global sales engineering teams and delivering healthcare technology solutions for US and global health systems. In the past few years, his focus has been on conducting and publishing health services research, advising on local and national health policies, and working for the state of Kansas as an policy advisor and Medicaid director.

Shannon M. McMahon, MPA, was appointed the Deputy Secretary of Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in February, 2015. In this role, she is responsible for the operation of the state’s Medicaid program, which serves over 1.2 million Marylanders.

Previously, Ms. McMahon was the Director of Coverage and Access at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) where she lead Medicaid eligibility, benefit design and purchasing implementation efforts and learning collaboratives for states and the federal government. Prior to CHCS, she worked in executive and management-level roles in Minnesota Medicaid, most recently as the Chief Administrative Officer, where she oversaw finance and operations for Minnesota’s three public health care programs. Ms. McMahon also spent several years working on health policy issues as a non-partisan analyst at the Department of Legislative Services in Annapolis and also held the position of senior budget and policy adviser to the Secretary and Principal Deputy Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Ms. McMahon has a bachelor’s degree in justice from American University, Washington, D.C. and a master’s degree in public administration from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts where she was a recipient of a full tuition public policy fellowship. She is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Medicaid Directors

State Medicaid Director Barbara Sears oversees the Ohio Department of Medicaid, Ohio’s first cabinet-level state Medicaid agency. Through its network of approximately 90,000 active providers, Ohio Medicaid makes coordinated, person-centered care available to residents in all regions of Ohio.

The department has become a cornerstone of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, which Governor John R. Kasich created in 2011. In conjunction with the Office of Health Transformation Director Greg Moody, the Ohio Medicaid team has implemented a series of innovative policy initiatives that have modernized the Medicaid program by improving the quality of health services at a substantial value to Ohio’s taxpayers.

Most recently, Director Sears served as Assistant Director for the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation. In this role she led high priority projects to advance the Kasich Administration’s Medicaid modernization and cost containment initiatives.

Prior to joining the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, Director Sears represented the 47th House District in the Ohio House of Representatives. While a legislator, she served as the Majority Floor Leader, Chair of the House Insurance Committee and Chair of the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee. Most of her legislative and policy work focused on the state’s health and human services, including Medicaid and unemployment reforms. Director Sears has been honored with over two dozen legislator of the year awards and lifetime achievement awards, including recognition by the Governor’s Council of People with Disabilities.

Director Sears began her political career in 1997 when she was elected to Sylvania City Council. She served on city council for ten years, the last four as President of Council and Chair of Finance. Additionally, she chaired the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. Barbara was also an active health and life insurance agent and small business owner from 1985 to 2016.

Tony Solem has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare administration including executive roles in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial health plans, and third party administration. He has worked with plans in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Texas.

Tony has been the CEO of Aetna Better Health of Ohio, a Dual Eligible demonstration plan, since 2015.

Prior to joining Aetna, Tony was Chief Medicare Officer for Santa Clara Family Health Plan, where he was responsible for the successful implementation of the Cal MediConnect Dual Eligible Demonstration plan.

From 2004 to 2014, Tony was with United Healthcare in market executive roles in Medicare Advantage in the southwest, including CEO/President of PacifiCare of Arizona.

Tony was the President and Chief Executive Officer of First Plan of Minnesota, one of the earliest community HMOs in the country, from 1997 to 2004.

Tony has also worked on the hospital side with St. Luke's Hospital of Duluth, and the regulatory side with AHCCCS, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment system.

Through his various roles involving dual eligible and HCBS populations, he has become increasingly interested in the structural challenges to support the goals of the programs and the metrics to demonstrate the successes.

Tony received his undergraduate degree in Information Management from the University of North Dakota, and holds an M.B.A. from Arizona State University.

As vice president of Risk Adjustment, Elaine Taverna is responsible for leading, developing, refining and implementing risk adjustment strategies for HAP. This involves collecting and analyzing member health data in order to determine the cost of providing care, particularly for those with chronic conditions.

Elaine is an expert in government health programs with more than 20 years of clinical, operations and administrative experience, which includes time in the nonprofit sector and national consulting experience.

Prior to joining HAP, Elaine was the director of government programs for Henry Ford Health System. In this role, she led a transformational project to evaluate, design and implement a system-wide integrated risk adjustment program designed to improve health outcomes for patients and members.

Elaine holds a bachelor's degree in social work from Eastern Michigan University and a master's degree in health administration from Central Michigan University. She is a licensed social worker in the State of Michigan.