Deborah has held the position of Vice President at Healthfirst for the past five years. Healthfirst is one of the largest not-for-profit healthplans in New York State. Healthfirst services over 1 million NYC residents which includes government programs (Medicare, Medicaid and MLTC), health exchange and commercial products. Deborah’s primary role at Healthfirst is developing and managing care management programs that target the most vulnerable member populations and strives to achieve improved health outcomes.

Deborah is a licensed registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in health care administration from Pfeiffer University and is also a certified case manager.

Deborah has worked in managed care over 30+years in both payer and provider capacities as both leader and consultant. She has focused much of her career in change management with an emphasis on care management approaches to reduce readmissions.

Laurie Evans is the Director of Decision Sciences and Predictive Analytics for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, which serves more than 3 million members.

In this role, Laurie is responsible for the daily operations of multiple teams. She oversees Predictive Analytics, 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.

Laurie has more than 34 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with a background in clinical nursing, medical management as well as reporting and analytics.

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 and has a background in customer consultation as well.

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.

Driven and compassionate healthcare professional with over 20 years’ experience in Skilled and Acute Care Hospital settings, Integrated Case Management, Utilization Management, Home Health Care, Nurse Management, Charge Nurse and DON. Specializing in Disease management for the last four years in a broad span of roles from telephonic to leadership and now currently working as a Field Case management Disease Manager for the Miami/Dade HIV Medicaid population of Humana with strong HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Hypertension, CHF and Asthma knowledge base. Proficient in implementation of assessment tools: DLA-20, OASIS and ICM-CAG as well as other applications including spreadsheets ,data collection and data entry. Previous DON and owner of Lakeside Quality Home Health Agency in Pahokee, FL. Passionate about helping members achieve lifelong well-being through education, promoting self-management ,advocacy, support, compassion , commitment and nursing skills to break through barriers.

Dr. Chandrakala Gowda is Vice President and Executive Medical Director for Highmark Inc. Dr. Gowda was previously the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Kern Health Systems. Prior to Kern, Dr. Gowda served as the Medical Director for Parkview Health, the largest not-for-profit health system in northeastern Indiana.

Dr. Gowda is a Pediatrician by background of specialization with subspecialty in Neonatal Intensive Care. She has extensive leadership experience including serving as Medical Director for level 3 NICI in three separate organizations and Vice Chair of Medical Services at Davis Hospital in Utah.

In addition to her many honor and awards, she has published numerous articles in peer reviewed Journals, including the Journal of Perinatology and American Journal of Management Care. Dr. Gowda graduated from Bangalore University in Bangalore, India with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. She completed her Residency in Pediatrics at New York University and Fellowship in Neonatology from Case Western Reserve University. She also has an Executive Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah.