Tech-Enabled Independence: A Live Smart Home Showcase
Sponsored By: 
You’ll see the tech and remote supports in the Smart Home Expo, come see it in real life!
Step into an immersive Smart Home Suite designed to showcase how thoughtfully integrated technology can empower adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to live more independently, safely, and confidently. Sponsored by ShiftAbility, this hands-on experience features a two-room suite: one set up as a fully equipped smart home environment—with voice-activated devices, environmental controls, safety sensors, and more—and the other demonstrating real-time remote support tools. Attendees will get a first-hand look at how remote live monitoring works, offering a unique perspective on how technology can proactively support safety, independence, and timely interventions.
Discover how these smart systems can ease workforce pressures, reduce the need for constant in-person support, and deliver more personalized, data-informed care—transforming the future of I/DD and aging services.
The available demo times will be 10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. on both October 27th and 28th. Each demo will be 30 minutes long. We will be in contact prior to the institute in order to schedule your specific start time.
If you are already registered for the event, please fill out this form and choose your time.
If you are not registered for the event, please use this link to register and sign up for the Smart Home Suite.
Registration
Grab your badge and register for the week ahead!
Lunch On Your Own
Enjoy lunch at the hotel restaurant, Bank & Bourbon, or take a walk down to the famous Reading Terminal Market!
Finding An EHR For Your Future: The 2026 OPEN MINDS Best Practices Seminar On EHR Selection, Implementation & Optimization
Sponsored By: 
Over the past twenty years, adopting electronic health record systems (EHRs) has changed how health services are managed and delivered. As the health care system has continued to evolve with more value-based reimbursement, the push towards integrated care coordination, and the rise in consumerism, the technology infrastructure needed by provider organizations has changed—including EHRs. For most executives, the EHR is a significant investment, and choosing the right system (or keeping the wrong system) can make or break any organization.
This essential seminar is for any executive considering a new EHR system—whether it is your organization’s first EHR or upgrading a system that isn’t delivering the functionality needed for sustainability. Also, OPEN MINDS Associates will guide you through a step-by-step process for selecting an EHR that fits all your organization’s needs. The seminar will cover:
- The best practice model for assessing the tech functionality your organization needs for future success
- Steps for vetting vendors and their products and services
- Budgeting for EHR software and implementation
- Ensuring the best value and performance in contract negotiating
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
A Clinician’s Perspective: Essential Features & Common Pitfalls In EHR Selection
Part of the Finding An EHR For Your Future Seminar
Join Dr. Mike Arevalo, a practicing clinician and industry leader, for a frontline perspective on EHR selection. Drawing from real-world implementation experience, Dr. Arevalo will share the most common mistakes organizations make during evaluation, the clinical features that actually matter for daily workflows, and how to assess AI capabilities that deliver genuine value versus marketing promises. Learn practical strategies for choosing technology that supports both clinician satisfaction and quality care—ensuring your EHR investment drives sustainable outcomes for your organization.
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Michael Arevalo, Psy.D
Michael Arevalo, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with experience in evidence-based treatment and quality improvement across diverse clinical settings, including community mental health organizations, private practice, university counseling centers, and major healthcare systems like the VA and Kaiser Permanente. As Director of Clinical Strategy at Core Solutions, Inc., he leads the integration of clinical best practices into the company’s EHR platform, collaborating with product, engineering, and AI teams to develop data-driven solutions that enhance clinician workflows and patient care. He also defines quality metrics, ensures regulatory compliance, and develops training programs to optimize digital health tools.
Creating A Winning Tech Strategy: The 2026 OPEN MINDS Seminar On Building A Digital Transformation Roadmap
Sponsored By:
As the rate of technological advancements continues to progress, and an emphasis is put on consumer experience, much focus has shifted to digital strategies for health and human service organizations. These strategies involve a multi-pronged technology-driven approach that leads to streamlining processes and higher performance. While the post-pandemic era has accelerated the use of technology to support consumer access, using a technology strategy to assure business success goes beyond a consumer digital interface is essential. This seminar will focus on the key dimensions of digital transformation and provide a road map for executive teams to integrate and incorporate their entire organization. Attendees will gain insights into a digital-first approach focused on consumer experience, organizational efficiency, resiliency, growth, and sustainability.
Key objectives include:
- A road map for digital-first evolution and what it means to be a digital-first organization
- The eight dimensions of a digital-first framework for quality and performance
- Critical organizational competencies needed for leading-edge technology transformation
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
The Ninth Dimension: Embedding Intelligence Across The Digital-First Framework
The eight dimensions of a digital-first framework define what it takes to compete on quality, efficiency, and consumer experience — but none of them fully anticipated the speed and scale at which AI would reshape what’s possible within each one. This session argues that AI is not a ninth dimension bolted onto the framework, but a force that runs through all eight: reshaping how organizations coordinate care, document services, engage consumers, and manage workforce capacity. Rather than treating AI as a standalone initiative or a department to stand up, executive teams will learn how to embed intelligence directly into existing workflows and competencies — turning AI from a pilot project into structural capability.
Attendees will leave with a practical view of where AI is already delivering value in health and human services today, what organizational readiness actually requires, and how to sequence AI investment so it strengthens — rather than competes with — the rest of the digital transformation roadmap.
Sharon Hicks, MSW, MBA
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. She was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. since May of 2002. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hick started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, Ms. Hicks managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Ravi Ganesan, MBA
Ravi Ganesan is the founder and CEO of Core Solutions, where he leads the revolution in behavioral health through artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. With over 25 years of dedication, Ravi has addressed the unique challenges of the health and human services industry by developing innovative EHR technology, significantly improving treatment outcomes. His deep expertise in healthcare and technology, combined with a strong commitment to customer satisfaction, has established Core Solutions as a leading software provider nationwide.
Under his leadership, Core Solutions has pioneered AI-driven solutions for clinical documentation, treatment planning, and care delivery optimization in behavioral health settings. As CEO, Ravi has successfully established partnerships with large providers, government agencies, and leading management consulting firms to improve treatment for behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability services.
Ravi is a recognized thought leader and frequent speaker on AI implementation, data-driven decision-making, and digital transformation in healthcare. Ravi received his M.B.A. from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Grand Opening of The Exhibit Hall
Join us for an unveiling of all of our great exhibitors! Unwind from the day and enjoy cocktails and hor ‘doeuvres with your peers and thought leaders.
Clinically AI Lounge
Sponsored By: 
During the Institute, attendees are invited to visit the Clinically AI Lounge, just outside the exhibit halls. The Lounge features 6 retro-style arcade games built around common clinician pain points. One of them is Denial Knockout, where players take on 10 well-known opponents in the ring and compete against their colleagues’ scores. On Wednesday, October 28, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, a digital caricature artist will also be in the Lounge, creating custom illustrations that attendees can take home in print and as a digital file.
Innovation With Intention: Building Trustworthy AI At Scale
Sponsored By: 
As a leader in responsible AI adoption, Outreach has leveraged AI to support documentation across more than 140,000 care sessions, gaining valuable real-world insights into what it takes to scale innovation responsibly. This Tech Talk moves beyond the principles of ethical AI to explore the practical lessons learned through implementation—including what worked, challenges encountered and how human oversight and governance evolved along the way. Attendees will gain actionable insights into balancing innovation with clinical integrity, building organizational trust and establishing the guardrails necessary for sustainable AI adoption.
Kelsey Silver
Kelsey Silver has over a decade of experience in the behavioral health field, seven of which focused on treatment for substance use disorders. As Outreach’s Assistant Vice President of Quality and Data Analytics, she oversees administration of the organization’s AVATAR Electronic Health Record (EHR), the agency’s Continuous Quality Improvement Program, and interfaces with multiple departments to provide vital data analytics in support of the agency’s vision.
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a background in technology, Ms. Silver uses her knowledge to bridge communications between the clinical and operational divisions of the agency, towards optimizing training, workflow, and processes. She manages the design, implementation, and maintenance of Outreach’s EHR, including quality assurance, support, training, monitoring, and improvement, and manages the agency ‘help desk’ to ensure prompt and efficient response to requests for assistance within the EHR.
Ms. Silver additionally supports department managers with the design and implementation of Quality Improvement projects; and provides data analytics to support program decision making and agency initiatives.
Ms. Silver earned both her Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hofstra University.
The AI-Enabled Workforce, What’s Changing Today & What’s Next
Sponsored By:
AI is fundamentally reshaping how healthcare technology organizations deliver solutions, support clients, and empower their workforce. While the future of AI holds tremendous potential, meaningful transformation is already underway. This Tech Talk will provide both a forward-looking vision and a practical look through the “windshield” at how AI is being applied today to improve productivity, accelerate time to value, enhance quality, and enable teams to focus on higher-value work. Whether you’re leading technology, operations, clinical transformation, or business strategy, this Tech Talk will provide a practical and strategic perspective on how AI is redefining the workforce today while shaping the organizations of tomorrow.
Julie Hiett, LMSW
Julie Hiett has over 30 years of experience working in behavioral health, social services and care coordination. She began her career as a Crisis Case Manager at a County CMHC in KS and was a School Social Worker prior to moving out of direct care and into Healthcare IT.
Julie has been at Netsmart over 13 years, working with clients across the country at the provider, county and state level, providing expertise on behavioral health, value-based care, care coordination, population health and clinical AI solutions. Her previous focus was assisting providers to consume and action client data across the healthcare continuum, utilizing data from disparate systems to improve clinical outcomes and lower the cost of care.
Julie has moved into leading the Netsmart clinical AI suite of solutions. In the role, she collaborates with clinicians and leadership to reduce the administrative burden of documentation, enhance clinician and client satisfaction, streamline workflows and improve quality assurance.
Julie has a bachelor’s degree in Family Studies & Human Services from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in Social Work from Wichita State University.
Continuum After Dark
Sponsored By: 
Join ContinuumCloud for Continuum After Dark, an exclusive, invitation-only networking reception featuring beverages, chef-inspired cuisine, and meaningful conversations with behavioral health and human services leaders. Connect with peers, exchange ideas, and discover that the scariest part of technology doesn’t have to be disconnected systems.
Interested in attending? Click the button below, and a ContinuumCloud representative will contact you to confirm your invitation and attendance.
Morning Yoga
Rejuvenate your creativity, focus and mindfulness by starting your day with an all-level yoga session. This class will wake you up and get you moving for the rest of the day! Join OPEN MINDS own registered yoga instructor, Joe-Paul Naughton-Travers, RYT-500, for this fun morning activity.
Yoga mats and bottled water will be provided.
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Executive Breakfast & Registration
Sponsored By: 
If you haven’t registered yet, check in with us at the registration desk and then enjoy breakfast in the exhibit hall!
2026 Community Impact Innovation Award Presentation
Sponsored By: 
Join Josh Schoeller, Chief Executive Officer of Qualifacts, and Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer of OPEN MINDS, for the presentation of the 2026 Community Impact Innovation Award.
Josh Schoeller
With more than 30 years of experience building and managing healthcare data and software businesses, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Josh Schoeller leads Qualifacts with a track record of transformative growth, innovation, and market leadership. Prior to Qualifacts, he held executive roles at Elsevier, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Enclarity, and FICO, consistently driving the development and success of groundbreaking healthcare solutions.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder of OPEN MINDS and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field – and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.
Past, Present & Future: The Status Of PACE Programs In Serving Dual Eligible Consumers
As CMS interest in maintaining consumers in the community and in value-based models increases, so does the interest in PACE programs. The model – a capitated model for providing medical and long-term care services for dually-eligible consumers living in the community – was first piloted in 1971. There are now 202 PACE programs serving more than 95,500 participants in 33 states and the District of Columbia – 20% of which are for-profit models. To learn more about future opportunities with PACE programs, Paul Soczynski, Senior Vice President, Healthcare at Volunteers of America National Services (VOANS), will open the 2026 institute with an executive update on the current role of PACE and the proposed plans for expanding PACE in the future. In addition to overseeing seven PACE Organizations operated by VOANS, Mr. Soczynski serves as a board member of the National PACE Association, bringing both policy and operational perspectives on the emerging market for PACE program services.
Paul Soczynski, MBA
Paul Soczynski has a Master’s in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in health information administration with over 40 years of experience in various leadership roles. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Healthcare for Volunteers of America National Services. His responsibilities include oversight of VOANS’ PACE Programs and Senior Living. Prior to working for VOANS, Paul worked for United Healthcare in various roles supporting LTSS programs nationally. Prior to UHC, he was responsible for business development in 50 states and the federal government for asset verification services as an enhancement to Medicaid eligibility systems for Accuity, Inc.
Paul served as the Chief Operations Officer of Community Care, Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1998 to 2010. Community Care operates PACE, Family Care Partnership and Family Care for elders and physically and developmentally disabled adults.
Paul served as a Commissioner on the Milwaukee Commission on Aging from 2003 to 2009 and served as the Project Manager for the Family Partnership Care Management Coalition which implemented Family Care for 11 counties in eastern Wisconsin. He served as a member of the National PACE Association’s (NPA) Board of Directors and chaired the Public Policy Committee. In October 2024, Paul was named Board Chair for NPA.
Grace Li
Grace Li joined On Lok in 2001 as Chief Operating Officer, applying her expertise in orchestrating new site openings, managing implementation of software applications, and overseeing multi-site complex systems and health care programs. In 2016, she was named Chief Executive Officer.
Grace works closely with her senior leadership team to create new opportunities for partnerships with philanthropic communities, and to invest in On Lok’s workforce so it upholds its reputation as a leading employer in senior care. Her vision builds on On Lok’s leadership with PACE by expanding on existing programs to meet the growing needs of a rapidly increasing senior population.
With more than 25 years in healthcare and 15 years at On Lok, Grace’s management experience spans a wide range of healthcare settings, including hospitals, physician practices, assisted living facilities, and health care consulting.
Grace serves locally on the Eden Housing, Inc. Board of Directors and NICOS Board of Directors, and nationally on the National PACE Association Board. She also serves locally on advisory committees helping to shape the services and care in our communities: San Francisco Palliative Care and San Francisco Post Acute Care Advisory Committee.
Grace holds a Master of Health Administration from the University of North Carolina and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Florida.
Remote Support/Heylo Technologies Demo
Heylo Technologies aims to solve the lack of interoperability within a remote support platform for the I/DD and Aging populations. Heylo is a new support platform that takes away the need for remote support professionals to toggle between platforms and devices to provide the same level of care as if there were in-person staffing. Heylo integrates intuitive software with dependable hardware—such as motion sensors, door sensors, cameras, and health monitoring devices—to enable 24/7 support and emergency response. The Heylo platform was designed to enhance independence, safety, and quality of life while reducing the need for constant in-person staffing. Heylo gives agencies the power to provide their own remote support and ensure that those they support are given the care they need.
Brian Hart
Brian Hart is the CEO of Heylo Technology. He has made it his mission to push the boundaries of what options exist for adults with disabilities. He is never satisfied and believes there is always a better way to increase the independence of others and break down the systemic barriers that hold them back. He has been at the forefront of expanding services through the use of technology enabled supports and community clusters of services. Through his work, Brian has been able to assist agencies across the country to implement technology first and remote support to increase the number of individuals they support. Brian believes that technology enabled support is the solution to the problems facing I/DD and Mental Health support agencies, and he is excited to be at the forefront of assisting agencies in this change.
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote for an interactive discussion where you can take time to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Paul Soczynski, MBA
Paul Soczynski has a Master’s in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in health information administration with over 40 years of experience in various leadership roles. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Healthcare for Volunteers of America National Services. His responsibilities include oversight of VOANS’ PACE Programs and Senior Living. Prior to working for VOANS, Paul worked for United Healthcare in various roles supporting LTSS programs nationally. Prior to UHC, he was responsible for business development in 50 states and the federal government for asset verification services as an enhancement to Medicaid eligibility systems for Accuity, Inc.
Paul served as the Chief Operations Officer of Community Care, Inc. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1998 to 2010. Community Care operates PACE, Family Care Partnership and Family Care for elders and physically and developmentally disabled adults.
Paul served as a Commissioner on the Milwaukee Commission on Aging from 2003 to 2009 and served as the Project Manager for the Family Partnership Care Management Coalition which implemented Family Care for 11 counties in eastern Wisconsin. He served as a member of the National PACE Association’s (NPA) Board of Directors and chaired the Public Policy Committee. In October 2024, Paul was named Board Chair for NPA.
Grace Li
Grace Li joined On Lok in 2001 as Chief Operating Officer, applying her expertise in orchestrating new site openings, managing implementation of software applications, and overseeing multi-site complex systems and health care programs. In 2016, she was named Chief Executive Officer.
Grace works closely with her senior leadership team to create new opportunities for partnerships with philanthropic communities, and to invest in On Lok’s workforce so it upholds its reputation as a leading employer in senior care. Her vision builds on On Lok’s leadership with PACE by expanding on existing programs to meet the growing needs of a rapidly increasing senior population.
With more than 25 years in healthcare and 15 years at On Lok, Grace’s management experience spans a wide range of healthcare settings, including hospitals, physician practices, assisted living facilities, and health care consulting.
Grace serves locally on the Eden Housing, Inc. Board of Directors and NICOS Board of Directors, and nationally on the National PACE Association Board. She also serves locally on advisory committees helping to shape the services and care in our communities: San Francisco Palliative Care and San Francisco Post Acute Care Advisory Committee.
Grace holds a Master of Health Administration from the University of North Carolina and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Florida.
Protecting What Matters: How To Know If Your Organization Is Cyber Secure
As behavioral health organizations become increasingly digital, protecting sensitive patient, clinical and financial data has never been more critical—or more complex. Cyber threats, ransomware attacks, and evolving regulatory requirements place executive leaders at the center of data security and organizational risk.
This session will provide behavioral health executives with a how to guide to secure their whole environment, including data, systems, email, and the people they serve—empowering leaders to protect patient trust, ensure compliance and safeguard the long-term stability of their organizations.
Attendees will leave with:
- How to identify vulnerabilities across clinical systems, EHRs, third party vendors and remote work environments
- The ability to distinguish between perceived and actual risks; and ask the right questions of internal teams and technology partners
- Strategies for governance, accountability and incident-response planning to prepare for and prevent breaches
Keith Strahan
Keith Strahan, serves as Devereux’s chief information security officer. In this role, Strahan leads Devereux’s cybersecurity and information security initiatives, helping to strengthen and protect the organization’s systems, data and technology.
Strahan has more than 30 years of experience leading strategic initiatives at the intersection of business, technology and security, with a background spanning global information technology (IT) operations, enterprise applications and infrastructure services, platform/ecosystem/cloud modernization, cybersecurity/infosec, IT governance, development operations, as well as IT mergers and acquisitions diligence and integration.
Prior to joining Devereux in 2026, Strahan worked as a principal consultant at AHEAD, an IT services and consulting company based in Chicago. Before AHEAD, Strahan held the following positions: senior vice president of IT (operational CIO) and CISO, CISO senior director of infrastructure and security, and director of network services and security at Radial Inc.; executive advisor and chief information security officer at bPost; solutions architect at Riverbed Technology; senior manager and manager of network services at eBay; manager of network solutions at GSI Commerce Solutions, Inc.; and senior network engineer at GMAC Mortgage;
Sheetal Sood
Sheetal Sood is a visionary technology executive and the Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for Cohen Veterans Network (CVN). With a distinguished career dedicated to the digital transformation of the healthcare industry, Sheetal oversees the strategic implementation and optimization of CVN’s entire enterprise architecture ranging from clinical information systems and advanced data analytics built on a secure platform.
A recognized expert in the fields of AI/ML, cybersecurity, and information governance, Sheetal bridges the gap between complex technical infrastructure and patient-centric care. Her leadership is defined by a unique ability to leverage emerging technologies to drive organizational efficiency and clinical excellence, marking her as a premier authority in digital health security and strategy.
Sheetal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and maintains an elite tier of professional certifications, including CISSP, CHC, and CIPP/US
From Cost Center To Growth Engine: How CEOs Are Using Technology To Drive Revenue
In today’s margin-constrained environment, technology is no longer just an operational tool—it’s a core driver of financial performance. This session explores how leading behavioral health organizations are leveraging data to unlock new revenue streams, optimize payer and value-based payment relationships, and improve service line profitability. From real-time analytics to smarter utilization management, executives will gain practical strategies to move beyond retrospective reporting and toward predictive, revenue-focused decision-making. Learn how to align your tech strategy with growth goals—and turn insights into measurable financial outcomes.
Attendees will take away:
- The use of data to improve rate negotiation and payer relationships
- The right technology and analytics to support value-based payment models
- The data-driven strategies to help create new service line development and organizational growth
Brian Koll
Brian Koll is the Operations Technology Manager at LifeScape, where he leads the organization’s Virtual Support Services (VSS) and oversees the implementation and advancement of technology that enhances care, independence, and safety for people receiving services.
With more than 20 years of experience supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Brian has served in a variety of leadership roles within residential services before transitioning into technology operations. His extensive background in direct support and residential leadership provides a unique perspective on how technology can be integrated into everyday care without losing the human connection.
Brian has helped implement innovative solutions across LifeScape, including remote support services, camera and sensor technology, smart home safety devices, wearable health monitoring, communication systems, electronic reminders, NFC technology, and data-driven operational tools. His work focuses on using technology to increase independence for individuals served, improve staff accountability, strengthen safety, and provide real-time support to residential teams.
Brian will share how LifeScape has embraced technology as a partner in person-centered care, discussing practical applications, lessons learned, and the impact these innovations have had on individuals, staff, and organizational operations.
Gwen E. Koenig, LCSW
Gwen Koenig brings over 30 years of experience as the Chief Strategic Growth Officer for the Omni Family of Services, a national leader of child and family services in behavioral health, child welfare, and juvenile justice. She is responsible for business procurement, strategic planning, grants management, merger and acquisition integration, and technology innovation. Throughout her career, Gwen has supported foster care, family preservation, and community mental health programs across seventeen states.
Gwen is also an adjunct faculty at Colorado State University where she teaches macro social work and nonprofit management courses. Gwen resides in Fort Collins, Colorado where she enjoys the beautiful outdoors with her three sons, volunteers in her community, and keeps active with her rescue animals.
Jeffrey Ralph, Ed.D.
Jeff has held various positions within the field of Juvenile Justice. The majority of his time has been spent as a Treatment Supervisor at a residential placement for adjudicated youth. Prior to joining the JusticeWorks team, he oversaw clinical and operational systems as a Unit Manager in the Philadelphia Prison System. Jeff joined JusticeWorks in October of 2013.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s Degree in Administration of Justice, both from Shippensburg University. Jeff obtained his Doctorate in Education in Organizational Leadership from Wilmington University. Jeff’s expertise has been recognized by his appointment as an adjunct professor at Wilmington University and Eastern University, where he teaches part-time.
The AI Reality Check: Benchmarking AI Adoption Across Human Services
Sponsored by: 
AI is generating plenty of headlines, but where are health and human services organizations actually making progress? Drawing from a national executive survey conducted by OPEN MINDS sponsored by Netsmart, this session reveals how organizations are approaching AI today, from early exploration to organization-wide adoption. Discover what leading organizations are doing differently, where executives are investing, and which strategies are delivering measurable impact. In addition to exclusive benchmark data, hear firsthand from an organization advancing AI adoption across its operations as they share practical experiences, key learnings, and the impact AI is having on care teams and organizations.
In addition, the session will include:
The State Of AI In Human Services: Findings From The Netsmart & OPEN MINDS Executive Survey
Based on a national digital survey of senior executives in health and human services, conducted by OPEN MINDS and sponsored by Netsmart, this session benchmarks where organizations truly stand on the AI maturity curve. Attendees will gain a clear, data-driven view of how peer organizations are approaching AI, identifying the proportion still in exploration versus those piloting or fully integrating AI into operations. The discussion will highlight the strategies and capabilities that distinguish the “very prepared” adopters and present a phased roadmap for adoption designed to deliver measurable ROI. Participants will leave with actionable insights into how early adopters are leveraging AI to enhance care delivery, improve efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Jessica Fenchel, MA
Jessica Fenchel is the Executive Vice President and COO at Access Services, where she supports the delivery of diverse community-based programming for children, adults, and families in Eastern Pennsylvania. Access Services is a nonprofit organization building community through the delivery of services in Behavioral Health, Children and Families Services, and Intellectual Disability and Autism Programming.
Jess has been at Access Services for over 10 years, during which she was key in the startup of innovative initiatives across multiple service spaces including crisis, forensics, schools, and homelessness. Jess believes that help should be helpful and that the people we serve deserve our best. She has led in partnership building to realize integration between behavioral health and physical health, driving solutions for vulnerable populations. Jess’ work to develop new models of partnership between law enforcement and crisis systems has led to overall reductions in arrest for those experiencing mental health crisis.
Jess received her undergraduate degree from Messiah College, her master’s degree from Lasalle University in Clinical Counseling Psychology, training in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas, a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Lasalle University, and a certificate from the Global Trauma Recovery Institute. Jess is an avid sports fan, especially the Buffalo Bills, and loves being active outside with her husband, three kids, and dog.
Julie Hiett, LMSW
Julie Hiett has over 30 years of experience working in behavioral health, social services and care coordination. She began her career as a Crisis Case Manager at a County CMHC in KS and was a School Social Worker prior to moving out of direct care and into Healthcare IT.
Julie has been at Netsmart over 13 years, working with clients across the country at the provider, county and state level, providing expertise on behavioral health, value-based care, care coordination, population health and clinical AI solutions. Her previous focus was assisting providers to consume and action client data across the healthcare continuum, utilizing data from disparate systems to improve clinical outcomes and lower the cost of care.
Julie has moved into leading the Netsmart clinical AI suite of solutions. In the role, she collaborates with clinicians and leadership to reduce the administrative burden of documentation, enhance clinician and client satisfaction, streamline workflows and improve quality assurance.
Julie has a bachelor’s degree in Family Studies & Human Services from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in Social Work from Wichita State University.
Scott Green
Scott Green leads the Care Dimensions business unit at Netsmart. In his role, he leads a team focused on building out a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to support organizations as they digitize their operations beyond the EHR. Green has been with Netsmart for 10 years and has held many roles during that time including leading the Human Services business unit.
Prior to joining Netsmart, he spent 13 years with Pfizer where he focused on building relationships and clinical initiatives with Integrated Delivery Networks.
Scott holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology from Kansas State University and a graduate certificate in healthcare leadership from Park University.
Tech-Enabled Independence: A Live Smart Home Showcase
Sponsored By:
You’ll see the tech and remote supports in the Smart Home Expo, come see it in real life!
Step into an immersive Smart Home Suite designed to showcase how thoughtfully integrated technology can empower adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to live more independently, safely, and confidently. Sponsored by ShiftAbility, this hands-on experience features a two-room suite: one set up as a fully equipped smart home environment—with voice-activated devices, environmental controls, safety sensors, and more—and the other demonstrating real-time remote support tools. Attendees will get a first-hand look at how remote live monitoring works, offering a unique perspective on how technology can proactively support safety, independence, and timely interventions.
Discover how these smart systems can ease workforce pressures, reduce the need for constant in-person support, and deliver more personalized, data-informed care—transforming the future of I/DD and aging services.
The available demo times will be 10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. on both October 27th and 28th. Each demo will be 30 minutes long. We will be in contact prior to the institute in order to schedule your specific start time.
If you are already registered for the event, please fill out this form and choose your time.
If you are not registered for the event, please use this link to register and sign up for the Smart Home Suite.
AI-Guided Assistive Technology Platform/MapHabit Demo
MapHabit is an AI-guided assistive technology platform that supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), autism, and related cognitive impairments to build independence through personalized visual routines. It complements the broader smart home ecosystem by promoting daily independence within the home itself, helping consumers remain in community-based living rather than institutional or facility-based care. The platform delivers step-by-step guidance for daily living activities — medication management, hygiene, meal preparation, appointments, and household routines — directly in the home, paired with caregiver and care-team dashboards. Rather than simply issuing reminders, MapHabit teaches and reinforces independent task completion over time through visual, repeatable routines tailored to each consumer’s cognitive level and support needs.
Adam Klein
Adam Klein, LPC, is Vice President of Growth & Sales at MapHabit and a Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 20 years of leadership experience across behavioral health, managed care, quality improvement, case management, and program innovation. Beginning his career working directly with children and families in therapeutic foster care, Adam has remained passionate about designing and implementing programs that improve outcomes for individuals with complex behavioral, cognitive, and developmental needs.
Today, Adam works with health plans, provider organizations, schools, and state agencies to expand the use of assistive technology that promotes independence, reduces caregiver burden, and supports better health outcomes. He is especially passionate about helping organizations translate innovative technology into sustainable, person-centered care models. He is also passionate about helping organizations responsibly leverage technology and artificial intelligence to improve care delivery while keeping individuals and families at the center of every solution.
What Adam enjoys most is spending time in the community with providers, caregivers, and families and hearing firsthand how technology is making a meaningful difference in people’s daily lives. He is incredibly proud to be part of the MapHabit team and the organization’s mission to empower individuals through practical, evidence-based innovation.
Outside of work, Adam enjoys spending time with his family, cheering on his son at sporting events (and occasionally teaming up for video games), and exploring new restaurants and TV series with his wife.
Clinically AI Lounge
Sponsored By:
During the Institute, attendees are invited to visit the Clinically AI Lounge, just outside the exhibit halls. The Lounge features 6 retro-style arcade games built around common clinician pain points. One of them is Denial Knockout, where players take on 10 well-known opponents in the ring and compete against their colleagues’ scores. On Wednesday, October 28, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, a digital caricature artist will also be in the Lounge, creating custom illustrations that attendees can take home in print and as a digital file.
My25’s Digital Food As Medicine For Smart Homes
My25, powered by Mainstay, provides individuals with specialized needs (and any associated caregivers and staff) with the tools and tailored resources to materially improve their nutrition, health, and independent living skills on a person-centered and budget-sensitive basis via digital, interactive resources. Menu planning, grocery shopping, and recipe prep are scaffolded by high engagement and robust educational resources in 81 languages and a multimedia format.
James Vail
Jim co-built a nationwide enterprise, maximizing quality of patient care and reduced costs in hospitals, that was acquired by a Fortune 500 healthcare company. Following this successful endeavor, he made his most consequential, long-term career change. The human services organization supporting people with IDD in community-based settings—where he sat on the Board of Directors—asked Jim to step up as their CEO. He decided to immediately and simultaneously tackle the most pressing challenges, which he came to understand as largely endemic to the industry overall: the poor nutrition/health of people supported along with haphazard compliance regarding person-centered choice; inexperienced, high turnover staff; and budget-strapped operations. Jim noted that these various needles hadn’t moved much—and certainly never in tandem—despite attempts over many years by a host of status quo “solutions.”
Jim quickly concluded that little in a group home day occupies as much time, passion, cost, and safety concern as does food. So a key priority centered on mealtime and its associated linkages. Within 18 months of Jim’s tenure, the organization received one of the first-ever, 4-year CQL accreditations and was financially robust for the first time in over a decade, with much healthier consumers. This transformation and its possibilities planted the seed for Mainstay, Inc. and its My25 brand . . . a holistic, integrated approach to Food as Medicine, tailored for people with specialized needs on a person-centered basis via digital supports.
Building strategic partnerships and collaborations with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), professionals from the Feinberg School of Medicine, Walmart, SNAP officials, and legislators, Jim pioneered My25’s launch and growth. The company now spans 37 states, with a suite of digital Food as Medicine products, as a for-profit commercial enterprise among the nation’s leading human services/healthcare organizations for tens of thousands of people in waiver, ICF, and supported/independent living settings.
Fueled by Mainstay’s highly-respected team, proprietary software—and now A.I. integration—Jim is focused on forging a broader base of partners to positively impact more individuals, stakeholders and funders. He recognizes amplified, broad-based need for simultaneous outcomes regarding clinical health, social health, engagement, education, operational efficiency, food (and additional) cost reduction, and Medicaid savings contribution. Jim often credits My25’s overarching success to the actionable data Mainstay tracks and trends in real time and “. . . figuring out how to stem the leakages long getting in the way of sustainable, affordable nutrition/preventive health on a person-centered basis for this vital population—not just the 5% most unwell, but a majority.”
Jim is a graduate of both Davidson College where he received his BA in Economics and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he received his MBA. Jim lives in the Chicago area with his wife, who helps catapult Mainstay forward as its COO and co-founder. Three adult children each live a stone’s throw away; they often meet up with Jim on the golf course, but are honor bound to promise no snickering at his short game.
Innovative Dashboards & Predictive Analytics To Make Your Data Work For You
Behavioral health organizations generate vast amounts of data, yet many executive teams struggle to turn that information into timely, actionable insight. Disconnected systems, manual reporting, and unclear dashboards often limit leaders’ ability to make confident strategic and operational decisions.
This session pulls the curtain back on the innovative tools and dashboards developed by Pacific Clinics, California’s largest community-based non-profit provider of mental and behavioral health services. Hear how they are transforming raw data into meaningful intelligence, including identifying the highest risk patients and recommended treatment paths. Attendees will gain a practical overview of data platforms, analytics tools, and reporting solutions being used in a leading behavioral health organization.
Key takeaways include:
- How these tools integrate with EHRs and financial systems to improve visibility into clinical outcomes and operational performance
- The best tools and strategies to support data-informed decision making across the organization
- How to evaluate solutions and align technology investments with strategic priorities
Kristin McCarthy
Kristin McCarthy is the Director of Outreach and Engagement and Enhanced Care Management (ECM) at Pacific Clinics, overseeing statewide CalAIM programs serving individuals and families with complex health, behavioral health, and social needs.
With a background in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) and more than 15 years of experience in behavioral health and community-based services, Kristin brings a unique combination of clinical knowledge and operational leadership. Throughout her career, she has held roles spanning direct service, clinical program management, and statewide program oversight.
Her work focuses on strengthening clinical and care coordination practices, enhancing provider programs, and developing systems that improve access, engagement, and service delivery. Kristin collaborates across clinical, operational, and analytics teams to translate data into actionable insights, support frontline providers, and advance innovative, person-centered approaches to care.
She is passionate about bridging clinical practice, program operations, and technology to improve the quality and effectiveness of services for individuals and families.
Farrah Phillips, MS
Farrah Phillips, MS is the Director of Quality Assurance at Pacific Clinics, bringing more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health, clinical operations, quality, and healthcare technology. With a background as both a clinician and operational leader, she has led initiatives spanning quality and compliance, clinical applications, data governance and exchange, digital transformation, and AI-driven solutions. Farrah has served at the clinical business owner for the electronic health records and customer relationship management tools at Pacific Clinics and is passionate about bridging clinical operations and technology workflows to improve the experience of our clients and staff.
AI That Pays Off: Where CEOs Are Seeing Real ROI & Where They’re Not
Artificial intelligence is everywhere—but where does it actually deliver value? This candid session cuts through the hype to examine real-world AI use cases in behavioral health, highlighting what’s working, what’s not and why. From clinical documentation and workflow automation to predictive modeling and patient engagement, we’ll assess where organizations are seeing measurable ROI—and where investments are falling short.
Attendees will walk away with:
- A framework for evaluating AI opportunities and prioritizing initiatives that deliver both operational efficiency and clinical impact.
- Benchmarks and real-world case study examples of what ROI was expected in an AI investment vs. what was actually realized
- A clearer picture of what AI tools are actually delivering value
Jeremy Brown, LPC
Jeremy S. Brown, LPC, is Vice President of Technology and Impact at Talbert House, a multi-program nonprofit behavioral health provider in Cincinnati, Ohio that serves mental health, addiction treatment, and child and family populations. He brings more than two decades of behavioral health experience to the role, with a career that has progressed from direct clinical and case management work to residential program leadership and hospital administration, including service as Assistant Chief Executive Officer at Summit Behavioral Health. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from Miami University and a master’s degree in clinical counseling from Xavier University.
In his current role, Jeremy leads Talbert House’s work to turn everyday technology into operational capacity without adding headcount, pairing tools already inside the agency’s Microsoft 365 license with AI built in Microsoft Copilot Studio. At the 2026 Technology and Analytics Institute, he presents “AI That Pays Off: Where CEOs Are Seeing Real ROI and Where They’re Not.”
Melissa Fox, MHA, FACMPE, FACHE
Melissa Fox is a nationally recognized healthcare executive and systems strategist leading the transformation of community-based health systems through innovation, data, and emerging technologies. As Chief Operating Officer of Acenda Integrated Health, she oversees enterprise-wide operations spanning more than 150 programs across the state of New Jersey, including child welfare, behavioral health, substance use disorder treatment, crisis services, supportive housing, and population health initiatives designed to address the social drivers of health.
Fox is widely recognized for building nimble leadership structures that align operational strategy with value-based care, health equity, and financial sustainability. Throughout her career, she has led complex organizational redesigns across various healthcare disciplines, launched integrated care models to expand services for vulnerable populations, and implemented data-driven performance systems to improve outcomes while strengthening organizational resilience.
A recognized national voice on healthcare transformation, Fox has advised and presented for organizations including Open Minds, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the American Public Health Association, and the USDA among others. She has contributed to initiatives addressing the opioid epidemic as a public health crisis, and advanced conversations on telehealth equity and violence prevention, including framing gun violence as a public health issue through science-driven community engagement. She serves on multiple advisory and academic boards, including the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy External Advisory Committee and the Peirce College Human Services Advisory Board. Additionally, she serves as the Chair for the Healthy NJ 2030 Access to Quality Care action team, and the Chair of the Board for the Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing, New Jersey’s first public health institute.
Her work focuses on helping healthcare organizations redesign care delivery through operational innovation, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies that improve access, strengthen financial sustainability, and produce measurable outcomes. She is a leading advocate for viewing artificial intelligence as organizational infrastructure rather than simply another technology investment, helping healthcare leaders build AI-enabled systems that augment workforce and processes while preserving the human relationships at the center of care.
Open Access 2.0: Deploying AI To Scale Same-Day Care
Sponsored by: 
Open (same-day) access transformed engagement in behavioral health, but delivering it at scale often overwhelms front-office and clinical teams. In this session, learn how agencies across the country are deploying next-gen AI agents to streamline clinical intake and return clinician time to care. We’ll cover the change-management, compliance considerations and operational kinks that make or break adoption. We’ll also preview how one agency (Gulf Coast Center) is pushing the frontier by extending this technology beyond clinic doors, working with community partners to deliver instant AI-assisted behavioral health access anywhere.
Edwin Wong, Ph.D.
Edwin is co-founder and CEO of Psyrin, where he leads the company’s strategy, and partnerships, working to bring systems-level change in mental health. He completed his PhD at King’s College London and the National University of Singapore, where he worked on large-scale genetic studies for psychiatry. Before Psyrin, Edwin was active in deeptech innovation via Entrepreneur First and Nucleate UK.
Inside Payer Innovation: Emerging Programs Transforming Care Delivery
Join our payer panel to hear the latest in innovative programs that top health plan industries are implementing today. Each 2026 event brings a different set of health plan leaders to talk through the programs they are actually launching, from new value-based arrangements to care-delivery pilots. Come to hear directly from payers what is changing and what it means for the contracts you negotiate.
James Kaufman
Jim Kaufman, MSW, LICSW, is a behavioral healthcare executive with more than 35 years of clinical experience and 30 years of leadership in behavioral health managed care. With academic backgrounds in industrial and organizational psychology and clinical social work, Jim brings a multidisciplinary perspective to the challenge of improving care delivery, outcomes, and value.
His experience includes leading national teams and programs in utilization management, clinical case management, and aggregate data management, as well as advancing value based alternative payment models and other innovative approaches to care delivery. He has worked across Medicaid, Medicare, commercial, and dually eligible populations, with a focus on translating clinical insight, data, and payer strategy into programs that better support members and the systems that serve them.
Jim’s work reflects a longstanding interest in how payers can move beyond traditional managed care approaches to enable more integrated, outcomes-focused, and value-based models of behavioral healthcare.
James Couch, M.D., J.D., FACPE
Dr. Couch is the Immediate Past Program Director and Accreditation Advisor for the MSHA Degree Program at Fordham University in New York City. He is also Adjunct Professor of Health Administration & a Former Fellow at the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center for Fordham University. He began and helped lead Fordham University’s MSHA Program’s successful campaign to receive its and the University’s first CAHME accreditation for excellence in healthcare management education. He helped launch Fordham’s M.S. degree in Applied Health Informatics program and taught Health Data Analytics Leadership in its Oxford University Residency Program for three years.
He has also authored and taught two courses on Population Health Analytics and Law at Thomas Jefferson University, and a popular course on Health AI and Analytics Leadership in both the new M.S. in Health AI program and its Advanced Practice Certificate Program (APC) in Health AI & Analytics Leadership. He also authored a six (6) part continuing education series on Value Based Care at Jefferson and co-authored the chapter on Value Based Care Delivery Models in the 2026 4th edition of the longest published and most used textbook on Population Health. Recently, he has helped lead the accreditation process for Jefferson’s new MHA Program to advance it to official candidacy status. He also authored the university’s first course devoted to Value-Based Care, which he is currently teaching to Masters students in the Fall A 2026 Term.
He has 45 years of accomplishments in healthcare delivery and management emphasizing the evaluation & oversight of health IT systems to improve the demonstrable quality, safety, and value of health care delivery. He has been publishing on value-based purchasing and care delivery since 1987 including an editorial on it in the November 15, 1988, edition of the “Annals of Internal Medicine”. He was the first physician trained by Motorola University to apply Six Sigma Process Evaluation & Improvement to the Healthcare and Insurance Industries in 1992. He published the first two books on what is now called population health management in 1997 and 1998. He also published for Princeton Insurance a comprehensive treatise on Health IT and Patient Safety for Hospitals and Physicians in 2008, acknowledged by the National Academy of Medicine in its seminal work “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care”.
His most notable accomplishments have been in the use of Advanced Clinical, Care Management and Population Health Analytics Systems. He conceived and led an unprecedented prospective, double blind, randomized controlled clinical trial which demonstrated the 707% ROI of an advanced clinical decision support and care management fulfillment system for the reinsured health plan of a leading academic health system (the University Hospitals Case Western Medical Center & Health System in Cleveland). Three months following publication of this study in a leading peer-reviewed journal, Aetna purchased the company owning this system for $400 million. The Director of the White House Office of Management of the Budget, Peter Orszag, praised this study in the “Washington Post” during debates on the ACA in 2009. Former U.S. Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, cited the study in his landmark book, “Saving Lives and Saving Money”. Dr. Couch also introduced and positioned with Humana a leading-edge population health analytics company with the real time technologic products which now serve as the core analytics engine for optimizing the quality and value of care delivered to its 17 million members.
From 1992 through 1994, Dr. Couch was also the only physician Senior Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. During that time, he worked with the Baldrige Program Director at NIST to help develop Health Care Criteria for the Award. He did the same for state quality awards in New York and Connecticut.
Dr. Couch has also advised the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) on how to use Health IT to improve care quality and safety and population health, while decreasing costs and medicolegal liability risks–his version of the Quadruple Aim showcased in his fourth book published in 2014, and initially cited in the February 11, 2013 edition of “JAMA Internal Medicine”.
He earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Indiana University. In addition to his current teaching roles at Fordham and Thomas Jefferson University, he has also taught at Harvard. Yale, Penn, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Cornell, University of Connecticut & Oxford (Wolfson, Green-Templeton & St. Edmund’s Hall).
Dr. Couch was recently appointed by the Executive Vice President for the Health System and Dean of the PerelmanSchool of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to the Medical Alumni Advisor Council (MAAC).
He founded in 2008 and endowed the Couch Prize in Medicine and Business at the University of Pennsylvania and in 2022 the Couch Data Science Research Fund financing education and research opportunities for Penn students in the latest advanced technologies, including AI and Robotics through the year 2035.
Remote Supports & Technology Services/SafeinHome Demo
SafeinHome Remote Supports blends around-the-clock remote support staff with assistive and sensor devices to enable independent living—in the least restrictive way. They provide support services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and aging adults. Their remote staff members are trained in behavioral health techniques, and they help reduce the feelings of isolation & anxiety by being always on and available. SafeinHome utilizes a powerful combination of sensors, wearable, and assistive technology to ensure the safety of its clients. These tools encourage and enable self-determination for the individual while addressing the concerns of caregivers & case managers. With a retention rate of 98.5%, they are reshaping support models, increasing efficiency, and empowering individuals to live more independently.
Season Jackson
Born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Season Jackson has dedicated more than 25 years of her career to supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. She began her career as a Direct Support Professional and progressed through a variety of case management and leadership roles, ultimately serving as Director of Case Management Services for a large provider organization. In this role, she provided leadership and oversight for multiple home- and community-based service programs across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Throughout her career, Season has developed extensive experience in case management, program development, provider operations, community-based services, and supporting individuals to achieve greater independence. She holds degrees in Criminal Justice and Human Services and is a certified Pennsylvania Supports Broker.
Season joined SafeInHome in 2021, combining her commitment to the disability community with a new focus on expanding access to Remote Supports and Assistive Technology throughout Pennsylvania. In late 2025, she was promoted to Pennsylvania’s District Manager, where she leads statewide efforts to strengthen and expand Remote Supports. Her work focuses on developing sustainable partnerships with provider organizations and community stakeholders, supporting innovative service solutions, educating professionals and families about Remote Supports, and helping create meaningful pathways to greater independence.
Season is passionate about advancing person-centered approaches that use technology and human connection to give individuals greater choice, autonomy, and opportunity to live safely and successfully in their own homes and communities.
Outside of work, Season is a busy mom of four who enjoys crime podcasts, concerts, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
Stephanie McDonald
Originally from New York, Stephanie McDonald earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University at Albany, with concentrations in Psychology and Biology. She brings more than 25 years of experience supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, behavioral health needs, and other complex support needs across educational, residential, community-based, and behavioral health settings.
Stephanie began her career with BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services), serving as an Emotional Support Para-Educator for children with autism. She later worked as a Residential Coordinator supporting individuals who had transitioned from the Willowbrook State School into community-based living.
After relocating to Pennsylvania in 2005, Stephanie continued her career as a Supports Coordinator, working with individuals with disabilities across the lifespan, from young children through older adulthood. She subsequently served as a Behavioral Specialist supporting adults and older adults with intellectual disabilities and co-occurring mental health needs.
Stephanie then spent more than 15 years with a large provider organization in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where she served as Director of Residential and Life Sharing Programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. Her extensive experience in service coordination, behavioral support, residential services, and program leadership provides her with a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs of individuals, families, and support teams.
In 2022, Stephanie joined SafeInHome, where she supports individuals in achieving greater independence through Remote Supports and Assistive Technology. She is passionate about person-centered solutions that enhance independence, safety, choice, and quality of life for individuals across a variety of living environments.
Outside of work, Stephanie is married and the proud mother of two energetic children. She also shares her home with three considerably less energetic bulldogs and is a passionate New York Yankees fan.
How To Build AI Governance For Responsible Adoption & Risk Management
As AI adoption accelerates, organizations need more than just tools and policies. They need a governance and risk management framework that enables safe, compliant, and scalable implementation. Join industry leaders as they discuss how to build effective AI Governance Committees, overcome common governance gaps, and establish the structures needed to guide responsible AI decision-making across the organization.
*Lunch Is Provided!
Chris Seigel, MA, LPC
With more than 13 years of experience in behavioral health leadership and as a licensed professional counselor, Chris Seigel is a systems-focused executive known for building high-performing, regulation-ready service lines across numerous environments. As Chief Program Officer for Mental Health & Substance Use Services, Queen of Peace Center and Saint Louis Counseling, two ministries of Catholic Charities of St. Louis, he provides oversight of a multi-site continuum of care spanning residential and outpatient treatment, supportive housing, community-based therapy, psychiatric services, medication-assisted treatment, and more than 100 school-based locations across 11 counties.
He maintains program-level accountability for operational performance, financial sustainability, workforce stability, and quality governance across the service line. Chris led the enterprise-wide implementation of the AI-powered clinical documentation tool to move his organization from manual notes to measurable performance gains. By aligning technology with governance, compliance oversight, and operational discipline, he reduced administrative burden, strengthened documentation integrity, and expanded access capacity without compromising clinical standards.
He now leads ongoing efforts to evaluate and implement AI systems that enhance client access, strengthen screening and assessment processes, and drive measurable improvements in outcomes across the continuum of care. His work demonstrates how responsible AI adoption can transform documentation from a regulatory requirement into a strategic lever for efficiency, scale, and sustainable impact.
Hope Winkowski, NCC, OHCC, HPOC
Hope Winkowski, NCC, OHCC, HPOC, is Vice President of Product Compliance at Qualifacts, where she leads product compliance, regulatory oversight, health IT certification, and AI & Data governance across the organization’s behavioral health technology portfolio. Since joining Qualifacts in 2013, Hope has held progressive leadership roles spanning product management, quality assurance, revenue cycle management, analytics, and compliance, while helping support more than $4.5 billion in annual healthcare billing. With over 20 years of experience in behavioral healthcare, health IT, and community mental health leadership, she brings a unique blend of clinical, operational, and compliance expertise. Hope chairs Qualifacts’ AI and Data Governance Committee and is passionate about helping healthcare organizations navigate emerging regulations, responsible AI adoption, and technology-driven transformation. She is a National Board-Certified Counselor and holds certifications in Healthcare Compliance and HIPAA Privacy, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State University.
What’s Next For Community-Based Care: Inside The System Of Action
Sponsored by: 
What if the note was written correctly the first time? What if eligibility gaps surfaced before the appointment, not after the denial? What if your clinicians spent their day with clients instead of catching up on paperwork after hours?
That’s not a hypothetical—it’s what a system of action already does today. Join us for a lunch and learn on where community-based care is headed: A model where AI doesn’t just observe and summarize, but acts—verifying eligibility, guiding documentation, and flagging compliance risk in real time, in the flow of care. We’ll show a live demo of Eleos doing exactly that across clinical, compliance, and revenue cycle workflows, and talk through what it means for the people doing the work: less time reconciling the past, more time present with patients.
Bring your questions (and your lunch,) we’ll leave plenty of time for both.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
- Picture documentation that supports clinicians instead of trailing them. Understand how real-time guidance during the note prevents the errors that traditionally surface only after submission—and what that frees clinicians up to do instead.
- Understand what’s next for eligibility and revenue protection. See how verifying eligibility and catching compliance issues before a claim is created—rather than chasing denials months later—protects revenue upstream and reduces the rework burden on both clinical and billing teams.
- Reframe what “100% compliance review” makes possible. Move beyond the old ceiling of reviewing 5–10% of notes after the fact, and see what changes operationally—and for staff workload — when every note is reviewed before sign-off.
- Walk away with a concrete picture of the future in action—and why it matters. Every capability in this session points to the same outcome: shifting administrative work into the flow of care so clinicians can focus on patients, not paperwork.
*Lunch Is Provided!
Sheetal Sood
Sheetal Sood is a visionary technology executive and the Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer for Cohen Veterans Network (CVN). With a distinguished career dedicated to the digital transformation of the healthcare industry, Sheetal oversees the strategic implementation and optimization of CVN’s entire enterprise architecture ranging from clinical information systems and advanced data analytics built on a secure platform.
A recognized expert in the fields of AI/ML, cybersecurity, and information governance, Sheetal bridges the gap between complex technical infrastructure and patient-centric care. Her leadership is defined by a unique ability to leverage emerging technologies to drive organizational efficiency and clinical excellence, marking her as a premier authority in digital health security and strategy.
Sheetal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and maintains an elite tier of professional certifications, including CISSP, CHC, and CIPP/US
Dror Zaide
Dror Zaide is the Chief Business Officer of Eleos Health, a leading AI platform that helps community-based care organizations document every session, ensure compliance, and protect revenue. He co-founded Eleos while an MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the company now serves more than 350 customers across the United States.
Dror’s inspiration for Eleos came from his military service, where he saw many fellow soldiers struggle with mental health challenges such as PTSD. That experience left him deeply committed to improving care for vulnerable patient populations. Before Eleos, he co-founded Givit, a non-profit that helps students from low-income backgrounds access school supplies, books, computers, and other resources they need to succeed academically.
Timothy Young
Tim Young is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Eleos Health, where he works directly with behavioral health organizations to align AI-powered clinical intelligence tools with real-world operational and compliance needs. Tim has spent his career at the intersection of healthcare technology and hands-on solution design, previously serving as a Senior Sales Engineer at Kontakt.io, where he led technical strategy for IoT and analytics deployments across healthcare systems.
The Download: Where AI Stands In Human Services
Sponsored By:
AI is generating plenty of headlines, but where are health and human services organizations actually making progress? Drawing from a national executive survey conducted by OPEN MINDS sponsored by Netsmart, this session reveals how organizations are approaching AI today, from early exploration to organization-wide adoption. Discover what leading organizations are doing differently, where executives are investing, and which strategies are delivering measurable impact.
Scott Green
Scott Green leads the Care Dimensions business unit at Netsmart. In his role, he leads a team focused on building out a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to support organizations as they digitize their operations beyond the EHR. Green has been with Netsmart for 10 years and has held many roles during that time including leading the Human Services business unit.
Prior to joining Netsmart, he spent 13 years with Pfizer where he focused on building relationships and clinical initiatives with Integrated Delivery Networks.
Scott holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology from Kansas State University and a graduate certificate in healthcare leadership from Park University.
Wearable Assistive Technology/BoundaryCare Demo
BoundaryCare is a wearable-based platform that connects individuals and care teams through communications and alerts. BoundaryCare can monitor for a wide variety of potential incidents – including falls, elopement, certain types of seizures, and proactive help requests – and notify care teams no matter where they are, thanks to built-in cell service on the watch that also supports auto-answering inbound calls from caregivers. BoundaryCare also tracks vitals, activity, and sleep to inform on individuals’ overall well-being, and can deliver text or image-based reminders for ADLs, guides for specific tasks, or biofeedback directly to the individual’s watch. A simple and cross-platform caregiver interface helps front-line caregivers quickly get up and running, while the broad spectrum of use cases, population-management features, and integration with remote support solutions help providers simplify and optimize their technology stacks for care delivery.
Paul Carpenter
Paul Carpenter is the co-founder and head of product and technology for BoundaryCare, a platform that uses real-time data and thoughtful design to help individuals gain and maintain independence while relieving stress from their caregivers. Paul spent over ten years working as an engineer at top technology companies until his own family’s experiences pushed him and his father Scott – a college professor and former technology entrepreneur – to tackle the challenges of caregiving head-on. At BoundaryCare, he applies methodologies for continuous improvement drawn from his technology background to power his vision for making BoundaryCare the most inclusive and comprehensive solution for individuals, families, and providers.
First Impressions Are Everything: Managing Your Digital Front Door
In today’s consumer-driven landscape, your digital front door is often a person’s first—and most critical—interaction with your organization. From online search to intake and scheduling, every click, delay, or confusing experience can make the difference between gaining or losing a client.
This session will explore how leading behavioral health organizations are optimizing their digital front doors to improve access, engagement, and conversion. You’ll learn how to create a seamless and responsive digital experience that reflects your mission, meets modern consumer expectations, and supports clinical and operational success.
This session will cover key elements such as website design, mobile accessibility, intake automation, appointment scheduling, and communication tools—all designed to lower barriers to care and increase patient acquisition and retention.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand what today’s behavioral health consumers expect from digital interactions
- Learn how to assess and improve your current digital front door
- Discover how a strong digital presence supports access, brand trust, and clinical outcomes
Rachel Steinmetz
Rachel Steinmetz brings broad experience in the health and human service field to the OPEN MINDS team. From operations management to marketing strategy, Ms. Steinmetz has been involved in almost every aspect of management in her career.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Steinmetz was the Director of Operations for Funnel Lab, an internet marketing solutions firm. In that role, she designed revenue generating strategies including lead generation and customer engagement. She also developed their automation solutions, including operationalizing AI-driven text bots to enhance customer interactions. Ms. Steinmetz was also responsible for mulit-channel marketing strategy and strategy implementation including email, SMS, and social media automation.
Previously, Ms. Steinmetz was the Chief Operating Office for Housing for Health, Orange County, a non-profit organization aimed at ending homelessness by addressing physical and mental health needs. As COO, she led all aspects of operations, including human resources, program development, and organizational management. This including implementing measures to enhance organizational efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance across multiple platforms and electronic health records. She also successfully cultivated robust partnerships with external partners.
Before Housing for Health Orange County, Ms. Steinmetz held roles supporting strategic communications and public policy initiatives in the behavioral health space. As Communications Coordinator for Be Well Orange County, she supported a county-wide initiative to improve access to compassionate mental health care through infrastructure investment and cross-sector collaboration. Her responsibilities included public relations, event planning, business development, research, vendor coordination, and managing the organization’s web and social media presence. As Senior Project Manager at Principle Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm focused on public policy and executive leadership, Ms. Steinmetz led multi-stakeholder initiatives, developed detailed project roadmaps, and coordinated efforts across municipalities, healthcare agencies, and community-based organizations.
In addition to her institutional roles, Ms. Steinmetz brings over a decade of experience consulting with nonprofits, small businesses, and mission-driven entrepreneurs. Her expertise includes business operations, digital marketing, workflow automation, and web strategy; working with clients to streamline systems, drive engagement, and scale sustainably.
Ms. Steinmetz earned a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing from DePaul University.
The CEO Playbook For Digital Transformation: Why Most Fail & How To Get It Right
Digital transformation is on every leader’s mind, and most systems will fail not because of the technology but the lack of direction. In this session, executives will share how they are navigating the complexity by setting vision, aligning stakeholders, and driving enterprise-wide change in an increasingly digital ecosystem.
Explore the critical decisions that define successful transformation efforts—from technology investment and governance to culture change and workforce readiness. This executive-level discussion will focus on the speed of technological advancements versus the risk of adoption, the pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized decision-making, and keeping up with the pace of accelerating innovation while balancing the stability that comes with being operationally streamlined and disciplined.
Mike Briggs
Mike joined Little Friends, Inc in January 2016 as a Board member and in March 2017, was asked to come out of retirement and serve as the President/CEO. He has been doing this for nearly the past six years.
Prior to joining Little Friends, Mike spent his career in the for-profit sector. Graduating from Millikin University in 1979, Mike started his career with IBM Data Processing in sales. He left IBM to join a family business in 1984 and within 3 months was running a $40 MM company. Over the next 30 years, Mike ran four different manufacturing businesses as President/COO, three privately owned companies and one owned by private equity. Two of the four businesses grew to be in excess of $100MM in revenues, and one just shy of $90MM.
Throughout his career, he has been involved with multiple boards of organizations, including being an Emeritus Trustee of Millikin University that includes having served two years as Chairman of their Board. Currently, besides being CEO of Little Friends, he serves as Chairman of the Board for a global company headquartered in Australia, President of his Country Club, and Chairs the City of Naperville Advisory Commission on Disabilities. In total, he is active with nine organizations as a board member today. Mike’s background until joining Little Friends has not been in social service. Rather, his story today comes from his experiences running different organizations and how these lessons apply to social service.
From Operational DNA To Organizational Intelligence: Building The Learning Behavioral Health Organization
Sponsored by:
Behavioral health organizations generate enormous amounts of clinical and operational information every day. Yet most of that intelligence remains trapped inside individual records, disconnected systems, retrospective reports, and staff members’ experience.
The first generation of behavioral health AI focused primarily on completing tasks: drafting a note, summarizing a chart, flagging a compliance concern, or answering a question. The next generation will connect those capabilities into a continuous organizational learning system.
This session examines how behavioral health organizations can move beyond isolated AI tools to create closed-loop intelligence across the enterprise. When AI understands an organization’s programs, clinical models, payer requirements, documentation standards, workforce roles, and governance practices — its Operational DNA — it can do more than automate work. It can help the organization recognize patterns, surface emerging risks, strengthen supervision, improve consistency, and translate everyday clinical activity into actionable organizational insight.
Using a real-world provider implementation, the panel will explore how information can move responsibly from the point of care to quality, compliance, operations, and executive leadership—and then back into better support for the workforce. The discussion will also address the governance boundaries necessary to ensure that AI informs decisions without replacing clinical judgment or creating automated authority.
Attendees will learn how to:
- Distinguish task-based AI from a connected organizational intelligence model.
- Create closed feedback loops across clinical care, documentation, compliance, supervision, and operational performance.
- Identify the data, interoperability, and governance infrastructure required for AI to generate useful enterprise insight.
- Determine which decisions AI may inform, which require human review, and where automation should stop.
- Develop a practical roadmap for becoming a learning organization without replacing the EHR or rebuilding the technology stack.
Evan Hoese
Evan serves as Chief Quality & Analytics Officer at HealthRIGHT 360, where she leads agency-wide efforts to improve quality of care, strengthen data-driven decision-making, and advance operational excellence.
Since joining the organization in 2015, Evan has played a key role in building and scaling the agency’s data, EHR, and billing systems. In her current role, she oversees Quality Improvement, Data Infrastructure & Analytics, Health & Safety, Integrated Medical Services, and Electronic Health Record Systems, Training and Billing, ensuring that systems and processes support whole-person, client-centered care.
Evan is a systems thinker and collaborative leader who is passionate about leveraging data and innovation to better serve communities. She holds a BA from Harvard University in Social and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Ross Young
Ross is an experienced executive and revenue leader, passionate about driving growth while making a positive impact on society. As the Chief Executive Officer of Clinically AI, Ross is at the forefront of integrating AI into health care to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical documentation. He is dedicated to leveraging technology to solve real-world problems faced by behavioral and physical health care professionals. By automating administrative tasks, Ross helps clinicians focus more on patient care. Committed to advancing medical technology while upholding the highest standards of privacy and compliance, Ross is leading efforts to transform health care documentation and improve clinician well-being.
AI-Powered Camera Systems/Oddity.ai Demo
Oddity.ai adds a real-time safety layer to existing camera systems in residential and community-based care settings. The platform detects high-intensity incidents such as aggression and self-injurious behavior, then sends real-time alerts and short video clips to designated staff on their smartphones. This helps providers move from reactive incident review to real-time awareness, so they can respond faster and support safer environments for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Thomas Alflen
Thomas Alflen is the founder of Oddity.ai, an AI company built on years of applied computer vision research and now dedicated to helping human service organizations protect vulnerable people in care environments. Long before AI became a mainstream topic, he was working at the forefront of applied computer vision, building systems that recognize high-intensity human behavior in real-world settings.
Today, he focuses on helping providers supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities understand and responsibly adopt AI. Through Oddity.ai, he works with organizations to layer real-time behavioral alerts onto existing camera systems, helping staff identify moments such as aggression, self-injurious behavior, and restraints sooner.
Thomas regularly speaks about how vision AI works, how algorithms are trained, and how these technologies can be deployed with privacy by design. His mission is to make AI practical, understandable, and trustworthy for organizations working to create safer, more independent lives for the people they support.
TLS’s EVOLVE™/Tranquility Lifestyle Solutions Demo
Tranquility Lifestyle Solutions provides an innovative, scalable model of community wellness through 24/7 real-time monitoring, proactive intervention, and culturally competent care. Powered by TLS’s EVOLVE™ platform, it identifies falls, isolation, and behavioral health concerns before they escalate. Bilingual wellness teams engage residents and caregivers directly, offering timely, compassionate support. Outcomes are tracked using advanced telemetry, ensuring transparency, accountability, and measurable impact. This solution reduces emergency interventions, strengthens caregiver networks, and promotes long-term mental and physical health. We’re not just monitoring—we’re transforming how care is delivered: always on, always there.
Andy Furlong
Andy Furlong is a mission-driven C-suite leader, entrepreneur, and champion for dignified aging. As Founder & CEO of Tranquility Lifestyle Solutions Inc. (TLS), Andy has built a breakthrough technology-enabled care service delivering ambient fall detection, 24-hour nurse-led wellness support, and proactive interventions that help seniors and at-risk individuals live independently—and safely—in the comfort of their own homes.
A 30+ year veteran of global executive leadership, Andy previously held senior roles at Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Compass Group, where he served as Group Managing Director and Executive Committee Member. Drawing on deep expertise in strategic growth, innovation, and operations, he now brings that discipline to solving some of society’s most human challenges—supporting vulnerable populations with scalable, affordable, and compassionate solutions.
Andy’s core philosophy is simple yet powerful: technology should disappear into the background and empower human connection—not replace it. He believes that privacy-first ambient technology, when paired with real-time human engagement, can unlock a future where aging in place is not just possible, but joyful. This belief fuels his work with TLS, where he partners with Area Agencies on Aging, senior living communities, and public agencies to bridge the gaps between innovation and access.
Under his leadership, TLS has pioneered post-discharge monitoring, storm recovery wellness programs, and social isolation prevention—all with minimal operational burden to the agencies they support. Andy is also a passionate advocate for caregiver support and has led pro bono wellness initiatives for homeless seniors around the world and other underserved populations.
Andy frequently speaks at industry events about how AI, IoT, and proactive wellness models can be designed with empathy—and scaled with impact. At the heart of his work is a personal and professional commitment to redefining the aging experience, supporting caregivers, and ensuring that every individual has the tools, connection, and dignity to age on their own terms.
Touchscreen & Sensor Platform/GrandCare Systems Inc. Demo
GrandCare Systems aims to reduce the staffing costs for disability and the aging population. Their touchscreen platform assists with cognitive needs, such as checklists, medication reminders, instructional videos, and more. The technology collects data through motion and telehealth sensors and alerts a remote support team. Learn more about how GrandCare Systems is reducing onsite caregiver hours, enabling independence, and cutting costs on staffing.
Laura Mitchell
Laura is a co-founder and CEO of GrandCare Systems, a touchscreen and sensor-based technology platform designed to improve independence and enhance remote supports for individuals living with disabilities and older adults. She has over 20 years of experience in the remote monitoring and connected health industry. In 2015, she founded LMC, a boutique marketing and consulting agency with a technology and senior housing niche. Laura has been featured in Forbes magazine for social media, was a 2012 “Top 40 under 40”, Top 100 Women in M2M in Connected World, and a recipient of the ‘Flame Award for Innovation and Leadership’ in 2011. She was a 2020 Rotarian of the Year, WI Innovation Awards finalist, and a 2022 Women in Consumer Technology Legacy recipient. She frequently volunteers with the Carlsbad Rotary and Cal State San Marcos business program. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two boys, and three dogs.
Joseph Donnelly
Joseph Donnelly is Vice President of Client Transformation at GrandCare Systems, where he leads growth, strategic partnerships, and market expansion for person-centered assistive technology and remote support solutions. A longtime healthcare technology executive, Joe has held leadership roles with organizations including Current Health, Kyruus, and athenahealth, helping healthcare and provider organizations adopt innovative technologies that improve care delivery and outcomes. Today, his work is focused on helping organizations use technology to expand independence, strengthen person-centered supports, and address the growing workforce challenges facing disability services.
The Data Analytics Needed For Effective Integrated Care
Integrated care lives or dies on whether you can see the whole consumer across services, and that takes the right data, not just collaboration.
Thomas Grant, who runs both finance and technology for Woods System of Care and its 200-plus programs, shows the analytics an integrated model actually requires: how to align clinical, operational, and financial data into one view of the consumer, track outcomes across service lines, and manage risk as payment moves toward value.
Thomas Grant
Tom Grant was appointed Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer for Woods System of Care in March, 2016. Mr. Grant engages in short and long-range strategic and operational growth planning for the organization. He brings more than 20 years of finance and strategy consulting experience to the organization. Prior to coming to Woods, he ran his own management consulting firm specializing in efficiency initiatives, leadership, strategic planning, turn-arounds, and business development needs of both non-profit organizations and for-profit businesses. In this role, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for Archway Programs in New Jersey.
Before launching his own company, he held similar management consulting positions with a number of business development companies. Mr. Grant has counseled clients on a wide range of topics including process optimization, cash flow management, fund raising, structure, best practices, profitability and pricing arrangements. He also has worked as an emerging markets analyst in Thailand, Hong Kong, and a number of South American countries. Mr. Grant holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College.
From EHR To Ecosystem: Building The Tech Stack For What’s Next
As the pace of innovation accelerates, behavioral health organizations must rethink the foundation of their technology infrastructure. This session dives into what a modern, future-ready tech stack looks like—from interoperable EHRs and data platforms to AI-enabled tools and patient engagement solutions. Hear how forward-thinking organizations are moving beyond fragmented systems to create integrated, scalable systems that support growth, improve outcomes, and enhance consumer experience. Gain insights into how to evaluate, prioritize, and future-proof your technology investments in an evolving landscape.
Key takeaways include:
- Understand the need to shift from an EHR-centric platform to a more encompassing tech ecosystem
- The integration capabilities and tools needed for a modern infrastructure that improves patient engagement
- Strategies to transition your organization from your legacy system to an ecosystem architecture
Keith Knutson
Keith Knutson is Vice President of IT Services at Connections Health Solutions, a crisis and behavioral health provider operating in seven states, where he leads cybersecurity, infrastructure, compliance, and AI governance across eight facilities and the organization’s mobile crisis teams. Since joining Connections in 2020, he has guided the organization through HITRUST certification, modernized its infrastructure and cloud footprint, and played a leading role in developing the governance framework that shapes how Connections evaluates and adopts AI in clinical and operational settings. He continues to drive operating efficiencies across the IT organization, refining processes, and strengthening the infrastructure and security foundation that supports the organization’s data modernization and rapid growth.
Dani Kholdi
Dani Kholdi is the Director of Business Intelligence at Connections Health Solutions (CHS), a multi-state behavioral health organization, where he leads the team responsible for Data Engineering, and Business Intelligence across all data domains. Dani brings a background in value-based care analytics, having led Analytics and Business Intelligence functions at Evergreen Nephrology, and Fresenius Medical Care, to his work in behavioral health. At CHS, Dani has spearheaded the organization’s data platform transformation – migrating from a fragmented, on-premises, stored-procedure-based system to a modern, cloud-based analytics ecosystem built on dbt and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Dani is passionate about using data infrastructure and architecture as a driver of organizational performance and competitive advantage in complex care settings.
AI-Powered Personalization In Behavioral Health: Supporting Clinicians, Not Replacing Them
Sponsored by: 
Behavioral health organizations face growing demand, workforce shortages, and increasing administrative complexity. AI offers an opportunity to expand capacity, not replace clinicians. This session including a fireside chat explores how organizations are using AI to reduce documentation burden, surface actionable insights, and support more personalized care while keeping clinicians at the center of decision-making. Attendees will gain practical strategies for leveraging AI to improve efficiency, strengthen patient engagement, and enhance clinical outcomes.
Participants will be able to:
- Explain how augmented intelligence can support personalized behavioral health care without replacing clinician judgment.
- Identify opportunities to reduce documentation burden and administrative friction across the clinician workflow.
- Describe strategies for using AI to strengthen patient engagement, continuity of care, and the therapeutic relationship.
- Apply governance and implementation principles that improve adoption, scalability, and regulatory readiness.
Javier Favela
Javier Favela is Vice President of Market & Segment Leader at NextGen Healthcare. He is an industry leader who provides integrated healthcare technology solutions to meet the needs of the behavioral and integrated healthcare community. Javier has over 20 years of accounting and executive leadership specializing in the healthcare and healthcare information technology field. He offers extensive knowledge in new business start-ups and restructuring existing businesses to further strategic initiatives and maximize organizational profitability.
Alaina Grimm
With nearly two decades of experience in behavioral health, Alaina Grimm brings a unique blend of provider insight and healthcare technology expertise to her role as Director of Specialty Markets at NextGen Healthcare. Her career spans frontline behavioral health services, enterprise EHR implementations, and system evaluations from both the provider and vendor perspectives. Today, she works across product, implementation, marketing, and sales teams to help shape behavioral health strategy, ensuring innovation remains grounded in real-world workflows, provider needs, and evolving market dynamics.
Smart Living Systems powered by Hearo Demo
Smart Living Systems (SLS), powered by Hearo, delivers a tech-enabled remote support solution that empowers greater independence for adults with disabilities, increases staffing capacity, and lowers total care costs for those served. Built by LADD, a long-standing disability service provider, SLS combines remote support and enabling technology with a fully integrated support platform, operational framework, and training. This allows providers to deliver high-quality, scalable supports while creating a scalable model for aging and behavioral health.
Hannah Eldridge
With nearly a decade of experience in project management and operational leadership, Hannah is dedicated to driving innovation in service delivery for adults with disabilities.
Amanda Bixler
Amanda Bixler, Director of Remote Support Services at Hearo, comes from a diverse background. Her innovative approach to her work, her emphasis of incorporating every part of an individual’s team and reliance on data, has given her the foundation to bring to her role at Hearo. Amanda collaborates with the Hearo team to develop and analyze data in order to innovate and collaborate with all individuals, families, case managers and providers.
Executive Networking Reception
End your day by unwinding with your peers, colleagues, thought leaders, and vendors. Join us in the exhibit hall and enjoy a cocktail and hors d’oeurvres!
Measuring The True Value Of AI For Documentation
Sponsored By:
The value of AI-powered documentation can extend well beyond traditional measures of ROI. This session will explore how organizations are beginning to think differently about the impact of AI, from documentation workflows and workforce considerations to broader operational priorities. Through a forward-looking discussion, attendees will consider the many factors that can shape how the value of AI is understood and evaluated.
Jessica Fenchel, MA
Jessica Fenchel is the Executive Vice President and COO at Access Services, where she supports the delivery of diverse community-based programming for children, adults, and families in Eastern Pennsylvania. Access Services is a nonprofit organization building community through the delivery of services in Behavioral Health, Children and Families Services, and Intellectual Disability and Autism Programming.
Jess has been at Access Services for over 10 years, during which she was key in the startup of innovative initiatives across multiple service spaces including crisis, forensics, schools, and homelessness. Jess believes that help should be helpful and that the people we serve deserve our best. She has led in partnership building to realize integration between behavioral health and physical health, driving solutions for vulnerable populations. Jess’ work to develop new models of partnership between law enforcement and crisis systems has led to overall reductions in arrest for those experiencing mental health crisis.
Jess received her undergraduate degree from Messiah College, her master’s degree from Lasalle University in Clinical Counseling Psychology, training in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas, a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Lasalle University, and a certificate from the Global Trauma Recovery Institute. Jess is an avid sports fan, especially the Buffalo Bills, and loves being active outside with her husband, three kids, and dog.
Executive Breakfast
Sponsored By:
Start your day off right with breakfast, served in the exhibit hall. Take this time to speak with our great exhibitors and talk to peers about what you’ve heard this week!
Health Care Beyond Medicine: How Highmark Is Reducing The Total Cost Of Care Through Its Social Care Network
Health outcomes are influenced by many factors that go far beyond the walls of the clinical setting, and forward-thinking organizations are redefining their care delivery strategies accordingly. In this inspiring session, Nebeyou Abebe, Senior Vice President of Social Health at Highmark Health, explores how Highmark is leading the way by integrating social determinants of health into their core business and care delivery models to drive better outcomes through their Social Care Network.
Highmark’s Social Determinants of Health Department was created in 2019, starts with a 15-question assessment that screens for things like housing, physical and social environments, transportation, and income, and members/patients who screen positive for a health-related social need get referred to a curated network of community-based organizations who remediate the social barrier. Highmark’s home-grown social care network has seen significant results in terms of reducing the total cost of care as well as reducing avoidable inpatient and emergency department visits. During this session, Mr. Abebe will highlight how Highmark is addressing the factors such as food insecurity, finances, transportation and social isolation to significantly impact both physical and behavioral health outcomes, and why these interventions are increasingly essential as organizations transition to value-based care models.
Nebeyou Abebe
Nebeyou Abebe is the senior vice president of social determinants of health (SDoH) for Highmark Health, a $21 billion national, blended health organization that includes one of America’s largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, Pa., Highmark Health’s 37,000 employees serve millions of customers nationwide through the nonprofit organization’s affiliated businesses including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, HM Insurance Group, United Concordia Dental, HM Health Solutions and Helion.
SDoH are the conditions in which people live, work, learn, and play that can impact up to 80% of an individuals’ health outcomes before the healthcare system can intervene. Mr. Abebe brings nearly 20 years of experience leading SDOH, population health, and employee health and well-being initiatives for public and private sector organizations.
In his role at Highmark Health, Mr. Abebe leads an SDoH team that spans across the enterprise and forges close ties with the communities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York, uncovering non-clinical opportunities to improve the health and well-being of members and the region at large.
Highmark Health focuses on the confluence of medical and non-medical drivers of poor health outcomes, with a primary goal to identify and effectively address barriers to health.
Before joining Highmark Health, Mr. Abebe served as global VP of health and well-being for Sodexo Group, where he guided SDOH, population health and employee wellness for all Sodexo business segments impacting more than 425,000 employees and 100 million consumers. While at Sodexo Group, Mr. Abebe developed initiatives that addressed food insecurity, housing, transportation and workforce development in partnership with community-based organizations.
Prior to joining the Sodexo Group in 2013, Mr. Abebe served as associate director of health systems for the Louisiana Public Health Institute, where he played a leading role in building and strengthening local health IT infrastructure and testing innovative approaches to make measurable improvements in health, patient care and cost. He has also served in health communications and social marketing positions, including directing a national CDC campaign to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
Mr. Abebe earned his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and his master’s in social and public policy from Georgetown University, as well as his Project Management Professional credential from the Project Management Institute.
Thought Leader Discussion
Join our keynote presenter for an interactive discussion where you can take time to ask your own questions and continue the conversation.
Nebeyou Abebe
Nebeyou Abebe is the senior vice president of social determinants of health (SDoH) for Highmark Health, a $21 billion national, blended health organization that includes one of America’s largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, Pa., Highmark Health’s 37,000 employees serve millions of customers nationwide through the nonprofit organization’s affiliated businesses including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, HM Insurance Group, United Concordia Dental, HM Health Solutions and Helion.
SDoH are the conditions in which people live, work, learn, and play that can impact up to 80% of an individuals’ health outcomes before the healthcare system can intervene. Mr. Abebe brings nearly 20 years of experience leading SDOH, population health, and employee health and well-being initiatives for public and private sector organizations.
In his role at Highmark Health, Mr. Abebe leads an SDoH team that spans across the enterprise and forges close ties with the communities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York, uncovering non-clinical opportunities to improve the health and well-being of members and the region at large.
Highmark Health focuses on the confluence of medical and non-medical drivers of poor health outcomes, with a primary goal to identify and effectively address barriers to health.
Before joining Highmark Health, Mr. Abebe served as global VP of health and well-being for Sodexo Group, where he guided SDOH, population health and employee wellness for all Sodexo business segments impacting more than 425,000 employees and 100 million consumers. While at Sodexo Group, Mr. Abebe developed initiatives that addressed food insecurity, housing, transportation and workforce development in partnership with community-based organizations.
Prior to joining the Sodexo Group in 2013, Mr. Abebe served as associate director of health systems for the Louisiana Public Health Institute, where he played a leading role in building and strengthening local health IT infrastructure and testing innovative approaches to make measurable improvements in health, patient care and cost. He has also served in health communications and social marketing positions, including directing a national CDC campaign to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
Mr. Abebe earned his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and his master’s in social and public policy from Georgetown University, as well as his Project Management Professional credential from the Project Management Institute.
Coordinate™ Cafe: Getting Ready For H.R.1
Sponsored by: 
An empty clinical hour is the most expensive hour in behavioral health. Appointments fail 20 to 40 percent of the time across the field, and the cost compounds three ways: Big Medicaid changes are brewing. Is your organization ready?
As behavioral health organizations prepare for the changes ahead under H.R.1, questions around patient engagement, operational efficiency and financial sustainability are top of mind.
Stop by the Coordinate™ Café for a custom iced coffee or Mend Refresher and conversation about what these changes could mean for your organization, and how technology can help you prepare.
Connect directly with Mend’s Chief Product Officer, Croy Bosch, and the rest of the Mend team, exchange ideas, ask questions, and explore how predictive insights and automated workflows keep patients engaged, appointments on the calendar, and operations running smoothly.
Drop in during this session, bring your questions, and leave with fresh ideas for what’s ahead.
*Iced coffee and cookies available!
Croy Bosch
Croy Bosch is a husband, father, and friend who loves people, redemption, innovation and great design. He’s passionate about liberating greatness in others and leveraging his experience in leadership and product to help build top 100 companies. Croy joined Mend as the Chief Product Officer in November 2025, leading the development and recent launch of Coordinate™, an always-on AI agent that predicts no-shows, recovers revenue, and re-engages patients.
Every Measure Costs Hours: Focusing On The Data You Need To Collect
In an environment of tightening margins, increasing payer scrutiny, and rising expectations for outcomes, behavioral health leaders can no longer afford to collect data without purpose. The challenge is not access to information—it’s knowing which data truly matters and how to use it to drive performance, quality and growth.
This session is designed to identify the operational, financial and compliance data points that are essential to informed decision making. Attendees will learn how to align data collection with organizational strategy, regulatory requirements, and value-based care expectations, while avoiding common pitfalls such as over-collection, siloed systems, and underutilized reports.
Learn to:
- Ensure you’re capturing the right information to support accountability, performance improvement and long-term sustainability
- Define meaningful metrics and improve data governance
Kevin Eccleston, MPA
Kevin Eccleston, MPA, CReC, CPMC-T is an innovative and results-driven healthcare executive with nearly 30 years of diverse leadership experience across strategic design, operational excellence, financial execution, and multi-site service expansion. Throughout his career, he has led transformative initiatives that scale healthcare services, enhance revenue streams, and position organizations for long-term success in competitive markets. Mr. Eccleston’s passion lies in advancing community health solutions and engaging a passionate and dedicated workforce, while implementing person-centered care models that make a lasting impact. Known for building high-performing teams, securing critical funding, and ensuring financial sustainability, he brings a strong, mission-driven approach to every endeavor—always focused on delivering measurable results and meaningful change.
Yisroel Len
Yisroel Len is the Director of Data Analytics at Pesach Tikvah Hope Development Inc, CCBHC in Brooklyn, where he leads the strategy and implementation of systems that improve data quality from the point of collection through final reporting.
Data does not simply live in a database, it lives at the messy intersection of people, processes, and technology, where fields are mislabeled, requirements change mid-year, and temporary workarounds become permanent. Yisroel’s work has focused on closing that gap through workflow redesign, data engineering, and analytic tools that address data quality problems at their source while also managing them downstream.
Yisroel has presented for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing on the CCBHC data analytics lifecycle as part of a SAMHSA-required webinar for CCBHCs nationwide. A strong believer in collaboration across CCBHCs, he also developed the open-source CCBHC Quality Measurements Python package.
He writes about the realities of building healthcare data and reporting infrastructure at stevesgroceries.substack.com
The New Path To Treatment: Navigating The Trends, Policies & Forces Reshaping SUD Care
Philadelphia rebuilt the route from street contact to treatment placement. The components: harm reduction outreach, arrest diversion, a 24/7 center with a courtroom inside it, policies that let medication start the same day, and the level-of-care standard that decides who qualifies and what gets paid. Providers sit at every handoff in that chain, receiving referrals or losing them.
Join this panel to hear from the leaders who directed those changes. They will discuss where the industry is moving, based on national trends and the policy shifts landing in addiction and SUD services next year, and what a provider organization has to do to hold its place in the referral chain.
Attendees will leave with:
▪ Which pieces of the Philadelphia model transfer outside Philadelphia, and what each one costs
▪ What a drug supply that turns over yearly does to your level-of-care mix and your length of stay
▪ Where your organization sits in that referral chain now, and what it takes to move up it
David Gastfriend, M.D.
As an addiction psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Gastfriend directed addiction research at Massachusetts General Hospital and was an investigator in the NIDA Cocaine Collaborative Study, NIAAA’s COMBINE Study and NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network. As Vice President at Alkermes, Inc., he directed scientific publications on Vivitrol in clinical, criminal justice and health economics research.
His research led most states to endorse the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria. His 150 scientific publications include the books The ASAM Criteria and Addiction Treatment Matching. As Chief Architect of ASAM CONTINUUM – The ASAM Criteria Decision Engine® and ASAM’s CO-Triage®, his tools are being adopted nationwide.
In 2016, he co-founded DynamiCare Health, a nationally-scalable technology for Contingency Management, receiving awards from Harvard Business School, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Governor of Ohio, and the New York Times. He has consulted to governments in Belgium, China, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Russia and the U.S.
Nicole O’Donnell, CRS, BA
Nicole is a Certified Recovery Specialist, recognized by the Philadelphia Inquirer for excellence in patient care for her work at Penn Medicine’s Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy, which includes supporting patients at Penn Presbyterian, Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Hospital of the University of Penn. Ms. O’Donnell oversees the CareConnect Warmline, a low barrier and virtual buprenorphine bridge clinic, serving the Philadelphia area and surrounding counties connecting community members to evidence-based treatment.
Daniel Teixeira da Silva, M.D., MSHP
Daniel Teixeira da Silva, MD, is a Fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program at the Perelman School of Medicine, general internist, and pediatrician. His research interests include studying the structural and psycho-social determinants of HIV sero-conversion; implementation of HIV prevention services; engagement in care among people living with HIV or at increased risk for HIV sero-conversion; and integration of HIV prevention and HIV primary care into public services and healthcare models. He aims to improve the quality of healthcare services for marginalized populations and address policy gaps that reinforce inequity in HIV sero-conversion, with a focus on people with a history of criminal justice system and/or child welfare system involvement.
Daniel attended Wesleyan University where he studied Biology and Science in Society, and he received his medical doctorate from the Boston University School of Medicine. During medical school, he completed the South American Program in HIV Prevention Research (SAPHIR) pre-doctoral fellowship at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He completed training in combined internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, where he was a Leadership for Urban Primary Care Education and Transformation (LUCENT) scholar and completed the MacLean Center for Clinical Ethics Fellowship.
Kurt August, MSW
Kurt August, MSW, is the Executive Director for the Division of Criminal Justice within the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Public Safety. His work involves overseeing a wide range of criminal justice reform efforts designed to safely reduce the size of the local jail population and promote racial, ethnic, and economic disparities across the criminal justice system. His primary focus has been in the diversion and deflection space to develop health-centered alternatives to arrest and incarceration for adults with complex unmet health needs that are having low-level police contacts in the community. For the past 10 years, Kurt has worked at the intersection of the law enforcement and behavioral health communities by piloting a pre-booking diversion program, an Outreach focused Co-Responder pilot which embeds behavioral health professionals with law enforcement to collaboratively address quality of life issues, Crisis Intervention Response Teams that pair behavioral health professionals with CIT Officers in unmarked police vehicles to address behavioral health calls that come in to the 911 Call Center in real time, and collaborated with the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services to establish the first Behavioral Health Unit in the City’s history under the police department in December 2022. Kurt is a married father of two girls and resides in the Strawberry Mansion section of the City.
Jeanmarie Perrone, M.D., FACMT
Jeanmarie Perrone is a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, the Director of the Division of Medical Toxicology and the founding Director of the Penn Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy. Dr. Perrone has led multiple initiatives in opioid stewardship and leads a program for the ED treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Dr. Perrone has served on many national task forces and federal advisory committees with the CDC and FDA addressing judicious opioid use and has advocated at the state and national level for expanding treatment opportunities for OUD. Dr. Perrone has been featured in prominent media including the New York Times, National Public Radio, Freakonomics and USA Today and has published in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA . She has won numerous awards for education and mentorship and is boarded in emergency medicine, medical toxicology and addiction medicine.
Clinically AI Lounge
Sponsored By:
During the Institute, attendees are invited to visit the Clinically AI Lounge, just outside the exhibit halls. The Lounge features 6 retro-style arcade games built around common clinician pain points. One of them is Denial Knockout, where players take on 10 well-known opponents in the ring and compete against their colleagues’ scores.
AI In Analytics: What It Can Do Now
Artificial intelligence is changing how behavioral health organizations turn data into decisions, but only where it is applied well. Cody Thomas, a longtime chief information officer, cuts through the hype to what AI can do for your analytics now, from predictive modeling to routine reporting, and where it still falls short. You leave with a clearer sense of which AI investments in analytics are worth making this year and which to wait on.
The session will explore the future of AI in behavioral health analytics, highlighting practical applications that drive better clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and financial performance.
Key takeaways include:
- Understand AI applications in behavioral health analytics to identify practical ways AI can enhance data analysis, from predictive modeling to operational and clinical decision support
- Evaluate opportunities and challenges to recognize the benefits, limitations, and ethical/regulatory considerations of implementing AI tools
- Create strategies to leverage AI-driven analytics for informed decision-making and improved outcomes
Cody Thomas
Cody Thomas joined Thompson in June 2014 and currently leads the Information Technology and Data Teams. As a trusted technology advisor and forward thinker, Cody is responsible for ensuring Thompson is prepared for growth, developing talent, mitigating risk, investing in modern infrastructure, and delivering top-tier customer service to staff and families alike.
Originally from northern Ohio, Cody completed his education at the University of Toledo College of Medicine before transitioning into the technology field. He moved to Charlotte, where he briefly worked as a teacher and technology analyst for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Since then, Cody has dedicated more than a decade of his career to the well-being of children and families at Thompson.
Cody’s “why” stems from his lived experiences, his love of technology, and his desire to see himself and others grow and flourish. He is continually humbled by working alongside other passionate individuals who share a vision and dedication to the mission.
Delana M. Cooks
Delana M. Cooks, MSW is a Data Analyst at Thompson Child & Family Focus with nearly a decade of experience in nonprofit evaluation, outcomes measurement, and performance improvement. She specializes in helping organizations use data, dashboards, and evaluation frameworks to drive decision making and improve client outcomes. Delana holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from UNC Charlotte and has experience working with data visualization and reporting tools, including SQL, Tableau, and Power BI. She is also a published co-author and remains committed to advancing community well-being through evidence-based practice and innovation.
Closing The Gap: Expanding Access Through Medication For Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)
Opioid use disorder continues to impact communities across the country, and expanding access to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) remains one of the most effective strategies for improving outcomes and saving lives. This session will examine the operational, clinical, regulatory, and financial considerations involved in scaling MAT programs across diverse care settings.
Industry leaders will discuss how organizations are overcoming barriers to access, integrating MAT into broader treatment services, leveraging partnerships with health systems and payers, and addressing stigma that can limit adoption and engagement. Attendees will learn how innovative treatment models, data-driven care strategies, and workforce development efforts are helping providers reach more individuals with evidence-based opioid use disorder treatment.
Margery L. Stanton, LMHC
Margery Stanton is the President & COO of BestSelf Behavioral Health, where she has been part of the team for over 15 years. Across that time she has held a range of roles, each deepening her understanding of the agency’s mission and the people it serves. Beyond BestSelf, Margery is an adjunct professor at the University at Buffalo, where she is committed to supporting the next generation of behavioral health practitioners. At the heart of her work is a single goal: empowering everyone to be their BestSelf.
Jennifer Seib, LMHC, CASAC
Ms. Seib is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor who has been working in behavioral health care for over 20 years starting out as a substance use disorder counselor in outpatient and then intensive residential treatment before moving into several different leadership roles over the years.
Presently, Ms. Seib provides senior leadership support to many programs and service types at BestSelf, including programs supporting rapid access to Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, Residential programs for pregnant and parenting women and transitional aged youth with substance use challenges and co-occurring disorders, Opioid Treatment Program, Justice Involved Program, Recovery Community, Peer Services, and Housing and Homeless services.
Ms. Seib has also been part of the Western New York Chemical Dependency Consortium since 2012 where she served as Public Policy Chair for five years and currently serves as Vice Chair and is a board member of New York State COMPA (Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates).
Heidi Ginter, M.D., FASAM
Heidi Ginter, MD, FASAM is the National Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at Acadia Healthcare and Chief Medical Officer of CTC (Comprehensive Treatment Centers). Board-certified in both family and addiction medicine, Dr. Ginter has nearly two decades of experience treating substance use disorders.
Dr. Ginter earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University, her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine. Early in her career at the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center in Worcester, MA, she practiced the full spectrum of family medicine, including obstetrics, and was introduced to addiction medicine through managing methadone for incarcerated pregnant people with opioid use
disorder. This experience deeply impacted the trajectory of Dr. Ginter’s career as she became a passionate advocate for better substance use and mental health care for vulnerable, marginalized individuals.
As Dr. Ginter began trying to improve access to respectful, quality care, a key initiative in her early career was launching the first buprenorphine treatment program at her community health center. Dr. Ginter has since provided medical leadership across a range of settings, including opioid treatment programs (OTPs), inpatient withdrawal management, residential addiction treatment, outpatient office-based programs, and hospital addiction consult services. Her work has focused on building bridges between different levels of care, ensuring continuity and accessibility for patients.
In addition to her clinical leadership, Dr. Ginter is a nationally recognized speaker who advocates for reducing stigma and increasing public understanding of substance use disorders and their treatment. She envisions a future where everyone seeking treatment can access high quality, affordable, evidence-based care and whatever other resources they need to achieve recovery on their own terms, whenever and wherever they are ready.
Beyond Listening, The Next Stage Of Active AI & EMRs
Sponsored by: 
AI in the EMR has learned to listen. The question now is what it should do next.
For 22 years, Sigmund Software and Caron Treatment Centers have built something together that neither could have built alone. That work has reached a point worth talking about openly — and worth questioning.
Matthew Prete and Dr. Steven Klein will share what they’re seeing as the record stops being a place where care is documented and starts becoming part of how care happens. Some of it is further along than most people expect. Some of it raises questions the field hasn’t settled yet.
If you’ve wondered where this is actually heading — and what it will ask of clinicians when it gets there — this conversation is for you.
Steven Klein, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP
Dr. Steven Klein is a compassionate and highly accomplished physician-scientist specializing in addiction medicine. Dr. Klein is dedicated to advancing innovative, evidence-based approaches to support recovery for teens, young adults, and individuals facing relapse challenges. Dr. Klein’s mission is to transform addiction treatment by harmonizing genetic science, clinical expertise, and a steadfast dedication to recovery-centered compassion.
Matthew Prete
Matthew Prete started his career at Sigmund as a Senior Software Engineer. He was the lead engineer in the development of Sigmund’s industry-leading revenue cycle management system for behavioral healthcare and addiction treatment. Over the years, Matthew has been integral in the design and development of all Sigmund software, helping to push our technology in a fast-paced environment. Matthew was promoted to Chief Product and Information Officer to oversee all Application Development for VSS Medical Technologies as well as data center operations.
The Technology Investment Imperative: Balancing Innovation, Risk & Return
AI, automation, cybersecurity, and rapidly evolving digital platforms are creating exciting opportunities but also difficult financial and operational choices. How should executives evaluate technology investments, distinguish meaningful innovation from hype, and balance near-term financial pressures with long-term transformation?
Building on the highly successful “Financial Leadership in Uncertain Times” session at the Service Excellence Institute, Paul M. Duck will lead a candid, practical discussion about making sound technology decisions in an uncertain environment. The conversation will explore investment priorities, return on technology spending, organizational readiness, risk, and the evolving partnership among financial, operational, and technology leaders.
Paul M. Duck
Paul M. Duck brings over 30 years of experience in leadership and management focusing on managed care, health information technology organizations, strategy, business development, and market expansion, and customer experience optimization to the OPEN MINDS team.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Duck served as the Vice President, Strategy & Development at Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Duck led the organization’s strategy and business development efforts – responsible for a 30% increase in net revenue and initiated over $1 billion in revenue generation. Mr. Duck was active in national behavioral health initiatives as an executive of Beacon Health Options, including participating as a speaker at national and state association meetings.
Before joining Beacon Health Options, Mr. Duck was the Vice President of Business Development at Netsmart Technologies. During his tenure, Mr. Duck was responsible for business planning, including, the oversight of strategic activities including acquisitions, development, and execution of strategic initiatives, and positioning, and sales of large strategic customers. He also led the rollout of the company’s benchmarking and data analytics product suite.
Prior to Netsmart, Mr. Duck served as the Chief Executive Officer for Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, a large group practice with five clinic locations and two ambulatory surgical centers. As the organization’s chief executive officer, Mr. Duck was responsible for significant positive changes in leadership and corporate culture, financial and operational performance, compliance, and governance. Mr. Duck improved net collections by over $1 million per month and grew the practice through negotiating better contract rates with payers. He also implemented an organizational rebranding initiative and launched a new marketing campaign.
Prior to Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, Mr. Duck served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Florida Radiology Imaging, one of the largest outpatient diagnostic imaging service companies serving the greater Orlando market. During his tenure, Mr. Duck led the construction of three new, full modality, diagnostic imaging locations. Mr. Duck revolutionized the company’s culture by creating a highly attractive and functional work environment.
Mr. Duck earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Associate of Arts in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Electronic Technology Institute. Mr. Duck received an award by Inc Magazine for leading Florida Radiology Imaging as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mr. Duck recently served as a contributing author to the book The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America.
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM
Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.
Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.
Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.
He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.
Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Using Data & Technology To Improve Recovery Outcomes
Despite ongoing investment in technology and digital infrastructure, many SUD providers still struggle with fragmented workflows, disconnected systems, and limited reporting and visibility into outcomes. These gaps can directly impact the ability to support long-term recovery.
This session will feature findings from Cantata Health Solutions’ 2026 national survey of SUD providers, highlighting how organizations are leveraging data, EHR functionality, and other digital tools to address operational complexity and strengthen care delivery. Attendees will gain practical insight into where providers are struggling the most today, which operational and technology investments are emerging as priorities, and how organizations are working to build more scalable SUD programs.
*Lunch Is Provided!
Christy Winter, LMSW
Christy Winter brings over a decade of experience in behavioral health and social services, combined with more than 12 years in product management. She started her career in a variety of clinical and leadership roles with behavioral health providers, focusing on Continuous Quality Improvement and program evaluation. Since 2013, Winter has directed product strategy at both established EHR providers and an AI-driven documentation company, focusing on innovative solutions to support clinical and operational needs.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Emory University and a master’s in social work from Georgia State University. She is a licensed Master Level Social Worker (LMSW).
What If Every Manager Had A Business Analyst & More Time?
Sponsored By: 
In this lunch session, The BI Collaborative introduces its Business Enablement Advisor, BEA, an AI solution designed to turn data into direction.
Human service providers aren’t short on data. They’re short on the time and analysis needed to convert data into action. BEA works alongside leaders to analyze organizational data, connect trends, identify what matters, explain why, and provide directional insights – giving leaders more time to make decisions, drive progress, and support people.
Join The BI Collaborative and senior leadership from Access: Supports For Living NY and Access Services, PA to explore a technology solution that facilitates Visibility → Understanding → Direction → Human Action and what becomes possible when every manager has an AI analyst working with them.
Every manager DOES deserve an analyst.
- What if reports came with direction – giving leaders more time to make decisions and drive progress?
- What if analytical capacity and business acumen could scale across the organization – not reside with only a handful of people?
- What if every leader had a business analyst working alongside them?
Now they can with BEA!
Interested in attending? Click the button below!
Chief Executive Officer Member Networking Luncheon
If you’re the Chief Executive Officer or Executive Director of an OPEN MINDS member organization, join us for this private networking luncheon. This is an opportunity to share leadership experiences and solutions with your peers from across the nation. (To register, contact Erin Deppen, Education Events Manager, at 717-334-1329 or edeppen@openminds.com.)
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder of OPEN MINDS and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field – and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.
Michael Allen
Michael Allen brings over 30 years of experience in the non-profit behavioral healthcare industry to the OPEN MINDS team. He currently serves as an Executive Vice President in our consulting practice, where he provides executive oversight and leadership to provider and payer client engagements for OPEN MINDS.
Mr. Allen was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of SummitStone Health Partners, the largest non-profit behavioral health service provider in Larimer County, CO. In this role Mr. Allen was responsible for the planning deployment, communication and accomplishment of SummitStone Health Partners’ overarching corporate strategy. He managed a budget of $80Million and was responsible for more than 750 full time employees and over 12,000 clients annually.
Prior to SummitStone Health Partners, Mr. Allen served as the Vice President of Managed Care & Operations at AspenPointe (now Diversus Health). At AspenPointe he developed and managed a system of accountability for monitoring and evaluating provider performance in seven Colorado counties. He was also responsible for the quality management oversight of all business lines, as well as managing a substance abuse treatment contract with the Colorado Division of Behavioral Health and a child welfare services agreement with El Paso County Department of Human Services.
Previously, Mr. Allen was the Director of Clinical Care for Connect Care, (rebranded as AspenPointe in 2010). In this position Mr. Allen provided supervision to the clinical staff, as well as developing clinical guidelines and services. He was also the project director for the 4th Judicial District Family Reunification Grant and he oversaw care coordination and voucher management functions for Colorado Access to Recovery Grant.
Before Connect Care, Mr. Allen was the Director of Child Welfare Services for Signal Behavioral Health Network, a non-profit that has been managing and expanding substance use prevention, treatment and recovery services in northeast Colorado for over 25 years. Mr. Allen managed a network of Substance Use Disorder treatment providers, programs and services across 35 Colorado counties.
Mr. Allen earned a Bachelor of Arts in Design/Psychology from Brigham Young University, a Masters in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University, and a Masters in Business Administration from Colorado State University. He is a Licensed Social Worker and a Certified Addictions Specialist in Colorado.
Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer Member Networking Lunch
Join us for this private luncheon for executive leaders of OPEN MINDS member organization – created for Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Officers. The objective of this networking session is to provide opportunities for executive leaders from across the country to share solutions to the challenges in serving consumers with complex needs. (To register, contact Erin Deppen, Education Events Manager, at 717-334-1329 or edeppen@openminds.com.)
Sharon Hicks, MSW, MBA
Sharon Hicks, OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, has more than 20 years of experience in the health and human service field. She has extensive experience and wide range of expertise in health plan management, in clinical operations management, and technology.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Hicks spent two decades in a number of executive positions within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) system and within its health plan division. Ms. Hicks served as the Chief Operating Officer for Community Care Behavioral Health, a managed behavioral health organization. She was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s operations including fiscal, information systems, the claims processing department, and the design of clinical systems. In addition Ms. Hicks managed the day-to-day operations of including human resources, facilities, purchasing, and security.
Ms. Hicks also served as the Vice President, Internet Strategy, UPMC Insurance Services Division and, since 2002, as the Chief Executive Officer of Askesis Development Group, Inc. since May of 2002. In this role, Ms. Hicks was responsible for the growth of the company, profitability of the company, and the direction of software development.
Ms. Hick started her impressive health care career as a psychiatric social worker before being promoted to Assistant Director of Social Work. Prior to her executive promotions, Ms. Hicks served as a Clinical Administrator for both Ambulatory Services and Emergency and Intake Services at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. In this role, Ms. Hicks managed the behavioral health division, the budgets for all departments, and implemented new software replacing paper billing for clinical services.
Ms. Hicks received both her Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Pittsburg. Before pursuing her graduate education, Ms. Hicks received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
The OPEN MINDS Leadership & Management Certificate Program Graduate Luncheon
Join fellow 2026 graduates and OPEN MINDS faculty for a lunch celebrating the completion of the program. This lunch is for graduates of the certificate program only.
To RSVP, please email Erin Deppen, Education Events Manager at edeppen@openminds.com.
Rachel Steinmetz
Rachel Steinmetz brings broad experience in the health and human service field to the OPEN MINDS team. From operations management to marketing strategy, Ms. Steinmetz has been involved in almost every aspect of management in her career.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Steinmetz was the Director of Operations for Funnel Lab, an internet marketing solutions firm. In that role, she designed revenue generating strategies including lead generation and customer engagement. She also developed their automation solutions, including operationalizing AI-driven text bots to enhance customer interactions. Ms. Steinmetz was also responsible for mulit-channel marketing strategy and strategy implementation including email, SMS, and social media automation.
Previously, Ms. Steinmetz was the Chief Operating Office for Housing for Health, Orange County, a non-profit organization aimed at ending homelessness by addressing physical and mental health needs. As COO, she led all aspects of operations, including human resources, program development, and organizational management. This including implementing measures to enhance organizational efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance across multiple platforms and electronic health records. She also successfully cultivated robust partnerships with external partners.
Before Housing for Health Orange County, Ms. Steinmetz held roles supporting strategic communications and public policy initiatives in the behavioral health space. As Communications Coordinator for Be Well Orange County, she supported a county-wide initiative to improve access to compassionate mental health care through infrastructure investment and cross-sector collaboration. Her responsibilities included public relations, event planning, business development, research, vendor coordination, and managing the organization’s web and social media presence. As Senior Project Manager at Principle Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm focused on public policy and executive leadership, Ms. Steinmetz led multi-stakeholder initiatives, developed detailed project roadmaps, and coordinated efforts across municipalities, healthcare agencies, and community-based organizations.
In addition to her institutional roles, Ms. Steinmetz brings over a decade of experience consulting with nonprofits, small businesses, and mission-driven entrepreneurs. Her expertise includes business operations, digital marketing, workflow automation, and web strategy; working with clients to streamline systems, drive engagement, and scale sustainably.
Ms. Steinmetz earned a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing from DePaul University.
Rick Rowley
Rick Rowley brings over 10 years of experience driving improved performance, quality, and costs of the health care system to OPEN MINDS as a Senior Associate. Mr. Rowley is focused on bringing together health care physicians, provider organizations, health care payers, and data-driven strategies.
Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Rowley was the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at the State of Colorado, Behavioral Health Administration. In this role, he designed and implemented the Colorado behavioral health performance monitoring system, which focused on the impact of care across privately and publicly funded services including health care, criminal justice, and social services. Mr. Rowley served as the state’s subject matter expert on quality and performance measures for behavioral/mental health services, grants, and contracts worth over $200 million annually. He brokered data-sharing agreements with both public and private organizations and advised senior executives and state leaders on data trends utilizing data visualizations and formal presentations. He spoke at national and state-level conferences focused on improving mental health care.
Previously, Mr. Rowley was the Vice President of Healthcare Strategy and Operations at Redwood Family Care Network, a private equity-backed provider of services for those with severe mental illness disabilities within California, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. He developed strategies and implemented the use of operational guidelines for physicians, psychiatrists, behavioralists, and social workers caring for residents within our 124 facilities located across the four states. He also served as a merger and acquisition (M&A) consultant on the business development team providing subject matter expert insights on revenue cycle management, quality of services, and the strategic synergies of potential healthcare acquisitions.
Mr. Rowley was also the project manager for the development of a specialty mental health/primary care medical group contracted with Medicare Innovations Value-Based “Primary Care First” program that performed services through a hybrid telehealth and satellite facility environment. He designed and engineered a data warehouse (BigQuery) for the integration and coordination of care between insurance payers and state services.
Prior to that role, Mr. Rowley served as the Vice President of Corporate Wellness at OC Wellness Physicians Group. In this role, Mr. Rowley drove B2B sales for corporate wellness contracts that generated $18 million worth of new business. He provided operational and strategic leadership creating and maximizing payer agreements with Medicare, Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, and UnitedHealthcare.
Previously, Mr. Rowley served as the Executive Director for Regenerative Orthopedic Clinic, where he turned the company around from a negative EBITDA to $2.5 million. He was responsible for $10.1 million annual P&L grown from $750k in 2011. While working with the CEO, Mr. Rowley oversaw the operations and strategies for the company’s three southern California facilities and 45 employees with support from eight direct reports.
Mr. Rowley earned his Doctorate of Chiropractic degree at Southern California University of Health Sciences. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree at Brigham Young University, majoring in Microbiology with a minor in business management.
Raffle Prize Drawing
Don’t miss the much-anticipated raffle drawing at 1:45 pm and come see if you’ve won any of the great prizes provided by our generous sponsors! (Must be present to win!)
The Intersection Of Trauma-Informed Approaches & Quality Improvement
Building a truly data-driven culture in behavioral health requires more than dashboards, metrics and performance targets, it requires an approach that builds trust, engagement, and shared accountability across the organization. In this session, Social Current will explore how health care leaders can apply trauma-informed principles to quality improvement and transform the way teams engage with data, performance, and organizational change.
Using the principles of safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment, this session will examine how organizations can move beyond viewing quality improvement as a compliance function and instead make it a strategic driver of better outcomes. Attendees will hear perspectives from both quality improvement and clinical leadership and learn how trauma-informed approaches can strengthen engagement, improve performance, and create a culture of continuous improvement.
Key Takeaways Include:
- Identify the organizational and cultural barriers that can prevent quality improvement and data initiatives from gaining traction
- Understand the importance of applying trauma-informed tactics to data and quality improvement
- Hear practical scenarios to apply trauma-informed principles for effectiveness
Karen Johnson, MSW, LCSW
Karen Johnson brings knowledge of the advancing science around resilience, brain development, adversity, toxic stress, equity, and trauma-informed approaches to the complex challenges we face. This expertise, coupled with her 27 years of experience in child welfare, behavioral health, and community services, enables her to successfully partner with leaders, staff, community members, and participants across numerous settings to promote individual and organizational resilience.
Johnson leads the development of the Social Current Change in Mind Institute, leveraging the latest advances in neurosciences and trauma-informed approaches across sectors and at the practice, policy, and systems levels. She oversees the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative, through which 10 organizations from multiple sectors across Southeast Texas are working to embed brain science principles with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families, as well as their organizational cultures and ability to collaborate with partners.
During her five-and-a-half years on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s trauma-informed services team, and year-and-a-half as an independent consultant, Johnson trained and consulted with organizations, systems, and communities striving to advance trauma-informed, resilience-oriented approaches. She also led and developed community-based programs during her 19 years at SaintA in Milwaukee. Johnson combines the newest advances around adversity, relational health, and resilience to infuse hope and connection into our work.
Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker certified in Dr. Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead and Daring Way and trained in Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics.
Meeting People Where They Are: The Future Of Accessible, Integrated SUD Care
Telehealth and integrated care offer major opportunities for addiction treatment providers, but they also introduce operational, clinical, regulatory and engagement challenges that make implementation complex. For addiction treatment executives, the difficulty is often balancing accessibility and convenience with consumer safety, compliance, and quality outcomes.
This session will explore how addiction treatment providers are implementing integrated care to reduce barriers to care, extend services to underserved communities, improve consumer engagement, and create more flexible treatment pathways. Executives will hear lessons learned around technology adoption, regulatory considerations, workforce integration, digital engagement, and balancing virtual and in-person care to meet the changing needs of today’s consumers.
Philip Huston
Philip Huston is an executive leader, strategist, and healthcare innovator specializing in rural health system design. Philip is the founder of Lifehouse which began as a grass roots sober living program and has developed an extensive continuum of behavioral health care in multiple rural communities. As Executive Director of Lifehouse, he spearheaded the organization’s transformation into New Mexico’s first rural Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) while establishing Southern New Mexico’s largest residential recovery network. He holds an M.Div. from Duke University and brings a pragmatic, community-driven approach to complex organizational problem-solving.
From Fragmented Logs To Next-Best Actions: Empowering Frontline Caregivers With Technology Solutions
Sponsored by: 
Care delivery in community-based settings often relies on scattered notes, incident reports, and unrecorded shift knowledge. This session demonstrates how providers can streamline shift handoffs and provide plain-language, real-time guidance to DSPs. Learn how automated shift summarization and auditable risk scoring reduce caregiver turnover, prevent high-cost adverse outcomes like hospitalizations and behavioral incidents, and elevate care quality.
Kimber Bruhn
Kimber Bruhn is the Chief Quality Officer for Vista Care, where she oversees clinical and quality excellence, regulatory compliance, and technology initiatives. With over two decades of leadership experience in the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) field, Kimber is dedicated to enhancing the quality of support and services people receive as well as creating efficiencies for caregivers to focus on what matters most; providing care.
Kimber holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Administration and has built a diverse career across operations, project management, and quality and nursing services. Her professional impact has spanned more than 17 states and includes international initiatives developing quality systems in underdeveloped countries. Her expertise is centered on the following core areas: technology implementation, quality and clinical excellence, and organizational leadership.
Making The Shift To Leading In The Era Of AI
In this closing keynote, Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer of OPEN MINDS, will examine the technology trends transforming behavioral health care and outline the strategic decisions executives need to make to maximize organizational performance. Participants will leave with a framework for aligning technology strategy with organizational priorities and actionable takeaways to help their organizations remain competitive in an increasingly digital health care environment.
Monica E. Oss
Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder of OPEN MINDS and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field – and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.
Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.
Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.
Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.
Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.