Presenters L-Z

Lee Lewis serves as Chief Strategy Officer and GM Medical Solutions for the Health Transformation Alliance. He leads efforts across over 50 large and jumbo employers and six million employees to save lives and save millions of dollars through improved health delivery, outcomes and experience. Key initiatives in this role include new models of health benefits administration, curated provider steerage, and improved clinical delivery and outcomes.

He has advised healthcare strategy at Fortune 10 employers, insurance companies and administrators, medical associations and the Departments of Justice and Labor. He incubated and helped form two dozen health-benefit startup companies, and has been quoted and featured in Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

Lewis is a founding, charter member of the Health Rosetta organization, which seeks to open-source employer health benefits strategy for the public good, and is credited as a co-founder of the Health Value Exchange, a free, online contributor database with over a thousand health benefit vendors democratizing industry access to great solutions.

Before joining the HTA, Lewis was a consultant at Gallagher, where he founded Gallagher’s innovation lab and national jumbo employer practice. In 2019 he was recognized with the industry’s top honor as the Outstanding National Consultant for Large & Jumbo Employers Award by the independent Validation Institute. His consulting clients won Diamond Innovation Awards at the World Healthcare Congress, Innovation Awards from the Texas Business Groups on Health, Top 20 Innovator Awards from Healthcare Revolution Conference, and Financial Innovation and Large Group Management Innovation accolades from the Validation Institute.

Lee is a Rhodes Scholar Nominee and graduated Second in his Class, Magna cum Laude with University Honors and attended the University of Michigan and BYU.

Jack G. London, D.D. is the President/CEO and founder of London Medical Management, Inc., and PatientPAL.org. Since 1995 Patient PAL has become one of the nation’s leading patient advocacy services helping over 3,000,000 members across the country. London Medical Management, Inc. specialized in Large Claim Negotiations, Wellness Plan Development and Coaching, provider network analysis and building and managing proprietary networks.

Jack is frequently asked to be a featured speaker at Healthcare Industry Seminars and has authored many articles on medical management, Wellness initiatives and Patient Advocacy. In addition to his healthcare career, Jack is a former Television and Radio Talk Show Host and published Author of “21 Keys to Your Success”.

Jack is a founding member of the first College of Pharmacy in Las Vegas and a member of the American Cancer society and former publicity board chairman for Habitat for Humanity.

Josh Luke, Ph.D., has had well over 300 speaking appearances since 2011,and has solidified himself as one of the most sought-after voices on the association and corporate circuit. As a professional ‘Edutainer,’ he is known for his humor and use of personal stories to engage audiences and teach businesses and individuals how to improve morale, enhance productivity and drive profitability. Dr. Luke travels the world bringing smiles to audience members and sharing the well-kept secrets of the healthcare industry.

From humorous keynotes to guest lectures at Harvard, Dr. Luke guarantees audience satisfaction. Dr. Luke is Forbes Books author and the author of three Amazon #1 Best Selling books. He is an award winning healthcare futurist and strategist, a social media influencer and award winning YouTube and Podcast host. 

Bob Matthews is President and CEO of MediSync. As leader of MediSync’s Practice Management Partnership division Bob led multiple medical groups for over twenty years.

Bob is Black Belt trained in the Six Sigma quality methods and has led teams to reexamine the entire process of providing care to patients, especially patients with chronic diseases using modern quality disciplines together with clinical disciplines.

MediSync has created sophisticated processes and now AI technologies to enable physicians to achieve best in the nation clinical outcomes.

Karen McIntire joined Southcentral Foundation (SCF) in 1996. She plays a key supporting role in strategic planning and development. Karen is responsible for the development and management of human resources policies, programs, and procedures related to recruitment and employment, compensation and benefits, employee relations, human resources information systems, safety, and other associated programs. Karen played a key role in the application that led SCF to become a Baldrige award-winning organization. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with emphasis in marketing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is certified as a Professional in Human Resources. Karen is of Yup’ik-Aleut descent. She presents nationally and internationally on whole-system improvement, customer focus, workforce improvement, innovation, and SCF’s Nuka System of Care. 

Melissa K. Merrick, LCSW, MSW, CDC I;  is a licensed clinical social worker and clinical director for Southcentral Foundation. Melissa joined SCF in 2007. She plays a key role in overseeing quality and clinical improvement for the Behavioral Services Division. She coordinates quality assurance activities and program development, and provides clinical oversight for the behavioral health integration program. She directs clinical activities for behavioral health consultants who provide services in four clinics across multiple disciplines. She has been instrumental in designing and implementing new programs in the clinics, such as the Suboxone program in primary care, chronic pain management and opiate prescribing, and expanding co-located psychiatry in the primary care clinics.

Darrell Moon founded Orriant in 1996 to change the dynamics of healthcare and give employers some control over the ever-increasing costs of the healthcare benefits they offer their employees. He believed that engaging individuals in the management of their own health was a key that had to be inserted back into the economic equation of healthcare. Darrell received both his Bachelor of Science in Finance and his Master of Health Administration from Brigham Young University. He managed 10 different medical and psychiatric hospitals throughout the country prior to creating Orriant. He is a principal speaker for the world's leading CEO organization Vistage on the topic of controlling healthcare costs and improving health. Darrell is a Forbes Leadership Contributor. 

Charles A. Prijatelj, Ed.D. Superintendent Altoona Area School District

Dr. Charles Prijatelj has served as the Altoona Area School District Superintendent for the past six years and has a total of ten years as a public-school superintendent. Dr. Prijatelj received his Bachelors of Science in Music Education from Duquesne University, his Masters of Music from Youngstown State University, and his Doctorate in Instructional Leadership from the University of Pittsburgh. This year is Dr. Prijatelj’s 40th year in the educational field and he has received many awards for his instrumental music programs and his administrative strengths in developing K-12 curriculum for the West Middlesex Area School District, the Tuscarora School District, and the Altoona Area School District. Faced with severe budgetary conditions, Dr. Prijatelj was integral in the development of a Health Insurance model that is based on informed decision making at the employee/patient level and transparency of cost structures at the district/employer level. Today’s discussion is designed to walk participants through the process of building a Community Partnership style program and how, by collaborating with willing healthcare professionals and health insurance consultants, a true partnership can be built to benefit both districts/companies and local healthcare providers.

Melody Richardson served as the Director of Benefits for Questar Corporation for over 25 years.  During that time, she and her benefits team were responsible for overseeing all benefits, including mental health benefits, for over 2,000 employees and their dependents, as well as over 1,200 retirees and their dependents.  Melody is currently retired from Questar.  She serves on the Mountain American Board of Directors Supervisory Committee and is the President of her HOA.  She also volunteers as a teachers aid at the local Elementary School.   

Stacey Richter is the host of Relentless Health Value, an award-winning podcast that connects leaders from across the healthcare industry who share a commitment to the quadruple aim. Stacey endeavors to showcase the latest thinking to improve population health and patient and provider experience while managing costs. She believes that patients are best served when payers, purchasers, providers and others communicate and collaborate effectively.

In 2018, Stacey co-founded QC-Health, a cause-driven benefit corporation seeking to leverage the experience of its founders in pursuit of better patient outcomes. She is also co-president of Aventria Health Group, a consultancy.

Stacey studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Stockholm. For more than 20 years, Stacey has innovated healthcare solutions that are win-wins for stakeholders, and most of all, the patient.

Mark Rieder is Head of Innovation, and champions, develops and institutionalizes the innovation process for NFP both inside and outside the organization. As a catalyst for “what if” thinking Mark helps the practice areas re-think their processes to adapt to the changing needs of the customer and the market in general. He works to drive adoption and manage high-quality execution across organizational lines that enhance business outcomes.  

Having served in the employee benefits industry for over 25 years, including nine years as CEO of a leading employee benefits consulting firm based in the Philadelphia area, Mark joined NFP’s corporate team in January 2010 to launch the company’s national benefits administration practice. He has played an integral role in expanding the practice area to provide HRIS consulting services through its newly formed HR Services division, developing the NFP Marketplace – NFP’s exchange solution – and, most recently Mark helped to launch NFP’s Innovation efforts and drives their Digital Transformation Strategy.

As a thought leader in the industry, Mark is the author of multiple articles and white papers, speaks regularly at industry events and conference panels, and sits on a number of technological advisory boards. Mark has a bachelor’s in finance with an emphasis on economics from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Maria Shah, M.D.,  is the Chief Operating Officer of AkosMD, a Virtual Primary Care organization focused on bringing a technology powered value-based, primary care model with a dedicated concierge physician and care team to the employer market. She has 10 years of managed care experience including case and chronic care management and utilization review with focus on evidence-based and cost-effective medical case management in the delivery of patient care. She previously held executive level positions including CMO for TPAs, health plans and PPO networks. Dr. Shah serves on Boards of Directors for various specialty pharmacies and has a background in pharmaceutical research in patient-centered clinical trials.” 

Dr. Joseph Shen, M.D., is a physician, scientist, entrepreneur, researcher, inventor/innovator/pioneer of Multifunction Cardiography Technology, a.k.a. MCG. The technology is a 21st Century Bedside Digital Signal Processing Deep-Machine-Learning/A.I. tool for Early Detection/Monitoring of Whole-Heart Health Solution, based on a fundamentally sound unifying mathematic principle - Complex Lagrangian Mechanics (or Euler–Lagrange Equations), to reduce suffering, save lives, and lower heart health diagnostic costs. He is the World’s first Computational Electrophysiologist, and the founder of “Computational Clinical Electrophysiology” – a new branch of computational biology. 

He has dedicated his life since 1997 to the successful development, engineering, and commercialization of MCG technology to solve an intractable problem in modern diagnostic cardiology – the lack of affordable, accurate, and readily accessible non-invasive user-friendly digital technology tools for the comprehensive detection, quantification, and better systematic understanding of all stages of lifestyle, dietary, environment, pulmonary, infectious, hypertensive, structural, and metabolic heart diseases at a fraction of the costs and waiting time demanded by the current state of the art modalities.

Dr. Shen staunchly supports and implements 100% evidence-based practice of medicine, medical research, and treatment innovation with integrity, honesty, objectivity, and transparency without the “quid pro quo” or corrupt “pay-for-play” practices that prevail in the medical industry. He has successfully pioneered the groundbreaking, ethical and objective artificial intelligence-driven medical diagnostic paradigm that the MCG is based upon. His vision is to set a new standard of decentralized clinical data-network for ethical and trustworthy independent validation of clinical evidence research with equitable monetization for ALL stake-holders, including the individual data-owners, to drive the future of best-outcomes-based medical treatment innovations.

He is happily married to a devoted and beautiful wife, and raised a brilliant and loving son. Dr. Shen is also formerly a self-taught professional classical pianist, conductor, and orchestrator.

Frank M. Stichter, President of Strategic Healthplan Consulting LLC, earned the Managed Healthcare Professional (MHP) designation through the Health Insurance Association of America. He is also a Certified Health Rosetta Advisor, is on the Board of Advisors for the Association For Corporate Health Risk Management, the Broker Advisory Council for ELAP Services, and has served on the Board of the Colorado Healthcare Association for Human Resource Management (CHAHRM). Frank has spoken numerous times on the subjects of Self-Funding and Healthcare Risk Management programs at national conferences and seminars throughout the country, and has written a variety of articles and position papers on these topics as well. Frank is also the author of his Best Selling book “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.”

Previously, Frank had his own Agency for 14 years, and worked for 2 large regional insurance Agencies as a broker and consultant in Ohio and Colorado. Frank also was a Partner and Co-Founder of a Wellness, Lifestyle and Disease Management company, HyHealth LLC.

Locally, Frank is active in the Crested Butte and the surrounding area serving as Member and Past President of the Chamber of Commerce, Member and Past President of the Crested Butte / Mt. Crested Butte Rotary Club, and Assistant District Governor of Rotary District 5470.

Dr. Steve Tierney, M.D., is Senior Director of Quality Improvement for Southcentral Foundation’s Malcolm Baldrige Award-winning Nuka System of Care. Steve joined SCF in 1995 as a primary care physician. He became one of the key physicians who helped lead the transformation to a relationship-based customer-owned health care system. He also played a key role in developing the robust data mart that helps SCF’s integrated care teams interpret complex data for internal comparisons and external comparisons against HEDIS benchmarks, where the organization scored in the 90th percentile for many of its services. Steve is trained as a family physician and an acupuncturist. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. He still maintains an active family medicine practice in SCF’s Anchorage Native Primary Care Center. Steve presents nationally and internationally on transforming primary care, data integration, clinical quality program design, and complementary medicine integration efforts. 

Daryl Tol joined leading mental health and brain research nonprofit One Mind as Executive

Vice President in 2021, overseeing the One Mind at Work programs and contributing to One Mind’s

vision and objectives. Tol brings more than 20 years of healthcare leadership, as well as

personal, lived experience of mental health struggles.

During his 20-year tenure at AdventHealth, Tol held executive leadership roles across the health

system’s regional divisions. Most recently, he served for six years as the President/CEO of its $6

billion, 16 hospital Central Florida Division. In this position, Tol built a transformational strategy

focused on consumer-centered connected care. Tol also led the development of the national

company’s consumer technology and analytics products, grew the Central Florida Division

through the acquisition of two hospital facilities, ownership in a neighboring four-hospital

health system, and the opening of dozens of additional care sites.

From 2010 – 2015, Tol was President/CEO of AdventHealth East Florida Region. At the helm of

this $700 million, six hospital region, he developed an ecosystem approach to regional

leadership and drove the acquisition of the sixth hospital.

Before that, Tol served as President/CEO of AdventHealth DeLand from 2006 – 2010. As Chief

Executive of this 156-bed community hospital, he built cancer, cardiac, and digestive health

programs formerly unavailable in the community, and also managed relationships with a

hospital taxing district. During his early years at AdventHealth, Tol served as Chief Operating

Officer of AdventHealth Memorial from 2000 – 2006. In this role, he led the operations of three

hospitals and a large medical group and shepherded the entity into AdventHealth following the

2000 acquisition of the former independent system.

Tol holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration (Accounting/Finance) from Walla

Walla University and a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from Loma Linda University.

Dr. Mark Tomasulo, M.D. is a Physician/Entrepreneur/Executive with extensive experience as primary care doctor, hospitalist, managed care medical director, CEO/Founder of PeakMed Direct Primary Care and benefits consultant. 

His skills include health claim analysis, predictive modeling, implementation of wellness programs, strategic planning, business development, claim review, knowledge of multiple cost containment solutions for health care, and quality/cost issues facing employers today.

As CEO/Founder of PeakMed Direct Primary Care, Mark helped create a platform allowing doctors and patients to communicate, manage, and collaborate individualized care plans without the constraints of a broken system. PeakMed is redefining health care transparency, costs, technology, care coordination, and has created a continuum that is doctor-centered and patient-focused.

As a physician and benefits consultant, Mark provides insights, guidance and risk mitigation expertise to reduce costs and improve employee well-being and productivity. Performing a thorough analysis of population health and claims data, he identifies cost drivers and health risks and make recommendations regarding appropriate lifestyle and medical management programs and strategies. He also evaluates the quality of care being delivered and support the development of strategies to improve the health status of an employer’s population. He assists in communications with carriers and providers to negotiate claims, provides guidance in the evaluation of service vendors and acts as a resource and subject matter expert. 

Matthew VanderKooi's business experience includes over 20 years in industry and physical therapy practice. He has pursued and achieved specialization in his field. He has taught, consulted and lectured regionally and nationally in the university, professional association, and business settings. In 2002, Matt founded NewLife Physical Therapy which has grown to multiple clinical practices. In 2007 he co-founded Solveglobal LLC which helps regional and national employers control MSD related health care spending. Experience as a business owner, a consumer, a clinician and acumen honed by working directly with employers from multiple settings have given Matt a full spectrum view of health care. His passion to change the health care experience, to improve our populations’ health, and to lower health care costs has driven him to seek, develop, and implement entrepreneurial and innovative solutions for employers and consumers. 

Dr. Eric Weaver is nationally recognized for his work in primary care transformation and value-based

care. He is the Executive Director of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative, a nonprofit

organization established by former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and former CMS Administrator Dr. Mark

McClellan to accelerate the value-based care readiness of healthcare organizations. Dr. Weaver has an

extensive executive leadership track record with physician-led ACOs and risk-bearing entities. He was

recognized as the ACHE “Young Healthcare Executive of the Year” and the Modern Healthcare “Up &

Comers” Award in recognition of his work in value-based care. Dr. Weaver holds a Masters Degree in

Healthcare Administration from Texas State University and a Doctor of Healthcare Administration

degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.