John Brooks is a Deputy Administrator and the Chief Policy and Regulatory Officer for CMS. He was most recently a founder and partner at South Capitol, a health policy research and consulting firm. Prior to that, John held multiple senior health executive positions across the Executive Branch, including Senior Advisor for Drug Pricing Reform to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Counselor to the HHS Secretary for Health Policy, and Health Policy Advisor at the White House Domestic Policy Council. John also led the HHS Landing Team, which coordinated the transition between administrations with respect to the Department of Health & Human Services. Prior to government service, John led the Health Policy Department at the MITRE Corporation, providing policy advice and regulatory support to federal health agencies, including CMS, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. John holds a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and an MBA from Virginia Tech.

William Harris serves as an acting Deputy Director for the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He is a career civil servant who has worked at the agency since January 2015. Prior to this position, Will worked in the Office of the Administrator as a senior advisor, helping to coordinate work on pandemic and emergency responses and the agency’s oversight priorities at CCSQ and Center for Program Integrity (CPI), among other cross-cutting initiatives. Prior to that, he worked in the agency’s Office of Legislation (OL). There, he worked on responses to Congressional oversight and investigations and, for over two years, served as the group director of the office’s Hearings and Policy Presentation Group. Will moved to Washington, D.C., in 2013 from his home state of Louisiana to work on health care policy in the United States Senate. Will holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in political science and philosophy from Louisiana State University and a J.D. and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society program. He lives in Washington with his wife and daughter, who was born in July 2024.

Traci Archibald serves as Deputy Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), within the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality. Previously, she held division leadership roles in both the Quality Improvement Group and Information Systems Group at CMS. Throughout her career, she has led numerous cross-cutting projects, with a particular focus on improving care transitions through community coalition interventions. Ms. Archibald earned her BS in Occupational Therapy from Boston University's Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and an MBA from the University of Baltimore. Before joining CMS, she accumulated 17 years of clinical experience as an Occupational Therapist across various healthcare settings.

Tamara Syrek Jensen has over 25 years of experience at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Currently serving as the Director of the Coverage and Analysis Group (CAG), she oversees a team of experts, ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries have access to technologies that demonstrate improvements in health outcomes. Her responsibilities include formulating and driving policies that guide the Medicare coverage of a range of clinical items and services. Tamara was the 2022 CMS Executive of the Year. Outside the realm of healthcare policy, she enjoys participating in a variety of athletic activities to keep up with her husband, kids, and their family dog.

Lisa Parker is the Director of the Clinical Standards Group, which is responsible for establishing health and safety regulations for Medicare and Medicaid participating health care providers and suppliers, generally known as Conditions of Participation (CoPs). While the regulations vary by provider type, in general CoPs typically address facility governance and administration, patient rights, care planning, quality assessment and performance improvement, services provided, and emergency preparedness. Lisa has over 30 years of experience in the development of Medicare regulations. She has led many regulatory efforts to ensure the health and safety of patients across the health care system including the recently released hospital CoPs for obstetrical services, emergency preparedness CoPs and regulations to reduce burden and increase flexibility for providers.

Mindy is currently the Deputy Group Director for the Information Systems Group within the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality.  Mindy previously implemented the Quality Payment Program at CMS. Mindy has 28 years of experience in the healthcare industry, 24 being within the field of information technology, including analytics, reporting, data warehousing, and system support, development, and implementation. Mindy received her Bachelor of Arts in Health Science and Policy from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and received her Master of Arts in Information Systems Management from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

Dr. Schreiber is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, and the Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group. Dr. Schreiber is a general internal medicine physician with over 25 years of health care experience. Prior to CMS she held positions of Chief Quality Officer, Chief Medical Officer at several systems and led multiple electronic medical record initiatives. While at CMS Dr. Schreiber has led many quality initiatives, including MIPS transformation to value pathways, the modernization of the Hospital Stars program, and advancing digital quality measurement systems. Her interests include quality improvement, quality measures, and the intersection with electronic medical records to advance quality, safety and quality measures.

Karen Tritz is the Director of the Survey & Operations Group, in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS. The Survey & Operations Group oversees the health, safety and quality of care provided by over 64,000 organizations including hospitals, dialysis facilities, nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices, ambulatory surgery centers and other settings. She began that position in July 2020. Between 2006 and 2020, Karen held various positions within CMS’ Quality Safety and Oversight Group and has led efforts to develop quality and safety standards for a variety of settings. She has previously worked for the Congressional Research Service providing assistance to Members of Congress and their staff, and the State of Wisconsin, Medicaid program leading healthcare and employment options for individuals with disabilities. She is a native of Wisconsin and completed her undergraduate there and her Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

David Wright serves as the Director of the Quality, Safety & Oversight Group within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He loves his job and the role he plays in quality-of-care assurance for everyone accessing health care in the United States. This work is accomplished through the Group’s role in issuing policy and compliance guidance to over 8,400 dedicated health and safety surveyors, at the State and Federal levels, who perform quality of care inspections of more than 400,000 providers that participate in the Medicare or Medicaid programs, or who provide laboratory services under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). David joined CMS in June 1993 through the Presidential Management Internship program and has been with the Agency for over 30 years, twenty-three of which were in CMS’ Dallas Location.

Michael Chernew, PhD, is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and Director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on improving the healthcare system through improvements to benefit designs, payment models, and regulation of both private and public health care markets, including the Medicare Advantage program. Michael is Chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and has served on several advisory panels for CMS. He is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors and the Massachusetts Health Connector Board. Michael holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University and has received multiple awards for his work in healthcare policy.

Margaret E. O'Kane is founder and president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received the Picker Institute Individual Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient-Centered Care, as well as the Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award from the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. Modern Healthcare magazine has named O'Kane one of the "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare" 13 times, most recently in 2024, and one of the "Top 25 Women in Healthcare" 3 times.

Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D. is President & CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF), and Chief Scientific Officer of the Joint Commission (TJC). In this role, Dr. Safran leads NQF’s portfolio of work advancing next generation healthcare quality measures, methods and practices to improve healthcare quality, outcomes, safety and affordability, including new products and services being offered in partnership with The Joint Commission. Dr. Safran is an internationally recognized healthcare executive with a unique blend of accomplishment in business and academia. A central feature of her work has been combining the science of quality measurement with the art of its use to drive significant change in the quality, outcomes, and affordability of care. Dr. Safran’s prior roles include serving for more than a decade as a senior executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), where she was a lead architect of the BCBSMA Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), which is widely credited with having catalyzed the value-based payment movement among public and private payers nationally. She was also a founding member of the executive team at Haven, a joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to achieve better health outcomes, care experiences, and costs of care through innovation in care delivery, benefit design and purchasing. Dr. Safran is on the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine and has held a broad range of advisory roles in the public sector and internationally supporting efforts to improve health and healthcare through effective uses of performance measurement. From 2017-2023, she served as a Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2024. She holds a BA in Biology and Government from Wesleyan University and completed her post-graduate studies at the Harvard School of Public Health to earn an ScM and ScD in Health Policy and Management.

Dora Hughes, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CCSQ is primarily responsible for executing all national clinical, quality, and safety standards for healthcare facilities and providers, as well as establishing coverage determinations for items and services that improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries. Previously, Dr. Hughes served as Chief Medical Officer at the CMS Innovation Center. She led the Center’s work on addressing challenges for underserved communities, advised on care delivery, payment and data collection strategies for the Center’s models and initiatives, and represented CMS on clinical and cross-agency working groups within HHS.  Earlier in her career, Dr. Hughes served as the Counselor for Science & Public Health at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In this role, she helped implement the Affordable Care Act and provided oversight and guidance on priority issues regarding public health and prevention; workforce and the safety net; food, drug and device regulatory matters; and biomedical research innovation. In addition to federal service, Dr. Hughes was an Associate Research Professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, where her work focused on the intersection of clinical and community health, social determinants of health, and healthcare delivery, as well as teaching. Dr. Hughes also has served as senior policy advisor at a law firm, where she focused on regulatory and legislative matters in the life science industry.  Dr. Hughes began her career in health policy as Senior Program Officer at the Commonwealth Fund, and subsequently served as Deputy Director for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and health policy advisor in the United States Senate. Dr. Hughes received a B.S. from Washington University, M.D. from Vanderbilt and M.P.H. from Harvard. She completed internal medicine residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and is licensed and board certified.

Dr. Schreiber is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, and the Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group. Dr. Schreiber is a general internal medicine physician with over 25 years of health care experience. Prior to CMS she held positions of Chief Quality Officer, Chief Medical Officer at several systems and led multiple electronic medical record initiatives. While at CMS Dr. Schreiber has led many quality initiatives, including MIPS transformation to value pathways, the modernization of the Hospital Stars program, and advancing digital quality measurement systems. Her interests include quality improvement, quality measures, and the intersection with electronic medical records to advance quality, safety and quality measures.

David W. Bates, M.D., M.Sc. Mass General Brigham, Inc. Dr. David Bates is the Medical Director of Clinical and Quality Analysis at Mass General Brigham (MGB), co-Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics Learning Systems (CAIBILS) at MGB, and a Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In June 2023, he stepped down as Chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at BWH after 25 years. Dr. Bates is also a Professor at both Harvard Medical School and at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; in addition, he directs the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at BWH. Previously, he served as Chief Quality Officer and later as Chief Innovation Officer at BWH. Dr. Bates is an internationally renowned expert in patient safety, using information technology to improve care, quality-of-care, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes assessment. He has served as President of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and as the Board Chair of both ISQua and the American Medical Informatics Association. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Patient Safety and an advisor to the Leapfrog Group. Dr. Bates is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Institute of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American College of Medical Informatics. He has published more than 1,200 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited over 174,000 times; he is among the 400 most cited of all biomedical researchers and is listed as being among the top 250 medical scientists in the world.

Tejal Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS, is the Chief Safety and Transformation Officer at Press Ganey. In this role, Dr. Gandhi is responsible for advancing the Zero Harm movement, improving patient and workforce safety, and developing innovative health care transformation strategies. Dr. Gandhi is leading the Press Ganey Equity Partnership to advance equity in health care. Before joining Press Ganey, Dr. Gandhi served as Chief Clinical and Safety Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), where she led IHI programs focusing on improving patient and workforce safety. Prior to this, Dr. Gandhi was President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) from 2013 until 2017, when NPSF merged with IHI. She has also served as President of the Lucian Leape Institute, a think tank founded by NPSF that now operates within the IHI Safety portfolio. She is a past board member of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. Throughout her career, Dr. Gandhi has focused on how technology can improve quality and safety and the implementation of these systems. In particular, she has designed, studied, and implemented bar code technology and a range of clinical decision support tools with over 100 peer review publications. She has been an invited speaker for numerous organizations nationally and internationally, has mentored physicians in post-doctoral study, and has frequently served on national committees and boards, including the Board of Directors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. She serves on editorial advisory boards for The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety and BMJ Quality and Safety. She is also a Certified Professional in Patient Safety. In 2019, Dr. Gandhi was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is a recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award, given in recognition of her contributions to understanding the epidemiology of medical errors in the outpatient setting and for developing prevention strategies. Dr. Gandhi has been named as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare,” “Top 25 Women in Healthcare,” “Top 25 Diversity Leaders in Healthcare” and “50 Most Influential Clinical Executives” by Modern Healthcare magazine. An internist by training, Dr. Gandhi previously served as Executive Director of Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Partners Healthcare. She received her MD and MPH degrees from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and trained at Duke University Medical Center.

Kedar Mate, MD is the Founder & Chief Medical Officer of Qualified Health AI, a digital health company deploying the critical infrastructure needed to create the AI-enabled hospital of the future. Prior to his work at Qualified Health, Dr. Mate was the President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the world’s leading international healthcare quality and patient safety organization. Widely published, with numerous honors, and over 25 years of healthcare leadership experience, Dr, Mate enjoys working on the persistent challenge of creating a safer, higher value health system, that everyone have access to and can enjoy. You can follow his work on LinkedIn @KedarMateMD.

Dr. Bharat Sutariya is the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Officer for Oracle Health. Oracle Health is dedicated to creating a human-centric healthcare experience powered by modern technology and AI. As a senior clinical executive with over 25 years of experience, Dr. Sutariya brings deep expertise in healthcare technology, analytics, AI, care delivery transformation, and value-based care. In his current role, he is responsible for strategic market and product alignment, clinical executive relationship, customer engagement. His prior experience includes leading the development of extensive healthcare technology product portfolio and large-scale implementations. Before joining Oracle Health, Dr. Sutariya was a leader in Deloitte’s Integrated Health practice advancing clients’ clinical and operational transformations through technology. Previously, as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Cerner Corporation (now Oracle Health), he played a pivotal role in developing Cerner’s core clinical EHR capabilities, population health platform, and solutions. Additionally, he drove the growth of Cerner’s data-driven performance improvement practice. Dr. Sutariya is board-certified in Emergency Medicine and has practiced in Michigan and Kansas. He started his career at Detroit Medical Center (DMC), leading healthcare information technology implementation and clinical transformation across the integrated delivery network. He was clinical assistant professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Sutariya earned his medical degree from Wayne State University and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from the same institution. His training in Emergency Medicine took place at the residency program of Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Dr. Locke is a nationally and internationally respected abdominal transplant surgeon who has dedicated her career to studying chronic disease prevention and reversal and access to and outcomes after transplantation through policy change and translating innovative therapies from bench to bedside, including the development of the Parsons Model which has catapulted xenotransplantation into the realm of reality. She is also an accomplished leader and mentor known for building highly effective teams defined by a collaborative spirit, discovery-driven learning, and integrative decisions. Her prolific career has directly impacted the field of transplantation, improving the lives of countless patients. Currently, Dr. Locke is VP, Medical Development Xenotransplantation at United Therapeutics Corporation.

Dr. Jesse Roach is a nephrologist and currently the Senior Vice President for Government Relations at the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), where he leads the NKF’s advocacy efforts. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer at CVS Kidney Care. Before joining CVS, he spent five years at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality. Before joining the federal government, Dr. Roach was an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Shari Ling, MD is currently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Deputy Chief Medical Officer. Her committed focus is on the achievement of meaningful health outcomes for patients and families through the delivery of high quality, person-centered care, across all care settings. Her clinical focus and scientific interest are in the care of persons with dementia, multiple chronic conditions, and functional limitations. Dr. Ling received her medical training at Georgetown University School of Medicine, her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Georgetown University Medical Center and completed Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ling continues to serve as a part-time faculty member at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and serves as volunteer faculty for the dementia clinic with the Baltimore VA Medical Center.

Arlene S. Bierman, MD, MS, is the former Chief Strategy Officer of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Previously she was director of AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI). Dr. Bierman is a general internist, geriatrician, and health services researcher whose work focuses on improving access, quality, and outcomes of health care for older adults with chronic illness and/or multimorbidity. She conducts policy relevant and has published widely. Dr. Bierman led the development of AHRQ's Strategic Plan for Health System Transformation To Optimize Health, Functional Status, and Well-Being Among Older Adults and the development of an interoperable shared electronic care plan for use to improve care delivery for people living with or at risk for multiple chronic conditions. Dr. Bierman served on a number of influential intra and interagency committees including the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Healthy Aging and Age-Friendly Communities, and the White House Office of Science and Policy Interagency Committee on Social Determinants of Health. She received her MD degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Fellow. She completed fellowships in Outcomes Research at Dartmouth Medical School, and Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and served as an Atlantic Philanthropies Health and Aging Policy Fellow/American Political Science Foundation Congressional Fellow.

Daniel E. Hall, M.D., M.Div., M.H.Sc., FACS is Professor of Surgery, Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and Medical Director, Surgical Pause Program, VHA National Surgery Office. Dr. Hall is practicing general surgeon with training in moral philosophy, theology, quality improvement and health services research. His current research focuses on designing care pathways that support value-concordant care of frail patients before and after surgery. Other research focuses on characterizing and predicting long term loss of independence following surgery to better inform perioperative decision-making. His work has been recognized at the highest levels with awards from the The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum (2023 Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality) and the Veterans Health Administration (Under Secretary of Health Award for Excellence in Health Services Research).

Dr. Ko directs the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care at the American College of Surgeons (ACS), managing quality improvement programs like the ACS Geriatric Surgery Verification (GSV) Program. He leads ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and has been honored with the Eisenberg Award. Recognized as a top health care safety leader, Dr. Ko specializes in surgical quality of care, focusing on measurement, process improvement, and value-based care. He advises organizations such as the World Health Organization and National Academy of Medicine. A double board-certified surgeon, he practices at UCLA, where he is a professor of surgery and public health. He was selected as a 2024 Health and Aging Policy Fellow and is placed at CMS in the Agency’s Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group.

To improve surgical outcomes in geriatric patients is the overarching goal of my research and quality improvement work. The impetus for this has been synthesized from my experiences at Geisinger Medical Center where I witnessed the impact of systems based care on outcomes. It was further refined based upon the work performed through the Dennis W. Jahnigen Career development award where our collaborative team conclusively demonstrated through advanced biomechanical analysis that elderly patients with peripheral arterial disease have a marked decrease in propulsive force at plantar flexion. This led to our current efforts to understand the impact of re-vascularization of these patients and our current randomized VA Merit Award grant to determine the optimal re-vascularization strategy for patients with single level PAD. Given this background in aging science, I was able to implement as a quality improvement initiative routine frailty screening of all surgical patients undergoing procedures at the Omaha VA as Chief of Surgery. Our frailty assessment in conjunction with palliative care consultation led to marked improvements in patient outcomes and has led to a national focus on frailty assessment for surgical patients. To that end I have completed a Health and Aging Policy Fellowship in Washington DC working with the VA and CMS given their focus on elderly surgical care and I continue to work in my capacity at Veterans Affairs as Medical Diretor of VASQIP where I am focused on implementation of frailty assessment in the clinical setting to improve outcomes of all surgical patients.

Alice Hm Chen, MD, MPH is Chief Health Officer at Centene, the nation's largest Medicaid and Marketplace managed care organization, where she is responsible for implementing strategies, policies and programs that improve population health for its more than 27 million members. Her career has focused on advancing the health of under-resourced communities through patient care, teaching, policy and leadership across health systems, public health, philanthropy, academia and government. Prior to joining Centene, Dr. Chen was Chief Medical Officer at Covered California, the state's health insurance marketplace, where she was responsible for healthcare strategy focused on quality, equity and delivery system transformation. She previously worked as Deputy Secretary for Policy and Planning for the California Health and Human Services Agency, where she led signature health policy initiatives on affordability and access and played a leadership role in the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Chen was also a Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, based at San Francisco General Hospital, where she served as its Chief Integration Officer and founding Director of the eConsult program. Dr. Chen received a Bachelor of Science from Yale University and has a Doctor of Medicine from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She also has a Master of Public Health in healthcare management and policy from Harvard School of Public Health. A primary care internist by training, she holds academic appointments as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Senior Scholar at Stanford's Clinical Excellence Research Center, and Affiliate Faculty at UCSF's Institute for Health Policy Studies. She currently serves as Co-chair of the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network's Executive Forum.

Kate Davidson, LCSW is the Director of the Learning and Diffusion Group (LDG) at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  In this role, Ms. Davidson leads CMMI’s team focused on accelerating healthcare system transformation by leveraging improvement science within and across models, as well as leading the multi-payer alignment strategy for the Center through the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network (HCP-LAN). Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Davidson led Policy and Practice Improvement efforts at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, where she managed payment reform, quality improvement, and workforce development initiatives in mental health and addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery organizations and provided training and technical assistance to human services organizations, counties and states. Ms. Davidson began her career in healthcare as a social worker researching, testing and scaling interventions in primary care, behavioral health and community-based settings.  Ms. Davidson has an MSW from Fordham University and a BA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Frank McStay is an Assistant Research Director for Medicare Accountable Care Transformation at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. Frank has broad expertise in accountable care transformation, including in value-based payment design, implementation science, and clinical economics, as well as significant experience in Medicare and Medicaid policy. Prior to re-joining Duke-Margolis, Frank was a senior policy Advisor at Baylor Scott and White Health, the largest non-profit health system in Texas, providing regulatory, research, and government affairs expertise. He also spent time at The Brookings Institution, prior to helping start Duke-Margolis. Mr. McStay received his Masters in Public Administration from SUNY Albany, with a concentration in analytical methods and health policy, and his Bachelors from Austin College majoring in International Relations and German.

Ashish D. Parikh, M.D. Chief Population Health Officer SummitHealth-VillageMD Ashish is responsible for the development and implementation of population health management strategies that support Summit-Health and VillageMD’s success in value-based care. His work focuses on the delivery of the highest quality of care, reduction in practice variation, elimination of inequity, evidence-based clinical care delivery, and health management at the population level. Prior to joining Summit, Ashish was the Senior Health and Quality Advisor for Integrated Health Services at IBM. He led efforts to improve the health of the employee population globally and was the clinical lead for global benefits, wellness, and medical programs. Before IBM, Ashish served as the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Medical Director of the Faculty Practice at Saint Barnabas and led its successful transformation into a Level III NCQA recognized Patient Centered Medical Home. Ashish went to the University of Miami for both undergraduate and medical education as part of the Honors Program in Medical Education. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Miriam Hospital, Brown University. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, is board certified in Internal Medicine, and continues to practice as a primary care internal medicine physician as the Summit Medical Group, New Jersey. He is an avid pun and dad-joke enthusiast.

Chantal Worzala is Vice President of Strategy and Engagement at The Sequoia Project. In that role, she is responsible for a comprehensive engagement strategy that furthers the organization’s mission and position as the leader in nationwide interoperability. This includes leading stakeholder outreach for The Sequoia Project’s activities as the ONC Recognized Coordinating entity for TEFCA. An experienced policy expert, Chantal has previously helped provider organizations, associations, technology companies and patient advocates navigate health policy as they transform health and healthcare using digital health tools. She has also served as vice president at the American Hospital Association, where she was recognized as a leading voice for the provider community on meaningful use, interoperability, telehealth and other digital health policy issues and worked at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. She holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an MPA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Chantal is a frequently invited speaker who has addressed the National Academy of Medicine, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and Academy Health, among others. She has spoken at the annual conferences of the Office of the National Coordinator, the American Health Information Management Association, the National HIPAA Summit, and WEDI, among others. During her tenure at the American Hospital Association, she spoke at dozens of national and state hospital association meetings.

John Bayton has been a renal patient since 2002. He has experience with In-Center hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and transplant. He is currently transplanted and serves on Quality Insights Renal Network 5’s Patient and Family Advisory Committee . His experience with kidney disease has inspired him to become an advocate. He is on the frontline of educating, advocating for, and supporting the kidney community. John volunteers with several organizations, including the American Kidney Fund and Food for Friends, and in 2023, he was appointed as Regional Representative of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Minority Affairs Committee. He has won several prestigious awards for his advocacy work and his face is currently featured on Donate Life Campaign brochures.

Stephanie Clark is a pediatric nephrologist and medical officer in the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group (QMVIG) within the Center of Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at CMS. She came to CMS from full time clinical practice where she cared for patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings as well as in the pediatric dialysis unit and led the Division of Nephrology’s quality improvement and patient safety initiatives. In her role at CMS, she works closely with the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) measures and ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) teams, works closely with the Organ Transplant Affinity Group, and works on kidney-related topics across CMS. She continues to see patients regularly at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA.

Melissa Dorsey serves as Director for the Division of Kidney Health in CMS's Center for Clinical Standards in Quality, Quality Improvement & Innovation Group. During her 14-year CMS tenure, she currently oversees 18 ESRD Networks, KCER, and TAQIL programs under the 12th SoW. With 23 years of healthcare expertise, Dorsey has led quality improvement initiatives in patient safety, health disparities, health IT adoption, pharmacy, and home health. She holds a Masters in Healthcare Administration from University of Maryland and BS in Community Health Education from Morgan State University. Her leadership extends across hospitals, physician offices, FQHCs, and ESRD facilities. As Division Director, she provides executive oversight of quality improvement activities supporting the ESRD community to enhance care quality for Medicare beneficiaries.

Latitia A. Felus is a motivated advocate for renal patients as it relates to ethical and quality-of-life concerns. She educates in-center and at renal educational/awareness events. Latitia is a former peritoneal dialysis and in-center patient who received a kidney transplant (deceased donor) in June 2015. Kidney disease has been a generational battle for Latitia, two of her three brothers along with several first cousins. She is no stranger to renal failure and its impact on the individual, family and caretaker. Latitia was a Keynote Speaker at the National Kidney Foundation, November 2016. Latitia serves as a Donate Life Ambassador for the Washington Regional Transplant Center, (WRTC), and a member of the American Association of Kidney Patients, a Member of the Quality Insights Renal Network 5’s Patient Advisory Committee, a member of the National Kidney Foundation and American Kidney Fund. Latitia remains a 30-plus-year civil servant for the Federal government. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Theology. She and her husband currently reside in the District of Columbia.

Dr. Raggio has dedicated her career to providing high quality health care to all persons. She has held leadership positions in community health centers (CHC’s, aka Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC’s), public hospitals, academia, and private practice. Dr. Raggio has served for over twenty years as a career medical officer/physician, at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Currently she serves as the Regional Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Clinical Center for Standards and Quality (CCSQ). This was following a detail from Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA), as the acting regional CMO for CMSCCSQ. This was after collaborating with her CMS colleagues for many years on prevention, primary care, behavioral health (mental health and substance use disorders), rural health, caregiving, maternal health, children and adults with special health care needs, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, EMTALA, patient safety, quality, end stage renal disease, health services in the United States (US) Territories and more. Dr. Raggio has held the positions of HRSA’s Chief Medical Officer, Division Director of Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry, Senior Policy Advisor in the Bureau of Health Professions (now the Bureau of Health Workforce), Senior Medical Officer in the Maternal Child Health Bureau and HRSA Region ll. Career highlights include overseeing funding and programs for education and training in Primary Care, Dentistry, Gero-Psych, Podiatry, Children’s Graduate Medical Education, Federal Tort Claims and more. She has represented HRSA at the US Preventive Task Force, Tribal Consultation, Rural Health, Maternal Health and more. Prior to joining HRSA Dr. Raggio worked throughout the US, including its territories to expand primary care and increase the quality of care at rural and urban FQHCs, school base health, Ryan White HIV programs etc. She co-created, and lead Pittsburgh’s Healthy Start, to decrease maternal and infant morbidity and mortality and helped others to obtain funding. Dr. Raggio has served as an academician and researcher at medical schools and universities throughout the US. Dr. Raggio is board certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine. She received her bachelor's and medical degrees from Rutgers University and Rutgers Medical School. She completed a residency in pediatrics at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center and a fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Raggio continues to mentor a wide range of students and professionals. She is active in the American Academy of Pediatrics and its New Jersey Chapter. Dr. Raggio completed coursework at the New York Theological Seminary.

Dr. Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, MD, MPH, AGSF, FGSA is a Geriatrician clinician researcher who studies the application of technology to improve the assessment and management of frailty in older adults. As a clinician, she established a novel frailty evaluation clinic in 2011, the Successful Aging and Frailty Evaluation™ (SAFE) clinic, in which she assesses and optimizes frailty in all referred patients while supporting their caregivers. She will discuss current challenges in care delivery and provide examples demonstrating how technology could overcome these challenges, transforming clinical care for older adults. She will specifically discuss how accelerometry could be used to overcome measurement challenges by enabling remote monitoring of frailty in the community. She will share her work relating free-living accelerometry patterns to frailty, physical function, disability, inflammation, social engagement and cognition. She will then discuss how technology like voice-activated devices could be used to deliver evidence-based, long-term exercise and socialization support to frail adults in their home while empowering their caregivers. She will share steps for co-designing technology with targeted users and then for testing the technology-based interventions in groups traditionally excluded from technology trials. Finally, she will identify remaining scientific gaps to trigger discussion about how to move the aging and technology field forward.

Frank Lin, MD PhD is Professor and Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. As an otologic surgeon and epidemiologist, he has translated his experiences caring for adults with hearing loss into foundational public health research and policy. These efforts include establishing the impact of hearing and hearing interventions on dementia risk and other health outcomes, collaborating with and testifying before Congress to secure federal passage and enactment of the U.S. Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, and launching the Hearing Number awareness initiative. Dr. Lin is a former member of the Board on Health Sciences Policy and currently serves on the Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence at the National Academies. From 2024-2025, he is on sabbatical from his clinical practice to work with Apple.

Ryan Roemmich is an associate professor at the Center for Movement Studies at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Department of Physical Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Director of the Rehabilitation Precision Medicine Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins Medicine. His research focuses on movement assessment and rehabilitation in persons with neurologic damage or disease, and his work has been funded by the NIH, American Heart Association, American Parkinson Disease Association, and the Restore and Mobilize Centers at Stanford University.

Dr. Schreiber is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, and the Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group. Dr. Schreiber is a general internal medicine physician with over 25 years of health care experience. Prior to CMS she held positions of Chief Quality Officer, Chief Medical Officer at several systems and led multiple electronic medical record initiatives. While at CMS Dr. Schreiber has led many quality initiatives, including MIPS transformation to value pathways, the modernization of the Hospital Stars program, and advancing digital quality measurement systems. Her interests include quality improvement, quality measures, and the intersection with electronic medical records to advance quality, safety and quality measures.

Jessica Lee, MD, MSHP is the Chief Medical Officer for Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, where she leads the center's clinical strategy. Dr. Lee has deep expertise in clinical medicine and quality, and a background in health policy at the health system, state, and federal levels. She has served as the medical officer in the Division of Quality and Health Outcomes at CMCS, and as senior health policy analyst at the Government Accountability Office, where she worked on payment policy. She has conducted grant-funded research focused on the intersection of health care delivery systems and population health. Dr. Lee continues to care for patients as a practicing pulmonologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Susannah Bernheim, MD, MHS, is the Chief Medical Officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI). She leads the Center’s newly announced strategic pillar promoting evidence-based prevention in alternative payment models. She also oversees that quality measurement strategy for the Centers’ payment models and ensures clinical and expert input in design of models. She was previously an Associate Professor at Yale University School of Medicine in General Internal Medicine and Senior Director of Quality Measurement at the Yale-New Haven Hospital Centers for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), where she led work to develop the next generation of performance measures across multiple care settings.

Ashley Spence serves as a Senior Advisor in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She is a career civil servant who has worked at the agency since June 2012. In her current role, Ashley provides strategic guidance on national quality initiatives, patient safety programs, and efforts to advance high-quality care for all Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. With an extensive background in healthcare communications and health policy, Ashley collaborates with federal partners, healthcare providers, and community organizations to design and implement evidence-based programs that improve patient outcomes and strengthen patient safety. A proud Baltimore native, Ashley holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from Morgan State University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Baltimore. She is dedicated to fostering meaningful partnerships, and supporting innovative solutions that ensure every patient receives safe, effective, and person-centered care.

Tom Duvall is the Division Director for the Division of Special Populations and Projects in the Seamless Care Models Group at the CMS Innovation Center.  In that role, he oversees three payment model tests focused on improving care for beneficiaries with kidney disease, which are the ETC, KCC, and IOTA Models, and one payment model focused on rural hospitals.  He has worked with CMMI for over ten years and previously worked in Medicaid Policy and Financial Consulting for Mercer Consulting.  He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his Health Care MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

William Harris serves as an acting Deputy Director for the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He is a career civil servant who has worked at the agency since January 2015. Prior to this position, Will worked in the Office of the Administrator as a senior advisor, helping to coordinate work on pandemic and emergency responses and the agency’s oversight priorities at CCSQ and Center for Program Integrity (CPI), among other cross-cutting initiatives. Prior to that, he worked in the agency’s Office of Legislation (OL). There, he worked on responses to Congressional oversight and investigations and, for over two years, served as the group director of the office’s Hearings and Policy Presentation Group. Will moved to Washington, D.C., in 2013 from his home state of Louisiana to work on health care policy in the United States Senate. Will holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in political science and philosophy from Louisiana State University and a J.D. and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society program. He lives in Washington with his wife and daughter, who was born in July 2024.

Raymond Lynch is the Chief of the Organ Transplant Branch with HRSA. Dr. Lynch’s background is as an abdominal transplant surgeon, health services researcher, and policy advocate for improved reliability and safety in care for patients interacting with the organ procurement and transplantation system.

Lenise Cummings-Vaughn is a geriatric medicine physician that joined CMS in February 2024 as a Medical Officer in CCSQ. She provides advisory and consultative expertise in post-acute care and other relevant areas. She has provided care for and pursued scholarly work regarding older adults in the outpatient, inpatient, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and long-term care settings, most recently as an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Sciences, at Washington University in Saint Louis, medical director for an all-dementia nursing facility, clinician in the Memory and Aging Project at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Medical Director for the hospital’s readmission prevention program. She has also been a faculty member, steering committee member, advisory board member, and board member for various organizations regarding dementia and Age-Friendly care.

Dr. Alexander has a broad background in human factors, informatics, gerontology, patient safety quality measures, survey development and psychometrics. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, American College of Medical Informatics, and International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics. He is currently completing a third national study assessing the impact of information system maturity on nursing home quality measurements. Dr. Alexander’s third study is also evaluating nursing home care environments where nurse practitioners work. Dr. Alexander is currently serving as a co-chair of the HIT committee on the national Moving Forward Coalition, which has been established to ensure that the quality of nursing home life improves in the United States. Dr. Alexander is an Associate Editor of the Applied Clinical Informatics and Journal of Gerontological Nursing: Technology Innovations journals.

Alice Bonner has been a nurse practitioner for over 30 years. She is currently Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Chair of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. From 2015-2019, Bonner served as Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Bonner served as Director of the Division of Nursing Homes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, MD.

Timothy W. Farrell, MD, AGSF is Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics Division Associate Chief for Age-Friendly Care, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, and Physician Investigator at the VA Salt Lake City Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center. Under Dr. Farrell’s leadership, University of Utah Health received IHI Age-Friendly Committed to Care Excellence designation and was selected for the IHI Age-Friendly System- Wide Spread Collaborative. He partners with IHI, The John A. Hartford Foundation, Yale Patient Priorities Care, and the American Geriatrics Society to advance several age-friendly initiatives. A 2016-17 Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging scholar, Dr. Farrell is also Chair of the AGS Ethics Committee and serves on the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Geriatrics Review Syllabus, and Journal for Healthcare Quality editorial boards.

Rani E. Snyder, MPA, is the Acting President of The John A. Hartford Foundation and a national leader in aging and health care. With over 25 years of experience, she has improved care for older adults through partnerships with leading health institutions. At the Foundation, she advances Age-Friendly Health Systems, family caregiver support, and serious illness care. She serves on the board of the American Society on Aging, the Elder and Home Care Committee of Mid Coast Hospital, and the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. A former Board Chair of Grantmakers in Aging and a New York Academy of Medicine fellow, she also volunteered as a Long-Term Care Ombudsman in Nevada.

Marty Hatlie is Director of Advocacy and Policy for Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US), which he co-founded in 2021. He is passionate about advancing the roles patients and family caregivers play as patient safety advocates and co-creators of solutions. Hatlie has been active for over 25 years in health system transformation work on research projects and transformation campaigns funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, among others. He currently serves on the governance boards of PFPS US, Certified Professional in Patient Safety, and the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management. He is co-chair of the Leapfrog Group’s Patient and Family Engagement Expert Panel, and sits on Advisory Boards with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the World Health Organization, and the Joint Commission, among others.

Dr. Srinivasan is the Deputy Director for Program Improvement in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a retired Captain in the United States Public Health Service. He is board certified in Infectious Diseases. Before coming to CDC he was as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Management Program and the associate hospital epidemiologist. His primary responsibilities include oversight and coordination of efforts to eliminate healthcare associated infections and reduce antimicrobial resistance. His research and investigative areas of concentration have included outbreak investigations, infection control, multi-drug resistant gram-negative pathogens and now focus on hospital antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Srinivasan has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals on his research in healthcare epidemiology, infection control and antimicrobial use and resistance.

Dr. Umscheid serves as the Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, where his team strengthens healthcare safety through support of research, practice improvement, and data analysis and measurement. Previously, he served as Chief Quality and Innovation Officer at the University of Chicago, and began his career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was Vice Chair of Quality and Safety for the Department of Medicine, and Director of Penn’s Center for Evidence-based Practice.

Edward Yackel is a Family Nurse Practitioner and retired U.S. Army Colonel with 30 years of service who oversees the VHA National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS), and associate office of Utilization Management (UM). His work includes providing national leadership to ensure safe Veteran care is delivered across all care sites within the VHA. Dr. Yackel is a member of the IHI Steering Committee, National Action Alliance on Patient Safety, and works with AHRQ, CMS and other Federal and civilian entities to enable efforts aimed a zero preventable harm within VHA and across the United States. Dr. Yackel has been an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse for 25 years. He has practiced in multiple care settings during his career and deployed to Korea, Bosnia, Germany, and Iraq. Dr. Yackel received his Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Duke University, a Master’s degree in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Michigan, and a second Master’s degree in Strategic Studies, Military Operational Art and Science/Studies from the Army War College.

Dr. Schreiber is currently the Deputy Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, and the Director of the Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group. Dr. Schreiber is a general internal medicine physician with over 25 years of health care experience. Prior to CMS she held positions of Chief Quality Officer, Chief Medical Officer at several systems and led multiple electronic medical record initiatives. While at CMS Dr. Schreiber has led many quality initiatives, including MIPS transformation to value pathways, the modernization of the Hospital Stars program, and advancing digital quality measurement systems. Her interests include quality improvement, quality measures, and the intersection with electronic medical records to advance quality, safety and quality measures.