Creating a Community of Healthcare Transformationalists

Dr. Jenni Gudapati, PhD, MBA, RN is a nationally recognized healthcare executive, researcher, entrepreneur, and educator dedicated to advancing value-based care through patient-centered innovation. She is the CEO, President and Founder of Healthy Insights, where she leads the development of technology that empowers patients while helping payers and providers improve quality, reduce costs, and identify risk earlier.

Dr. Gudapati also serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Healthcare Advisory Committee. With more than 25 years of experience spanning clinical care, home health, healthcare operations, academia, and health policy, she is passionate about improving outcomes for seniors, rural communities, and underserved populations through collaboration, innovation, and meaningful healthcare transformation.

As Director, Partner Relationships and Chief Partnership Executive at HFMA, Todd is responsible for developing and overseeing HFMA’s partnership strategy with academic institutions, associations, and industry partners. Todd develops collaborative relationships across all sectors of the industry, for both HFMA members and non-members.

Prior to joining HFMA, Todd was the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of a rural Midwest hospital for over 15 years, focused on finance and operational areas. He also served in a volunteer role on the HFMA Senior Financial Executive National Advisory Committee, as well as Chapter President, and Regional Executive.

Todd received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration, as well as his MBA from the University of Iowa. Todd makes his home in a window seat on United Airlines.

J. Edward McEachern, M.D., CMO

Dr. J. Edward McEachern serves as Chief Medical Officer for St. Luke’s Health Plan in Boise, Idaho. In this role, he provides clinical leadership and strategic oversight for a provider-sponsored health plan focused on delivering high-quality, affordable health care. He brings deep experience across health plan operations, clinical integration and value-based care, with prior executive leadership roles that included medical loss ratio and profit and loss accountability at regional and national health plans, as well as senior clinical and operational leadership within integrated delivery systems. He is the Distinguished Scholar in Residence for Health Services at Boise State University, and a founder of their Masters in Population and Health Systems Management in the School of Health Sciences. He is also a faculty peer and collaborator with the Population Health Research Institute at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is an Assistant Professor on faculty at the DavidEccles School of Business at the University of Utah

A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. McEachern earned an undergraduate degree in biology at Emory University. As a Robert T. (Bobby) Jones Scholar at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland he earned a co-terminal master’s degree in biological systems theory and statistics. He went to Case Western Reserve University for Medical School, a Pathology residency at the University of California in San Francisco, a second residency in General Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Health Services Research at the Cleveland Clinic. He has practiced medicine in Georgia, Ohio, and Idaho

His academic career includes faculty positions at Vanderbilt’s center for Health Services, Emory University School of Medicine (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the University of Utah School of Medicine as the Director of the Orthopaedics’ Health Services Research program.

From 2015 to January 2024, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for PacificSource’s markets in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. PacificSource is a physician-founded 90-year-old not-for-profit health plan offering coverage in Medicare, Medicaid, and all commercial lines of business.

Dr. McEachern has written over 83 peer-reviewed articles, 7 books and has 6 patents.

Chad Boult, MD, MPH, MBA, is a healthcare consultant, a teacher, a researcher and a physician board-certified in Family Medicine and Geriatrics. Dr. Boult has extensive experience in developing, testing, evaluating, and diffusing new models of comprehensive health care for persons with chronic conditions. He has consulted internationally and published two books, 20 book chapters and more than 90 articles in biomedical scientific journals. 

From 2001-2012, he directed a research center and served as a Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University. From 2012-2013, he directed the “Improving Healthcare Systems” program of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). From 2015-2019, he directed geriatrics and palliative care in an urban health care system. He now teaches and serves on the Board of the International Foundation for Integrated Care.

Chuck is the Co-Founder and COO of Parity Healthcare Analytics, a perinatal nurse workforce management and data analytics platform. Prior to that he served in CFO and COO roles for several SaaS startups, as a Director of Professional Practice and Executive Relationships at HFMA, as VP of Finance for Maine Medical Center and financial management roles OhioHealth, Cardinal Health, and U.S. Steel. 

Prior to his faculty role at Boise State University, Chuck taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Webster University and the University of Southern Maine.

He earned his B.S. in Finance and M.S. in Accountancy from St. Vincent College (PA), his MBA in Entrepreneurship from Clemson University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). 

Chuck resides in Savannah, Georgia with his wife Abby.

Mark Florian is responsible for the oversight of all actuarial and underwriting activities. Arriving at PacificSource in 2007 as an actuarial analyst, Mark has served in progressively responsible roles, joining the executive management team in 2015.

Mark is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Mark earned his B.S. in chemistry from Gonzaga University. Outside work, Mark enjoys basketball, music, and spending time with his wife and four daughters.

Dr. Heyborne moved to Boise in 2008 to join the Emergency Medicine group at Saint Alphonsus.  Prior to that, he obtained his undergraduate education at the University of Wyoming, attended medical school at the University of Utah, and completed an emergency medicine residency at Indiana University.  He was awarded an MBA through Northwest Nazarene University in 2015.  

Dr. Heyborne has served in various clinical and healthcare administrative roles in Idaho and nationally.  These include Senior Medical Director at Blue Cross of Idaho, Medical Director of the Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance Clinically Integrated Network, Chief Medical Officer for Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, and Chief Medical Officer for Proskriptive, a health data analytics company.  He currently serves as National Medical Director, Stars and Risk Adjustment for Humana.  Dr. Heyborne continues to practice medicine, providing in-person and telemedicine patient care.  He has always had a passion for education, and improving healthcare delivery, and is thrilled to be part of this innovative program.

Chris Peterson is a Principal Health Domain Specialist at MITRE, where he leads a team consulting for the federal government with states in their strategic planning for Medicaid Enterprise Systems. Prior to that, Chris served as Acting Executive Director and Principal Deputy Director of Maryland’s Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC). He joined the Commission in 2016, working on the state’s agreements with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and developing the state’s latest value-based payment innovations. He headed the Commission’s Center for Payment Reform and Provider Alignment (PRPA).  

Chris has also worked in nonpartisan, technical roles for the U.S. Congress — first at the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service (CRS) and then at the new Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC). In those roles, he touched many pieces of major federal health care legislation and testified before congressional committees. Before that, he worked for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.  Chris has a master of public policy from Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and a bachelor of science in mathematics from Missouri Western State University (St. Joseph, Missouri). In 2019, he became a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional (CHFP) through the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).

Brian Sims is the Director of Quality & Health Improvement, for the Maryland Hospital Association (MHA), whose mission is to provide hospitals and health systems leadership, advocacy, and education to help them better serve their communities. Brian has more than 15 years of experience working in Maryland’s health care industry. At MHA he leads the Association’s efforts to advance health equity throughout the field and leads the hospital quality policy advocacy efforts. He works in partnership with legislators, regulatory agencies, hospital leadership, and various stakeholders to understand key issues and develop appropriate strategies to advance the field’s priorities. His primary focus is helping hospitals improve quality performance and identifying opportunities to reduce health disparities and improve health equity in the communities they serve. Prior to his current role, he worked with health system finance leaders on finance and reimbursement advocacy and strategy. Before joining MHA, Brian worked in strategic planning and decision support for large and medium-sized hospital systems, analyzing the financial impact of care delivery innovation and identifying opportunities to provide accessible and high-quality care to target populations.

In addition to his professional experience, he is the President of the Greater Baltimore Health Improvement Initiative (GBHII), a registered 501(c)(3) that he helped to co-found, whose mission is to empower individuals in Baltimore to take control of their health through education, advocacy, and action. He is also the President-Elect of the Maryland Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), where he has been a member for 13 years and served on the Board of Directors for 10 years. Brian was recently appointed to the Maryland Commission on Health Equity: Health Equity Policy Commission, where he will help to create health equity policy recommendations for the state.

As HFMA’s Director of Perspectives & Analysis, Shawn is responsible for developing policies and positions on topics important to the Association’s mission into recommendations for content strategy and product services for HFMA membership. He serves as a subject matter expert and consultant to the membership on healthcare policy, finance, and revenue cycle operations.

Shawn previously worked as a consultant with HMA/Burns and Associates, where he served as Senior Consultant. Prior to that, Shawn was Director of Healthcare Policy and Economics for The Ohio Hospital Association and Director and Assistant Director of Access and Revenue Cycle at a major academic medical center and designated cancer hospital.

Shawn is a graduate from Kent State University and holds an EPIC Resolute Certification.

Cheryl Powell is a mission-driven Medicare, Medicaid and innovation leader focused on the intersection of healthcare policy, technology and leveraging data to unlock actionable insights. Cheryl’s expertise includes alignment of strategic priorities, innovative solutions, delivery system design, and payment methodologies to improve outcomes. Having held a variety of leadership roles within the healthcare industry, Ms. Powell draws on deep experience from the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She is an executive leader with deep experience in strategy development with clients to help them proactively anticipate and respond to legislative, regulatory and business opportunities. She recently led strategic upstream data-based interventions and state engagement as a Principal, Advisory Services at Mathematica. Previously, she led Medicare and Medicaid innovation at Ad Hoc, MITRE, and Truven Health Analytics/IBM Watson Health. Honored to have served as a public servant, Cheryl’s career includes a 16-year tenure as a national leader in Medicaid and Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). There she oversaw the Agency’s IT budget and investment portfolio, ensuring that CMS IT solutions aligned to and enhanced its mission and priorities. She served as the first Deputy Director of the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office (Duals Office) as well as a variety of leadership roles in Medicaid policy and financing, Medicaid state 11115 programs, and Medicare beneficiary services. Cheryl has a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She graduated as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia, summa cum laude and phi beta kappa, with a BA in psychology. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Information Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.