Derek is Vice President of Healthcare Contact Center Times, the nation’s leading source of information for healthcare contact and call center managers. HCCT discusses such crucial topics as strategically positioning your call center for maximum advantage in today’s competitive healthcare environment, operating your call center as your organization’s “front face” to the public, and effectively marketing your call center to external and internal audiences. With each issue we keep healthcare call and contact center professionals across the country up-to-date on the latest trends and current news. For nearly twenty years, Derek has also worked in planning the HCCT Annual Conference. Derek lives with his family in Roswell, Georgia. Outside of the office, Derek may often be found taking advantage of Georgia’s beautiful nature and outdoor activities. Derek is a golfer and proud Georgia Bulldog.

As a veteran in the call center industry, Julie Bruns has attended the Healthcare Call Center Times conference for more than twenty years. When she got the opportunity to become our conference program director (even though her LinkedIn profile says her job title is “happily retired”), she couldn’t resist.

“This conference has a long history of bringing a lot of value to our industry and I hope that I can build on that foundation that’s been established,” Bruns says, who retired from St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 2021. “I feel excited to be able to continue to contribute to the industry and work with many of the people I’ve known throughout my career.”

She’s spent more than 30 years in the healthcare call center industry, involved in a range of activities, such as nurse triage, scheduling, physician referrals and transfer center. That breadth of experience will help her develop conference sessions that meet the needs of attendees.

Jaysa Boyer-Tushaus is Head, Employer Engagement at Ultimate Medical Academy. She began her tenure at UMA in 2014 and has spent the last nine years focusing on scaling Employer Partnerships to over 150 national partners and assisting in the placement of thousands of UMA graduates into these organizations.

Boyer-Tushaus found her career match in healthcare education and has dedicated her career to changing the lives of graduates, filling the talent pipeline for employer partners, and making a positive impact on the healthcare community by creating customized solutions to bridge the gap in healthcare recruiting and workforce development needs.

Boyer-Tushaus holds a Bachelor of Science in integrated marketing from Maryville University of Saint Louis, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, and a Master of Science in marketing communications with an emphasis in business marketing and advertising from Webster University.

Dolly Penland, President & CEO of Business Results, a PI® Certified Partner and Talent Optimization consultancy, and a CATIL® Certified Partner, works with organizations helping them to hire and manage their talent to their highest potential. She specializes in multiple areas including helping businesses grow sales, reduce turnover and develop leaders.

David is a founder and CEO of Call Simulator, Inc., the leading provider of immersive simulations for Emergency Medical Dispatch training as well as a pioneer in the delivery of conversational-AI powered training for call center agents in multiple industries including telehealth and nurse triage. David has been successfully bringing new technologies to market for the past thirty years, and is the author of Big Good: Philanthropy in the Age of Big Data & Cognitive Computing.

Ravi is the CTO, COO, and Medical Director of TriageLogic, a healthcare technology and services company. Ravi’s main goal in the use of technology is to use his medical and patient care knowledge to develop new software that improves patient care. As a physician, Ravi’s goal is to make access to care as easy as possible by constantly evaluating new technologies that can help deliver better and more efficient care. All of the work that he does is centered around delivering patient care remotely.

Kathleen Peterson is an internationally acclaimed Contact Center and Strategic Management expert and recognized industry leader. She has emerged as a sought-after expert and consulting partner in the field of the Patient/Customer Experience. Kathleen has worked with top patient/customer-focused organizations including NYU Langone Health, BayCare Health, Medstar, Penn Medicine, Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch and many more. She is Founder and Chief Vision Officer of PowerHouse Consulting. With more than 30 years in the Contact Center industry, Kathleen leads strategic initiatives with client senior management across industries to assess business processes and improve organizational practices.

Kathleen is the author of many stirring Healthcare articles and is contributor to Healthcare Call Center Times. She is also a regular contributor to Contact Center Pipeline, a monthly instructional journal focused on the needs and challenges of the Contact Center industry, via her Idiom Insights and Healthcare Corner articles.

Kathleen has been the keynote speaker at conferences across the globe. She has been a featured speaker at the Healthcare Call Center Times Conference and UWEBC Business Best Practices and Emerging Technologies Conference. She is a “working” speaker, bringing energy and real-life experience to all engagements. Kathleen’s eBook, Backstage at the Customer Experience … Musings for Contact Center Leaders, is available for purchase at Amazon.com.

Very early in her education Kristy felt a kinship to healthcare and in 2001 earned her BSN from the University of Utah. Kristy then worked for two years in oncology, being especially drawn to caring for patients whose lives were coming to a close. In 2003, she made the transition to hospice, where she’s been helping patients and their families ever since.
Working for several years as an on-site hospice nurse, Kristy found an even more meaningful niche—providing telephone triage for hospice patients, where she’s helped guide patients and caregivers through especially urgent and emotional situations. With her leadership and expertise, Kristy has been leading CareXM’s remote team of 90 triage nurses as the Director of Nursing since 2013, innovating in remote care while giving outstanding patient care.

Deborah has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with a focus on hospital and clinic management, patient care, and healthcare administration. Her passion is creating, developing, and implementing clinical programs that incorporate cutting-edge technology to increase access and improve communication with patients. Her goal is to be a driving force in helping our elderly cope with cardiopulmonary and other chronic and acute disease processes, in a dignified manner in the safety and comfort of their home.

Chris Wells, Director of Patient Access Support Services at Tegria has spent her entire career in healthcare, working in Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the US. After 20 years in Medical Imaging, Chris moved permanently into the world of access centers where she developed centers that included scheduling, registration, referrals management, template management, telemedicine, and operator services, all supported by robust training, quality assurance, workforce management, and decision support.

For the past 6 years, Chris has been a consultant at Tegria. Tegria is working to bring bold ideas and breakthroughs that improve care, technology, revenue, and operations in ways that move organizations from patient-centered to human-centered, from patients to providers to payers. Tegria believes everyone deserves to be heard, respected, and treated like a human being throughout healthcare delivery.

With 20+ years of experience in process improvement in implementing initiatives that have a proven track record of driving organizational growth, Namrata is a highly skilled, award-winning Administrative Director. She has influenced the implementation of system-wide best practices and training that have had positive impacts to efficiency, productivity, and quality of care. Namrata has developed, standardized, and streamlined scheduling workflows, training programs, and quality assurance programs for several specialties and organizations. She was awarded the Excellent in Leadership Award in 2018 and the Best New Patient Experience Leader in Patient Access Service Center for 2015-2016 from Stanford Children’s Health. Following her tenure at Stanford, she joined Orlando Health as the Senior Director, Patient Contact Center where she has been imperative to the formation and adaptation of their centralized contact center that supports scheduling, referral processing, and nurse triage.

Working 13 years in healthcare using my experience in Medical Group, Population Health, ACO, health plan, and customer experience to transform the customer engagement strategy for the largest healthcare organization in northern NV through state of the art technology and lean process improvement.

Scott is a Principal Account Executive for Amazon Web Services’ Nonprofit Healthcare organization. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers – including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies – trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs.  Scott is a five-year Amazonian who supported unicorn startups prior to moving to the healthcare mission in 2020.  Since then – he has helped leading systems save millions of dollars, transform the patient experience, and improve health outcomes.  He is based in Phoenix, AZ.

Scott Teplin MSN, RN-BC, CEN serves at the Manager of Clinical Services and oversees the Telephone Triage team. He is a board certified emergency Nurse and certified in ambulatory care nursing.

Kevin is the Telecommunications Manager at Confluence Health with over 15 years of experience leading change initiatives throughout the healthcare organization. Kevin is a patient-centered leader with a proven track record of designing and implementing streamlined processes and workflows for innovative telecommunications systems that improve patient care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. His ability to communicate and implement complex technical concepts and build strong relationships with stakeholders at all levels has earned him executive recognition. In his free time, Kevin enjoys being with his family and exploring the beautiful outdoors in the Pacific Northwest including skiing, biking, and various water activities.

Sue Riffel leads Self Care Decisions (SCD) in creating and positioning their consumer self-triage tools for the greatest use and benefit by healthcare organizations.

Riffel has worked in healthcare for 35 years. In early years, she worked as a diabetes educator, in cardiac rehab and as a medical call center director. In 2001, Riffel operated the Schmitt-Thompson companies: first managing their triage protocol business and then transitioning to their consumer-facing symptom checker. In 2016, Riffel took over ownership of Self Care Decisions, which distributes the Schmitt & Associates symptom checker content. SCD also develops custom apps for health systems – especially Children’s Hospitals.

Riffel is a member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). She is also certified in User eXperience and Interaction Design through Nielsen Norman Group.

Bonnie Offit joined Self Care Decisions (SCD) nearly 2 years ago as Chief Innovation Officer. Offit is a pediatrician and has over 30 years of direct patient care experience in primary and urgent care pediatrics. She then spent 6 years helping launch digital health projects such as telehealth at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Patsy has worked in healthcare operations and patient experience for over ten years. Much of her career has been spent working with leadership and frontline staff on operational improvements to enhance the consumer’s experience. In her latest role as Operations Director of the Access Center for Keck Medicine of USC, Patsy is in charge of partnering with clinic leadership on advancing access to care as well as driving technological enhancements to provide a five star experience to all served by the Access Center.

With over a decade of experience supporting patient access and consumer engagement initiatives, Steve is an industry leader in designing, implementing, and optimizing patient access solutions. Steve has an established track record of implementing transformative, consumer-centric processes, which clients value for their ability to simultaneously improve consumer experience and generate revenue and cost savings. His ambulatory operations experience positions him to address a variety of challenges facing health systems, pediatric hospitals, and physician groups today.

Meghan Senior is the Manager of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Answer Line and ED Discharge Call Center. The Answer Line is a call center that provides after hours exchange and nurse triage services to 350+ area pediatricians. The ED Discharge Call Center is a small team of RNs that manage lab results for 11 emergency departments in the BJC healthcare system.

Meghan holds a bachelor’s degree from Maryville University and a master’s in nursing from Webster University. She’s been with St. Louis Children’s Hospital for 6 years.

Sadie Howes graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2011 cultivating her early career in communications & client services. The second half of her career has been an evolution into healthcare administration and leadership, applying best practices gleaned from previous industries and experience.
Achieving an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, as a Drake Scholar for Rising Women in Business in 2020, she has spent the last 3 years leading the Nevada Market for Arkos Health – a role responsible for providing telephonic & in-person care to almost 100,000 member/patients.

Kellyanne LaFrado MSN, RN, CPN is the Manager of the After Hours triage program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She has 19 years of experience with a wide variety of specialties in pediatrics and nursing education. Kellyanne served as chair on the education planning committee for the Society of Pediatric Nurses. Most recently Kellyanne has worked on the implantation of a new workforce quality management and scheduling tool, EPIC triage optimization integration, and various other projects to support the operations. Kellyanne is an active member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nurses (AAACN) Telehealth special interest group.

Christine Caraher MSN, RN, CPN is the Nurse Manager of the Office Hours nurse triage program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She has been a nurse for over 30 years in a variety of pediatric healthcare settings and has developed a passion for the art of telephone triage. Most recently Christine led the development of a new triage training program to meet the needs of the network and the adult learner in a post-pandemic world. In her current role she is building a daytime centralized triage system which will grow to include 31 primary care practices. Christine is an active member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nurses (AAACN) Telehealth special interest group.

Kathy is President and a founding partner of Greystone.Net, a healthcare web, digital and access strategy/solutions company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Greystone, under Kathy’s direction, has significant experience and expertise in access management, customer relationship management, web/internet strategy and traditional and digital healthcare marketing. Before Greystone, Kathy was the Director of Marketing for the Emory Health Care. She has held similar positions at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia and the UAB Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

Greystone’s clients include academic medical centers, health systems and hospitals nationwide. Kathy consults frequently on digital strategy development, access/contact center assessments, planning and re-engineering, as well as works with clients on a wide variety of other market-related activities. She is a frequent lecturer and author on healthcare contact centers, web/internet strategies, MarTech and traditional and digital marketing.

Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Patty Riskind is a dynamic healthcare tech leader and currently serves as CEO of Orbita. She also held leadership positions with Qualtrics (Head of Global Healthcare) and Press Ganey (Chief Client Experience Officer). She received her BA from Brown University and earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Jonnita “J” Pleasant is a passionate leader who prides herself on working with cutting edge technology to produce positive outcomes, provide high class standards and expectations to deliver excellence in customer service. She has dedicated a significant part of her career to improve onboarding, orientation, and performance management. J has dedicated over 23 years of her career in call center management and telecommunications.

She was recruited 16 years ago to build a centralized Faculty Group Practice (FGP) call center for Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). J currently leads the only centralized call center in TM3 in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine. Providing directorship for the Patient Access Centralized Call Center, Jay uses transferred knowledge gained from various companies, most notably AT&T. Jay focuses on the use of cutting-edge technology and innovation to ensure telephone coverage, ease of access for patients while providing an optimal patient experience. 

Upon joining BCM, she was immediately charged with developing a Centralized Called Center.  During this process, J relied on the data and telephony tools to produce consistent outcomes. Her research based practices were essential in the development of a framework responsible for securing over 30 specialty departments. Additionally, J’s efforts produced patients’ access to over 350 physicians at the renowned BCM’s inaugural centralized call center. 

J and her team have strived to create a culture of change and growth. This mindset has influenced a shift to centralization and demonstrated the value it brings to the departments and BCM as a whole. She believes that the best medicine to promote team morale is developing internal career paths and growth opportunities for her team members.

J and her team’s most recent accomplishment was building BCM’s first cloud base telephonic Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Work Force Management team. The team currently manages a total of 130 IVR menus which includes a combination of scheduling, nurse triage, customer service, and insurance verification menus. This project was completed in 2020 prior to the COVID pandemic. COVID changed the landscape of the call center industry. The just in time completion of this project ensured the team’s preparedness to deploy over 80 call center agents to a work from home status in less than a week.

During times of self-care, she enjoys spending time with her family, spoiling her grandkids and traveling around the country enjoying the sultry sounds of her favorite jazz artists.

Melissa Shipp serves as the Vice President, Digital Experience of OSF OnCall and has been in her role since October 2021. She has operational responsibility for digital experience, which includes leading the digital front door for the organization, including the digital experience with the website, chatbot and AI, outreach, and contact center. Drives strategy and operations for a large digital 24/7 workforce, diagnostic centralized scheduling, referral management, prior authorization, and patient navigation. Melissa served in various leadership roles in hospital operations since 2009 prior to transitioning into her current role. She holds a MBA in Healthcare Management from Western Governors University.

Jennifer is a Partner at ECG Management Consultants and leads ECG’s Patient Access and Consumer Engagement practice.

Jennifer’s clients rely on her forward-thinking, innovative approaches to physician practice issues, ambulatory operations, process redesign, and medical group–hospital integration. For nearly 20 years, Jennifer has worked closely with leaders of physician practices, hospitals, and health systems to help their organizations respond to challenges in the healthcare industry and position them for long-term success. Her practice concentrates on the organizational, strategic, operational, and financial alignment between large multispecialty group practices and affiliated health systems to achieve care delivery integration. Jennifer has served as an interim executive at a 2,000physician management services organization, leading large-scale operational and ​IT changes across employed physician groups.

Jennifer has written numerous articles and given many talks on the topics of patient access and contact center development. Her article “Changing the Channel: Strategies for Expanding Patient Access” was published in hfm in April 2015. She has spoken nationally on the topic of patient access, contact centers, and how to be successful in those areas at multiple industry events, including HCCT in the past.

Cortney Gobern is the Director of Centralized Scheduling Contact Center for AdventHealt, a healthcare system that believes in providing the whole care experience for it’s consumers and employees. A recent graduate of Florida International University’s MBA program and her nearly 10 years of experience have provided Cortney with extensive knowledge in the implementation of best in class customer service within the Patient Access and Scheduling departments for various organizations.

She enjoys teaching and mentoring Healthcare Administration students and hopes to retire early to teach as a professor within the Florida university system.

After several years providing stellar engineering support and expertise in the contact center arena, Jake Beyer now focuses on enriching the patient, member and customer experience through the use of technology.

Since 2003, Jake has been focused on all aspects of the contact center, performing roles of principal engineer, database and software architect, consulting and sales. Using the philosophy that contact centers need to be integrated in order to provide the expected consumer experience, Jake and team have nominated and won numerous innovation awards Jake additionally invests a great deal of time networking with contact center leaders to keep abreast of current challenges and trends.

While continuing with past successes, in 2019 Jake started the healthcare vertical at EDCi and now leads one of the top health care focused contact center VARs in the country. Jake focuses on delivering lower costs, increased revenue via patient and agent experience using innovation. And on top of all of this, Jake makes sure that work and fun come together on a regular basis!

Lourdes Nevarez is the Vice President of Member Communications at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, a New Mexico based integrated healthcare system.  She has over 20 years of experience in contact centers in multiple industries including but not limited to healthcare, telecommunications, and catalog marketing/sales.  Lourdes’ sound, data-driven decision making, knowledge, and curiosity have been the cornerstone to her successfully leading contact centers on a journey for improved performance and growth. 

More than three decades of experience in bringing the voice of the customer in a manner that inspires and motivates those who wish to create a memorable moment. A trainer by heart with an operational mindset, I strive to develop the individuals and initiatives that drive results. I have been privileged to worked in many different industries which allowed me to experience many unique standards and approaches to engagement. However Healthcare has always been my focus because of the direct impact it has to the quality of life of our patients and families.

Derek is Vice President of Healthcare Contact Center Times, the nation’s leading source of information for healthcare contact and call center managers. HCCT discusses such crucial topics as strategically positioning your call center for maximum advantage in today’s competitive healthcare environment, operating your call center as your organization’s “front face” to the public, and effectively marketing your call center to external and internal audiences. With each issue we keep healthcare call and contact center professionals across the country up-to-date on the latest trends and current news. For nearly twenty years, Derek has also worked in planning the HCCT Annual Conference. Derek lives with his family in Roswell, Georgia. Outside of the office, Derek may often be found taking advantage of Georgia’s beautiful nature and outdoor activities. Derek is a golfer and proud Georgia Bulldog.