Addressing People Shortages: Technologically Inclined Workflows

Sarah Richardson is transformative, innovative, and results-driven healthcare and technology executive within large-scale healthcare environments. She attains aggressive goals, catalyzes change, and advances sustainability by designing and executing high performance-based strategies. Sarah cultivates top-tier talent, infuses expectations, and accountabilities, instills customer-centric practices, accelerates innovation, and forges collaborative cultures. Through comprehensive, human centered design, she enables digital and organizational transformation of multiple organizational domains utilizing proven methods of engagement resulting in improved experiences across the continuum. With a B.S. in Hospitality Administration, a Master’s in Business, and a certification in Healthcare Administration, Sarah currently serves as the SVP & CIO for Tivity Health. At Tivity Health®, we work hand-in-hand with members, clients and healthcare partners to create everyday opportunities for long-lasting health and vitality. Our flagship brand SilverSneakers®, along with Prime® Fitness, Burnalong, and WholeHealth Living®, are sought after by consumers and organizations alike. Tivity Health is focused on becoming the modern destination for healthy living, with solutions that help adults live better and improve health outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. She has built award-winning teams and has been recognized by The Kansas City Business Journal as a ‘Woman Who Means Business’, a “Next Gen Leader’ and ‘Rising Star’ by KC Business Magazine, and an ‘Outstanding Executive’ by Advancing Women in Technology. Sarah is an active member of CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO), board and faculty member, and fellow. Sarah regularly publishes industry relevant content on her website at www.conciergeleadership.com. She is an Associate Certified Coach with the ICF and Distinguished Toastmaster, as well as Chair for the SoCal Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SCSIM). She is an avid scuba diver with a passion for conservation.

As founder and CEO of Genzeon, Venkat Thumula provides the vision and leadership to help realize success for Genzeon's clients, partners, and employees. Venkat designed a customer-centric approach founded on a solid understanding of healthcare IT. He has used this approach to build exceptional teams with deep technical and functional expertise in healthcare and retail management and make Genzeon a trusted business partner providing IT and digital transformation solutions.Before Genzeon, Venkat spent a decade at Allscripts, a Fortune 500 healthcare IT provider. He led the design and development of several significant products and was instrumental in their adoption and implementation at some of the leading hospitals in the US. Beyond the global team leadership and technical experience he gained; he developed invaluable understanding and insights into the end-user perspectives in the industry. He began his career shadowing doctors and nurses in the hallways of hospitals, where he learned their needs and functions firsthand. He came away with a conviction that this knowledge was the other essential part of any genuinely transformative technology solution.Venkat earned an MBA, Leadership in Healthcare from Yale University, a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of South Alabama, and a Certificate in Business Essentials/Entrepreneurship from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania. He enjoys spending time with family, giving back by mentoring young people, playing racquetball, and of course, following the Philadelphia Eagles and the 76ers.

Sherri Hess is the VP Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at HCA Healthcare. Her career spans almost 40 years in healthcare. She is a uniquely experienced executive with a very diverse and extensive background. She has a proven track record as an executive with extensive informatics and leadership experience. Her transformational leadership style utilizes best practice delivering on target and high quality. Sherri has worked in all facets of healthcare from a community hospital, mutli-facility systems, university and a safety net system. She paved the way at all of the health systems by creating an informatics department or bringing best practices that were lacking. The focus on ensuring patients and employees are at the forefront of all decision making and their voice is heard is top of mind. Excellent patient care and outcomes happen when we put them first. In her many roles, she continues to bring innovative ideas from problems to solutions.She teaches at University of Denver in their Master’s program. She was bestowed one of the greatest honors a nurse could receive - the coveted Nightingale Luminary Award in 2017.Sherri holds a Masters in Information Systems from the University of Colorado-Denver a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and is a certified Informatics Nurse through the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She is a HIMSS Fellow.

Geoff Blanding serves as Optimum’s Executive Vice President of Optimum CareerPath & EHR Services. As an experienced healthcare IT leader, Geoff helps organizations define and execute their IT strategies. He brings significant experience leading more than 30 Epic clients through their EHR implementations. As an interim CIO for a 250-bed specialty hospital system, Geoff understands first-hand the challenges healthcare organizations face. Geoff leads Optimum's CareerPath program, a unique talent accelerator focused on creating new, diverse, trained healthcare IT talent to solve clients' tech hiring challenges. Before joining the Optimum team, Geoff worked at software companies and as an advisor to CIOs.