Rise

Sibel Ozcelik Deputy Director, Division of Health Plan Innovation

Seamless Care Models Group, CMS Innovation Center

Sibel Ozcelik is the Deputy Director of the Division of Health Plan Innovation (DHPI) in the Seamless Care Models Group (SCMG) within the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Her division houses the health plan innovation and drug pricing models. Prior to her role as the Deputy Director of DHPI, Sibel served as the Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) Model Co-Lead and Special Assistant to the Chief Strategy Officer of CMMI and Senior Advisor to the HHS Secretary on Value-Based Care Transformation, supporting the strategy and development of service and payment delivery models. Before coming to CMMI, Sibel supported development and operations of serious illness care research and models at Healthsperien, the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and C-TAC Innovations. Sibel has also served as an O’Neill Institute Law Fellow researching implications of regulatory frameworks on noncommunicable and infectious diseases at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Sibel earned an ML and MS from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, respectively. 

Tricia Beckmann Principal

Faegre Drinker Consulting

Tricia Beckmann, Principal at Faegre Drinker, leads its Health Plans and Providers team. While at CMS, Tricia led key Affordable Care Act policy developments and program implementation including nondiscrimination standards, state innovations, health plan transparency initiatives and coordinated policy with other HHS divisions, the White House, and other agencies. Tricia also worked as an in-house counsel at a population health company and in government relations at a Medicare and Medicaid managed care plan prior to joining Faegre in 2017. For the last 6 years, Tricia has primarily focused on managed care policy, strategy, and compliance at the federal and state levels. Several health plans, providers and associations turn to Tricia’s practical results-focused approach to addressing their most pressing policy and business needs. 

Chris Bond Vice President of Sales

SCAN Health Plan

Chris is a dynamic Sales Leader with 20 years of proven results in various roles for both National and Regional health plans in the Medicare Advantage space. He is currently the Vice President of Sales for SCAN Health Plan. He is responsible for plan membership growth, forecasting, sales strategy and implementation with oversight of the employed Field and Telesales channels, Employer Group business, and EMO relationships.

In his role he works closely with Marketing, Product Development, Digital strategy, community-based Medical Groups, and partnering with Broker channel leadership to ensure that growth targets are achieved. He has been with SCAN Health Plan going on 10 years and has most recently experienced the largest membership growth spurt in the company’s history, during the 2022 AEP selling season. He’s unique background include specialties;

• Omni-Channel Sales distribution strategy
• Call Center optimization Inbound/Outbound - Sales, lead generation & retention
• Sales data analytics
• Performance management
• Sales organization architecture
• Leadership development
• Sales compensation modeling
• High impact consultative sales training for both Call Center and Field sales

Chris was born and raised in Southern California where he attended Cypress Community College. He has 2 children and enjoys sports, music and art.

Kristy Croom Tucker Director of Member Experience and Acquisition

Baycare Health System

Kristy Croom Tucker is the Director of Member Experience & Acquisition for BayCare Health Plans, a subsidiary of BayCare Health System—the largest health system in the Tampa Bay area. BayCare Health Plans’ first insurance plan, BayCarePlus Medicare Advantage, began in January 2019, and currently serves about 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries across four counties.

Kristy started at BayCare in 2011 as a hospital marketing manager and oversaw the marketing of four hospitals and the system-wide marketing of several key service lines, including cardiovascular services and neurosciences. In 2014, Kristy moved on to become the System Marketing Manager for Consumers for BayCare. In that role, she oversaw the marketing of BayCare’s extensive ambulatory division and the development and marketing of several mobile applications. Kristy also oversaw the development and launch of BayCare’s first brand campaign—Humanity at Work.  Kristy transitioned to the health plan with the launch of BayCarePlus Medicare Advantage.

Prior to her role at BayCare, Kristy was Director of Communication for Rasmussen College. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas. Rock chalk Jayhawk! 

When she’s not thinking about branding, member experience and cost-per-acquisition, Kristy enjoys being the mom of two perfect angels, Gabriella and Sebastian. The Tucker family enjoys going on adventures, being outdoors, craft beers and traveling. 

Kortney Cruz Senior Vice President, Government Markets

Independence Blue Cross

Cruz is senior vice president of Government Markets at Independence Blue Cross (Independence). She provides overall leadership to Independence’s Medicare businesses, including operations, sales and marketing, risk analytics, and oversight of the company’s Medicare STAR ratings initiatives.

Since joining Independence in 2013, Ms. Cruz has held a variety of roles with increasing responsibility in Government Markets. She played a vital role in developing her company’s Age Fearless initiative to engage and educate individual 55 years and older on holistic health and well-being. She also formed the Medicare Member Retention team, which has allowed Independence to communicate and engage digitally with over 70 percent of its Medicare Advantage members.  In 2020, she launched Blue Medicare Advantage, a joint venture with Elevance Health, that has more than doubled the organization’s footprint in the Group Medicare Advantage space.

Ms. Cruz is also active with Independence’s corporate volunteer program, the Blue Crew, and is an executive sponsor of the iLead (Inspiring, Lifting, and Empowering the African Diaspora) associate resource group. She studied at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, with a BS in Economic, with concentrations in marketing and strategic management.

Kacey Dugan Director - Policy & Regulatory Affairs

Faegre Drinker Consulting

Kacey Dugan is an experienced health policy analyst with deep knowledge of CMS rules and insurance programs. As a director at Faegre Drinker Consulting, she works primarily with health plans, providers, and vendors to provide strategic advice and help navigate regulatory and compliance issues regarding the Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA markets. Prior to joining Faegre Drinker, Kacey served as a senior analyst at the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission — Congress's advisory agency on Medicaid and CHIP issues — where she led numerous qualitative research projects and policy discussions on a wide range of issues affecting access to care for Medicaid and Medicare-Medicaid dually eligible beneficiaries.

Brian Dwyer Associate Vice President of Health Plan Sales

Unite Us

Brian has over 25 years of experience in the health plan market – bringing expertise in data analytics, member experience, sales, solution design, and consulting.  

Brian has helped dozens of the nation’s leading health plans design and implement solutions that engage more members, improve member health, reduce administrative and medical costs, and deliver program transparency.  He’s guided implementation of several state Medicaid programs that help Medicaid beneficiaries better control their chronic diseases and complex conditions. Additionally, he has led large multi-organization cross-functional teams in developing solutions and implementing strategies to drive value and achieve return on
investment for clients. 

Monett Jackson Broker Development and Engagement, Medicare Sales Strategy

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City

Monett Jackson currently serves as Medicare Broker Sales Manager for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC). With more than 25 years in health insurance, she has experience in many roles including appeals and grievances, Legal, Commercial Sales, Precertification Department, and Agent Manager. At Blue KC Monett and her team work hard every year to remain consistent in the market and bring forth competitive products to help the community.

Charles Joujoute Manager of Consumer Sales

Health Alliance Medical Plans

Charles is an experienced business professional whose people skills and proven leadership ability has led to consistent career advancement at
increasingly high-levels of management and leadership, primarily within the healthcare industry.
Charles has a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Healthcare Management from Northeastern University and an undergraduate degree from Suffolk University in Communications.

John Kowalczyk Consultant Urologist

Urology Group of South California

John Kowalczyk, DO, FACOS – Dr Kowalczyk has resided in Southern California since he first began practicing urology in 1996. He is the founder of the Urology Group of Southern California, which first opened its doors in 2001 and continues to serve patients in downtown Los Angeles. He received his medical training through Midwestern University, and at Indiana University where he received fellowship training in uroprosthetics. Dr Kowalczyk is a recent past president of the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California and a California delegate to the American Osteopathic Association House of Delegates. Additionally, he is an expert reviewer for the Osteopathic Medical Board of California. He sits on the board of the Physician’s Aid Association, the Good Samaritan IPA and the Medical Executive Committee of Good Samaritan Hospital.  Dr Kowalczyk has received many awards, including the David M Shaw Physician of the Year Award at Good Samaritan Hospital and the Physician Educator of the Year Award for Downey Regional Medical Center’s Family Practice Residency Program. He is a researcher who continues to publish, including many journal articles and a text book chapter. His professional expertise focuses on prostate cancer, male impotentance, incontinence and urodynamics as well as gender dysphoria and gender confirmation surgery. His personal passions include politics, world travel, shark diving and an occasional fine cigar.

Theresa Lauer Director, Gov. Markets Individual Sales

Independence Blue Cross

Theresa Lauer is the Director of Medicare Broker Sales for Independence Blue Cross. She is a long-time leader in cultivating, developing, managing, and leading profitable sales programs. In her current role, Theresa and her team forge new opportunities each day within the Independence five-county southeastern PA area.

Valerie Monet Senior Director

Banner Medicare

Valerie Monet is a recognized expert in Voice of the Customer (VOC) data and analytics. As Chief Customer Information Officer for Banner Health, she is responsible for guiding the customer experience strategy, transforming patient and member experience through insight-driven operational improvements and the elimination of customer friction points. She is directly responsible for Medicare acquisition marketing, Medicare product development, competitive assessment, and customer/member/patient experience improvement for the enterprise. 

Prior to Banner, Valerie was the Health and Life Insurance Practice Lead at J.D. Power.  During her thirteen years at J.D. Power, she worked with the top performing consumer-oriented companies in the U.S. and Canada.  She’s worked across several industries, including health insurance, financial services, P&C insurance, and automotive. Her responsibilities included strategic planning, business development, talent management, Voice of the Customer, Customer Experience management and data analysis. 

Valerie is a highly rated public speaker—recent engagements include HIMSS, HFMA, Next Generation Patient Experience, The Beryl Institute, Health Datapalooza, and National Health Care Ratings Summit.  

Valerie began her career in academic research and teaching, specializing in the areas of education, public health and public policy.  Valerie completed dual Bachelor of Science degrees and a Masters in Public Administration from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. 

Gregg Mottola Consumer Retention Manager

Health Alliance Medical Plans

Gregg J. Mottola, Consumer Retention Manager at Health Alliance Medical Plans
Gregg is an experienced business professional whose interpersonal skills
and proven leadership ability has led to consistent career advancement at
Increasingly high-levels of leadership, primarily within the service and healthcare
industry.

Experience:
2/2022 - Manager of Consumer Retention, Health Alliance
5/2016 to 2/2022 - Member Retention Analyst, Consumer Sales and Retention

11/2022 - Leadership Mentor in Sales & Retention, Health Alliance
02/2020 - Secretariat of Consumer Advisory Committee, Health Alliance
04/2017 - Secretariat of Medicare Advisory Board, Health Alliance and Health Alliance Northwest

Tom Pelegrin Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer

Convey Health Solutions

As Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Tom is responsible for Convey’s market growth, sales, business development, brand and marketing. Tom brings more than 25 years of sales and business development experience in the healthcare markets specifically related to payer technology and operations.  Most recently he was the Founder and CEO of MDInnovate, an organization focused on providing primary care services and improved patient care coordination through unique and innovative delivery models.  Prior to this, Tom was a  Partner with Optimity Advisors, a leading Washington, DC – based healthcare operations consulting firm where he provided subject matter expertise related to State and Federal Health Exchanges and payer enrollment and billing technology and operations.  

John Philson Senior Medicare Marketing Program

Banner Medicare

John is an industry expert in the field of direct marketing to Medicare eligible individuals.  He has over 15 years’ experience with “making the phones ring” for both regional and national health plans that include Blue Shield of California, Health Net, and Centene.         

Within his career, John scaled Marketing operations into 19 states (over 700 new counties) and launched two new Medicare Advantage brands (Allwell and Ascension Complete).  John has a Marketing discipline around measuring performance, developing test plans, and adhering to CMS guidelines.  He believes that the best outcomes come through collaboration and co-creation, and works closely with Sales, Finance and Compliance teams to ensure Marketing plans are developed for maximum return.    

Todd Rau Director of Medicare Markets

Indiana University Health Plans

Jill Selby SVP Product Development

SCAN Health Plan

Jill Selby is the Senior Vice President of Product Development, Marketing and Market Expansion. In her role, she is responsible for market expansion, geographic growth opportunities, and innovative development and implementation of SCAN’s core health products, including its Medicare Advantage HMO plans in SCAN’s service areas of California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. As SCAN’s marketing lead, she is responsible for traditional, digital, and social media advertising and sales lead generation. In addition, she oversees all federal and state regulatory compliance interpretation and merger & acquisition due diligence.

Throughout her 30-year career, Jill has served in executive positions with several health plans and medical groups. Before joining SCAN, she was Vice President, Business Development for Bravo Health/HealthSpring (recently acquired by Cigna), where she oversaw market expansion activities for the company’s eastern, central and western markets. Before that, she was Vice President, Business Development/Marketing for Talbert Medical Group.

She holds bachelor’s degrees in marketing and merchandising from California State University Long Beach.

Steve Selinsky Vice President of Government Programs, Product, & Community Outreach

Health Alliance Plan

Barbara Shooshainan Senior Vice President of Operations

Health Alliance Administrators

Sarah Spiekermeier COO

Banner Medicare

Sarah Spiekermeier has over fifteen years of experience in healthcare leadership with an emphasis on health plan operations, program implementation, and Medicaid and Medicare regulations. As COO of Banner Health Plans, she provides operational senior leadership and oversight for their Medicaid and Medicare plans with over 340,000 members within Central and Southern Arizona. Before her COO role, Sarah held several positions within Banner such as program implementation manager, Medicaid contract compliance officer, and Sr. Director of Operations. A few examples of Sarah's accomplishments are:   

• Led an 80,000 Medicaid member transition from one plan to another, which was acknowledged as one of the most successful member transitions by the state and deemed a "Best Practice" by state leadership.  
• Led and implemented two State Medicaid Requests for Proposals resulting in the successful Contract award for 10 Arizona Counties.  
• Launching three Medicare Advantage plans during a pandemic while moving the entire health plan workforce from in-office to remote  

Sarah graduated with her MBA with a concentration in Health Care Administration from Ashford University-Forbes School of Business and is a Certified Public Manager from Arizona State University- College of Public Programs. She is a member of the Association for Community Plans (ACAP) and completed the 2020 ACAP Leadership Academy. Recently she participated in the "Valley Leadership's Ready Together Program" focused on mobilizing Arizonans to make an impact in the face of coronavirus. She is a Board Member for the Military and Veterans Community Network of Southern Arizona, the Special Olympics of Arizona Leadership Council for the Coronado Area, and the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona.   

Angie Sutton Manager, Government Programs Marketing

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City

Angie Sutton is a dynamic, results-oriented marketing and sales leader with a track record of leading teams that successfully promote and sell Medicare Advantage. She is experienced in building innovative and data-driven marketing strategies and highly successful team cultures.

Angie is the Manager of Government Programs Marketing at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC). Blue KC’s 4-Star Blue Medicare Advantage achieved a 93% growth from 2021 to 2023 and maintains a 95% retention rate with 31,000 members.

Angie was previously at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) in marketing and sales roles. She was a key leader in the market entry of BCBSKS’s new Medicare Advantage plan and created the successful launch strategy.

As a lifelong learner, Angie has a master’s degree in digital content strategy from the University of Kansas, LUTCF status from The American College of Financial Services and has certificates from Pragmatic Institute.

Toni Tashiro Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer

Trusty.care

Toni Tashiro, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer is responsible for leading and executing on the strategic initiatives to support the growth agenda at Trusty.care. As an executive leader with more than 35 years of experience in sales management, business development, client engagement and marketing, Toni has driven growth in health plans, health services, provider, content marketing and tech-enabled organizations. 

Prior to joining Trusty.care, most recently Toni, as Chief Growth Officer  at Spiras Health supported the Series B fundraise, leading the growth team, and previously led sales and client engagement for Linkwell Health and Healthways.

Toni earned her Bachelor's degree at Bowling Green State University and her MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University. 

Janet Trautwein CEO

National Association of Underwriters (NAHU)

Janet Trautwein is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and President of the National Association of Health Underwriters Education Foundation in Washington, D.C.  NAHU represents employee benefits professionals involved in the design, implementation and management of health plans all over the United States.  Her responsibilities include oversight of all NAHU and NAHU Education Foundation activities including oversight for 30 staff members in Washington, DC and 210 state and local chapters.   She is the primary spokesperson for NAHU to the media, government agencies and elected officials at all levels.   

A frequent speaker on health policy issues, Janet’s expertise in issues related to health insurance markets, the uninsured, risk and reinsurance pooling, benefits related tax and tax-preferred account issues and both national and global health reform has been recognized throughout the industry. Janet has testified before Congress numerous times, and has been published in major news outlets, and has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs around the world.   

Janet holds a degree in Government and International Affairs from George Mason University where she graduated summa cum laude and a Masters degree in Health Economics, Health Policy, and Health Management from the London School of Economics. 

Jason Vallejos Executive VP and CSO

Syndicated Insurance Agency

Jason Vallejos is the EVP & CSO for Syndicated Insurance Agency, a Limited Liability Company founded in 2003. Syndicated is a multi-line general agency offering all lines of coverage including Life, Health, Property & Casualty insurance with a strong focus on Medicare Plan sales as a National Field Marketing Organization. As Executive Vice President, Jason is head of sales, marketing and training for all sub-agencies working with Syndicated and fosters win-win relationships with professional partners including medical groups & Independent Physician Associations.

Syndicated’s approach to marketing is to work in collaboration with professional advisors such as healthcare providers, CPA’s, business, and estate planning attorneys to help develop long-term protection plans and growth for his clients. As the industry and the needs of our community change, Jason continues rigorous educational standards in Senior Health Care, Life, Long-Term Care and Business Insurance.

At a young age, Jason volunteered with various charities and organizations including the American Red Cross. In 1994 Jason assisted the victims of the Northridge Earthquake with claims filing, shelter, food, and clothing, as an American Red Cross volunteer. This is where Jason first understood the necessity of insurance and the value it brings to communities during disasters. Later, as a healthcare business analyst, Jason developed a passion for helping seniors with their healthcare needs while learning the operational and analytical support that runs a major carrier. Through this diverse career background, Jason acquired business knowledge, actuarial analysis, insurance, networking and managed care experience. Jason Vallejos was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and resides in the Ventura County area.

Jason has a passion for people and is driven by a set of core values including integrity, excellence and innovation, focusing on client satisfaction and retention, teamwork, continuous improvement, mentoring, growth and success. Jason is an accomplished and results driven top performing leader known for his industry knowledge, organizational and leadership abilities and his focus on win-win solutions for his clients and partners.