The Healthcare Technology Report is pleased to announce the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare Software of 2022. The awardees on this year’s list are among the most accomplished women in the healthcare technology industry. These leaders represent companies that provide solutions across a wide range of areas, from connected care to clinical software, ambulatory practices, cost containment, and beyond. They direct their companies from a variety of positions, from CEO to CTO, Chief Medical Officer to Chief Customer Officer, but what they have in common is their track record of leading their teams in producing exceptional results.
As President of PointClickCare, Julieann Esper Rainville has launched several new business units that have become key drivers of company growth. Senior Vice President of Product Andrea Kowalski spearheaded the development of Kareo’s integrated telehealth solution, helping increase provider adoption by 40%. And under Neeraj Isaac’s leadership as Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Hallmark Health Care Solutions has brought multiple cloud-based solutions to market, including a patented provider compensation solution she co-created.
Hundreds of women were nominated for this year’s list. Each nominee was evaluated based on the scope of her experience, professional milestones achieved, and contributions to her organization and the broader healthcare industry. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare Software of 2022.
1. Julieann Esper Rainville
Company: PointClickCare
Title: President
A seasoned executive in the healthtech world, Julieann Esper Rainville has led healthcare software company PointClickCare as President for the last year, prior to which she was the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. Her reputation as a dynamic, decisive executive has reaped considerable results, with PointClickCare being named one of Canada’s best managed companies by Deloitte. Using her legendary savviness with regard to scalability and outcome improvement in the healthcare field, she continues to develop new business units and acquisitions that become critical components of the company’s growth, among her other achievements with PointClickCare.
Rainville’s accomplishments with PointClickCare are only the most recent in a decades-long career of executive excellence. In addition to her tenure as Vice President of the software development firm 2020, and her years of leadership in the product strategy and corporate development teams at Kronos, she led Battery Ventures’ investments in software startups and was a Senior Financial Analyst for Advest’s technology group. Rainville holds a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Spanish Language and Literature from Smith College as well as a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
2. Dr. Geeta Nayyar
Company: Salesforce
Title: General Manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences and Executive Medical Director
As a nationally-recognized leader in healthcare information technology, a physician executive, public speaker, and author, Dr. Geeta Nayyar loves sharing her unique perspectives bridging clinical medicine, business, communications, and digital health. She currently serves as General Manager of Healthcare and Life Sciences and Executive Medical Director for Salesforce.
As a specialist in rheumatology, Dr. Nayyar maintains a volunteer associate professorship with the University of Miami and serves on the University of Miami Medical School Alumni Association Board. She has held several positions in media and with professional societies, including as a medical contributor for CNN and as a member of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) board of directors. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering and helping train medical students at the University of Miami Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS). Dr. Nayyar received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and her Master of Business Administration from The George Washington University School of Business.
3. Andrea Kowalski
Company: Tebra
Title: Senior Vice President of Product
Andrea Kowalski is Senior Vice President of Product at Tebra, a California-based leading provider of cloud-based clinical and practice management software solutions for independent healthcare practices and billing companies and a market leader in practice growth technology. In 2021, Kareo and PatientPop merged to form Tebra.
Kowalski is responsible for leading the product and integrated platform strategy, overseeing the entire product lifecycle and driving forward with delivering customer-focused solutions. In 2020, she spearheaded the development of Kareo’s integrated telehealth solution, helping increase provider adoption by 40% during her time. Also critical while navigating COVID-19, she led the team to strengthen Kareo’s HER, expanding the reach to better support mental healthcare.
Prior to Tebra, Kowalski worked for athenahealth, where she gained experience over eight years in advancing their clinical product for the ambulatory and hospital market. Prior to her tenure at athenahealth, she was at Citigroup developing innovative electronic trading solutions. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Boston University and a Masters of Business Administration from Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business. She is also a founding member of Chief, a national organization that promotes and supports women in leadership positions.
5. Kristen Valdes
Company: b.well Connected Health
Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer
A lifelong advocate for delivering healthcare solutions to underserved individuals, Kristen Valdes is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of all-in-one health platform b.well. Valdes has leveraged her extensive experience in leadership and health to build b.well into a transformative player in the healthcare landscape. Under Valdes’ leadership, b.well has been recognized with industry awards including Top Innovator in Accenture’s Global Health Tech Innovation Challenge.
In addition to her duties with b.well, Valdes serves on the boards of critical entities in the healthcare field, including the CARIN Alliance, Health Scholars, Nest Collaborative, and the Healthcare Summit at Jackson Hole. Prior to launching b.well, she served in leadership positions with disease management company XLHealth, steering the company through its $2.4 billion acquisition by United Healthcare. Valdes’ passion to help consumers navigate a hostile healthcare industry is fueled by her advocacy for her child’s autoimmune needs, and her tireless work in the field has won accolades such as being named a “40 Under 40” healthcare innovator. Valdes holds a degree in Business Information Systems from Stevenson University.
6. Neeraj Isaac
Company: Hallmark Health Care Solutions
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
As Chief Technology Officer of Hallmark Health Care Solutions (HHCS), Neeraj Isaac’s expertise is integral to the firm’s ability to develop and scale innovative technology for healthcare workforce and compensation management. Currently No. 318 on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing U.S. Private Companies, HHCS’s software solutions save healthcare organizations millions of dollars in labor and operational costs each year. Under Isaac’s leadership, HHCS has brought multiple cloud-based solutions to market, including a patented provider compensation solution Isaac co-created. HHCS has also earned SOC1 and SOC2 certifications and Microsoft Gold Partner status, underscoring Isaac’s commitment to the highest security and performance standards.
With 30 years’ experience in healthcare technology, Isaac excels at translating technical vision to enable organizations to quickly align with new solutions and achieve desired results. From business intelligence and analytics to data warehousing, cross-platform mobile applications, and advanced web applications, she has a successful track record of developing technology strategies and solutions in global markets. Prior to co-founding HHCS, Isaac was Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Team Healthcare, Inc., a non-profit supporting underserved populations around the world. Isaac has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pune in India.
7. Eve Stacey
Company: Accolade
Title: Chief Customer Officer
Accolade, Inc.’s Chief Customer Officer, Eve Stacey, builds foundations for hypergrowth, leading go-to-market functions for firms at all stages, from startups to unicorns to Fortune 500 firms, across sales, marketing, customer success, channel, and field operations. Accolade is a personalized healthcare company that puts humanity back in healthcare for its clients’ employees by building relationships that connect them and their families to the right care at the right time. Accolade delivers care that is personalized, guided by intelligent technology and data insights, and value based, to provide improved clinical outcomes and lower costs. The firm has been recognized as one of the nation’s 25 most promising companies by Forbes magazine, the fastest-growing private healthcare company by Inc. 500, and a top workplace by multiple publications.
Immediately prior to Accolade, Stacey was Vice President of the Go-to-Market Team for Microsoft’s U.S. Partner Group. She has also held the positions of President for Benevity; Vice President of Strategy and Operations for SAP Concur; and, in a previous stint with Microsoft, Chief of Staff of Operator Channels. She earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Dartmouth College.
8. Joy Powell
Company: Springbuk
Title: President
Joy Powell is a growth-minded executive leader with a passion for transforming how companies provide healthcare through the use of comprehensive data, easy-to-use technology, and actionable insights to provide the right benefits to employees, create healthier communities, and prevent disease with data.
Powell brings over 25 years of executive leadership experience spanning various industries – including insurance, health and wellness, and health analytics. Before joining Springbuk, she served at Healthways as President and Chief Operating Officer. She later transitioned to CareSync, filling the familiar role of President and Chief Operating Officer. In early 2019, she brought her advising and solutions expertise to Springbuk as the Chief Operating Officer. In her current role as the President at Springbuk, she helps align and bolster day-to-day company operations and growth. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Memphis.
9. Stefanie Giddens
Company: QHR Technologies
Title: Senior Director of Marketing and Product Management
Stefanie Giddens is the Senior Director of Marketing and Product Management at QHR Technologies, an electronic medical records software firm that supports the largest number of Canadian providers on a single platform. QHR’s mission is to improve Canada’s fragmented healthcare system by connecting providers to their patients, information, and each other. Loblaw Companies recognized QHR’s natural fit in its own mission to help Canadians “Live Life Well,” and it acquired QHR in 2016. Loblaw is Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, with 90% of Canadians living within 10 kilometers of a Loblaw location, as well as being one of Canada’s Top 100 employers. And just as QHR is a strategic piece of the puzzle for Loblaw, Giddens is a strategic piece of the puzzle for QHR.
With over 15 years of diverse marketing, operations, and product management experience in the digital healthcare field, Giddens’ portfolio as part of the senior executive team includes Marketing, Product Management, and Product Design. With the rise of virtual care and the challenges technology companies are facing as we discover new ways to work, Giddens has been a key change-maker, ensuring not only that products are meeting the needs of the market, but that the company is modernizing to meet the needs of employees. She is a constant driver of innovative and meaningful transformation, bringing together internal and external considerations to ensure that QHR is focused on the changing demands of its clients and the larger market, and the trusted solutions necessary to meet them. Giddens has been instrumental in shaping the positive and diverse corporate culture within QHR, and in charting the direction of one of Canada’s most powerful and innovative healthcare platforms.
10. Lora Sparkman
Company: Relias
Title: Partner, Clinical Solutions and Vice President of Quality & Patient Safety
Lora Sparkman has been a nurse for 37 years and has been leading patient safety and improvement work for more than 22 years. Specifically, she uses software and technology to advance healthcare education in order to improve the competency of clinicians, leading to improved patient outcomes. For the past 5 years, she has served as a clinical leader at Relias, one of the largest healthcare education and solutions providers in the U.S. Relias is leading the industry in healthcare workforce readiness, and Sparkman leads as a strategy and clinical expert in patient safety/risk reduction, high reliability, and quality improvement in acute care, with a focus on obstetrical safety.
Sparkman led one of the largest AHRQ OB patient safety studies, which showed physicians’ and nurses’ improved knowledge and judgement in critical areas in OB care also improved patient outcomes, saved lives, and saved the healthcare system millions of dollars in medical malpractice claims. However, the greatest impact has been reducing maternal mortality and morbidity across the country through a transformative training software specifically designed for healthcare. The assessment-based, personalized learning model identifies variation across clinical teams on a national scale, providing benchmarks for best practice. This approach has helped hundreds of hospitals across the U.S. improve outcomes for mothers and their babies by positively impacting the proficiency of thousands of physicians and nurses. Sparkman has been instrumental in influencing doctors, nurses, midwives, and provider residences to achieve mastery of application of the national evidenced based guidelines in the highest risk areas in obstetrics.
11. Nirali Shah Matalia
Company: Saama Technologies
Title: Vice President, Operations & People
Nirali Shah Matalia has been Vice President, Operations & People for the AI-powered clinical analytics cloud platform firm Saama for the past 15 years. Under Matalia’s guidance, Saama underwent a transformation into a 1,500-strong company delivering unparalleled business insights across the pharmaceutical industry. Matalia also serves as a member of the advisory board of Rocket Lawyer and is a company advisor for SaaS Research.
Prior to her time with Saama, Matalia distinguished herself in a series of leadership roles, serving as an executive in marketing and operations for the massive Indian franchises Reliance Retail and Planet Health. In recognition of her remarkable leadership skills and fearless advocacy for diversity and inclusion, Matalia was honored with Insight Success’ “Women Influencers of the 21st Century” award. Matalia earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from J. J. Kundalia College of Commerce and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Operations from Som-Lalit Institute of Management Studies.
12. Angela Losacco
Company: WhizAI
Title: Senior Vice President of Global Sales
Angela Losacco is the Senior Vice President of Global Sales for WhizAI, an AI-powered analytics platform purpose-built for healthcare and life sciences. WhizAI is on a mission to deliver contextual, conversational and dynamically generated insights directly into the hands of business users. Late last year one of its clients - a top 3 global pharma - was named as a finalist in Gartner’s Eye on Innovation Awards. WhizAI also announced it raised $8M in Series A financing and will use the capital to expand its team across the globe investing in sales and marketing.
Since joining WhizAI in January of 2022, Angela has been responsible for building the go-to-market functions. She leads WhizAI in rapidly growing and scaling the North American and European sales teams, developing and executing strategies to accelerate revenue growth and expand their increasing base of top pharmaceutical customers. Prior to joining WhizAI, Angela held leadership roles at Initiate Systems and IBM where she was responsible for data management and analytics product portfolios on a global basis. Most recently, she was the Vice President of Sales with Collibra where she was responsible for driving revenue growth 50% year over year in their North American markets which included their healthcare sector team. Angela received both her Finance degree and Master of Business Administration degree from Loyola University of Chicago.
13. Neeta Jain
Company: Vibrent Health
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Neeta Jain is Chief Technology Officer at Vibrent Health. Vibrent’s mission is to accelerate health research to optimize human health through precision technology and digital tools that empower participant engagement, research analytics, and research management for researchers, research organizations, and research participants. Through its Digital Health Solutions Platform, the company provides a large-scale versatile global platform for health research. The platform provides an infrastructure for data collection from broad sources including genomics, environment, lifestyle, behaviors, and electronic health records.
Since joining Vibrent in 2012, Jain has spearheaded the research and development effort. In particular, she was behind the creation of the Vibrent Research Platform, which is the firm’s premiere Software as a Service platform. Prior to that, she worked as a Consultant for the Internal Revenue Service and as Principal Project Engineer for Honeywell. She attended Savitribai Phule Pune University.
14. Amanda Ivanovics
Company: Iodine Software
Title: Vice President of Growth
Amanda Ivanovics is Vice President of Growth for Iodine Software, a healthcare AI company that has pioneered a new machine learning approach — Cognitive Emulation™ — to help healthcare finance leaders build resilient organizations. Founded in 2010, Iodine’s technology unifies clinical concepts, evidence-based medicine, and deep machine learning to power revenue cycle solutions that maximize capture and data accuracy. To date, the Iodine AwareCDI™ Suite has helped nearly 500 hospitals recognize $1.5 billion in additional appropriate reimbursement annually.
Prior to Iodine, Ivanovics served as Senior Principal at Optum and Managing Director at The Advisory Board Company. She earned her Master of Business Administration from John Carroll University and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and Marketing from Miami University.
15. Jessica Wagner
Company: RXNT
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Jessica Wagner is the Chief Operating Officer of RXNT, a fast-growing healthcare technology company headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland. Since 1999, the company has developed integrated, cloud-based practice and clinical software for physicians and medical organizations throughout the United States, and helped patients stay connected to their health with tools designed to manage medical information and navigate the health journey. Using RXNT’s software, over 83 million prescriptions have been sent and an average of $300 million in claims are processed per year. In 2021, for the third year in a row, the company was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies.
As Chief Operating Officer, Wagner spends her time understanding and solving the complex problems facing medical practices and billing organizations. Since joining RXNT in 2014, she has held several positions at the company, bringing a wealth of customer insight, product knowledge, and organizational background to her current role. Prior to COO, her roles included Executive Vice President of Product, National Sales Manager, and Marketing Manager. She received a Masters of Professional Studies in Technology Management from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida.
16. Melisa Tucker
Company: Nym Health
Title: Senior Vice President, Head of Product
Melisa Tucker is Senior Vice President and Head of Product at Nym Health, the leader in automating medical coding. The company’s clinical language understanding technology provides an entirely new way of analyzing and transforming medical records into clear, concise, and actionable information. Nym’s engine interprets clinical language in patient charts and assigns accurate and compliant medical charge codes to them—in near real time and with zero human intervention. By unlocking valuable data buried within medical records, Nym helps healthcare providers get paid faster and more accurately, while reducing the time and cost associated with coding and billing. This ultimately ensures clinical and administrative teams can spend more time focused on patient care.
At Nym, Tucker oversees the product, customer success, and coding compliance organizations and is responsible for further developing and driving the company’s product vision, roadmap, and innovation strategy to fuel future growth. She joined Nym from Flatiron Health (acquired by Roche in 2018), where she served as Vice President of Product Management and Operations, and spearheaded the growth of its real-world evidence business from inception to industry leader, launching and growing multiple product lines in collaboration with key commercial and strategic partners. Prior to Flatiron, Tucker worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company and in early-stage venture capital. She has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University.
17. Jessica Chasteen
Company: ImagineSoftware
Title: Chief Talent Officer
Jessica Chasteen is Chief Talent Officer at ImagineSoftware, a leading provider of healthcare billing automation and revenue cycle management technologies. Offering powerful applications for medical billing offices, practices, and hospitals for 22 years, ImagineSoftware serves more than 75,000 physicians across 43 specialties with solutions that build provider reputation, improve patient experience, and increase financial efficiency, recognizing $9.8 billion in annualized collections for its clients. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chasteen is responsible for leading all aspects of human resources, including recruiting, onboarding, retention, development, compensation, benefits, and diversity and inclusion efforts. Notably, she helped grow ImagineSoftware from 40 employees to nearly 200 employees across three office locations, plus remote, and implemented operational technology to drive efficiency in payroll, performance review management, and training processes. Chasteen also directed several company-wide initiatives, including 401(K), FSA, EAP, wellness, and employee recognition.
Chasteen has over a decade of tenure at ImagineSoftware, starting as Human Resources Coordinator. As her experience grew, so did her roles, first becoming Manager and today Chief Talent Officer of the Human Resources team. Before ImagineSoftware, she spent time as Assistant Director of Operations for Campus Living Villages in Newark, Delaware. Chasteen received her Bachelor of Science in Leadership from the University of Delaware and has obtained several human resource certifications.
18. Jennifer Compagni
Company: CipherHealth
Title: Chief People Officer
Jennifer Compagni brings nearly thirty years of experience as a global human resources executive in corporate businesses, research, government, and educational institutions to her role as Chief People Officer at CipherHealth, an award-winning digital patient engagement company committed to enhancing communication and coordination throughout the care continuum. She is responsible for development and execution of the people strategy, culture plan, and execution of all processes related to attracting and retaining CipherHealth’s talented team – from fostering stability during explosive team growth to ensuring leadership is equipped with the tools they need to be effective and inclusive leaders.
Before joining CipherHealth, Compagni worked for five years as the head of HR at SmartLinx Solutions, a growing SaaS company in the workforce management space. She ran her own organizational consulting practice, serving a diverse range of clients including Cardinal Health, Alpharma Inc., and The National Research Council of the National Academies. She was Vice President, Human Resources at Revlon and held HR leadership roles at Warner-Lambert Company (now Pfizer) and Antenna Software. Compagni also performed research and services for the U.S. Army and the NY State Senate Labor Committee. She holds a Master of Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Siena College.
19. Jennifer Cohen
Company: Aspen RxHealth
Title: Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications
Jennifer Cohen is the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Aspen RxHealth. Founded in 2018, Aspen RxHealth is revolutionizing the pharmacy services industry with a first-of-its-kind mobile application that matches pharmacists and patients against often overlooked criteria. Among its offerings, Aspen RxHealth deploys the largest community of pharmacists in the nation to deliver clinical pharmacy services to hundreds of thousands of patients around the nation with the goal of creating long-term, meaningful connections between medication experts and the patients they serve. The mobile application also provides an opportunity for life sciences companies to accelerate innovation and provide insights into patient behavior, medication management, and adherence. Since joining Aspen RxHealth in June 2020, Cohen has led efforts to increase brand awareness via traditional and digital strategies while ensuring the company continues to grow the adoption of their revolutionary technology.
Her career began unconventionally as a speech writer for both General Norman Schwarzkopf and General Alexander Haig, yet with over a decade in healthcare technology alone, she brings an uncanny ability to deliver salient messaging and the go-to-market strategies needed to foster continual growth and evolution. Cohen’s diverse healthcare technology experience has left a tremendous impact on the entire healthcare ecosystem. Serving in multiple leading healthcare organizations, she has architected the marketing communications and public relations strategies of large, publicly traded organizations including Change Healthcare and NextGen Healthcare, and consulted for many others within revenue cycle, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine. Her efforts have advanced the adoption of meaningful technologies within the ever-evolving healthcare industry and propelled countless acquisitions and a large-scale merger. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, is a published author, and mother to two small children.
20. Tycene Fritcher
Company: Transaction Data Systems
Title: Chief Marketing Officer
Tycene Fritcher is the Chief Marketing Officer of Transaction Data Systems, Inc., an Orlando, Florida-based provider of technology solutions serving health plans, pharma, and pharmacy markets. In this role, she oversees corporate marketing and product-marketing strategies, ensuring strategic initiatives are aligned with client success. She spearheads the design of the organization’s go-to-market strategies for SaaS solutions and services, including strategic marketing, campaign creation, and commercialization. Fritcher’s reputation as a master messaging strategist and brand builder — and her success in supercharging customer-marketing initiatives across the healthcare continuum— has made her one of the most sought-after talents in health IT.
Prior to TDS, Fritcher served as CMO for telehealth solutions provider Avizia. She led corporate marketing efforts for Avizia’s suite of digital and mobile services. Her role in shaping the organization’s strategic direction and go-to-market strategy enhanced corporate identity and advanced the brand’s reputation and recognition in the broader healthcare space, which led to the company’s successful acquisition by AmWell (American Well). She also served as Senior Vice President, Marketing for Solutionreach, an organization focused on patient relationship management solutions, and Vice President, Marketing for Nextech, a specialty specific EHR. Fritcher received her Bachelor of Science in Management and Marketing from the University of Tampa.
21. Cindy Gaines
Company: Lumeon
Title: Chief Clinical Transformation Officer
Cindy Gaines is the Chief Clinical Transformation Officer for Lumeon, whose digital health platform is used by health systems to transform their care delivery processes into seamlessly orchestrated, personalized, virtualized care centered on each patient’s needs. Lumeon’s award-winning platform transforms EHR data into an operational plan of care – engaging, coordinating, and guiding both consumers and care teams along the way. It extends and automates healthcare to wherever the consumer is, whether at the care setting, home, work, or on the move.
Gaines is experienced in health informatics, leadership, population health, medical home, and change management. Prior to Lumeon, she served as Clinical Transformation Leader – Connected Care and Chief Nursing Officer for Philips. She spent nearly 10 years at Borgess Health, where she was President of Administration – West Michigan Market, and got her start as a Project Manager for Bronson Healthcare. She holds a Master’s in Nursing Administration from Wayne State University and a Bachelor’s in Nursing from the University of Michigan.
22. Trish Kane
Company: Komodo Health
Title: Vice President, Customer Strategy
Trish Kane is Vice President of LSS Commercial Customer Strategy at Komodo Health.
Komodo is a full stack technology company whose Healthcare Map is one of the largest, most comprehensive datasets of deidentified, real-world patient health information. Komodo’s Healthcare Map can be used by all key healthcare stakeholders to identify patient outcomes, gaps in care, and health disparities via Komodo’s innovative technology platforms. Komodo’s mission is to reduce the burden of disease, aligning with the critical mission of patient care in the pharma/biotech industry. In her current role, Trish works with life science customers to provide solutions for their most crucial commercialization needs. In addition to her role working with LSS customers, Trish is a leader in Komodo’s philanthropic arm KomodoCares. Trish leads a team of ten senior salespeople and participates in Komodo’s mentorship opportunities. Trish has been recognized with the #OneKomodo Award for her individual and team achievements since joining Komodo in 2019.
Prior to Komodo, Trish spent time working with and for pharma organizations focusing on market access strategic initiatives, while negotiating complex multi-million dollar contracts with both pharma and payers, resulting in consistent and significant YoY revenue gains. Trish earned her MBA with high honors from the Haub School of Business in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, and her BS in Financial Management from Saint Joseph’s University. She is on the Board of Directors for Best Buddies NJ, fundraises in support of IBD and Potocki Lupski Syndrome, and is committed to promoting health equity and inclusion for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
23. Sarah Cottongim
Company: PAR Excellence
Title: Vice President of Client Operations
Sarah Cottongim is Vice President of Client Operations for PAR Excellence, whose single focus is to provide innovative and affordable solutions to assist the progressive Materials Management professional. For over twenty years, it has been the innovator in the point-of-use industry. Utilizing state-of-the-art, yet affordable, technologies, PAR Excellence designs solutions to meet the dynamic requirements of today’s healthcare environment. Cottongim leads the Client Operations team at PAR Excellence and is responsible for managing the contract to revenue recognition cycle. She oversees the teams that provide client support needs (e.g., turnkey installation and implementation services) after the purchase of a PAR Excellence Point-of-Use System.
Prior to her current position, Cottongim was Regional Director for Supply Chain Solutions Operations at Owens & Minor. She was also a Sales Consultant for BD and got her start as a Research Assistant II in Critical Care Medicine for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She earned a Master of Business Administration in International Business from Xavier University and a Bachelor of Science in Recombinant Gene Technology from Western Kentucky University.
24. Karen Gardner
Company: Medisafe
Title: Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Success
Karen Gardner is Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Success for Medisafe, the leading Personalized Medication Management Platform helping patients stay on top of all their medications. Medisafe makes it easy to adhere to the most complicated medication schedule and connects users to their families (and soon, their doctors) for support, encouragement, and expertise. It learns about each user’s unique situation, so it can deliver custom notifications for appointments and refills, medication updates, personalized health recommendations, and discounts to help users stay organized, informed, and on budget.
Gardner is a Client Service, Operations, and Project Management expert with extensive experience exceeding client expectations while simultaneously promoting corporate goals and profitability. Prior to Medisafe, she was Vice President of Client Success at WiserTogether, Inc. and a Consultant at Client Service Advisors. She spent over five years at Activate Networks, Inc. as Vice President of Client Services and then Senior Vice President of Client Services. Gardner holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Brandeis University.
25. Elizabeth Karson
Company: Ribbon Health
Title: Head of Strategy and Operations
Elizabeth Karson is Head of Strategy and Operations at Ribbon Health, which offers the most comprehensive, accurate API data platform that is the infrastructure for a future where every patient care decision is convenient, cost-effective, and high-quality. Built to integrate seamlessly into existing healthcare workflows, Ribbon offers a reliable and straightforward way for providers, care navigators, health plans, and digital health solutions to develop and maintain accurate provider directories and competitive networks, simplify referral management, and ensure efficient care navigation — all in one platform.
Prior to Ribbon, Karson was Director of Operations for Knotel, where she oversaw strategic planning and market expansion. Before that, she was Principal for Valar Ventures LLC and Mergers and Acquisitions Associate for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Associates. She also worked at Skadden as a Summer Associate before joining the firm full time. She earned her Doctor of Law from the New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government from the University of Michigan.
