As the senior director of content and experience for the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the leading organization for CIOs and senior health IT leaders, Adele Allison develops, teaches, and manages content programming, speakers, and faculty for CHIME CIO, CISO, and CMIO provider members.  Having served as the co-chair of the HHS ONC Beacon-EHR Vendor Affinity Group, Adele served three years on the federal Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) board of directors and 5 years as co-chair for the WEDI Payment Models Workgroup.  Adele has nearly 30 years of healthcare experience spanning matters of health IT and related legislation/regulations.  A published author, Adele is a member of University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) health informatics advisory board on curriculum development and served on UAB’s HITECH Committee for health IT curriculum development under an ONC grant; teaches policy matters to HRSA FORHP grantees for the Georgia Health Policy Center; and is past president of the Alabama Chapter of HIMSS. 

Cara Babachicos is Senior VP and CIO at South Shore Health, a regional community health system located 10 miles south of Boston. Babachicos earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College in the School of Management. She received her Master of Science Degree in Health Care Administration from the University of New Hampshire and has a certificate in Innovation and Strategy from MIT, and a graduate level cybersecurity certificate from Harvard University. Babachicos has over 25 years of experience working in healthcare information systems with a career that spans across acute care, non-acute, for profit-vendors and consulting. In her current role Cara is responsible for Information Systems, Information Security, Biomedical and Enterprise Project Management for South Shore. She is of the firm belief that IT enables change and that true success comes from partnering with the business. She demonstrates that change is enabled by IT both in her current role as Senior VP/CIO. 

Zafar Chaudry has been Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Seattle Children’s since November 06, 2017.  He was promoted to Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer in 2021. Through his role, he provides vision and leadership for the development of technology initiatives and enterprise-wide information systems and services for Seattle Children’s.  His goal is to enable clinicians with the best technology to deliver safe and excellent care to our patients. 

Dr. Chaudry was named Seattle CIO of the Year in healthcare ORBIE Awards in 2022 and was nominated for the 2021 CHIME – AHA Transformational Leadership Award.  He has also been a finalist for the Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards (2020, 2021 and 2022).  He is also a member of the global elite list Constellation’s Business Transformation 150 (BT150) 2020; that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. Dr. Chaudry was named to the Becker’s Hospital Review’s 102 Hospital CIOs to Know (2021), Becker’s Hospital Review’s 100 Hospital CIOs to Know (2019 and 2020), CIO magazine’s list of U.K.s CIO’s to follow on Twitter (2019) and Becker’s Hospital Review (USA) 105 Hospital and Health System CIOs to Know (2018). He was also named to the CIO.CO.UK’s Top 100 list of the most transformative CIOs in the U.K. (2017) and Government Computing’s top 100 influential technology leaders in the U.K. public sector (2010). 

Dr. Chaudry, who began his career as a physician, has more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of information technology. His background includes work in both healthcare and corporate settings in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe, and the U.K., in enterprise infrastructure development; business intelligence; unified telecommunications; and implementation of health care information and electronic medical record systems. He previously served as Chief Information Officer at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom. Prior to Cambridge University Hospitals, he served as Global Research Director at Gartner. He also served as Chief Information Officer at the Liverpool Women’s and Alder Hey Children’s Hospitals in the U.K.; Consulting Editor for Hospital Information Technology Europe Magazine; Information Technology Strategist for the Vision4Children Pediatric Charity in the U.K. and Teaching Faculty at the City Colleges of Chicago. 

Dr. Chaudry earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Ross University. He subsequently earned his Master of Science degree in health care policy and management from the University of Birmingham. He also holds a Master of Science degree in information systems management from the University of Salford and his Master of Business Administration from Aston University, all in the U.K. 

Adrienne Edens, FCHIME, LCHIME, CHCIO is an Executive Programs Advisor and faculty member for CHIME. Her career in healthcare information systems extends over 40 years including experience in HIT consulting and 25 years as a CIO.  In her role at CHIME Adrienne puts her years of HIT executive experience into practice, designing education programs specifically for healthcare executive leaders. 

She is passionate about the importance of being a learning leader and supports CHIME’s vision to create education that contributes to our members achieving CHIME’s vision: “Exceptional Leaders Transforming Health and Care”. She has many years of experience as a speaker and trainer in numerous CHIME programs in the US and internationally. Adrienne has been serving as a faculty member for both the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp and the CMIO Leadership Academy for more than 10 years and recently served as Program Director for the new CISO Boot Camp.  Most recently she developed an in-depth virtual course, “Strategic IT Investment”, for CHIME.

Adrienne is a member of the Leadership Council of the Carol Emmott Foundation. She participated in a project with members of the organization’s Equity Collaborative, made up of representatives from 13 large healthcare systems from the US, whose goal is to bring about fully inclusive gender equity within their institutions. The project involved crating a Resource Guide to share resources and best practices which has been made available through a variety of channels. The Resource Guide provides a single source of information for healthcare leaders as they address issues of diversity, equity and inclusiveness in their organizations.

As the Vice President and CIO for the Valley Area of Sutter Health in California Adrienne led the consolidation of the IS organizations of 2 previous regions into an integrated operational unit supporting 10 hospitals and 2000 physicians.  She developed the regional implementation plan for Sutter’s East Bay Region EHR as part of the larger Sutter Health enterprise EHR program. As the CIO for St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho, she engaged the organization in developing a physician led strategy for the electronic medical record to consolidate 14 EHRs into one. This approach provided the means to integrate a widely distributed system of hospitals, physician offices, clinics and rural critical access hospitals.  While at St. Luke’s she served as a member of the board of the state wide HIE, the Idaho Health Data Exchange. As the Information Officer for National Health Plan systems for Kaiser Permanente she led the programs to achieve compliance with Medicare Part D for the Kaiser regions nationally and to develop and implement the first deductible plan capabilities for the California regions.  As Regional CIO for the Sacramento Region and Information Officer, Northern California, for Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West now part of CommonSpirit Health), Adrienne managed the process of integrating systems for hospitals joining the region and participated in shared services programs at the system level. Throughout her career she has developed and implemented IT strategic plans, governance processes, organizational turn-arounds, process improvement projects and shared systems design and implementation for multiple Integrated delivery network regions, hospitals and physician practices.

Prior to these positions she served as Practice Director, Pacific Northwest, for First Consulting Group where she led strategic IT planning engagements, vendor selections, contract negotiations and application implementation projects for healthcare financial and clinical systems. Her background includes significant experience in clinical systems development, integration and implementation.

Adrienne holds a BA in English from the University of California at Davis and an MA in Applied Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.  She is a charter member and past Board member of CHIME and a past Board member of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and HIMSS Analytics. She served as a member of the Award Selection Committee for the annual HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards for 2 years.

Adrienne is a Rona Certified Lean Workshop Leader and was included in Becker’s 100 Hospital and Health System CIOs to Know in 2016 and Health Data Management’s Most Powerful Women in Health IT in 2016.  She serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Carol Emmott Fellowship, participating as a contributor and as a mentor to the fellows. 

Jonathan Manis, a veteran health care information technology leader, currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for CHRISTUS Health of Irving, Texas.  A Catholic Health Ministry serving communities across four countries, CHRISTUS Health is one of the nation’s largest faith-based provider organizations.  With more than 55,000 physicians, nurses, allied health professionals and Associates, CHRISTUS Health operates more than 70 acute care hospitals and hundreds of primary care clinics across the southwestern United States and in Latin America.

A native of Florida’s “Space Coast,” Manis grew up on Cocoa Beach with America’s space program.  After working summers at both the Kennedy Space Center and Disney World, Manis enlisted in the military and served as a US Navy Hospital Corpsman on submarines and as a combat medic with the US Marine Corps before being selected to attend the US Naval Academy Preparatory School and the US Naval Academy.  Parachute and SCUBA qualified, Manis was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the US Marine Corps upon graduation and served as a ground combat officer.  Assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, Manis participated in combat operations in Panama and Haiti.  He later served as a Tactical Fire Support Coordination Officer (coordinating fast attack aircraft, artillery, mortars, and naval gunfire) for coalition forces during Desert Shield/ Desert Storm.  After attending graduate school at the US Naval Academy Postgraduate School/ Stanford University and a final assignment to The Pentagon in Washington, DC, Manis accepted an early military retirement offer in 1994.

Manis is a seasoned CIO with more than 25 years of IT leadership experience.  He joined CHRISTUS Health in 2019 from California-based Sutter Health where he served as Senior Vice President and CIO for more than 13 years.  Prior to Sutter, Manis served as System Vice President and CIO for Provena Health of Chicago, Illinois.  Earlier in his career, Manis served as Vice President of Information Services for Advocate Healthcare in Chicago, Illinois and as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Sterling Health of Miami, Florida.

Manis holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Auburn University and a Master’s Degree in Computer and Information Systems Management from the US Naval Academy Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.  He has completed graduate education coursework at both Stanford University and The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.  Manis is a regularly featured speaker regarding technology and information systems management and he has authored multiple professional articles on the topics of innovation, transformation, digital health, information technology management and both operational and support function leadership.

Jonathan Manis and his wife, Bobbi, make their home in both Irving, Texas and Granite Bay, California.  Their daughter, Kendall, attends the University of California (UC) and their son, Parker, is attending Auburn University.  The Manis family enjoys skiing, SCUBA diving, sailing and family travel.

Theresa Meadows, MS, RN, CHCIO, FHIMSS is the Senior Vice President and CIO for Cook Children’s Health Care System. Cook Children’s Health Care System, based in Fort Worth, TX, is a national award-winning, not-for-profit, integrated pediatric health care system comprised of nine companies. She leads a team of 200 members covering areas such as infrastructure, applications, telecommunications, and program management. The IS team currently supports 140 project initiatives that include deploying business intelligence, advanced clinical systems, and enterprise resource management.

Meadows has led the organization through extensive improvements and modernization. In 2012, the organization received recognition as one of the “Most Improved Hospitals” as part of the Healthcare’s Most Wired award program and recognized as one of the “Information Week 500 innovators.” In 2013 and 2014, Cook Children’s received Healthcare’s Most Wired designation. Cook Children’s was recognized by Computerworld’s Honors program for their state-of-the-art distributed antenna system implementation. In addition, Meadows was also named one of Computerworld’s “Premier 100 IT Leaders” for 2013. Meadows’ department has been recognized as one of the “Best Hospital IT Departments to Work” by Healthcare IT News in 2013.
Meadows has 20 years of experience leading efforts for incorporating information systems as a mechanism for facilitating process improvement and efficiency. Prior to joining Cook, Meadows was a Director for Ascension Health Information Services. In that role she leads the strategic direction for clinical information solutions that cross care settings for 10 facilities within Ascension Health.

Meadows currently serves on the NetApp Healthcare Advisory Board and is a member of the McKesson Innovation Leadership Council. She served as chair for the North Texas Healthcare Information and Quality Collaborative (NTHIQC). Meadows has published several articles and her organization was the first to participate in the CHIME case study publications on their successful implementation of bar-coded medication verification.

Meadows has a master’s degree in healthcare informatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an active member of the Children’s Hospital Association CIO Council; is a Fellow in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is an active member of the CHIME. Meadows is a graduate of the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp and is a credentialed by CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO).

Tressa Springmann has been Chief Information Officer for Lifebridge Health since 2012 also becoming its Chief Digital Officer in 2020.  In addition, she has had responsibility as Senior Vice President over HIM as well as the system’s Call Centers/Digital Care Center in Maryland, the Philippines and Israel.  LifeBridge Health, a over $2.2B in revenue not for profit system, consists of Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital, Carroll Hospital, Grace Medical and Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital, and its subsidiaries and affiliated units, With nearly 13,000 employees and a vast physician network, LifeBridge Health provides patients with a continuum of care as a partner for lifelong health with various joint ventures in Assisted Living, Subacute, Retail Pharmacy, Urgent Care, Fitness Centers, etc.   As one of the largest and most comprehensive providers of health-related services to the people of Maryland, LifeBridge Health has the technology, skills and expertise of an academic system with the warmth and personal attention of a community continuum of care.   

Tressa is Vice Chair of the Shared Services Committee and Chairman of the Technology Committee for CRISP, Maryland’s State Health Information Exchange (HIE), has led their national network committee and a member of the Premier Member Technology Committee (MTIC).  She is proud of Lifebridge 2019 and 2020 ‘Most Wired’ status.  Recent industry recognition includes Becker’s 2019 Top Women CIO, 2019 HIMSS Top Twenty, 2020, 2021 HIMSS 2020 Six Females to know in Healthcare IT and multiple years as Beckers Top 100 CIOs 2021. 

She is also currently on The Healthcare Management Program Advisory Board for Towson University and is an adjunct professor at Mount St Mary’s University previously teaching Healthcare Information Technology as part of their Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) program with similar work pending at her alma mater Johns Hopkins.  

She is the Past President of Maryland HIMSS (MDHIMSS), is a certified professional in Health Information Systems Management (CPHIMSS) and has attained her certification as a Healthcare CIO. (CHCIO) and a CHIME Fellow.  Tressa has served multiple years on the AHA ‘Most Wired’ Selection Committee, is/as been a question writer for both the CPHIMSS and CHCIO exams.  In 2019, Tressa joined the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp™ Faculty.   She holds her Masters from The Johns Hopkins University and her BA in Biology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.  In 2019 she completed her certificate in wine production from The Penn State University. 

Prior to joining LifeBridge Health, Tressa Springmann served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) of Towson, Maryland, which includes a 300 bed acute hospital, an employed and community physician organization and the region’s largest hospice provider.  Ms. Springmann has also held information technology positions at Integrated Health Services (IHS), Georgetown University Hospital, Dimensions Healthcare System, CMC Occupational Health, Pharmacia Diagnostics, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.