Daniel Barchi is senior vice president and CIO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, one of the largest healthcare providers in the U.S. and the university hospital of Columbia and Cornell. He leads 1,000 informatics and technology specialists who deliver the tools and data that physicians and nurses use to deliver acute care and manage population health.    

Barchi previously led healthcare technology as CIO at Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine and earlier as CIO of the Carilion Health System. He was president of the Carilion Biomedical Institute and director of technology for MCI WorldCom. He began his career as a U.S. Naval officer and was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for leadership and the Southeast Asia Service Medal for Iraq operations in the Red Sea.   

Prior to joining CHIME, Russ Branzell was the VP of IS/CIO, Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS) and the President/CEO of Innovation Enterprises (PVHS’ for profit IS entity). PVHS is an integrated health system with a reputation for excellence and innovative care. They most recently are the recipients of the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest Presidential honor given to US businesses and organizations that demonstrate performance excellence, the Colorado Performance Excellence Peak Award (first and only organization in the state), Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals, Health Grades Distinguished Hospital Award, Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence designation, Avatar International 5 Star National Award, and US News and World Report-America’s 50 Best Hospitals. In addition to these honors and awards, the Information Services Division was recognized with Information Week Magazine’s Top 500 Award for innovative technology usage and also received the Business Technology Optimization Excellence Award for IT Governance Best Practices (2004).

Prior to joining PVHS, he was the Regional Deputy CIO and Executive Director of Information Services for Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, MO.

Before his time in St. Louis, Mr. Branzell served on active duty in the US Air Force and continues to serve in the Air Force Reserves. While on active duty, Mr. Branzell served in numerous healthcare administration positions including CIO for the Air Mobility Command Surgeon General’s Office. In 1996, he was selected for the Air Force Medical Service Fellowship program and completed a CIO Internship at the Unity Health System in St. Louis, MO.

Mr. Branzell is a past member of the CHIME Board of Directors (2004-2008), past Chairperson of the CHIME Education Committee (2004-2008), and past Program Director for CHIME’s Healthcare CIO Boot Camp™ (2006 – 2009). He was instrumental in the development and ongoing success of CHIME’s LEAD Forum and CHIME Foundation Boot Camp education programs, serving both as Program Director and as a member of faculty for both since their inception. In addition, he has served as Chairperson of CHIME’s Spring and Fall CIO Forum Planning Committees and currently serves on the CHIME Education Foundation Board.

Mr. Branzell is a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO), a fellow of CHIME and HIMSS, and board certified through the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). He was awarded the 2005 ACHE Regent’s Award as the Young Healthcare Administrator of the Year for the State of Colorado. PVHS has received numerous industry awards in recognition of its commitment to the advancement of healthcare informatics.

Russ serves on numerous editorial, volunteer, community and management boards. Additionally, he has been a speaker at regional, national, user groups and vendor conferences.

A native of San Antonio, TX, Russ earned an undergraduate degree in business administration specializing in human resource management and labor relations from the University of Texas. In 1995, he earned a Master’s degree in Administrative Science from Embry-Riddle University with an emphasis in management.

As senior vice president and chief information officer, Dr. Zafar Chaudry 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.

Chaudry, who began his career as a physician, brings to Seattle Children’s over 25 years’ worth of experience in healthcare informatics with a strong technical, business and international standards–based approach to IT. He has worked in senior IT roles in startups globally and served as faculty at the City Colleges of Chicago. He then became CIO of Europe’s largest women’s hospital (Liverpool Women’s) and its largest children’s hospital (Alder Hey), both in Liverpool, England. He moved on to serving as research director for global healthcare at Gartner. Most recently, he was CIO at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom.

Chaudry earned his MD from Ross University. He subsequently earned his MS in healthcare management and policy from the University of Birmingham, his MIS in information systems management from the University of Salford and his MBA from Aston University, all in the U.K.

Mr. Christian is the Vice President of Technology and CTO for Franciscan Alliance, a fourteen (14) hospital system serving Indiana and Illinois.

Prior to joining Franciscan Alliance, Mr. Christian served as the Vice President of Technology and Engagement at the Indiana Health Information Exchange, the largest and oldest HIE in the country.  Mr. Christian also served as the Vice President / Chief Information Officer of St. Francis Hospital, a free-standing, acute care, community hospital in west Georgia, a position he held for 2.5 years.  Before his role at St. Francis, Mr. Christian served as the Chief Information Officer for Good Samaritan Hospital, in Vincennes, Indiana.  A position he held for almost 24 years.  Before joining Good Samaritan Hospital, Mr. Christian worked in healthcare IT for Compucare and Baxter Travenol, in both management and implementation roles. Mr. Christian started his career in healthcare as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, serving in various Radiology roles for 14 years. Mr. Christian holds a degree in Radiology Technology from Gadsden Community College and studied natural sciences at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Mr. Christian has delivered presentations on wide range of healthcare technology topics and is frequently quoted and published in national trade publications.   He and co-authors, Judy Kirby and Steve Bennett published “Make I.T. Known-Marketing Strategies and Cases Studies in the Healthcare Environment.”  Mr. Christian is also a frequent author in Modern Healthcare.  Mr. Christian is also the author of the Irreverent-CIO health care blog.

Mr. Christian is a Life Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and is a Past Chair of the HIMSS Board of Directors, and past Chair of the HIMSS BOD Executive Committee.  Mr. Christian was previously a member of the HIMSS Analytics Board of Directors. Mr. Christian is a Life Fellow and charter member of College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) and served on the CHIME BOD from 2003 through 2004 during which time he chaired the Membership Committee of the CHIME BOD. Mr. Christian is credentialed by CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO). Mr. Christian is a charter member of the re-established Indiana Chapter of HIMSS and served as a BOD member from 2000 – 2009.  Mr. Christian served as a member of the Executive Advisory Board for Advance for Health Information Executives magazine.  Mr. Christian served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Health Informatics Corporation by appointment of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.  Governor Daniels also appointed Mr. Christian the Indiana Healthcare Information Technology Board of Directors.

Mr. Christian most recently served as the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors as Chair and is the Past-Chair of the CHIME Board of Directors.  Mr. Christian has served as the Chair of the CHIME Policy Steering Committee and continues to serve as a contributing member and is the Past-Chair of the SHIEC Advocacy Committee and is a past member of the Indiana HIMSS Chapter Board of Directors.  Mr. Christian served on the Georgia HIMSS Board of Directors from 2013-2015, the KLAS Advisory Group from 2009-2013, and the CDW-Healthcare CIO Advisory Council from 2005-2010.  Mr. Christian served the AHA Strategic Development Advisory Committee as a charter member. Mr. Christian is a past member of the Symantec Healthcare Advisory Group, and several other industry advisory groups/councils.

Rod Dykehouse joined Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine as CIO in July, 2012. Annually, Penn State Hershey Medical Center admits nearly 30,000 patients and provides care for approximately 1,100,000 outpatient and 70,000 emergency-service visits in central Pennsylvania. Penn State Hershey Medical Center has over 10,000 employees and 400 volunteers, and the College of Medicine enrolls 800 students annually. The Penn State Health System was formed in 2016 with the addition of Penn State Health St. Joseph Hospital in Reading, PA. Rod was named the CIO for the Health System, which together with the College of Medicine represent approximately $2B in net revenues.

As CIO, Rod Dykehouse was responsible for the effective deployment, adoption, use, and support of information technologies across the entire clinical, academic and research enterprise. Since 2012, the following was accomplished:

• Established IT Governance process across the entire enterprise, representing the clinical, research and academic missions
• Deployed the ambulatory EMR across all clinic locations for approximately 1,000 Medical Group providers.
• Gained budget and design approval for a new $54M 3MW Tier 2+ Data Center with a second one located on the PSU main campus to serve as a DR site.
• Developed i2b2 research database to leverage EMR and other data
• Initiated strategy and execution of Enterprise Information Mgmt “Data” strategy
• Supported the opening of the new Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital
• Supported the acquisition and integration of St. Joe’s Reading Hospital
• Established an IT Shared Service Team to support the growing Health System

Rod has extensive experience as a CIO in both academic medical centers and large health care systems. He previously served as CIO for both UCLA Medical Sciences, and Froedtert Health System, an academic partner of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

At UCLA, Rod oversaw IT for the organizations’ medical centers, faculty practice groups and schools of medicine, including IT support for research initiatives. He led the IT move into the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center built to the new California earthquake standards with all of the infrastructure and safety requirements. 

His CIO experience with large health systems was with St. John Health System in Detroit, Michigan, and ProHealth Care in Waukesha, Wisconsin where he lead the budget approval and implementation process of an enterprise EMR and Revenue Cycle solution to replace over 25 disparate applications and business solutions in 18 months.

Keith Fraidenburg has more than 20 years of experience working within the healthcare IT industry, including nearly 16 years of association management experience. In his role as Executive VP and Chief Strategy Officer, he is responsible for providing overall leadership and tactical execution of the organization’s strategic plan while identifying and cultivating new growth opportunities in support of the organization’s long-term strategic goals. He also maintains primary responsibility for the organization’s advocacy and public policy efforts and its platform of education programs and services. In doing so, he works closely with senior healthcare IT executives, key industry leaders, and industry association partners, including the American Hospital Association (AHA), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and others to keenly understand the issues, concerns, and needs of healthcare information executives.     

In his previous role as VP of Education and Communications for CHIME, Mr. Fraidenburg was responsible for leading the education, marketing and communications programs and services available through CHIME.

In addition to his responsibilities within CHIME, Mr. Fraidenburg is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Dr. Hawthorne’s healthcare career spans over 19 years. She has extensive experience in the areas of hospital operations, information services, revenue cycle, and project management. Dr. Hawthorne also possesses expertise in strategic planning, comprehensive business plans development, complex information technology projects and budget management, and staff and leadership development.

Dr. Hawthorne is currently employed at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as the Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer. She has executive strategic responsibility within Health Information Management (HIM), Coding and Release of Information, and Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Hawthorne’s responsibilities include strategic leadership of the Information Services (IS) department which includes 550 full-time staff members. IS supports approximately 16,000 employees, 1,000 doctors and trainees, and 1,500 Research Institute professionals.

She has oversight of a 550+ employee Information Services (IS) department which includes the areas of Biomedical Engineering, Health Information Management, and Emerging Technology and Transformation. The IS department supports approximately 16,000 employees, 21,000 active directory accounts and provides comprehensive services to over 50 care locations. Dr. Hawthorne manages a $185M operating and $50 M capital budget.

Working collaboratively with the CHOP Executives and her Associate Chief Information Officers (ACIOs), Dr. Hawthorne manages a $50 million capital budget and a project portfolio of over 90 large and mid-size projects annually. In addition to her operational leadership, she participates on executive governance committees, leads IS oversight and leadership groups, and provides regular updates to the CHOP Board of Directors. Overall, Dr. Hawthorne ensures that Information Services is supporting CHOP’s strategic initiatives to protect patient safety and promote information security. The IS strategic priorities are IS Organization & Governance, Infrastructure & Security, Emerging Technology & Transformation, Customer Service and Strategic Foundational Systems.

Dr. Hawthorne’s leadership style focuses on discovering the various ways that her teams are implementing high-reliability behaviors and relentless customer service into their everyday work. One example is the Emerging Technology and Transformation portfolio that ensures that CHOP IS has the ability to be a fast follower in the digital space, can rapidly track and test emerging technology, and capitalize on existing Information Technology (IT) developers and e-health analysts. This is also illustrated in the numerous ways IS has improved the employee experience at CHOP with initiatives such as Epic Optimization, Workday Workday Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Program, IS Service Portal, and Enterprise Mobile Communications.

Such commendable work has earned the IS department various external awards including the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Most Wired Award, CIO 100, and Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT. Additionally, Dr. Hawthorne was recognized as a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2019 recipient of the Most Influential Women in Health IT Award.

The value of communications and engagement is evident in Dr. Hawthorne’s credibility as a frequent leadership speaker. Among her most recent events, presentations and panels include: American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Annual Interoperability Forum and Delaware Valley Chapter of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (DVHIMSS).

Dr. Hawthorne has been a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives for 13 years. She holds a PhD in Information Studies from Drexel University’s College of Computing and Informatics (CCI). Since 2018, she has served on CCI’s Dean’s Executive Advisory Council as well as the Committee of Seventy in Philadelphia and Evanta, Philadelphia CIO Executive Summit.  

Aaron Miri is the Chief Information Officer for The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School and UT Health Austin. Aaron brings more than a decade of healthcare experience driving growth and innovation, leading both provider and commercial healthcare enterprises, and providing thought leadership and close collaboration with state and federal representatives. As CIO, Aaron is passionate about humanizing technology by collaborating with clinicians, technology partners, and business champions to truly transform healthcare delivery for consumers, patients, and providers.

In 2018, Aaron was congressionally appointed to the Health and Human Services, federal Health IT Advisory Committee (HITAC), established under the 21st Century Cures Act. Previously, Aaron was federally appointed by HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell to serve on the HHS Health IT Policy Committee established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Aaron is the prior Chair of the HIMSS National Public Policy Committee and serves as an expert adviser to the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and to other congressional panels engaged in numerous Health IT policy topics.

Aaron brings a deep understanding of how to leverage digital health and the latest technology to accelerate healthcare delivery across the continuum of care. Prior to joining U.T., Aaron served as the Chief Information Officer for Imprivata, the Healthcare IT security leader, where he helped to build and transform a global commercial enterprise focused on healthcare cyber security. Prior to Imprivata, Aaron was the Chief Information Officer for Walnut Hill Medical Center, lauded by Forbes Magazine as the hospital that Steve Jobs would have built. Aaron has successfully led organizations that achieved the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award, HIMSS Level 6 and HIMSS Level 7 EMRAM status, HITRUST CSF designation, and led the first provider organization to receive the SECURETexas Health Information Privacy and Security certification awarded through the Texas Health Services Authority (THSA).

Aaron received his MBA, with honors, from the University of Dallas, and his Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. Aaron is a Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer (CHCIO) through the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), a distinguished Fellow with the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and he is a Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). Aaron was previously recognized as a 2019 “CIOs to Know” by Beckers Hospital Review and was honored with the 2016 Computerworld Premier 100 Technology Leaders award and 2017 Texas Health IT Leadership Award.

Sarah Richardson is a transformative, inspirational and results-driven healthcare and technology senior executive who operates within large-scale healthcare environments. She achieves aggressive goals, catalyzes change and advances sustainability by designing and executing high performance-based strategies, cultivating top-tier talent, infusing expectations and accountabilities, instilling customer-centric practices and forging collaborative cultures.

Sarah is one of those people who ‘gets things done’ and has a penchant for bringing out the best in people. With an enthusiastic and genuinely approachable attitude, Sarah radiates a sincere passion for delivering value and benefits to the teams she leads and serves. She has built awardwinning 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.

With a B.S. in Hospitality Administration, a Master’s in Business, and a certification in Healthcare Administration, Sarah currently serves as the Vice President of IT Change Leadership for Optum. Optum serves over 14M patients, 7K advanced practice clinicians, and 1.1K clinics. Optum is committed to developing innovative models of healthcare delivery that improve patients’ quality of life while containing healthcare costs. Their strength is in their steadfast commitment to their guiding principle of coordinated care. Their physicians strive daily to bring the benefits of coordinated care to patients who represent the diversity of cultures, socioeconomic groups, ages, and health statuses in the communities they serve.

She is most proud that her work focuses on building long-lasting, loyal relationships across the continuum, resulting in collaborative strategies to meet diverse organizational needs, productivity gains, and the use of technology to advance teammate engagement resulting in a committed and dedicated workforce. Her ability to coordinate teams of technology experts, strategic business partners, physicians, and clinicians, has enabled her to successfully deliver programs, services, and tailored solutions in the healthcare setting.

An active member of CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO), faculty member, media liaison, and fellow, Sarah hosts the HIMSS SoCal Podcast featuring top HIT and leadership topics with keynote guests. Sarah regularly publishes industry relevant content on her website at www.conciergeleadership.com and volunteers her time as a board member with the Los Angeles
Children’s Bureau. She is a Certified Professional Coach, serving as the chair for members in transition for the SoCal Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SCSIM). She is an
avid scuba diver with a passion for conservation.

Tressa Springmann has been Chief Information Officer for Lifebridge Health since 2012.  Further she has had responsibility as Senior Vice President over Performance Improvement including the organization’s Lean transformation work (prior) and currently over the systems HIM function as well as the system’s Call Centers 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, Bon Secours Hospital, Baltimore 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 chairman of the technology committee for CRISP, Maryland’s State Health Information Exchange (HIE), and a member of the Premier Member Technology Committee (MTIC). 

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.

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.