Workshops

Ashley Schmidt is the President and Founder of the national non-profit professional organization, Women In Healthcare, Inc. In this capacity she oversees the startup and growth of chapters of the organization all over the country. Ashley believes in empowering woman and helping them to climb the corporate ladder. After spending nearly a decade serving on organizational boards and in the healthcare industry, Ashley knew there was a gap in education and mentorship offered to females in healthcare, and knew a platform needed to be developed to encourage and empower women to rise to the top

In addition to Women In Healthcare, Ashley also serves as an Associate and Director of Business Development at the architecture firm, SmithGroup. In this role she develops strategic business plans for the firm and implements client relations strategy for healthcare clients up and down the east coast.

Ashley has a certification in Evidence Based Design for Healthcare (EDAC) as well as a Certified Professional Service Marketer (CPSM) certification. Ashley has presented regionally at conference on topics such as developing a business development strategy and networking. Ashley was recently published in USA today, Women in Business Issue, regarding “Can Selfishness Break the Glass Ceiling”.

Ashley has a BA in Communications and Business from Loyola University in Baltimore and is pursuing her Masters in Healthcare Management at Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.

Nelson Griswold has been called “visionary” by Art Dammers of Anthem, “an authority on voluntary benefits and consultative selling” by Employee Benefit Adviser magazine and “a well-recognized industry thought leader” by Ron Leopold of MetLife.

Nelson has been honored by the Voluntary Benefits Association with their prestigious Industry Leadership Award, for his “professional accomplishments that drive the voluntary benefits industry forward.” A nationally-known agency reinvention and growth expert, he is the author of DO or DIE: Reinventing Your Benefits Agency for Post-Reform Success, the industry bestseller that has been hailed as the only comprehensive blueprint for agency leaders to reinvent their firm to survive and grow in the post-ACA era. As a practice management and agency growth consultant, Nelson works with leading agencies across the country to grow their top- and bottom-line revenue.

Nelson serves as Managing Director of the Agency Growth Mastermind Partnership, a national executive peer-exchange network for non-competing benefits agency owners who collaborate and cooperate to identify best practices and proven growth strategies to remain relevant, profitable, independent & growing.

Nelson is also a leading strategic consultant to carriers and other industry vendors on broker distribution & activation, voluntary benefits, and next-generation engagement & enrollment strategies. Nelson writes a monthly column for Employee Benefit Adviser magazine, has written for Benefits Selling, Producers eSource and other leading industry publications, and writes a blog for Zywave. He is an in-demand keynote speaker and presenter at industry conferences. He is a board member and serves on the executive committee of both the Workplace Benefits Association and the Voluntary Benefits Association

Wendy is an Associate Director in Strategic Risk Solutions Washington, D.C. office, serving as the Employee Benefits Practice Leader within the organization. Her responsibilities include supporting consulting sources with analyses, underwriting, development and formation of captives assuming medical stop loss or employee benefits risk within their captive. In addition, her responsibilities include the program management and oversight of the group medical stop loss captive insurance business. Wendy has nearly 20 years’ experience in the insurance industry with a primary focus on the formation, implementation, administration and management of self-insured group captives and programs within the Property and Casualty and Employee Benefits sectors. Additionally, Wendy served as Director of Operations for a large privately held Medical Stop Loss Managing General Underwriter. She is a member of the Self Insurance Institute of America and is a licensed Health, Life & Annuities producer.

As the Principal and Managing Partner of Axial Benefits Group, Mr. Rodgers brings his extensive background in health and welfare plans to Axial's clients.

He has been pioneering Healthcare Purchasing Coalitions since 2009 specializing in assisting medium and large corporations, many of whom have multi-state locations, with the development of effective health care programs. Specifically, he has designed, implemented and managed 5 successful healthcare purchasing coalitions helping hundreds of companies lower costs and stabilized renewals.

Prior to co-founding Axial Benefits Group, Mr. Rodgers founded its predecessor company, Atlantic Benefits, in 2003. He also founded The Staffing Exchange (TSE) in 2012, a successful healthcare purchasing coalition dedicated specifically to the Staffing industry. He has had over 22 years of experience and held senior consulting positions at Hays Companies, William Gallagher Associates, and Marsh & McLennan. Mr. Rodgers is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts School of Engineering. He is a former Massachusetts high school wrestling state champion and collegiate wrestler. He is an avid national speaker on the Affordable Care Act and has become known as one of the nation's experts on the topic of its compliance. He is the former Chairman of the Boston Board of Directors for the March of Dimes and has been involved with the development of corporate programs for the both Friends of Boston's Homeless charity and various local Habitat for Humanity Chapters. He lives in Concord, MA with his wife and family, where he is also a town meeting member.

Dr. Sunnie Giles is President of Quantum Leadership Group. She is the author of The New Science of Radical Innovation (2018). She catalyzes leaders to produce radical innovation and redefine the game as individuals and organizations. She is a TEDx speaker on radical innovation.

She is an advisor at the Stanford Business School Institute of Innovation in Developing Economies. Her recent research on global leadership for innovation has been published by Harvard Business Review. She is a regular contributor on Forbes, and has been published on INC., World Financial Review, the Leadership Network, Training Industry, the Korea Times, and Management Matters Network.

Dr. Sunnie received her MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth school of Business and a PhD in systemic psychology from Brigham Young University.

Brian Klepper, PhD is Principal of Worksite Health Advisors and a nationally prominent health care analyst and commentator. He writes and speaks extensively about the structural dynamics of the US health care cost crisis, primary care clinics, high performance health care and the management of full continuum clinical and financial risk.

David A. Shore is a leading authority on innovation and managing change initiatives to gain competitive advantage.  Throughout his career he has worked to combine research, teaching, consulting and writing to build constructive links between theory and practice.

Shore has been on the faculty of Harvard University for more than two decades. He is also Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Change at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (China) and Adjunct Professor of Organizational Development and Change at the School of Business, University of Monterrey (Mexico).  Shore is a faculty member of The Governance Institute and Executive-in-Residence at Enable East (United Kingdom).  He has held visiting professorships including in Amsterdam, Santiago, and Shanghai and consulted on six continents.  Shore offers executive education seminars and facilitates strategic planning and guided implementation retreats.  He has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses and workshops across multiple industries.

Previously, Shore spent two decades at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he served as associate dean.  He founded and directed the School's flagship programs:  Forces of Change; The Trust Initiative; and the Certificate Program on Launching and Leading Successful Change Initiatives.

He has served on and chaired numerous boards and committees, and currently is a founding member of McKinsey & Company's External Implementation Advisory Board which has a primary focus on operationalizing strategy for transformational change.   He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Marshfield Clinic Health System, as well as several editorial boards.  Among his honors is the Doctorate Fellow from the Academy of Multi-Skills (United Kingdom).  Along with innovation and change, Shore's body of work focuses on creating higher performing organizations including building and rebuilding trust; reimaging and reengineering meetings; and, strategic marketing and branding.

His most recent books include Launching and Leading Successful Change Initiatives in Health Care Organizations: (Jossey-Bass, 2014); Forces of Change:  New Strategies for the Evolving Health Care Marketplace (Jossey-Bass, 2012); and High Stakes:  The Critical Role of Stakeholders in Health Care, with E. Kupferberg (Oxford University Press, 2011).  He has also written a book on trust and edited a second.

Professor Shore has been recognized as a Top Thought Leader in Trust by Trust Across America – Trust Around the World.   He is also a multiple recipient of Harvard's Letter of Commendation for Distinguished Teaching Performance, including in 2017 and 2018; and was chosen to deliver a 2015 and 2016 Harvard Lecture That Lasts (Harvard's version of a TED Talk) and a TEDx Talk. 

Never known to simply :admire the problem," beyond intellectually stimulating, Shore provides executable advice, inspiring leaders and organizations to gain a unique and adaptable competitive advantage.

Julie Goldstein Grumet, PhD is the Director of the Zero Suicide Institute at EDC. The Zero Suicide Institute provides expert consultation and guidance to health and behavioral health care organizations implementing the Zero Suicide framework for safer suicide care. Zero Suicide focuses on error reduction and patient safety through a robust, comprehensive, bundled approach to suicide care in health and behavioral health systems. Dr. Goldstein Grumet also serves as Director of Health and Behavioral Health Initiatives at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), a federally funded resource center devoted to advancing the U.S. National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Both the Zero Suicide Institute and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center are part of the Education Development Center (EDC), a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Her areas of expertise include behavioral health innovation, community and clinical suicide prevention, youth suicide prevention, and school-based mental health prevention and intervention. Dr. Goldstein Grumet received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in school mental health at The University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Center for Mental Health Assistance.

Virna Little is a nationally and internationally-known speaker around integrating primary care and behavioral health services, collaborative care and the development of viable behavioral health services in community health settings. Dr. Little is an advocate for integrated delivery systems and behavioral health workforce and development. She worked as a senior leader for a community health center network overseeing a department of over 300 staff consisting of specialized mental health, care management, community-based programs, and social services for over twenty years. Currently, she works with the Center for Innovation in Mental Health and the New York City Department of Health providing support to several of the New York City Mental Health Roadmap THRIVE initiatives, such as the maternal depression collaborative. Before joining the city, Dr. Little provided social services at the Department of Corrections and was a domestic violence coordinator chosen by the Mayor’s office in New York City to promote family violence identification and prevention. She is a federally-certified Department of Transportation substance abuse professional and a certified New York State Mandated Reporter child abuse trainer. Dr. Little has served on the Zero Suicide Institute Faculty since 2015.

Becky Stoll is responsible for the overall operation of Centerstone’s Crisis and Disaster Management services. Ms. Stoll graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee with a BS in Psychology. She received her Master’s in the Science of Social Work from the University of Tennessee in Nashville, Tennessee. Ms. Stoll is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 20 years of behavioral health experience. She is a recognized leader in the areas of crisis services, disaster mental health, and suicide prevention. She is a member of the National Action Alliance’s "Zero Suicides in Healthcare" Advisory Group as well as serving as a faculty and mentor. Ms. Stoll has provided training, consultation, and response nationally and internationally to aviation, banking, educational institutions, emergency response organizations, and professional sports. Ms. Stoll is a Board-Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and a Diplomate of the American Association of Experts in Traumatic Stress. She is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional.

Rebecca Love, RN, MSN, ANP is the Managing Director of US Markets for Ryalto International. Rebecca was the first Director of Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the United States at Northeastern School of Nursing– the first initiative in the Country designed to empower nurses as innovators and entrepreneurs, where she founded the First Nurse Hackathon, which has led to transformational change in the Nursing Profession. Rebecca is an experienced Nurse Entrepreneur, founding HireNurses.com in 2013 which was acquired in 2018. Rebecca is passionate about empowering nurses and creating communities to help nurses innovate, create and collaborate to start businesses to transform healthcare.

Rebecca holds a M.S. in Nursing from Northeastern University, B.A. in International Relations/Spanish from Boston University, and is currently Faculty at Norwich University, sits on the board of NextGen Ventures & the Host Committee for the Massachusetts ACLU. She currently lives in Marblehead Massachusetts with her husband and 3 children.

Hiyam M. Nadel is the Nurse Director of OB/GYN Ambulatory Division at Massachusetts General Hospital located in Boston, Waltham and Danvers. She is also the Innovation Specialist within the Patient Care Services Innovation Center.

Along with the re-opening of the Obstetrics Department after a 40-year hiatus, Hiyam implemented different nurse-care models and a “Medical Home” for the Obstetrics Division. She has had opportunities to design IT programs such as the “Ambulatory Patient Tracking System” and co-authored the design of the “OB EMR”, an electronic medical record, subsequently sold to Hewitt Packard.

Since graduating from Babson with an MBA in 2013, she has been mentoring students and nurses with developing their healthcare ideas. She has been involved in the Northeastern University Nursing Hackathons, IBM Watson Healthcare Hacks and Ruderman Foundation Disability Hackathons.

Her passion about mentoring has led to seats as both a Mentor and Judge on the MassChallenge panel created by the Governor of Massachusetts. MassChallenge inspires and invites digital start-up companies to Massachusetts from around the globe to solve healthcare problems.

In 2015, Patient Care Services under the leadership of the Chief Nurse, Deborah Burke at Massachusetts General Hospital, developed two yearly, $5,000 innovation grants. Hiyam, in addition to being on the Executive Committee, mentors the awardees allowing their ideas to become reality. Currently, there are 5 prototypes developed with one provisional patent filed.

While acting as the awardees’ accelerator, not only are real problems being solved throughout the hospital but an infrastructure is being created to facilitate intrapreneurship.