Board of Directors

Partnership for a Connected Illinois

 

 

 

 

Lisa Mazur, Chair

 

Lisa Schmitz Mazur is a partner of the Chicago office of McDermott Will and Emery. She advises health care providers and technology companies on a variety of legal, regulatory and compliance matters with a particular focus on digital health topics, including telehealth, telemedicine, mobile health and consumer wellness. In addition to extensive writing on matters related to her digital health practice, Lisa has spoken at numerous conferences on a variety of digital health topics. She is a co-editor of McDermott’s Of Digital Interest blog, co-chairs the Interstate Collaboration in Healthcare Stakeholder Group and chairs the Illinois Telehealth Law Forum Program Planning Committee. Lisa also co-leads the Firm’s Digital Health affinity group, bringing together McDermott Health lawyers to develop thought leadership, share information and collaborate on best practices.    

 

 

Fatema Zanzi, Vice Chair

 

Fatema Zanzi is the Chief Legal Officer at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, leading the legal services department. She provides strategic counseling on the corporate, transactional and regulatory matters that make it possible for the hospital and its affiliates to meet their business and service objectives. She also provides counsel on compliance with federal and state fraud and abuse laws, Medicare and Medicaid provider enrollment and reimbursement laws, HIPAA privacy and security laws, and healthcare provider licensure and scope of practice requirements. Further, she provides counsel on legal issues arising in regard to medical staff governance. She serves as the Corporate Secretary of the Board of Directors of Lurie Children’s and its affiliates and as Chair of the Children’s Health Affinity Group of the American Health Lawyers Association.

 

 

Carla Robinson, Treasurer

 

Carla Robinson is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Canary Telehealth, a telehealth services company working with payers and providers to increase access to care and detect issues early for high-risk patients. Her firm works extensively in the home setting—providing services such as in-home diabetic retinopathy screening, remote monitoring, health risk screening, and other digital health solutions. Previously,as a McKinsey & Company consultant, Carla worked in management consulting, serving some of the world’s largest organizations. She worked extensively with healthcare clients in areas such as medical devices, wellness, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and nanobiotechnology. Her work included markets in the United States, China, Japan, Australia and France. Robinson holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she was named an Austin Scholar. She received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University with honors. 

 

Ann Ford, Secretary

 

Ann Ford is a partner at Hall Prangle & Schoonveld. She provides strategic, business and legal advice to clients in the highly regulated healthcare industry in compliance, regulatory and transactional matters. Her experience includes over 15 years of executive leadership in healthcare organizations. Prior to joining Hall Prangle & Schoonveld, as the chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel of an international medical device, supply and distribution company, Ann developed global and US-based programs in healthcare compliance and worked on strategic acquisitions. She has also served as general counsel of two Chicago hospitals and as a partner in a professional liability litigation firm in Chicago. Before the law, Ann practiced high-risk clinical nursing in obstetrics, pediatrics and neonatology, while serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Committee of the Medical Affairs Professional Society, an international organization that promotes medical affairs professionals in the life sciences industry. 

 
 

Dr. Richard Bernstein

 

As Professor of Neurology, Northwestern Medicine, Richard Bernstein focuses on neurovascular critical care, stroke, stroke of unknown cause, stroke in young people, acute stroke therapy, atrial fibrillation, and stem cell therapy for stroke. He received his doctorate from Cornell Weill Medical College in 1996 and interned at Mount Sinai Hospital, Illinois. He was a resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital as a neurologist Neurology and a fellow at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center. He is Board Certified in Neurology and in Vascular Neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

 

 
 

Jennifer Breuer

 

Jennifer Breuer is a Partner & Vice-Chair of Healthcare Group, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath. She provides strategic counsel to hospitals, health systems, physician practices, other providers and health technology companies on the transactional, regulatory and compliance matters they must address in the rapidly evolving health care landscape. She also develops data-sharing and privacy compliance strategies related to the use of electronic health records, health information exchanges and other technology platforms.

 
 

Erin Dougherty Foley

 

 

Erin Foley is a partner at Seyforth. Attracting, retaining, and managing the performance of employees presents unique and often demanding challenges to employers. Erin provides her clients with proactive and practical advice on how to navigate these challenges. She is also a seasoned employment defense trial lawyer who understands the importance of preparation and partnership with her clients to achieve the right outcome for the situation and the client.

 

   
 

LaDale George

 

LaDale George is a partner at Perkins Coie. Pregulatory compliance practice on advising healthcare clients and his transactional counsel on healthcare and non-healthcare corporate matters. He guides clients engaged in traditional and innovative healthcare businesses through complicated regulatory frameworks, including FDA, OHRP, NIH, and ORI regulated clinical research, clinical development, and post-approval marketing compliance; telehealth/telemedicine and multi-state provider licensing compliance; Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute compliance; FTC and CMS regulated clinical integration, and federal research grant management compliance. His corporate practice focuses on representing healthcare and non-healthcare businesses in corporate formations and governance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, licensing arrangements, and joint ventures, including strategic affiliations and clinical integrations.

 
 

Angie Grover

 

Angie Grover is a co-founder of Metopio.  Metopio was created by data scientists, healthcare executives and public health champions who needed a tool that could deliver and communicate actionable insights about places and populations to drive better policy and business decisions.  The platform is a start-to-finish, analytics as a service tool that brings together data, analytics and insights into one place so you can ask a question, get an answer, and accelerate your impact. Prior to launching Metopio, she served as the Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy at AMITA Health, the largest health system based in Illinois which includes 19 hospitals, 230 sites of care powered by more than 26,000 dedicated employees serving over 6 million patients in the Chicagoland area.  Angie identified opportunities for the health system to make a difference, and won awards for her work to advance telehealth in the state.

 

 

 
 
   
 

Rick Hindmand

 

Rick is Counsel at McDonald Hopkins where he helps healthcare professionals, organizations and advisers structure their operations and arrangements to address legal, compliance and business challenges while advancing and protecting their interests.  He focuses his practice on healthcare regulatory, data privacy, cybersecurity, corporate, and transactional matters. Rick represents physicians and other healthcare providers and organizations in structuring group practices, joint ventures, ambulatory surgery centers, provider networks, physician/ hospital affiliations and accountable care organizations (ACOs), as well as arrangements to provide ancillary services, telehealth, chronic care management, remote patient monitoring, and physician in-office dispensing of prescription drugs. His services extend to various corporate and transactional matters, including practice acquisitions and managed care, billing, management, compensation, employment, independent contractor, and other service arrangements.  Rick is active in the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys.

 

 
 
   
 

Laura Hepp Kessel

 

Laura Hepp Kessel, MSW, is the Director of Telehealth Services for the SIU School of Medicine.  In her role with SIU, Laura is responsible for managing SIU’s telehealth activities. Laura represents SIU as a member of the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council (GRAC), as the West Central District Chair with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Illinois Chapter, and as the Chair of Rural Partners (the state’s rural development council).  She previously worked at the Illinois State Board of Education, for Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, and as a community organizer in southern Illinois. Laura earned a Master Degree in Social Work from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis as well as a Bachelor Degree of Science in Social Work from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. Laura grew up in southern Illinois but currently lives in Canton.

 

 
 

Thomas Kiesau

 

Thomas Kiesau is a Director with The Chartis Group and the Leader of Chartis Digital, the firm’s business unit dedicated to digital transformation planning and execution across the healthcare arena. Prior to assuming leadership of Chartis Digital, he led the firm’s Strategy Practice Area. With more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Kiesau has served as an advisor to many of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals, academic health centers, faculty practice groups, integrated health systems and community hospitals. He directs consulting engagements in the areas of: digital transformation, enterprise strategic planning, clinical partnership development, next-generation service line growth strategy and economic alignment. Mr. Kiesau has also participated in the development of corporate strategy and product development strategy for multiple integrated business process and technology firms that serve the healthcare industry.

 

 
 
   

 

   
 

Laura Messineo

 

Laura Messineo, Vice President for Virtual Health, Highmark Health, is a dynamic nursing leader in the healthcare industry.   Her innovative nursing leadership skills enable her to successfully align corporate strategic goals to operationalize clinical and financial targets. With over a decade of experience within the telemedicine industry, Laura has proven successes implementing telehealth solutions to drive performance and financial metrics. Laura speaks nationally on a variety of topics and sits on various professional boards. 

 
 

Bruce Montgomery

 

Bruce Montgomery is the CEO of Technology Access Television (TATV.org) and hosts the longest running local technology-based television show in Chicago. He is Director and Co-Founder of the Chicago New Media Summit (CNMS08), and a member of the Board of the Illinois Technology Association. Bruce has also been a regular participant and contributor to the Governor’s Broadband Deployment Council since its inception in 2005. He is producer and host of “Critics in Black,” a weekly entertainment review TV talk show that covers film video, music and nightlife in Chicago and around the world.

 
     

 
 

Chevon M. Rariy, MD

 

Dr. Rariy is Chief Health Officer and Senior Vice-President-Digital Health at Oncology Care Partners—a first-of-its-kind platform, patient-focused oncology value-based network. She oversees oncology innovation delivery systems and leads digital transformation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and emerging technologies strategy. In addition to being a health care executive, she is a Harvard-trained practicing Endocrinologist, investor, keynote speaker, peer reviewed author, and serves on several non-profit and private boards at the intersection of digital health, technology and equity. She is also a co-founder of a mission-driven company: Equity in STEMM, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence.



 

 

 
 

Clay Wortham

 

Clay Wortham is Legal Counsel for Healthcare Transactional and Regulatory Matters at Wortham LLC. He focuses on health care transactional and regulatory matters, including structuring and negotiating purchase and supply agreements, telehealth and telemedicine professional services agreements and joint venture arrangements in compliance with federal health care program requirements. He also counsels clients with respect to structuring graduate medical education affiliation agreements and contracting for residency program didactic, administration and resident preceptor services. Clay is very active in the health care technology area, with experience in structuring and negotiating telehealth and telemedicine services agreements between providers, hospital systems and other institutional providers, including both the professional services and technology components of those arrangements. 

 

Partnership for a Connected Illinois 1337 Wabash Ave. Springfield, IL 62704 Phone: (217) 886-4228 Fax: (217) 718-4546 info@broadbandillinois.org