eHealth Initiative and Foundation Staff
Jennifer Covich Bordenick is Vice President at the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation in Washington, DC. Since 2002, Jennifer has provided leadership for education and research components of the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation, including working groups, the online eHealth Initiative Toolkit, eHealth Initiative’s Annual Conference, Annual Awards Program, Partnership for Connecting Communities for Better Health Program, annual health information exchange (HIE) survey, Connecting Communities Coalition, and many other programs. Prior to her current position, Jennifer headed up the strategic marketing efforts at two different technology organizations, focusing on solutions for the healthcare industry. Jennifer also spent four years at the National Committee for Quality Assurance as Director of Policy and Product Development, where she assisted in the development of national quality standards for healthcare organizations, including health plans, providers, and other healthcare organizations. Jennifer began her career at the George Washington University, Medical Center and Health Plan in Washington, DC. She spent several years there working on quality management initiatives and healthcare administration. Jennifer was a faculty member at the University of Phoenix and teaches online management and healthcare classes to graduate students. Jennifer earned a master’s degree in Human Resource Development, and bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She has also completed coursework in the doctoral program in healthcare administration at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Deborah Chandler provides financial analysis and accounting support to the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation. Prior to eHI, she provided operational oversight to a wellness center, served as a grant accountant for the Child Welfare League of America, oversaw all financial matters within the Division of Human Resources and Institutional Development at the Academy for Educational Development, served as budget and accounting manager for the Advocacy Institute, and served as contracts and accounting manager for Futron Corporation.
Claudia M. Ellison is Director of Development at the eHealth Initiative and Foundation. She is responsible for membership development through the cultivation of relationships with both existing and potential members and other stakeholders. Her work with the eHI Foundation has included providing support for the initiatives of the Agency for Healthcare Quality Resource’s National Resource Center and aiding in the development of a sustainable business plan for a health information exchange network.
Previously, she served in several capacities, including Program Director for the Texas Health Institute. She coordinated a health workforce and health information technology workgroup as part of a quality and safety improvement initiative in Texas; devised a curriculum for Leadership in Public Health Preparedness to present to public health managers in Texas; and developed a guidebook that highlighted emergency response preparations for Texas hospitals. Claudia has also worked as a health educator in Casablanca, Morocco and Austin, Texas. She received her Masters degree in Health Education from the University of Virginia.
Douglas W. Emery, MS is the Director of Payment Policy at the eHealth Initiative. He has been working in healthcare reform policy for over 14 years. Beginning in 1991, at the Institute of Political Economy, he and other colleagues began to work out a new microeconomic model for healthcare economics and episode of care purchasing. Since then, Mr. Emery has worked in the public sector (Public Employees Health Program of Utah) and the private sector as an executive and consultant (Oxford Health Plans, HealthSouth, HealthMarket, Medstat, Definity Health, etc.) Mr. Emery has published many articles and two books on moving towards a more consumer-directed model and episode purchasing. The second book, Customer Directed Healthcare with Episode Pricing is due to be published in January of this year through Texere, a division of Thomson Publishing.
Mark Gorden, MS is eHealth Initiative's Director of Policy. Mark’s lengthy background in health care policy and advocacy includes advancing the use of health information technology and e-prescribing, pay for performance, quality of care and patient safety, demonstration program design and evaluation, expanding coverage of the uninsured, and promoting use of a medical home. A product of Harvard School of Public Health’s first graduating class in Health Policy and Management, Mark was the American Society of Internal Medicine’s (ASIM) first Director of Research. This was followed by 20 plus years working for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. At CMS, Mark played a pivotal role in the birth of the Quality Improvement Organization program, and led Federal policy implementing the nation’s first Medicaid freedom of choice waivers, cutting edge work which earned him the U.S. Surgeon General’s Commendation Medal. Prior to joining eHI, Mark served as a senior executive for three major national health care organizations: the American College of Physicians (ACP), the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and the American College of Radiology.
Heather Loretoni serves as a part-time Accounting Assistant for eHealth Initiative, working primarily in membership accounting and accounts receivables. Heather is currently enrolled full-time at NOVA. She looks forward to receiving her A.A. in Business in 2008 and moving on to receive a B.A. in Accounting. Prior to working at eHI, Heather worked as an Accounting Assistant at OPELCO, along with nights and weekends as a Starbucks Barista.
Janet Marchibroda is the Chief Executive Officer of the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation, both Washington, D.C.-based independent, national non-profit organizations whose missions are to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.
Ms. Marchibroda previously served as the Executive Director of Connecting for Health—a public-private sector initiative funded and led by the Markle Foundation and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—which is designed to catalyze actions on a national basis to drive electronic connectivity and create an interconnected, electronic health information infrastructure. In addition, she was recognized in 2005 as one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine and in 2006 for the Federal Computer Week Top 100 Award.
Prior to the eHealth Initiative, Ms. Marchibroda co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer for two health care information organizations, one which focuses on providing patient safety and compliance information to physicians and the other—a Bertelsmann AG subsidiary—which focuses on providing electronic publishing services to the payer community to support member information needs. She also served as the interim Chief Operating Officer for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.
Ms. Marchibroda also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, an organization devoted to evaluating and improving the quality of health care for Americans--where she was responsible for accreditation of healthcare organizations, education programs, the national HEDIS database, electronic information products, strategic planning, human resources, finance, and administration. She holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA with a concentration in organization development from George Washington University.
John Mellin, MBA serves as Program Manager and provides management expertise and support to the financial analytical activities of the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation. Prior to joining eHI, John was employed in a variety of trading, research and analytical capacities for mutual fund giant, Franklin Templeton Services, Inc. In addition to his professional experience, John is also a former officer in U.S. Army, having the distinction of finishing as the distinguished candidate with the top ranking in his class at Officer Candidate School (OCS) and being the proud recipient of the U.S. Army Commendation Medal. He holds a B.A. degree from Florida State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Temple University.
Michael Moses serves as Director of Online Communications for eHealth Initiative. Prior to joining eHI, he served as E-Commerce Manager and Marketing Research Manager for Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Mr. Moses has been recognized with several awards for Web design, usability, and Internet marketing including a Web Marketing Association Standard of Excellence. He holds a B.A. and B.F.A from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art & Technology and is currently finishing a dual M.S. and M.B.A. in E-Commerce at the University of Maryland.
Brian Wagner is the Manager of Government Relations and Public Policy for the eHealth Initiative. Prior to working for eHI, Brian served as Executive Assistant, Legislative Aide, and Policy Advisor for Congressman Brian Baird (WA-03). While working in the House of Representatives, Brian gained extensive experience advising Mr. Baird on health care policy, as well as a variety of other issue areas including foreign policy, immigration, and defense. He graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University.
Keviar Warner, MBA is Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and Administrative Services Manager at the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation. Keviar provides executive support to the CEO, while managing the day-to-day operations of the office. As primary coordinator for all eHI Board meetings, Keviar excels in conference planning and managing event logistics.
Prior to joining the eHI team, Keviar worked at the Financial Services Roundtable for seven years, providing administrative and project management support to the Chief Operating Officer and senior staff. Keviar earned her BS degree in Business Administration as well as her MBA at Strayer University in Washington, DC.
Emily Welebob RN, MS currently serves as the Program Director for the eHealth Initiative’s Connecting Communities for Drug Safety Collaboration on a consulting basis while serving as the Senior Vice President of Strateig Development for the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE). She has over 15 years of experience in clinical practice, clinical systems marketplace, and consulting related to clinical systems/EHR in both inpatient and ambulatory settings, with a specialized focus on patient safety and clinical information exchange to support communities. At IHIE, she is working on further developing clinical information exchange services. She has published, lectured and researched in the areas of clinical informatics and healthcare information technologies.
Prior to her joining IHIE, she was a Vice President of Program Delivery at the eHealth Initiative and managed knowledge delivery functions of both the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation, leading state and regional health information exchange initiatives, and providing technical assistance and policy development for states, regions, and communities across the United States under grants and contracts funded by states, philanthropies and the federal government. Ms. Welebob also has broad knowledge of patient safety and quality of care, health care market trends, and clinical information systems. Prior to her work with eHI, Welebob was a Director at First Consulting Group (FCG), a consulting group for healthcare providers, health plans, government healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations. She played a principal role in the development of patient safety services at FCG in developing, leading, and managing services and projects inclusive of patient safety, medication management, and advanced clinical information systems, including computerized physician order entry. She facilitated strategic information management planning initiatives for a variety of healthcare organizations, ranging from small community-based hospitals to large integrated delivery systems. Additional areas of expertise include information technology enabled process redesign, strategic planning, procurement, and implementation management.
Prior to her healthcare consulting work, Ms. Welebob was a registered nurse for 10 years with experience in nursing leadership, and delivering patient care in intensive care, trauma, and emergency departments. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marymount University, Arlington, Virginia and a Master of Science, Nursing Informatics, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland.
