Nicole Bloom RN

Nicole is a registered Nurse working for the Veterans Affairs for almost a decade. Nicole joined the Advocacy committee because she rather not have policy makers creating the realm that she operates in without her input. It is very important to her that policy makers collaborate with the experts within the realm that they are aiming to create policy for. Additionally, it is a career aspiration of hers to play an influential role within the policy realm of her expertise full-time.

Through her participation in all of her various advocacy activities, Nicole has gained invaluable skills and knowledge that will help her to reach her career goals. She believes that those working in the policy realm full-time, all year, year after year, will have the most impact within the policy realm that they work. It is critical that policy-generating roles are filled by experts, and as much as possible, by the experts of the policy realm that they are expert of.

Leslie Bruce, JD

Leslie K. Bruce, JD, is a seasoned professional with a career in advocacy, communications and community relations that spans more than 25 years. She currently serves as Director of Healthcare Leadership and Community Outreach for UC San Diego Extension where she directs the Politics and Public Policy of US Healthcare advocacy training courses in Sacramento and Washington, DC. She also manages the Healthcare Information Technology program and teaches Introduction to U.S. Healthcare online to hundreds of students across the country.

Leslie also leads the applied capstone project in the UC San Diego master’s program in Health Law and Policy and lectures in various programs at UC San Diego and at nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Prior to working at UC San Diego Extension, Bruce served as Director of Government and Community Relations for the Health Sciences at UC San Diego and at Sharp HealthCare.

Leslie began her career working for a member of the California Legislature. A compulsive activist, she recently served as Chair of the Development Board for Family Health Centers of San Diego, the region’s largest family of community clinics and serves as Communications Chair for the Citizens Oversight Committee for Proposition S and N Funds for the San Diego Community College District.

John Conklin, CPHIMS

John is an experienced healthcare IT professional with 20 years combined technical leadership, product and program management, software development, consulting and other customer interaction roles. John has had the great fortune to visit and work with countless healthcare provider organizations across the country. His broad experience includes formal roles and responsibilities within product development and sales while rotating proverbial hats to fill gaps in operations, project management, support, and marketing departments.

Most recently John led a strategic product development program where he catalyzed advancement of a venerable and aging healthcare IT solution with modern software technologies while leading the expansion of sales into an additional market. Previous positions include director of technical consulting, manager of software development, and multiple software project leader and engineering roles for market leading products and companies.

John welcomes the opportunity to work with public officials and entities to help shape and convey well-defined IT programs and strategies to facilitate improved quality of life and health of individuals.

Design and detailed oriented by nature, John has extensive experience with healthcare IT standards, product conception, software design, development, and systems in various critical uptime environments. John is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and is a certified professional in healthcare information & management systems (CPHIMS).

Christopher Lee

Christopher K. Lee, MPH, is on a mission to develop sustainable, technology-driven solutions for managing population health. He is currently working at PrescribeWellness, a pharmacy software company where he oversees client case management and identifies new business opportunities.

Prior to his current role, Chris performed medical business valuation at a practice brokerage, Transition Consultants. He holds a B.A. in psychology and a master’s degree in health management and policy.

Vish Nath

Vish Nath applies project and portfolio management skills to drive operational efficiency for multi-million dollar projects. His 16 years’ experience, including in many Fortune 500 companies has honed his insights and expertise on project management principles.

Vish is a passionate business transformation practitioner with proven subject matter expertise. In his current position as IT Program Director at Molina Healthcare Inc., he leads a strong team of project managers to manage a multi-million dollar portfolio of mission-critical projects.

Vish is an MBA in Finance and Marketing. He is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and has a Certification in ITIL V3.

Geri Pavia

Geri Pavia is a Strategic Healthcare Consultant, spending the last twelve years of her career in healthcare with a primary focus on assisting Healthcare Acute Centers implement and execute EMR initiatives. She is a results-oriented individual who understands clinical projects from budgeting and project timeline execution perspectives. As an Enterprise Software Sales Consultant, Business Development, and Strategist, her career has been spent building and leading top-producing partnerships and revenue-generating initiatives within Healthcare. Geri has an acute ability to combine her creative skills in strategic clinical planning, client relations, problem research, team leadership and mentoring within direct and indirect technology-based healthcare environments. She has built a solid network of relationships in the direct hospital networks, healthcare, healthcare provider, biosciences, public sector, and state and local government, and healthcare education (SLED) markets. She has a personal pursuit within the healthcare communities in supporting charities that support children with life-long illness. 

John Petring

I have worked in database development and administration for 16 years, and for the last six years I’ve worked at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on database and general healthcare IT issues. 

I will complete a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree at USC in August 2015.  I have a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and I earned a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree at Georgetown University.  My early career was in Washington, DC where I worked for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on its Russia and Ukraine programs.  I then did consulting work analyzing energy and environmental policy developments.   

I am very interested in following healthcare IT policy at the local, state and national level.  I would like to influence that policy where possible to ensure that legislators and regulators implement policies that allow healthcare providers to provide the highest quality healthcare in the most efficient manner possible.  I believe that I can contribute to the Policy and Advocacy Committee’s work through policy analysis and public presentations.  I enjoy public speaking and would welcome the chance to meet with policy makers to provide them with the information they need to arrive at the best policies.

My studies at USC have helped me to understand the key issues in modern healthcare delivery, such as the ONC’s focus on building an interoperable nationwide health information system and developing meaningful use of health information technology.

Ian Slade
VP Advocacy & Public Policy

Ian Slade is a Healthcare Innovator. He is passionate about finding ways to do things better, faster, and more cost efficiently without compromising patient outcomes.

Ian has been a registered nurse since 1999. His journey in the healthcare profession has exposed him to most areas of the hospital with much of his experience in Emergency, Critical Care and the Peri-Operative Area. He started delving into Healthcare Informatics in 2002 with his first EMR implementation and has been actively working in this arena ever since. He has worked as a consultant in multiple hospitals throughout the United States, with clients in Canada and the United Kingdom as well.

Ian enjoys speaking with public officials about our concerns in the Healthcare IT arena. He looks forward to collaborating with legislators to help make laws that will ultimately support healthcare professionals and improve the quality of care for patients in California.