Speakers

Steven Posnack, M.S., M.H.S., serves as the deputy national coordinator for health information technology. In this role, he advises the national coordinator, leads the execution of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) mission, and represents ONC’s interests at a national and international level.

In conjunction with the national coordinator, Steve oversees ONC’s federal coordination, regulatory policy, public-private initiatives, and the overall implementation of statutory authorities and requirements, such as those from the 21st Century Cures Act and HITECH Act. 

Jim Shaheen is the CEO of New Season, a Medication Assisted Treatment company serving more than 32,000 patients in 88 clinics located in 20 different states. Prior to his current role,

Jim founded Shaheen Strategic Investments (SSI) in order to provide a vehicle for the Shaheen family to grow and expand its holdings in a variety of businesses. Prior to SSI, Shaheen founded a national healthcare company called Strategic Behavioral Health, a chain of private psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals across the nation. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., the company grew from Denovo to 13 hospitals in 8 states with revenues under $200 million.

With more than 33 years of behavioral health experience, Shaheen has helped a variety of small and large companies grow and expand services in order to meet the demands of behavioral health services in many communities. Shaheen is the Chairman of the UT Health Science Center College of Medicine Board of Visitors.  Shaheen also sits on the Jason Foundation Board of Directors, as well as the JC Runyon Foundation Board. Additionally, Shaheen sits on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare’s Education and Research Foundation. Shaheen holds a master’s degree in organizational communications from Murray State University and an undergraduate degree in Therapeutic Recreation also from Murray State University.

Jason Brooks, Ph.D. is a dynamic senior executive with extensive and diverse experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of individual, team and organization-focused solutions to achieve company people and performance goals.

Jason serves as senior vice president of human resources for New Season, a leading opioid addiction healthcare provider serving nearly 32,000 patients daily across the country.

Through his more than 30-year career, he has founded, co-founded, and led multiple private and public sector businesses in a variety of industries. At both startup companies to multi-billion-dollar organizations, Jason has specialized in leading change through aligning culture and strategy, growing great leaders, building powerful relationships, executing priorities and goals with excellence, and evaluating results that drive success.

He is a passionate teacher and learner and lives by the mantra “you’re either green and growing or ripe and rotting.” Jason earned his doctor of philosophy degree in psychology, as well as his master of business administration, master of science in mental health counseling, and bachelor of science in management degrees from Purdue University. 

Jason discovered the secret to living your best life by relentlessly pursuing three commitments: Live Confidently, Lead Courageously, and Love Completely. These are the core aspirations of his life, and he has created a platform where he is able to equip and empower others to take another step in achieving their best.

Rhonda Ashley-Dixon serves as vice president of strategic partnership and engagement for Vanderbilt Behavioral Health.

Rhonda has more than 30 years of healthcare experience, most of it focused in the field of behavioral health, specifically in the areas of education and awareness, physician recruitment (mainly psychiatrists), outreach and development, physician relations, employee engagement, and organizational operations as well as behavioral managed care.

She previously worked at Vanderbilt in the early years of the psychiatric hospital’s operation and also worked extensively with PSI and SeniorHealth before returning to Vanderbilt in July 2009.

Rhonda has a passion for assisting with the education of patients and their families as well as providers and community organizations focused in the area of behavioral health services and erasing the stigma often associated with the field. She is extensively involved with multiple community, regional and national organizations and boards including, but not limited to, Mental Health America of the Midsouth where she has previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors, the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network, the Children’s Mental Health Coalition, NAMI (state and local), Council on Children and Youth, and Tennessee Voices for Children, where she served previously on the board of directors.

Rhonda is also a member of the AHA-Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development; serves on the Executive Council for Tennessee Hospital Association’s psychiatric division; and represents Vanderbilt on the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare.

Rhonda earned a bachelor’s degree in counseling psychology and rehabilitation services from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master’s degree in organizational management from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.

Beth Kuhn is principal at workforce consultancy Stonegate Strategies. She has more than 30 years of experience creating and implementing innovative workforce, human service and health programs and leading collaborations with business, government and not-for-profit partners.

Beth is currently consulting with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies and on another project with Interplay Learning, provider of virtual reality simulation training for the skilled trades, on how best to orchestrate the digital transformation of workforce services and job training.

Most recently she served as chief engagement officer at the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services, leading policy and operational efforts to better serve customers who receive multiple services from the state and better provide a workforce to Kentucky’s growing business sector.

Beth has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment and as Vermont’s director of workforce development, collaborating with many partners in systems of career centers providing employment, vocational rehabilitation, veterans, and other workforce services to employer and individual customers.

Beth began her career at a consulting firm that built a nationwide model of work-life programs and childcare services with corporate and community partners. This system – and the problems it tried to help solve – still exist today.

John Pallasch is founder and CEO of One Workforce Solutions. He was previously the Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for employment and training at the U.S. Labor Department.

Assistant Secretary Pallasch’s appointment marked his return to the Department where he previously served as special assistant to the assistant secretary for administration and management and the deputy assistant secretary in the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Prior to his return to DOL, Pallasch served as the executive director of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Office of Employment and Training where he led initiatives to improve outcomes for workforce education programs, increase accountability and performance of the unemployment insurance program, and consolidate job training and workforce development programs in a single cabinet agency.

An Illinois native, Pallasch earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law.

Timothy D. Hauser is the deputy assistant secretary for program operations of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), serving as the agency’s chief operating officer.

Mr. Hauser joined the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) in 1991 as a trial attorney for the Plan Benefits Security Division (PBSD), where he represented the department in federal district court and appellate litigation. From November 2000 until November 2013, Mr. Hauser was the associate solicitor of the division. As the head of PBSD, he was responsible for all of the Department’s legal work under ERISA.

Before joining DOL, Mr. Hauser worked as a trial attorney for six years at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. As a legal aid attorney, he represented indigent clients in civil litigation in ten rural counties in Missouri.

Mr. Hauser graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985 and earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois.

David Wasserman is the senior editor and election analyst for the non-partisan newsletter, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, and a contributor to NBC News. Founded in 1984, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter provides analyses of U.S. presidential, Senate, House, and gubernatorial races. The New York Times called The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter “a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative.”

Prior to joining the The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter in 2007, Wasserman served for three years as House editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a widely respected political analysis newsletter and website founded by renowned University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato. A native of New Jersey, Wasserman is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the 2006 Emmerich-Wright Outstanding Thesis prize.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com has written: “Wasserman’s knowledge of the nooks and crannies of political geography can make him seem like a local,” and the Los Angeles Times called Wasserman “whip smart” and a “scrupulously nonpartisan” analyst whose “numbers nerd-dom was foretold at a young age.” Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, recently called David “pretty much the only person you need to follow on Election Night.”

An attorney with a background in mental health, Meiram Bendat offers clients a comprehensive set of skills and knowledge unique in the field of health law. After representing children and families in the Los Angeles child welfare system and treating patients, he founded Psych-Appeal, the country’s first private mental health insurance law firm in 2011. Since then, Dr. Bendat has helped patients and providers successfully challenge denials of mental health treatment through administrative appeals and impact litigation, recovering millions of dollars in wrongly withheld benefits.

Rep. Brett Guthrie represents Kentucky’s second congressional district. After his military service in the Army, Guthrie joined a Bowling Green, Ky.-based manufacturing business that his father started and represented the 32nd District in the Kentucky Senate.

Guthrie was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and currently serves as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce’s Health Subcommittee and deputy whip in the House Republican Conference.