President
Cindy Pechon

Cindy Pechon is a health care attorney with the firm of Caplan and Earnest.  Cindy’s practice focuses on providing legal counsel in the areas of managed care and other health care transactions and regulatory work. In particular, she counsels clients about federal and state health care programs, including Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care plans, state insurance regulations, provider network contracting issues, formation of managed care organizations including accountable care organizations, bundled payment and risk payment strategies, pay for performance, integrated delivery system and hospital and physician alignment transactions, provider payment disputes and recovery, and compliance matters. Before law school, Cindy spent over a decade working in several facets of health care administration, including managed care administration, IPA development, and primary care practice management, giving her unique insight to the special issues of her clients.

Cindy is a contributor to the American Health Lawyers Association’s Accountable Care Organization White Paper and she is also a member various professional associations including American Bar Association, American Health Lawyers Association, American Health Lawyers Association Accountable Care Organization Task Force, the Health Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association, Colorado Managed Care Collaborative, and Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Past President
Ron Kubit

Secretary
Carol Lynn Tiegs

Carol Lynn Tiegs provides communication and small organization consulting management through Ideas in Action, and is marketing director and partner of Three Diamonds Vintage LLC. Her health care background includes serving as Kaiser Permanente’s media relations coordinator, community relations coordinator, member services supervisor and government relations specialist. A former communications manager at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, she has served as managing editor, West Coast editor, and business/technology/health editor for a variety of regional, national and international publications.

Carol Lynn has an MA in Journalism and in German Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has served on the CU-Boulder faculty.

Treasurer
Brandon Eggleston

Brandon has been associated with CHSM for the past year, serving as a board member and treasurer.  Brandon is a certified public accountant and an audit senior manager at Ernst & Young.  He has spent the last 12 years serving Denver-area for-profit and non-profit organizations including hospitals and multi-hospital systems and other healthcare providers, not-for-profit foundations, insurance companies, and biotechnology companies.  Away from the office, Brandon enjoys spending time with his family, volunteering as a cub scout leader, and coaching little league baseball.

Compliance
Judith Holmes

Judy Holmes received her B.A. in psychology from Colorado College, and her J.D. degree from the University of Denver.  She has practiced law for over 30 years, and has extensive trial experience, defending both health care providers in medical negligence cases and employers in employment-related suits.  Judy is a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, teaching trial and deposition skills to attorneys nationally.  She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on employment-related subjects, and is a frequent speaker on employment and health care topics.

Judy's practice currently focuses on providing employment law and risk management strategies for health care providers. She works with her clients to develop and maintain lawful practices related to interviewing, hiring,  evaluations, background checks, and terminations.  She conducts employment law audits and risk management assessments and works with employers to develop lawful office policies and effective management systems.  Judy also defends employers in actions filed by employees with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), and she develops and conducts employment-related training programs customized for each client.

Community Outreach Liason
Cynthia Ferris

Cynthia Ferris is the Community Outreach Officer for ToTheRescue, which provides a comprehensive line of life services specifically designed for individual or business clients.

Community Outreach Liason
Johan Stokstad

Mr. Stokstad is founder of Greystone Consulting, LLC based in Evergreen, Colorado. His healthcare knowledge base and expertise was derived working on health care projects throughout the western U.S., Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

While at Aardex, LLC his feasibility and proforma led to construction of the first U.S., LEED Certified Gold, geothermal hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma completed in 2009. As Director of Research at Child Health Advocates he conducted and managed qualitative and quantitative research projects. He worked with physician researchers and co-authored several studies published in Pediatrics and American Pediatrics. Currently he is conducting a three month market research and feasibility study for a healthcare start-up venture in Cairo, Egypt.

At MedLink International Johan’s hospital development experience included four years of green field site market assessment and feasibility studies and proformas for clinics and hospitals in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Panama, and Chile.

He is a member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Management Development (SHSMD) and serves on the Board of the Colorado Strategy & Management (CHSM) and is Past President. In his spare time he enjoys being with his family and is an avid sailor, skier and musician.

Marketing Chair
Carol Borthwick

Carol Borthwick, founder and president of the QEAN Group LLC, has over 20 years experience helping clients collect market intelligence through primary and secondary research, find new market opportunities, and develop new products and services.  Clients include healthcare, medical device and life sciences companies.  Prior to founding the QEAN Group, Carol was the managing director of a market research and strategy consulting group serving Fortune 500 clients at NDL/The Polk Company, one of the largest direct marketing firms in the U.S.  She also has worked at the General Motors Corp. in new product development, sales forecasting, database management, marketing and international operations. 

Active in the community, Carol manages CHSM's LinkedIn Group, does pro bono consulting for nonprofits, and has taught courses in social media marketing.  Connect with Carol on LinkedIn. Carol has BS and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Membership Co-chair
John Baumgarten

A senior sales professional with over 20 years of sales leadership, management and business development experience in technical sales and marketing within multiple verticals including: Medical, Legal, Financial, Government, Consumer and Enterprise.

John has successfully sold IT Infrastructure, SaaS Cloud based software solutions, healthcare initiatives, consumer products and communications network services including Voice and Data solutions to major enterprise accounts, major universities, hospitals, healthcare accounts, national laboratories and hospitals regionally, nationally and worldwide.

Most recent key client experience includes Colorado Hospital Association, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Penang Adventist Hospital, The University of Colorado, Colorado State University, The National Heart Institute at Prince Court Medical Center and American Medical Response (EMSC).

John has been responsible for creating the worldwide sales and marketing platforms for multiple start-ups.  He currently serves as a Business Retention and Expansion Ambassador for the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Group.

John has also served on The University of Colorado Clinical Science Industry Liaison Advisory Board and as a Visiting Educator for the University of Colorado at Denver Business School Technology Transfer Graduate Program. John is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University with a BA in English Literature/Communications.

Membership Co-chair
Triche Guenin

303-777-9680
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Triche Guenin is President of Partners Through Change, Inc. (PTC), a process improvement consultancy.  PTC focuses on facilitating healthcare organizations through operational changes resulting in increased efficiency/effectiveness thereby impacting patient outcomes and safety.  Her strength is on reducing waste and allowing more to be done with less.  As a lean practitioner, Triche takes her passion for improvement and leverages lessons learned across departmental/organizational and industry lines. While in the role of Lean Facilitator at Denver Health, she facilitated multiple projects that netted over $1M in reduced costs, increased revenue, and operational excellence.  She teaches in the Master’s of Healthcare Leadership program at DU and the MBA program at Regis University as well as presents to professional associations and conducts healthcare oriented webinars.  She’s been published numerous times in business journals and industry periodicals.

Program Chair
Margie McCarthy

Margie McCarthy is principal of McCarthy Communications, a communications project-management firm that helps companies build their brands and relationships with key stakeholders. She has more than 20 years’ experience in corporate communications for the healthcare, information technology and insurance industries. McCarthy Communications specializes in complex communications challenges that require powerful messaging, thorough planning, exceptional writing and creativity over a sustained period of time. She coordinates all the resources to make it happen. Prior to owning her own firm, McCarthy led the communications departments at several public and privately-held companies, including Pinnacol Assurance and The TriZetto Group. She has served as a board member or committee chair for Colorado Healthcare Communicators, Colorado Group Insurance Association and Public Relations Society of America. McCarthy has received multiple awards for communications and writing.

Program Committee
Michele Oliver

For the past 15 years, revenue cycle management and coding have been Michele’s professional focus. She joined The Pinnacle Group as Billing Manager in August 2007 and now serves as director of the Coding & Audit Division. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Michele held practice management positions with a variety of companies. Her experience includes implementing training and compliance for HIPAA and OSHA programs, as well as patient billing and collections for both Medicare and private insurance companies. Michele holds a CPC and CPMA from the American Academy of Professional Coders and is a member of the Marketing Committee for Colorado Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Program Committee, Facilities Coordinator
Maddie Philley

Maddie Philley plays a dual role at Lockton Companies splitting her time as an Account Administrator in the Benefits Department and as a member of the Health Risk Solutions (HRS) team. Maddie is responsible for daily client and vendor contact, as well as serving as a liaison with vendors for her clients’ eligibility, claims and billing questions and other issues. She also provides account management for Lockton’s turnkey wellness solution, enLIVEn, and supports the rest of the HRS team with vendor management, and wellness strategy development.

Prior to joining the Lockton team, Maddie worked at Total Well-Being, a Denver-based corporate wellness consulting company. Maddie received a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a Healthcare Administration concentration, as well as a combined Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Sciences and Spanish from the University of Denver.

Sponsorship Chair
Brett Shrewsbury

720-934-5588

Brett Shrewsbury is the founder and general manager of Preventive Health Now, LLC, a company that provides on-site wellness solutions to organizations of all sizes.  Brett started PHN five years ago with the goal of helping companies create a healthier workforce.

Sponsorship Committee
Drew Hoffman

Drew joined Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting in 2010 as a Senior Analyst. He supports Pinnacle’s physician compensation, valuation and appraisal divisions, and provides client support to participants in Pinnacle’s innovative Physician FMV Program.  A Certified Healthcare Financial Professional through Healthcare Financial Management Association, Drew interned at Arthur J. Gallagher & Company prior to joining Pinnacle. He holds a bachelors’ degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a minor in Economics and a certificate in Quantitative Finance.  In his free time, Drew enjoys wakeboarding, skiing and softball, plus attending listings on the silver screen.

Technology Chair
Craig Lanning

Craig Lanning is a research instructor at the University of Colorado Denver Department of Bioengineering located at the Anschutz Medical Campus.  His primary research and teaching experience is in advanced medical image processing and biomedical device design and development. In medical image processing, Craig has developed and teaches BIOE 5063 - 3D Modeling for Bioengineers where graduate students master the medical image to 3D model process to optimize the device design process with physiologically correct environments and anatomy. Craig is a co-founder of the Patients, Engineers, Doctors (PED) Design Group at the University of Colorado Denver that facilitates collaboration between students and clinicians to identify and develop technological opportunities that address unmet clinical needs and improve patient care. He is a co-inventor on several patents and is actively building industry and department collaborations through service to the industrial advisory board.

Technology Committee - Data Mining
Michele Almendarez

Michele Almendarez has over 25 years experience in health care.  She has been with Kaiser Permanente for over ten years, most recently as their Director of Strategic Planning.  Michele has extensive expertise in multiple health arenas as a consultant in strategy and operations for military, state and federal governments, health plans, multi-specialty physician groups and hospitals.  She completed her PhD in Public Affairs from the University of Colorado and is a long-time Colorado resident.