MAHA Open Data Summit

Mark Gorton

President, MAHA Institute

Mark Gorton is the President of MAHA Institute, where he leads efforts to advance health freedom, transparency, and holistic solutions in public health. He is also the founder and Chairman of Tower Research Capital LLC, one of the world's leading computerized trading firms, which he established in 1998, and the founder and former CEO of LimeWire, the pioneering file-sharing company. A life-long advocate for livable streets, alternative transportation, and open government, Mark founded OpenPlans in 1999 and is a Founding Board Member of Reinvent Albany, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting ethical government and fair elections in New York. He also serves on the Board of Children's Health Defense. In 2022, he executive produced Four Died Trying, a documentary exploring the extraordinary lives and tragic assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.

Dr. Donald Rucker

Chief Strategy Officer, 1upHealth; former National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Donald Rucker is the Chief Strategy Officer of 1upHealth. As National Coordinator of Health IT at The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2017 to 2021, Dr. Rucker led the writing of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) 21st Century Cures Act Interoperability Rule, which enabled the modern healthcare app economy by requiring EHRs to have standardized FHIR APIs and provided patients with secure actionable electronic access to their data by implementing the Congressional prohibition of "information blocking." A board-certified physician with broad clinical experience including time at Kaiser Permanente, Beth Israel Deaconess, and the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Rucker is a physician leader with national clinical informatics success. With a strong scientific, computational, and practical background in medical computing and decision sciences… Read more

Amy Gleason

Administrator, U.S. DOGE; Deputy Administrator and Chief Product Officer, OHTP, CMS

Amy Gleason is the Administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service and Deputy Administrator and Chief Product Officer of the Office of Health Technology and Products (OHTP) at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Through her roles, she leads national initiatives to modernize healthcare technology and improve data interoperability. Previously, she served as Chief Product Officer at Russell Street Ventures, where she led digital health innovation at Main Street Health and CareBridge. Amy also served with the U.S. Digital Service at the White House, where she created the national COVID-19 database and led major efforts such as the Pandemic Ready Interoperable Modernization Effort (PRIME) and Data at the Point of Care. She began her career in nursing and has spent her career advancing healthcare through technology. Amy brings a deeply personal perspective to her work, shaped by her experience as a caregiver to her daughter, who was diagnosed with a rare disease at age 11.

Moderator

Dr. Nasim Afsar

Health Tech Executive; Author, Intelligent Health

Nasim Afsar MD MBA is a visionary healthcare executive dedicated to transforming health and care across the globe through innovative technologies, strategic partnerships, and scalable solutions. With deep expertise in operations, finance, digital transformation, and market strategy, she has consistently driven high-impact initiatives across the healthcare ecosystem. As the former SVP and Chief Health Officer at Oracle, Dr. Afsar led multiple business units, including the Health Transformation Office, where she partnered with delivery systems globally to advance clinical outcomes and operational excellence. She spearheaded Product Strategy, building a robust operational go-to-market framework, as well as leading Global Market Strategy & Entry. Additionally, she established a dynamic marketplace for Third-Party Partnerships. She founded and chaired the Oracle Health AI in Healthcare, Retail in Healthcare, and… Read more

Amy Gleason

Administrator, U.S. DOGE; Deputy Administrator and Chief Product Officer, OHTP, CMS

Amy Gleason is the Administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service and Deputy Administrator and Chief Product Officer of the Office of Health Technology and Products (OHTP) at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Through her roles, she leads national initiatives to modernize healthcare technology and improve data interoperability. Previously, she served as Chief Product Officer at Russell Street Ventures, where she led digital health innovation at Main Street Health and CareBridge. Amy also served with the U.S. Digital Service at the White House, where she created the national COVID-19 database and led major efforts such as the Pandemic Ready Interoperable Modernization Effort (PRIME) and Data at the Point of Care. She began her career in nursing and has spent her career advancing healthcare through technology. Amy brings a deeply personal perspective to her work, shaped by her experience as a caregiver to her daughter, who was diagnosed with a rare disease at age 11.

Dr. Carmen Messerlian

Founder & CEO, Vie Science; formerly Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Carmen Messerlian, PhD, is a reproductive and environmental epidemiologist, entrepreneur, and Founder and CEO of Vie Science, a health technology company building a new model of upstream reproductive health powered by integrated health data and personalized intelligence. Dr. Messerlian spent more than a decade at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where her research examined how environmental, behavioral, and biological factors across both partners shape fertility, pregnancy, and the health of future generations. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and spans epidemiology, biomarker science, environmental health, and reproductive medicine. Through Vie Science, Dr. Messerlian is translating this research into a consumer-centered platform that integrates fragmented reproductive, clinical, biomarker, wearable, behavioral, and environmental data to help individuals and… Read more

Isaiah Nathaniel

CPHIMS; Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc.

Isaiah Nathaniel is a successful business executive, entrepreneur, film producer and director who is the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc., an FQHC that serves the underserved with healthcare regardless of their ability to pay. Isaiah is also the owner and CEO of Calcom Technologies, a premier information technology company based out of Philadelphia, Pa. He is also the owner and CEO of MadOptics Productions, a film production company that focuses on films, sports, and photography. Isaiah recently received national press for participating in a webinar with US News and World Report on Improving Health Equity and Access Through Telehealth and New Technologies. He also received national attention from media outlet, Tech Target, for the successful pivot of Healthcare IT operations during the COVID-19 pandemic using hyper-convergence technology. Isaiah was… Read more

Dr. Raymonde Uy

MD, MBA, ACHIP; Medical Director of Health Informatics, NACHC

Raymonde Uy, MD, MBA, ACHIP is a Physician Informaticist at the National Association of Community Health Centers. Dr. Raymonde Uy supports the clinical informatics needs of projects funded by the CDC and others on nationwide community health center health information technology and population health concerns. Prior to joining NACHC, Dr. Uy served as a clinical informatics consultant and visiting professor in Clinical Informatics with academic and industry stakeholders in both the United States and the Philippines. Dr. Uy also works as a scientific reviewer for both the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) & the International Medical Informatics Association and is a member of The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's Health Information Technology Advisory Committee and Adopted Standards Task Force. Dr. Uy earned a dual MD/MBA degree: Doctor of Medicine and Master… Read more

Moderator

Ryan Howells

Principal, Leavitt Partners

Ryan Howells is a nationally recognized digital health policy and interoperability expert based out of the Leavitt Partners Washington, D.C. office, who regularly works with the White House, Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Since 2016, Ryan has led the CARIN Alliance, which has advanced consumer-directed exchange using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) application programming interfaces (APIs). CARIN's work has been implemented in production across the U.S., named as an "industry best practice" in multiple federal regulations, and received a World Changing Idea Award by Fast Company magazine. Ryan also works with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to advance digital quality measures, the Utah Governor's office on their statewide FHIR… Read more

Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer

Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning & Strategic Initiatives, NIH

Nicole C. Kleinstreuer, Ph.D., is the NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives. In this role, she leads the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) within the NIH Office of the Director, which oversees trans-NIH programmatic research and strategic policy initiatives, including the NIH Common Fund and offices focused on women's health, data science, AIDS research, disease prevention, behavioral and social sciences, dietary supplements, and tribal health, among others. Dr. Kleinstreuer is internationally recognized for her leadership in developing innovative, human-relevant research strategies that advance public health protection. Prior to her current position, she served as Director of the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), within the National… Read more

Dr. Jonathan Ketcham

Former Chief Healthcare Economist, White House Council of Economic Advisers; Distinguished Research Professor, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Jonathan Ketcham is the Earl G. and Gladys C. Davis Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. From 2025 to 2026 he served as Chief Healthcare Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, advising on healthcare economic policy across the Department of Health and Human Services and its operating divisions, including the FDA, CMS, NIH, and ARPA-H. He is also the founder of Margin Health, which works with leaders across private industry, government, and financial markets to navigate the regulatory, reimbursement, and adoption pathways that shape the translation of healthcare innovation into operational and commercial deployment. His research sits at the intersection of health economics, consumer behavior, and public policy. Using causal-inference econometric methods applied to survey, experimental, and… Read more

Dan Brillman

Director of Medicaid & CHIP; Deputy Administrator, CMS

Dan is the Director of Medicaid and CHIP and Deputy Administrator at CMS, with extensive experience in health care technology, reform, and care delivery models, advancing cross-sector coordination, data interoperability, and analytical insights. Previously, Dan was the CEO and Co-Founder of Unite Us, the nation's largest outcome focused technology infrastructure that connects health care, government, and community-based services to coordinate care in real-time for millions of Americans. Dan is also a Military Officer of the Air Force Reserves, serving for over 17 years and completed multiple combat deployments as a pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, for which he earned multiple air medals and bronze campaign stars. Dan continues to serve as a Major, with assignments at Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as a Joint Strategic Liaison Officer and as an Admissions Liaison Officer. Dan earned a Master of Business… Read more

Moderator

Dr. Jaime Bland

DNP, RN-BC; Co-Founder & CEO, Aquila Health

Dr. Jaime Bland, DNP, RN-BC, is co-founder and chief executive officer of Aquila Health, an Omaha-based healthcare data platform that unifies clinical messages, claims feeds, genomic records, and epidemiological reporting into a single environment so clinicians and public health agencies can act on complete information. Aquila launched publicly in March 2026 with state and federal contracts already underway, and its architecture pairs machine learning with clinical human-in-the-loop review. Before founding Aquila, Dr. Bland spent nearly a decade as president and CEO of one of the largest health information exchange networks in the United States, serving Nebraska and Iowa. Under her leadership the organization connected more than 1,100 care sites and supported data coordination across five states and over six million lives. She also expanded it beyond its original exchange and prescription drug monitoring… Read more

Jim Smith

Former Nebraska State Senator; Chief Strategy Officer, Platte Institute

Jim Smith serves as Chief Strategy Officer at the Platte Institute, a Nebraska policy organization focused on expanding economic opportunity across the state. A former member of the Nebraska Unicameral, he represented Sarpy County's District 14 from 2010 to 2018 and chaired both the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and the Revenue Committee. His legislative record includes companion bills LB610 and LB960, which together funded one of the largest infrastructure investments in state history, valued at more than $1.2 billion through 2033. Before his current role, he led Blueprint Nebraska, a statewide economic development initiative. Outside of public service, Smith spent roughly 15 years as a small business owner and investor and more than 25 years in the utility industry across Louisiana, Texas, and Nebraska. He earned an accounting degree from the University of West Florida and an MBA from Creighton University.

Kim Witczak

Drug Safety Advocate; former Consumer Representative, FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee

Kim Witczak is an international drug safety advocate, speaker, and Consumer Representative on the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, where she served three consecutive terms from 2016 to 2025. Her work began after the sudden death of her husband, Woody, in 2003. He died by suicide just five weeks after being prescribed Zoloft for insomnia, despite having no prior history of depression or mental illness. In the aftermath, Kim filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Pfizer that helped expose internal documents on suicide risks and other harms. Over the past two decades, Kim has become a leading voice in drug safety reform. She played a key role in pushing for the addition of black box warnings on antidepressants in 2004 and 2006, and has testified before Congress and the FDA on issues of transparency, risk communication, and informed consent. Through her organization, Woodymatters, and years of… Read more

Dr. Donald Rucker

Chief Strategy Officer, 1upHealth; former National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Donald Rucker is the Chief Strategy Officer of 1upHealth. As National Coordinator of Health IT at The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2017 to 2021, Dr. Rucker led the writing of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) 21st Century Cures Act Interoperability Rule, which enabled the modern healthcare app economy by requiring EHRs to have standardized FHIR APIs and provided patients with secure actionable electronic access to their data by implementing the Congressional prohibition of "information blocking." A board-certified physician with broad clinical experience including time at Kaiser Permanente, Beth Israel Deaconess, and the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Rucker is a physician leader with national clinical informatics success. With a strong scientific, computational, and practical background in medical computing and decision sciences… Read more

Ben Tyrrell

Chief Executive Officer, Big Sky Care Connect

Ben Tyrrell, MBA, is the Chief Executive Officer for Big Sky Care Connect (BSCC), Montana's designated State Health Information Exchange (HIE). Since his appointment in 2021, Ben has been leading the strategic development and implementation of the HIE and the development of new partnerships and product lines. Currently BSCC has over 500 contributing locations and continues to grow. Prior to his time at Big Sky Care Connect, Ben spent 25 years in healthcare administration and strategic leadership roles across the health care spectrum. He has worked in Acute Care, Post Acute Care, Practice Management, and Consulting. Ben received his BA from Connecticut College and his MBA from the Booth Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Ben has lived in Billings with his wife and two children and 3 dogs since 2011 and they spend as much time as possible enjoying the mountains and outdoors.