Page History

Aayat Ali is a UX Designer based in California at the Digital Service at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Aayat focuses on helping public administrations leverage Human-Centered Design practices at the intersection of public health, urban planning, and social services.

Previously, Aayat worked on jail/prison reentry and homelessness programming at L.A. County’s Department of Health Services. She believes in cultivating a world where the government can work better only when we design with and not for people.

Kati Driscoll is a UX Researcher & Designer working to improve the collection, management, and analysis process for Quality Management and Review Systems (QMARS) users. Previously, she worked at Barclays US using research and insights to drive the development of simpler, more intuitive, and more rewarding experiences for Uber, Upromise, the NFL, JetBlue, and Hawaiian Airlines users. Her qualitative and quantitative research skills have been applied to roles spanning Social Media Insights & Analysis, Product Development, and User Experience. Outside of work, she is an accessories designer and illustrator whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, PAPER, Redbook, and Lucky Magazine and licensed by Urban Outfitters. Passionate about diversity in technology, she is a mentor and volunteer with programs like Data Science for All, Urban Tech Hero, Girl Scouts, and the NYC Department of Education. Kati is also a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that defends digital privacy and co-sponsors the Dark Pattern Tip Line.

Brandy Barnette has worked for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for 8 years.  She began her career at CMS as a government team lead for the Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment within the Division of Quality Assessment Systems and Surveys. In that role, she helped coordinate the collaboration between the development organizations and the business owners for accurate updates to the MDS assessment as indicated in the final rule.  She joined the Division of User Experience and Support Services in October 2021.

Fan Huang is a UX designer, researcher, and consultant with over 5 years of experience working with government agencies, start-ups, and non-profit organizations. Fan’s journey as a UX professional began with a keen interest in how people interacted with the American healthcare system through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Throughout his career, Fan has worked extensively with federal agencies to adopt more user-centered approaches for implementing policy at all levels of government. He brings deep knowledge and expertise in constructing end-to-end user experiences for enterprise software and establishing operational processes and tools that bridge the gap between uncovering user problems and empowering government customers to take action. Currently, Fan is a Senior Researcher at Ad Hoc, where he conducts quantitative research on how users interact with web applications managed by federal government agencies and disseminate findings in the form of product artifacts, such as user personas, service blueprints, data visualization diagrams, and journey mapsCupid Chan is the CEO of Pistevo Decision. He is a seasoned professional who is well-established in the industry. Cupid has been a consultant for years providing solutions to various Fortune 500 companies and the public sector. In addition to being on the Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee (TSC) in Linux Foundation ODPi, he is the Chairperson of the BI & AI committee of LF AI and Data. Through these roles, he regularly publishes best practices and industry standard whitepapers with other industry leaders. His recent 2022 publication explores the background and vision of combining AI, BI, and Data in a practical way to help businesses leverage these emerging technologies. 
Cupid is a Senior Fellow and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park. He was also the Chairperson of Architecture and Co-Chair of the Logical Data Model for The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), responsible for managing engineering disciplines, providing overall technical direction, and supporting all MISMO products for the mortgage industry. 

Lesley has over 15 years of experience in human-centered design, user research, and service design. She has worked in the government domain for over ten years and in government healthcare (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid/CMS) for the last four years. Lesley currently leads the human-centered design team for the Hospital Quality Reporting (HQR) program in CMS/CCSQ. She previously led the research and design team modernizing the institutional claim pricing system in CMS’ Office of Information Technology. Lesley is a Nielsen-Norman Group certified User Experience Manager and has a graduate certificate in information design from the University of Baltimore. She is a founder and co-organizer of the Baltimore UX Meetup, a regional user experience community of practice and mentorship group. 

Shelagh Cully is a Senior UX Designer, currently working on a Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction, with a focus on accessible design solutions. Shelagh began her career in UX design after consulting with the Smithsonian Institution’s Digital Learning Lab in 2015 on modernizing web accessible content for early education programs. Shelagh moved into Cyber Security in 2016, as part of a development team where she managed the design system for a large-scale, global learning management system, providing 508-compliant solutions.

At Ventera, Shelagh works as the UX Team Lead to support Human-Centered Design goals for CMS/CCSQ’s Enterprise Systems and Services (ESS).

Danita Patel is a Human-Centered Designer & Analyst for Ventech Solutions working under the HIDS contract. She is working on several projects, including creating various design deliverables and facilitating UX research and discovery workshops, which help drive business initiatives and deliver customer-centric digital products. In addition, Danita is actively involved in researching, designing, and developing a new self-service web portal that will connect the CCSQ Service Center and its end-users with access to various service desks and the ability to submit and track service tickets. Before joining Ventech in 2020, she was a Human Factors Researcher at the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. She worked on medical device development, promoting organizational change within healthcare facilities, and R&D of applications to optimize sepsis alerting systems and predicting trauma care. Danita uses her educational background in Human Factors Psychology and Applied Cognition to understand how people interact with their environments and the products within. She has a great passion for creating exceptional human-centered experiences. She intends to transform how people use digital products and technology by making them easy to use and accessible to everyone.

Mana Hayashi Tang is a Senior UX Researcher with over 10 years of experience in mixed-methods research, education, and science writing. She has worked with government agencies, IT companies, and academic research institutions, and has a PhD in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. Her expertise is in the sociocultural dimensions of user experiences, human-technology interactions, and human relationships with the environment.

At Ventera, she conducts research in a cross-functional product team to improve user experiences of CMS/CCSQ’s Enterprise Systems and Services (ESS), including Program Resource System (PRS 2.0) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Mana advocates for cultivating a reflexive research mindset towards problem solving, with the goal of creating inclusive cultures for knowledge sharing. 

Julie is all about how the experiences we build communicate with those who use them. With a background in journalism and marketing writing, she became interested in user experience. She spent several years as a UX Content Strategist in the financial services industry before moving into the government space. She's been working within CMS for over a year as a member of the Content Support Center, supporting a variety of product releases and Medicaid.gov projects within the Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS). 

Kristine brings 25 years of expertise in the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare IT industry. Kristine began her career as a data analyst supporting program integrity and is devoted to improving government healthcare programs and policy. Kristine lives in Chico, California, an area that has been deeply impacted by climate change. Kristine founded A1M Solutions in 2018 as an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business focusing on the intersection of Human Centered Design, Policy and Data for historically underinvested communities.

Hunter Whitney is the Principal Human-Centered Design (HCD) Strategist for eSimplicity. He has advised enterprises, startups, government agencies, and NGOs throughout his career to helping them achieve their goals through a thoughtful approach to creating digital products and services. He has dual bachelor's degrees in English Literature and Biology from UCLA and UC Santa Cruz, respectively. He spent an additional year in a Graduate Program at UCLA studying neuropsychology.  

His teaching experience includes classroom instruction for the courses "Design Thinking and UX Strategy" and "Human-Centered Design for Data Visualization" for UC Berkeley Extension. In addition, he is an instructor and curriculum advisor for data visualization and UX design programs with UC Davis on Coursera. He is also the author of "Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data" (Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier, 2012) and is a chapter contributor for "Designing for Emerging Technologies: UX for Genomics, Robotics, and the Internet of Things" (O'Reilly Media, 2014). 

Karlene Stecchi has more than 15 years of experience leading IT solutions and strategies for major commercial and federal clients, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Since joining Tantus in 2009, Karlene has been a driving force behind Tantus' strategy – helping to evaluate and adopt emerging technologies, IT strategy development, and organizational readiness for emerging technology adoptions.  

Karlene is committed to developing the next wave of Federal contracting leadership - and is actively involved in American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), where she previously served as Industry Chair and Vice Chair for the Voyagers Leadership Program. She is a founding member of Chief DC, an organization designed for senior women leaders, and is a regular panel speaker on topics related to women in IT.   

Antoine RJ Wright is an experienced organizational strategy and process designer who has worked with various teams and business-forward organizations. Earning his B.S. In Speech Communications from Millersville ('02); currently serving as a board member), Antoine has continually embraced and extended new and existing initiatives — communicating complex technologies and processes into applicable, accessible, and usable behaviors and tools. From entrepreneurial projects (Mobile Ministry Magazine, Avanceé) to collaborations on several open-source efforts, this track record of re-engineering complexity has been a valued asset in the digital space. In addition, Antoine has conducted corporate training, mobile, smart city, and sketchnote seminars across North America, Europe, and Australia for faith-based, environmental, and other industries—extending lessons learned into physical spaces. Hobbies include mentoring, cycling, spoken word/poetry, and enjoying meals from various ethnicities. 

Dr. Ward has been serving as Chief of the Division of Occupational Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital since 1999. He founded Seton Pain & Rehabilitation Centers, and eventually merged his practice into National Spine & Pain Centers. He currently serves as Medical Director for National Spine & Pain Centers (Saint Agnes office), providing comprehensive pain management and rehabilitation.

Dr. Ward studied medicine at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (Midwestern University), where he graduated with three graduation departmental awards for excellence. He completed his Business of Medicine Training as part of his overall desire to practice cost efficient and outcome optimized physiatry and pain management services, and patented the Joint Monitor to allow quantification and data-driven understanding of musculoskeletal joint replacement decision-making and improved patient outcomes with real time feedback loops.  

Dr. Ward is an active physician and patient advocate and has performed peer reviews for the Maryland Board of Physicians and provided expert witness testimony for Maryland and Delaware’s State Attorney's Office.  He is currently the medical advisor for Baltimore City’s Worker's Compensation Claims Management TPA, Sedgwick.