Meet Our Speakers



Rebecca Bruno


Principal Policy Strategist
A1M Solutions

Rebecca Bruno is a health care policy and operations subject matter expert, particularly in the area of Medicaid and underserved populations. 

She has worked at the city, state, and federal levels developing, researching, interpreting, and implementing policy, including over five years at Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS). As a Principal Policy Strategist at A1M Solutions, Rebecca combines subject matter expertise and strategy with human-centered design to develop user-centric products and services for CMCS. She is passionate about bringing together policy, technology, and user-centered design. 

Rebecca has a master’s degree in Political Management from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Boston University. 

Team Presenter: How Collaboration between Policy Experts and Service Designers can Reshape Product Development

Sara Camnasio


Senior Service Designer
XCell LLC

Sara Camnasio is a multi-disciplinary designer and researcher focused on public services, science, and climate projects. 

Her work spans from helping the federal government design more equitable and human-centered services, to integrating participatory approaches into wildlife reintroduction projects, to creating design-based education curricula to engage students on ocean conservation.

As a Sr. Service Designer at XCell, she leverages tools and methods from human-centered design, participatory design, interaction design, and ethnographic research. Sara’s currently part of an enterprise design team within CMCS. She coaches product teams to apply HCD and service design methods to reduce burden on policy staff and she helps create standards, guidelines, and templates to keep growing CMCS’s HCD capabilities. She’s passionate about helping organizations design with people, not just for people. 

Team Presenter: How Collaboration between Policy Experts and Service Designers can Reshape Product Development




Jarom Chung  


Senior Director of Product
Lucid Software Inc

Jarom Chung helps direct efforts for all the user-facing products and feature sets - his teams design and build the features you love! 

Originally, he was trained as a scientist and received his Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard University. Jarom’s unique insight and rigorous thinking led him to recently earn the Gold Stevie Award for Product Developer of the Year from the American Business Awards in 2022. At his core, he loves understanding a user's pain/job and creating solutions that people love to use.

Team Presenter: Visual Collaboration in the Lucid Suite | See the future. Then build it together.

Ariele Faber  


Chief Experience Officer
Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

Ariele Faber currently serves as the first Chief Experience Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

She leads the design of consistent, connected, and sustainable care experiences delivered across the country with dignity. Ariele oversees the full scope of the CMS Experience portfolio, translating what the public and the agency’s workforce need, feel, and value into opportunities to co-create best-in-class products, services, programs, and policies. Prior to this role, Ariele was a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the General Services Administration (GSA) across two Administrations where she led federal-wide initiatives focused on Human-Centered IT Modernization, Digital Health, and Building a Future of Work through a Culture of Care. Earlier on, Ariele worked across startups, small businesses, non-profits, and corporations specializing in experience design for healthcare and life sciences.  

Ariele holds a Bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, where she studied Neuroscience and Architecture; a Master of Science in Healthcare & Design from Imperial College London; and a certificate in Climate Change and Health from Yale School of Public Health. 

Q&A Panel Discussion: Delivering Best-in-Class Care Experiences Across our Workforce & the Country through Collaboration




Leslie Franklin


Vice President Human Services
Skylight

Leslie Garner Franklin currently serves as Vice President, Human Services at Skylight, a civic technology company with a mission to make government work in a digital world.

In her role, she's charged with growing Skylight's impact by managing project delivery and pursuing new partners as well as helping make Skylight's staff experience an exceptional one. Prior to working as a product manager and researcher in civic tech, Leslie spent a decade and a half working in and around our nation's public schools in philanthropy, as a teacher, non-profit leader and district administrator. She taught IDEO U's inaugural Service Design class as well as each of the foundations of design thinking it offers. Leslie's greatest service design challenge these days is creating a vibrant childhood for her two kiddos who she raises with her husband in Asheville, North Carolina.

Team Presenter: Solving User Problems Outside the Product Box 

Jessica Guistolise


Agile Coach & Facilitator
Lucid Software Inc

Jessica Guistolise brings nearly a decade of experience as an Agile consultant, facilitator and coach.

Jessica engages with teams across the globe to share her expertise in scaling Agile practices and leadership coaching, as well as her passion for experiential learning and organizational transformation. Over the course of her career, Jessica has been responsible for advising and guiding the rollout of Agile Transformations at Fortune 100 and 500 companies. She is a certified professional coach through the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), as well as being a trained ORSC coach.

Team Presenter: Visual Collaboration in the Lucid Suite | See the future. Then build it together.



Dr. Tharaka Gunarathne


Speaker & Psychiatrist
Dr Tharaka Ltd

Dr T (Dr Tharaka Gunarathne), based in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a three-times TEDx Speaker, Podcaster and TV Psychiatrist.

Dr T (Dr Tharaka Gunarathne), has appeared as resident Mind Expert on celebrity shows including Channel 4’s “Can I Improve My Memory” and the world-first hit show, “Scared of the Dark”. Having become a Medical Doctor around 20 years ago, and specializing as a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr T now takes his insights on ‘Mindset and High Performance’ to audiences across the world, raising the roof at events with barrels of energy, joy and practical tools for transformation! As creator of the ‘Mind, Action, Profit’ Blueprint, Dr T helps audiences upgrade their thinking, motivation, wellbeing and RESULTS. He believes that when you “manage the mind, you can manage your bottom line! 

Presenter: REMOTE-IVATE: Better Collaboration in a Virtual World

Robert Hunziker


Senior UX Designer
Softrams LLC

Robert Hunziker is a highly accomplished Senior UX Designer with an illustrious career spanning over two decades, characterized by a diverse range of experiences across multiple sectors.

Currently, he lends his expertise to Softrams, where he has held the role of Senior UX Designer since July 2021. Throughout his tenure at Softrams, Robert has been unwavering in his pursuit of excellence in user experience design, with a special focus on advancing cognitive accessibility. Robert's journey in the field of Human Experience design has been defined by impactful contributions and a steadfast dedication to elevating user interactions. His professional journey has seen him collaborate with industry titans such as Google, Microsoft, and Liberty Mutual Insurance. In these roles, Robert has left an indelible mark by crafting seamless user interfaces, conducting comprehensive usability studies, and introducing innovative design concepts. Notably, he played a pivotal role in reducing launch times for new Google cloud products by approximately 50% through the implementation of a large-scale launch tracking tool, resulting in significant cost savings. 

Presenter: Cognitive Load Workshop




Laura King


Service Designer & User Researcher
Skylight

Laura King is a Service Designer and User Researcher with a decade of experience spanning government consulting, healthcare, education technology, and consumer websites and applications.

She is a systems thinker who explores the impacts and interconnections between people and technology. Laura is interested in designing services that enable public health action and create a positive impact on community health. Most recently, Laura has served as the Product Manager on SimpleReport, a novel application built during COVID designed to increase the number and type of facility that could report mandated test results directly to public health.

Laura holds dual Masters degrees in Library and Information Science and User Experience Design from Kent State University, and has industry experience spanning education technology, healthcare, and consumer websites and applications. Laura lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and their two dogs 

Team Presenter: Solving User Problems Outside the Product Box 


Matt Murphy


Senior Customer Success Manager
Lucid Software Inc

Matt Murphy has been at Lucid Software since 2021 and first joined as a Customer Success Manager.

He has a background in logistics, marketing, and project managementHe is naturally curious and loves to find creative ways to solve problems. He holds a bachelor's degree in Communication from the University of Illinois.

Team Presenter: Visual Collaboration in the Lucid Suite | See the future. Then build it together.




Meghan Nichols


UX Research Lead
Ventera Corp

Meghan Nichols is a UX Research Lead at Ventera where she conducts research on a cross-functional product team to improve CMS/CCSQ’s Enterprise System and Services (ESS).

Meghan supports HARP (HCQIS Access Roles and Profile) and File Management. She started as a Graphic Designer with an events management SAAS company and discovered her passion for research after observing a usability test. She leveraged her design skills and innate curiosity to transition to user research. She’s had the opportunity to work on multiple platforms including desktop, mobile web and mobile apps. In a previous role she helped create an end user solution powered by AI and NLP for a healthcare company’s first mobile application. Most recently she strategized CX-led ways to make purchasing residential internet services for homeowners a less frustrating process by understanding their mental models. 

Making connections and bringing people together to create trusting relationships is a core part of why she loves user research. She views conversations an opportunity to ask meaningful questions which leads to more informed questions, and eventually a deeper understanding of people and problems to solve. 

Team Presenter: Unlocking Cross-Team Collaboration with Quantitative Metrics

Mark Plaugher


Acting Director
Information System Group (ISG), Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, Centre for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Mark Plaugher is the Acting Director of the Information System Group (ISG), supporting CMS’ Center for Clinical Standards and Quality.

ISG has overall responsibility for delivering and maintaining technology to support CMS quality programsMark brings over 25 years of IT experience in large-scale enterprise environments. He has spent the last two decades in direct support of CMS in both the private sector and as a CMS employee. In the private sector, he held multiple leadership roles. Mark also managed the delivery of IT services for the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, Departments of Genetics and Pediatrics.

Welcome Address: Introductory Remarks on Collaboration & Cooperation




Chantal Ramirez, PhD


Chantal Ramirez
Ventera Corp

Chantal is a UX Researcher at Ventera with over 9 years of experience in human-centered research.

Her background is in experimental psychology, and she holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. She has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods and has previously worked as a UX Researcher consulting for clients including Dell and Amazon. Previously, she was a quantitative UX Researcher on Expedia Group’s CX Measurement Team where she was responsible for analyzing large-scale survey data. She used statistical methods, including text analysis to deliver valuable insights around industry benchmarks. 

At Ventera, Chantal collaborates within a cross-functional product team, dedicated to enhancing user experiences within CMS/CCSQ's Enterprise Systems and Services (ESS). Currently, she supports the QualityNet Operations Dashboard (QNOD). At the program level, Chantal is actively working to enhance quantitative research methods to complement existing qualitative approaches. She strives to improve user experience through empathetic research, data-driven insights, and continuous innovation, ensuring products and services meet and exceed user expectations. 

Team Presenter: Unlocking Cross-Team Collaboration with Quantitative Metrics

Bryan Stallings


Chief Evangelist
Lucid Software Inc

Bryan Stallings is the Chief Evangelist at Lucid, where he draws on over 20-years of experience hacking organizations and their cultures to bring people together to transform the way they interact and work.

A thought leader in the Agile product development community since its inception, Bryan has trained and coached hundreds of individuals, teams and organizations. He holds an International MBA and is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Organization and Relationship Systems coach (ORSC)

Team Presenter: Visual Collaboration in the Lucid Suite | See the future. Then build it together.





Contact

If you want to learn more about the Human-Centered Design Center of Excellence (HCD CoE), please contact us today.

For the QualityNet Community:

Visit our HCD Confluence Site  -or- our QualityNet Slack channels #hcd-share, #hcd-wud

For all other visitors, please feel free to email us at: HCD@cms.hhs.gov 




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