As Director of Credentialing Services, Mike Lessila is responsible for all of SKYGEN USA's credentialing operations. This includes leading the internal credentialing function, working on growth strategies to increase the Credentialing Services provided to clients and managing SKYGEN USA's strategic relationship with the American Dental Association, supporting the ADA Credentialing Portal and its rapid growth in the industry.

Mr. Lessila formerly was the Director of Business Development for SKYGEN USA, working with senior leadership to develop and execute strategies creating significant growth for the SKYGEN USA family of companies.Mike brings more than 20 years of experience in selecting, selling, designing and implementing new management systems, primarily in the insurance industry, to his role. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Business from Concordia University Wisconsin. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Lessila is on the Board of Directors for Grace Lutheran Church & School in Menomonee Falls, WI and is a volunteer coach for middle school boys and girls basketball.

As Chief Innovation & Growth Officer, John Schaak is responsible for driving profitable growth through the acquisition of new customers and sales of new products and services. John leads company efforts to solve industry problems by identifying new opportunities and markets, as well as innovative new products and services. With his strong commitment to exemplary client service and collaborative approach to both internal and external relationships, he has a demonstrated ability to help players in the healthcare continuum grow their businesses while reducing costs, improving operations, and serving their members more effectively.

John brings extensive leadership experience to his position. He was previously the president of Scion Dental and SKYGEN USA’s chief operating officer. Before that, John was a partner with the national law firm Quarles & Brady.

John has been listed on the Wisconsin Super Lawyers, Rising Stars list multiple times. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Marquette University Law School. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Criminal Justice with a minor in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Annie Driscoll has been with the ADA for five years and is currently heading up the business development of the new ADA Credentialing Service. She has led this project since its inception in late 2014 and has brought together a cross-divisional team of ADA staff dedicated to its success.

Julie is the Clinical Manager for Hennepin Health, Hennepin county's health care reform project. She manages the care model, ensuring consistent implementation across sites and work to better integrate social services into the medical home. Julie is always seeking new collaborative opportunities and ways to improve the delivery of services.

Gretchen Hageman is the Government Programs Director at Delta Dental of Iowa (DDIA).She has been with DDIA for 18 months. Gretchen serves as the director for Iowa's Medicaid Expansion adult benefit and Iowa's State Health Insurance Plan- hawk-i benefit plan.Prior to DDIA, Gretchen worked as a Bureau Chief and Title V Director at the Iowa Department of Public Health for 15 years.Gretchen served for three years on the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs as a board member and other various child health board and advisory councils in Iowa.

Aaron Groffman started the Ignition Group, the healthcare consulting company that powers NetMinder, in 2004. Aaron is an industry veteran, educated at Wharton and the University of Miami, who ran marketing and competitive intelligence functions and built networks for divisions of Cigna and UnitedHealthGroup. He understands the needs of health plans, sales professionals, and network recruiters for accurate, accessible and cost-effective competitive knowledge. Aaron built NetMinder to meet these needs, and continues to improve it each year based on industry insights from users.

Herschel Reich is a Vice President in the Payer Consulting practice of OptumInsight. He joined the company in 2005 and has helped significantly grow the New York and Northeastern markets as the Office Manager. He has worked in the actuarial health care and managed care arena for more than 25 years with experience in specialization in commercial and Medicare strategy assessments, performance improvement, pricing, underwriting, reserving, product development, alliance development and vendor management for health and ancillary products.

Ann Brisk is a Director at CAQH where she leads the sales and business development strategy and team that offers solutions to payers and other organizations focused on reducing administrative costs in the healthcare industry. Ann previously worked at Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group, in a number of roles in their financial services business focused on claims payments and healthcare accounts. Prior to joining Optum, she held a number of product management and business development roles at several established and start up organizations in the commercial payments business including Bank of America, Visa USA, Bank One and GE Capital. Ann has deep subject matter expertise in payments and healthcare related financial services. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and currently lives in Salt Lake City, UT.

At CAQH, Scott identifies target clients and markets for CAQH solutions. He provides consultative sales to prospective health plans, hospitals and other healthcare organizations while developing in-depth understanding of an organization's current business activities as they relate to provider credentialing and network management. Scott also manages implementation and training for all new clients and works internally to align industry needs with CAQH solutions.

Aaron Groffman started the Ignition Group, the healthcare consulting company that powers NetMinder, in 2004. Aaron is an industry veteran, educated at Wharton and the University of Miami, who ran marketing and competitive intelligence functions and built networks for divisions of Cigna and UnitedHealthGroup. He understands the needs of health plans, sales professionals, and network recruiters for accurate, accessible and cost-effective competitive knowledge. Aaron built NetMinder to meet these needs, and continues to improve it each year based on industry insights from users.

Ryan Howells is a principal based out of the Chicago office. His work with clients is focused on health insurance market reforms, disruptive distribution channels that have occurred through the emergence of public and private exchanges, and how the implementation of technology can improve the triple aim of reducing costs, increasing quality, and improving outcomes. He is also currently the executive director of the Private Exchange Coalition (PEC).

David is Pacific Resources’ consulting dental director and dental benefits expert.  He has over 25 years of experience in the dental benefits industry including numerous roles in senior and executive level positions with large national payers. Those roles include dental product manager, business lead in utilization management, dental sales lead, and dental director.   

David’s recent experiences also include a range of dental benefits-related consulting projects, as well as building and directing advanced education in general dentistry residency programs at the Florida Institute for Advanced Dental Education and Mattia College, where he developed a forward-thinking curricula focused on the latest knowledge and industry best practices in dental care.  His dental industry experiences also include active duty in the U.S. Navy as a general dentist, private practice in general dentistry, assistant professor of operative dentistry and assistant director of comprehensive care at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry.  

David is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Dentistry.  He later earned a masters degree in health professions education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a masters degree in public health with a major in health services administration from the University of California at Los Angeles.  In addition, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Dental Services Research Scholar at UCLA, a member of the Woods Hole Group (a Kellogg Foundation-sponsored think tank that studied and made recommendations concerning the future of dentistry) and a past board member on the National Association of Dental Plans Foundation.

Heather Kane is the CEO of Dental at UnitedHealthcare, based in the company’s Chicago office. Her organization is responsible for the development and management of all dental products and services across the company’s Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid business segments. 

Heather has a passion for identifying and developing innovative solutions to continuously improve the health care segment, growing start-up businesses, and mentoring new leaders across the organization.

She is active in non-profit and healthcare-related organizations. She is currently a board member and committee chair of the Gateway for Cancer Research, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative, patient-centered advancements in cancer treatment. Heather earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hillsdale College and an MBA from the University of Michigan.  

Tiernan supports Avalere clients in analytic and strategic engagements focused on Medicaid, Medicare, and other health policy trends. In particular, Tiernan leads a variety of projects focused on the Medicaid market, including landscape analyses, contracting strategies, and state tracking. Her work aims to help clients understand the impact of states’ Medicaid policy decisions on access to products and services—and to strategize solutions to improve beneficiaries’ access. 

Prior to joining Avalere, Tiernan worked as a health educator at the Delta Area Health Education Center in Helena, AR. Additionally, she analyzed the Chilean public healthcare system while studying in Concepción, Chile. 

Tiernan has a BA in Neuroscience from Middlebury College.

Megan supports clients in anticipating and navigating the evolving federal and state health policy environment. In particular, she advises clients on their business and advocacy strategies related to legislative and regulatory developments. Megan has specific expertise in Medicaid, drug pricing policy, and health insurance markets and she leads to the firm’s analysis of Medicaid managed care trends. Prior to joining Avalere, Megan held policy roles at Novo Nordisk and Avalere Health, and worked with the New York State Department of Labor in the Research and Statistics Division. Megan has an MPH in Health Policy from George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and BA in Economics and Psychology from Saint Michael’s College.