2021 Speakers

Arundhati Parmar is VP and Editor-in-Chief at MedCity News. Previously she was senior editor at UBM’s Medical Device + Diagnostic Industry and has been a business journalist for more than a decade. Arundhati has three degrees from three continents – a Bachelor of Arts in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; a Masters in English Literature from the University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has sworn never to enter a classroom again.

Ms. Weiland currently works for the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA) as the Senior Vice President of Bio, Innovation, & Special Projects. In this role, she reports to the CEO and is responsible for facilitating collaboration with local institutions and companies, attracting new businesses and investment to the City, assisting existing businesses and startups with retention and expansion efforts, and working with area partners to help ensure that the state’s legislative environment is friendly to all of these efforts. All of the organization’s work is conducted with an intentional focus on equity and inclusion, and in 2021 the International Economic Development Council awarded the team with six awards recognizing its work.

Prior to joining NOLABA, Jeanette served as the Financial Operations Manager for Ochsner Health System’s Retail Division, where she created strategic plans and managed budgets, projections, productivity dashboards, and built pro formas for numerous business divisions. In addition to leading cross-functional teams for Retail M&A activity, Jeanette translated complex financial data into relatable platforms such as infographics, reports, and presentations that provided easily-understood information to diverse audiences.

Before joining Ochsner Health System, Jeanette served as the Executive Vice President of CIC Wealth – a privately-owned, independent wealth management firm with several offices located in the greater Washington, D.C. area. As a team, the firm was responsible for managing over $300M of client assets. Her areas of expertise included working with high-net worth individuals and business owners to create and manage defined benefit and contribution plans, actively manage investment portfolios, and implement tax-advantaged retirement income strategies for individuals and families. Jeanette was a Registered Representative (Series 7 & Series 66) and was awarded a Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist (CRPS®) designation from the College for Financial Planning. Prior to CIC Wealth, Jeanette worked with the wealth management teams at Capital One Bank and UBS Financial Services in New Orleans, LA.
Ms. Weiland currently serves as a board member for KIDsmART, the New Orleans Garden District Association, Louisiana BIO, and had her second children’s book published in Fall of 2020. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Trade and Finance, and received both her Master of Arts in Arts Administration degree and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Orleans.

While enrolled in graduate school in the evenings, Jeanette worked within the Development Department of the LSU Health Sciences Center’s School of Dentistry, where she and two other staff members were responsible for the fundraising practices and alumni affairs of the school. Before she began her graduate education, she interned on Capitol Hill for former U.S. Senator John Breaux of Louisiana and lived in Beijing, China where she studied the Mandarin dialect.

Focused on the intersection of informatics, engineering, technology, clinical research and innovation, Dr. Anil Jain is a former VP and Chief Health Information Officer at IBM Watson Health. He was Co-Founder, Senior VP and Chief Medical Officer of Explorys, Inc. formed in 2009 based on innovations that he developed while at the Cleveland Clinic.

From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Jain served on the Federal Health IT Advisory Committee formed by the 21st Century Cures Act. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and a Diplomate of Clinical Informatics from the American Board of Preventative Medicine. He continues to practice and teach medicine part-time at Cleveland Clinic. In addition to serving on state and national committees focused on driving quality & research through Health IT, Dr. Jain has authored more than 100 publications and abstracts and has delivered numerous talks on the benefits of sustainable Health IT innovation, clinical informatics as well as big data and cognitive analytics.

After receiving a degree in Biomedical Engineering and a degree in Medicine from Northwestern University in Chicago, Dr. Jain began his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in 1995. In addition to joining the Department of Internal Medicine in 1998; until July 2011, served as Senior Executive Director of IT where he led several Health IT innovations, including the e-Research programs, quality informatics and created solutions to monitor the “meaningful use” of EMRs to support the EHR Incentive Program. He has previously served as a leader within Better Health Greater Cleveland and is a former co-Director of Informatics of Case Western School of Medicine’s CTSA. He is an active member of the Health Information Management & Systems Society (HIMSS) and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

Chrissa is an entrepreneur who is passionate about making a change in healthcare on a global scale and has achieved unprecedented success in a short period of time. Named as one of the top women, “leaving their mark on the MedTech field in health IT,” by Becker’s Hospital Review, Chrissa founded Patientory in December 2015 after seeing the need for more personalized and secure consumer-driven health information management solutions. She is among the youngest female CEOs in the Healthcare IT industry and a highly sought-after global speaker.

Chrissa is a Digital Health influencer for HIMSS and influencer/ambassador for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Chrissa is also a published author. In 2019, she authored her first book titled Future Women: Minority Female Entrepreneurship and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Era of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. Through all her work, Chrissa advocates for best practices and the highest ethical standards for patients. Patientory, her startup, empowers patients to manage their data.

Chrissa has dedicated her career to healthcare and blockchain and believes blockchain can transform healthcare and further integrate the social determinants of health into care. In the span of only a few years after founding Patientory, Inc. and the Patientory Association, she has established an international reputation as an expert on the use of Blockchain Technology in healthcare. Through her global speaking experiences, she has become a thought leader in the blockchain space and has participated on numerous national and international panels and forums including The Future Blockchain Summit in Dubai and the StartUp Health Festival in San Francisco. She is a pioneer with influence in the areas of both blockchain and healthcare.

Norman serves as Interim President and CEO at the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA). He is a finance expert with over 30 years of community and economic development leadership experience in cities in the Northeast and Gulf South.

Prior, Barnum joined NOLABA as Chief Financial Officer where he developed the overall financial strategy and implementation of data systems. He managed the finance team, treasury, shareholder relations, accounting, tax, external audit, and risk management. Barnum also led the development and implementation of strategic initiatives that increased the organization’s self-sustainability and minimized dependence on public funding. To do so, he served as a liaison between leaders in the public and private sectors and community members to generate outcomes that drive prosperity for all citizens of New Orleans.

Barnum holds a B.S. in Accounting from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA and an MBA in Finance and Management from Eastern College in St. Davids, PA.

Arundhati Parmar is VP and Editor-in-Chief at MedCity News. Previously she was senior editor at UBM’s Medical Device + Diagnostic Industry and has been a business journalist for more than a decade. Arundhati has three degrees from three continents – a Bachelor of Arts in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; a Masters in English Literature from the University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has sworn never to enter a classroom again.

Esther Farkas is the Chief Strategy Officer at Unite Us, an enterprise technology company that connects health and social care.

Esther oversees corporate development and strategy, the Social Care Payments product line, as well as legal and compliance, and is a member of the Unite Us board of directors. Esther focuses on corporate growth and expansion through strategic partnerships and acquisitions that support Unite Us’ mission, ensuring that everyone has access to the care they need, right in their communities. Esther led the acquisition of Staple Health in 2019 and Carrot Health in 2021 to enhance existing in-house data analytics, a critical component of the company’s end-to-end social care solution as well as the acquisition of NowPow in 2021. She was also instrumental in the company’s financing rounds, including its latest Series C funding in March 2021, and is leading Unite Us on its path to becoming a generational company that’s transforming the care delivery system and ensuring that one day, zip code will no longer determine a person’s health.

Darrell has been with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana for 30 years. He has held numerous roles within the organization, including Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, head of Financial Investigations, the Information Governance Office, and Process Engineering among others.

In his role as Chief Strategy Officer, Darrell oversees the development and execution of the Blue Cross and subsidiary corporate strategy and works with senior leaders to create and align divisional strategies accordingly. He also oversees the corporate planning process. Under his business development responsibilities, Darrell identifies and evaluates new business opportunities and looks for new and innovative ways for Blue Cross to serve its members and operate the core business. In this role, he has led three of the largest transactions at Blue Cross, including the acquisition of Vantage Health Plan that strategically enabled the company’s government programs.

Darrell earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance, with a concentration in accounting, from Louisiana State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor.

Judy joined iRhythm in 2008 and serves as the Executive Vice President, Products and as Chief Clinical Officer. During her tenure at iRhythm, Judy has held other executive roles including Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Operations.

She has been involved with bringing business concepts to life and creating successful cardiovascular service companies for nearly 29 years. Her work at iRhythm has been dedicated to advancing cardiac technologies to better clinical outcomes. All of Judy’s efforts have been with the patient in mind, as her work has led the company to serve over 4 million patients to date. As a registered nurse, Judy leverages her medical background and works directly with the product team to improve iRhythm’s core offering, the Zio service.

In this dual role, Judy encourages innovation through groundbreaking technology while also focusing on improving physician workloads and patient outcomes. From clinical to operational to financial, Judy influences all corners of the business.

Prior to joining iRhythm, Judy was the Vice President of Business Development for Centura Health, a major integrated healthcare delivery system in the state of Colorado. She serves on the board of directors for HSS, Inc. and holds a B.S. in Nursing from Mercy College of Detroit and an M in Administration-Healthcare from the University of Maryland.

Mia Orr White joined the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), Bureau of Community Partnerships and Health Equity (BCPHE) in September of 2021 as Deputy Director. BCPHE was established in 2018 by the LDH Office of the Secretary with a mission to support LDH’s larger mission of protecting and promoting health for all citizens of Louisiana by providing internal consultation on health equity and facilitating the organization of stakeholder partnerships at all levels. BCPHE also assists with developing policies and protocols to ensure that all LDH practices, both internal and external, are executed with equity. Mia stepped into this role with over 17 years of experience developing, implementing and evaluating health and human services proposals, policies and programs, with a heavy focus on social determinants of health, health disparities, health equity and the experiences of people in marginalized communities.

Prior to joining BCPHE, Mia served LDH as Medicaid Transformation Program Manager in the newly-created Innovations unit of the Medicaid Quality Improvement Section, through a collaboration with the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, Center for Healthcare Value and Equity. Her unit was tasked with implementing new ideas in healthcare delivery and payment transformation, including laying groundwork to incorporate population health initiatives and value-based payment arrangements into the state’s Medicaid contracts.

The bulk of Mia’s career has been in politics and advocacy, having spent 8 years as a health policy consultant for the California State Legislature and 3 years for a statewide child advocacy nonprofit in Louisiana. Mia prides herself on finding common ground even under contentious political circumstances, and serving as a bridge between marginalized communities and the policymakers and leaders who serve them.

Mia received a Master of Health Administration degree from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in African American Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles.

David joined Providence Ventures as a Partner in 2018 where he has helped lead the formulation of the firm’s medical device investment strategy. David also helps support investment strategy and decision processes in software and service focused businesses.

Prior to joining PV, David worked for River Cities Capital Fund (“RCCF”), one of the most active and experienced growth equity funds in healthcare and information technology. David most recently was a Principal on the healthcare team having served on deal teams across all healthcare verticals.

Additionally, David served as President and Board Member of Mid-America Health Investors Network (MHIN), where he represented over 60 active healthcare funds with offices spread throughout Middle America.

David currently or previously served as a Board Director, Board Observer, or co-led financings for TailorMed, MacroHealth, OrthAlign Inc., Bolder Surgical, AVIA Health, Veran Medical (sold), NICO Corp., TissueTech (sold), and Advanced Practice Strategies (sold).

Earlier in his career, David served as a principal, sales associate, and investment advisor with American Financial Group and completed extensive financial, consumer branding, and sales and marketing training programs with Merrill Lynch and Procter & Gamble.

David graduated from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and received his MBA with a concentration in finance from Xavier University’s Williams College of Business.

Anahita Nakhjiri supports Echo Health Ventures in all aspects of the investment process, from deal sourcing and evaluation through transaction management and execution. She is responsible for providing financial and market support that drives investment initiatives and decisions, and the success and growth of Echo’s portfolio of companies.

Prior to joining Echo Health Ventures in 2019, Anahita served as a Senior Associate at McKesson Ventures in San Francisco. She co-led the team’s portfolio development efforts and assisted in sourcing and performing due diligence on new digital health investment opportunities. Previously, Anahita was a consultant with The Advisory Board Company, advising health system executives on clinical workflow improvement and implementation of performance technologies.

Anahita graduated from The George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in Business and a concentration in Economics & Public Policy. Originally from Seattle, Anahita is happy to once again call the city home and enjoys traveling, exploring new cultures and serving as a sous-chef alongside her husband.

Maxim previously led the Ventures team at StartUp Health investing in 100+ early-stage healthcare entrepreneurs (including Particle Health, Cityblock, Devoted Health, Quit Genius, Inbox Health, among others). Prior to that, he built and led the venture investment team of a prominent New York family office investing across impact-focused sectors.

Maxim began his career as a global macro investor at Schroders Investment Management in London, helping manage a $30B portfolio of publicly traded securities.