Seth Edwards is a Managing Director / Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Population Health with Premier. In this role, Seth is responsible for the strategy, management and operations of Premier’s KLAS award winning Strategic and Performance Improvement Collaboratives: the Population Health Management Collaborative, the CONNECT Collaborative, and 100 Top Hospitals (fka, QUEST®: High Performing Hospitals) Collaborative, as well as the Strategic Collaborative Services division.

He has expertise in health care policy and the nexus between policy, strategy and implementation with a focus on delivery system reform and value-based payment models, such as the Medicare ACO initiatives.

During his time at Premier, Seth has won numerous awards, including the Premier Values Award, the Premier Public Affairs Vision Award and numerous Premier team awards. Additionally, Seth was named as one of 15 “Up and Comers” for 2018 by Modern Healthcare.

Gayle’s health care background is an extensive mix of government and private sector experience. She spent several years on Capitol Hill where she worked in both the House and the Senate focusing her time on health care legislation.

Later she moved to The Concord Coalition where she worked with the media, Members of Congress, and related organizations to educate the public on the federal budget and deficit. In particular, she delved into the relationship of Medicare and Social Security with the federal budget.

In addition, Gayle has experience serving on the board of the Los Alamos Medical Center, and she has recently consulted for The Brooks Group and The Concord Coalition.

Gayle graduated from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. in English and Communications.

Amy Gleason is the Acting Administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service and Strategic Advisor to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where 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.

Catherine Hayes serves as Executive Director of the GOP Doctors Caucus, where she leads initiatives to strengthen the voice of health care professionals in Congress. In this role, she works closely with Doctors Caucus members, House leadership and key committees to advance healthcare solutions that protect the doctor-patient relationship and improve access to care.

Before joining the Caucus, Hayes built extensive healthcare policy expertise during her 14-year tenure at the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, where she most recently led the organization’s federal and state legislative affairs team. Her leadership helped shape numerous healthcare policy victories and established strong relationships across Capitol Hill. Ms. Hayes began her career as a staffer with the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a researcher at DCI Group, a prominent public affairs company located in Washington, DC.

Ms. Hayes holds a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government and a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College. She resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters.

Mason Ingram is Senior Director of Government Affairs in Premier’s Washington, DC office, where he leads Premier’s advocacy work on private health insurance and technology policy issues. Prior to Premier, Mason led operational risk analysis for former Cigna subsidiary CareAllies as the company launched its first two ACOs. Mason was previously a Senior Program Examiner and Presidential Management Fellow in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he led on Medicare Advantage policy and Medicare hospital quality programs under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

John Knapp serves as Vice President, Advocacy in Premier’s Washington, DC office. In this role, John serves as the primary contact for Premier with Capitol Hill lawmakers. With more than 20 years of experience in healthcare advocacy, John advances policy proposals to support the transformation to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare. Prior to joining Premier, John worked for the Children’s Hospital Association and the firm of O’Neill, Athy & Casey. John is a graduate of Connecticut College and the University of Texas at Austin.

Mara McDermott is the Chief Executive Officer of Accountable for Health, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization committed to accelerating the adoption of effective accountable care. She is an accomplished healthcare executive with deep expertise in federal healthcare law and policy, including delivery system reform, physician payment and payment models.

Somaieh McMullan is a Senior Director of Payment Policy and responsible for Premier’s advocacy strategy for hospital payment policies and expansion of value-based care (VBC). For over a decade, Somaieh has designed and implemented VBC payment models for public and private payers.

Soumi Saha, both a pharmacist and a lawyer, is the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Premier. In this role, Dr. Saha is responsible for developing and implementing Premier’s advocacy strategy to lead the transformation to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare and resilient supply chains. Dr. Saha leverages her unique background to ensure the perspective of healthcare providers is represented in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Saha proactively advances legislation and regulatory actions that address vulnerabilities in our healthcare system. Her work directly resulted in the introduction and passage of the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages (MEDS) Act, which was signed into law as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020.

Since the COVID-19 public health emergency, Dr. Saha has helped the nation’s hospitals and healthcare providers through the pandemic with innovative legislative solutions that have resulted in a suite of regulatory flexibilities from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the White House.

Prior to joining Premier, Dr. Saha served as the Director of Pharmacy & Regulatory Affairs for the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), where she led AMCP’s initiatives related to healthcare economic information (HCEI) communications between payers and biopharmaceutical manufacturers. Previously, Dr. Saha also held positions with Kaiser Permanente and CVS/Caremark.

Dr. Saha has a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and a Juris Doctor (JD) with a concentration in health law from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Mark Sendak, MD, MPP is the Founder and CEO of Vega Health, the trusted partner for health systems working to identify, integrate, and scale best-in-class AI solutions. Vega Health offers a proprietary platform installed in healthcare organizations’ local environments; a curated marketplace of validated AI solutions; and comprehensive implementation, evaluation, and monitoring services, all designed to ensure health systems realize real-world value from AI.

Mark previously served as Population Health & Data Science Lead at Duke Institute for Health Innovation and co-founded the Health AI Partnership, a learning collaborative advancing responsible AI use in healthcare delivery. He has integrated dozens of AI solutions into clinical operations and is a co-inventor of software to scale machine learning applications and real-world evidence generation across health systems. Mark and his team have published over 50 manuscripts in top journals and has had work featured in The Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, Wired, and STAT News. He has served as an advisor to national organizations, including the American Medical Association, AARP, American Board of Family Medicine, White House Office of Science, Technology, and Policy.

Senator Thom Tillis was first elected to represent North Carolina in 2014 and is currently serving in his second term after being re-elected in 2020.

Senator Tillis is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Judiciary Committee.

Before serving in the Senate, he was Speaker of the House in the North Carolina General Assembly where he played an instrumental role in enacting job-creating policies and reforming North Carolina’s tax and regulatory codes.

He lives with his wife Susan in Huntersville, North Carolina, and they are the proud parents of two grown children.

Kirsten Tullia, J.D., MPH, serves as Senior Vice President, Payment & Health Care Delivery Policy and Head of Research at the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed). In this position she covers a wide range of policy issues, with a particular focus on the Medicare fee-for-service payment systems, digital health technology coverage and payment, and alternative payment models.

Prior to joining AdvaMed, Kirsten was the Department Head for Health Policy at the MITRE Corporation, where she led teams supporting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in addressing healthcare quality and payment issues through strategic planning, research and evaluation, and regulatory development. She holds a B.A. from Southern Virginia University, a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law, and an M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Nick Wilkinson is the Director of Government Affairs for Cone Health, representing the system’s interests before the North Carolina General Assembly and United States Congress. Prior to joining Cone Health in 2020, Nick spent six years in the office of United States Senator Thom Tillis and has held leadership roles on political campaigns in North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana. Outside of work, Nick serves on the Board of Directors for the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum and lives in Greensboro with his wife, Emily, and two children.