Speakers

Ricky Clark is the Deputy Director of NITAAC. A United States Navy Veteran, Mr. Clark began his federal contracting career with the 87th Contracting Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Prior to reporting to the National Institutes of Health, Mr. Clark served as the Chief of Acquisition Service for the Government Publishing Office, where he led a cradle to grave contract team that managed the procurement needs of all three branches of the federal government, including U.S. Passports for the Department of State. Mr. Clarke also served as a Senior Procurement Analyst at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Acquisition and Logistics Procurement Policy and Warrant Management Division, where he led the agencies’ largest Integrated Product Team.

Mr. Clark holds several certifications, including: DITAP Training & Development Program; FAC-C Contracting Level III; DAWIA Contracting Level III; FAC-P/PM Senior Level; Industry Certification in Contract Management – Defense (ICCM-D); Certification Contracting Level III (National Contracts Management Association (NCMA); Certified as Federal Contracts Manager (NCMA), and is a graduate of the VA Leadership Class of 2016 and the Federal Executive Institute.

Mr. Clark holds a BS in Business and an MA in Business Administration from Mississippi College.

Laura Prietula is the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office. In that role, she is responsible for the technical implementation of VA’s modernized electronic health record (EHR) and for ensuring bidirectional communication with the clinical and technical staff at local sites to effectively transition to using this new ecosystem in the delivery of safe health care. She works with the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) to ensure sustainability and responsive customer support for the new EHR.

Prior to her appointment as DCIO in December 2021, Prietula was the executive director for the OIT Health Portfolio, where she was responsible for the product life cycle and IT software development activities delivering health care, benefits and services. Prietula also worked in the Veterans Experience Office as acting executive director for Multi-Channel Technology, where she led systemwide transformations, such as COVID-19 Chatbot and Clinical Trial registration and VA Profile (ensuring a 360-degree view of the customer profile) and established the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Profiles used in the modernized EHR, where her primary goals were focused on customer experience (patient, Veteran, family and employees) and positive adoption of new technologies.

Through her over 19 years in VA, she has led enterprise initiatives such as Enrollment System Redesign, Combat Veterans, Identity and Access Management, Veterans Benefits Administration integration with VHA processes, Affordable Care Act, Choice Act, Caregivers, MISSION Act and Contact Center modernization, where she successfully worked across the department and with other agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue Service, Federal Communications Commission and Social Security Administration.

Prietula brings more than 28 years of leadership, organizational change management, strategic planning, integration, engineering and customer experience insights from both the private and public sectors. She participates in many federal committees and workgroups to improve data sharing, promote data analytics, enhance customer experiences and incorporate the use of new technologies. Prietula has worked in the health, manufacturing, financial and services industries since 1993. She has an exceptional background in conducting disruptive innovations to transform customer benefits delivery, create business synergies and maximize business results.

Prietula holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM Mexico) and a master’s degree in decision and information sciences from the University of Florida. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in leadership and learning in organizations from Vanderbilt University, with an expected graduation date of December 2022.

Dr. Alan Sim brings a wealth of leadership, knowledge, and experience to CDC. He is an experienced and innovative thought leader with over 20+ years of business development and management of health informatics initiatives at many agencies and organizations at the military, federal, and state and local levels.

Most recently, Dr. Sim held leadership and technical roles in the Enterprise Intelligence & Data Solutions (EIDS) Program Management Office in the Defense Health Agency/Department of Defense. He served as the first chief for the Data Innovation Branch as well as chief data scientist for EIDS and was responsible for providing the vision and goals associated with data innovation, applied data science, and research. He led a team of analysts, statisticians, and data scientists to apply innovative predictive and big analytic techniques to support operational and research studies within the Department of Defense as well as with external academic partners. Dr. Sim has spearheaded joint incentive fund innovation grants/awards focused on opioid safety, suicide prevention, and interagency predictive analytics with the Veterans Health Administration and Department of Energy.

Dr. Sim has served in other leadership and management positions, including senior epidemiologist and informatician in the Air Force Medical Service’s Population Health Support Division and business process consultant at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is one of the early graduates of the CDC’s Public Health Informatics Fellowship Program and supported CDC’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System vocabulary and data standards initiatives.

Dr. Sim received his doctoral degree in epidemiology from Drexel University’s School of Public Health and a master of science degree in community health/epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

Andrea Fletcher serves as the Executive Director of the Digital Service at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In this role she is responsible for leading digital modernization efforts at CMS, which promote interoperability and public access to health data.

Prior to her digital service role, Andrea spent most of the last 10 years traveling around the world, building digital health systems across 20+ countries, primarily working in sub-Saharan Africa. She has built mobile apps for healthcare workers, integrated biometric IDs into electronic health record systems, designed national-level interoperability layers, and deployed new disease surveillance systems making contributions to pandemic responses in Ebola, HIV, and COVID-19.

Andrea holds a B.A. in Bioethics from Washington and Jefferson College, and a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Emory University, and is currently a part-time PhD student at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Epidemiology and Population Health.

Howard Green has over 30 years of diverse experience in Information Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  He joined VA in 1989 as a programmer and IT specialist at the Denver VA Medical Center in and then at the newly established VHA Health Administration Center (HAC). At the HAC he led the team responsible for designing and delivering the Medical Claims Processing System and Eligibility Determination System for VHA’s Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Veterans Administration (CHAMPVA).  In 1998, Howard was recruited to be the CIO of VHA’s Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 15 based in Kansas City, Missouri supporting 9 medical centers and 30+ Community Based Outpatient Centers across Kansas, Missouri, and Southern Illinois.  During his tenure at VISN 15, including a night sleeping on a conference floor during Y2K, VISN 15 implemented numerous innovative clinical and administrative hospital system.  As a member of the VISN CIO Executive Council, Howard took personal responsibility for VHAs national adoption of the Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA) program which had originally been developed in Topeka, KS by VISN 15 developers. 

In 2005, he moved his family to Maryland/Washington DC to stand up the program management discipline in VHA’s Office of Health Information (OHI) and eventually took on the same role in VA’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT).  Since joining the staff in OIT, Howard has had a distinguished career as a program manager, division lead, and as the Director of the Medical Program Management Office.  One of the highlights of his career was his assignment to the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, also known as the Dole-Shalala Commission, as VA’s Lead IT representative.  In his role on the commission, Howard was instrumental in defining and implementing joint VA and DoD programs such as eBenefits, the National Resource Directory (NRD), and the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES).

From 2011 to 2019, Howard spent time in the private sector supporting VA as an Account and Business Development Lead, Business Owner, Scrum Master, and Program Manager. He was instrumental in introducing agile programming techniques and was involved in the introduction of mobile app development in VHA’s Office of Connected Care. On returning to VA, he established several new core business functions and programs for DevSecOps’ Software Management Division (SPM).  Based on Howard’s cross-cutting understanding of VHA and VBAs business functions, and IT in VA, his assignments have included the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) initiative as a Sr. technical lead, supporting for the deployment of MISSION Act capabilities, and coordinating the OIT COVID 19 Response Initiative.  He is also responsible for defining and authoring the initial concept of operation for OIT’s Deployment Release Framework (DRF).  In July of 2021, Howard joined the VA OIT Business Integration Orchestration Service Health Account Group as the Business Relationship Manager supporting EHRM and Supply Chain Management, and now holds the position of IT Account Manager, and Acting Deputy CIO for Health.

Howard grew up in New Hampshire and is part of a family that has served the VA and Veterans for decades.  He is a former sailing instructor, professional ski instructor and spent 18 years volunteering for the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park Colorado as a sit-ski instructor. He enjoys woodworking and furniture building, spending time with his Hungarian Vizsla’s (Szabo) and his 3 children.

Gary Katz is Solutions Director and Sr. Account Executive with MarkLogic Corporation with nearly 20 years of experience in public sector. He is a recognized expert in Database, Search, Linguistic, and Master Data Management technologies supporting national security, public safety, and HHS missions.

Gary bridges the gap between business imperatives and technology, serving as both technical advisor and trusted partner to public sector clients throughout his career. His early work was formative to introducing graph-based semantic search capabilities into the MarkLogic platform, which has become as instrumental  to helping defense customers identify bad actors as it is to HHS organizations in understanding familial relationships and the impact of time to benefit or service. 

Gary graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a bachelors degree in computer science. He resides in Virginia  with his wife and three children.

Arthur has over 22 years of professional experience in the information technology industry providing sales
engineering support for government and education clients, with over five years of experience supporting
clients at SolarWinds.
During his career, Arthur has provided pre- and post-sales support for government and education clients
for networking, performance monitoring, and software engineering products. He has a proven track record
in all stages of the sales process, from business development and lead qualification, to Requests for
Proposals (RFPs), and technical needs analysis.
Arthur has solid technical knowledge, with business experience in enterprise networking and application
architecture. He has excellent problem-solving and leadership skills to deliver both technical and business
solutions. He effectively manages and mentors cross-functional teams, and he has successfully managed
and deployed complex IT projects within budget and on schedule.

Troy K. Schneider is GovExec's General Manager for Government Technology Brands, and for many years has been the Editor-in-Chief of both FCW and GCN, two of the oldest and most influential publications in public-sector IT. Both publications (originally known as Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News, respectively) were acquired by GovExec in 2021. Prior to that acquisition, Mr. Schneider was General Manager of Public Sector 360, the government-focused business unit of 1105 Media.

Prior to joining 1105 Media, Mr. Schneider was the New America Foundation’s Director of Media & Technology, and before that was Managing Director for Electronic Publishing at the Atlantic Media Company, where he oversaw the online operations of The Atlantic Monthly, National Journal,The Hotline and The Almanac of American Politics, among other publications. The founding editor of NationalJournal.com, Mr. Schneider also helped launch the political site PoliticsNow.com in the mid-1990s, and worked on the earliest online efforts of the Los Angeles Times and Newsday. He began his career in print journalism, and has written for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, WashingtonPost.com, Slate, Politico, Governing, and many of the other titles listed above.

Mr. Schneider is a graduate of Indiana University, where his emphases were journalism, business and religious studies.

Ms. Modecki brings nearly 20 years of progressive experience in designing and delivering IT solutions in support of public sector with a passion for leveraging technology to drive business value and enable mission success.  She has dedicated more than a decade to supporting Federal Healthcare customers leverage IT solutions to transform healthcare and improve outcomes across IT solution domains such as Cloud, Infrastructure Optimization and Operations, Big Data and AI, Cybersecurity, and Application Modernization.  She has a particular focus on aligning the transformation of organizations and process to enable successful IT modernization.

Prior to joining VMware in 2020, she was the Vice President of Global Public Sector and Customer Success divisions for an innovative Cybersecurity start-up. Her previous experience includes leading Federal Solution Architecture and Capture Strategy teams for IBM Watson Health, and progressive strategy and solution roles within SRA then CSRA (now GDIT). She holds an MS in Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia and is a Prosci Certified Change Management practitioner in addition to holding multiple technical trainings and certifications.