DirectTrust Leadership

Kelly Gwynn

As Chief Operating Officer for DirectTrust, Kelly Gwynn is responsible for oversight and coordination of the company’s operations.  Starting with DirectTrust in 2014, Kelly’s extraordinary attention to detail coupled with her powerful analytical skills have led to greater efficiencies and improved process flows. Her experience and knowledge base span all areas of DirectTrust, giving her a great perspective of the organization at large as well as the daily activities required to achieve the company’s mission.  Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Georgia.

Lee Barrett

Lee Barrett is the Commission Executive Director for DirectTrust. He previously served as CEO and Executive Director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), which merged into DirectTrust in January of 2023. He was appointed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as FAST co-lead of the Testing and Certification Tiger Team and as a member of the Executive Committee. Barrett currently serves as a member of the HHS 405(d) Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), the FAST/HL7 Accelerator, the Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity Council (HSCC), and the EHI Leadership Council, and is also a board member for The Sequoia Project and co-chair of the Sequoia Interoperability Matters Leadership Council.

Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser

As DirectTrust’s Senior Director of Community Strategy, Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, MBA, CHPC, CHTS, is responsible for leading communication, membership, and advocacy efforts. Prior to joining DirectTrust in 2019, she led thought leadership and content efforts for a health information management company, sharing best practices for healthcare professionals through speaking at numerous events like MGMA and AHIMA a year. Her experience also includes managing a compliance department, coaching practices through incentive programs, working in ambulatory practices, and providing user training for EHRs.

Kyle Neuman

Kyle Neuman is a visionary cryptography engineering leader, who was instrumental in revitalizing the vision and mission at SAFE Identity (formerly SAFE-BioPharma Association). DirectTrust acquired the assets of SAFE Identity in 2021.

Kyle continues to actively develop new and existing technical standards on public-key cryptography, blockchain cryptography, key management, and multi-factor authentication for both government and private sectors. His passion for identity lies within the vision of the future and enabling identity between geographical regions and political regimes for the benefit of humanity as we transcend into an increasingly digital way of life.

Alex Young

As Director of Technical Operations, Alex Young is responsible for executing DirectTrust’s objectives on schedule, managing cloud infrastructure, and other technical development such as our Directory and Trust Anchor bundles. Previously, Alex worked in the healthcare release of information and interoperability strategy space. During that time, Alex led efforts to integrate aggregated data sources (HIEs, EHR data repositories) and third party medical record requestors to release of information workflows. He also successfully led over 100 new client implementations in an EHR agnostic environment. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Kansas.

Susan Flynn

Susan Flynn manages all aspects of operations related to accredited and certified organizations with a primary focus on providing exceptional customer relations and guidance, process improvement and new business development. Prior to joining EHNAC in 2017, Susan owned and operated two small businesses, the first a graphics design, printing, and publishing company which catered to individuals and businesses within the community; the second a popular local jewelry and gift boutique. Susan’s background includes healthcare operations, project management, customer relations, marketing and product development. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Bentley University.

Stacy Clements

Stacy Clements serves as the Standards Secretariat and Operations Manager for DirectTrust. Since 2021, Stacy has managed both the Accreditation and Standards programs for DirectTrust, bringing years of critical business operations and project management experience from her time as a Senior Business Analyst at Bluenet Technologies. During that time, she served as a liaison between business stakeholders and data architects during the creation of a loan analytics cube, supported customer and client success, and developed data-sharing dashboards, among other accomplishments. Stacy holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Florida State University.

Debra Hopkinson

Debra Hopkinson is the Executive Advisor for DirectTrust. She previously served as COO for the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), where she served in this capacity since the commission’s inception in 1995. In her role at EHNAC, she was responsible for workflow process and infrastructure support, applicant communications and customer service, financial development and planning, marketing and website, contracting, and resourcing, as well as new program development and strategic initiatives. She provided the coordination and guidance with all applicants throughout the accreditation process, while providing outreach and liaison activities with state agencies that implemented EHNAC legislation for healthcare stakeholders in those constituencies.

David Hopkinson

David Hopkinson serves as the Technical Operations Advisor for DirectTrust. He previously worked in operations at EHNAC for more than 10 years, and has worked in data technology fields for more than 40 years. He holds a bachelor of Science degree in Operations Management.

Lesley Berkeyheiser

Ms. Berkeyheiser is a DirectTrust Assessor and independent healthcare consultant with over 25 years of experience in the industry. Her area of specialty includes healthcare regulations, managed health care and Information Technology with a focus in HIPAA/HITECH Security, Cybersecurity & Privacy including within governmental programs and emerging Interoperability. She serves as Board Member for PrivaPlan, actively participated as a Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange Strategic National Implementation Process (WEDI SNIP) Co-Chair and Security and Privacy Co-Chair from 2000- 2013 and continues to conduct frequent public presentations. Ms. Berkeyheiser holds a Bachelor of Science degree.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is a healthcare executive with over twenty-five years of healthcare business and information technology experience. He is a nationally recognized healthcare subject matter expert in health plan and provider operations, with proven ability to understand and apply technology to improve operational outcomes. He is a former Commissioner of EHNAC and served as an advisor for EHNAC security and privacy criteria. He has provided leadership and guidance to healthcare industry associations, including Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Harvard Colloquiums, Health Care Compliance Association, HIPAA Summit, Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the American Bar Association.

Mark McLaughlin

Mark McLaughlin has more than 20 years of experience in the United States healthcare industry as well as exposure to global healthcare systems including Israel, South Africa, and the Philippines. He has held many healthcare industry-related positions including serving as a member of the Board of Directors for healthcare associations, as a c-level executive in charge of development and IT, and in Regulatory Affairs as an analyst of healthcare laws and regulations.

Rick Moore

Rick Moore is a healthcare executive with more than 30 years experience. He provides strategic planning around the complex operations of health information management and the technology supporting those operations. Prior to starting his company at Moore Than Consulting Group, LLC, Moore retired from the US Air Force Medical Service Corps and then served as in NCQA leadership roles for nearly 14 years. He holds a PhD in Health-Related Sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a graduate degree in Health Informatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Ron Moser

Ron Moser is Technical Product Director and a Senior Assessor for DirectTrust. He provides leadership in the development of new assessment programs and has conducted assessments for organizations for over twenty years. Moser is also a certified HITRUST assessor with more than thirty years of professional IT experience. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Common Security Framework Practitioner (CCSFP), and Certified HITRUST Quality Professional (CHQP). He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Taylor University.

Larry Watkins

Larry Watkins is a DirectTrust Assessor and independent healthcare consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the industry. He is a healthcare technology executive with more than 25 years’ experience as a team leader, solution architect, and business driver. He works with healthcare organizations to drive business strategy and provide expertise and assistance in the areas of revenue cycle, data analytics, regulatory compliance, and information exchange. He is a Certified Common Security Framework Practitioner (CCSFP).

Stephen Weiss

Stephen Weiss previously served as Managing Director of DirectTrust, prior to his semi-retirement in January of 2023. In his role Weiss was responsible for the accreditation and service aspects of DirectTrust. He brings 30 years of prior experience to DirectTrust, including consulting services for esMD and HISP related projects. Previously, Stephen’s served as Chief Operating Officer and CIO for MDwerks, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Enterprise Technology Corporation, and Vice President Information Technology for Bankers Trust. He holds a Bachelors in Chemistry from Buffalo State College.

Scott Stuewe

Scott Stuewe is a 25+ year veteran of the healthcare information technology industry. As President and CEO of DirectTrust, Scott drives visibility and utilization of the Direct Standard™ to contribute to nationwide interoperability. Under his tenure, the organization achieved the landmark milestones of one, two, three, and four billion Direct Secure Messages sent and received through the DirectTrust Network. Previously, Stuewe was Director of Strategy and Interoperability at DataFile Technologies, a health information management company, and served more than 24 years at Cerner, including as Cerner Network’s Director of National Interoperability Strategy, where he drove participation in the CommonWell Health Alliance and the bridge with Carequality.

Dan Soule

Dan Soule is the Vice President of Product Management at Health Catalyst. He has over 40 years of client and supplier leadership experience including Good Samaritan Hospital, SpaceLabs, Cerner Corporation, Eclipsys/Allscripts, and Medicity. While at Cerner he worked with Dr. David McCallie to investigate the use of Secure SMTP as a communication and messaging protocol for healthcare.  At Medicity he was responsible for building and deploying one of the first commercial HISPs. His market knowledge includes acute, ambulatory and consumer/patient systems, in the US and globally.

Adam Apatoff

Adam Apatoff is General Counsel/Chief Compliance Officer for Secure Exchange Solutions responsible for regulatory and legal matters including IP licensing, contract compliance, data privacy, security, and industry-specific regulations, certifications and accreditations. An attorney with 20+ years experience, he’s been recognized 4 times among the Washington DC-area’s top 3 attorneys in the area of Technology Transactions by the Washington Business Journal. He was the founder and Chairman of the Healthcare IT Committee of the Maryland Tech Council, the state’s leading technology industry group.

Vince Albanese

Vince is an innovator and successful serial entrepreneur whose skills span decades of success and cutting-edge innovation.  He is a Co-Founder/CEO/CTO of Haven Technologies which is focused on delivering enterprise-grade blockchain solutions to healthcare and finance entities.  Vince is Partner, Technology Practice of CommPro Worldwide.

He was a founder of the Oracle Process Manufacturer’s Users Group, i2 Technologies Rhythm Users Group, the Green Armada Foundation, and Discover Alliance. Additionally, Vince has taken an integral role within DirectTrust and is Chair of the TIM+ Consensus Body and Co-Chair of the Innovation Priorities Workgroup.

Linda Van Horn

Linda Van Horn, MBA is the Founder President/CEO of iShare Medical.  iShare Medical is a complete medical record organized around the person that is easily shared and becomes the foundation of a learning health system.  Her prior experience includes Founder President/CEO of 21^st Century Edge, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer The Pain Institute, and Senior Manager IT Consulting at Deloitte. She is the Past President of the Kentucky MGMA and prior Chairman of the American Red Cross Great Gatsby Gala.  Ms. Van Horn has a BS in Computer Science and MBA from Rockhurst University.

Muhammad Chebli

Muhammad Chebli is a health IT professional with 15+ years of experience managing enterprise application design, development, and implementation. He has been at NextGen Healthcare for the last nine years managing interoperability solutions and services for ambulatory providers and health information exchanges across the country. His team is responsible for the delivery of Mirth Connect—an open source integration engine; Health Data Hub—a data aggregation platform; and NextGen Share—a cloud-based interoperability hub. Prior to joining NextGen Healthcare, Mo spent 11 years at CareCloud, a web-based EHR company which
also provides RCM services. During his time there, he was responsible for the product management of the EHR, mobile apps, patient portal, and connectivity solutions. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two kids.

Lawrence Garber

Dr. Larry Garber is a practicing internist, board-certified Clinical Informaticist, Medical Director for Informatics, and Associate Medical Director of Research at Reliant Medical Group. He is Chair of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and a member of the Carequality Advisory Council. He is the recipient of the 2010 eHealth Initiative eHealth Advocate Award, the 2011 Health Data Management EHR Game Changer Award, and listed in the 2015 Health Data Management Top 50 HIT Experts. He led the HIMSS 2011 Davies Award-winning implementation of Reliant’s EHR system.

Brian Handspicker

Brian (BD) Handspicker is CTO for Open City Labs, Inc., as well as an independent consultant working through PracticalMarkets, Inc. and the Stewards of Change Institute. These companies specialize in community care solutions across socialcare, healthcare, education and justice. Brian is actively involved in healthcare and socialcare interoperability  standards, including HL7 Gravity Project (Social Determinants of Health), FHIR Clinicalcare SDOH IG, HL7 Human and Social Services, DirectTrust Innovations Priorities, and as Chair of DirectTrust’s Information Exchange for Human Services (IX4HS) Consensus Body. He is a Fellow of the National Interoperability Collaborative (NIC) and Technical Lead for NIC’s Project Unify.

Katherine Lusk

Katherine Lusk, MHSM, RHIA, FAHIMA is the Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for the Texas Health Services Authority with a focus on cross-industry facilitation of secure electronic exchange of trusted health information.  She has long championed interoperability serving in multiple roles including DirectTrust Roundtables, eHealth Exchange Workgroup, ONC Patient Identity Workgroup, Epic’s Care Everywhere Governing Council, ONC / AHIMA Project [email protected] Companion Guide, AHIMA 2021 President / Chair and the DirectTrust Board.   Current efforts are focused on tackling barriers to interoperability as a vendor agnostic convener for all healthcare participants with the THSA Interoperability Collaborative.

Julie Maas

Julie Maas is the Founder/CEO of EMR Direct. Previously she managed software business and product development life cycles at MicroStrategy, NBC Internet, and Yahoo. Her experience includes designing the first commercially available and customizable subscription system for database reporting, applications for mobile devices, and applications leveraging personalization and AI. She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. She also participates in workgroups with HL7, OpenID, Carequality, and ONC’s FHIR at Scale Taskforce (FAST).

Christopher Mack

Christopher Mack, is an Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development for Sutter Health’s Integrated Network headquartered in Northern Ca. Christopher has been with Sutter Health for 20 years, and has worked in both clinical and non-clinical settings. He created Sutter Health’s first interoperability workflows to support referrals and in 2016, designed the first workflow to exchange close loop ambulatory referrals via Direct. Christopher has a deep connection to patient centered care coordination and a passion for safe, efficient, affordable methods to exchange patient health information while protecting and preserving the integrity and privacy of patent data.

Shereese Maynard

Shereese Maynard is the Founder of Bandia FiSH, Co-founder of NostraData Medical, and minority owner of HIT Like A Girl pod. She is a Women in Data Science Ambassador and a key health IT opinion leader and top 30 influencer as rated by Health Tech Magazine. She invests in and advises startups and nonprofits around leveraging technology for physician and patient engagement strategies and applies her policy expertise to inform the compliance strategies used by some of the nation’s top providers. She also works as a strategic advisor with LAS, a medical coaching platform whose mission is to ensure inclusion in medicine by coaching medical students, residents, and fellows from traditionally underserved backgrounds to pursue certification and wellness. Reach out to Shereese via Twitter @ShereesemayMBA.

Shaun Newton

Shaun Newton is the Chief Security and Compliance Officer at ZeOmega Inc., the nation’s leading population health management company. He works closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the company’s products and operations meet the highest industry standards. Areas of responsibility include Regulatory Compliance, Information Security, Application Security, Privacy, Risk Management, Corporate Quality Improvement, and Public Sector and International Engagement.

Dan Paoletti

As CEO of the Ohio Health Information Partnership, Dan Paoletti helped create and manages CliniSync, Ohio’s HIE, now one of the largest and most successful HIEs in the country. The organization’s innovative spirit continues to create new solutions to bring efficiencies, reduce administrative burden and improve health outcomes for CliniSync Stakeholders. To further these efforts, he serves on the DirectTrust Board, as well as the Boards of The Health Policy Institute of Ohio, Healthcare Collaborative of Greater Columbus, Ohio Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, and OHA Solutions.

Jacob Reider

Jacob Reider is a family physician serving as the General Manager, Health Solutions for Circulo Health, Inc. He has worked for three decades to improve the health of our communities through the innovative use of technology and the promotion of benevolence in business. He is an adviser and Board member for several private sector organizations focused on health and health care. He previously served as the Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the US Department of Health and Human Services, and before that as CMIO Allscripts, of one of the nation’s largest health IT developers.

Lucy Johns

Lucy Johns, MPH, is a strategic planner and policy analyst at Health Care Planning & Policy. An experienced non-profit board volunteer, she served as a “consumer” on the boards of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, California Institute for Health Systems Performance, and as participant in PCORI and RAND research projects. Her strategic focus is social determinants of health. She’s been Visiting Lecturer, UC-Berkeley School of Public Health, published in Health Affairs and the popular press, and is on the Editorial Board of Managed Care, where she’s in the October 2019 issue.

Don Jorgenson

Don Jorgenson is Chairman and CEO of Inpriva, Inc. and has more than thirty years of design, development and management experience including software and embedded system development, communication and IT architecture, security and privacy, regulatory compliance, network management and business process development. He’s been active in HL7, IHE, HITSP and ASTM and consulted/advised the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He has a BS in Engineering and MS in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Scott Rea

Scott Rea is the head of DigitalTrust and the SVP Trust Services of Digital14. He excels in Managed Public Key Infrastructure (MPKI) projects including policy, practices, and applications. Prior to joining DigitalTrust, he was at DarkMatter, DigiCert, IdentTrust and Dartmouth College where he also operated the Higher Education Bridge Certification Authority (HEBCA). A native Australian and CISSP, he holds an MS in Computer Science from Queensland University of Technology as well as BS degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Bruce Schreiber

Bruce is a part time consultant running Schreiber Tech Advisors, LLC.  He has retired as CTO of MedAllies, where he was responsible for technical strategy and development as well as for building the company’s technological systems. Prior to joining MedAllies, he held a similar position at MaxMD for 14 years. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Alpha Investment Management, Executive Director of the US Equities/Convertible Bond Trading Desk at CIBC, Vice President for Institutional Equity Trading at Lehman Brothers, and President of BDJ Securities. He holds degrees from M.I.T. and a Masters in Electrical Engineering (Computer Science) from Columbia University.

Paul Uhrig

Bio Coming Soon!

Lee Barrett

Lee Barrett is the Commission Executive Director for DirectTrust. He previously served as CEO and Executive Director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), which merged into DirectTrust in January of 2023. He was appointed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as FAST co-lead of the Testing and Certification Tiger Team and as a member of the Executive Committee. Barrett currently serves as a member of the HHS 405(d) Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), the FAST/HL7 Accelerator, the Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity Council (HSCC), and the EHI Leadership Council, and is also a board member for The Sequoia Project and co-chair of the Sequoia Interoperability Matters Leadership Council.

Catherine Costello

Ms. Costello has practiced as an attorney for more than 30 years, specializing in medical-legal work. She currently heads the Regional Extension Center (REC) program provided by the Ohio Health Information Partnership and its seven regional partners.

Before helping to establish the Regional Extension Center program, Ms. Costello worked for the Ohio State Medical Association as a legislative liaison, legal counsel and practice economics director. Her book, Physician’s Guide to Ohio Law, covered both the legal and ethical issues relating to today’s healthcare practice.

Michael Green

Mike Green is the Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Infrastructure at Availity. He is responsible for the overall security operations, information risk management and information security strategy for the Availity, as well as the data center and cloud computing services and operations.

Edward Hafner

Ed Hafner is an AVP for payer strategy within the Medical Network for Change Healthcare. He provides strategic direction deriving health plan’s value from the electronic document exchange including pre-adjudication platform, machine learning, event-based processing, comparative analytics, and solution integrations.

Before joining Change Healthcare, Ed was the general manager of TIBCO’s Multi-Enterprise Connectivity Group that included B2B products, healthcare solutions, and managed file transfer products. Ed has been involved with EDI since 1983 including a 14-year tenure at Sterling Commerce where he served as vice president of development and operations.

Judy Hatchett

Judy Hatchett is the VP Chief Information Security Officer at Surescripts. She sets the vision, develops plans and oversees the execution of Surescripts’ Enterprise Information and Physical Security, Business Continuity and Risk Management Programs to ensure comprehensive, high-quality and effective risk and information security management in support of business goals

Luigi Leblanc

Mr. Leblanc is Director of Technology and co-owner of Zane Networks LLC (ZaneNet), an SBA 8(a) certified woman-owned small business that assists organizations and groups to adopt emerging technology tools. Since 2000, Mr. Leblanc has guided health IT projects for federal, state and local governmental agencies and for the private sector.

Shaun Newton

Shaun Newton is the Chief Security and Compliance Officer at ZeOmega Inc., the nation’s leading population health management company. He works closely with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the company’s products and operations meet the highest industry standards. Areas of responsibility include Regulatory Compliance, Information Security, Application Security, Privacy, Risk Management, Corporate Quality Improvement, and Public Sector and International Engagement.

Timothy Pletcher

Dr. Tim Pletcher is the founder and leader of the MiHIN constellation of companies. The MiHIN constellation consists of over 235 team members and 80 plus apprentices and includes the Michigan Health Information Network, Velatura Public Benefit Corporation, the Interoperability Institute, and United States QHIN LLC. Combined these organization offer a comprehensive interoperability strategy plus a product and services portfolio that continues to transform healthcare and health information exchange regionally and across the nation.

Ricky Ponsaa

Ricky Ponsaa is the Global Director at TransUnion. As a Certified Information Systems Security Professional with over 25 years’ experience in the security space. He has responsibility for running the certification programs including HITRUST and HNAP for TransUnion Healthcare’s Revenue Protection and Insurance Clearinghouse solutions for the past 10 years. Additionally, he has primary oversite for the PCI and SOC 2 reporting efforts globally.

Karly Rowe

Karly Rowe is the Senior Vice President of Product Management at Inovalon, Inc. where she oversees a diversified portfolio of solutions serving the provider market. She has successfully developed and launched numerous products to the market and established and managed strategic partnerships with credential service providers (CSP), electronic health records (EHRs), technology vendors, and pharmacy standard organizations.