Our Core Team

Al has 16 years as an innovator providing strategic technology and services management (Xerox, Kodak/Carestream Health), leadership in Strategy, IT, Marketing, Business Development, Channels, Sales. He is responsible for selling, implementing and integrating digital imaging solutions in hospitals, private practices, integrated delivery networks, and government/military environments. He has worked for top-tier professional services firms, EDS, Ernst and Whinney, and McKinsey & Co. With his in-depth knowledge and experience in healthcare, he has helped numerous providers attain significant grant funds and improve performance through the effective use of Healthcare Information Technology (HIT). He successfully contributed to public affairs and lobbying efforts on HIT in Washington and in NY. Al received a BS from SUNY Albany and his MBA from University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Monica has over 15 years of experience managing complex healthcare initiatives, cross-functional teams, and stakeholder engagement. Monica is the former Director of PMO for VillageCare of NY, where she worked in collaboration with IT, Quality, and Care Management teams to establish data governance for the organization, enhance quality measures reporting, and improve behavioral health programming. She also worked with the Bronx PPS as a PMO Director on transformation projects related to behavioral health, including SUD and primary care/behavioral health integration. In this role, Monica developed clinical operations plans and guided 90+ providers in implementing the EHR, population health and referral management enhancements that would ensure program compliance, VBP readiness, and optimize revenue.

Monica holds a MPA from Baruch College School of Public Health, with additional coursework in Public Health from University of Rochester, and a Bachelors in Social Thought and Political Economy from University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Bill has over 25 years experience with consumer products sales, marketing and information management experience with Fisons Pharmaceuticals, Birds Eye Foods, Bausch and Lomb and Constellation Brands. At Constellation Brands, he led vendor selection and deployment of corporate wide sales and marketing web reporting system. For 7 years he conducted instructor led pharmaceutical sales training at Eagle Productivity Solutions. He has served as an information analyst, assisting with hospital systems, outpatient mental health facilities, and EHR implementation and clinical staff training. He received his HIT degree and RHIT certification in 2013.He is an active member of RRHIMA,NYHIMA, and HIMA.

Bill received his BS from Boston College and his degree in healthcare technology from Alfred State College SUNY College of Technology.

Co-founder and Managing Principal of AUSMS Healthcare Consultants, a national consulting practice advising policy makers, administrators, business executives, practitioners and government officials on strategic, facility, organizational and business planning and development. Joni affiliated with SI in 2012 as our Business Communications & Change Management Principal, and began serving as the Communications and Education Manager for the ICD-10 transformation initiative at one of Rochester’s two integrated health care delivery systems with a workforce of over 5,500 and a medical staff of 650. Launched with a BA cum laude from Brandeis University in political and medical sociology, Joni’s graduate studies in social work administration at San Diego State University built on a foundation of growing expertise in organizational and policy development for health care entities she has sustained throughout her career.

Val has more than 25 combined years’ experience working with Xerox Corporation, Welch Allyn and Strategic Interests in project management, marketing, software systems development, integration and deployment with an emphasis on improving processes, streamlining workflows and increasing effectiveness and efficiencies of operations.

Highlights include leading a clinical project team to implement an electronic health record system into a hospital dialysis department. The dialysis EHR system enabled the patients’ treatment data to go right from the dialysis device directly to the patient’s record, eliminating the need for the clinician to spend time manually documenting the voluminous amount of treatment data, freeing up clinicians’ time to spend with the patient or redirect to other important tasks.

While at Welch Allyn, Val collaborated with EHR partners to develop and integrate interfaces for their Welch Allyn vital signs and cardio devices to EHR systems with the goal of automating patient data directly into the patients’ electronic records. Val worked with partners such as Cerner, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Meditech and Iatric Systems to coordinate the development and marketing roadmaps and to ensure new product development and releases are communicated, trained on and certified.

• Project Management, Systems Implementation & Optimization
• Management / Staff Training / Staff Development
• Workflow Streamlining/ Process Improvement/ Lean Six Sigma / Quality Control
• Vendor Management, Contracts & Pricing, Purchasing, Contract Negotiations, RFI & RFP’s, Leasing
• Electronic Health Record Selection, Implementation, Clinical Adoption and Meaningful Use, Practice Transformation
• Change Agent / Strong Communication / Consensus Builder / Accountable / Implementer / Executes

Val received her MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and holds a black belt certification in Lean Six Sigma.

Deb Blanchard is a Lead Consultant at SI.   Her background is in Healthcare Quality and Process Improvement.  She holds a Masters Degree in Engineering Management and is Lean Six Sigma certified from Johnson & Johnson.  Deb also is a NCQA Patient Centered Medical Home Certified Content Expert, serving both as a practice consultant and an evaluator for the national organization.    

Stacey Padginton is a Business Development Strategist who partners with executives and entrepreneurs to grow their business and build market share. A dynamic sales and business development leader within the hospital, healthcare and LTC industry with a proven record of success, sales leadership and business development.

Stacey spent over a decade working in healthcare technology sales with expertise in healthcare SaaS, EHR, EMR, and telecom for multimillion dollar companies and startups. Stacey knows what truly drives conversions and her approach is to create value-based sales while building solid relationships cultured by consistent follow up with value.  Stacey is Sandler and SPIN sales trained, as well as a President’s Club and Diamond Award winning Executive.

Stacey has closed business in large healthcare organizations as well as small clinical and non-clinical LTC communities. She has sold with companies such as PointClickCare, Allscripts, AdvancedMD, TeleVox Software, and has been on the operations and project management side within LTC as well.

Stacey holds AS and BA degrees in Communications & Media from Buffalo State College.

Paul has over 20 years’ experience in Information Technology and over 10 years of healthcare Practice Management with significant experience in project and resource management, vendor management, and ability to align and organize work to implement significant change.  He has a strong focus in healthcare but also significant experience in manufacturing, government, and consulting industries.  

Paul received his BS from University of Virginia and an MS in Computer Science from George Mason University both in Computer Science. He holds certifications as a Medical Office Manager and a Certified Medical Coder from PMI. He is Xerox/Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Trained and holds SEI CMM Level 3.

Kelly has served in the capacity of Program Manager in support of many large CI/ACO initiative across the country, with responsibility for implementation of HIEs, Population Health Management programs, Care Management programs, and the analytical and financial systems to support Medicare shared savings program and other value-based program models. Kelly is a technology and business visionary with a proven track record that includes two decades of leading the design, development, and implementation of high-performance technology solutions in healthcare organizations. He is highly regarded for his ability to “connect the dots” between people, process, and technology. Along with significant experience in the areas of disease registries, business intelligence, analytics, and reporting, he has also held IT executive level positions including serving as Senior Managing Partner at NETGUY IT. Kelly holds the certifications of CPHIE, CPEHR and CSM and a BS degree from State University of New York at Brockport.

Steve Russell is responsible for SI’s relationship with New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), Grant Management, and Dental Services.

Steve’s professional experience includes researching, developing, and implementing international healthcare IT and analytics solutions with health systems, universities and vendors. Steve consults with healthcare IT vendors, healthcare systems, federally qualified health centers, and rural health clinics on interoperability, meaningful use and electronic health record evaluation, implementation, and grant management.

Steve has unique knowledge and expertise in the dental sector of healthcare, and in using government programs to define and fund innovation of technology and process re-design to yield breakthrough improvements in the quality and cost of care.

Steve has led panel reviews of Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program applications for the Office of the National Coordinator, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Steve is an adjunct faculty member in Health Information Administration at Roberts Wesleyan College.

Steve has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Syracuse University, a Master’s in Engineering Management from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a Masters in Health Administration from Roberts Wesleyan College.

Whether advocating for health policies or strategizing with corporate, government, or private industry executives, Claudia has worked as a program development and implementation professional to educate and promote the use of health information technology. At eHealth Initiative, Claudia managed client relations and represented the organization in its relationships with external constituencies including federal agencies, healthcare providers and payors, healthcare technology companies, and other healthcare stakeholders. Her role included designing and leading executive member committee meetings to include data analytics, interoperability, and value-based care and managed one of the first national programs supporting health information exchanges, Connecting Communities.  Other experiences include designing patient engagement strategies and researching best practices, policy implications, and industry proven communication methods of patient portal implementation. Whether working with member and client engagement campaigns or patient education groups, Claudia’s strong attention to detail and ability to organize data, teams, and workflow leads to tangible results.

Claudia has a BA in Education from Washington College and an MA from the University of Virginia