LEAD THE FUTURE OF HEALTH INFORMATION 

Maria Caban Alizondo is a healthcare executive, educator, and nationally recognized leader in health information management and informatics. She serves as Director of Health Informatics & Information Management Services at UCLA Health and is also an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics at Rutgers University. With more than three decades of leadership experience across academic health systems, consulting, and healthcare operations, she has advanced major initiatives in EHR integrity, health data strategy, workforce development, and organizational transformation.

Dr. Caban Alizondo is a past President and Board Chair of AHIMA and a former President of the California Health Information Association. She is widely recognized for her thought leadership in health equity, AI in healthcare, leadership development, and the future of the health information workforce, with numerous national and international presentations, publications, and professional service contributions.

Mike Cordeiro is a healthcare interoperability strategist and thought leader with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare IT, including over 15 years dedicated to advancing real-world interoperability solutions. As Senior Director of Interoperability Market & Product Strategy at MEDITECH, he leads initiatives that help healthcare organizations securely exchange and leverage data to improve care coordination, operational efficiency, and patient outcomes. His work has influenced interoperability programs across the United States, Canada, and the UK, including large-scale health information exchange networks and data-sharing initiatives that enable more connected care.

A recognized voice in healthcare innovation, Mike actively collaborates with leading industry organizations and interoperability initiatives focused on advancing healthcare data exchange and digital transformation. A frequent speaker and moderator at major healthcare conferences, he is known for translating complex interoperability challenges into practical strategies that support whole-person care, reduce gaps in care, and help healthcare organizations realize the full value of connected health data.

Katherine is the Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for the Texas Health Services Authority with a focus on cross-industry facilitation of secure electronic exchange of health information. 

Katherine’s efforts are focused on leading the THSA Texas Interoperability Collaborative, tackling barriers to interoperability as a vendor agnostic convener for all healthcare participants. She is a passionate advocate for leveraging technology as a stabilizing force within the healthcare ecosystem.  

Dr. Payne serves as the Chief Health AI Officer for BJC Health and WashU Medicine, and he is the founding director of their joint Center for Health AIHe also holds the Janet and Bernard Becker Professorship and is the founding director of the Institute for Informatics, Data Science and Biostatistics (I2DB) at WashU Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Payne is a professor of general internal medicine, computer science and engineering.

With over 300 publications, he leads a dynamic research group that addresses areas such as: 1) AI-driven methods for discovering and analyzing biomolecular and clinical phenotypes, 2) interventional applications of electronic health records and clinical decision support, 3) human factors and workflow optimization in healthcare IT, and 4) the development and assessment of data sharing and analytics platforms to support high-value, agile healthcare systems and research initiatives.

Dr. Payne is an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI). He currently serves as president-elect of the AMIA, the leading professional organization in Biomedical and Health Informatics. Beyond academia, Dr. Payne is an active entrepreneur, founding multiple digital health companies and serving in advisory and governance roles with various health and life sciences companies and venture capital firms.

Dr. Joseph H. Schneider is a pediatrician who provides care for newborn babies as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas and who teaches informatics at both the University of Texas Southwestern and at the University of Texas Dallas. He has an MBA from Columbia with 15 years of business experience prior to medical school including managing a medical device company.  He retired in 2016 from full-time informatics work after serving as the Chief Medical and Health Information Officer for several large healthcare systems.

Dr. Schneider was a co-author of the 2003 Continuity of Care Record standard, one of the first interoperability approaches. Having been a victim of identity mismatch several times, Dr Schneider is passionate about ensuring accurate health records. He co-chairs the Privacy-Enhancing Health Records Standards Workgroup of DirectTrust that is focused on creating a voluntary health identifier. He also volunteers with a number of other informatics and clinical organizations including serving on the Texas Newborn Screening Advisory Committee and chairing the Newborn Informatics Standardization Committee for the Texas Health Services Authority.