Judges

Shannon Sims, MD, PhD

Vice President, Data Intelligence & Interoperability, Vizient Center for Advanced Analytics and Informatics

Dr. Sims leads Vizient’s data infrastructure and clinical integration strategy. This includes Vizient’s big data platform, interoperability solutions, the Vizient Data-as-a-Service platform. Dr. Sims’ passion is using technology to improve care, reduce costs, and enable growth of healthcare organizations. He has extensive experience in informatics, quality, and analytics. He served as VP and Chief Analytics Officer at Froedtert Health, and as Associate CMIO at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Sims is a national expert in electronic quality measurement and has chaired or participated on several national committees addressing quality and informatics. These panels advise organizations such as NQF, NCQA, and CMS on the development of measures for reporting and accountability programs for both federal and commercial payers.

Dr. Sims graduated from Rush University Medical College and completed training in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was a Robert Woods Johnson Fellow in public health informatics at the University of Utah, where he received his PhD in biomedical informatics.

Onyinyechi U. Daniel, PhD

Senior Director, Data & Analytics Transformation and Planning at HCSC

Dr. Daniel is responsible for data and analytics strategy, portfolio planning and integration, public policy initiatives, and business operations in the Data & Analytics Solutions division. She is passionate about the application of data and analytics to improve health outcomes, with a focus on addressing health care disparities and leveraging data to drive evidence-based health outcome improvements. She has brought her background to bear in both health care and academia.

In addition to Bachelors degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Lewis University, Dr. Daniel holds Masters degrees in Medical Humanities and Bioethics and Health Policy and Administration from Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively. She also holds a PhD in Health Policy and Administration with a focus on Public Health Informatics, and Health Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three young children.

Armando Pauker, MBA

co-founder and Managing Director of Tensility Venture Partners

Tensility Venture Partners is a Chicago-based seed-stage fund focused on enterprise software applications of AI. Mr. Pauker has been in venture for almost 20 years, investing in hardware and software businesses at a prior firm. Prior to venture, Mr. Pauker served in senior management positions at several global technology companies and as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in technology industries. Select previous exits include: Duo Security (acquired by Cisco Systems), DocuSign (N:DOCU), FutureSimple (acquired by ZenDesk), BrightCloud (acquired by Webroot), Initiate Systems (acquired by IBM), and YCharts (acquired by LRR Partners).

Mr. Pauker holds an MBA with High Distinction from the University of Michigan, and he received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Rupert M. Evans, Sr., MPA, DHA, FACHE

Professor Emeritus of the Master of Health Administration Program at Governors State University

Dr. Evans is the current Chairman of the New Roseland Community Hospital Board of Directors.

Dr. Evans is a Harvard Macy Scholar, a Fellow in the UIC Public Health Leadership Institute. He is a Life Fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives (LFACHE). He is the past Regent for Metro Chicago for the ACHE. He is a past President of the Chicago/Mid-west Chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE). He has written articles for Hospitals and Health Systems Magazine, Modern Healthcare, and Journal of the American College of Health Care Executives.
Major Evans is a highly decorated veteran and holds many honors and awards. He was recognized in the August 2002 and August 2004 Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the top 100 “Most Powerful People in Healthcare”.

Dr. Evans holds a Doctorate in Health Administration from Central Michigan University and a Master’s in Health Administration from Golden Gate University California.

Shelina Ramnarine, PhD

Product Director Cardiovascular Payer Marketing at Janssen Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Ramnarine has experience collaborating with technical, scientific, and commercial colleagues to drive and deliver strategic initiatives. Dr. Ramnarine holds a PhD in Human and Statistical Genetics from Washington University in St Louis and earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Statistics from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Ramnarine is a native of Trinidad and Tobago and holds a strong value for community as a result. As a community organizer, she works to create spaces in JNJ to foster dialogue and highlight different perspectives. She also has a passion for social intrapreneurship which grew as a result of her TEDxJNJ talk “Why Activism Matters”. Blending head and heart, Dr. Ramnarine aims to use her talent towards solving unmet needs.

Tara Lagu, MD, MPH

Director, Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) – Center for Health Services & Outcomes Research, Professor of Medicine (Hospital Medicine)

Dr. Lagu is an associate director of the Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Population Science and associate professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Baystate Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School and has been named director of the Center for Health Services and Outcomes, as part of the Institute of Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM). She will also serve as a hospitalist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Lagu earned her medical doctorate and a master’s in public health at the Yale School of Medicine in 2002. She then completed a general internal medicine residency at Brown University’s Rhode Island Hospital in 2005 and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in 2008, after which she joined Baystate Health as an assistant professor, academic hospitalist, and research scientist.