Staff

Michael B. Matthews
Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Matthews serves as the Chief Executive Officer of MedVirginia, central and eastern Virginia’s regional health information exchange. The MedVirginia HIE now connects to 15 acute care hospitals and has over 2M unique patient records in its clinical data repository. Over the last three and one-half years, Mr. Matthews has led MedVirginia’s participation in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN).  MedVirginia was the author and first signatory to the NwHIN foundational trust agreement, the Data Use and Reciprocal Support Agreement (DURSA). MedVirginia was the first HIE in production on NwHIN Exchange in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

In 2010, MedVirginia became the first HIE to successfully achieve interoperability with the Veterans Administration’s and Department of Defense’s electronic health record systems. Mr. Matthews is the Chair of the NwHIN Exchange Coordinating Committee, overseeing the policy and governance framework for NwHIN Exchange. During 2008 and 2009, Mr. Matthews served as Senior Advisor to the Governor’s Office of Health Information Technology.  In January 2010 Mr. Matthews was chosen to receive the prestigious eHealth Advocate of the Year award from the eHealth Initiative in Washington, DC.  In October 2011, the Commonwealth of Virginia awarded the contract to Community Health Alliance to build and operate the state-level health information exchange.  He has also served as principal investigator for a number of significant research initiatives, including the landmark Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration (MCCD). Building on MCCD and related experiences, inHEALTH launched its first accountable care initiative (ACO) in October 2011.  Mr. Matthews received his BS in Mathematics and MS in Public Health (Biostatistics) from the University of North Carolina.

 

Joelle Buckner
Chief Information Officer

Joelle Buckner is an experienced Information Technology (IT) professional with 20+ years of IT, business process and management work. Ms. Buckner joined MedVirginia in 2005 and currently serves as the CIO for CVHN, inHEALTH and MedVirginia. She is responsible for a department that includes development and operation professionals that support a working Health Information Exchange, a Results Routing program, eHealth Exchange Gateway/adapter integration and general IT support for the various lines of business. Prior to joining MedVirginia, Ms. Buckner worked for CIGNA HealthCare as the Director of IT and the University of Rochester Medical Center as an IT Manager. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Rochester and has an Information Systems Certification through the Simon School of Business. Ms. Buckner is also a Certified Professional in HealthCare IT (CPHIT) and a Certified Professional in Electronic Health Records (CPEHR).
 

Jeff Burke
Senior IT Advisor

Mr. Burke is a Senior IT Advisor for Central Virginia Health Network (CVHN) and its affiliate companies, CenVaNet and MedVirginia. As CIO, he leads an experienced team of information system and service experts that execute the technology and service plans that are developed to meet the mission and strategic plan of CVHN. Mr. Burke brings more than 30 years combined experience in the information services, health care and finance fields to his position with CVHN. He has recently worked with Bon Secours for 25 years having served as Divisional CIO, Richmond Chief Financial Officer and Richmond Shared Services Executive Vice President. In Richmond, he consolidated and led the operations of information services, laboratory, pharmacy, surgical services and materials management that served the four hospital system. In this role he successfully led the development of a high tech data center and infrastructure that was later developed for use by all of Bon Secours. Mr. Burke has also held leadership positions with Price Waterhouse where he led efforts of the Richmond office in the use of computers in the performance of audits and led the provision of services to the organization’s health care clients. His roles at Sperry Univac included the negotiation and management of information system contracts with the Federal government.

Gerard Filicko
Senior Vice President, Clinical Services

Gerard is an ACMPE board certified medical practice executive with over twenty-five years experience in healthcare. As Senior Vice-President of Clinical Services, he directs ACO strategies, Patient Centered Medical Home initiatives, credentialing, network relations, nursing services and centralized call center operations for a broad provider client base.  On behalf of MedVirginia, Gerard is responsible for successful implementation of the Health Information Exchange technology in physician offices throughout the state. He served as a key member of the U.S. Dept. HHS/ONC's Nationwide Health Information Network Cooperative, the Virginia Governor’s Health Information Technology Council, and the Virginia HISPC Steering Committee.

Prior to his employment at CVHN in 2005, Gerard had been a practice administrator for a number of physician offices in the Richmond area, including serving as a consultant for the MCV Department of Family Medicine Residency Program. He has a broad scope of knowledge in medical office management, but specializes in operations, EMR adoption & systems integration, process re-engineering, and new business ventures. He started his career as a hospital executive for HCA Healthcare, where he served as an administrator at hospitals throughout the Southeast.  Gerard has written numerous articles and conducted educational seminars on topics of interest to physicians and their office staffs.
Gerard is immediate Past President of the 300 member Richmond Medical Group Management Association, and is Legislative Liaison for the Virginia MGMA.  He holds a Masters in Health Administration from the Medical College of Virginia/VCU, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.  He is married with three children, and lives in Midlothian.

 

Susan Olyha
Vice President, Finance

Susan Olyha is a financial professional experienced in accounting, financial reporting, business planning, and operations analysis. She joined Central Virginia Health Network in 2004 and has been a committed member of the senior management team working to ensure that the company, along with affiliates inHEALTH, MedVirginia and Community Health Alliance, maintains the financial infrastructure required to support operations and sustain growth. As the Companies’ innovative product offerings expand in response to the rapidly changing healthcare landscape, Susan leads a team of financial personnel to develop systems to measure performance, analyze results, and forecast long-term impact.

In her role as Vice President, Finance, Susan is also responsible for budgeting, contract compliance and establishing a financial culture of accountability supported by a strong internal control framework. She is the financial liaison with the various Boards of Directors and the Finance and Audit Committee. Prior to joining CVHN, Susan spent many years with Georgia Pacific Corporation in various shareholder relations and accounting roles. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Alfred University and is a CPA licensed in New York and Virginia.

 

Julie LaPrade
Vice-President, Quality Management

Julie LaPrade joined Central Virginia Health Network in 1999 and has served in several clinical leadership roles within the organization. She currently serves as the Vice President of Quality and HIPAA Privacy Officer for CVHN, inHEALTH and MedVirgina. In her present role, she is responsible for creating and maintaining a culture of patient safety, quality, and compliance throughout the organization. She facilitates quality and performance improvement as well as risk management initiatives. Ms. LaPrade has led the development of care management programs, lifestyle health coaching programs and served as the program lead in the landmark Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries. Ms. LaPrade received her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Medical College of Virginia and is certified by the Commission for Case Management and the National Association for Healthcare Quality.
 

Steven Leighty
Director, Information Technology

Steven Leighty joined CVHN in 2009 and currently serves at the Information Technology (IT) Director and HIPAA Security Officer for Central Virginia Health Network, MedVirginia and InHealth. Mr. Leighty is responsible for overseeing the design and development of the MedVirginia Health Information Exchange (HIE), including managing MedVirginia's participation in the eHealth Exchange.  Mr. Leighty currently manages the network administration and production support teams .  Mr. Leighty received his Bachelor's of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1999 and has served as an executive consultant to fortune 500 companies prior to joing CVHN.   Mr. Leighty is a certified Project Management Profession (PMP), a Certified Professional in HealthCare IT (CPHIT) and a Certified Professional in Electronic Health Records (CPEHR).
 

Carol Duckworth
Director, Sales and Marketing

Carol Duckworth joined CVHN in 1998 with over 15 years experience in healthcare marketing. Her experience includes pharmaceutical sales with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; provider network development with Aetna Health Plans; managed care contracting with Bon Secours Richmond Health System and the Marketing Director for an ENT practice. She is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing for inHEALTH and MedVirginia.  Her responsibilities include direct product sales and services to the provider community, as well as, promotion of state and federal initiatives involving the health information organization. Ms. Duckworth received her BA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
 

Cathy Dancy
Director, Human Resources

Cathy Dancy currently serves as the Human Resources Director for Central Virginia Health Network and brings over 20 years of human resources experience to the company.  In this role, she brings a passion for creating a healthy work environment that promotes growth, teamwork and supports the company’s core values.  Ms. Dancy has devoted her career to engaging and empowering others in the workplace with an emphasis on training and development, leadership skills, organizational management and other related topics.   Ms. Dancy received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration through Radford University and Strayer.  In addition, Ms. Dancy received her Professional of Human Resources (PHR) certification in 2005 and has held several officer roles within the state healthcare human resources association (VaSHHRA).

Otis Snead
Director, Patient Contact Center

Otis Snead joined CVHN in 2009 with over 25 years of contact center experience with Verizon and Circuit City Stores inc. He currently serves as the Patient Contact Center Director for inHEALTH providing oversight for the Company’s Contact Center. He is responsible for the execution of various programs in accordance with client protocols while ensuring the highest level of quality service is being delivered by the contact center staff. Using innovative solutions, Otis is able to stay a step ahead of the contact center industry.
 

Ashley Vaughan
Director, Clinical Program Development

Ashley Vaughan joined CVHN in 2010 and currently serves as the Director of Clinical Programs. She is responsible for leading the Care Management programs for inHEALTH. In addition, she is responsible for successful implementation and transition of new clinical programs into operations and plays a key role in the overall integration of programs and products with clients and partners. This has included participating in the successful launch of the first Patient Centered Medical Home and Employee Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Wellness Program for the organization. Ashley began her career as a critical care nurse at VCU Health Systems and spent five years in Disease Management at Wellpoint, one of the nation’s largest health benefits companies. Ashley received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Business Administration from Averett University.