CONNECT AMERICA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President, Customer Operations
Aaron Nye has more than 20 years of call center and sales management experience in client services and customer care. As Executive Vice President of Customer Operations, Aaron is responsible for all customer care activities including activations, onboarding, installation, billing, retention, and operational administrative departments. Aaron has been with Connect America for more than six years, initially as Director of Customer Care, then Vice President of Customer Care, and later Co-Head of Sales, before his most recent appointment to EVP of Customer Operations in July 2021.
Prior to joining Connect America, Aaron was Director of Customer Care & Operations for 1&1 Internet, Inc. one of the largest web hosting companies in the country. While there, Aaron was responsible for all internal and external operational teams of more than 200 agents in the US, UK and Philippines. During his nearly six-year tenure with the company, he also held roles as Director of Customer Relations, leading the retention, activation, SEO/SEM, website design, and sales-after-service departments. Earlier in his career, Aaron also managed direct marketing campaigns for new and existing customers.
Aaron is a graduate of Penn State University where he earned a B.S. in Labor and Industrial Relations.
Dorit Baxter is a seasoned marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience developing and managing recognizable and sustainable corporate and product brand identities for multiple organizations and Fortune 500 companies.
As Chief Marketing Officer at Connect America, Dorit is responsible for the company's corporate marketing strategy, including external communications, social and digital media strategy, creative direction, demand generation, and field marketing activities, including national and regional tradeshows and key client events.
Before joining Connect America, Dorit was Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications for Inteliquet, a company focused on improving clinical trial access for patients. Previous to that position, Dorit was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Remedy Partners (now Signify Health), a software and services company that enables payers, employers, and at-risk providers to organize and finance health care delivery around a patient's episode of care. Earlier in her career, Dorit was Director of Corporate Marketing & Communications at NANHEALTH; she also held marketing management roles with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and IBM.
Dorit earned her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from the University of Maryland College Park, and attended the Claremont Graduate University - Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management where she focused on business management and leadership.
Dr. Mike Cantor is Connect America's Chief Medical Officer, with over 20 years of healthcare leadership experience and expertise in designing and implementing value-based care, quality improvement and care management programs for healthcare providers and health plans. Before joining Connect America, Dr. Cantor was the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Bright Health Plan, an innovative health insurer; CMO for CareCentrix, a leading outsourced home health, durable medical equipment, and post-acute care benefits manager; and CMO for the New England Quality Care Alliance (NEQCA), the physician network affiliated with Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Cantor has practiced medicine as a geriatrician in nursing homes, long-term acute care, house call programs, ambulatory care, and hospitals, and currently makes house calls one day a month. He trained in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and completed his geriatrics fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He has degrees in law and medicine from the University of Illinois.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Customer Relations
Gina Sicker is the Vice President of Customer Relations at Connect America. Gina has over 31 years of experience in the Medical Alert industry and has been with Connect America since 1991, where she has held various roles within the organization. As the Vice President of Customer Relations, she oversees account and relationship management for Connect America's Direct Service Providers and Managed Care/Medicaid Programs. Gina is responsible for ensuring all Connect America regional offices are performing at the highest standards of excellence for customer service. This includes bringing teams together to align systems and processes that allow the organization to work smarter and more efficiently.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Leader
Janet Dillione is Connect America's CEO, with experience building innovative strategies and strong teams that transform businesses for sustained growth and profitability. Throughout her career, she has been focused on leading important developments in healthcare technology by solving long-standing issues in the delivery of care.
Her experience in growing businesses enables the company to build on and implement its market strategy to enable scale and maximize performance. Prior to joining Connect America, Janet worked in the healthcare information services industry as CEO of Bernoulli Enterprise, Inc., GM of Nuance Healthcare, and CEO of Siemens Healthcare IT.
With leading roles in both large-scale global businesses as well as start-up scenarios, Janet is a dynamic leader who knows how to effectively instill a customer- and market-centric culture within an organization to drive the business forward.
Throughout her career progression, she has been a frequent presenter at industry conferences and has authored dozens of articles for multiple healthcare publications. Since 2015, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors for CorMedix, and in 2019, also joined the Board of CortiCare.
As Connect America's trusted Healthcare Advisor, Jimmy Lee is a dynamic visionary with a hunger for continuous healthcare ecosystem improvement. He has held positions at Anthem, Inc., including President of Consumer Division, Senior Vice President of Commercial Segments, and SVP & GM of UniCare, Inc. He has led three significant P&L turnarounds of UniCare and two other Anthem businesses resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in operating gain improvements and material membership growth.
Jimmy is on the Board of Directors of SantaFe Health, Chairman of the Board of S & S Healthcare, Board of Directors of Symetria Health, Investment Advisory Board for SemperVirens Venture Capital and Limited Partner with HC9 Venture Capital.
Jimmy has a Finance degree from Western Illinois University, earned his CLU, FLMI, HIA, and MHP designations and completed the Indiana University Kelly Business School Service Program.
Joe Prasad - Chief Commercial Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Commercial Officer
- Chief Commercial Officer, Government and Healthcare Business
Joe Prasad is Connect America's Chief Commercial Officer, with over 25 years of executive leadership experience working within the post-acute care industry. Joe is responsible for leading healthcare sales and product development for Lifeline and Connect America, including service offerings for value-based care organizations, managed care organizations and state Medicaid agencies.
Previously, Joe was the Senior Director and Head of Sales for Medtronic's RPM business unit. His responsibilities included the development of enterprise-wide relationships with IDNs, payers, home health agencies and the Veteran's Administration. Prior to Medtronic, Joe was the Vice President of Government Services at Philips Lifeline/Home Monitoring, where he led the Government Segment and National Accounts team and was instrumental in leading the growth strategy for health plans across the country. Joe has also held executive leadership positions at All Metro Health Care and Caregivers on Call, LLC.
Throughout his career, Joe has demonstrated capabilities in leading and developing high-performing sales organizations. He is passionate about healthcare, results-oriented and has an entrepreneurial mindset.
Joe attended St. John's University, where he studied Finance and Public Administration.
John Brady is Connect America's Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he manages supply chain, fulfillment, and customer service for the company.
A long-time industry veteran, John established The Resource Group, Inc. and later transferred the Security Group to TRG Associates, Inc. Previously, John acted as General Manager, Installation, and Service Manager for more than twenty alarm companies, with a focus on improving installation quality, service response, technical training, and system design.
Earlier in his career, John served as Controller for the Mount Tolman Mining project on the Colville Indian Reservation in Grand Coulee, WA. Before that, he held CFO or Treasury positions with Page Wilson, Smith & Wesson, and Setlowear prior to joining Securitylink as CFO.
John earned his MBA from Babson College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a Connecticut CPA certification.
Jon Shields is Connect America's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a seasoned executive with extensive experience as a finance leader across various organizations in the healthcare and technology sectors.
Before joining Connect America, Jon served as Senior Vice President, FP&A with Summit Health, leading annual budget planning, reporting frameworks and analytics that were critical to supporting a business with 150 care delivery sites and more than 1500 physicians. Jon's work was instrumental in identifying key areas of opportunity for growth, including geographic expansion and profitability. Prior to his Summit Health leadership role, Jon spent time with Magellan Health as their Senior Vice President, Provider Strategy. He also served as the CFO of Aetna on behalf of their Network and Clinical Services business unit. While at Aetna, Jon focused on business development in the areas of at-risk populations and care management services.
Jon is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and the MBA program of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Turakhia is an internationally recognized cardiac electrophysiologist, researcher, executive, and leader in digital health and cardiovascular disease. He is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at iRhythm Technologies, Inc, a publicly traded cardiovascular diagnostics and digital health company, and a Professor of Medicine (on leave) at Stanford University. Trained in computer science, medicine, biostatistics, and research, he brings over 20 years of experience in patient care, outcomes research and trials, data science and artificial intelligence, medical device regulation, and the creation and commercialization of digital health products. Dr. Turakhia was previously the consulting head of medical for 100plus, a Connect America Company, where he guided clinical product, strategy, and evidence generation. Today, Dr. Turakhia serves as part of Connect America's trusted healthcare advisory board, helping to guide strategy and product.
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
- Global Human Resources Executive
Nicole L. Kahny serves as Connect America's Chief Human Resources Officer. Nicole is a Global Human Resources Executive with more than 26 years of cross-functional experience leading organizational and HR transformation.
Over the course of her career, Nicole has gained extensive cross-industry experience in global organizations of varying size and complexity, including multiple roles with Fortune 100 companies such as Nationwide, Pfizer and Lockheed Martin as well as high growth/founder start-up environments.
Before joining Connect America, Nicole served as the Chief Administrative Officer for InterDigital, a technology research and development company that provides wireless and video technologies for mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. Prior to InterDigital, Nicole was the Chief Human Resources Officer for Airgas®, a leading U.S. supplier of industrial, medical, and specialty gases.
As Connect America's Chief Human Resources Officer, Nicole is responsible for all aspects of our human resources strategy, and oversees the alignment of the HR strategy with the broader business strategy. Her specific responsibilities include organizational development, talent management, talent acquisition and workforce planning, leadership development, organizational culture, diversity & inclusion, total rewards, HR Compliance, M&A diligence and integration planning, and employee engagement & communications.
Nicole's educational background includes undergraduate degrees in both Business and Instructional Design. She is currently nearing completion of her Masters in Organizational Development from the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Chief Health Informatics Officer
Rosemary Kennedy is Connect America's Chief Health Informatics Officer, with expertise in delivering innovative, value-based healthcare by utilizing health information technology and process redesign to improve quality, safety, costs and performance.
Before joining Connect America, Rosemary led eCare Informatics, LLC, where she championed the development and implementation of body-worn sensors, mobile apps and mobile communications. Previously, Rosemary was Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Sotera Wireless, Inc., where she provided leadership for clinical resources responsible for measuring ROI and performance improvement.
Prior to Sotera Wireless, Inc, Rosemary worked for the National Quality Forum (NQF) in Washington, D.C. as Vice President, Health Information Technology. Earlier in her career, Rosemary served as the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO) at Siemens Healthcare. She earned her Ph.D. in Nursing, Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Administration, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Rosemary holds many elected roles in professional societies and is widely presented and published in the fields of informatics, health information technology and terminology standards. She is also the recipient of multiple industry awards, including the Modern Healthcare "Top 25 Women in Healthcare Award," the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) "Nursing Informatics Award," and is a Fellow with the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN).
Todd Levin is an accomplished executive with over 15 years of expertise in healthcare SaaS technology, analytics, and optimization. As the Chief Revenue Officer at Connect America, Todd is responsible for driving revenue growth and expanding the company's market presence within healthcare enterprise, including health plans and provider organizations.
He leads the organization's sales and business development efforts by leveraging Connect America's innovative care-at-home platform, remote monitoring, and support services to reduce hospitalizations, lower care costs, and improve outcomes for our partners and the at-risk populations they serve.
Prior to joining Connect America, Todd was the Chief Commercial Officer at Imagen Technologies, where he led efforts to provide high-quality, rapid diagnostic imaging solutions to primary care practices. He also served as Chief Revenue Officer at Vesta Healthcare, where he was instrumental in developing a virtual-care ecosystem that empowers seniors to live at home longer and more comfortably.
Todd holds a Master of Engineering in Engineering Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. His results-driven mindset and deep knowledge of healthcare technology make him an invaluable member of Connect America's leadership team.