Our Advisory Council

Advisory Council

Michael Assante is an internationally recognized thought leader in cyber security of industrial control systems. Assante held the position of Vice President and Chief Security Officer at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and oversaw the implementation of cyber security standards across the North American electric power industry. He has testified before the US Senate and House and was an initial member of the member of the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency. He is currently serving as ICS/SCADA Security Lead at SANS Institute and is an Executive Steering Committee Member at Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional Certification (GICSP).

Dr. Peter Boland has a 30-year track record as a national thought leader, forecasting industry trends and challenging conventional wisdom. He helps leaders anticipate “what’s next” and how to successfully manage change. As a subject matter expert, Peter has advised numerous companies on innovation strategy, payment reform, and the disruptive role of technology in restructuring the healthcare industry. In his roles as an author, commentator, editor and publisher, Dr. Boland has contributed more than 90 works to healthcare publications and five books on healthcare policy and management. Peter has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Week and has appeared on the “The News Hour” on PBS. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Peter received his doctorate from UCLA. He also holds a post-graduate certificate from the Harvard University Executive Program in Health Policy and Management.

Bill Childs is a pioneer and creator of the field of informatics in Health Care IT. Bill Childs introduced the first journal dedicated to the fields of health IT: Computers in Healthcare. He founded two subsequent publications: Health Management Technology and Healthcare Informatics. Childs was also one of the early pioneers at El Camino Hospital in California and in the informatics field. He was a co-founder of the first Clinical Information Systems Company at Lockheed in the late 1960s, later known as TDS and E7000. Bill is currently a councilor to the “C” Suite on “Medical & Healthcare Informatics” and has previously testified before Congress first on “The Waste in the VA on Information Systems and the high cost to our Veterans” and then later on “ The High Cost of Healthcare and Better ways to get the job done”

Claire McCarthy-Garets is CEO at Change Gang, LLC, a change management strategy and advisory firm. She is an internationally recognized change management/technology adoption strategist with extensive experience supporting people in healthcare organizations through transition driven by software implementations and other large-scale changes. She designed and led the human readiness efforts for two major US EMR implementations, setting the stage for benefit realization by investing in users. Ms. McCarthy Garets is co-author of the HIMSS 2010 book of the year, the second edition of which, Effective Strategies for Change,

Dr. Chris Gerdes is the Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (conveniently dubbed CARS), and his team are developing a robotic race car, capable of driving at extremely high speeds while avoiding every possible accident. Gerdes’ research focuses on the development of driver assistance systems for collision avoidance, as well as on new combustion processes for engines. Chris is currently a Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy and has received both the CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation.

Mac McMillan is co-founder and CEO of CynergisTek, Inc., a firm specializing in the areas of information security and regulatory compliance in healthcare. He is the current Chair of the HIMSS Privacy & Security Policy Task Force. Mr. McMillan brings over 30 years of combined intelligence, security countermeasures and consulting experience to his position from both Government and private sector positions. He has contributed to more than 300 articles and postings in healthcare IT magazines, healthcare IT blogs and other healthcare newsletters, etc. He presents regularly at conferences and other events, and was a contributing author to the HIMSS book, Information Security in Healthcare: Managing Risk.

Dr. Larry Smarr is the founding Director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), a UC San Diego/UC Irvine partnership, and holds the Harry E. Gruber professorship in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at UCSD's Jacobs School.At Calit2, Smarr has continued to drive major developments in information infrastructure-- including the Internet,Web, scientific visualization, virtual reality, and global telepresence--begun during his previous 15 years as founding Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Dr. David Titley is a nationally known expert in the field of climate, the Arctic, and National Security. He served as a naval officer for 32 years and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. While serving in the Pentagon, Dr.Titley initiated and led the US Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change. Dr.Titley is currently the founding Director of Penn State’s Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk. The Center helps organizations and citizens prosper and succeed in today's and tomorrow's weather and climate environment by taking advantage of all the Center’s skills in weather and climate forecasts.

Dr. Nick van Terheyden, M.D. brings a distinctive blend of medical practitioner and business strategist, both nationally and internationally, to the realm of healthcare technology. He is currently Chief Medical Officer for Dell’s Healthcare & Life Sciences (HCLS) Services business where he is responsible for providing strategic insight to help Dell advance its support of healthcare organizations, medical professionals and patients through information-enabled healthcare. He will be helping Dell’s global healthcare customers develop a strategy and apply technology to achieve an IT environment that is interconnected, efficient and patient-focused. In addition to writing and lecturing on futuristic trends in healthcare technology, his advice and counsel is sought by hospitals, physicians and other allied healthcare professionals, all of whom are working to figure out how to integrate and use technology to improve the quality and financial viability of today’s healthcare systems.