LVBCH 45th Anniversary Conference (5/14/2025)

As the founding CEO of RISE, a breakthrough wellness company, Suneel Gupta helped thousands of people build better habits for life and work. Now as a bestselling author and Harvard Medical School visiting scholar, Suneel has taken his mission one step further – helping people reset, reignite, and find meaning in their work by bolstering emotional resilience and engagement. Suneel asks, “How can an organization excel on the outside if its people are exhausted on the inside?”

Grit and hustle are simply not a long-term answer to dealing with nonstop change and stress. Suneel offers leaders and teams a better way to work; one that results in sustainable innovation, productivity, and fulfillment. He arms people with science-based habits that will avoid burnout, boost energy, and improve their professional and personal lives. Suneel is a business survivor and the author of the international bestselling book Backable (2020). That book is rooted in his inner journey from twice-failed entrepreneur to becoming a leader behind two IPOs and being named “The New Face of Innovation” by the New York Stock Exchange. The book reveals the mindset shifts and hidden habits of people who are extraordinary at pushing new ideas forward.

His transformative book Everyday Dharma (2023) codifies Suneel’s mission to help people reset, reignite, and re-engage through a timeless practice called Dharma. Simply put, Dharma brings “who you are” and “what you do” into alignment. When we’re aligned, we’re able to produce our best work and lead ourselves and others effectively, experiencing true joy along the way. As visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School, Suneel researches and teaches the interconnection between inner well-being and outer leadership. He is also emissary for Gross National Happiness between the United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan. As CEO of RISE Suneel helped thousands of people establish a way to personalize their physical and mental health journey while connecting with certified nutritionists and trainers at an affordable price. The company was named “App of the Year” and partnered with then First Lady Michelle Obama before being acquired by the NASDAQ-listed company One Medical Group. In 2022, with its acquisition of One Medical Group, RISE is now part of Amazon. Suneel is the host of Business Class, a 2023 Webby Award-winning docuseries created by American Express (streaming on Amazon Prime), where he showcases entrepreneurs and business visionaries who embody struggle and resilience. He is joined on the show by guests like Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio, former monk Jay Shetty, and Martha Stewart. He has partnered with The Second City comedy theater to teach students and executives how to innovate “on-your-feet” during times of rapid change. Suneel has also personally backed ventures including Impossible Foods, Airbnb, 23andMe, and SpaceX. He was one of the very first investors in CALM, which now helps millions of people achieve a greater sense of work/life balance. When a reporter once asked Suneel about his purpose, his response was to “find good people, and inspire them to do what inspires them.”

Barry D. Buckingham has served as Executive Director of PHC4 since September 2021. Buckingham brings a broad-based health care background to the position. His experience includes leadership positions in hospitals, physician-owned practices, clinically integrated networks, and accrediting agencies. Buckingham’s background also includes administrative positions with a commercial health insurer and a Blues plan, and he served as the Chief Medical Economist for Pennsylvania Medicaid. Buckingham’s education includes a B.S. in Business Administration from Lebanon Valley College and a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) with a health care emphasis from Pennsylvania State University. His mission since joining PHC4 has been increasing the impact of the organization on the health and well-being of the citizens of Pennsylvania.

Andrea has built her career at the intersection of clinical practice and program strategy, with a strong focus on advancing Women’s Health. She began as a Registered Nurse and Clinical Educator, specializing in Labor & Delivery, OB/GYN, High-Risk Obstetrics, and GYN Surgery, spending over a decade in patient care. Her clinical expertise laid the foundation for her transition into the medical technology and benefits industry, where she focuses on program development, launching innovative solutions, and supporting new business initiatives. As VP of Commercial Solutions at Progyny, she provides clinical expertise across interdisciplinary teams, guiding strategy and innovation within Progyny’s solutions portfolio.

Sharon has had asthma all her life and leads a team of people at Health Care Originals (HCO) dedicated to ensuring that people with chronic respiratory disease can live unencumbered by their condition, bringing peace of mind for them and their loved ones, while ensuring that those who pay for their care pay less. Sharon has more than 25 years’ experience of successful commercialization of innovative technologies in manufacturing, sustainability and healthcare. She is an inventor with more than 12 patents in 2 different fields. To date, she has deployed 3 novel technologies in 3 different fields in 3 different countries, in areas where others have failed, but the technologies she championed have succeeded. Those technologies worked, scaled, and were profitable. She holds an MS from the University of Rochester, jointly issues by the Hajim School of Engineering and the Simon School; and a B.Sc. from the University of The West Indies, Faculty of Engineering. Sharon was named TechRochester’s Technology Woman of the Year in 2020, and was named one of the Top 100 in Fem Tech and Health Tech in 2019 by Women of Wearables. She was recently honored, along with others like Jane Goodall, by being included in the Names Dress (www.namesdress.com), a 3D-printed conceptual art piece that celebrates and brings awareness to the accomplishments of women in STEAM fields. The dress is made up of over 300 names of current and historic women in STEAM fields and was on display in Florence, Italy at the Ferragamo Museum’s Sustainable Thinking exhibition from April 12, 2019 through March 8, 2020. She has been Chairperson at the World Conference Forum’s Population Health Management Conference. She has also spoken at Wearable Technologies Conferences.

Dr. Chambers is a mission-driven, motivated executive leader and clinician with deep knowledge of the healthcare ecosystem. She was SVP and CMO at Capital Blue Cross for 10 years, where she was responsible for development of Clinical Strategy for the health plan, and was the senior executive responsible for advancing medical cost discipline while balancing cost, quality, experience of care, and clinical outcomes. Prior to this she was the Senior Medical Director at Capital, the Director, Palliative Medicine Program at Penn State University Hospital. She is Chair of the Academic Development Committee of the Penn State Harrisburg Board of Advisors.

Suzanne Starker is a senior sales and marketing executive with over 25 years experience in the health care field. At Health Advocate, Starker works with both local and national distributors, employers and plan sponsors. She also works with and supports the field sales group. She has been with Health Advocate since its start –up and has helped to establish the company as a significant health service and population management company nationwide. Prior to joining Health Advocate, Starker was head of sales, marketing and compliance for Aetna’s Mid-Atlantic division. In addition to her expertise in sales and marketing, Starker has extensive experience working in product development, customer service support and advertising.  She has held management positions at several levels and was instrumental in developing training programs for company-wide implementation. Suzanne has been enjoying and working with organizations in the Lehigh Valley for many decades.

Daniel is an expert partner and national speaker with Advisory Board. He leads and presents research on diverse topics including value-based care, physician alignment, and industry trends to leaders from across the healthcare industry. Daniel also leads Advisory Board’s team of expert presenters and facilitators. Daniel graduated from Emory University with BAs in history and classical civilizations and a minor in predictive health. Daniel is passionate about how technology influences the practice of medicine—and the Green Bay Packers.

Dr. Niki Patel is currently a Medical Accounts Director with Novo Nordisk, focused on education and access to therapies in cardiometabolic diseases across the NorthEast. In this role, Dr. Patel spends her time consulting employers, health plans and state government (Medicaid/Medicare) organizations responsible for drug formulary decisions impacting millions of patients throughout the country. In addition, Dr. Patel engages with large employer and coalitions such as Chubb, Quest, GPBCH, NEBGH, and LVBCH who are attentive to the clinical crisis of obesity and diabetes in employees.  Her aim is to assist organizations in improving employees’ health via appropriate medical management.  She served as keynote speaker at multiple conferences and roundtables over the past few years.  More recently, Dr. Patel has been an advocate on health equity and its impact on patients with chronic conditions. Over the years, Niki has received many honors including: 2015 NorthEast Customer Engagement Award, the 2015 and 2016 Take Action Challenge Grants, 2018 Medical Affairs Circle of Excellence the highest award given to clinical employees in the organization, and a company innovation challenge. In addition, she serves as Adjunct Professor at Long Island University where she founded the first Intro to Pharmaceutical Industry course, serves as advisor for a pharmacy student leadership organization and as preceptor for pharmacy rotation students. She also serves on the Education Committee for the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, and previously was on the board of NYCSHP where she organized their 1st Medical Mission to her hometown in India. She also volunteers at a non-profit in Community and Public Affairs to support charitable work including health fairs, educational seminars and programs for underserved communities. She is passionate about patient advocacy, health equity, and education.

Paul serves as the National Account Director for employers & employee benefit consultants at Novo Nordisk, a leader in Diabetes, Obesity, and Rare Disease pharmaceutical solutions. He is part of the Market Access team focusing on the development of benefits to address clinical obesity supporting public and self-insured employers.  He is committed to providing resources and pathways for employers that provide access to care for patients with obesity and reduce bias and stigma associated with excess weight.  He is also Co-Chair of the National Academies of Science Business Engagement on Obesity Solutions Innovation Collaborative. His goal is to deliver access for clinical obesity solutions through benefit design that impact the direct and indirect health costs for employers. Paul holds a BS in Management from Canisius College and has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years. He has led sales, training, and market access teams for both retail and specialty pharmacy channels with the last 8+ years focused on employer solutions for metabolic health.

Mark is a 4th generation pharmacist that started his career at Walgreens as a pharmacist in South Florida. Mark’s experiences with Walgreens included becoming a Pharmacy Manager, managing a Staff Model pharmacy for the 1st Medicare Advantage plan that later was acquired by Humana and District Pharmacy Supervisor.  Mark moved to Walgreens Health Care Plus which evolved into Walgreens Health Initiatives (WHI), in Sales and ended his career with WHI as the Vice President of Managed Care Sales and Service, which processed 38% of all Part D claims in 2006. Mark then began a career in consulting for health plans and large employer groups with focus on PBM contracting, PBM oversight, Specialty Pharmacy Strategy and CMS regulatory compliance. Mark provided consulting services to organizations including J&J, State of Wisconsin, Topco, MCS, Amerigroup and Centene. Mark joined US-Rx Care in 2018 as Executive Vice President and has been a part of business development, account services and product strategy.

Mark Jacobson, D.O., is the Senior Medical Director of Client Analytics at Capital Blue Cross, where he brings extensive experience in population health, value-based care, and medical leadership to his role. Mark Jacobson, D.O., is the Senior Medical Director of Client Analytics at Capital Blue Cross, where he brings extensive experience in population health, value-based care, and medical leadership to his role. Since rejoining Capital Blue Cross in December 2024, he has worked closely with client groups to develop personalized, data-driven strategies that improve the health of their workforce and optimize their healthcare costs. Dr. Jacobson’s expertise is particularly focused on managing populations with chronic conditions and maximizing the impact of health and wellness initiatives within organizations. Prior to Capital Blue Cross, Dr. Jacobson held senior leadership positions for several decades at health plans, health systems, and accountable care organizations in the commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid sectors. He has also served as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health Services at Penn State College of Medicine for more than a decade. Dr. Jacobson holds a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is board-certified in Internal Medicine. His academic journey also includes a B.S. in Biology from Albright College and an M.S. in Biology/Gerontology from Drexel University. Outside of his professional roles, Dr. Jacobson has been actively involved in various community health initiatives and has received several awards for his volunteer efforts, including the Volunteer of the Year Award from the American Heart Association’s Lebanon Division.

Paul joined Express Scripts in 1998 as a Clinical Account Executive. Since then, he has managed and coordinated clinical pharmacy service for a wide variety of clients, including employer groups, government coalitions, and managed care plans.  Paul has also developed expertise in specialty pharmacy and Medicare Part D plans. Prior to joining Express Scripts, he served as pharmacy director for MedPartners/Talbert Medical and managing pharmacist at FHP, where he was responsible for the start-up of the first staff model pharmacy in the Nevada region. Paul is also a licensed pharmacist in the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada.

Hilary Weismantel, PharmD, BCACP, BC-ADM is the ambulatory clinical pharmacists manager and embedded ambulatory clinical pharmacist in multiple primary care offices at St. Luke’s University Health Network. In her current role, she manages chronic disease states (including type 2 diabetes and obesity) according to collaborative practice agreements, answers medication-related questions from patients and medical staff as well as expand ambulatory pharmacy services within the network. She also works collaboratively with other departments to improve quality measure outcomes.

Eileen Zielinski joined PPL in 2008 as a Benefits Administrator and was promoted to a variety of leadership roles and is currently serving as the Director of Benefits since 2021. Eileen has spent over 26 years of her career in Benefits. In her current role she oversees health/ welfare and retirement programs for over 11,000 employees and retirees across the PPL family of utilities in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Rhode Island. She has served as the LVBCH Board Chair and Past Chair. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and earned a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) designation.