2026 Rural Health Care Symposium: Resources

Mary Casillas, MHA 
CEO 
Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital 
Mary Casillas has been the CEO at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital since October of 2022. Prior to that, Mary came to Hazel Hawkins as the COO. With over 30 years of health care experience, she started her career as an X-ray Technologist and went into management shortly after. Mary worked for Dignity Health for many years where she held several positions at Dominican Hospital and eventually with Dignity Health Corporate office. She has led the team at Hazel Hawkins in a turnaround, going from under 10 days cash on hand to over 90 days in the past 3 years. 

Carmela Coyle 
President & CEO 
California Hospital Association  
Carmela Coyle began her tenure as president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, the statewide leader representing the interests of more than 400 hospitals and health systems in California, in October 2017. Previously, Ms. Coyle led the Maryland Hospital Association for nine years, where she played a leading role in shaping a statewide, value-driven health care delivery system. 

Diane Drexler, DPN, MBA, RN, FACHE 
Chief Nursing Officer & Vice President, Patient Services 
Community Memorial Healthcare
For nearly 30 years, Dr. Diane Drexler has been an accomplished health care executive and nursing leader in California and Arizona who has achieved demonstrated results in innovation and quality in clinical and non-clinical operations. Dr. Drexler sets the vision for nursing and patient care across the Community Memorial Health System. She provides nursing oversight, leadership, and standards of practice for Community Memorial Hospital, Ojai Valley Community Hospital, and the 20 Centers for Family Health clinics. She manages over 1,000 full-time employees and is responsible for $98 million operating budget. Her leadership has helped CMHS and its patients tremendously throughout the pandemic, when top management and leadership skills were desperately needed. 

Martin Entwistle, MB, Ch.B, FRCSEd
Chief of Medical Affairs
Marshall Medical Center
Martin Entwistle is Chief of Medical Affairs for Marshall Medical Center. His primary responsibilities are to support the quality of care and access to medical service provided by the organization and to develop and implement strategies in support of the organization’s mission to maximize the engagement, satisfaction, health status, and health outcomes of the population served. He is a recognized subject matter expert on population level care management systems and is the executive lead for workgroups facilitating the adoption and use of AI solutions and systems for remote patient management and telehealth.

Ken Harman 
REH Program Director and Regional Liaison 
Rural Health Redesign Center 
Ken serves as a Program Director for the Rural Emergency Hospital Technical Assistance Center with the Rural Health Redesign Center. He brings over 30 years’ health care experience, with 20 years being a rural Critical Access Hospital CEO. He has served in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, California, Utah and Minnesota. He has a passion for rural health care and assisting organizations and communities in sustaining and growing to take care of community needs.

Joanna Hiatt Kim
Vice President of Payment Policy
American Hospital Association
Joanna Hiatt Kim is the America Hospital Association’s (AHA) Vice President of Payment Policy where she leads the association’s work on Medicare payment, including for inpatient and outpatient hospital care, post-acute care, physician services and alternative payment models. Joanna came to the AHA from the United States Government Accountability Office, where she served as a Senior Health Policy Analyst.  In this role, she advised Congress on potential policy changes and conducted policy analyses on a wide range of issues, including Medicare payment policy and hospital community benefits.

Ben Johnson 
Group Vice President, Financial Policy 
California Hospital Association 
Ben Johnson is CHA’s Group Vice President, Financial Policy, covering finance and affordability issues, including the Office of Health Care Affordability. Ben has been working in health care policy for a decade, previously having advised the state legislature from his role at the Legislative Analyst’s Office, where he was lead on issues like drug pricing, the Medi-Cal budget, single-payer financing, and health care-related taxes. 

Siri Nelson  
President & CEO 
Marshall 
Siri Nelson serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the California Hospital Association. She has served as President and CEO of Marshall since May 2019. Siri began her health care administration career in accounting and finance. Siri has previously served as Chief Executive Officer at South Meadows Medical Center, Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO at Sutter Amador Hospital, and Chief Administrative Officer at Sutter Lakeside. 

Jenny Nguyen  
Vice President, Policy 
California Hospital Association 
Jenny Nguyen is Vice President of Financial Policy at the California Hospital Association (CHA). Jenny covers finance and affordability issues, including the Office of Health Care Affordability. Prior to joining CHA, Jenny served as the Director of Budget and Fiscal Policy at the County Welfare Directors Association where she led fiscal and budget analysis, implementation, and advocacy across a variety of health and human services programs. 

Riya Pulicharam, MD, CPI 
Chief Medical Officer 
Caret Health
Dr. Riya Pulicharam is a nationally recognized pioneer in population health management, health economics, and clinical outcomes. She currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of Caret Health and the Chief of Population Health at Cibolo Health, where she leads technology-enabled, value-based care transformation initiatives for high-risk populations. With more than two decades of leadership experience at Healthcare Partners/DaVita Medical Group and Optum, Dr. Pulicharam has driven large-scale care delivery redesign focused on improving quality metrics while reducing total cost of care. She specializes in automating clinical care pathways for patients with multiple chronic conditions through advanced analytics and algorithm-driven interventions.

Maia Schneider 
Executive Director of Business and Strategy Development 
Marshall 
Since 2016, Maia Schneider has been the Executive Director of Business and Strategy Development for Marshall. In her role, Maia identifies opportunities for growth and new services, manages complex projects, and works with operational teams to ensure their success. She supports the CEO and Board of Directors in developing strategies to move the organization towards its vision and works with directors and managers to develop tactical plans to achieve those goals. Maia’s duties also include government relations, and she works closely with local, state and federal offices to ensure Marshall’s voice is heard on matters of legislative importance.  

Kathryn Austin Scott 
Senior Vice President, State Relations & Advocacy 
California Hospital Association  
Kathryn serves as the association’s head lobbyist in Sacramento and directs the California lobbying team. Previously, Kathryn was a partner at Capitol Partners, a Sacramento lobbying firm that she founded over ten years ago. She has over 20 years of experience in public policy and served as a contract lobbyist to CHA for 15 years. She has also represented the United Hospital Association and the District Hospital Leadership Forum among other health care and non-health care clients. 

Sylvia Trujillo 
Executive Director 
California Telehealth Resource Center

Joe Wisniewski 
AVP, SMB Sales 
Turquoise Health
Joe Wisniewski serves as the AVP of SMB Sales at Turquoise Health. As one of Turquoise’s first employees, Joe has helped hospitals comply with pricing transparency mandates since their launch in 2021. Over time, Turquoise’s focus evolved beyond enriching public MRF data for contract negotiations to include CMS compliance and contract management. Joe now runs Turquoise’s rural health programs. Before Turquoise, Joe spent his career in technology and government affairs, tackling public policy problems through software. He has held various roles in sales development, political strategy, and government over the course of his career. 

Access TeleCare is the standard bearer of clinical excellence in acute specialty telemedicine, providing high-quality care for patients in 1 out of 5 U.S. hospitals. Since the company’s founding in 2004, the company has delivered care in over 8 million patient encounters across multiple specialty service lines including behavioral health, neurology, hospitalist medicine, pulmonary and critical care, maternal-fetal medicine, infectious disease, cardiology, and nephrology. 

Arch Nexus
For more than 35 years, Arch Nexus has partnered with rural hospitals and clinics to deliver high-performing, community-centered health care environments. Having designed over 30 rural hospitals and 50+ clinics, our team understands the unique operational, financial, and staffing challenges rural providers face. We bring specialized expertise in facility assessment, master planning, renovations, and new facilities, helping rural communities sustain access to quality care through efficient, flexible, and future-ready design solutions. 

Bay Area Neurointensivists 
Our mission is to advance acute stroke and neurocritical care, with a strong 
commitment to underserved and rural communities. Our board certified, fellowship trained neurointensivists deliver comprehensive, practice-based care for critically ill, stroke, and general neurology patients across the continuum—at the bedside, via telemedicine, and in the outpatient setting —focused on improving outcomes and ensuring high-quality neurological care wherever patients are. 

California Telehealth Resource Center (CTRC) offers no-cost, unbiased training and educational resources that help California providers and patients get the most from digital health. We create lasting change and improvement by focusing on implementation, sustainability, reimbursement and policy, integration, workflows, and patient/provider adoption. 

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA) 
CLA exists to create opportunities for our clients, our people, and our communities through industry-focused wealth advisory, digital, audit, tax, consulting, and outsourcing services. With nearly 9,000 people, about 120 U.S. locations, and a global vision, we promise to know you and help you. For more information, visit CLAconnect.com. CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP) is an independent network member of CLA Global. See CLAglobal.com/disclaimer. Investment advisory services are offered through CliftonLarsonAllen Wealth Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor. 

Caret provides technology-driven care coordination services to rural hospitals, allowing them to seamlessly deploy programs across quality improvement, chronic care management, transitions of care, and remote patient monitoring. Caret’s platform consolidates workflows across multiple programs, avoiding redundancies and maximizing likelihood of patient engagement. Simultaneously, Caret’s clinical team actively monitors and engages patients to close quality gaps, triage alerts, and provide clinical guidance. Caret has deployed in over 50 rural hospitals, with outcomes including >50% improvement in Quality scores, a 20% reduction in Outmigration and reducing total Readmissions to under 5%. 

COPE Health Solutions (CHS) is a national tech-enabled services firm powering success for health plans and for providers in risk arrangements. 

DZA is an accounting and advisory firm serving healthcare and not-for-profit organizations in 21 states. Our client base includes community health centers, critical access hospitals, hospitals, hospices, senior living facilities, home health agencies, and foundations, social service agencies, associations, and other not-for-profit organizations.

EnlightenMed is a physician-led medical group expanding access and advancing care in rural communities. We embed hybrid providers into local care teams to increase access, enable Advanced Primary Care Management (APCM) and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) services for Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Health Clinics. Powered by our Health Telematix platform, we provide a turnkey solution that increases clinical capacity, modernizes care delivery and generates sustainable new revenue streams for rural hospitals and clinics. 

Evolv (NASDAQ: EVLV) is designed to transform human security by helping organizations detect potential threats, mitigate risk, and enhance safety using AI-powered security solutions with robust insights. Our technology has helped to create efficient and positive security screening experiences for the world’s most iconic venues and companies as well as schools, hospitals, and public spaces. Evolv’s mission is to create a safer world to live, work, learn, and play. Evolv’s advanced systems have scanned more than 3 billion people since 2019. Evolv Express? has been awarded the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) SAFETY Act Designation as a Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology (QATT) and Evolv eXpedite™ has been awarded the Safety Act Developmental Testing and Evaluation Designation. Evolv and its products have been awarded numerous awards which can be viewed on our Certifications and Awards web page. Evolv?, Evolv Express?, Evolv Insights?, Evolv Visual Gun Detection™, Evolv eXpedite™, and Evolv Eva™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of Evolv Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. For more information, visit evolv.com. 

Mood Health partners with health systems and medical groups to ensure their patients have same week access to affordable mental health care. As a trusted referral resource, their team of in-house clinicians provide online psychiatry and talk therapy. They serve adult and adolescent patients, and accept Medi-cal, Medicare and commercial insurance. Partnerships with Mood are easy to implement and allow groups to solve their outpatient mental health needs quickly, effortlessly, and at no cost. 

Moving Mountains HR was founded to empower healthcare leaders, and provide exceptional support, simplifying complex processes, and offer peace of mind in an ever-evolving legal landscape. Moving Mountains is dedicated to helping healthcare entities, large and small, thrive by ensuring they have the tools, expertise, and guidance needed to foster strong, compliant, and productive work environments. Ultimately, Moving Mountains’ mission is to give leaders the time and freedom to focus on what they do best. 

Multiview is a healthcare-dedicated ERP. Rated #1 by KLAS for hospitals under 300 beds, we have over 450 hospital clients and a 100% client retention rate. 

Ntracts is a healthcare-focused contract lifecycle management platform built to bring control, visibility, and accountability to every agreement across your organization. From authoring and negotiation to approval, execution, and renewal, Ntracts centralizes contracts in one secure system. Automated workflows, real-time reporting, and compliance safeguards reduce risk, prevent revenue leakage, and eliminate manual tracking. Healthcare organizations use Ntracts to accelerate contract turnaround, strengthen oversight, and ensure regulatory alignment without adding administrative burden. e have over 450 hospital clients and a 100% client retention rate. 

Oracle Health supports providers, payers, and public health organizations with a secure, comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions. Built on enterprise-grade infrastructure, our unified solutions help safeguard patient data, streamline operations, alleviate administrative burden, and deliver near real-time insights for connected, efficient care. AI is embedded into every layer of our technology—from our data platforms to our cloud applications—providing actionable insights that help you deliver efficient, enhanced care. 

Patient Funding Alternatives (PFA) is a patient advocacy organization offering an innovative and unique product supporting low-income families, the providers and health systems that serve them. PFA generates significant, new revenue for our partner hospitals by enrolling eligible patients onto Employer Sponsored Insurance (ESI) as a Primary coverage while maintaining Medicaid enrollment as Secondary. Our mission is to support the medically underserved population and benefits stakeholders including patients, families, health systems, states, and employers. 

Prevail provides highly specialized insurance brokerage services focused exclusively on the healthcare industry. Our services are designed to simplify your life by managing all your insurance needs, including Professional Liability, Workers Comp and Cyber… to name a few.  As an independent broker, Prevail works with the best solutions in the insurance marketplace, including some that are exclusive, and implements highly effective strategies that will help you improve. 

Psychiatric Medical Care is the largest provider of behavioral healthcare to rural markets. In addition to ED crisis management and traditional tele-therapy services, our Senior Life Solutions IOP is a CMS-approved program designed to help older adults in rural communities who are experiencing anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. We partner with critical access hospitals to develop a sustainable program that improves the lives of patients while contributing a stable net positive revenue source. 

Reid & Associates is a healthcare executive search and interim staffing firm with more than 25 years of experience supporting hospitals and health systems nationwide. We work extensively with community, rural, and Critical Access Hospitals, helping address leadership needs in clinical, operational, and financial roles. Our work reflects an understanding of the unique challenges smaller hospitals face, with an emphasis on practical solutions, timely support, and long-term leadership alignment. 

Rural Hospital Insurance of America Program (RHIA) is dedicated to helping rural hospitals thrive in a complex risk and insurance landscape. Focused solely on healthcare providers, we deliver unmatched service and value. Our mission rs to be the leading partner ror rural hospitals, helping them navigate challenges and succeed in their communities. Our motto “Never Go It Alone” reflects our commitment to fostering collaboration among rural healthcare leaders who share our vision and purpose. 

SacValley MedShare’s Quality Health Information Organization (QHIO) gives your practice secure, 24/7 access to critical medical data. Even when facilities are closed or emergencies arise outside primary care settings, physicians can retrieve the information they need. By connecting specialists and primary care providers, SVMS enhances care coordination, result sharing, and timely feedback—all through a HIPAA-compliant, California-based exchange sponsored by local healthcare partners. 

Wipfli
To go forward, step back. At Wipfli, we help rural health clinics and critical access hospitals pause, gain clarity, and see the right path ahead. Our nationwide team delivers revenue cycle and reimbursement optimization, digital strategy, outsourced IT, cybersecurity, and capital and facility planning. We strengthen compliance, accelerate cash flow, enhance productivity, and support strategic growth. With every partnership, we provide the clarity, stability, and direction organizations need to move forward with confidence.