ACDIS Advisory Board
Task: Providing leadership, expertise, and an industry voice for the ACDIS membership.
Click here to download the committee scope of work. For questions about the Advisory Board, contact ACDIS Interim Director Laurie Prescott (lprescott@acdis.org) and Programming Director Rebecca Hendren (rhendren@acdis.org). To view ACDIS Advisory Board frequently asked questions, please click here.
Sheri Blanchard, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, CCDS, CCS
Corporate director of CDI
Orlando Health
Orlando, Florida
Blanchard has more than 24 years of nursing experience, and 12 years of CDI, care management, and coding experience, with a focus on improving patient care, quality outcomes, and the financial stability of hospital systems nationwide.
Blanchard is a subject matter expert on assessing hospitals for areas of opportunities and implementing change through collaboration and DRG bill-hold reviews. She has developed reports to track mortality review opportunities, Emergency Care Research Institute measures, patient safety indicator (PSI) and hospital acquired condition reviews, individual CDI metric reports, implementing CDI in the ED with care management, and denial intervention for DRG validations. She works in collaboration with her CDI team, key departments, and providers to develop diagnosis definitions to align with evidence-based practice. Blanchard is a past co-leader for the Central Ohio ACDIS.
Elected to the board in 2019; serving through April 2022
Tracy Boldt, RN, BSN, CCDS, CDIP
Manager, clinical documentation integrity
Essentia Health
Duluth, Minnesota
Boldt was drawn to the CDI profession because it fit perfectly with her passion for ensuring the best patient care, showing great outcomes, accurately portraying the patient’s clinical picture, and educating physicians that all of this is possible through improved documentation. Boldt had the opportunity to start a CDI program while working as a CDI specialist. From there, she became an ICD-10 educator for a large multi-specialty hospital, and then began nationwide CDI consulting and education for several years. Currently, she works as a system manager for a large multi-specialty healthcare system.
During her 11-year career in the CDI field, she has participated on many local and national ACDIS committees and co-chaired the Minnesota ACDIS local chapter from 2012-2015. Boldt has spoken at the ACDIS national conference, the ACDIS Symposium: Outpatient CDI, local AHIMA conferences, on Talk Ten Tuesday, and ACDIS Radio. She implemented a new outpatient CDI program at her current healthcare system, co-authored The Outpatient CDI Specialist’s Completed Training Guide and volunteered on the CCDS-O committee. She has been in the nursing field for 15 years.
Elected to the board in 2019; serving through April 2022
Jennifer Eaton, RN, MSN, CCDS
Executive Director of CDI
Enjoin
Knoxville, Tennessee
Eaton joined the CDI world in 2007 and had the honor of achieving her CCDS certification shortly after.
Over the past 13 years, her love and passion for this profession has grown and evolved as the purpose and focus of CDI has grown and evolved. In fact, that is one of her favorite aspects of CDI: it is ever changing and evolving.
Given the complexity and diversity of today’s CDI landscape, Eaton believes the industry needs thought leadership of equal measure. Since her immersion into CDI, she has served in a multitude of roles including CDI auditor, educator, and leader both in healthcare systems and most recently as a consultant with a physician owned/directed company.
Given her variety of roles and expertise in both the inpatient, outpatient, hospital, and vendor space, she possesses a varied and robust wheelhouse of relevant industry knowledge. It would be an honor to utilize her professional experience and knowledge base to promote understanding of the mission and vision of CDI as well as offer guidance and direction for the profession as it strives to serve patients, employers, and communities.
Elected to the board in 2020; serving through April 2023
Emily Emmons, MSN, RN, CCDS
Regional Director of CDI
Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region
Oakland, California
Emmons serves as president and chairperson of the board of directors for the California ACDIS chapter. She previously served as co-chair of the chapter for six years from 2012-2018 and was a member of the National ACDIS Local Chapter Advisory Board from 2016-2018. She has worked in the CDI industry since 2011. In her current role, Emmons is responsible for inpatient CDI operations in 21 Northern California Kaiser Permanente facilities. She has her MSN in nursing education and enjoys volunteering to facilitate educational events and professional networking opportunities for her colleagues in CDI. She is a member of both ACDIS and AHIMA and is committed to furthering the CDI profession.
Elected to the board in 2020; serving through April 2023
Susan Fantin, MSA, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP
VP Integrated Care Management
McLaren Health Care
Grand Blanc, Michigan
Fantin currently serves as the corporate director of CDI for McLaren Health Care, leading system-wide CDI projects in clinical validation, standardization, dashboard metric/outcomes, policy/procedure, orientation, quality monitoring, and physician engagement/ education. A nurse with more than 28 years’ experience, Fantin has experience in a variety of clinical areas, including acute care nursing, case management/utilization review, patient throughput and clinical house supervision. Her CDI experience spans over 13 years and includes leading clinical documentation programs in academic, rural and multi-hospital system environments. Susan is a CDI subject matter expert and has extensive experience in quality initiatives involving patient safety indictors, hospital acquired conditions, and mortality reviews as well as data analysis, auditing and reporting. As senior CDI director at The Advisory Board Company, Susan consulted with medical centers providing physician education, CDI training and developed a library of best practice materials for ICD-10 physician specialty education.
Fantin received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Madonna University (1991) and Master of Science in Healthcare Administration from Central Michigan University (2007). An ACDIS member since 2008, Susan obtained her CCDS certification in 2011 and AHIMA CDIP certification in 2012. Susan currently chairs the Michigan ACDIS Chapter and is actively engaged in presentations at local, state and national levels.
Elected to the board in 2020; serving through April 2023
Vaughn Matacale, MD, CCDS
Director, clinical documentation advisor program
Vidant Health
Greenville, North Carolina
Matacale is a physician specializing in hospital medicine who began training and working in the physician advisor role in 2007. In 2013, he took a full-time role as a physician advisor with a mission to develop the advisor role and grow a physician advisor team for the Vidant Health system, which covers most of eastern North Carolina. Serving as the director of the advisor team, he has helped it grow to four physicians and a physician assistant who conduct post-discharge pre-bill reviews and provide support and education for coding, CDI, and medical staff throughout the health system.
Through proactive involvement and collaboration with CDI and coding, Matacale has established regular representation and collaboration with the quality, informatics and IT, evaluation and management auditing, audit and compliance, utilization review (UR), and appeals departments, and the Vidant accountable care organization. He currently serves as the chair of the PSI committee and is a member of the hospital patient safety and quality improvement committee. Matacale also has more than 13 years of experience in UR reviews and continues to practice hospital medicine. He has had the privilege of speaking at five ACDIS conferences, as well as other national and regional conferences.
Elected to the board in 2019; serving through April 2022
Chinedum Mogbo, MBBS, MBA, RHIA, CDIP, CCDS, CCS
Manager, CDI
Tenet Healthcare
Dallas, Texas
Mogbo has a passion for quality patient care and all things CDI, including its overall impact on patient care/safety, and physician and hospital profiles. She has successfully managed various teams, including clinical documentation specialists and coding auditors. She worked as a CDI training director for a California-based health system and currently works as a CDI manager for Tenet Healthcare. She actively participates in the CDIP and RHIA exam item writing with AHIMA. She has been involved in the successful development of in-house curriculum for training clinical documentation specialists and serves as co-chair of the AHIMA CDI practice council working on many projects that provide guidance to the industry—the most recent being updating the Guidelines for Achieving a Compliant Query Practice, a joint publication between ACDIS and AHIMA..
She co-authored an AHIMA practice brief on “Physician Engagement in CDI,” featured in the July 2017 Journal of AHIMA and also co-authored the AHIMA practice brief on “Physician Office Query” in July 2018. Mogbo was a speaker at the 89th AHIMA Convention, a moderator at the 2018 AHIMA CDI Summit and presented on AHIMA webinars in 2018 and 2019.
Elected to the board in 2019; serving through April 2022
Christopher Petrilli, MD, SFHM, CCDS
Medical Director, Clinical Documentation Improvement
NYU Langone Health
New York, New York
Petrilli is an assistant professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He serves as clinical lead of the Manhattan campus for value based management and medical director for CDI for NYU Langone Health. He has authored 30 peer reviewed publications, including a first author manuscript in the British Medical Journal, which was one of the first major papers describing the risk factors for COVID-19 in the United States.
In his role as medical director for CDI, he takes great pride in strengthening the collaboration among health system leaders, CDI team and providers to improve documentation efficiency and effectiveness. He achieves this through education and novel electronic health record solutions. His work has been featured in the CDI Journal, CDI Strategies, and on The ACDIS Podcast: Talking CDI. He has a true passion for teaching, methodologically implementing rigorous process improvement strategies, and tracking process, as well as outcomes metrics to assess for sustained improvement over time.
Prior to medical school, Petrilli was a financial analyst for JPMorgan Chase Bank and Senior Financial Analyst for Nexxar Group. He received his Medical Degree from Georgetown University, and completed his residency training in internal medicine at University of Michigan where he also served as chief medical resident. He received his undergraduate degree in finance and accounting at Georgetown University, where he served as co-chairman and CEO of the Georgetown University Alumni Student Credit Union, the largest entirely student run financial institution in the nation.
Elected to the board in 2021; serving through April 2024
Laurie Prescott, MSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC
CDI Education Director
HCPro/ACDIS
Middleton, Massachusetts
Prescott is the Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Education Director with HCPro, a division of BLR. Prescott serves as a full-time instructor for the CDI Boot Camps as well as a subject matter expert for the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement (ACDIS). Prescott is a frequent speaker on HCPro/ACDIS webinars and is the author of the CDI Complete Training Guide.
Prescott started her nursing career in 1985 as a graduate of the University of Vermont School Of Nursing. Since that time she has worked at a variety of organizations including academic, large and small community hospitals. She has worked in a number of nursing roles including as manager in the areas of medical/surgical, ICU, PACU and endoscopy. Her experience also includes specialization as a compliance officer.
She completed her MSN with a focus in nursing education at the University of Phoenix and taught nursing as an adjunct instructor to ADN students. She continued her focus of nursing education in various roles. In 2007, Prescott left this role to develop and implement a CDI program and remained in this role until joining HCPro in August of 2013.
Serving on the board since January 2017
Autumn Reiter, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CCS
Director, CDI
CorroHealth
Plano, Texas
Reiter began her bedside nursing career in the intensive care unit (ICU). She transitioned into CDI nearly 10 years ago. She served as a CDI specialist and eventually as the clinical coordinator for a CDI program in Chesapeake, Virginia, before coming to CorroHealth (formerly TrustHCS) in May 2015. She performed CDI inpatient and outpatient audits as well as concurrent CDI reviews and interim management before advancing to her current role. She is now the director of CDI services, where she works with clients from multiple facilities of various sizes across the country to serve in their CDI needs. She provides assistance with concurrent staffing needs, clinical denial reviews, and auditing for the clients she works with. She has developed a CDI review solution for the emergency department and leads the CDI hierarchical condition category review process with her team. Additionally, she performs GAP analysis for new program start-ups as well as improvement and rebuilds of existing programs. Reiter delivers education sessions to all levels of CDI specialists through bootcamps remotely and onsite. During her time at CorroHealth, she has created a quality assurance program as well as multiple policies to promote continuity and guidance for the team. She served as the Virginia ACDIS local chapter leader from 2015-2016 and presented at the ACDIS and AHIMA annual conferences. She has authored several articles regarding CDI concerns and expansion, participated on the ACDIS Podcast, spoken at multiple state conventions, and contributed in the creation of the CDI Outpatient Pocket Guide for 2020.
Elected to the board in 2021; serving through April 2024
Kelly Sutton, RN, BSN, MHL, CCDS, CCS
System CDI Educator and Implementation Specialist
AdventHealth
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Sutton’s CDI career started in 2015 as a frontline CDI specialist in a suburban 170-plus-bed facility in Sebring, Florida. The transition to CDI was enjoyable as Sutton was able to utilize her clinical knowledge and experience to drive reviews in the CDI role. Navigating through a rapidly changing financially-based program as it transitioned to a quality-based program was a welcomed challenge. She achieved her CCDS certification in 2018. Sutton was promoted to a newly created CDI educator role in January 2019 as the CDI program transitioned away from facility-based to a divisional lead program. The educator role allowed her to participate in the creation of policies and processes for the division. Responsibilities included oversight of the onboarding process for all new employees. Additional responsibilities included developing education for 40+ employees and multiple physician groups across 11 facilities. Her current role, since August 2021, is CDI system educator and implementation specialist, providing CDI education and software program support to over 40 facilities across the system. She obtained her CCS certification in 2022. She is a member of several professional organizations, including ACDIS and the Florida ACDIS local chapter. Sutton participated in the ACDIS Virtual Education Curtain Call in 2020 and presented a webinar in 2022.
Elected to the board in 2021; serving through April 2024
Aimee Van Balen, RN, BSN, CCDS
Lead Clinical Documentation Specialist
Lifespan Corporate Services
Providence, Rhode Island
Van Balen is a lead clinical documentation specialist at Lifespan Corporate Services in Providence, Rhode Island. She has clinical experience in medical, surgical, and cardiac care. She has almost eleven years of experience in CDI and received her CCDS certification in 2011. Van Balen serves as a mentor for her peers both within her department at Lifespan and the Massachusetts ACDIS group. She reviews both concurrent and retrospective charts for documentation best practice, query opportunities, Mortality/LOS risk adjustment, HACS/PSIs, as well as quality measures. Of upmost importance, she also provides ongoing physician education in both formal and informal settings. Van Balen orients new staff and is passionate about CDI education at the CDI level as well as for providers.
Van Balen served as co-chair of the Massachusetts Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists from April 2013-April 2017 and is an active member of the Chapter Leader Advisory Board since its formation in 2017. She has been instrumental in the success of the Massachusetts ACDIS chapter and a resource for chapter leaders nationwide. Aimee has joined ACDIS Radio twice to promote local chapter involvement and was a speaker at the ACIDS National Conference in 2017 and 2018. In addition, she was a finalist for the 2019 ACDIS Advisory Board and recently was published with her colleague in the Journal of Interprofessional Workforce Research and Development titled “Mission at Work: Perfecting Provider Education” (Volume 1 Issue 2, 2018.)
Elected to board in 2020; serving through April 2023
Lena N. Wilson, MHI, RHIA, CCS, CCDS
RCS Specialized Manager–Clinical Documentation Integrity (Inpatient & Professional Operations) and ICD-10 Clinical Education
Indiana University Health
Indianapolis, Indiana
Wilson has a Bachelors in HIM (2002) and Masters in Health Informatics (2009) both from Indiana University. She holds credentials of CCS and CCDS. She began her career as an inpatient coder and continued to grow from there, expanding her skills into quality auditing and then into various leadership roles in HIM/coding/CDI.
She now has almost twenty years of HIM, coding, and CDI experience and has been at IU Health for the last 16 years. During her tenure, she has worked in various roles supporting the CDI team from direct leadership/program oversight as well as solely focusing on physician documentation education leading up to and through the ICD-10 code set conversion.
The IU Health inpatient CDI program was implemented in 2005/2006 and she has been involved since the inception of this program in every aspect and its continued growth. Over the last 15 years, the program has expanded to cover 16 inpatient and critical access facilities across the health system with 24 team members and one team lead. She has worked with others to support the implementation of a computer assisted CDI tool as well as a production and quality monitoring programs.
The IU Health CDI program is continuing to expand into the professional space. The professional CDI program will focus on the documentation of HCC diagnoses in the physician office. This is currently still in the pilot stage and will continue to evolve over 2021 and beyond.
Elected to the board in 2021; serving through April 2024
Previous ACDIS Advisory Board Members:
- Sam Antonios, MD, FACP, SFHM, CPE, CCDS (2016-2019)
- Dee Banet, RN, BSN, CCDS (2011-2013)
- Cindy Basham, MHA, MSCCS, BSN, CPC, CCS (2007-2010)
- Susan Belley, M.Ed., RHIA, CPHQ (2011-2013)
- Timothy N. Brundage, MD (2011-2013)
- Gloryanne Bryant, BS, RHIA, RHIT, CCS, CCDS (2007-2010)
- Shelia Bullock, RN, BSN, MBA, CCM, CCDS (2009-2011)
- Donald Butler, RN, BSN (2013-2015)
- Jean S. Clark, RHIA (2007-2010)
- Wendy Clesi, RN, CCDS (2014-2017)
- Angie Curry, RN, BSN, CCDS (2017-2020)
- Wendy De Vreugd, RN, BSN, PHN, FNP, CCDS (2007-2010, 2014-2017)
- Cheryl Ericson, MS, RN, CCDS, CDIP (2014-2017)
- Paul Evans, RHIA, CCDS, CCS, CCS-P (2016-2019)
- James Fee, MD, CCS, CCDS (2015-2018)
- Garri L. Garrison, RN, CPC, CMC, CPUR (2009-2011)
- Colleen Garry, RN, BS (2007-2010)
- Robert Gold, MD (2007-2010) (2011-2013)
- Katy Good, RN, MSN, MHA, CCS, CCDS (2017-2020)
- William E. Haik, MD (2007-2010)
- Tamara A. Hicks, RN, BSN, MHA, CCS, CCDS, ACM (2007-2010, 2016-2019)
- Sylvia Hoffman, RN, CCDS, CCDI, CDIP (2013-2015)
- Robin R. Holmes, RN, MSN (2009-2011)
- Walter Houlihan, MBA, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA (2013-2015)
- Thomas W. Huth, MD, MBA, FACP (2015)
- Robin Jones, RN, BSN, MHA/Ed, CCDS (2016-2019)
- Fran Jurcak, RN, MSN, CCDS (2011-2014, 2018-2021)
- James S. Kennedy, MD, CCS (2010-2012)
- Glenn Krauss, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPUR, FCS, PCS, CCDS, C-CDI (2010-2012)
- Mark LeBlanc, RN, MBA, CCDS (2014-2017)
- Trey La Charité, MD (2011-2013)
- Pam Lovell, MBA, RN (2007-2010)
- Gail B. Marini, RN, MM, CCS, LNC (2010-2012)
- Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CPC, CPC-I, CCDS (2007-2010)
- Michelle McCormack, RN, BSN, CCDS, CRCR (2014-2017)
- Jeff Morris, RN, BSN, CCDS (2018-2021)
- Karen Newhouser, RN, BSN, CCDS, CCS, CCM, CDIP (2015-2018)
- Erica E. Remer, MD, FACEP, CCDS (2018-2021)
- Judy Schade, RN, MSN, CCM, CCDS (2015-2018)
- Susan Schmitz, JD, RN, CCS, CCDS, CDIP (2017-2020)
- Lynne Spryszak, RN, CCDS, CPC (2007-2012)
- Colleen Stukenberg, MSN, RN, CMSRN, CCDS (2009-2011)
- Heather Taillon, RHIA (2007-2010)
- James E. Vance, MD, MBA (2014)
- Deanne Wilk, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCS (2017-2020)
- Donna D. Wilson, RHIA, CCS, CCDS (2011-2013)
- Lena N Wilson, MHI, RHIA, CCS, CCDS (2010-2012)
- Anny Yuen, RHIA, CCS, CCDS (2015-2018)
- Irina Zusman, RHIA, CCS, CCDS (2018-2021)
Chapter Advisory Committee
Task: Serving as liaisons between local chapter leaders and ACDIS national administration by participating on chapter leadership conference calls, promoting best practice, and providing guidance to leaders across the country. Click to read the committee's scope of work and the current group roster.
Click here to download the committee scope of work. For questions about the committee, contact ACDIS Director of Programming Rebecca Hendren (rhendren@acdis.org) and Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald (larchibald@acdis.org).
Committee Members: Leola Burke from North Carolina, Amy Bush from the pediatric ACDIS networking group (APDIS), Denise Deter from Arizona, Ella Elizee from Florida, Carol McNutt from Maryland, Keri Miller from Michigan, Janell Murray from Indiana, Angelica Naylor from Texas, Paula Rector from Georgia, Rani Stoddard from California, and Ashley Vahey from Pennsylvania.
Leola Burke, MHSA, CCS
Independent HIM/CDI/mid-revenue cycle consultant
Morrisville, North Carolina
Burke has more than 20 years of experience in HIM, MS-DRGs, APR-DRGs, Ambulatory Payment Classifications, DRG case mix index (CMI) analysis, physician current procedure terminology coding, evaluation and management coding, and revenue cycle compliance. She has worked with academic medical centers, community hospitals, long term acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, veterans’ association medical centers, physician practices, and ambulatory surgery centers. Burke has also authored and contributed to a number of articles, practice briefs, and projects across the healthcare industry. She currently serves as the North Carolina ACDIS and AHIMA chapter liaison and social media chair for the North Carolina AHIMA component.
Amy Bush, BS, RN, MJ, CCDS, CCS
CDI specialist III
Cooper University Health System
Woolwich Township, New Jersey
Bush is currently serving as an inpatient CDIS III at Cooper University Hospital, a level I trauma center. She joined the Cooper CDI team with the goal of establishing the CDI program in the Women’s and Children’s Institute, which covers maternity, general pediatrics, PICU, and NICU. This new endeavor followed a 20-year career at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she held numerous positions in CDI, PICU case management, bed management nurse coordinator- patient flow, and clinical coordinator cardiac center scheduling and precertification. Bush has also held positions as a nurse advocate, regulatory affairs associate and compliance officer, director of admissions and case management, and clinical nursing in the PICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She obtained her B.S. in nursing at the Pennsylvania State University and a master of jurisprudence in health law at Widener University School of Law. She has presented in various venues, served as a guest lecturer at two universities, and was honored to be the featured speaker at nursing grand rounds. Bush is currently serving her third year in a co-leadership role in the ACDIS pediatric networking group (APDIS).
Ella Elizee, MSN, CCDS
CDI educator
Tampa General Hospital
Tampa, Florida
Elizee is currently the CDI educator at Tampa General Hospital in Florida. She brings with her approximately 10 years of experience in the nursing profession. Prior to joining the CDI team, she practiced as an adult oncology/medical-surgical nurse until she obtained her current degree of advanced practice RN (APRN) in family practice. During her time as a CDI professional, Elizee has contributed to the CDI Journal and serves on the ACDIS Diversity and Inclusion Committee, ACDIS Leadership Council, and Chapter Advisory Committee. In 2023, she will be a speaker at the ACDIS national conference and has been a guest on the ACDIS Podcast. She remains an active member of the Florida ACDIS chapter and currently serves as vice president.
Carol McNutt, RN, CDIP
CDI manager
Lifebridge Health
Owings Mills, Maryland
Bio coming soon...
Keri Miller, RN, BSN, CCDS, CCS
CDI manager of quality and education
University of Miami
Miami, Florida
Miller is currently the CDI manager of quality and education at the University of Miami Health System. She has seven years of experience working in the CDI field with experience in consulting and CDI quality. Her current role focuses on team education on compliance, DRG optimization, and quality measures capture. Her passions include leading the Michigan chapter of ACDIS and providing educational opportunities for CDI professionals across the industry.
Janell Murray, BSN, RN, CCDS
CDI educator
Banner Health
Phoenix, Arizona
Murray is a CDI educator at Banner Health in Phoenix, Arizona. She has more than 14 years of experience in nursing with more than nine in CDI. She recently joined Banner Health as the CDI educator which covers all the Banner Health hospitals. Prior to her current role, she worked as a CDI specialist for the Brundage Group and Parkview Health Systems. Her nursing background includes telemetry and the ICU/CCU, serving as a nursing team lead, preceptor, and department educator. As a CDI professional, she has served as a committee member, working in critical access hospitals to level 1 trauma/teaching facilities. She assisted with onboarding and led the continued education updates for her team. She has been a member of the Indiana chapter of ACDIS, served as the chapter's social media manager from 2020-2022, and then transitioned to the chapter president for the 2023-2025 term. She also recently joined the ACDIS Chapter Advisory Committee.
Angelica Naylor, MBA, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCS, CDIP
System retrospect CDI manager
AdventHealth
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Naylor has eight years of CDI experience including acute care hospital and system CDI manager, senior consultant advisor, and manager in CDI consulting services. Her background includes critical care nursing in the trauma/surgical/neuro ICU, burn ICU, and PACU, as well as in utilization review, case management, and quality/risk management. With a passion for CDI advancement, ethics, and quality improvement, Naylor has brought success to CDI programs by integrating a more collaborative workflow and relationship between CDI and HIM, establishing advanced CDI training, implementing quality-focused objectives, revising physician education, participating in appeals and denials management, and serving as subject matter expert to hospitalist readmissions reduction council. Naylor has been a speaker at the 2021 and 2022 national ACDIS conference, guest speaker on the ACDIS Podcast, and guest columnist in the CDI Journal. She is a former Kansas City ACDIS chapter leader and currently serves on the ACDIS Chapter Advisory Committee, ACDIS Regulatory Committee, and chair of the ACDIS Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is also a member of the Texas ACDIS chapter.
Paula Rector, RHIT, CCDS, CDIP
CDI specialist
Grady Health
Newman, Georgia
Rector has more than 37 years of hospital/healthcare experience, and more than 15 years of experience in CDI development, implementation, consulting, and staff. Her experience encompasses administrative director/management of the revenue cycle, including HIM, coding, patient accounts, patient access, medical staff operations and credentialing, centralized scheduling, and risk management. She has also served as project manager for denials review teams and A/R reduction teams. Rector has worked in a variety of healthcare settings from large academic medical centers to small community hospitals in many states of the United States. She has served in several HIM and ACDIS state chapter positions and Iowa state healthcare projects. Rector has served as secretary of the Georgia chapter of ACDIS since 2020.
Rani Vivian Stoddard, MBA, RN, CPHQ, RHIA, CCDS, CCS, CDIP
CDI supervisor
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital
Valencia, California
Stoddard has been a CDI supervisor for more than nine years. She assists a six-person team consisting of nurses and foreign medical graduate physicians. She came to CDI from quality, teaching, healthcare marketing, blood donor nursing, intensive care, medical-surgical nursing, and rehabilitation nursing. Stoddard has been active in the California ACDIS local chapter since 2016, in the past serving as its secretary and currently as the California ACDIS Connection newsletter editor. Through her efforts and the work of her colleagues on the leadership team, the California ACDIS chapter has been able to several hold in-person annual conferences. She joined the Chapter Advisory Committee in 2019 where she hopes to bring back leadership tools to the volunteers in California and share successful tips the California ACDIS chapter has developed since its inception nearly a decade ago. Stoddard is a previous speaker at the ACDIS national conference in Las Vegas in 2017 and poster presenter in 2018.
Ashley Vahey, BSN, RN, CCDS
Interim CDI manager
Penn State Health
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Bio coming soon...
Certification Committee
Task: Maintaining and updating the CCDS and CCDS-O Certification Programs, including the exam and its prerequisites. Click to read the committee's scope of work and the current group roster.
Click here to download the committee scope of work. For questions about this committee, contact ACDIS Director of Programming Rebecca Hendren (rhendren@acdis.org).
CCDS Subcommittee:
Marie Bourque-Namer
Bio coming soon...
Sharme Brodie, RN, CCDS
CDI education specialist
HCPro/ACDIS
Middleton, Massachusetts
Brodie is a CDI education specialist for HCPro, a Simplify Compliance brand, in Middleton, Massachusetts. Brodie serves as a full-time instructor for CDI Boot Camps and a subject matter expert for ACDIS. She has more than 35 years’ experience in the healthcare industry, including multiple areas of nursing, serving in a variety of roles at both large academic and small community hospitals. Prior to joining HCPro, Brodie worked as a consultant providing program audits, implementation advice, and continuing education for CDI departments, including physician education She has been responsible for the successful implementation and oversight of a CDI department and the revitalization of a CDI department at a small community hospital. Sharme is a frequent contributor of articles for ACDIS’ CDI Journal and CDI Strategies. She has been a speaker at the national ACDIS conference and is a frequent guest host on the ACDIS Podcast.
Mary Carol Brouwer
Bio coming soon...
Cheryl Ericson
Bio coming soon...
Patricia Henry
Bio coming soon...
Dorene Hughes, MSN, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP
Clinical documentation director
Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center
Hartsville, South Carolina
Hughes has been involved in CDI for over 14 years, with seven years of that experience as a CDI director. Prior to CDI, she has 12 years of experience as a well-baby and NICU nurse and six years experience as a nurse in a nursing home. She is currently a member of ACDIS, the Tennessee ACDIS local chapter, AHIMA, and is the past tresurer for the South Carolina ACDIS local chapter. Hughes is the lead chair for the Darlington County Disabilities and Special Needs Board, and is alos involved in the Hartsville Evening Lions Club and the ToastMasters Club in Hartsville. Prior to nursing, Hughes taught kindergarten and first grade. She married her high school sweetheart in 2020 and together they have six children, three dogs, and three cats.
Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O
Chief clinical strategist
Iodine Software
Austin, Texas
Jurcak is an accomplished senior executive with over 30 years of success in healthcare. She is currently the chief clinical strategist at Iodine Software where she has focused her attention on employing innovative artificial intelligence machine learning model technology to support documentation accuracy in all records. Jurcak is focused on creating efficient workflows, preventing duplication of effort, and supporting professional communication between the clinical and coding teams. She has worked side-by-side with CDI specialists and coding staff, CDI leaders, and corporate executives to develop workflows and processes that support positive outcomes for healthcare organizations. She received the 2017 ACDIS award for Professional Achievement, served two elected terms on the ACDIS Advisory Board and currently sits on the certification boards for both inpatient and outpatient CDI as well as the NAHRI Advisory Board.
Roshan Shetty
Bio coming soon...
Susanne Warford, RN, MBA, CCDS
HIM data analytics manager
Baptist Health
Kentucky
Warford's experience includes emergency department, neurosurgical ICU, transplant, case management, and compliance with the last nine years in CDI/HIM. During those nine years, she served as a facility CDI specialist, CDI auditor/educator and regional CDI manager, where she helped to systemize and standardize processes for seven facilities spread throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Prior to her current role, she started the CDI appeals program, which has since developed into its own department. Susanne currently serves as the Vice-President for the ACDIS Kentucky/Southern Indiana Chapter. She is a member of the 2021 – 2022 ACDIS CDI Leadership Council and has served on the CCDS Exam Committee since 2019.
Gail Weldon, RN, CCDS
CDI team lead
Baptist Medical Center East and Prattville Baptist Hospital
Montgomery and Prattville, Alabama
Weldon has worked full time as an RN since 1978 and has been with the same great healthcare system for the last 22 years. In 2007, she became a quality coordinator overseeing professional practice evaluations and all things physician related. When the CDI department was formed, she transitioned to CDI, which Weldon believes is the best career move she has ever made. Weldon loves CDI and she goes to work with excitement every day. Weldon is a CDI team lead for two of the system's three facilities. In her off time, Weldone loves to experience life with her husband, children and grandchildren. She feels extremely blessed to have both of her parents living and enjoys their company as often as she can. Weldon also loves dogs and birds, and has a few of each.
Irina Zusman
Bio coming soon...
CCDS-O Subcommittee:
Tracy Boldt, RN, BSN, CCDS, CDIP, CCDS-O
System manager of CDI
Essentia Health System
Duluth, Minnesota
Boldt has more than 15 years of healthcare experience, including nursing, administration, and consulting, specializing in hospital revenue cycle management. Specific to CDI, Boldt has led CDI engagements for clients representing small hospitals to larger integrated delivery networks with multi-site programs. She has successfully led CDI integration projects with interest in clinical documentation (inpatient and outpatient), and identifying process changes and workflow enhancement regarding how provider documentation is reflective of accurate patient care.
Judy Dokken, MBA, CHDA, RHIT, CCS
Revenue cycle manager
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota
In her current role, Dokken works with providers and coding staff to support quality documentation and code capture processes. After many years of facility and professional coding, Dokken transitioned to working with providers on billing requirements including ICD-10 implementation. After ICD-10 implementation, she began work on evaluation and management CPT documentation and coding. Later, her role expanded to include risk scores, patient complexity, hierarchical condition categories, and alternative payment models. Currently she supports the work of Mayo’s outpatient CDI program.
Tamara A. Hicks, BSN, MHA, RN, CCS, CCDS, ACM-RN, CCDS-O
Director of clinical documentation excellence (CDE)
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (AHWFB)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Hicks has more than 22 years of experience in CDI and over 37 years of nursing experience. As an original staff member when the CDI program at AHWFB began in 1999, she participated in building and expanding the program by educating staff and faculty, providing leadership, promoting departmental goals, and coordinating department operations. Hicks holds a diploma in nursing from Watts School of Nursing in Durham, North Carolina, and graduated summa cum laude from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. She obtained a master’s in health administration from Pfeiffer University in Charlotte. She has worked for AHWFB for her entire career, with 15 years of service as a staff nurse in the hospital's intermediate care unit and nine years as manager of care coordination. She is a member AHIMA and ACDIS where she is a frequent contributor, serving on the ACDIS Advisory Board twice, currently sitting on the CCDS-O Certification Board, currently serving as the social media coordinator for NC-ACDIS, and she was awarded the CDI Professional of the Year Award at the 2019 ACDIS Conference.
Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O
Chief clinical strategist
Iodine Software
Austin, Texas
Jurcak is an accomplished senior executive with over 30 years of success in healthcare. She is currently the chief clinical strategist at Iodine Software where she has focused her attention on employing innovative artificial intelligence machine learning model technology to support documentation accuracy in all records. Jurcak is focused on creating efficient workflows, preventing duplication of effort, and supporting professional communication between the clinical and coding teams. She has worked side-by-side with CDI specialists and coding staff, CDI leaders, and corporate executives to develop workflows and processes that support positive outcomes for healthcare organizations. She received the 2017 ACDIS award for Professional Achievement, served two elected terms on the ACDIS Advisory Board and currently sits on the certification boards for both inpatient and outpatient CDI as well as the NAHRI Advisory Board.
James Manz, MD
Spine and neurological surgery consultant
Mayo Enterprise Health System
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Manz services as physician chair of the Mayo Enterprise Outpatient CDI Subcommittee, physician vice chair for the Mayo Enterprise Inpatient CDI Subcommittee, and physician advisor of the Mayo Clinic Problem List Stewardship Committee. He is the co-author of the ACDIS Pocket Guide and has been a frequent speaker at ACDIS national conferences.
Shannon E. McCall, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-I, CEMC, CRC, CCDS
Director of HIM/coding
HCPro
Middleton, Massachusetts
McCall directs all of HCPro’s Certified Coder Boot Camp® programs. She is the developer of the Certified Coder Boot Camp®—Inpatient Version and the Evaluation and Management Boot Camp®. Most recently she collaborated with the CDI team to develop the Risk Adjustment Documentation and Coding Boot Camp®. As a consultant for HCPro, she works with hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare providers on a wide range of coding-related issues with a particular focus on education, coding reviews, and audits. McCall has extensive experience with coding for both physician and hospital services. Prior to joining HCPro, she worked for a national medical practice management company, where her duties included serving as a client manager and an in-house coding trainer. She also previously worked for a national consulting firm focusing on hospital inpatient, outpatient, and ER services. McCall previously served on the ACDIS advisory board. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Administration from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Karen Newhouser, RN, BSN, CCM, CCDS, CCS, CDIP
Director of CDI education
MedPartners
Tampa, Florida
Newhouser’s current role at MedPartners helped her find her niche in education through writing, speaking, and personal engagement. Within multiple roles spanning a 40-year-career in critical care nursing, case management, and CDI, Newhouser has been resolute in her mission to set people up for success. Newhouser was honored as the 2015 CDI Professional of the Year by ACDIS and was a member of the ACDIS Advisory Board.
Diana Ortiz, JD, RN, CDIP, CCDS
Revenue cycle marketing manager, CDI product owner
3M Health Information Systems, Inc.
Wausau, Wisconsin
Previously, Ortiz was the director for ambulatory CDI at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since joining Ochsner in 2013, her roles included serving as a project manager as well as inpatient CDI operations manager. During this time, she coordinated the implementation of computer-assisted coding and metrics reporting for the CDI department. Ortiz has a nursing background in both the emergency and the psychiatric setting, and HIM experience in hospital emergency facility coding and database management.
Laurie Prescott, MSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CRC
Interim ACDIS director
HCPro
Middleton, Massachusetts
Prescott is the interim director and subject matter expert for ACDIS. She is a frequent speaker on HCPro/ACDIS webinars and is the author of the CDI Specialist’s Complete Training Guide. Prescott started her nursing career in 1985 as a graduate of the University of Vermont School of Nursing. Since that time, she has worked at a variety of organizations including academic, large and small community hospitals. She has worked in a number of nursing roles including as manager in the areas of medical/surgical, ICU, PACU, and endoscopy. Her experience also includes specialization as a compliance officer. She completed her MSN with a focus in nursing education at the University of Phoenix and taught nursing as an adjunct instructor to ADN students. She continued her focus of nursing education in various roles. In 2007, Prescott left this role to develop and implement a CDI program and remained in this role until joining ACDIS in August of 2013.
Jessica M. Vaughn, DNP, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CRC
Vice president, value-based CDI
Norwood
Austin, Texas
Vaughn has over 11 years of CDI experience in both inpatient and outpatient settings and 25 years of nursing experience in hematology/oncology acute care, nephrology, obstetrics/gynecology, and primary care. In 2015 she led one of the nation’s first and outpatient CDI programs focused on value-based care for population health. Vaughn has spoken at multiple conferences, authored articles, received ACDIS’s National Professional Achievement Award, and helped write both the original study guide and the initial CCDS-O certification exam. Vaughn has held certifications in oncology, chemo and biotherapy, AHIMA approved ICD-10 CM/PCS trainer, and most recently completed her Doctor of Nursing at Duke University with research focusing on CDI nurse-led preventative care initiatives.
Yvonne Whitley RN, BSN, CPC, CRC, CDEO
Ambulatory CDI manager
Novant Health
Charlotte, North Carolina
Whitley was one of the first CDI specialists tasked with creating this new department for Novant Health’s Medical Group in September 2013, as well as building one of the first ambulatory CDI programs in the country. She now leads a robust team that supports much of Novant Health’s Medical Group of over 530 physician locations and over 2,500 providers. Whitley obtained her BSN from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. She has been with Novant Health for the last 20 years and comes from a nursing background with 30 years in critical care, trauma, and open-heart ICUs. She also has experience as a clinical research coordinator for drug and device trials.
Michelle M. Wieczorek, RHIT, RN, CPHQ
Senior manager
DHG Healthcare
Erie, Pennsylvania
Wieczorek combines 30 years of healthcare knowledge as a clinician, with subject matter expertise in CDI, HIM, and clinical quality in her role as leader of CDI services at DHG Healthcare. Wieczorek has served in leadership roles in critical care nursing, health information management, utilization review, clinical quality, and information technology and has practiced in acute, outpatient and managed care settings. She has extensive experience in software development and IT product management, including holding a US patent in natural language processing clinical rules logic as a result of her work in developing a CDI software program with a national IT vendor. Wieczorek is active in professional organizations and is presently an appointee to the CDI Practice Council of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and was recognized by her peers with the Distinguished Member Award by the Pennsylvania HIMA in 2016. Michelle is a sought-after author and speaker on topics such as electronic health records, CDI, risk adjustment, and clinical quality. She has presented webinars for ACDIS, AHIMA, and the American Hospital Association. She has contributed to publications such as the CDI Journal (ACDIS), the Journal of AHIMA, and is presently on the Editorial Board of ICD-10 Monitor. Wieczorek is based in Western Pennsylvania and travels nationally leading consulting engagements to deploy best practice tools and methodologies for clinical documentation, risk adjustment, and revenue integrity.
Resource Library Committee
Task: Reviewing materials donated to the ACDIS community for publication in the Resource Library for accuracy, compliance, relevance, and effectiveness. Click to read the committee's scope of work and the current group roster.
Click here to download the committee's scope of work. For questions about the committee, contact ACDIS Associate Editorial Director Linnea Archibald (larchibald@acdis.org).
Chinwe Anyika, PhD, RN-BC, CDIP, CCS, CCDS, CCDS-O, CPHIMS
Manager of CDI and data operations
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York
Anyika is the manager of CDI and data operations at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She has 18 years of nursing experience, and 14 years of CDI and inpatient coding experience. In her current position, she oversees other CDI specialists, supervises daily CDI operations and workflow, trains CDI specialists and providers, and utilizes data analytics and CDI informatics to drive provider performance improvement. She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical informatics and holds professional certificates in VBA programming, data analytics, and data visualization with tableau.
Laurie Baker, MSN, RN, CCDS
Clinical documentation specialist
Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center
Jasper, Indiana
Baker is a clinical documentation specialist at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper, Indiana. She has 31 years of nursing experience, including in the medical/surgical unit. She has 11 years of experience in case management/utilization review and six years of experience as a CDI specialist. She earned her CCDS credential in 2020 and currently does CDI reviews for traditional and managed Medicare and Medicaid patients. Baker was a 2022 recipient of an ACDIS CDI Scholarship award.
Melissa Crigger, RN-BSN, MHA, CCDS
Clinical documentation specialist
Carilion Clinic
Roanoke, Virginia
Crigger is a clinical documentation specialist at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Virginia. She is a registered nurse with more than 29 years of nursing experience. She has five years of CDI experience with her areas of expertise in vascular surgery, neuro trauma ICU and PCU, and oncology. Crigger has also served as an infection preventionist and was the surgical site infection content expert as well as conducted quality improvement projects for HAC reduction. She also has experience in case management, utilization management, and nursing education where she served as an assistant professor of nursing at Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke. She has a master’s degree in science with an emphasis in healthcare administration and has experience in outpatient practice management as well. While Melissa loves educating physicians and clinical documentation, she considers being mother to her 10-year-old son her greatest accomplishment.
Alicia Gordon, RN, BSN, CCDS, CDIP, CCS
Director of CDI and education
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Gordon is the director of CDI and education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has more than 20 years of extensive nursing experience including ICU and quality and nine years in CDI program development and implementation. She earned her CCDS certification in 2009, her CDIP in 2014, and her CCS in 2015. She is also an AHIMA ICD-10-CM/PCS trainer. Prior to her current role, Gordon worked as a CDI manager of operations for HCA Intensive Care Consortium, a corporate CDI director for two healthcare systems, and as the manager of CDI at MazarsUSA. She successfully managed and reinvigorated established best-practice CDI programs in academic medical centers and community hospitals. Gordon also implemented new CDI programs and developed CDI/coding professional and physician educational programs.
Elizabeth Harvey, RN, BC, MS, CMCN, CPHQ, CCDS
Level 3 CDI specialist
West Virginia University Medicine
Morgantown, West Virginia
Harvey is a level 3 CDI specialist at West Virginia University Medicine in Morgantown. She is a registered nurse with more than 30 years of nursing experience, specializing in CDI since 2007. Harvey has her master’s in community health education and holds education, clinical assessment, and process improvement dear to her heart. Recently, she participated in a process improvement project with sepsis as a level 3 project. At present, Harvey has a goal to form a state ACDIS chapter. She has held the CCDS certification since 2013. She has previously served as president of the West Virginia State Health Care Quality Association and now serves as the treasurer. Harvey is a progressive thinker and is always giving it her all to make the world a better place.
Crystal Incorvaia, RN, CCDS, CRCR
Director, CDI, revenue cycle
Ensemble Health Partners
Toledo, Ohio
Incorvaia is a director of CDI for Ensemble Health Partners, based in Toledo, Ohio. In her current role, she oversees several facilities and CDI teams. She began CDI career in 2012 and has previous clinical experience at a level 1 trauma center, medical/surgical, telemetry, and ICU step-down. Incorvaia has developed working relationships with physicians and provided education to new clinical documentation team members as well as ancillary staff regarding the value of CDI across the continuum of care.
Stacey Jackson, MHL, RN, CCDS
Lead CDI specialist
Steward Health Care
Dallas, Texas
Jackson is the lead CDI specialist at Steward Health Care for the northeast division which includes 10 hospitals. She joined Steward’s CDI program in 2016 and moved into the role as lead for one of the local hospitals in 2019. She transitioned into the role of lead CDI for the northeast division in 2021. Jackson’s responsibilities include mentoring and precepting CDI specialists new to the organization, and providing CDI and software program support/implementation to the 10 hospitals in the division, as well as the Florida market. She received her CCDS in 2019 and served as a co-lead of the Massachusetts ACDIS chapter from 2019-2022. Her 20 years of nursing experience including critical care, telemetry-medical/surgical, nurse education, and nursing leadership. She completed her Master’s in Healthcare Leadership in 2019.
Amy Kirk, RHIT, CCS, CCDS, CRCR
CDI regional manager
Ensemble Health Partners, supporting Bon Secours Mercy Health
Cincinnati, Ohio
Kirk is a CDI regional manager with Ensemble Health Partners, supporting Bon Secours Mercy Health. She has been in the health information field for 31 years with 17 years as an acute care inpatient professional coder at a level 1 trauma center and academic facility, and 14 years in inpatient CDI. Her coding experience and the increasing need for provider documentation education led her to help grow the CDI department in 2007 as a CDI specialist and becoming a regional CDI manager of five facilities in 2013. Kirk believes a strong CDI team has a foundation of processes and resources to support best practices. Using her experiences in coding and CDI, Kirk has helped their teams navigate through the challenges of the ever-changing healthcare environment.
Lee Anne Landon, BSN, CCMC, CCDS
Network director of the clinical documentation program
HonorHealth Healthcare System
Scottsdale, Arizona
Landon is the network director of the clinical documentation program at HonorHealth Healthcare System in Arizona. She has more than 16 years of experience in CDI. Previously, Landon has worked in multiple roles and settings, including acute care, case management, and utilization review for hospitals, insurance companies, and the New York state PRO. Her current CDI program includes all payer reviews, quality, and denial management. The program has established close collaborative relationships with the coding and quality department along with a working relationship with case management. Landon is an active member of her local ACDIS chapter and was a co-chairperson for two years. She has presented at ACDIS national conferences and at local chapter events. She is a member of the ACDIS Leadership Council, has served on Leadership Council Mastermind group, and has been invited to attend several Leadership Exchanges.
Dawn Miller, BSN, RN, CCDS, CPC
Clinical documentation coordinator/analyst
Henry Ford Health System
Detroit, Michigan
Miller is a clinical documentation coordinator for Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan. Finally finding her professional calling, she started as a frontline CDI specialist in 2017, before transitioning to the role of educator in 2019. Fulfilling her passion for education, Miller trains newly hired CDI specialists and maintains an ongoing supportive presence as they adapt to CDI life at their primary site. She also provides targeted educational support for more experienced CDI specialists. In addition to education, Miller has a zeal for all things query related. She is co-chair of the query template revision committee, and as a query auditor, she identified the need for and authored query standards for the health system. When not focused on education or queries, Miller assists with denials and appeals, contributes educational material for presentations, is co-editor of the quarterly CDI newsletter, collaborates with coding on diagnosis-specific projects, and is moving into a CDI analyst role. She is currently pursuing a master’s in health informatics and information management (MSHIIM) with planned degree completion in fall 2023.
Natalie Negro, MPH, BSN, RN, CCDS
Corporate manager of CDI
Penn Medicine
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Negro is the corporate manager of CDI at Penn Medicine in Pennsylvania. As manager, Negro provides education and support to encourage growth and development of an effective CDI department, follows metrics and key performance indicators, and collaborates with providers and other stakeholders to ensure the success of Penn Medicine. Some of her favorite initiatives Negro has worked on are those which leverage technology and the electronic medical record to improve documentation and patient care. Negro is passionate about CDI and all the ways in which it promotes accurate and complete code sets for public health data, hospital rankings, and hospital finance. An amateur detective at heart, Natalie loves board games, escape rooms, and anything that involves putting together clues and solving puzzles.
Keri Smith, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CCDS
CDI specialist II
Orlando Health
Winter Garden, Florida
Smith is a CCDS-certified CDI specialist at Orlando Health in Winter Garden, Florida. She is a registered nurse, born and raised in Florida, with 18 years of experience—six years of which were in the role of a clinical nurse specialist. Smith’s background is neurological and neurosurgical nursing with experience as a neurological/neurosurgical educator, stroke program coordinator, and adult health clinical nurse specialist. She entered the role of a CDI specialist in October 2017, and currently functions as a second-level reviewer.
Ashley Walker, DNP, RN, CCDS
Clinical documentation improvement supervisor
Birmingham VA Medical Center
Trussville, Alabama
Walker is the clinical documentation improvement supervisor at the Birmingham VA Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. With more than 10 years in the nursing field, Walker began her pursuit in the field of clinical documentation in 2015. She took a break to serve as a clinical coordinator for a cardiology office, but documentation continued to hold her key interest. She has earned her CCDS and become the CDI Supervisor at the Birmingham VA. Her clinical background includes medical/surgical, cardiac ICU, and PACU nursing. She holds a BSN from Tuskegee University. She received her MSN in February 2021 and her DNP in March 2023 from Chamberlain University. While documentation is her passion, her greatest joy comes from her children Amari and Kaiden.
Brittani Winkler, MHA, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O
Manager of CDI
Wellstar Health System
Collins, Ohio
Winkler is a manager of CDI at Wellstar Health System, which is based in Marietta, Georgia. In her current role, she is responsible for leading CDI initiatives across seven facilities, presenting metrics to hospital stakeholders, attending multidepartment meetings, and leading the outpatient HCC reporting initiative. Winkler joined the CDI world in 2017 and has a background in medical/surgical nursing, home health nursing, case management, and clinical resource management.
Tammy Yohan, RN
Lead ambulatory CDI specialist
Bellin Gundersen Health System
Westby, Wisconsin
Yohan is a lead ambulatory CDI specialist at Bellin Gundersen Health System, which is based in Wisconsin. She started her CDI career seven years ago in the inpatient pulmonary critical care and trauma intensive care units. Yohan assisted her health system with developing an ambulatory CDI department, instituting rounding into internal medicine, family medicine, residency, and specialty departments. Regional critical access hospitals were also added to the CDI program in 2021. She is a member of the ACDIS Leadership Council and the Wisconsin ACDIS local chapter, and has spoken at local chapter events.
Teri Escalona Amador, BSN, RN, CCDS
Diane Kenney, RN, BSN, CCDS
Sandra Thomas, MSN, RN
Margie Watson, MSN, RN, CCM, CCDS
Laura Werner, DC, RN, BSN, BA, MSN-ed, CDIP, CSS
Leyna Belcher, DNP-C, MSN, BSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O
Maricus Gibbs, PhD, RN
Jeanne Johnson, MHA/INF, BNS, RN
Tina L. Medrano, MSN, CCDS
Hiral Patel, RN, BSN, MHI
Alyce Reavis, RN, MSN, CCDS
Brian Simpson, MS, RRT, CCDS, CCDS-O, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, CRC
Lashondra Tate, MSN, RN, MEDSURG-BC CCDS
Ashley Wells, MN, CMSRN, RN, CCDS
Haaris Ali, MBBS, MBA, CDIP 
Lynette Byerly, RN, CCDS, CCS
Cheryl Ericson, RN, MS, CCDS, CDIP
Julian Everett, BSN, RN, CCDS, CDIP
Wendy Haney, RN, MSN, BSN, CCDS
Faisal Hussain, MD, MHIIM, RHIA, CCDS, CDIP, CCS 
Susan Wallace, MEd, RHIA, CCS, CDIP, CCDS, FAHIMA
Daizy Chan-Kumpa, MSN, RN
Sandra Chotolal-Lachman RN, BSN, CNORE, CCDS
Ella Elizee, MSN, RN, CCDS
Okemena Ewoterai, BSN, MA, CCS, CDIP, CCDS
Maria Mann, RN, BSN, MSHL, CCDS, CCS, CDIP, CRC, CSM
ra Minor, RN, BSN, CCDS
Buddy Morgan, BSN, RN
Phyllis Lotus Stevenson, MSN, RN, CCDS
Melody Tyiska, MBA-PM, RHIA, CCS, CPC, CPMA, CHA, OHCC, CCP-P