Speaker Profiles

Drexel DeFord, Senior VP / CIO, Seattle Children’s Hospital & Research Institute
Drexel DeFord is responsible for all information services and health information management delivered at this $500 million, not-for-profit, pediatric hospital / academic medical center and research institute. With outlying clinics and homecare services serving Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, Children’s has an academic relation with the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, and provides some of the most advanced cancer treatments available in the nation through the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a partnership with the University of Washington (UW), and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  Prior to his tenure at Children’s, DeFord was corporate vice president and chief information officer at Scripps Health in San Diego, and has served in various CIO and CTO capacities with the United States Air Force, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Currently chairman of the CHIME board of trustees and a fellow in HIMSS, DeFord has a Masters in Health Informatics from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Roy Foster, Director, Regulatory Compliance Practice, Cerner
Roy Foster leads a team that consults healthcare provider organizations in developing strategies that position their organizations to proactively respond to the current and future healthcare economy.  This includes education and comprehensive strategies for surviving and thriving post American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Foster joined Cerner in 2001 as a solution delivery consultant responsible for installing electronic medical record systems. During his career Foster has implemented EHRs at more than 70 organizations and 200 facilities that range from small community hospitals to large IDN organizations. Prior to his current position Foster lead the growth and development of Cerner’s clinical quality consulting practice. Clinicians in that practice worked with healthcare provider organizations advancing the use of the EHR to proactively manage clinical quality metrics by embedding core measure awareness and capture into the clinical workflows and by utilizing clinical quality dashboards. Foster earned a Bachelors of Arts degree with a major in biology and an emphasis on chemistry from Ottawa University. 

Carole A. McEwan, ICD-10 Migration Project Manager, SSM Health Care
Carole McEwan has managed multiple implementations, integration and process redesign projects and currently serves as SSMHC’s ICD-10 Project Manager. After managing the Business Office at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center for more than a decade, McEwan moved to the Integrated Health Technologies division of SSMHC to help guide the vendor selection process for a new HIS system. She later became the project manager responsible for supervising the system’s installation in 16 SSM facilities, while guiding the consolidation of the charge masters. McEwan also has served as the application manager of all revenue cycle systems within SSMHC. She holds an MBA from St. Louis University.

Stephen Stewart, CIO, Henry County Health Center
Stephen Stewart is the Chief Information Officer at Henry County Health Center, where he also service as the Compliance Officer, and the Security Officer.  Prior to joining the Hospital in 2008, he spent over 29 years in Health IT. Serving primarily as the CIO and or COO of Revenue Cycle firms, Stewart has directed many IT initiatives in both for profit and not for profit sectors. His IT career has focused heavily on applications, both from a design and implementation perspective. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a Bachelor in Business Administration in Marketing, Accounting and Economics with a Masters of Business Administration, also from the University of Iowa, focusing on finance. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, and a Certified Professional in Health Information and Management Systems from HIMSS.

Gienna Shaw, Editor-in-Chief, FierceHealthIT [MODERATOR]
Gienna Shaw, editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare, FierceHealthIT and their related publications, has been a reporter and editor for more than 20 years. Prior to joining FierceMarkets, she was a senior editor for HealthLeaders Media, covering the business of healthcare, including health IT and clinical technology.