Rise

Vandna Bhrany Principal

8BAdvisors

Vandna Bhrany, MPH is the Managing Partner of 8BAdvisors, a healthcare consulting firm that helps health plans, provider organizations, and emerging health tech companies accelerate quality improvement, optimize risk performance, and advance digital transformation. Known for turning strategy into scalable action, Vandna is a sought-after advisor and thought leader with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of data, quality, and innovation.

As a former Vice President at the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies, Vandna led a multi-market quality transformation strategy across 20 government-sponsored plans—driving substantial Star rating gains and elevating Medicaid performance through data-informed execution, interoperability, and value-based models. She also expanded Medicaid risk adjustment operations, launched enterprise-wide predictive analytics, and spearheaded the adoption of digital quality and automation solutions across EMRs.

Throughout her career, Vandna has held senior roles at Aetna, Centene, Evolent Health, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield ecosystem, consistently delivering measurable results—whether elevating NCQA accreditation status, redesigning care management programs, or driving provider performance through incentive design and analytics. She has also advised product leaders on aligning quality with employer plan priorities and piloted cutting-edge tools like NLP and digital gap closure.

A nationally recognized voice in the industry, Vandna has spoken at over a dozen major healthcare conferences, including RISE, NCQA, CHIME, and HLTH. She is a 2024 RISE Bedrock of Healthcare Fellow and a Peak Performer Award winner with KLAS Points of Light.

Vandna earned her MPH from UCLA and her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley. Based in Atlanta, she’s happiest running the city streets, cooking with friends and family, or shaping her latest (slightly wobbly) pottery creation.

Shannon Decker Founder & CEO

VBC One

Dr. Shannon Decker is Founder & CEO at VBC One, a consulting firm assisting physician groups, health plans and vendors maximize the performance of their value based contracts and offerings. Dr. Decker has more than 25 years experience in health care and most recently led teams in risk, quality, data and analytics, telehealth, COVID response and delegation compliance. Of her more than 25 years of experience in healthcare--17 include working with risk adjustment, quality and Medicare. Dr. Decker has a PhD. in Interdisciplinary Studies, dual MBA degrees--in Finance and in Marketing, as well as an M.Ed. in Secondary Education and a M.Ed. in Administration and Leadership. Dr. Decker is on the faculty at Arizona State University and is also an associate professor in the social and behavioral sciences for Walden and Capella Universities where she chairs and oversees the dissertations of doctoral students. An author of two books and several peer-reviewed articles, and a prolific national public speaker, her interests include the study of human behavior and how social and behavioral theories may be brought to bear in value based care and population health management as a whole. 

Tina Dueringer CEO & Principal Advisor

Dueringer Advisors, Inc

Tina Dueringer is a board-certified nurse strategist and the CEO of Dueringer Advisors Inc., a nationally respected consulting firm serving health plans, providers, private equity, and healthcare innovators. With deep expertise spanning Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Duals, ACA, and commercial markets, Tina brings over two decades of clinical and operational leadership to the most complex corners of the healthcare industry.

As Principal Advisor, Tina partners with executives, boards, and investors to architect scalable strategies that drive growth, compliance, and care transformation. Her advisory focus includes Stars performance, risk adjustment, population health, delegated entity management, joint ventures, M&A strategy, and AI-driven health system redesign. Whether guiding payer-provider integration or decoding regulatory landmines, Tina is known for turning complexity into competitive advantage.

Previously, Tina served as Vice President of Clinical Quality & Stars at Rebellis Group and held senior leadership roles at Cityblock Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Her work has shaped policy, built infrastructure, and improved outcomes at every level of care delivery.

Tina holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a post-graduate certification in Population Care Coordination from Duke University. She is a Board-Certified Case Manager (CCM) and a certified professional in care coordination (PCC), with a strong foundation in regulatory compliance, quality strategy, and health equity.

Ana Handshuh Principal

CAT5 Strategies

Ana Handshuh, Principal at CAT5 Strategies, is a government programs executive with expertise in creating and implementing corporate programs for the healthcare industry. Her background includes Quality, Core Measures, Care Management, Benefit Design and Bid Submission, Accreditation, Regulatory Compliance, Revenue Management, Communications, Community-based Care Management Programs and Technology Integration. Ms. Handshuh currently serves on the Board of the Resource Initiative and Society for Education (RISE), the preeminent national professional association dedicated to managed and accountable care financing and delivery. She is a sought after speaker on the national healthcare circuit in the areas of Quality, Star Ratings, Care Management, Member and Provider Engagement, and Revenue Management. Her recent consultancy roles have included assisting organizations create programs to address the unmet care management needs in the highest risk strata of membership, document their processes and procedures, achieve accreditation status, design and submit government program bids, institute corporate-wide programs and create communications strategies and materials. She possesses sophisticated business acumen with the ability to build consensus with cross-functional groups to accomplish corporate goals. Ms. Handshuh served as the Vice President of Managed Care Services at Central Florida Inpatient Medicine (CFIM). In this role, she provided leadership and strategy on CFIM projects and collaborations with physicians, risk entities, hospital health care systems, and health plans. CFIM is the largest Hospitalist group in Central Florida, with 70 providers discharging over 50,000 patients annually from multiple hospitals across two health care delivery systems and 24 skilled nursing facilities. At CFIM Ms. Handshuh previously served as the Vice President of Operations. Prior to those assignments, she worked with Precision Healthcare Systems as their Vice President of Quality Improvement. In that capacity, she led the IPA’s Quality efforts and collaborated with payers on implementing programs to move the needle on Quality and Star Rating initiatives. Ms. Handshuh also served as the Director of Corporate Program Development at Physicians United Plan. In this role, she led the Quality Management and Corporate Communications departments and spearheaded the development of innovative integrated technology solutions to drive business excellence and Star Rating achievement initiatives. For the past fifteen years Ms. Handshuh has taken an active role in redefining and implementing changes that have led to improvements and greater efficiency within Government programs and healthcare delivery. Prior to joining Physicians United Plan Ms. Handshuh was the founder of I-Six Creative. Under Ms. Handshuh’s vision and leadership, I-Six Creative provided expertise in the areas of managed Medicare benefit design, MSO/IPA operations, provider network strategy, new market launches, technology integration, corporate communications and quality improvement.

Item 7 Founder & Principal Advisor

QPAdvantage

Melissa Smith Founder, Senior Advisor

Newton Smith Group

For more than a decade, Melissa Smith has been at the forefront of leading Medicare Advantage and Star Ratings teams. As the founder of Newton Smith Group and a Senior Advisor to Oliver Wyman, Melissa is a widely recognized thought leader and healthcare strategist. Her proven track record of success lies in developing comprehensive enterprise-wide solutions that enhance Star Ratings, quality performance, health outcomes, and the overall member experience. 

Melissa excels in crafting strategic and tactical solutions to meet client needs, forging productive partnerships across internal teams and external vendors, and improving performance on various quality measures.  Her unique background in business, finance, regulatory compliance, and healthcare quality provides clients unparalleled access to healthcare strategy, quality performance, and revenue optimization. 

As the former Chief Consulting Officer at Healthmine and Senior Vice President at Gorman Health Group, Melissa's leadership spans across prestigious organizations like Cigna-HealthSpring and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Graduating from Purdue University, Melissa began her career at KPMG, LLP and is a Certified Public Accountant. 

Rick Whitted Chief Executive Officer

US Hunger

Rick Whitted is the President & Chief Executive Officer at U.S. Hunger, a global nonprofit whose mission is feeding families today and uniting them to a healthier tomorrow. In total, U.S. Hunger (USH) has provided over 150 million meals to families in need. Before his appointment as CEO in March 2020, Rick served on USH’s board of directors.

Rick has overseen the launch of several of the organization’s initiatives: expanding home delivery of fresh produce into its supply chain; aligning its Full Cart® program with the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services’ (CMS) health equity framework; and, developing a cloud based SaaS solution that uses A.I. and Machine Learning to identify root causes of food insecurity in the U.S. and provide real-time actionable intelligence on social determinants of health (SDOH).

Rick is a graduate of Stetson University and Nova Southern University where he received a BA in Political Sciences/American Studies, and an MBA, Business Administration and Management, respectively. Prior to joining USH, he spent 27 multi-faceted years in banking; focusing on small business, government and non-profit banking. He is also an accomplished author and speaker with expertise in leadership, workplace culture and individual and team development.