2023 National Health Information Awards Judges

We would like to thank our 2023 judges for their time and expertise in reviewing this year’s entries. Please note: Judges were not permitted to review any entries submitted by their organizations.

Laura Milani Alessio is Managing Editor of HealthyChildren.org, the parenting website of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Previously at AAP, Alessio managed the academy's blog and served as a writer/editor in the division of news, media and public relations. She has also served as editor of The New Physician, the American Medical Student Association magazine, and a freelance writer for the University of Chicago website, the Chicago Tribune and other platforms.

Gary Ashwal is a health communication writer, designer, and producer. He is a co-founder of Booster Shot Media, a health-focused creative company that helps people understand complex medical information through visual storytelling. Gary has a master's degree in health communication from Emerson College and Tufts University School of Medicine.

Helen Boak worked as a chase crew member for a hot air balloon company before she became a layout artist for a local newspaper and freelanced for Lederle Labs. In 1989, she joined Lewis & Gace, a global start-up shop with blue-chip clients and high-profile accounts which set in motion a successful 33-year career as an art director and creative director in pharmaceutical advertising. The L&G Crystallized Product Promise approach and 5 Elements of a Global Brand are tenets which guide her to this day. A favorite saying is "People may not remember what you say, but they'll never forget how you make them feel. Great creative does this. It makes you feel.” Boak is Creative Director at RevHealth where she leads a team of talented art creatives. She offers continuing service on industry judging panels in support of the creative healthcare community and stellar communications.

Julie Bradford, MA, is the associate director of Patient Education at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. With 26 years of experience in the health care industry and 20 years in management, she oversees institutional or center specific programs for patient education. She creates multimedia content and design for patient education programs, continuously works to improve the health literacy and health numeracy standards, and implements patient education style standards and guidelines. She received a B.S. degree in journalism from Texas A&M University and a M.A. degree in health education from Sam Houston State University. Prior to her current position, she has experience in public relations, communications and marketing in a community hospital setting and has worked in the community health field.

Curtis Brown, Business Owner, Professor, Developer, My ER File

Kimberlie L. Cerrone, MS, MBA, JD is a Silicon Valley-based dealmaker, technology and patent attorney, IP strategist and serial entrepreneur. She previously founded and took two startups through IPOs. She founded Tiatros Inc. after her sons returned home from military service with combat-related PTSD and waited over a year for appointments with psychiatrists. Her mission is to help the military, employers, education systems, provider systems and payers dramatically increase the availability of effective mental health, addiction care and wellbeing services while reducing costs and wait times. Kimberlie has graduate educations in neuroscience (NYU), business (USF) and law (U. of California).

Susan Cottman is the Executive Editor for Wellness publications in the Ebix Benefits Administration and Wellness, a unit of Ebix, Inc. Titles include health letters: Personal Best Healthlines, Hope Health, Top Health and Body Bulletin Canada as well as Year of Good Health U.S. and Canada wall calendars. Her specialties include Canadian products, custom calendars and low-literacy publications. She has been with Ebix since 1999.

Donna Cutruzzula, Senior Graphic Designer, UPMC Health Plan

Rohan Gupta, MD, MBA

Thomas Harpointner, Founder & CEO, AIS Media, Inc.

Emily Heller Belmonte is the Founder and Creative Chief of Pangaea Creative House, an award-winning creative media agency whose philosophy is to elevate the conversation about health to one that’s motivating, inspiring, and above all, thought-provoking. With more than 25 years experience at top advertising and marketing agencies, Emily believes in thinking outside the box when it comes to clients like Sanofi, Amarin, Reckitt Brands, Pfizer, Merck, Genentech, and Exam Med Tele Health.

Sarah Hock joined Christiana Care Quality Partners ACO, LLC which does business as eBrightHealth ACO in November 2017. In her current role as a Program Manager, she works collaboratively with the ACO Management Team as well as multi-disciplinary teams to perform and support ACO Operations. Sarah received a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware and a masters degree in Business Administration with a Concentration in Healthcare Administration from Wilmington University.

Betsy Hornick, MS, RDN, Director, Practice Publications, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Roberta Larson Duyff, MS, RDN, FAND, FADA, is a nationally recognized food, nutrition, and wellness writer, media spokesperson, national speaker, and consultant, communicating the “power of positive nutrition” with practical, evidence-based, and great-tasting ways to eat for health. Translating sound science into consumer-friendly food, nutrition, and health communications, she has authored healthy eating books for the public, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Complete Food & Nutrition Guide, recognized as “Best of Show” among all 2018 Gold National Health Information Awards. For children, secondary schools, and universities, her publications focus on food, nutrition, and health and on cultural awareness, knowledge, and competence.

Beth Landau is a writer, editor, and educator who makes complex information clear for diverse audiences. She is a plain language specialist and the owner of BEL Writing Services, which offers professional writing, editing, and training services. She also coaches writers working on narrative nonfiction theses and manuscripts. She has an M.S. in Education from Walden University and an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College.

Award-winning journalist Darcy Lewis writes about health and medicine from Chicago. A former National Cancer Reporting fellow, her clients include leading publications, nonprofits, and health systems. She is the secretary of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the nation's leading association for established, independent nonfiction writers.

Janille Likens leads national pediatric health campaigns for the American Academy of Pediatrics Cause Alliance program. Likens’ creative and innovative approach has helped scale partnerships by driving awareness, brand trust, engagement and business results. Alliance campaign projects include AT&T, buybuy BABY, GoGo squeeZ, Melissa & Doug and YouTube. Likens is a member of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. Likens is also a journalist and works part time as a fill-in television show host at WGN-TV Chicago, where she previously worked as a general assignment reporter.

Cheryl Miller is the Provincial Program Manager for the Enhancing Care for Ontario Care Partners program at Sinai Health in Toronto, Ontario. Cheryl’s career spans public, private and not-for-profit sectors in Canada and the US and includes health planning, database consulting, technology project management and health program management. Cheryl has a solid track record of successfully managing people, processes and programs through transformative change from vision to individual, family and/or community health impact. She is most often found to be inspiring and leading responsive, client-centered and sustainable change that significantly impacts the health and well-being of older adults and their families.

Susan Okonkowski, MPH, RD, Well-Being Product Manager, BCBS of Michigan.

Rob Rosenburg, President, Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy

Vishal S. Shah holds a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) and MBA degrees from University of South Carolina and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He is currently a pharmacy manager for the outpatient oncology pharmacy and investigational drug services at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Shah has spent over 10 years in the field of pharmacy informatics and digital health to implement electronic health records at Ohio State University medical center and Mayo Clinic. He also has over 10 years of experience in hematology/oncology informatics. In his current role, he leads two dynamic and highly productive teams at Mayo Clinic. His areas of interest include: hematology/oncology, pharmacy informatics, chemotherapy stewardship, and process improvement. Dr. Shah has published over a dozen articles in reputed journals and presented at national/international conferences, and he has served as a judge for Stevie Awards, CODiE awards, and AMCP's Graduate Student Poster Awards.

Ann Smith is an award-winning public relations leader with more than 20 years of healthcare communications experience developing strategic communication plans for clinical programs, products and services and internal and external corporate communications, crisis communications, and social media integration. She has a proven track record of elevating brand awareness through data-driven campaigns, and strategic industry thought leadership for executive leadership teams. Before joining Coyne, Ann served as senior director of corporate communications at Express Scripts (formerly Medco). While there, she led internal and external communications centered on brand building and corporate reputation. She also led marketing communications programs that placed the company at the forefront of Personalized Medicine and Specialty Pharmacy.

Gina Steiner, MS is Director of Communications for the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. She has directed the communications programs for American Academy of Pediatrics, American Society of Anesthesiologists, and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. In these roles, she has served on various governmental task forces dedicated to health and safety. She also has served as a journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times Group and Thomson Reuters. As a health communications consultant, she's created campaigns and materials for various clients, including AbbVie and the Health Information Resource Center. She has a Master of Science in Health Communication from the University of Illinois.

Ela Vashishtha is a data analytics and innovation leader with over 7 years of experience working extensively in the healthcare industry to build reliable processes and high performing teams. She has helped big hospital systems in Texas, USA to use real time data and drive performance improvement efforts. She has hands-on experience in operations research, developing data, Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning platforms and strategy. Other areas of her expertise are technology, safety, social determinants, and public health. Ela has led 57 real-time analytics and predictive tools for monitoring consumer focus, quality, financial, and transformation Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). She has led performance improvement efforts in emergency departments reducing average wait time to only 15 minutes; reducing Hospital Acquired Infections CLABSI, SSI, C-Diff, and CAUTI by 50%; and developed NLP algorithms to read and analyze patient comments and improve patient experience.

Tish Williams is a Consumer Insight Advisor for CareSource, a managed care company headquartered in Dayton, OH.

Amy Wulff is a health education writer for both Mayo Clinic and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She is also a health marketing writer, specializing in digital marketing for HIV medications. Her interests include user-informed design, patient advocacy, and health education for women's health topics. She currently resides in Memphis, TN.