Learn from those taking the lead with focusing on the wellbeing of their teams, as well as from those who are focusing on the financial sustainability of their healthcare organizations; earn up to 3.0 ACHE In Person Education Credits; and network with your colleagues from throughout the metroplex.

Here’s our agenda for the afternoon:

3-3:30pm – Check-In & Networking

3:30-5pm – Panel 1: Sustainable Strategies to Support Well-being for Healthcare Professionals

Moderator:
Dawn Zell Wright, JD, MBA, SPHR, FACHE; System VP for HR Operations; CHRISTUS Health

Panelists:
Lara Burnside; Partner, Chief Experience Officer, Executive Coach; CSE Leadership LLC
Kim Cummings; SVP Human Resources, Employee Experience; Children’s Health
Brett Stanley; Director of Wellness; Methodist Health System

5-5:30pm – Dinner Break

5:30-7pm – Panel 2: Financial Sustainability of Healthcare Organizations: A Plan of Action

Moderator:
Steven Edgar, FACHE, PT; Chief Executive Officer; Medical City Denton

Panelist:
Bob Karl; Chief Financial Officer; CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic
Dawn Coates; Regional Vice President, AGS
Jamie Hill-Watters; Chief Revenue Officer; Alpha II

A huge thanks to Methodist Dallas Medical Center and Aramark for hosting us for this event!

Speakers’ Bios:

Lara Burnside has spent the last 25 years creating workplaces that honor and value every person – whether they are a patient, employee or clinician. Her early career in human resources taught her the importance of a people-first mentality. She has built human resources and patient experience departments from the ground up – one being recognized as a recipient of the Malcom Baldrige Quality Award, one of the highest national honors. She honed her skills in healthcare consulting over the course of a dozen years, teaching the value of implementing practical tips and tools that provide exceptional patient care. By tapping into clients’ passion and purpose, she achieved top quartile performance and beyond in more than 200 hospitals across the Unite States. With a focus on physician/clinician engagement, she has helped organizations reduce burnout, increase engagement and create a sense of community among care teams. The last decade of Lara’s career has been spent as a senior leader in the hospital setting, where she created and developed patient experience divisions that embrace best-practice tactics proven to engage patients as partners in their care. This level of excellence led to a public hospital system being recognized by Washington Monthly as the number one hospital for patients in the United States. Lara’s love and desire for people to do and be their best motivated her to develop training programs for leaders, employees and clinicians. Program results have brought engagement scores to top decile performance. The Patient Experience Mastery Program for physicians achieved profound results – improving every question on the patient experience survey by an average 6.5% top box points. Lara has been recognized four times by Becker’s Healthcare as a top Chief Experience Officer in the United States. Lara has a strong desire to give back to organizations and those providing care. Her expertise in valuing all people is where her heart and passion have always been.

Dawn Coates, CRCR, has served the healthcare provider industry for over 30 years and has been an HFMA member for over 20 years. She obtained her Certified Revenue Cycle Representative, (“CRCR”), in 2021. She serves as a director on the Lonestar HFMA chapter board and will be the upcoming Educational Program Chairperson.

Her experience has focused on business development; however, she has become a trusted advisor and a problem solver, working with large health systems, community hospitals as well as physician groups. She began her career in pharmaceutical sales and later joined BSW in the late 90s, where she served in BSW’s network expansion.

She joined the PwC healthcare practice in 2000, where she focused on the healthcare revenue cycle as well as working in the audit and internal audit vertical. This experience led to her commitment to serving the provider space. Dawn also spent several years with a major GPO, where she assisted members with supply cost reduction efforts and labor redirection.

Dawn joined AGS Health in 2021 and has focused on supporting hospitals, medical groups, and integrated delivery networks in the SW with staff management, budget constraints and overcoming obstacles in non-clinical areas.

Dawn obtained her BS degree from Texas Woman’s University, with a healthcare administration and business focus.

Kim Cummings serves as Senior Vice President, Employee Experience for Children’s Health Dallas. In this role, Kim leads human resources, talent strategy and talent initiatives for the Children’s Health Dallas campus and service area.

Prior to joining Children’s Health in 2020, Kim held various leadership roles within HR across various industries including transportation, food services and retail.

Kim graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from Texas State University. She earned her Master of Human Resource Development and Leadership from the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) designation and certified employee relations credentials.

Steven Edgar joined Medical City Denton as Chief Executive Officer in 2016. Since that time the hospital has seen consistent progression in patient experience for services provided in the Emergency Department, inpatient services, and for outpatient tests and treatments. In December, 2023, Medical City Denton added the Medical City Argyle Surgical Hospital as a second campus of Medical City Denton. Additionally, Medical City Denton has seen industry-leading performance with infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship and key accreditations in Chest Pain, Stroke, Bariatric Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and General Surgery. Edgar has overseen the reaccreditation of the Magnet Program and the designation as Level II Trauma Center at Medical City Denton.

Prior to his arrival at Medical City Denton, Edgar held executive leadership positions with Wesley Medical Center and Wesley Woodlawn Hospital in Wichita, Kansas. Edgar is a physical therapist and worked for years in the Kansas City, Missouri metroplex prior to starting his administrative responsibilities.

Edgar holds a bachelor’s degree in health science-physical therapy from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He earned a Master of Public Administration – health administration, from University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Bob Karl serves as Chief Financial Officer for CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic. He is responsible for the financial aspects of the organization, including accounting, revenue cycle, and electronic medical record operations. Bob has been with CHRISTUS for over 10 years. Previously he was Vice President of Finance for Seton Clinical Enterprises in Austin, Texas, a division of Ascension Healthcare. Bob has over 20 years’ experience in the area of physician practice administration where he has held various titles including Analyst, Manager, Director, and Vice President of Finance.

Bob currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Lone Star Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. He also served on the HFMA’s National Advisory Council for Strategy and Innovation in Healthcare. He has been a panelist/presenter at various national and regional healthcare meetings.

Bob is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and received his Masters of Professional Accounting from University of Texas in Arlington.

Bob lives in Keller, Texas with his wife Katie and their four children.

Brett Alana Stanley is the Director of Wellness at Methodist Health System (MHS), one of the leading healthcare providers in Texas. A native of Dallas, Brett earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She then went on to teach English in Palencia, Spain for two years, where she honed her Spanish language skills.

Subsequently, Brett worked for the World Affairs Council, planning and executing official visits for diplomats from around the world. She also worked for Custom Caregivers which provides non-medical, in-home care services to the community.

In 2017, Brett joined Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) where she was responsible for developing health education and wellness programming for corporate partners. During her more than five-year tenure at BSWH, Brett progressed from wellness coordinator to wellness manager and implemented an employee engagement program, which supported more than 40,000 employees and beneficiaries.

In 2022, Brett was honored to join the MHS team, and she has fully embraced the compassionate culture the system boasts. In this role, she brings over a decade of well-being experience and a knack for creating creative content to empower others to thrive and advocate for their own health and wellness. Brett collaborates with the employee population as a whole to understand their needs and deploy a customized, engaging and forward-thinking program.

Brett resides in Dallas, Texas with her 7-year-old son, Elam. When she’s not talking passionately about well-being, she enjoys crocheting, dancing, and exploring the latest wellness trends.

Jamie Hill-Walters is the current President-Elect of the HFMA Lone Star Chapter. With 19 years in healthcare, Jamie executes strategies to grow and sustain revenue while helping hospitals achieve financial goals. She has worked with the largest healthcare systems in the US, many recognized in US News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals in the United States.” Most recently she was the Chief Revenue Officer at Alpha II, serving on the leadership team for 2 acquisitions and a strategic investment from TA Associates & Westview Capital Partners. Prior to Alpha II, Jamie held various leadership positions at Ensemble Health Partners and Healthcare Payment Specialists, acquired by TransUnion.

Dawn Zell Wright is a transformative executive leader with a demonstrated ability to align operations strategy with business goals, develop leaders, and drive action resulting in significant, sustainable organizational improvements.

By designing, creating, building, and implementing a full spectrum of high functioning, consistent, centralized, agile human resources services and teams that leverages best practices and standardizations designed to deliver best in class solutions, Dawn positions organizations to create incredible employee experiences, lead the market as a best place to work, and realize sustainable growth with financial excellence. Her strategic operations partnerships have proven to be a keystone in the unification of highly matrixed, growing healthcare systems, better positioning the organizations to fully realize their potential as highly reliable organizations for patient outcomes, employee experience and community impact.

Dawn joined CHRISTUS Health in November 2021 as System Vice President of Human Resources Operations. Before joining the CHRISTUS Health, Dawn served UPMC as its Vice President of Human Resources for the Northcentral Region of Pennsylvania and CommonSpirit Health as Catholic Health Initiatives Texas Division’s Director of Human Resources. As a healthcare early careerist, Dawn served as the Director of Human Resources for Artesia General Hospital in New Mexico where she developed a deep understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced in rural healthcare.

Dawn’s Human Resources expertise is complemented by her experience as an attorney. As a litigator and defense attorney, she received many peer-nominated awards and client accolades and was often recognized by the local judiciary for tackling tough issues adversely and disproportionately impacting minorities. As a law student, Dawn was a founding team member of The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues, with a focused resolve of giving a voice to the voiceless by shedding light on issues affecting disadvantaged communities. Dawn’s passion for tackling tough issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging continues to motivate her. In this time of rapid change, Dawn is focused on removing artificial barriers to build a sustainable pipeline of diverse and inclusive healthcare leaders reflective of the communities served.

Dawn earned her undergraduate degree in Behavioral Science from Concordia University Texas, MBA from West Texas A&M, and Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification.