Abe Sutton serves as the Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and Deputy Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Before assuming this role in January of 2025, he co-founded two health service companies; Honest Health, which focuses on enabling primary care physicians, and Evergreen Nephrology, which focuses on enabling nephrologists. Sutton focused on health policy with the federal government from 2017 to 2019, serving at the National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council and Department of Health and Human Services. In these roles, he coordinated health policy across the federal government, with a focus on the shift to paying-for-value within Medicare, increasing choice and competition in health care markets, and updating the federal government’s approach to kidney care.

He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and undergraduate degrees in political science, management, and health care management and policy from the Wharton School and the College at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joe Albanese is the Director of Policy at the Center for Medicare. Joe was previously a Senior Policy Analyst at Paragon Health Institute where his work included numerous published reports and congressional testimonies pertaining to Medicare. Prior to that, he was a Program Examiner on the Medicare team at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Joe holds a Bachelor of Science and Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Daniel Castillo, M.D., M.B.A., is a physician executive whose career bridges medicine, health care operations, and business leadership, with a track record of building and scaling care delivery organizations that improve quality, expand access, and strengthen operating performance.
Currently, Dr. Castillo serves as chief executive officer of Optum Care, a national physician-led care delivery organization advancing value-based care at scale. In this role, he leads business performance and operational execution while advancing high-quality, coordinated care across the organization.

Dr. Castillo joined Optum in 2023 as CEO of Optum Care Delivery Midwest and later served as CEO of Optum Health East, overseeing care delivery across 10 states from Maine to Delaware. In that role, he led execution of the region’s strategy across Optum’s care delivery assets and was responsible for the experience of more than 5 million patients and over 15,000 team members.

Prior to joining Optum, Dr. Castillo was an operating partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners, where he helped drive growth, operational excellence, and portfolio performance across mid-market health care companies. He also served as group president and chief medical officer at Matrix Medical Network, a national provider organization focused on enabling value-based care in and around the home and in alternative care settings. Earlier in his career, he held executive leadership roles at Envision Healthcare and The Joint Commission.

Dr. Castillo also co-founded EmVenio Research, a clinical trials company focused on improving equity in clinical research, and helped scale the business across 15 states and the United Kingdom prior to its sale to a CRO.

An emergency medicine physician, Dr. Castillo continues to work clinical shifts at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and his M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sree Chaguturu, MD, is executive vice president and president of health care delivery at CVS Health®. He leads the company’s health care delivery service offerings and is responsible for continuing to build a fully integrated, value-based care ecosystem that drives superior health outcomes for patients and more effectively addresses total cost of care with innovative clinical models.

Sree was formerly our chief medical officer, where he led the CVS Health medical affairs organization that is focused on advancing the highest possible clinical quality standards, increasing access to care, improving patient outcomes and reducing overall health care costs across the CVS Health enterprise. He previously served as chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, where he provided clinical oversight of our pharmacy benefits manager.

Before joining CVS Health, Sree was chief population health officer of Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts. He led the system’s accountable care organization and numerous clinical care delivery and innovation programs. He is also a practicing internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Sree earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University and his doctorate of medicine from Brown University Medical School. He completed his internal medicine and primary care training at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Mara McDermott is the Chief Executive Officer of Accountable for Health, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization committed to accelerating the adoption of effective accountable care. She is an accomplished healthcare executive with deep expertise in federal healthcare law and policy, including delivery system reform, physician payment and payment models.

Dr. Sara Pastoor is a family physician who currently serves as the Head of Primary Care Advancement at Elation Health, a primary care-focused electronic health records platform, where she advocates for primary care and its powerful role in healthcare. She also is the personal PCP to patients at People-Centered Health, a direct primary care practice in San Antonio, Texas.  Dr. Pastoor is a seasoned physician executive with 28 years of experience leading primary care innovation, EHR optimization, and health technology development. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and spent the first 15 years of her medical career in the Army Medical Department, helping to lead the Military Health System transformation to a patient-centered system for health. Dr. Pastoor has also led patient-centered transformation, primary care expansion, and EHR workflow optimization in the academic and employer-sponsored primary care settings. On the weekends, she volunteers in a free primary care clinic, teaching students and providing street medicine in her hometown.

Shawn Martin serves as executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the medical specialty organization representing 124,500 family physicians and medical students nationwide. Martin works with the board of directors on AAFP’s mission, strategy and vision and provides representation to other organizations, including medical, public and private sectors.

Dr. Kelsey Smith is President of the Direct Primary Care Alliance, a national physician-led nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the direct primary care model and supporting physicians. She advocates for policies and practice innovations that strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, reduce administrative burden, expand access to care, and improve the sustainability of primary care.

A board-certified family physician and owner of Pioneer Health Direct Primary Care in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Dr. Smith has practiced full-spectrum family medicine since 2007. After fourteen years in a traditional insurance-based practice, she transitioned to the Direct Primary Care model in 2021. Her experience practicing in both systems fuels her passion for strengthening primary care while improving access, affordability, and physician satisfaction.

Katie Boyer is the Sr. Director of Policy & Government Affairs at agilon health. In her role, she leads agilon’s advocacy and government affairs strategy as well as policy development and analysis. She serves as agilon’s in-house lobbyist and key contact for outreach to policymakers, regulators and external partners in Washington, DC. Katie has over 15 years of experience in healthcare policy at the federal level.

Prior to joining the team at agilon in 2023, Katie spent nearly 9 years at Nemours Children’s Health, most recently serving as the Senior Advisor of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs. During her tenure, she managed a policy portfolio spanning Medicaid innovation, value-based care, children’s medical coverage, telehealth and much more.

Her previous experience also includes three years at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and one year at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) where she worked on health IT policy. Katie also spent a considerable amount of time in her early career as a Legislative Assistant for the Indiana House of Representatives.

Katie received her BA in Political Science from Butler University in Indianapolis and completed her Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) at Northwestern University.

Stephanie Quinn is senior vice president of external affairs and practice experience at the American Academy of Family Physicians where she oversees the AAFP Divisions of Government Relations, Practice Advancement, Strategic Engagements and the Robert Graham Center. Prior to joining the AAFP, Stephanie Quinn was vice president of federal government affairs at CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield where she led the company’s federal legislative agenda on issues such as market stability, drug pricing policy, and social determinants of health. Before CareFirst, Stephanie was assistant director of congressional relations for the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and served as deputy director of federal government affairs for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. Stephanie holds a combined degree in linguistics and Spanish from the Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Julie Schilz, BSN, MBA is a healthcare executive advancing value-based primary care and leading system-level transformation to improve outcomes, strengthen financial sustainability, and promote health equity. As Senior Director at the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), she oversees integrated care, federal strategy, and financial resiliency, and serves as Project Director for the Primary Care Investment Network, guiding national efforts to accelerate primary care investment and innovation.

Julie brings deep expertise in value-based care transformation, integrated care, population health model design, and practice financial sustainability. She works across providers, payers, and community organizations to implement scalable, person- and family-centered solutions, with significant experience in Medicaid and Medicare strategy and delivery system reform.,

Prior to PCDC, Julie held executive leadership roles across provider, payer, and community-based organizations, leading large-scale primary care transformation initiatives. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and an MBA from Regis University, and serves on the Center for Professionalism and Value, the Primary Care Collaborative Advisory Board, and the board of Kids First Health Care.

Marci Nielsen, PhD, MPH is a primary care health policy leader whose career spans Capitol Hill, state government, academia, organized labor and public health — all in service of making the health system work better for patients and the care teams who serve them.

She served as CEO of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, health lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, leader of Kansas' $2.3 billion health care agency, and Chief COVID Advisor to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, among other roles spanning three decades of health policy work.

Today, Marci serves as Strategic Coordinator for the Primary Care Triple Double Campaign — a national initiative co-founded by the American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Association of Community Health Centers to double primary care's investment, reach, and workforce.

She holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an MPH from George Washington University.

Dr. Padilla comes to NACHC from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). There he served for nearly a decade as the Associate Administrator for the Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW), responsible for over 70 workforce programs and 478 staff, and Director of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), BHW’s largest program of over 18,000 clinicians. A key focus for Dr. Padilla at HRSA was improving primary care across the nation and developing, recruiting, and retaining a diverse and culturally competent health workforce; under his leadership, the Bureau expanded to its current budget of almost $2 billion and the NHSC grew to the largest size in its 50-year history. Prior to joining HRSA, Dr.Padilla served for more than a decade at Unity Health Care, the largest community health center system in Washington, DC, as senior health policy advisor to the CEO, medical director, and as a NHSC Scholar. He also served on the National Advisory Council of the NHSC from 2007 to 2010. A licensed family physician, Dr. Padilla received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of California at Irvine. He earned a medical degree from Wake Forest School of Medicine and completed his family medicine residency at Brown University.

Debra Lubar, PhD, is president of the Milbank Memorial Fund, a more than 120-year-old operating foundation that aims to improve population health and health equity by connecting leaders with sound evidence and experience. Prior to joining the Fund, Dr. Lubar served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she led operations for the $19 billion, 22,000-employee federal agency. As Director of CDC’s Office of Policy, Performance, and Evaluation, she established modern policy processes to enhance transparency and effectiveness of CDC guidance, regulations, and programs.

Prior to these agency-wide roles, Dr. Lubar was the Deputy Director of CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, where she directed program strategy, operations, Congressional affairs and public policy, communications, and human resources for one of CDC’s largest national centers. During this time, she also led key aspects of CDC’s COVID-19 response, including historic investments in state infectious disease control efforts. In previous CDC positions, Dr. Lubar oversaw budgets and appropriations for Zika and Ebola responses and helped to lead CDC’s national efforts to prevent and control chronic disease.

Before joining CDC, she was Chief Policy Advisor in the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. Dr. Lubar has a PhD in social work from the University of Georgia, a MSW from Boston University, and a BS from Cornell University. She is a Presidential Rank Award winner, the highest honor for senior federal career employees, recognizing significant accomplishments and leadership in public service.

Katie Greene is a director at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), where she works on a variety of projects related to population and public health, including opioids and substance use, primary care, oral health, rural health, and other public health issues. Prior to joining NASHP in April 2022, Katie worked as an assistant research director at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and a program director for the National Governors Association (NGA), where she supported governors in the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and co-led a joint health and public safety opioid response team. Previously, Katie served as senior policy advisor and associate director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and deputy director of Federal Relations for Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. She holds an MPP from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a BA from Duke University.

Dr. Eduardo Sanchez serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Prevention for the American Heart Association. He is the Association’s clinical lead on Target: BP™ (a joint blood pressure control initiative with the American Medical Association) and the Association’s Cardiovascular-Kidney Metabolic (CKM) Health initiative. From 2021 through 2024, he served as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI), a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Prior to joining American Heart Association, he served as Vice President and CMO for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) where he focused on clinical prevention, and chronic disease management, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, health disparities, and worker and worksite wellness. Dr. Sanchez led the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Texas (UT) School of Public Health as Director from 2006 to 2008. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Texas Commissioner of Health, Texas’ state health officer, leading the Texas Department of Health (TDH) from 2001 to 2004 and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) from 2004 to 2006. He served as the local public health officer for Austin-Travis County from 1994 to 1998.

Dr. Sanchez currently serves on the Board of Directors of Trust for America’s Health and the Public Health Foundation other advisory boards and committees at local, state, and national levels. From 2008 to 2012, he served as chair of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is the recipient of the 2011 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Alumni Award and the 2011 Texas Public Health Association (TPHA) James E. Peavy Memorial Award. In 2005, he was awarded the Texas School Health Association (TSHA) John P. McGovern Award and the 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Public Health Award. In 2004, he received the American Heart AssociationLouis B. Russell Memorial Award, for outstanding service in addressing healthcare disparities. Dr. Sanchez obtained his M.D. from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, an M.P.H. from the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, and an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University. He holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering and a B.A. in chemistry from Boston University. Dr. Sanchez is residency trained in family medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP). He is also a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).

Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH is the executive director of Ariadne Labs, a health systems innovation center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He leads Ariadne Labs’ efforts to design, test, and spread scalable solutions that make domestic and global health systems more effective, safe, and integrated. He has served as a senior advisor for primary care policy at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in the US since 2012, helping to design and implement five major primary care initiatives (CPC, CPC+, PCF, MCP, PC FLEX), representing the largest tests of combined primary care payment and clinical practice transformation work in the United States. He was a core founder and vice chair of the steering committee for the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, an 8-year partnership that included more than 30 countries dedicated to improving the global provision of primary health care. Dr. Bitton practices primary care at Brigham and Women’s South Huntington clinic, a team-based community primary care practice in Boston that he helped found in 2011. He currently serves on the board of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and is a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Bipartisan Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Quality and Safety and formerly served on the National Advisory Council for the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the US. He was a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (US) committee that produced the widely cited report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care in 2021, and currently serves on the National Academies Standing Committee for Primary Care, co-chairing the payment workgroup. He is the recipient of the 2023 Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award.

Dr. Sabina Singh is a board-certified family physician, co-founder of Anovia Health, and its Chief Medical Officer — having helped build the organization from the ground up with a mission to make Direct Primary Care accessible, affordable, and effective.

Her career spans various health systems, including Bellin Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Raleigh Family Medicine. She has served as President of the Bellin Medical Group, President of the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, and on the Bellin Health System Executive Committee. A longtime advocate for healthcare innovation, she has participated in multiple Institute for Healthcare Improvement programs.

Dr. Singh earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her residency at Wake Forest Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, she now calls Green Bay home. Outside of medicine, she can be found on a bike trail, in a Zumba class, or planning her next trip — usually with her husband Ken, to whom she has been happily married for 32 years. She will tell you she cannot sing, despite what her last name suggests.

Michael Hobbs, MD is a pediatrician, educator, and physician-builder working at the intersection of primary care, medical education, and health technology. He has more than 25 years of combined experience in clinical practice and private clinic leadership, and is the founder and owner of Lakes Pediatrics, a direct primary care pediatric practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he has built an accessible, relationship-based model that strengthens the connection between physicians and families.

Dr. Hobbs’ clinical work centers on personalized, continuous, human-centered care for children and families. His practice blends clinical excellence with thoughtful use of technology, giving him a frontline perspective on what makes pediatric care work in real life. He brings expertise in pediatric care, infectious diseases, mental health, practice transformation, and the operational realities of running successful independent clinics.

Beyond clinical care, Dr. Hobbs works with health tech teams building products that need to make sense for both clinicians and patients. His work has included advising established health care companies and high-quality startups, pressure-testing pediatric AI tools, and helping teams translate the messy realities of day-to-day medicine into safer, simpler, more useful product decisions. He has served for more than a decade as a Clinical Instructor and Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and has been recognized as a Top Doctor by both St. Paul Magazine and Minnesota Monthly.

Dr. Laura Makaroff, DO, is a family medicine and lifestyle medicine physician and Senior Vice President of Prevention and Survivorship at the American Cancer Society, where she leads a team that develops and executes programs for patients, caregivers, and health care professionals to improve outcomes across the cancer continuum. With specialized training in health policy and a background in solo private practice and community health centers, she brings both clinical and public health expertise to her work. Her commitment to reducing the burden of cancer is both professional and deeply personal — shaped by her husband Jason's stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2021 and her ongoing journey as a caregiver, advocate, and mother of two.