We are DHIT.
A 501(c)(3) non-profit education and research institute supporting communities through the process of digital health transformation. We collaborate with leading academic institutions, associations, and industry to cultivate talent and ecosystems with our immersive learning platform, harnessing real-world experiences that drive the adoption of next generation skills, capabilities and mindsets needed to foster the digital health leaders and innovators of the future, today.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Michael Levy
Michael is a passionate healthcare executive turned digital health evangelist and entrepreneur. In addition to co-founding DHIT, Michael has served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Center for Health Innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has designed and developed their Digital Health Program in support of UNC’s Digital Transformation strategy. Prior to Bluedoor and UNC, Michael was Co-founder and COO of Digital Therapy, a cognitive computing platform powered by IBM Watson in the behavioral health space. His previous leadership roles include Vice Chair of Administration for the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Health System, engineering a $15 million turnaround within his first year; and Director of Clinical Operations for UNC Health Care’s specialty ambulatory clinics where continued growth and expansion were achieved. Michael also held several leadership roles at UCLA Health within various clinical departments. He has a BSc in Neuroscience from Tulane University in New Orleans and an MBA from Elon University in North Carolina.
Cindy Hallberlin
Cindy Hallberlin is a seasoned senior executive with extensive experience in Board governance for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. She began her career as National Program Manager for the award-winning REDRESS employment mediation program at the US Postal Service. Her career continued as an employment attorney at Sidley Austin LLP before becoming Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at US Foods following a billion-dollar fraud. She then entered the non-profit world becoming the CEO of Good 360, the Chief Operating Officer of the American Diabetes Association, and the COO of Easterseals. Cindy serves as Board Chair of Move This World (social and emotional learning) and the Asylum Seekers Assistance Project. She also serves on the board of Unlocking Potential (promoting leadership for community problems) and the advisory board of Bluedoor Group. Previously she has served as the Board Chair and a board member of Dance Place as well as on the boards of InterAction and the Institute for Conflict Transformation.
Tommy Bohrmann
Tommy is a collaborative, entrepreneurial statistician interested in developing and applying analytics for improving healthcare, public health, and the environment. He has extensive experience working in interdisciplinary environments with researchers from medicine, public health, engineering, toxicology, epidemiology, and environmental science. He has focused heavily in the area of emergency medicine, a discipline that is highly illustrative of modern healthcare challenges. Tommy has worked in academic, governmental, and large corporate settings and has started multiple companies in the fields of healthcare technology and consulting.
James Butler
Rick Melnyck
A former healthcare executive at the University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine, Melnyck is the founder of personal development blog, Prime Your Pump.com, where he has written hundreds of articles in the self-improvement arena. The blog covers a wide breadth of topics and discusses them in entertaining ways that can easily be made actionable to improve people’s lives.
At UHealth, he served as both chief administrator for the health system as Assistant Vice President for Medical Affairs and directed the system’s process improvement and project management office as Executive Director of Process Improvement.
Rick is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and the co-author of A Guide to Six Sigma and Process Improvement for Practitioners and Students published in 2015 by Pearson Financial Times Press. He has taught process improvement in both the School of Business and the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. Rick has consulted on quality, productivity, and related matters with many organizations. A native of Ontario, Canada, he received his MS in Management Science (2008), MBA (2002), and MS in Computer Information Systems (2002) from the University of Miami.
Tony Solari
Tony is a legislative affairs and public policy expert with over 20 years of experience representing state agencies, non-profit and for-profit organizations at the NC General Assembly and previously at the Executive Branch and regulatory agencies. Tony served for eight years as Director of Government Relations and Senior Policy Adviser to State Treasurer Janet Cowell, and nine years as Director of Government Relations and Senior Policy Adviser to North Carolina’s Smart Start program. In 2012, Tony was listed as being one of the most influential lobbyists by the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. Tony’s areas of expertise include digital and public health policy, public pension funds, public sector investing, public debt issuance and management, and economic development. Tony has extensive grassroots lobbying experience and has worked in over a dozen states managing grassroots advocacy campaigns and fostering collaboration on a variety of policy issues. Tony is a graduate of Rutgers University and holds both a Masters degree and PhD in political science from Duke University. Tony teaches courses in public policy, American political thought, American government, and legislative policy and process at NC State University. Tony was a Robert R. Wilson Fellow at Duke University and the winner of the 2012 “Spirit of Inquiry” award from the Art Pope Center.
Jennifer Levy
Jennifer has over 15 years of experience in Higher Education serving students as a career counselor, academic advisor, curriculum developer, program manager, and employer/external relations liaison, all with the common theme of helping them to improve themselves and strengthen their future opportunities. She has worked with thousands of undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and alumni in various advising capacities whereby she provided daily support around topics of career and professional development and academic planning. Jennifer enjoys providing expertise in the healthcare and life science industries because of her strong belief that health is life and without it, we cannot flourish and achieve our full potential. At Duke, she also designed, taught, and assessed numerous courses, curricula, workshops, and seminars (both in-person and virtual) that still remain signature programs. Jennifer also managed and made critical improvements to Duke’s premier Health Careers Internship Program, facilitating 350+ student volunteers in clinical settings and recruiting 100+ healthcare professionals as mentors each year. She has successfully developed programs in partnership with administrators, faculty, employers, students, and staff, having also served on numerous advisory committees and task forces alongside them.
Anton Z. Ilarionov
Anton leads national eHealth and epidemiological projects in environments of extreme technical complexity. For over a decade, he has been developing and implementing digital health software, advising on digital health policies, data governance, and developing strategies for non-communicable diseases, cancer surveillance, tobacco cessation, vaccination control, and others.
Mari Smith
How do you solve a problem like Mari(a)? Creativity, of course! With 10+ years of experience as a digital content strategist with several agencies, she’s had the opportunity to hone her skills in a variety of disciplines when it comes to online marketing. A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN and the Rel Maples Institute for Culinary Arts, she’s passionate about creating — whether it be a social media marketing campaign or her new favorite sandwich! She is based in Chattanooga, TN with her two kiddos and her high-school-sweetheart-turned-husband.
Rosie Fitzgerrel
For over a decade, Rosie has been solving creative conundrums in the healthcare and nonprofit sectors. Currently based in Chattanooga, TN, she cut her creative teeth at The University of Cincinnati’s prestigious College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Specializing in branding and publication design, she’s had the pleasure of collaborating with a range of clients, from national healthcare systems to local social justice initiatives. Problem-solving is her passion and typography is her most treasured topic. Whether she is working with a startup that is discovering their voice or a mature organization that is in need of an evolution, Rosie crafts heroic solutions that connect, uplift, and inspire. She believes deeply in the transformative power of design and its ability to facilitate positive change.
Josh Malaguti
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Spencer Dorn
I am a gastroenterologist, physician leader, clinical operator, academic, thought leader, and advisor.
I literally work in the belly of the healthcare beast!
I’m experienced at caring for adults across various settings, building and managing clinical programs, implementing digital health solutions, performing clinical research, and explaining how healthcare works.
I believe healthcare is ultimately about organizing and supporting people to care for themselves and others. That the best care integrates body and mind. And that we must harness digital technology in ways that support compassionate healing.
My mission is to support and improve care in ways that benefit all. I am particularly excited by opportunities to redesign specialty care to be more accessible, affordable, pleasant, effective, and sustainable.
I love meeting people and welcome opportunities to learn and share perspectives, serve as an advisor, and collaborate on meaningful and impactful work. Please contact me via InMail.
Dr. Eric Eskioglu
In his role as Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Novant Health, Dr. Eric Eskioglu provides strategic, clinical, and cultural leadership to ensure the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective, and patient-centered care across Novant Health. Eskioglu also oversees all medical staff and leads the safety and quality teams and initiatives while also leading eight Novant Health Clinical Institutes as well as being Co-Executive Director for Novant’s Institute of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence. Before his career in medicine, Dr. Eskioglu worked as an aerospace engineer at the Allied-Signal Aerospace and Boeing, where he participated in Six Sigma and research teams in charge of developing new power sources for the next generation of aircraft. He continues to apply his engineering background in efforts to streamline healthcare, decrease errors, and improve patient satisfaction. He is passionate about data analytics and artificial intelligence in healthcare applications. Dr. Eskioglu earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas and completed a two-year fellowship at the National Institutes of Health with Pfizer Clinical Research Scholars program, as well as an endovascular/vascular neurosurgery fellowship at the University of Florida. He completed his neurosurgical residency training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Eskioglu also earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona.
Rob LaHayne
Rob has spent the last 12 years helping companies design their benefits and communication strategies and firmly believes that we need to facilitate better consumerism in order to actually change healthcare in the US. As CEO, Rob leads TouchCare’s vision of empowering every member of the health system with the expert support they need to become better consumers of healthcare. Outside of TouchCare, Rob likes to travel the world and experience new cultures with his wife and daughter. Rob holds a degree from Georgetown University where he was also captain of the varsity football team.
Michael Levy
Michael is a passionate healthcare executive turned digital health evangelist and entrepreneur. In addition to co-founding DHIT, Michael has served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Center for Health Innovation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has designed and developed their Digital Health Program in support of UNC’s Digital Transformation strategy. Prior to Bluedoor and UNC, Michael was Co-founder and COO of Digital Therapy, a cognitive computing platform powered by IBM Watson in the behavioral health space. His previous leadership roles include Vice Chair of Administration for the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Health System, engineering a $15 million turnaround within his first year; and Director of Clinical Operations for UNC Health Care’s specialty ambulatory clinics where continued growth and expansion were achieved. Michael also held several leadership roles at UCLA Health within various clinical departments. He has a BSc in Neuroscience from Tulane University in New Orleans and an MBA from Elon University in North Carolina.
Kathy Malas
Since 2015, Kathy Malas has served as the manager of the innovation and functions platform for chronic and acute diseases at CHU Sainte-Justine. In these roles, Kathy contributes to the development of a culture, structures, means and activities that facilitate the integration of knowledge and innovation into practice, while including the patient, their family, and the organization as partners. A graduate of the University of Montreal, she began her career as a speech therapist at CHU Sainte-Justine from 2007 to 2013. She is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Health Services Management at McGill University. Since her master’s degree at the University of Montreal, Kathy has been involved in the creation and transfer of new knowledge and know-how.
Lee Phillips
Lee is a seasoned innovator and strategist with more than 25 years’ experience in Europe, the US and Asian markets. He has previously worked in senior management roles for global brands including Vodafone and Harrods, and has led creative agencies in Tokyo and London. For the last 12 years he has specialized in the health sector, leading branding and consumer product innovation projects for organizations including US healthcare giant Humana, global telehealth-care company Tunstall, and major US health systems. Lee is an expert in consumer engagement and behavior change marketing, and pioneered population health management strategies in the UK’s NHS. In addition to co-founding and running Bluedoor, a leading digital health agency, he is a Co-founder and Fellow of The Institute of Healthcare Design Thinking. Lee holds a BA and MA in Oriental Studies from Cambridge University, UK.