About Us - Lucerna Health

Bibek Karki

Product Management Director

Bibek is an experienced product leader who has managed healthcare platform for the last 8 years for insurance companies and start-ups. He holds an MPH/MBA degree from Johns Hopkins University, and is passionate about making a positive impact in healthcare delivery through value based care and population health management. Outside work, he enjoys hiking, biking and camping.

Natasha Lalwani

Assoc. Data Scientist

Natasha is a dedicated and passionate Data Scientist with a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. She is an ardent learner and finds motivation in solving complex healthcare problems using data analytics and machine learning. Collaboration is central to her approach. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her friends, traveling, and watching cricket.

Andrew Sorenson

Advisory Board Member

Andrew Sorenson works for Centene Corporation where he serves in the role of RVP of Data and Digital Product Strategy & Governance. Prior to joining Centene, Andrew spent 14 years at Intermountain Healthcare, most recently as the Chief Analytics Officer for Castell, where he was accountable for the company’s analytics strategy, analytics product development, machine learning capabilities, and strategic vendor partnerships. In other Intermountain roles, he led key initiatives that enhanced the organization’s analytical capabilities, including establishing Intermountain’s population health analytics and data science functions. Andrew received a master’s degree in Healthcare Delivery Science from Dartmouth College.

Aishwarya Naik

Product Designer

Bio coming soon!

Tim Espey

Principal Software Engineer

With over 15 years of experience across all layers of the software development stack, Tim has made significant contributions in the tech industry, most recently in leading a contact center orchestration platform at Cisco and multiple big data efforts in Last Mile and Buy with Prime at Amazon. Tim’s passion lies in both the innovation of new software solutions and the refinement of existing ones. Outside the digital realm, Tim enjoys traveling adventures with family, energetic gym sessions with his kids, and immersing himself in the Star Wars universe.

Caroline Li

Customer Success Manager

Caroline is an accomplished Customer Success Lead with a holistic business understanding. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Accounting and another Bachelor’s in Information Systems. She started out as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies before realizing she thrived in a Customer Success role. Her diverse background enables her to seamlessly navigate various industries, client types, and challenges. Her empathetic nature, strong communication skills, and solutions-oriented perspective drive exceptional customer experiences while fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation. Beyond her professional endeavors, Caroline finds joy in traveling, spending quality time with friends, and indulging in various hobbies.

Rob Mecham

Lead Software Engineer

Rob brings over 15 years experience in technology and engineering from multiple industries. Rob is eager to bring his years of experience wrangling data and coding APIs to Lucerna’s innovative data platform. When he’s not slinging code or fixing servers, you can often find Rob exploring the outdoors with his family.

Derrick Birkes

Sr. Lead Software Engineer

Armed with 15 years of software engineering experience and a computer science degree from the University of Utah, Derrick is helping drive the Lucerna healthcare data platform to new heights. He is motivated by scaling data technology to positively impact healthcare systems. Derrick is a Lego aficionado, especially when he can combine Legos with his other love of all things sci-fi and horror.

Mark Stryker

Advisory Board Member

Mark is the first appointment to Lucerna’s inaugural Advisory Board. Current Executive Vice President at Leverage Health Solutions, a leading strategic and business development firm that specializes in healthcare. And former Chief Financial and Growth Officer at GuideWell Connect, a health consumer marketing, sales, and engagement company. He has a broad set of executive experiences and successes in driving growth in companies across a myriad of sizes and industries. Mark has always loved racing—first swimming, then bikes, then cars. If it can go fast, he wants to make it go faster.

Whitney Bitner

Sr Data Scientist

With a career based at the intersection of healthcare and data science, Whitney is passionate about improving patient health equity and outcomes. She has a Master’s in Applied Analytics from Columbia University that built upon her foundation of Math & Statistics degree from the University of Utah. Her impressive resume includes time as a data scientist at Collective Medical and Castell, Intermountain Healthcare’s value-based care arm. Whitney is a proud Salt Lake City native who takes pleasure in warm chocolate croissants, visits to the library, skiing, and helping on the family ranch.

Alex Stewart

Software Engineer

Another talented intern turned full-time employee; Alex is part of the engineering team responsible for building new Lucerna platform features from conception to completion. He recently completed his Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Utah. Alex enjoys traveling, reading, and hanging out with friends when he is not engineering software.

Sid Shapiro

Assoc Data Scientist

Armed with a mathematics degree from Whitman College, Sid moved to Salt Lake City to join the Lucerna Health data team. He has a knack for finding elegant solutions to complex healthcare problems using machine learning and statistical analysis. Sid takes pride in developing fun and productive relationships with other team members. When he takes a break from data modeling, Sid can be found on Wasatch slopes or spending time with friends—probably discussing music theory.

Mark Patterson

Software Engineer

A recent graduate of the Computer Science program at the University of Utah, Mark is another talented intern turned full-time employee. He is great at helping the team engineer creative solutions to difficult problems. When the weather’s nice, you can probably find Mark on the ski slopes or rock face. When the weather’s not so nice, he’s probably playing video games.

John Wagner

Vice President, Growth

John is a visionary healthcare executive specializing in the strategies of value-based care, product innovation, provider integration, revenue enhancement, value optimization and execution. He has a broad range of experiences gathered from time spent with Florida Blue, Berkley Research Group, ACO Health Partners (Deleted Citra), Walgreens and most recently leading revenue optimization for Flagler Health+ before joining Lucerna. He leverages his deep industry knowledge and relationships to drive Lucerna’s growth and support product development. In the rare moments that John is not talking about value-based care, he’s most likely to be found at a Jacksonville Jaguars game, antiquing with his wife, or at home tending to his many, many plants.

Resford Rouzer

Analytics Engineer

Resford’s first career as a marketer in the nonprofit sector left him yearning to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying data behind systems. So, as any normal person would do, he went back to school and earned a Masters in Information Systems from the University of Utah and got an internship with Lucerna! In his second career as a Lucerna Analytics Engineer, Resford leverages his uncanny ability to tell stories through data to create value from a healthcare perspective. When he’s not taking in the Salt Lake landscape from the Lucerna office, he’s probably out in it exploring by bike, foot, raft, or snowboard—or analyzing river data for the next big high water rafting trip.

McKade Thomas

Machine Learning Engineer

McKade joined Lucerna Health as an intern while working on his Master of Statistics degree from Utah State University. Nowadays, as a Lucerna Machine Learning Engineer, he’s finding strategic solutions to business challenges by applying data science and statistical methods to big data. He is passionate about all things data science with special interests in ML classification models, exploratory data analysis and graph analytics. McKade is a sports enthusiast who enjoys exchanging hot takes on the NBA, NFL and college football. When not watching a game, you’ll likely find him playing one. McKade and his wife have a collection of over 80 board games and are known to host the best game nights in Salt Lake City.

Jack O’Donoghue

Full Stack Software Engineer

Jack joined Lucerna Health as an intern while working on his Computer Science degree from the University of Utah. Nowadays, as a Lucerna Full Stack Software Engineer, he’s working throughout the development pipeline to bring new platform features to life. When not engaging in high-level engineering discussions at work, Jack can be found either experimenting in the kitchen or in the great outdoors camping, golfing, or skiing.

Ray Linford

Software Engineer

Ray is a software engineer with a strong history of QA work and cloud development. He has worked with AWS as well as a custom-built cloud in the past. He has worked in Python and C#.

Ray was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, and created a program to create a statistical analysis of the puzzles on the show, in order to develop a letter selection strategy.

Phat Doan

Head, Data Science

Data scientist with more than 15 years of experience spanning industries including military and government, consulting, tech, and lots of healthcare, Phat is responsible for advancing Lucerna’s mission of helping value-based care organizations move healthcare forward smartly with the help of AI/ML. When he’s not pushing the boundary of applied machine learning, he’s probably chauffeuring his two daughters around Salt Lake City to ballet, swim, gymnastics, or winter skiing lessons. Rumor also has it you may find him at various music festivals. Phat will neither confirm nor deny this, but if you spot him at one, do say hi!

Linda Ehlen

Director, Consumer Engagement and Insights

Data-obsessed marketing professional with 20 years of direct and database experience. For the last 10 years she’s been helping healthcare payers and providers grow and retain their customers. An avid traveler in the days before kids, Linda’s current hobbies consist of singing baby shark, finger painting, playdoh, learning all about creatures and dinosaurs with her two sons.

Marco Veneziani

Director, Consumer Engagement and Insights

A MarTech leader with over 15 years of experience spanning several industries in the US and Latin America, Marco has extensive experience in understanding consumers through data. Little gets him more excited than seeing what happens when we get the right message to the right customers at the right time. When not in the office, you may find him biking or hiking with his children and occasionally strumming a few chords on his guitar.

Lynn Locke

Director, Consumer Engagement and Insights

Direct & database marketer bringing over 20 years of healthcare expertise and a unique blend of payer and provider experience that helps clients take their consumer engagement to the next level. On the weekends, you’ll find Lynn on the water, boating with her family—unless it’s football season, of course…then you’ll find her at a Gator game.

Jake Mager

Sr Full Stack Engineer

Jake is a passionate front end engineer who is building great user experiences within the Lucerna product suite.

Outside of work, he enjoys hiking, snowboarding, health & fitness, and cooking plant based meals with an international flair.

Andrew Hansen

Director, Data Analytics

With nearly 15 years in healthcare analytics, Andrew is Lucerna’s secret weapon for customer value creation—helping us turn big data into actionable insights. He is passionate about using data and technology to transform health outcomes and loves being part of a team that focuses on value-based care organizations. Outside of work, Andrew enjoys fishing, rock climbing, hiking and camping with his wife and kids.

Aime Echevarria

Engagement Marketer

With over 7 years of experience in direct and digital marketing in the healthcare space, Aime creates and manages campaigns that help clients acquire and engage new patients. In her free time, Aime enjoys exploring new cities, hitting the nature trails with her dog, and spending time with family.

Juliana Rueda

Hispanic Marketer

Hispanic marketer with significant experience bringing unique approaches to in-culture and in-language engagement.

These days Juliana stays plenty busy with her two young boys—nothing like the pure joy of just watching them discover the world around them.

Austin Deckard

Software Tester

Austin enjoys delivering the best software to end users through robust software testing processes. Austin recently completed an internship in Australia and loves to play guitar and enjoy the outdoors and mountains.

Brett Fox

Full-Stack Engineer

Brett is a full-stack engineer with over 7 years of experience building user-friendly web tools that manage and present complicated datasets in a straightforward manner. Outside of work Brett can be found hiking, cycling, attending live shows, or reading with his two cats.

David Atkins

Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer

Former Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Data and Analytic Solutions at Centene, where he led data solution development for the enterprise. David also held leadership roles in network strategy and analytics at Anthem and Highmark. He is an avid skier (and aspiring backcountry skier), passionate motorcycle guy who never rides his motorcycle, and loves spending time with his wife and young son camping across Utah.

Frank Mayo

DevOps Engineer

Frank has worked for various software companies for over 20 years in many different roles which gives him a well rounded approach to DevOps.

When not automating infrastructure he enjoys spending time with his family and enjoying the outdoors.

Meredith Niederriter

Engagement Marketer

By combining her years of experience in both direct and database marketing in various industries combined with customer success roles, Meredith helps bring and execute successful engagement strategies for our customers.

Outside of work, she enjoys getting outside and enjoying nature─biking, paddle boarding (preferably with the wind) and exploring mountain tops with her husband and two daughters.

Carl Kibler

Head, Software Engineering

A leader and engineer with over 15 years of experience, Carl cares deeply about healthcare and reinventing the entire healthcare experience. He is Lucerna’s product engineering orchestrator, leading the design and development processes to achieve the company’s ambitious goals. Carl enjoys hiking and wood-working in his spare time. His most recent work of art is turning a 108 year old piano into a beautiful bar for his home.

Adriana Murillo

Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer

Founder of Andes Unite, a provider practice growth and development company that helped Sanitas successfully establish their primary care business line in the USA. Adriana held market segment leadership, product development and multi-cultural marketing roles at Florida Blue. Adriana also loves cooking—creating unique twists to recipes and watching the family go for seconds makes for a perfect day.

Craig Thomas

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Former President of GuideWell Connect, a health consumer marketing, sales and engagement company, Craig also held Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer roles at GuideWell/Florida Blue and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Craig is all about the simple things in life—getting the family together in Buffalo, eating great pizza and wings and watching the Bills win.

Leading Us Forward

Customer Focused

Committed

Collaborative

Curious

Craig Thomas

David Atkins

Adriana Murillo

Mark Stryker

Andrew Sorenson

John Wagner

Phat Doan

Carl Kibler

Lynn Locke

Linda Ehlen

Derrick Birkes

Whitney Bitner

Aime Echevarria

Tim Espey

Brett Fox

Bibek Karki

Natasha Lalwani

Caroline Li

Ray Linford

Jake Mager

Rob Mecham

Aishwarya Naik

Meredith Niederriter

Jack O'Donoghue

Mark Patterson

Resford Rouzer

Juliana Rueda

Sid Shapiro

Alex Stewart

McKade Thomas

Join us in moving Healthcare Forward

We work from home and together.