Nick Buettner is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Blue Zones Project in all Blue Zones communities and corporate sites. He is also a national speaker and Blue Zones expedition member. Over the last 20 years, he has led 17 expeditions over six continents worldwide, three of which were to Blue Zones sites.

Buettner is the former chief operating officer of Foolproof, a financial literacy foundation, and was an ed-tech innovator and co-founder of Maya Quest, a web-based education program. He has deep experience engaging schools, employers and community leaders.

Buettner received his Bachelor of Arts in international business with a minor in economics from Augsburg College.

Dr. Eve Cunningham is the chief medical officer of Cadence, a care delivery system that supports health systems, clinicians and patients in delivering care beyond the four walls of a hospital or clinic.

Cunningham has spent the last 20 years deploying transformational health system programs at scale, leading large multidisciplinary medical groups and integrating AI into clinical care at some of the largest nonprofit health systems in the country. She is a board-certified OB-GYN and leader in virtual care, clinical AI and clinician burnout.

Cunningham most recently served as group vice president and chief of virtual care and digital health at Providence, where she led enterprise care transformation initiatives such as inpatient telehealth, remote patient monitoring, virtual nursing and hospital at home. She also co-founded MedPearl, an AI-assisted clinical decision support platform. Earlier in her career, she served as chief medical officer of Providence Medical Group Southwest and held various clinical and service line leadership roles at what is now CommonSpirit/Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in the Pacific Northwest.

Cunningham received her medical degree at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and postgraduate residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center. She received her Master of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts.

Craig Deao has provided consulting services to healthcare organizations for two decades. He is a trusted advisor to boards and executive teams, focusing on governance, strategic planning, growth, patient experience and organizational transformation. His expertise extends to board education, governance restructuring and the facilitation of strategic and leadership development initiatives.

Deao’s work emphasizes the importance of creating high-performing governance structures and leadership teams that drive both cultural and operational success. Over his career, he has guided healthcare boards through complex strategic challenges, helping them clarify vision, improve efficiency and strengthen accountability frameworks. He is highly sought after for his ability to facilitate effective strategic planning and governance processes, enabling senior leaders and boards to develop actionable, forward-thinking goals.

Deao is a frequent speaker at national and international healthcare leadership conferences, including events hosted by the American College of Healthcare Executives, American Hospital Association and more than 20 state hospital associations. He has delivered more than 400 presentations across the United States, Canada and Australia, consistently earning top ratings from participants.

Deao has authored numerous publications, including the book “The E Factor: How Engaged Patients, Clinicians, Leaders and Employees Will Transform Healthcare”, which has over 20,000 copies in circulation. His insights on governance and leadership have appeared in publications such as Health Executive, Trustee Magazine and Healthcare Philanthropy.

Before joining Huron, Deao held leadership roles at VHA (now Vizient), where he led large-scale educational initiatives for healthcare executives, achieving significant improvements in organizational performance and satisfaction. His educational background includes a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota and dual undergraduate degrees from Louisiana State University.

As president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, Bea Grause is a passionate advocate for New York’s nonprofit and public hospitals, health systems and post-acute and continuing care providers. She also oversees HANYS’ nationally engaged for-profit business services. Since her tenure began in 2016, she has contributed her extensive clinical, political and legal know-how to the organization’s agenda and in discussions with state and federal healthcare stakeholders.

Throughout the tremendous challenges of the pandemic, Grause’s leadership ensured that New York’s hospitals and health systems had the resources, flexibility and government support needed to preserve care in communities across the state. Grause continues to advocate on behalf of New York’s hospitals and health systems as they face fiscal, workforce and payer challenges post-pandemic.

Prior to HANYS, Grause served as president and CEO of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems for 14 years, successfully leading Vermont hospitals through a variety of reform initiatives, including the state’s single-payer debate, and building the hospitals’ brand as trusted, competent leaders.

Grause spent 10 years in Washington, D.C., in a variety of positions. She began her D.C. tenure as a legislative assistant, first in the office of Rep. Norman Y. Mineta and then for Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. After she left Capitol Hill, Grause simultaneously held senior governmental affairs positions with the Tennessee Hospital Association and Massachusetts Hospital Association. She spent three years working as counsel with the law firm of Foley, Hoag. In this role, she developed tailored legislative and regulatory strategies for many healthcare clients. Grause previously worked as a registered nurse, primarily in the emergency room and intensive care areas at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center of California.

She completed a three-year term (2012 to 2015) as an at-large member of the American Hospital Association board of trustees, including a 2015 term on the AHA Executive and AHA CEO Search Committees. As part of her AHA board responsibilities, she also served as chair of the AHA Allied Advisory Committee on Medicaid.

Grause earned her Juris Doctorate in 1991. She earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Boston College in 1979 and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is also a 2003 graduate of the Vermont Leadership Institute.

Beverly Hancock is the director of the Transformative Leadership: DNP Systems Program and assistant professor at Rush University College of Nursing. Previously, she was senior director for leadership development for the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, leading a team of staff and expert faculty in developing AONL’s leadership development programs, conferences and online learning. She was previously at Rush University Medical Center, serving as the medical center’s Magnet Program director for its initial three designations. She has extensive experience with the Magnet Recognition Program^® and was an educator and consultant for the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Hancock has presented widely and published on the topics of leadership development, professional governance and environments of excellence. She is co-editor and contributing author of the book, “Professional Governance for Nursing: The Framework for Accountability, Engagement, and Excellence” (Start, Hancock, Porter-O’Grady, 2024).

Hancock’s leadership experience includes being an ambassador for the AARP Center for Health Equity through Nursing, holding leadership positions on several not-for-profit boards and serving as an American Journal of Nursing peer reviewer and AJN book of the year reviewer. Hancock is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, has her Certification in Nursing Executive Practice and Professional Development and is a certified Clifton Strengths Coach.

National Affairs Analyst
NBC News and MSNBC

With his keen-eyed perspective and peerless access to the corridors of power, John Heilemann provides an unvarnished take on the headlines and broader forces shaping American politics today. Heilemann is a creator, executive producer and host of The Circus, Showtime’s acclaimed weekly political documentary series, which pulls back the curtain on American politics for an unbiased, inside look at the stories beyond the headlines. He is also a national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, where he appears regularly on Morning Joe, The Last Word, Hardball, Deadline: White House and other programs. During the 2016 election season, Heilemann was co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and co-host of MSNBC and Bloomberg TV’s With All Due Respect. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he served as New York Magazine’s national affairs editor and as a staff writer for The New Yorker, Wired and The Economist, taking readers behind closed doors from Washington to Wall Street.

Heilemann is co-author of The New York Times No. 1 best sellers “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin and the Race of a Lifetime” on the 2008 presidential election, and “Double Down: Game Change 2012.” The first Game Change book was adapted into a movie of the same name by HBO, which went on to win five Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes and a Peabody Award.

After 25 years covering the front lines and back rooms of politics and business on television and in print, Heilemann offers unrivaled insight into Washington, the corporate world and how they are shaping — and being shaped by — the tectonic shifts transforming the world around us.

From 2022-2024, Kate Hilton served as faculty and lead coach in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s partnership with the Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Technical Assistance Center: the Workforce Change Collaborative. This Health Resources and Services Administration-funded center supports health professional workforce grantees in their on-the-ground efforts to promote wellness, reduce burnout among health and public safety workers and trainees, and create better working and learning environments across the United States.

From 2019-2022, Hilton contributed to IHI’s Wellbeing & Joy in Work Results-Oriented Learning Networks, coaching dozens of healthcare organizations on how to boost joy in work, increase staff engagement and productivity, and improve overall quality of care and experience for staff and patients. She was the lead faculty of IHI’s collaboration to improve staff well-being and leadership with Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in England and an adviser to Hospital Sirio Libanes’ well-being work in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hilton also contributed to Safer Care Victoria’s joy in work learning network in Australia and the American Society of Health System Pharmacists Wellbeing Ambassador program in the United States.

Hilton currently coaches seven health systems in western New York and eastern Michigan in the CareFront collaborative, a system-wide effort funded by the Wilson Foundation that aims to improve the well-being of direct care workers. She co-authored IHI’s Conversation and Action Guide to Support Staff Wellbeing and Joy in Work During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Adjunct Professor, Biomedical Informatics Research
Stanford Medicine

Dr. Justin Norden is chief executive officer and co-founder of Qualified Health. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at Stanford Medicine in the biomedical informatics research department, where he teaches the generative AI and medicine course. Previously, Norden was CEO and founder of Trustworthy AI, a company focused on algorithm safety and trust, which was acquired by Waymo (Google Self-Driving). Previously, he was a partner at GSR Ventures, leading AI in healthcare investments, worked on the healthcare team at Apple and helped start the Stanford Center for Digital Health. He is a prolific contributor on AI and healthcare, and his work has been featured in The New England Journal of Medicine, STAT, Fierce Healthcare, Health Affairs, US News & World Report and more.

Melinda Person is the president of New York State United Teachers, a nearly 700,000-member union representing people who work in or are retired from New York’s schools, colleges and healthcare facilities. As a dedicated union leader, she is committed to creating equitable classrooms where students and educators thrive.

Person has spent more than two decades advancing education policy. She began her career student teaching 6th grade at a Boston public school. Before joining the NYSUT team in 2006, she worked for the New York State Assembly and the New York State Division of Budget negotiating and advising on education and budget policy matters.

In her 18 years at NYSUT, Person has advanced the fight for public school educators and their students. As NYSUT’s executive and political director, Person revolutionized the union’s member engagement by spearheading NYSUT’s Member Action Center, which regularly activates more than 100,000 members to advocate for union priorities. She also oversaw the creation of NYSUT’s Member Organizing Institute and Regional Political Organizer program to help bring members’ demands directly to their elected representatives. Her unwavering commitment to each member’s voice in their community led Person to develop the NYSUT Pipeline Project, a member-candidate program that trains NYSUT members to run for office.

In her role as NYSUT president, Person has visited schools and workplaces to hear directly about the needs of members, students and those they serve. Under Person, the union’s membership has continued growing and expanded to include more locals. She has also led the union in its successful advocacy for professional improvements, including fixes to Tiers 5 and 6, workplace violence prevention, protections for students and members against extreme heat conditions in classrooms and long-awaited reform of the state’s APPR teacher evaluation system.

She is a graduate of Cornell University, including the Cornell Union Leadership Institute, with dual degrees in policy analysis and management. As a graduate student, Person participated in an effort to organize her fellow Cornell graduate students with the United Auto Workers. She also holds a New York state teaching certificate in elementary and childhood education.

Bill Woodson is a visionary on the future of healthcare and serves as a national thought leader for Sg2. As senior principal, he leads Sg2’s strategic planning research, focusing on developments in healthcare strategy, policy and growth. He is a frequent keynote speaker at Sg2 events and other industry conferences and regularly advises management teams, boards and professional organizations on the changing healthcare landscape and how to respond to new payment models. Woodson is regularly quoted in industry journals and business magazines such as Fortune.

With more than 20 years of experience in healthcare strategic planning, strategic marketing, market forecasting, health system development and public policy, Woodson’s areas of expertise include market evolution, care delivery innovation, organizational design, strategic partnerships (including physician-hospital alignment) and all aspects of System of Care planning.

Before joining Sg2, Woodson worked for Solucient (now Truven), where he helped manage the company’s suite of strategic planning and marketing products. He also worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ healthcare consulting practice, where he led strategic planning, service line development, capital planning and health system merger engagements. He began his career as a legislative assistant for healthcare policy for Congressman Bill Lowery of California.

Woodson received his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his BA from Yale University.