Russell P. Branzell is the CEO and President of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and its affiliate associations, the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Technology (AEHIT) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Applications (AEHIA). In addition to his position at CHIME, he serves on the faculty at Columbia University, where he teaches executive classes in health information technology. He also is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a position that was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. 

Russ joined CHIME as President and CEO in April 2013 after being an active member for 15 years. He served on the CHIME Board of Trustees from 2004-2008, as chair of the CHIME Education Committee from 2004-2008 and as chair of the CHIME Education Foundation. He is currently a member of the CHIME Healthcare CIO Boot Camp.

Prior to taking his position at CHIME, he was the CEO at the Colorado Health Medical Group; Vice President of Information Services and CIO for Poudre Valley Health System; President/CEO of Innovation Enterprises (PVHS’ for-profit IS entity); and Regional Deputy CIO and Executive Director of Information Services for Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Mo. He served on active duty in the United States Air Force and retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2008. While on active duty, he held numerous healthcare administration positions, including CIO for the Air Mobility Command Surgeon General’s Office.

A native of San Antonio, Russ earned an undergraduate degree in business administration, specializing in human resource management and labor relations from the University of Texas. In addition, he earned a master’s degree in Aerospace Science from Embry-Riddle University with an emphasis in management.

Dr. Zafar Chaudry has been Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice-President of Seattle Children’s since November 06, 2017.  Through his role, he provides vision and leadership for the development of technology initiatives and enterprise-wide information systems and services for Seattle Children’s.  His goal is to enable clinicians with the best technology to deliver safe and excellent care to our patients.

Dr. Chaudry has been nominated as a finalist for the Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards the last two years (2020 and 2021).  He is also a new member of the global elite list Constellation’s Business Transformation 150 (BT150) 2020; that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. Dr. Chaudry was named to the Becker’s Hospital Review’s 100 Hospital CIOs to Know (2019), CIO magazine’s list of U.K. CIO’s to follow on Twitter (2019) and Becker’s Hospital Review (USA) 105 Hospital and Health System CIOs to Know (2018). He was also named to the CIO.CO.UK’s Top 100 list of the most transformative CIOs in the U.K. (2017) and Government Computing’s top 100 influential technology leaders in the U.K. public sector (2010).

Dr. Chaudry, who began his career as a physician, has more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of information technology. His background includes work in both healthcare and corporate settings in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe and the U.K., in enterprise infrastructure development; business intelligence; unified telecommunications; and implementation of health care information and electronic medical record systems. He previously served as Chief Information Officer at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom. Prior to Cambridge University Hospitals, he served as Global Research Director at Gartner. He also served as Chief Information Officer at the Liverpool Women’s and Alder Hey Children’s Hospitals in the U.K.; Consulting Editor for Hospital Information Technology Europe Magazine; Information Technology Strategist for the Vision4Children Pediatric Charity in the U.K. and Teaching Faculty at the City Colleges of Chicago.

Dr. Chaudry earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Ross University. He subsequently earned his Master of Science degree in health care policy and management from the University of Birmingham. He also holds a Master of Science degree in information systems management from the University of Salford and his Master of Business Administration from Aston University, all in the U.K.

As vice president (VP) and chief information officer, Cheryl works closely with CoxHealth’s executive team to drive strategic initiatives through the Si3 Star Initiative for Information and Innovation. She helps the organization accelerate its use of IT to improve the health and well-being of area residents. Formerly, Cheryl led the Cerner consulting workforce in the U.S. This span of nearly 2,000 consultants handles clinical, financial, regulatory and consumer solution implementations. She led the Cerner health care executive, clinical adoption and client value achievement consulting practices and made significant contributions toward improving Cerner’s partnership with CoxHealth.

With more than 12 years of clinical experience in critical care, emergency and trauma specialties, Cheryl joined Cerner in 1996 to manage clinical design for emergency medicine development.
In this role, She was responsible for all emergency medicine client engagements on the Cerner Classic™ and Cerner Millennium® platforms. In 2003, she accepted a leadership position in Cerner’s Intellectual Property organization, responsible for all core clinical workflow design strategies. From 2012 to 2015, Cheryl led Cerner business units focused on population health strategy and market direction. Of note was her team’s strategic collaboration with Houston-based Memorial Hermann, when the health system strengthened its top initiatives by focusing on broad adoption and expansion of its population health solutions. Cheryl also has extensive experience working with international clients. From 2006 to 2012, she managed Cerner investments aimed at localizing international software to meet clinical workflow variances in non-U.S. markets.

Wes Wright is the Chief Technology Officer at Imprivata. Wes brings more than 20 years of experience with healthcare providers, IT leadership, and security. 

Prior to joining Imprivata, Wes was the CTO at Sutter Health, where he was responsible for technical services strategies and operational activities for the 26 hospital system. Wes has been the SVP CIO at Seattle Children’s Hospital and has served as the Chief of Staff for a three-star general in the US Air Force. 

Wes holds a B.S. in Business and Management from the University of Maryland and received his MBA from The University of New Mexico. Wes is a member of the CHIME & AEHIT Virtual Health Policy Workgroup.