In 2019 when NCTNA became a 501c3 corporation, we established a subscriber-led board comprised of individuals who are industry leaders and experts—they genuinely represent the best interests of North Carolina’s healthcare community. Their participation allows us to steer our goals and policies in a direction that benefits our subscribers most. This collaborative partnership between our internal leadership and the NCTNA board is instrumental to our success in the broadband for healthcare space.
President of the Board, President of NCTNA, Advocacy Program Manager
John recently retired as the Deputy Director and a Senior Investigator at the NC Institute for Public Health, a department in the UNC-CH Gillings School for Global Public Health. John has initiated and coordinated the work of many health-related projects, with many of these pertaining to healthcare digitization and information exchange, including the public health lead for NC’s Regional Extension Center with a focus on Meaningful Use certification, the public health lead for NC’s Health Information Exchange, the principle investigator for the NC School Health Surveillance project, the public health project manager for the Southern Piedmont Beacon Community Health Information Technology Demonstration Project, and as a project coordinator for NC’s FCC Healthcare Connect broadband project known as the North Carolina Telehealth Network Association.
Board Chair
Mike is the Director of Information Technology for UNC Health. He has worked with data interoperability and analytics in healthcare for 20 years. His current work as IT Director at UNC Health Care System has involved bridging data gaps across North Carolina for the improvement of patient care with hospitals and clinics, the NC Department of Health and Human Services, the NC Division of Public Health, and the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HealthConnex). He also provides the leadership for enterprise reporting, technical oversite of the Carolina data warehouse, and clinical research built within the health system’s flagship electronic health record application.
Board Secretary
Tracy is President and CEO of MCNC, the technology nonprofit focused on delivering high performance Internet and networking, cloud services, cybersecurity, and other essential technologies for communities throughout North Carolina. MCNC’s 4,000-mile backbone, the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), supports community anchor institutions in all 100 counties. Prior to joining MCNC in August 2020, Tracy was state chief information officer and secretary for the N.C. Department of Information Technology where she led the state agency responsible for all IT procurement, state cybersecurity, operational services, broadband infrastructure, solutions division, data analytics center, the N.C. 911 Board and strategic IT planning.
Board Vice Chair
Jennifer is the VP Client Services Delivery at Intellect Resources, an award-winning recruiting and talent advisory firm for healthcare IT professionals. Previously, she was the former executive director of NCHICA—The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, a non-profit healthcare organization with the mission of transforming the delivery of healthcare through the effective use of technology, informatics and analytics. Previous to her leadership role at NCHICA, Jennifer held the positions of Director of Market Operations for Tenet Healthcare, Director of Physician and Community Services at The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence and Implementation Consultant at Siemens Medical.
Dave has a deep and broad experience with building and running information systems in Academic Medical Centers. This is capped by many years of experience in building, operating, and evaluating information security programs in Academic Medical Centers, other large and small health care providers, public and private health plans, and a variety sizes and types of business associates. He has long experience leading electronic network initiatives including over a decade in leading the North Carolina Telehealth Network.
Board Treasurer
Sue is the Finance Director for Cabarrus Health Alliance. She has over 20 years of experience in accounting and financial management and has served as the Chief Financial Officer at Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA) since 2013. As a member of CHA’s Executive Management Team, she helps guide the development of the Strategic Plan and ensures that the agency acquires sufficient, flexible, and sustainable funding in support of it. In addition, she oversees all efforts of Grant Writing and the Finance Department. Prior to joining CHA, Ms. Yates served as the Assistant Finance Director for Cabarrus County Schools.
Charles is the Network Manager for CarolinaEast Health System. He has been an information technology leader for over 26 years. He has directed the adoption and growth of technology in manufacturing, higher education, and healthcare. During his career, he has guided the implementation of enterprise-level systems to support Production Scheduling, Electronic Medical Records, Enterprise Resource Planning, Physical security, and Cyber security. Mr. Peele believes in working with fellow leaders to research technology-based solutions that not only meet their needs, but also integrate into the overall technology strategy of the organization. Mr. Peele holds a BSBA in Decision Sciences with concentrations in Computer Information Systems and Production Operations Management and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
Jane has been a pioneer in the field of women and computing, communications technology and applications development both nationally and internationally as well as a strong proponent of the advancement of women and minorities. Among many initiatives that she has undertaken, Ms. Patterson launched The Way Forward in 2012, to promote broadband in rural areas. Until the end of 2011, she served as executive director of the e-NC Authority, an organization with a goal of bringing affordable high-speed Internet access to the citizens, businesses and institutions of North Carolina, particularly in rural areas. Prior to taking this leadership position in 2001, Patterson worked for North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt through his four terms in office, first as secretary of administration, then as chief advisor for policy, budget and technology, and finally as senior advisor for science and technology and director of the office for technology. She has been a strong proponent for the meshing of the ecosystem of health and information technology and a founder of a nonprofit to promote that cause-NCHICA. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (Bachelors) and NC State University (Masters) and additional studies at Harvard University.
Mark is an accomplished information technology executive with skills to design and implement solutions for a wide variety of healthcare needs. He has represented hospitals in numerous statewide initiatives involving technology, healthcare data, security, governance, advocacy, and policy. Prior to joining Health Management Associates in 2018, he served for 20 years as Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Health Information Technology at the North Carolina Hospital Association and has implemented numerous programs in public health, telemedicine, broadband, and data governance in North Carolina. He has built several health information exchanges, helped establish the premier real-time syndromic surveillance system in the country, and was the architect for a statewide telepsychiatry network to provide care to 80 hospital emergency departments. Mr. Bell was elected to the Town Board of Commissioners of Hillsborough, North Carolina in 2015.
Ryan is the Chief Technology Officer of Cabarrus Health Alliance (CHA). He is a member of the CHA executive management team, a member of the clinical services management team, and is Responsible for information technology. Ryan has been working in local public health for fifteen years. He has collaborated on local, state, and regional information systems and informatics projects.
Wes is the Health Director for the Martin-Tyrrell-Washington District Health Department. Prior to becoming Health Director, Wes was a contract monitor for the HealthNet program at the North Carolina Office of Rural Health, served as the Community Transformation Grant coordinator at Albemarle Regional Health Services, and worked for over 8 years at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Wayne is the Manager of Network Engineering for ECU Health. He has 30+ years of experience in the Information Technology field, with successful project management, leadership, team building, regulatory compliance, and standardization for infrastructure & applications. His experience writing organizational policies & procedures have helped to mold several organizations. Currently he manages the largest healthcare network in eastern North Carolina covering 30 counties for ECU Health, much of which is in rural areas. He holds a degree in Information Technology and over the years acquired 17 industry certifications in project management, networking, and other areas of IT infrastructure.
Dustin is the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Daymark Recovery Services, He has worked within the non-profit behavioral health industry for over 20 years helping shape the way technology can be used to improve patient’s care. He continues to push the boundaries of how technology can be leveraged to break down the silos of disparate Electronic Health Records to promote real-time exchange of patient data across the healthcare ecosystem. His part in engineering processes that place timely and vital healthcare information into the workflows of medical providers has been a key factor in his organization’s being one of the only behavioral healthcare providers in the nation to succeed along all 3 funding stages of the decade-long Meaningful Use/Promoting Interoperability program that provided funds for the continuing advancement of innovation within the Behavioral Healthcare sector.
William is the Chief Executive Officer of Benson Health. He has spent the past thirty years working in the non-profit healthcare sector as a clinical social worker and then serving in leadership roles. He has served on nonprofit boards both in and outside of the healthcare field. William serves as he has for the past eleven years as the Chief Executive Officer of Benson Health, a rural health center in his hometown, Benson, N.C. He served for two years as a Commissioner at Large for the Town of Benson and then ten years as Mayor.
Jonathan serves as Senior Director of Data and Information Systems and Information Security Officer for the North Carolina Healthcare Association, where he oversees state-mandated data programs, academic medical research requests and internal data management. His work with the Association supports the North Carolina State Medical Facilities Plan, Public Health Syndromic Surveillance and ADT encounter notification services. He leads various Health Information Technology affinity groups and provides counsel to health system technology professionals on state and federal data standards
Is your healthcare organization seeking high-quality, dependable, secure broadband connectivity? Do you think your organization may qualify for 65% discounts on broadband services?
NCTNA will gather information from you about the specific location you’re interested in connecting; the type of organization it is, the purpose/use for the broadband services, and the address/location. The team will navigate the Healthcare Connect Fund requirements and determine if your organization is eligible for the federally funded 65% discounts.
In collaboration with MCNC, NCTNA will tailor a quote for broadband service that best suits your site’s specific needs.
We’re not like other internet service providers…no really, we mean it. Our leadership consists of an experienced internal management team and a Board of Directors (many of them are NCTNA subscribers) who represent the best interests of North Carolina’s healthcare community. With their guidance and input, we always work to put our subscribers first, We proactively monitor and reduce costs for subscribers whenever possible. We’re here to serve you, so that you can serve your patients.
