Meet the IWC 2019 Speakers
Timothy Alexander
Founder & Motivational Speaker/Leadership Coach, Inspired by TA
"Living a Life of Resiliency"
Timothy Alexander is a faith-driven young man who has dedicated his life to motivating and inspiring others. A native of Birmingham, Timothy attended Erwin High School and was ranked the No. 8 high school football player in the state. Timothy had the opportunity to play for any college in the country; however, he was involved in a life changing car accident in 2006, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. From that point on, Timothy was left to find his purpose in life while paralyzed.
Timothy graduated from Erwin in 2007 and attended Wallace State Community College afterwards. After graduating from Wallace State, he enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he double majored in Criminal Justice and Communication Management. While at UAB, Timothy became the first paraplegic to receive a football scholarship. He was also runner-up for Mr. UAB, a member of Omega Psi Phi, and the former president of UAB Gang Green, which set two school attendance records during UAB’s basketball season. Timothy received the Student of Excellence Award for his academic/athletic performance. He was also known for holding prayer gatherings and taking students to church twice a semester. Timothy was the leader of the 2014 #FreeUAB movement after the UAB Football, Bowling and Rifle programs were terminated on December 2, 2014. After receiving approximately 56 city and county proclamations supporting the reinstatement of the three teams, he joined with UAB Boosters and Birmingham city leaders/supporters to help raise over $40 million in one year. Timothy completed his undergraduate career by receiving the Colonel Leo Thorsness “Courage Award” from the Youth Leadership Development Program and was awarded the “Challenge Coin” from Command Sergeant Major Bennie Adkins.
Timothy recently graduated from UAB with a Master’s degree in Communication Management. His proudest moment came on July 18, 2016 when he was able to stand up on his own for the first time since being paralyzed. The video of him standing went viral, catching the eye of ABC National News, TMZ Sports, and other news stations worldwide. On January 21, 2017, Timothy won a Midsouth Regional Emmy for Sports Program Feature for his work on the short documentary, "Ever Faithful — The Resurrection of UAB Football."
Alexander is a keynote speaker and recent graduate of the John Maxwell Certification Program. He
is a living example of the phrase, "We don’t need it to be easy, we just need it to be possible."
Irfan M. Asif, MD
Chair, UAB Department of Family & Community Medicine
"Exercise as Medicine: Inspiring Alabamians to move more through innovative partnerships between family medicine, sports medicine and the YMCA"
Dr. Irfan M. Asif is a family medicine physician who is also board certified in sports medicine and currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is on the Board of Directors for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) and is an Associate Editor for both the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Sports Health: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach.
His research explores several domains within sports cardiology with an emphasis on combating physical inactivity for the prevention of cardiometabolic disease. He has been invited to participate and speak at a number of national and international venues, such as the American College of Cardiology Sports and Exercise Cardiology Think Tank and the International Olympic Committee World Conference on the Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport. For this work, he has earned a number of honors including the AMSSM Best Overall Research Award, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Best Overall Research Paper, and the David T. Sisk Award for Best Review Paper in the journal Sports Health.
Dr. Asif is also an avid educator. He has extensive experience as a sports medicine fellowship director and currently serves as the Chair for the AMSSM Fellowship Committee. His recent work includes developing standards of excellence for sports medicine fellowship training programs across the United States and he is also a current member of the writing group that is composing the International Syllabus in Sports and Exercise Medicine Education. His contributions have earned several awards including the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Resident Teaching Award and the Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development Course of the Year Award.
Dr. Lenore T. Coleman, Pharm.D, CDE, FASHP
President and Founder, Healing Our Village
"Partnering with Community Based Organizations to Address Social Determinants of Health"
Dr. Lenore Coleman received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed an ASHP approved residency in Ambulatory Care at the USC School of Pharmacy. Dr. Coleman has been a practicing pharmacist for over 36 years and has worked as a clinical pharmacist in Acute Care, Ambulatory Care, Long Term Care, and Community Pharmacy settings. Within each of these practice settings, Dr. Coleman has focused on the care and management of people with diabetes.
Dr. Coleman holds the title of Adjunct Professor, Xavier College of Pharmacy. A Certified Diabetic Educator of 18 years, Dr. Coleman provides education and drug therapy management to ethnic populations nationwide. Dr. Coleman is currently the Executive Director and Founder of Total Lifestyle Change, Inc. (TLC), a nonprofit service organization dedicated to eliminating health care disparities in ethnic populations. As part of TLC, Dr. Coleman has opened a wellness center based in Jonesboro, Georgia. She has developed Project FAITH and Operation DETECT: A Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program for Faith‐Based and Community‐Based Organizations. In addition, Dr. Coleman has developed a video/radio broadcasting platform HOV TV Channel (webTV) and Village Talk Radio (mobile app) to address the medical, emotional, psychological and social justice issues affecting the African-American Community.
Dr. Coleman is President and Founder of Healing Our Village of Maryland, Inc., a nationally certified minority business. Healing Our Village provides diabetes and Asthma/COPD education nationwide with certified program in Washington, D.C. as well as a medication therapy management and health education program via internet to consumers, federally qualified health centers, hospitals and physician offices throughout the United States, Caribbean and Africa. She provides technology enabled care to Managed Medicaid Health Plans and small urban hospitals. In March 1996, Dr. Coleman became a Fellow of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, which represents sustained excellence in a practice area for more than 10 years.
Ken Leonczyk
Senior Director, The Advisory Board Company
"State of the Union: Landscape Scan of the Latest Trends in Health Care"
Ken is a senior director and international spokesperson for Advisory Board. In this role, he advises health systems and health care industry companies on the strategic implications of health care reform, financing, and performance management. Ken is a regularly-featured legal and policy expert on national radio and television shows, and previously co-hosted a Sirius/XM talk show. He has published on a variety of legal and ethical issues.
Ken has previously worked as a FDA/pharmaceutical investigations and health care attorney and public policy professional with significant experience in private practice and public service, both in the US and internationally. As a regulatory and investigations attorney at Covington & Burling LLP, he provided strategic and legal advice on matters that required substantial political, reputational, or government relations considerations. Ken has significant experience defending health care industry organizations against congressional, FDA, criminal, and civil investigations. He has also personally prepared multiple Fortune-500 executives for testimony in front of congressional investigative committees.
In public service, Ken has served as senior staff in the U.S House of Representatives and as an Episcopal priest and Anglican Canon. Ken was given the Episcopal/Anglican Church title of "Canon" for his work in health care and education access in South Sudan and Kenya. He has served within the the Episcopal Church and the greater Anglican Communion for over fifteen years, working with parishes, cathedrals, and universities in Greenwich, CT, Dallas, New Orleans, and Bermuda. Ken has also lectured and taught classes and colloquia at Yale University, Oxford University, and Southern Methodist University.
Ken holds a JD from Yale Law School, a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a Graduate Certificate in Anglican Studies from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He received his bachelors in English Literature from the University of the South: Sewanee.
David A. Rogers, MD, MHPE
UAB Medicine Chief Wellness Officer & UAB Heersink School of Medicine Senior Associate Dean
"Effecting Wellness-related Organizational Change: The UAB Medicine Experience"
Dr. David A. Rogers is a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), with secondary appointments in the Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics and an adjunct appointment in the Collat School of Business. He has served as the Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development at the Heersink School of Medicine since 2012 and in this role serves as the co-director of the UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy. He was named the UAB Medicine Chief Wellness Officer and was appointed to the ProAssurance Chair of Physician Wellness in 2018.
Dr. Rogers received his medical degree from the University of South Florida and completed his general surgery training at the Medical College of Georgia. He subsequently completed his pediatric general surgery training at the University of Tennessee and a pediatric surgery oncology fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He received a Master of Health Professions Education degree (MHPE) from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed the Surgical Education Research Fellowship program sponsored by the Association for Surgical Education.
Austin Suellentrop
CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager, Gallup
"Strengths-Based Culture: The critical role that knowing what we do best, and what we do not, plays into building an effective organization"
Austin Suellentrop, CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager, leads Gallup’s organizational strategy for growing CliftonStrengths worldwide. Through close partnership with our learning, technology, research and client teams, he helps ensure we are staying true to the mission of CliftonStrengths while providing the tools needed to further the strengths-based approach to human development. He specializes in helping Gallup clients to bridge the gap between Gallup research and practical application in the workplace, particularly when leading through times of extraordinary change. His mission is to inspire others to action by telling stories with passion and excitement about what individuals and teams can accomplish when they have the opportunity to do what they do best.
Before joining Gallup, Austin served in a variety of roles for a major regional bank, most recently as a member of its organizational and leadership development team. He supported associate engagement programs across the company, providing data analysis and reporting and coaching teams and leaders on how to use employee engagement as a strategy to drive performance.
Austin has a passion for public speaking and that dates back as far as he can remember and has been featured as a keynote speaker for organizations across the country including TedxBirmingham. Austin is an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation and has been a guest speaker on the Gallup Called to Coach Webcast as well as an author on the Gallup Coaching Blog.
Austin received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University and a master’s degree in family financial planning and counseling from the University of Alabama. Austin spends his free time entertaining friends and family with his wife, Janna, and three daughters, Noelle, Elise, and Audrey.
Nicole Chaudet
Executive Director, Product Execution, HealthFitness
"Creatively Improving Injury Prevention to Strengthen the Bottom Line"
Nicole Chaudet has been delivering employee wellness programs and solutions, both on site and in a consultative role, for over 20 years. In current role as executive director, product execution at HealthFitness, she is charged with leading the team that takes new products, services and product enhancements to market, including those focused on injury prevention and treatment. Nicole first joined Health Fitness in 1997 and worked as a Program Manager and Area Manager in Chicago, based at Moore Document Solutions and Discover Financial Services. She was soon promoted to lead Fitness Operations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a long-time HealthFitness client. Following the implementation and start up at MIT, Nicole took on a series of leadership roles at client sites throughout the country.
In 2009, Nicole left HealthFitness for the H.J. Heinz Company in Pittsburgh, where she built a nationally recognized, award-winning wellness program. In this role, Nicole managed wellness program strategy, development, delivery and evaluation for all U.S.-based Heinz employees. Nicole returned to HealthFitness in 2012 as her role evolved to include greater accountability for new markets, new products and strategic partnerships.
Nicole attended California State University-Northridge, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science with an emphasis in Health Education. She has written extensively on the subject of why a safe, healthy workplace is good for the bottom line and demonstrates a strong commitment to the wellbeing of an organization as well as how to creatively engage employees. Her articles have appeared in Occupational Health & Safety, HR Daily Advisor and BenefitsPro, among other outlets.
Rebecca Lee
Director, Injury Prevention & Treatment, HealthFitness
"Creatively Improving Injury Prevention to Strengthen the Bottom Line"
Rebecca Lee is the director, injury prevention and treatment with HealthFitness, where she serves as a clinical subject matter expert to Business Development and Client Strategy and Engagement teams and a resource for onsite Injury Prevention and Treatment teams.
Prior to joining HealthFitness in February 2019, Rebecca worked at Professional Physical Therapy in Mamaroneck, New York where she partnered with physical therapists to provide prevention, rehabilitation and treatment of various injuries and conditions through the use of therapeutic modalities, rehabilitative exercises and other manual techniques. Rebecca also served as an Assistant Athletic Trainer at Iona College where her primary clinic assignments included women's basketball and lacrosse and men's soccer. Rebecca received her Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training from James Madison University.
Anne-Laura Cooke, MD, FACP, MHCM
Medical Director, Health Services, Viva Health, Inc.
Opening Remarks and Welcome
Anne-Laura Cook is an internal medicine physician and Medical Director at VIVA Health since February 2019. She previously worked at Brookwood Baptist Health in several leadership roles, including Executive Director of Population Health & Innovation as well as interim Chief Medical Officer of Brookwood Baptist Medical Center.
Originally from Tuscaloosa, Anne-Laura has a MD from UAB and a Masters of Healthcare Management from Harvard.
Anne-Laura has a passion for improving the delivery of healthcare on a broad scale. While at Brookwood Baptist she developed Be Well, an integrated primary care and wellness service that provides access to care in a mobile medical unit and via telemedicine. Anne-Laura also served as Program Director for the Alabama Physician Alliance Practice Transformation Network, a $10.8 million grant awarded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2015, to help medical practices transition their care model from the quantity and volume of patients seen to the quality and value of the care provided.
When not working at VIVA, Anne-Laura continues to practice medicine as a hospitalist at both St. Vincent’s and St. Vincent’s East.