Kimberly J. Rask, MD PhD is Chief Data Officer at Alliant Health Solutions. With more than 20 years of experience in quality measurement research and practice, she has served as a Medical Director for the CMS funded Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for the state of Georgia since 2008. She provides direction for patient safety initiatives and quality data reporting; including health care associated infections, value-based purchasing and community-based readmission reduction programs. She helps monitor quality improvement initiatives across health care settings including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and physician practices using evidence-based practices and robust performance monitoring measures.
A primary care physician and health economist, Dr. Rask holds joint appointments as Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management and Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University, where her research and teaching focus on quality improvement and outcomes measurement. She has published book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on primary care practice, cost-effectiveness, quality improvement and outcomes measurement.
She serves on national expert panels for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Quality Forum, where she is a standing member of the dual eligible MAP, and a steering committee member for the Data & Testing working group of the Measures Incubator. Dr. Rask also works as a grant reviewer for federal programs and foundations, as well as a journal reviewer for clinical and health services research journals. She is an Executive Board Member for Project Open Hand, an Atlanta-based non-profit that helps people prevent or better manage chronic disease through healthy home-delivered meals and nutrition education. A magna cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After completing her residency in Internal Medicine, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and completed the doctoral program in Health Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania along with a Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Linda Kluge is the Executive Director at Alliant Quality, the Medicare Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Kluge has more than 39 years of experience in supervisory, management and clinical roles for health care providers in the areas of dietetics and quality management. She joined Alliant Quality in 2003, serving as a quality improvement and education specialist and then a home health/nursing home/quality team manager prior to advancing to director of the QIO and serving as a member of the executive management team.
Kluge has extensive experience working with Georgia nursing homes, hospitals, and home health agencies on several initiatives for patient safety, care transitions and beneficiary protection. Prior to Alliant, Kluge worked as a dietary consultant for the Atlanta based consulting firm Judy Ford Stokes & Associates and held several positions at Beverly Enterprises, a long-term care, skill nursing and rehabilitation provider, including serving as a senior director of its Quality Management department. A graduate of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland with a bachelor of science degree, Kluge completed the coordinated undergraduate program in dietetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 2010, she received the Distinguished Service Award from Aging Services of Georgia. Previously, she was the recipient of the President’s Mentor Award from the Florida Dietetic Association. In addition to being an active volunteer for Open Hand in Atlanta, Kluge is a member of Lincoln LOGS Toastmasters and facilitates a small group at the Dunwoody Community Bible Study.
Mary Albin is the Executive Director of the ESRD Network of Texas, Inc., a subsidiary of Alliant Health Solutions. ESRD Network of Texas holds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services contract for ESRD Network 14 and serves the state of Texas. Albin is responsible for the overall strategic and operational oversight for Network 14 contract operations.
Albin possesses nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare operations management, with a special emphasis on end-stage renal care. Additional areas of expertise include quality assurance, program administration, strategic leadership and financial and risk management. Before joining Alliant, Albin served as DaVita Kidney Care’s group facility administrator, where she managed the operations for nursing services and patient care for the organization’s hemodialysis facilities.
Albin attended Chapman University and graduated magna cum laude with a BS in organizational leadership.
Margot Townsend is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Alliant Health Solutions.
Townsend has more than 25 years of HR leadership experience spanning from start-up and established healthcare service and technology organizations. She is certified in HR and Performance Coaching from the University of Strathclyde, and has a Bachelor’s in business management from Pennsylvania State University.
For the last 12 years, she has been passionate about those in “employment transition” and serves the community as a resume writer and job coach, encouraging and empowering the unemployed. Additional volunteering interests include the American Heart Association, March of Dimes, Open Hand, and Chamblee Middle.
John Slaughter is Chief Information Officer at Alliant Health Solutions. Slaughter’s background in Information Technology spans over 15 years in system development and project implementations for financial services, telecommunications and health care. His experience in implementing IT systems and processes has involved interfacing with state agency personnel, third-party vendors and other regulatory and private sector entities. He is responsible for all Information Technology systems provided by Alliant to its employees and customers, including data analysis and reporting. Slaughter works with internal users and external clients to determine all IT requirements, including ongoing and ad hoc reporting, system enhancements, data migration and system interfaces.
He identifies IT initiatives, including all associated costs and dependencies. Since joining Alliant, he has overseen the implementation of solutions that support Alliant’s broad customer needs and requirements. These solutions include multiple state/multiple customer implementations of Alliant’s Quantum XL system (Alliant’s proprietary Prior Authorization System) as well as its MedGuard® system, which is used for capturing utilization and compliance review activities.
Slaughter works to ensure that IT is in alignment with the goals and needs of Alliant’s customers and employees. Prior to joining Alliant, Slaughter worked in various customer facing technology roles for Accenture, Hewitt Associates and Saba Software. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Tulane University and is proficient in several database formats, operating systems, languages and software applications.
Will Battles is the Chief Strategy Officer at Alliant Health Solutions.
In his role as CSO, Battles works with the CEO in driving Alliant’s overall growth and program development strategy. He has been instrumental in Alliant’s growth across the United States through the successful pursuit of contracts with federal and state government agencies as well as commercial health plans. Battles is responsible for leading Alliant’s business development, marketing and strategic partnership initiatives.
During his more than 20 years of health industry experience, Battles has served in a variety of leadership roles in the areas of program development and operations management. In 2006, he assumed responsibility for the direction of all business development and communications activities for Alliant and its subsidiaries. Since 2010, he has played a vital role in successfully implementing and managing five state government contracts for Alliant. For these initiatives, Battles directed establishing necessary staffing, systems and operational infrastructure for Alliant in three states.
Dennis White, DHA, MSIT, is the president and chief executive officer of Alliant Health Solutions, a $30 million nonprofit family of companies helping governmental agencies ensure healthcare quality is improved and tax dollars are used appropriately in the administration of public sector health care programs. Under his strategic leadership, Alliant has expanded its operations to 17 states, with offices in Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. And in 2018, Alliant received the honor of being named a “Best Place to Work” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle for the seventh time.
Dr. White’s experience in health care and information technology spans more than 25 years. He has dedicated his career to executing state and federal government contracts that center on improving healthcare quality and efficiency for patients.
Heavily involved in the community, Dr. White is the immediate past-chair of the Georgia Health Information Network (GaHIN), and serves as an advisory board member for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Institute of Health Administration, and the Center for Health Information Technology at Georgia State University’s (GSU) Robinson College of Business. Dr. White has also served as an adjunct professor at GSU for more than four years.
Dr. White holds a BBA in accounting from Christian Brothers University, an MS in information technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in healthcare administration from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Dr. Susy Alfonso serves as Alliant’s Chief Medical Officer of Medicaid. In this role, she will provide clinical oversight for all of our Medicaid-related work and routinely interact with our peer consultant panel.
Dr. Alfonso is board certified in family medicine and was recently named a ‘Top Doc’ by Atlanta magazine. She possesses more than 20 years of clinical experience in full-spectrum ambulatory care and has been involved in direct patient care, development and growth of primary care practices, and leadership in assessment and transformation of primary care. Prior to joining Alliant, Dr. Alfonso served as director of academic and clinical integration for the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory.
Dr. Alfonso completed her undergraduate training in biology at Emory University before earning her medical degree from Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Alfonso also holds a master’s degree in healthcare management from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Carol Allen is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Alliant Health Solutions. She is responsible for the primary business units of operation including the Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations, End-Stage Renal Disease Networks, and Medicaid contracts. Allen participates in the development and execution of corporate strategies designed to enhance current market share, generate new business opportunities and forge strategic partnerships.
With her previous experience as director of Alliant’s Medicaid operations, Allen is skilled in prior authorization, utilization management, medical review of waiver programs, hospital outlier and suspended claims, SURS reviews, utilization and compliance reviews, the Georgia Nurse Aide Program and the Medicaid Medical and Agency Referral Network.
Her experience and expertise in project management and contract implementation in the health care industry span 25 years. As Chief Operating Officer, Allen directs a professional, multi-disciplinary team in the development, implementation and evaluation of national and local Medicare clinical quality improvement projects and initiatives that focus on disease prevention and promoting healthy behavior. Prior to joining Alliant, she served as Director, Outpatient Specialty Care Center, at HCA West Paces Medical Center, where she managed operations of the hospital-based outpatient clinic (1997-1999). She also held the positions of Director, Information Systems (1989-1998) and Director, Customer Affairs (1989-1998) at West Paces. Allen has an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts from Gainesville College and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.
Dianne Bennett-Johnson, MD, FACP, is Medical Director, Medical Management Services at Alliant Health Solutions. Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Bennett-Johnson has been a practicing general internist for more than 20 years and is founder and owner of Appointed Physicians Medical Center in Gwinnett County, a full-service primary care medical center. Before joining Alliant, Dr. Bennett-Johnson worked at the Mt. Sinai Hospital Near North Health Center and at Cook County Hospital and affiliates, both in Chicago. She was also with Peachtree Corners Medical Center in Norcross for five years.
Dr. Bennett-Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, received her medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, and did her residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University, Evanston Hospital. She is certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS). Dr. Bennett-Johnson is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Medical Association of Georgia. She is affiliated with Gwinnett Medical Center and Northside Hospital, and volunteers at Redeemer’s Medical Center in Norcross, a non-profit that provides free healthcare services and awareness programs to the uninsured. Dr. Bennett-Johnson’s volunteer efforts also include Open Hand, which uses home-delivered meals and nutrition education to help people prevent or better manage chronic disease. She was named “Georgia’s 2012 Favorite Doctor” by Coventry Health Care of Georgia. A six-person panel at Coventry reviewed the physician finalists who were nominated by their patients. Her teaching has included Mercer University School of Medicine and Emory University’s Physician Assistant Program.
Dr. Natasha Avery is the Executive Director of Network 8, Inc., a subsidiary of Alliant Health Solutions. Under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services contract, Network 8 serves end stage renal disease patients in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Dr. Avery is responsible for the overall strategic and operational oversight for Network 8 contract operations.
Dr. Avery has extensive experience in end stage renal disease (ESRD), mental health and medical social work. She is a dedicated advocate for patients and families affected by ESRD, and has worked at Network 8 for nearly a decade as the patient services director. She also serves as a member of the Mississippi Kidney Foundation’s Professional Advisory Board.
As an accomplished professional in her field, Dr. Avery has presented at numerous national and regional conferences. Her work was published in the National Kidney Foundation’s The Journal of Nephrology Social Work and the American Association of Kidney Patients’ magazine, RENALIFE.
Dr. Avery is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). She obtained her MSW before earning her doctorate in public health from Jackson State University. She also holds a bachelor’s in social work from Mississippi State University.
Greg is Alliant’s Chief Financial and Compliance Officer responsible for our organization’s day-to-day finance management and our corporate compliance program related to state and federal regulations and requirements, ethics and program integrity. Greg brings extensive accounting and finance experience to Alliant, with more than 25 years specializing in government contracting. He is a results-driven professional with a passion for improving financial performance through innovative improvement initiatives.
Greg joined the Alliant team as controller in 2015. Previously, he served as assistant controller of accounting at L-3 Technologies, a Fortune 500 company and leader in the development and production of visualization systems for the government, where he was responsible for managing closings, budgeting, forecasting, and developing procedures for efficiencies, control, and government compliance. In this role, Greg led the accounting, audit, and export teams, and served as the point of contact for all external government audits. Additionally, he supported new business development and export functions for programs totaling $110+ million in revenue. Prior to that, he was a public accountant for the 9th largest accounting firm in the U.S.
Greg holds a B.S. in accounting and business administration from the University of Baltimore. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).