Our Board of Directors

Sally Sidwell serves as the Senior Vice President of Client Engagement with Optum, leading regionally located Client Success Executives to engage and delight some of Optum’s largest and most complex clients. Sally worked on the UHC side of the house within Uniprise from 1994 through 2001. She left UnitedHealth Group and worked for ADP, leading the beyond payroll businesses of Health & Welfare, COBRA, and FSA. She later joined Kaiser Permanente as the Chief Operations Officer for Georgia before returning as an Optum employee in January 2011. Sidwell has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare with companies including ADP, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealth Group.

Donna Bowers is Division Director of Cardiovascular Services at UTHealth East Texas. She previously served at SCL Health as Vice President of Oncology and Cardiovascular Service Lines. Donna holds a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management from Texas Woman’s University and a Juris Doctorate degree from Texas A&M Law School. She is a Registered Health Information Administrator, a licensed attorney, certified in Health Care Privacy, and received her certificate in mediation.

Vera Rulon is a creative and innovative healthcare strategist and thought leader with a keen interest in empowering providers, patients and caregivers to take charge of their health. This includes better communication between healthcare providers, payers, the life sciences, communities, and patients/caregivers; ensuring access to healthcare all over the world; and, importantly, the use of data and research to advance public health world-wide.

Lynda Mitchell has 20 years’ experience in healthcare management and 15 years’ experience in nonprofit leadership roles. She currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer for Allergy & Asthma Network, where she leads the day-to-day operations, which includes digital transformation and aligning projects with strategic goals and cross functional team collaboration.

Andrew Fehlman joined EDCO in 2008 and currently serves as CEO. Prior to assuming the role of CEO, Andrew held the title of Senior Vice President of Regional Sales. In his current role, he leads EDCO’s sales function and oversees the strategic path of the Company. Andrew also provides oversight to the Company’s operations, technology, finance, and human resources functions. As CEO, Andrew leads more than 400 employees with offices in St. Louis, Springfield, and Sioux, Missouri.

Wendy Coplan-Gould founded Health Record Services (now known as HRS) in 1979, the same year that ICD-9 became the inpatient coding standard in the United States. Using her status as an approved ICD-9 trainer, she built a consulting and outsourced coding business from the ground up. Today, HRS is a health information management and clinical revenue cycle solutions company that provides consulting and outsourcing services to hospitals and healthcare organizations. It specializes in outsource coding services, clinical documentation improvement, HIM consulting, and ICD-10 preparedness and training.

Vicki Wheatley is a health information management executive with demonstrated ability to lead a profitable business unit, organize operational activities, engage employees, delight customers, and successfully integrate technology into operations. Vicki is a member of AHIMA and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). She serves on the Board of Directors of Reading Works, an adult literacy program. She holds a B.S. in Medical Record Administration from the University of Illinois, and an M.S in Management and Administrative Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Fran Ayalasomayajula is the Chief Executive Officer of RTL Innovation, CES 2022 Innovation Award Honoree, and President of Reach, a 501c3 global social impact organization. Prior to RTL, Fran was the Global Head of Digital Health Strategies at HP. She is the author of several publications on a variety of digital health topics including best practices for the successful adoption of virtual reality in the clinical setting, approaches to globally scaling AI-enabled and connected health technology solutions and the deployment of digital technology for the prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity.

Dr. Rupa Valdez is an associate professor at the University of Virginia with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is also a core faculty member of Global Studies and the Disability Studies Initiative. Dr. Valdez merges the disciplines of human factors engineering, health informatics, and cultural anthropology to understand and support the ways in which people manage health at home and in the community. Her research and teaching focus on underserved populations, including populations that are racial/ethnic minorities, are of low socioeconomic status or are living with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities. Her work draws heavily on community engagement and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), among others. She recently testified before Congress on the topic of health equity for the disability community and received the Jack A. Kraft Innovator Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) for her pioneering work in creating and developing the subdiscipline of patient ergonomics.

Lyman Sornberger is the President and CEO of Lyman Healthcare Solutions (LHS), LLC, which was formed in 2013. Prior to LHS, Mr. Sornberger was the Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer at Capio, The Patient Financial Wellness Company. He has 30+ years in healthcare executive leadership and served as Executive Director of Revenue Cycle Management at Cleveland Clinic Health System (CCHS) and was at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for 22 years in leadership roles for their physician revenue cycle management groups. He proudly served as a medic for six years in the U.S. Army and is a member of HFMA, AAHAM, ACHE, AHIMA, HIMSS, Becker’s, Modern Healthcare, ACA International, and various Advisory Boards.

Rebecca A. Morton began her career in medical records at University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics in 1972 and was the Director of Health Information Services at University of Missouri Healthcare before retiring in 2018. She continues to be active in the Missouri Health Information Management Association (MoHIMA) and the Boone County Mizzou Alumni Association, currently serving on the Board of Directors. She also supports Children’s Grove, a local charity providing youth mental health resources and youth involvement in many community activities.

Jennifer Mueller is the vice president & privacy officer at the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center (WHAIC). Prior to WHAIC, Jennifer served 19 years as VP & CIO at Watertown Regional. She served the Wisconsin HIM Association (WHIMA), twice as president, and is very involved in its leadership. She has received several awards, including the WHIMA Distinguished Member. Nationally, Jennifer has been on the AHIMA Privacy and Security Council. She has a bachelor’s degree in HIM as well as a master’s in business administration, both from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American Health Information Management Association.

Hailed as an innovative leader with a vision for transformative growth, Wylecia Wiggs Harris is the Chief Executive Officer for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the leading voice for health information management. Harris joined AHIMA as CEO in February 2018, developing the organization’s strategic plan and advancing its mission and vision, nationally and internationally, to position AHIMA as a global leader.

John Thorner, JD, CAE, is the Interim Executive Director of AHIMA Foundation, joining in February 2023. Mr. Thorner brings more than 30 years of association experience, including executive director-level at six international professional societies: American Bar Association, Academy of General Dentistry, American Society of Anesthesiologists, National Recreation and Park Association, Optical Society, and the Air & Waste Management Association. He received an undergraduate degree in history and political science from Duke University, a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a law degree from the University of Georgia.