Our Speakers
We are excited to bring leaders from Community Health System and healthcare professionals with decades of experience to share their thoughts on issues critical to today’s healthcare landscape.
stronger. together.
Jeffrey Thomas, M.D.
Chief Medical and Quality Officer, CRMC
Dr. Jeffrey Thomas has practically grown up at Community Hospitals. In fact, his career started here over 30 years ago as a patient transporter. He completed his Ob-Gyn residency training at University Medical Center prior to their merger with Fresno Community Hospital giving way to the creation of Community Regional Medical Center. Dr. Thomas spent a decade as core faculty at the UCSF Fresno Ob-Gyn Residency Training Program, followed by a busy private practice run where he remained involved in Medical Staff leadership, including multiple terms as President and an active member of many committees. Dr. Thomas has served as the Chief Medical and Quality Officer at CRMC for the past five years, where he uses his years of experience to shape patient safety initiatives and promote quality care throughout Community Health Systems.
Mr. Tom Gordon
Chairman of the Board, DSL Construction
Thomas D. Gordon is the Chairman of the Board of the DSL Construction Corporation and a co-trustee of the Don Levin Trust. In his previous role as Executive Vice President of Cedars-Sinai Health System for 22 years, Tom oversaw the organization’s Medical Network of primary care and specialist physicians. One of Tom’s many roles was Chief Executive Officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network Services, a management services organization that handles the administrative functions of more than 1,000 physicians, providers and specialists, serves over 200,000 fee-for-service and managed care patients, and employs over 2,000 staff.
Ms. Ann Boynton
Associate Chief Strategy Officer, UC Davis Health
Ms. Boynton is responsible for the development and periodic refinement of the enterprise strategic plan and departmental strategic operating plans, continual strategic market surveillance, payor and governmental strategies, health plan and pharmacy contracting, and strategic facilitation for the enterprise. Her experience includes almost 20 years as a management consultant in the private sector, including employment with IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and owning her own management consulting business.
Mr. Craig Castro
President, Chief Executive Officer
As President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Health System, Craig Castro is responsible for the largest non-profit health system in Central California. He has responsibility for advancing our fully integrated healthcare delivery system through its three entities: Community Medical Centers, Community Physician Network (which includes Community Health Partners, our medical foundation), and our health plan Community Care Health. Craig spearheads Community’s top strategic initiatives and fosters physician relations. Craig reports directly to the Board of Trustees.
Mr. Patrick Ramirez
Senior VP, Community Provider Network
President & CEO, Community Health Partners
Patrick Ramirez is responsible for Community’s new physician support division, Community Provider Network. This includes Community Health Partners, our new medical foundation. Patrick focuses on building and maintaining physician partnerships, establishing a provider and practice support infrastructure and building our integrated healthcare delivery system.
Kelvin Higa, M.D., FACS, FSMBS
Dr. Kelvin Higa is the medical director of the Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery Program at Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital and a clinical professor with UCSF Fresno. He is co-director of the ALSA Minimally Invasive-Bariatric Surgery Fellowship Program. Dr. Higa is a leader in the field of metabolic/bariatric surgery and has served as president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, the California chapter of the ASMBS, and the Foundation of the ASMBS.
Mr. Mick Ebeling
KEYNOTE SPEAKER, FOUNDER OF THE EBELING GROUP
Raised in a family of entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Mick Ebeling is the founder of the Not Impossible Foundation, an organization comprised of thinkers, dreamers, and doers with a mission to take ideas that once seemed impossible to possible when the right people are connected and empowered. Through his latest initiative, Project Daniel, he helped create a 3D-printed prosthetic lab in Sudan. His new book is Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t Be Done.
Ian Johnson, M.D.
VICE PRESIDENT OF CLINICAL STRATEGY, COMMUNITY HEALTH PARTNERS
After graduating from the University of Virginia, where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in the School of Nursing, Ian T. Johnson, M.D., attended medical school at the University of Louisville, School of Medicine. Dr. Johnson completed his residency training in Boston at Harvard’s Neurological Surgery Program, at The Boston Children’s Hospital and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Following his Chief Resident year, he was selected by his peers and faculty to receive the prestigious Neurological Surgery Resident of the Year award. He completed two subspecialty training fellowships, the first at the Boston Spine Group in complex spinal surgery and the second at the LA Spine Clinic in minimally invasive spinal surgery.
Salem El-Zuway, M.D.
Salem El-Zuway, M.D., FRCSC, FAANS, FACS, is a board-certified neurosurgeon by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He received his medical degree from the University of Benghazi in Libya. He completed his neurosurgery residency and neuro spine fellowship at McMaster University in Canada, followed by an additional year of fellowship in complex spine/trauma at Sunnybrook Hospital at the University of Toronto.
Arash Afshinnik, M.D.
Dr. Afshinnik obtained his Bachelor of Science in Neurophysiology from the University of California, Davis and earned his medical degree from St. George’s University. At the University of Chicago, Dr. Afshinnik received the best resident research project each year of his residency and also presented at the Neurocritical Care Society national meeting. As a result of his early academic accolades, he earned a Neurocritical Care fellowship position at Emory University in Atlanta. Following his fellowship, he joined the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute as a neurointensivist. In 2015, Dr. Afshinnik was recruited to build a Neuroscience ICU team for Community Health System.
Hana Choe, M.D.
Hana Choe, M.D., attended undergraduate and graduate schools in NYC and medical school at SUNY Buffalo. She was always interested in the mind, behavior and neurobiology and fell in love with the biology of the brain and the systematic organization of strength, speech and sensibilities. Dr. Choe studied neurology, neurosurgery, and neuro-intervention and found her calling in neurovascular intervention and neurocritical care. Before moving to Fresno in the summer of 2022, Dr. Choe practiced as a neurovascular interventionalist and neurocritical care intensivist at a comprehensive stroke center outside Philadelphia.
Mark Krel, D.O.
A native of Southern California, Mark Krel, D.O., completed all of his undergraduate, graduate, and medical education, neurosurgical residency, and fellowship training in California. Following his neurosurgery residency, he received subspecialty training and served as a Clinical Instructor in stereotactic, functional, epilepsy, and pain neurosurgery at Stanford University. He is excited to help build world-class care in the Central Valley for movement disorder, epilepsy, pain, and psychosurgery service lines. Additionally, he has broad experience in general and trauma neurosurgery, having trained and worked at the busiest Level I and Level II trauma centers in California.
Jorge Martinez-Cuellar, M.D.
Jorge Martinez-Cuellar, M.D., obtained his Doctor of Medicine at Universidad Colegio Mayor Nuestra Senora del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia in 1997. In 2005, he and his family moved to the United States to complete his internal medicine residency at John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Martinez-Cuellar has been board certified in internal medicine since 2008 and completed his Physician Executive MBA at Haslam College of Business-University of Tennessee in 2021.
Mellekate Vishwas, M.D.
Mellekate S. Vishwas, M.D.’s expertise is in general neurology with an emphasis on inpatient acute neurological conditions in both adults and the pediatric population. He completed his MBBS from JSS Medical College, Mysore, India, and earned his Medical Degree in Internal Medicine at JJM Medical College, Davangere, India. Dr. Vishwas’s interest in neurology grew as a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School before completing his residency training at Wake Forest University of Medical Sciences/Wake Health. He completed neurology with special qualifications in child neurology training in 2014 and graduated from IU Kelly School of Business with his Physician MBA in 2022.
Mr. Aldo De La Torre
Senior VP, Network Development & Insurance Services
President & CEO, Community Care Health
Aldo De La Torre serves as the President and CEO for Community Care Health and has overall accountability for producing desired results for service excellence, market share, maintenance and expansion, and financial integrity. He ensures that our health plan is service-oriented and provides an excellent member experience. He is responsible for developing and fostering positive relationships with regulators, brokers, providers, employees, external agencies and associations in the community. Aldo serves as the principal link between health plan activities and the community, the Board and participating providers.
Shamsuddin Khwaja, M.D.
Dr. Khwaja has trained at centers of excellence around the nation and completed training in surgery with distinction. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he attended Boston University School of Medicine, where he graduated cum laude and was elected to the exclusive medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha. He then was selected for surgical training at the world-renowned Dr. Michael E. Debakey Department of Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Khwaja was the first west coast fellow in robotic lung surgery for Intuitive Robotic company. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.
Kevin Boran, M.D.
In a career marked by academic excellence, Dr. Boran was named the sole Medical Alumni Scholar in his class at the University of Pittsburgh. He enjoyed an exciting career in the U.S. Air Force, where he began work in coronary angioplasty in 1983 alongside the inventor of the original coronary stent. In addition to his long involvement in coronary angioplasty, Dr. Boran enjoys a subspecialty interest in nuclear cardiology and electrophysiology. He served for six years as a Board Member of the Fresno Heart and Surgical Hospital, during which the facility was conceptualized and created. He continues in his role as Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Fresno Heart and Surgical.