Category: External

Candace Bowman, RN, MSN/MHA is Director of Population Health and Post-Acute Strategy for BrightSpring Health Services. BrightSpring is a national leader in healthcare services ranging from Pharmacy solutions to Hospice care. We serve over 950,000 patients daily. 

Candace has been advocating for the patient for more than 20 years.  Her professional experience ranges from nursing at the bedside in a trauma center to Branch leadership in Home Health.  Her leadership philosophy centers around a combination of inclusionary outreach and strong inter-disciplinary relationships, underpinned by effective communication.    

Candace’s strong background in both clinical and operational leadership has led to her work in varied healthcare settings, across multiple states and in diversified service lines.  She has a special interest in predictive analytics, BCPI operations, and partnering with ACOs for value-based programs in the post-acute arena.      

Candace is located in central North Carolina, however travel is always on the table especially if tennis is involved.  

Dave Brown is Monarch’s Chief Information Officer. He has nearly three decades of progressive IT leadership and transformative adoption of technology experience across healthcare, insurance and financial services industries and has led teams in the development of use-case driven outcomes, focused application development and strategic IT deliveries.

As Chief Information Officer, Dave is responsible for implementing a dynamic and responsive IT strategy in support of Monarch’s vision to help people of all abilities thrive in their homes and communities. He provides strategic vision and leadership in the development of Monarch’s population health analytics services, enabling a data-driven approach to healthcare delivery for the betterment of the people we support.

Dave received a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He and his wife Cindy live in Matthews, North Carolina, and have three daughters.

Aashka Mehta is Vice President of Post-Acute Care for Cone Health. Since joining Cone Health in 2009, Aashka has worked in numerous roles earning experience in management, operations, finance and knowledge of different payor types and health plans. She created the Post-Acute Care department for Cone Health’s ACO, Triad HealthCare Network (THN). Her passion is geriatrics.

She holds a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Pfeiffer University and a bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University. Aashka is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator (LNHA).

Aashka serves on the boards of Guilford Community Care Network and Well-Spring Solutions located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

She was recognized by Cone Health as a COVID Legend and by the Alamance County Health Department as a Public Health COVID Champion.

Brian Manning currently serves as Bamboo Health’s President. He has more than 20 years of experience growing technology companies at $0-1M, $10M and $100M annual returning revenue with a focus on scaling marketplace and network effect businesses.

Manning currently leads Bamboo Health’s commercial teams, including sales, customer success, revenue operations and external affairs. Prior to Bamboo Health, he was chief revenue officer at PatientPing (acquired by Bamboo Health). Prior to that role, he launched and expanded the enterprise business at Zocdoc, a medical appointment scheduling technology company, and held other leadership positions at technology startups across San Francisco, New York City and Boston.

In addition to his role at Bamboo Health, Manning is an angel investor and advisor to several health technology start-up companies.

Manning earned his master’s in business administration from Bentley University and holds a bachelor’s degree from Assumption College.

Jay Desai serves as chief executive officer at Bamboo Health after previously serving as senior advisor from May 2021-Feb. 2023. Desai co-founded PatientPing and served as CEO before Appriss acquired PatientPing in 2021.

As co-founder and CEO of PatientPing, Desai led creation of solutions to empower providers to transform our healthcare system into one that provides higher quality care at a lower cost and connects healthcare providers across the country with real-time notifications to better coordinate care.

Desai has spent the past decade as a healthcare policymaker, young executive and investor. Prior to Bamboo Health and PatientPing, Desai worked at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where he helped design and implement ACO, Bundled Payment, and other innovative payment models funded by the Affordable Care Act. His previous companies include Triad Isotopes, Parthenon Capital and Lehman Brothers. Desai also previously served as a subject matter expert on health reform for a variety of provider organizations and co-founded the Health System Transformation Task Force.

Desai earned a master’s in business administration in Health Care Management from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and is a Coro Fellow.