Kevin Patterson
Chief Executive Officer [email protected]
Kevin Patterson has served as Chief Executive Officer of Connect for Health Colorado since April of 2015. He previously served as chief administrative officer and interim chief of staff to Gov. John Hickenlooper and has an extensive history of public service. Kevin has served as the interim executive director of three state agencies during leadership transitions, the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and the Governor’s Energy Office. He brings a strong understanding of state government and stakeholder engagement to this role. Kevin has held leadership roles for the city and county of Denver in the Budget Office, the Planning Department, the Department of Human Services, the Department of General Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation. He was elected to the Denver Board of Education in 2001 and reelected in 2005. Kevin graduated with a B.A. in Teaching from Sam Houston State University and holds both a Master’s of Public Administration and a Master’s of Urban Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver. He serves on the Denver Zoological Foundation’s Leadership Council, the Health subcommittee of the Rose Foundation, and serves as a board member on the Tennyson Center for Children and the Keystone Policy Center.
Brian Braun
Chief Financial Officer
Brian Braun joined Connect for Health Colorado in July of 2015 as Chief Financial Officer, leading the financial oversight for the organization. This includes management of budgeting and financial planning toward sustainability, and oversight of state and federal compliance measures. His previous work includes leadership roles as Chief Financial Officer for the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) and Policy Studies (acquired by Maximus). Braun holds a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from the University of Wyoming and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado.
Kelly Guthner
Chief Innovation Officer
Kelly Guthner has 35 years of experience and operations in Information Technology and has expertise in designing, implementing and supporting the architecture, infrastructure, software design and systems that support secured multi-tenant private and public cloud based infrastructure and solutions. He has cyber security expertize in compliance which includes the design, implementation and operations of IT systems and software for the protection of systems responsible for the safe handling of data ranging from PII, PHI through DOE Classified. Kelly has worked for industry-leading companies including CSC, CH2MHILL, and Children’s Hospital, and has supported planning, implementation, and operations for large private, government, and medical organizations globally. His industry experience includes IT Department C Level Management, Enterprise Architecture and Cyber Security of Health Informatics, Department of Energy systems supporting nuclear weapons manufacturing, IT managed cloud services, implementation and operations. Expert knowledge in designing and implementing security solutions that meet Federal Security Guidelines and Regulations including NIST 800-53 rev 3 & 4, FISMA, HIPAA, IRS-1075, CMS Safeguards for the CMS ACA Network and HITECH. Deep technical experience with network designs, server systems, modernization of enterprise IT systems, modernization of existing legacy systems, integration and implementation for central and decentralized computing facilities, cyber security with implementation and migration of private and public XaaS solutions. Experience in aligning IT Organizations and Systems with theITIL and MITA best business practices and frameworks. Experience in adopting Balance Score Card and supporting Earned Value.
Monica VanBuskirk
Chief Policy and Relationships Officer
Monica VanBuskirk joined Connect for Health Colorado as the Chief Policy and Relationships Officer in August 2019. In this role she shapes the organization’s involvement with health policy and advances our marketing strategy. She was previously with Meapta Inc as a policy advocate and Aspen Labs as a human-centered designer.
She has an extensive experience in finance innovation for healthcare. She developed and managed new business strategies at the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, Denver Health, Kaiser Permanente and Colorado Permanente Medical Group. Prior to Colorado, she supported the Affordable Care Act (ACA) rollout at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI), an expansion of population health services at Aprofe in Ecuador, and comparative effectiveness researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Monica received her bachelor’s degree from Smith College and holds a master’s degree in Business Administration with a certificate in Health Sector Management.