Virtual Digital Health Institute Speakers

Kyle Amelung, Pharm.D.

Kyle Amelung, Pharm.D., is a digital health leader with expertise in disease management and wellness apps, smart-connected health monitors, and digital therapeutics. A pharmacist by training, his credentials include heading product management, commercial consulting, and strategic partnership teams for over 25 products and services. Within Fortune 20 and startup organizations, he has helped improve access to care for 50 million patients, including directing the industry’s first digital health formulary. Connect with him at kyle.health.

Timothy Aungst, Pharm.D.

Timothy Aungst, Pharm.D., is an associate professor of pharmacy practice and clinical pharmacist in the home health care setting. He is passionate about integrating digital health into the pharmacy profession with over a decade experience as a subject matter expert on digital therapeutics, digital biomarkers, medication adherence and next generation drug delivery devices, and remote patient monitoring. He has published numerous articles on digital health and served as a national and international speaker on the topic. 

Amir M Behdani

Amir M Behdani is a second-year Pharm.D. candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also has a graduate certificate in Health Informatics and Analytics from UNC Charlotte. He is the Co-Founder of KBHealthTech LLC, a health technology startup in Richmond, Virginia, and Pharmacists for Digital Health, a student organization at VCU School of pharmacy. His passion lies in the merging of pharmacy and technology. He strives to use technology to improve patient's health outcomes and provide them with the best healthcare possible.

David Berkowitz, Pharm.D.

David Berkowitz Pharm.D. is currently an Omnicell One Field Strategist and the Director of the Omnicell Fellowships in Data Analytics, Automation Research and Applied Clinical Informatics. Previously he worked for approximately 10 years in various inpatient pharmacy administrative roles at MGH/Brigham Health and Boston Medical Center, both in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to his inpatient pharmacy experience, Dr. Berkowitz has also worked for two digital health startups serving as the Director of Pharmacy Strategy at Pillo health and the President of VeriCurious. He is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy where he is also an associate professor of pharmacy practice and he served on their Digital Health Advisory Committee. Other organization involvements include serving on the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Section of Pharmacy Informatics Professional Development Advisory Group and he is an advisor for the digital health platform, HealthXL. He was selected as preceptor of the year for the Massachusetts Society of Health-Systems Pharmacy in 2018.

Christy Cheung, Pharm.D.

Christy is a Medical Science Liaison, Neurology at Sanofi Genzyme Canada, founder of the Think Digital Health blog, and co-founder of the AI Collective. She graduated from the University of British Columbia in Canada in 2019 and subsequently completed a Medical Affairs Fellowship at Sanofi Genzyme. As a digital health enthusiast, she has attended a number of healthcare hackathons, which fueled her initial curiosity for digital health and led to the beginning of her now passion projects. Aside from her work as an MSL at Sanofi Genzyme, she also acts as a digital project lead and plays an active role in a volunteer digital innovation group within the organization. Her interests in digital health extend to the pharmaceuticals industry, particularly in the area of patient care in neurology. Christy has been invited to speak at conferences such as DHX Virtual (by the California Pharmacists’ Association) and the Nova Scotia Pharmacy Conference. She has been a guest on podcast episodes and pharmacy-related magazines such as Pharmacy, IT, & Me, Stop Scrolling, and Pharmaequinox, as well as a guest lecturer on the topics of digital health and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Kevin A. Clauson, Pharm.D.

Kevin A. Clauson, Pharm.D., is a Professor at the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences in Nashville, TN, and a member of the World Health Organization (WHO), Department of Digital Health Roster of Experts and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Network of Digital Health Experts. Previously, he was founding director of the first WHO Collaborating Center to prioritize mHealth initiatives in its work plan. Dr. Clauson has served as an Item Writer for the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX), an editorial board member for BMC Medical Education, and as an editor for Get the Residency: ASHP’s Guide to Residency Interviews and Preparation. Dr. Clauson is a past recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence and the Blockchain for Education Collaboration Award. He has explored emerging technologies like blockchain at the White House, via hands-on assignments like CryptoKitties and CryptoZombies with his students, and as a core implementation with a charity pharmacy. His digital health research appears in journals, books, and other media and his work has generated coverage by the New York Times, Forbes.com, Wall Street Journal, and BBC Radio. Dr. Clauson received his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Tennessee – Memphis and completed a Research Fellowship at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

Minh H. Dang, R.Ph.

Minh Dang, who joined KGI in February 2013, has a great deal of experience working with young professionals beginning their careers in pharmacy and in implementing educational programs for pharmacists. Prior to joining the KGI School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ administrative team, she served as the manager of professional and college relations at CVS Caremark where she was instrumental in developing the company’s college recruitment and relations programs. She also played a vital role in expanding the CVS Caremark Preceptor Program, including appointing more than 275 certified preceptors and established a Structured Summer Internship Program.

Previously, she was an assistant professor at UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and held several management positions at Albertsons/Sav-On, Inc. Ms. Dang is active on several advisory boards, including the community advisory boards of the Pharmacy Foundation of California and the San Diego Pharmacist Resource and Research Network. She holds a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science. As the assistant dean for experiential education, Ms. Dang will be responsible for securing affiliation agreements for experiential education sites and conducting and supervising site visits.

Julie Darnell, Pharm.D., AAHIVP

Dr. Julie Darnell is currently an Academic Fellow at the USC School of Pharmacy. Her fellowship has a strong focus on digital health and how to best integrate digital health into pharmacy education.  She obtained her PharmD from the University of Colorado, and moved back to her home city of San Diego for a PGY1 at UCSD focused in ambulatory care. She began her journey with USC as an Ambulatory Care PGY2 at the VA Greater Los Angeles, where she completed the USC residency teaching certificate program. She loved teaching and USC so much she decided to stay on another year to learn all about academia, so she will feel prepared to start a faculty position upon completion of her training. Dr. Darnell’s clinical interests include care of older adults, polypharmacy and deprescribing, and health needs of the LGBTQ+ community. In her spare time Dr. Darnell enjoys splurging on all things Disney, playing board games, and cuddling with her black cat Bear.

Fred Doloresco, Pharm.D., M.S.

Dr. Doloresco, PharmD, MS is Clinical Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. His expertise includes outcomes research, health services research, and the use of technology to improve patient care and pharmacy education.  

Dr. Doloresco leverages both hardware and software technologies in the inpatient setting and in the classroom to improve health and learning outcomes as well as teaching informatics, data management, and data analysis to support quality improvement. 

Kari L. Franson, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPP

Kari L. Franson, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPP joined the University of Southern California in 2020 as the Associate Dean Academic and Student Affairs and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy. Dr. Franson is an educator with more than 25 years of experience in institutions around the world with expertise in interprofessional practice / education, campus and distance-based curricular innovation, technology-enhanced assessment / learning, experiential education, and healthcare workforce development. As a U.S. Board-Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist and Dutch-Certified Clinical Pharmacologist she is interested in cannabinoid clinical pharmacologic effects and cannabis user safety.

Chris Franzese, Pharm.D.

Chris Franzese is Principal & Clinical Leader at Matchstick. He manages a team of clinicians supporting combination product development, leads the company’s clinical training, and is accountable for making clinical knowledge accessible and relevant to client projects. An experienced researcher, Dr. Franzese has numerous peer-reviewed publications related to usability testing for drug-device combination products, biomarkers and diagnostics, and digital health. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Loyola University Maryland, an M.H.S. in Health Informatics, and a Pharm.D., both from Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. He completed his PGY1 residency training at Atlantic Health System and serves as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy.

Nidhi Gandhi, Pharm.D.

Dr. Nidhi Gandhi is the Associate Director of Research Programs and Special Initiatives at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). She leads AACP Posters and New Investigator Award initiative to help align with AACP’s new strategic plan as well as projects related to AACP’s Center to Accelerate Pharmacy Practice Transformation and Academic Innovation. Prior to her new role, she completed a 2-year Academic Leadership and Education Fellowship at AACP, where she contributed to various projects focused on Strategic Priority 3: Innovation in Education and Practice including Professional Affairs, Academic Affairs, Strategic Engagement, Interim and Annual Meetings and collaborated with national pharmacy and healthcare associations on initiatives that focused on transforming pharmacy practice and education.

She graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2013 and from Wingate University School of Pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2018. Prior to joining AACP as a Fellow, she received post graduate training through a community-based pharmacy residency with Albertsons Companies and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Schaumburg, Illinois in 2019 where she contributed to research, new service and quality improvement initiatives to expand patient care services on naloxone dispensing and administration of Gardasil vaccine within the community. Dr. Gandhi’s professional interests include advancing pharmacy practice through clinical patient care services and innovating pharmacy education for current pharmacy workforce and future pharmacists.

Lisa W. Goldstone, M.S., Pharm.D., BCPS, BCPP

Dr. Lisa Goldstone is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and the Associate Director of Residency Programs at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. She is also the Program Director for the Academic Pharmacy Fellowship at the USC School of Pharmacy. Dr. Goldstone received her Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from Illinois State University and her Doctor of Pharmacy from The University of Arizona and is board certified in both pharmacotherapy and psychiatric pharmacy. She has 25 years of experience providing services to persons with psychiatric and substance use disorders as a licensed professional counselor and/or psychiatric pharmacist and has worked with a variety of populations. She is a past president of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists and the chair of the Pharmacy Practice Strategic Planning Committee for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Her areas of interest include the incorporation of digital health in pharmacy education and postgraduate training, clinical application of pharmacogenomic testing, comorbid psychiatric and medical complexity, trends in substance use, increasing access to care for persons with psychiatric and substance use disorders, the scholarship of teaching, and resident well-being.

Mary K Gurney, M.S., Ph.D., BCPA, FAPhA

Mary K Gurney, M.S., Ph.D., BCPA, FAPhA, is an Associate Professor within the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Glendale Campus.  She teaches Pharmacy Law and Public Policy (required), People, Patients, and Populations (required), and Book Club (elective).  Dr. Gurney holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from Drake University. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Social and Administrative Sciences in Pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research interests include pharmacy law, interprofessional education, health equity and person-centered care. Dr. Gurney frequently collaborates with PGY1 community residents and colleagues to evaluate the impact of pharmacy services on pharmacy personnel and patients, with peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national meetings. Dr. Gurney has served on committees for several professional organizations. In addition, Dr. Gurney has served on the editorial board of Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), the editorial advisory board for the Journal of the American Pharmacist Association (JAPhA), and as a peer-reviewer for RSAP, Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning (CPTL), the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA), and Innovations in Pharmacy. Dr. Gurney has served on grant review panels for AHRQ, HRSA, and PCORI.

Danny Kim

Danny is the Head of Corporate Development at WELT, a spin-off of Samsung exploring the intersection of healthcare and technology. WELT creates personalized digital therapeutics that combine our expertise in sensor and digital biomarker technologies with therapeutic contents for the treatment of diseases with a high unmet medical need.

Outside work, Danny's a Pharm.D. student and a Board Member of Health Sciences Entrepreneurs at Northeastern University, where he founded ViTAL (previously, Bouve Innovators), Northeastern's healthcare innovation hub.

In the past, Danny served as the Director of Business Development at Soundable Health, VP at Contrary Capital, Corporate Development Analyst with Pear Therapeutics as an operator at PillPack (PillPack's biggest fanboy—Danny's unofficial title at the company); the company was acquired by Amazon for $1B during his stay.

He's an advisor to several early-stage startups and family offices pertaining to their healthcare tech investments. Danny also invests in early-stage startups as an angel investor and as a syndicate (Notable Exit: VUNO IPO'21) Danny's a Forbes 30 Under 30 Fellow, Underscore VC’s Top Rising Star in Tech, a mentor at MIT Hacking Medicine, and a novice barista.

Yoona Kim, Pharm.D., Ph.D.

Yoona serves as the CEO of Arine. Arine is a healthcare technology company that combines data science with clinical expertise to ensure patients are on the safest and most effective medications for their conditions. The company’s proprietary platform analyzes clinical and behavioral data to identify gaps in patient care and uses artificial intelligence to address and resolve them. Prior to Arine, she was the Head of Clinical Modeling and Analytics at Proteus Digital Health where she led health economic and clinical implementation activities. Yoona also has built population analytic offerings, including predictive analytics and novel algorithms for clinical decision making. Prior to Proteus, she led health economic activities and supported multiple blockbuster launches at Novartis and Gilead, and also implemented innovative healthcare design, such as value-based insurance programs, with large self-insured employers while working at Mercer. Yoona holds a Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University, a Pharm.D. with an emphasis in health policy and management from the University of California, San Francisco and a Ph.D. in health economics and outcomes from the University of Texas at Austin.

Emily Ko

Emily Ko is a Pharm.D. candidate at the Virginia Commonwealth University (Class of 2024).  During her first year, she co-founded Pharmacists for Digital Health, a student-driven platform to engage learners in digital health applications.  With her current work in data science research, she has also co-founded a health tech startup, KBHealthTech, LLC.  She hopes to expand the student experience and to one day impact her community through innovations.

Ravi Patel, Pharm.D.

Ravi Patel, Pharm.D. is the Lead Innovation Advisor at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his Pharm.D. at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy where he continued with a joint Fellowship with the UPMC Center for Connected Medicine. Dr. Patel’s current work includes the application of creativity and innovation in pharmacy education and practice. Dr. Patel teaches in the Pharmacy Innovation course, collaborates in research across multiple schools on campus, and helps run the operation of the Pharmacy Innovation Program at the School of Pharmacy.

Smit J. Patel, Pharm.D.

Smit J. Patel, Pharm.D. serves as the Director of Digital Medicine at the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe). His work focuses on applied approaches to the safe, effective, ethical, and equitable use of digital technologies to advance  clinical research, clinical care and public health. He serves on the Advisory Board for Clinicom and the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health (CDH). He is a founding member for IMPACT, Virtual-First Medical Practice Collaboration and supports Health innovation hub (hih) of the German Federal Ministry of Health to advance innovation in evidence generation for broad acceptance of digital health applications.

He brings over half a decade of experience at the intersection of innovative medicine, technology, and healthcare from the pharmaceutical industry, healthtech, and consulting space. He is a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, a Forbes 30 under 30 scholar, a TEDx speaker, and MIT-Harvard Health Innovation alumnus. He is passionate about giving back and mentors young healthcare leaders frequently at MIT hacking medicine and TechStars startup.

Ken Perez, MBA

Ken Perez is the VP of Healthcare Policy and Government Affairs for Omnicell, where he has worked for a total of 15 years. Ken also serves on the board of the ASHP Foundation and the Dean’s Executive Council for UCSF’s School of Nursing. He has been a health policy columnist for hfm, the monthly journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, for over 10 years. Ken holds a bachelor's degree in international relations with an emphasis in economics from Stanford University and a MBA with a concentration in finance from UCLA Anderson.

Kevin B. Sneed, Pharm.D., FNPHA, FNAP

Dr. Sneed is a tenured Professor and the founding Dean of the University of South Florida College of Pharmacy. He also serves as Senior Associate Vice-President for USF Health. His educational background includes a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Biology with a concentration in Microbiology from the University of Central Florida. Dr.
Sneed received his Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy, where he received numerous clinical and leadership awards. He completed an Ambulatory Care/ Primary Care Pharmacy Practice Specialty Residency at Bay Pines Veteran’s Administration Medical Center. Dr. Sneed remains clinically
active as a primary care clinical pharmacist focused on metabolic syndrome disorders. His interprofessional clinical
activities occur in the USF Health Department of Family Medicine. He is also a member of the USF Athletics Sports Medicine team.

Dr. Sneed’s clinical and research interests include the advanced pharmacological treatment of patients with Cardio-Metabolic Disorders, examining Health Care Disparities, and Emerging Health Technologies. He is a national lecturer on these topics. Recent research interests include the application of mobile health technologies, digital health applications, cardio-metabolic disorders, and applied clinical pharmacogenomics. Dr. Sneed created USF Health Pharmacy Plus, which he touts as “The Pharmacy of the Future!” Dr. Sneed was a Co-Investigator in a NIH-funded Center of Excellence known as the Center for Equal Health (CEH), a partnership between USF Health and the Moffitt Cancer Center. He served as a Co-Director of the Community Outreach and Engagement Core (CEOC) in the CEH. He remains very active in numerous community healthcare-focused activities. Dr. Sneed
directs an innovative community initiative known as WE-CARE (Workgroup Enhancing Community Advocacy and Research Engagement) to improve underserved communities’ participation in clinical research. He also directed a program known as IN-SHAPE (Inter-professional Student Health Assessment Project and Evaluation), which addressed cardiovascular disparities in Tampa, FL. Dr. Sneed has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed
journals, book chapters, abstracts, and poster presentations. He has participated in many federal, state,
and industry grant projects, and as a Co-Principal Investigator in multiple medication clinical trials.

Dr. Sneed serves on the American Heart Association Tampa Metro Board, Board of Directors (2017-present; President 2017-2019), Association of Black Cardiologists, Board of Directors (2017-present, Secretary 2020); American Heart Association -Council of Clinical Cardiology (Vice-Chair); Area Health Education Center- USF
(Gulfcoast North), Board of Directors (2007-present); is a past Chairman of the Health Equity Committee for the American Heart Association- Greater Southeast Affiliate- (Board of Directors)
He participates in many community endeavors on an annual basis. Dr. Sneed is very active in national and state organizations, among which include AHA, ABC, NPHA, AACP, FPA, FSHP, ASHP, Sigma Pi Phi, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Miranda Steinkopf, Pharm.D.

Miranda Steinkopf is the current Academic Leadership and Education Fellow at AACP, with a passion for health equity and its intersection with pharmacy education and transformation. Prior to joining AACP, she completed a PGY-1 pharmacy residency with Kaiser Permanente Northwest and a PGY-2 ambulatory care and academia residency with Pacific University School of Pharmacy after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 2019.

Lindsey Valenzuela, Pharm.D., APh, BCACP

Lindsey Valenzuela, Pharm.D., APh, BCACP joined Desert Oasis Healthcare (DOHC) in 2007 as a Clinical Pharmacist. She is a board certified advanced practice pharmacist and currently serves as the Associate Vice President of Population Health Integration.

Dr. Valenzuela attended the University of California, San Diego then received her Doctorate in Pharmacy at University of Southern California.  She later completed her residency at Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in Palm Springs, California.  In addition she is board certified in ambulatory care pharmacy.

Dr. Valenzuela has served on the senior management team for the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) Seminar conference and Medication Therapy Management Task force for CSHP, spoken for the California Pharmacist Association, Heritage Provider Network, contributed to the California Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, and was twice named Preceptor of the Year by Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy.  She was the 2019 Community Pharmacy Innovation in Quality (CPIQ) Individual Award Winner.

Dr. Valenzuela currently oversees 26 full time pharmacists and the clinical structure for Population Health and Prescription Management (PHARxM™) as it pertains to all of the DOHC collaborative practice initiatives, cardiology and health education.  She provides oversight to the organization interacting in direct concert with the myriad of Primary Care Physicians and Specialists providing care to DOHC patients.  A hallmark of this integration revolves around the use of collaborative practice agreements and digital health technology to advance the health of the population while supporting the growth of the organization.  In addition to these duties she is Pharmacy Director for the DOHC PGY-1 Residency Program as well as Assistant Clinical Professor and Preceptor to the robust and ongoing in house training program placed by Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy and Keck Graduate Institute.

Parisa Vatanka, Pharm.D., CTTS

Parisa “Risa” Vatanka, PharmD, CTTS is a thought leader and strategic thinker with 28 years of experience creating novel health care delivery solutions from concept to marketplace. She has a proven record of alliance building and is a key contributor and facilitator, with keen ability to bridge efforts among diverse internal and external cross-functional groups. Risa’s background includes heading high-visibility initiatives implemented nationwide and globally. She is currently championing health care delivery optimization through digital health integration.

Risa is Senior Director of Corporate Alliances at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). She holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy and volunteers as a tobacco treatment specialist at the UCSF Fontana Tobacco Treatment Center. Risa is Founder and Chair of DHX (digital health conference) hosted by the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) and Editor of the Digital Health Corner monthly newsletter. Risa is also Founder and Chair of DigitalHealth.Rx (digital health summit) hosted by APhA. She represented APhA as an appointed member of the Digital Medicine Society’s (DiMe) Tour of Duty on driving adoption of The Digital Clinical Measures Playbook.

Risa is a graduate of the University of Kansas, School of Pharmacy. Her professional training includes completing a Post-Graduate Year 1 (PGY1) Pharmacy Practice Residency at UCSF, a PGY2 Administrative Pharmacy Residency at Stanford University, and two externships with the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Indian Health Service (IHS). Risa is a Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist (CTTS), trained at the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center. These experiences instilled in Risa an appreciation of the tremendous value of a team-based, patient-centered approach to care to foster health promotion and disease prevention, ultimately contributing to a healthier society.