Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship Announces the Founding Cohort of the Health Innovators Accelerator

<div class="header alignfull header--cover-flat has-background has-tonal-black-background-color"> <div class="header__layout"> <div class="header__content"> <p class="has-kicker-variant wp-block-paragraph">ANNOUNCEMENT</p> <h1 class="header__title has-h3-variant">Archives</h1> <p class="has-text-align-left has-medium-variant wp-block-paragraph" style="padding-top:0;padding-bottom:0"><em>23 senior leaders from across the US health ecosystem will convene in Washington, DC, for the program’s inaugural session, September 30 – October 2, 2026</em>.</p> </div> </div> <figure class="header__media" role="presentation"> </figure> </div> <p style="padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall)" class="wp-block-paragraph">The Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship (HIF) today announced the Founding Cohort of the Health Innovators Accelerator (HIA), a nine month initiative that convenes senior healthcare leaders across sectors that rarely build together — life sciences, digital health, payers, providers, non-profit, policy, and investment professionals.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The most consequential challenges in health today — AI-driven care redesign, the convergence of life sciences and technology, the widening gap between policy and delivery, high quality accessible care for all — do not resolve inside a single organization or sector. HIA was built for the leaders whose work spans those boundaries, and whose success depends on collaboration beyond their own reporting lines and organizations.&nbsp;</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We didn’t build this for people waiting for their turn to lead,” said <strong>Michael O’Neil</strong>, Fellow and Strategic Advisor, Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship. “We designed the Health Innovators Accelerator for leaders already carrying the weight — chief clinical officers, strategy executives, operators, founders and investment principles — who have run out of room to attack the biggest challenges alone. The Founding Cohort is exactly who we hoped to convene. We are grateful to their sponsoring organizations, and excited for the unexpected collaborations that are sure to come by bringing them together.”</p> <p class="has-medium-variant wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Founding Class</strong></p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class=""><strong>Gautam Aggarwal, MD</strong> — Chief Medical Officer, Ambetter Health, Centene</li> <li class=""><strong>Henish Bhansali, MD</strong>, <strong>FACP</strong> — Chief Medical Officer, Meridian Health Plan, Centene&nbsp;</li> <li class=""><strong>Jess Bossman</strong> — Vice President, Valtruis</li> <li class=""><strong>Tanisha Carino, PhD </strong>— Head of Strategy, US Corporate Affairs, UCB</li> <li class=""><strong>Sarah Johnson Conway, MD</strong> — SVP, Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians &amp; Physicians Group Practice</li> <li class=""><strong>Hannah Drummond-Hay</strong> — Vice President of Growth, ConceiveAbilities</li> <li class=""><strong>Chris Furlow, PhD</strong> — Senior Director, Clinical Support and Best Practice, Canopy Children’s Solutions</li> <li class=""><strong>Zack Gray</strong> — Founder &amp; Chief Executive Officer, Ophelia</li> <li class=""><strong>Kendra J. Grubb, MD</strong>, <strong>MHA, MSc</strong> — Chief Medical Officer, VP, Structural Heart, Medtronic&nbsp;</li> <li class=""><strong>Paul Hanus</strong> — Head of US Market Access Strategic Planning, Analytics &amp; Insights, UCB</li> <li class=""><strong>Vishal Jayakumar</strong> — SVP R&amp;D for Surgical Robotics and Enabling Technologies, Smith+Nephew</li> <li class=""><strong>Shannon Kennedy</strong> — VP, Market Strategy &amp; Innovation, Healthcare Financial Management Association</li> <li class=""><strong>Ali Khan, MD,</strong> <strong>MPP, FACP</strong> — Chief Medical Officer of Medicare, Aetna/CVS Health</li> <li class=""><strong>Jess Perlo, MPH</strong> — EVP, American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation</li> <li class=""><strong>Juliette Price</strong> — Chief Solutions Officer, HSG Global</li> <li class=""><strong>Amanda Roberts</strong> — Chief Operating Officer, Optum Serve</li> <li class=""><strong>Melindah Sharma</strong> &#8211; SVP, Life Sciences &amp; Health Care: Strategic Partnerships &amp; New Growth, Dassault Systèmes</li> <li class=""><strong>Hamilton Shawn</strong> — Chief Operating Officer, Optum Innovation</li> <li class=""><strong>Amanda Shrout</strong> — Chief Nursing Officer, LifeBridge Health</li> <li class=""><strong>Jeff Sitko</strong> — AVP, Product, National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)</li> <li class=""><strong>Doug Streat</strong> — SVP, Strategic Initiatives &amp; Quality, Aledade</li> <li class=""><strong>Dan Tartakovsky</strong> — Co-Founder &amp; Chief Operating Officer, Cartwheel Health</li> <li class=""><strong>Josh Taylor</strong> — SVP, Operations, Somatus</li> </ul> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Over 9 months, the cohort will gather for three in-person seminars at the Aspen Institute headquarters in Washington, DC in addition to virtual collaboration sessions. The program combines the Aspen Institute’s proven seminar methodology with deep sector immersions and project accelerators tied to a real strategic challenge inside each participant’s organization — ensuring the collaboration enabled by the program translates into better outcomes for the patients and communities those organizations serve.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">”We are excited to launch the Health Innovators Accelerator as a new initiative under the Health Innovators Fellowship,” said <strong>Dar Vanderbeck</strong>, VP, Aspen Global Leadership Network. “The exceptional leaders selected for this Founding Cohort will experience rigorous, cross-sector engagement and the kind of personal and professional growth senior leaders need most in order to effectively drive health innovation forward.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall)" class="wp-block-paragraph">HIA marks the first expansion of HIF&#8217;s platform beyond the Fellowship itself — extending the same rigor and standard of leadership to a wider community of health leaders working to build what&#8217;s next for health together.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--xsmall)"/> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Health Innovators Fellowship </strong>was created in 2015 to strengthen the leadership of innovators across the US health care ecosystem and to connect, inspire, and challenge them to create new approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of Americans. A part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and building upon the Institute’s commitment to values-based, action-oriented leadership, this two-year program offers health care leaders a unique opportunity to clarify their own core values and explore questions of effective and enlightened leadership with a diverse group of peers with whom they may not ordinarily interact. The latest extension of the HIF platform is the Health Innovators Accelerator. </p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Aspen Institute</strong> is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Program Contact: </strong>Molly Antoon | Senior Associate, Development &amp; Partnerships, AGLN | molly.antoon@aspeninstitute.org</p> <p>The post <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/aspen-institute-health-innovators-fellowship-announces-the-founding-cohort-of-the-health-innovators-accelerator/">Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship Announces the Founding Cohort of the Health Innovators Accelerator</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org">Aspen Institute</a>.</p>