Customer Partners
Fire Pitch provides participating startups with a unique opportunity to partner with some of the country’s leading health systems, mental health facilities, payors, provider organizations, employee benefits consultancies, and others.
These organizations offer startups a view into a wide variety of potential markets including adult, pediatric and maternity focused hospitals, primary and specialty physician practice groups, urgent care, ACO’s, provider-based insurance companies, as well as self-insured employers.
To learn about each Customer Partner and Champion, simply click one of the logo’s below.

Stephanie Cunningham, MBA
Vice President, Business Development, and Interim Vice President, Philanthropy
Jonathan Stevens MD,MPH
Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Outpatient Services, The Menninger Clinic, Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine

Texas Children’s Hospital
Texas Children’s Hospital, a not-for-profit health care organization, is committed to creating a healthier future for children and women throughout the global community by leading in patient care, education and research. Consistently ranked as the best children’s hospital in Texas, and among the top in the nation, Texas Children’s has garnered widespread recognition for its expertise and breakthroughs in pediatric and women’s health. The hospital includes the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute; the Feigin Center for pediatric research; Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, a comprehensive obstetrics/gynecology facility focusing on high-risk births; Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, a community hospital in suburban West Houston; and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, a second community hospital planned to open in 2017. The organization also created the nation’s first HMO for children, has the largest pediatric primary care network in the country and a global health program that’s channeling care to children and women all over the world. Texas Children’s Hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. For more information, go towww.texaschildrens.org. Get the latest news by visiting the online newsroom and Twitter at twitter.com/texaschildrens.

Myra Davis
Senior Vice President / Chief Information and Innovation Officer
Myra Davis is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Texas Children’s, an internationally recognized health care organization for pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology, research center and teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine.
For 30 + years she has been in the profession of bridging the gap leading and communicating the opportunities and benefits of technology. Davis has served at Texas Children’s Hospital as the Director of Customer Support in Information Services; Assistant Vice President of Information Services; Vice President of Information Services and Sr. Vice President of Information Services. Prior to joining Texas Children’s her career included serving roles of software development; project management; leadership positions and various consulting roles where she has not only lead technology implementations but she’s had to influence the change management that’s often forgotten and required for adoption and acceptance of technology to be successful.
Davis was the 2019 Winner of the Houston CIO of the Year Orbie Award and nominated as a CIO Finalist in 2018. She has was also nominated by peers and awarded the CIO of the Year in the Houston Business Journal 2017. In 2014, Texas Children’s received 2014 ComputerWorld Data + Award and Most Wired. In 2013, for the very first time Texas Children’s received Most Wired and Most Wired Innovation Award. Texas Children’s has been a recipient of Most Wired 5 consecutive years. In 2011, CIO magazine recognized Texas Children’s Hospital as one of most innovative organizations by naming the facility as winner of the CIO 100 award, which exemplifies the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology.
Davis served on the Board of Directors for CHIME (College of Health Information Management Executives) 2015-2018 – a professional organization for Chief Information Officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. She is also a faculty member of the CHIME Educational Boot Camp. She is a member of Board of Directors for Genesys Works – a non-profit organization focused on giving underprivileged high school students the opportunity to work in corporate environments. Davis has also served on the CIO Advisory Forum of the Child Healthcare Corporation of America (CHCA), the Strategic Advisory Board of the Help Desk Institute (HDI) and the CIO Executive Council of the Executive Women in IT Steering Committee. She also is a member of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Davis has an B.S. Computer Sciences, Loyola University, New Orleans, La, and M.S. Software Development, St. Thomas University, Minneapolis, MN and is professionally certified in Medical and Healthcare Management, ITIL Foundation (Gartner Institute of Project Management), Facilitative Leadership, Consulting as an IT Professional, Negotiating as an IT Professional, Conflict Management, Advance Project Management and E-Business Rapid Technology Development.

Texas Children’s Pediatrics
Texas Children’s Pediatrics is the largest pediatric primary care network in the country with over 50 practices and more than 250 board-certified physicians throughout Houston, Austin and College Station, Texas. Texas Children’s Pediatrics provides expert pediatric health care for children from infants to teenagers, including: well-child visits, care of illnesses treatment of minor injuries, immunizations, school and sports physicals, hearing and vision screenings, and more. For more information, visit texaschildrenspediatrics.org or texaschildrenspediatricsaustin.org.
Texas Children’s Urgent Care
Texas Children’s Urgent Care provides high-quality, efficient and affordable care in 11 convenient community locations across the greater Houston area. Texas Children’s Urgent Care has also expanded to serve the children and families of Austin, Texas, with its first community location in South Austin. Our staff and equipment are designed to meet the needs of children and young adults up to age 18. Texas Children’s Urgent Care offers convenient, after hours care on weekday evenings and on weekends. Physicians at Texas Children’s Urgent Care are board-certified and treat a wide variety of illnesses and conditions, including: asthma, sore throat, fever, minor burns, ear infections, allergic reactions and more. For more information, visit texaschildrensurgentcare.org or texaschildrensaustinurgentcare.org.

Kay Tittle, MS, RN, FACHE
President
Kay Tittle is President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics (TCP) and Texas Children’s Urgent Care (TCUC). Kay leads these organizations in assuring high quality, customer focused care in over 50 practice sites and 12 Urgent Care sites throughout the greater Houston area, Austin and now in College Station. All of the practices in Houston carry the NCQA Medical Home designation.
Kay previously served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of TCP for 12 years. She has over 20 years’ experience in the nursing field beginning as a staff nurse, nurse manager and director at various Houston hospitals.
Ms. Tittle holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas at Houston and a Master of Science from Texas Women’s University. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, is a member of the American Medical Group Association and the Society of Pediatric Nurses.

Memorial Hermann

Amanda Hammel
CIO, Memorial Hermann Health System
Amanda joined the Memorial Hermann team in 2007 with responsibility for the technical teams supporting Cerner Millennium, major server infrastructure and the data center. Several years later she took on additional responsibility for the technical, financial and day-to-day operational functions of information systems, including the project management office, financial analyst, security, data analytics and development teams. In 2015, she added the application teams that support population health and consumerism.
Amanda graduated from Austin College with a BS in Biology. She went to work for Cerner Corporation for 12 years and ended her career at Cerner as Director, IP Strategist helping clients in the mid-West region develop implementation plans for rolling out the Cerner suite of solutions.

Houston Methodist
The Center for Innovation at Houston Methodist is part of a larger Innovation Network that encompasses many areas of the organization’s clinical and research practice. It is comprised of a group of dedicated health and technology professionals obsessed with the potential for digital innovation. The Center for Innovation embraces the changing models of health care delivery and seeks to enhance care at Houston Methodist by championing projects that promote a digital, consumer-centric approach to problem-solving. The organization embraces new technologies and new ideas, and experiment with pilot programs and beta tests until they find the right technology for the desired solution.

Roberta Levy Schwartz, Ph.D., FACHE
Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer, Houston Methodist Hospital
Roberta L. Schwartz is the executive vice president and chief innovation officer of Houston Methodist Hospital, which has been named by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 hospital in Texas for seven straight years in her role as chief innovation officer, Roberta is responsible for advancing and expanding Houston Methodist’s digital innovation platforms, including telemedicine, artificial intelligence and big data. Prior to joining Houston Methodist, Roberta worked at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, CSC consulting and for the government at CMS. Roberta has her undergraduate degree from Barnard College, her masters from Johns Hopkins and her Ph. D from UT School of Public Health. Roberta is involved in many non-profit organizations such as Lifegift OPO; Robert M Beren Academy and the UOS Synagogue, Young Survival Coalition and many breast cancer organizations. Roberta has won many awards for her professional and non-profit work.

U of H College of Medicine
University of Houston is building a new medical school with plans to open by 2020. The new U of H College of Medicine will focus on preparing primary care doctors to practice in underserved urban and rural communities, addressing a significant shortage. Texas ranks 47th out of 50 states in primary care physician-to-population ratio.
The College of Medicine is being built on campus in close proximity to some of Houston’s communities that need it most. Despite being home to the largest medical complex in the world, Houston has significant health disparities that this medical school will address. This location also allows for meaningful collaboration with other health programs throughout the University.
In 2018, Humana and the U of H announced a long-term strategic partnership to train the health care leaders of tomorrow with a focus on advancing population health, improving health outcomes and expanding the use of value-based payment models. together, the two organizations will create the Humana Integrated health System Sciences Institute at the U of H, which will unite the university’s new College of Medicine, as well as the existing colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Optometry.

Stephen J. Spann, M.D., M.B.A.
Dean of UH College of Medicine
Stephen J. Spann, a family physician leader, educator and researcher, is currently Founding Dean of the new College of Medicine and Vice-President for Medical Affairs at the University of Houston. Dr. Spann has dedicated his career to improving health and health care around the world by training future health care professionals, contributing to the scientific knowledge base of primary care, leading medical school faculty, physician medical groups and hospital medical staffs, and striving to practice excellent, evidence-based family medicine.
Dr. Spann has been active in the development of the specialty of Family Medicine both in the United States and abroad. He has served as a member of the Commission on Public Health and Scientific Affairs, the Task Force on Clinical Policies, and as member and chair the Commission on Clinical Policies and Research and the Task Force to Enhance Family Practice Research, of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He served as a member of Task Force 1, and chaired Task Force 6 of the Future of Family Medicine Project, focusing on the development of the New Model of Family Medicine practice, now known as the Patient Centered Medical Home, and the development of financial models to predict its success. He served as the lead consultant to the AAFP planning process to develop a national practice resource center to support the implementation of the New Model, resulting in the development of Transformed, a subsidiary of the AAFP. He has served as a consultant to medical schools, residency programs, ministries of health, and health care delivery systems in many countries, focusing on primary care training program and clinical practice development and implementation.
Dr. Spann served as Chief Medical Officer of Tawam Hospital, a 460 bed tertiary care teaching facility in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, which is managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International, and as senior advisor on primary care and academic affairs to SEHA, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, from December 2012 through May 2015. Previously, he served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas from April 1997 to November 2012. He served as Senior Vice-President and Dean of Clinical Affairs of that institution from November 2008 through September 2012. He was previously Professor and Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas (1990-1997), a member of the faculty and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine (1982-1990), and a member of the voluntary clinical teaching faculty of the Department of Family Medicine, Wake Forest Bowman Gray School of Medicine (1979-1982). Prior to entering fulltime academic medicine, Dr. Spann spent four years practicing rural family medicine in Arkansas and North Carolina.
A graduate of Baylor University and Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Spann completed his residency training in Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, and received the M.B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. He and his wife Nancy have two married children and four grandchildren, who live in Texas.

Next Level Urgent Care
Next Level Urgent Care has received the honor of being named a “Best Place to Work” from the Houston Business Journal in 2016 and 2018 and a Top Work Place by the Houston Chronicle in 2018.

Juliet Breeze, MD
CEO and Founder of Next Level Urgent Care
Dr. Breeze graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English. She earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.

The Menninger Clinic

Jonathan Stevens, MD, MPH
Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Outpatient Services, The Menninger Clinic, Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine
Board certified in both adult and child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Stevens completed his residency in adult and child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital in Boston. He earned his medical degree and a master’s degree in public health from New York Medical College and his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College. His research interests include the pharmacokinetics of ADHD medications, the treatment of psychotic and autism spectrum disorders and the metabolic side effects of psychiatric medications. He has presented at various conferences in this country and abroad.

Stephanie Cunningham, MBA
Vice President, Business Development, and Interim Vice President, Philanthropy, The Menninger Clinic
Cunningham is responsible for all aspects of business development, philanthropy, strategic planning, marketing, communications and referring clinician engagement initiatives at Menninger. She has been with The Clinic since 2005. Before joining Menninger, she was an assistant director of marketing at Texas Children’s Hospital, where she helped build the hospital’s direct marketing program and managed its physician referral liaison team. She earned a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the College of William and Mary and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University.

Gallagher Benefit Services
Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. was founded in 1961. From the beginning, we have been committed to building our business through innovation and creativity, proactively identifying out-of-the-box, cost-effective ways to help our clients attract, retain, and reward the best performers in their field. At Gallagher, we believe in the company we keep – for both ourselves and our clients. The benefit of business is really about the measurement and success of our relationships. We believe that what we do plays an important role, and we believe that what we do for our clients helps them become more successful, no matter what their business or their stage of business.

Jill Watson
Health and Welfare Practice Leader

DePelchin Children’s Center

Jenifer Jarriel
President and CEO DePelchin Children’s Center
Jenifer Jarriel was raised as one of seven sisters who learned early the values of working hard to achieve goals, helping others and giving back. She truly believes in making the world a better place and her role as President and CEO of DePelchin Children’s Center presents that opportunity to her every day. A nonprofit organization, DePelchin Children’s Center is an accredited foster care and adoption agency. DePelchin’s approach to caring for children integrates prevention, foster care, adoption, post-adoption and residential care programs. Prior to Jenifer’s position at DePelchin Children’s Center, she served in senior Information Technology leadership positions in Academic Medical Centers within the Texas Medical Center. She has held numerous Board leadership positions in professional organizations, and she holds an undergraduate degree from University of Houston Central Campus and an MBA from Houston Baptist University.
Jenifer devotes her time and talent to other organizations in Houston as Board member of The Periwinkle Foundation and LifeGift. In addition, she serves on the Board for the Texas Alliance for Children and Families, representing DePelchin and serving as a voice for Texas’s most vulnerable children and families.

Cook Children’s Health Care System
Cook Children’s Health Care System embraces an inspiring Promise – to improve the health of every child in our region through the prevention and treatment of illness, disease and injury. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, we’re proud of our long and rich tradition of serving our community.
Our not-for-profit organization is comprised of eight companies, including our Medical Center, Physician Network, Home Health Company, Northeast Hospital, Pediatric Surgery Center, Health Plan, Health Services Inc., and Health Foundation. With more than 60 primary, specialty and urgent care locations throughout Texas, families can access our top-ranked specialty programs and network of services to meet the unique needs of their child.
For nearly 100 years we’ve worked to improve the health of children from across our primary service area of Denton, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant and Wise counties. We combine the art of caring with leading technology and extraordinary collaboration to provide exceptional care for every child. This has earned Cook Children’s a strong, far-reaching reputation with patients traveling from around the country and the globe to receive life-saving pediatric care.

Theresa Z. Meadows, MS, RN, CHCIO, FHIMSS, FACHE
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Cook Children’s Health Care System
For has 20+ years she has lead efforts for incorporating information systems as a mechanism for facilitating process improvement, clinical quality, and efficiency. Prior to joining Cook Children’s her career included serving in roles as a registered nurse in a Cardiac Transplant Unit; healthcare consulting, project management, and leadership positions at a web development company and a large Electronic Medical Record Company. Meadows also served as a Regional Director for Ascension Health Information Services where she not only lead software implementations but was instrumental in the development of Communities of Excellence.
In her current position, Meadows has led the organization through extensive improvements and modernization. In 2012, the organization received recognition as one of the Most Improved Hospitals as part of the “Most Wired” award program and recognized as one of the Information Week 500 innovators. From 2013 to 2018, Cook Children’s has received “Most Wired” designation. Cook Children’s was recognized by Computeworld’s Honors program for their state of the art distributed antenna system implementation. In addition, Ms. Meadows was also named one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT leaders for 2013. Ms. Meadows’ department has been recognized as one of the “Best Hospital IT Departments to Work” by Healthcare IT News and by Computerworld as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT in 2015. In 2016 – 2019, Meadows was recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT and in 2017 is a Finalist for the North Texas non-profit CIO of the year.
Ms. Meadows served as the Co-Chair for the Health and Human Services Healthcare Cybersecurity Task Force. This task force is charged in creating recommendations in improving cybersecurity posture in the healthcare industry. The taskforce delivered recommendations in March 2017. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group. She serves as a member of the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Overseers. Ms. Meadows has published several articles and her organization was the first to participate in the CHIME case study publications on their successful implementation of bar-coded medication verification.
Ms. Meadows has a master’s degree in healthcare informatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an active member of the Children’s Hospital Association CIO Council; is a Fellow in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is an active member and previous board member of the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME). Ms. Meadows is a graduate of CIO Bootcamp and is a credentialed by CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO).

Humana, Inc
To accomplish that, we support physicians and other health care professionals as they work to deliver the right care in the right place for their patients, our members. Our range of clinical capabilities, resources and tools – such as in-home care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, data analytics and wellness solutions – combine to produce a simplified experience that makes health care easier to navigate and more effective.
More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company’s web site at www.humana.com, including copies of:
- Annual reports to stockholders
- Securities and Exchange Commission filings
- Most recent investor conference presentations
- Quarterly earnings news releases and conference calls
- Calendar of events
- Corporate Governance information

Heather Cox
Prior to joining Humana, Heather served as Chief Technology and Digital Officer at USAA, where she led the teams responsible for designing and building personalized and digitally enabled end to end experiences for USAA members. Heather has also served as CEO of Citi FinTech at Citigroup, helping the company adapt to a future dominated by mobile technology. Before that she, headed Card Operations for Capital One, reshaping customer and digital experience for Capital One cardholders.
Heather was named by American Banker magazine as the #3 Woman to Watch nationally in banking by American Banker Magazine in October 2017. She was also named to American Banker’s Women to Watch list in 2011, 2013 and 2016. In 2015, she was named one of the 10 Most Innovative CEOs in Banking by Bank Innovation, as well as Digital Banker of the Year by American Banker.
In March 2018, Heather was appointed to the NRG Energy Board of Directors. She serves on the Nominating and Governance and the Compensation committees. In addition, Heather serves on the
national board of directors for LIFT, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to permanently lift people out of poverty.
Heather graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. She and her husband Chris are the parents of two daughters, Lea and Victoria. Heather and Chris share a passion for boating and are avid Washington Nationals fans.

Village MD
VillageMD is a leading provider of health care for organizations moving toward a primary care-led, high-value clinical model. The VillageMD solution provides the tools, technology, operations, and staffing support needed for physicians to drive the highest quality clinical results across a population. VillageMD works with physician groups, independent practice associations, and health systems to improve quality, deliver a first-rate patient experience, and lower costs in the communities they serve. It has grown to include more than 2,500 physicians across eight markets, and is responsible for approximately 500,000 lives and $2.8 billion in healthcare spending. To learn more, visit www.villageMD.com.

Hazel Manzano MD
Vice President, Product Development
Dr. Manzano graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology. She earned her medical degree from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.