Our Board of Directors

Vera Rulon is a creative and innovative healthcare strategist and thought leader with a keen interest in empowering providers, patients and caregivers to take charge of their health. This includes better communication between healthcare providers, payers, the life sciences, communities, and patients/caregivers; ensuring access to healthcare all over the world; and, importantly, the use of data and research to advance public health world-wide.

Sally Sidwell serves as the Senior Vice President of Client Engagement with Optum, leading regionally located Client Success Executives to engage and delight some of Optum’s largest and most complex clients. Sally worked on the UHC side of the house within Uniprise from 1994 through 2001. She left UnitedHealth Group and worked for ADP, leading the beyond payroll businesses of Health & Welfare, COBRA, and FSA. She later joined Kaiser Permanente as the Chief Operations Officer for Georgia before returning as an Optum employee in January 2011. Sidwell has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare with companies including ADP, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealth Group.

Mona has 35 years’ experience in the profession and serves as chair of the HIM program at Coppin State University. She has led health information departments in behavioral health, rehabilitation, and acute care settings and has worked for a health information outsourcing company. She served as President, President-elect, Director, Delegate, and chair of several committees for the Maryland Health Information Management Association. Mona served as chair of the Educational Strategies Committee, Council for Excellence in Education (CEE), Fellowship, and Nominating Committees. She participated on the AHIMA Advocacy and Policy Council, CEE Educational Programming Workgroup, and AHIMA Professional Ethics Committee, and she is currently on the Editorial Advisory Council for Journal of AHIMA. Mona is an accreditation peer reviewer for the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education.

Lynda Mitchell has 20 years’ experience in healthcare management and 15 years’ experience in nonprofit leadership roles. She currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer for Allergy & Asthma Network, where she leads the day-to-day operations, which includes digital transformation and aligning projects with strategic goals and cross functional team collaboration.

Fran Ayalasomayajula is the Chief Executive Officer of RTL Innovation, CES 2022 Innovation Award Honoree, and President of Reach, a 501c3 global social impact organization. Prior to RTL, Fran was the Global Head of Digital Health Strategies at HP. She is the author of several publications on a variety of digital health topics including best practices for the successful adoption of virtual reality in the clinical setting, approaches to globally scaling AI-enabled and connected health technology solutions and the deployment of digital technology for the prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity.

Dr. Rupa Valdez is an associate professor at the University of Virginia with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is also a core faculty member of Global Studies and the Disability Studies Initiative. Dr. Valdez merges the disciplines of human factors engineering, health informatics, and cultural anthropology to understand and support the ways in which people manage health at home and in the community. Her research and teaching focus on underserved populations, including populations that are racial/ethnic minorities, are of low socioeconomic status or are living with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities. Her work draws heavily on community engagement and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), among others. She recently testified before Congress on the topic of health equity for the disability community and received the Jack A. Kraft Innovator Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) for her pioneering work in creating and developing the subdiscipline of patient ergonomics.

Lyman Sornberger is the President and CEO of Lyman Healthcare Solutions (LHS), LLC, which was formed in 2013. Prior to LHS, Mr. Sornberger was the Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer at Capio, The Patient Financial Wellness Company. He has 30+ years in healthcare executive leadership and served as Executive Director of Revenue Cycle Management at Cleveland Clinic Health System (CCHS) and was at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for 22 years in leadership roles for their physician revenue cycle management groups. He proudly served as a medic for six years in the U.S. Army and is a member of HFMA, AAHAM, ACHE, AHIMA, HIMSS, Becker’s, Modern Healthcare, ACA International, and various Advisory Boards.

Rebecca A. Morton began her career in medical records at University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics in 1972 and was the Director of Health Information Services at University of Missouri Healthcare before retiring in 2018. She continues to be active in the Missouri Health Information Management Association (MoHIMA) and the Boone County Mizzou Alumni Association, currently serving on the Board of Directors. She also supports Children’s Grove, a local charity providing youth mental health resources and youth involvement in many community activities.

Dr. Klauer is the Chief Executive Officer of AHIMA. He formerly served as health system Chief Medical Officer at HCA Florida and Ocala hospitals, CEO of the American Osteopathic Association and the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Risk Officer for TeamHealth. He holds the following faculty appointments: Clinical Asst. Professor, Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine; Clinical Asst. Professor, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is the co-author of four risk management books: Bouncebacks: Critical Care, Bouncebacks: Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine; Bouncebacks: Medical and Legal and Risk Management; and the Emergency Department: Executive Leadership for Protecting Patients and Hospitals. Dr. Klauer also served as the American College of Emergency Physicians Council Speaker and subsequently as a member of their Board of Directors. Dr. Klauer earned his Executive JD, with honors, from Concord Law School in 2011.

Lauren currently serves as AHIMA’s Chief Public Policy and Impact Officer. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing strategic and operational oversight over AHIMA’s advocacy and programmatic strategy to demonstrate mission impact. Prior to that, Lauren served as Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs at AHIMA, overseeing the organization’s policy and advocacy before Congress and various federal agencies. With two decades of healthcare policy experience, Lauren previously worked on Capitol Hill where she was actively involved in almost every aspect of a congressional office, including serving as Chief of Staff—a position that requires the ability to quickly synthesize multiple issues and adapt to constantly shifting priorities. Lauren received her JD from American University Washington College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University. She is admitted to practice law in New York.