Member Login

The Susan McFarland Volunteer Award

 

The HDAA Board is pleased to announce the winner of the 2023 Susan McFarland Volunteer Award, revealed November 9 at the annual conference in Denver.

Congratulations to Peter Ivers of Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Wendy Soethe, Pivot Point Consulting.

Pete leads our Epic special interest group and is a charter member of HDAA's community advisory council. His work with the Epic SIG is a wonderful example of HDAA's commitment to active and engaged discussion on topics of importance. The Epic SIG meets monthly and covers a wide range of topics involving Epic and analytics.

 

Especially noteworthy: Pete persuaded representatives from both Epic and Microsoft to speak with the group during 2023. HDAA is a vendor-agnostic organization, but we all know that our vendors are critical partners in the maturation of healthcare analytics. Pete found a way to include Epic and Microsoft in our conversations to the benefit of all parties. Epic was so intrigued by the experience that it helped sponsor HDAA 2023 and sent two representatives to Denver.

 

Wendy has been deeply involved with HDAA since she spearheaded our 2018 conference in Seattle while she was at Seattle Children's Hospital. In the past two years, she's led the effort to recruit sponsors for our conferences. Sponsor revenue funds HDAA operations throughout the year -- our town halls, SIGs, even our website would not be possible without the financial support of our conference sponsors.

Wendy worked tirelessly in 2023 to find sponsors committed to HDAA's mission and eager to contribute our body of knowledge.

Thank you, Pete and Wendy, for all you to do make HDAA the robust organization it has become.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of HDAA, making possible everything from our annual conference to our website to our special interest groups and online forums. Each year, we honor one volunteer for outstanding contribution to our mission and dedication to the spirit of collaboration that informs everything we do.

The Susan McFarland award, named for the woman who was HDAA’s driving force for its first 17 years, recognizes our volunteer of the year. This individual has donated significant time and effort, often behind-the-scenes, to keep our organization running efficiently, our members engaged and informed.

Criteria

The HDAA Board will select the person who best demonstrates one or more of the following:

  • outstanding support of one or more areas of HDAA operations
  • commitment to HDAA’s mission and guiding principles
  • innovative expansion of services to our members

Eligibility and nomination

  • The nominee must be a current member of HDAA and have participated in at least one HDAA volunteer activity in the calendar year
  • The nominee must be 18 years or older
  • The nominee cannot be a current member of the HDAA board
  • Previous award winners are not eligible
  • Any HDAA member may nominate an individual for the Susan McFarland Award, subject to the eligibility requirements above.

To nominate someone, write a note describing the person’s efforts and contributions that support the award criteria. Send nominations to [email protected]. Deadline is one month prior to the HDAA annual conference. 

Selection and recognition

The HDAA Advisory Board will announce the winner at the annual conference, during the members meeting.
Upon acceptance of the award, recipient will receive an award and public recognition through the HDAA website.


HDAA Honor Roll

Winners of the Susan McFarland Award

2023

Peter Ivers IT Director at Johns Hopkins Medicine
Unflappable Epic SIG lead and charter member of HDAA Community Advisory Council

Wendy Soethe Senior Director, Data & Analytics - AI at Pivot Point Consulting
Stellar recruiter and manager of conference sponsors

2022

David Ding Assistant Professor of supply chain management and the director for Healthcare Analytics and Intelligence program, Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick
Father of the HDAA Insights series

2021

Anjali Ancy Student, Mount Carmel College, Autonomous, Bangalore
Devoted curator of HDAA on LinkedIn

Heather Wilson Business Analyst, Evergreen Health
Inspiring social media advocate and Slack administrator

John Peters Senior Business Intelligence Developer, Intermed
Conscience of the HDAA conference presentation committee

Mary Jo David Technical Writer, Michigan Medicine
Stalwart editor and steward of our presentation committee

2020

Lynsie Daley Senior Data Analyst and Team Lead, Intermountain Healthcare
Peerless lead of HDAA's Women in Analytics special interest group

Patrick Day Senior Advisor and Product Owner, Cigna 
Equally distinguished lead of the Data Governance SIG

Michael Lewis Senior Director of Healthcare Analytics, Cleveland Clinic
COVID panelist extraordinare

Boris Tyukin Senior Big Data Strategy Manager, AdventHealth
First-rate and tireless presenter

2019

Beth Willmitch Senior Analytics Architect, Baptist Health of South Florida
Indefatigable maintainer of HDAA membership roster