This session draws on new research from Employee Benefit News and Quantum Health to reveal how employees and HR leaders view today’s healthcare benefits—and where the disconnects lie.

We’ll explore:

Walk away with actionable strategies to strengthen your benefits approach, close the perception gap, and help employees get more from their healthcare experience.

Newton Cheng went on mental health leave on Jan 18, 2022.  Despite working in the field of health & wellbeing for 20+ years, being a world champion competitive athlete, and having access to world class experts and robust mental health support services, he still burned out. 

In this keynote he will share the story of his journey to burnout and back, and what he’s learned about how we’re hampering innovation by not practicing vulnerable leadership… so many of us leaders get it wrong when we do try to demonstrate vulnerability, and how we can practice it effectively via a skills-based approach.

True leadership requires risk taking and failure. However, our culture tells us to “fake it until we make it” and to “never let them see us sweat”.  What might we be able to achieve if we could actually share our struggles so that we could take better care of ourselves and each other while pursuing our most daring ambitions?

With more than 20 years in human resources, Marie Yorn is an experienced Total Rewards leader committed to building programs that support employee wellbeing and foster engagement. As Director of Total Rewards at Keystone Cooperative, she leads initiatives across compensation, benefits, wellness, and employee recognition—aligning these efforts with the organization’s values and operational goals. She brings a thoughtful approach to preventive care planning, benefits education, and outreach strategies across a highly dispersed workforce, ensuring employees have clear, accurate information to make informed choices. Marie is recognized for developing communications that are accessible and purposeful, helping employees navigate their benefits confidently. Her leadership blends strategic insight with practical execution. Whether guiding open enrollment, supporting recognition efforts, or promoting health and wellness opportunities, Marie maintains a consistent focus on clarity, inclusion, and employee experience. She lives Keystone’s mission to Lead, Serve, Grow, and Embrace—ensuring Total Rewards programs reflect organizational values and foster connection, transparency, and wellbeing.

Tammi Wortham brings a unique blend of human resources and business management expertise to Sun Life’s strategic team of HR professionals. Tammi leads the development of Sun Life’s employee engagement and talent strategies, including enhancing the employee experience, embracing digital transformation, and recruiting and developing top talent. She has also established a strong culture of purpose-driven work, helping employees to connect to the value of their work and how they contribute to the company’s mission of helping people get the care and coverage they need.

Tammi is a dedicated employee champion, driving major initiatives to help employees manage work and personal life. In 2019 she spearheaded the creation of Sun Life’s enhanced paid family and medical leave program, which earned the company national recognition and established Sun Life as a leader in PFML expertise. During the pandemic, Tammi oversaw the rollout of Sun Life’s commitment to flexibility, which has evolved into its flexible hybrid work model, allowing employees to determine whether they work from the office or from home, depending on the needs of their day. Most recently, Tammi completed the launch of menopause benefits alongside already offered fertility benefits, furthering the company’s commitment to supporting women’s health at all ages and career stages.

Before leading HR at Sun Life, Tammi was vice president, Group Benefits Client Services, leading the largest unit in the company’s U.S. business for a wide range of operational functions. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Prudential and The Hartford Financial Services Group.

Tammi holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Hartford and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Missouri – Columbia. In 2019 she was named one of the most influential women in corporate America by Savoy Magazine. Tammi serves as Board Chair of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and was a board member of Hyde Square Task Force, an organization that empowers and supports youth as they explore, master and celebrate Afro-Latin culture through art.

Harrison Woodside is a Senior Director of Product Strategy with Inspira Financial, a leading provider of health, wealth, retirement, and benefits solutions. In this role, he leads long-term product strategy and growth initiatives focused on delivering greater value to partners and helping their employees improve their financial well-being. He believes that empowering people to thrive financially is essential to organizational success.

Prior to joining Inspira, Harrison spent the better part of a decade in mergers & acquisitions and strategy execution for digital-first businesses, where he played a key role in the formation of RVO Health – one of the nation’s leading consumer digital health platforms. He began his career in investment banking with Wells Fargo Securities.

Harrison holds a B.S. in Finance from Wake Forest University and enjoys reading, cooking, and playing tennis in his free time.

MD, MS

Vindell Washington, MD, MS, is the Chief Clinical Officer and Head of Health Equity at Verily. Dr. Washington provides clinical leadership across Verily’s research and care solutions and currently leads the company’s Center of Excellence for Health Equity. Dr. Washington previously served as the CEO of Onduo, Verily’s care solution for chronic condition management. Prior to Verily, he was Chief Medical Officer and EVP at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana where he oversaw network operations and contracting, medical policy and quality, disease management, and pharmacy benefits. Dr. Washington also served as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), where he provided high-level executive direction and leadership for ONC programs, operations, and policies. Dr. Washington also served in several capacities at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System including, President of the Health System Medical Group, Chief Medical Information Officer, and as the leader of health system quality and information technology. He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia and his MS in healthcare management from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Allison Velez serves as the Chief People Officer at Marathon Health, where she leads Human Resources, Internal Communications, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Over her five years with the organization, she has played a key role in scaling the workforce from 600 to 3,300 employees, driving talent strategy, and cultivating a high-performance, mission-driven culture.

With a Master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Azusa Pacific University, Allison brings 25 years of experience leading people strategy, organizational transformation, and leadership development across public and private companies.

She has deep expertise in strategic HR, culture building, and M&A. Her last 15 years have been focused in healthcare, where she led HR transformations, post-merger integrations, and leadership alignment to accelerate business outcomes. Prior to Marathon Health, she held senior HR roles at DaVita, DaVita Medical Group, and Optum, as well as in global building materials and engineering sectors.

In addition to HR, Allison oversees enterprise-wide internal communications, fostering connection, clarity, and alignment across a distributed workforce. Her work is rooted in creating systems that empower people, strengthen culture, and drive performance.

Originally from Hawaii and raised in Southern California, Allison now lives in the Denver area with her husband and their three teenage daughters—all competitive dancers. Outside of work, she’s a dedicated dance mom and enjoys yoga, hiking, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She has served on the boards of City Year Denver and Junior Achievement Colorado, reflecting her passion for leadership and community impact.

Liz Thomas is a seasoned Total Rewards and People Operations leader with more than a decade of experience building and scaling programs that help companies attract, retain, and grow exceptional talent. She currently leads Total Rewards at Handshake, where she’s been driving a full transformation of the company’s compensation and equity programs – developing new philosophies around promotion equity, equity refresh, geographic pay, and more. She also partners closely with the Compensation Committee on executive compensation, equity forecasting, and burn modeling.

Before joining Handshake, she led the People Operations and Total Rewards team at Checkr, where she built the function from the ground up – growing the team tenfold and overseeing everything from compensation and benefits to people analytics and HR tech. She’s also held People leadership roles at Omada Health, Rigetti Computing, and Lithium Technologies, where she played a key role in launching and refining total rewards programs, enhancing HR systems, and designing strategies that aligned people practices with business goals.