Back to CHIA Ballot Mainpage

Position Statement
AHIMA Delegate candidates were asked to respond to the following: What innovative strategies will you use to elevate CHIA’s influence within AHIMA and within the healthcare industry, ensuring California’s diverse and passionate health information community contributes to—and benefits from—national initiatives shaping the HI profession’s future across all healthcare settings?

With over 37 years in Health Information Management and Information Systems I've seen the profession shift through multiple eras paper to hybrid to fully digital environments, increased regulatory complexity and a growing focus on patient driven data access. These changes demand that CHIA's voice remain strong and at the national level, as an AHIMA Delegate, I would focus on three practical strategies to elevate our influence.

1. Strengthen California to AHIMA communication loops.
   California represents one of the largest and most diverse HIM communities in the country. I want to ensure our subject matter experts from coding, data integrity, privacy compliance, informatics and emerging health technologies are consistently feeding real time insights upward. This means structured listening sessions, focused workgroups, and ongoing dialogue with CHIA Component Groups to capture statewide pain points and innovations.
2. Translate national initiatives into operational relevance
   Many national initiatives sound great on paper but fail when the practical impacts on HIM operations are not considered. My experience leading teams, managing compliance and implementing system-wide workflows allows me to bridge that gap I will advocate for guidance tools that are usable in real world settings across acute care, ambulatory, post-acute, and public health environments.
3. Build stronger partnerships across California's health care ecosystem
   To elevate our presence nationally we need tighter collaboration across statewide stakeholders: health systems, public health programs, academic programs, payers, community clinics, and technology partners. I will advocate creating consistent touchpoints and joint learning opportunities so CHIA can surface shared challenges and bring unified data-driven recommendations to AHIMA. A connected statewide network makes California's contribution stronger and more influential at the national level.

My goal is simple: ensure that California's diverse voices are not only heard but actively influence policy, standards and innovations that benefit healthcare settings and strengthen future of our profession.

Relevant Health Information Professional Positions

• HIM Operations Manager, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, 2013 to present
• HIM Electronic Health Record Manager, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, 2010 - 2013
• IS Applications Supervisor, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, 2011 - 2013
• HIM Systems Operations Manager, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, 2008 -2010
• HIM Quality Analyst Manager Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, 1994 - 2007

Academic and Professional Degrees or Training Received

• Bachelor's Degree, Health Information/Medical Records Admininstration/Administrator, University of Cincinnati, 2014
• AS, Health Information Management, Santa Barbara City College, 2010
• Bachelor's Degree, Animal Science, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, 1997

Association Committee/Task Force Activities

• CHIA - Convention Committee, 2021 - 2025
• CHIA - Delegate, 2024
• CHIA - Health Information Access, 2021 - 2023

CHIA does not endorse or sponsor any candidates and the views expressed in the position statements and campaign videos are those of the candidates and do not necessarily reflect the policies and opinions of the Association.