Thalia Sirjue is a diehard public health nerd, passionate about using technology to engage people in improving their own health. She currently gets her fill of public health nerdiness by serving as Chief of Staff at the New Jersey Department of Health where she oversees more than 5,600 employees and a combined State/Federal budget of $2.8 billion and. In this role, she acts as a Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the foundational units of the Department – Human Resources, Fiscal/Management & Administration, Health Information Technology, Healthcare Quality and Informatics, Communications, Policy & Legislative Affairs, Ethics, EEO/AA and Equity Services, and Research Initiatives. She also leads enterprise-wide initiatives for strategic planning, public health accreditation, and health innovation.
Thalia previously served as the Deputy Chief of Staff responsible for a myriad of special projects. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was appointed director of the statewide testing and contact tracing programs — this included the rapid scale-up of the contact tracing workforce, statewide rollout of a new contact tracing software, launch of the COVID Alert NJ app, managing the State’s K-12 screening testing and at-home testing programs, and managing testing inventory and distribution.
Prior to her tenure at NJDOH, Thalia managed development lifecycles for Veteran and clinician-focused mobile apps for the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) App Store and led the team that established VA’s Innovation Ecosystem to enable the discovery and diffusion of health care innovations across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This included launching the Diffusion of Excellence initiative and expanding the VA Innovators Network.
Thalia earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Boston University and Master of Public Health degree from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. Thalia is a Jersey girl to her core. This mixed with her Jamaican and Cuban heritage means she drives fast, will eat a bacon or pork roll, egg, and cheese for any meal of the day, and lives for sun, sand, and saltwater. If she has free time, she spends it cooking, baking, reading romance novels and murder mysteries, watching anime, and going on walks with her husband and daughter.
Aric Sharp is a recognized national leader on the healthcare transition to value, innovation and physician practice management. Aric currently serves as the CEO of Value Based Care for Clover Health. In his previous role as Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer at INTEGRIS Health, he led the journey to value-based care including launching the Direct Contracting Model, a Medicare Advantage Plan, and Oklahoma’s first virtual hospital.
As Vice President for Accountable Care at UnityPoint Health, he developed and led UnityPoint Accountable Care, one of the nation’s largest and most successful ACOs, with over 8,000 physicians, 40 hospitals, and over $2.0 Billion of medical spend under risk including the country’s largest Next Generation Model ACO. His nearly 30 years of healthcare experience included various executive level roles including CEO and COO for Quincy Medical Group and The Iowa Clinic respectively, two of the nation’s highest performing physician owned multi-specialty medical groups.
Aric is known for his ability to distill complexity into clear, actionable understanding through a collaborative results focused approach. He is frequently cited by national media on an array of healthcare topics and is called upon to speak and participate in panel discussions, provide briefings on Capitol Hill, and even testify to Congress. Aric has expertise in healthcare strategy and transformation, population health, physician leadership and governance development, growth, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, public policy, and operational turnarounds.
Aric serves as the Past Chair of AMGA (American Medical Group Association), as well as on numerous healthcare boards, advisory councils, start-up ventures and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. He is also the Past-Chair of the AMGA Public Policy Committee. Aric earned his Master’s in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Iowa State University. He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Certified Medical Practice Executive.