About NEHI

Donna Amrhein

Vice President, Community

Meet Donna

After stepping away in early 2022, Donna recently returned to NEHI, where she leads member recruitment and community engagement. Her focus extends to forging collaborative opportunities with diverse stakeholders across key sectors of health and health care, aligning with NEHI’s mission to advance innovations that enhance healthcare quality, efficiency, accessibility, and equity.

With over three decades of marketing, program management, and business development experience, Amrhein has a proven track record of crafting, expanding, and overseeing membership initiatives across healthcare, education, and technology domains. Prior to her tenure at NEHI, she served as the Director of Membership at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), leading both individual and organizational membership programs centered on quality improvement and patient safety.

Donna received her BA in Economics from Smith College.

Now a full-time resident of Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and two dogs, Donna enjoys spending time with family and friends at the beach or boating in Nantucket Sound, biking, and engaging in the perpetual quest for dining venues boasting great food and fantastic water views.

Lauren Bedel

Program Manager, Health Policy and Research

Meet Lauren

lbedel (at) nehi-us (dot) org

Lauren Bedel (pronounced ‘beetle’) joined The Network for Health Innovation (NEHI) in May 2021 as the Senior Health Policy & Program Associate. She is now the Program Manager, Health Policy and Research. In her time at NEHI, she has developed subject matter expertise on several areas critical to advancing health care innovation, including streamlining prior authorization by advancing automation, improving vaccination coverage among Medicare beneficiaries, and understanding patient and other stakeholder perspectives on improving telemental health care for Medicaid enrollees.

Before joining the NEHI team, Lauren was a Research Associate in the Department of Pediatrics at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Southern California. There, she utilized qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate health outcomes among underserved populations across the U.S.

Lauren earned a Master’s in Public Health from UCLA and a BA in Health, Society & Populations, and Sociology from the University of Kentucky.

When she’s not working, Lauren can be found running along the Charles, making seemingly daily pilgrimages to the library, knitting or crocheting something she’s confident she won’t lose interest in halfway through, or thrifting for artwork that isn’t haunted (but you never really can tell…).

Tom Hubbard

Senior Vice President of Policy Research

Meet Tom

thubbard (at) nehi-us (dot) org

Tom Hubbard leads NEHI’s projects on coverage and payment for innovative biopharmaceuticals, comparative effectiveness research policy, Real World Evidence, medication management, and patient medication adherence. Mr. Hubbard leverages his policy and technology experience to examine ways the country’s health care system can be transformed, focusing on the promotion of medical innovation and the improvement of quality and efficiency in clinical care.

Mr. Hubbard came to NEHI after seven years at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), where he led industry-focused projects and supervised the annual publication of the MTC Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy. His work has included supervising the I-495 Technology Corridor Partnership, an industry-municipal collaboration on growth, and leading projects on broadband deployment, federal research funding advocacy, and nanotechnology.

Previously, Mr. Hubbard served as Executive Assistant for Economic Affairs to U.S. Senator John Kerry, as Deputy Director of Development for Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, and as Director of Community Development and Planning for the City of Gardner, Massachusetts.

Mr. Hubbard graduated from Harvard College and holds a master's in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Cristy Taylor

Chief of Staff

Meet Cristy

ctaylor (at) nehi-us (dot) org

Cristy Taylor is a self-motivated business professional with many years of C-level administrative support. She will be working closely with the CEO and the Board of Directors as well as the rest of the NEHI team.

Cristy brings energy, organization, and a team-player mentality to NEHI. She has experience in finance, budgeting, project management, and office administration. She has spent nearly the last decade working in the education field and is excited to close that chapter and make her debut in the healthcare industry. Cristy received her BS in Management at Keene State College.

Cristy was born and raised in southern NH and looks forward to raising her small family in the shadow of Mt. Monadnock. When Cristy isn’t at the office, she enjoys spending time with family, hiking, working on DIY projects, and spending time in the sun.

Wendy Warring

President

and CEO

Wendy Warring

President and CEO

Meet Wendy

wwarring (at) nehi-us (dot) org

Wendy Warring, J.D. became President and CEO of NEHI in January 2020. She is focused on strengthening NEHI’s role in advancing innovative care models and technologies that improve access to effective health care, especially by lowering individuals’ health care costs. This will require creativity and collaboration among key health care industry stakeholders and NEHI is well-equipped to stimulate and leverage scalable interdisciplinary approaches.

Warring previously served as Senior Vice President of Network Development and Strategic Partnerships at Boston Children’s Hospital. She was responsible for developing strategies and executing operational initiatives to strengthen relationships between Boston Children’s and primary care physicians, hospital systems, and other providers locally, regionally, and nationally. She has also held positions as Executive Vice President & COO at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and EVP of UMass Memorial Health Care, both positions involving the implementation of strategies to strengthen the organizations’ ability to deliver accessible and affordable care.

Warring has substantial experience in the public sector as well. She was the Massachusetts Commissioner of the Division of Medical Assistance where she directed the state's Medicaid program. She also served as General Counsel to the Massachusetts Housing Finance Administration, a quasi-public agency devoted to addressing low-and moderate-income housing needs. She was also a deputy legal counsel in the Governor’s office, where she worked principally on mental health and human services issues. Early in her career, she worked at the National Academy of Sciences and at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Warring received her J.D. from Yale University and her Bachelor's Degree from Brown University.