OUR TEAM
A team of dedicated healthcare professionals, passionate about leveraging technology to improve the access, affordability, and impact of healthcare.
Our Team
Our Leadership Team and Strategic Advisors possess decades of healthcare industry experience. Governed by a board of medical advisors with 75+ years of combined healthcare experience.
Leadership Team
Corey Johnson
MBA
Chief Executive Officer
CareEco
Corey Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Corey Johnson has had several years of experience leading healthcare IT development for some of the nation’s largest healthcare providers overseeing and directing initiatives ranging from infrastructure, acquisition integrations and analytics supporting multiple fortune 100 companies. Mr. Johnson began his career managing clinical and applications research for a global biotechnology firm in his native Lexington, Kentucky before transitioning into healthcare. Corey believes healthcare happens best when patients are well-informed and engaged with their healthcare providers and believes that CareEco provides a perfect avenue to enable that engagement.
Mr. Johnson serves CareEco as the Chief Executive Officer responsible for the company’s strategy, sales, and operations activities, as well as working closely with the development teams on product design and implementation.
Mr. Johnson holds a BSc in Healthcare Administration from Western Kentucky University and an Executive MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
Chris Kinney
MBA
Chief Business Officer
CareEco
Chris Kinney, MBA
Chief Business Officer
Chris Kinney joined CareEco as Chief Business Officer to lead the Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support efforts for the organization. His background includes working with multiple Fortune 500 companies in business development, digital marketing, and technology product design and development. During his time at HCA Healthcare he lead the creation of the first patient-facing mobile applications in the company’s history, as well as worked on numerous other IT, Marketing, and CRM projects. His passion for patient-centered technology is clearly evident and fuels his belief in the possibilities technology has to unlock better health for our communities.
Outside of CareEco, Chris founded a mentorship program for young professionals called the Oak Project. Over the past 7 years the program has seen over 450 individuals connected in mentorship groups. The Oak Project focuses on intentional relationship and personal growth.
Chris holds an Executive MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and a degree in Entrepreneurship from Western Kentucky University.
Ram Neelapu,
M.Tech IIT
Chief Information Officer
CareEco
Ram Neelapu
Chief Information Officer
Ram Neelapu is the Chief Information Officer for CareEco and oversees the technical delivery for the organization. With over 20 years of information technology experience, Ram brings expertise in software design, development, quality assurance, and application architecture.
Ram provides the organization with a wealth of experience from his time working at some of the world’s largest healthcare and technology leaders. This allows Ram to be an expert at creating scalable solutions, working with large and complex data, and building organizational processes that ensure high quality results.
Strategic Advisors
Joseph Hutts
MBA
CareEco Board Chairman,
Former PhyCor Founder
CareEco
Joseph Hutts currently services as the Board Chairman for CareEco. He began his healthcare career working in large regional hospital systems before joining Hospital Corporation of America (now HCA Healthcare) where he held a variety of roles including Senior Vice President Operations with responsibility for 90+ hospitals. Also, he also helped Hospital Corporation of America merge their Health Plans division into a joint venture with Equitable Life Assurance Society to form Equicor, a new managed care company, where he served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Hutts then co-founded PhyCor, a physician practice management company. As CEO, he led the company from a start-up to a publicly traded company. After PhyCor, he co-founded and served as CEO of Surgis, an Ambulatory Surgery Company, which became the largest private ASC in the country, and ultimately became a part of United Surgical Partners International.
After the sale of Surgis, Mr. Hutts co-founded and served as CEO of BreatheAmerica, a disease management company. He current serves as Executive Chairman for Intuitive Health ER & Urgent Care. He holds a BA from Baylor University and a MBA from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Marc Watkins
MD, MSPH, FACOEM
Chief Medical Officer
Kroger Health
CareEco
Dr. Watkins is a Board-Certified Senior Physician Executive with expertise in leading organizations in maintaining and expanding market share through strategic growth with a strong focus on the delivery of quality patient care.
He received his M.D. from Meharry Medical College in 2002 and his Master of Science in Public Health (MPSH) from Meharry in 2009. Dr. Watkins is dedicated to improving health outcomes in all populations by simplifying the delivery of clinical and non-clinical solutions to providers and patients.
Paul Cleckner
JD
Chief Executive Officer
Woman’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA
CareEco
Paul Cleckner
Chief Executive Officer
Woman’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, LA
Paul Cleckner has held senior level operating positions within some of the world’s most well-known companies. Currently, he serves as a Managing Director within Gallagher’s Leadership Advisory Services and is focused on the Healthcare sector.
Throughout his career, Paul has successfully led organizations through transformational change that has resulted in accelerated growth rates and improved profitability. From early in his career at Standard and Poor’s, where he led the transformation of three business units on a global basis, to Change / Emdeon Healthcare where he revitalized their company-wide professional services.
Additionally, while with LifePoint Health, he led the senior leadership’s strategic planning process, guided the integration of over $3B in acquired Hospitals and clinical operations, along with guiding the deployment of Hospital and clinical growth strategies across three markets. Paul works extensively with multiple CEOs and leadership teams in helping them define how best to evolve their businesses in order to drive growth and improved performance in this next normal.
Stephanie C. Thompson
Pharm.D., MBA
VP, Clinical Services HealthTrust Performance Solutions
CareEco
Stephanie C. Thompson
Pharm.D., MBA
AVP, Clinical Services
HealthTurst Performance Solutions
Dr. Stephanie Thompson is an experienced healthcare executive working within the Fortune 100 healthcare industry. She has worked across the country in a variety of bedside, facility, regional, and enterprise leadership roles in the healthcare industry for over 20 years.
She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Doctor of Pharmacy program. After completing her 2-year post-doctoral residency in Pharmacotherapy at the Medical University of South Carolina, she obtained a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management.
Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Vittal
MD Neurology
Neurologist,
Nashville General & Vanderbilt
CareEco
Dr. Nandakumar Vittal
MD Neurology
Neurologist,
Nashville General & Vanderbilt
Dr. Vittal is an American Board-Certified physician in the fields of Neurology, Epilepsy, and Neurophysiology. He has worked in various hospitals nationwide in the USA for more than 15 years. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and American Epilepsy Society. He is also the co-author of the book “EEG and Semiology in Generalized Epilepsies” and numerous articles in the field of Epilepsy.
Dr. Vittal is currently the attending Neurologist at Nashville General Hospital, an Associate Professor in the Division of Neurology at Vanderbilt Medical Center, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine.
Dr. Fatimah Syed
MD Family Medicine
Assistant Professor,
Meharry Medical College
CareEco
Dr. Fatimah Syed
MD Family Medicine
Assistant Professor,
Meharry Medical College
Dr. Fatimah is an American Board-Certified Physician and has worked in Urgent Care, Family Care, Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine, and Occupational Medicine in corporate and government sectors for more than 10 years.
She is a Certified Medical Examiner for US-DOT and is certified in Occupational Health from Concentra Occupational Health Research Institute. She serves as a member of the American Association of Family Physicians and is the co-founder and Chief Medical Director of MUC Clinics in Malaysia.
Dr.Jayashree Nathan
MD Family Medicine
Assistant Professor,
Meharry Medical College
CareEco
Dr. Jayashree Nathan
MD Family Medicine
Assistant Professor,
Meharry Medical College
Dr. Jayashree Nathan is an Acute Care Physician with over 20 years of experience in the field of medicine. She received her M.D. from MGR University, India and is an American Board-Certified Family Physician.
Dr. Jayashree is currently a full-time acute care physician and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Meharry Medical College, where she has been teaching for the past 12 years.