Meet Our Passionate Team of Healthcare and Tech Pros
The Prista senior leadership team is bound together by a common goal – raising the bar for healthcare services in America. We are passionate about the power of technology to not only improve patient care, but also make providers’ jobs easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable.
Senior Leadership

Don Jarrell
President

Billie Anne Schoppman
Chief Mission Officer
A 25+ year veteran of the healthcare industry, Billie Anne has held senior executive positions including Senior Vice President of Clinical Services at Cornerstone Healthcare Group, Regional Director of Operations at Vencor, Inc. (now Kindred) and various nursing management positions.
Billie Anne is the principal subject expert for Prista’s ActionCue CI platform. She also manages a network of healthcare consultants as part of the company’s operations advisory board and marketing channel.
Before joining Prista, Billie Anne co-founded and led the hospital consulting firm DTI Healthcare Professionals. She continues to provide executive-level consulting services for DTI focusing on change and improvement processes relating to healthcare operations, with a strong operational and e-management focus. Billie Anne also specializes in advisory and execution services in hospital operations, clinical services management, quality management, education and strategic IT.

Brian Deterling
CTO, Software Architect
An expert in software development and technology across a variety of industries, Brain Deterling brings 20+ years of experience to his role as Prista’s Chief Technology Officer. He is also the Chief Software Architect for Prista’s ActionCue CI platform.
Before joining Prista, Brian had a key role in various innovative tech projects, including serving as lead architect for blockbuster.com (the software that paved the way for online DVD rentals and later, Netflix). He served as principal designer and architect of the Insight™ application by Blue Sky Technologies and as a Software Consultant for Signals Ready.
Before that, Brian spent nine years at EXE Technologies (now SSA GT) in a variety of roles including Senior Software Architect for the company’s warehouse management and slotting applications.

Kari Dwyer
Product Delivery
Kari Dwyer is a Senior Project Manager with 20 years of experience in the IT industry. Her superpower is managing multiple enterprise projects at once while maintaining excellent customer service, quality, and meeting all project deadlines.
Kari is a proven leader in the delivery of high risk, complex enterprise performance management, business intelligence and data warehousing projects across a range of industries including healthcare, supply chain, construction, security, software, financial services and hospitality.
In addition to her project management expertise, Kari has hands-on skills with numerous technologies, enhancing her ability to lead large, complex project teams.
Board of Directors
Don Jarrell and Billie Anne Schoppman are joined on the Board of Directors by the following individuals who bring valuable experiences and perspectives to Prista’s governance.

Dennis Cagan
Director
Dennis Cagan has been a successful tech entrepreneur since co-founding his first software company in 1968. He has since founded or co-founded over a dozen different companies and been a CEO of both public and private companies, a consultant, venture capitalist, private investor and professional board member of 53 fiduciary corporate boards.
In 2013, Dennis was honored as one of 12 Outstanding Directors in North Texas by the Dallas Business Journal and NACD. In 2011, he was elected to the IT Hall of Fame — Channel Wing, administered by CompTIA. Before that, he was the Keynote Speaker at the first COMDEX Show in Las Vegas.
Dennis is a recognized authority on corporate governance and information technology including mobile applications, software, hardware, systems and communications. In addition to his directorial duties at Prista, Dennis is currently on five other boards of directors. He attended UCLA where he majored in economics.

Keith L Thurgood, Ph.D.
Clinical Professor of Healthcare Leadership and Management, UT Dallas and Director
Keith Thurgood is a Clinical Professor of Healthcare Leadership and Management and an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas. In addition, Dr. Thurgood is a faculty member and senior advisor for the Thayer Leader Development Group in West Point, New York. He is also a managing partner with Pioneer Partnership Development Group, focused on strategy development, operational excellence and leadership development.
Keith brings a unique perspective on healthcare operations, management and leadership, having served at senior level leadership positions in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Most recently, Dr. Thurgood was President - Spend and Clinical Management of MedAssets, a healthcare performance improvement company.
He holds a BA in Political Science from Brigham Young University, an MS in Strategic Studies from the Army War College, an MS in Business Administration from Boston University, and a PhD in Organizational Development and Leadership from Capella University. He is a nationally recognized speaker on leadership and operations management.
Advisory Board

Jake T. Redden DHSc, MHA, MPH, FACHE, CPHQ, CPPS
Advisor
When not serving in governance roles, Dr. Redden is busy leading as an Executive Director at UP Health Marquette, A Duke LifePoint health center. He is an advanced practitioner in strategic and quality improvement, with diverse experience in the world of nuclear-powered submarines, as well as the healthcare and patient safety. Dr. Redden refined his ability to improve safety culture while working in the Federal Aviation Administration and Veterans Health Administration.
He holds a fellow status with the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), and certifications in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), and Patient Safety (CPPS). Dr. Redden has a Doctorate in Health Sciences and Master’s degrees in both Public Health and Healthcare Administration.
Clinical Application Support Staff
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Amy Braud, RN, CRRN
Clinical Application Specialist
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Anne Tourney, MSN, RN
Clinical Application Specialist

Dee Sheridan RN
Director of Customer Success
Dee has joined the Prista staff with over 30 years in a variety of nursing positions. Most recently as the Quality Director at a Critical Access hospital in northern New Mexico.
Over the years she has enjoyed care management in a hospital setting, workers compensation care manager, telephone triage nurse, and occupational nursing at IBM and Raytheon corp. Her passion for birth and woman and infant health led her to be a childbirth educator, birth doula and lactation counselor attending over 1,000 births. She is affectionately known as "douladee" as she always manages to run into the many families she had the honor to be at births for.
Dee lives in Colorado with her husband Ken. Combined they have 6 adult children and 5 grandpets.

Sharon Norton, RN, CPHQ
Clinical Application Specialist
Sharon Norton is a Registered Nurse with a wealth of clinical, quality management, and healthcare software implementation experience. Her varied clinical experience includes acute and long-term care in physician’s office and home care settings. She has served in roles from staff nurse to educator to Director of Quality Management. For the last nine years, Sharon has applied her experience as a consultant and trainer for healthcare software.
Sharon is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality and has presented at healthcare quality conferences at both the state and national level. She received her nursing degree from Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, NY and a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.

Megan Amaral, RN, BSN, CPHQ
Clinical Application Specialist
Megan Amaral is passionate about patient safety, quality and finding a better way of doing things. In her years as a healthcare professional, she has enjoyed roles as an educator, quality improvement professional and staff nurse in hospital and ambulatory surgery settings.
Megan has first-hand clinical experience with ActionCue CI and is excited to be a part of the product’s dynamic and efficient methodology for improving patient outcomes. Megan received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Montana State University, Bozeman.

Beth Thomsen, LPN, LPN-C
Clinical Application Specialist
Beth Thomsen works directly with ActionCue CI subscribers to ensure their success and to make the ActionCue CI software as useful as possible. Applying over 30 years of healthcare nursing and quality management experience, Beth uses active subscriber data to identify opportunities for improving patient outcomes.
Beth graduated from Northeast Tech of Nebraska and holds active licenses as both LPN and LPN-C. She is a former president of the South-Central Hospital Education Network in Nebraska and is a current member of the Nebraska Association for Healthcare Quality, Risk and Safety.

Amy Braud, RN, CRRN
Clinical Application Specialist
