Chutes & Ladders—Walgreens snags former Optum and CVS exec; Phoenix Children's bolsters 4 divisions

Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.


Walgreens

Jason Stenta Walgreens
Jason Stenta (Jason Stenta, Walgreens)

Walgreens tapped Jason Stenta as senior vice president and chief commercial officer. He was most recently SVP of payer sales at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company. Prior to Optum, he held leadership roles at CVS Health for 10 years.

In this new role, Stenta will lead the company’s commercial growth strategy, driving development and commercialization of B2B healthcare services built on the company’s core assets, and enhancing partnerships with payers, health system providers and life sciences companies.

“Jason is a strategic, relationship-driven healthcare leader, and I’m proud to welcome him to the team,” Mary Langowski, executive vice president and president, U.S. Healthcare, at Walgreens Boots Alliance, said in a statement. “His experience with complex healthcare organizations, along with his strong understanding of market dynamics, regulatory requirements, and customer needs, will be invaluable as we strengthen our relationships and solutions in healthcare.”


Phoenix Children's Hospital 

Phoenix Children’s has appointed four new division chiefs to lead vital areas of care in pathology and laboratory medicine, developmental pediatrics, allergy and immunology and palliative medicine: Dennis Dietzen, Ph.D., Dannah Raz, M.D., Cindy Salm Bauer, M.D., and Tressia Shaw, M.D., will each be tasked with growing their divisions, enhancing the services their teams provide and ensuring patient families receive consistent, top-quality care at every site of service across the health system.

Tressia Shaw
Tressia Shaw, M.D. (Tressia Shaw, Phoenix Children's)

Shaw will lead the palliative care division at Phoenix Children's. Shaw is a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and she was a Top Doctor Recipient for PHOENIX magazine. 

Raz will be the division chief of developmental pediatrics at Phoenix Children's Barrow Neurological Institute. 

"I believe that every child is a unique person and that they deserve the highest level of care tailored to their needs," Raz is quoted as saying on Phoenix Children's website. "I take a holistic approach in my evaluations with the goal to help each child reach their highest potential. I see myself as part of the child’s team and a cheerleader for them on their journey through childhood."

Dannah Raz
Dannah Raz, M.D. (Dannah Raz, Phoenix Children's)

Bauer will be the Division Chief and Medical Director of Allergy and Immunology as well as the co-director of the Multidisciplinary Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease Clinic at Phoenix Children's. Bauer started the Allergy and Immunology Clinic at Phoenix Children's in 2013. She is also the past president of the Arizona Allergy and Asthma Society.

Dietzen will lead the pathology and laboratory medicine division at Phoenix Children's. 

Dietzen was formerly a professor at Washington University in pathology and immunology and worked at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Dietzen served as the president of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) in 2018.


> Connie Health—a Medicare beneficiary advisory firm—has tapped Alon Altschuler as chief financial officer and Tom Rotem as chief revenue officer.

> Marissa Carlson has been tapped as chief marketing officer of TigerConnect, a care collaboration and patient engagement solution. 

> EHR company Greenway Health announced Paul Ford as chief information security officer.

> RethinkFirst, a SaaS software and solutions provider in behavioral health, appointed David Firestone as its first chief revenue officer. 

> Eric Wei, M.D., has been appointed CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals Bellevue.

> Sheri Zee has been appointed chief people officer of Clearway Health.

> ATTAC Consulting Group has welcomed Kenny McNeal as SVP and chief revenue officer. McNeal is an expert in Medicare Advantage risk adjustment, star ratings, quality programs and sales/broker relationships.