Dr. Stephanie Lahr serves as the CIO and CMIO for Monument Health, formerly Regional Health, the largest healthcare provider in Western South Dakota. Dr Lahr joined Monument Health in April 2016, shortly after their decision to transform the organization through a process of EHR Unification and a selection of Epic as their transformative partner. Dr Lahr led the clinical aspects of that project as well as the data conversion strategy. In January of 2018 Dr Lahr added the role of CIO and is now responsible for the strategy and management of the Information Technology Division. Since the Epic implementation the focus for the division is now on optimizing the EHR and other technologies to improve end user, provider and patient satisfaction, assessing new technologies that fit in the healthcare space and evolving the IT infrastructure to meet with the growing pressures on performance and security. Prior to her role at Monument Health Dr Lahr was the Medical Director of IT at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a role she developed during her 8 years there as a hospitalist.

Dr. Lahr has nearly a decade of experience assisting hospitals and their medical staffs with the changes associated with EHR implementation and transition across the country in a consultant role, prior to her time at Monument health that focus was primarily in MEDITECH hospitals.

Stephanie attended medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. She completed Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Washington University in St Louis, but her heart drew her to complete her training in Internal Medicine. She completed Internal Medicine residency at UTMB in Galveston. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and in 2015 became Board Certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Clinical Informatics. She has also completed the CHIME CIO Bootcamp and is now a certified CHCIO.

Jason Howe is a Product Architect Team Leader with Garmin Labs and has been with the company since graduating from SDSM&T in 2007. In his current role, Jason leads a team that explores ideas and technologies with a focus on turning them into products. Prior to this role, Jason was a systems and software engineer with Garmin. While at SDSM&T Jason was active on the CAMP and robotics teams. He holds a B.S. in Computer and Mechanical Engineering as well as a M.S in Electrical Engineering.

Mason was raised on the Rosebud Reservation as Sicangu Lakota in South Dakota. He chose data science as his craft. He graduated from MIT with a Bachelors and Masters in data analytics. In addition to his work at Earthrise Media, he helps to run Indigenous in AI, with the intention of expanding knowledge of artificial intelligence and data science within Native American communities. He was featured in the NY Times article “Training the Next Generation of Indigenous Data Scientists” about the 2021 IndigiData workshop focused on Indigenous data sovereignty and was a head instructor for the inaugural Lakota AI Code Camp which brought software and AI to Lakota youth. In previous work, he has delivered successful data projects in several industries including healthcare for MIT Medical, logistics for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and financial sales at MFS Investment Management.

Sarah Bockelmann has over 15 years’ experience in strategy development and implementation, continuous improvement, and business development. In her current role as Director of Business Development, she leads the state growth teams for Black Hills Energy’s gas and electric utilities. Sarah and her team are focused on identifying and implementing new opportunities and developing long-term business growth strategies. Prior to joining Black Hills Energy, Sarah held various positions such as business development manager, senior strategy consultant, and management engineer for the Mayo Clinic. Sarah holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of South Dakota, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Dr. Alisha Vincent loves to get things done. She’s a chronic entrepreneur who loves to take a problem, figure out a solution, and implement processes to make things happen. She has devoted most of that energy to building innovative nonprofit and educational programs over her 20+ year career, including a decade as a professor and administrator at Dakota Wesleyan University and several years working on community development and charitable initiatives in East Africa and across rural America. Since 2002, she's led, or co-led, processes to start ten for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, most of which continue to thrive today. Over the last 18 months, Dr. Vincent has engaged her brain and ambition as the co-founder and CEO of Easy Saturdays, a tech company that uses artificial intelligence to match people with great places to relocate or travel to based on their personal preferences, and then gives them important resources they need to get there. The company's manifesto is to make every day feel like an Easy Saturday for those they serve. When not educating or entrepreneuring, Alisha can be found drinking coffee, trail running, and cheering on her family (who are athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs themselves). Her drive and work ethic emerged from her life as a farm kid in Ola, South Dakota and she is proud to infuse those life lessons into all things she does today. Dr. Vincent earned an undergraduate degree from Black Hills State University, A Masters Degree from Walden University, and her Doctorate from the University of South Dakota.

Steven Pierce, is Vice President, Innovation at Black Hills Federal Credit Union. While his early curiosity to question legacy processes and thinking wasn't always "well-received" during his 8 years’ service in the US Air Force, he managed to lead important changes (and still be honorably discharged). Though, that passion for improvement has since helped drive business lines in the financial services industry over the past 25 years. Somewhere in that time, he obtained a degree in Information Technology, but even in his "more seasoned" years he continues to learn new skills, lately focusing on executive education through MIT. In his current role, Steve leads organizational innovation, digital banking, software development, and business analytics for the Credit Union. When not looking for things to break at work, he enjoys most traveling with his family.