we practice what we advise.

Steph Sharma, DBA, MBA, is the Founder and Managing Director of Symbio Strategies and a healthcare strategy advisor, organizational behavior researcher, and leadership consultant. She is also the founder of Land & Life Listening Institute, a public benefit corporation developing methods to hear the voice of rural America. For more than 20 years, she has worked with healthcare systems, executives, clinicians, boards, academic institutions, and mission-driven organizations on work spanning strategy and decision systems through governance, leadership, organizational change, and implementation.

Steph’s work brings together decision systems, organizational behavior, leadership development, organizational listening, human capital insight, and emerging technology. Her research and consulting examine how leaders use data, judgment, and human insight to understand organizational conditions, improve decision-making, and strengthen performance, engagement, resilience, and institutional capacity, including how generative and agentic AI can support knowledge creation while preserving human judgment, context, and responsibility.

Earlier in her career, Steph was a Principal, Partner, and Executive Coach at Gallup, where she led multi-year healthcare engagements and became the top-performing partner in the healthcare division based on client impact and outcomes across eight metrics. Her work has also included psychometric selection tools, clinician engagement, human capital valuation, leadership development, qualitative nursing research, and the co-development of a physician MBA program.

With roots in rural America, Steph brings a perspective shaped by both local communities and international work. She has consulted across the United States and Austral-Asia and has worked with leaders and organizations across healthcare, finance, education, social enterprise, and mission-driven sectors. Her board and advisory experience has included social impact, environmental stewardship, veterans’ support, global affairs, and organizational governance.

Steph holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from HULT International Business School and a Global MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. She has taught strategy, leadership, management, and marketing in graduate and executive programs and serves as an associate fellow with the EuroMed Academy, and is an alum Senior Executive Fellow of The Digital Economist and an alum Visiting Postdoc Fellow with the Hult Business School Futures Lab.

Steph lives in Dallas, Texas, with her partner, three dogs, one cat, and two horses. Outside of work, she enjoys being active including travel, often building trips around time with family in rural Nebraska, rural England, Bangalore, New Delhi, and with friends around the world.

Denise Howard, MD, MPH, CPE, FACOG, FAAPL, is an obstetrician-gynecologist and physician executive with experience across academic medicine, private practice, health system leadership, international hospital operations, and clinical research. She works with healthcare organizations and innovators on women’s health, clinical operations, quality, and implementation. Beyond these areas, Denise is supporting the development and delivery of Symbio’s rural health integration partnerships and well as early guiding early stage innovations, including agentic AI, develop women’s health solutions.

Her work spans gynecology, cervical cancer prevention, clinical trial design and site selection, quality oversight, physician education, EHR implementation, and care delivery improvement. She combines the judgment of a practicing physician with an operational understanding of how care is delivered and how new approaches can be integrated into clinical practice.

Denise has served as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Vice Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, Gynecology Chief at Geisinger Health System, and Head of Department and Corporate Clinical Lead for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Abu Dhabi. Her work has also included hospital development, Joint Commission International certification, quality and safety initiatives, and approximately three years leading COVID-19 incident command.
Denise holds a Master of Public Health and is a Certified Physician Executive and Fellow of both the American Association for Physician Leadership and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She is also the author of The Essence of You: Your Guide to Gynecologic Health. She brings clarity, practical clinical judgment, and a collaborative approach to complex women’s health work.

Vandana Ram Allman, M.Ed., PCC, is a leadership development practitioner and executive coach with more than 25 years of global experience working with leaders and teams across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work focuses on helping leaders make better decisions, strengthen leadership capacity, and create greater alignment around organizational mission, values, talent, and impact.

Vandana’s expertise spans systems leadership, leadership and talent development, executive coaching, succession, organizational effectiveness, strengths-based leadership, and psychometric assessment. She works with individual leaders and leadership teams navigating complexity, growth, transition, and changing organizational demands.

Vandana spent a decade with The Gallup Organization as Global Practice Group Leader and Senior Strategic Consultant for Leadership and Talent Development, where she helped advance psychometric tools and their implementation within complex organizations. Her work has included government, healthcare, intelligence, legal organizations, and companies supporting the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2016, she founded Avaz Leadership to support leadership teams, specifically within healthcare, navigating complexity.

She also serves as a Clifton Scholar, Talent Development and Senior Strengths Coach at George Mason University, where her work includes curriculum design and development of student strengths coaches.

Vandana holds a Master’s degree in Human Resource Development from Xavier University and a Certificate in Executive Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She is an ICF PCC-level certified coach, with additional certifications in Gallup CliftonStrengths and The Leadership Circle 360. She also leads Adaptive Leadership Network Peer Circles with leaders advancing transformation in their respective organizations.

She brings thoughtful inquiry, substantial assessment experience, and a steady, developmental approach to leadership and systems work.

Mark S. Kestner, MD, MBA, is a physician executive and clinical transformation leader with more than three decades of experience across health-system leadership, surgery and critical care, operational redesign, quality and safety, clinical integration, and healthcare technology.

A general surgeon and trauma and critical care specialist by training, Mark has spent much of his career examining how clinical decisions, operating systems, physician leadership, technology, resource utilization, and financial performance intersect. His work includes command-center models, patient flow and capacity management, interdisciplinary care, clinical pathways, utilization management, medical necessity, length of stay, and clinical governance.

Mark has held executive roles including Chief Medical Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Regional Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Quality Officer. His health-system experience includes Legacy Health, Alegent Health, Abrazo Health Care, and Community Medical Centers. He later served as Chief Medical Officer of TractManager and symplr and has advised healthcare technology companies on virtual care, credentialing, governance, safety, risk, and clinical workflow.

Earlier in his career, Mark practiced trauma and critical care surgery, held academic appointments at the University of New Mexico and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and helped achieve Level I Trauma designation for University Hospital in New Mexico. He earned his MD from the University of Michigan and completed surgical and trauma/critical-care training at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and the University of Miami. A former U.S. Army Medical Corps officer, Mark separated as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Across his work, Mark brings clinical depth and a systems perspective to improving how patients move through care and how healthcare organizations operate.

Mark resides in Washington DC with his family and enjoys walks along the National Mall and spending time with his grandchildren.

Katie Solomon, MBA, is an operations and transformation leader with more than 14 years of experience across technology, enterprise operations, and organizational transformation. She works with leaders to understand how people, processes, technology, and operating models interact, and how those relationships shape performance and outcomes.

Katie’s experience spans technology operations, enterprise program leadership, organizational effectiveness, technology adoption, process improvement, and transformation. She takes a human-centered, research-driven approach to diagnosing root causes, creating alignment, and developing practical solutions that organizations can implement and sustain.

Her career includes leadership roles with T-Mobile and Meta, where she worked with senior leaders in large, complex operating environments. She is now applying this experience within Symbio to leaders in healthcare, with particular interest in command-center operations and the systems that influence flow, capacity, access, workforce performance, and patient outcomes.

Katie brings research, systems thinking, technology and operations experience, and a collaborative working style to complex organizational challenges. She is particularly interested in how data, technology, processes, and human decision-making can work together to support better operational decisions.

Ednann Naz, MD, MPH, MBA, is a physician executive whose work connects clinical operations, physician engagement, documentation, utilization management, and the mid-revenue cycle. He helps health systems strengthen the processes that translate clinical care into appropriate utilization, defensible documentation, reliable reimbursement, and effective patient flow.

Ednann has held leadership roles spanning hospital operations, clinical optimization, clinical documentation improvement, utilization review, health information management, and physician advisory services. His perspective combines an understanding of clinical practice with the operational and financial consequences of fragmented workflows, delayed decisions, documentation gaps, and misaligned incentives. His work addresses their effects on length of stay, denials, reimbursement, quality, and care progression.

At Symbio, Ednann contributes to the development of clinical command-center and operational integration approaches that connect clinical decision-making, documentation, utilization management, care progression, and revenue-cycle performance. His work focuses on pairing data and technology with effective clinical workflows, physician engagement, clear accountability, and timely intervention so that information can support action across the care delivery system.

Ednann also brings a clinically grounded perspective to the responsible use of AI and emerging technologies in healthcare. His work considers how technology can support clinical teams while preserving physician judgment, documentation integrity, and operational accountability, with particular attention to identifying problems earlier, improving decision-making and throughput, and strengthening patient and financial outcomes.

Mona Dinal is a Brand and Narrative Consultant whose work spans strategic communications, creative strategy, stakeholder engagement, and emerging technology. She specializes in translating complex organizational vision, ideas, and strategy into clear narratives that help leaders communicate what they are building and connect that work with the audiences and stakeholders they need to reach.

Her experience includes global creative and campaign work with WarnerMedia, where she helped develop data-informed creative approaches for major entertainment properties and supported cross-functional strategy during the MAX rebrand and app launch. Across consumer, nonprofit, and community-focused organizations, she has also developed engagement strategies, partnership models, communications frameworks, and brand experiences designed to strengthen reach and audience connection.

Mona’s current work also explores the intersection of generative AI and creative practice. She develops frameworks, prototypes, case studies, and thought leadership examining how emerging AI capabilities can support creative strategy, storytelling, and interactive brand experiences.

At Symbio Strategies, Mona shapes the firm’s brand and narrative development across positioning, thought leadership, case stories, and client-facing communications. She works across the firm and its areas of practice to translate complex ideas into language and narratives that are clear, differentiated, and consistent with the substance of the work.

Mona studied Business Administration and Management at Howard University. Her additional training includes Google AI Essentials and Google Prompting Essentials specializations, supporting her continuing work at the intersection of technology, creativity, and communication.

Jane Joyce is an operations, development, and relationship-management professional with more than a decade of experience across hospitality, complex event planning, nonprofit fundraising, and membership organizations. Her work centers on creating strong experiences for clients, guests, donors, members, and teams while keeping the many operational details behind those experiences moving smoothly.

Jane’s experience spans team leadership, vendor management, event execution, donor and member cultivation, fundraising, and high-touch service. She is comfortable working across multiple stakeholders and priorities, particularly in environments where coordination, responsiveness, and attention to detail shape the outcome.

Most recently, Jane served as Manager for a hospitality organization with three locations, overseeing front-of-house operations across locations and leading more than 40 staff members. She also spent seven years as a wedding planner, managing 12–16 weddings annually and coordinating dozens of vendors. Earlier, she served as a Philanthropy Officer at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and held membership roles with the Smithsonian’s Sackler and Freer Galleries and The Phillips Collection.

Jane holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She brings practical organization, strong relationship instincts, and a hands-on approach to collaborative work.

Jane has called Washington, DC home for fifteen years. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring new restaurants and attending Nationals games with her husband and son.

Kori Joneson, MBA, is a relationship builder and big-picture thinker with more than 15 years of experience working with organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies to local nonprofits. She is drawn to complex environments where people, processes, priorities, and stakeholders need to be understood together rather than in isolation.

WIth Symbio, Kori’s work has focused on helping leaders and teams reconsider how they connect, operate, and measure what is most important to them. She has experience guiding decision-making in healthcare, behavioral health, stakeholder engagement, and bringing different perspectives together to identify shared priorities and workable paths forward.

Her approach combines big-picture thinking with hands-on problem solving. She enjoys digging into the moving parts of an organization, finding connections across them, and creating stronger relationships among the people involved. Her community work reflects the same orientation toward listening, partnership, and contribution.

Kori holds an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. She brings curiosity, practical thinking, and a highly relational approach to work with teams and communities.

Kori lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and retired racing greyhound.

Madhu K. Singh, JD, MBA, is Founder and Chief Legal Officer of Foundry Law Group, where she works with entrepreneurs, startups, and growing companies on business, technology, intellectual property, and legal matters. Her approach emphasizes close collaboration with business leaders and legal solutions designed around the company’s goals, operations, and stage of growth.

Madhu’s work spans business governance and formation, licensing, acquisitions, contract development, trademarks, copyright, licensing. She has a particular interest in the evolving intersection of technology, AI, new media, and business law.

Since founding Foundry Law Group in 2010, Madhu has helped shape a model of legal support built around practical access, hands-on partnership, and long-term business planning. Her professional work is complemented by a longstanding commitment to entrepreneurship, education, and community leadership.

Madhu served for nearly a decade as adjunct faculty with Seattle University’s Albers School of Business/Peterson Law Clinic and has held leadership roles with TiE Seattle and the Women’s Business Exchange. She holds both a JD and MBA from the University of Kansas.

She brings an entrepreneurial perspective to legal work and enjoys working alongside business leaders as they navigate growth, emerging technologies, and increasingly complex decisions.

Tanya Bluford, MS, is a leadership strategist, executive coach, and organizational development practitioner with more than two decades of experience helping leaders and organizations strengthen leadership capability, team culture, and organizational performance. Her work focuses on the leadership behaviors, relationships, and organizational conditions that influence how effectively people make decisions, navigate change, resolve conflict, and work across teams.

Tanya advises organizations on leadership development, manager and director effectiveness, communication, conflict navigation, team culture, and leadership readiness. Her approach integrates clarity of direction, leadership capability, and culture to help organizations identify where leadership practices or organizational dynamics may be constraining execution. At Symbio Strategies, she contributes expertise in leadership and culture assessment, executive and team development, and the human dimensions of organizational transformation.

Earlier in her career, Tanya spent more than 14 years in leadership roles with the YMCA. As Multicultural Leadership Development Manager for YMCA of the USA, she served as an internal consultant to YMCAs nationally, designed executive and high-potential leadership development programs, coached mid-level and executive leaders, and developed approaches to strengthen talent development and retention. Previously, as an Executive Director with the YMCA of San Francisco, she led branch operations spanning strategic planning, people management, financial performance, program growth, fundraising, community partnerships, and volunteer leadership.

Tanya is an Adjunct Professor at Presidio Graduate School, where she has developed and taught courses in leadership capacity, management, and organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. She holds a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from California State University, Hayward and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of La Verne.

Tanya resides in San Francisco, CA with her husband and is happily adjusting to life as an “empty nester” and visiting her adult daughters.