Get Involved

Overview

Thank you for your interest in sponsoring the NJHIMSS. Many of you have participated in past Chapter events and we are pleased to see you continue to participate and support us.  In order to better meet the needs of our growing membership, the popularity of our events, and our new virtual environment, we have restructured the sponsorship offering to provide even more value. For questions regarding the Sponsor Program, please contact Julia Staas at jstaas@virtua.org

Corporate Level

• $2,500
• Sponsor website banner
• Sponsor info on website
• 1 Premium event
• 2 Standard events
• 1 White Paper
• 1 In-Person Event

Associate Level

• $1,750
• Sponsor info on website
• 1 Premium event
• 2 Standard events
• 1 White Paper
• 1 In-Person Event

Event Offerings

• Premium $750 – Exclusivity to sponsor the event. Present a topic and solution.
• Standard $350 – Event can have multiple sponsors. Presentations vendor-neutral.

Additional Opportunities

• $250 Post Whitepaper on Website - Board approved then posted
• $250 Logo and Contact Info Included in Monthly Newsletter - One-time placement of company logo with contact info in newsletter

$2,000 In-Person Events Sponsorship - Sponsor table at the event and 2 attendee passes

The Chapter has a number of committees looking for your participation. Participation in a committee is a prerequisite to becoming a member of the Board. Join today! If you are interested in serving or if you want more information email us at info@njhimss.org.

ADVOCACY - Chair: Bala Thirumalainambi, Bryan, Kennedy Ghanti 

The purpose of this committee is to improve outreach to state and federal legislators on matters relating to Healthcare IT; Make the Chapter the recognized resource for New Jersey legislators seeking information on HIT; Coordinate a state level advocacy event; and aggregate information regarding HIT legislation for dissemination to the chapter membership.

HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS - Co-Chairs: Kennedy Ganti, Monae Haskins, Anthony Rosania

The purpose of this committee is to keep focus on the informatics issues facing physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinical partners. Our goal is to provide insight to the specific concerns of the health population and strategies for how to bridge the informatics connection.

DIGITAL MEDIA - Chair: Jennifer D'Angelo

The purpose of this committee is to prepare and distribute several newsletters via email and web; maintain the website and social media and ensure that content is refreshed regularly and reflects the work of the various committees and sponsors; conduct surveys of the membership to ensure that the educational / networking mission of the chapter is successful; and advertise chapter events and sponsor activity to the membership.

EVENTS/SPONSORSHIP - Co-Chairs: Casey Hafford, Kathy Contratto, Ed Henry, Mike Fortino

The purpose of this committee is to plan and coordinate the 2-4 events the chapter hosts each year; and ensure that there is a steady volume of sponsors sufficient to cover the chapter's planned activities for the year.

MEMBERSHIP - Co-Chairs: Monae Haskins, Mike Fortino

The purpose of the Membership Committee is to maintain a strong membership roster with reasonable growth targets; involve a wide constituency in the chapter including clinical, informatics, and students, as well as HIT professionals. Our goal is to continue to grow the chapter membership through local and national events, and bring innovative thought leaders into the NJHIMSS roster.

SCHOLARSHIPS - Co-Chairs: Kendall Hendrick, Julia Staas, Christine McBride

The scholarship committee is responsible for establishing our annual scholarship program and overseeing the candidate selection process. Our chapter provides scholarships on an annual basis for graduate, undergraduate, and veteran students of Healthcare Information Management and Healthcare Information Technology. Our application period is in the Spring of each year ending on May 31st.  We select winners by July 15th.  We recognize the winners of each scholarship at our fall event in October.

The applicant must be attending a school in New Jersey or be New Jersey resident. The applicant must have at least a B average or equivalent at the time of the application. Certificate students may submit a letter of recommendations as a substitute for transcripts. An NJ HIMSS Member in good standing must sponsor the Application. Previous Scholarship winners are ineligible.

SECURITY, PRIVACY & COMPLIANCE - Chairs: Arturo P

The Security, Privacy and Compliance (SPC) committee was formed to address the ever increasing need within the NJ healthcare provider and payer community for greater collaboration and education on information security, patient privacy and regulatory compliance issues.
The purpose of the SPC Taskforce is to provide NJ healthcare professionals involved in security, privacy, compliance and risk management with a forum for collaboration and education. Through educational sessions focused on the most pressing issues in the world of information security; our goal is to increase awareness, share best practices and lessons learned, and serve as a convener for members interested in security, privacy and compliance.

FINANCE - Co-Chairs: Kendall Hendrick and Jennifer D'Angelo

GOVERNANCE - Co-Chairs: Jim Hennessy, Jennifer D'Angelo

AD HOC ELECTION COMMITTEE - Co-Chairs: Jim Hennessy, Jennifer D'Angelo

Overview

Three Scholarships are awarded each year:

• The Katrina Kehlet Graduate Award is offered in memory of Katrina Kehlet, a longtime friend to NJHIMSS. She served as a senior leader for one of America’s leading technology companies and passed away in the Fall of 2012. To recognize her 20+ year career, her support for our chapter and her friendship, The NJ Chapter of HIMSS established the Katrina Kehlet Graduate Award. This $4,000 Award is offered to one individual whose essay embodies the passion, values and innovative use of technology that Katrina displayed in her career. Through this action we hope to keep her memory, passion, and dedication in the forefront of our chapter activity and academic support.
• The Bill O'Byrne Veterans Award is offered to students pursuing an Associate, Baccalaureate or Graduate degree for $3,000.
• The Undergraduate Award is offered to students pursuing a Baccalaureate degree for $2,500.

Application Requirements

Applicants for the NJHIMSS scholarships must fulfill the following requirements:

The student must be enrolled in an accredited Undergraduate, Graduate, or Doctoral program related to Healthcare Information Management, Healthcare Information Technology or Clinical Informatics. The specific degree program is not a critical factor, although it is expected that programs similar to those in healthcare informatics, healthcare computer science and information systems, healthcare policy and quantitative programs in business administration and hospital administration will predominate.

• The applicant must be attending a school in New Jersey OR be New Jersey resident
• The recipient is requested to become a student member of the Chapter
• The applicant must have at least a B average or equivalent at the time of the application
• Veterans applying must have received an honorable or general discharge to be considered (if asked, the candidate would be able to provide the official DD-214)
• Previous Scholarship winners are ineligible.

All applicants will be required to submit a copy of their academic transcripts and a 500-word essay on how they will impact the arena of Healthcare Informatics and/or Healthcare Technology as part of the application process.

If you have any questions, please email us at:  info@njhimss.org

2021 Winners

Undergraduate Award Winner: Joseph Marcel

My name is Joseph Marcel, and I currently attend Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, where I am pursuing a degree in the field of Management Information System. Prior to this endeavor, many moons ago, I attended Montclair State University where I earned an associate degree in Computer Science, back in 1995. Subsequently, I have held many roles in the area of technology support from various worldwide organizations. I occupied the position as a Desktop Support Technician within the End Users Computing of the Information Technology Department at Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical corporate headquarters in Somerset NJ. We then grew as a Technology Representative Level III with Hewlett Packard where we managed the organization national mobility infrastructure in coordination with Accenture as the preferred vendor while remaining the subject matter point person for various applications such as but not limited to: Performance Connections, Mobility Device Management, Telecommunication.

Presently, I work for Virtua Health in their Network Operations Center under the IT umbrella. My primary responsibility is to ensure that the Wide Area Network runs smoothly by monitoring data infrastructure, enterprise server technologies, Openlink Interfaces, Avatar Backup Technologies, while also providing IT Service Desk front-end support. My determination in pursuing and completing a degree in MIS, will not only provide me with the understanding of the intricate processes within a healthcare environment in the IT world, but will it also allow me to grow and to also provide imaginative approach to IT Healthcare. Therefore, I am so grateful to have been offered this opportunity to be one of the recipients of the NJHIMS Scholarship.

Veteran Award Winner: Michael Buenvenida

Michael Buenvenida is a master of trying, failing hilariously, and occasionally retaining short-lived lessons from ill-conceived schemes. He has tirelessly explored all manner of jobs in a desperate search for meaning and decent dental insurance that covers kids’ braces. In his metaphorical clown car of careers, Michael has been a passionate chess teacher, mountain infantry soldier, certified patient safety professional and amateur informaticist. He and his unit built and manned a clinic. They volunteered as the first aid squad for an underserved and torn area of southern Baghdad. He has developed a cardiac rehab program, trained, and led staff to provide the kind of care that brings the best out of people at their lowest points. The joy of raising strong, kind, brilliant and conscientious citizens of the world is what drives him to wake up in the morning. Michael dropped out of Columbia University’s Sustainability program to follow his dream of juggling roles of maid, butler, chauffer, cook, backup Wonderpets singer, and human jungle gym as a fulltime father to a beautiful daughter and three okay-looking sons while his wife saves the world. Two combat deployments in the heyday of the late 2000’s and somehow this was the most horrific and emotionally crippling experience of his life. Fatherhood.

Michael now proudly serves as an Informatics Educator at RWJ Barnabas Health, working to make healthcare informatics more accessible to the average undereducated neurosurgeon. He is also part of a massive effort to convert the EMR, an experience he can only hope to survive relatively unscathed. One day, Michael would like to earn his MSN in Nursing Informatics, help solve global climate change, and finally catch all the Pokémon. His children will be proud of him for exactly one of these things.

Katrina Kehlet Graduate Award: Kevin Guerrero

Kevin David Guerrero is a current Doctor of Medicine Candidate at The Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). Kevin is a first-generation Mexican American who graduated from Rutgers University with a B.S in Exercise Science and Sports Studies in May 2019. He began his higher educational journey through the Educational Opportunity Fund program (EOF) at the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences (SEBS). During his time at Rutgers, he received the 2016 CRODA Foundation Chemistry Award and 2016 Rutgers Academic Excellence in Chemistry Award. He is a current America Needs You Alumni and Ernst Young College MAP Collegian Alumni. He has been involved in basic science research working in Dr. Paul Copeland’s Lab from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at RWJMS and in Dr. Costa’s Lab at The Jackson Laboratory. His work with Dr. Copeland and Dr. Costa has led him to present at a handful of conferences, one of which includes the 2017 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Phoenix, Arizona. He later pursued a M.S in Biotechnology in May 2020 at The Johns Hopkins University through the Health Science Intensive program. At Johns Hopkins, he volunteered as a Spanish Interpreter and Health Ambassador for the Mansfield Kaseman Health Clinic. Along with his clinical experiences he was also a Teaching Assistant for The Adventure in Science program at the Montgomery County College. Upon graduating from Johns Hopkins, he worked as an Infectious Disease Research Technician in Dr. David Perlin's Lab studying Candida Auris drug resistance and tolerance mechanisms as well as the population structure of fungi causing secondary infections in COVID-19 patients. His main interest is to pursue a career in medicine and be able to serve the low-income minority community. Being raised in a predominately Hispanic low-income community, he understands the difficulty that the people of his community must go through to obtain equitable healthcare. Starting in July 2021, he will be fulfilling his dream by beginning his medical journey at the Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Through his clinical experiences and higher education courses he gained a deep appreciation for the importance of healthcare information technology. One of his interests involves the development and usage of personalized or genomic medicine to improve patient outcomes. He believes as this technology is further developed and utilized in specialties outside oncology, the quality of care will improve through better preventive and therapeutic treatments. As a future medical professional, he hopes to improve healthcare equity and delivery of care through innovative measures.