How 25 PACS Professionals Built Their Careers as L...
How 25 PACS Professionals Built Their Careers as Leaders in the Pharmaceutical Industry
ACMA
Jul 21, 2026
6 minutes read
How 25 PACS Professionals Built Their Careers as Leaders in the Pharmaceutical Industry
When professionals working in patient access, field reimbursement, and market access ask whether a certification is worth pursuing, they're really asking one question: will this move my career forward? For the 25 leaders profiled here, the answer is a resounding yes. These are directors of patient access and field reimbursement, operations leaders, and managers of specialty medication strategies who have built remarkable careers at some of the industry's most influential pharmaceutical organizations. What all of them have in common is the Prior Authorization Certified Specialist (PACS) credential, a certification that equips professionals with the perspective of prior authorizations that today's access environment demands. With this knowledge of the barriers and hurdles that exist when completing prior authorizations, these leaders are able to better educate their stakeholders on the ins and outs of medical necessity and submitting appeals.
Amanda Pavelich has spent nearly two decades moving through the reimbursement and revenue cycle side of healthcare, from corporate reimbursement to field reimbursement and certification in prior authorizations with PACS has helped her in her current role of leading Patient Support at BioCryst, a rare disease company where getting access right is often the difference between a patient starting therapy and falling through the cracks. Amanda's path shows how starting on the billing and revenue side of healthcare can lead directly into shaping how an entire company supports patient access.
2. Dana Domaleski, PACS — Field Access Lead | Pfizer
Become excellent in prior authorization, reimbursement & market access — enroll today
How 25 PACS Professionals Built Their Careers as Leaders in the Pharmaceutical Industry
ACMA
Jul 21, 2026
6 minutes read
How 25 PACS Professionals Built Their Careers as Leaders in the Pharmaceutical Industry
When professionals working in patient access, field reimbursement, and market access ask whether a certification is worth pursuing, they're really asking one question: will this move my career forward? For the 25 leaders profiled here, the answer is a resounding yes. These are directors of patient access and field reimbursement, operations leaders, and managers of specialty medication strategies who have built remarkable careers at some of the industry's most influential pharmaceutical organizations. What all of them have in common is the Prior Authorization Certified Specialist (PACS) credential, a certification that equips professionals with the perspective of prior authorizations that today's access environment demands. With this knowledge of the barriers and hurdles that exist when completing prior authorizations, these leaders are able to better educate their stakeholders on the ins and outs of medical necessity and submitting appeals.
Amanda Pavelich has spent nearly two decades moving through the reimbursement and revenue cycle side of healthcare, from corporate reimbursement to field reimbursement and certification in prior authorizations with PACS has helped her in her current role of leading Patient Support at BioCryst, a rare disease company where getting access right is often the difference between a patient starting therapy and falling through the cracks. Amanda's path shows how starting on the billing and revenue side of healthcare can lead directly into shaping how an entire company supports patient access.
2. Dana Domaleski, PACS — Field Access Lead | Pfizer
Become excellent in prior authorization, reimbursement & market access — enroll today
Dana Domaleski brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical sales and access experience to her current role as a Field Access Lead at Pfizer, where she partners with HUBs and Specialty Pharmacies to resolve benefit verification, prior authorization, and appeal barriers for patients on CGRP migraine therapies. Her career took a defining turn at Biohaven, where she helped launch a first-in-class therapy during the pandemic without the support of a teaching hospital in her territory, a launch she still finished in the top 15% nationally. Selected for Pfizer's competitive Field Access Mentorship Program and recognized repeatedly with Circle of Excellence and Achievement Award honors, Dana has built a career on turning payer complexity into faster time-to-therapy for patients. Her trajectory from territory sales into dedicated field access leadership shows how deep reimbursement fluency becomes indispensable as therapies get more specialized.
Alison Davis has spent her career on the payer-facing side of pharma, holding director-level payer accounts and access and reimbursement roles at Galderma, Pfizer, Biohaven, and Lundbeck after starting in sales and product management. Her work negotiating directly with payers and managing access strategy across oncology and migraine therapies sits squarely within the world PACS was built to address: understanding how payer coverage decisions and prior authorization criteria are set, and how to navigate them on behalf of patients and prescribers. Her move from sales training and product management into dedicated payer account leadership shows how commercial and access functions can converge.
4. Keith Coggshall, PACS — Director, Site of Care | Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Keith Coggshall has spent over 30 years in market access, reimbursement, and infusion operations, and now leads site of care strategy at Alnylam, following similar roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work establishing infusion site networks and educating providers on payer trends and the evolving reimbursement landscape directly reflects why understanding prior authorization requirements matters at every site of care, since coverage and authorization decisions determine where and how patients can actually receive treatment. Keith's career-long focus on connecting patients to care across specialty pharmacy, infusion, and health systems exemplifies the kind of cross-functional access knowledge PACS has grown to exhibit.
Paul Konovodoff has spent more than 30 years in managed markets, medical policy, and payer contracting, currently leading payer engagement and reimbursement at SPR Therapeutics after similar roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His direct experience negotiating payer medical policy across major national plans gives him a first-hand look of how prior authorization criteria are actually written and applied. Paul has seen multiple perspectives of the prior authorization process through his experience in hospital sales, specialized market access leadership, and his certification in prior authorizations with PACS.
Terry Geldart has spent over 20 years building payer strategy, payer marketing, and reimbursement programs, including pre-launch payer value proposition work at multiple organizations. Her work developing payer tiering and formulary strategy across Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid channels mirrors the exact framework PACS teaches around navigating insurance structures and understanding how coverage determinations get made before a therapy ever reaches a patient. Her experience co-leading hub and specialty pharmacy management also reflects the copay assistance and patient support knowledge that helps guide patients through financial barriers to care. Terry's steady progression from reimbursement management to strategic market access leadership shows how deep payer expertise compounds into career growth. There are many roles and opportunities for those with this perspective on the patient’s journey, the payer’s strategy, as well as a drug launch’s goals.
7. Lauren Thompson, RHIT, PACS — Therapy Access Manager | Johnson & Johnson
Lauren Thompson has spent over a decade in healthcare reimbursement, building a career that spans billing and coding, benefits counseling, and case management before stepping into field reimbursement leadership at Xcenda and Mercalis. Her current work as a Therapy Access Manager for rare disease pulmonary hypertension treatment at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine reflects just how high the stakes are when patients are navigating access barriers to life-saving therapies. Having worked across many therapeutic areas like neurology, urology, oncology, ophthalmology, and endocrinology, she brings a rare breadth of disease-state knowledge to the access conversation, knowledge that mirrors the cross-therapeutic grounding the PACS program is built to provide. Lauren's path from health information management into multi-specialty reimbursement leadership shows how a strong foundation in the mechanics of prior authorization can open doors across the entire pharmaceutical industry.
Jacquelyn Sinclair built her career bridging clinical and business teams, building her experience with multiple perspectives of healthcare. Jacquelyn built her clinical and health system experience with CVS and Walgreens, which she has combined with her earlier pharma experience at GSK. As a licensed pharmacist working across value-based contracts and medication access and adherence programs, her career reflects the intersection of clinical health, the patient journey, and payer understanding. Her focus on closing gaps in care and aligning resources across retail and specialty pharmacy speaks to the coordination skills that are required when communicating prior authorization requests effectively between providers, payers, and patients. Jacquelyn's path from hospital operations to national pharmacy and health system leadership, backed by the PACS credential, illustrates how clinical training and access expertise reinforce each other.
Jim Cromwell has spent over a decade in market access and reimbursement. Jim is currently in the cell and gene therapy space, one that represents some of the most complex authorization cases in the field, often requiring special handling for high-cost specialty medications. His work across hospital and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement also reflects the depth of federal and commercial payer knowledge needed to navigate coverage determinations for rare and specialized therapies. Jim's progression from oncology sales into dedicated access and reimbursement leadership, now as a PACS-credentialed professional, reflects how specialized therapeutic knowledge and payer strategy come together at one of the highest levels of complexity in healthcare.
10. Cj Eison, MBA-HCM, PACS — Manager, Field Operations, Field Access & Affordability Solutions | Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Cj Eison brings 24 years of military healthcare leadership, including managing multimillion-dollar medical operations and training programs for the U.S. Navy, into his current role supporting field access and affordability solutions at Johnson & Johnson. Maintaining current knowledge of payer policies to proactively support field strategy mirrors the emphasis PACS places on staying ahead of a fast-evolving authorization landscape. Cj's transition from decades of military healthcare command into pharmaceutical field access operations, now as a PACS-certified professional, shows how varying experiences can be transferable and translatable in healthcare with the right knowledge.
11. JoEllen Hennessy-Snowden, PACS — Sr. Director of Strategic Accounts | Eli Lilly and Company
JoEllen Hennessy-Snowden has spent 20 years in healthcare sales and reimbursement, building an 18-year career at Eli Lilly that has taken her from Field Reimbursement Manager into strategic account leadership across dermatology and rheumatology. Her track record expediting therapy approvals speaks to how critical reimbursement expertise is in getting patients onto the treatments they need without unnecessary delay. She has built her career on strong payer and stakeholder relationships, developing high-performing teams along the way, skills that align closely with what the PACS program is designed to strengthen. JoEllen's path from field sales into strategic account leadership shows how reimbursement fluency becomes a career-defining asset over time.
12. Joseph Keel, BSRT(R), PACS — Associate Director, Patient Access | Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Joseph Keel leads a team of 16 Patient Access Managers across two ultra-rare disease franchises at Xeris. His work rebuilding the referral-to-approval process, which led to measurable increases in both patients approved and time to approval, highlights how much patient outcomes hinge on getting access processes right, especially in rare disease, where every delay carries real weight and real outcomes to the patient. His background in radiologic technology gives him a clinical grounding that complements his access leadership, a combination the PACS program is built to support. Joseph's trajectory from clinical technology and device sales into leading a national patient access team illustrates how operational rigor and patient advocacy can go hand in hand.
13. Diana Villanova, PACS — Principal, Life Science Consulting | Nuvera Life Science Consulting
Diana Villanova has spent more than 15 years at the intersection of patient services, market access, and specialty distribution, supporting more than a dozen product launches across rare disease, oncology, and cell and gene therapy before stepping into her current role as Principal at Nuvera, part of Inizio Engage. Her career reflects a consistent proof that access strategy has to hold up under real-world pressure, particularly in rare and specialty disease, where the margin for error in getting patients to therapy is slim. Her experience building patient support programs from the ground up speaks to why specialized training in market access with a PACS certification can matter so much in this space.
14. Scott Costin, MS, PACS — Sr. Field Access & Reimbursement Manager | Gilead Sciences
Scott Costin has spent over two decades in field sales and access leadership, now serving as Senior Field Reimbursement Manager for oncology at Gilead after leading teams with other pharmaceutical organizations. His work connecting with hundreds of oncology customers and their financial counselors, authorization staff, and billing teams reflects how much patient access depends on relationships built on trust, a theme he explored further as the published author of a book on earning access with healthcare customers. Scott's path from field sales training into specialized reimbursement leadership shows how communication expertise and payer knowledge together drive patient access.
Kesha Wiley brings a clinical foundation as a registered nurse and respiratory therapist into her current role educating HCPs and patients on rare disease therapies at Boehringer Ingelheim, following earlier clinical education work at GSK and Amgen. Her work helping providers and patients understand insurance coverage and patient support programs highlights why clinical educators are so often the ones patients and providers turn to when access questions arise. Kesha exemplifies the purpose of the PACS credential by understanding the HCP’s journey and hurdles when working with prior authorizations and then turns that understanding into education for those HCPs she has built relationships with. Kesha's path from bedside nursing and respiratory therapy into specialized rare disease clinical education shows how the clinical expertise perspective can strengthen the patient access conversation.
16. Ellis Wheby, CPPM, PACS — Director, Patient Services and Field Reimbursement | Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Ellis Wheby has spent his career building and rebuilding market access infrastructure from the ground up, now serving as the national leader for Field Reimbursement Managers at Tarsus after similar leadership roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work launching injectable and infused biologics across 9+ therapeutic areas speaks to a simple truth: when reimbursement systems aren't built to scale, patients are the ones who wait. His track record of turning reimbursement chaos into repeatable execution, from Medicare Part B and D strategy to formulary pull-through, is exactly the kind of operational discipline that the PACS program helps professionals develop. Ellis's career-long pattern of building teams and platforms from scratch shows how strong access infrastructure translates directly into patients getting on therapy faster.
Rachel Cheben Bess leads enterprise oncology patient services strategy at Pfizer, overseeing roughly 45,000 quarterly patient and provider inquiries following her success of building patient access infrastructure from the ground up. Her work reducing hub hold times and cutting payer denials by over 20% shows just how much operational precision in access programs can directly shorten a patient's path to treatment. Her ability to align hub services, field reimbursement, and provider engagement into one coherent strategy reflects the cross-functional access expertise that the PACS program is designed to build. Rachel's trajectory from frontline reimbursement navigation to enterprise-level patient access leadership illustrates how deeply access strategy can shape patient outcomes in oncology and rare disease.
18. Amy Field-Smith, MSW, PACS — Senior Director, Patient Advocate Team (Patient Support Services) | Corcept Therapeutics
Amy Field-Smith has spent nearly 14 years building and leading the Patient Advocate Program at Corcept Therapeutics, growing with the organization from its early stages into her current senior director role. Her long tenure leading patient advocacy work highlights how much continuity and institutional knowledge matter in patient support, since navigating a patient's access journey often depends on relationships with the medical community built over years, not months. Her background in social work and psychology brings a patient-first lens to access work that complements the practical training the PACS program provides.
Misty Fernandez brings a background in case management and child development into her current work as a patient navigator in oncology at GSK, following several years supporting patients with rare diseases at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Her path from early intervention case management to rare disease patient support shows how transferable advocacy and coordination skills are across very different populations, and how central those skills are to helping patients navigate complex reimbursement and access landscapes. Her expertise in reimbursement and access, paired with a genuine background in patient advocacy, reflects the kind of well-rounded skill set someone successful in navigating patient access can cultivate. Misty's career shift from child development services into rare disease patient support illustrates how a patient-centered mindset carries across an entire career.
20. Robin Tompkins, PACS — Director of Patient Services/Hub Operations | Sun Pharma
Robin Tompkins has spent eight years at Sun Pharma, rising from Associate Director of US Health Policy & Reimbursement to her current role overseeing hub operations for the company's brand portfolio, after building a career-long specialty in reimbursement, coding, and buy-and-bill strategy across biologics launches across other pharmaceutical organizations. Her work helping to remove barriers to product access and coaching teams on reimbursement coding, including navigating unclassified J codes, highlights how much specialized knowledge it takes to get patients past administrative hurdles and onto therapy. Robin's path from sales training and hospital account management, to becoming certified in prior authorizations, into hub operations leadership shows how reimbursement fluency compounds into broader patient access leadership over time.
21. Rick Johnson, PACS — Director, Access and Reimbursement Solutions | AbbVie Patient Services
Rick Johnson has spent nearly 15 years at AbbVie, rising to his current role directing access and reimbursement solutions across immunology and oncology, following earlier experience in sales training and curriculum development at Abbott. His long tenure building and refining access strategy for two of the most complex therapeutic categories highlights how much specialized reimbursement knowledge is needed to keep patients from falling through the cracks. His background in curriculum development and training also speaks to the value of building strong educational foundations in access, which is central to the education that field reimbursement teams provide to the medical community and what the PACS program aims to do.
22. Jami Harpster, PACS — Rare Disease Family Access Manager | Biogen
Jami Harpster has spent nearly two decades in specialty pharmaceutical sales and account management, now focused on family access for rare disease patients at Biogen. Her work navigating the complexities of specialty pharmacy distribution for rare disease families highlights just how much guidance patients need when a therapy exists but the path to actually receiving it is anything but simple. Her description of herself as a "patient first advocate" captures the mindset required to successfully build strategies that can enhance access to medications. Jami's transition from broad neurology and immunology sales into a dedicated rare disease access role as a certified prior authorization professional shows how a patient-first orientation can shape an entire career path.
23. Adam Edwards, MBA, PACS, ACHE — US Market Access: Reimbursement Education Liaison, Southwest Regional Lead | Sanofi
Adam Edwards brings a uniquely varied background, from a career as an NFL defensive back to franchise and M&A consulting, into his current role leading reimbursement education for Sanofi across the Southwest, following earlier market access and patient support work at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work as a Reimbursement Education Liaison highlights an often-overlooked piece of access work: making sure providers and staff actually understand how to navigate reimbursement processes, not just that they exist. His board leadership with the Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund also reflects a long-standing commitment to patient advocacy for underserved populations, work that mirrors his access-for-all mindset both professionally and personally. Adam's path from professional athletics into healthcare business leadership shows how varied experience can converge into a genuine specialty in healthcare that can shape populations' access at large.
Irma Lucero has spent over 25 years in pharmaceutical leadership, currently directing market access account integration at GSK after progressing through strategic contracting, field reimbursement, and patient support roles at GSK and Otsuka. Her background as a pharmacy technician and pharmacy benefits supervisor before moving into pharma gives her a crucial understanding of how insurance and formulary decisions actually affect patients at the counter, a perspective that deepens her current work integrating payer and specialty pharmacy strategies. Lucero's path from community pharmacy to enterprise market access leadership shows how frontline healthcare experience can evolve into strategic access expertise.
Drew Robertson has spent over seven years in patient access and hub services, progressing from Case Manager to Associate Director across various biopharmaceutical organizations, with each role centered on resolving reimbursement issues like denials, appeals, and reauthorizations. His hands-on case management background, personally troubleshooting insurance and specialty pharmacy issues for individual patients, shows how much of access work comes down to solving one person's problem at a time, even while managing broader hub operations. His experience identifying payer trends and building tracking systems for reimbursement issues reflects the kind of systems-level thinking that roles in patient access encourage (and some may say, require,) alongside patient-level advocacy. Drew's progression from direct case management into hub services leadership shows how granular patient advocacy experience becomes the foundation for broader access strategy.
Dana Domaleski brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical sales and access experience to her current role as a Field Access Lead at Pfizer, where she partners with HUBs and Specialty Pharmacies to resolve benefit verification, prior authorization, and appeal barriers for patients on CGRP migraine therapies. Her career took a defining turn at Biohaven, where she helped launch a first-in-class therapy during the pandemic without the support of a teaching hospital in her territory, a launch she still finished in the top 15% nationally. Selected for Pfizer's competitive Field Access Mentorship Program and recognized repeatedly with Circle of Excellence and Achievement Award honors, Dana has built a career on turning payer complexity into faster time-to-therapy for patients. Her trajectory from territory sales into dedicated field access leadership shows how deep reimbursement fluency becomes indispensable as therapies get more specialized.
Alison Davis has spent her career on the payer-facing side of pharma, holding director-level payer accounts and access and reimbursement roles at Galderma, Pfizer, Biohaven, and Lundbeck after starting in sales and product management. Her work negotiating directly with payers and managing access strategy across oncology and migraine therapies sits squarely within the world PACS was built to address: understanding how payer coverage decisions and prior authorization criteria are set, and how to navigate them on behalf of patients and prescribers. Her move from sales training and product management into dedicated payer account leadership shows how commercial and access functions can converge.
4. Keith Coggshall, PACS — Director, Site of Care | Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Keith Coggshall has spent over 30 years in market access, reimbursement, and infusion operations, and now leads site of care strategy at Alnylam, following similar roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work establishing infusion site networks and educating providers on payer trends and the evolving reimbursement landscape directly reflects why understanding prior authorization requirements matters at every site of care, since coverage and authorization decisions determine where and how patients can actually receive treatment. Keith's career-long focus on connecting patients to care across specialty pharmacy, infusion, and health systems exemplifies the kind of cross-functional access knowledge PACS has grown to exhibit.
Paul Konovodoff has spent more than 30 years in managed markets, medical policy, and payer contracting, currently leading payer engagement and reimbursement at SPR Therapeutics after similar roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His direct experience negotiating payer medical policy across major national plans gives him a first-hand look of how prior authorization criteria are actually written and applied. Paul has seen multiple perspectives of the prior authorization process through his experience in hospital sales, specialized market access leadership, and his certification in prior authorizations with PACS.
Terry Geldart has spent over 20 years building payer strategy, payer marketing, and reimbursement programs, including pre-launch payer value proposition work at multiple organizations. Her work developing payer tiering and formulary strategy across Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid channels mirrors the exact framework PACS teaches around navigating insurance structures and understanding how coverage determinations get made before a therapy ever reaches a patient. Her experience co-leading hub and specialty pharmacy management also reflects the copay assistance and patient support knowledge that helps guide patients through financial barriers to care. Terry's steady progression from reimbursement management to strategic market access leadership shows how deep payer expertise compounds into career growth. There are many roles and opportunities for those with this perspective on the patient’s journey, the payer’s strategy, as well as a drug launch’s goals.
7. Lauren Thompson, RHIT, PACS — Therapy Access Manager | Johnson & Johnson
Lauren Thompson has spent over a decade in healthcare reimbursement, building a career that spans billing and coding, benefits counseling, and case management before stepping into field reimbursement leadership at Xcenda and Mercalis. Her current work as a Therapy Access Manager for rare disease pulmonary hypertension treatment at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine reflects just how high the stakes are when patients are navigating access barriers to life-saving therapies. Having worked across many therapeutic areas like neurology, urology, oncology, ophthalmology, and endocrinology, she brings a rare breadth of disease-state knowledge to the access conversation, knowledge that mirrors the cross-therapeutic grounding the PACS program is built to provide. Lauren's path from health information management into multi-specialty reimbursement leadership shows how a strong foundation in the mechanics of prior authorization can open doors across the entire pharmaceutical industry.
Jacquelyn Sinclair built her career bridging clinical and business teams, building her experience with multiple perspectives of healthcare. Jacquelyn built her clinical and health system experience with CVS and Walgreens, which she has combined with her earlier pharma experience at GSK. As a licensed pharmacist working across value-based contracts and medication access and adherence programs, her career reflects the intersection of clinical health, the patient journey, and payer understanding. Her focus on closing gaps in care and aligning resources across retail and specialty pharmacy speaks to the coordination skills that are required when communicating prior authorization requests effectively between providers, payers, and patients. Jacquelyn's path from hospital operations to national pharmacy and health system leadership, backed by the PACS credential, illustrates how clinical training and access expertise reinforce each other.
Jim Cromwell has spent over a decade in market access and reimbursement. Jim is currently in the cell and gene therapy space, one that represents some of the most complex authorization cases in the field, often requiring special handling for high-cost specialty medications. His work across hospital and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement also reflects the depth of federal and commercial payer knowledge needed to navigate coverage determinations for rare and specialized therapies. Jim's progression from oncology sales into dedicated access and reimbursement leadership, now as a PACS-credentialed professional, reflects how specialized therapeutic knowledge and payer strategy come together at one of the highest levels of complexity in healthcare.
10. Cj Eison, MBA-HCM, PACS — Manager, Field Operations, Field Access & Affordability Solutions | Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Cj Eison brings 24 years of military healthcare leadership, including managing multimillion-dollar medical operations and training programs for the U.S. Navy, into his current role supporting field access and affordability solutions at Johnson & Johnson. Maintaining current knowledge of payer policies to proactively support field strategy mirrors the emphasis PACS places on staying ahead of a fast-evolving authorization landscape. Cj's transition from decades of military healthcare command into pharmaceutical field access operations, now as a PACS-certified professional, shows how varying experiences can be transferable and translatable in healthcare with the right knowledge.
11. JoEllen Hennessy-Snowden, PACS — Sr. Director of Strategic Accounts | Eli Lilly and Company
JoEllen Hennessy-Snowden has spent 20 years in healthcare sales and reimbursement, building an 18-year career at Eli Lilly that has taken her from Field Reimbursement Manager into strategic account leadership across dermatology and rheumatology. Her track record expediting therapy approvals speaks to how critical reimbursement expertise is in getting patients onto the treatments they need without unnecessary delay. She has built her career on strong payer and stakeholder relationships, developing high-performing teams along the way, skills that align closely with what the PACS program is designed to strengthen. JoEllen's path from field sales into strategic account leadership shows how reimbursement fluency becomes a career-defining asset over time.
12. Joseph Keel, BSRT(R), PACS — Associate Director, Patient Access | Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Joseph Keel leads a team of 16 Patient Access Managers across two ultra-rare disease franchises at Xeris. His work rebuilding the referral-to-approval process, which led to measurable increases in both patients approved and time to approval, highlights how much patient outcomes hinge on getting access processes right, especially in rare disease, where every delay carries real weight and real outcomes to the patient. His background in radiologic technology gives him a clinical grounding that complements his access leadership, a combination the PACS program is built to support. Joseph's trajectory from clinical technology and device sales into leading a national patient access team illustrates how operational rigor and patient advocacy can go hand in hand.
13. Diana Villanova, PACS — Principal, Life Science Consulting | Nuvera Life Science Consulting
Diana Villanova has spent more than 15 years at the intersection of patient services, market access, and specialty distribution, supporting more than a dozen product launches across rare disease, oncology, and cell and gene therapy before stepping into her current role as Principal at Nuvera, part of Inizio Engage. Her career reflects a consistent proof that access strategy has to hold up under real-world pressure, particularly in rare and specialty disease, where the margin for error in getting patients to therapy is slim. Her experience building patient support programs from the ground up speaks to why specialized training in market access with a PACS certification can matter so much in this space.
14. Scott Costin, MS, PACS — Sr. Field Access & Reimbursement Manager | Gilead Sciences
Scott Costin has spent over two decades in field sales and access leadership, now serving as Senior Field Reimbursement Manager for oncology at Gilead after leading teams with other pharmaceutical organizations. His work connecting with hundreds of oncology customers and their financial counselors, authorization staff, and billing teams reflects how much patient access depends on relationships built on trust, a theme he explored further as the published author of a book on earning access with healthcare customers. Scott's path from field sales training into specialized reimbursement leadership shows how communication expertise and payer knowledge together drive patient access.
Kesha Wiley brings a clinical foundation as a registered nurse and respiratory therapist into her current role educating HCPs and patients on rare disease therapies at Boehringer Ingelheim, following earlier clinical education work at GSK and Amgen. Her work helping providers and patients understand insurance coverage and patient support programs highlights why clinical educators are so often the ones patients and providers turn to when access questions arise. Kesha exemplifies the purpose of the PACS credential by understanding the HCP’s journey and hurdles when working with prior authorizations and then turns that understanding into education for those HCPs she has built relationships with. Kesha's path from bedside nursing and respiratory therapy into specialized rare disease clinical education shows how the clinical expertise perspective can strengthen the patient access conversation.
16. Ellis Wheby, CPPM, PACS — Director, Patient Services and Field Reimbursement | Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Ellis Wheby has spent his career building and rebuilding market access infrastructure from the ground up, now serving as the national leader for Field Reimbursement Managers at Tarsus after similar leadership roles at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work launching injectable and infused biologics across 9+ therapeutic areas speaks to a simple truth: when reimbursement systems aren't built to scale, patients are the ones who wait. His track record of turning reimbursement chaos into repeatable execution, from Medicare Part B and D strategy to formulary pull-through, is exactly the kind of operational discipline that the PACS program helps professionals develop. Ellis's career-long pattern of building teams and platforms from scratch shows how strong access infrastructure translates directly into patients getting on therapy faster.
Rachel Cheben Bess leads enterprise oncology patient services strategy at Pfizer, overseeing roughly 45,000 quarterly patient and provider inquiries following her success of building patient access infrastructure from the ground up. Her work reducing hub hold times and cutting payer denials by over 20% shows just how much operational precision in access programs can directly shorten a patient's path to treatment. Her ability to align hub services, field reimbursement, and provider engagement into one coherent strategy reflects the cross-functional access expertise that the PACS program is designed to build. Rachel's trajectory from frontline reimbursement navigation to enterprise-level patient access leadership illustrates how deeply access strategy can shape patient outcomes in oncology and rare disease.
18. Amy Field-Smith, MSW, PACS — Senior Director, Patient Advocate Team (Patient Support Services) | Corcept Therapeutics
Amy Field-Smith has spent nearly 14 years building and leading the Patient Advocate Program at Corcept Therapeutics, growing with the organization from its early stages into her current senior director role. Her long tenure leading patient advocacy work highlights how much continuity and institutional knowledge matter in patient support, since navigating a patient's access journey often depends on relationships with the medical community built over years, not months. Her background in social work and psychology brings a patient-first lens to access work that complements the practical training the PACS program provides.
Misty Fernandez brings a background in case management and child development into her current work as a patient navigator in oncology at GSK, following several years supporting patients with rare diseases at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Her path from early intervention case management to rare disease patient support shows how transferable advocacy and coordination skills are across very different populations, and how central those skills are to helping patients navigate complex reimbursement and access landscapes. Her expertise in reimbursement and access, paired with a genuine background in patient advocacy, reflects the kind of well-rounded skill set someone successful in navigating patient access can cultivate. Misty's career shift from child development services into rare disease patient support illustrates how a patient-centered mindset carries across an entire career.
20. Robin Tompkins, PACS — Director of Patient Services/Hub Operations | Sun Pharma
Robin Tompkins has spent eight years at Sun Pharma, rising from Associate Director of US Health Policy & Reimbursement to her current role overseeing hub operations for the company's brand portfolio, after building a career-long specialty in reimbursement, coding, and buy-and-bill strategy across biologics launches across other pharmaceutical organizations. Her work helping to remove barriers to product access and coaching teams on reimbursement coding, including navigating unclassified J codes, highlights how much specialized knowledge it takes to get patients past administrative hurdles and onto therapy. Robin's path from sales training and hospital account management, to becoming certified in prior authorizations, into hub operations leadership shows how reimbursement fluency compounds into broader patient access leadership over time.
21. Rick Johnson, PACS — Director, Access and Reimbursement Solutions | AbbVie Patient Services
Rick Johnson has spent nearly 15 years at AbbVie, rising to his current role directing access and reimbursement solutions across immunology and oncology, following earlier experience in sales training and curriculum development at Abbott. His long tenure building and refining access strategy for two of the most complex therapeutic categories highlights how much specialized reimbursement knowledge is needed to keep patients from falling through the cracks. His background in curriculum development and training also speaks to the value of building strong educational foundations in access, which is central to the education that field reimbursement teams provide to the medical community and what the PACS program aims to do.
22. Jami Harpster, PACS — Rare Disease Family Access Manager | Biogen
Jami Harpster has spent nearly two decades in specialty pharmaceutical sales and account management, now focused on family access for rare disease patients at Biogen. Her work navigating the complexities of specialty pharmacy distribution for rare disease families highlights just how much guidance patients need when a therapy exists but the path to actually receiving it is anything but simple. Her description of herself as a "patient first advocate" captures the mindset required to successfully build strategies that can enhance access to medications. Jami's transition from broad neurology and immunology sales into a dedicated rare disease access role as a certified prior authorization professional shows how a patient-first orientation can shape an entire career path.
23. Adam Edwards, MBA, PACS, ACHE — US Market Access: Reimbursement Education Liaison, Southwest Regional Lead | Sanofi
Adam Edwards brings a uniquely varied background, from a career as an NFL defensive back to franchise and M&A consulting, into his current role leading reimbursement education for Sanofi across the Southwest, following earlier market access and patient support work at other pharmaceutical organizations. His work as a Reimbursement Education Liaison highlights an often-overlooked piece of access work: making sure providers and staff actually understand how to navigate reimbursement processes, not just that they exist. His board leadership with the Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund also reflects a long-standing commitment to patient advocacy for underserved populations, work that mirrors his access-for-all mindset both professionally and personally. Adam's path from professional athletics into healthcare business leadership shows how varied experience can converge into a genuine specialty in healthcare that can shape populations' access at large.
Irma Lucero has spent over 25 years in pharmaceutical leadership, currently directing market access account integration at GSK after progressing through strategic contracting, field reimbursement, and patient support roles at GSK and Otsuka. Her background as a pharmacy technician and pharmacy benefits supervisor before moving into pharma gives her a crucial understanding of how insurance and formulary decisions actually affect patients at the counter, a perspective that deepens her current work integrating payer and specialty pharmacy strategies. Lucero's path from community pharmacy to enterprise market access leadership shows how frontline healthcare experience can evolve into strategic access expertise.
Drew Robertson has spent over seven years in patient access and hub services, progressing from Case Manager to Associate Director across various biopharmaceutical organizations, with each role centered on resolving reimbursement issues like denials, appeals, and reauthorizations. His hands-on case management background, personally troubleshooting insurance and specialty pharmacy issues for individual patients, shows how much of access work comes down to solving one person's problem at a time, even while managing broader hub operations. His experience identifying payer trends and building tracking systems for reimbursement issues reflects the kind of systems-level thinking that roles in patient access encourage (and some may say, require,) alongside patient-level advocacy. Drew's progression from direct case management into hub services leadership shows how granular patient advocacy experience becomes the foundation for broader access strategy.
