Keynote Speaker
Manley Feinberg II - Vertical Lessons, Inc.
Manley is the founder of Vertical Lessons, Inc. He is an award winning international keynote speaker, business leader and author. Leveraging more than twenty years of business, professional speaking and adventure experience, his insight and energy will inspire and equip you to step up and reach your next summit.
In fact, he wrote a book titled, Reaching Your Next Summit! 9 Vertical Lessons to Lead with More Impact.
Manley’s 11 years of leadership influence contributed to a workplace culture that landed Build-A-Bear Workshop on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® List four years in a row. Manley served two terms as the president of the St. Louis chapter of the National Speakers Association
On a personal note, Manley likes to sleep on the side of mountains. Even more shocking is that his wife has been putting up with that for more than two decades, and he has two teens that still kiss him on the cheek in front of their friends.
Joint Commission Update
George Mills - President - The George Mills Company
George Mills is known for his passion in supporting Healthcare organizations, improving operations and regulatory compliance. He teaches the CMS COP Process to understand their relationship with the new Joint Commission Physical Environment Chapter.
Previously, Mr. Mills was the Director of Technical Operations for JLL Heathcare. In that role, George provided healthcare expertise over the JLL healthcare program, supporting account teams with innovation, program development, and ensuring the goals of higher reliability are achieved.
Prior to joining JLL, George was the Director for the Department of Engineering at The Joint Commission. While at the Joint Commission, George provided standards interpretation and education to The Joint Commission’s Surveyors and accredited organizations and is a nationally recognized speaker and author. He also authored the current Environment of Care and Life Safety Chapters. Previously, George served as Senior Engineer for the Standards Interpretation Group in the division of Accreditation and Certification Operations at The Joint Commission.
George has over 40 years of experience in the health care environment, and previous experience in the construction industry and structural steel fabrication.
Educational Sessions
Elevated Performance of Building Systems for Versatile Operation
Code requirements for healthcare spaces call out limits for both temperature and humidity, among other design conditions. With high ventilation and air circulation requirements in many spaces, healthcare spaces are one of the highest energy users in the country, second only to food service. Growing demand on the grid from data centers and EV’s, as well as other changes to the energy market, make it important to reduce energy footprints, both to offset the new entrants, and to reduce resources needed to back up critical healthcare facilities at the market is disrupted. As places designed for care & healing, environments should support that mission, both in their direct environmental conditions, and on their impact to the surrounding community.
Nick Burke, Director of Engineering & Energy, The University of Kansas Health System - Nick is a Mechanical Engineer, with over 10 years experience at the University of Kansas Health System, working both as a project manager and the Director of Engineering & Energy. Prior to that, he was a consulting engineer for over 8 years, working on energy savings projects across many sectors, focusing on Industrial facilities. Within health care, he has led a variety of projects, from the region’s first proton center, to a multi-year campus AHU replacement plan, to a chilled beam installation, to over a dozen custom surgery and USP pharmacy HVAC solutions. As Director of Engineering & Energy, he has led efforts to reduce main campus utility costs two years in a row, against escalating costs, and expanded those efforts, showing savings at three additional major campuses and growing. Nick has been the sustainability director for KCAHE for over 6 years. The department has been recognized this past year with the Best Practice award from the DOE’s Better Buildings program, and KDHE’s Environmental Sustainability award.
Travis Lee, Principal, Brack & Associates Consulting Engineers, P.A. Travis Lee is an Architectural Engineer, with over 22 years at Brack & Associates, working as a Principal for over 6 years now. In that time, he has focused on quality healthcare solutions, always focusing on high performance of systems to meet the needs of many hospital partners throughout the region. Design of major projects include radiology, sterile processing, surgical suites, USP pharmacies, and whole buildings for both Children’s Mercy and the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
Practical and Sustainable Utilization of AMR Technology in Healthcare
This session aims to explore the evolution of safe, hospital-ready Autonomous Mobile Robotics (AMR) technology solutions. Revolutionary technology in an evolutionary world, that when implemented, is poised to transform Environmental Services (EVS) operations in healthcare into efficient, best in class, cost saving practices. The presentation is structured so that participants walk away with insightful process improvement strategies around five most impactful healthcare-centric AMR related use cases and learn how robotics and automation is driving measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, staff and patient safety, operating cost reduction, and workforce retention.
Bob Caldarella, Co-Founder, ClearFocus Robotics - Bob is a proven leader and innovator in Autonomous Mobile Robotics (AMR) solutions, with a track record of developing and scaling technologies that transform how organizations operate across healthcare, education, hospitality, retail, and commercial and industrial environments. As Co-Founder of ClearFocus Robotics, Bob drives the vision of delivering real-world, best-in-class AMR solutions that improve efficiency, safety, and workforce augmentation in critical market sectors.