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Richard H. Levenstein, JD is a shareholder at Nason Yeager practicing in complex commercial and civil litigation and physician and medical staff representation. He represents individual physicians, professional medical practices, and organized medical staff leadership statewide and has successfully challenged major hospital policies in cases that shaped physician protections. He is a Board Certified Business Litigation Lawyer and Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator, an Adjunct Professor of Healthcare Law at Tulane University Law School, and founding President of the Justice Major B. Harding American Inn of Court.

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Mark Bonanno, JD, MPH is General Counsel and Vice President of Health Policy for the Oregon Medical Association and founder of Healthlawoffice.com, which he established in 2000. He previously chaired the American Health Lawyers Association's Fraud and Abuse Practice Group, served on its Board of Directors, and taught as an adjunct professor of health law at Portland State University. He currently serves as President of the American Society of Medical Association Counsel.

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Jack Bierig, JD has extensive experience in the general representation of associations, antitrust counseling, healthcare regulatory issues, copyright, trademark and trade secret matters, and FDA regulation. He has represented numerous clients in government antitrust and health fraud investigations, in actions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, in private antitrust litigation, and in copyright, trademark, and trade secret cases.

Some of the nation's leading professional associations turn to Bierig for counsel, including the American Medical Association, American Dental Association, American Osteopathic Association, National Association of REALTORS®, Federation of State Medical Boards, American Board of Medical Specialties, American Academy of Periodontology, American Association of Endodontists, American Health Information Management Association, College of American Pathologists, and Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®.

He also advises medical and dental certifying boards, including the American Board of Dermatology, American Board of Emergency Medicine, and American Board of Periodontology, and represents accreditation organizations including the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, ARC-PA, and CoARC.

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Emily Carroll, JD, as a Senior Attorney for the AMA’s Advocacy Resource Center, Emily provides legislative, policy, and legal support to state and national medical specialty societies on managed care practices and commercial health insurance reforms. Emily leads AMA's state advocacy efforts on key issues including utilization management, network adequacy, ACA marketplaces, health plan use of AI, and other commercial payer practices.

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Wes Cleveland, JD is an attorney in the American Medical Association's Advocacy Resource Center. Before joining the AMA, he served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Texas Attorney General's Office and as an attorney in the Texas Medical Association's Office of General Counsel. He also practiced privately in Austin, representing physicians and healthcare providers.

Cleveland advocates on fraud and abuse, antitrust, ERISA, physician employment, and state and federal managed care issues.

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John August has served as Program Director, Partners and Healthcare Programs of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) since 2016 after joining Cornell in 2013.

John served as the Executive Director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions from April, 2006 until July, 2013. While serving as Executive Director of the Coalition, John was the co-chair of the Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente, John has helped guide the development of nearly 4,000 Unit Based Teams since 2006.  These teams are the foundation of performance improvement at Kaiser Permanente based on the transformational relationships and learning of frontline union members, managers, and physicians in the organization.  He also led the Coalition as chief negotiator in three successful rounds of National Bargaining in 2008, 2010, and 2012 on behalf of the nearly 100,000 members of the Coalition.

Previously, John was the Deputy Director of the Health Systems Division, SEIU, where he was responsible for strategic organizing and collective bargaining.

John has more than 42 years of experience in the US labor movement. 

More recently, John has worked as a consultant to Doctors Council SEIU, the largest Union of attending physicians in the nation.  In that capacity he has advised the Union on organizing and bargaining strategy for attending physicians.  Additionally, John has developed on-going dialogue with leaders in the AMA and State Medical Societies exploring issues related to physician collective voice and action.

John is a frequent speaker to academic, public policy, trade union, and government forums on innovation in collective bargaining and organizing.

John publishes monthly articles on healthcare issues related to workforce, public policy, and physician interests and concern.

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Jeff Howell is the Executive Vice President of the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA).  MSMA is Missouri’s largest professional physician organization.  Jeff previously served as the Director of Government Relations for MSMA, directing physician advocacy and lobbying activities in the Missouri Capitol for over fifteen years.  He is an attorney licensed in Missouri and Indiana.  He previously practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Indianapolis.  He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

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Julie Kulovits, JD is currently General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs at the American Osteopathic Association where she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and implementation of the organization's legal affairs. She joined the AOA in 2022 and is also a member of the organization's Executive Leadership Team. Prior to joining the AOA, she has spent several years in the medical association legal community and is an active volunteer in various professional groups.

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Kelly Walla, JD, LLM is Vice President and General Counsel for the Texas Medical Association, with 21 years of legal experience and 15 years of legislative advocacy experience. She previously practiced at Arter & Hadden and Bean & Bean.

Walla earned her J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law and her LL.M. in Health Law from the University of Houston Law Center. She serves on the Health Law Section Council of the State Bar of Texas and is immediate past president of the American Society of Medical Association Counsel. She is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

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Jennifer Brown, JD currently serves as the Sr. Director for Policy Development and the Interim Lead of Community Health Impact within the AMA’s Center of Optimal Health Outcomes (COHO). Prior to this role, Jennifer served as the Director for Health Disparities and Engagement within the AMA’s Advocacy Unit. In this capacity she provides leadership and direction for the Advocacy Unit to support the continued development and implementation of the AMA’s advocacy work focusing on improving health outcomes for underserved and rural communities. Jennifer’s first role at the AMA was Senior Washington Counsel in the Advocacy Unit. In that capacity she advanced the AMA’s legislative and regulatory agenda through drafting advocacy materials related to maternal health, social determinants of health, immigration, graduate medical education, student loan programs, and prior authorization. Prior to joining the AMA, Jennifer served as Senior Director of Government Relations for the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). Before working for ADEA, she served as Regulatory Counsel at Stateside Associates. There she tracked state regulatory activity and provided counsel to health care clients. Jennifer received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University and a law degree from Tulane University Law School.

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Sierra Burgon, JD is a Senior Attorney in AMA's Center for Optimal Health Outcomes' (COHO) Policy Development Pillar. Sierra has a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and a JD with a concentration in Health Law and Policy from University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Sierra works on a range of health policy issues across COHO and Advocacy, including maternal health, nutrition, and education. Sierra also supports leadership reports and key pipeline programs such as the Summer Health Law Internship and Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship.

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Joshua Katz, JD graduated from the Washington University School of Law. He then clerked for a Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, and for judges on the Court of Federal Claims and the Third Circuit. After time in private practice and at a think-tank where he worked on constitutional law, he joined the Arizona Attorney General's Office. He works in the Solicitor General's Office, Special Litigation Section, where he handles a variety of high-profile matters.

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Shalyn Watkins, Esq. is Senior Counsel in Holland & Knight's Newport Beach and Los Angeles offices, where she focuses her practice on healthcare regulatory compliance, digital health, and artificial intelligence. She advises healthcare providers, technology companies, health plans, and management services organizations on AI usage and integration, telehealth operations, and health information privacy, drawing on experience as in-house senior legal counsel for a global healthcare technology company and as Assistant Regional Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Watkins is recognized by Chambers USA for Healthcare and by Best Lawyers in America for Health Care Law, and currently serves as Vice Chair of Education for the American Health Lawyers Association's Behavioral Health Practice Group.

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Matt Lavin, JD is a Healthcare and Commercial Litigation partner in Gilbert LLP's Washington, D.C. office. He leads one of the most aggressive and respected provider-side reimbursement practices in the country.

Lavin has successfully resolved countless reimbursement disputes with commercial payors such as Aetna, Anthem, AmeriHealth, Ambetter, Beacon, Centene, HealthNet, Humana, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Magellan, and many Blue Cross Blue Shield entities and Blue Card Network plans. He is experienced in handling suits against cost-containment vendors, such as MultiPlan, that underprice the value of out-of-network claims.

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Kimberly Horvath, JD is a Senior Attorney, Director in the American Medical Association's Advocacy Resource Center where she specializes in scope of practice, augmented intelligence, telehealth, physician licensure among other issues. She is the lead staff for the AMA’s Scope of Practice Partnership and has also helped develop the “Your Care is at Our Core” campaign. Kim provides legal and legislative expertise to state medical associations and national medical specialty societies across the country and cultivates strategic partnerships with national policy organizations such as the National Conference of State Legislatures and Federation of State Medical Boards.

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Brian Kent is a healthcare attorney and strategic advisor whose practice sits at the intersection of provider rights, federal arbitration law, and the legal infrastructure that allows healthcare organizations to grow with confidence.

As a partner at McCabe Kent, Brian serves as a trusted legal partner to healthcare organizations navigating the moments that matter most — payer disputes, regulatory compliance, licensing, contracts, and the complex structural decisions that determine whether a practice scales or stalls. McCabe Kent was built on a foundational belief: that the best legal counsel doesn't wait for a crisis to arrive. It enters the room early, protects what has been built, and creates the conditions for what comes next.

Brian also serves as a key member of the Callagy Recovery team — one of the most formidable Independent Dispute Resolution practices in the country. Callagy Recovery was founded on a singular conviction: that insurance carriers have been systematically underpaying providers for years, and that the legal and regulatory infrastructure now exists to hold them accountable. With deep partnerships across state and regional medical associations, an impeccable reputation among federal arbitrators, and a team with over a decade of shared history, Callagy Recovery doesn't simply file claims — it wins them. Arbitrators themselves have called their work the best they see. That is not marketing. That is the record.

At ASMAC, Brian will address what general counsel for state medical societies need to understand about the No Surprises Act, the IDR process, and the practical steps that protect member organizations in an environment where underpayment has become the default — not the exception.