Name: 

Dominic Castillo

Board Role:

President

Professional Title:

Healthcare Attorney

Organization:

Husch Blackwell, LLP

Bio:

As a healthcare attorney, Dominic helps providers navigate a highly regulated landscape so they can focus on optimal patient care. As part of the Husch Blackwell's Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance Counseling team, Dominic guides a wide range of clients - from individual practitioners to large national hospital systems - on ever-changing state and federal regulations. Skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, hospices and home health agencies are among those relying on Dominic's guidance regarding compliance, transactional and licensure matters - including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, Stark Law compliance, Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and False Claims Act (FCA).

Before joining Husch Blackwell, Dominic was a medical billing auditor and analyst for nearly a decade at both a national third-party administrator and a Texas workers' compensation insurance company. He then pursued his law degree from St. Mary's University School of Law. Clients appreciate his firsthand knowledge of Medicare compensability, disputes and appeals, audits and related issues. Dominic enjoys applying this background along with his legal skills to help clients streamline operations and avoid hurdles. Dominic currently serves as the Hispanic National Bar Association Deputy President, the Austin Bar - Health Law Section Treasurer and is the current NALHE Central Texas Chapter President.

Name: 

Vacant

Board Role:

President-Elect

Professional Title:

 

Organization:

 

Bio:

 

Name: 

Cesar Lopez

Board Role:

Vice President

Professional Title:

Associate General Counsel

Organization:

Texas Hospital Association

Bio:

Cesar Lopez is the Texas Hospital Association’s associate general counsel, helps manage all aspects of THA’s internal and external legal matters, and assists with state and federal advocacy efforts before the Texas Legislature and regulatory agencies.

Before joining THA, Cesar was a part of the legal team at Group Health Cooperative (now Kaiser Permanente of Washington), in Seattle, WA, and also worked with the Washington State Hospital Association, MultiCare Health System, and The Polyclinic, a large physician owned practice.

A Rio Grande Valley native, Cesar earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Trinity University, a JD from Albany Law School, and an LL.M. in health law from the University of Washington School of Law.

Join us on January 26th for our kick-off event in Austin, Tx. to meet and know more about our wonderful board members!

Name: 

Karina Gonzalez

Board Role:

Secretary

Professional Title:

Legal Assistant

Organization:

Husch Blackwell, LLP

Bio:

Karina Gonzalez is a prospective law student currently working at Husch Blackwell, LLP as a legal assistant. Since joining the firm she has been proactive in being involved in community organizations such as the Hispanic National Bar Association and the National Association of Healthcare Executives. Since her active involvement, Karina is now serving as Deputy of Special Projects for the HNBA Region XII and is now on the board of the NALHE Central Texas Chapter. Prior to her work at Husch Blackwell, Karina graduated in 2021 from Texas State University where she obtained a bachelor's degree in both International Relations and International Business.

During her undergraduate studies, she was given the opportunity to intern as a legislative aide for a Texas representative in which she was then given the position as District Deputy post-graduation. Karina wishes to use her knowledge and experience to continue to serve her community. She believes in promoting health equity for Latino communities and seeks to continue to be further involved in giving back to her community as she progresses in her career.

Name: 

Jim Rodriguez

Board Role:

Treasurer

Professional Title:

President & CEO

Organization:

TexHealth Central Texas

Bio:

Jim Rodriguez is the President and CEO of TexHealth Central Texas, a non-profit organization whose mission is to "Make Health Insurance Affordable." He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, Past Chair of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives, Past Treasurer of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Past Communications Chair of the Austin Association of Health Underwriters Board of Directors. Jim has served in senior leadership positions with private and public medical centers, hospitals, community mental health organizations, HMOs, PPOs and a Medicare Advantage Plan. His Three-Share Plan efforts in Texas have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Kaiser Network, California Healthline, Texas Health Plan Analysis and the Brian Lehrer Report (radio show in New York) among others. He speaks at national conferences regarding Three-Share plans, managed care contracting and other health related topics. Jim can contacted at 512-524-2618 Office, 512-364-1054 Cell, or jrodriguez@texhealthct.org

Name: 

Jose Ferrua, MBA

Board Role:

Member-at-Large

Professional Title:

CEO

Organization:

JOL Healthcare Home Health and Hospice

Bio:

Jose Ferrua is an experienced Healthcare executive that holds an Industrial Engineer degree and a master’s in business administration. Jose joined Journey of Life Healthcare in 2021 as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing both Home Health and Hospice Operations and later that year, the Board of Directors appointed him to be the Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to serving at Journey of Life Healthcare, Jose was part of the Executive Team at DHR Health System in south Texas for almost 5 years.
In his first role at DHR Health, Jose was the Chief Ambulatory Officer. Later on, he served as the right hand of DHR Health CEO in the inpatient setting, helping manage day to day Hospital operations - 530 beds Hospital and 6,000 employees. As Chief of Staff Administration and Executive Vice President, he had direct oversight of the administrative areas: Human Resources, Information Technology, Business Development, Engineering, Marketing, Facilities Management and Education.

Previous Healthcare experience includes working at Lone Star Circle of Care, a Federally Qualified Health network of clinics that doubled in size in 4 years, serving Austin and surrounding areas.

He also has experience in the Technology sector, having worked for companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and Motorola; in the areas of Finance and Operations.

Jose is an action-oriented leader with an entrepreneurial mindset and keen ability to continuously assess immediate and future needs of people, process, technology, and space.

Name: 

Gus Cardenas

Board Role:

Member-at-Large

Professional Title:

CEO/President/Principal Co-Founder

Organization:

Austin Healthcare Council

Bio:

Mr. Cardenas is the CEO/President/Principal Co-Founder of the Austin Healthcare Council. He is a senior executive with a 30+ year record of demonstrated achievement and success all while providing leadership in highly competitive markets. He has been tenacious in building new relationships, improving team performance, supporting regular training programs, securing stakeholder loyalty, and forging strong relationships with external nonprofit/public/private sector partners both domestically and internationally. He was also appointed to the Opening Central Texas for Business task force and City of Austin/Travis County Covid-19 Vaccine Distribution Partner Coalition and the Core Leadership Planning Group working on the Austin area Homelessness initiative.

Internationally he was instrumental in getting Austin selected as one of 3 cities worldwide by the World Economic Forum to participate in their Healthy Cities and Communities Initiative. He has forged collaborations with the Association of British Health Tech Industries, and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands Health Ministries. Prior to founding the AHC, he provided international consulting to clients seeking international growth opportunities in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Most recently he positioned the Austin Healthcare Council to be selected as 1 of 140 global initiatives at the Clinton Global Initiative 2022 Summit in NYC. Domestically he has worked in the finance/domestic banking/International banking field for over 23 years. In the healthcare space, Mr. Cardenas served on the board of directors of The Volunteer Healthcare Clinic (VHC), as well as its board chair for over 20 years. These Commitments to Action entities are addressing a wide range of pressing issues, including the refugee resettlement, climate resiliency, economic inclusion, education and health equity.

Mr. Cardenas currently serves on the board of directors of TexHealth Central Texas and serves on the University of Texas Medical Branch Development Board providing advice, counsel, and advocacy, when appropriate, to UTMB leadership on matters regarding long-range planning, external relations and philanthropy.

Mr. Cardenas is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, with a BBA degree with emphasis on Business Management and numerous continuing education courses

Name: 

Mary Faria, PhD, FACHE

Board Role:

Member-at-Large

Professional Title:

President & CEO

Organization:

AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine

Bio:

Before joining AOMA, Dr. Faria retired after 30 years as a healthcare executive/administrator. She has served as an adjunct professor at Texas State University and Concordia University and is a seminar lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation research was in the area of organizational change. Dr. Faria has been involved in research in the area of human and organizational resilience and with Dr. Sheila Armitage presented findings at both the SXSW Conference and The Healthier Texas Summit.

Dr. Faria currently serves on several community advisory councils and not-for-profit boards. She is the immediate past board chair for the Austin Mayor’s Health and Fitness Council of Austin. She is a competitive age group distance runner and was a 2016 age group champion for Austin Fit Magazine’s, Most Fit competition.

Name: 

Fausto Meza , MD, MPA

Board Role:

Member-at-Large

Professional Title:

Chief Medical Officer

Organization:

Ascension Texas Hospital System

Bio:

Dr. Meza serves the patients and clinical care teams of the Ascension Texas Hospital system as their Chief Medical Officer (CMO). He feels blessed to work alongside talented teams and individuals to deliver world class care in Central Texas. He initially joined Ascension Texas in 2015 as the Chief Medical Officer for the Ascension Texas South hospital market.

His leadership and service experience is varied. He started his service in medical school (UTMB) as the first elected national coordinator for the national Latino medical student organization. Later in medical school he was blessed to co-found a medical student service organization, Frontera de Salud, which served the health and educational needs of the people of the border towns of South Texas. Then took these experiences and launched the Dr. Hector Garcia Leadership and Advocacy Seminar (GLAS) for Latino medical student leaders.
Professionally, he worked as a former assistant nursing home director in NYC, formed and led a new Internal medicine Hospitalists group, and helped a hospital transition to a new electronic medical record as their Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO). Over the last 15 years he has served as a CMO for three different hospital systems (physician owned, for profit, and not for profit). He was recognized in 1999 by Newsweek magazine as one of the 20 young Latinos to watch.

Dr. Meza attended the University of Texas at Austin for undergraduate school and earned a degree in Biology. He then attended the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston for graduate classes in Health Promotion and Health Education. He graduated medical school from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He is fellowship trained in Geriatric Medicine and residency trained in Internal Medicine both at New York Presbyterian Cornell New York City campus. Prior to returning to Texas he completed his Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from Columbia University.

Name: 

Joshua Pozos, MD, MPH

Board Role:

Member-at-Large

Professional Title:

Chief Medical Officer

Organization:

Ascension Seton Hays and Southwest

Bio:

Joshua Pozo is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Ascension Seton Hays and Southwest. He is a native Austinite! Born and raised in East-Central Austin, Dr. Pozo graduated from UT Austin in 2008 with a BS in Kinesiology. He worked for two years with the Austin Independent School District as an Autism Specialist, para-professional.

Dr. Pozo then graduated from a dual degree program at UT Health San Antonio School of Medicine and Master of Public Health in May 2015. Soon after graduation he joined the faculty at UT Health San Antonio as an associate professor with the internal medicine program where he developed a simulation based resident education program and taught residents on internal medicine topics, including quality, safety control, and process improvement projects. He and his family moved back to Austin in June 2019 where he joined Ascension Seton as a chief hospitalist and now is in the role of chief medical officer over two separate sites.

Dr. Pozo joined NAHLE after his mentor, Dr. Fausto Meza, reached out and recommended the organization. Dr. Pozos goal is to be a resource for young people looking to enter medicine and serve people.