Mara McDermott is the Chief Executive Officer of Accountable for Health, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy
organization committed to accelerating the adoption of effective accountable care. She is an accomplished healthcare executive with deep expertise in federal healthcare law and policy, including delivery system reform, physician payment and payment models.
Mara is an attorney by training and previously served as counsel in the health industry practice at Akin Gump in Washington, D.C. In that role, she focused on a variety of issues affecting health industry clients, with an emphasis on health policy and regulatory issues facing physician organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and academic medical institutions. Mara is also a Professorial Lecturer at the School of Public Health at George Washington University and on the Governing Board at the Health Care Cost Institute.
Shelley Robinette is the Operations Manager at Accountable for Health, collaborating closely with leadership, members, and stakeholders to coordinate efforts around value-based care events and overseeing the operation of A4H.
Prior to this position, Shelley was Executive Assistant to UpStream’s CEO and Manager of Federal Affairs at American’s Physician Group. Shelley also had a long-standing career at Verizon, where she served as the Manager of Government Affairs.
A native of Alexandria Virginia, Shelley leverages her career experiences to support healthcare policy and organizational development.
Founder & Principal, Pittman Policy Strategies
David Pittman is a Senior Policy & Communications Advisor to Accountable for Health and Founder & Principal of Pittman Policy Strategies. He brings more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of Medicare policy, value-based care, and strategic communications, helping organizations translate complex policy into clear, compelling narratives that drive impact.
He spent seven years at the National Association of ACOs, where he led federal advocacy, directed national media strategy, and served as the organization’s chief spokesperson. Earlier in his career, he was a health policy journalist covering Washington for outlets including POLITICO and MedPage Today.
David holds an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where his research focused on Medicare supplemental insurance and has been published in leading journals including Health Affairs, the American Journal of Managed Care, and JCO Oncology Practice. He advises organizations across the health care ecosystem on policy strategy, communications, and advocacy.
Founder & Principal, HealthE Consulting
Essence Revels is a Senior Government Affairs Advisor to Accountable for Health and Founder & Principal of HealthE Consulting, where she helps organizations propel their mission forward through strategic advocacy.
Essence brings nearly two decades of experience in health care, beginning in operations where she worked directly alongside providers to design and deliver value-based care initiatives. That operational grounding has become the foundation of her advocacy work, giving her a practitioner’s understanding of what primary care and ACO providers need to succeed — and the credibility to advocate for it at the federal, state, and local levels. She most recently served as Senior Director of Government Affairs & Health Advocacy at VillageMD, advancing Medicare reimbursement protections and ACO regulatory safeguards on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies. Earlier in her career, she supported provider engagement and training enablement at Aledade and co-led the launch of a new Accountable Care Organization within Trinity Health System.
Essence holds a Master of Biomedical Sciences from Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine and a B.A. in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University. She previously served as elected Chair of the African American Mayors Association Business Council and is the author of Fostering Common Ground in Health Policy: A Guide for Mayors to Advocate for Our Communities.
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