Our Team

Smita Sanwardeker, Communications Manager, is an effective marketing and communications professional, passionate about crafting and bringing forth a coherent message and inciting action around it, while giving voice to ideas, donors and the community. Sanwardeker brings with her an understanding of leveraging social media to increase visibility with online audiences, building email campaigns to engage recipients, creating personas to better understand the audience and developing a content marketing strategy and branding implementation to position non-profit organizations for success with a cohesive message.

Sanwardeker completed her bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio, and her graduate degree from Ohio University’s EW Scripps School of Journalism.

Melanie Ridley, Chief Program & Development Officer, is an experienced fund development professional with a background in writing and communications, research and health needs assessment, and project management. Ridley is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement-certified Improvement Coach; her professional focus has been community-based health care, public health, quality improvement, value-based care, and building capacity for health care safety net delivery systems.

Ridley served as Director of Fund Development for Essential Access Health, a statewide association in California advancing sexual and reproductive health; she managed a full lifecycle of federal and state grans and funder relationship management. Ridley formerly worked with Mental Health America supporting state mental health planning councils and state policy and advocacy initiatives.

Ridley holds a bachelor’s degree in community nutrition from the University of California, Davis.

Larragem Raines currently serves as the Director of Research at IVI, where her expertise in Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) drives transformative impact. With a strong consulting background, Larragem is the founder of EviGen Advisors, an evidence generation consulting group. She has also played pivotal roles, including leading HEOR and Value Strategy teams at Insightec, a pioneering neuroscience startup, and making substantial contributions to Parexel in their Real-world Evidence and Data Analytics team. Before her time at Parexel, Larragem conducted clinical research at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital, focusing on autoimmune genomics and etiology. She is a distinguished alumna of Xavier University, with both a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science and a Master’s in Science in Health Economics and Clinical Outcomes Research.

Ushma Patel, Director of Patient Engagement, is a public health professional and strategic leader bringing over 16 years of health policy, patient engagement, and qualitative research experience to her role. Prior to joining IVI, Patel was the Director for Special Projects and Educational Programs at the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care. She also served in several positions at the American Institutes for Research. As a preeclampsia survivor and patient advocate, Patel has volunteered for organizations including the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation, UNC Rex Hospital, Duke Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center, and the Preeclampsia Foundation. Patel earned her bachelor’s degree in public health from George Washington University and her master’s degree in health policy from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Erica deFur Malik, Chief Operating Officer, is a seasoned leader with over 19 years of healthcare policy, patient engagement, and member relations experience. She formerly served as membership director for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiologists of America. Malik also served as state policy director for Mental Health America and has worked as a consultant for Momentum Health Strategies. She is managing director for the Malik Group, Inc. Throughout her career, she’s been committed to empowering patient organizations and has a service-oriented approach to membership and policy.

Malik earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of William & Mary and her master’s degree in ethics from Emory University.

Mark Linthicum, Director of Policy, brings scientific training and expertise in communications and strategic planning to his role. With over 12 years of health policy and public health experience, he’s conducted policy-facing research in diverse therapeutic areas including oncology, hepatology, infectious disease, and nutrition. Linthicum has been published in leading economics, medicine, and health policy journals including JAMA Oncology, Health Affairs, Chest, and Health Services Research.

Linthicum earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Southern California.

Mark Linthicum, Director of Policy, brings scientific training and expertise in communications and strategic planning to his role. With over 12 years of health policy and public health experience, he’s conducted policy-facing research in diverse therapeutic areas including oncology, hepatology, infectious disease, and nutrition. Linthicum has been published in leading economics, medicine, and health policy journals including JAMA Oncology, Health Affairs, Chest, and Health Services Research.

Linthicum earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Southern California.

Tiffany Huth, Chief Communications Officer, brings over 20 years’ experience in executive leadership, strategic planning and communications, health policy, and brand reputation management to her role. Prior to joining IVI, Ms. Huth served as Vice President of Communications and Programs at the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness. She has been the Vice President of Communications and Community Relations at Dohmen Life Sciences, Head of Public Affairs at the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and previously served in a variety of senior leadership and public affairs positions at the American Chemistry Council and the National Center for Genome Resources, as well as consulting for rare disease and healthcare companies. Huth earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and her master’s degree in public health from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

Michelle Cheng is a health economist and serves as a Research Associate. She completed her master’s degree in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. She was also a researcher at the JHU Drug Access and Affordability Initiative, conducting studies in HEOR to evaluate new healthcare technologies and inform health policy transformation. Formerly, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry for about three years and was responsible for medical communication for branches in southeast Asia. The therapeutic areas included but were not limited to – diabetes, infectious disease and vaccine. Before that, she was a pharmacist serving in a clinic setting.

Rick Chapman brings decades of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) expertise to his role as Chief Science Officer. Chapman was Director of Health Economics at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review prior to IVI, where he led development of economic evaluations that accompanied rigorous reviews of clinical evidence. Formerly, he was VP of HEOR at Avalere Health. Before that, Chapman was a principal in HEOR at IMS Health, and a research analyst at the Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Chapman holds a PhD in health policy with a concentration in decision sciences from Harvard University. He also holds an MS in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jessica Brown, Membership and Marketing Manager, brings perspectives to her role gained through experience across a span of healthcare organizations and nonprofits. She specializes in supporting members through operations, engagement and communications and holds a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Roosevelt University and Public Policy from Arizona State University.

For over two decades, Dr. Spangler, IVI’s Chief Executive Officer, has worked in the professional health policy and public health sector with pharmaceutical and non-profit organizations. Dr. Spangler joins IVI from his most recent role as Executive Medical Director and Director and Head of Global HTA Policy Strategy & Engagement for Amgen, Inc.

Dr. Spangler earned his MD at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 1998 and his Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2002. His commitment to public health, preventive medicine, and health equity date back to his medical school residency, during which he served as a medical team leader for free clinics in Costa Rica, a resident coordinator for free clinics for homeless around UPMC, and a clinical educator in the International Medical Corps in Kosovo.

After serving one year as Chief Resident, Dr. Spangler joined Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals as a Public Health and Health Policy Consultant. He remained in this role for three years and then moved on to the Partnership for Prevention, where he started as a Managing Senior Fellow and was promoted to Chief Medical Officer until he was recruited to Amgen.