Meet our team!

  • Trust
  • Transparency
  • Integrity
  • Dependable
  • Advocate
  • Innovative
  • Accessible

Our Leadership

We are working together to bring change to the health care industry and create products that we would feel comfortable enrolling our families in.

Pooja Ika

CEO and Founder

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Chandra S. Lingisetty, MD., MBA., MHCM.

Chief Medical Officer

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John Price

Chief Operations Officer

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Edward T. Texeria, CPA​

Vice President of Finance

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Brittany Cardinal

Director of Marketing

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David Jackson

Director of Product

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Tom Lawless​

Chief Financial Officer

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Benita Abraham
Benita Abraham

Director of Network

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Cheyenne Ross
Cheyenne Ross

Chief of Compliance

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Nicole Brown
Nicole Brown

Director of Sales - Arizona

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Sam Dubin
Sam Dubin

Senior Director of PMO & Data Analytics

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

eternalHealth is committed to being majority women owned, run, and built. This includes our employees, our leadership, our Board of Directors and Investors.

We are
Women-Led

Women make 80% of healthcare decisions for themselves and their families.

Our commitment to female leadership and diversity at all levels, allows us to be better support and identify the needs of our members in Massachusetts.

It Begins
with Diversity

Our inclusive hiring practices help us create a team that reflects the diversity of our Massachusetts communities.

We create a culture that empowers a passionate, creative, and innovative workforce that embraces health care.

Diversity in thought and practice allows us to offer a product that is built for you.

Join Our Team

eternalHealth is growing team of enthusiastic and passionate human beings that come from all different backgrounds. We are excited to speak to out-of-the-box-thinkers whether you have experience in the health care industry or not.

Open Positions
Page Last Updated On: August 25, 2023
Pooja

Pooja Ika

Founder and CEO,
Kaden Health

Pooja Ika is the founder and CEO of eternalHealth. At the age of 24, she is the youngest woman to launch a new Medicare Advantage Health Plan in the United States.

A 2019 Babson College graduate, Pooja founded eternalHealth to deliver high quality, affordable care to her fellow Massachusetts residents. Committed to doing things the right way, eternalHealth was built on trust, transparency, and integrity. Pooja has been working tirelessly to be make healthcare accessible for all, while also acting as an advocate and educator for her members. Driven to make eternalHealth a catalyst for change in the health insurance industry, Pooja is not scared to tackle what some might call impossible. Ika states, “Nothing is impossible, with the right team and the right thought process, anything is possible. I wake up every morning, grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love and be an advocate for our members.”

Although she officially launched eternalHealth in later half of 2020, Pooja has been surrounded by the healthcare industry for as long as she can remember. Born and raised in Massachusetts, her mother is a primary care physician in Worcester, MA and her father is a healthcare entrepreneur. She credits her father for instilling in her a passion for entrepreneurship, and her mother for her love for healthcare and her commitment to always placing the member at the center of every decision eternalHealth makes. This passion and commitment to make a positive difference has shaped her into who she is today: a resilient, fearless, and innovative leader.

Chandra S. Lingisetty

Chandra S. Lingisetty, MD., MBA., MHCM.

Chief Medical Officer

With more than 15 years of well-rounded healthcare leadership experience as an executive, Dr. Chandra S. Lingisetty serves as Chief Medical Officer at eternalHealth. A member of American College of Health Care Executives, Dr. Lingisetty has a passion for healthcare innovation, transformation, advocacy for equitability, and global access to high-quality healthcare.

Prior to joining eternealHealth, Chandra served as Chief Administrative Officer at Baptist Health Physician Partners of Baptist Health System in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he led the state’s largest Clinically Integrated Network with about 2000+ providers. Working with Federal (Medicare/Medicaid), Commercial payers (Private and Managed Medicare/Medicaid), and employers to develop and implement value-based plans, Chandra worked directly with the physicians, managers, and staff in developing data driven strategies in succeeding in value-based plans. His responsibilities included engagement with physicians, empowering them to actively participate in leveraging data to modify practice workflows.

Chandra holds Master of Health Care Management from Harvard University and Master of Business Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at New York Medical College, New York, and Post Graduate training in General and Orthopedic Surgery and General Medicine at University of Liverpool in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He holds Doctor of Medicine (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery: MBBS + Internship in Medicine and Surgical Specialties) from NTR University of Health Sciences, Andhra Pradesh, India.

John Price

John Price

Chief Compliance Officer

With over twenty-five years of experience as an Executive in Medicare Advantage, John leads eternalHealth’s Compliance group. This team provides enterprise-wide support to inform business decisions made by the organization’s leadership to achieve maximum business performance while aligning with federal and state regulations. John speaks at several industry conferences each year on operations and compliance strategies.
Prior to being recruited to eternalHealth, John provided Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plan Regulatory Compliance leadership to health plans both as an employee and on a Consulting basis. He also worked at CMS where he was brought in to join their Health Plan oversight group. Over the course of his 10 years at CMS, he led dozens of Program Audits and had responsibility for developing initiatives designed to improve the effectiveness of CMS Oversight strategies.

John is a graduate of Penn State University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Health Policy Administration.

Edward T. Texeria

Edward T. Texeria, CPA

Vice President of Finance

Edward Texeria, a certified public accountant, is eternalHealth’s controller and oversees the company’s accounting and internal control policies and procedures to ensure accurate and timely internal and external financial reporting. An accomplished financial executive with a track record of adding value with significant experience in insurance and financial services in both public accounting and private industries, he also comes with a breadth of knowledge in regulatory matters, overseeing external audits, SOX compliance, and financial close processes.

Prior to joining eternalHealth, Edward served as Vice President and Controller at Tufts Health Plan, a health plan with more than one million members in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut providing coverage through employer-sponsored plans (Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace plans). At Tufts, Edward managed and directed the monthly, quarterly, and annual financial close and reporting processes, and ensured timely and accurate compliance of statutory filings, proper accounting and documentation of various significant transactions.

Edward holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition, he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), California, as well as a member of California State Society of CPAs.

Brittany Cardinal

Brittany Cardinal

Director of Marketing

An experienced marketing and sales leader, Brittany Cardinal spent much of her career in the hospitality industry. She led teams of 20+ and collaborated directly with clients and vendors including Medical, Corporate and Entertainment Corporations, negotiated contracts, generated leads and developed long-standing relationships. Through this work, Brittany was responsible for creating and executing marketing and sales strategies, including large annual plans executed by a team, as well as smaller marketing blitz style campaigns. She also worked creatively throughout these positions, spending time working on cohesive branding including for social media, and traditional advertisements.

Brittany is responsible for managing and developing eternalHealth’s marketing campaigns and sales strategies across different channels and segments. She thrives in working with creative teams to develop marketing and sales plans with specific objectives and analyzing customer insights and trends. Brittany’s enthusiasm and creativity spills into her everyday work. Joining eternalHealth allows Brittany to use her refined interpersonal, creative, and technical skills to work as an advocate for the residents of Massachusetts. Creating and executing eternalHealth’s marketing and sales strategy allows Brittany to increase access to affordable care, while maintaining a consistent brand and member experience. She is proud to be part of a company who is looking to make a difference in the healthcare industry while making care accessible and affordable to all.

Brittany graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with a degree in Business Administration.

David Jackson

David Jackson

Director of Product

David Jackson has 10 years of Medicare experience, working on the Tufts Health Plan’s sales team, the product team at BCBS of MA, and as Operations Manager at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (now Point32Health).  Using his knowledge of Medicare markets, David provides key insights into competitive landscapes, marketing material creation & product design.

David has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Organization & Management Studies from Gettysburg College.

Tom Lawless

Tom Lawless

Chief Financial Officer

Tom Lawless has spent the past 20+ years building, sustaining, and growing new healthcare-related programs that balance fiscal responsibility & prudence with creativity & innovation, focusing on models of care that are novel, person-centered, and improve the social welfare of those who are served. He is very excited to continue doing so in his role as the Chief Financial Officer of eternalHealth.

Tom comes to eternalHealth from a not-for-profit, member-centric, health insurance cooperative. He helped the company continuously strive toward its dual goals of thriving financially, while keeping members at the very epicenter of its mission and service model. While there, Tom also spearheaded the creation of a brand new private, charitable foundation, which will be meaningfully giving back to those in need in the surrounding communities for years to come. Previously, Tom worked in the finance department of a successful hospice that provided high-quality care to persons experiencing their unique and poignant end-of-life journeys, assuring that the appropriate financing was always available. Tom’s career began as a civil servant in the Wisconsin Medicaid program, where he helped to create a program that expanded the institutional entitlement to care into home and community-based settings. Starting with only a blueprint in hand, the program now serves more than 57,000 frail elders and disabled adults and is considered a national model. Growing into a senior leadership role, Tom was a key architect of an innovative financing model, through which the public and private sectors successfully collaborated to better the lives of persons in great need.

Tom holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, with additional graduate work in economics completed at the University Wisconsin-Madison.

Benita Abraham

Benita Abraham

Director of Network

As the Director of Network for eternalHealth, Benita brings over twenty years of experience in network management, including contracting and provider relations. 

The Network team is responsible for building and maintaining a high-quality network of physicians and facilities that provides affordable care to our members.

Benita began her career as a Case Manager for a non-profit organization that specialized in behavioral health.  She quickly transitioned into the network management space after an opportunity to work for a national Medicaid managed care health plan, emerged.

This opportunity sent her on a path that allowed her to learn and develop her skills in all aspects of network management including network development, network strategy, provider relations, credentialing and provider communications. 

Prior to joining eternalHealth, Benita was the Director of Network Management for a rental network.  At that organization, she was responsible for network expansion, provider relations and communications, credentialing and developing policies, procedures and internal workflows.

Benita is a graduate of the University of North Texas, where she received her Bachelor’s of Science in Rehabilitation Studies.

Cheyenne Ross

Cheyenne Ross

Chief of Compliance

Cheyenne L. Ross has over 23 years of experience in health care compliance in government-sponsored programs.  Cheyenne is passionate about diversity equity and inclusion and incorporates those pillars into the development of effective compliance programs.  

Cheyenne holds a degree in Communications from Arizona State University, a degree in Management from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Jurisprudence in Health Care Law Studies from Loyola Chicago.

Cheyenne maintains several certifications including Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP), Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), Certified in Health Care Compliance (CHC), Certified Healthcare Privacy Compliance (CHPC) and is a Certified Diversity Professional from the National Diversity Council (NDC).  

Nicole Brown

Nicole Brown

Director of Sales – Arizona

Nicole Brown is an innovative and agile Sales leader with a rich history in the Medicare and Managed Care industry. She has over 16 years of healthcare insurance experience with a proven track record of implementing strategic growth initiatives. Nicole excels in building relationships, developing key partnerships, and delivering optimal results.

She started her career in this industry as an Insurance Broker for 4 years, following in her parents’ footsteps, and then made the transition to the payer side where she has remained and excelled for the past 13 years. She is well-rounded in her experience and has a deep understanding of all aspects of the sales process.

Nicole graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Communication and Psychology.

Sam Dubin

Sam Dubin

Senior Director of PMO & Data Analytics

Sam is an accomplished leader in the fields of data analytics and project management. Prior to his current role at eternalHealth, he played a pivotal role as an Analytics Manager at Deloitte for a 7-year period, where he developed his leadership, consultancy and technical skills and made significant contributions to diverse projects.

Fueling his passion for continuous learning and growth, Sam pursued his academic aspirations at the George Washington University. There, he earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Information Systems, which laid the foundation for his career. Armed with a decade of hands-on experience in the field, Sam possesses a keen eye for identifying patterns, trends, and opportunities hidden within data.

Outside the office, Sam finds rejuvenation through engaging in outdoor activities. He takes pride in being a devoted husband and a loving father.

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Tom Cunniffe

Tom Cunniffe

Director of Operations 

Tom Cunniffe comes to eternalHealth with over 20 years of healthcare operations’ experience, having held leadership positions in Call Center, Enrollment, Credentialing, UAT and Reimbursement teams. Tom has worked with Medicaid, Commercial and Medicare lines of business and has consistently built teams who are metrics driven with proven successful outcomes. Making sure our business strives for an efficient, best-in-class customer experience is at the center of Tom’s philosophy.

Tom has a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a master’s in business administration from University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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