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
Pooja Ika

CEO and Founder

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John Price
John Price

Chief Operations Officer

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Anthony Weinberg
Anthony Weinberg

Vice President of Sales Strategy

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Dr. Bruce Himelstein
Bruce Himelstein, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

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John Vellutato
John Vellutato, Jr.

Vice President of Pharmacy

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Brittany Cardinal
Brittany Cardinal

Senior Director of Marketing

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Tom Lawless
Tom Lawless​

Chief Financial Officer

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Denise Doucette-Ginise
Denise Doucette-Ginise 

VP of Clinical Operations

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Cheyenne Ross
Cheyenne Ross

Chief Compliance Officer

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Nicole Brown
Nicole Brown

Director of Medicare Sales - Arizona

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Marty Henshaw
Marty Henshaw

Director of Medicare Sales- Massachusetts

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Stephanie English

VP of Provider Network

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Chloe Lendaro
Chloe Lendaro

Director of Human Resources

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Cheryl Cassidy

Director of Product

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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.

It Begins
with Diversity

Our culture empowers a passionate, creative, and innovative workforce that embraces health care. Our inclusive hiring practices help us to create a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. Diversity in thought and practice allows us to offer a product that is built for you.

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

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 the members in the communities we serve.

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: October 7, 2024
Pooja

Pooja Ika

Founder and CEO,
eternalHealth

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.

John

John Price

Chief Operations Officer

With over twenty-five years of experience as an Executive in Medicare Advantage, John leads eternalHealth’s Operations group. This team supports maximizing business performance while aligning with federal and state regulations. 

Prior to joining eternalHealth, John provided Medicare Advantage 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 supported the oversight of Health Plan performance and had responsibility for developing and executing national initiatives designed to improve Operational processes both within the Agency and for the Health Plan contractors.

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

Anthony Weinberg

Anthony Weinberg

Vice President of Sales Strategy

Anthony is a dynamic and seasoned leader renowned for his expertise in strategic sales and operations. With over two decades of executive leadership in both the education and healthcare sectors, he brings a wealth of experience to the table. At eternalHealth, Anthony spearheads the sales team, oversees sales strategy, operations, and provides robust broker support across all markets.

His leadership philosophy revolves around the pillars of people, process, and technology, which have consistently propelled organizational growth. Having commenced his journey in sales at an entry level, Anthony deeply understands the importance of fostering relationships and effective communication, principles that have been pivotal in driving market expansion.

Committed to continuous improvement, Anthony prioritizes incremental progress over perfection, ensuring that business advances steadily and sustainably. His academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Robert Morris University and an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from South University.

Outside of work, Anthony is dedicated to staying active and cherishing moments with his two daughters.

Dr. Bruce Himelstein

Bruce Himelstein, MD, MBA

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Himelstein is a seasoned physician executive and palliative medicine subject matter expert with extensive experience in strategic and program planning, implementation and monitoring, quality and process management and improvement, leadership and team building with a particular emphasis in government programs managed care. He has worked in expanding managed care leadership capacities over the past 15 years, most recently as an Associate Chief Medical Officer with AmeriHealth Caritas.

Prior to his managed care career Dr. Himelstein led palliative medicine program development at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.   He has extensive local, regional, national, and international speaking experience and a strong publication record including a seminal article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Pediatric Palliative Care.”  

Dr. Himelstein received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, and his MBA from the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida.

John Vellutato

John Vellutato, Jr.

Vice President of Pharmacy

John Vellutato has over 15 years of pharmacy experience, spanning the fields of Community Pharmacy, Market Access, PBM and Managed Care.  Within the managed care space, John has spent 10 years leading Pharmacy teams for Government Programs offerings of MAPD, DSNP, MMP and Medicaid plans.  John is committed to quality improvement, financial stewardship, and providing the best care for the most vulnerable populations.

John enjoys spending time with his wife Denise, daughter Emily and son Ethan.  He holds a PharmD from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, an MBA from Wilmington University, and the FAHM designation from AHIP.

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.

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.

Denise Doucette-Ginise

VP of Clinical Operations

Denise is an accomplished and strategic nurse executive with a unique background combining clinical expertise, entrepreneurial leadership, and a breadth of experience across the healthcare industry. From developing pioneering care models, to implement cutting-edge clinical strategies, Denise’s focus has alway been on enhancing the healthcare experience and optimizing outcomes for patients and providers alike. Denise is no stranger to disrupting the managed care industry, as she was a founding member of two not-for-profit, member-centric, health plans serving the needs of Connecticut’s residents. Her most recent health plan tenure with Point32Health in Massachusetts included leadership roles supporting Member Experience and Population Health.  

Denise received her Bachelor and Master of Science in Nursing degrees from Sacred Heart University and is certified in both Case Management and Hospice & Palliative Care.


Cheyenne Ross

Cheyenne Ross

Chief Compliance Officer

Cheyenne L. Ross has over 25 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 RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional, 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.

Marty Henshaw

Marty Henshaw

Director of Medicare Sales

Marty Henshaw is a seasoned Sales and Marketing Executive with over 20 years of experience in the Medicare Advantage sector. Throughout his career, Marty has successfully built and managed diverse sales teams, including direct sales, broker and FMO teams, and call center operations. His extensive background encompasses commercial, Medicare, and individual sales.

Marty began his career in commercial healthcare sales before transitioning to Medicare Advantage with a regional carrier in New York. His expertise spans both established and startup Medicare Advantage organizations, where he has consistently focused on strategy and growth.

Dedicated to helping seniors make educated and informed decisions about their healthcare choices, Marty approaches each senior with the same care and respect as if they were his own grandparents.

A graduate of Molloy College with a degree in Business Management, Marty is also an avid sports fan who enjoys spending his free time with his family, including his wife and kids.

Stephanie English

VP of Provider Network

Coming Soon

Chloe Lendaro

Chloe Lendaro

Director of Human Resources

Experienced human resources business professional with a love for life and a desire to make a positive difference.  Chloe Lendaro leads the human resources initiatives at eternalHealth to promote fairness and accountability, foster a diverse culture of excellence, and nurture an environment of belonging and mutual respect.  Aligned with the ethernalHealth mission, the human resources department collaborates with the leadership team to achieve strategic recruitment, engagement, and operational goals.

Prior to joining eternalHealth, Chloe worked in advertising, public relations, employment services and healthcare, serving in various capacities. Key strengths include business development and relationship building.  With a passion to support and inspire others to live their best lives, Chloe is thrilled to work collectively with the eternalHealth team on our progressive journey as we improve healthcare. 

Chloe studied Marketing and Commerce in Dublin, Ireland and she is a Certified Senior Professional in Human Resources.

Cheryl Cassidy

Cheryl Cassidy

Director of Product

With more than two decades of experience in the design, development, and management of Medicare products and services, Cheryl brings a wealth of expertise as the Director of Product for eternalHealth.

Her deep understanding of both Medicare and Medicaid programs is unparalleled. During her tenure at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, she spearheaded the creation and implementation of numerous Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement products.

Cheryl’s educational accomplishments include a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Her extensive knowledge and dedication make Cheryl an invaluable asset to the eternalHealth team.

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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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