Emcee and key note speaker
jENNIFER CROWLEY
RN, CLCP, CADDCT, CDP, CMC
Jennifer Crowley has been a registered nurse for 32 years. She is a certified life care planner and certified care manager. She owns The Life Care Experts a care management and consulting company serving northwest Montana. In private practice since 2006, Jennifer provides professional services of life care planning and life care management. She has trial testimony experience working as a long-term care planning expert. She is the author of multiple publications including “7 Steps to Long-Term Care Planning”, “The Life Care Management Handbook”, and "The Ultimate Care Plan Guide." Jennifer offers education through The Life Care Management Institute, helping educate and train professionals interested in starting and growing a care management practice; and now offering online courses on aging life care planning for families & individuals. She has published over 30 on-line courses and is a regular presenter & national speaker.
AANLCP Conference Speakers
Advancing together: AALNC & AANLCP Joint Speakers
DETAILED SPEAKER INFORMATION
Speakers are sorted alphabetically by last name.
This list is provisional and will be updated as additional names are confirmed.
NEAL M. ALPINER
MD, PLLC
Neuro-Regeneration and LCP: What's next in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
Dr. Neal Alpiner, MD is a triple board-certified physician in Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Life Care Planning, with nationally recognized expertise in complex neurologic injury, life expectancy analysis, and long-term functional prognosis across the lifespan. His clinical and academic work integrates neurorehabilitation principles with biologically informed assessment of cellular health, neuroinflammation, and recovery potential following neurologic disease or injury.
Dr. Alpiner’s practice focuses on medically complex pediatric and adult populations, including individuals with acquired brain injury, stroke, spinal cord injury, neuromuscular disease, developmental neurologic disorders, and chronic medical fragility. He is particularly interested in disorders of arousal, cognition, endurance, and motor recovery, and in how mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, sarcopenia, and chronic neuroimmune activation influence functional trajectories, rehabilitation potential, and life expectancy. His work emphasizes individualized, pathology-driven analysis rather than reliance on population-based assumptions.
In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Alpiner is the President and Co-Founder of the American Association of Pediatric Life Care Professionals, an organization dedicated to advancing standards, education, and interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatric life care planning. Through this role, he has contributed to the development of pediatric-specific frameworks for life expectancy analysis, future care needs, and functional forecasting in children with complex congenital, neurologic, and catastrophic injuries.
Dr. Alpiner has held leadership roles in designing physician-driven neurorehabilitation and life care planning models that integrate high-fidelity neurologic examination, impairment- based functional analysis, and longitudinal medical decision-making. He is actively involved in educating physicians and allied professionals on rigorous documentation, biologic plausibility, and defensible methodology in life care planning, particularly in cases involving neurologic injury and lifelong care needs.
Richard Bays
JD, MBA, RN, LNCC ,LCP-C
Depositions – Are you being served?
Nurse-attorney Richard Bays has worked in various nursing roles including emergency, OR, and administration. In addition to a nursing degree, he holds an MBA and a law degree. He is certified as a LNCC as well as a Life Care Planner. In addition to working cases for defense & plaintiff, he frequently lectures on medical-legal issues.
Becky Czarnik
MS, RN, CNLCPP, CMSP-Fellow
Adding Past Medical Bill Reviews to Your Practice
Founder and CEO of Sierra Nurse Consultants, Becky Czarnik, has extensive nursing knowledge in administration, education, clinical and community settings. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. She is a licensed Registered Nurse, and her certifications include Certified Nurse Life Care Planner and Certified Medicare Secondary Payer-Fellow.
She provides services as a consultant and expert witness for services such as Life Care Plans, Medical Cost projections, Medicare Set Asides and Special Needs Trusts. Becky is a member of several organizations with emphasis on life care planning, legal nurse consulting, Medicare set asides, and care of the individual post-acute hospitalization. She is an active member of the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planners (AANLCP). She was the Executive Board Secretary (2014-2016) and the Education chair (2016-present). She has peer reviewed publications in her fields of practice.
To balance her busy professional life, Becky is an avid traveler, home gourmet cook and reader. You may also find her in the pool since she recently learned how to swim. Never one to shy away from a challenge, she participated in a local senior’s swimming competition and won first place for her age category! She lives in Reno, NV with her husband and two very spoiled cats.
Shirley Daugherty
MSN, FNP-C, CNLCP®, CHLCP™
Pre-operative Clearance: Inclusion / Exclusion Criteria, Necessary Testing, and Considerations for Nurse Life Care Planning
Shirley Daugherty is a Registered Nurse (MSN), Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-C), Certified Nurse Life Care Planner (CNLCP®) and Certified Health Professional Life Care Planner (CHLCP™) with Daugherty & Associates, LLC. Ms. Daugherty is a member of the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planners (AANLCP) and American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).
Ms. Daugherty graduated with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) in 1994 from Indiana State University. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from the University of Phoenix in 2012. In December 2021, Ms. Daugherty received her Master of Nursing (MSN) in Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-C), licensed to practice in Indiana and Ohio.
Ms. Daugherty has worked in long-term care as a staff nurse and in management. She began a nurse consulting business (Daugherty & Associates, LLC) in 2004 focusing on long-term care consultation. In 2007, she began the transition into legal nurse consulting, Nurse Life Care Planning and Medicare Set-Aside consultation. Ms. Daugherty is very active within the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planners (AANLCP) and is the past Secretary of the Executive Board. She is currently serving as the Secretary on the Universal Life Care Planner Certification Board (ULCPCB).
Ms. Daugherty has prepared Nurse Life Care Plans and Medical Cost Projections for numerous clients with injuries that include Spinal Cord Injuries, Acquired and Traumatic Brain Injuries, Chronic Pain, Amputations, and Renal Failure requiring Kidney Transplants – from birth injuries to elderly care.
In her spare time, she keeps busy with her husband, three daughters, a grandson, and two cats. She enjoys working out, traveling, football, ice hockey, and reading.
Jeremy Gottlieb
BBA, MBA, CFA Clinical Judgment Meets Machine Insight: Advancing Life Care Planning and Legal Practice with AI Jeremy Gottlieb is the co-founder and CEO of Veritec AI, a company focused on streamlining litigation workflows with their first 2 products centered document automation and injury litigation intelligence hub. Previously he was the co-founder and President of ComboCurve, Inc., a software-as-a-service financial technology platform designed for energy companies, where he has co-led the development, sales, operations, and $65MM+ financing of the business as it grew to over 300 clients in just over 18 months post-launch. Prior to ComboCurve, he served as Finance Director at Deep Gulf Energy, a private equity-backed energy company, where he was involved in equity and debt financings before the company was sold to Kosmos Energy in 2018. He previously held positions at Ivory Capital and Ernst & Young. Mr. Gottlieb graduated with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA and MPA. He is a CFA® charter holder and a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in the State of Texas. |
Nathan Gunn
M.D.
Enhancing Medical Record Review with AI-Powered Tools
Nathan Gunn, M.D. is a physician-executive and serial healthcare founder whose career spans clinical medicine, analytics, and AI-driven technologies used by hospitals, insurers, and medico-legal teams. He is the CEO and cofounder of SecondLook Health, an AI venture focused on medical-record analysis, building tools that help attorneys, insurers, and clinical reviewers extract insights from complex charts.
He previously served as Managing Director of Healthcare at NAX Group; co-founded Docent, a multi-state telemedicine company; and was COO and founding team member of Suki AI, a physician-assistant platform. Earlier, as President of Population Health at Valence Health (acquired by Evolent Health) and Enterprise COO at Verisk Health, he led development of population-health, risk-adjustment, quality-measurement, and claims-analytics systems widely deployed across payors and provider organizations.
Dr. Gunn is a board-certified internist trained at UCSF with publications in JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. His work gives him a distinctive vantage point for legal nurse consultants: translating complex medical data into clear, defensible, and actionable intelligence.
Shanna Huber
RN, BSN, MSN/Ed, CLCP, CCM
Shanna has been a registered nurse for 30 years.She worked in various fields of nursing including skilled nursing, cardiac, trauma, float nursing, nursing instructor, and school nursing. Shanna opened Ripple Life Care Planning, a business specializing in life care management and life care planning, in 2015. She struggled to find a software system that fit her unique needs in this niche market as a Life Care Manager. Being a problem solver, she hired a developer and developed software specifically for her care management practice, resolving common daily issues. With a passion to help others she decided to sell the software to other Life Care Managers. Shanna launched My Junna Software in 2018, which provides Life Care Managers tools to run their business effectively and efficiently. Shanna is the co-author of the Life Care Management Handbook. She is also a contributor to The Life Care Planning Handbook. Shanna is passionate about helping others and has a special heart for women. She was on the board of CG Women Empowerment Africa (CGWE), a non-profit that uses the “Dabaree” process to support women in Ethiopia and provides education, support and women empowerment to some of the neediest women in Ethiopia. Shanna traveled to Ethiopia in 2015 with the missionaries of CGWE. She continues to provide support to this organization and volunteers regularly for much fundraising efforts.
Jenn Masse
RN, BSN, MBA, CNLCP, CBIS, CCS
From Data to Decisions: Practical AI Applications in Nurse Life Care Planning
Christie Mitstifer
MSN, MHA, RN, CNLCP®
Enhancing Medical Record Review with AI-Powered Tools
Christie Mitstifer MSN, MHA, RN, CNLCP® is a registered nurse licensed in Pennsylvania. With over fifteen years of experience, she is currently employed as a home health nurse, life care planner, and legal nurse consultant.
She has worked in a variety of specialties including postpartum, pediatrics, rehabilitation, hospice, homecare, case management, and nursing administration. Ms. Mitstifer has experience providing home skilled nursing care for patients with chronic illnesses, mechanical ventilation, and serious disabilities. She has written life care plans for adults and children with catastrophic injury and/or chronic illness including areas such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, multiple trauma, and other disabling conditions.
Ms. Mitstifer is an active member of the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planning (AANLCP), American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC), and International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals (IARP).
Erin T. OConnell
MSN-RN, MBA, FIG LCP-C, CNLCP®, MSCC®, CRRN®/ABSNC, CCM®, CNL, CPB™, CPC™
AANLCP Scope and Standards - How to Support Your Recommendations
Ms. OConnell is a distinguished professional in life care planning, celebrated for her expertise and contributions to the field. She has earned prestigious national awards, including the 2020 AANLCP® Distinguished Service Award and the 2021 AANLCP Ambassador Award. Over 20 years of nursing experience, Ms. OConnell has worked across a diverse array of specialties, including case management, long-term care, acute care, rehabilitation, emergency medicine, and radiology. In 2012, she transitioned to case management and consulting. In 2016, she became a certified nurse life care planner.
As an active member of the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planning (AANLCP), Ms. OConnell served as president from August 2018 to December 2020. She co-chairs the Research Committee, driving initiatives that support and advance life care planning, and co-chairs the Mentorship Program, where she nurtures the next generation of life care planners.
Ms. OConnell worked with Veterans Affairs until 2021, providing compassionate care in long-term care, hospice, and short-term rehabilitation. Her role involved providing case management services, maintaining nursing competencies, preparing for Long-Term Care Surveys, and implementing quality improvement initiatives and policies. She has also contributed to the education and mentorship of future nurses at various colleges and universities and has guided aspiring life care planners through her mentorship with AANLCP.
As an expert in life care planning and past medical bill reviews, she holds specialty certifications in Medicare Set-Asides, Clinical Nurse Leadership, Case Management, Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse, Certified Professional Billing (CPB), and Certified Professional Coder (CPC) certifications. She has authored articles on nurse life care planning and presented at numerous national conferences, including TBI MedLegal, CMSA, and AANLCP.
Victoria Powell
RN, CCM, LNCC, CNLCP, CLCP, MSCC, CBIS, CEAS
Social Determinates of Health
Victoria Powell, RN, CCM, LNCC, CNLCP®, CLCP, MSCC, CBIS, CEASII, brings more than 30 years of nursing expertise paired with an impressive array of specialized certifications that underscore her leadership in medical case management and life care planning. As founder and President of VP Medical Consulting, she delivers comprehensive case management services for individuals with catastrophic injuries, with an emphasis on tailored solutions for those with complex medical needs such as amputation and brain injuries.
Powell’s extensive certifications highlight her commitment to excellence and specialized knowledge in the field. She holds the Certified Case Manager (CCM) and Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (LNCC) designations, underscoring her expertise in navigating complex medical-legal cases with accuracy and insight. Additionally, as a Certified Nurse Life Care Planner (CNLCP®) and Certified Life Care Planner (CLCP), she develops lifelong, evidence-based care plans, offering clear insights into future medical costs and rehabilitation needs. Her certification as a Medicare Set-Aside Consultant (MSCC) further strengthens her capability to protect Medicare interests through careful planning and allocations.
An active member of the Case Management Society of America (CMSA) and the American Association of Nurse Life Care Planners (AANLCP), where she served as President, Powell is widely recognized for her contributions to the industry. She has earned the Lifetime Hall of Fame Award from the National Nurses in Business Association, marking her influence on nurse entrepreneurship. Her role as a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) and Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist highlight her ability in addressing the nuanced needs of brain injury patients and ensuring safe, ergonomic environments.
In addition to her consulting and expert witness services, Powell is a dedicated educator. Through her founding of Remington Publishing, she has produced high-quality resources for medical-legal professionals and has authored numerous journal articles and textbook chapters. A seasoned speaker, Powell frequently presents on complex topics in life care planning, case management, and amputation injuries, providing professionals with valuable insights and practical strategies to excel in their practice.
BRAD RAMPT
CEO-President, ATP
Smart Home & AgeTech in Life Care Planning (Co-Presenting with Kelly Nesbitt)
Brad Rampt is the Founder and CEO of Cornerstone Ventures Inc., dba CVI Medical. Since 1998, CVI has provided complex rehab DME and smart home solutions to over 5,000 patients in Florida, Texas, New York, and Massachusetts.
Prior to starting CVI, Mr. Rampt was a Managing Director of IT Consulting with Price Waterhouse Coopers living in Tampa, Dallas and Tokyo. He left PWC in 1998 to work on a more personal basis with the most critically injured and disabled in our society. His experience providing technological solutions to corporations on a global basis was brought to bear in applying technology on an individual basis to patients - mainly SCI, ALS, MS and CVA patients and elderly who wish to age at home and stay out of ALF's.
Deborah Watkins
MHL, MSN, RN, CCM, CRRN, CLCP, MSCC, LNCC, DipACLM
Brain Sparks: What Life Care Planners Need to Know About Epilepsy
Seasoned clinician and executive with extensive experience in all facets of medical claims management integrating technology with evidenced-based clinical and technical processes, quality assurance, risk management, case management and life care planning.
Deborah is the owner of Medical-Legal Solutions LLC, offering Medical Record Reviews, Medical Cost Projections, Life Care Planning and Expert Testimony, Legal Nurse Consulting, Bill Review and Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance (Benefit eligibility, Conditional Payment Research and Negotiation and Medicare Set Asides).
She is experienced in claims management of catastrophic/complex/ chronic disease populations and recognized for excellence in clinical strategy and Return-to-Work outcomes. She has held key roles in major group health, workers compensation and group benefit insurance companies including taking part in the Federal Medicare+Choice pilot program, the precursor for Medicare Advantage C Plans.
Deborah has an Executive master’s in healthcare leadership (MBA/MPH) from Brown University and a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). She has been a Life Care Planner and an industry leader for over 20 years. She is passionate about innovation in claims and healthcare that improves patient outcomes.
BRIAN WOODRUFF
MD
Understanding, Neonatal, Hypoxic, Ischemic, Encephalopathy, and Future Care Needs
Dr. Brian Woodruff is a board-certified pediatric neurologist and faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He has more than 20 years of experience in clinical child neurology, with prior faculty appointments at Michigan State University and Western Michigan University.
Dr. Woodruff has extensive experience in medical-legal consulting, serving as an expert witness for both plaintiff and defense in pediatric neurology cases involving hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, brachial plexus injury, and other neurologic disorders. He has provided expert opinions in more than 250 depositions and 30 trials nationwide.
As both a clinician and educator, Dr. Woodruff brings a balanced, evidence-based perspective to the intersection of medicine and law.
LAURA Woodard
Costing Framework (Co-Presenting with Dana Penilton)
Mary Zalinger
PT, DPT, CLT, OCS
What’s New in Pain Management? Exploring Pain Management in Contemporary Healthcare, Embracing Alternative Therapies, and Integrating Interdisciplinary Approaches.
Mary Zalinger is a Senior II Physical Therapist with 10 years of clinical experience in complex pain, orthopedics, and oncology rehabilitation. She graduated from Bradley University with her undergraduate degree in 2011 and went on to complete her clinical doctorate degree in physical therapy in 2014.
She is a certified lymphedema therapist, with a clinical interest in breast cancer and head and neck cancer rehabilitation. She is also a board certified orthopedic clinical specialist through the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties.
She currently works in the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab's Interdisciplinary Pain Management Center, where she is able to combine her clinical expertise and passion in treating complex pain and chronic conditions. Outside of clinical care, Mary is a member of the APTA Oncology Research Committee, helping the advancement and translation of oncologic rehabilitation research into clinical practice.
She has also served in the APTA Orthopedic Section's Pain Special Interest group. Mary also serves as Associate Faculty in Northwestern University's Doctor of Physical Therapy program.