IDEA

Rachel J. Thornton, MD, PhD is Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at Nemours, where she leads work on health equity strategy to support the organization’s vision to create the healthiest generations of children. With hospitals in the Delaware Valley and Central Florida, Nemours is one of the largest integrated pediatric health systems in the United States. Dr. Thornton has committed her career to pediatric healthcare delivery, population health, and optimizing health outcomes through research and practice, including organizational transformation.

Prior to joining Nemours, Dr. Thornton was Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the inaugural Executive Director for Clinical Services in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Population Health, where she led population health management services and community health. A practicing primary care pediatrician, Dr. Thornton served as a Health Policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2011–2013. As a nationally recognized innovator, scholar, and practitioner, she served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) study committee on Shaping Summertime Experiences: Opportunities to Promote Healthy Development and Well-Being for Children and Youth and as a member of the NASEM Strategy Group on COVID and Rental Evictions.

Dr. Thornton received a BA from New York University, an MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. After residency, she completed fellowship training in general academic pediatrics.

Theresa L. Proctor is Senior Director, IDEA for Nemours. With more than 30 years of health care and Human Resources experience, she leads the IDEA Team’s Workforce Inclusion portfolio, including Program Management and Education & Learning Initiatives teams across the system. In this role she leads efforts to advance workforce inclusion strategic planning, educational programming, the support of Associate Resource Groups and development of strategies to support accountability for a thriving workforce in services of Nemours of more than 9,000 associates. From policies and processes to associate engagement, she is focused on creating and supporting a workplace culture that supports every associate to be their best self at work. As a senior leader in a multistate children’s health system, Theresa understands how to effectively advance workforce inclusion goals within fast-paced industry environments, maintaining a clear focus on results that are both mission-driven and strategic.

Prior to her role as Sr. Director, Theresa served as Director, Human Resources Solutions at Nemours, where she was responsible for managing the Enterprise HR Solutions team in onboarding and Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). She was responsible for developing and leading systemwide strategic initiatives and processes, leading the administration of HR policies and procedures and managing HR’s regulatory/corporate compliance functions. In her 11 years as an HR professional at Nemours, she has also served as Talent Acquisition Manager for enterprise physician recruitment and Florida nonphysician recruitment, Senior Recruiter and Interim Director, Fund Development for Central Florida. In addition, Theresa served five years in the Arkansas Army National Guard as a Paralegal Noncommissioned Officer in the 39th Infantry Brigade Judge Advocate General’s Corps. During her assignment, she completed one tour of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom II.

Theresa holds a BS in Business Administration-Management from the University of Arkansas — Pine Bluff.

Jennifer “JC” Young serves as Director of Data Science & Analytics, IDEA at Nemours, bringing 30 years of healthcare industry experience including over a decade in population health operations and analytics to her leadership role. In this position, she leads the organization's efforts to leverage data science and advanced analytics to identify, understand, and address health disparities across diverse populations. JC drives data-informed strategies to promote health equity, collaborating with cross-functional teams to implement evidence-based interventions and measure their impact. She provides critical leadership in the design and execution of population health analytics and evaluation while mentoring and developing a talented high performing team dedicated to ensuring equal and equitable healthcare for every Nemours patient.

Throughout her career in both clinical and nonclinical settings, JC has demonstrated exceptional leadership in healthcare analytics and population health management. She also brings extensive experience leading data science and warehouse teams and working with Epic build teams to optimize clinical documentation workflows and ensure those workflows flow into data that allows us to tell the stories of patient populations and the tremendous work of clinical staff. Her industry experience spans executive, leadership, and consulting roles at prestigious institutions including AdventHealth, Johns Hopkins Medicine and Intermountain Healthcare, where she consistently drove transformative initiatives that enhanced patient outcomes, increased operational efficiency, and generated revenue growth. Her expertise in data analytics, strategic planning, and team leadership has resulted in numerous successful implementations of population health initiatives and innovative data-driven solutions.

JC holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Texas, Arlington, held a license as a licensed practical nurse working in both ambulatory and inpatient settings, and maintains several Epic certifications, including Cogito, Caboodle, and Clarity.

Justin Andrade is the Director of IDEA Education & Learning at Nemours, where he leads the development and implementation educational resources, and tools to support the Nemours workforce in creating the healthiest generations of children in alignment with Nemours Standards of behavior and emphasis on whole child health approaches. With over a decade of experience in advancing inclusive education initiatives, Justin specializes in building and scaling training programs while identifying opportunities for engagement across the organization. An expert in adult learning and civil discourse, the hallmark of Justin’s leadership is a continuous focus on embracing different perspectives to foster understanding and create positive team environments. As a people-first leader, Justin prioritizes mentorship, professional development, and leveraging multigenerational teams to drive collective action and achieve shared goals. His expertise spans inclusion and belonging strategies, workforce inclusion education, program development and team building with a focus on strategic partnerships, training, and change management.

Throughout his career, Justin has made a significant impact by designing and facilitating inclusive education programs, as well as helping to launch the first-ever inclusion & belonging function at the University of Central Florida, where he spent 10 years. He has built strategic partnerships across Central Florida, boosting visibility, and driving cultural transformation. By maturing inclusion practices at UCF, Justin increased visibility and maximized impact, driving lasting change and fostering a more vibrant and engaging environment. Justin holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Central Florida and an MS in Higher Education from Drexel University.

Lavisha Pelaez is the Health Equity Operations and Evaluation Scientist for IDEA. A public health professional with more than a decade of experience improving population health through education, research, and clinical partnerships, Lavish leads program evaluation and dissemination efforts related to IDEA partnerships and system-wide health equity initiatives. With deep expertise in evidence-based innovation and industry best-practices for improving child health, Lavisha works across the system to couple intervention development efforts to improve child health outcomes with a concentrated focus on real-time monitoring and evaluation of practice improvements across all facets of the IDEA portfolio from  population health, quality improvement, and health equity learning initiatives to workforce development  with an emphasis on improving outcomes and responding to social drivers of health . 

Lavisha’s professional background is centered around improving pediatric health outcomes, eliminating access barriers, and addressing disparities in care. She has worked within internationally recognized health systems, child-serving nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions on a range of areas including public health and clinical research, program evaluation, project data management and consulting.

Lavisha earned dual BS degrees in Community Health and Kinesiology, and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Maryland — College Park. Lavisha is currently pursuing her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.