Cal eConnect CEO Carladenise Edwards Steps Down

Effective Aug. 18, 2011, Carladenise Edwards, Ph.D., has left her post as president and CEO of Cal eConnect, Inc., the- Emeryville, Calif.-based non-profit, public benefit corporation created to develop California's electronic Health Information Exchange (HIE) in cooperation with California's Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). Edwards will continue to serve the organization as a Senior Advisor. Edwards served as the State HIT Coordinator in Georgia when she was recruited to come to California to jumpstart the State's HIE efforts.

Edwards has been a catalyst for change with a passionate commitment to develop HIEs. She was responsible for launching Florida's HIE efforts as the Executive Director of Governor Bush's Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board in 2004. In 2007, she moved to Georgia to create the Office of Health Information Technology and Transparency within the Department of Community Health under Commissioner Rhonda Medows who lead the agency under Governor Sonny Perdue's administration.

In July, 2010, she was recruited to come to California to build Cal eConnect, the state governance entity for HIE envisioned by Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature as the engine needed to drive the federal goals under the HITECH provisions within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).