The future of AI in our industry isn’t a distant concept; it’s happening now, and this is your opportunity to be part of it.

AQORD and Covenant Health Network are collaborating to bring you a free, half-day virtual lab (Co-Lab) designed to give your organization tools to move forward in the ever-changing AI landscape. Whether you’re just beginning to explore Artificial Intelligence or looking to deepen your organization’s existing efforts, this event offers something meaningful for everyone.

Learn from industry experts and peers as they break down the evolving landscape of generative and agentic AI — making complex concepts clear, accessible, and relevant to your work.

See real-world applications in action. Hear firsthand how organizations like yours are leveraging AI tools to drive impact, improve outcomes, and position themselves for long-term success.

Do more than attend — leave with concrete, strategic approaches to implementing AI in your own workplace. This is where insight becomes action.

Join us for an engaging half-day of sessions, breakout conversations, and panel discussions equipping you with practical takeaways that will help you and your organization confidently navigate AI evolution and lead the way forward.

EVENT SCHEDULE

August 25^th, 12:30pm – 4:00pm ET | 9:30am – 1:00pm PT

12:30 | Welcome & Introduction

12:35 | Session 1: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: AI Readiness, Governance, and Next Steps

Suzette Davis, Vice President and Senior Executive Search Consultant, AQORD Consulting, and Chris Stump, Lead AI Consultant and Managing Associate, AQORD Consulting

1:05 | Breakout Session

1:35 | Break

1:45 | Session 2: Putting AI to Work: Practical Use Cases for Senior Living and IDD Leaders

Scott Motyka, Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Health Network, and Tana M. Luger Motyka, PhD, MPH, Vice President of Research and Analytics, Covenant Health Network

2:15 | Breakout Session

2:45 | Session 3: AI in Action: Real-World Perspectives on AI Implementation (Panel)

Sandro Cilurzo, CEO & Founder, Helpany, Miranda Troyer, PCHA, LPN, CDP, CADDCT, Director of Personal Care and Sue Verdegem, NHA, MBA, President & CEO, United Zion

3:15 | Session 4: Playing in the Sandbox: A Hands-On AI Experience

Cheryl Goodwin, Chief Strategy Officer, Covenant Health Network, and Riley Mills, Program Director, AQORD

3:55 | Closing

SESSION BREAKDOWN

Session 1

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: AI Readiness, Governance, and Next Steps

For mission-driven organizations, AI adoption is not only a leadership decision but also a consideration of culture, governance, and trust. In this session, leaders will move beyond a mindset of passive curiosity and experimentation into identifying intentional, practical, and secure ways to use AI across their organizations. This session will address the challenge of fast-paced AI adoption, discussing visibility, guardrails, and governance practices to ensure AI does not outpace what leadership can responsibly oversee.

Attendees will leave with a practical readiness lens they can bring back to their leadership teams, including how to identify current AI use, evaluate risk, engage AI-reticent staff, and create an AI working or oversight group.

The goal is not to turn every leader into an AI specialist, but to equip leaders to ask informed questions, make wiser decisions, and take the next practical steps toward responsible AI adoption.

Key Takeaways

This session will help leaders:

• Reframe AI as a leadership and governance responsibility, not simply a technology trend. 
• Recognize where AI use may already be happening without clear visibility or guardrails. 
• Understand the executive role in creating AI governance that supports both innovation and security. 
• Leave with a practical 30-day next step. 

About the Presenters

Chris Stump, Lead AI Consultant and Managing Associate, AQORD Consulting

Chris Stump serves as Managing Associate with AQORD Consulting, where she supports mission-driven organizations in strengthening leadership, strategy, organizational effectiveness, and readiness for emerging opportunities. Her work focuses on helping leaders move from ideas to practical implementation with thoughtful process, clear decision-making, and appropriate guardrails.

Chris brings a growing specialization in AI readiness and governance, including recent completion of MIT’s AI for Organizational Transformation certificate. She helps organizations think strategically about how AI can support efficiency, staff capacity, and decision-making while maintaining appropriate attention to mission, trust, confidentiality, and risk. Her approach is practical and accessible, helping executive teams ask the right questions, identify responsible use cases, and build the internal structures needed for wise AI adoption.

Suzette Davis, Vice President of Consulting and Senior Executive Search Consultant, AQORD Consulting

Suzette Davis serves as Vice President of Consulting and Senior Executive Search Consultant with AQORD Consulting, where she partners with CEOs, board chairs, and executive teams across mission-driven organizations. Her work includes leading executive searches, board development, executive transitions, interim management, and succession planning engagements.

Suzette is known for helping leaders navigate complex decisions with a trusted-advisor approach that is strategic, practical, and mission-centered. As an early adopter of AI tools, she brings a practical executive perspective to AI adoption, with particular attention to how leaders can use AI to improve effectiveness while protecting trust, judgment, and organizational integrity. In this session, Suzette will help connect AI readiness to executive leadership, governance, culture, and responsible decision-making.

Session 2

Putting AI to Work: Practical Use Cases for Health and Human Services Leaders
AI is already creating practical opportunities for health and human services organizations to save time, improve communication, and support better decisions. This 30-minute session is built for frontline leaders and staff, not technologists, and focuses on the ways AI can help with everyday work such as meeting preparation, marketing, communicating with the people you serve and their families, policy summaries, board and funder reporting, training materials, and operational planning. Participants will learn how to move from trial-and-error to repeatable workflows that improve efficiency and effectiveness without adding complexity. The session closes with a simple approach for choosing one low-risk, high-value workflow to pilot within 30 days.

Takeaways

• Review practical AI use cases that apply across health and human services settings, including communication, marketing, reporting, training, and operational planning.
• Learn how to identify workflows where AI can save time, improve consistency, and support better decision-making.
• Identify a shortlist of high-value AI opportunities and a simple plan to pilot one workflow within 30 days.

About the Presenters

Scott Motyka, Chief Executive Officer, Covenant Health Network

Scott Motyka (Ph.D. Brandeis University, MBA Babson College) is the Chief Executive Officer at Covenant Health Network, a strategic alliance of 100+ non-profit and mission-driven senior living communities committed to improving the quality of care and life for seniors in congregate settings through joint quality improvement processes and reducing the costs of operation.

In his former roles as an Assistant Professor of Health Marketing and a Marketing Research Associate for Chadwick Martin Bailey, a Boston-based market research and strategy firm, Dr. Motyka has worked on projects for companies spanning multiple industries, including ThermoFisher Scientific, Bristol Meyers Squibb, 3M, Pfizer, CIGNA, Electronic Arts, Staples, Geico, Dell and Facebook, among others. As the former Assistant Director of the Retail Supply Chain Institute at Babson College, he has co-chaired conferences on topics such as redefining the customer value proposition through social media and technological innovations in business.

Dr. Motyka’s primary research interests are in understanding how companies can better leverage emerging technologies (e.g., remote patient monitoring, blockchain, virtual reality) and integrate them into their business strategy to meet the challenges of the market. He combines experimental- and field-based methodologies with expertise in emotional intelligence, motivation and information processing to provide recommendations in these areas. His work has been published in many of the top of international business journals, including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing Management, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of Marketing Education. Additionally, he has also published in the proceedings of major international conferences as well as several business cases. 

In recognition of his contribution to research and teaching, Dr. Motyka has received a number of honors and awards. He is an active member of the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Retailing. In 2016, he become the youngest scholar to be named an International Thought Leader in marketing and retailing by the Monterrey Institute of Technology. He twice received the Henry E. Riggs Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching for his commitment to integrating technology into the classroom to create a rich experiential-based active learning environment.

Tana M. Luger Motyka, PhD, MPH, Vice President of Research and Analytics, Covenant Health Network

Tana M. Luger Motyka, PhD, MPH is the Vice President of Research and Analytics for Covenant Health Network, a non-profit group of senior living providers. A health psychologist by training, Dr. Luger Motyka has designed, conducted, and analyzed applied health research for two decades. Her research expertise lies in the application of technologies to optimize healthcare quality, patient and staff quality of life, and engagement in healthcare. Her peer reviewed publications have been cited a total of 1472 times to date, as well as in popular press (New York Times and The Atlantic). She has held previous positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served as a Primary Investigator or Co-Investigator on multiple grants. At Covenant Health Network, she monitors quality of care data, provides training and coaching on quality improvement, and assists with local, state, and federal grant applications for provider members.

Session 3

AI in Action: Real-World Perspectives on AI Implementation

Hear directly from organizations that are putting AI into practice. In this engaging 30-minute panel discussion, member organizations and technology partners will share their experiences exploring, implementing, and leveraging AI solutions within their organizations. Through an open conversation, panelists will discuss lessons learned, implementation considerations, and the opportunities AI is creating to enhance operations and support their missions. Whether you’re just beginning your AI journey or looking to build on existing efforts, you’ll gain valuable perspectives from peers navigating this evolving landscape.

Key Takeaways

• Gain practical insights into the implementation process, including lessons learned, considerations for adoption, and the value AI can bring to health and human services organizations.
• Explore real-world examples of how peer organizations are implementing AI solutions to enhance operations, improve efficiency, and support their mission.
• Leave with ideas and questions to help assess your organization’s AI readiness, identify potential use cases, and begin meaningful conversations about where AI could create value within your own workplace.

Meet the Panelists

Sandro Cilurzo, CEO & Founder, Helpany

Miranda Troyer, PCHA, LPN, CDP, CADDCT, Director of Personal Care, United Zion

Sue Verdegem, NHA, MBA, President & CEO, United Zion

Session 4

Playing in the Sandbox: A Hands-On AI Experience

Wrap up the AI Co-Lab by putting ideas into action. In this interactive 40-minute session, you’ll explore a variety of accessible AI tools through live demonstrations and audience participation. Together, we’ll experiment with practical prompts, discover creative applications, and showcase how AI can support everyday work across health and human services organizations. Whether you’re new to AI or already experimenting with it, this collaborative “sandbox ” experience offers a fun, low-risk opportunity to ask questions, share ideas, and gain confidence using AI in real time.

Key Takeaways

• Experience a variety of accessible AI tools demonstrated in real time.
• Discover effective prompting techniques, practical AI use cases, and best practices.
• Leave with the confidence to experiment with AI on your own, along with practical ideas and simple next steps you can immediately apply to your daily work and share with your team.

About the Presenters

Cheryl Goodwin, Chief Strategy Officer, Covenant Health Network

Cheryl Goodwin serves as Chief Strategy Officer for Covenant Health Network (CHN). She previously served as Director of Business Development for Alliance Purchasing Network (APN), and prior to joining CHN, spent 27 years in human services, including seven years as CEO of a multi-state nonprofit organization.

Cheryl holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in criminal justice.

Cheryl is known for her ability to connect people in ways that elevate both the quality of teamwork and the end product. She has a natural affinity for systems thinking and enjoys asking the kinds of questions that push people to consider new perspectives and think differently about the challenges in front of them. 

Cheryl is a 20-year Rotarian, and serves on a number of not-for-profit boards whose mission is to support seniors and their families.

Riley Mills, Program Director, AQORD

Riley Mills is the Program Director at AQORD, where she designs engaging learning experiences that help health and human service organizations connect, grow, and innovate. She oversees AQORD’s programming, including Webinars, Learning Labs, the Annual Conference, and the Internship Program, and enjoys making emerging technologies approachable, practical, and even fun. Passionate about curiosity and collaboration, Riley loves helping others build confidence by rolling up their sleeves and learning through hands-on experience.