CareMessage | About Us

While enrolled at Stanford University in 2010, CareMessage CEO and co-founder, Vineet Singal took a temporary break from school to volunteer at St. Vincent’s Free Clinic in Galveston, Texas after a hurricane had destroyed parts of the city and the need for affordable healthcare skyrocketed. There he discovered a major barrier to providing care was the ability to communicate health information to patients, but it was something a simple text message could actually solve. After graduating from Stanford University in 2012 and dropping out of his medical school acceptance, he set out to solve this need by creating CareMessage.

Cecilia Corral, Vineet's classmate at Stanford, joined soon after as CareMessage's VP of Product and co-founder. Fueled by her personal connection to underserved communities and excited to put her engineering skills to use, she saw an enormous opportunity to build technology solutions responsibly. Cecilia's personal experiences growing up in a low-income immigrant household, which relied on Medicaid and food stamps to make ends meet, gave her unique insights to design products and build technology for communities like the one she grew up in.

Since then, CareMessage has grown to become the largest patient engagement platform for underserved populations in the United States, reaching millions of underserved patients every month, and one of the first tech non-profit organizations with a sustainable business model.

Healthcare, and specifically healthcare technology, in the U.S. continues to leave low-income and communities of color behind. These populations are oftentimes seen as an afterthought or simply as a cash opportunity. The historical inequities these populations have faced, and those that still exist today, continue to drive worse health outcomes, lower life expectancy rates, and overall reduced quality of life for a very large segment of the U.S. population.

Our work at CareMessage is guided by two key principles: technology and prioritizing patient needs. We are a tech company at heart, and we believe technology can be used to help safety net organizations be more efficient with their time, while also fulfilling the essential needs of their patients. To others, the challenges our patients face might seem insurmountable, but to us, these Social Determinants of Health are opportunities to rethink what it means to provide holistic patient care. We continue to innovate alongside our partners to help create a world where all people regardless of income or background achieve equitable health outcomes.

Leadership Team

Vineet Singal

Co-founder and CEO

Vineet published peer reviewed research in molecular biology and epidemiology at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, the NIH, and the Stanford School of Medicine. Vineet graduated with University Distinction from Stanford, where he also served as a student representative on the Stanford Board of Trustees. He has studied management and leadership at the Harvard Business School.

Cecilia Corral

Co-founder and VP of Product

Driven by her experiences growing up in a low-income immigrant household, Cecilia takes a patient-centric approach to product development with a relentless focus on user research. Outside of her work at CareMessage, she is an advocate for Diversity and Inclusion in the tech industry through collecting and publishing data on Latina Tech Founders. Cecilia was on the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list for Healthcare and graduated with a B.S. in Product Design Engineering from Stanford University.

Joel Sangria

VP of Operations

Joel overseer People Operations, Finance, and Compliance at CareMessage. Prior to joining CareMessage, Joel was Senior Director of Business Operations at TuneIn, Director of Business Operations and Client Services at Simply Hired, and General Manager of Sales and Operations at Google, where he received Google ($GOOG) Luminary Award, given to the top 3% of employees across sales and operations. He holds a B.A. from Stanford University.

Janine Johnson

VP of Customer Experience

Janine leads the Customer Success department which is responsible for the overall customer experience, and includes sales, marketing, onboarding, support and retention. As a SaaS operations and customer success executive, Janine has worked to improve the client experience in various operations and strategy roles. She brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare management, onboarding, support and customer success. Janine specializes in building and growing teams from the ground up, identifying gaps in business processes, and maximizing efficiency. She’s passionate about developing high-performing teams, women in tech, and building awareness around mental health and diversity and inclusion.

Daniel Naves de Carvalho

Principal Engineer

Daniel oversees all aspects of technical development of the CareMessage core application and emerging technology solutions. Daniel has over 15 years of experience in software engineering and engineering management, with expertise in different tech stacks and technologies. He has previously built multiple web and mobile platforms for both startups and Fortune 500 companies, and loves working on important projects that can have a significant impact.

Ryan Arthur

Executive Operations Director

Ryan leads Executive Operations at CareMessage, working closely with Vineet and across the entire Leadership Team, focusing on key strategic initiatives including Board management, Leadership Team facilitation, reporting, communications, and fundraising. Prior to joining CareMessage, Ryan supported the CEOs of Shippo and Opendoor and the President and CFO of Optimizely, and also worked in patents, bookkeeping, and project management.

Stepheni Mendez

Director of Product Design

With an education in psychology and design, Stepheni has a deep focus on the experiences of users. At CareMessage, Stepheni leads her team to connect customer experiences with product strategy and design usable, simple interfaces. She has over a decade of experience as a design leader, business owner, and startup mentor in user-centered design. Stepheni specializes in helping teams take big problems, strategize, design, and build simple, engaging products. More broadly, she is passionate about supporting diversity, inclusion, and women in technology.

Board of Directors

Wilfred Jaeger, MD, MBA

Managing Partner at HealthInvest Equity Partners

Wilfred has over 25 years of experience investing in healthcare companies .He is currently Managing Partner at Three Arch Partners and Health Invest Equity Partners. Collectively managing over $1 billion in capital, the funds are focused on investing in healthcare companies focusing on areas with significant unmet clinical or infrastructure needs.

Harsh Patel, MBA

Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Wireframe Ventures

Harsh has over 20 years of experience building, operating, and investingin technology growth companies. He’s been particularly focused on big data analytics and SaaS solutions applied to large markets in healthcare, energy, government, and retail. Previously, Harsh was General Partner at RRE Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, and has invested in technology companies including Palantir, Tendril, and Flipswap (now ERecyclingCorps).

Terhilda Garrido, MPH

Former VP of Health IT Transformation & Analytics at Kaiser Permanente

Terhilda served 29 years at Kaiser Permanente as VP of Health Information Technology Transformation & Analytics. She sits on the Board of Possible Health, a developing-world healthcare organization focused on technology to leverage scarce resources, and serves as Strategy Director for Rhia Ventures, a social impact investing firm focused on women’s reproductive health. Terhilda holds an Operations Research degree in Engineering from Princeton University and a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She completed graduate work at the Colegio de Mexico and the Executive Leadership Program at the Harvard Business School.

Rose Kakoza, MD, MPH

Clinical Director of Community Health & Equity for Primary Care and Community Medicine, Christiana Care

Dr. Kakoza is a board-certified internist at ChristianaCare Health System, one of the largest health systems in the Mid-Atlantic, where she serves as Clinical Lead for Medicaid Value-based Care and Clinical Director of Community Health & Equity for Primary Care and Community Medicine, overseeing multiple population health programs and innovative models of care delivery and focusing on advancing health equity addressing unmet social needs. She previously served as Assistant Medical Director for Medicaid at Partners Healthcare and as Medical Director for the Medicaid ACO at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kakoza holds an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health, an MD from Harvard Medical School, and a BA in Sociology, cum laude, from Harvard College.

Vineet Singal

Co-founder and CEO at CareMessage

Our Mission & Vision

Our story began in 2010 in Galveston, Texas during the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Supporting our commitment to the underserved

Institutional Funders

Individuals donating between $500,000 and $10 million

Working together to strengthen the safety net

Technology

Reach within the safety net

Underserved Population Insights

Leadership Team

Board of Directors

Join us in making an impact on underserved populations

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