Our Team
Chris Hanna, MBA
CEO – Walnut Hill Medical
20 Years of Medical Device Commercialization Experience
Chris Hanna is the founder and CEO of Walnut Hill Medical. Walnut Hill Medical is a medical device professional services organization and a proven leader in healthcare policy.
With 20+ years of significant commercial and health policy leadership, He has commercialized multiple Class II and III external and active implantable neurostimulation devices.
He developed the commercial, operational infrastructure, health policy, reimbursement, and prior authorization strategies for Spark Biomedical, an auricular transcutaneous stimulator treating opioid withdrawal.
Prior to Spark Biomedical, He was a company founder and principal commercial leader at Nuvectra Medical, a spinal cord stimulation company, where he effectively built the business’ operational infrastructure, reimbursement, and prior authorization teams.
Before joining Nuvectra, He was the Director of Health Policy and Reimbursement at St. Jude Neuromodulation, leading a team of 25 case managers that processed over 22,000 prior authorizations annually for spinal cord stimulators. Additionally, he oversaw the Field Reimbursement team that educated 1,000+ customers on proper procedure billing and coding. He successfully led St. Jude’s Congressional lobbying efforts in Washington, DC, in removing the medical device tax from the Affordable Care Act.
His expertise and opinions on commercial and health policy are nationally recognized and respected. He is a former Adjunct Professor of US Health Policy at Southern Methodist University, where he earned his MBA. He received his Bachelor of Finance degree from Clemson University.
Adam East
Fractional CFO
Adam brings two decades of finance experience across investment, operations, and strategic advisory. He began his career in private equity, where he developed a deep understanding of investment planning, performance tracking, and execution. He later co-founded and scaled a business from three partners to nearly 400 employees over seven years.
Today, Adam works with small-market businesses to build and execute growth strategies while overseeing financial operations. He is also an investor and Fractional CFO at Walnut Hill Medical, where he is committed to scaling the organization into a leading force in health, policy, and reimbursement.
Kathy O'Neill, MBA
Director, Health Policy & Reimbursement
Kathy has been working in the medical device industry for more than 20 years. Her
years of experience and leadership continue to drive her work as a consultant to
medical device companies today.
As Senior Manager of Healthcare Economics for AngioDynamics, Inc., she developed
the AMA/CPT coding submission for a unique, critical care vascular device. She also
created the reimbursement strategy and infrastructure for the Vascular Interventions
Division.
Prior to that, Kathy was Senior Manager of Reimbursement, Health Policy & Prior
Authorization for Nuvectra Medical, where she worked with leadership and external
stakeholders to affect both government and commercial health policy in the US
neuromodulation market.
Kathy also spent 10 years working for Medtronic, Inc. in the Cardiac Rhythm
Management, then Neuromodulation Division. As Senior Manager, Health Economics,
she was the field reimbursement liaison for 45 sales representatives in 7 states,
regularly providing hospitals, physicians and facilities with economics and policy
analysis and coding, billing and reimbursement education. During her tenure, she
educated over 100 physicians, residents and fellows on reimbursement for
neuromodulation therapies.
Kathy spent 6 years working in advanced wound management, most notably with
Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. and Smith & Nephew, Inc., obtaining government and
commercial coverage, ensuring appropriate coding and reimbursement for novel
biologics considered medical devices. She started her medical device journey working
in dialysis care management for 5 years.
Kathy has an MBA in Health & Medical Services Administration from Widener University
and is an AAPC-Certified Outpatient Coder (COC).
Publication: O'Neill K. Spinal Cord Stimulation Leads: A Coding Perspective. AAPC
Healthcare Business Monthly July 2019, pp. 44-45. URL:
https://www.aapc.com/blog/47629-spinal-cord-stimulation-leads-a-coding-perspective/
Grace Cuillier
Director of Strategy and Business Development
Grace earned a BS in microbiology at Washington State University where she studied
the innate immune response to West Nile Virus. She later obtained Master of Microbial
Biotechnology and MBA degrees from North Carolina State University where she
focused heavily on entrepreneurship and the challenges associated with bringing new
technologies to market. She worked closely with the technology transfer office and
cutting-edge innovations.
Grace has worked with a number of innovative companies in the biotechnology space
including United Therapeutics and Grifols. During her tenure at United Therapeutics,
she was a member of both the marketing and medical affairs teams where she helped
implement their patient education program in rare diseases and contributed to the
presentation of new clinical data. At Grifols she was heavily involved with sales
analytics with the immunology and neurology therapy teams.
She then focused on supporting innovation for multiple technologies and moved to
Proxima Clinical Research where she was a member of the business development and
regulatory affairs teams. She specialized in assisting emerging medtech companies
navigate the nuanced pathways to obtain regulatory approval.
At Walnut Hill Medical, she has built on her cross-disciplinary background to guide
medtech companies through the reimbursement, prior authorization, and DME
processes. Grace is committed to the success of biotech and medtech companies and
is ready to help innovators and founders navigate the “valley of death” from ideation to
commercialization.
Daniela Ordiway
Director, Prior Authorization & Appeals
With over a decade of experience in healthcare SaaS integration and customer success, Daniela has dedicated her career to help providers and patients access cutting-edge technology, impacting over 10 million patient lives.
After earning a BS in Kinesiology & Pre-Health, Daniela began her career working in Emergency Rooms and Pain Management Clinics nationwide. She then transitioned to innovative start-ups, addressing challenges in data accessibility and interoperability across disparate health systems and ensuring operational excellence in fast-growing organizations. At Walnut Hill Medical, Daniela now leverages her cross-functional expertise to guide medtech companies through prior authorization and DME processes, focusing on scalability and partnership.