Advisory Board
The CMSWire Advisory Board is composed of industry leaders and practitioners in the fields of digital experience, customer service and support, customer experience and marketing leadership.
Mission Statement
The Advisory Board's mission is to support CMSWire's commitment to quality content and a vibrant community of business professionals.
Vision Statement
Gain a better understanding of the trends, drivers and priorities shaping our readers’ businesses so we can improve how we report, write and present news for CMSWire.
Introducing Our Advisory Board
The following thought leaders comprise our ninth board, which began in the first quarter of 2026. The board provides input, advice and feedback to the CMSWire editorial team on current trends and topics in customer experience and marketing.
Previous CMSWire Advisory Boards:
- First board (September 2015 – December 2016)
- Second board (April 2017 – June 2018)
- Third board (Late 2018 – 2019)
- Fourth board (2020 – June 2021)
- Fifth board (2021 – 2022)
- Sixth board (2023)
- Seventh board (2024)
- Eighth board (2025)
Trish Wethman, chief experience officer, Pontem Tech Partners
Trish, a CMSWire Contributor, is an experience and innovation executive, practitioner and speaker who has spent the past 15 years driving cultural transformation and customer advocacy and employee engagement across diverse industries such as insurance, pharmaceutical distribution and financial services. Trish has led research and insights teams, implementing and evolving customer strategy, consumer insights and competitive intelligence capabilities. In 2024, Trish was awarded the Women in Technology award for Customer, Strategy & Growth in Software and Services and has been featured as a speaker and panelist at numerous customer experience and financial services events and podcasts. Trish currently serves on the Advisory Board or the Mid-Atlantic CX Forum and is the Chief Experience Officer for Pontem Tech Partners where she helps companies to tackle experience and change management challenges across customers, employees and stakeholders.
Trish is a strong believer in the link between employee experience and customer experience and strives to create meaningful connection between the people in the organization and the customers they serve. She believes that a vital part of her mission is to ensure that culture and strategy are powered by empathy and customer centricity. In her time away from work, Trish loves traveling, enjoying live music and theater, and spending time with her family, often watching Philadelphia sports.
Trish has also been a two-time guest on CMSWire's Beyond the Call.
Jennifer Carron, patient experience officer, BJC Health System
Jennifer Carron, a CMSWire Contributor, is a proven expert and award-winning industry leader in healthcare experience strategy. As the Patient Experience Officer for BJC HealthCare and a Certified Patient Experience Professional, she has over 18 years of experience in service design and delivery. Jennifer currently serves as the subject matter expert for consumer and patient experience, with contemporary thinking towards innovative programs to deliver a personalized, equitable, high value, low friction experience. Her previous leadership roles include System Ambulatory Patient Experience Executive Director at UnityPoint Health, Director of Finance and Development at the Air Force Enlisted Village, Administrator at the Hawthorn House and she is a proud US Air Force Veteran. Her successful track record includes year over year organization and provider awards in both provider practice development and growth, improved CAHPS, NPS and overall quality, safety, and experience outcomes.
Having over 28 years of leadership experience she is passionate about experience engineering, experience ecosystem harmony and leading teams in continuous improvement of service excellence. She coauthored papers such as The Human Experience Imperative:Practical Insights for Executives on Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Impact and Investing in the Bottom Line: The Value Case for Improving Human Experience in Healthcare. She’s been a featured guest on Scott Becker’s Becker’s Hospital Review, Nick Glimsdahl’s Press 1 For Nick XC, and Jason Wolf’s To Care is Human. She's also been interviewed by CMSWire for its Beyond the Call show.
She is a human experience innovator and an active member of state, national and international organizations and boards. She’s an editorial leader at the Journal of Patient Experience, and an active administrative leader at the Center for Perioperative Mental Health where they develop personalized pathways for patient-centered, perioperative care to optimize brain health. She is looked to as one of the top leaders in the field of human experience engineering and has spoken at numerous conferences to include The Institute for Healthcare Improvement Safety Congress, The Beryl Institute Annual Elevate Conference, Missouri Health Association Excellence in Clinical Quality Conference, Advancing Healthcare Through Digital Transformation Summit, The Healthcare Financial Management Association Annual Conference, the American Irish Medical Summit and more.
In 2022 Jennifer received the PRC National Healthcare Leadership Award for her success in leading the improvement and sustainment of top decile performance in healthcare experience delivery. As a communication coach, and a fire starter, Jennifer inspires a culture of service excellence, hospitality, ownership, and results across the globe.
As a recovering college professor of healthcare analytics, Jennifer loves giving back to the Saint Louis Community where she coaches club volleyball and thoroughly enjoys growing young female athletes to become strong, human centric, future leaders. When not working she unwinds by spending her time outdoors golfing, playing volleyball and cycling with her husband.
Devetta James, vice president, customer operations transformation, consumer packaging, Smurfit Westrock
Devetta James is a global operations and transformation executive with more than 25 years of experience leading enterprise modernization, operational integration, and large-scale service delivery across healthcare, manufacturing, and technology-enabled industries. Throughout her career, she has been a strong advocate for the strategic importance of Customer Experience—championing Voice of the Customer leadership and embedding customer insights directly into operational strategy, governance, and service delivery models.
She specializes in translating complex transformation strategies into enterprise execution that strengthens customer experience, operational performance, and financial results. Known for simplifying complexity and building scalable operating models, she helps organizations modernize global service delivery while ensuring the customer perspective remains central to decision-making. Her leadership has consistently accelerated value creation, enabling organizations to improve service quality, operational transparency, and execution discipline while scaling with agility.
Her career spans executive leadership across customer operations, transformation strategy, data and analytics, sales operations, technical support, application development, and multi-site service delivery. Her work focuses on helping organizations move beyond traditional operational efficiency to create disciplined, insight-driven enterprises where Customer Experience is a core driver of strategy, innovation, and sustainable growth.
Brian Riback, marketing consultant and author
Brian Riback, a CMSWire Contributor, is a strategic leader with over 20 years of experience as a CRM and retention specialist. He blends marketing technology expertise with data-driven strategy to transform complex challenges into tangible results. Brian designs and implements multichannel retention initiatives that optimize engagement, boost recipient interaction, and streamline operational processes.
His unique approach marries technical mastery with strategic vision, delivering efficiencies and measurable impact that set new standards in CRM and digital engagement. His proven track record includes increasing recipient engagement, enhancing MarTech efficiency, and developing sophisticated lifecycle automation programs for enterprise-level clients. Notably, he has optimized MarTech stacks to achieve a 25% efficiency gain in under six weeks and driven a 2x increase in recipient click-through rates within 30 days.
Throughout his career, Brian has supported renowned brands such as 7-Eleven, American Greetings, Arizent, Avis Budget Group, Century21, Coldwell Banker, Daily News, Dunkin' Donuts, GNC, KeyFood Supermarkets, NFL, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Smithsonian, Universal Studios Florida, US News & World Report, Vistaprint, Walt Disney World, several non-profits, and more. He has managed large-scale CRM implementations, audience segmentation strategies, plus integrated and cross-channel marketing programs.
An industry thought leader, Brian has trained teams on email design best practices, customer journey optimization, and CRM automation. He is a key contributor to advancing MarTech strategy, ensuring organizations effectively leverage evolving digital engagement tools. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ramapo College of New Jersey and remains deeply involved in the marketing technology and customer retention space.
He has appeared on industry podcasts such as ApprovedSocial.io and Inbox Army and contributed to Stripo, a leading email development app. Brian is currently working on his first book, The Attrition Equation, which introduces mathematical formulas, re-engagement tactics, and diagnostic steps to detect at-risk subscribers before they are truly lost. His work focuses on identifying precursor behaviors—such as partial inactivity, deliverability issues, and gradual churn—that degrade email success.
Brian lives in Ramsey, NJ, where he spends his summers gardening and enjoying the outdoors. A lifelong musician, he also loves to cook and BBQ for friends and family. He cherishes his wife and two amazing children.
Brian's been a guest on CMSWire's CMO Circle.
Amanda Flashner, chief experience and communications officer, LendingPoint
Amanda serves customers as Chief Experience and Communications Officer at LendingPoint, overseeing LendingPoint’s Customer Experience practice and leading the effort to create a customer-powered culture using quantitative data and customer insights to advise executives and product development on customer pain points, decision drivers, and unmet needs. Amanda also oversees consumer insights, communications, marketing, brand, creative, and public and investor relations. Amanda has over 15 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining LendingPoint, Amanda worked with Fortune 500 companies leading customer centricity and digital transformations.