Taking a Progressive Approach to Health Care
MELISSA N. GARDNER, MPH
Title: EVP, Chief Strategy and Population Health Officer
Email: melissa.gardner2@rochesterregional.org
Phone: 585.922.1511
Melissa Gardner is a population health strategist and senior health care executive with extensive experience in leading large, complex health care organizations. She currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Clinically Integrated Network at Rochester Regional Health where she works to advance value‑based care, population health, and clinical integration across the health system. Melissa also has responsibility for Cognisight, LLC, a vendor that provides risk adjustment service to Medicare Advantage and Medicaid Managed Care Plans nationally.
Her career spans more than two decades in population health, community engagement, and health plan leadership. Before joining Rochester Regional Health, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Engagement Officer at Lifetime Healthcare Companies, overseeing population and community health strategy for nearly 1.5 million Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid members. Her accountability included total cost of care management, value‑based payment, network management, pharmacy, clinical engagement, health equity, and regional community partnerships.
Melissa holds a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration from Ithaca College. A committed advocate for women, equity, and community health, she has served on multiple regional boards, including Common Ground Health, Hillside Family of Agencies, St. Ann’s Community, and the United Way of Greater Rochester’s Community Investment Cabinet.
Outside of work, she is a proud wife and mom of three.
MICHAEL COFFEY, MD
Title: Chief Medical Officer
Email: michael.coffey@rochesterregional.org
Phone: 585.922.1547
Dr. Coffey joined the Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association (GRIPA) as Chief Medical Officer in October 2024. Dr. Coffey is Board Certified in Family Medicine and is an experienced family physician who has won several awards throughout his career for his excellent patient care.
Dr. Coffey is a renowned national leader in Value-Based Care, having run a very successful Medicare Accountable Care Organization (ACO) which was repeatedly in the top 10% of all ACO’s in the country for both quality and cost-savings. He then went on to be a Senior Medical Director at ChenMed, a national leader in delivering excellent care to at-risk seniors with Medicare Advantage. Due to his leadership and passion for quality care, the patients in his practices consistently received among the highest scores for quality and cost-effective care.
Dr. Coffey currently chairs the GRIPA Committees on Clinical Integration and Credentialing, serves on several RRH committees, and serves on two regional quality committees, the Excellus Partnering to Achieve Quality Provider Advisory Committee and the Finger Lakes Performing Provider System Clinical Quality Committee. He has been a frequent presenter at both national and international medical meetings on value-based care, and was the invited chair of a national conference on accountable care. He has been active in medical education, teaching hundreds of medical students and residents over the last two decades. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
He completed his undergraduate education at Miami University in his home state of Ohio, and he received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Tufts University in Boston.
Yomi Ajao, MBB
Title: VP, CAO, RRH Clinically Integrated Network
Email: yomi.ajao@rochesterregional.org
Phone: 585.585.792.7395
Yomi Ajao is a seasoned healthcare executive and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 20 years of experience in clinically integrated network formation, value-based care strategy, physician alignment, and population health analytics. As Chief Administrative Officer of the Clinically Integrated Network at Rochester Regional Health, he oversees governance operations, strategic initiatives, and critical network support functions to drive clinical integration and advance value-based care across the health system.
Yomi has built and led clinically integrated networks across multiple states, overseeing governance design, physician alignment, payer contract development, and population health performance. He has worked with large health systems and academic medical centers throughout the Northeast, and led ARC (Analytics for Risk Contracting), a nationally recognized population health analytics platform. Prior to joining Rochester Regional Health, he held senior leadership roles at Evolent Health, HCA, and Deloitte Consulting.
He is a published author on physician compensation alignment and value-based care strategy and has presented at national healthcare forums. He holds an Executive Certificate in Healthcare Finance from MIT Sloan School of Management, an M.Sc. in Computer Information Systems from Boston University, and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.