Navigating HIMSS18 as Women in Health IT

Carla Smith is Executive Vice President of HIMSS, a global organization focused on better health through information and technology. HIMSS leads efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information and technology.
As a HIMSS executive, Smith leverages her thought leadership, and extensive experience in nonprofit management, to achieve HIMSS’s mission and maintain its financial health.
Smith has 30 years of experience in the information and technology field, two-thirds of it focused on healthcare. She champions transformational innovations in the health sector, ensuring the right knowledge is available to the right people at the right time to make the right health- and care-related decisions.
In addition to her responsibilities at HIMSS, Smith holds an appointment to CMS’s Outreach and Education Federal Advisory Committee, Chairs the Advisory Board of the Global Center for Health Innovation, serves as an advisor to the University of Michigan’s Health Informatics and Learning Health System programs, and is a publicly-elected official for the Village of Barton Hills, Michigan.
In both 2017 and 2018, Health Data Management named Ms. Smith as one of the most influential women in health IT. In 2015, Ms. Smith received similar recognition from Fierce Healthcare.
Before joining HIMSS in 2001, Ms. Smith served for seven years as the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Healthcare Information Management (CHIM). Prior to entering the health sector, Ms. Smith focused on information and technology-related innovations within the manufacturing and banking sectors. She holds a Master’s degree, and has earned a Nonprofit Management Certification from Case Western Reserve University, and as well as her HIMSS Fellow status.