Meet the Speakers

2021 Business Partner Web Series

Joseph Coughlin, PhD, Director, MIT AgeLab

Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD is Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. He teaches in MIT's Department of Urban Studies & Planning and the Sloan School's Advanced Management Program. Coughlin conducts research on the impact of global demographic change and technology trends on consumer behavior and business strategy. He advises a wide variety of global firms in financial services, healthcare, leisure and travel, luxury goods, real estate, retail, technology, and transportation. Coughlin has served on advisory boards for firms such as Bell Canada, British Telecom, Daimler, Fidelity Investments and Sanofi-Aventis. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the White House Advisory Committee on Aging and by Governor Charlie Baker to the Governor’s Council on Aging in Massachusetts where he co-chaired the Innovation & Technology Subcommittee. A Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland’s World Demographics & Ageing Forum, Coughlin is a Senior Contributor to Forbes and writes regularly for MarketWatch and the Wall Street Journal. He was named by Fast Company Magazine as one the ‘100 Most Creative in Business’ and by the Wall Street Journal as inventing the future of retirement. Recently, Coughlin was recognized as one of 15 World Minds by the Zurich-based World Minds, a select community of global leaders in science, arts and business. His recent book, The Longevity Economy: Inside the World's Fastest Growing, Most Misunderstood Market (Public Affairs, 2017), is one of CEO READ’s Business Bestsellers. Follow him on Twitter @josephcoughlin

John Diehl, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, Senior Vice President, Hartford Funds

John Diehl is senior vice president of applied insights for Hartford Funds. He and his team are responsible for engaging and educating financial advisors and their clients about current and emerging opportunities in the financial-services marketplace. These opportunities range from tactical strategies in areas such as retirement-income planning, investment planning, and charitable planning, to anticipating and preparing for long-term demographic and lifestyle changes. John also oversees Hartford Funds’ relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab.

John joined the company in 1988 and was promoted to assistant vice president in 1991 and vice president in 1997. He was named senior vice president in 2007, while he led the Retirement and Wealth Consulting Group, which was responsible for building awareness and knowledge of retirement challenges and the latest planning strategies to address them. In 2012, John was named Senior Vice President, Strategic Markets; in this role, he devotes his efforts to serving the needs of financial advisors and their clients.

John has been widely quoted in consumer and trade publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Planning, and On Wall Street. He has also appeared as a featured guest on CNBC and Bloomberg Television to discuss his views on retirement-related topics.

John attended Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. He has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) since 1991. In addition, he holds the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®) designations. He is also FINRA Series 6, 7, 63, and 26 registered and holds a life and variable insurance license.

Mark Steranka, Partner, Moss Adams

Mark has over 30 years of experience working with businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and governmental entities throughout the United States. He has directed and managed hundreds of consulting engagements during his career. Mark specializes in working with boards, councils, and senior management of organizations from a wide range of industries, including higher education, government, and not-for-profit. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, succession planning, compensation benchmarking and design, internal and performance audits, management, organization, and operations assessments. 

Colleen Rozillis, Director, Moss Adams

Colleen has been advising not-for-profits, higher education, local, state, and tribal governments on improving their operations and efficiency since 2005. She helps clients assess their organizational and program effectiveness and assists them with developing and refining their performance and level-of-service measures. Colleen works collaboratively with clients to understand their goals and objectives; develop policies, processes, and tools; and define organizational and programmatic changes to better equip and position them to achieve their goals and objectives. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, organizational assessment, policy development, performance metric development and reporting, business process reengineering, strategic communications and reporting for decision makers, and best practices benchmarking.

Halie Garcia, Senior Manager, Moss Adams

Halie has practiced public accounting and consulting since 2006. Her expertise includes financial statement audits, internal control assessments, and policy and procedure development. She has worked extensively with local and state governments, not-for-profits, and tribes throughout the western United States to reduce risks, strengthen controls, and improve performance. Halie has performed and supervised numerous audits in accordance with GAGAS, Government Auditing Standards, and the new Uniform Guidance, led policy and procedure development engagements, and developed thorough knowledge of operational accounting, financial systems, and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), including accounting under FASB and GASB.

Kevin Villanueva, Partner, Moss Adams

Kevin has been in the information technology field since 1997 and leads Moss Adams’ IT infrastructure and security practice. He specializes in government, not-for-profit, higher education, private entity, and health care clients. His areas of practice include IT security assessments; penetration testing; PCI DSS assessments; HIPAA compliance auditing; HITRUST readiness and validation assessments, strategic technology planning; disaster recovery and business continuity planning; policies, procedures, and documentation development; and project management. In addition, he has designed and conducted technology assessments based on the internationally recognized ISO/IEC 27001/2, NIST, and COBIT standards, and has served as technical counsel on hundreds of technology security projects.

Jean Vock, Senior Vice President/CFO, UNLV

Jean M. Vock, appointed senior vice president for Business Affairs and chief financial officer (CFO) in September 2017, directs the division that provides the business, financial, operational, planning, and physical infrastructure that undergird UNLV’s academic, research, and service mission. She is committed to serving as a collaborative partner with the campus, ensuring efficient, effective and responsive service to meet campus requirements, and ensuring that the institution maintains sound business practices and fiscal responsibility.

Vanessa Aguirre, CPA, CFE, Interim Vice President for Finance/Treasurer, The Claremont Colleges Services 

Vanessa Aguirre, Interim Vice President for Finance/Treasurer, joined The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) in May 2016. She joined the organization as an Assistant Controller where she served Harvey Mudd College and TCCS for over four years.  Vanessa currently directs all financial, human resource and benefits services of TCCS and select facility operations, risk management and insurance divisions. Vanessa was previously an Audit Manager for a regional CPA firm where she provided audit and consulting services for not-for-profit, manufacturing and construction clients.  Prior to her ten-year public accounting tenure, Vanessa held financial positions with electrical engineering and general contracting firms. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College and she is a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner. 

NeeCee Cornish, Deputy COO, Western University of Health Sciences

Denise (NeeCee) Cornish is the Associate Vice President & Deputy Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the Information Technology department and Operations Division Project Management Office at Western University of Health Sciences. NeeCee has 20+ years of experience in the information technology and higher education industries. She is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with a passion for enterprise architecture and process improvement. NeeCee thrives in dissecting an organization’s DNA and putting the right people connected to the right processes and the appropriate technology. NeeCee is also skilled in developing people by helping people realize their strengths and providing space, time, and tools to become experts in their craft. NeeCee is a wife, mother of two, and currently, a doctoral student writing her dissertation on technology-related stress. 

Joe Traino, Senior Manager, BerryDunn