The Echo Group Expands Executive Team With A Key New Hire

Kelly Stepura, LMSW, Ph.D. Joins Echo as Chief Clinical Innovation Officer

The Echo Group, the only provider of visual electronic health record technology for the behavioral health industry, is excited to announce that Kelly Stepura, LMSW, Ph.D. is joining Echo as their Chief Clinical Innovation Officer reporting to the CEO. Stepura joins Echo from OmniCare Institute, where she partnered with agencies to incorporate data science, outcome measurement, and machine learning techniques to provide insights, guide service provision, and inform decisions. At Echo, she will continue this work focusing on various data projects, including the Horizon Health Partners Population Data Study. She will work with development in review of clinical functionality within EchoVantage, the Echo Electronic Health Record using her extensive clinical knowledge to enhance product, dashboards, and provide clinical leadership.

“It is exciting to have the clinical leadership that Kelly brings, from software design to her commitment to children’s mental health, specifically in the foster care system,” said Allan Normandin, Chief Executive Officer, The Echo Group. ”We will be in a better position to address the move in behavioral health to be data-driven, and the need to use the data to meet the needs of clients and funders better.”

“Echo is a leader in behavioral health software, with a long-standing history of working closely with partner agencies,” said Kelly Stepura. “I look forward to joining the team in creating pragmatic solutions to improve services and extend best practices for clinical effectiveness. Together we will integrate data science with innovative technology, providing agencies with meaningful and timely information so they can position themselves to be financially strong and clinically effective.”

Most recently, Stepura provided direction and strategic leadership with data science and research activities at OminCare Institute.  Prior to OnminCare Institute, Stepura investigated decision-making and risk assessment for Child Protectives Services before devoting the next 20 years of her career to the development of software for the social services industry. She also worked with agencies to examine outcomes and use predictive analysis to predict various foster care outcomes such as permanency and length of stay.  Stepura has been a published author and speaker for over 25 years.  Most recently, she has been collaborating with researchers internationally around the field’s response to COVID-19 and continues to partner with a team of researchers and data scientists at the University of Texas at Austin on the prediction of outcomes using machine learning and predictive analytics.