A Strong Foundation
Innovation and collaboration have been the cornerstone of Pediatric Associates since its inception. Our “Fab Five” founding pediatricians, Eddie Saltzman, Bud Tanis, Bob Pittell, Phil Levin and Jed Jacobson took a leap of faith and combined their individual practices with the goal of providing accessible, compassionate care to families in South Florida. In 1955, the first Pediatric Associates location opened its doors in Hollywood, Florida. Since then, our clinicians have cared for generations of families with our first patients now bringing their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to our practice.
A Proven Formula
From the very early days, Pediatric Associates’ focus has been on providing quality care to as many families as possible, even if that meant leading the way on roads less traveled. Pediatric Associates served as one of the first medical groups to introduce satellite office locations staffed by multiple physicians and was one of the first pediatric groups to embrace managed care in the 1970s. Pediatric Associates offered pediatricians a medical home to provide care, and by the late 1990s expanded across South Florida, spanning from Homestead to Port St. Lucie. In the mid-2000s, it was the belief in value-based care that allowed Pediatric Associates to grow beyond South Florida and into the Tampa and Jacksonville markets.
A Vision for the Future
With a proven formula of ease of access, value-based care and quality, Pediatric Associates set its sights on providing our brand of loving care to all the nation’s children. In 2020, a new growth strategy began as Pediatric Associates started to acquire practices in other regions of Florida and expanded into Texas and California. Expansion into New York, New Jersey and Arizona, along with further growth in Texas, California and Florida quickly followed and the Pediatric Associates Family of Companies was born. Today, we are in seven states and serve over one and half million children in the country.
NUMBER OF LOCATIONS
260+
NUMBER OF CLINICIANS
1000+
ACTIVE PATIENTS
1.5 million+
Our Team
With a focus on outstanding care and unshakeable enthusiasm, Pediatric Associates Family of Companies team members are a notch above the rest. Our most successful team members don’t see this as a job but as an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our patients. Walk into any of our locations across the country and you will truly see the fruits of our patient-first philosophy. This compassion carries through everything we do and is seen in every personal interaction - we are the embodiment of Pediatric Associates Family of Companies values.
Scott Powers
Chief Executive Officer
Scott joined Pediatric Associates as CEO in August 2025. Prior to joining Pediatric Associates, he was CEO at Elara Caring, a leading multi-state home health provider. During his six years at the helm, he grew the company rapidly both organically and inorganically, introduced award-winning technology to improve the clinical experience and built a culture of high-quality patient care, innovation, energy, and accountability. Prior to leading Elara, he had leadership roles at Alignment Healthcare, Cambia Health Solutions, Alvarez & Marsal and Intel Corporation and has deep expertise in strategy and transformation.
Hakan Kardes
Chief Operating Officer
Hakan Kardes is the Chief Operating Officer of Pediatric Associates Family of Companies, where he leads operations, technology, AI, and enterprise transformation. His focus is on building a next-generation, AI-native pediatric platform — a trusted companion to children, families, and pediatricians — while driving scalable, personalized, and compassionate care.
Before joining Pediatric Associates, Hakan served as Chief Technology & Experience Officer at Alignment Health, where he led enterprise data, technology, AI, Medicare Stars, and consumer operations. He architected the AVA platform and spearheaded data-driven initiatives that fueled 60% year-over-year growth, industry-leading Star ratings, and best-in-class member experience — helping the company scale nationally and succeed through IPO and beyond.
Prior to Alignment, Hakan held technology and strategy leadership roles across healthcare and digital innovation, including at Cambia Health Solutions and Intelius.
Hakan was named one of Business Insider’s “30 Leaders Under 40 Transforming Healthcare” for his work at the intersection of AI and care delivery. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Nevada, Reno and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Bogazici University. He has authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications and holds several patents in data, artificial intelligence and healthcare technology.
John Do, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
John Do joined Pediatric Associates in February 2024, leading all aspects of financial management including strategic and financial planning, capital management, financial operations, reporting and investor relations. John most recently served as CFO of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) U.S. Healthcare division where he developed the healthcare strategy and scaled the division to $8 billion in topline revenue through organic and inorganic growth. Prior to WBA, John served as CFO for Elevance’s Carelon division where he launched and scaled their healthcare services division to over $10 billion in topline revenue. John started his healthcare career at DaVita where he launched and scaled their U.S. home dialysis business, launched and scaled DaVita’s Asia Pacific expansion in China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore, and led the turn-around sale of Everside Health to New Enterprise Associates. He started out his career in venture capital, where he gained a passion for building companies. John earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Southern California and an MBA in finance and strategy from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Karoline Lariviere
Chief Human Resources Officer
Karoline joined PAFC in June 2024. As Chief Human Resources Officer, she serves on the company’s Compensation Committee and has responsibility for talent management and acquisition, leadership development, inclusion, diversity and equity, total rewards, HR shared services, organizational effectiveness and development, employee analytics, HR enablement, and employee relations. Karoline has a proven track record and brings over twenty years of leadership experience including global HR strategy planning and implementation in the manufacturing, technology, and healthcare industries. She is a collaborative communicator, passionate about all aspects of Human Resources, and uses human capital insights to meet business objectives, a rewarding employee experience, and fostering an inclusive environment where all employees can grow their careers. Karoline joins PAFC from Creation Technologies, where she led the global HR transformation as the Chief Human Resources Officer, drove deeper engagement and productivity, while revitalizing all aspects of global Human Resources. Prior to that, she was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources of Global Care Delivery at Fresenius Medical Care, where she had responsibility for over 70,000 employees across 49 countries, 4,600 dialysis clinics, as well as the laboratory, pharmaceutical and pharmacy businesses. Prior to Fresenius, she held executive positions at Philips, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. Karoline holds a Bachelor of Science from Bryant University and a master’s in Human Resource Management and Industrial Labor Relations from Cornell University.
April Andrews-Singh RN, ALM, JD
Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer / General Counsel
April Andrews-Singh has been General Counsel and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer since 2022, after serving as the Vice President of Risk and Compliance since December 2020. Prior to Pediatric Associates, she served as the General Counsel and Senior VP of Legal and Governmental Affairs for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, FL. She also previously served as the Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Cleveland Clinic Hospital. April holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Wright State University, starting her career as a neurosurgical critical care nurse. She went on to earn a law degree from Capital University Law School and a Master’s in International Relations from the Harvard Extension School.
Heather Kingsbury Hill
Chief of Staff
Heather Kingsbury Hill joined Pediatric Associates in September of 2022 as Chief of Staff to the CEO. In this role she partners with the CEO and the Executive Leadership team to set strategy, execute against top priorities, drive accountability and measure results. She has also served as interim Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP Marketing for PAFC. Previously, Heather held Chief of Staff positions at Optum and DaVita Kidney Care. She also has experience in clinician recruiting, talent acquisition, finance, marketing, customer insight, and customer experience. Heather earned her BA in English from Yale University and her MBA from the University of Michigan, graduating with Distinction.
Michael Manocchio
Market President, East
Michael Manocchio has been Market President East since April 2025, after serving as Chief Strategy Officer since 2018 with responsibility for M&A, Managed Care, Clinician Recruiting, and Marketing. Prior to joining Pediatric Associates, Mike served as the SVP of Strategy and Business Development at HealthSun Health Plans, an integrated Medicare Advantage plan with over 50,000 lives and fifteen wholly owned medical centers in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. At HealthSun, he oversaw business development, financial planning & analysis and medical economics functions and was instrumental in HealthSun’s acquisition by Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and subsequent integration activities. Prior to his time at HealthSun, he held roles with Oppenheimer’s Healthcare Investment Banking team where he covered the managed care and healthcare services sectors. Mike left Oppenheimer as Executive Director, having closed over 25 M&A transactions valued in excess of $4.0 billion. He began his investment banking career at Wachovia Securities after earning his MBA from Columbia University where he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with concentrations in finance and economics. Mike earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Florida State University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Stephanie Ryan
SVP Payor Relationships and Managed Care
Stephanie Ryan joined PAFC in July of 2024 and leads Managed Care and Credentialling. As a public health and epidemiology trained professional, she has a background in clinical and applied health research and is passionate about modernizing the health care paradigm to drive greater efficiencies and better care delivery for marginalized populations through data-driven and collaborative community-focused solutions. She most recently served as the Vice President of National Partnerships at Cigna, leading the value-based contracting center of excellence, and building a book of national business with sophisticated provider partners serving Medicare and dual-eligible beneficiaries. Prior to her time at Cigna, she spent 7 years at a large integrated health system tailoring the growth strategy across Medicaid, IFP, commercial, and Medicare segments in addition to launching community programs and partnerships to address health disparities and social determinants of health. She received her BA in English from Ohio Wesleyan, a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine from University of Illinois, Chicago, and was a Fellow in the Disparities Leadership Program at Harvard Medical School – Massachusetts General Hospital.
C. Rocky Slonaker, M.D., CHCO, FAAP
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Rocky Slonaker completed his medical school training at The Ohio State University and his pediatric residency at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (formerly Columbus Children’s). After practicing rural medicine for several years in Ohio, he moved to Florida and joined Pediatric Associates as a general pediatrician in their Plantation, FL office in 2001. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to administer the clinical trials programs and became a Certified Healthcare Compliance Officer for the group. In addition to these administrative duties, Dr. Slonaker had an integral role in designing and implementing the CarePlus – Medicaid ER Diversion program and as Medicaid Reform moved into Florida in 2006, Pediatric Associates launched Pediatric Associates PSN, a pediatric-only provider service network. Dr. Slonaker served as the Medical Director and Compliance Officer for the health plan until it merged with a larger area health plan in 2009.
In September 2009, Dr. Slonaker was appointed to the Florida Governor’s Medical Home Task Force, which worked toward analyzing the format and function of existing state-based medical home programs and provided recommendations to the Florida Legislature regarding the creation of a medical home in Florida.
Dr. Slonaker has been the Chief Medical Officer at Pediatrics Associates since 2010. He continues his work toward clinical excellence in pediatrics, high value accessible care for all children and the realization of a nationally accredited pediatric medical home which is a preferred employment destination for pediatricians who strive to practice high quality, evidence based medicine.
Maritza Valdez-Bertolino, M.D.
Enterprise Director of Care Management and Clinical Value
Dr. Valdez-Bertolino completed her medical school training at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico and her pediatric residency at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital (formerly Miami Children’s Hospital). She joined Pediatric Associates in 2012 providing care as a General Pediatrician in the practice for 7 years. In 2019 she transitioned into Medical Education as part of the Clinician Development and Engagement Team at Pediatric Associates and advanced to Director of Clinician Development and Engagement in 2020.
In 2021, she stepped into her current role as Director of Care Management and Clinical Value Based Care Programming leading the clinical development and implementation of integrated team-based care that is patient-centered, high quality and cost-efficient.
In a healthcare system where the quality-cost equation is completely misaligned, she is committed to “bending the cost curve” and provide sustainable healthcare to all children, redesigning healthcare delivery systems that drive collaboration and coordination to achieve positive and high value outcomes for patients.
Barbara Alexander, D.O., FAAP
Regional Medical Director, East
Dr. Barbara Alexander is a board-certified pediatrician and has been practicing General Pediatrics since the year 2000. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Florida International University in 1992 and went on to earn her Osteopathic Medicine degree from Nova Southeastern University in 1996. From there, she completed an Osteopathic Internship at Palmetto General Hospital and followed that with the completion of her residency training in Pediatrics at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. Dr. Alexander is a long-time Florida resident and was a patient of Pediatric Associates from the age of 1, so it was a natural progression for her to return to practice at our flagship office in Hollywood, FL, the very one where she received her own care. She spent most of her 20+ years caring for patients in the Hollywood office and throughout that time also served in several leadership roles and as the Chair of the Quality Committee for 10 of those years. In 2019, she transitioned into medical directorship for FL which ultimately led her to her current position as Senior Regional Medical Director of the East Region, which she has held since 2022.
Karla Lluberes, MD
VP, Senior Regional Medical Director
Lisa Engel, MD
VP, Senior Regional Medical Director
Sara Silvestri, MD
VP, Senior Regional Medical Director
Vivian Ziltzer, M.D., FAAP, MBA
Vice President of Operations, Arizona
Dr. Vivian Ziltzer is a board-certified pediatrician with over 30 years of experience in private practice. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Biology and earned her Medical Degree from the University of Arizona. In addition, Dr. Ziltzer received an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Throughout her career, Dr. Ziltzer has been committed to providing high-quality care to the patients in her community. Dr. Ziltzer's leadership has been instrumental in the growth and success of Arbor Medical Partners, a premier pediatric practice that was formed through the merger of multiple private practices in Arizona. In 2021, Arbor Medical Partners joined the Pediatric Associates family. Now, as Vice President of Operations for Arizona, Dr. Ziltzer oversees the day-to-day operations of the practices and helps to ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care.
Ravinder Khaira, M.D. MBA. MPH, FAAP
Senior Medical Director, Northern California
Dr. Ravi Khaira is currently the Medical Director of the Northern California region, (NorCal). He was the founding Medical Director of Capital Pediatrics in the Greater Sacramento area, prior to partnering with Pediatric Associates. Dr Khaira is a board-certified pediatrician and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Khaira attended the University of California at Davis graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Sciences in 1990, he then attended St.George’s University School of Medicine and completed his clinical cores at Yale and Cornell Medical Centers. Dr. Khaira completed his post-doctoral training in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Dr. Khaira also holds a Master’s in Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins University and a Masters of Business Administration, honors designation, with certification in Health Finance and Organizational Management from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with patient care Dr. Khaira is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine, Public Health and the Director of the Pediatric Clerkship at the California Northstate University College of Medicine.