Dawn Halfaker
Founder & CEO, Halfaker and Associates
Dawn Halfaker founded Halfaker and Associates, a professional services and technology solutions firm, in 2006. Prior to her consulting career, she served as a military police officer in the U.S. Army, holding several leadership positions and earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for her service after being wounded during a combat patrol near Baghdad in 2004.
And it’s her Army training and team-first mentality to motivate and drive success that influences her unique and powerful leadership style.
Halfaker has fostered a culture of service across the company, developing a team driven by a shared mission to continue to serve, and deeply committed to improving the health, security and well-being of all Americans. She also prioritizes veteran hiring with a Veteran Fellowship Program designed to provide opportunities for veterans transitioning to civilian careers.
And the firm’s solutions are critical drivers for health care modernization and increased interoperability, which Halfaker believes is vital for high-quality, effective care. The company brings private sector-level solutions to the federal health care space to help accelerate health care transformation.
To do so, the firm applies its data analytics capabilities to help medical researchers leverage massive datasets to improve health outcomes, like through its VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure project, which enables researchers to carry out life-saving research to improve health outcomes for veterans.
Plus, a rigorous Enterprise Engineering Management Framework and maturity rating positions Halfaker to scale its engineering capabilities while maintaining consistency and increasing customer satisfaction and excellence in service delivery.
For example, with the VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure, the firm helps to deliver a secure, centralized platform that uses cutting-edge analytics tools and techniques to empower researches with massive datasets that enable them to carry out life-saving research.
And the Veterans Signals project collects and analyzes customer feedback on their health care experiences and identifies at-risk veterans so VA can continuously enhance its services and programs and provide real-time intervention when needed.
Why Watch:
Halfaker plans to further build out its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to help agencies reimagine the future of health care innovation. The firm already leverages AI/ML internally and has achieved results supporting VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program, where it has partnered to deliver an AI solution that has reduced administrative burden, increased client engagement and enabled VA case managers to spend more time working directly with clients.
And with 275% revenue growth over the past three years, a strong leadership team and more than 500 team members dedicated to improving the health, security and well-being of Americans, Halfaker said the firm’s potential is limitless.