Tonia Bleecher
Senior Vice President, Health Technology, ICF
Last year, Tonia Bleecher’s team of health technology experts worked with partners at CMS to take a major step forward in modernizing how the agency oversees long-term care. Together, they launched a new survey capability through CMS’ Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System that supports nearly 15,000 nursing home facilities nationwide.
This is driving greater efficiency and oversight, while strengthening quality and safety for millions of residents and beneficiaries. It’s a strong example of how ICF is modernizing core health systems to deliver both cost and operational efficiencies and mission value to protect vulnerable populations nationwide.
“I’m also proud of how our team partnered with clients across HHS to help plan and advance key technology optimization efforts for 2026, 2027, and beyond,” Bleecher said.
ICF is also helping federal health agencies modernize mission-critical systems through AI-powered automation, cloud modernization and multicloud strategies. The work strengthens resilience, reduces administrative overhead, improves interoperability and supports program integrity, helping agencies work more efficiently, lower costs and reduce fraud, waste and abuse.
A strong example is ICF’s work with the National Cancer Institute, where the company used Datadog to improve cloud monitoring and cost management and create a more transparent, data-driven model for managing operations across multicloud environments. These efforts helped NCI achieve measurable operational and cost improvements, and also helped ICF earn Datadog’s first-ever Public Sector Customer Impact Award.
“Tonia brings a powerful combination of health mission knowledge, technology leadership, and strategic thinking to her work,” said David Birken, ICF senior vice president of digital modernization and experience. “She keeps user needs front and center, helping drive real improvements in efficiency, transparency, and accountability across complex health systems. Her leadership is helping deliver critical modernizations today and shape the future of American health care.”
Why Watch
In 2026, Bleecher and her team are focused on helping CMS strengthen the digital backbone that supports mission-critical care for some of the nation’s most vulnerable patients. Bleecher is particularly excited about standing up the agency’s first-ever multicloud implementation with the End Stage Renal Disease Quality Reporting System.
“We’re creating infrastructure redundancy across cloud providers to protect against downtime, improve resilience, and ensure continuity of care for kidney disease patients and dialysis facilities nationwide,” she said. This work is also laying the groundwork for more efficient, high-availability systems across CMS to better support mission delivery at scale.
More broadly, as part of CMS’ OneGov strategy, Bleecher and her team are implementing AI-powered automation and migrating legacy systems to a unified cloud architecture to help the agency significantly reduce administrative overhead, eliminate data silos, and achieve a 41% reduction in cloud operating costs.
“I’m proud of how we’re helping clients modernize mission-critical systems to make them more resilient, more effective, and deliver better outcomes,” Bleecher said. “From building multi-cloud platforms for CMS to advancing modernization efforts across HHS, we’re delivering innovative solutions that create real impact for clients and the communities they serve.”
Fun fact: Last summer, Bleecher brought home a Bernese Mountain dog puppy who quickly grew from 23 to 110 pounds—and he’s still growing. “It’s been a real joy welcoming this goofy, pony-sized dog into my home and life,” she said.
