Jarrard names AI leader, adds 15 professionals
Jarrard, a Nashville-headquartered healthcare communications consultancy, has appointed James Cervantes as AI lead and hired 15 professionals.
In the newly created role, Cervantes will lead the firm’s AI consulting offering as well as its internal AI strategy and enablement.
He has more than 15 years of healthcare industry and consulting experience. He joined Jarrard in 2019 as an associate vice president and was named a partner in 2025.
Before Jarrard, Cervantes was director of optimization, admin, and operations at Northwestern Medicine, a consultant at Penn Medicine, and a senior consultant at ECG Management Consultants.
“AI is fundamentally changing how healthcare organizations operate, communicate and lead, and our clients are looking for practical guidance on how to harness its potential responsibly," said Anne Hancock Toomey, president and founding partner of Jarrard. “James is a trusted strategic guide with a deep understanding of operational and clinical transformation, as well as the expertise to lead through change, challenge and growth in today’s AI era.”
The firm has also bolstered its AI leadership with the hiring of Meltem Singh as senior vice president of AI strategy and enablement. Working alongside Cervantes, Singh will scale Jarrard’s AI capabilities and develop AI-powered client solutions.
Singh brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare, consulting, and technology, with expertise across enterprise transformation, AI and data strategy, M&A, and product management.
She joins from Gartner, where she spent the last four years as a managing partner. Before that, Singh was a senior director at Huron and a manager at PwC.
“Meltem brings a rare combination of deep healthcare knowledge, technical expertise and experience leading complex transformation at scale,” said Toomey. “She will help us build the capabilities our clients need to move from experimenting with AI to putting it to work in ways that create real value for their organizations and the people they serve.”
Jarrard’s 14 other new hires bring expertise across issue and crisis navigation, change management, growth strategy and positioning, research, and creative. They are:
Erin George, vice president
Colby Gallagher, associate vice president
Kate Derrick, senior managing advisor
Lisa Lazaro, senior managing advisor
Tynisha Revasz, senior project manager
Jewanna Apawu, senior managing advisor, philanthropy
Rachel Rochefort, manager, business development and consulting operations
Katie Gaines, executive assistant
Gaby Chorro, advisor
Jenna Grundtner, advisor
Samantha Holt, advisor
Anna Mizerowski, advisor
Manuela Pineiros, advisor
Charlotte Milliken, advisor
Jarrard has approximately 100 employees and is a part of healthcare advisory firm Chartis, which acquired it in 2020.
Chartis has over 1,000 employees across offices in Chicago, Boston, New York, Nashville, and Washington, DC providing services in strategy and M&A, care delivery transformation, financing transformation, communications, and clinical quality solutions.
