Meet the Administrative Team

Mr. Kramer has over twenty years’ experience in healthcare management with a concentration in finance, insurance, information technology and marketing. As President and CEO, he has direct responsibility over establishing Stratum’s strategic direction, optimizing its financial performance and identifying business opportunities and programs that optimize value to Stratum’s Shareholders and Clients.  Mr. Kramer also serves as President of Stratum Brokerage Company, LLC, a wholly owned insurance brokerage firm.

In addition to his role at Stratum, Mr. Kramer serves as Executive Director of Northwest Medical Group Alliance, a trade group of Washington’s largest, independent, multispecialty group practices. The primary charter of the organization is to generate creative, yet practical initiatives, which promote the success and sustainability of independent group practices.

Prior to joining Stratum over eighteen years ago, Mr. Kramer served as Executive Director of a Physician Organization while also sharing management duties of a Physician/Hospital Organization in Central Illinois. Mr. Kramer attended the University of Illinois for both his undergraduate and graduate studies where he earned a Bachelor’s in Finance and a Master’s in Business Administration.

Mr. Koger has over ten years of healthcare experience with a focus on medical group and hospital operations.  As Chief Operations and Strategy Officer, he provides management and leadership expertise and assists in establishing business priorities, managing key business lines and identifying unique opportunities to enhance value for Stratum Shareholders and Clients.

Ben most recently served as the Executive Director of a 130+ provider medical group in Western Colorado with SCL Health.  He attended Vanderbilt University for both his undergraduate and graduate studies where he earned a Bachelor’s in Economics and a MBA with a concentration in Healthcare Administration.

Ben is a proud husband and father to a wife and three kids.  He is an avid sports fan and, in his free time, enjoys golfing, hiking and skiing, among other outdoor activities.

Dr. Mathers brings decades of experience in clinical medicine (broad scope and team Family Medicine and Occupational Medicine). Dr. Mathers also has experience with medical students and graduate medical education as a prior co-director of a Family Medicine Residency program, private practice in single-specialty and multi-specialty practices, Chief Medical Officer roles for a health system and multi-specialty medical group, as well as roles leading recruitment and development of clinical teams,  former leadership roles in IPAs, PHOs and medical groups with large "global risk populations"/Population Health.

Dr. Mathers was also part of the group that started Stratum Med and was former Chair of the Board of Stratum.

Outside of Stratum, Dr. Mathers used to have insurance and real estate licenses, and has been on a bank board for 34 years (now serving as Vice Chairman). Dr. Mathers is a graduate from the University of Illinois in Finance and has had much activity in agriculture and the cattle business, serving as Board Member and Chairman/President of the ASA.

Mr. Thurman  oversees the Executive Search team providing recruitment service and expertise for high-level executive and physician leadership roles for large medical groups, integrated healthcare delivery systems as well as health plans. In addition, Mr. Thurman supports Stratum with marketing concepts and communication strategies to effectively build company brand awareness, market perception and promotional consistencies

Mr. Thurman also coordinates several peer work groups including Operations, Marketing, IT and Value Based Care. As a part of Stratum's Consortium Management service line, Mr. Thurman serves as the Administrative Director for the Specialty Independent Practice Association of Kansas (SIPAK) providing leadership & guidance of local initiatives in the Wichita, KS market.

Mr. Thurman has over 7 years of healthcare administrative experience and 20 years of experience in successful customer and client services. Mr. Thurman holds a degree in Business/Marketing from Eastern Illinois University as well as additional Marketing and Psychology degrees and graduate studies from the University of Illinois.

Ms. Vallowe has  responsibility over the physician, and advanced practitioner recruitment, Locum Tenens placements, candidate referencing and provider  sourcing  for Stratum’s clinical recruitment services.

In addition, Ms. Vallowe oversees the Business Office and Shared Services functions, leading focused work groups, researching cost savings solutions, managing product enhancements through vendor relationships and facilitating networking opportunities for Stratum members and clients.  She also serves as Stratum’s insurance product liaison between new prospects and current participants. Ms. Vallowe joined Stratum in  2012 after spending the first part of her career in the marketing arena, both at an agency and on the brand side for a Fortune 500 company and serving in  the healthcare development field.  Ms. Vallowe obtained a Bachelor and Masters of Science degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She is very involved in the community through such organizations as United Way and Executive Club of Champaign County, in addition to participating in young leadership opportunities.

Mr. Wills has 19 years of experience in the insurance industry with a focus on underwriting and marketing.  Mr. Wills has direct responsibility over Stratum Brokerage Company, a wholly owned insurance brokerage firm.  He leads Stratum’s insurance division with a focus on developing innovative insurance products and services to the benefit of our shareholders and clients.

Mr. Wills most recently served a Health Alliance’s Commercial Sales and Retention Manager transitioning to a sales role after serving several years as a senior underwriter.  Previous to Health Alliance, Mr. Wills spent 14 years at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with increasing levels of responsibility during his tenure.  Most notably, he was promoted to the position of Global Operations Support Team Manager after having held the role of Project Manager, Underwriting within the Group Life, Long Term Disability, and Dental coverages.

Mr. Wills attended Wheaton College for his undergraduate studies where he earned a BA in Business/Economics.

Ms. Poindexter leads the executive search services team and oversees the operations and development of executive recruitment and talent acquisition services to large medical groups and health systems. Her passion to recognize and cultivate the potential in others and focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal excellence, proves valuable to identifying and attracting the right talent for our clients and shareholders.

Ms. Poindexter joined Stratum in April 2019 after a 17 year career in higher education administration handling a variety of strategic, administrative and operational priorities heavily focused on customer relations.  Through various professional and personal experiences, she developed a desire for volunteerism and dedicates her spare time to a few non-profit organizations in the Champaign-Urbana community such as The Junior League of Champaign-Urbana, Girls Go For It and CU 1:1 Mentoring Program.

Ms. Poindexter obtained a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Arkansas State University and a Master of Public Administration from Troy University.

Cindy has been with Stratum since its inception in 1996 and handles a plethora of duties. She is responsible for providing office management and administrative assistance to the Executive Staff to maintain cohesiveness in day-to-day office functions and operations.

Cindy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music and an Associate’s in business from Illinois State University, and enjoys taking long walks with her husband.