About Us — Ikaso Consulting

united in our shared values of intellectual curiosity, kindness, and deep commitment to public service

We have built a team of experienced and creative thought leaders who strive to deliver excellent results for our clients. Leveraging our lived experiences, professional expertise, educational backgrounds and shared values, we partner with each other and with our clients to achieve outcomes for those we serve.

Reiko Osaki | President

Reiko is the President and Founder of Ikaso Consulting. Her background in political science, experience serving 18 state government administrations, and over 20 years of consulting work help her team and her clients implement collaborative change and achieve sustainable results. Reiko’s work weaves strategic priorities and community impact, pursuing outcomes aligned with the health and well-being of those we serve. Reiko’s areas of expertise include complex contract negotiations, Medicaid and human services program design, operations, workload analyses and associated procurement strategies, and procurement organization reviews.
Reiko previously served as a Director for the Executive Governing Board and Treasurer of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). She has served her alma mater in many capacities, including Stanford University’s Alumni Association Board of Directors, the steering committee for The Stanford Challenge, and as Chair of the Board of Governors for the Stanford Associates. Most recently, Reiko co-launched the Stanford Alumni Association’s Stanford Alumni in Public Service club and served as co-chair.
Reiko and her husband are the proud parents of three daughters. Reiko holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.

Tom Arnold | Director

Tom has a broad base of experience, ranging from large multinational conglomerates and state governments, to Internet start-ups. He has counseled clients in a variety of areas, including contracting, cost control strategies, and performance measurement and reward. For over 20 years, Tom has focused on serving public sector clients across 15 states, including Medicaid and human services programs in five states.
Tom is an avid fly fisherman and golfer. He volunteers with the First Tee of San Francisco and was the 2012 Volunteer of the Year. Tom also serves as a Class Reunion Program Chair for Harvard Business School.
Tom holds an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a BA in Economics and Asian Studies from Colgate University.

Uday Ayyagari | Director

Uday has over 20 years of experience advising public sector clients on strategic sourcing and procurement, program structure, design, and strategic execution, and cost control approaches, with a particular focus on performance measurement and accountability. Uday’s work has touched on many areas of government operations and administration including Medicaid, human services (including SNAP, TANF, and WIC), behavioral health, complex IT systems, office equipment and supplies, and wireless services. He also has experience working with Internet and mobile technology start-ups.
Uday is a keen sports fan and spends his spare time traveling, watching movies, and researching the latest gadgets.
Uday holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where he was a Mayfield Fellow. He also received an MS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Susie Howard | Director

Susie has over 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors in roles focused on healthcare, education, and workforce development. At Ikaso, Susie advises clients on strategic initiative development and execution related to Medicaid, human services, and early childhood education. She previously served as Legislative Director and Chief of Staff for the Indiana Family & Social Services Administration. At the federal level, she served as a senior health and legislative policy staff member with the Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives and as a member of the policy staff for the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. She also led federal government relations for Walgreen Co. during the development of the Affordable Care Act.
Immediately prior to joining Ikaso in 2021, Susie worked for Purdue University and helped lead the effort to develop and open a network of Purdue-affiliated STEM-focused charter high schools throughout Indiana.
Susie is a mother of two and enjoys spending time outdoors with her family and playing the NYT Spelling Bee game every morning after a strong cup of dark roast coffee.
An Indianapolis native, Susie holds a BA in International Relations from Bucknell University and an MA in Political Management from George Washington University.

Matt Lewis | Director

Matt has over 15 years of experience serving state governments and large companies on matters related to procurement, operational efficiency, transformation, and compliance. Matt has led reviews of multiple states’ procurement processes, including targeted reviews of health and human services and construction programs. He has also helped write and run multiple high stakes procurements including system and program procurements for child welfare agencies, Medicaid programs, and numerous other human service programs. Matt's work redesigning Indiana's hearing aids purchasing program was the subject of the August 2006 cover story of Gov Pro magazine. He also guided one state in the establishment and operations of its unclaimed and abandoned property amnesty program.
Matt is currently helping support clients undertaking major new projects and transformations funded by strategic investments in mental health initiatives. These include helping a state centralize and enhance its crisis mental health offerings in conjunction with the roll out of 988, helping a state manage its Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) expansion, helping a state successfully address its competency restoration backlog, and a range of grant and contract management.
In his spare time, Matt sings in the Orpheus Club of Philadelphia, America's oldest men's chorus.
Matt holds a JD from Temple University and a BA from Haverford College, both with honors.

Kentaro Matsuura | Director

Kentaro has over 16 years of consulting experience in the public sector and in the healthcare industry. He has extensive experience with state government agencies working in child welfare, early childhood education, Medicaid, and other health and human services. Kentaro has led end-to-end procurement projects, including for major IT solutions; negotiated complex, high-dollar contracts; and implemented contract monitoring tools and processes to track vendor performance and contract financials.
Kentaro is an avid skier and soccer player, and he enjoys spending time with his three young children.
Kentaro holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar. He also received a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology, with distinction, from UC Berkeley.

Erin Kremer | Principal

Erin has more than 20 years of experience working in the public sector in roles that span human resource management to procurement and contract management. Prior to joining Ikaso, she served as the Procurement Director and Director of Vendor Management for the Indiana Department of Administration, which administers the State of Indiana’s purchasing and procurement function. By focusing on vendor management and strategic sourcing, her leadership in this role elevated the department to perform a strategic partnership role within state government.
In her time in state government, Erin managed a successful statewide strategic sourcing initiative, directed a team of vendor managers that aggressively and successfully oversaw statewide contracts, implemented two procurement team reorganizations, supported the State through the protest process, and developed protest mitigation strategies.
Erin is a mother of two and loves gardening, playing tennis and pickleball, and traveling with her family. She holds a BS in Business Administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Gena Lewis | Principal

Gena is driven by a deep commitment to service and to creating systems-level solutions in the public sector. With more than 25 years of experience in both public and philanthropic human services, she brings a unique perspective that blends legal, policy, and strategic expertise.
Gena most recently served as the Human Services Senior Fellow at a national foundation, where she was a lead thought partner on strategic initiatives. In that role, she guided grantmaking and program design, advanced community-based initiatives, fostered cross-sector collaborations, and provided policy and legal analysis. Her work consistently spanned national, state, and local contexts, positioning her as a connector across public, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners. In her prior tenure with Ikaso, Gena provided subject-matter expertise in human and social services across the firm’s portfolio, including strategic planning and procurement consulting in partnership with public and nonprofit agencies nationwide. Today, she oversees client relationships, shapes strategic direction, leads project teams, and cultivates partnerships to ensure the delivery of high-impact outcomes for public, private, and philanthropic partners.
Previously, Gena held leadership roles in state government as General Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Human Services. In that capacity, she oversaw rulemaking, legislation, policy development, and legal counsel, while providing executive leadership and shaping agency-wide direction aligned with both departmental goals and statewide priorities. She also gained extensive executive experience in administration, organizational development, talent management, and professional learning.
Gena began her human services career as a child support prosecutor and remains a member of the Tennessee State Bar. A native of Flint, Michigan, she is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Law. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, playing pickleball, kayaking, and cooking.

Donna Villamil | Principal

Donna has over 25 years of consulting experience serving the public sector in areas such as procurement and negotiations, program assessments, project financial tracking, and contract monitoring. Her procurement experience focuses on IT systems and public health and human services programs. For a state Medicare-Medicaid demonstration program, Donna assisted with program implementation and currently continues to support marketing and operational activities. Additionally, Donna has worked with several clients on federal grants to develop responses to grant funding opportunities as well as design and manage reporting tools and dashboards.

Prior to joining Ikaso, Donna provided procurement consulting services to state government clients as well as worked on state and local government sales and marketing for a global consulting company.

In her spare time, Donna enjoys spending time with her family and discovering new places in her hometown.

Donna holds a BA in Economics-Operations Research from Columbia University.

Blake Emmerson | Senior Manager

Blake has over 9 years of detailed experience guiding Ikaso's public sector clients through complex Medicaid, managed care, child welfare, information technology, and human services procurements. At Ikaso, Blake has helped state governments navigate major children's services and health and human services transitions, leveraging his procurement, policy research, data analysis, and public speaking background. Blake has also supported programmatic improvements in early childhood education and child care, through project management, procurements, and complex vendor negotiations. Blake has previously worked with policymaking and the political process, both in and out of formal government. His legislative work focused on a variety of topics including domestic tax policy, transportation, and international relations.
In his spare time, Blake enjoys reading novels and spending time with friends and family. He is passionate about trivia, craft beer, Stanford football, and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Blake holds an MA in Public Policy and a BA in International Relations, both from Stanford University.

Maggie Novak | Consultant

Maggie has 15+ years of experience in the government and health and human services sectors including a wide variety of supports for adults and children such as Medicaid, home-and community-based services, early childhood education, and 211. She frequently leads projects focused on strategic initiative development and execution, program and grant management, policy development, and stakeholder communications. Her recent work has also included end-to-end procurement support and contract negotiations for a variety of healthcare, social services, and IT contracts.
Prior to Ikaso, Maggie worked as a nurse for a large, statewide hospital network, and she also served as a strategic program director for the State of Indiana's human services agency. She began her career as a fellow in the Indiana Governor’s Office.
An Indianapolis native, Maggie enjoys reading and exploring the city with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Maggie graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College with degrees in English and Spanish. She also holds a nursing degree and is a licensed Registered Nurse.

Mariah Alexander | Manager

Mariah has extensive experience working in state and local governments in the housing, health, and human services spheres. Since Mariah joined Ikaso over 5 years ago, she has provided strategy, execution, and project management support for state implementations of behavioral health programs. Most recently, Mariah has supported implementation of the federally supported Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model.
In addition, during her tenure at Ikaso, Mariah has supported complex procurements and negotiations, grant program development, strategic assessments, data analysis, contract monitoring, financial tracking and projections, and stakeholder engagement efforts that directly impact the provision of critical health and human services. Mariah centers her work around leveraging cross-systems approaches that promote thriving individuals, families, and communities.
Mariah holds an MA and BA in Political Science from Boston University, and was a four-year Division I soccer player.
In her spare time, Mariah enjoys reading, exploring the outdoors with her dog, playing soccer, and spending time with loved ones.

Ellie Dittes | Manager

Ellie has extensive experience supporting public sector clients through complex strategic initiative development and execution, grant management, and stakeholder engagement. She has managed cross-agency initiatives focused on strengthening systems of care for children with intensive and specialized needs, overseeing benchmarking, data analysis, and identification of actionable changes through to implementation. She has facilitated multi-agency workgroups and supported system change efforts across multiple states, providing implementation support for programs in areas such as acute pediatric psychiatric care, foster care, and systemwide navigation.
Ellie also brings extensive experience leading end-to-end procurements across the human services, child welfare, and early childhood education sectors. She has led procurements and grant issuances for state human services and early childhood agencies, with work spanning Medicaid, child welfare, and early childhood education programs. Her work in early childhood education includes multiple statewide, strategic grant issuances, supporting clients from goal setting through to final negotiations and implementation.
Prior to Ikaso, she served as a Peace Corps Community Organizational Development volunteer in Kosovo supporting projects for women's and youth economic empowerment.
She enjoys yoga, exploring new places with her dog, and spending time with friends and family.
Ellie graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a degree in Economics.

Karina Sun | Manager

Karina has worked in the health and human services space at all levels of government, with over five years of experience at the state level. Since joining Ikaso, she has supported both governmental and philanthropic clients with strategic project management projects, primarily across Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF.
Karina’s public sector experience spans across project implementation support, grant development, program assessments, project financial tracking, contract monitoring, and strategic procurement. For a state Medicaid program, Karina assisted with both project management and financial tracking for a large federal grant, including the implementation of and stakeholder engagement for a dedicated grant opportunity process.
In her spare time, Karina enjoys ceramics, painting, and sewing.
Karina holds a BA in Political Economy from UC Berkeley.

Stephen Chan | Finance & Operations

Stephen joined Ikaso in 2011 after a decade of advising healthcare companies as an investment banker. Prior to joining Ikaso, Stephen served as a Director at Oppenheimer & Co., working closely with numerous biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical and healthcare services companies. Stephen also worked in the healthcare investment banking groups of CIBC World Markets (acquired by Oppenheimer), Thomas Weisel Partners, and Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown.
Stephen enjoys coaching his daughters’ softball and soccer teams, volunteering for Stanford University and his daughters’ school, and playing slow-pitch softball.
Stephen holds an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Jessica Flemming | Head of HR

Jessica joined Ikaso in 2012 with over ten years of experience working with fortune 500 companies, global investment and commercial banks, professional service firms, and technology and internet start-ups. She has created several internal operations organizations and call centers designed to implement technology and serve clients. She has helped with internal implementations of mergers and acquisitions, reductions in workforce, procurement optimization and restructuring, creation of customer service call centers, corporate intranets, and a new hire orientation program for a company averaging 80 new-hires per week.
Jessica is a mother of three and enjoys running, reading, and spending time at farmers’ markets trying local foods.
Jessica holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Kayela Beatty | Consultant

Kayela has 20 years of experience working in operations strategy, process design, and project management for large, complex organizations. Her work has focused on designing and implementing business and communication processes that are both efficient and cost effective while also providing a high quality experience for the end user. Kayela’s project work has spanned a range of fields and subject matter including developing staffing plans and productivity and service standards as well as managing the implementation of company-wide programs, strategy initiatives, and events.
Kayela enjoys reading, traveling, spending time with her family, and watching the Stanford Cardinal sports teams win games.
She holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.