Senior Director, Academic Affairs
Desla Mancilla, DHA, RHIA is the Sr. Director of Academic Affairs in the AHIMA Foundation. In her HIM career prior to joining the AHIMA Foundation, she held a variety of academic and practice based positions including HIIM Program Director, Assistant Professor, Regional Director of Information Protection Services and EHR Project Manager.
Dr. Mancilla’s doctoral dissertation was on patient acceptance of biometrics methods for identity verification. She has also published several articles and presentations on medical identity theft. Dr. Mancilla has served as a principal investigator and secondary investigator on grants funded by The Office of Minority Health, the AHIMA Foundation, and Texas State University.
Dr. Mancilla is a frequent speaker at both national and international conferences on topics related to medical identity theft, electronic health records, privacy and security, and AHIMA’s Reality 2016 initiative. As a Past-President of the Indiana Health Information Management Association and through various other state and national HIM leadership positions, Dr. Mancilla has demonstrated her knowledge of and commitment to the HIM profession. Prior to working at the AHIMA Foundation, Dr. Mancilla was appointed to and served on the privacy workgroup for the Chicago Health Information Exchange through the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council.