News & Press

Experienced People and Culture Advocate to Join Protenus

Joi Smith joins as Vice President of People Operations as Protenus continues to rapidly scale throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Baltimore, MD —Protenus, the nation’s leading healthcare compliance analytics platform, announced today the addition of Joi Smith as the Vice President of People Operations. Prior to joining Protenus, Joi spent 15 years transforming traditional Human Resource functions into innovative people operation programs that attract and retain the best talent. Joi has worked with rapidly-growing organizations across the country to cultivate team cultures that leverage a combination of best practices, creativity, and optimized goal-setting to achieve success for both the organization and its team.

Protenus was named one of Forbes Best Startup Employers for the past two years, and one of the best places to work in healthcare by Modern Healthcare for the past four years. Protenus was also recognized as a “Cool Vendor” in Healthcare Artificial Intelligence by Gartner, Inc. and named the 2020 and 2019 KLAS Category Leader in Patient Privacy Monitoring. Founded in 2014, the company helps health systems reduce risk and scale compliance for the country’s leading healthcare organizations.

"Our entire organization is excited to have Joi join our team," stated Nick Culbertson, CEO of Protenus. “Joi has an impressive understanding of the startup team culture and how to scale and elevate positive company culture as we continue to grow. The pandemic has brought unique opportunities and challenges our team has had to navigate and Joi will be integral in continuing to handle this ever-changing, dynamic environment."

“There are few companies that are as dedicated to their people as they are to their clients and I feel very lucky to have found that with Protenus. I look forward to adding new layers of insight, energy, and creativity to the already great foundation Nick and the rest of the leadership team has built,” stated Joi Smith. “I’m looking forward to engaging with the team and applying my expertise and experience to help us achieve our goals and continue to grow over the next few years."

While serving in various leadership roles, Joi has focused on streamlining People Operations in order to ensure scalability, while also reducing costs, improving efficiencies, and elevating employee recognition programs. Her holistic approach to empowering a growing team is critical for scalability, she focuses her strategy on increasing transparency while positioning the team as business partners in order to best align strengths and meet the needs of a rapidly growing company.

Joi holds an MBA from Golden Gate University in Human Resources Management and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado.

About Protenus

Protenus uses artificial intelligence to reduce risk and save resources for the nation’s leading health systems, detecting and preventing compliance violations such as breaches to patient privacy and incidents of clinical drug diversion. Compliance analytics provide healthcare leaders full insight into how health data is being used, and alerts privacy, pharmacy and compliance teams to inappropriate activity. Protenus helps our partner hospitals make decisions about how to better protect their data, their patients, and their institutions. For two consecutive years, Protenus was named one of Forbes’ Best Startup Employers and one of CBInsights Digital Health 150. Protenus was also named the 2020 KLAS Category Leader in Patient Privacy Monitoring. In 2019, Protenus was named one of The Best Places to Work in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare and one of the Best Places to Work in Baltimore by the Baltimore Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun. Learn more at Protenus.com and follow us on Twitter @Protenus.

Media Contact

Angie Stewart
Content Specialist
angie.stewart@protenus.com