Nicole Klassen Ellington, JD

Nicole Klassen Ellington is chief operating officer of OCHIN. Nicole has over 15 years of experience driving business innovation, with seven of those years at OCHIN optimizing business systems and processes, directing technology development, and mobilizing technical and operational teams to deliver results and unlock new ways of working. She has contributed to OCHIN’s mission by helping achieve the repeated and consecutive Epic Gold Star and Epic Connect Accreditation commendations needed to support the OCHIN network and lay the foundation for OCHIN’s move into acute care delivery. Among her most recent efforts, she helped co-design and build the technical functionality and services needed to support OCHIN’s newest acute care members and she has been instrumental in driving OCHIN’s focus on platform resiliency and data security. 

As a direct descendant of the Chippewa Indian tribal community and coupled with her background as an attorney and acting Veterans Law Judge for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a legal assistant for the Mohican Indian tribe and Alaska attorney general, and a community activist for victims of abuse in Washington, D.C., Nicole brings direct experience working in smaller, underserved communities. She understands the inequities that persist in the world today and engages others in developing solutions that change outcomes and improve lives. 

In her role as COO, Nicole is continuously driving improvement across teams and working to integrate OCHIN’s technical, operational, and consultative strengths more tightly to seamlessly connect ambulatory, acute, and specialty care for our members and their communities. 

Nicole oversees our Epic install, Epic applications, data services, learning and knowledge management, operational excellence, IT, preferred technology partner, interoperability, and compliance teams.