Who We Are
A federal health IT firm built on mission-driven delivery.
About Conselara
Conselara is a minority-owned small business headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Founded in 2014, we have spent more than a decade helping federal health agencies align technology with mission, delivering solutions that improve care quality, safety, and access for Americans.
We operate as both prime and subcontractor across federal health IT programs, with active work spanning NIH, AHRQ, ONC, CDC, and CMS. Our experience includes serving as prime contractor on the ONC HealthIT.gov BPA, one of the federal government's most visible national health IT platforms.
What Makes Us Different
Most firms in this space are either technology integrators or policy consultants. Conselara is both. We bring integrated capabilities across engineering, cloud infrastructure, communications, and stakeholder adoption, delivered by a team that understands the clinical, regulatory, and operational context of federal health programs.
We also invest in staying ahead. Our active R&D in AI and machine learning, including production deployment of large language models on-premises, means the AI capabilities we bring to federal programs are verified in practice, not theoretical.
Our Approach
We believe that successful federal programs require more than technical competence. They require understanding how agencies work, how stakeholders think, and how change gets sustained over time. Our engagements are built around measurable mission outcomes, not just deliverables.
We work in complex, multi-vendor, multi-agency environments and are experienced at navigating the governance, contracting, and security requirements that come with them.
Leadership
Daniyal A. Syed
Founder & CEO
Daniyal founded Conselara in 2014 after more than a decade as a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he drove large-scale IT strategy and program delivery for NIH, CDC, VA, FDA, HHS, and EPA. He brings more than 25 years of experience in cloud architecture, Agile software delivery, and enterprise content management to federal health IT programs. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UMBC.
Keren Sarig
Director, Health IT
Keren leads program delivery for Conselara's federal health IT portfolio. She brings 22 years of government IT experience with deep expertise in cloud hosting, applications security, Agile delivery, and enterprise content management platforms. Prior to Conselara, she held senior project management roles supporting FDA's public web infrastructure across multiple contract vehicles. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is a certified PMP and ScrumMaster.
Amal Saeed, MPH
Senior Associate, Health IT
Amal has 15 years of experience in federal health IT consulting, specializing in health information technology, public health, and healthcare quality improvement. She brings deep expertise in stakeholder engagement, webinar and event management, and program communications for national federal health audiences. Prior to Conselara, she spent eight years at Booz Allen Hamilton supporting CDC, ONC, DoD, and VA programs. She holds an MPH from the University of Arizona.
Israel O. Oyebode
DevSecOps Engineer / Cloud Security SME
Israel brings over 10 years of experience in cloud security and DevSecOps across federal health IT environments. He specializes in Zero Trust architecture, least-privilege IAM, and embedding security automation into CI/CD pipelines on AWS. Prior to Conselara, he supported CMS's MACFIn program as a Senior DevOps Engineer, leading Kubernetes orchestration and ECR vulnerability management. He holds the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and AWS Certified Solutions Architect credentials.
Maureen Onyia
AWS Systems Engineer
Maureen is an AWS/Linux Engineer with over 10 years of experience in large-scale enterprise infrastructure. She specializes in GRC documentation under NIST RMF and FISMA, architecting AWS solutions for high availability, and leading continuous monitoring and vulnerability remediation. Prior to Conselara, she served as AWS/Linux Engineer for the City of Baltimore's Department of General Services. She holds an AWS Certified Developer – Associate credential.
Michelle A. Leppert
Senior Health IT Writer
Michelle is an editor and content developer with more than 20 years of experience across journalism, healthcare publishing, and federal communications. She specializes in writing and editing reports, training materials, and dissemination content for federal health audiences. Her background spans pharmaceutical medical communications, federal humanitarian assistance training content, and a decade in healthcare compliance publishing at HCPro Inc. She holds a B.A. in English from Penn State.
Lee Cocklin
Full Stack Developer / DevOps Engineer
Lee brings over 14 years of experience in full stack web development and DevOps engineering, with deep expertise in PHP/Drupal, AWS cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD pipeline automation. He has supported public-facing federal health IT platforms throughout his career, with a focus on Drupal modernization, infrastructure migration to AWS, and performance optimization. He holds an Acquia Certified Drupal 10 Developer credential and an AWS Solutions Architect – Associate certification, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia.
Woodie Mengistu
Business Analyst
Woodie brings experience in federal health IT consulting, specializing in content analysis, data management, and quality assurance for federal health programs. Her work spans reviewing and transforming large datasets of health research publications, Drupal-based content management, website usability testing across environments, and Section 508 compliance reviews. She holds a B.S. in Biological Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.