Mike Sheppard, CPA, CAE

Chief Executive Officer

Mike Sheppard is a business executive with over 30 years of corporate leadership experience. As the Chief Executive Officer of the American Urological Association, he oversees its four corporate entities, including the American Urological Association, Inc.’s Political Action Committee (AUAPAC) and the Urology Care Foundation (UCF). During his 25-year tenure with the AUA, Mr. Sheppard held various executive leadership roles and has served as its CEO since 2005.

Before joining the AUA, Mr. Sheppard held senior-level positions at USF&G Realty Advisors, Inc. as a real estate portfolio controller, and at C.W. Amos and Company, LLC as a senior independent public auditor. He is also a retiree of the U.S. Naval Reserves.

Mr. Sheppard is affiliated with several professional organizations, including Specialty Societies CEO Coalition (S2C2), the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, and the Institute of Management Accountants. He earned his MBA from Loyola College’s Sellinger School of Business and Management, and is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Association Executive.

A recipient of numerous honors, including several military awards, Mr. Sheppard is also an active contributor to the medical field. He has published numerous articles and serves on several committees for medical organizations. Additionally, he is a Past President of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) and a Board member of Verana Health.

Maureen Cones, Esq.

Executive Vice President, Chief Legal & Policy Officer General Counsel

Maureen Cones serves as EVP, Chief Legal and Policy Officer and General Counsel of AUA. As Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, Ms. Cones is responsible for all legal affairs of the AUA and its related entities. She also heads the organization's Committee & Society Affairs department, supports the Board of Directors, Bylaws Committee, and Judicial & Ethics Committee, and works closely with the AUA Quality (AQUA) Registry to help ensure the Registry's legal compliance. In her role as Chief Policy Officer, Ms. Cones works closely in partnership with the Chair of the Public Policy Council and its committees, providing strategic direction and overseeing the Public Policy and Advocacy and Physician Payment and Reimbursement departments and initiatives to advance the AUA's federal and state legislative priorities. She also provides leadership and oversight of the AUAPAC with a focus on strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, health policy, and advocacy for AUA, its members, urologists, and patients.

Before joining AUA in July 2022, Ms. Cones worked as Interim General Counsel for Walden University, where she was responsible for all university legal affairs, federal and state regulatory compliance, government relations, and provided legal and compliance support for all the university's accredited healthcare colleges and degree programs. Prior to that, Ms. Cones spent over a decade at the American Nurses Association, where she served as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer with a focus on risk management, strategic planning, scope of practice, licensure, certification, accreditation, education, standard setting/guidelines, healthcare policy, and regulatory and organizational ethics and compliance.

Ms. Cones has been engaged in legal issues pertaining to telehealth and patient access to quality care for more than a decade.

Ms. Cones is a devoted wife, proud mother, avid reader, and loyal supporter of the Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland Browns, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Barbara Hartford

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Since May 2018, Ms. Hartford has served as AUA’s Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer. She oversees the organization’s financial operations, including financial planning and analysis, internal controls and reporting, managing insurance policies, overseeing regulatory issues and directing the management of investments and operating cash. She is the primary liaison with the AUA Treasurer and the Finance Committee (which includes the Compensation and Audit Subcommittees). Prior to this, Ms. Hartford served as the Director of Finance where she oversaw the financial reporting, tax and audit functions.

Ms. Hartford began her career in public accounting with KPMG and held other finance and consulting positions in the healthcare field throughout her 34 years of experience. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Baltimore and a Master of Science degree in Accounting Forensic Studies from Stevenson University. She has professional memberships with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the AICPA NFP Section and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Patricia Hope

Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Development Officer

Patricia Hope serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Development Officer for the AUA and the Urology Care Foundation (UCF). In her role, Patricia provides direction on the organization's operations, mission and financial goals with specific oversight of marketing, communications, business development/sales, member engagement, publications and the Urology Care Foundation.

As CMDO, Patricia designs and executes marketing, media relations, and corporate communication efforts for the organizations' strategic initiatives. In her oversight of AUA's Member Engagement Department, she partners with the AUA's Section Secretaries Membership Council and its related committees to grow and support AUA's 26,000+ members worldwide.

Patricia leads AUA's Publications Team, overseeing the peer-reviewed journals. In addition, she oversees AUA and UCF's sales, industry relations and development efforts, forging innovative partnerships and securing funding that finances the growth and development of the AUA and UCF mission-based programs. Patricia also partners with the Deputy Director and the Board of the Urology Care Foundation to set the strategic direction and operational priorities of the Foundation.

Patricia brings more than two decades of experience in the C suite to the AUA and UCF. Prior to joining the AUA, she held senior leadership roles at the Miami Herald and Factor Health.

She holds a Master's degree in Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. She is a Certified Professional Coach from iPEC (Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching) and holds a certificate in Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance from George Mason University.

Raj Manocha

Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

Raj Manocha serves as the Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the AUA. Mr. Manocha is responsible for innovating, implementing & maintaining the AUA’s global technology roadmap and cloud strategy by incorporating the modernization of legacy systems, introduction and optimization of the new technical programs, products and services relating to infrastructure and security, IT applications and operations, online and digital strategy, end user computing, business analysis and project management.

Mr. Manocha, has more than 20 years of expertise in IT modernization, migration, digitization, delivery and management of technical portfolio and services consisting of applications and products in diverse traditional and cloud architectures. Most recently he served as the Director of Applications for the Maryland Department of Human Services where he led the modernization, development, deployment and implementation of the largest open source cloud hosted public facing Integrated Eligibility System platform as part of the Maryland Total Human-services Integrated Network (MD THINK) program. MDTHINK is a first-in-the-nation cloud-based platform that enables multiple state agencies to deliver integrated health and human services programs to the state’s most vulnerable residents by disseminating multi-billion dollars in state and federal benefits to the eligible Maryland citizens. Prior to working for the State of Maryland, Mr. Manocha served in multiple senior level technology roles at General Electric Healthcare (GEHC), American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) & Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Mr. Manocha holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master’s degree in Computer Science. 

Janet Skorepa

CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT—EDUCATION, MEETINGS & MEMBER SERVICES

Janet Skorepa joined the AUA in 2003 and currently serves as Executive Vice President, Education, Meetings & Member Services. Ms. Skorepa oversees the strategic direction of the AUA's Office of Education, Conventions & Meetings, International Programs and Member Services departments. She provides strategic and operational oversight for the AUA's Annual Meeting. She is responsible for site selection, hotel and convention center negotiations, contractual arrangements with suppliers and overall implementation of all annual meeting activities including registration, logistics, social and scientific programs. Ms. Skorepa also oversees AUA's Office of Education and International Programs' initiatives, including but not limited to CME live programs, eLearning and enduring materials. Janet oversees the Member & Customer Services team, who are responsible for customer service and dues collection, in addition to administering the Urology Residency Match and a number of Fellowship Matches.

Prior to joining the AUA, Ms. Skorepa worked for GES Exposition Services for 13 years as Director of Sales of the San Francisco Bay Area’s $52M operation, Senior Sales Manager and Account Manager in the Washington, DC area. She has an extensive background in strategy and event management, planning and operations, account management and sales. Ms. Skorepa received her Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University. She is currently an active member of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), the Medical Meeting Directors Roundtable (MMDR), the Chicago Customer Advisory Board, the New Orleans Customer Advisory Council and the Hyatt Corporation Association Advisory Board.

Sharon Stover, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

Sharon Stover is the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for the AUA. In this role, she is a member of the Executive Team responsible for executing the strategic objectives of the organization. She leads a team of Human Resources professionals whose goal is to create a positive employee experience to increase employee engagement by partnering with leadership to foster a strong company culture driven by AUA’s Guiding Principles and creating and leading workforce management strategies to support the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Before joining the AUA in 2018, Ms. Stover spent eleven years as the President and CEO of LifeLogics, Inc., a nonprofit software development company that provides solutions to the organ and tissue recovery community. Prior to LifeLogics, she was the Director of Human Resources for The Living Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit Organ Procurement Organization. Ms. Stover holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland University College. She holds a SHRM-Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) certification in Human Resources from the Society for Human Resource Management and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification from the HR Certification Institute. She is a member of the Chesapeake Human Resources Association and the Society for Human Resource Management. She serves as a volunteer mentor for Everwise and LinkedIn, and as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Harford County, Maryland.

Clare Thorp, PhD

Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer

Dr. Thorp is the Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer for the AUA. She is a member of the Executive Team, responsible for developing and implementing the strategic objectives of the Science and Quality Division of the AUA. Dr. Thorp joined the AUA in 2025 with over 20 years’ experience as a strategic scientific leader with an entrepreneurial background. Dr. Thorp has published in the scientific literature and held senior positions in academia, government and private companies. She is well versed in international trade, regulatory and legislative processes, policy impact analysis, and data utilization.

Prior to joining the AUA, Dr. Thorp was Founder and CEO of Oaklare Strategic Scientific Consulting LLC, a cross-disciplinary consultancy that used translational science and systems analysis to pull knowledge from existing data.  Previously, Dr. Thorp was Senior Advisor and Senior Vice President at Creme Global, Executive Director at the International Life Sciences Institute, North America, and Managing Director of Policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

As a Diplomat with the Embassy of Ireland, Dr. Thorp built strategic relationships with U.S. regulatory agencies and industry leaders.  She has been a trusted spokesperson and public speaker on complex topics in the life sciences. Dr. Thorp holds a Doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast, where she was a Thomas Henry Scholar, an M.Sc. in Economics & Policy from Trinity College Dublin, and a B.Agr.Sc. with high honors from University College Dublin. She also earned a Graduate Certificate in Law of the European Union from Dublin Technology University.