Photos by
Patrick Remington

Population Health Fellows

2009-2011 Cohort

Sara Kazmierczak

Sara received her MS in Population Health Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BA in International Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has concurrent fellowship placements at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health’s Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program (Preceptor: Amy Meinen), and the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association (WPHCA) (Preceptor: Stephanie Harrison).

Placement at these organizations is giving Sara experience in projects aimed at both improving health statewide and reducing health disparities associated with socioeconomic determinants of health. At the DPH’s Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program, she is using social marketing to promote healthier restaurant and grocery store environments, and is involved in efforts to increase access to affordable, nutritious, high-quality food where gaps exist. At WPHCA, Sara works with Wisconsin communities interested in the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) program as a means to create or expand health centers to serve medically underserved areas/populations. She is also involved in initiatives to expand access to behavioral/mental health care at Wisconsin FQHCs.

Raisa Koltun

Raisa has an MPH and Global Health Certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PharmD from the UW Madison. Raisa was working as a clinical pharmacist when she found she was increasingly interested in upstream causes of illness, and in working with diverse and marginalized communities. Raisa’s training sites will be: 50% at the Milwaukee City Health Department and 50% at Core El Centro (Preceptor: Sherri Ohly).

Marisa Stanley

Marisa received her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, and her BS in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota. During her graduate studies, she worked at the Minnesota Department of Health conducting reporting audits, assisting in disease investigations, and organizing refugee health events. She also has experience as an intern at a county health department analyzing and reporting client services data, planning a comprehensive needs assessment, and participating in quality management activities for the Ryan White Program. Marisa’s training site is the Bureau of Communicable Diseases of the Division of Public Health where she is involved various projects such as, reintroducing expedited partner therapy legislation in Wisconsin, securing a contractor for an oral health education feasibility study, and H1N1 vaccine distribution. (Preceptor: Casey Schumann/Jim Vergeront).

2008-2010 Cohort

Evan S. Cole

Evan completed his MPH in Public Health Administration and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and prior to that he obtained an undergraduate degree in psychology from Miami University. During his graduate studies, he worked at the Outagamie County Public Health Division as an Area Health Education Center (AHEC) of Wisconsin intern. As part of his internship he researched a variety of best practices along with current community resources and developed work plans and recommendations for six strategic issues identified by the Outagamie County Community Health Improvement Team. For his fellowship Evan is working with both the Division of Health Care Access and Accountability, and the Division of Public Health. Current projects for Evan include policy research and analysis of access and quality for BadgerCare members enrolled in managed care, maintaining primary care services in rural areas of Wisconsin, and investigating barriers and facilitators to blood lead level screening in the state.

Marjory Givens

Marjory brings a wealth of academic and work experience to the fellowship. She obtained a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and an MPH in Environmental/Occupational Health and Epidemiology from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Prior to the fellowship, Marjory was part of an evaluation and research team that assessed community exposures in the "built environment" as well as successes and challenges of an intervention geared to improve the emergent literacy of low-income, at-risk children of inner-city Philadelphia. Her fellowship is with the Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health where she will work on multiple projects such as conducting an environmental assessment of naturally occurring arsenic in private water sources and investigation of potential health risks associated with exposure, and formation of collaborative relationships between environmental health and epidemiology and enhancing evaluation/investigation methodology to minimize food-borne disease outbreaks.

Courtenay Kessler

Courtenay completed her BA in Women's Studies from Harvard College and her MS at Harvard School of Public Health with a concentration is Society, Human Development, and Health. Her public health experience includes monitoring and implementing programmatic activities to reduce violent crimes against women, providing crisis counseling, and coordinating research studies related to osteoarthritis. Courtenay's fellowship experiences are divided between the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) and the Sojourner Family Peace Center (SFPC). At MHD she is engaged in a variety of projects including risk communication around the H1N1 flu, development of an evaluation plan for a nurse home-visiting program, development of content for a new men's health webpage, and tracking social indicators related to health. At SFPC, Courtenay is leading a research project looking at child witness to violence and assisting with the coordination of a health care provider consortium tasked with developing ER-based domestic violence screening protocols.

Katharine Konkle

Kate has an MPH from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a BS in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University. Kate's fellowship is with the Division of Public Health, Western Regional Office where she is involved in multiple projects. She is assisting local health departments as they implement a Community Health Improvement Process (CHIP), and working as part of a statewide group to update the new CHIP website with regional information. Kate is also working with two public health preparedness consortia in the Western region as they transition and consolidate into one consortium. Finally, she has taken a leadership role with Wisconsin Public Health Quality Initiative – a statewide collaborative project looking at assessment and quality improvement as a way to prepare for national voluntary accreditation of state and local health departments.

Samantha Perry

Samantha received her BS in biological sciences from Illinois Statue University and her MPH in Community Health Education from Southern Illinois University. While completing her graduate studies, Samantha coordinated the development of curriculum for a youth community survival teams program; implemented and evaluated a community-based infant prematurity awareness program; and served on the local planning council for the March of Dimes' March for Babies 2008. Samantha's fellowship will be divided between the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) and the March of Dimes. While at MHD she will assist with numerous projects including the following: development of literacy appropriate health education materials, and assessment and analysis of TB prevention and medical service usage by the Hmong. At the March of Dimes, Samantha will help develop, implement and evaluate several new community-based prematurity prevention programs, and assist with grant-writing and management activities. esses, and review the quality improvement model used in Wisconsin.

2007-2009 Cohort

Traici Brockman

Traici is a recent graduate of the St. Louis University School of Public Health. She is training in the office of the Administrator of the Division of Public Health. Her current primary project is as lead staff for the Governor's Public Health Council's Committee on Finance. In this capacity, Traici is analyzing the state system of supporting local public health programs and make recommendations for reform. In the future she will support the Administrator's role in policy analysis and evaluation of program implementation.

Suzanne Gaulocher

Ms. Gaulocher is a graduate of the UW-Madison MPH program. She is currently working with the Department of Public Health for Madison and Dane County using participatory strategies to address health disparities within communities and the relationship between the built environment and health. She co-coordinates a working group called CHAMP (Community Health Assessment Mapping Partnership). The goal of CHAMP is to develop and implement a collaborative Community Health Assessment utilizing geographic information system (GIS) technology alongside community-based participatory research (CBPR) techniques to combine population-based data with qualitative assessments of the built environment.

Carrie Henning-Smith

Carrie holds an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education, an MSW in Interpersonal Practice and Mental Health, and Specialist in Aging Certificate, all from the University of Michigan. She completed her BA in International Relations at Claremont McKenna College. Between college and graduate school, Carrie worked through a volunteer corps as a social services case manager in Washington, D.C. For her fellowship, Carrie divides her time between the Milwaukee County Department on Aging (MCDA) and S.E.T. Ministry, Inc. Her fellowship projects have included proposal-writing, evaluation of a senior meal program, curriculum development, collecting data on community resources for older adults, and community assessments of two elderly public housing sites. Currently, her projects include health education and community-building programming for public housing residents; working with the Community Health Advocate Model Program (CHAMP) to help it continue beyond its grant funding; leading the implementation of the "Connecting Caring Communities" community organizing program in Milwaukee's Amani neighborhood; and facilitating the development of a county-wide Wellness Council at MCDA.

Amanda Schultz

Amanda Schultz is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health. She is currently training at the Milwaukee Health Department and the Walker's Point Community Clinic, in the largely Latino Milwaukee southside. At the Milwaukee Health Department, she is conducting research for the development of a new Men's Health Division. She is also attempting to identify clinical care sites to place TB patients. At the Walker's Point Clinic, Amanda is working on the evaluation of a community based diabetes prevention program.

2006-2008 Cohort

Morgen Alexander-Young

A recent graduate of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ms. Alexander-Young is conducting research to determine the methods used by Milwaukee-area birthing hospitals to identify chronic carriers of hepatitis B who are giving birth at the hospital, and the actions taken to prevent perinatal transmission. She has also worked with the health department's division of Maternal and Child Health to develop and implement programs to address infant mortality and child neglect.

Casey Schumann

Ms. Schumann graduated from the U.W. Department of Population Health Sciences in 2006. Casey is training in the state Division of Public Health's Bureau of Communicable Disease and Preparedness, both with the AIDS/HIV and Communicable Disease Epidemiology programs. She is currently leading a work group on preparedness for an outbreak of the pandemic flu. She has recently completed a grant proposal for the Medical College of Wisconsin's Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program. She is also working on a project to determine risk factors for multiple drug resistant Salmonella infections.

Sabrina Smiley

Ms. Smiley graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. She is collaborating in the intervention study of African American adolescents in Milwaukee. She is also the manager of the Young Women of Color Sexual and Reproductive Health Advisory Council of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. This is an initiative to promote responsible sexual behavior to prevent transmission of HIV among young women of color in Milwaukee. She has researched and developed a summary of HIV-AIDS strategic plans developed by large cities. She is also working on the implementation of a sexual education curriculum in local public schools.

Jessica Tobin

Ms. Tobin graduated three years ago from the University of Washington's School of Public Health. She is training at the Milwaukee-based Urban Open Space Foundation. In this capacity she works with Northside neighborhood organizations on a number of initiatives to improve nutrition and increase physical activity opportunities. She has successfully written two grant proposals for community coalition activities.

Melissa Umland Olson

Following her graduation from the U.W. Department of Population Health Sciences in 2006, Ms. Olson is training at the Southern Regional Office of the Division of Public Health. She is engaged in all aspects of the training and technical assistance relationship between the state and local public health officials. This includes activities like monitoring local preparedness exercises, providing data for contract negotiations, and conducting Vaccines for Children site visits. Melissa is also preparing epidemiological data for counties' health needs assessments.