Population Health Service Fellows

Isabella Walters
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Children & Youth with Special Health Care Needs Unit

Isabella Walters is a public health professional specializing in program evaluation, with a focus on maternal and child health. As a fellow, she supported the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Unit in its goal to connect families with the services and resources their children need to thrive. Isabella earned her Master of Public Health and a certificate in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee’s Zilber College of Public Health in 2023. Her experience spans both the nonprofit and state government sectors, with a commitment to improving health outcomes for maternal and child health populations. After completing the fellowship, Isabella became the Manager of Health Initiatives at NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center in Minneapolis, MN.

Kristie Anderson
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Family & Community Health 

During her fellowship, Kristie led strategic initiatives within the Milwaukee Health Department Family and Community Health branch, focusing on public health administration and maternal and child health. She strengthened operational infrastructure by documenting staffing protocols and developing onboarding resources to improve training and workflows. Kristie designed and implemented a harm reduction-informed, multilingual infant safe sleep training program that served over 200 clients. She restructured the FIMR parental interview process to be more client-centered, resource-oriented, and clinically aligned. She collaborated with staff and consultants to launch a Community Action Team, built cross-sector partnerships, and facilitated internal professional development and community workgroups. Kristie’s work is grounded in a commitment to equity, community-centered practices, and evidence-based approaches. She consistently drives initiatives that align public health strategies with the lived experiences and needs of the communities served. Following her completion of the fellowship, Kristie accepted a position as a Population Health Specialist at Outreach Community Health Centers in Milwaukee.

Maddie Roberts
Rock County Public Health Department and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Administrator’s Office 

Maddie Roberts (she/hers) began the Fellowship as a dual-placed fellow at Rock County Public Health and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health, in the Administrator’s Office. During her first year, she supported health equity and policy initiatives at both sites, contributing to policy analyses, infrastructure development, and a legal epidemiology project. In June 2024, Maddie applied for and accepted a position as the Public Health Policy Specialist with Rock County—an opportunity made possible by the skills and connections she gained through the Fellowship. Maddie has continued her connection with the fellowship by serving as a preceptor to current fellow, Claire Bess. 

Raphaella Torralba
Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers 

Raphie Torralba was placed at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers in the Department of Environmental Health and Community Wellness (DEHCW). During her time, she advanced DECHW’s work in community health educator and education and volunteer coordinator roles. In the community, she created opportunities for youth and families to engage with their health through diverse avenues, including outdoor and family-based nutrition education. Moreover, her programming allowed participants to deepen their awareness of the ways that the systems we live in impact their health and wellness. Behind the scenes, she developed program systems and manuals to support staff capacity for implementation. More than the work she accomplished, she also built deep connections with her team in DEHCW and the greater community that she served, which has made Milwaukee feel like home. Following the fellowship, Raphie began a position as Transportation Policy Analyst with 1000 Friends of Wisconsin. 

Ravyn Cruse
Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness 

Ravyn Cruse is a New Orleans native. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Fisk University and an MPH from Xavier University of Louisiana. During her fellowship at the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, Ravyn served as the Black Maternal and Child Health Alliance Coordinator supporting cross-sector partnerships and initiatives focused on maternal and child health, policy development, and community engagement. She also contributed to the Foundation’s broader efforts, including air quality grants, volunteer and internship coordination, and the Well Black Woman Institute, a community-centered health equity leadership program. The work she did during the Fellowship has reinforced her belief in the power of community voice and strong partnerships to drive meaningful change and improve lives. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Ravyn transitioned to her current role as Research Coordinator with the Reproductive Equity Action Lab (REAL) led by Tiffany Green at the UW Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Sydney Resler
Wood County Health Department 

As a fellow with the Wood County Health Department, Sydney completed data analysis and project management activities related to harm reduction, substance use prevention, and health equity in rural communities. She supported the installation and maintenance of six public health vending machines and coordinated the county’s first Overdose Fatality Review, a multidisciplinary process aimed at understanding the circumstances leading to fatal overdoses and identifying opportunities to prevent future deaths. She analyzed Place of Last Drink data on OWI arrests, hospital data to investigate increasing NICU transfer rates, and qualitative interviews to understand disparate COVID-19 pandemic experiences in communities across the county, as well as leadership needs among the Hispanic/Latinx community. Sydney also served as the public health lead for the UW-Madison Global Health Field Experience in Sri Lanka on global health, climate change, and community development. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Sydney began her role as Overdose Epidemiologist at Kent County Health Department in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Cait McCrory
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Data & Evaluation Team & Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Immunizations Program

Cait is from Janesville, WI. She has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology with a Certificate in Global Health from UW-Madison and earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2022. During graduate school, she worked for the Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition doing a qualitative and quantitative investigation into disruptions of routine childhood immunization during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. As a fellow, Cait was dually-placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. At the City of Milwaukee Health Department, Cait worked on the Data and Evaluation team doing communicable disease surveillance, investigative analysis, and participating in the Equity Champions and Equity Advisor Committee programs. In her role at the state, Cait worked on a small team administering grants for community-based organizations to conduct outreach to populations with low vaccination coverage. Outside of her placement sites, Cait was also involved with the UW-Madison Global Health Field Experience program in Sri Lanka where she served as the public health lead on the trip. After finishing the fellowship, Cait accepted a role with the City of Milwaukee Health Department as an epidemiologist. Outside of her professional life, Cait enjoys painting, kickboxing, camping, and hiking.

Mariam Sylla
Public Health Madison & Dane County, Maternal & Child Health

Mariam Sylla is originally from the Republic of Guinea. She has a B.S. in Health Service Management, a B.A. in French with two minors (Health Education and Wellness Coaching), and a Master of Public Health from Indiana University (IUPUI). At IUPUI, Mariam devoted her time to working to improve campus and community life through educational programs. She worked as the program assistant for the Office of Health and Wellness Promotion, a graduate advisor in the Multicultural Center Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and she worked with the Social Justice Education Program to provide students with the awareness, training, and skills to develop leadership through a social justice lens. As a fellow, Mariam was placed at Public Health Madison Dane County (PHMDC) working in maternal and child health. Mariam supported the Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) team through facilitating FIMR meetings, developing a lactation policy for the health department, and her work as a core collaborator on the development of their birth parent interview protocol. After the fellowship, Mariam transitioned to working as the Project and Organizational Development Manager at Bantare Impact Group in Dakar, Senegal.

Methany Eltigani
City of Milwaukee Health Department – Policy Innovation & Equity

Methany received her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Nutrition from the University of Pennsylvania and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Nutrition from the NYU School of Global Public Health. During her graduate career, she joined the Socioeconomic Evaluation of Dietary Decisions Lab, utilizing research to inform food policy and reduce health disparities. She also worked with the NYC Department of Health in the Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention on a project examining the health impacts of the racial wealth gap. As a fellow, Methany was placed with the Milwaukee Health Department, where she utilized findings from community assessments to inform collective action, and advance policy, systems, and environment strategies within the Policy, Innovation, and Equity branch. Methany also conducted local community assessments on the health impacts of food insecurity and hunger and developed projects to increase access to healthy foods among SNAP. Following the fellowship, Methany moved back to Philadelphia to be closer to family and accepted a position as Engagement Associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Grant Zastoupil
Eau Claire City-County Health Department

Grant received his BS in Genetics and Cellular biology from the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. He spent a year in New Orleans as an AmeriCorps City Year before returning to the University of Minnesota where he attained his Master’s in Public Health in Community Health Promotion, with a minor in health equity. While in graduate school, he became interested in community based participatory methods and using public health as a power building practice. He was able to work with UMN Extension on a participatory evaluation project using a “data party” framework to connect people across the state of Minnesota who were a part of the project. Grant is also interested in exploring interaction between people and place to create healthy living. During an internship with HealthPartners, he worked on evaluation of a school based health and nutrition program to see how people, place, and program all work together to create healthy lives. As a fellow, Grant was placed at the Eau Claire City County Health Department. He was involved in a variety of projects including draft emergency weather plans, starting a health equity newsletter, partnering with UWEC for a food justice class, mapping community partners, and implementing an evaluation of a proactive housing program. His time at the Eau Claire City-County Health Department was transformative in his understanding of neoliberalism, austerity, and racial capitalism as they work in local government. He became involved in the running community in Eau Claire and is an avid patron of many local businesses.

Stef Bugasch
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Chronic Disease Prevention Program

Originally from Minnesota, Stef grew up gardening and spending time outside with her family. Through her high school and college experiences, Stef became passionate about learning where our food comes from and how to create a positive connection to food. After graduating from UW-Madison with degrees in Environmental Studies and International Studies, Stef worked with non-profits for over 7 years to build garden-based education programs at summer camps, schools, community sites, and early care and education sites. Stef returned to UW-Madison and graduated with her Master of Public Health, in order to learn more about community-building, increasing food access, health equity, and early childhood education. As a fellow, Stef was placed at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in the Chronic Disease Prevention Program. Through her placement at the Chronic Disease Prevention Program, Stef got to explore this aspect of community and belonging through looking at policy, systems, and environmental changes around access to nutritious and culturally affirming foods, safe spaces to move one’s body, and access to high quality early care and education sites. Following the completion of the Fellowship, Stef is ecstatic to continue this work as the Nutrition and Physical Activity Program Coordinator with the Chronic Disease Prevention Program.

Jade Zachery
UW Health, Office of Population Health & Dane County Health Council

Jade holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Sciences with a minor in Art from Xavier University of Louisiana. Prior to this fellowship, Jade served as a Research Coordinator aimed to improve policies on corporal punishment and as a Graduate Research Assistant that worked with moms who experienced a maternal miss during pregnancy or postpartum. Additionally, Jade interned with Title V and the Texas State University, which focused on opioid use disorder in pregnant and postpartum women. During her fellowship, Jade was placed at the Office of Population Health at UW Health working with the Dane County Health Council. As a fellow, Jade enhanced the ConnectRx Wisconsin Playbook, ensuring UW Health and the Dane County Health Council remained updated with recent changes. She developed tools for tracking deliverables for outreach and health education presentations, supported the implementation of the 2022-2025 Community Health Implementation Strategy Plan, and created an evaluation plan for Board-approved strategies. Jade is now a Population Health Coordinator with UW Health. Jade is deeply committed to advancing maternal health and reducing maternal mortality, particularly among Black women. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching television, and nurturing her plants.

Amanda Dailey
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Center for Urban Population Health 

Amanda is from Cleveland, OH and received her Master’s of Clinical Epidemiology in August 2020 from Kent State University, with a focus on clinical trials. As a fellow with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellowship, Amanda was dual-placed with the Milwaukee Health Department and the All of Us Research Program with the Center for Urban Population Health. As a fellow, she had the opportunity to manage several projects where she was afforded the opportunity to flex her data analyses, stakeholder engagement, project management, program development, communications, and support for the Community Health Improvement Plan and Community Health Assessment skills. Following the Fellowship, Amanda became the Pharmacy Solutions Implementation Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Pharmacy, focusing her work on supporting Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center, health equity, and data management. 

Coriann Dorgay
Wood County Health Department 

Coriann  (she/they) received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Luther College and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases from the Yale School of Public Health. Coriann completed their fellowship with the Wood County Health Department in Wisconsin Rapids. During their time there, they completed a variety of meaningful work. She co-authored a report on the health impacts of the Wisconsin Rapids Downtown Farmers Market, as well as created dashboards to reflect health outcomes relevant to the department’s Community Health Improvement Plan goals. They conducted a number of educational presentations on the impacts of stigma and discrimination on the health of the LGBTQ+ community to groups and organizations such as the Wisconsin Epidemiology Network, the Hmong American Center, PATCH teens, and the Wisconsin Association of Housing Authorities. She also created numerous graphics and posts for the department’s social media pages to ensure that important health information was available and accessible to the Wood County community. Post fellowship, Coriann is pursuing a Master of Science in Health Communication for Social Change at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy while working as a Public Health Educator – Communications Coordinator at Sheboygan County Division of Public Health. 

Angela Han
UW Madison Division of Extension, Institute of Health & Well-Being

Angela (she/her) received her BA in Public Health and English from Lehigh University, and her Master of Public Health in Public Health Administration and Policy from the University of Minnesota. During her time at graduate school, she was a Section Editor for the Public Health Review, which is the graduate student-led peer-reviewed journal at UMN. Her professional interests include tackling global infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. During her fellowship, she enjoyed partnering with the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health to provide civic engagement training for local program coordinators in Menominee, Dane, and Milwaukee County. Following the Fellowship, Angela became a Health Equity Fellow with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Laboratory Sciences and Safety. Angela has since worked for the CDC as both a Public Health Data Analyst and a Functional Consultant, supporting data infrastructure efforts, budget management, and dashboard reporting. 

Mary Kusch
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health 

Mary (she/her) received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During her time in the fellowship, she was placed at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health. She worked primarily on the Environmental Health Capacity grant which aims to enhance capacity across the state to better address, prevent, and control the environmental health hazards that impact Wisconsinites. Additionally, she collaborated with the Bureau of Community Health Promotion, Maternal and Infant Mortality Prevention Unit on projects related to infant, child, and maternal mortality prevention efforts. The projects centered on moving mortality prevention recommendations to action and implementation. After her fellowship experience, Mary accepted a position within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Community Health Promotion as the Title V Evaluator and Epidemiologist.

Julia Nagy
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of the Secretary & Division of Public Health, Office of Policy & Practice Alignment 

Julia received a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Languages and Literature with a minor in Chemistry from Boston University and her Master of Public Health with concentrations in Health Policy and Law, and Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation and Evaluation from the Boston University School of Public Health. As a fellow, Julia supported the Governor’s Health Equity Council, the State Health Plan, Public Health Accreditation Board reaccreditation, a Legal Epidemiology Learning Cohort, and other projects. Her work has centered on upstream policy, systems, and environment change through an equity lens. Following her Fellowship, Julia continued her State Health Plan work as a Population Health Improvement Strategist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health.

Erik Ohlrogge
Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center 

Erik (he/him) received a Master of Science in Global Health from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in 2019 and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Luther College in 2016. Prior to being a fellow, Erik worked at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as a team lead for the Wisconsin COVID-19 Response Team. As a fellow at Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center, Erik coordinated programs that support public health data, capacity, and leadership in and across a variety of projects. His work centered on supporting Tribal public health and public health infrastructure within Tribal communities, focusing on understanding how context affects health and how to implement programs that create equitable opportunities for health. After his fellowship, Erik continued his work with Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center as a Program Director and Epidemiologist.

Mariana (Pasturczak) Quinn
Centro Hispano of Dane County & Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Aging and Disability Resources 

Mariana (she/her) completed her Master of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Medicine and Public Health where health equity was a central focus of her studies. Prior to her graduate studies, she completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Wisconsin- Madison in Biology and Portuguese, with a certificate in Global Health. Throughout the Fellowship, Mariana’s projects ranged from conducting quantitative data analysis, participating in the creation of an organization’s transformative evaluation plan, creating fact sheets, and facilitating lots of discussions. After the Fellowship, Mariana transitioned to her role as the Evaluation Coordinator at the Region V Public Health Training Center.

Taylor Davis
Public Health Madison & Dane County, Maternal Child Health

Taylor (she/her) is a first-generation graduate of Indiana University, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Public Health. While at Indiana University, she devoted much of her time to the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion, bringing forth passive and active programs to the student population, collaborating with the cultural centers, advocating for student needs, and recruiting incoming students. While a fellow, Taylor worked with the Maternal and Child Health Unit at Public Health Madison & Dane County. She worked at COVID community testing sites throughout Dane County, internal and community evaluation projects, maternal and child health initiatives, strategic planning with executive leadership, and focus groups with middle and high school students. Throughout her time in the fellowship, she grew her skills in leadership, team collaboration, public speaking, being flexible and adaptable, project management, strategic planning, and many more. While in fellowship, Taylor became a doula, and is committed to continuing her work in maternal and child health with a focus on Black with and infant outcomes, advocating for Black and Brown communities, health equity, and diversity and inclusion efforts. Taylor currently serves as Expert Administrative Assistant at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical and biomedical company.

Emily Hyde
Wisconsin Department of Justice & Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Emily (she/her) received her Master in Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and her Bachelor of Science in Biology with certificates in Global Health and African Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Prior to her graduate studies, Emily worked with the Wisconsin Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and was a fellow with New Leaders Council Institute, a leadership development program for young professionals with an equity-focused curriculum on creating social and political change. While in grad school, Emily worked as a research assistant, exploring childhood lead exposure in Milwaukee, structural racism and redlining, and the health impacts of childhood adversity. During her fellowship, Emily was dual placed at the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health Services (DHS). At DHS, Emily’s work spanned across the Administrator’s Office, the minority health program, maternal mortality review, and strategic planning team. Within DOJ, her work focused on data projects in the Office of Crime Victim Services and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners program. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Emily has stayed on with the Fellowship Program as Program Manager.

Beneli Andert
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Chronic Disease Prevention Unit

Beneli Andert (they/them) received a BA in music and English from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and their Master of Public Health from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. They have been working on LGBTQ+ education, advocacy, social justice, and anti violence since 2015. During their fellowship, they collaborated on the Diabetes Action Plan, the State Health Assessment, and the Healthy Early at Home booklet. They participated in the Bureau of Community Health Promotion’s Health Equity workgroup and in its data subgroup. They also helped create recommendations for collecting data on sex and gender and worked extensively on a survey of suppliers of the National Diabetes Prevention Program. After their fellowship, Beneli transitioned to a role as Community Data Analyst with HealthTIDE, an organization that networks with partners across Wisconsin creating policy, system, and environment change related to healthy eating and physical activity.

Briana Godin
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of Preparedness and Emergency Healthcare

Briana received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Community and Behavioral Health Promotion from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Zilber School of Public Health. During her fellowship, Brie served in the Covid-19 response in a variety of roles including a tribal liaison, stakeholder outreach, vaccination planning, and the Vaccine Community Outreach Grant program. Post-fellowship Brie is working at the University of Wisconsin- Madison in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences as a Research Coordinator.

Kong Xiong
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Maternal and Child Health Unit

Kong Xiong (he/him) was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. His parents are Hmong refugees, who became working citizens in the United States after immigrating from Thailand in 1993. He is a first-generation college graduate and obtained his undergraduate degree in Nutritional Sciences from UW-Milwaukee in 2018 and his Master of Public Health from UW-Milwaukee in 2020. As a fellow, Kong was placed with the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) unit at the WI Department of Health Services, where he participated in a variety of public health projects relating to the MCH Title V Block Grant. Notable projects of his included analyzing data from a focus group study to understand Asian-American women’s fish consumption behaviors and creating a template survey for the MCH Title V team to use for their request for funding applications. The fellowship community played a significant role in cementing his passion for improving health through grant work and community engagement. After the fellowship, Kong transitioned to a role with the city of Milwaukee Health Department as a Data and Evaluation Coordinator.

Emily Dejka
Eau Claire City-County Health Department

Emily Dejka (she/her) received her BS in Integrative Biology with a minor in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She then completed her Master in Public Health in General Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. During her fellowship, Emily has had the opportunity to dive into all aspects of the COVID-19 response in Eau Claire. She was the team lead for their mobile vaccination efforts and worked with numerous partners to increase accessibility to the COVID-19 vaccine for residents throughout Eau Claire County. As COVID efforts scaled back, Emily transitioned to bigger picture projects, such as being on the team tasked with updating the department’s strategic plan. However, beyond the work, Emily has had the great privilege to know and work with a variety of exceptional public health professionals – both in and out of the department. These relationships have been an incredibly grounding and sustaining force during the pandemic. Following her fellowship, Emily stayed with the Eau Claire City County Health Department as a Public Health Specialist.

Amanda Richman
City of Milwaukee Health Department – Policy, Innovation, & Equity

Amanda Richmond (she/her) received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences from Gettysburg College and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Throughout her time there, Amanda participated in Community-Based Research Projects on food systems and served as a project manager for an evaluation study of a housing intervention in Detroit. Amanda is passionate about promoting health equity and coordinating strategies and policies to address the social and economic determinants of health. As a fellow at the City of Milwaukee Health Department, Amanda worked with the Health Strategy Team on Departmental Strategic Planning and Community Health Improvement Planning, COVID-19 Response and Outreach with Community Health Workers, Healthy Food Access, and Lead Poisoning Prevention. Following the Fellowship, Amanda accepted a position with the City of Milwaukee Health Department as a Public Health Strategist focused on Economic Security, Housing, and Built Environment.

Elizabeth Adams (Dorsey)
UW Division of Extension, Institute of Health & Well-Being

Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Community Health Promotion from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. During her graduate studies, she focused much of her work on health promotion and analyzing policy through a health equity lens. During her Fellowship, Elizabeth’s work focused on health equity, evaluation, behavioral health, youth engagement, and policy and systems and environment change. She managed two grants including National 4H and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Well Connected Communities Grant and SAMHSA’s Rural Opioid and Technical Assistance Grant. Following the completion of her fellowship, Elizabeth began working with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, first serving as the Substance Use Prevention Outreach Specialist, and then transitioned to the Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy Analyst.

Amelia Harju
Wood County Health Department

Amelia Harju received her Master of Public Health Administration and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of San Francisco, where she also minored in Neuroscience and Health Studies. She worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) and at the UMN Institute for Health Informatics. Amelia is passionate about many issues and topics in public health, particularly those relating to mental health, rural health, telemedicine, and integrated health care delivery. Amelia completed her fellowship with the Wood County Health Department, where she served on the Community Health Promotion team. Her fellowship projects focused on strategically addressing issues within Wood County’s criminal legal system, particularly with regard to mass incarceration and jail overcrowding. After the fellowship, Amelia worked as a Researcher with the Great Plains Telehealth Resource & Assistance Center, where she provided telehealth policy updates and technical assistance to healthcare administrators in the Great Plains six-state region. Currently, Amelia serves as the Policy Analyst for the Center for Evidence-Based Policy – analyzing and informing policy decisions for the 23 state Medicaid programs that participate in the Center for Evidence-Based Policy’s Medicaid Evidence-Based Decisions Project.

Mireille Perzan
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of Informatics

Mireille Perzan received her BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and her MPH from UW-Milwaukee. As a Population Health Service Fellow, Mireille worked in the Office of Health Informatics (OHI) at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) Division of Public Health (DPH), primarily with the Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System team. In the registry, Mireille supported many projects including publications, research collaborations, annual data submissions to the CDC, public query systems, and the State Health Assessment. She also served on several DPH-wide grant review panels. During COVID-19, Mireille worked on the pandemic response including PPE allocation and distribution, contact tracing, and data communications with local and tribal health departments. Following her fellowship, Mireille has continued to work at the WI Department of Health Services, first as a Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist & Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Project Director, and now, as the Project Manager of Data Management within the Office of Health Informatics.

Matthew Scanlin
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Immunizations Program

Matt received his PhD in Experimental Psychology and his MPH from Ohio University. As a fellow, he worked on multiple projects in the STD and Immunization Programs at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health. During this fellowship he developed and refined his skills in epidemiology, grants, communications, and project management. He assessed demographic and geographic disparities in gonorrhea and chlamydia case rates and the provision of treatment for these infections and presented these analyses at a state conference. He also managed a grant application and review process that funded eight organizations with between $50,000 and $200,000 each to conduct culturally competent community outreach and education to marginalized populations about flu infections and vaccinations. Also, from December 2020 to mid-May 2021, he served as part of Wisconsin’s COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force leadership team. Specifically, he led communication (e.g., emails, stakeholder outreach, and website content) efforts geared towards different audiences (e.g., public, clinicians, and stakeholders). Following the completion of his fellowship, Matt served as Public Health Specialist with Public Health Madison & Dane County, coordinating the Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES) program. Currently, Matthew serves as a 988 Implementation Specialist for the Washington State Department of Health, focusing on crisis response systems and mental health service delivery.

Tseten Yangdron
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental & Occupational Health

Tseten received her Master of Public Health from the University of San Francisco and her B.S. in Health Science with a concentration in Health Science Administration and Management from California State University, East Bay. Tseten completed her fellowship at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health in the Climate and Health program within the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health. In the Climate and Health program, Tseten developed a new method for DPH to incorporate climate and health in programs. The ‘Climate in All Policies’ checklist assists programs to assess how and if they are incorporating the impact of climate change on health and help initiate climate and health dialogue in DPH. Through successful pilots, the Climate and Health program was able to bring the checklist to the leadership team at DPH to integrate the checklist in the program’s strategic planning. Furthermore, Tseten worked with the Climate and Health program staff on the program’s performance measure, communication, marketing, budget submission, and applying for the CDC BRACE program’s competitive grant application with health equity emphasis. Following her Fellowship, Tseten became a Bureau of Operations Budget and Policy Analyst within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health.

Melissa Seidl
City of Milwaukee Health Department – Emergency Preparedness & Environmental Health

Melissa Seidl received her BA in Anthropology with a minor in Environmental Studies from UW-Madison. Following that she worked at a health and fitness non-profit, managing aquatics staffing and programming, including a program providing low-cost water safety and swimming lessons to communities with little access to such resources. She completed her Master of Public Health at the Zilber School of Public Health at UW-Milwaukee, focusing on policy and administration. While there, Melissa found multiple opportunities to work on tobacco-related projects. Her field work was completed with the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance, assessing the tobacco retail landscape in Milwaukee. For her capstone project she assisted with research examining how e-cigarette liquid advertising on Instagram is perceived by young adult viewers in terms of health claims. Melissa completed her Fellowship at the City of Milwaukee Health Department, focused on Emergency Preparedness & Environmental Health. Following her fellowship, Melissa worked as the Program Coordinator for the Community Recruitment Unit at the Medical College of Wisconsin, before returning to the City of Milwaukee Health Department as a Public Health Strategist for the Maternal and Child Health Programs.

Masami Glines
Centro Hispano & Public Health Madison & Dane County  

Masami received her Master of Public Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. During her two years in the fellowship, Masami was reminded of the importance of feeling accepted, nurtured, and connected, a realization that confirmed why she decided to work in public health. This was illustrated so clearly in her work at Public Health Madison & Dane County, where Masami advocated for plain English for immigrant population for Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan process at Public Health Madison & Dane County. Additionally, in her work at Centro Hispano, she centered historically marginalized communities in the Employee Wellness Plan. Following the fellowship, Masami will work at Public Health Madison & Dane County as their Public Health Specialist in Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction.

Lexi Davis
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Chronic Disease Prevention Program 

Lexi Davis received her Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Science in Biology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lexi completed her fellowship with the WI Division of Public Health’s Chronic Disease Prevention Program. As a fellow, she supported various aspects of the statewide chronic disease prevention programming, including coordination with local communities around implementation of diabetes and heart disease prevention strategies and health equity capacity building. She engaged key partners and stakeholders to gather local data and build support for expansion of childhood obesity prevention initiatives across the state as part of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Childhood Obesity Initiative Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES). She collaborated across the Division of Public Health on various projects, including the State Health Assessment. Following her fellowship, Lexi will continue working with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as a Healthy Communities Coordinator.

Maddie Johnson
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Center for Urban Population Health 

Maddie Johnson graduated from Concordia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and History and from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health with a Master of Public Health with a focus in public health administration and policy. Maddie has been a teaching assistant for a health policy course, a research assistant focused on rural mental health, a case manager, and a student worker conducting state level disease surveillance. As a fellow, Maddie worked at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Center for Urban Population Health, addressing issues of lead poisoning, housing, and policy as well as analyzing community health needs assessment data. Following the Fellowship, Maddie became the Mental Health Planner at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Currently, Maddie is a Project Manager at Hennepin County Public Health working in Strategic Systems Leadership. 

Rachel Kulikoff
Public Health Madison & Dane County

Rachel received her BA from the University of Chicago and her Master of Public Health from the University of Washington. As a Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellow,  Rachel worked on maternal and child health initiatives, including participating as a member of the Breastfeeding Community Collaborations Team, the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR), and the Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance. As a part of her work with FIMR, Rachel helped create and implement FIMR Action Networks, a framework to structure short term, tangible action to reduce fetal and infant mortality and decrease racial disparities. For the last 4 months of the fellowship, Rachel worked on the COVID-19 data team, sharing responsibilities to update PHMDC’s data dashboard, communicate with the public about COVID-19 data, and contributing to setting reopening metrics for Dane County. Following the fellowship, Rachel transitioned to a role as Epidemiologist at Cook County Department of Public Health. Currently, Rachel is pursuing a PhD in Health Management & Policy and Political Science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. 

Julius Lee
Wisconsin Department of Health Services & UW Extension 

Julius (Jules) Lee is a first-generation graduate of Indiana University with both a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Public Health. As a Population Health Service Fellow, Jules was placed at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH) and the University of Wisconsin Division of Extension. At DPH, he supported the Minority Health Program with Preceptor Lola Awoyinka. This included reviewing the Minority Health Program’s Community Grants, internal health equity programs, and supporting the State Health Assessment. At the University of Wisconsin Division of Extension, Jules supported the Institute for Health and Well-Being with Preceptor Amber Canto. He was responsible for creating online learning modules for the Safe and Healthy Food Pantries Project, an evidence-based program supporting food pantries operations. Jules worked with FoodWIse and KW2 to support FoodShare usage at Wisconsin Farmer’s Market. Following the fellowship, Jules became the Food Security Manager with Middleton Outreach Ministry before transitioning to their current role as Foodshare Outreach Program Director for Feeding Wisconsin. 

McKenzie Liegel
Chippewa County Department of Public Health & Eau Claire City-County Health Department

McKenzie received her BS in Biology from UW-Madison and her MPH in Community Health from East Tennessee State University. As an MPH student, she focused her fieldwork research on health communication strategies among non-profit organizations in Appalachia. Prior to graduate school, McKenzie worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Grundy County, Tennessee. As a member of the South Cumberland Plateau VISTA Project for two years, she worked with both the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and the Grundy County Health council on a variety of projects; her time was spent coordinating mobile food pantries, school garden clubs, and after school physical activity programs. Those experiences in rural Tennessee, along with her experience as a Wisconsin AHEC Community Health Intern at Juneau/Adams County WIC, have deepened McKenzie’s interest in rural health and passion for being an advocate for rural communities. McKenzie completed her fellowship dual-placed at both Chippewa County Department of Public Health and Eau Claire City-County Health Department. She spent her fellowship exploring health equity, community engagement, the opioid epidemic, and communications around the COVID-19 pandemic. Following her time in the fellowship, McKenzie took a position as an Outreach Specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. McKenzie also served as an Outreach Specialist with the Mobilization Action Towards Community Health (MATCH) group within the UW Population Health Institute before her current role as Program Specialist with the New to Public Health Residency Program. 

Gerardo Mares
Data You Can Use 

Gerardo Mares A. received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Social and Behavioral Sciences, and his Master’s in Criminology from Loyola University Chicago. He worked as a crime analyst for a large police department where he focused on strategic and spatial analysis to better understand the relationship between crime and geography. Gerardo has presented and instructed national police departments on crime analysis in El Salvador, Mexico and Panama. In his previous roles, Gerardo has worked on several research initiatives including a psychology study on disruptive behaviors of children exposed to trauma. His passion for psychology and criminology led to his interest in public health. Gerardo became part of the 2018-2020 cohort of Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellows where he focused on the intersection of violence and Social Determinants of Health using a health equity lens. In the fellowship, Gerardo continues to build his analytic background by working closely across sectors to serve communities most impacted by inequities and begin to use a data framework around the context of structural, environmental and social conditions to tell a more complete narrative. Following his fellowship, Gerardo accepted a position with Milwaukee Public Schools as a Supervisory Data Analyst. Gerardo was also a Strategic Data Project Fellow with the Center for Education Policy Research before his current role as Instructor and Director of the Criminal Justice Data Analytics Program at Marquette University. 

Kara Benjamin (Mathewson)
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Family Health Section  

Kara received her Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from UW-Madison and her MPH in Global Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Her professional interests include young adult and adolescent health, preventive care initiatives including immunization programs and policies, and program evaluation. Kara’s fellowship placement was in the Family Health Section at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH). During her time as a fellow, she worked across many programs including the Adolescent Health Program, the Maternal and Child Health Title V Block Grant, and Wisconsin PRAMS, and supported numerous projects including co-leading a statewide needs assessment and coordinating several federal grant applications. Quickly into the fellowship, Kara discovered her knack for project management and program coordination and spent the final year of the fellowship coordinating the Sexual Violence Prevention Program. In addition to her work at DPH, she also worked on a project with UW-Madison’s University Health Services around a cross-campus partnership to support students experiencing disordered eating. Following her Fellowship, Kara has continued to work at the Division of Public Health as a Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinator. Since then, Kara has continued to work at DPH Family Health Section, first as the Director of Adolescent Health Initiatives and now as the Child and Adolescent Health Unit Supervisor. 

Whitney Ederer
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Immunizations Program

Whitney received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and her bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies from Winona State University. Her professional interests include obesity prevention through nutrition and physical activity policy and implementation. During graduate school, Whitney interned at Public Health Madison & Dane County where she completed an immigrant and refugee health care access project, which highlighted the barriers immigrants and refugees face and offered policy recommendations to decrease those barriers. Whitney also interned at End Domestic Abuse WI where she answered legal technical questions and completed a report on Wisconsin’s Mandatory Abuse Reporting Law and proposed policy recommendations to decrease negative impacts on domestic abuse victims. Whitney completed her fellowship at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, where she integrated law and public health. Following her time in the Fellowship, Whitney continued to work for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, first as their Administrative Rules Coordinator, then as their Administrative Rules Manager. Whitney has also worked as a Regulatory Compliance Attorney at WPS Health (a not-for-profit health insurance company in Madison, WI) and as both an Analyst and Compliance Services Manager at Examination Resources (a woman-owned small business offering expertise in insurance company operations).

Niki Lucht (Euhardy)
Wood County Health Department

Niki received her MPH in Public Health Policy & Administration from UW-Milwaukee’s Zilber School of Public Health and her BS from UW-Madison. She was born and raised in rural Wisconsin, which has fueled her passion for improving rural health issues in the state. As an MPH student, she focused her research and coursework on the rural opioid epidemic and worked for the WI Initiative for Stigma Elimination, a statewide coalition focused on eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health challenges. She completed her MPH fieldwork at Outagamie County Public Health where she helped them begin the path towards public health accreditation and was involved in various infrastructure pieces. Niki completed her fellowship with the Wood County Health Department, focused on her rural health passions regarding substance abuse, mental health, and health in all policies. Following her fellowship, Niki became the Policy & Equity Coordinator at the Winnebago County Health Department for three years, before then returning to working at Wood County Health Department as the Community Health Planner and now, Epidemiologist.

Morgan Krhin
City of Milwaukee Health Department & United Voices

Morgan Krhin received her MPH in Health Behavior Health Promotion from the University of Arizona Mel and Enid College of Public Health and her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a concentration in Biology from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Prior to graduate school, Morgan worked as a Mobile Clinic Outreach Coordinator for Family Health La Clinica in Wautoma, Wisconsin where she worked collaboratively to provide free health services to migrant workers across the state of Wisconsin. Morgan completed her fellowship dual-placed with both United Voices working with community health workers and increasing health care accessibility and also with the Milwaukee Health Department supporting infectious disease epidemiology efforts. Following the Fellowship, Morgan serves as the Community Health Worker Coordinator at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Margarita Nothrop
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of Policy and Practice Alignment

Margarita (Maggie) received her Master of Public Health and Public Affairs degrees and Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, International Studies and Global Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Maggie completed her fellowship at the Office of Policy and Practice Alignment, Wisconsin Division of Public Health supporting policy systems and environmental change, and bridging social, economic and public health policy with community experiences. Margarita has a background in social, economic and public health policy as well as community engagement and data-driven decision making. Following her Fellowship, Margarita continued her work with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Office of Policy and Practice Alignment as the State Health Plan Coordinator.

Cory Steinmetz
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of Health Informatics

Cory received his Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is passionate about providing evidence that promotes health in all policies, health equity, and population well-being. Cory completed his fellowship with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health in Office of Health Informatics, supporting data communication and visualization efforts, piloting a WI Foodshare program evaluation, and incorporating health equity framing into the WI State Health Assessments. Following his Fellowship, Cory accepted a position as Data Research Analyst with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Since then Cory has served as a Data Analyst and Data Advisor with Superior Health Quality Alliance – focused on delivering insights from data for more caring health systems.

Stevie Burrows
Public Health Madison & Dane County, Community Health Division

Stevie received her MPH in Health Care Organization and Policy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and her Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. Her professional interests include sexual and reproductive health, perinatal epidemiology, and rural health disparities. Prior to graduate school, Stevie worked as a program coordinator for the Healthy Start Coalition of Florida where she led community outreach and educational programs in maternal and child health. As a graduate research assistant, she researched the roles of social norms and reproductive stigma in pregnancy decision-making in Birmingham, Alabama and investigated the relationship between maternal nativity and birth outcomes. Stevie completed her fellowship at Public Health Madison & Dane County, where she worked to strengthen community partnerships, improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes, and support Quality Improvement initiatives in the Community Health Division. Following her Fellowship, Stevie became a Senior Kids Count Research Fellow with the Voices for Alabama’s Children, and then got her degree in Nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Stevie is currently a Registered Nurse in Alabama. 

Janine Foggia
Ministry Health Care & Marathon County Health Department 

Janine received her MPH from the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University. Prior to graduate school, she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at a free healthcare clinic in rural Minnesota where she secured grant funding and worked to develop mental health, wellness, and optical services. Janine has global health experience in Honduras working with a birth center to promote birth preparedness and in Costa Rica implementing healthy lifestyle programs among community members. Janine completed her Fellowship with Ministry Health Care and Marathon County Health Department where she focused primarily on obesity prevention initiatives and development of the community health improvement plan. Following her Fellowship, Janine took a position as Community Health Coordinator at Sherburne County, MN. 

Britt Nigon
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Chronic Disease Prevention Program 

Britt received her MPH from the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. As an MPH student, her research focus was on sexual violence prevention with an internship consisting of a mixed-method study evaluating female undergraduate students’ perspectives of sexual violence in bars and subsequent help-seeking behaviors. Prior to her graduate studies, she taught sex education as a Community Health Educator with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and served in rural Peru as a youth development volunteer in the Peace Corps. Britt completed her fellowship with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health supporting the Chronic Disease Prevention Program. As a fellow, Britt supported the strategic planning process for the Wisconsin Breastfeeding Coalition, monitored and evaluated statewide hospital-based quality improvement performance measures for chronic disease prevention, and delivered training and technical assistance to school districts for compliance in their school wellness and nutrition policies. Following her Fellowship, Britt accepted a position at the University of Arizona College of Medicine- Tucson as their Outreach Coordinator for AIDS Education & Training Center. Britt now serves as the Senior Public Health Advisor at Pima County Health Department in Tucson Arizona. 

Janice Valenzuela
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Communicable Diseases & Emergency Response & Wisconsin Center for Public Health Education & Training 

Janice received her MPH from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. For her master’s project she worked with the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to analyze 10 years’ worth of data for changes in antimicrobial resistance patterns in bovine Salmonellosis. While pursuing a certificate in Global Health, Janice helped the Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin conduct their Community Needs Assessment in their mission to alleviate poverty in Dane, Waukesha and Jefferson counties. Janice was dual-placed with both the Division of Public Health’s AIDS/HIV Section of the Bureau of Communicable Diseases & Emergency Response and with the Wisconsin Center for Public Health Education and Training (WiCPHET) at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. With the AIDS/HIV Program, she worked primarily on disease surveillance, community outreach and improving care. At WiCPHET, Janice served as a project coordinator, helping to build public health workforce capacity in Wisconsin. Following the Fellowship, Janice served as a Research Analyst and then Strategic Outreach Coordinator for the Minority Health Program within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Currently, Janice is the Engagement & Translation Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Prevention Research Center. 

Fiona Weeks
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Institute for Child and Family Well-Being

Fiona received her MS in Public Health with a certificate in maternal and child health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is skilled in quantitative and qualitative data analysis and has a passion for perinatal health with a special interest in health equity and health disparities, especially as these relate to the social determinants of health. As a fellow, Fiona was dual-placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Institute for Child and Family Well-being. Her work as a fellow focused on disseminating evidence-based practice and promoting health equity in reproductive and family health in Milwaukee. After her fellowship, Fiona accepted a position as Maternal Child Health Epidemiologist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Fiona received a PhD in Population Health in December 2023, and has a robust work history in survey methodology, data equity, and maternal and child health. Fiona currently serves as the Vital Records Manager for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. 

Salmafatima Abadin
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Institute for Child and Family Well-Being

Salma received her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. As a graduate student, Salma worked as a Research Assistant on several projects, including the Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Patient Registry Initiative, a prospective study focused on prostate cancer outcomes, and work related to Open Streets events and the built environment. As a fellow, Salma was placed with the City of Milwaukee Health Department and IMPACT Planning Council, working with the Healthier, Safer, More Prosperous Milwaukee leadership team, an intersectoral collaboration with public health, community development, and criminal justice partners. In her second year of the Fellowship Salma expanded her work, joining the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission serving as the Violence Prevention Research Coordinator. Following her fellowship, Salma continued to work with the City of Milwaukee Health Department in their Office of Violence Prevention where she led research and data analysis efforts for violence prevention using a public health approach. Currently, Salma is the Public Health Infrastructure Project Director at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Kallista Bley
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Institute for Child and Family Well-Being

Kallista received her MPH in Health and Social Behavior from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. Kallista has worked extensively in community-based research and brings a depth of experience applying participatory approaches, developing research tools, and conducting quantitative and qualitative research and analysis. Kallista is skilled in using video and photography as a means to identify shared concerns for collective action. Her Fellowship focused on place and health with her dual-placement with Forward Community Investments and the Wood County Health Department. Through this partnership, Kallista contributed developed evaluation measures, designed and implemented a community health needs assessment, and conducted a health impact assessment, among many other projects. Following the Fellowship, Kallista began pursuing her PhD in Geography from University of Wisconsin Madison.

Ashley Kraybill
Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Ashley received her MPH from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She is passionate about creating health equity through improving understanding of the root causes of health and draws from her experience of providing direct service to her work in population health. Prior to her public health training she studied in Mexico and Lithuania and also spent a year teaching in rural Zambia. She has worked on a range of issues including: homelessness, addiction, mental health, domestic violence, women’s reproductive health, Latino health, and end-of-life care. She has experience conducting qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research, primarily with the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics and the FIELDS program at University of Pennsylvania. She has also worked on Community Based Participatory Research studies in Guatemala and in Philadelphia. Ashley spent the first year of her fellowship working on the Wisconsin Health Improvement Planning Process in the Office of Policy and Practice Alignment. Her second year as a fellow was focused on advancing health equity efforts within the Bureau of Community Health Promotion and the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health. Following her completion of the Fellowship, Ashley became the Quality Improvement & Performance Management Coordinator at Public Health Madison & Dane County. Since then, Ashley has worked as a Lecturer at the University of Vermont, the Director of Health Equity at the Vermont Department of Health, and in Independent Consulting.

Leslie Tou
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Family Health Section & UW School of Medicine & Public Health

Leslie received her MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Leslie’s prior public health experience includes strengthening health systems in Kenya as the program specialist at IntraHealth International’s Chapel Hill office, researching various programming for adolescent girls in refugee camps with the Women’s Refugee Commission in NYC, and mapping family planning services in Sierra Leone as the M&E Intern at Marie Stopes International’s Freetown office. As a fellow, Lesie was placed with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Family Health Section and with the Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Her work focused on early home visiting and sexual and gender-based violence to improve maternal and child health outcomes. Following the Fellowship, Leslie served as the Sexual Assault Response Team and Community Coordinated Response Coordinator with Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Currently, Leslie is a Program Manager with the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, MN.

Nicholas Zupan
Eau Claire City-County Health Department & Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Western Regional Office

Nicholas received his MPH from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. As an MPH student, Nick worked with Green Lake County to complete their Community Health Improvement Plan, improve vaccination processes, manage social media and create and disseminate information on disaster preparedness. Nick also has international economic development experience; including working with women’s groups in Ecuador to improve socio-economic and health status through marketing of locally produced products. Nick completed his Fellowship at the Eau Claire City-County Health Department and the Western Regional Office of the Division of Public Health, where he had the opportunity to provide leadership in public health surveillance and community mental health. After the Fellowship, Nick worked as an Epidemiologist and then Data Solutions Architect at Rock County,

Jameela Ali
Wisconsin Center for Public Health Education and Training & UW Madison Global Health Institute

Jameela received her MPH degree from the Indiana University of Fairbanks School of Public Health in 2010, and then completed the yearlong Graduated Health Administration Training Program with the Veterans Health Administration in 2011. Following this experience, Jameela served as a freelance technical advisor for various nonprofits, both locally and globally for three years. Her first year of the Fellowship was completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health institute, focusing on quality improvement initiatives and her second year of the Fellowship was with the Wisconsin Center for Public Health Education and Training, focusing on strengthening the public health system by improving public health workforce capacity in Wisconsin. Following the Fellowship, Jameela served as a Grant Writer for Tasso, Inc., a medical technology company focused on at-home diagnostic testing. Following that, Jameela co-founded Begum Philanthropic Organization, a nonprofit empowering widows and their families in Northwest Pakistan to move from crisis and poverty to stability and economic self-sufficiency. Her work centers how social investments in women have positive impacts on the health, education, and well-being of their families.

Stephanie Kroll
Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Stephanie received her MPH degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. During her Fellowship, Stephanie was dual-placed at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health and at Public Health Madison & Dane County. During her Fellowship, she primarily worked on projects focused on the social determinants of health, infant mortality, and sexual and reproductive health. Stephanie led a comprehensive county-wide assessment of sexual and reproductive health in Dance County, including an as assessment of the rates of STIs, HIV/AIDS, teen births, sexual violence, and unintended births. She also co-managed a statewide maternal and child health initiative to improve equity in birth outcomes for African American families in Wisconsin and conducted a participatory program evaluation of a nurse home visiting program serving expecting mothers. She collaborated with community-based partners to build statewide capacity for criminal justice system reform and to raise awareness and uptake of tax credits available to low-income families. Post Fellowship, Stephanie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru focused on maternal child health and sexual reproductive health. Stephanie has expertise within global health and data-driven decision making, with experience working at the US Small Business Administration and US Citizenship & Immigration Services. Currently, Stephanie is a Program Officer within USAID.

Bailey Murph
United Way of Greater Milwaukee

Bailey holds a Masters degree in Public Health from the UW-Milwaukee Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health. She is a graduate of the Graduate Education Diversity Internship of the American Evaluation Association, an internship focused on intensive training in culturally responsive evaluation and a graduate of the City Leaders Program at CityMatCH, a training program focused on urban maternal and child health. Bailey completed her Fellowship with United Way of Greater Milwaukee, where she took leadership in designing and facilitating an environmental scan for the Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families. Following the Fellowship, Bailey continued working with United Way as their Health Portfolio Manager, managing United Way’s largest investment of 66 programs that addressed maternal health and infant health, teen pregnancy, violence prevention, behavioral and mental health, disabilities, and health care access. Since then, Bailey has had extensive experience in local and state governmental public health leadership positions in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Bailey is currently the Director of the Office of Health Equity at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Prior to this position, Bailey served as Deputy Commissioner of Policy, Innovation, & Engagement at the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Across these roles, Bailey has led initiatives developing public health policy, using data to inform decision making, elevating community presence, and building capacity to advance health equity.

Evelyn Sharkey
City of Milwaukee Health Department, Division of Disease Control & Environmental Health & The Medical College of Wisconsin

Evelyn received her MPH and MSW from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to graduate school, she spent two years as a Teach for America Baltimore corps member teaching high school science. During her graduate program Evelyn worked for a cancer epidemiologist on a rare disease registry, analyzed rates of STIs as a practicum student at a local health department, and collaborated with a local coalition to evaluate a drug use prevention program for teens. Evelyn completed her Fellowship with the Division of Disease Control and Environmental Health at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Community Health Improvement for Milwaukee’s Children project at the Medical College of Wisconsin. At the health department, she contributed to preparedness and response for Ebola virus disease and other emerging infections and managed a local immunization coalition’s campaign to promote the HPV vaccine. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, Evelyn gained data management and analysis skills through her involvement in a community-based participatory research study aimed to reduce disparities in immunization rates among Milwaukee’s children. She also contributed to the implementation and analysis of a survey of childcare agencies to assess their immunization policies and practices. Post Fellowship, Evelyn worked at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a Global Migration Epidemiologist. Evelyn currently serves as a Healthcare Data Analyst at MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization.

Hester Wolfe
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Minority Health Program & Centro Hispano

Hester completed her MPH in Community Health Promotion at the University of Minnesota. During graduate school, Hester worked as an evaluation consultant on an Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative grant at a community center in Minneapolis. She also volunteered as a Spanish interpreter at a free student-run clinic. For her master’s project, she conducted a research project with the Minnesota Department of Health to assess the barriers to HIV testing among the African-born and Latino populations in Minnesota. During her Fellowship, Hester was placed with both the Minority Health Program at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and with Centro Hispano of Dane County in Madison. At Centro Hispano, Hester evaluated Centro’s youth programming and various projects targeting the social determinants of health for the Latino community in Dane County. With the Minority Health Program, she worked on projects and policies focused on health equity and coordinated the first year of implementation of the Wisconsin Minority Health HIV Partnership Initiative, a five-year project funded by the federal Office of Minority Health to address HIV disparities in Milwaukee. Post Fellowship, Hester continued her work in her new role as the HIV Minority Health Partnership Grant Coordinator with the Wisconsin AIDS/HIV Program and the UW Madison Department of Medicine. Currently, Hester serves as Public Health Supervisor at Public Health Madison & Dane County.

Mallory Edgar
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Diverse & Resilient

Mallory received her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. As a graduate student, Mallory assisted with research about sexual health and HIV prevention among sexual minority youth in the Detroit Metro Area at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities. Mallory had a dual Fellowship placement with Diverse & Resilient and the Milwaukee Health Department. At Diverse & Resilient, she managed community readiness assessments focused on topics related to LGBTQ health disparities and worked with Milwaukee public high schools to develop safer and more supportive school environments for their LGBTQ students. At the Milwaukee Health Department, Mallory was involved with initiating activities to enhance collaboration between STI prevention and teen pregnancy prevention. Following the Fellowship, Mallory returned to Chicago and served as an Evaluation Project Coordinator at Northwestern University, where she provided individualized technical assistance to fifteen Chicago Department of Public Health-funded project sites working on twenty distinct HIV prevention interventions. For more than three years, she worked at Care2Prevent, the Pediatric/Adolescent HIV Program at the University of Chicago Medicine, and then in 2019, she entered the public library world as the Manager of Data Analytics for the Oak Park Public Library, where she built the library system’s data culture and demonstrating the organization’s community impact. In 2018, Mallory co-founded Fifth Star Collective, and in 2022 transitioned to Fifth Star full-time, where she provides consultative services to public health, social service, and other nonprofit agencies with a focus on data analytics & visualization, monitoring & evaluation, and strategic planning.

Tracy Flood
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Minority Health Program & Centro Hispano

Tracy received her MD and PhD from The University of Illinois where she studied childhood obesity prevention in the primary care setting. Tracy completed her Pediatric preliminary year in 2012 at the University of Wisconsin before continuing to work in the field of childhood obesity prevention with The Wisconsin Obesity Prevention Network. Tracy worked at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health with Patrick Remington to develop a Preventive Medicine training program, established to train physicians about population-based approaches to medicine. Tracy completed her Fellowship at the Milwaukee Health Department and at the Wisconsin Medical Society working in the fields of childhood obesity and dissemination of innovation. After her Fellowship, Tracy became the Director of Data for the Wisconsin Obesity Prevention Initiative before founding BroadStreet Institute, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring good data are accessible for those working to improve health in their communities.

Crysta Jarczynski
City of Milwaukee Health Department Office of Violence Prevention & Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee

Crysta received her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University. She is interested in intimate partner violence prevention, pregnancy health, affirmative reproductive health education, and social determinants of health. Crysta held placements at the Milwaukee Health Department Office of Violence Prevention and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. During her first year, she conducted a Community Readiness Assessment of sexual assault services in Milwaukee, and in her second year, she was able to use her results to develop a community outreach and education plan. Crysta also had the opportunity to teach Making Proud Choices!, a comprehensive sexual health curriculum, to middle and high school aged children. Post Fellowship, Crysta worked at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, first as a Grant Assessment Coordinator and then as Program Specialist. Now, Cyrstra still works at UW Milwaukee as the AOD (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) Misuse Prevention Coordinator.

Lauren Lamers
Menominee Tribal Clinic & the Shawano-Menomine Counties Health Department

Lauren Lamers received her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Her previous public health experience includes collaborating on a variety of communicable disease, public health law, and maternal and child health research projects at the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minneapolis Health Department. She also volunteered as a Spanish interpreter at a student-run free clinic in Minneapolis. Lauren was placed with the Menominee Tribal Clinic in Keshena and the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department in Shawano. Her projects included developing data management and evaluation plans to track outcomes of youth obesity prevention initiatives and developing sustainable systems for collecting and disseminating local community health data. She also facilitated program planning and evaluation for school-based mental health initiatives. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Lauren worked with the Indiana State Department of Health, first as their Tobacco Epidemiologist and then, as their Vaccine-Preventable Disease Epidemiologist.

Colleen Moran
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health & the Chronic Disease Prevention Unit

Colleen completed her dual MPH/MS in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Throughout her graduate school career, she worked with the UW Population Health Institute in the Health Policy Program. She completed her Fellowship with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health in the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Chronic Disease Prevention Unit. As a fellow, she focused her work on the intersection between public health and planning, exploring the ways urban and regional planners can incorporate a health lens in the planning process to create healthier communities. During her Fellowship she worked on many projects that focused on this aim, including resolution writing for both the American Planning Association Chapter of Wisconsin (APA-WI) and the Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA). Colleen also focused her efforts on increasing Health in All Policies (HiAP). She wrote a resolution for the use of a HiAP framework by both organizations, provided training and technical assistance for Health Impact Assessment (HIA), a useful tool for HiAP, and became co-chair of WPHA HIA Section. She also worked on a climate and health grant that incorporated health concerns into various climate related policies and programs. After the Fellowship, Colleen became the Climate and Health Program Manager at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Colleen still works at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as the Bureau Strategic Initiatives Coordinator.

Shor Salkas
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, AIDS/HIV Program

Shor graduated from the University of Minnesota-School of Public Health with an emphasis on LGBTQ health and community health promotion. They are interested in community health, the intersectionality between health equity work and health disparities work and social justice, and is committed to promoting health and wellness in LGBTQ communities. Shor was placed in Madison at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health working with the Wisconsin AIDS/HIV Program. Over the course of the Fellowship, Shor worked on a multitude of projects including doing a transgender community health assessment with Outreach, Inc., working with GSafe on data analysis and synthesis, working on LGBTQ tobacco control projects, supporting the Healthiest Wisconsin Baseline Report evaluation processes, and organizing a Wisconsin Transgender Health Summit. After their completion of the Fellowship, Shor continued working with the UW Population Health Institute with the Health Wisconsin Leadership Institute as a Community Coach and COACH Program Manager. In 2018, Shor moved to Minneapolis and transitioned to working at the Minnesota Department of Health, first as a Health Equity Planner and then as the Minnesota Health Equity Networks Supervisor. During this time, Shor became a Certified Professional Coach and founded Shor Salkas Coaching & Consulting, impacted by Hanna Cooper, the Fellowship coach who worked with Shor during their time as a fellow. Currently, Shor works as the 2SLGBTQIA+ Equity Manager at the City of Minneapolis and continues to provide coaching, training, and facilitation through their small business, including to the Fellowship Community.

Sarah Geiger
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental & Occupational Health & City of Milwaukee Health Department

Sarah Geiger received her MS in Community Health (Epidemiology) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her PhD in Public Health Sciences (Epidemiology) from West Virginia University. As a fellow, Sarah worked in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health with a secondary placement at the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Sarah gained new preparedness experience working on extreme heat response, culminating in a manuscript evaluating heat fatalities of summer 2012. She was also involved with the occupational health surveillance program, which allowed her the opportunity to work with several state-level data sets while calculating occupational health indicators. After the Fellowship, Sarah was an Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University and now currently is an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Christina Hanna
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, AIDS/HIV Program

Christina Hanna received her MPH from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Christina’s prior public health experience includes working on the Michigan AIDS Drug Assistance Program to improve medication access for patients with HIV/AIDS and serving as an HIV prevention and testing counselor at University Health Service at the University of Michigan. During her Fellowship, Christina worked with the AIDS/HIV Program of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, leading the implementation of a pilot HIV patient navigator program, conducting a qualitative evaluation of the participants in the HIV patient navigator program, and evaluating the results of a community-based HIV testing strategy. She also developed and authored a quarterly newsletter for statewide partners of the Systems Linkages and Access to Care for Populations at High Risk of HIV Infection Initiative. Post Fellowship, Christina became a Content Developer and Writer with Johnson & Johnson.

Carly Hood
Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Carly Hood received her master of public affairs from the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs and her MPH from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health. Carly’s public health experience includes conducting a policy review of the Wisconsin food environment, designing, implementing and evaluating public health workforce development on the social determinants of health, and assisting in state-wide development of a multi-sectored health equity alliance. Carly was placed with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, working with the WI Center for Health Equity and Health First Wisconsin. After the Fellowship, Carly served as Population Health Manager for the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 2 years before serving as Executive Clinic and Public Health Directors for Hillside Health Care International in Belize. Carly now lives in Portland Oregon, where she has served in many executive leadership roles supporting Oregon’s healthcare systems, including Oregon Primary Care Association, Project Access NOW, and CareOregon.

Erica LeCounte
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Center for Urban Population Health

Erica received her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Erica’s previous public health experience includes work in Evanston, Illinois where she conducted community needs assessments and Miami, Florida where she worked on a variety of maternal and child health projects. Erica was placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Center for Urban Population Health where she was involved in developing evaluation plans and conducting evaluations for many of the Family and Community Health programs. Post Fellowship Erica transitioned to a role as Epidemiologist for the Family & Community Health Division with the City of Milwaukee Health Department and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health. Erica now serves as Graduate Research and Teaching Associate at South Florida College of Public Health.

Lindsay Menard
LaCrosse County Health Department

Lindsay received her MPH in Health Policy and Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lindsay’s prior public health experience includes engaging in both policy and program work with local and regional public health organizations in Wisconsin. Lindsay was placed at the La Crosse County Health Department where she helped develop and implement a performance management and quality improvement system, facilitated the updating of the department’s strategic plan, and assisted the department in their journey towards PHAB Accreditation. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Lindsay became a Business Analyst with La Crosse County Human Services Department, conducting budget and programmatic analyses to inform decision making. Lindsay also served as Legislative Management System Specialist / Policy Analyst in Dane County until 2025, when she transitioned to Senior Policy Analyst at Ramsey County in Minnesota.

Kristen Audet
Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative & Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Kristen Audet received her MPH from the University of Iowa, College of Public Health and her JD from the University of Iowa, College of Law. Kristen spent her Fellowship split between the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative and the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH). At the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, Kristen was responsible for initiating and coordinating the Southern Wisconsin Immunization Consortium, an immunization coalition aimed at improving the immunization rates of 0-2 year old rural children. At DPH, she worked with the Public Health Preparedness Unit, focusing on communications. She traveled to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency to receive specialized crisis communication and public information training. Kristen also led a statewide initiative to improve Emergency Public Information and Warning capabilities and has played an active role directing communications during multiple public health emergencies. Preceptors: Lisa Pentony and Tim Size
Post Fellowship: Kristen is Life Safety Coordinator at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

Akbar Husain
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Western Regional Office

Akbar Husain received his Master in Public Health with a concentration in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health. During his time as a Fellow, Akbar was placed with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Western Regional Office. His work focused on supporting local and tribal health departments in their pursuit of voluntary national accreditation and completing their community health assessments (CHA) and community health improvement plans (CHIP). Specifically Akbar oversaw the development, selection, and support of accreditation focused mini grants and participated in statewide pilot program to test newly developed CHA and CHIP tools. In addition, Akbar worked with the Minority Health Report, which also serves as the baseline report for the state health plan. Preceptor: Lieske Giese
Post Fellowship: Akbar is Health Care Analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.t at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.

Emma Hudson (Hynes)
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Maternal Child Health Unit & Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health

Emma received her Master of Public Health and Master of Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin Madison. During her Fellowship, Emma worked with the Division of Public Health (DPH), Maternal & Child Health Unit and the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health (WAWH). At DPH, Emma led the Wisconsin Healthiest Women Initiative to organize system-level stakeholders to advance women’s health using preconception health tools and a lifecourse framework. Some of the highlights of Emma’s diverse role at WAWH included planning & executing the 3rd and 4th annual Wisconsin Women’s Health Policy Summit with 300 attendees and 60 sponsors, writing both the 2011-2013 and 2013-2015 Budget Analysis Impact on Women & Girls Report and presenting this information throughout the state, and writing and being awarded a grant to organize reproductive rights stakeholders to increase abortion access in Dane County. Preceptors: Sara Finger and Millie Jones
Post Fellowship: Emma is Legislative Liaison working with the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health in Madison, WI.

Rashona Jones
City of Milwaukee Health Department & United Way of Greater Wisconsin

Rashonda earned her MPH from the University of Wisconsin Madison. During her Fellowship, Rashonda was placed with the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee. At the City of Milwaukee Health Department, she worked with the Office of Violence Prevention on a groundbreaking project preventing “straw purchasing” of guns—in which guns are purchased for those not legally able do so themselves. Rashonda co-facilitated seven focus groups and co-wrote an executive summary as well as a programmatic analysis, describing their journey, findings, and recommendations. While at the United Way, Rashonda focused on teen pregnancy prevention and healthy birth outcomes, spending the majority of her time helping to organize programming and provide support for these two initiatives, on behalf of United Way, in the Faith community. Following the Fellowship, worked with Parenting Network MKE, first as a Parent Educator, then as the Coordinator of Prevention Advocacy.

Anneke Mohr
Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center & Wisconsin Department of Health Services, AIDS/HIV Program

Anneke earned her Master in Public Health and Master in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. During her Fellowship, Anneke worked with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health in the AIDS/HIV Program and the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center. In the AIDS/HIV Program, Anneke worked on the evaluation of Acceptance Journeys, a social marketing campaign that seeks to improve health and reduce HIV by addressing anti-gay and transgender discrimination, and on summarizing and sharing results of Youth Risk Behavior Survey data on sexual minority youth. At the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center, she worked with the Menominee Nation Community Engagement Group by looking at obesity, teen pregnancy, and County Health Rankings data to inform data-driven community action plans. Anneke also conducted an assessment of Tribal environmental health services among the 34 Tribes in the Bemidji-area, and developed a policy scan tool for tribal Community Transformation Grant recipients. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Anneke served as Interim Program Director for Diverse & Resilient, and then as the Health Project Assistant for the City of Milwaukee Health Department working on Fetal Infant Mortality Review. Since then, Anneke has served in leadership roles at Community Advocates, Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department, and currently as Public Health Strategist at the City of Milwaukee Health Department.

Tyler Weber
Walnut Way Conservation Corps & City of Milwaukee Health Department

Tyler Weber completed his Master in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Minnesota with a global health concentration. Tyler was placed with the Milwaukee Health Department and with the Lindsay Heights Neighborhood Health Alliance. Although not an exhaustive list, he found himself working to advance the Innovation and Wellness Commons, leading the Lindsay Heights Community Research Council, working with a Men’s Wellness Council, and managing a WPP 3-year full implementation grant to expand the work of the Men’s Wellness Council. Tyler also formed the Lindsay Heights Health Professional Network, updated the Milwaukee Health Department’s STD webpage, served as member of the Zilber School of Public Health Summer Team, mentored two TRIUMPH students, served as an organizer for Partners in Health, and built a partnership between MHD’s Empowering Families of Milwaukee program and the Walnut Way Conservation Corporation. Post Fellowship, Tyler continued his work with Walnut Way Conservations Corps, first as Neighborhood Program Coordinator, then Program Manager, then Program Director. Currently, Tyler serves as Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Health at the City of Milwaukee Health Department.

Katarina Grande
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Center for Urban Population Health

Katarina received her MPH degree from the University of Minnesota with a concentration in global health. Katarina was placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the Center for Urban Population Health. During her Fellowship Katarina assisted with the development of a curriculum for a community advisory board, promoted expedited partner therapy in Milwaukee clinics, analyzed the social networks of a hepatitis C outbreak, and provided control recommendations to public health nurses. She also worked with Hmong community health worker group to promote women’s empowerment and health, and she researched the connections between poverty and health both locally and abroad. Following the completion of her fellowship, Katarina served as Program Manager for USAID in Kampala, Uganda and then as a Global Program Management Fellow for the CDC in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Katarina returned to Wisconsin in 2014, becoming the Wisconsin HIV Surveillance Coordinator & Epidemiologist at Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Currently, Kat is the Public Health Supervisor of Epidemiology & Data Science at Public Health Madison & Dane County.

Paula Tran
Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health & Wisconsin Center for Equity

Paula completed her MPH from the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Medicine and Public Health with certificates in Consumer Health Advocacy and Prevention and Intervention Science. Paula was placed at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity. She spent her time as a fellow focusing on health equity and the social determinants and root causes of health. Her work at both sites involved cross-sector and interdisciplinary partner engagement and training around health equity and developing the WI Health Impact Assessment Collaborative through building the capacity of traditional and nontraditional public health practitioners to conduct the Health Impact Assessment. After her Fellowship, Paula became a Health Equity Coordinator at Transform Wisconsin. Paula went on to serve as Assistant Director for UW Madison Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies, Director of the Mobilizing Action Towards Community Health (MATCH) unit at UW Population Health Institute, and now currently as the State Health Officer and Division of Public Health Administrator.

Kelli Stader
Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health & City of Milwaukee Health Department
Kelli completed her MPH degree and a graduate student dietetic internship at the University of Minnesota. During the first year of her Fellowship Kelli split time between the Milwaukee Health Department and the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, South Regional Office. She helped to develop various databases organizing local health department CHIP priorities and activities, and helped to develop and evaluate a nutrition education program at Mobile Markets in Milwaukee. During her second year, she served as the Accreditation Coordinator for the Division of Public Health, leading a division-wide team through a self-assessment process to prepare for national public health accreditation. Kelli also got involved with the Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity program, co-authoring a resource to improve fruit and vegetable access while participating in a workgroup that formed a statewide food policy council. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Kelli became the Nutrition Coordinator with the Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program of the Department of Health Services in Madison, WI. Kelli still holds this position, focused on implementing statewide policy, systems, and environmental changes on breastfeeding, nutrition, and physical activity.

Katherine Vaughn-Jehring
Allied Community Cooperative & the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Office of Policy & Practice Alignment

Katherine graduated from UW-Madison with both a Master in Public Health and a Master in Public Affairs. She has worked with the Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Control Program and volunteered with the Allied Wellness Center, a small community-based organization dedicated to community-level wellness. Katherine was placed at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health (DPH), Office of Policy and Practice, and the Allied Community Cooperative. At DPH she led and coordinated the development of the overall work plan for the Coordinated Chronic Disease Program and the development of the DPH Strategic Plan. At the Allied Community Cooperative, Katherine coordinated and maintained the budget for a Wisconsin Partnership Program grant and mentored three undergraduate interns. After the Fellowship, Katherine became a Project Assistant at Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Control Program in Madison, WI. Currently, Katherine is a substitute teacher in Minneapolis, MN.

Sara Soka (Kazmierczak)
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health

Sara received her MS in Population Health Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sara was placed with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health’s Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Program and the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, an advocacy organization for Wisconsin’s Federally Qualified Health Centers. Sara’s placement provided her with experience in projects aimed at both improving health statewide and reducing health disparities associated with the socioeconomic determinants of health. Following her Fellowship, Sara worked at the WI Clearinghouse for Prevention Resources – as trainer, producer, project manager, and grantwriter. Following that, Sara moved to California and has had opportunities to partner with leaders in dozens of UW municipalities, states, and tribal nations in the roles of researcher, writer, and policy analyst to improve government policy and service delivery. Currently, Sara is the Senior Program Manager for Code for America, where she partners with government agency workers to improve safety net benefits delivery.

Raisa Koltun
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Proyecto Salud

Raisa received her MPH and PharmD degrees from UW-Madison. During her Fellowship, Raisa split her time between the City of Milwaukee Health Department and Proyecto Salud, a grassroots community development organization. At the City of Milwaukee Health Department, Raisa worked on creating a health department strategic plan for addressing HIV in young black men who have sex with men. She also worked on analysis of data from a study focused on immunization disparity rates in Milwaukee. At Proyecto Salud, Raisa worked on a built environment intervention to increase civic capacity to affect policy change. During her time as a fellow, she served as the co-chair for the Immigration Action Team of the Milwaukee Latino Health Coalition, as well as a member of the Policy Development Committee of the Wisconsin Public Health Association. After Raisa completed her Fellowship, Raisa served as Associate Director for the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity. Raisa has had a robust career in Milwaukee County, bringing an equity lens to her work as Director of Legislative Affairs, Chief of Staff, & Senior Advisor. Currently, Raisa is Chief Operating Officer of WellSpring Nursing & Care Management in Milwaukee.

Marisa Stanley
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health & Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center

Marisa received her MPH in Epidemiology 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. During the Fellowship, Marisa was placed with the Division of Public Health at the Department of Health Services & the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center in Lac du Flambeau, WI. As a fellow at DHS, Marisa worked with the Bureau of Communicable Diseases & Emergency Response to led the initiative for the passage and implementation of expedited partner therapy legislation in Wisconsin, authored a request for proposals to secure a contractor for an oral health education feasibility study, and led a hepatitis C cluster investigation in the Northern Region of Wisconsin. At Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epi Center, Marisa was the interim project manager/epidemiologist for Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant working towards tobacco policy, systems, and environment changes with five Wisconsin Tribes and the Wisconsin Native American Tobacco Network Coalition. Post Fellowship, Marisa became an Epidemiologist with Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene supporting the AIDS/HIV and Adult Viral Hepatitis Programs at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Marisa then became Infectious Disease Epidemiologist at the City of Milwaukee Health Department for 5 years, before becoming the Assistant Director for the Eau Claire City-County Health Department.

Evan Cole
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health & Division of Health Care Access & Accountability

Evan received his MPH in Public Health Administration and Policy at the University of Minnesota. During his Fellowship, Evan was placed with both the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH), and the Division of Health Care Access and Accountability. He spent much of his time working on the Southeast Wisconsin Medicaid Managed Care Organizations RFP, first on issues regarding quality, and then on continuity of care concerns for those who were transitioned to a new HMO. His projects included 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. After his Fellowship, Evan completed his doctorate at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2013. His areas of expertise are in Medicaid, primary care delivery, and insurance design – Dr. Cole was the Associate Project Director for Medicaid policy research at the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University, and currently is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. He also serves as the Director of the Medicaid Research Center within the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Policy Institute.

Marjory Givens
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental & Occupational Health

Marjory brought 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. Marjory was placed with the Department of Health Services, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health where she wrote, managed, and implemented an ASTHO Capacity Building for the Built Environment and Health Impact Assessment grant. Marjory also coordinated the development and implementation of the Wisconsin Trac ILI (influenza-like illnesses) surveillance system. Following her Fellowship, Marjory completed postdoctoral training as a Health Disparities Research Scholar at UW Population Health Sciences. Since 2014, Marjory has held leadership roles at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, first as Associate Scientist and Assistant Director of County Health Rankings, and now as Senior Scientist & Associate Director.

Courtney Kessler
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Sojourner Family Peace Center

Courtenay completed her BA in Women’s Studies from Harvard College and her MS at Harvard School of Public Health with a concentration in Society, Human Development, and Health. During the Fellowship, Courtenay was placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) and the Sojourner Family Peace Center (SFPC). At MHD she 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 she tracked social indicators related to health. At SFPC, Courtenay led a research project that looked at child witness to violence and assisted with coordination of a health care provider consortium tasked with developing ER-based domestic violence screening protocols. Following the Fellowship, Courtney was Researcher with the Center for Urban Population Health for 4 years, before she became a doctoral student in Human Development & Social Policy at Northwestern University. After receiving her PhD, Courtenay is now a Senior Research Associate at Westat, a research company providing data collection, analysis, and evaluation services for health, education, and social policy.

Katharine Konkle
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Western Regional Office in Eau Claire

Kate has an MPH from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Kate was placed with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Western Regional Office in Eau Claire, where she assisted local health departments as they implemented a Community Health Improvement Process (CHIP), and worked as part of a statewide group to update the new CHIP website with regional information. Kate also took a leadership role with the 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. After the completion of her Fellowship, Kate held numerous positions with the UW Population Health Institute – first as Program Manager with Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute, then with County Health Rankings & Roadmaps as a Community Coach and Team Director for Community Learning. Currently Kate is the Manager of Statewide Networks and Partnerships in the Office of Cancer Health Equity at the Penn State Cancer Institute.

Samantha Perry
City of Milwaukee Health Department & March of Dimes Foundation

Samantha received her MPH in Community Health Education from Southern Illinois University. Samantha was placed at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the March of Dimes, where she provided program management, including data management and analysis, and evaluation, for seven prenatal education sites. With the Milwaukee Health Department, Samantha assisted the Plain Talk Initiative to plan and implement sexual education outreach activities for teens and parents in high-risk zip codes. She served on the March of Dimes Chapter grant review committee, and also worked with nursing faculty at UW-Milwaukee to implement and evaluate community-based health education programming for residents of Milwaukee public housing. After her Fellowship, Samantha served for 8 years as Project Manager and Planning Coordinator at the Racine Kenosha Community Action Agency, leading a consortium of over 100 individuals and organizations dedicated to addressing African American infant mortality in Racine, WI. Most recently, Samantha has worked with Market Boxx Community Stores, a mobile grocery store that brings fresh affordable food, and jobs, to Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Traici Brockman
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health

Traici received her MPH from St. Louis University School of Public Health. She trained in the Office of the Administrator of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Her work as a fellow included serving as lead staff for the Governor’s Public Health Council’s Committee on Finance. She completed a policy brief on infant mortality in Wisconsin, provided technical assistance to local health departments preparing for national accreditation, evaluated the state Minority Health Program for recommendations to build program capacity to address Wisconsin’s vulnerable populations, and was a member of a workgroup creating pay-for-performance incentives for Medicaid managed care organizations. Post-Fellowship, Traci worked at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, first as a Provider Recruitment Coordinator, and then as a Primary Care Office Coordinator. Currently, Traici is a Senior Advisor at Georgia Health Policy Center, a research and technical assistance center at Georgia State University providing evidence-based guidance to improve health at community, state, and national levels.

Suzanne Gaulocher
Public Health Madison & Dane County

Suzanne is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison MPH program. She completed her Fellowship with the Department of Public Health for Madison and Dane County in the Health Promotion Program. In this program Suzanne used participatory strategies to address health disparities within communities and the relationship between the built environment and health. These techniques helped to engage with community members, stakeholders and built environment professionals to learn how people use place; assessment findings of health supports and barriers were then translated into action. Suzanne also co-coordinated a group called CHAMP (Community Health Assessment Mapping Partnership) that developed and implemented a collaborative Community Health Assessment using both geographic information systems and community-based participatory research to combine population-based data with qualitative assessments of the built environment. Following her completion of the Fellowship, Suzanne became a doctoral student with the University of Wisconsin Madison Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, receiving her PhD in Environment & Resources in 2013. Suzanne was the Director of Community Engaged Learning for Health at Stanford University and now is an Associate Professor at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Her research centers around the intersection between human health and the environment with a focus on sustainability, community engagement, climate resilience, social justice, and health equity.

Carrie Henning-Smith
Milwaukee County Department on Aging & SET Ministry

Carrie holds an MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education, an MSW in Interpersonal Practice and Mental Health, and a Specialist in Aging Certificate, all from the University of Michigan. During the Fellowship, Carrie divided her time between the Milwaukee County Department on Aging (MCDA) and S.E.T Ministry, Inc. Carrie participated in numerous projects including educational programming for residents on public housing, asset-based community development focused on older adults, and the development of a county-wide wellness council at MCDA. After the Fellowship, Carrie completed her doctorate at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management and is now an Associate Professor with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Deputy Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, and Co-Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Program.

Amanda Schultz
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Core el Centro

Amanda received her MPH from the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health. She completed her placement with the Milwaukee Health Department as well as Core el Centro. At the Milwaukee Health Department Amanda conducted research for the development of a new Men’s Health Division. She also developed an evaluation for a community based diabetes prevention program. With Core el Centro, Amanda developed a curriculum for health promoters to build capacity for health promotion among the Latino Community in Milwaukee. Following the completion of her Fellowship, Amanda worked at NorthStar as a Leadership Consultant, where she worked to strengthen partnerships within and between faith-based organizations. Amanda worked for San Diego Hunger Coalition for over 10 years in varying leadership roles, and currently serves as the Community Health Manager for Kaiser Permanente.

Morgen Alexander-Young
City of Milwaukee Health Department

Morgen received her MPH from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She completed her placement with the Milwaukee Health Department where she conducted 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. Morgen 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. Following her Fellowship, Morgen became a Project Coordinator at the University of Chicago. Morgen has become a specialist in clinical trial feasibility and operations with a focus on cancer treatment and prevention, with experience working at Alliance for Clinical Trials In Oncology, Syneos Health Clinical Solutions, and now as Associate Director at Merck.

Casey Schumann
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Communicable Disease & Preparedness

Casey Schumann received her MS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Population Health Sciences. Casey was placed in the Wisconsin Division of Public Health’s Bureau of Communicable Disease and Preparedness, both with the AIDS/HIV and Communicable Disease Epidemiology programs. Her contributions included leading a workgroup on preparedness for an outbreak of the pandemic flu and conducting research to determine risk factors for multiple drug resistant Salmonella infections. After the Fellowship, Casey became an Epidemiologist with the AIDS/HIV Program of the Department of Health Services. Currently Casey is an Injury & Violence Prevention Epidemiologist at Public Health Madison & Dane County.

Sabrina Smiley
City of Milwaukee Health Department & Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

Sabrina Smiley received her MPH from University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. She completed her Fellowship with the Milwaukee Health Department and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. During her Fellowship, Sabrina helped to develop recommendations for decreasing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancy in Milwaukee zip codes with the highest STI morbidity and teen pregnancy rates. She also worked with the Young Women of Color Sexual and Reproductive Health Advisory Council to develop and evaluate an intervention incorporating music and movement into formal and informal discussions with young women of color to promote responsible sexual behavior and prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS. Additionally, Sabrina served on a research team that conducted research that was published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal on barriers to health among the medically underserved in Milwaukee. After the Fellowship, Sabrina went on to complete her doctorate in Sociology at Howard University at Washington, DC. Dr. Sabrina Smiley is a tenured Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science. She is a social and behavioral health scientist whose research focuses on the intersection of substance use, HIV, race, and policy and examines the role of psychosocial factors, social and structural determinants of health in shaping racial/ethnic health inequities.

Jessica Tobin
Center for Resilient Cities

Jessie Tobin received her MPH from the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. She completed her placement at the Milwaukee-based Center for Resilient Cities (formerly the Urban Open Space Foundation). During her Fellowship, Jessie worked with neighborhood organizations in Milwaukee’s Central City on community wide health promotion and disease prevention efforts, including initiatives to improve nutrition and increase physical activity opportunities in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. Jessie also wrote a number of successful grant proposals that helped build on these community coalition activities. After the Fellowship, Jessie became Program Manager at the Lindsay Heights Neighborhood Health Alliance in Milwaukee. Since then, Jessie has been a Community Development Consultant and most recently, the Director of Strategy & Planning for KIN Consultant Group, working with government and nonprofit organizations to support leadership and organizational success.

Melissa Umland Olson
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Southern Regional Office

Melissa Umland Olson received her BS from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and her MS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Population Health Sciences. Melissa was placed with the Southern Regional Office of the Division of Public Health, where she was engaged with a range of training and technical assistance activities with state and local public health. This included responding to public health emergencies such as floods, monitoring local preparedness exercises, conducting vaccine program site visits, and preparing epidemiological data for counties’ health needs assessments. After she completed her Fellowship, Melissa served as Oral Health Epidemiologist with the Department of Health Services for ten years before transitioning to her current role as Epidemiologist and Evaluator with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, leading the surveillance and evaluation efforts of the Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program. She also serves as the administrator of the Wisconsin Birth Defects Registry.

Deannah Byrd
City of Milwaukee Health Department & American Cancer Society

DeAnnah received her Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science in Population Health Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a fellow, DeAnnah Byrd was dual-placed with the Milwaukee Health Department and American Cancer Society. DeAnnah led a project to learn how African-Americans and their caregivers respond to cancer diagnoses. Based on that information, DeAnnah made recommendations on how the Cancer Society’s Patient Navigation system could be improved to better serve patient needs. This project included a survey of hundreds of Milwaukee area cancer patients as well as focus groups of patients, family caregivers and health providers. Following the Fellowship, DeAnnah pursued her doctoral degree in Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Byrd is now an assistant professor at Arizona State University. She studies the effects of risk and protective factors on memory and cognitive changes in older African Americans, with the aim to improve cognitive outcomes for African Americans.

David Garcia
City of Milwaukee Health Department

David earned an MPH from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Huston and a Doctor of Education from Teachers College of Columbia University. During his Fellowship, David led an intervention project on the sexual understanding of Milwaukee African-American adolescents. David wrote the grant proposal and led the study and intervention with the assistance of local teen investigators, MPH students, and a first year fellow. David also completed an analysis of the relationship between Apgar scores and post-hospital discharge deaths of infants in Milwaukee to inform efforts to increase healthy birth outcomes. David also joined the Board of the Latino Health Coalition and helped to organize a Farmer’s Market on the city’s Southside. Following his competition of the Fellowship, David became a Community Engagement Manager at a non-profit cancer program in Seattle. David has also served in a myriad of community based and academic positions in the Greater New York City area, including as the Director of Capacity Building, Research, and Evaluation for the Latino Commission on AIDS and as Assistant Professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University and the City University of New York. Dr. Garcia is currently the director of Quality Improvement at the Texas Department of Health Services and brings 20+ years of experience spanning public health management, health equity research, and evaluation science across the midwest, Seattle, New York, and Texas.

Matt Landis
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Bureau of Health Policy & Information

Matt received his MS in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Population Health Sciences in 2005. He completed his Fellowship at the Wisconsin DPH Bureau of Health Policy and Information. He led a number of projects including the development of an on-line database of county key health indicators. He also led a research group focused on improving healthy birth outcomes for Milwaukee and was selected as the Division’s representative to the CDC Prevention Conference. Following his completion of the Fellowship, Matt earned his JD in Health Care Law and Compliance from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Matt has over 15 years of experience as a healthcare attorney, and is currently the Chief Legal and Quality Officer of Solvista Health, which is a local healthcare provider in South Central Colorado offering primary health care, addiction recovery and crisis care services, and behavioral health services. Matt was involved in building Solvista’s new Regional Assessment Center in Salida to provide acute treatment and withdrawal management to serve rural and frontier counties. In Matt’s role as Chief Legal and Quality Officer Matt provides both legal counsel as well as works with community partners at a regional and state level on mechanisms of accountability that avoid costly litigations.

Pa Chia Vue
La Crosse County Health Department

Pa Chia graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2005. She completed her Fellowship with the La Crosse County Health Department’s office of Nutrition Services. Pa Chia focused on wellness education and nutrition education for newly arrived Hmong refugees. She also helped lead an initiative for water fluoridation in the Holmen community. After the Fellowship, Pa Chai was the Wellness Coordinator of the Hmong-American Association of Minnesota. Following that, Pa Chai became the Community Health Project Manager at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Alison Gustafson
Dane County Health Department

Alison received her MPH from Boston University and her BS in Dietetics from Bradley University. Alison completed her Fellowship at the Dane County Health Department where she focused on physical activity and nutrition interventions. Alison’s experience as a fellow helped her decide to pursue a PhD in Nutrition Epidemiology. Following the fellowship, Alison earned a PhD in Nutrition Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. In 2011, Alison joined the University of Kentucky Department of Nutrition and Food Science as an Assistant Professor. Since 2011, Alison has focused her research and practice on community based interventions focused on improving food access in rural communities.

Benjamen Jones
City of Milwaukee Health Department

Ben received his MPH with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics from Drexel University in Philadelphia. During Ben’s Fellowship, he was placed at the Milwaukee Health Department, where he worked with the Division Manager from each department. Some of the projects Ben was involved with during his time there included creating Data Briefs on topics such as teen pregnancy, infant mortality, and tobacco. In addition, he assisted on communicable disease outbreak investigations and led the implementation of a door-to-door diabetes screening and intervention project. Following the fellowship, Ben worked at the City of Milwaukee Health Department as a Health Information Specialist. In 2007, Ben started working at Waukesha County Public Health, first as an Epidemiologist overseeing communicable disease outbreaks and public health preparedness, and then as the Health Officer, where he has dedicated the past decade to driving transformative change in Waukesha County. Ben currently serves on a number of Boards and Committees representing public health and as an Adjunct Professor at Carroll University.