Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

The Colorado Health Institute is excited to welcome some new faces to our team, both on our governing body and in the office.

First, three new members – Leo Tokar of Lockton Companies, Shale Wong of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Christine Woolsey of SCL Health have joined the CHI board of trustees. You can read more about each of the new members and their wide array of experience in a blog from our CEO, Michele Lueck.

We have also welcomed a new member to our CHI analyst team. Sara Robbins, a 2014 graduate of Colorado College, has joined us as this year’s Public Interest Fellow. Sara graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology, a minor in Spanish language and experience in research and data analyses.

Sara comes to us from Colorado College’s Public Interest Fellowship Program, which offers recent graduates an opportunity to complete a 12-month full-time fellowship with one of the partnership nonprofit organizations across the state.

Here at CHI, we are no stranger to the Public Interest Fellowship Program (PIFP) and have had great luck with recruiting staff following their completion of the program. Currently, three of our staff members came to us from the PIFP program: Tasia Sinn (2009), Natalie Triedman (2012), and Hannah Wear (2013). After such success with past fellows, we are excited to have Sara on board for the year.

As for this week, we have lots of behind-the-scenes activity on two big projects. First up, we are one of the partners working on Colorado’s application for funding to test our State Innovation Models (SIM) plan, an exciting proposal to collaborate across the state, and to link public health and clinical health, to make Colorado a healthier state. We are also out in the field conducting interviews for this year’s Reaching Our Peak publication. The report explores the factors that drive positive health outcomes and evaluates how Colorado stacks up in key areas. This year’s report will be released in July, but to hold you over until then, you can find last year's publication here.

Later this week, we will release the 2014 estimates of adults who are eligible for but not enrolled (EBNE) in Medicaid. The 2014 children’s EBNE publication is available on our website.

Finally – in case you missed it from last week – our summer intern, Magdalena Rutherford, blogged about her ten-day experience here in the CHI office. Highlights included work on our website, a trip to Peaceful Valley Ranch in Lyons and her very own office space. Find out more about Magdalena’s internship here.