Farley Center Staff
Shale Wong, MD, MSPH
Executive Director
Dr. Wong is a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics and family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, teaching child health, advocacy, policy and health care reform with focused interests in integrated care and achieving health equity. She is vice chair for policy and advocacy in the CU Department of Pediatrics. She served as health policy advisor to First Lady Michelle Obama for development and implementation of her signature child obesity initiative, Let’s Move, and assisted in launching Joining Forces to improve wellness and resilience of military families. She was a senior program consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As a lifelong dancer, she is inspired to advance health through the arts.
David K. Aylward, BA, JD
Senior Scholar
Mr. Aylward’s expertise lies in the intersection of social innovation, public policy, communications and IT, and finance. He is expert in the design of the new complex coalitions and systems required for innovation and systemic transformation. As CU Department of Family Medicine faculty, he is focused on the design of systems to help challenged communities thrive. He assists with new initiatives to address gross health disparities to transform the wellbeing of targeted communities in the Denver metropolitan region on behalf of the university and its partners. As chief counsel and staff director, he led the staff of the U.S. House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee during the advent of competition in telecommunications, the break-up of AT&T, the emergency of the cable television industry, and the introduction of electronic and competitive securities trading.
Vanessa Case, MS-CEP
Program Manager
Vanessa Case is a Program Manager at the Farley Health Policy Center and Senior Research and Policy Analysis Professional in the CU Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She received her Master of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology and is working toward a master’s in health administration. Vanessa has experience in project management and research in multiple disciplines. Her interests are in improving health care for groups that have conflicts with health care systems' current level of accessibility.
Frank deGruy, III, MD, MSFM
Senior Scholar
Dr. deGruy has chaired the family medicine department since 1999, and before this he chaired the University of Alabama Department of Family Medicine. He has served as president of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association and the North American Primary Care Research Group. Dr. deGruy is a board member for the National Network of Depression Centers, the Family Physicians’ Inquiries Network, and of the Colorado Institute of Family Medicine. He chairs the National Integration Academy Council, and sits on the editorial board for The Annals of Family Medicine and Families, Systems and Health. He is the created and writes Precipice: Pushing the Edge of Family Medicine, an annual publication that addresses hard problems in primary care, and he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Emma Gilchrist, MPH
Deputy Director
Ms. Gilchrist is an instructor in the CU Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. As deputy director of the Farley Health Policy Center, she oversees the planning, execution, and completion of its programs and projects. She has been a project manager and qualitative researcher for federal, state, and foundation grants and contracts; and works to improve health through policies that advance behavioral health integration, prevention and health promotion, community engagement, and workforce development. Ms. Gilchrist enjoys mentoring students and fellows. She received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan, and she previously worked at the University of Michigan Center for Managing Chronic Disease.
Maura Gissen, MA
Graduate Research Assistant
Maura Gissen is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Health Psychology program with the University of Colorado, Denver and a Graduate Research Assistant with the Farley Health Policy Center. She graduated from the University of Denver in 2017 with her master’s in counseling psychology. Maura has experience in individual and group therapy and assessment. She has worked with individuals across the developmental lifespan, and with high-risk youth, veterans, and adults with a history of trauma. Her clinical and research interests are focused on addressing health disparities and improving health equity through modalities such as integrated care and mixed-methods research that amplify marginalized voices. She also has an interest in addressing intergenerational transmission of trauma and the impacts of trauma on overall health.
Stephanie Gold, MD
Scholar
Dr. Gold is a practicing family physician at Denver Health and an assistant professor in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine. Her policy work focuses on improving health and wellbeing for all through payment reform and system transformation, including the integration of behavioral and social health with medical care. She coordinates the Farley Health Policy Center’s health policy journal club. Dr. Gold completed medical school at the University of Virginia; family medicine residency at the University of Colorado, Denver Health Track; and a health policy fellowship with the Farley Health Policy Center following residency. She serves on the board of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians and is a member of the Colorado Primary Care Payment Reform Collaborative.
Daniel S. Goldberg, JD, PhD
Education Director
Daniel S. Goldberg is trained as an attorney, an historian, and a public health ethicist. He uses methods drawing primarily from public health law, public health ethics, and the history of public health (focusing on 19th and early 20th c. US). His specific areas of expertise include the social determinants of health and health inequities, structural violence and health, chronic illness and noncommunicable disease, and structural stigma. He has studied chronic pain for 15 years and has focused much of his recent work on using legal and policy mechanisms to ameliorate structural stigma. He has also developed a research program using tools from the emerging discipline of legal epidemiology to advance health justice. Finally, he has a line of research on conflicts of interest as a population health hazard, regulatory capture as governance failure, and the manufacture of doubt. Most recently, he has applied these lenses to problems of traumatic brain injury and collision sports.
Larry A. Green, MD
Senior Scholar
Dr. Green is distinguished professor of family medicine and the Epperson-Zorn Chair for Innovation in Family Medicine and Primary Care at the University of Colorado. As a family physician, his roles have included medical practice, residency director, investigator, teacher, and department chair. He directed the RWJF national program office, Prescription for Health, focused on unhealthy behaviors in primary care practice. He also directed the Colorado Health Foundation initiatives, Advancing Care Together and Upstream! Together, aiming to change practices to provide integrated care and prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. He founded and directed the Robert Graham Policy Center, and is a regular member of the National Academy of Medicine. His current work focuses on redesigning how clinical practice, health professions education, physician certification, and clinical research are done.
R. Mark Gritz, PhD
Director of Operations
A Colorado native, Dr. Gritz received his PhD in economics from Stanford University. He has more than 30 years’ experience in directing and managing demonstrations, evaluations, research, and technical assistance projects designed to improve economic, health and other outcomes affecting vulnerable populations. Many projects involved youth, veterans, and the elderly. D. Gritz has held several corporate management positions, directing more than 100 scientific and technical staff, managing the financial performance of international business units and intellectual property portfolios. Current work focuses on healthcare value and its association with socio-economics factors to rapidly respond to research and policy analysis needs of government agencies in Colorado.
De'Janae' Guillory-Williams, MPH
Program Manager
De’Janae’ Guillory-Williams is a Research Services Professional in the CU Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. As Program Manager of the Farley Health Policy Center, she is responsible for managing and monitoring its programs and projects throughout their life cycles. De’Janae’ received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Colorado and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology Pre-Medicine from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Ms. Guillory-Williams has experience and expertise in program/project management, qualitative and quantitative research, data analysis, and data management. Her interests are in public health policies that address health equity issues among underrepresented communities.
Sarah Hemeida, MD
Scholar
Dr. Hemeida is an assistant professor in the CU Department of Family Medicine and practicing family physician, caring for low-income and indigent populations at Denver Health, one of the largest safety-net hospitals systems in the country. She joined the Farley Health Policy Center as its first policy fellow in collaboration with the Robert Graham Center of Washington, DC. Dr. Hemeida completed a NRSA primary care research fellowship, and earned her MPH with a focus in health systems management and policy. Her interests lie in primary care and integrated behavioral health, workforce and education, and the social determinants of health. She is also a passionate dancer, and travels nationally to perform and instruct in various Afro-Latin dances when time permits.
Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, MHCDS, FAAFP
State Policy Director
Dr. Lauren S. Hughes is an associate professor of family medicine and the State Policy Director of the Farley Health Policy Center. Her research interests include rural health, primary care and public health alignment, and graduate medical education. Dr. Hughes previously served as Deputy Secretary for Health Innovation in the Pennsylvania Department of Health, where she launched the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, a new payment and delivery model that transitions rural hospitals to multi-payer global budgets. She serves on the American Board of Family Board of Directors. She earned her MD from the University of Iowa, her MPH in health policy from the George Washington University, and her MSc in health services research from the University of Michigan as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. In 2018, she was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar by Presidents Clinton and Bush.
Sarah Kassabian, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Kassabian is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She recently completed her PhD in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia. She has clinical experience working in primary care and hospital settings as well as school and juvenile justice settings and is enthusiastic about improving equitable access to evidence-based mental health interventions. Her previous research experience has focused on school mental health, family engagement, and youth development programming.
Jessica Kenny, PhD
Scholar
Dr. Jessica Kenny, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry within the Colorado School of Medicine and an integrated psychologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Her area of expertise is integrated behavioral health for youth and families in primary care and other medical specialties. She is committed to increasing access to behavioral health for underserved populations, addressing health inequity, and providing trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive care. Her current research involves factors related to addressing adolescent depression and suicidality in pediatric primary care. She is also involved with training, supervision, and teaching for psychology and medical trainees, program development and outcomes evaluation, and systems-level advocacy.
Stephanie Kirchner, MSPH, RD
Practice Transformation Program Manager
Stephanie Kirchner is a community engagement and practice transformation specialist with expertise in stakeholder engagement, consensus building, and behavioral health integration. She is a senior instructor in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, and her work supports practice and community teams in the adoption of sustainable, evidence-based, patient-centered methods. She has been working in quality improvement, practice transformation, and research translation since 2006, collaborating with partners and stakeholders associated with the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative, Advancing Care Together, EvidenceNOW, Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, Colorado State Innovation Model, and the Colorado Behavioral Health Task Force.
Kyle Leggott, MD
Scholar
Dr. Kyle Leggott is assistant professor at the CU Department of Family Medicine and family physician with health politics experience whose expertise includes policy development and translation, the intersection of policy with state-based health care legislation, and innovative approaches to addressing healthcare reform. He seeks progressive and innovative approaches to address health inequities by promoting systems based and policy level interventions. Dr. Leggott is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado, where he recently finished a fellowship in health policy and politics. Dr. Leggott serves as a board member for the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians and is a physician blogger for the American Academy of Family Physician's Fresh Perspective blog. He provides both outpatient and inpatient care to patients, and, teaches family medicine residents at the University of Colorado.
Laurie Munro, MA
Senior Education Coordinator
Bio: Laurie Munro is a biologist by training and enjoys using an equity focus and best practices in planning, developing, and improving educational programs and systems. After a ten-year career researching head injury at UCHSC, she spent another ten years teaching anatomy and physiology to undergraduate pre-health career students at one of the most diverse colleges in Colorado, Community College of Aurora. Witnessing the effects of disparities in students’ educational backgrounds motivated her to enter the CU Doctor of Education in Leadership for Educational Equity program. Ms. Munro also supports the educational programs for the Center for Bioethics and Humanities.
Bahroze Rakeen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am a psychologist and a postdoctoral fellow. I grew up in Denver and graduated from the University of Colorado's Clinical Health Psychology PhD program. In addition to providing behavioral health services in primary care settings, my interests include studying the health implications of displacement and immigration due to climate change and natural disasters, cognitive impairments associated with chronic health conditions, and addressing gaps in health equity through public policy. I enjoy traveling, photography, and hiking.
Fun Fact: I really enjoy tea and coffee and plan to open up my own cafe in the future.
Vanessa Reeves, MA
Center Coordinator
Vanessa Lawrence Reeves started her University of Colorado Anschutz journey at the CCTSI Community Engagement and Health Equity Core. Her role assisted with the work of the Community Engagement Core's programs and special projects from an administrative management lens. Prior to the University, Vanessa was the Special Projects Lead for the Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Harvard Alumni Association. Vanessa received her Master's at City University, London, in Cultural Policy and Arts Business Management. Prior to moving to Denver, she held various roles supporting private and nonprofit organizations with successful process improvement and implementation. Notably, she was a part of the inaugural team of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
Alison Reidmohr MA
Communications Officer
Alison Reidmohr has worked in communications and health policy for more than 10 years in Montana and Colorado. After moving to Colorado in 2017, she started work as the tobacco communications strategist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, leading statewide media campaigns, including those promoting the Colorado QuitLine and Tobacco Free Colorado. She was promoted to deputy communications director and led CDPHE’s COVID-19 prevention marketing efforts through 2020. Her focus and expertise lie in policy and legislative communications, communications strategy, and public health marketing. In 2022, she earned her master of arts degree in communication from the University of Colorado, Denver, after conducting original research on Colorado’s digital contact tracing application, CO Exposure Notifications. She works full time for the Farley Health Policy Center, for which she leads all communications activities.
Sarah Staron, MPA
Sarah Staron manages the Collaborative Community Response Initiative (CCRI), a whole health project seeking to redesign our care systems around asking people "What matters to you?" rather than "What's the matter with you?" Sarah has been working with the CCRI leadership team since 2021, and was formally hired as the full-time project manager in August 2023 to support four communities across the state in developing localized plans to implement the CCRI whole health framework. She brings over a decade of experience in violence prevention across private and public sectors, nonprofit management, systems development, community engagement. In 2020, Sarah earned a master’s in public administration and gender violence from the University of Colorado Denver. Since then, she has worked in health equity policy at the Colorado Capitol to fund and foster trauma-informed systems, and one day, create a world without violence. Last but certainly not least, Sarah is an avid color-coder, lover of rainbows, and a huge fan of the Renaissance Faire.
Kimberly Wiggins, MA, M.Ed., PhD Student
Data Analyst, Instructor
Kimberly Wiggins is an instructor in the CU Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and is in the dissertation stage of earning a PhD in Applied Statistics and Research Methods from the University of Northern Colorado. She earned a Master’s of Arts in English Literature from King’s College, University of London, followed by a Master’s of Education in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment from the University of Illinois Chicago. She brings more than two decades of impact improving outcomes in education through evaluation, assessment, and program management and a commitment to advance knowledge through the construction of equitable, diverse learning networks. She specializes in identifying and applying appropriate statistical methodologies to inform decisions, evaluate impact, and identify needs. She is thrilled that her current work supports CU’s practice transformation initiatives.