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.
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.
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.
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.
Susan Mathieu, MPP
Medicaid Policy Director
Ms. Mathieu has two decades of experience in health care policy and program development. Previously, she managed the program design section in the health programs office at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing where she led the development of new programs and health care reform initiatives within the Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC). Before this she managed the ACC and designed and implemented Colorado’s early expansion to open Medicaid eligibility to include adults without dependent children. She has also served as consultant to multiple states regarding re-design of their Medicaid programs. When employed at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, she focused on the financing of long-term services and supports and issues related to an aging society.
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.
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.
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.
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, De’Janae’ provides support in health policy, project management, and public health research. She is a recent Master of Public Health graduate from the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology Pre-Medicine from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Ms. Guillory-Williams has experience and expertise in research, data analysis, and in interpreting and translating data to inform public health policy/research. 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.
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
Scholar
Ms. Kirchner is a community engagement and practice transformation specialist with expertise in stakeholder engagement, consensus building and behavioral health integration. She is an 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 and practice transformation 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.
Maura Gissen, M.A.
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.
Linda Niebauer
Communications Coordinator
Ms. Niebauer was among the early leaders in the development of practice-based research having laid the groundwork for the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network, and playing a similar role for several Colorado practice-based research networks. As a communications and convening specialist, she participated in the RWJF national program office Prescription for Health, focusing on unhealthy behaviors in primary care practice. And then with the Colorado Health Foundation initiatives, Advancing Care Together and UPSTREAM Together, she worked to better integrate behavioral health and primary care and raise awareness of preventing mental, emotional and behavioral problems. Besides Farley Health Policy Center communications, Ms. Niebauer also supports communications in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine.
Selin S. Odman, PsyD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Odman is a postdoctoral fellow in the CU Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She recently graduated from Mercer University where she received her Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology and her Master of Public Health degree. She has experience in individual and group therapy, comprehensive and brief assessment, and working within interdisciplinary teams in primary care and hospital settings. Her previous studies and work in public health have focused on community health and health inequity. Her interests include furthering interdisciplinary work in academic and clinical settings, improving access to behavioral health services, and DEI initiatives.
Daniel S. Goldberg, J.D., Ph.D
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.
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.