PMCC Staff

John F. “Fred” Thomas, PhD, MSSW

Executive Director

Fred is a professor in the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. With a career spanning over 20 years as a system of care designer, ehealth innovator, health outcomes researcher and health care/health policy educator, his journey is underscored by a relentless pursuit of innovation, clinical education and outcomes-oriented research. He is currently the executive director of the PMCC, where his focus is on inspiring a wide array of clinical providers to adapt their practice models to include peer mentored approaches to care and clinical education. As Fred has spent his career on improving the health care system, he has a deep commitment to advancing a spectrum approach to telehealth-care delivery, assuring the right sizing of care with a focus on improving the quadruple aim. Educating and nurturing the next generation of healthcare providers has been a cornerstone of his career. His dedication to these efforts has led to dozens of peer-reviewed publications and over $80 million in funding from local, state and federal grants and awards.  

Prior to his role at the PMCC, Fred served as the director of community-based mental health services and policy at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His academic journey began with a BBA (Finance) in Texas, followed by a MSSW at the University of Texas and finally with a PhD in population health/epidemiology from the University of Texas Medical Branch. Fred is involved in numerous organizations and societies and is recognized as a national thought leader in telehealth, systems of care and population health. Beyond his professional pursuits he and his wife Stephanie enjoy traveling in their Airstream to new and unique locations, gardening and spending time with their four children. 

Devin Miller, MPH

Director of Operations

Devin joined PMCC as the Director of Operations in 2023. Her background is in health care management, policy and population health. Specializing in improving access to care and collaborating on innovative healthcare delivery solutions, she oversees the day-to-day operations of PMCC's ECHO Colorado and eConsult programs. Prior to this role, Devin worked at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. When Devin’s not at her desk she’s flying, driving or hiking somewhere!

Dave Saxon, MD

Medical Director

Dave is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Prior to joining the PMCC he was Endocrine Section Chief at the Rocky Mountain VAMC. Dave is a general endocrinologist with specific clinical and academic interests in diabetes, obesity and lipid disorders. He joined the PMCC because he is passionate about exploring innovative forms of health care delivery.  A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor in anthropology, he received his MD from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine. He did his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Michigan, and completed a fellowship in endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the University of Colorado. Dave completed a VA Advanced Health Services Research Fellowship and has published book chapters and journal articles on a variety of endocrine topics. Outside of work he enjoys live music, drinking lots of coffee, and hiking and skiing with his wife and three children.

Kyle Leggott, MD

Primary Care Liaison

Dr. Leggott is a 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 health care 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 in the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, where he completed a fellowship in health policy and politics. He has helped lead multiple public health and COVID-related ECHO series for primary care providers since the start of the COVID pandemic. Dr. Leggott is a health policy scholar at the Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center. He also serves as a board member for the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP). He provides patient care in the clinic and hospital while teaching family medicine residents and medical students at the University of Colorado. 

Donald E. Nease, Jr., MD

Primary Care Lead

Dr. Nease is a professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus where he serves as the director of community engagement and health equity for the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He completed his undergraduate degree and medical school at the University of Kansas, his residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and a faculty development fellowship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr. Nease’s passion is to improve health in partnership with communities, patients, clinicians and health care. He works this territory from the level of individual interactions to community- and population-based interventions.

Linda Oberst-Walsh, MD

Primary Care eConsult Lead

Dr. Oberst-Walsh is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Family Medicine residency program. She serves the CU community as the adult primary care lead for the eConsults program in a collaborative partnership with the Anschutz Medical Campus and 26 other academic medical centers across the country. Dr. Oberst-Walsh’s medical experience includes serving as a medical and program director for the University of Oklahoma Tulsa Department of Family Medicine, and developing a satellite primary care clinic for University of Colorado. She also has experience as co-owner and practitioner in a full service family medicine private practice. She is committed to innovation and transformation in pursuit of advancing medical knowledge and access to medical care across the state. In her spare time, Dr. Oberst-Walsh likes to play with her grandsons, hike and read.

Lizzie Arvidson, MPH

Senior Development & Implementation Project Coordinator

Lizzie has been a part of the PMCC team since 2022. In her role Lizzie strives to combine her extensive experience in public health program coordination with her passion for health access and equity to deliver high quality programming to underserved populations. She received her bachelor degree in health promotion and human physiology from the University of Iowa and her master of public health from the Colorado School of Public Health Anschutz Medical Campus. In her free time, Lizzie enjoys spending time with her family, exploring the Colorado outdoors and trying new recipes.

Crystal Chaparro

Development & Implementation Manager

Crystal started with the PMCC team in June 2020 as a development and implementation project coordinator, during which time her work focused on autism and adolescent reproductive health. Today she serves as development and implementation manager responsible for overseeing five project coordinators and supporting new and continuing ECHO projects. Previously she worked at the Dean’s Office in the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Center for Advancing Professional Education (CAPE). Crystal is a proud Colorado native, has a beautiful son and is the youngest of seven children. She enjoys traveling, cooking, fitness and spending time with her family and friends.  

Ashley Clark, MPH

Development & Implementation Project Coordinator

Ashley joined the PMCC and ECHO Colorado team as a development and implementation project coordinator in March 2022. In her role, she provides technical support and beginning-to-end project coordination for multiple concurrent ECHO series. She aims to use her background, knowledge and skills to develop and manage public health and clinical learning opportunities to ultimately improve access to care in Colorado and beyond. She has enjoyed building relationships with ECHO partners and seeing the impact of the Project ECHO approach, "all teach all learn," in action. She received her bachelor of science in kinesiology and health promotion from the University of Wyoming and her master of public health from the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University. Outside of work, Ashley enjoys reading, exploring new coffee shops and going on hikes in the Colorado sunshine with her partner and rescue dog Tonks.

Kyle Mattinson

Development & Implementation Project Coordinator

Kyle joined the PMCC team in 2022 with the goal of improving patient care in Colorado through the facilitation of professional development for health care professionals. Since then this has expanded to projects that also touch on many other professions and walks of life. He strives to provide support and remove as many barriers to excellent care as possible for people around the state of Colorado. He received his bachelor of arts in political science and his master of public administration from the University of Wyoming. In his spare time, Kyle loves to enjoy reading, keeping up on public events, watching movies and television, and spending time with his friends, family and his three cats.

BreAnna Teeters, MPH

ECHO-eConsult Development & Implementation Project Manager

BreAnna joined PMCC in 2022 to support the provision of informational and educational opportunities to health professionals across clinical and non-clinical practices. Her goal is to apply her background and knowledge in equity, access and the intersectionality of health, to inform series partners in the development of learning opportunities that have a whole-patient approach. BreAnna received her bachelor of science in public health from the University of Arizona and her master of public health from the Colorado School of Public Health in health systems, management and policy. Rather than sleeping–or “in her free time”–BreAnna enjoys reading and finding books that make her cry, going outside no matter the weather, getting lost in videogames and trying new cooking and baking recipes.

Ben Clark, MS

Senior Instructional Designer

Since joining the instructional design team in early 2024, Ben has been applying his background in health care-focused learning and development and organizational development consulting to maximize the success of our ECHO series. With a master of science from the University of Denver and another in progress from Boise State University, Ben can usually be found with his head down in a book. When he’s not indulging his nerdy side, he’s either paying homage to his New England roots by watching his beloved Red Sox or hiking with his partner and their dog in the wilderness near their home in Portland, Oregon.

Garrett Ruzicka, MA

Instructional Design Program Manager

Garrett joined PMCC in 2022. He taught communication courses in higher education before entering the instructional design field in 2018. Garrett has experience developing continuing education for medical professionals, including his previous work as a learning strategist with the American Academy of Family Physicians. He received his master of arts in communication from Missouri State University.

Sue Stoveall, MBA

Marketing & Outreach Program Manager

Sue joined the marketing team in 2018 with the goal of supporting and enhancing efforts to reach out to health care practitioners in Colorado with the PMCC message about health equity. She strives to apply her background and knowledge about marketing strategies and practices to growing ECHO Colorado’s constituent base and thereby reducing health care inequities across the state and beyond. She received her bachelor of art in international relations from Cornell College and her master of business administration from Loyola University Chicago Graduate School of Business. In her spare time, Sue enjoys graphic design, reading, walking, music, movies and geeking out about marketing trends and business disrupters.

Rachel Kollin, MA

Evaluation Specialist

Rachel joined PMCC as an evaluation specialist in 2023. She appreciates the opportunity to apply her research and evaluation experience to the work of ECHO Colorado and the goal of reducing health care inequities. She brings with her experience evaluating initiatives in health care education, substance use and sexual violence prevention. Rachel earned a master of arts in community social psychology from the University of Massachusetts and a graduate certificate in research and evaluation from Wayne State University. In her spare time, she enjoys painting-by-number, cycling, reading and spending time with family.

Shuyuan Tan, MA

Evaluation Specialist

Shuyuan joined the evaluation team in 2023. Prior to that she was an external evaluator at University of Colorado Denver. Throughout her career Shuyuan has focused on evaluating public health and higher education initiatives, particularly in medical education training programs at CU Anschutz. In her role at ECHO Colorado, Shuyuan provides comprehensive evaluation services across various ECHO series. Her responsibilities include developing evaluation plans, conducting data collection and analysis, and delivering evaluation and research outcomes. Shuyuan is dedicated to employing equitable evaluation and participatory approaches to foster robust evaluations for ECHO programs. Her vision is to promote health equity through data-driven and evidence-based evaluation outcomes. She is also passionate about the story behind the data. Shuyuan obtained her bachelor's degree in applied psychology from Guangxi Teachers Education University, China. She came to the U.S. in 2014 to pursue graduate studies and obtained a master's degree in educational psychology with a focus on evaluation and research from University of Colorado Denver. Outside of work Shuyuan enjoys books, movies and exploring the breathtaking scenery of Colorado.

Kristen Young, MPH

Evaluation Manager

Kristen joined the development and implementation team as a project coordinator in 2021 with the goal of supporting the demand for virtual learning and increased health needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She later joined the evaluation team and became the evaluation manager in 2023. Kristen strives to apply her project management experience and public health training toward expanding ECHO Colorado’s program evaluation to measure and disseminate its impact on improving access to care and reducing health disparities. Kristen received her bachelor of arts in ecology and evolutionary biology from University of Colorado Boulder and her master of public health in population mental health and wellbeing from the Colorado School of Public Health. In her spare time she enjoys athletic and outdoor endeavors including running, cycling, yoga, skiing and spending time with her husband and pup at local craft breweries.

Stefanie Grim, MS, MPH

Health Informatics Researcher

Stefanie leads strategic efforts and management of the PMCC research program. Her primary responsibilities revolve around study design and statistical analysis. She holds graduate degrees in statistics and analytics with a specialization in machine learning and big data techniques. Stefanie is interested in the design and implementation of predictive algorithms to inform solutions to modern-day health care problems. In her free time, she enjoys trail running, mountain biking, snowboarding, playing chess and fostering rescue puppies.

Rodger Kessler, PhD

Associate Professor, Data Informed Care Transformation and Training

Rodger leads special projects and develops and manages strategic initiatives for PMCC; and he leads research teams and collaborations with partners. He is a clinical health psychologist and has been a national leader in integrating behavioral and medical care. Currently his focus is on using multiple data sources to identify and intervene with high-risk patients and evaluating the organizational, clinical and cost effectiveness of eConsults. His personal passions include musical performing, living on an island, raising bonsai trees and golden retrievers. 

Mayra Loera

Business Services Senior Professional

Mayra joined the Peer Mentored Care Collaborative team in 2021. In her role, she provides essential support to the administrative functions of the department, which involves various tasks and processes that ensure smooth operations. Mayra manages schedules, organizes meetings, coordinates logistics and assists with procurement. She also contributes to the success of the eConsult program by assisting with coordination, communicating with key stakeholders and ensuring the smooth flow of operations. Her efforts help connect community providers to specialists at the Anschutz Medical Campus to help improve access to care and reduce health disparities. Mayra graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver where she earned a bachelor of science degree in health care management. She is a first generation graduate and is fluent in Spanish and English. After graduating, she worked at the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance as a programs assistant, where she helped support women who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In her free time, Mayra enjoys spending time with family and friends, going to concerts and shopping!

Kathryn Michel, MS

Finance & Administration Program Manager

Kat joined PMCC after 20 years as a research administrator on the CU Boulder Campus. She has been the program manager of finance and administration since 2019, with the goal of managing and expanding our funding portfolio so that more interdisciplinary and interagency work can deliver improved health outcomes to underserved populations in Colorado. Kat received her bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a master of science in research administration from Johns Hopkins University. In her spare time she engages in project management for an educational nonprofit organization, historical clothing research and re-enactment, sewing, playing with her cats and doing Middle Eastern dance.