Support Team
Creative Manager
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

As part of the UW Population Health Institute’s Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) Group, Ashley helps develop Envision’s online resources and creates materials for Community of Transformation participants. Exploring new storytelling methods and finding ways to connect with audiences have long been her passions. Ashley is excited to support the CHW community as an ally and brings more than a decade of experience this role, including writing and editing, graphic design, event planning, web content development, and social media management.

Training Team
CHW Training Coordinator
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Hmongshee was born and raised in central WI, which she is still located. She attended University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and earned a Bachelors Degree in Healthcare Administration, but always had a passion in community health. Since graduating her focus has been on health equity such as advocating and uplifting marginalized populations in rural communities to improve health.

Recognizing that health disparities widened during the pandemic, Hmongshee began working with immigrant communities in central WI to assist in bettering access to health services. While advocating for the community, she also noticed a lack of diversity and sustainability in the Community Health workforce

Partnering with other Community Health Workers (CHWs) has motivated Hmongshee to empower rural CHWs and support them by having conversations with leadership about improving workforce development in Community Health. Hmongshee hopes to provide more support for CHWs through her role with Envision and MATCH. She is also proud to be a part of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Advisory Committee, where she can be a voice for CHWs and rural marginalized communities.

Support Team
Health and Wellbeing Specialist
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Jen is a Health and Well-Being State Specialist from the UW Madison Division of Extension. Partnering with the University of Wisconsin Madison Population Health Institute MATCH group, she is providing operational management support for several programs including Envision. Jen brings more than 20 years of experience in community programming ranging from home visiting programs for young/first time mothers, to SNAP-Ed nutrition programming, to behavioral health programs to reduce stress in youth and adults. Jen can help you problem-solve your TA/Training needs and questions.

Evaluation Team
Center for Healthcare Value and Equity, LSU School of Medicine

Kelsey is an Evaluation Team Member and a current Ph.D. student studying Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at LSU Health Science Center New Orleans.  She is passionate about uplifting Community Health Worker’s voices and advocating for increased CHWs throughout the US. She worked as a CHW prior to this position for over two years. Outside of this, Kelsey has worked in suicide prevention, behavioral healthcare, public speaking, and disaster preparedness. 

Training Team
Wisconsin CHW Outreach Coordinator
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Marcia is the Wisconsin Community Health Worker Outreach Coordinator with the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) Group of the Population Health Institute. This role is a partnership with the Department of Human Services Chronic Disease Prevention Program to support the advancement of the statewide CHW workforce, strengthen its infrastructure, and sustainability. The passion for Community Health Workers emerged from Marcia’s personal experience as a Promotora de Salud with Planned Parenthood of WI, where she served as the bridge of the Latinx community in Madison to reproductive health education and reproductive justice.

Marcia's work in public health practice is rooted in community, collaboration, and equity.  She is passionate about systems change solutions that elevate and honor the voices of community in partnership with public health systems to improve the health and wellbeing of all. 

Prior to joining the Population Health Institute MATCH Group, Marcia worked for the Healthy Kids Collaborative at UW Health Children's Hospital. She also has experience working in violence prevention, women’s health and reproductive justice, global health, and community health education. Marcia completed her Masters in Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and French at Edgewood College.

TA Team
Executive Director PASOs
University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)

Maria has more than 20 years of experience in community health and social service work and administration of non-profit and public programs. As Executive Director of PASOs, she and her team strive to provide culturally responsive education on family health, early childhood, and positive parenting skills; individual guidance for participants in need of resources; and partnership with health care and social service providers to help them provide more effective services. Founded in 2005, PASOs helps the Latino community and service providers work together for strong and healthy families.

TA Team
CHW Program Consultant

University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)

Silvia is one of seven children born to immigrant parents who rose from a humble upbringing to become the first in her family to attend college and earn a degree in Business Administration, with a minor in Hospitality Management, from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona.

For over a decade now, Silvia has worked in the nonprofit sector, earning certificates in Professional Life Coaching, Community Health Work and Doula. Through her work in maternal health, she became an integral part of the accreditation process for Home Visitation Expectant Mothers Programs.  Also, Silvia became the first CHW instructor in the Promotores Academy (where she was once a student).

Silvia has devoted her personal and professional life to her dual passions for health and education. She has learned that the root issues of our society all steam from systems that influence communities to make poor lifestyle choices that result in a poor health and lack of education. Silvia finds joy in working side by side with community members to create strong and healthy foundations in order to thrive in wellness.

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Training Team
Envision Community Health Worker Community of Practice Lead
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Monique is a community health worker with 20 years of experience working with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community and 10 years of experience teaching American Sign Language at the local Community College. She also has a background working with children with special needs, including being a supervised visitation monitor. Monique has had major involvement with local chambers, Rotary clubs, community coalition meetings, and foster youth programs.

She is an active supporter in the community and an advocate for equity and inclusion, standing up for those who feel they don’t have a voice.

Learning the needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, Monique opened a gym and created a nonprofit for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community and underserved populations.

Monique completed her CCHW training at Loma Linda University and was hired there as a community health worker and peer support specialist. She plans to continue in the community health worker profession and assist in furthering this career path for others.

Training Team
Envision CHW Sustainability Lead
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Sara Elise (Essie) is the Community Health Worker (CHW) Sustainability Lead on the ENVISION team at the University of Wisconsin Madison Population Health Institute MATCH group. As the CHW Sustainability Lead, Essie provides technical assistance and capacity building training to CHWs to center health equity within their communities and create sustainability for the CHW profession both locally and nationally.

Essie graduated in 2015 from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, with a BA in criminology and a minor in psychology, focusing on social determinants of health and restorative justice.

Prior to joining the Envision team, Essie worked as a CHW, care coordinator, and a community organizer in rural Colorado. Essie connected, educated, and mobilized the local community to address specific community-identified issues via coalition building, leadership development, and policy change. A highlight of Essie’s experience is living and working in rural Alaska Native Yup’ik communities and working with the local Tribal councils to facilitate daily programming on wellness, cold water safety, emotional intelligence, and outdoor education.

Essie is passionate about building bridges across racial and cultural differences in communities. She emphasizes trust building and finding common ground through relationship building and fostering a space to work toward meaningful change together.

Training Team
Envision Outreach Coordinator
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Throughout her career, Yasamin has combined her love of language and her passion for equity to bring a human lens to her work in public health. She has worked with a range of organizations on initiatives connected to health equity. As the child of Iranian immigrants, she has a passion for making the world a better place for people from all walks of life, while learning about how different communities experience the social determinants of health in markedly different ways in the United States.

Yasamin holds an undergraduate degree in English and earned a Master’s in International Affairs from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the UC San Diego. Currently she is the outreach coordinator for the Envision project, to provide technical assistance for CHWs connected to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Content Director
KineticHealth

With storytelling beginnings in broadcast journalism, Kellie has an ear for the sound of language, and how words bring meaning to life. Her writing and editorial expertise has crisscrossed traditional and new media, crafting engaging and accessible messages for audiences as diverse as first-time moms, motor oil buyers, and fast food fish aficionados. With attention to intention, she helps client organizations target their messaging to produce results.

MATCH Director
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Dr. Allen’s leadership in bringing together national-to-local resources to support underrepresented and underutilized local communities of all types has improved the climate for, visibility and engagement of several underrepresented populations. She aims to build strengths-based community capacity and community-based community system change.

Operations Coordinator
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)

Courtney Raatz is a member of MATCH at the University of Wisconsin, and the Operations Coordinator for the Envision Equitable Communities Training and Technical Assistance Center. Her commitment to community health, equity, and structural power-shifting was fostered and cultivated in Milwaukee, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2020. All of Courtney’s operations, communication, and programming experience has been rooted in collective impact, community building, and health equity initiatives.

Areas of expertise: program development, community building, operations, collective impact