TA Team
Director
Community Health Worker Institute
With a passion for health equity and more than a decade of experience working in the public health and healthcare sectors, Andrea Heyward has supported the efforts of numerous community-based and healthcare organizations providing expertise in the areas of community health, rural health, integration of evidence- based models to include the CHW model. Andrea holds a Master of Science degree in Health Education and Health Communication from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Areas of expertise: health education, grant writing and reviewing, quality improvement coaching and training, program management, technical assistance.
Support Team
Operations Coordinator
Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services
Caitlyn Klostermann is the Operations Coordinator for the envision team. They graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS in Statistics and Gender and Women’s Studies, where they focused on integrating intersectional feminist theory and storytelling with data science.
Prior to joining the envision team, Caitlyn worked as a Technical Solutions Engineer at Epic, supporting the implementation and technical maintenance of the Epic system for healthcare organizations across the US. Previously, they interned at the Wisconsin Women’s Council, where they used their knowledge of statistical analysis and visualization to create factsheets about women’s and infant health in Wisconsin, with an emphasis on health equity. At UW, Caitlyn was part of Slow Food UW—a branch of the international Slow Food NGO—which amplified their interest in community organizing and food justice.
TA Team
Technical Assistance Manager
University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)
Erin is a Community Health Worker Program Consultant for Envision. With more than ten years of experience connecting resources with community members, Erin is familiar with the many barriers that they may encounter. Trained as an educator, Erin’s background in community engagement has led to her facilitating the Stanford-based Chronic Disease Self-Management Program as well as working as a Certified Community Health Worker Trainer. She has a passion for addressing health inequities and providing support and creative ways to affect change.
Areas of expertise include: CHW Coaching, CHW association and network development, SNAP-ED Nutrition Education, community engagement and training,
Support Team
Communications I Marketing
KineticHealth
John knows better than most that engaging stories are a careful mix of visuals and language that unlock our imaginations and lower our resistance to saying “yes!”. John’s career in Marketing & Advertising has explored diverse industries for the better part of three decades with the past few years landing him in the world of community health where he has quickly become an impassioned CHW ally.
Evaluation Team
Evaluation Manager
Center for Healthcare Value and Equity, LSU School of Medicine
Kira has almost 15 years of experience working in the non-profit and public heath sectors in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her Master of Public Administration, with a concentration in Community Development, from the University of New Orleans.
Her work has supported programming and evaluation in the areas of disaster case management, primary care behavioral health integration, healthcare access and in Early Head Start schools.
TA Team
CHW Program Consultant
University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)
Soledad Bolden is Community Health Worker and Program Manager with over eight years of experience and now an envision CHW Program Consultant. Prior to joining the envision team, Soledad was a Middle School Science Teacher. She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and received her Masters in Secondary Education from Brooklyn College. She was also an Educational Specialist, leading various sessions in providing best practices in the classroom to teachers across the district.
Support Team
CHW Coordinator
Wisconsin DHS Chronic Disease Prevention Unit
Morgan is a Community Health Worker Coordinator for the Department of Health Services in Wisconsin. In her role, she works to coordinate CHW initiatives including training, sustainability, partnerships, and workforce development across Wisconsin. She has also worked with UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health through the Population Health Institute, focusing on the local government and community health organization sectors of health care.
Areas of expertise: Community Health Workers, care coordination services, environmental health/injustice, health equity, community sustainability
Training Team
Envision CHW Sustainability Lead
University of Wisconsin—Population Health Institute
Sara Elise (Essie) is the Community Health Worker (CHW) Sustainability Lead on the envision team at the University of Wisconsin Madison Population Health Institute. 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.
