Nancy Young, MPA

Executive Director 

Nancy Young is guiding the development of the Institute for WIsconsin’s Health with the assistance of the IWHI Board of Directors [hyperlink to BOD listing] and the staff and consultants listed here. She has over 25 years of experience in community health leadership in the public and private sectors - including administration, research, strategic and program planning, evaluation and meeting facilitation. 

Nancy has been a health department director, board of health member and was a recipient of of the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s Presidential Citation. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she received the Stephen Hintz MPA award for sustained academic excellence and commitment to public service.

She is also the owner of Gray Horse Consulting, a strategic planning and program evaluation firm founded in 2000.

Jim Butler

Quality Improvement Consultant

Jim Butler, Principal of James Butler & Associates, manages a consulting practice specializing in meeting accreditation and quality improvement needs of public health departments.  As the former Public Health Administrator within the Michigan Department of Community Health, Mr. Butler served as ASTHO Senior Deputy, directed the Office of Local Health Services, served as Administrator for Michigan’s Local Public Health Accreditation Program, and was co-chair of the Michigan Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC) Steering Committees I & II.  He led the QI Learning Sessions training on PDSA with twelve Michigan local health departments for MLC-III.  He is co-author of Embracing Quality in Local Public Health:  Michigan’s Quality Improvement Guidebook for health departments seeking to begin or advance implementation of QI.

Aleena M. Hernandez, MPH

Tribal Health Consultant

Aleena M. Hernandez is the Principal and Founder of Red Star Innovations, LLC. Red Star Innovations specializes in national public health consulting services, specifically in the area of performance, capacity and infrastructure development, with Tribes, Tribal and non-profit organizations, associations and federal, state and local governments. Services include, but are not limited to, Tribal public health accreditation readiness, strategic planning, program development and evaluation, community health assessment and improvement planning, quality improvement training and technical assistance.  Aleena has a Master’s degree in Public Health, Community Health Practice Concentration, from The University of Arizona, and a Bachelor’s degree in Education. She has nearly 20 years of experience working with Tribes and Tribal organizations and programs serving Native Americans. Much of her work has focused on strengthening partnerships to advance shared goals in the areas of public health capacity, tribally-driven and participatory research practices, community health assessment, and improvement planning. Aleena is also an Adjunct Lecturer at The University of Arizona, College of Public Health, Division of Health Promotion Sciences.

Heidi Keating, BA

Quality Improvement Consultant

Heidi Keating, is a quality improvement consultant for Wisconsin’s Public Health Quality Initiative. She is a QI leader and trainer at the Wisconsin Resource Center in Winnebago, WI.  She is responsible for maintaining accreditation with the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC).  Before moving to Wisconsin, she was a community improvement planner and a performance consultant for the Florida Department of Health, where she worked with health departments as a content expert in performance measurement and quality improvement. She is a Certified Correctional Health Professional and has also received an American Society of Quality, Quality Improvement Associate certification. 

Kate Konkle, MPH

Quality Improvement Consultant

Kate Konkle is a Program Manager with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. She is working with the Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute and MATCH project. In 2010, she completed a two-year placement as a UWPHI Fellow at the Division of Public Health Western Region Office in which she was involved with Wisconsin’s Public Health Quality Initiative, leading a variety of assessment and quality improvement efforts.  Kate continues to support local partners involved with quality improvement projects and integration in her role as a consultant with IWHI.  She has also worked on projects related to community health improvement planning, and public health preparedness.  Kate’s MPH is from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was the 2010 recipient of the Wisconsin Public Health Association's New Public Health Worker of the Year award.

Beverly J. Larson, MPH, RN, CPHQ

Quality Improvement Consultant & Program Manager

Bev Larson has a record of accomplishment in public health, HMO management, and quality systems. Bev was the Director of Public Health for Polk County, WI for 21 years. She worked for Mayo’s Health Tradition Health Plan HMO in La Crosse, WI for 14 years as the Director of Operations & Clinical Services with a focus on population health and quality management.  She is currently the Program Manager for the Wisconsin Public Health Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) and a Quality Improvement Consultant with the Institute for Wisconsin’s Health, Inc.  Bev holds a national certification as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, along with an MPH in Healthcare Management from the University of Minnesota.  She is a past-president of the Wisconsin Public Health Association. 

Kusuma Madamala, PhD, MPH

Public Health Systems/Evaluation Consultant

Kusuma Madamala is an independent public health systems consultant with 15 years of experience in public health practice and research in community-based organizations, academia and non-profit settings. She has consulted with organizations such as the National Network of Public Health Institutes and the Association of State & Territorial Health Officials.  She previously served as a senior scientist at the American Medical Association leading initiatives to bridge population health and clinical health services. Kusuma currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health where she has taught Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation. She is a member of the Public Health Accreditation Board’s Research and Evaluation Committee, a section councilor for the Health Administration Section of the American Public Health Association and has served as a member of the Advisory Committee for AcademyHealth’s Public Health Systems Research. 

Tommye Schneider, BS 

Environmental Health Consultant

Tommye Schneider recently retired from her position as Director of Environmental Health and Laboratories at Public Health Madison & Dane County.  Some of her primary responsibilities in that role included participation on the department management team, and directing all environmental health programs for the Department. Tommye has extensive experience in managing the merger of the city and county health departments and environmental health programs, budget development, program evaluation, and meeting facilitation. Under her leadership the department received national awards for its food protection program (1997 Samuel J. Crumbine Award) and tobacco control program (1998 NACCHO Award). She is a member of the National Environmental Health Association and the WIsconsin Environmental Health Association. 

Dustin Young, BA

Project Specialist

Dustin Young is a Project Specialist with Gray Horse Consulting and the Institute for Wisconsin’s Health, Inc.  In his work at Gray Horse and IWHI, Dustin focuses on a wide variety of project support duties, including multimedia project development and website administration.  Prior to joining IWHI, Dustin served as an AmericorpsVISTA in two Madison area schools, where he worked with staff and local organizations to establish community partnerships.  Dustin graduated from Marquette University in 2008 with a degree in International Affairs and is proficient in Spanish.