Cathy Bradley
Cathy Bradley is Dean of the Colorado School of Public Health and holds the Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. She is also Deputy Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Prior to joining the university, she was the founding Chair of the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Bradley’s research focuses on decisions made at the intersection of work, health insurance, and cancer. She seeks to explain how, when faced with a serious and expensive path to treat illness such as cancer, many workers remain employed to keep employer-based health insurance, despite needs for treatment and convalescence. This research has extended to families and caregivers and their financial consequences. Within this realm, she concentrates on policies that reduce disparate outcomes and financial burden among people who must make these stark choices. Bradley is an expert in Medicaid and using administrative datasets to explore research questions related to health disparities. She has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Institutes of Health since 1998. She is also a first-generation college graduate.
Stephanie Daniel
Stephanie Daniel is the Senior Managing Editor at KUNC, National Public Radio’s Northern Colorado affiliate. Her reporting has been featured on NPR’s 1A, Latino USA, and The Pulse. She previously worked at New York Public Radio and on the podcasts Revisionist History and Empire on Blood. Prior to her journalism career, Daniel wrote and produced commercials and marketing videos for television networks and media companies. In 2018, she was selected by the Education Writers Association to be a Reporting Fellow. During the fellowship, she reported and produced the multimedia series Hire Me: Educating Colorado’s Changing Workforce, which was a finalist for the 2019 Education Writers Association National Awards. Her reporting on the opioid epidemic was part of The Fix: Treating New York’s Opioid Crisis. The podcast won a national award from the Association for Health Care Journalists and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award. She has also won awards from the Associated Press, Colorado Broadcasters Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists. When not working, Daniel enjoys an adventure and has visited more than 20 countries.
Luige Del Puerto
Luige Del Puerto is the Editor of Colorado Politics and The Denver Gazette. He previously covered policy and politics in Phoenix as Publisher and Editor of Arizona News Service, a Phoenix-based media company that publishes the Arizona Capitol Times, the Yellow Sheet Report, and the Arizona Legislative Report. Under his leadership, the Arizona Capitol Times earned nearly 130 journalism awards. A native of the Philippines, Del Puerto covered crime in Manila for several newspapers, including the country’s largest English daily, The Philippine Daily Inquirer. He was part of the Inquirer’s special projects team and covered labor, elections, and national security. He graduated from the school of journalism at the University of Philippines. Del Puerto and his wife immigrated to the United States in 2006 and became U.S. citizens in 2012.
Jeff Moser
Jeff Moser, Chair of CHI’s Board of Trustees and Senior Vice President at Compass One Healthcare, has more than 30 years of health care advisory and consulting experience with expertise in strategic planning, process improvement, operational effectiveness, and organizational change. Prior to joining Compass One, Moser was a Principal with Sg2, a Vizient consulting company, where he specialized in strategic planning, process improvement, operational effectiveness, and organizational change for a wide range of health care systems and companies. He is a frequent presenter and educator on multiple topics, including health care reform, consumerism and patient engagement, ambulatory strategy, and leading practices in care redesign. Moser holds a Master of Science degree in organizational psychology from Springfield College in Massachusetts. Outside of work, he enjoys golf, hiking, skiing, camping, and fly fishing.
Megan Verlee
Megan Verlee is Public Affairs Editor at Colorado Public Radio (CPR), which she joined in 2008, just in time to cover the presidential election. As the station's general assignment reporter, she covered everything from conservation programs on the Eastern Plains to natural gas development on the Western Slope. Since joining CPR, Verlee has won a number of awards, including first place from the Colorado Broadcasters Association for the Biography of a Bill series and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Use of Sound in the 2012 Getting Hands on at Colorado Gators. She also received an award from the Associated Press for use of sound in a story about people raising livestock in urban areas. In 2013, Verlee’s story about Fairplay's world championship pack burro racing took home a Public Radio News Directors Inc. Award for Best Nationally Edited Soft Feature, and she also participated in the State Integrity Investigation, which won a 2013 national Edward R. Murrow Award for Network Radio Investigative Reporting. Before coming to CPR, Verlee spent several years reporting for public radio station WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina. She got her professional start at NPR, editing and producing for Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation. Her work has appeared on numerous national radio programs and in several magazines. Although raised in California, Megan always wanted to live in Colorado. Both of her parents were from Colorado, so she’s long considered the state her home.
CHI’s Team
Karam Ahmad
Karam Ahmad, Managing Director of Partnerships and Development, is responsible for fostering relationships and creating opportunities to support CHI. He previously led the organization’s evaluation portfolio and Acclimate Colorado, CHI’s climate and health portfolio. He is also a subject matter expert in social health information exchange. Born in Northern Colorado, Ahmad has a passion for connecting the dots locally, with data and community input and an upstream focus on social factors that influence health. Ahmad earned his master’s degree in public health from the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University and a certificate in Climate Change and Health from Yale University. When not on the clock, he plays semi-professional soccer in the Mountain Premier League and mixes music as a DJ.
Joe Hanel
Joe Hanel, Director of Communications, shares CHI’s work with a broad audience, including news reporters, legislators, health advocates, and voters. A member of the legislative team, he performs research and analysis on the intersection of politics and policy and the interaction of federal and state health policy. Hanel leads CHI’s work on accessibility for people with visual impairments and is a Commonlook PDF Certified Remediator. Before coming to CHI 10 years ago, he covered politics and the legislature for various Colorado newspapers for two decades. He earned a master’s degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. At home, Hanel lives with his wife, two children, a cat, three goats, and a flock of chickens.
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson, Managing Director of Research, Evaluation, and Convening, ensures the quality, accuracy, and relevance of CHI’s products and deliverables. As a member of the senior leadership team, she is involved in strategic planning, goal setting, relationship-building, and team development. As Director of Policy Analysis, she oversaw data analysis for the Colorado Health Access Survey and used financial modeling and other forms of quantitative analysis to study how both local and federal health policy proposals could affect Colorado, its budgets, and its residents. Johnson serves on the leadership team of the Colorado Maternal Mental Health Collaborative and Framework. She holds a master’s degree in health services research from the University of Colorado. Her academic work focused on the associations between state regulations and nonprofit hospital community benefit spending and behavior. Johnson lives with her husband and two children near her favorite spot in Colorado, the Santa Fe Arts District.
Sara Schmitt
Sara Schmitt, President and CEO, oversees CHI’s strategy and operations. As a Managing Director, she helped envision and create the Metro Denver Partnership for Health and led data-sharing efforts to support public health monitoring and evaluation. Schmitt is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded project to provide technical assistance and support for public health departments in the mountain west region, with a focus on workforce development and data modernization. Schmitt led CHI’s work to develop the Colorado Health IT Roadmap in 2021 for the Colorado Office of eHealth Innovation and work to facilitate the environmental scan in 2019 for hospital partners participating in MDPH’s Public Health-Health Systems Collaboration Work Group as part of the Hospital Transformation Program . She earned a master’s degree in health administration and policy from the University of Chicago. Nearly every Monday of the year, Sara prepares meals in the kitchen at Project Angel Heart.