Leadership Team
Featured
Leadership & Evaluation Teams
Associate Professor Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, LSU School of Public Health; Director, Louisiana Community Health Worker Institute; Assistant Director, Center for Healthcare Value and Equity, LSU School of Medicine
Dr. Wennerstrom specializes in Community Health Worker training, policy, and workforce development as well as community-academic partnered research, behavioral health, SDOH, and incarceration.
Leadership & TA Teams
CCHA Executive Director
University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)
CCHA Executive DirectorUniversity of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)Julie Smithwick, CHW, LMSW, has more than 25 years of experience working alongside communities to address inequities. Julie is the founder and director of the Center for Community Health Alignment at the University of South Carolina, which also houses the Community Health Worker Institute. Prior to developing the Center, Julie founded and led PASOs, a community-based CHW organization. She also helped found the South Carolina CHW Association and is on the Boards of various organizations including the National Association of Community Health Workers.
Areas of expertise: Developing CHW teams and CHW organizations, CHW coaching, CHW association and network development, CHW sustainability and policy, CHW leadership, advocacy, reaching marginalized populations, health and racial equity.
Leadership & Training Teams
Envision Co-Director, Equity and Training
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)
Lesley is the Envision Community Health Worker (CHW) Training and Technical Assistance Center Co-Director. Lesley is based at the University of Wisconsin Madison Population Health Institute MATCH group. Lesley has over 15 years of experience working with communities and coalitions, building leadership capacity to advance health equity through policy and structural changes. Lesley has been providing program leadership, coaching, training and technical assistance through the Population Health Institute since 2008. Her background and practice focus on the social determinants of health and health equity, community organizing, coalition building and deep community engagement. A longtime CHW ally, Lesley is committed to supporting the national CHW movement to achieve workforce equity.
Areas of expertise: SDOH, grassroots community organizing; strategic planning and implementation of public health policy
Leadership & TA Teams
Envision Co-Director CHW, Leadership Development
University of South Carolina—Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA)
Lisa Renee has been a proud member of the CHW workforce for over 30 years. She is passionate about policy development to support the workforce and has drafted legislation to support CHWs. She has spent recent years supporting professional development of her peers through mentoring emerging leaders, developing curriculum, and providing training.
Lisa Renee has co-founded several organizations including the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers and the National Association of Community Health Workers where she serves as a founding board member. She has co-authored publications including the foreword for the textbook, Promoting the Health of the Community: Community Health Workers Describing Their Roles, Competencies and Practice and the initial Smiles for Life Frontline Health Worker module. Her unique background stimulates innovation when providing technical assistance to established and developing CHW programs and associations.
Areas of expertise: network & association development, interdisciplinary partnerships, curriculum development, training, mentoring
Leadership & Support Teams
Chronic Disease Prevention Unit Supervisor Wisconsin DHS
Chronic Disease Prevention Unit
As a registered dietitian nutritionist and program administrator, Mary provides overall coordination and management of the Chronic Disease Prevention Unit (CDPU), including the direction, supervision, development, implementation, coordination, and evaluation of chronic disease prevention programs and several CDC funded grants and cooperative agreements.
Areas of expertise: nutrition, physical activity, and obesity; heart disease and stroke prevention; and diabetes prevention and control
Leadership Team
Envision Co-Director, Development
University of Wisconsin—Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH)
Sherri brings professional and personal lived experience to advancing an equitable public health approach. Having worked on the streets, in communities, health and wellness centers, a health care technology company, and state health departments, Sherri brings a comprehensive view of public health and the essential community components that make it possible for everyone to have what they need to live their most fulfilled lives.
Sherri started her career working with teen moms as a teen mom. She partnered with community health workers (CHWs) to define what health means to them and implemented those solutions. She has a long history of managing and supervising CHW programs, as well as providing training and technical assistance to health departments, CHW organizations, and CHWs. Partnering with CHWs and CHW Allies in government, health care, business, and community-based organizations, she co-directs and sustains the Envision CHW Training and Technical Center, providing structural support, systems change, and advancing policies that create an environment for CHWs and CHW programs to thrive.
Areas of expertise: CHW reimbursement and sustainability, partnership development, policy and systems work, documentation and data collection technology, CHW training and support