Selected Work
Projects and initiatives I've led spanning accelerator design, portfolio management, learning & field building, and curriculum design & delivery—across federal government, national nonprofits, higher education, and independent practice.
Incubator and Accelerator Design
Designing and leading intensive programs that move innovators from early-stage ideas to tested, scalable approaches — through curriculum, coaching, and direct partnership with teams.
Breakthrough Accelerator | Child Trends
A 10-month, competitive, federally-funded accelerator supporting innovators developing early-stage adolescent health solutions. As lead innovation partner, I co-designed the cohort experience, including team selection criteria, training content, and the coaching framework, and worked directly with teams throughout the program. As of summer 2026, Breakthrough is completing is second cohort and selecting its third cohort of innovators.
ASPPH Public Health Innovation Lab | The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
A hands-on innovation lab and pitch competition for public health students, delivered at the ASPPH Annual Conference. Selected participants work through a structured design process to develop novel approaches to persistent public health challenges. I conceptualized the lab, designed the curriculum and all materials, and deliver the entire experience, including coaching each team through the design process. The Lab just completed its third year and is already planning for next year.
Innovation Next | Power to Decide
An 8-month, competitive, federally-funded incubator program for innovators developing solutions to adolescent sexual and reproductive health challenges, housed at Power to Decide. I led and continuously refined the program across four cohorts—overseeing team selection, curriculum, coaching, and Demo Day. Innovations that emerged from the program went on to launch in market and secure competitive federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct randomized controlled trials in pursuit of becoming evidence-based programs.
Portfolio Management & Investment
Overseeing portfolios of programs and investments — from strategy to accountability to scale.
Innovation Portfolio | Power to Decide
Have overseen a portfolio of programs totaling more than $11 million in annual funding at its peak, across sustainable earned revenue, training and technical assistance, and field-building. Lead testing and learning activities for the organization's participation in The Studio @ Blue Meridian as it relates to sustainable earned revenue. Co-led a donor strategy resulting in over $6 million in renewed or net-new philanthropic investment, with a 100% grant renewal rate within my portfolio.
Federal Grantmaking Portfolio | U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
As a Program Officer at HHS, I managed a portfolio of more than $20 million in federal grants to government agencies and community organizations working to improve adolescent health outcomes. Beyond compliance monitoring, my focus was on helping grantees develop stronger approaches — through site visits, technical assistance, and direct coaching — and on surfacing what was working across the portfolio to inform federal strategy and field practice.
Learning & Field-Building
Designing shared learning experiences that help organizations and key stakeholders in the broader field make sense of what's working and why.
Contraceptive Equity Initiative Shared Learning Collaborative | Power to Decide
A national collaborative I convened and facilitated, bringing together leaders from contraceptive access initiatives across the country to surface what was working, why, and under what conditions, and translate those insights into practical guidance for the field. A key product was a digital best practices toolkit for seeding contraceptive access initiatives in new communities, designed to support nationwide expansion of contraceptive access while reducing duplication of effort.
Reproductive Well-Being Shared Learning Collaborative | Power to Decide
A multi-year collaborative I convened and facilitated, supporting place-based teams across the country in translating a national movement for reproductive well-being into local implementation. Through structured convenings and shared learning, I helped teams navigate the challenges of community-level work, surfacing what was working across sites and building the collective knowledge needed to strengthen implementation nationwide.
National Convenings and Funder Briefings | Various
Design and lead national convenings, strategic briefings, and funder engagement sessions across the reproductive health field, including regional funder briefings, investor roundtables, and partnership strategy sessions. Examples include the All Access Eastern Kentucky Regional Funder Briefing and the Breakthrough Lab Demo Day.
Teaching & Curriculum Design
Designing learning experiences that develop the next generation of public health leaders—in the classroom and beyond.
Graduate and Undergraduate Courses | George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health
Design and teach courses at the undergraduate and doctoral level on pedagogy, design thinking, public health policy, and social justice, reaching thousands of students over more than a decade. Courses integrate adult learning theory, human-centered design, and applied project-based learning, and frequently culminate in public-facing pitch sessions and stakeholder presentations.
From Resistance to Readiness | APHA Annual Conference Learning Institute
A pre-conference session competitively selected for the APHA Annual Meeting, the nation's most preeminent public health conference bringing together public health professionals. I co-facilitated the full session, guiding participants through the simulation, in which they navigate realistic systems change scenarios requiring strategic decision-making under uncertainty, and debriefing the strategic insights that emerged.
Designing the Future | APHA Annual Conference
A panel session at the APHA Annual Meeting on innovation in undergraduate public health education. I presented on the design thinking course I conceptualized, developed, and teach at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, work that has since generated requests from faculty at other universities seeking to collaborate and adapt the model.