Senior Program Officer, The Colorado Health Foundation
Email: CBui@ColoradoHealth.org
Chris Bui has been involved in the field of public health and health care for more than 12 years. He cites the role of health advocacy—and its impact on changing lives—as the key driver for promoting public health.
A licensed attorney and activist, Chris helped launch the Denver Health Medical Legal Partnership (MLP), which is dedicated to eliminating social and economic barriers impacting our communities. Working through a legal lens, Chris and MLP partners worked to foster collaboration between healthcare providers, other legal professionals, and community leaders to alleviate adverse health outcomes for the most vulnerable Coloradans.
As a public health advocate, Chris has welcomed the opportunity to work alongside community members and testify before state and local policymakers on matters that impact public health. His specialization centers on tobacco prevention legislation and integrating health-in-all policies into any community change discussion.
In his role as senior program officer at the foundation, Chris is eager to help communities navigate their journey toward creating positive change in the places they call home. He will serve on the locally focused team while working directly with communities in Eagle County. Day-to-day, he aims to garner a better understanding of community and partner needs, while ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s cornerstones that are grounded in equity. Chris believes the most complex community challenges can be addressed through creativity and innovation and, of course, a public health lens.
A Colorado resident since 2007, Chris’ healthiest hobby is enjoying every season in the mountains with his family. Chris and his wife, Alison Grace, are big time “foodies,” and routinely look for new restaurants to enjoy. Together they have two young children who love to adventure anywhere life takes them.
His guilty pleasure? Thrifting—a time he likes to spend by himself wandering various thrift shops across Denver.
Data Manager
Email: alexis.engelgau@cuanschutz.edu
Recent MPH grad working in data Management for local nonprofits supporting anti-violence efforts.
Research Services Professional
Email: deanna.kapitanec@cuanschutz.edu
Deanna Kapitanec recently graduated from the Colorado School of Public Health with a concentration in Health Management, Systems, and Policy plus Global Health. She moved to Colorado two years ago from Michigan to pursue her master's degree. She previously received her Bachelor of Science in Human Biology from Michigan State University (go green!). Currently, she is working as a research services professional in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Department on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Deanna's research is focused heavily on substance use disorder and how it affects respiratory outcomes in patients that come to the ICU and need to be intubated. She is excited to have completed her master's degree and finally kickstart her career in the public health workforce and she can't wait to see what the future has in store.
Executive Director, Denver Indian Health and Family Services, Inc.
Email: amaddux@dihfs.org
Adrianne Maddux is the executive director of Denver Indian Health and Family Services, Inc. (DIHFS). Before her appointment in 2018, she served as the Chief Operating Officer and Acting CEO at DIHFS and has been with the program since June 2007. In addition, she has dedicated her career to working in the healthcare industry with over 35 years of experience, and has spent the last 13 years working in Indian Country. Her current position requires strengths in strategic leadership, advocacy for health policy initiatives that address the health disparities in American Indian/Alaska Native individuals; proficiency in operation oversight; compliance with state, federal, and local laws and regulations; maintaining a sustainable health clinic; interpreting and administrating DIHFS policies and procedures; coordinating functions with various community health and welfare programs; fiscal planning and management; creating and maintaining a professional working environment; and serving as a liaison to staff from the governing board. Ms. Maddux serves on the board of directors for the National Council of Urban Indian Health and Denver Indian Family Resource Center. She is a member of the Hopi Tribe of Shungapavi (Second Mesa), Arizona, and holds a BS in Business Management.
Public Health Consultant
Email: kamatthe@comcast.net
Kathleen Matthews, as a public health consultant, is committed to developing strong public health infrastructures in Colorado among state and local public health agencies, academia, and the numerous other partners within the public health system. Forty years ago, when Kathleen decided to pursue a career in public health, Colorado did not have any graduate programs in this field, so she completed her studies at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. After returning to her home state, she was fortunate to be part of the leadership to build a school of public health. After six years of dedicated work, the Colorado School of Public Health opened as the first collaborative school with Colorado’s major universities—CU, CSU and UNC—in the Rocky Mountain region.
Following this, she moved to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to guide the implementation of Colorado’s Public Health Act of 2008, a legislative effort to update Colorado’s statutes regarding local public health agencies. Her office provided technical assistance and funding support for counties to assess their health and environmental status to develop strategies for comprehensive, local public health improvement.
Her public health work has focused on the areas of behavioral, social, and environmental change needed to support healthy communities in various topics such as HIV/AIDS, injury prevention, emergency preparedness, heart health, college health, immunizations, and environmental health. Having worked in local, state, and federal agencies, community‐based non‐profits, and universities, she understands not only the various systems, but also how systems need to work in tandem. Kathleen has taught courses in community, behavioral, and social determinants of health primarily at the University of Denver, where she also served as program director for the Masters of Public Health and Masters of Healthcare Systems programs.
Medical Director, Larimer County Department of Health and Environment
Email: drcnwchris@gmail.com
Community Health Specialist, Kaiser Permanente
Email: andrea.n.law@kp.org
Andréa Law is a community health specialist at Kaiser Permanente with over a decade and a half of experience in equity and inclusion and building community partnerships. She currently manages the economic opportunity strategy at Kaiser Permanente, which supports low-income individuals and families, small and moderate minority and women-owned businesses, and nonprofits to stabilize, recover, and rebuild for resilience.
Before stepping into her current role in community health, Andréa served as an equity and inclusion specialist at Kaiser Permanente. She managed a partnership between the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the Office of
Inclusion & Outreach to establish an alliance of diverse students that help diversify the field of health care providers. Under her leadership the Kaiser Permanente Diversity Scholarship Program was created, which from 2006-2020 provided
nearly $1 million to diverse students interested in pursuing careers related to health care.
Andréa has been with Kaiser Permanente since early 2003 and lends her expertise in program management to progressing strategic community initiatives throughout the Denver-Metro, southern and northern communities of Colorado. Andréa previously served on the Colorado State University Employer Advisory Board and continues to serve as a consultant for pipeline development programming.
Public Health Consultant and Leadership Coach
Email: laurieschneider212@gmail.com
Laurie Schneider has worked in public health at the local, state, and national levels. Her work has focused on advancing health equity through chronic disease prevention and management, tobacco control, school health, health literacy, infant mortality reduction, and public health workforce development initiatives. Laurie most recently served as the Deputy Director of the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In this role, she provided strategic leadership to advance health and racial equity through chronic disease policy and programmatic efforts. Prior to joining CDPHE, Laurie managed the Colorado Public Health Training Center at the Colorado School of Public Health and helped launch the Region VIII Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center and the ECHO Colorado virtual peer learning platform. She also worked with Strategic Health Concepts, Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education, AMC Cancer Research Center, and the Detroit Health Department. She now works as a public health consultant and a leadership coach.
She has served on many Advisory Boards including the: ECHO Colorado, Regional Institute for Health and Environmental Leadership, Colorado Public Health Association, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, and A-35 Grant Review Committees.
Clinical Professor & Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Email: Michael.Talamantes@du.edu
Michael Talamantes is a clinical professor and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at the Graduate School of Social Work, where he has been a faculty member since 2013. He is the coordinator of the health and wellness concentration and also of the dual degree MSW/MPH program, which is a collaborative program with the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health. He was a clinical social worker at the University of Colorado Hospital on the liver transplant team for 21 years through 2013. He is the Co-PI of HRSA’s numerous Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) grant (CLIMB), which was awarded to GSSW in 2017 and 2021 and Co-PI of HRSA’s Opioid Workforce Expansion Program, which was awarded to GSSW in 2019. He is also a collaborator with the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence in the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, which provides additional training and a stipend to MSW students entering the geriatric workforce. Talamantes is a Disparities Scholar from the National Institutes of Health Translational Health Disparities Conference in 2014 and a Behavioral Health Training fellow from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA) (2017). He is an active member of the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC), the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA), and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Talamantes also has an appointment as a clinical instructor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine-Department of Pediatrics and as an adjunct assistant professor of community and behavioral health at the Colorado School of Public Health.
