Pioneers in Health

Dr. Beth Oller, M.D., Family Medicine Physician, Rooks County Health Center Ep. 28: Dr. Beth Oller is a family medicine physician at Rooks County Health Center in Plainville, Kansas. She graduated from Wesley Family Medicine Residency in Wichita and has pursued clinical interests in maternal and child care, quality improvement, and rural medicine/access to care. In this episode, she discusses her...

Audé Negrete, Executive Director, Kansas Latino Community Network Audé Negrete serves as the executive director of the Kansas Latino Community Network, an organization that works to improve health equity by empowering Latinos through nonpartisan civic engagement, leadership development and coalition building. Audé’s passion for civic engagement began at her grandmother’s kitchen table when she was...

Mike Matson is a lifelong Kansan whose career has touched various aspects of communications: radio and TV news, press secretary to a governor, systems advocacy, newspaper columnist, deejay and podcast/radio talk show host. He also has authored two books that center on alcoholism – one a family memoir of growing up in an alcoholic home and one about his own story of addiction. In this episode, he d...

Haley Kottler serves as the thriving and integrated voter engagement director at Kansas Appleseed. Haley, a proud Kansas native born in Wichita, oversees Kansas Appleseed’s anti-hunger advocacy and economic justice work across the state.  She engages with Kansans in anti-hunger advocacy, leading grassroots campaigns and making the case for change through policy and legislative action. Her fight fo...

Pioneers in Health Episode 24, May 22, 2025 – Becca Graves, Executive Director, Perigee Fund Becca Graves serves as the executive director of the Perigee Fund based in Seattle, Washington. The Perigee Fund is a philanthropy deeply committed to equity and compelled by the urgent need to increase support for families impacted by trauma. It invests in systems change to ensure that during pregnancy an...

Pioneers in Health Episode 23, May 8, 2025 –  Brenda Sharpe, President & CEO, REACH Healthcare Foundation Brenda Sharpe has more than 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and has served as President and CEO of the REACH Healthcare Foundation since 2004. As the Foundation’s first CEO, she helped define the organization’s grantmaking priorities and processes and established an effectiv...

Pioneers in Health Episode 22, April 24, 2025 –  Ton Mirás Neira, Community Health Worker Project Manager, Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE), Department of Family Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center. Antonio (Ton) Mirás Neira was born and raised in Galicia, Spain. He studied sign language interpretation at the Universidade de Vigo and graduated with a specialized degree in...

Pioneers in Health Episode 21, April 10, 2025 – Julie Lorenz, Senior Managing Consultant, 1898 & Co. After leading the Kansas Department of Transportation for four years, Julie joined 1898 & Co., the business and technology consulting arm of Burns & McDonnell, where she serves as a senior managing consultant. With more than 25 years of experience, she’s known as a national leader in po...

Pioneers in Health Episode 20, March 27, 2025 – Kathleen Kelly Daughety, Vice President of Campaigns and Civic Engagement, Inseparable Inseparable is the only mental health advocacy organization focused on building a social movement with the power to win major federal and state reforms that will save lives and improve care for millions of Americans. Inseparable recognizes that the health of our mi...

Pioneers in Health Episode 19, March 13, 2025 – Jim McLean, Senior Reporter, Kansas News Service Jim McLean is the Senior Reporter of Kansas News Service, where he directs a team of editors and reporters covering education, health and politics for public radio stations across Kansas. McLean also serves as Executive Editor of the KHI News Service, where he oversees the editorially independent initi...

Ashley All MS, President, Kansas Coalition for Common Sense Ashley All is an experienced communication strategist and advocate serving as President of the Kansas Coalition for Common Sense since May 2023, where the focus is on empowering Kansas voters through research-based messaging.  Previously, Ashley held key roles including Senior Advisor at Families United for Freedom, Director of Communicat...

Pioneers in Health Episode 17, February 6, 2025 – Justin Duncan BS, NRP, CCEMT-P, FP-C Justin Duncan serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Washington County Ambulance District. Chief Duncan holds a Bachelor of Science in EMS Administration and is currently a graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership degree. Chief Duncan has a long history in EMS, serving as bot...

Pioneers in Health Episode 16, January 23, 2025 – Courtney Younglove, MD, FOMA, FACOG, DABOM Dr. Younglove understands the battle with obesity.  She began her struggles with excess weight in adolescence.  Prior to getting her degree in Obesity Medicine, she gained and lost the same forty pounds at least twenty times.  She is also a busy single mother of three boys and understands how tempting it i...

Pioneers in Health Episode 15, January 9, 2025 – Sonja Armbruster MA, public health educator, consultant, and advocate. Sonja Armbruster has an insatiable curiosity about how we can improve public health practice. She seeks new ways to learn, practice, think and do. Her interests include quality improvement, public health agency performance improvement, health policy, public health workforce devel...

Pioneers in Health Episode 14, December 19, 2024 – Anne Dwyer, Associate Research Professor of the Practice, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families (CCF). Anne Dwyer is an Associate Research Professor of the Practice at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families (CCF). Her research and policy work f...

Pioneers in Health Episode 13, December 5, 2024 – Sapphire Garcia BS CLE CPD, founder and executive director, Kansas Birth Justice Society.   Sapphire Garcia is the founder and executive director of the Kansas Birth Justice Society, a nonprofit focused on policy change and direct community support to catalyze reproductive justice and perinatal health equity in Kansas.   The organization was incorp...

Pioneers in Health Episode 12, November 21, 2024 – Sonja Bachus BBA MJ CHCEF, Senior Vice President, PCA and HCCN Relations, National Association of Community Health Centers. Kansas native Sonja W. Bachus, BBA, MJ, CHCEF, will transition as of December 2024 from her role as CEO of the Community Care Network of Kansas (CCNKS) to serve as Senior Vice President, Primary Care Association and Health Ce...

Pioneers in Health Episode 11, November 7, 2024 – Clay Wirestone, Opinion Editor, Kansas Reflector.   Clay Wirestone serves as Kansas Reflector's opinion editor. His work has appeared in more than 100 outlets in two dozen states. He has written columns and edited copy for newsrooms in Kansas, New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania. He has also fact checked politicians, researched for Larry the Ca...

Pioneers in Health Episode 10, October 24, 2024 – Shannon Cotsoradis, Director of Policy and Strategy, Buffett Early Childhood Fund.   Continuing her longstanding dedication to improving the lives of children and families, Kansas native Shannon Cotsoradis has served since 2023 as director of policy and strategy at the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, where she leverages her extensive experience in th...

Pioneers in Health Episode 9, October 10, 2024 – Matt All, President and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas Matt All is the President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS), the state’s largest and only locally owned health insurance provider. As a mutually owned, not-for-profit health plan, BCBSKS serves nearly one million members with the state’s largest provider network and...

In this episode, we hear from Krista Postai and Jason Wesco with Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK) - two very innovative health leaders who have worked to improve the health of individuals and communities in southeast Kansas over the last two-plus decades and have done amazing work not only in primary, behavioral, and oral health care but also in addressing the social factors t...

Brock Slabach is the COO of the National Rural Health Association and is an expert on rural health, health system delivery and payment reform, and improving access to health care. Prior to joining NRHA in 2008, Brock served as a rural hospital administrator for more than 21 years and has served on the NRHA board and the regional policy board of the American Hospital Association. Brock specializes...

Benjamin Anderson is the President and CEO of Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System, where he is responsible for the management, direction, and coordination of all operations and related activities in pursuit of organizational goals and objectives.   During the four years prior to joining HRHS, Benjamin served as Vice President for Rural Health and Hospitals at the Colorado Hospital Association, w...

Lindsay Ford is the Executive Director at The Voter Network, a Kansas-based nonprofit organization aiming to increase participation in the electoral process as a strategy to improve health outcomes. Prior to serving at The Voter Network Lindsay worked for the Mayor of Kansas City, Kansas where she oversaw policy and project management. She previously held roles in corporate community relations and...

April Holman is the Executive Director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. The Alliance was formed in 2016 to educate Kansas policy leaders and citizens about the health and economic benefits of expanding KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income children and adults. April has spent the past two decades working to improve public policy in Kansas. She started her career as an analyst f...