People
Staff and Management Team
Charles J. Homer MD, MPH
President and CEO
Dr. Charles Homer co-founded the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality in July 1999 and he currently serves as the organization's President and CEO. He is an associate professor of the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard University School of Public Health and an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He was a member of the third US Preventive Services Task Force from 2000-2002 and served as chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Quality Improvement from 1999-2001 and its Steering Committee on Quality Improvement and Management from 2001-2004. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Yale University, his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Homer serves as a member of the Institute of Medicine's Pediatric Health and Quality Measurement Committee specified in the 2009 CHIPRA legislation; chairs the Children’s Measurement Advisory Panel for NCQA; and co-chaired the National Quality Forum (NQF) Child Outcomes Steering Committee from 2009-2010. He is a technical advisor to the Patent Centered Medical Home Initiative of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and also serves on the Performance Measurement Expert Panel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Health Care Quality and Cost Council (HCQCC).
Rachel Sachs Steele, M.Ed.
Chief Operating Officer and Program Director
Ms. Steele is responsible for guiding NICHQ’s operations; offering programmatic leadership; and providing guidance on strategy and organizational development. Rachel comes to us with over ten years of management, healthcare, and business strategy experience. She has been a consultant for the last several years, working independently with non-profits, and as a member of the Bard Group--a boutique firm working with physicians and hospitals--to strengthen strategy, organizational development, and executive and management capabilities. Before that, Rachel provided strategic planning, organizational development, and clinical quality expertise for Network Health, a Medicaid health plan based in Cambridge, and serving Massachusetts. Rachel has a Masters degree in counseling psychology, and is a certified Myers Briggs practitioner.
Hillary Anderson
Project Manager
Hillary joined NICHQ in 2008 as a Project Coordinator on the Learning Collaborative: “Improving Systems of Care for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs.” She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in Community Health at Brown University, where she wrote a senior honors thesis on “Reproductive Intentions of HIV positive men and women in Cape Town, South Africa.” Prior to NICHQ, Hillary received the Royce Fellowship for Sport and Society, providing the opportunity to do volunteer work with the South African Medical Research Council. While her travels abroad provide valuable experience, Hillary’s true acclaim is as a former Sailing Instructor at the Community Sailing Center in Burlington, VT, where she worked to increase access to Lake Champlain.
Bob R. Bower MBA, CPA
Director of Finance
Bob has more than thirty years experience working for nonprofit organizations, primarily in colleges. At NICHQ, he is responsible for all aspects of the financial management; including budgeting, financial reporting, cash flow, billing, and grant and contract management. Bob is active in his church and is also the Treasurer of Ecclesia Ministries.
Emily Clermont MPH
Project Manager
Emily is a Project Manager for NICHQ focusing on various perinatal projects for the organization. She has previous work experience at Boston area hospitals including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital, Boston. Prior to joining NICHQ in January 2010, Emily spent four years working for the Quality Improvement Committee in the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital. There, she provided administrative support, project management, and data analysis and systems management for the QI committee. Recently, she has also worked as a research assistant for the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Advisory Committee where her focus was on pediatric health care. Emily is a graduate of Stonehill College with a Bachelor of Arts. She completed her MPH in Epidemiology and received a certificate in Leadership and Management from Boston University School of Public Health.
Erin Ellingwood
Project Coordinator
Erin is a Project Coordinator for several of NICHQ’s programs including the childhood obesity initiative and the New York State Department of Health Breastfeeding Initiative. Prior to joining NICHQ in June, Erin worked as the assistant to the Chief of the Immunology Division at Children’s Hospital Boston where she coordinated major events and acted as a liaison between the research and clinical units of the division. She moved to Boston from Ohio in 2007 after graduating from Kenyon College with a bachelor’s degree in drama and English with a creative writing emphasis.
Melanie Hayden
Director of Development
As Director of Development, Melanie researches, writes and tracks grant applications to support NICHQ’s many project areas. She also pursues corporate sponsorship and philanthropic funding to supplement new and existing programs. Melanie came to NICHQ from Children’s Hospital Boston, where she worked with the Corporate Development and Marketing team to secure event and program sponsorship, corporate foundation grants and cause-related marketing programs. Prior to Children’s, she planned events and integrated fundraising campaigns for public policy organizations and political campaigns across Massachusetts. Melanie is particularly interested in corporate philanthropy, and the growing desire of consumers to use their buying power in the support of good corporate citizens. She received her Bachelor’s in history from Geneva College in Pennsylvania, and is currently pursuing her Master’s in non-profit management at the Harvard University Extension School.
Priya Nair Heatherley MS
Senior Project Manager and Director of Staff Development
Priya has over six years of experience in project management, healthcare operations and consulting. Prior to moving to Boston, Priya worked as a hospital-based administrator in Allen, Texas. As the Director of the Women's Health Service line and Community Education she implemented quality improvement projects and was responsible for staff, revenue and expense targets. She coordinated expansion projects and was successful in surpassing revenue goals. More recently, Priya held the role of Managing Consultant with the Healthcare Strategy Division of the Bard Group/ Navigant Consulting. At Bard/ Navigant she was responsible for managing and co-leading multiple strategy projects with physicians, academic medical centers, and community-based hospitals. Priya received her MS in Healthcare Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.
Marianne McPherson PhD, MA, MS
Director of Applied Research and Evaluation
Marianne joined NICHQ in 2009 as an Evaluation Advisor primarily working on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, “Healthcare Professionals as Community Leaders in the Fight Against Obesity.” At NICHQ, she is developing, managing, and executing the evaluation of the project in conjunction with the NICHQ obesity team and NICHQ’s national partners. Marianne holds a PhD in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University; her dissertation focused on physician advocacy for adolescent reproductive health policy. She received her MS in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health, her MA in Women’s and Gender studies from Brandeis, and her BA in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Harvard College. Prior to joining NICHQ, she worked at Goodman Research Group, Inc., Ibis Reproductive Health, and Our Bodies Ourselves.
Rachelle Mirkin MPH
Executive Program Director
Rachelle is the Executive Program Director overseeing NICHQ’s childhood obesity activities, including the management of the Childhood Obesity Action Network and the newly launched RWJF funded advocacy program. Prior to joining NICHQ, Rachelle was the Managing Director for Regional Health Education at The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) in California where she oversaw aspects of member education, provider training, marketing, and communications services. Under her leadership the team developed and implemented award-winning programs to improve outcomes in programmatic areas including diabetes, asthma, obesity and tobacco. Previously, Rachelle was the Director of Clinical Preventive Services also at TPMG. Prior to that, she was a Co-Founder and Manager of the Care Management Institute and Program Manager for the Perinatal Services Study Group both for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. She also held positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Adolescent and School Health and the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (NCEMCH) at Georgetown University. Throughout her career she has been passionate about creating healthy, sustainable communities. In addition to clinical and public health experiences she has worked in real estate development and consulting to further impact local communities in need. Rachelle holds an MPH from George Washington University and a BA from San Francisco State University.
Emma Smizik
Project Manager
Emma Smizik joined the NICHQ team as a Project Manager in September 2010. Prior to NICHQ, Emma gained three years of project management experience at a Boston-based educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves, where she managed a variety of organization-wide projects from project development through completion. While living in California, Emma was the Project Coordinator for Teachers for Healthy Kids, a project that helps to enroll children in no or low cost state-sponsored health and dental insurance. Emma received her Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Brandeis University and is currently finishing her MPH at Boston University with a concentration in Health Policy and Management. As part of her MPH, Emma completed a health policy internship at Health Care For All (HCFA) in Boston.
Karthika Parithivel Streb
Senior Project Manager and Director of Project Management and Staffing
Karthika Streb is a Senior Project Manager with NICHQ working on a variety of quality improvement projects. She draws upon her experience with oversight and management of quality performance reporting tools and metrics as well as to help develop and measure effective quality improvement programs. For the past two years she was working as a Managing Consultant within Navigant Consulting, Inc.’s Healthcare practice (formerly The Bard Group) which provides strategic consulting services to major health systems, community hospitals, academic centers, and faculty practice groups across the country. Her areas of focus were physician-hospital integration strategies, and clinical program development. Prior to Navigant, Karthi worked for Partners HealthCare where she designed and evaluated system-level quality reports and analyses including management of Partners’ comprehensive quarterly quality report. She previously worked for several years at the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners where she managed facets of statewide collaborative physician quality measurement reporting projects, including organizing the statewide public release of a primary care physician experience survey. Karthi graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in Public Policy and is currently finishing up her MPH in Health Policy Management at Boston University.
Jenna Williams MPH
Senior Project Coordinator
Jenna joined NICHQ’s obesity prevention team in May of 2010. Prior to NICHQ, Jenna worked closely with the Ohio Department of Health on An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound childhood obesity prevention program, doing both revision and evaluation work. In addition, Jenna acquired behavioral cancer research experience at The Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center working with the Appalachian Community Cancer Network. Jenna is a graduate of Wittenberg University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and earned her MPH in Health Behavior and Promotion from The Ohio State University.
