What is ReThink Health?
At ReThink Health, a Rippel initiative, we work with national and regional stewards to discover what it takes to design and execute transformative change and produce better health and well-being for all.
Who are Stewards?

Stewards are people or organizations who take responsibility for working with others to create conditions that all people need to thrive, beginning with those who are struggling and suffering. Stewards may be affiliated with organizations or may act on their own agency, such as a resident. Stewards have (or are interested in developing) an equity orientation in regard to purpose, power, and wealth.

They understand
- Purpose must be larger than oneself and one’s organization.
- Power must be built and distributed with others, not consolidated.
- Wealth must be invested, not withheld, to create long-term value as well as address short-term urgent needs.
As a Rippel initiative, we are interested in working with a particular kind of steward—those who are positioned to influence how regional decisions are made, and how resources are spent—to equitably shift the system in ways that better produce health and well-being.
How do stewards shift the system that produces health and well-being?
Rippel’s best hypothesis is that as stewards mature in their ability to facilitate cross-sector collaboration and alignment, they are able to create a new ecosystem for health and well-being in their regions; an ecosystem known for producing equitable outcomes. This hypothesis is backed by both empirical and anecdotal evidence. Like Rippel, you might be wondering: how do stewards mature? Working together with stewards to discover “how” is the reason for Rippel’s ReThink Health initiative and its multiple projects.
One of the major contributions of the ReThink Health Frontiers and Ventures projects was to develop A Pathway for Transforming Health and Well-Being Through Regional Stewardship. This Pathway clarifies Rippel’s hypothesis about the essential practices stewards should commit to and develop as part of their quest. It also describes what stewards can expect to experience when they work together in these ways, across five phases of development.
As our team works with stewards, we all get more and more knowledgeable about what the Pathway ought to include. With the passing of time we have refined our hypothesis, making it stronger and better for stewards who want to use it as a framework for transforming the regions they serve. Refinement will continue as we take on each new initiative and project.
Dive into the Pathway and learn about
What happens when stewards work with Rippel’s ReThink Health team?
ReThink Health’s team works together with stewards as learning partners. As stewards mature, they conquer challenge after challenge, and then encounter new ones. Rippel works hard with stewards who are at the forefront of discovering what it takes to overcome these challenges, including:
- Regional cross-sector groups who are the furthest along on the Pathway. These groups often include regional philanthropists, policymakers, corporate, nonprofit, and resident leaders. For example, we worked with multisector partnerships in six regions on Ventures. We also worked with THRIVE, a coalition in central Michigan working to transform health and the economy in their region.
- Individual or cross-sector groups convening in state or nationwide networks to influence regional work. For example, we’ve partnered with the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI) to help networked leaders of regional multisector partnerships advance in their resident engagement and sustainable financing activities. We also work with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to shape the nation’s agenda for population health.
- Stewards who recognize the regional influence their organization has, and seek to have greater impact. These stewards often have major national influence on regional work, or who are anchor institutions with a vested interest in the region’s prosperity and are unlikely to leave the region. For example, we work with major hospital systems in a variety of regions on our Hospital Systems in Transition project, and that project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of their interest in learning how regional stewards can best transform health and well-being.
What is a region?
Regional stewards determine their geographic area of focus for their transformation effort, and there isn’t a standard way to do so. Stewards may draw a “regional area” boundary by neighborhood, zip code, county, city, hospital service area, hospital referral region, or other self-defined configurations.
We work with our steward partners to carefully consider the six conditions of systems change, and ask: what conditions are holding the problem in place and how can stewards shift them to produce better health and well-being for all? Then, we prototype, make sense of, and refine strategies that best help stewards move along the Pathway and nudge their systems forward. We share the most promising strategies widely, so many more stewards can benefit.
Shifting the Conditions That Hold the Problem in Place

Stewardship is an already-established practice
In 2000, the World Health Organization broadly defined stewardship as “the careful and responsible management of the well-being of the population”, and in the most general terms as “the very essence of good government.” [citation]Kapoor N, Kumar D, Nivedita Thakur N. Core attributes of stewardship; foundation of sound health system. Int J Health Policy Manag 2014; 3: 5–6. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.52https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4075105/

Highly respected leaders from around the world have also identified stewardship as a means to health and well-being. Here is a sample of their works:
Stewardship and Public Service: A Discussion Paper
From the Field
03/31/1997
This discussion paper prepared for the Public Service Commission of Canada presents stewardship as a bridge between purely market-based approaches and broader public sector responsibilities. While market-based reforms have shown many possible outcomes, they are not robust enough to embrace the full range of public sector activities, such as governance and guarding the public interest.
Health Stewardship: The Responsible Path to a Healthier Nation
From the Field
01/01/2009
The Aspen Institute published this paper explaining the value of health stewardship and making a case for its importance for successfully navigating the challenges facing the system that produces health and well-being.
What Help is a Steward? Stewardship, Political Theory, and Public Health Law and Ethics
From the Field
12/20/2011
As part of The Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly journal’s special issue on ‘super-stewardship’ and the related work of Roger Brownsword, this paper critically examines stewardship in public health.
Achieving Accountability for Health and Health Care Minneapolis, MN
From the Field
11/01/2012
This article in Minnesota Medicine proposes Accountable Health Communities (AHCs) as a way to establish health system stewardship. They would to review local data against the Triple Aim, create shared goals and investments, and involve citizens in reform and stewardship.
Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest
From the Field
01/01/2013
In this book, Peter Block asserts that a fundamental shift in how we distribute power, privilege, and the control of money—away from self-interest and toward stewardship—can transform every part of an organization for the better, and he examines the nitty-gritty of implementing these reforms.
Core Attributes of Stewardship; Foundation of Sound Health System
From the Field
03/01/2014
This International Journal of Health Policy and Management Perspective offers one way to look at stewardship, positing that it has five core attributes: responsible management, political will, a “normative dimension” (equity), balanced interventions, and components of good governance.
Public Involvement and Health Research System Governance: a Qualitative Study
From the Field
08/30/2018
This article in Health Research Policy and Systems describes an exploratory, qualitative study of specific active stewardship efforts in two countries: England and Canada. It illustrates some of the benefits of stewardship while identifying three sets of common issues across both locations.
World Health Organization: Stewardship Resources
From the Field
01/01/2019
The World Health Organization has collected resources related to stewardship, with an emphasis on the health care sector.
Vital Conditions for
Health and Well-Being
Vital Conditions are properties of places and institutions that all people need for health and well-being.
They include basic needs for health and safety, humane housing, a thriving natural world, meaningful work, lifelong learning opportunities, reliable transportation, and, central to all of these, belonging and civic muscle.
Prioritizing long-term investments in these conditions helps create sustainable, equitable, and thriving communities over time. Rippel’s ReThink Health initiative first introduced the Vital Conditions public health framework through the Robert Wood Johnson-funded Ventures project in 2017.
Scroll down to learn more. Additional information is also available at thriving.us.
Basic requirements for health and safety
- Adequate air and water
- Nutritious food
- Routine physical activity
- Sufficient sleep
- Safe, satisfying sexuality and reproduction
- Freedom from crime, injury, violence, traumatic stress, and addiction
- Routine health care (physical and mental)
Learning
Continuous learning, education, and literacy
- Cognitive, social, and emotional abilities
- Early childhood experiences
- Elementary and high school
- Higher education
- Career and adult education
Rewarding work, careers, and standards of living
- Job training/retraining
- Well-paying, fulfilling jobs
- Family and community wealth
- Savings and limited debt
Housing
Humane, consistent housing
- Adequate space per person
- Safe structure
- Affordable costs
- Diverse neighborhood (without gentrification, segregation, and concentrated poverty)
- Close to work, school, food, and recreation/nature
Natural World
Sustainable natural resources and freedom from climate hazards
- Clean air, water, and soil
- Natural spaces
- Freedom from extreme heat, flooding, wind, radiation, and earthquakes
Reliable, safe, and accessible transportation
- Close to work, school, food, and leisure
- Safe transport
- Active transport
- Efficient energy use
- Few environmental hazards
Acute and post-acute care for physical and mental illness
- Emergency medical services
- Acute hospitalization
- Trauma-informed care
Services to address mental health and recovery needs
- Substance abuse treatment and support
Response
Efforts to fairly adjudicate alleged violations of the law
- Police, fire, and first responders
- Courts
- Incarceration
Efforts to clean up hazards in air, water, soil, homes, workplaces, and communities
- Lead abatement
- Water treatment
- Brownfield decontamination
- Disaster response and recovery
Assistance for those who are disadvantaged, out of work, or disabled
- Federally supported programs for disadvantaged families (TANF, SNAP, WIC)
- Food banks
- Energy assistance
- Childcare assistance
Services
Short-term housing for people experiencing homelessness
- Emergency shelters
Efforts that strengthen belonging and civic muscle include
- Arts, culture, and spiritual life
- Social support
- Freedom from stigma, discrimination, and oppression
- Support for civil rights, human rights
- Civic agency, engagement (voting, volunteering, public work)
- Collective efficacy
- Nonprofit organizations
- Civic science
- Transparency
- Communications, information technology, and social networking
- Politics and partisan discourse
Team
The Rippel Foundation, home of ReThink Health, is made up a team of dynamic individuals who share a passion for partnering with stewards as they design and execute the strategies they need to guide transformative change and produce better health and well-being for all. We think big, strive for excellence, take risks, and push boundaries.
Get to know the Rippel team below.
- Administration
- Board of Directors
- Strategy and Management
- Organizational Learning Evaluation
- Communications
- Programs


Molly Belsky


Maggie Cooke


Anna Creegan


Jane Erickson


Bobby Milstein


Iueh Soh


Katherine Wright
Molly Belsky
“I love that Rippel emphasizes the great importance of community building and interconnectivity to overall health and well-being.”—Molly Belsky, Program Coordinator for FORESIGHT
Joined Rippel: 2019
Current Roles: Molly coordinates logistics and research for the many branches of the FORESIGHT team, and acts as a catch-all support system for the Implementation Team.
Career: Molly held a number of different roles before coming to Rippel, all with the same through line of fostering communication and empathy between groups of people. She taught middle school history and theatre for two years before working as a canvass director for Planned Parenthood—two jobs that bore a striking resemblance to each other in terms of helping people discover and articulate causes that they believe in. Her love of storytelling and human connection is what drives her in all endeavors.
More about Molly: As a formerly hour-plus commuter—as well as being generally uncomfortable with silence while she does things like cleaning the bathroom or cooking dinner—Molly regularly listens to many podcasts, on topics as broad as women in business and politics, and as narrow as Harry Potter being read as a sacred text.
Education: Trinity College (BA)
Maggie Cooke
“Momentum is building in the movement toward a more equitable and sustainable future for health and well-being, which creates so many opportunities for collaboration and distributed leadership in all sectors—and at Rippel I get to bring that inspiration to action.”—Maggie Cooke, Senior Strategic Partnerships Associate
Joined Rippel: 2016
Current Roles: Maggie Cooke provides Rippel with project management, grants administration, proposal development, and high-level support around the development and cultivation of new partners and emerging projects. Working side by side with Rippel President and CEO Laura Landy, Maggie has helped lead the significant fundraising and strategic partnerships efforts of FORESIGHT.
Career: As part of a research project exploring tax credits’ potential as a source of sustainable financing for population health, Maggie co-authored a paper for the National Academy of Medicine (2018). This work also earned her an award of distinction for her practicum project at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. Before joining Rippel, Maggie worked at Johnson & Johnson for 10 years, most recently as the senior executive assistant to the chief strategy and business transformation officer, and was a service coordinator at the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation before that, where she assisted residents by connecting them to critical resources in order to empower them in maintaining independent housing.
More about Maggie: Maggie enjoys living on the Delaware River with her family and is an active member of her community, participating in the Hunterdon County Anti-Racism Coalition, and serving on both the Frenchtown School Advisory Council and the Frenchtown Planning Board.
Education: Dartmouth College (MPH), University of Alaska Fairbanks (BA)
Anna Creegan
“My experience working in a part of Brooklyn where the life expectancy is 11 years shorter than in the neighboring Financial District—and infant mortality rates almost double NYC’s rate as a whole—made me want to change the system at the regional level to help improve these disparities.”—Anna Marie Creegan, Project Director
Joined Rippel: 2014
Current Roles: Anna is project director of the ReThink Health initiative’s Portfolio Design for Healthier Regions project.
Career: Anna led design and implementation for Rippel’s enterprise-wide evaluation framework, and has contributed to many R&D and place-based projects for the ReThink Health initiative. She also led the development of an assessment tool to measure regional progress along ReThink Health’s Pathway for Transforming Regional Health. Anna has over ten years of experience working with local and international health efforts across the US and Latin America, including as program manager for Community Planning and Health at nonprofit Community Solutions, where she led a health impact assessment and developed plans for revitalization, sustainability, and care coordination.
More about Anna: Anna loves traveling and the outdoors—especially hiking and skiing in her native Colorado Rocky Mountains—and seeing her young children growing to love it as well.
Education: University of Denver (MA), Fordham University (BA)
Jane Erickson
“It’s an exciting time to be part of the movement to transform health and well-being—new approaches to multisector collaboration are emerging, stewards are sharing ideas, and many are beginning to unify around a shared purpose for their regions.”—Jane Erickson, Director of Learning and Impact
Joined Rippel: 2013
Current Roles: Jane is project director of the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together team. She also leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team.
Career: Jane leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team and directs the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together project. Jane has worked with national philanthropies to advance social change for over a decade. She has led numerous nation-wide research efforts to build a shared understanding of the landscape of multisector collaboration to improve community health, including the ReThink Health Pulse Check. Previously, Jane oversaw strategy and implementation of the ReThink Health Ventures project (2016-2018), a large-scale project that advanced multisector approaches for health transformation. Jane has also worked to foster civic engagement across communities in the US and internationally, including as a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia and with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In 2020, Jane was named a Terrance Keenan Institute fellow by Grantmakers in Health.
More about Jane: Jane played varsity lacrosse in college, which brought her out east from her home state of Colorado. One of her favorite guilty pleasures is watching science fiction television shows, especially Battlestar Galactica.
Education: Syracuse University (MPA, MAIR), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (BA)
Bobby Milstein
“ReThinking is the most practical thing any of us can do to change the future. It helps us see where we fit in a common system and shifts our own roles as change agents within a dynamic and democratic world.”—Bobby Milstein, Director of System Strategy
Joined Rippel: 2011
Current Roles: Bobby directs Rippel’s work on System Strategy, is a member of Rippel’s Strategy and Management Team, and is a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Bobby is a principal contributor to the ReThink Health initiative’s projects Portfolio Design for Healthier Regions and Amplifying Stewardship Together. He also leads a suite of nationwide influence activities and coordinates ongoing development of the ReThink Health Dynamics Model, the Well-Being Portfolio Design Calculator , and other simulation tools that let leaders play out the consequences of their scenarios for change. In 2018, Bobby and four co-authors wrote the official brief that defines “health and well-being” as the central focus for the Healthy People 2030 Framework for the United States.
Career: Before joining Rippel, Bobby spent 20 years planning and evaluating system-oriented initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was the principal architect of CDC’s framework for program evaluation. He received CDC’s Honor Award for Excellence in Innovation, the Applications Award from the System Dynamics Society, and Article of the Year awards for papers published in Health Affairs and Health Promotion Practice.
More about Bobby: Bobby once was a documentary filmmaker whose work was used by PBS to spotlight challenges of racism on college campuses. He also contributed storylines for The West Wing on how to get beyond zero-sum thinking when setting health priorities.
Education: Union Institute and University (PhD), Emory University (MPH), University of Michigan (BA)
Iueh Soh
“I believe that the health of communities is ultimately shaped by who is and isn’t at ‘the table.’ I’m excited to be part of a team that is boldly imagining a more equitable future while also developing tangible steps to take towards that future.”—Iueh Castro Soh, Associate Director, Stewardship Practice
Joined Rippel: 2019
Current Roles: Iueh leads one of ReThink Health’s partnerships as part of the Hospital Systems in Transition project. He also contributes to ReThink Health’s Amplifying Stewardship Together project.
Career: Iueh cares about building healthy communities and developing leaders. He was previously a management consultant at Oliver Wyman where he advised C-suite executives in the provider, payer, and life science space. He focused primarily on helping health systems develop and pursue a population health strategy amid shifting competitive and reimbursement pressures. In 2018, he worked in the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a civic innovation team. There, he pioneered Rebuilding Together, an ongoing meeting group and advisory council that aims to develop returning citizen (formerly incarcerated) leaders and reshape their image in Boston. Iueh has also served as a volunteer community organizer on racial and economic justice campaigns in Oakland and Boston. At Rethink Health, he is currently authoring a report investigating the role of community organizing on shaping the role of local healthcare systems.
More about Iueh: Iueh loves to hunt for tasty street foods—especially tacos. You can often find him at a park playing pick-up basketball to decompress and get to know his neighbors.
Education: Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley (BS), Harvard University Kennedy School of Government (MPP)
Katherine Wright
“Before joining Rippel, my work was confined to individual nutrition and health interventions with specific populations, funded solely by grants. At Rippel, I get to be part of work that breaks through the silos to help stewards move down the path towards sustainability—both of their finances and their mission.”—Katherine Wright, Associate Director, Stewardship Practice
Joined Rippel: 2016
Current Roles: Katherine leads the cross-coordination of Rippel’s three ReThink Health initiative project teams focused on jumpstarting transformative change, and provides high-level research and content support to ReThink Health’s Portfolio Design for Healthier Regions and Hospital Systems in Transition teams. She also continues to promote and present on Beyond the Grant: A Sustainable Financing Workbook (published in 2018).
Career: Katherine previously worked on multiple sustainable financing and R&D projects for Rippel’s ReThink Health initiative, where she explored topics like social impact investing, resident engagement, and the potential of tax credits as a source of sustainable financing for population health. Notably, she co-authored Beyond the Grant: A Sustainable Financing Workbook. Katherine led the design of the workbook’s Financing Wizard that lets users create and practice the art of financial planning for their collaborative population health work. Before joining Rippel, Katherine coordinated and provided research and evaluation support for interventions focused on healthy eating, SNAP-ED, and women’s heart health with Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, and Michigan State University Extension.
More about Katherine: Katherine was ranked second in the Indiana SkillsUSA Commercial Baking competition, which helped inspire her career path to health and nutrition work.
Education: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University (MS), Michigan State University (BS)


Cierra Bryant


Jane Erickson
Cierra Bryant
“It is great to serve with an organization that is deeply committed to systems change and improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.” —Cierra Bryant, Senior Learning and Impact Associate
Joined Rippel: 2021
Current Roles: As senior learning and impact associate, Cierra advances organizational learning and provides high-level support around the implementation and scaling of program evaluation, as well as developing and implementing a cohesive and innovate enterprise evaluation effort. She works to adapt conventional evaluation and impact approaches to Rippel’s dynamic, nation-wide, action-learning and influence portfolio.
Career: Cierra’s professional background is in research and program evaluation in maternal and child health and domestic violence prevention. While in graduate school, she spent a summer in Lesotho, in southern Africa, researching knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of secondary school students toward menstrual hygiene management.
More about Cierra: Cierra serves on the board of directors for a Delaware-based nonprofit organization that aims to improve birth outcomes for Black birthing people and their babies. In her free time, Cierra enjoys exploring new restaurants and spending time with her furry friend, Raven.
Education: Cierra received her MPH from Drexel University and BS in public health from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Jane Erickson
“It’s an exciting time to be part of the movement to transform health and well-being—new approaches to multisector collaboration are emerging, stewards are sharing ideas, and many are beginning to unify around a shared purpose for their regions.”—Jane Erickson, Director of Learning and Impact
Joined Rippel: 2013
Current Roles: Jane is project director of the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together team. She also leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team.
Career: Jane leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team and directs the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together project. Jane has worked with national philanthropies to advance social change for over a decade. She has led numerous nation-wide research efforts to build a shared understanding of the landscape of multisector collaboration to improve community health, including the ReThink Health Pulse Check. Previously, Jane oversaw strategy and implementation of the ReThink Health Ventures project (2016-2018), a large-scale project that advanced multisector approaches for health transformation. Jane has also worked to foster civic engagement across communities in the US and internationally, including as a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia and with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In 2020, Jane was named a Terrance Keenan Institute fellow by Grantmakers in Health.
More about Jane: Jane played varsity lacrosse in college, which brought her out east from her home state of Colorado. One of her favorite guilty pleasures is watching science fiction television shows, especially Battlestar Galactica.
Education: Syracuse University (MPA, MAIR), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (BA)


Sonali Bhatnagar


Adele DiBari


Kimberly Hines Hart


Steve Kohn


Audrey Wells
Sonali Bhatnagar
“Rippel is a pioneering organization that helps communities create health and well-being for all. I am excited to support my colleagues’ efforts toward this end.”— Sonali Bhatnagar, Administrative Assistant
Joined Rippel: 2020
Current Roles: Sonali provides administrative support to her co-workers in Rippel’s Cambridge Office.
Career: Sonali has more than 16 years of experience working as an executive assistant in several different sectors, from finance to information technology to health care. Her experience is focused in the areas of event planning and logistics management. During her career she has developed leadership skills and expertise in a wide variety of administrative challenges, including organizing meetings, conferences, and celebrations; managing executive calendars and correspondence; and developing detailed travel itineraries and booking travel.
More about Sonali: Sonali was born in Delhi, India, and moved to the U.S. with her parents and 2 sisters at age 13. She lived in New York City until 2005, when she moved to New Hampshire with her husband, whom she met in California. She has two children, ages 13 and 8, and loves outdoor activities, including hiking and picnics. Her favorite food is Italian and favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.
Education: Borough of Manhattan College
Adele DiBari
Adele DiBari is the Executive Associate for the senior leadership team at The Rippel Foundation. Her primary role includes calendar management, travel arrangements, meetings and event planning, and managing office administration. Adele has a background working in business for the consumer package goods and pharmaceutical industries, a market research expert and entrepreneur. Adele holds an MBA in Marketing and BS in Operations Management. Personal interests include the outdoors, reading, and film festivals.
Kimberly Hines Hart
“It’s a privilege to work with such a passionate, committed group of people who aren’t afraid to take bold steps towards transforming our health system.”—Kimberly Hines Hart, Corporate Counsel
Joined Rippel: 2014
Current Roles: Kim is responsible for leading all legal matters for Rippel, which includes negotiating and managing contracts, providing guidance on intellectual property, data privacy, and other issues, as well as advising the strategy and management team on legal risks.
Career: Since joining Rippel, Kim has been integral in bringing awareness of different legal risks to the strategy and management team, and implementing infrastructures to manage and minimize those risks. Kim spent six years as a litigation associate with McCarter & English in Newark after clerking for the Hon. Herbert Friend in the Superior Court of New Jersey. Post 9/11 when tensions were high, Kim argued and won an international parenting time issue at the New Jersey Appellate Division on behalf of her client who wished to exercise his visitation rights in the Middle East (see Abouzahr v. Matera Abouzahr).
More about Kim: For more than five years, Kim served on the board of trustees, including as co-president, for her children’s schools, and continues to do other volunteer work in her community. Kim is an amateur photographer who always has a camera with her (even if it’s just her iPhone), and whose work has recently been exhibited in three galleries.
Education: Wake Forest School of Law (JD), Boston University (BS and BA)
Steve Kohn
“Simplifying life is a beautiful thing! I’m happy to be keeping the Rippel organization’s information and technology safe and secure, while working to continuously streamline processes and applications. The goal is for the technology to be transparent so that business can do its business!”
Joined Rippel: 2022
Current Role: Steve is Rippel’s information technology consultant and help desk first point of contact. He oversees evaluation, deployment, automation, and support of the many cloud-based services and associated hardware and processes in use at Rippel.
Career: Steve spent over 30 years in corporate IT prior to coming to Rippel. He started his career as a business process analyst in financial services and worked as a Business Intelligence analyst, administrator, developer, architect, and director in the pharmaceutical and hospitality industries. Steve is the owner of SJK Consulting, LLC, which provides on-site and remote technical support for individuals and businesses.
More about Steve: In his spare time, Steve sings and plays guitar and piano, occasionally performing neighborhood concerts from the balcony of his home. He’s also in an a cappella group which performs in and around Morris County, NJ.
Education: Stony Brook University (BA)
Audrey Wells
“I’m proud to support the entire Rippel team and its projects by making budgeting and other administrative processes smooth, freeing everyone up to focus on making an impact on health and well-being.”—Audrey Wells, Director of Finance and Administration
Joined Rippel: 2015
Current Roles: Audrey leads Rippel’s financial and investment activities, including budgeting, financial planning and analysis, compliance, grants, contracts, and accounting. She also oversees Rippel’s human resources function as well as its information technology and facilities operations.
Career: Recently at Rippel, Audrey created a simple framework for budget proposals and monitoring project costs, which upgraded their consistency and completeness and allowed project staff to maintain a hands-on understanding of—and accountability for—project spending. Before joining Rippel, Audrey was CFO at Cornerstone Family Programs, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, where she played a significant role in the acquisition of another agency, procurement of grants and new contracts, and procedure streamlining. Audrey’s 30 years of experience also includes positions in accounting, finance, and audit with Customized Distribution Services, Lever Brothers Company, and Ernst & Young.
More about Audrey: In her spare time, Audrey is a dedicated singer. She has performed for 15 years in a mixed a cappella quartet, singing everything from barbershop, to doo-wop, to modern popular music. She’s also in a local community chorus (and serves as its treasurer).
Education: Binghamton University (BS)


Edward W. Ahart


Bob Atkins


Elliott S. Fisher


Michael W. Harris


Laura Landy


Lydia Nadeau


James R. Sonneborn


David S. Surrenda
Edward W. Ahart
“I am the latest in a long line of attorneys from our firm to be involved in The Rippel Foundation. We have been privileged to honor the legacy and wishes of our founder Julius E. Rippel, and in doing so, to help to improve life in the United States by assisting others to have better health, better care, and lower costs.”—Edward W. Ahart, JD (Chair)
Mr. Ahart was elected to The Rippel Foundation Board of Trustees in 2010. He currently serves as chair of corporate and nonprofit practice groups in the law firm of Schenk, Price, Smith & King LLP in Florham Park, New Jersey, previously having served as the firm’s chairman, and as its managing partner and chair of its Management Committee for nearly twenty years.
Mr. Ahart has extensive experience in business counseling, having represented a wide range of corporate and nonprofit entities, and is a frequent speaker on corporate governance, transactional, and financing matters. He has had numerous community leadership positions including as chair of the Lafayette College Board of Trustees, chair of the Board of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, New Jersey. After graduating with honors from Lafayette College in 1969, Mr. Ahart attended the Cornell Law School—receiving his law degree in 1972—and served as law secretary to the Honorable Joseph Halpern, Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
Bob Atkins
Bob Atkins is director of New Jersey Health Initiatives (NJHI), the statewide grantmaking program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). He also is an associate professor at Rutgers University, with a joint appointment in nursing and childhood studies. NJHI’s mission— mirroring that of RWJF—is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. It does this by building a Culture of Health in RWJF’s home state of New Jersey and enabling all residents to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. Bob holds a BS in political science and American civilizations from Brown University and a BS in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career as a nurse and co-founder of the non-profit Camden STARR Program, which is dedicated to improving the lives of youth living in Camden. His work led him to Temple University and a PhD in public health, which enabled him to better understand what influences the health and well-being of children in marginalized communities. Bob is committed to building healthier communities throughout his home state of New Jersey and across the country through effective collaborations and partnerships, meaningful conversations.
Elliott S. Fisher
“There is tremendous room for improvement in health care and broader health and well-being. I love Rippel because we have both an amazing team and the freedom to focus on high-leverage initiatives through which we can shape the field.” —Elliott S. Fisher, MD, MPH
Dr. Fisher was elected to The Rippel Foundation Board of Trustees in 2011. He is director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the John E. Wennberg Distinguished Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Fisher’s groundbreaking research focuses on advancing the understanding of the causes of the dramatic differences in spending and quality observed across US regions and health care systems, and identifying opportunities to improve health system performance. He has long been active in national health care reform initiatives and was one of the originators of the now widely implemented policy approach to doing so—accountable care organizations.
Dr. Fisher has served on major national committees and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington, where he also was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and received his Master’s in Public Health. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and editorials.
Michael W. Harris
“I was attracted to The Rippel Foundation’s unique combination of the aspirational—transforming health and well-being to offer more equitable opportunities—with the pragmatic—figuring out how to pay for it.” —Michael W. Harris
Mr. Harris was elected to The Rippel Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017. He is a managing Director and chief marketing officer of PFM Asset Management, where he oversees the firm’s strategic market development efforts and serves as a member of PFM’s Board of Directors. Mr. Harris is a nationally recognized expert in the structuring and procurement of financial products and has advised a number of governmental and not-for-profit entities on the development of investment management strategies for grant funds, tax-exempt bond proceeds, and other operational and reserve funds.
Mr. Harris has served as a career coach for the National Urban Fellows Leadership Conference and has guest lectured at events for Baruch College of the City University of New York and Spelman College. Mr. Harris has served in leadership positions on community and industry boards and interest groups working on educational and career opportunities for underprivileged students and access to healthcare for underserved populations. Mr. Harris is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a dual degree in Economics and Political Science.
Laura Landy
“Many of us at Rippel have always sensed there must be a better way. Together, we can find that way, and overcome the barriers to actually reach a healthier future for all.”—Laura Landy, President and CEO; Trustee
Joined Rippel: 2007
Current Roles: As Rippel’s president and CEO, Laura steers the organization’s vision and strategic direction. She gathers the right people and leads them in creating and guiding groundbreaking initiatives like ReThink Health and FORESIGHT. Laura has continually expanded Rippel’s vision in pursuit of its mission step-by-step, inspired by its first president, Julius A. Rippel’s own writings from over 60 years ago. With her leadership, the foundation has shifted from being a small grantmaker bringing about micro-level impacts to pioneering the transformation of health and well-being across the nation.
Career: A Rippel board trustee since 1998, Laura began her career as a grantmaker for federal poverty and unemployment funds, and subsequently worked with the Ford Foundation, Pfizer, Bell Labs, and New Jersey’s public health system—notably designing an integrated medical system for the city of Newark. She also built strategic plans for organizations like Adelphi University and the 92nd Street Y as president of her own consulting firm, Applied Concepts. She created the Institute for Nonprofit Entrepreneurship at NYU’s Stern School of Business (the only such program at any business school), where she also taught and served as associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. She has also been a member of the adjunct faculty of Columbia University, the New School, and Fairleigh Dickinson. Laura serves as a trustee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a board member of Grantmakers in Health.
More About Laura: Laura is passionate about the impact of trends on work and life; she’s perpetually curious about how the world is changing, and how we can prepare for it.
Education: New York University (MBA), Washington University in St. Louis (BA), University of California Berkeley (Certificate in Urban Education)
Lydia Nadeau
Lydia Nadeau is Executive Director of the Oncology Service Line at Atlantic Health System, which includes programs and services of the Carol G. Simon Cancer Centers at Morristown Medical Center and Overlook Medical Center in Summit, as well as the operations of the oncology services at Newton Medical Center, Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains and Hackettstown Medical Center.
Ms. Nadeau’s tenure began with the opening of the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center in Morristown in 1998. The great success of the Cancer Center called for several expansions and the opening of another Carol G. Simon Cancer Center in Summit in 2005. She was also instrumental in creating the Carol W & Julius A Rippel Breast Center at Morristown Medical Center and the Breast Center at Overlook Medical Center – both well-known for offering the latest in quality screening, diagnostic and interventional procedures while greatly increasing in patient volume each year.
In addition to Ms. Nadeau’s responsibilities for the day-to-day operations of all out-patient cancer services, she oversees the oncology service line budget and strategic capital requests key to elevating and growing the oncology programs. She also oversees all data relating to morbidity and mortality and quality metrics.
Ms. Nadeau also serves as the liaison between Atlantic Health System and community organizations, most notably, the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Turn the Towns Teal, Kaleidoscope of Hope, Cancer Hope Network, and Cancer Support Community, among others. In recognition of her outstanding volunteerism in philanthropy, Ms. Nadeau was the 2005 Recipient of the Augusta Stone Award from the Morristown Memorial Health Foundation. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the NJ Northwest Regional Board of the American Cancer Society.
Ms. Nadeau earned her M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1999 and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in health care management from St. Peter’s College in 1992. Prior to receiving her bachelor’s, in 1981, she became a registered professional nurse at the Elizabeth General Medical Center School of Nursing and received her associate degree in science from Union County College. She serves as a Fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives and is a frequent speaker at healthcare presentations on topics such as innovation and the latest trends in oncology many of which have been featured as Best Practices by the Advisory Board Oncology Roundtable.
James R. Sonneborn
“Being a part of The Rippel Foundation is a highlight of my day! The cutting edge thinking that the group does to solve our nation’s health system woes is amazing. I always come away from our Board meetings believing that if anyone can achieve this goal, it’s the team at Rippel and the organizations they partner with.”—James R. Sonneborn, CFP®, CFA, CDFA, MBA
Mr. Sonneborn was elected to The Rippel Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017. He is a partner and wealth advisor at RegentAtlantic, a financial and wealth management company, where he specializes in providing financial advice to nonprofits. He has previously held financial management positions with the US Trust Company of New York (Florham Park), Wachovia Bank, Chase Manhattan, SLH Asset Management, and Mellon Bank.
Mr. Sonneborn is currently on the Investment Committee of Jersey Battered Women’s Service, and the Finance Committee for Preschool Advantage; he was previously a member of the boards of both organizations, and chaired those respective committees as a board member. He was also previously a board member and president for the Estate Planning Council of Northern New Jersey. Deeply committed to his community, Sonneborn has been on the boards of a number of organizations in northern New Jersey and provided pro bono financial counseling at area women’s agencies. Mr. Sonneborn holds a BA in Business from Western State College of Colorado and an MBA in Finance from Drexel University.
David S. Surrenda
“There is an urgent need for the transformation of our health system. Rippel has had a long-term commitment to exploring the frontiers of health system innovation, testing those innovations in practical health settings, and sharing them as broadly as possible.”—David S. Surrenda
Dr. Surrenda was elected to The Rippel Foundation Board of Trustees in 2007. He is director of The Leadership Edge, a consulting firm that works creatively with leaders to generate sustainable solutions to complex organizational challenges. As a licensed psychologist, he has been engaged in executive-level, organizational consultation and coaching with health systems, business, government, and education for 30 years. He also recently served as the CEO of the Kripalu Center.
Dr. Surrenda is the founder of the Graduate School of Holistic Studies at John F. Kennedy University, where he developed the first accredited graduate program in holistic health education. He served as the co-CEO of a training and research corporation, developing innovations in conflict resolution and crisis intervention. He also served as the executive director of The Natural Step, an environmental organization that provides consultation to major industries about the efficient utilization of natural resources as part of a strategy for business development. He is the co-author of three books.


Jane Erickson


Laura Landy


Alan Lieber


Bobby Milstein


Becky Payne


Teri Wade


Audrey Wells
Jane Erickson
“It’s an exciting time to be part of the movement to transform health and well-being—new approaches to multisector collaboration are emerging, stewards are sharing ideas, and many are beginning to unify around a shared purpose for their regions.”—Jane Erickson, Director of Learning and Impact
Joined Rippel: 2013
Current Roles: Jane is project director of the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together team. She also leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team.
Career: Jane leads Rippel’s Learning and Impact team and directs the ReThink Health initiative’s Amplifying Stewardship Together project. Jane has worked with national philanthropies to advance social change for over a decade. She has led numerous nation-wide research efforts to build a shared understanding of the landscape of multisector collaboration to improve community health, including the ReThink Health Pulse Check. Previously, Jane oversaw strategy and implementation of the ReThink Health Ventures project (2016-2018), a large-scale project that advanced multisector approaches for health transformation. Jane has also worked to foster civic engagement across communities in the US and internationally, including as a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia and with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. In 2020, Jane was named a Terrance Keenan Institute fellow by Grantmakers in Health.
More about Jane: Jane played varsity lacrosse in college, which brought her out east from her home state of Colorado. One of her favorite guilty pleasures is watching science fiction television shows, especially Battlestar Galactica.
Education: Syracuse University (MPA, MAIR), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (BA)
Laura Landy
“Many of us at Rippel have always sensed there must be a better way. Together, we can find that way, and overcome the barriers to actually reach a healthier future for all.”—Laura Landy, President and CEO; Trustee
Joined Rippel: 2007
Current Roles: As Rippel’s president and CEO, Laura steers the organization’s vision and strategic direction. She gathers the right people and leads them in creating and guiding groundbreaking initiatives like ReThink Health and FORESIGHT. Laura has continually expanded Rippel’s vision in pursuit of its mission step-by-step, inspired by its first president, Julius A. Rippel’s own writings from over 60 years ago. With her leadership, the foundation has shifted from being a small grantmaker bringing about micro-level impacts to pioneering the transformation of health and well-being across the nation.
Career: A Rippel board trustee since 1998, Laura began her career as a grantmaker for federal poverty and unemployment funds, and subsequently worked with the Ford Foundation, Pfizer, Bell Labs, and New Jersey’s public health system—notably designing an integrated medical system for the city of Newark. She also built strategic plans for organizations like Adelphi University and the 92nd Street Y as president of her own consulting firm, Applied Concepts. She created the Institute for Nonprofit Entrepreneurship at NYU’s Stern School of Business (the only such program at any business school), where she also taught and served as associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. She has also been a member of the adjunct faculty of Columbia University, the New School, and Fairleigh Dickinson. Laura serves as a trustee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a board member of Grantmakers in Health.
More About Laura: Laura is passionate about the impact of trends on work and life; she’s perpetually curious about how the world is changing, and how we can prepare for it.
Education: New York University (MBA), Washington University in St. Louis (BA), University of California Berkeley (Certificate in Urban Education)
Alan Lieber
“It always seems impossible until it’s done” Nelson Mandela
Joined Rippel: 2021
Current Role: As one of Rippel’s Executive Vice Presidents, Alan is focused on leading the Health Sector work at Rippel. He is focused on helping Rippel amplify its impact on the communities we serve.
Career: Alan has served as Health Care Executive for close to 40 years. Alan spent the last 18 years as President of Overlook Medical Center part of the Atlantic Health System. Under his leadership Overlook was ranked the last several years as one of the Top 50 Hospitals in the US by Healthgrades, one of the Top 25 Environmentally Friendly Hospitals and Top 100 Places to Work for by Fortune. Under Alan’s leadership Overlook instituted many innovative programs which tackled major structural problems. These include: a CMS gainsharing demonstration project, one of the most successful Accountable Care Organizations in the country, the Glasser Caregivers Center, a community based program to educate families on having crucial End of Life conversations, and Walk a Mile program to encourage patient ambulation. Prior to serving at Overlook, Alan served in various roles at Lenox Hill Hospital, University of Maryland Medical Center, Hahnemann University Hospital and the Medical College of Virginia/VCU.
Alan has served on many boards including stents as the Chair of the Gateway Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Cornell Sloan Alumni Association, Vice Chair of Optimus ACO, American Heart Association, Northern New Jersey. He currently serves on the Board of the Red Bear Angels and the Jewish Home Family a long term care provider. And serves as an advisor to several healthcare startups.
More About Alan: Alan loves to be outdoors. He has hiked, biked and paddled all around the US; and some internationally. Alan is most proud of his family including his wife of 35 years and two children who are now pursuing their own exciting careers.
Education: Cornell University BA in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. MBA with a focus on Health Care Administration and Finance
Bobby Milstein
“ReThinking is the most practical thing any of us can do to change the future. It helps us see where we fit in a common system and shifts our own roles as change agents within a dynamic and democratic world.”—Bobby Milstein, Director of System Strategy
Joined Rippel: 2011
Current Roles: Bobby directs Rippel’s work on System Strategy, is a member of Rippel’s Strategy and Management Team, and is a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Bobby is a principal contributor to the ReThink Health initiative’s projects Portfolio Design for Healthier Regions and Amplifying Stewardship Together. He also leads a suite of nationwide influence activities and coordinates ongoing development of the ReThink Health Dynamics Model, the Well-Being Portfolio Design Calculator , and other simulation tools that let leaders play out the consequences of their scenarios for change. In 2018, Bobby and four co-authors wrote the official brief that defines “health and well-being” as the central focus for the Healthy People 2030 Framework for the United States.
Career: Before joining Rippel, Bobby spent 20 years planning and evaluating system-oriented initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was the principal architect of CDC’s framework for program evaluation. He received CDC’s Honor Award for Excellence in Innovation, the Applications Award from the System Dynamics Society, and Article of the Year awards for papers published in Health Affairs and Health Promotion Practice.
More about Bobby: Bobby once was a documentary filmmaker whose work was used by PBS to spotlight challenges of racism on college campuses. He also contributed storylines for The West Wing on how to get beyond zero-sum thinking when setting health priorities.
Education: Union Institute and University (PhD), Emory University (MPH), University of Michigan (BA)
Becky Payne
Joined Rippel: 2021
Current Role: As an executive vice president, Becky is helping to lead Rippel’s health sector programs, including facilitating our strategic partnerships with organizations in the philanthropic, corporate, and government sectors.
Career: Over the last 20 years, Becky has served in a variety of leadership roles within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she was responsible for designing and launching new, large-scale initiatives. Most recently, she completed an 18-month assignment to the Department of Health and Human Services, where she led the development of an all of government plan to support U.S. communities through equitable recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to that, as CDC’s deputy chief of staff, Becky established corporate partnerships and coordinated agency responses to significant crises, including international Zika and Ebola outbreaks and the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Her many assignments allowed her to have a significant impact on the direction of numerous CDC activities, including global health security, healthy communities, racial and ethnic approaches to community health, adolescent and school health, and public private partnerships. She has received a CDC Honor Award for Excellence in Front Line Public Health for her leadership of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work program.
More about Becky: Becky serves on the board of directors for the Decatur Education Foundation and has been recognized by the Atlanta City Council for her community service. She loves to run and travel and spend time with family.
Education: MPH in community health sciences with a minor in evaluation, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine; BS in interdisciplinary studies in social science: health policy with a cognate in psychology from Michigan State University
Teri Wade
“Rippel and its ReThink Health initiative are doing amazing, innovative work with partners throughout the nation who share our commitment to improving public health and well-being. I’m proud to collaborate with this team of smart, dedicated colleagues to amplify this work and build a movement for stewardship and broad-reaching systems change that will have a positive impact on quality of life for current and future generations.” —Teri Wade, Director, Communications and Influence
Joined Rippel: 2021
Current Roles: Teri directs Rippel’s communications and influence initiatives. She and her team are responsible for strategic, multi-channel communications activities that build engagement with Rippel’s efforts to transform health and well-being so that everyone thrives. To cultivate partnerships, advance thought leadership, and ensure that Rippel’s many diverse audiences connect with its work, Teri and her team develop and execute a comprehensive, integrated communications program that includes content development and promotion; brand management; social media outreach; media relations; conference and event oversight; and more.
Career: Teri has more than 25 years of experience helping mission-driven nonprofits in a variety of fields—including health and human services, education, philanthropy, arts and culture, and social research—increase their visibility and impact through strategic communications. She previously led communications and marketing at Amida Care, a nonprofit community health insurance plan designed for New Yorkers with complex medical conditions, and at the Foundation Center (now known as Candid), a national organization that advances knowledge about philanthropy and the social sector. Earlier in her career, Teri served as director of marketing at Baruch College of The City University of New York (CUNY) and was an editor and writer at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media).
More about Teri: Teri is on the board of directors of Ariva, a nonprofit organization that helps low-wealth New Yorkers achieve economic stability. She earned a master’s degree in corporate communication from Baruch College/CUNY and a BA in media studies from Fordham University. Teri enjoys performing as a jazz vocalist with her husband’s trio and other groups at venues in the New York area.
Audrey Wells
“I’m proud to support the entire Rippel team and its projects by making budgeting and other administrative processes smooth, freeing everyone up to focus on making an impact on health and well-being.”—Audrey Wells, Director of Finance and Administration
Joined Rippel: 2015
Current Roles: Audrey leads Rippel’s financial and investment activities, including budgeting, financial planning and analysis, compliance, grants, contracts, and accounting. She also oversees Rippel’s human resources function as well as its information technology and facilities operations.
Career: Recently at Rippel, Audrey created a simple framework for budget proposals and monitoring project costs, which upgraded their consistency and completeness and allowed project staff to maintain a hands-on understanding of—and accountability for—project spending. Before joining Rippel, Audrey was CFO at Cornerstone Family Programs, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, where she played a significant role in the acquisition of another agency, procurement of grants and new contracts, and procedure streamlining. Audrey’s 30 years of experience also includes positions in accounting, finance, and audit with Customized Distribution Services, Lever Brothers Company, and Ernst & Young.
More about Audrey: In her spare time, Audrey is a dedicated singer. She has performed for 15 years in a mixed a cappella quartet, singing everything from barbershop, to doo-wop, to modern popular music. She’s also in a local community chorus (and serves as its treasurer).
Education: Binghamton University (BS)


Molly Belsky


Bradley Girard


Laila Hussain


Amanda McIntosh


Teri Wade
Molly Belsky
“I love that Rippel emphasizes the great importance of community building and interconnectivity to overall health and well-being.”—Molly Belsky, Program Coordinator for FORESIGHT
Joined Rippel: 2019
Current Roles: Molly coordinates logistics and research for the many branches of the FORESIGHT team, and acts as a catch-all support system for the Implementation Team.
Career: Molly held a number of different roles before coming to Rippel, all with the same through line of fostering communication and empathy between groups of people. She taught middle school history and theatre for two years before working as a canvass director for Planned Parenthood—two jobs that bore a striking resemblance to each other in terms of helping people discover and articulate causes that they believe in. Her love of storytelling and human connection is what drives her in all endeavors.
More about Molly: As a formerly hour-plus commuter—as well as being generally uncomfortable with silence while she does things like cleaning the bathroom or cooking dinner—Molly regularly listens to many podcasts, on topics as broad as women in business and politics, and as narrow as Harry Potter being read as a sacred text.
Education: Trinity College (BA)
Bradley Girard
“The good work Rippel does to improve health and well-being drives me to make our messages visually effective and cohesive so everyone can easily absorb them.”—Bradley Girard, Director of Branding & Creative
Joined Rippel: 2017
Current Roles: Bradley directs the Branding & Creative Team, leading a team on the creative design and production of all Rippel branding vehicles. He makes complex concepts easier for all to understand and unifies messaging around Rippel’s shared vision and its initiatives. His team designs visuals to make ideas more straightforward for all to understand.
Career: Brad has provided Rippel with branding and visual design support for years as principal of his own award-winning boutique agency. In his 28 years as a professional designer, photographer, and marketer, Brad has worked with a variety of large brands—including Kaiser Permanente, Toshiba, Verio Healthcare, and the San Francisco 49ers—and received multiple international awards for design, print, and marketing.
More about Brad: Brad serves on portfolio review boards for AIGA, Cal State Fullerton, and Chapman University, mentoring students as they ready themselves for professional careers. Most weekends, Brad can be found cheering on his daughter’s club court and beach volleyball teams. On his off-time, he and his family love to relax on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Laila Hussain
“Rippel’s system-level approach to equitable health and well-being is driving true progress and ultimately has the potential to transform society. We all need to play our part in achieving this vision of shared prosperity.”
Joined Rippel: 2022
Current roles: Laila Hussain leads the development and implementation of communications strategies designed to further the understanding, value, and impact of Rippel’s work. She specializes in making complex concepts accessible to a wide range of audiences, and is committed to amplifying individual and collective voices to advance change.
Career: Laila brings expertise in strategic communications on programs related to public health, reproductive rights, education, and impact investing in the United States and South Asia. Before joining Rippel, she was most recently part of the Knowledge and Communications team at Mission Investors Exchange, where she helped foundations and other mission-driven organizations learn about and engage in impact investing.
More about Laila: Laila is originally from Karachi, Pakistan and first came to the US in 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar. She is motivated by her two young children and her family across three continents to leverage the power of communications to shape a new narrative around health and well-being.
Education: New York University (MA), Institute of Business Management, Pakistan (MBA)
Amanda McIntosh
“Rippel is solutions-oriented; for instance, instead of lamenting the lack of funds and resources for health and well-being, we find streams that already exist and just need to be unlocked, redirected, and approached creatively—and then we spread the word about them.”—Amanda McIntosh, Communications Manager
Joined Rippel: 2015
Current Roles: Amanda manages Rippel’s editorial and visual production as well as its social media efforts. She also leads Rippel’s work to measure its outreach effectiveness and serves as a member of FORESIGHT‘s Implementation Team.
Career: Amanda has provided critical research, design, and project management support to national-level Rippel projects, including the Convening of Catalysts leadership group that brings together health system transformation trailblazers. As part of a ReThink Health initiative project exploring tax credits’ potential as a source of sustainable financing for population health, she co-authored a paper for the National Academy of Medicine (2018) and contributed greatly to advancing high-level conversation and interest in the topic via various platforms and mediums. Amanda formerly worked to support nationwide programs and outreach campaigns for consumer health advocacy organizations, serving as program associate to Community Catalyst’s Roadmaps to Health project and as statewide coordinator at Health Care For All.
More about Amanda: Amanda grew up on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, not as a summer resident, but as a third-generation “year-rounder.” She had some of the same teachers that had taught her father when he went through the island’s school system, decades before. On a recent visit, she found a rare fossilized Megalodon tooth.
Education: Drexel University (MPH), College of Charleston (BA)
Teri Wade
“Rippel and its ReThink Health initiative are doing amazing, innovative work with partners throughout the nation who share our commitment to improving public health and well-being. I’m proud to collaborate with this team of smart, dedicated colleagues to amplify this work and build a movement for stewardship and broad-reaching systems change that will have a positive impact on quality of life for current and future generations.” —Teri Wade, Director, Communications and Influence
Joined Rippel: 2021
Current Roles: Teri directs Rippel’s communications and influence initiatives. She and her team are responsible for strategic, multi-channel communications activities that build engagement with Rippel’s efforts to transform health and well-being so that everyone thrives. To cultivate partnerships, advance thought leadership, and ensure that Rippel’s many diverse audiences connect with its work, Teri and her team develop and execute a comprehensive, integrated communications program that includes content development and promotion; brand management; social media outreach; media relations; conference and event oversight; and more.
Career: Teri has more than 25 years of experience helping mission-driven nonprofits in a variety of fields—including health and human services, education, philanthropy, arts and culture, and social research—increase their visibility and impact through strategic communications. She previously led communications and marketing at Amida Care, a nonprofit community health insurance plan designed for New Yorkers with complex medical conditions, and at the Foundation Center (now known as Candid), a national organization that advances knowledge about philanthropy and the social sector. Earlier in her career, Teri served as director of marketing at Baruch College of The City University of New York (CUNY) and was an editor and writer at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media).
More about Teri: Teri is on the board of directors of Ariva, a nonprofit organization that helps low-wealth New Yorkers achieve economic stability. She earned a master’s degree in corporate communication from Baruch College/CUNY and a BA in media studies from Fordham University. Teri enjoys performing as a jazz vocalist with her husband’s trio and other groups at venues in the New York area.
ReThink Health’s History
ReThink Health is the brainchild of a group of visionary leaders from multiple sectors. It’s grounded in the earliest thinking of The Rippel Foundation’s first President, Julius A. Rippel, who as far back as 1959 raised concerns about our unsustainable health care system and the need for new ways of thinking and acting to keep people healthy and health care affordable. After decades of grantmaking, it became apparent in 2007 that to achieve Rippel’s mission, a tectonic structural shift to the system that produces health and well-being would be necessary.

To figure out how to spark that change, Rippel convened a group of extraordinary leaders—those who would become ReThink Health’s pioneering founders. The group included some of the nation’s most respected health care leaders, as well as a diverse group of experts and change agents from economics, politics, business, community organizing, and energy. Putting their heads together between 2008 and 2010, they realized everyone would need to rethink their approach to improving health and well-being—and an entirely new kind initiative would be needed to help leaders across regions and sectors to see a new way forward. That initiative is ReThink Health. They based the initiative on the guiding principles that, to make lasting change to the health ecosystem, efforts must be:
- Systemic Approach challenges from a system level and design a new system that fosters health and well-being.
- Transformative Incremental change is not enough. Business-as-usual is not working, so we must upend the status quo and transform the system, all the way down to how people think about health and well-being.
- Stewarded Leaders must be stewards—they must take responsibility for forming working relationships with others to transform health and well-being across their region.
- Multisector Stewards must form relationships across sectors. Every part of a regional system contributes to health and well-being, so they must all be at the table, whether they are health care providers or payers, or they are focused on education, business, justice, and so on.
- Regional Health and well-being are largely local, so system-wide national impact will build from local action. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
- Equitable The transformed system that produces health and well-being must be equitably designed and address systemic inequities in the current system, as those inequities are a major barrier to health and well-being for all.
Based on these pillars, the pioneers founded ReThink Health with the goal of gaining greater understanding of these ideas and spreading what is being learned about what it will take to transform the system that produces health and well-being. Some of ReThink Health’s most exciting discoveries since its founding include:
This “health system in a computer” is an interactive tool that allows stewards to explore how various strategies might impact their region’s health and well-being. Thousands of people and organizations have used the model to test different combinations of investments and interventions, informing their real-life strategies.
This Pathway is ReThink Health’s best hypothesis of what it takes to become stewards and transform together.
The Ventures project explored what could accelerate the progress of ambitious multisector partnerships working to transform health in their regions, and what often stands in the way of that progress. We worked with multisector partnerships in six regions across the country as they built practices that are essential for transforming a regional health ecosystem.
ReThink Health worked with multisector partnerships in Minnesota and Michigan to create maps of their regions’ health ecosystems, as part of their collaborative exploration of effective ways to intervene.
This workbook, divided into easy-to-digest modules, uses colorful examples, engaging exercises, and plain, everyday language to help stewards do what it takes to expand their financing horizons beyond the grant to more sustainable options.
Community Activation for Health System Transformation was a 5-year project focused on developing a set of skills stewards can use to train themselves and others to build coalitions, distribute stewardship mindsets across those coalitions, and build stewardship capacities among themselves and others. We forged and tested a curriculum for teaching these skills that had a major impact on a national workforce in the health care sector.
We developed a toolkit with exercises, meeting guides, videos, and more to help stewards plan resident engagement efforts. Among other things, the toolkit can help stewards accurately assess their resident engagement efforts, get on the same page about their goals, and figure out how to close the gap between the two. As part of this, we laid out a typology of the three outcomes (resident awareness and participation, feedback and input from residents, and active resident leadership) that stewards engaging in regional resident engagement practices seek to pursue, and the common practices they use to achieve those outcomes. Transforming a region’s system for health requires a balance between practices across all three outcomes.
With the National Academy of Medicine, we published a widely-read paper and designed a national meeting exploring how stewards might use tax credits as a means to fund population health efforts. The paper includes two detailed prototypes we developed to show how such a tax credit could work.
Rippel’s ReThink Health initiative is proud to publish the 2021 Pulse Check on Shared Stewardship for Thriving Together Across America, the first and only nationwide survey to examine the state of stewardship values, priorities, and practices. Findings reveal the extent to which individuals and organizations in pivotal positions are thinking and acting like stewards of an equitable, thriving future.



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Donald BerwickHealth care quality improvementFormer head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. One of the country’s foremost advocates for advancing quality improvement and value-driven health care.
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Elliott FisherHealth policy and researchAt the time, was director of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. His research has shown how variations in health care spending have little to do with health status or price or outcomes, but rather on greater use of services.
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Marshall GanzCommunity organizingHarvard professor and community organizing luminary. Helped organize the United Farm Workers and supported development of President Obama’s winning campaign strategy.
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Laura LandyPhilanthropy and entrepreneurshipRippel president and CEO. An entrepreneur and foundation leader whose work has focused on bridging sound market and business practices with social goals to create sustainable solutions to our nation’s most challenging problems.
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Amory LovinsEnergy researchA renowned scientist and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, whose critical thinking about alternative approaches to energy policy has driven world leaders and the public to think differently about climate change and sustainable energy.
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James (Jay) OgilvyBusiness (strategic planning)A cofounder of Global Business Network, who helped pioneer scenario planning, which has become an integral part of strategic thinking in business and government and has revolutionized both public and private planning.
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Elinor OstromEconomicsA Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, whose research has been at the forefront of promoting policies for fostering democratic governance and sustainable stewardship of common resources shared among populations. Elinor passed away in 2012.
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Peter SengeOrganizational design and systems thinkingA pioneer and influential leader in economic and organizational design, systems thinking, and leadership development, who founded the Society for Organizational Learning. His book The Fifth Discipline has been hailed as one of the most important management books ever by publications like Harvard Business Review and Financial Times.
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John StermanEnvironment and system dynamicsAn MIT professor and a leader in system dynamics, who has focused on addressing climate change and helping corporations see opportunities and consequences of their investments.
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David SurrendaOrganizational psychologyA psychologist and founder of the Graduate School of Holistic Studies at John F. Kennedy University. David developed The Leadership Edge which helps leaders advance creative-change strategies and sustainable solutions for their organizations.
Work at Rippel
Discover how working with The Rippel Foundation, home of ReThink Health, will help you realize your full potential while helping national and regional stewards guide transformative change and produce better health and well-being for all.
At this time Rippel is hiring. [click here to apply]

14 Maple Avenue Suite 200, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
678 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 400, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Phone: 973.540.0101
Email: [email protected]
Learn about a groundbreaking initiative to bring about a new future for health and well-being.