Programs

Jack Moran, PhD, is a Senior Quality Advisor to the Public Health Foundation (PHF) and an Adjunct Professor in the Arizona State University College of Health Solutions’ School for the Science of Health Care Delivery. He brings to PHF more than 30 years of quality improvement expertise in developing quality improvement tools and training programs, implementing and evaluating quality improvement programs, and writing books and articles on quality improvement methods. Dr. Moran is a retired Senior Vice-President of Information Systems, Administrative and Diagnostic Services at New England Baptist Hospital. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Changing Healthcare, Inc, specializing in management consulting and educational support to Health Care Organizations. For 21 years, Dr. Moran was employed at Polaroid Corporation where he worked in various senior management capacities in Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality. His last position was as the Director of Worldwide Quality and Systems.

His past appointments include Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health in the Division of Health Policy and Management 2010–2015; President of the Advisory Board of Choose To Be Healthy Coalition of the Healthy Maine Partnership for York County, Maine, 2011–2016; faculty member of the CDC/IHI Antibiotic Stewardship project 2011-2012; PHAB’s Evaluation and Quality Improvement Committee, 2013–2016; and more than 20 years as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate and Undergraduate School of Engineering at the University of Lowell.

Dr. Moran has authored numerous articles, case studies, and textbooks in Public Health, Health Care, Quality Function Deployment, and Process Redesign. Dr. Moran has been active in the American Society of Quality (ASQ) as a Fellow of the society and serving as Division Chair, Vice-Chair of Technology, and Publications Chair of the Quality Management Division, Chair of the ASQ Certification Committee, Past Exam Chair of the Certified Quality Manager’s Exam, and a member of the Standing Review Board of Quality Press. Dr. Moran is an ASQ Certified Quality Manager (CQM) and a Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA). He is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) by the Institute of Management Consultants. He is also a past member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Total Quality Review Journal. In addition, Dr. Moran is a 1993-2001 RIT/USA Today Quality Cup Judge in Healthcare and a member of the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners. He was a founder and past member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Quality Award.

Dr. Moran holds BS, MBA, MS, and PhD degrees.

Sonja Armbruster, MA, 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 development, community health assessment, health communication, and public health accreditation.

Her work focuses on providing training and technical assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments in her role as a performance improvement consultant for the Public Health Foundation. She supports facilitation and training experiences for several health-related audiences through her business, Armbruster Consulting LLC. Through her work with Wichita State University’s Center for Public Health Initiatives, she provides training and technical assistance to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and local health departments across Kansas.

Sonja has been teaching and facilitating meetings or training experiences for over 25 years. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses for Wichita State University’s Public Health Sciences Department for five years. Prior to joining the faculty, she was the founding director of the Center for Public Health Initiatives at Wichita State University’s Community Engagement Institute. Her public health career includes ten years of service in various roles at the Sedgwick County Health Department, last serving as the Division Director for Community Health Planning and Performance Improvement.

Sonja has been a Kansas Public Health Association member since 2001, served as president of KPHA in 2009, and has intermittently served on the board as an ex-officio member, Policy Committee Chair, Conference Committee Co-chair, and other support roles. She served for 7 years on the Oral Health Kansas Board of directors, serving as president of the board from 2021-2022. She was the 2024 Dr. Doren Fredrickson Commitment to Public Health Award recipient in recognition of an enduring commitment to public health in Sedgwick County.​

Leslie Beitsch, MD, JD, retired from full-time academic and public health practice in 2021.  He remains affiliated with Florida State University College of Medicine where he has served in several capacities since 2003, most recently as Department Chair for Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, Professor of Health Policy, and Director of the Center for Medicine and Public Health.

Dr. Beitsch’s public health practice roles included tenure as the Commissioner of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. His time in Oklahoma was preceded by a dozen years of local and state service in Florida, where he twice was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Health. He has provided guidance to public health agencies on quality improvement, performance management and measurement, and program evaluation.

Dr. Beitsch serves on the Public Health Foundation (PHF) Board of Directors and is past Chair. He was awarded the PHF’s 2008 Theodore Erwin Award for his contributions.  Dr. Beitsch has been active in a number of other public health organizations including the Public Health Accreditation Board’s Board of Directors, where he also served as Chair. He was also formerly Chair of the Public Health Leadership Society. He has been on a number of public health journal editorial staffs and boards.  Dr. Beitsch was the recipient of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials’ 2007 Alumni Award.

Dr. Faith Foreman-Hays is a retired assistant director of the Houston Health Department and a seasoned public health practitioner and academician with more than 30 years of community and coalition building experience. She began her career as a nurse in the public hospital system and worked as a neonatal nurse caring for at risk mothers and infants. In 2013, Dr. Foreman-Hays was tapped to lead the Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) Global Public Private Partnership aimed at reducing the burden of diabetes in urban populations. An expert in public and community health promotion, evaluation and planning, Faith has directed the design, implementation, and evaluation of numerous health interventions at the local, state, and federal level. She has managed staff in public and not-for-profit health centers, as well as led multi-disciplinary teams in conducting large scale community assessments and public health interventions. As the assistant director of the Houston Health Department, Dr. Foreman-Hays led a dynamic team of nurses, health educators, wellness professionals, community health planners, and epidemiologists. She also led the acquisition of the health department’s 501(c)3 IRS designation and the development of the Houston Health Foundation. Dr. Foreman-Hays has a special passion for eliminating health disparities among marginalized communities and strives to bring social justice and equity to the delivery of preventive health services. Raised and professionally trained in the city of Houston, Dr. Foreman-Hays earned her Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health degrees from the University of Texas School of Public Health, and her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Texas Southern University. She was also a National Institutes of Health Fellow. Dr. Foreman-Hays is licensed to practice nursing in the state of Texas.

Robert Hines is an experienced facilitator, quality improvement (QI) specialist, and public health professional with over 13 years of practice in various aspects of governmental public health. His interests include coaching and mentoring emerging public health professionals, community engagement, and helping organizations improve their internal processes. A native of Houston, TX, Robert completed his educational training in New Orleans, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts from Xavier University of Louisiana and a Master of Science in Public Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He returned to Houston to join the Houston Health Department (HHD) in 2008, serving as a lead Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) in the HIV/STD prevention program, as an HIV epidemiologist, and as Accreditation Coordinator/Performance Improvement Manager. In his role as coordinator, Robert was tasked with leading HHD efforts towards accreditation and QI. In December 2014, HHD became the first department in Texas, and the second largest city health department in the United States, to receive national accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board. Having worked to advance public health practice in his hometown, Robert recently returned to his second home, New Orleans, for the opportunity to leverage his experience to have a positive impact on the health and well-being of Louisiana residents. He currently serves as the Deputy Director for Planning and Performance at the Louisiana Department of Health, where his work is focused on process improvement, accreditation, and strategic and community health improvement planning.​

Amanda McCarty, MS, MBA, MHA, is the Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. She is also an Adjunct Professor in Health Care Administration at West Virginia University Institute of Technology. From 2012-2016, she served as the Director of Performance Management & Systems Development at the West Virginia’s Bureau for Public Health. At the Bureau, Amanda was a member of the health department’s leadership team and was responsible for accreditation, performance management, strategic planning, workforce development and quality improvement efforts. Prior to joining the Bureau, Amanda worked for Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield/Highmark, Inc. in health promotion and disease prevention.

As a consultant for the Public Health Foundation, she has provided training and technical assistance for state and local health departments in the areas of performance management systems development, workforce development, quality improvement, and the development of evaluation plans and logic models since 2013. Ms. McCarty is author of Collaborative Performance Management for Public Health: A Practical Guide, published in June 2020. Ms. McCarty holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Exercise Science as well as a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration from Marshall University, and a Master of Business Administration from West Virginia University.

Jade Ramsdell, MBA, is the Performance Improvement Director for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Ms. Ramsdell has overseen strategic initiatives including strategic planning, quality improvement, community engagement and DEIJ efforts. Ms. Ramsdell is a Certified Diversity Professional and holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Ms. Ramsdell is a transfor​​mative leader dedicated to advancing health equity and DEIJ in public health and healthcare. Her extensive experience spans local health departments, government entities, n​​​on-profit organizations, health systems, and community foundations. Ms. Ramsdell integrates innovative strategies into public health operations, driving sustainable progress amidst challenges. Through innovative approaches, Ms. Ramsdell has developed a unique methodology that integrates equity-focused strategies into the core operations of public health organizations, ensuring sustainable progress amidst competing priorities and resource constraints. Ms. Ramsdell’s advocacy in creating inclusive healthcare systems and ensuring resource accessibility has set a benchmark in public health.

Matthew Stefanak, MPH, is an instructor and public health “ambassador” in the College of Public Health at Kent State University and the public health preparedness liaison for the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners.  He served as Health Commissioner of the General Health District in Mahoning County, Ohio from 1988 to 2012, leading a public health agency providing services to 240,000 residents in Mahoning communities. Mr. Stefanak received his Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and is an alumnus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/University of California Public Health Leadership Institute and the Ohio Public Health Leadership Institute.

Mr. Stefanak has received a number of awards, including the “To Do What is Just Award” from the faith community of Youngstown for efforts to eliminate child lead poisoning in the city, the 2011 Champion of Public Health Award from the Ohio State University College of Public Health, and two NACCHO Model Practice Awards. In addition to having served on the Board of the Public Health Foundation, he devotes his time to a number of professional and civic organizations, including NACCHO, the Public Health Accreditation Board, the Council on Education for Public Health, the Public Health Ethics at CDC, and his township land use planning commission, which he chairs.

Annie Vosel, BSN, RN serves as a consultant for the Public Health Foundation. She has over 30 years of experience working as a nurse, primarily in maternal and child health programs. For the past 15 years, she has worked for the Alabama Department of Public Health, where she was the Director of the Division of Women’s and Children’s Health as well as the Director for Alabama’s Title X Family Planning Program. During this time, she developed a statewide clinical efficiency initiative for the Family Planning program and participated in Alabama’s National Public Health Improvement Initiative. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Auburn University.