The Spark Team Jewlya Lynn, Ph.D., CEO/Research Director As the CEO and Research Director for Spark Policy Institute in Denver, Colorado, Jewlya Lynn focuses on public policy and community transformation through strategic learning, evaluation, policy analysis, facilitation, and stakeholder participation at both the state and local level. Dr. Lynn developed Spark's unique Strategic Learning model and coaches non-profits and foundations as they develop and implement strategic learning. She leads projects that combine strategic learning, community engagement, facilitation, and a wide range of research strategies, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, fiscal analysis, regulatory analysis, resource mapping, community and organizational needs assessment, performance measurement, and evaluation. She has worked across a broad range of substantive areas including health care and health systems, behavioral health, early childhood, secondary education, human services, child welfare, juvenile and criminal justice, diversity and inclusiveness, civic engagement, natural resources, and urban planning. Denise McHugh, JD, Senior Project Manager Denise McHugh has over 20 years of experience in the human services field. She is an attorney admitted to practice in Colorado and New York. Denise has been a consultant on the national, state, and local levels on legal and policy matters affecting children and families involved with the health, mental health, education, early childhood, juvenile justice, and child welfare systems. She has worked with agencies in both the private and public sector, including heading the division of attorneys that represented the Commissioner of Social Services in the five family courts in New York City, providing consultation on legal and policy issues to the New York City's Child Welfare Administration and Agency for Child Development, providing project management on initiatives and projects to improve service delivery and systems change for children and families and through policy and legislation, and interfacing with state and local public agencies and the Colorado State Legislature. She has published on legal and policy issues affecting children and families. She clerked for Chief Justice William Wayne Justice, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas focusing on class action litigation to reform the criminal justice system in Texas and worked in private practice at a New York City law firm specializing in commercial and construction litigation. Rebecca Kahn, BA, Project Manager Rebecca Kahn has a varied set of experiences and skill sets, including research and report writing, statistical analysis, event planning, editing, and mathematics and English tutoring. She also has experience and is engaged in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy policy in Colorado as a member on the Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Region Energy Committee Building Environmental Communities Steering Committee, and the Colorado Renewable Energy Society Annual Meeting Committee. Rebecca has a bachelor's degree in English from Douglass College, the women's college of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Natalie Portman-Marsh, LCSW, Strategic Operations Manager Natalie Portman-Marsh is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in New York and Colorado with 15 years' experience in the mental health field as a clinician, program manager, and community planning facilitator. She has worked within non-profit, faith-based, and community mental health organizations, as well as with community coalitions and statewide planning groups. Her work has offered opportunities to engage consumers, staff and stakeholders from faith based, mental health, schools, juvenile justice, child welfare, older adult, and rural service systems. Natalie has provided strategic planning and facilitation for initiatives though Colorado foundations and provided project management in rural and metro settings addressing health and access concerns. She has presented at national conferences on school based health, suicide and trauma and has been a conference coordinator promoting a national model to improve communication between clients and staff in public serving social systems. She has also been adjunct faculty at the University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work for eight years and is a recent graduate of the Denver Community Leadership Form. Natalie has offered numerous volunteer hours on the Colorado System of Care Collaborative, Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council's Child and Family Subcommittee and within the Jewish community. Lyn Kathlene, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate Lyn Kathlene is a senior research associate at Spark. Prior to joining Spark, she was the founding director of the Colorado Institute of Public Policy (CIPP) and professor of political science at Colorado State University. Dr. Kathlene has facilitated research-based stakeholder dialogues, directed numerous community action projects, overseen the design and implementation of both formative and summative evaluations for state agencies, non-profits, and local governments, and designed and implemented citizen participatory planning, policy and planning processes, and non-traditional policy research methods. Her research has been published in the top journals of political science and public policy, and she has received numerous research and teaching awards. In addition to publications, Dr. Kathlene's research on livable communities is the subject of a NE-PBS documentary, Community by Design. Currently, she is writing an environmental policy textbook, co-chairs the National Advisory Committee of the Leadership for Healthy Communities Initiative at the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, and is an Advisory Committee member for a National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project on water sustainability. Dr. Kathlene received her M.A. in public policy analysis and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her academic appointments have been at Purdue University, University of Minnesota (on sabbatical at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs), the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and Colorado State University. Kiran Obee, MPA, Project Manager Kiran Obee has over seven years of program management, advocacy and fundraising experience in the nonprofit sector. Ms. Obee holds a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology from American University in Washington, DC and a Master's Degree in Public Administration with a dual concentration in Local Government and Environmental Policy, Management and Law from the University of Colorado, Denver. Taryn Ikenouye, BS, Business Manager Taryn Ikenouye holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of Colorado at Denver School of Business. She has over 10 years of business experience in various settings, including school operations, credit card and oil and gas industries. She works closely with Jefferson and Arapahoe County Human Services departments as a foster parent and has adopted one child so far through the foster care system. JulieMarie A. Shepherd, MA, Ph.D. (ABD), Applied Public Policy Research Fellow JulieMarie Shepherd provides research support for various Spark projects. Her research background includes work on Colorado voting and elections, state budgeting process, minority politics, political participation and education policy. JulieMarie holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Political Science. She is currently ABD in the Political Science PhD program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. JulieMarie is very active in the community. She volunteers with the 4-H program and is a volunteer puppy raiser with Guide Dogs for the Blind. JulieMarie is also passionate about education reform here in Colorado. She was elected to the Aurora Public Schools Board of Education and also serves on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education Advisory Committee. In her free time, JulieMarie enjoys photography, traveling and spending time with family. Keeley W. Stokes, MA, Ph.D., Applied Public Policy Research Fellow Keeley Stokes provides research support for various Spark projects. Her training and experience include quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research and policy analysis. Prior to joining Spark, Dr. Stokes' work included research projects on local economic development and social exclusion, social partnership and network governance in both the US and European context. In addition, she has provided statistical analysis and technical support for social research projects in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda funded by the Gates Foundation, Catholic Relief Services and Kimetrica International. Keeley holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Pomona College and a Master's Degree in Equality Studies from University College Dublin, Ireland. Her academic work has been supported by the Colorado European Union Center for Excellence, the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in Social Sciences, and the Center for British and Irish Studies at the University of Colorado. Keeley received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2010. Elizabeth Tomsich, MS, Applied Public Policy Research Fellow Liz Tomsich offers research support on multiple Spark projects. Although she currently focuses on criminal justice, she has a background in psychology, and has conducted research on topics varying from feminist epistemology to interpersonal violence. Liz has additionally worked for a reproductive rights organization as a fundraiser and legislative intern. Liz is presently ABD in the Public Affairs PhD program at the University of Colorado Denver, and earned in Masters degree in Social Psychology. Rachael Moore, MSW, LSW, Project Coordinator Rachael Moore has her Masters of Social Work from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, community track. Her social work background informs her work currently as a project coordinator for Spark. She has worked as a consultant providing research support and has a background in mental health and working with Deaf and hard of hearing consumers. She has extensive training in sign language and educational interpreting.