Ali Sanchez
Quality Improvement Advisor
Ali is a Community Collaborative Coordinator with the Colorado Beacon Consortium. Prior to starting with Beacon, Ali worked as a Sales and Marketing Manager for a destination resort. This came on the heels of work as a Director for the Western Slope Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. During her time with MDA, Ali developed fundraising programs and community connections to further the efforts of the MDA mission. Highlights of her work include: creating the first MDA patient support group for the Western Slope of Colorado; developing the first fund raising MDA Stride & Ride event in the Grand Junction community; reaching an annual fund raising budget of $500,000. Ali has a passion for team work and helping the community. She also has experienced successes in marketing, sales, event planning and public relations. Ali obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations. Outside of work, Ali spends her free time with her family and enjoys any activity with her four year old son. She enjoys camping and reading and is an avid football fan. Go Broncos!
(970) 248-8712 direct
(970) 812-7210 cell
Ali.Sanchez@coloradobeaconconsortium.org
Alison Leifert
Quality Improvement Advisor
Alison is a Quality Improvement Advisor with the Colorado Beacon Consortium. Prior to starting with Beacon, Alison worked as a Health Educator for the Mesa County Health Department. While at the Health Department, Alison developed and implemented several community wellness programs focused on reducing the burden of obesity, diabetes, asthma, child passenger safety, and teen pregnancy prevention. Highlights of her work include: creating the Mesa County LiveWell program, a comprehensive community wellness program that reached over 10,000 people in its five years; producing and hosting a monthly wellness television show, and networking with numerous community organizations to promote health and wellness. As a former college athlete and member of numerous community coalitions, Alison has a strong passion for team building and collaboration. She also has experience in successful grant writing, worksite wellness, fundraising, facilitation, marketing, web design, and public relations. Alison possesses a bachelor’s degree in Human Performance and Wellness, with concentrations in both Exercise Science and Sports Management. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University. In her spare time, Alison is a volunteer with the Girls on the Run organization and an adult mentor with the Partners program. She is an avid runner and believes all things are possible.
(970) 248-8728 direct
(970) 964-8927 cell
Alison.Leifert@coloradobeaconconsortium.org
Brooke Thomas
Quality Improvement Advisor
Brooke earned her Bachelor’s from Western State College in Kinesiology and Business Administration in 2000. Soon after, she moved to the Grand Valley and began working for the Mesa County Health Department as a Health Educator, collaborating with other community entities around prevention efforts, education and policy. Brooke was also a Program Manager for Girl Scouts of Colorado, creating and implementing educational programs for youth and adults around science, communication and life skills, bully prevention, and self-empowerment. Brooke’s most notable professional accomplishments focus on her collaboration with Rocky Mountain Health Plans to create and implement a program for physicians to provide cessation services to their pregnant patients. The program encompassed training and implementation of the “5 A’s” and provided education on recognizing Prochaska’s “Stages of Change in Behavior.” The program contributed to a 6% decrease in tobacco use among pregnant patients in Mesa County over an eight-month period and was recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brooke has been a presenter at national conferences across the US and has served on multiple boards on the Western Slope such as the Mesa County Women’s Network, Rocky Mountain Health Plan’s Annual Women’s Wellness Fair and Colorado West Mental Health’s Red Baron Ball. In her role as a Quality Improvement Advisor with the Colorado Beacon Consortium, Brooke has successfully written Maintenance of Certification applications to the American Boards of Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, in addition to recruiting practices to the Beacon program and implementing the Beacon curriculum.
(970) 248-8725 direct
(970) 964-8928 cell
Brooke.Thomas@coloradobeaconconsortium.org
Candice Talkington
Quality Improvement Advisor
Candice has worked with medical practices and the underserved population in various capacities for 15 years. She began working with a pediatric office as a Receptionist, Supervisor, Patient Advocate and a Credit Manager. After leaving the pediatric office, she worked on a one-year grant project with Hilltop Community Services providing health education and screenings for childcare centers, as well as offering education and application assistance for the Child Health Plan Plus and Medicaid programs. Following the Hilltop grant, she served Northwest Colorado as the Regional Outreach Coordinator, marketing and providing education to medical practices, schools, health departments, community and faith-based, etc., for the Child Health Plan Plus program. From June 2008 – March 2011, Candice worked with Colorado Access, a non-profit health plan, as the Contracting and Provider Relations Liaison, serving Western Colorado and the San Luis Valley. Most recently, Candice joined the Colorado Beacon Consortium as a Quality Improvement Advisor working with a team to assist medical practices to improve quality, increase efficiency and enhanced patient care. Candice has a BS in Management Information Systems with a Minor in Business and Marketing and has experience with database development and data management. She has an enthusiasm for working with her community and supporting rural area health systems. When Candice isn’t working, she enjoys camping and boating at Lake Powell and spending time with her husband and two teenage boys.
(970) 248-8749 direct
(970) 964-8049 cell
Candice.Talkington@coloradobeaconsonsortium.org
Cathie Nicholson
Quality Improvement Advisor
Cathie has managed health education programs for over 15 years. She worked under governors Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush in Florida to establish one of the most effective and widely known tobacco prevention programs in the country. Cathie has received numerous awards and recognition’s from the State of Florida and Colorado for outstanding prevention programs she created. Cathie has conducted training’s and presentations across the nation to help other states increase their success in implementing effective health initiative programs and on creating and maintaining successful partnerships. She developed a 5A’s (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) and Tobacco 101 training for Mesa State College Nursing School that has resulted in every Nursing student at Mesa State being trained on the types of tobacco being used today and how to address tobacco use and cessation with every patient. Cathie has been working with healthcare providers on the western slope of Colorado for over 10 years to improve healthcare and reduce tobacco use though such tools as the 5A’s, Motivation Interviewing and implementation of the Model for Improvement. Cathie utilized materials from the American Cancer Society and other nationally recognized programs to develop a personalized cessation program for tobacco users. To date over 1000 tobacco users have participated in the “Break Free” program, with quit rates averaging 40% of participants. Cathie is a certified Cessation Counselor receiving her cessation training from Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society. She has a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and Marketing.
(970) 248-5042 direct
(970) 248-5042 cell
Cathie.Nicholson@coloradobeaconconsortium.org
John Bailey
Business Analyst
Before making a transition in career, I worked fifteen years as an avionics and line technician in both commercial and corporate aviation. In 2005 I received my Bachelors degree in Information and Decisions Sciences from California State University Fullerton. In 2006, my family and I relocated to Montrose Colorado where I worked on new computer and network installations, as well as desktop support. I went back to school in 2010 and took classes in server configuration and network administration. In May of 2011, I joined the Colorado Beacon Consortium as a Business Analyst. I enjoy the great outdoors that Southwestern Colorado has to offer with my wife Julie, a family physician in Montrose, along with our three children.
(970) 248-8760 direct
(970) 210-6824 cell
