CDPHE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- State Remedial Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Director for the Office of Human Resources
Angelo Fernandez joined the Department as Director for the Office of Human Resources in 2021. Director Fernandez is a seasoned professional with 18 years of experience in organizational development and human resources. He served the Eagle County community in executive roles in local government within the water industry and most recently as the Deputy County Manager and Chief Culture Officer for Eagle County Government. He is a Certified Professional in Human Resources with SHRM, as well as a Certified Career Development Facilitator with the NCDA.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office of Legal
- Director, Office of Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Ann Hause has served as the Director of the Office of Legal and Regulatory Compliance since 2004. Office functions include setting and implementing department standards for privacy, records management, state Board of Health administration, audits, nondiscrimination requirements, and procurement and contracting. Ann also provides consultation on topics such as conflicts of interest, ethics concerns, Amendment 41, identification of legal issues, coordination of legal services with the Department of Law, and reviewing program legal authority for compliance. Prior to her employment with the Department, Ann worked for the Colorado Department of Law for 6 years as an Assistant Attorney General and then a First Assistant Attorney General, where she represented both CDPHE and the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
Job Titles:
- Director of Culture, Strategy, Equity and Innovation
- Is Director of Culture
Anya Nystrom is Director of Culture, Strategy, Equity and Innovation, and oversees the Office of Health Equity, Human Resources, the Office of Strategy, Performance and Innovation, and the Department's IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility) work. Deputy Nystrom is an Equity and Organization Development professional with over 17 years in the public sector. She remains steadfast to the work of racial equity and organizational health and has spent much of her tenure designing, implementing, and evaluating multi-scale organizational and community-centered programming. The nexus of equity, continuous quality improvement, and behaviors of a learning organization are key to ensuring CDPHE is prepared to navigate continuous currents of change as well as respond effectively to the universal and targeted needs of all Coloradans.
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Environmental Protection Specialist
Job Titles:
- Director, Prevention Services Division
- the Prevention Services Division Director
Carrie Cortiglio joined CDPHE as the Prevention Services Division Director in 2019. Director Cortiglio has over 20 years of experience working in public health and health care policy. She had a long tenure at the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) as both the Deputy Director of the Policy, Communications and Administration Office and the Legislative Liaison. Director Cortiglio has been a policy analyst and lobbyist for the Health District of Northern Larimer County and has worked for the Massachusetts legislature and for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Director Cortiglio holds a Master of Science from the Harvard School of Public Health and a bachelor's degree from Dickinson College.
Job Titles:
- Director, Center for Health & Environmental Data Division
- Division Director of CHED and Has Been With the Department
Dr. Wells is the Division Director of CHED and has been with the Department for over 20 years. He provides leadership and management, strategic analysis and planning, and the coordination and oversight of information systems that support programs at CDPHE. Dr. Wells earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Science, with an emphasis in Health Information Technology from the University of Colorado, and his Master of Science in Environmental Health, Epidemiology, from Colorado State University.
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
Darrin Bodner is CDPHE's Executive Deputy Director. He joined CDPHE in January, 2024.
He comes to CDPHE with a track record of helping complicated organizations, both large and small, maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations through investments in technology and human infrastructure while protecting fiscal integrity.
His previous role was Executive Deputy Secretary for Administration and Management at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, where he drove innovation and modernization and helped oversee the department's operational response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also worked in the private and non-profit sectors.
Job Titles:
- Director, Health Facilities / Emergency Medical Services Division
Director McManis joined CDPHE in 2000 and has held numerous leadership positions throughout her time working with the Division of Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services (HFEMSD). Prior to joining the Department, Director McManis served in various roles with a local municipal court processing legal proceedings for misdemeanor crimes and petty offenses and ended her 15 year career there as the Chief Court Clerk to pursue a nursing degree. As a nurse, Director McManis provided direct hospice nursing care in residential, hospital and community-based settings and served in various nurse managerial roles. Director McManis has extensive experience in state and federal healthcare regulation, rulemaking, and working with healthcare industry providers and stakeholders.
Erick Scheminske joined CDPHE in 2019, and has served as the Department's Chief Operating Officer since 2021. He has spent more than 20 years specializing in budget, finance, and executive leadership within Colorado State Government, including six years as Colorado's Deputy State Budget Director. Deputy Scheminske has also served as the Budget Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Public Safety.
Job Titles:
- Boulder County Public Health Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Radiation Program Manager
Jannette Scarpino joined CDPHE in 2020 where she leads the financial services team, overseeing a budget of over $900 million in FY 22/23. Jannette has a broad background in financial management, planning and budgeting, corporate finance, banking, treasury, and accounting. She has held senior financial roles in the for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors. Prior to CDPHE, she served as budget director for the Regional Transportation District for several years during the FasTracks build-out.
Job Titles:
- State Community Involvement Coordinator
- State Public Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director of the Division of Environmental Health
- Director, Environmental Health and Sustainability Division
Jeff Lawrence is the Director of the Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability and has been at the Department for over 30 years. The Division is responsible for a vast number of program and services that directly support the department's mission and vision of protecting the places where we live, learn, work, and play to ensure a healthy and sustainable Colorado where current and future generations thrive. Recently, Director Lawrence has been heavily involved in the development and implementation of the statutory and regulatory frameworks for Colorado's industrial hemp programs. Director Lawrence and has degrees in Microbiology and Environmental Health from Colorado State University.
Job Titles:
- Expert
- Senior Director of External Affairs and Communications
​Jessica Bralish is an expert in strategic communications and was named communications director for the Department in 2019. Prior to her current role, she served as the communications director for a member of congress. Jessica's history with the State of Colorado is extensive, having been the spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and Communications Director at the State Senate, after serving as the Deputy Communications Director and Public Relations Director at the statehouse. Her communications background is complemented by her time as a TV news producer in Southern Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office of STI / HIV / Viral Hepatitis
Director Forsyth's experience includes more than 25 years of management and leadership within public health systems, including supervising teams and staff. Prior to coming to CDPHE, Director Forsyth worked for years in similar programs for Denver Health, Children's Hospital Colorado, and in St. Louis, Missouri where she started a comprehensive program for youth and young adults living with HIV. Director Forsyth is committed to authentic community engagement and ending health inequities.
Jill Hunsaker Ryan, MPH, is a public health professional with 28 years of experience in the field. She has been a local public health agency director, the vice president of the Colorado Board of Health, and previous director of the Department's Office of Health Disparities.
From 2013 to 2019, Ryan served as an Eagle County commissioner, where she focused her efforts on determinants of health such as affordable health care and housing, environmental protection, climate action, emergency preparedness, and increasing mental health resources. In the same period, she also served as president of both the Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA) and Counties and Commissioners Acting Together (CCAT).
Ryan was appointed by Governor Jared Polis to take the helm of CDPHE at the end of January 2019. This was just over 13 months before the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Colorado. Ryan has helped lead Colorado through an unprecedented response, including the largest mass vaccination effort in Colorado's history - an ongoing endeavor that has resulted in more than 4.5 million Coloradans receiving a COVID vaccine.
Establishing greater health equity across populations is one of Ryan's key goals for CDPHE. In 2020, the department joined the American Public Health Association and more than 100 cities, states and other public organizations to officially declare racism a public health crisis, as the root cause of health disparities. In 2021, CDPHE hired its first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, created a Communicable Disease Health Equity Branch to reduce disparities in COVID-19 and other infections, and established a new Environmental Justice Unit to reduce environmental health disparities for disproportionately impacted communities across Colorado. That same year, Polis and Ryan appointed members to Colorado's first Environmental Justice Advisory Board, and CDPHE launched the new Environmental Justice Action Task Force.
Another priority of Ryan's is improving air quality. Under her direction, the department's first climate action unit was created to help measure, track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She also initiated the department's quest for tens of millions of dollars in new investments in the Air Pollution Control Division to reduce a historic backlog of permitting, modernize technology, and improve air monitoring to reduce pollution.
Ryan earned her undergraduate degree in psychology/sociology from the University of Colorado and a master's in public health from the University of Northern Colorado. In 2020, she received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and the Denver Business Journal's "Outstanding Women in Business" award for the health sector. In 2021, CiviCO honored Ryan with the Colorado Governors' COVID-19 Heroes Award as an official who helped successfully lead Colorado's pandemic response.
Director Ryan lives in Eagle County with her husband and school-age son. She enjoys the outdoors, playing piano and listening to live music.
Job Titles:
- Director, Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Jonathan McMillan was named director of the Office of Gun Violence prevention in April, 2022. Jonathan has a unique depth and breadth of experience in violence prevention initiatives. He's spent over 30 years in the field of youth violence prevention working with individual families, community organizations, higher education institutions, and government agencies, including building and leading the City & County of Denver's Office of Youth Violence Prevention. In addition to his government service, Jonathan is the founder of Be Better Than Average, a consulting company focused on personal improvement, gang and youth violence prevention, intervention and critical response and post-incarceration support.
Job Titles:
- General License Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
- Community Involvement Manager
- Interim State Community Involvement Coordinator
- State Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- State Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director of Legislative Affairs
Lindsay Ellis was named Legislative Liaison in 2021. In that role, she is the primary representative for the department with members of the General Assembly and their staff. Prior to that, she supported the department's legislative team as a policy advisor and spent seven years as an enforcement specialist in the Water Quality Control Division. Lindsay earned her law degree from Tulane University Law School and spent several years working on the front lines of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation before returning to her native Colorado and joining CDPHE.
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director, Air Pollution Control Division
Michael Ogletree joined the Department in 2021 and serves as the Director for the Air Pollution Control Division. Director Ogletree has extensive experience in the air quality field, previously serving as an air quality program manager for nearly seven years with the City and County of Denver where he led the design, development, and implementation of Denver's "Love My Air" program. Prior to joining the Department, Director Ogletree also served on the state's Air Quality Control Commission and the Air Quality Enterprise Board. He has also been a chemist and laboratory manager in the private sector.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office of Public Health Practice, Planning, and Local Partnerships
Director Shimomura works across the state with the 54 Local Public Health agencies. Michele has over 20 years of experience that includes leading public health teams, technology initiatives, public health assessments, improvement planning, and strategic planning. Michele joined CDPHE in 2020 after working in local public health in a variety of program and leadership roles.
Ned Calonge is Chief Medical Officer for CDPHE and the Associate Dean for Public Health Practice at the Colorado School of Public Health. Before his current appointments, he served the President and CEO of The Colorado Trust, a private grant making foundation dedicated to achieving health equity for all Coloradans. Prior to that, he also served as the Chief Medical Officer for CDPHE. He began his career as faculty in family medicine at the University of Colorado, where is continues as an associate professor. He has an MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and an MPH in epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public and Community Medicine. Nationally, Dr. Calonge chairs the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders of Newborns and Children for the Health Resources & Services Administration and the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. He is a past chair of the Community Services Task Force for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and past chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force at the Agency for Health Research and Quality. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2011.
Job Titles:
- Commodore Waste Rock Web Page
Job Titles:
- Director of the Water Quality Control
- Director, Water Quality Control Division
Nicole Rowan is the Director of the Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) where she oversees the implementation of the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Colorado's Water Quality Control Act. Director Rowan has over 25 years of experience as an environmental engineer working for the State of Colorado and in private industry. She has worked at CDPHE for more than nine years. She has a bachelor's degree in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a master's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado at Denver, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Senior Director for Public Health Readiness and Response
- Senior Director of Public Health Readiness
Scott Bookman serves as the Senior Director of Public Health Readiness and Response. He oversees the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response; the Office of STI, HIV, and Viral Hepatitis; and ensures that the department is prepared to respond to all public health emergencies. Scott has more than two decades of experience working in public health, healthcare, and emergency response. He began his career in Emergency Medical Services in Washington, DC, then Kansas City, and ultimately Denver, where he served as Chief Paramedic and Administrative Director of Emergency Medicine for Denver Health Medical Center. After leaving Denver Health, he served as CEO of a health center near Telluride. In June 2019, Director Bookman became the Lab Director at CDPHE. Ten months later, he became the incident commander of the state's response to COVID-19 and served in that role until the conclusion of the federal public health emergency.
Job Titles:
- State Project Manager
- State Radiation Project Manager
- Uranium and TENORM Lead
Job Titles:
- Director of the Hazardous Materials
- Director, Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division
Tracie White is the Director of the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division (HMWMD). Director White has worked at CDPHE for more than 14 years and has over 20 years of experience working in the field of environmental remediation and protection. She has dedicated much of her career to the State of Colorado, previously managing HMWMD's Remediation Program and Federal Facilities Remediation and Restoration Unit. Director White has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Department 's Director
- Director of Environmental Health and Protection
Trisha Oeth is the Department's Director of Environmental Health and Protection. Director Oeth has spent nearly 10 years at the Department. She oversees the environmental divisions, the Environmental Justice Program, environmental boards and commissions, and Energy Liaison. Prior to her work at CDPHE, Director Oeth practiced law at the Colorado Attorney General's Office and was also in private practice. She graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law.
Job Titles:
- Community Involvement Coordinator
- Interim State Community Involvement Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Colorado Housing and Finance Authority