Health Policy Solutions | About Solutions

About Solutions

Solutions is a project of the Buechner Institute for Governance at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. Designed to be a source for objective information about the critical health policy issues facing Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, Solutions features in-depth reporting and analysis, expert commentary, links to supporting research and opportunities for interested readers to engage in discussions.The website is funded through foundation grants and staffed by professional journalists.
Solutions Editor Diane Carman has been a reporter and editor in Colorado, Ohio, Oregon and Wisconsin. She was an integral part of the Denver Post news team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. She was a columnist for the Post from 1998 until 2007, when she was named director of communications at the School of Public Affairs.Contact Diane at 303-315-5818 ordiane.carman@ucdenver.edu
	Solutions Writer Katie Kerwin McCrimmon is an award-winning reporter and broadcast commentator. She has written health policy articles for The Colorado Trust and covered a broad range of issues for the Rocky Mountain News from 1988 to 2009.Contact Katie at 720-202-9921 orkatherine.mccrimmon@ucdenver.edu

Solutions Advisory Committee The Solutions staff is guided by a five-member advisory committee that meets regularly to evaluate and support the organization. Members of the committee are:
	Sue Cobb – Sue Cobb has worked as director legislative liaison for the City of Denver’s Department of Community Planning and Development, and as communications director for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and for the Denver Department of Human Services. She was deputy press secretary for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and has edited numerous publications. She has a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a master’s degree from the University of Denver.
	David Downs – David Downs, M.D., is a physician in internal medicine, practicing at Kaiser Permanente in Denver. He also is medical director of Engaged Public, a nonprofit public policy organization working to build public understanding and participation on a wide variety of issues. He is past president of the Colorado Medical Society and served as a commissioner on the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform. His is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
	Michele Lueck – Michele Lueck is president and CEO of the Colorado Health Institute. Previously she held leadership roles in two health-related nonprofits on the Western Slope. She also served as vice president for business development and marketing for Sg2, a think tank for health care delivery systems and worked a several companies in strategic marketing and account management. She has provided strategic advisory services to the Children’s Health Foundation, the Aspen Medical Foundation and the Redford Center. She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
	Benilda Samuels — Benilda (Benny) Samuels is senior director of community initiatives for Mile High United Way. Previously she was administrator for the Denver Health Family Plan Project at Denver Health & Hospitals, and communications director for the Denver Department of Human Services. She also wascommunications manager for Community Voices, a special project at Denver Health & Hospitals. She has worked at Karsh & Hagan Advertising and at Solis Advertising. Benny has an undergraduate degree in art from the University of Denver, and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a native of Panama, is fluent in Spanish and has worked to improve the way we communicate with underserved populations and non-English speaking audiences.
	Paul Voakes — Paul Voakes has been a professor of journalism and mass communication at CU since 2003 and served as dean of the school for the past eight years. His Ph.D. is from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and his research and teaching specializations are in digital media law and ethics, digital news writing, reporting and editing, and math/statistics for journalism. Before entering academia in 1990 he had been a journalist for 15 years at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently faculty director of CU’s Digital News Test Kitchen.