Children’s Optimal Health

Board members represent the founders of COH, key organizations with large datasets and community organizations serving children and youth across the age spectrum.

Any Baby Can

Ellen Balthazar, Executive Director
Ellen Balthazar serves as the Executive Director of Any Baby Can Child & Family Resource Center in Austin, Texas. Prior to Any Baby Can, she was a marketing consultant, representing clients such as McDonald’s, Hunt-Wesson, Taco Bell, Frito-Lay, and Pizza Hut, as well as a marketing executive for PepsiCo, Frito-Lay and Procter & Gamble. Balthazar was elected to the Eanes Independent School District (EISD) Board of Trustees in 2001 and continues to serve the community in that capacity. She holds a B.S. in Home Economics and a B.S.H.E.J. in Home Economics and Journalism, both from the University of Georgia.

Austin Independent School District

Meria Carstarphen, Superintendent
Dr. Meria Joel Carstarphen is Superintendent of the Austin Independent School District. Prior to this position, Dr. Carstarphen served as the superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and as Chief Accountability Officer for the District of Columbia Public Schools. She has also served in similar leadership and accountability positions for public school systems in Kingsport, Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Carstarphen’s professional experience includes teaching Spanish and documentary photography at the middle school level, as well as elementary education in Seville, Spain, and Caracas, Venezuela. She earned a doctorate in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy with a concentration in urban superintendency from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Carstarphen earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and Spanish from Tulane University, and master of education degrees from Auburn University and Harvard University.

E3 Alliance

Susan Dawson, Executive Director
Susan Dawson, President and Executive Director of the E3 Alliance, is a Texas entrepreneur, business and civic leader.  She founded and leads the E3 Alliance (for Education Equals Economics), a regional collaborative to increase economic outcomes by aligning our education systems to better fulfill the potential of every citizen. She is former president and managing partner at Athens Group, an employee-owned consulting firm integrating technology strategy and software solutions.  Before co-founding Athens Group, Dawson was president of Sterling Information Group, an Austin-based software and management consulting firm. Dawson has a B.S. in Civil Engineering Cum Laude from Princeton University and an M.B.A. in Information Systems Management from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.

Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

Drew Scheberle, Senior Vice President for Education and Talent Development
Drew Scheberle is the Senior Vice President of Education and Talent Development for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, with more than a dozen years of experience in education policy.  Prior to the Chamber, Mr. Scheberle worked for six years at the Texas Business and Education Coalition. Mr. Scheberle currently serves on the Board of Directors for Austin Partners in Education and Skillpoint Alliance, as well as the Advisory Boards for Veteran Tutors, the United Way’s Leadership Council and UT College of Education’s Institute for Community and University Partnerships.

Housing Authority of the City of Austin*

Jim Hargrove, President and CEO
Jim Hargrove, President/CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, is a statewide leader in the public housing industry. Hargrove has more than 20 years administrating the management of both the Low Rent and Housing Choice Voucher programs that serve low-income families. Hargrove’s vision has enabled the Housing Authority of the City of Austin to be awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development two statewide contracts to perform the administration of the Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment program through the creation of a nonprofit subsidiary, the Southwest Housing Compliance Corporation.

Integrated Care Collaboration

Anjum Khurshid, Director of Clinical Research and Evaluation
Dr. Anjum Khurshid leads the research activities at ICC as the Director of Clinical Research & Evaluation. Before joining the ICC, Dr. Khurshid was Director, Health & Behavioral Risk Research Center (HBRRC) at the University of Missouri, Columbia where he was the principal investigator on several survey research projects. He was also an Assistant Professor of Health Management & Informatics in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri. Dr. Khurshid earned his PhD in Public Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Masters in Public Affairs from the same university, and his medical degree from King Edward Medical University, Lahore.

Lifeworks

Susan McDowell, Executive Director
Susan McDowell is Executive Director of LifeWorks, a youth and family service organization in Austin, Texas, that provides a seamless continuum of support for youth and families facing issues such as homelessness, abuse, poverty, emancipation from foster care, and mental health challenges. Susan is also active in numerous civic organizations and regional health and human service planning initiatives. Susan holds a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas-Austin, respectively.

Ready by 21 and Austin Project

Bob Rutishauser, Board Member
Bob Rutishauser is an active member of six Austin nonprofit boards, including The Austin Project, all of which are connected with education. Prior to taking early retirement in 1992, he was CFO for Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and responsible for finance and accounting, purchasing, facilities, information systems, telecommunication and the technical library. Prior to MCC, Rutishauser worked for 17 years with Control Data Corporation in Minneapolis and held several financial management positions including VP, Financial Analysis and VP, Control Data Business Advisors. A native of St. Louis, he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in mechanical engineering and from the University of Michigan with an M.B.A.

Seton Family of Hospitals*

Charles Barnett, President and CEO
Charles J. Barnett is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Seton Family of Hospitals based in Austin, Texas, with nearly 30 years of healthcare administration experience. Prior to joining Seton in 1993, he served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Inova Health System and Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. He also worked for 10 years at St. Joseph Medical Center, part of the Sisters of Charity Healthcare System of Cincinnati, and during his tenure held the position of Executive Vice President. He earned a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Xavier University. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati.

St. David’s Healthcare*

Jon Foster, President and CEO
Jon M. Foster is President and CEO of St. David’s HealthCare, a $2.4-billion, seven-hospital healthcare system, with 21 locations throughout Central Texas. Under his leadership, St. David’s has undergone an ambitious $650-million, multi-facility expansion and the organization has been recognized nationally for its level of clinical care and service. Foster has also served as the executive vice president of operations for the Baptist Health System of East Tennessee. While there, he led the health system’s operations to the most successful performance results in the organization’s 50-year existence, and the system’s 450-bed flagship facility was named one of the nation’s “Top 100 Hospitals” for four consecutive years.  Foster earned a B.A. degree from Baylor University and a Master’s degree from Trinity University.

Travis County Healthcare District*

Trish Young, President and CEO
Patricia “Trish” Young Brown is the first President/Chief Executive Officer of the Travis County Healthcare District. Young Brown previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Austin’s Community Care Services Department, responsible for the Austin/Travis County Community Health Centers (FQHCs), City of Austin/Travis County Rural Medical Assistance Programs and the Austin Women’s Hospital. She holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Denver, Colorado, and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.

University of Texas at Austin*

Dr. Bill Sage, Vice Provost for Health Affairs
William M. Sage, M.D., J.D., an authority on health care law and policy, is Vice Provost for Health Affairs and James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is charged with expanding UT-Austin’s contributions to biomedical research, the health professions and health policy in partnership with other University of Texas campuses and the Austin community. Before joining the faculty of UT-Austin’s School of Law in 2006, he was professor of law at Columbia University.  He has also had appointments as a visiting professor at Harvard and Duke. Prof. Sage received his A.B. from Harvard College and his medical and law degrees from Stanford University.  He completed internship at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego, and served as a resident in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

University of Texas School of Public Health at Austin

Dr. Steven Kelder, Professor & Co-Director in the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living
Dr. Steven H. Kelder is a professor at the University of Texas-Austin School of Public Health. He has over 20 years’ experience in design and evaluation of child and adolescent research, with an emphasis on interventions designed for promotion of physical activity and healthy eating, obesity prevention and substance use prevention. He teaches graduate courses in Obesity and Public Health, Community Nutrition, Introduction to Epidemiology, Social and Behavioral Aspects to Behavior Change, Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Health, and Epidemiology Proposal Development. Dr. Kelder also leads CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), a research-based program that guides elementary schools, families and children in the process of being healthy, reaching over a million Texas children. He has published over 90 articles in the professional scientific literature and has authored 9 textbook chapters. He earned a PhD in Behavioral Epidemiology and an MPH in Community Health Education from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and holds a B.A. in Marketing/Economics from Northern Illinois University.

* denotes financial contributor

Officers

Chair: Charles Barnett
Vice Chair: Dr. Bill Sage
Treasurer: Susan Dawson
Secretary: Ellen Balthazar