Our Team

Tom Evans, M.D. has been President and CEO of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) since 2005.  IHC focuses provider-led initiatives to improve statewide healthcare performance through engagement of stakeholders, rapid deployment of best practice, and public reporting of clinical performance data.  IHC has been recognized as one of 26 national Hospital Engagement Networks (HEN) driving to achieve the CMS Partnership for Patients initiative goals. 

Dr. Evans received both BA and MA degrees from Drake University.  He received his MD degree from the University of Iowa in 1983 and completed his Family Medicine residency at Broadlawns Medical Center in 1986.  He practiced family medicine for 13 years before serving as Chief Medical Officer for the Iowa Health System from 1999 to 2005.  

Dr. Evans has served as President of both the Iowa Medical Society and the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians.  He has also served on the delegations for both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).  Dr. Evans has served on the Board for the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), and currently serves on the board of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI).  He is the chair of Iowa’s Medical Home System Advisory Council, works with the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Measures Application Partnership and is leading the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) Medication Safety Affinity Group.

Dr. Evans is a faculty member with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the College of Medicine at Des Moines University, and the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Karthik Abbineni is a data analyst at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. His focus is on data analytics and visualization to help hospitals, clinicians and communities improve the quality of healthcare while reducing the cost. Abbineni received a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications from Vellore Institute of Technology, India and a master’s degree in information systems from Iowa State University. He has extensive analytics experience and knowledge including requirement analysis, outlier detection and descriptive, prescriptive and predictive analytics to identify the best possible solutions with meaningful information.

Jen Barber is a community health improvement consultant at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative.  She has extensive experience working in various roles in behavioral health in several different states. Those roles include detox, crisis center, inpatient/outpatient substance abuse (MAT), and mental health programs. Barber received her Bachelor of Science in Corrections with a focus in Chemical Dependency Studies from Mankato State University and Master of Science Management from Kaplan University.  She has been serving as an international alcohol and drug counselor since 2002 and is a certified lean healthcare professional.

Jennifer Brockman is the Chief Clinical Program Officer at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She has more than 15 years of clinical nursing experience including long-term care, medical, surgical and emergency room, home care and hospice, cardiac rehabilitation, oncology, quality management and utilization review and infection prevention. Her areas of expertise include infection prevention, hospital wide process improvement and hospital quality reporting. She received a bachelor’s degree in science and nursing from the University of Iowa and received a master’s in healthcare administration from Walden University.

Lana Comstock is a clinical improvement consultant for the hospital quality initiatives team at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She received her master’s degree in science of nursing education and has primary nursing experience in home care, long-term care and paralegal nursing. Comstock is an experienced nurse administrator with focus in nursing management, nursing education and organizational quality in various clinical settings. Her responsibilities within the HIIN included facilitation of the Falls Prevention Community of Practice and the Opioid Guardianship Project, as well as serving as a consultant to hospitals in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota promoting all quality measures to improve safety across the board.

Charisse Coulombe is director of hospital quality initiatives at the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this position she is responsible for the management of IHC hospital focused projects, planning the delivery of programs and activities within Hospital Quality Initiatives and engaging hospitals for sustainable healthcare transformation. She is receiving a doctorate in organizational leadership from Concordia University in Chicago, has a master’s degree in business administration from University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in biology from Western Illinois University. Coulombe has provided leadership on many state and federal programs including providing strategy and technical support on federal government contract proposal writing and has previously led one of the CMS Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks.

Amanda Donlon is a clinical improvement coordinator for the hospital quality initiatives team at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this position she is responsible for the coordination and implementation of quality improvement initiatives. Donlon received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mount Mercy University. She has 10 years’ clinical experience in medical surgical, intensive care unit, nursey and postpartum, facility wide process improvement, quality reporting and as a diabetes program coordinator.

Chris Evans is the Chief Operations Officer at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this role he oversees IHC internal operations and support processes. Prior to his role at IHC he held various positions in healthcare administration for CHI Health, including division director – emergency medicine and security service lines, vice president-operations, operations director – ancillary and support services and assistant administrator – retail and corporate clinics. Evans received a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from Bethel University. He is board-certified by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Lauren Fidler is a data analyst at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this role she assists with daily analytical programmatic tasks that support the mission, vision and cornerstones of IHC. Fidler depicts analytical results in ways that are easily understood in a presentable manner and contributes to the successful achievement of program objectives through effective team involvement and proactive communication and collaboration. She acts as the Compass database manager and is skilled in Tableau, R and SQL.  

Lexie Hudachek is the marketing and communications coordinator for Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. Prior to her role, she served as the project support specialist for the Compass HIIN and HQIC team at IHC and provided user support as well as network communications to hospitals. Prior to her role at IHC, she worked remotely as a marketing intern for Brand and Bash in Buena Vista, Colorado, a graduate assistant STEM Festival coordinator for the Northeast Iowa STEM Hub at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and she currently serves as a photographer for Lexie Shannon Photography. Hudachek received a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and a master’s degree in general communication from the University of Northern Iowa.

Christy Mintah is a clinical improvement consultant for the hospital quality initiatives team at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this position, she is responsible for the coordination and implementation of quality improvement initiatives. Christy earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mount Marty College, Yankton, South Dakota and is a certified professional in healthcare quality (CPHQ).

Christy served as a quality manager at Avera Holy Family Hospital (2003 - 2022) and was a registered nurse (RN) for both Palo Alto County Hospital (1997 – 2003) and Rock County Hospital (1996 – 1997).

Christy has 26 years of nursing experience with 11 years in medical/surgery, emergency room, intensive care unit, obstetrics, house supervision. She also holds 15 years in utilization review, emergency preparedness, staff education, privacy, compliance, performance improvement, patient experience and quality. Additionally, Christy has led initiatives in pressure ulcer prevention, positive patient identification, readmissions, and adverse drug events in the hospital setting.

Stephanie Muller is Iowa Healthcare Collaborative’s director of human resources. She is responsible for the overall development and management of IHC’s growing human resources department, including implementing HR practices that support IHC’s long-term strategic objectives and enhancing the corporate culture. With more than 18 years of extensive hands-on experience leading HR initiatives, in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, Muller brings expertise in employee engagement, rewards and recognition, talent acquisition and retention and compensation and benefits administration. She received her bachelor’s degree in public agency administration from Northern Arizona University and holds certifications as a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) (from the Human Resources Certification Institute), a Certified Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-CP) (from the Society for Human Resource Management) and a Certified Professional in Human Resources (IPMA-CP) (from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources).

Lori Paulson is a data analyst at the Iowa Healthcare collaborative where she is responsible for facilitating, assisting, designing and performing data management and analytical programming tasks. She received a bachelor’s degree in family environment and zoology and a master’s degree in family environment with a minor in gerontology and statistics from Iowa State University. Paulson has extensive knowledge and experience in the healthcare and research industries with prior experience as a senior data analyst developing Tableau reports for use across systems to monitor risk scores, utilization and quality metrics. She is a Certified Culture of Continuous Improvement facilitator.

Amber Rizzo joined The Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) in 2021 as the Education Coordinator. She provides all departments within IHC and external partners with collaboration in creating and executing exceptional education. Rizzo ensures educational content is scientifically rigorous; evidence-based while utilizing and working with the nation’s top subject matter experts. She is responsible for the development and multimodal delivery of education including virtual, enduring material, and two annual live in person conferences which include coordinating an Exhibition Hall and Poster Symposium. She also manages IHC's Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) with obtaining and maintaining accreditation status and writing for grants that will assist in funding the education department.

Rizzo holds 18 years of front-line healthcare and clinical education experience in numerous areas: Intensive Care, Emergency Room, Recovery Room, Trauma Burn ICU, and Surgical ICU. Additionally, Rizzo has been an instructor for Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Basic Life Support (BLS), First Aid, Cardiac Rhythm Recognition and Management, Simulation Lab, Palliative Care, Sepsis Care and Management, Infection Prevention, Ventilator Management, Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy, and Crucial Conversations.

Rizzo holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she earned the Jarman F Lowder Foundation Scholarship and graduated as a member of the honor society. Rizzo is dedicated to advancing the safety, equity, and quality of patient care across the healthcare continuum.

Sharmie Russell serves as the operations coordinator and executive assistant at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She joined the IHC team as the receptionist and executive support. She was promoted to office manager, and now handles the day to day operations of IHC, assists with human resources, IT and many other various duties. She is a retired cosmetologist.

Cari Seddon is the director of community quality initiatives at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this role she supports collaborative clinical and community partnerships driving sustainable healthcare quality improvements with focused attention on providing person-centered care throughout Iowa. Seddon received a bachelor’s degree in dietetics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a master’s degree in family and consumer science from Western Michigan University. Seddon is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist. She is six sigma lean certified and has over 19 years of experience in patient care and population health management.

Jillian Schneider, a clinical improvement consultant at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative, is responsible for the coordination and implementation of quality improvement initiatives. She received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Maryland University College. Schneider has extensive knowledge in healthcare having facilitated quality improvement and patient safety initiatives with ambulatory practices throughout the United States. She has overseen the development of two quality improvement web-based tools.