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.

Jennifer Brockman is vice president, health services 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.

Nicky Carlson is a clinical improvement consultant for the ambulatory quality initiatives team at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She supported clinicians while moving to value-based care and facilitates both the Iowa and Nebraska portion of the Compass PTN. Carlson received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Northwestern College and specialized in obstetric nursing prior to becoming a part of the Compass team. 

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.

Ellyn Cottingham is the director of ambulatory quality initiatives at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. Prior to this she was a medical laboratory scientist and shift supervisor in the Core Laboratory at MercyOne Des Moines.  She received a master’s degree in healthcare administration from Des Moines University and a bachelor’s degree in clinical laboratory sciences from the University of Iowa. 

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.

Chris Evans is vice president, administrative services 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.  

Linda Firkins is division director, administrative services at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She received her CPA designation in 1993 and has served in various accounting and human resource management positions since that time.  Firkins has recently served as the director of finance at Disability Rights Iowa where she managed multiple federal grants for the agency.  She was responsible for all financial activities of the agency including working with and reporting to the Board of Directors.  She also worked as chief financial officer for ISED Ventures where she managed multiple federal grants and was responsible for all financial accounting and human resource functions.

Norma Haskins is education coordinator at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and her teaching certification from the Northern Ireland Ministry of Education. She brings to her position more than 20 years’ experience teaching in higher education institutions and 15 years’ experience developing, planning and implementing education programs and webinars.

Lexie Hudachek is the project support specialist for the hospital services division at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. In this role she supported hospitals in the Compass HIIN by providing user support and network communications to hospitals. Prior to her role at IHC she worked remotely as a marketing intern for Brand and Bash in Buena Vista, CO, a graduate assistant STEM Festival coordinator for the NE 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.

Ashley Johnson is as an accountant at Iowa Healthcare Collaborative. She has more than six years’ experience in various accounting positions. Johnson holds bachelor’s degrees in both accounting and business administration and a master’s degree in accounting.

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.

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.