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The Horizon Foundation Staff
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Nicolette (Nikki) Highsmith Vernick
Nicolette (Nikki) Highsmith Vernick is the Foundation's President & Chief Executive Officer. She cares passionately for improving health and health care for vulnerable Americans and has almost 20 years of health policy and philanthropic experience. Before her tenure at the Foundation, she served as Senior Vice President for Program at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). CHCS is a nationally recognized center on improving care for beneficiaries of this country’s publicly financed health care programs. CHCS has a staff of 35 and receives support for its $10 million operating budget from major health care philanthropies including The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the California HealthCare Foundation, corporate community benefit programs, and the federal government.
Ms. Highsmith Vernick has led quality and equity work in state capitols all across the country. She has brought together disparate stakeholders, including Medicaid agencies, private payers, providers, community organizations, state departments of health, and social service agencies to improve health outcomes and achieve common health care reform objectives. Ms. Highsmith Vernick has served as Project Director, Deputy Project Director, and Principal Investigator for many national philanthropic programs, including the Medicaid Managed Care Program, which has given over $15 million in grants to states. Ms. Highsmith Vernick sits on several national committees and advisory groups related to health care redesign and quality, including for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the National Quality Forum, and the Agency for Health Care Research and Policy, and has published frequently.
Prior to joining CHCS, she was the Deputy Director of the Medicaid Managed Care Program for the Massachusetts Medicaid Program, worked as a senior Medicaid analyst during the Clinton Administration at the Executive Office of the President, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a professional staff member for U.S. Congressman Michael A. Andrews of Texas.
Ms. Highsmith Vernick holds a master's degree in public administration from American University, and a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Texas. She lives in Ellicott City with her husband and two children, Zach and Ellie.
Contact Nikki via email:
nhighsmith-vernick@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Cheri Auger
Cheri Auger is the Senior Administrative Assistant, performing a variety of duties to support the staff of The Horizon Foundation in particular grantmaking and finance.
Prior to coming to the Horizon Foundation, Cheri worked as a program analyst for the federal government and as an administrative assistant at a local private school. She is a graduate of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Contact Cheri via email:
cauger@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Maureen R. Hayes
Maureen Hayes is the foundation's Chief Administrative Officer and oversees all financial and administrative aspects of the Foundation, including budget, human resources and liaison with service providers. In addition, she takes the lead in office management and special projects.
Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, Ms. Hayes career was focused in academic settings. As administrative officer for a large academic department at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health for 10 years, she was responsible for the operating budget, personnel and payroll, faculty appointments, information technology support and grants including proposal preparation and processing and grants and contracts management. Previously, she was fiscal officer of a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Hayes received her bachelor's degree in humanities from Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts and her master of arts degree in business from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Contact Maureen via email:
mhayes@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Kathy L. Macfarlane
Kathy Macfarlane is the Executive Assistant to the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Horizon Foundation. She performs a variety of duties, including visitor relations, clerical support, and preparation of reports, charts, and other correspondence.
Kathy has worked as an office coordinator and assistant to the president for several local firms. She is a graduate of Villa Julie College.
Contact Kathy via email:
kmacfarlane@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Rosimar Meléndez
Rosimar Meléndez is the Foundation's Senior Staff Associate. She oversees the Foundation's responsive grantmaking programs, serve as a resource to the nonprofit community and assists with program planning and evaluation.
Prior to the Foundation, Rosi was United Way of Central Maryland's Regional Director for Howard and Anne Arundel Counties. Before joining the United Way, she was Director of the Women's Business Center in Fayetteville, NC, an agency that helps local entrepreneurs start or expand small or home-based businesses. She has also worked as Marketing and Communications Director for the United Way of Cumberland County in Fayetteville, Public Relations Director/Account Executive at Hodges Associates in Fayetteville, Fund Development and Public Relations Director for the Girl Scouts of Concharty Council in Columbus, GA and a Market Research Analyst for the Department of the Army's Marketing Division in Vicenza, Italy.
A native of Puerto Rico, Rosi is a graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL.
Contact Rosivia email:
rmelendez@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Glenn Schneider
Glenn Schneider is the Chief Program Officer for the Horizon Foundation, one of the largest health philanthropies on the East Coast. As CPO, Glenn works on the development and implementation of major Foundation initiatives, including its strategic plan.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Glenn served as the Director of Health Policy and Planning for the Howard County Health Department (Maryland). He spearheaded team efforts to enact the nation's first ban on indoor tanning for minors and launch the Healthy Howard Health Plan, a nationally-acclaimed health care access program for the uninsured. He was also part of the leadership team that conducted the nation's largest drive-thru flu clinic.
Glenn was the former Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition. His coalition advanced one of the nation’s largest Medicaid expansions, the nation’s best prescription drug discount program for the uninsured, and the nation’s first law requiring large companies to chip-in for their employee’s health care. It also kept BlueCross/BlueShield a non-profit insurer and raised Maryland’s tobacco tax by $1 per pack to help fund health care expansion.
Glenn’s work as a national consultant, community organizer, grassroots strategist, and policy director has resulted in the passage of over twenty-five state and local laws across the nation that increased access to health care, raised tobacco prices, created smoke-free public places, and cut youth access to tobacco.
Schneider has led workshops at national conferences and universities on public health advocacy, strategic planning, and health communications. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh and received his school’s highest honor, the Distinguished Graduate Award, in 2002. Glenn has also been recognized for his advocacy and leadership from a number of other organizations.
Glenn’s beautiful wife Janice and their boys, Eric and Evan, keep him happy and balanced.
Contact Glenn via email:
gschneider@thehorizonfoundation.org
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Marla Shaivitz
Marla Shaivitz is the Foundation's Web Technology Director. She is responsible for research, strategy recommendations, site envisioning, planning & requirements gathering, user experience, web design & web development of all foundation web initiatives. She manages the day-to-day operations of the Foundation website, as well as the Nonprofit Resource Development Center, Howard Health Counts.org, the Policy Analysis Center site and the Community Emergency Response Network. She writes for the Foundation in the Trustee profile section and is a content contributor on the initiative sites as well.
Marla works closely with Foundation staff to realize the strategic goals of the organization through web technology. She also works with partner organizations, such as the Association of Community Services, to share best practices around web technology with other County organizations. A graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo, Marla worked in the technology sector as an Internet strategy consultant, as well as in the marketing and public relations departments at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
Contact Marla via email:
mshaivitz@thehorizonfoundation.org