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Carolyn Cocotas, RT, MPA - Director
Carolyn is responsible for the strategic direction and coordination of Affinity’s Making a World of Difference programs (MAWDP) as well as management of the Department of Community Health Innovation (CHI.) CHI has responsibility for the execution of the grantmaking program, Pay-for-Performance initiatives and Community Health/Health Literacy. Her team built the grants program, a primary vehicle for facilitating our Board of Director’s vision to support external organizations to conduct and evaluate innovative projects that may contribute to improvements in community health.

Lauren M. Hernandez, MPA - Project Manager
Lauren oversees the day-to-day operation of Making a World of Difference projects. She monitors progress of projects and reports on milestones and findings and helps grantees implement their projects in a timely and effective manner. Lauren also works with other Affinity departments to collaborate on projects that have an innovative and community health focus.

Michael Mulvihill, Dr. P.H.- Research Methodologist
Michael works with our grantees and project consultants to develop sound evaluation methodologies and project designs. He helps formulate testable research questions and develops an analytic project plan including statistical approaches. He oversees analytic work and the development of data collection tools.

Meredith Reh, MPA - Project Manager
Meredith oversees the day-to-day operation of Making a World of Difference projects. She monitors progress of projects and reports on milestones and findings and helps grantees implement their project in a timely and effective manner. Meredith also works with other Affinity departments to collaborate on projects that have an innovative and community health focus.

Tieshka Smith-Cook, MPM - Project Officer
Tieshka is responsible for overseeing the Making a World of Difference program grant process. Tieshka manages the proposal review process, tracks the program budget and administers new and existing multiyear grant commitments. Tieshka also provides technical assistance to grantees in proposal preparation and project management to ensure the completion of projects and dissemination of findings to the public health community.

Jenice Santiago - Administrative Assistant
Jenny administers the overall operations of the Department of Community Health Innovation. She serves as an information and communication manager for our department and schedules meetings and appointments; organizes and manages a library of files; conducts research; and disseminates information.