Wendy Spillane
Director of Communications and Outreach

Wendy Spillane, Deputy Director of Communications, Outreach, and Healthcare Payment Integrity of Ripple Effect Communications, brings 20 years professional experience focusing on health care programs and environmental protection, providing strategic solutions, project management, data analysis, and communications support to the federal government.  

Ms. Spillane received an M.S. in Environmental Science from Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs in May 1996. Ms. Spillane earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification in April 2019.

From 1996 to 2014, Ms. Spillane worked in a variety of positions with increasing levels of responsibility at federal consulting firms including task lead and project manager. As a project manager in support of EPA, she successfully managed budgets up to $1M annually, coordinated a nationwide technical assistance team responsible for state and local community engagement, and oversaw communications and meeting support to 10 EPA regional offices. Ms. Spillane demonstrated her adaptability, reach, and excellence in collaboration with a diverse client profile including EPA’s Community Engagement Initiative, CNCS’ AmeriCorps, DOD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and CMS’ Premium Stabilization Programs.

In 2015, Ms. Spillane began supporting the Enrollment Assistance Program (EAP), a $50M CMS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) contract as a senior manager and outreach lead. She helped develop the community outreach strategy and helped lead daily operations of its effective dissemination and implementation in nine state EAP markets, resulting in nearly 50,000 consumers enrolling in the private health insurance Marketplace.

Since 2017, Ms. Spillane has been a senior manager and technical lead for the Marketplace Program Integrity Contract (MPIC), a CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI) contract supporting the ACA and the implementation of private health insurance initiatives. She served a primary point of contact for CPI and managed a diverse team of researchers, data analysts, and developers to process fraud information in a database for which she developed the requirements. This database tool is instrumental in identifying data trends in agent/broker noncompliance to conduct education and investigation in support of CPI program goals. Ms. Spillane used this tool to develop additional process improvements resulting in project-wide efficiencies.

Fun facts: Ms. Spillane has one son (a teenager!), one dog (a counter-surfer!), and one husband (who is thankfully neither a teenager nor a counter-surfer 😉). She loves meeting up with friends wherever they are, HomeGoods is her happy place, she will NEVER turn down a cup of coffee, and she is incredibly happy Stranger Things is coming out soon with its next installment!

Amy Hein
Senior Vice President of DoD Accounts and Projects

What does it mean to be the Director of Scientific Workforce?  

A lot of the work we do at Ripple Effect isn’t done at Headquarters; many contracts involve placing our people directly at client sites. So, I’m responsible for developing best practices for hiring and managing our employees at those client sites, like NIH and Fort Detrick. I also build close relationships with our clients and employees to ensure we find support that fits an agency’s culture and mission needs.  

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role? 

Having limited face-to-face communication with the people I manage and support is a huge challenge. I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to be in their shoes every day. So, I listen. I understand their needs, empathize, and help problem-solve. There may be a physical divide between me and client sites, but I want my Scientific Workforce and clients to know I’m always there for them. 

What are some of your hobbies? 

I love to do anything active—I’m a runner and I coach my son’s sports teams. On the other hand, I love naps. On the weekend, you can find me taking a catnap to recharge for the next week. 

Fun fact about you? 

I was in ROTC! As a part of my program, I flew glider planes. Scary, but a big confidence booster.   

Advice to young professionals?

Do some soul-searching about what’s most important to you in your career—is it the work? The people? A company mission and culture? Then, find opportunities that move you down that path. If something is truly important to you, don’t take no for an answer.

Bambo Bamgbose
Senior Vice President of Growth

Paul Edwards
Chief Financial Officer

Paul brings 25 years of government contracting knowledge and over 10 years of senior management team experience to Ripple Effect.  He has worked in a variety of industries including IT services, secure networks, engineering, and shipbuilding.  Businesses he has worked with have ranged in size from $20M to $1B in annual revenue.

Most recently, Paul was CFO of Converged Security Services, a private equity backed business that was built through the acquisition of two government contractors specializing in IT services and security & access control. As the CFO, Paul was part of the team that grew the business by 40% over a two-year period.  He led the business in all aspects of finance, accounting, treasury, reporting and audit, as well as several company initiatives post-acquisition to streamline and improve business processes and compliance.

Prior to that, Paul worked as CFO for a small Rockville-based defense contractor called Ultra Electronics 3eTI, a subsidiary of a UK-based publicly traded company.  During his tenure there, Paul was responsible for all finance, HR, and IT functions.

Paul spent 19 years with General Dynamics in a variety of positions including CFO of their UK subsidiary, as well as Director of FP&A at GD’s Corporate Headquarters.  He started his finance career with 14 years at GD’s shipyard in Bath, Maine.

Paul graduated from Clarkson University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering & Management.  He also has an MBA with honors from Clarkson University. He lives in Broadlands, VA with his wife, Kim.  He has three daughters in college at VCU, JMU and South Carolina.

Asher Beckwitt
Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation

Dr. Karen “Asher” Beckwitt received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from American University, with a specialization in qualitative methods. Dr. Beckwitt has consulted on over 5,000 qualitative and mixed-methods projects in health, medicine, education, and related areas. She has experience leading large and small multi-method research and evaluation projects and manages all aspects of these projects including research design, instrument design, sampling and recruitment, quantitative and qualitative data collection, data analysis, dissemination (peer-review publications, technical reports, and presentations), project timelines, and budgets. During her time with Ripple Effect, Dr. Beckwitt has led components of several multi-method evaluations of NIH biomedical research programs for NIAID. She also managed four public comment analysis projects for CMS, supervising teams of up to 40 policy analysts and overseeing training, task coordination, quality assurance, and client communication. Prior to joining Ripple Effect, Dr. Beckwitt worked as the Lead Qualitative Research Consultant for her own research company and as the Qualitative Analysis Research Consultant for George Mason University, where she created a qualitative service for the entire university community. Dr. Beckwitt has authored or co-authored 37 technical reports, 6 peer-reviewed articles, and a book chapter. She has delivered over 40 presentations at professional conferences to present research findings and to train researchers in qualitative methods and software. She is proficient in Dedoose and an expert trainer in NVivo software systems used to organize qualitative data. 

Kristy Riordan
Director of Research & Evaluation

Tell us about your career path. What were you doing before Ripple Effect? 

After years of studying and training to be a teacher, I realized I cared more about social science and big-picture policies that affect lives, rather than being the one teaching reading and math. So, I switched gears. Before Ripple Effect, I worked for the Army and evaluated behavioral health programs. 

What’s a hobby of yours? 

I am an avid reader, especially Stephen King novels. It’s hard to find the time with three kids, but getting to read on vacation or on an airplane is when I’m the happiest. 

Why is Research and Evaluation so important to what Ripple Effect does? 

If you aren’t willing to look at yourself and see how you can improve, you probably aren’t approaching your business in a way that has fidelity. The government hasn’t always done this well, but we do! So, we help clients measure, analyze, and better understand how to improve and learn from past mistakes.  

What is a funny quirk about you that people might not know? 

I’m a big germaphobe. Being a health researcher doesn’t help that.

Advice you would give a young professional? 

What my father always told me: You are going to work for the vast majority of your life, so do something you can take pride in and enjoy doing.