Jennifer Pohlhaus
Chief Operating Officer

How did you join Ripple Effect? 

After my AAAS Science & Technology Policy fellowship, I was looking for my next career step. A colleague mentioned that I should talk to Amy Bielski from Ripple Effect, a company I had heard positive things about. I contacted Amy and we hit it off right away. I started off by managing an NIH contract that Ripple Effect had recently won, and after that project was over, there was always another new and exciting challenge to overcome—that satisfied my need for learning and achieving.

What do you think is your biggest strength as a leader? 

When I took the CliftonStrengths assessment, I was a little surprised by the results. My top five strengths are Achiever, Relator, Responsibility, Harmony, and Learner. My husband says I have the most patience of anyone he knows and I think that comes from the Relator and Harmony strengths. I’ve learned that taking the time to understand and see situations from multiple perspectives is key to connecting with others and solving problems.

What do you do in your free time? 

I don’t have a lot of free time since most of my time outside of work is spent taking care of my kids. But I make time every morning to be active—I’m an avid runner and I do yoga on the weekends. 

What are you proudest of in your career? 

I am proudest of what Amy and I have built at Ripple Effect. We’ve created a place that welcomes diversity and values lifelong learners who always want to find better ways to do things. 

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!

Heather Huntsman
Director of Technical and Scientific Support

Heather D. Huntsman is a solutions-focused and resourceful professional equipped with more than 15 years of training and experience in basic, applied, and translational science environments. Throughout her career she has been driven by asking the right questions which has led her to gain extensive experience in reviewing, evaluating, and interpreting findings in a broad range of biomedical disciplines, including stem cell biology, physiology, aging, and women’s health issues across all domains of medicine, and the influences of sex/gender and race/ethnicity on public health trends. She has used her expertise to support biomedical research at the NIH and DoD in various capacities including scientist, communications specialist, and grants manager. She also has a unique background as an athlete and coach which is a mentality that she brings to the workplace every day allowing her to excel in fast-paced team settings, lead through her work ethic and determination, and inspire others to do the same. Heather earned a Masters’ degree in exercise science from George Washington University, and a PhD in muscle physiology from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and prides herself in being a leader that listens and never stops learning.

Bambo Bamgbose
Senior Vice President of Growth

Martha Ngoh
Deputy Director of Program Management
and Policy

Martha Ngoh, Deputy Director of Program Management and Policy at Ripple Effect, brings over 7 years of experience supporting and managing federal-funded public health and healthcare projects involving policy development and implementation, communications, and partnerships. Ms. Ngoh has worked on projects and programs aimed at improving patient safety and the quality of healthcare delivery related to healthcare infection prevention and control, healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and antimicrobial-resistance (AR), and maternal safety. Ms. Ngoh served as a Senior Analyst at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and was later promoted to Director of Healthcare Connections within the Infectious Disease Infrastructure and Policy team, where she provided leadership on a portfolio to foster collaboration between public health and healthcare through key activities. In this role, Ms. Ngoh managed the Council for Outbreak Response: HAI/AR where she developed processes for efficient Council operations and member engagement and contributed to the development of the Council’s Framework on HAI Outbreak Notification which aims to guide notification and communication in the context of a possible HAI outbreak. Ms. Ngoh received her MPH from the George Washington University in 2016. Ms. Ngoh was also selected as a fellow into the 2020-2021 cohort of the Johns Hopkins University Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. Ms. Ngoh currently serves as the Deputy Director of Program Management and Policy, where she provides leadership on the Program Management and Policy team.

Deborah Sartin
Director of Project Management Office

Deborah Sartin, Director of the Project Management Office, for Ripple Effect Communications, Inc. brings 15+ Years’ professional experience developing PMOs from inception to service delivery.  She is an accomplished leader managing enterprise technical and business projects for federal, corporate, education and non-profit organizations.  

Created and managed an Office of Business Excellence and several PMO Centers of Excellence to drive organizational maturity in strategic planning, process improvement, quality management, contract management, and project portfolio management  

Ms. Sartin received her M.S. in Management Information Systems from The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.  

Ms. Sartin holds CMMI Associate, ISO Certified Auditor, PMP, CSM, SAFe SM, Prosci, ITIL, CIPM, and Balance Scorecard certifications.

Early Work History  

1990s  

Ms. Sartin worked as a federal contractor to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) managing technical support and training.  She also managed technical support and training for Mead Packaging, a global manufacturing company.  In addition, she worked as a Project Manager for an international telecommunication firm, Global One where she launched call centers in the Americas. She has a breadth of experience in all aspects of technology services, shifting organizations from traditional service models to innovative transformational models.  

Recent Work History  

2000-2012  

Ms. Sartin managed projects in the banking industry and worked as a business process improvement analyst for a telecommunications firm.  In these roles she developed metrics to improve IT staff performance as well as processes and procedures for organizational efficiencies. She served as a Technology Support Manager for T-Mobile’s global call center. She delivered the best customer experience via outstanding customer relationship management.  She also worked as an account executive and technical recruiter for Robert Half Technology. Ms. Sartin is frequently requested as a guest speaker and trainer on project management and organizational change management topics.  

Current Work History  

In 2012, Ms. Sartin joined the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) as their inaugural Project Management Office (PMO) Director. From the success of this role, she was promoted to the role of Director, Office of Business Excellence to lead strategic planning, process improvement and project portfolio management. After her tenure at ASHA, Ms. Sartin developed and expanded PMOs at educational institutions including West Virginia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Success Academy Charter Schools in NYC, and the Univ. of TN Health Science Center.  She also provided Project Management consultation services with a global consulting firm where she helped clients establish Agile project management best practices.  

Lex Helsel
Director of Research & Evaluation

Dr. Alexis Helsel has professional experience conducting applied health research and program evaluations for several federal agencies, including NIH and DOD. She has contributed and managed mixed-method scale evaluation projects that include bibliometric analyses of program outcomes and impacts and network analyses. Dr. Helsel has extensive experience abstracting administrative from NIH databases, including QVR, IMPACII, RePORT, iCite, as well as PubMed, Web of Science, USPTO, and Federal RePORTER. She also has experience using publication and grant data to construct research networks using VosViewer and CitNetExplorer. Dr. Helsel also has a strong record of effective communication and developing evidence-based recommendations. She has co-authored 20 briefings of research and evaluation findings for senior government and military stakeholders, eight technical reports, one peer-reviewed publication, and 12 professional conference presentations. She has trained and provided technical guidance on epidemiologic and evaluation methods to multi-disciplinary teams of Masters- and PhD-level scientists. She is proficient with STATA, SAS, and Microsoft Access, Excel, and DeDoose. Dr. Helsel earned a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh.