Michelle Nealy
Establishing strong partnerships has always been at the center of our work. Last year, Reservoir Communications Group assembled a group of experts known as the Reservoir Advocacy & Alliance Network (RAAN) to complement our in-house team of seasoned professionals to ensure that we can bring the most diverse and thoughtful stakeholders and viewpoints to bear for any health issue, therapy, disease state or coalition. RAAN members’ insights serve to strengthen the advocacy and alliance development needs that underscore our work.
This year, we are pleased to announce the addition of Rev. Jennifer Butler and Dr. Cindy Cooke to this esteemed cadre of strategic partners. As recognized leaders in nursing, social justice, rural health and women’s health, their exceptional expertise and strategic insights serve to bolster RAAN’s stakeholder and alliance initiatives, delivering impactful results in support of clients’ business, advocacy and reputation objectives.
Our new members, Rev. Jennifer Butler and Dr. Cindy Cooke, strengthen the network’s ample insights by providing new expertise and perspective:
Rev. Jennifer Butler is a social justice leader, dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through liberative spirituality. She founded Faith in Public Life in 2005 to amplify progressive faith voices and build multi-racial, multi-faith coalitions for justice. During her tenure as CEO, she mobilized faith-based campaigns to secure the Affordable Care Act, defeat fraudulent religious freedom bills and oppose rising authoritarianism and racism. Today, Rev. Butler is the Founder in Residence of Faith in Public Life, advising religious and secular social change leaders.
Dr. Cindy Cooke is a board-certified family nurse practitioner and advocate for leadership, legislative change and interprofessional collaboration with decades of primary care clinical practice experience focused on military families and rural communities. Dr. Cooke consults on health promotion and wellness and has spoken locally, nationally and internationally on a variety of clinical and health policy topics. Dr. Cooke is a past president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). She is a Fellow of AANP and adjunct faculty at the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND in the MSN-DNP program in Organizational Leadership, teaching Healthcare Finance and Economics, Healthcare Policy and Advocacy and Interprofessional Collaboration.
Our existing network includes other leaders with robust expertise in serving specialized populations and communities:
- Aimee Thorne-Thomsen – Latino/a community
- Deanna Darlington – Multicultural populations and health equity
- Dr. Dennis Cryer – Provider community
- Dr. Ronny A. Bell – Health disparities and American Indian health
- Gillian Parrish – Cancer community
- Katy Spangler – Employer community
- Lee Lynch – Women’s health and older Americans
- Lori Weinstein – Faith-based communities, women’s health and wellness
- Michelle Nealy – Social justice
- Shawn Gremminger – Provider and employer communities
- Steve Grossman – Rare disorders community
The RAAN is also essential in supporting Reservoir’s work in health equity, ensuring that we bring a diverse set of voices to the table as we seek to advance programs and policies that reduce health disparities and ensure equal opportunity for health.
If you would like to learn more about Reservoir’s offerings surrounding alliance development and stakeholder engagement, please reach out to Lee Lynch or Michelle Nealy for more information.