Senate Health & Human Services [Mar 18, 2026 - Upon Adjournment]

Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators Bright.

Cutter.

Doherty.

Rizal.

Weissman.

Judah.

Here.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. As noted, my name is Alex Leach, and I am the Administrator for the State Board of Health. And today I have the privilege of introducing the members we are presenting for a conference Reconfirmation. First, we do have two members up for reconfirmation, so at the ends of this table. For CD5, we have Stan Vanderworth, a former county commissioner who has vast experience in local government and background in the military. and for CD6, Dr. Christina Suh, a pediatrician with experience with digital health and our current board vice president. For new confirmations, we have for CD3 Commissioner Eric Stiasny, a current county commissioner for Dolores County, with experience in education, public safety, and community health. For CD4, we have Megan Hillman, who is the current director of the Prowers County Department of Public Health and is a certified physician's assistant. And our two at-large members are Deborah Fitch, who has experience in restaurants, ranching, and food processing, as well as Laura Schunk, who is online, who is the current Chief Operating Officer and Foundation President of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

serving on this board. Thank you, Senator. And to the chair, the vice chair, and the other distinguished senators on this committee, thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak for a few minutes. It's been an honor and a pleasure to serve on the State Board of Health for my first term I am looking forward to doing it a second time Now while While I not a doctor by background what I do bring to the board is years of experience serving on an enormous number of both public and private boards where I can help immensely in a variety of ways to make sure that we get to good outcomes with that board. But in addition to that, and some of what was stated in the packet that you received about us, I was the former chief scientist of NORAD Northcom, and in In that capacity, I actually ran a lot of different simulations on the operations plans that they have. And I am a disabled veteran, disabled combat vet. One of those simulation plans we ran was the military response in support of civilian authorities to a national flu pandemic. And then determining the outcomes about how to address that effectively and how the Department of Defense could help with that. That is a little bit of a unique situation, but sometimes events like that become overwhelming to civilian authorities. So I have a background in how the nation can respond to certain kinds of challenges. That became very, very helpful when I was Board of County Commissioners during COVID. And in fact, for two years, I was chair of the Board of County Commissioners for El Paso County. And those two years were two of the COVID years. Now in addition to that, I'm also a huge fan of El Paso County Public Health, one of the largest ones in the state. They do a great job helping keep people safe in Colorado Springs and El Paso County. And I'm also what's called the Colorado Wing Leader for Angel Flight. And if you know what Angel Flight is, that's a private non-profit that flies patients to hospitals that could not otherwise afford to do that. And where it lends itself the best is for cancer patients that have long-term recurring treatments. And they might not live anywhere near a hospital that can offer that treatment. So Angel Flight West flies people like that from where they live to a medical care facility. And we do a lot of flights, about 400 flights a year in Colorado, with the majority of them going to Centennial, so that those folks can be served by hospitals here in the Denver area. So that's a little bit of my background, how it connects to public health, but also the other background that I have. And it's an honor to be here again. Thank you very much, and I look forward to any questions you may have.

Sure. Thank you for this opportunity, Senators and Chairman. I have been a PA for 25 years, working most of those years in rural Colorado, serving in federally qualified health care centers and rural health clinics. And advocating for people individually is a really special opportunity. But I find, as the director of public health, I get to take care of the community as a whole. It's a very different perspective. and I love policy. I love working with people that don't have the same position I have so that we can come to a compromise that serves the most people in the best way. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you Senators I am grateful for this opportunity A little bit about myself Mr Stianci do you want to pull that a little closer to you Thank you Thank you Senators I am grateful for this opportunity A little bit about myself Mr Seancey do you want to pull that a little closer to you Thank you Fourth generation Dolores County which is a very rural area served on the board for our local health association for several years and gained a deep understanding that a robust and quality health system is paramount, especially in a rural area. moving into my role as county commissioner. I've seen how that spreads out and interlates with our education system. I understand there's a lot of challenges right now to public health, and as I get into this, see that questions need to be asked and these truths uncovered to really determine what is the best outcome broadly. And I'm really excited about this opportunity and look forward to any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Is this on?

Thank you very much, Senators. I'm actually really honored to be asked to be on this board, and I think I bring a little bit of a different perspective. I'm a rancher, a restaurateur, and a USDA food processor. So, of course, environmental issues are near and dear to my heart. My former life was in health care, and I sat on the Medicaid Advisory Board, as well as one of the things I'm most proud of is I worked with Centura Health on their rural outreach program, and we flew doctors from Denver out to rural communities. So thank you very much for this.

Dr. Sa.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a prepared statement. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you so much for this opportunity to appear before you. As I said, my name is Dr. Christina Sud. I am a pediatrician by training, and I'm honored to be considered here today for reappointment to the State Board of Health. My foundation in medicine was built serving children and families in a pediatric primary care clinic that care for a predominantly low-income population. And that experience really shaped everything about how I approach health, because when you spend your days as a doctor seeing families and kids who are facing housing instability, food insecurity, and limited access to care, you do learn very quickly that health is far more than what happens in the exam room. It's about the conditions that people are born and live in, the resources that are available to their communities, and whether the systems we build actually reach the people who need them most. And that passion for underserved populations is really what drew me to public health and to serving on the Colorado State Board of Health. And it's really the lens through which I've approached my service on the board. After leaving clinical practice, I've carried that perspective into my work in digital health and more recently in the biopharmaceutical industry at a company that's focused on developing therapies for patients living with rare autoimmune diseases who too often fall through the cracks as well of our healthcare system. So I also serve on the board of Speak Our Minds a national organization dedicated to confronting the youth mental health crisis because children really deserve not just to have healthy bodies but healthy minds And too many young people across the country still don have access to mental health support that they need On the board, I've been committed to ensuring that our policies reflect the needs of low-income families, underserved communities, and Colorado still does have significant work to do in maternal and child health outcomes and behavioral health access in youth, and also in building a public health system that is equitable by design and not just by intention. I'm proud of the work that I've done so far, and I'm eager to continue it. I thank you for your time and your consideration and happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you all hear me?

Okay, great. Thank you all. Thank you, Senators. This is really an honor to be considered for this, and I appreciate the opportunity also for being able to join you online today since I'm traveling. My name is Laura Schunk. I am the COO of the Colorado Restaurant Association and the president of the foundation. I think my interest in the board is multifold from that experience. experience. Certainly as an industry that is regulated by the State Board of Health and by health regulations in general, I'm interested in representing the industry that I work with. But more broadly, I spent COVID working on the core team at our organization that really worked with several different agencies, but certainly the Colorado Department of Health and Environment to negotiate sort of the public health needs with the implementation reality. and making sure that businesses were able to implement the rules that were being created at really a breakneck pace during that crisis. So that that's kind of the root of my interest. The foundation at the Colorado Restaurant Association also does behavioral health work. And so I bring a behavioral health lens. But I think in general, my lens and my approach to the work of the board thus far has been to consider the public health needs of the entire state of Colorado. and then the impacts that's going to have on the people that actually need to implement the rules that we make.

Senators Bright.

Cutter.

Doherty.

Weissman.

Judah.

Mr. Chair Mullica.

Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the confirmations be placed on the consent calendar. Any opposition to the consent calendar? Seeing none, you will be placed on the consent calendar. Congratulations. Thank you for your service to the state of Colorado. Members, that concludes our business for state health and human services committee. We are adjourned.