Steering Committee

The Alliance Steering Committee is a broad-based, inclusive, professional group committed to achieving The Alliance’s mission, purpose and goals. To achieve its goals, the Steering Committee will seek out strategic partnerships, funding opportunities and develop programming for Alliance members.

Andrea (Andi) Dwyer

Colorado School of Public Health

Ms. Andrea (Andi) Dwyer is a founding member of the Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP) at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and implemented the country’s largest screening patient navigation program for preventive screening within the safety net clinics of Colorado. Dwyer serves as co-investigator on various practice based research and implementation science initiatives. At the state level, Ms. Dwyer is on the Executive Committee of the Alliance of Colorado Patient Navigators and Community Health Workers and Chair of the Colorado Cancer Coalition and is the Vice Chair of the American Cancer Society’s National Patient Navigation Roundtable. Dwyer advises for Fight Colorectal Cancer, a national nonprofit, in their health promotion and research aims focused on the colorectal cancer community.

Elsa Staples

Colorado School of Public Health and University of Colorado Cancer Center

Elsa Staples has been working in the cancer prevention field at the University of Colorado since 2016 through the Colorado School of Public Health and CU Cancer Center. She is the Senior Program Manager for the Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP), joining the team in 2018 to support safety net clinic systems across the state with implementing evidence-based strategies to reduce disparities in colorectal cancer screening, lung cancer screening, and hereditary cancer risk assessment, with patient navigation as a driver. Elsa also provides support and advisement for several state and national initiatives within the cancer continuum and patient navigation/community health work spheres, currently including as a Steering Committee Member for the Colorado Alliance for Community Health Workers, Patient Navigators, and Promotores de Salud; a co-chair of the Screening, Early Detection, and Treatment Committee at the Academy of Oncology Nurse and Patient Navigators (AONN+); and alumna of the Scholars Program of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network at the Colorado School of Public Health. She previously held positions with a college-based skin cancer prevention initiative and a national colorectal cancer nonprofit. Elsa has a Master of Public Health in Health Education and Communication and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Tulane University. She is passionate about working with communities across Colorado and nationwide to increase equitable access to and reduce barriers for cancer and healthcare services.

Linda Burhanssipanov

Native American Cancer Initiatives

Linda Burhansstipanov, MSPH, DrPH, (Cherokee Nation) has worked in public health since 1971. She taught at universities for 18 years (California State University Long Beach and University of California, Los Angeles). She created the Native American Cancer Research Program at the National Cancer Institute from 1989-1993. After leaving the National Institutes of Health, she created the Native American Cancer Research Program at the Anschutz Medical Center, Denver, Colorado. In 1998 she founded Native American Cancer Research Corporation, a community-based, 501(c)(3), American Indian-operated organization and Native American Cancer Initiatives, Incorporated (a small, minority woman-owned business). She currently is the principal investigator and co-investigator for three National Institutes of Health grants. She has served on multiple federal advisory boards, including, but not limited to the Scientific Advisory Council, National Institute Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Expert Panel on Community Health Promotion, and the Diversity Advisory Group for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences on “Pharmacogenetics”. She has over 145 peer-reviewed publications, of which most address Native American cancer, genetics, community-based participatory research, evaluation, patient navigation, survivorship, public health and data issues.

Nick Flattery

CPC Community Health

Nick Flattery sits on the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Colorado Community Health Workers, Patient Navigators and Promotores de Salud and is the Senior Program Manager for the Colorado Heart Healthy Solutions at CPC Community Health. Nick received his Master of Public Health in 2008, after which he joined the CPC Community Health team. Over the past 18 years, Nick has worked in Community Health Centers in a variety of positions. He also worked on the National Children’s Study for the University of Colorado. He has managed numerous projects inside and outside of clinical walls and has a passion for health equity. Nick loves to use data to address health disparities in communities across Colorado and beyond.

Rebecca Speer

Denver Health & Hospital Authority

Rebecca (Becca) Speer, MA is the Research Training Program Manager at the Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder where she received two bachelor’s degrees in Spanish Language and Literature and in Communication. She then attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where she completed a master’s degree in Communication in 2010. She has been a member of the Alliance of Colorado Community Health Workers, Patient Navigators and Promotores de Salud since 2014 and has sat on the Alliance’s Steering Committee since 2016.