Director

Geof Swain, MD, MPH - Geof started the WCHE in 2006 and remains its Director. He has been involved in issues relating to the social and economic determinants of health and in reducing health disparities through upstream, policy-level interventions for over a decade, including serving on multiple state health plan committees and teams focused on social determinants of health. He has extensive clinical, teaching, health policy, and leadership experience, including his appointment as academic medical faculty at UW-Madison, as Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer at the City of Milwaukee Health Department. Dr. Swain currently serves on the Wisconsin Public Health Association Policy Committee, and is involved with the national HRSA-funded “CoIIN” network to reduce socially determined disparities in birth outcomes, as well as Thrive WI, a statewide coalition of public health practitioners and community organizers.  Previously, he provided key leadership to the Social and Economic Factors subcommittees for the Wisconsin’s 2010 and 2020 State Health Plans, and served for 4 years on the Health Equity and Social Justice Strategic Direction Team of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

Population health service fellow

Salma Abadin, MPH - Salma received her master of public health from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Salma is driven to identify ways to better integrate, operationalize, and institutionalize an equity lens in her public health work. She has worked on projects in cancer epidemiology, chronic disease prevention, and the built environment. She has experience in conducting quantitative research and analysis, and using a variety of data visualization methods, such as GIS and social network analysis. As a Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellow, Salma is placed with the City of Milwaukee Health Department supporting efforts around local health department accreditation, and Data You Can Use building community capacity to use data to support local organizations' work with neighborhoods and communities in Milwaukee.

Our Advisory Board

Bevan Baker, FACHE, Commissioner of Health, City of Milwaukee Health Department

Ron Cisler, PhD, Director, Center for Urban Population Health

Robert Frediani, President, Therapy Plus of Wisconsin

Corey Hoze, Former Director, Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services

Sheri Johnson, PhD, Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Pediatrics

Eric Ostermann, Executive Director, Wisconsin Public Health Association

Stephanie Robert, MSW, PhD, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work

Our partners

CORE/El Centro-Milwaukee

Health First Wisconsin

Healthier, Safer, More Prosperous Milwaukee

Institute for Wisconsin's Health Incorporated (IWHI)

Milwaukee Health Department 

Wisconsin Minority Health Program

Wisconsin Public Health Association