Dear Colleagues – 

The Healthy Start TASC is excited to announce staffing updates and key project activities underway. 

Please help us welcome our new Senior Project Director, Karen Chustz. Karen held numerous positions in state government and the nonprofit sectors over her career and has been a steadfast champion of Healthy Start programs for families throughout communities nationwide. Most recently, she led the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health Community Care Initiative (AIM CCI) pilot at National Healthy Start Association (NHSA).  

Thank You Dr. West!

We want to thank Dr. Dana West for serving as Interim Project Director over the last several months. Dana’s commitment to working cooperatively with our partners at HRSA, across the HS projects, and with the numerous agencies and partners that come together under the TASC banner has been invaluable in making this as seamless a transition as possible. Dana will continue to work closely with the TASC until early 2025.

In addition to our new Director,

please extend a warm welcome to our newest TASC team members: 

Kyla Conner
Project Manager,
TA and Training 

Rebecca Huber
Senior Analyst,
TASC Evaluation 

Alexis Hooper

Project Manager,
TA and Training

Jenna Paritee
Communications Coordinator 

Karina Salcedo  

Project Coordinator,
TA and Training 

In partnership with HRSA, the team is gearing up for the first in-person annual grantee meeting, which will be held April 28 – May 1, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, VA. The agenda will highlight the project’s focus on social determinants of health as well as offer valuable opportunities for training on data and evaluation, consortium building, and other sessions to support project implementation to meet benchmarks. Stay tuned for more to come! 

NICHQ is honored to continue to serve as the Healthy Start TASC as we work together to strengthen the ability of Healthy Start projects nationwide in the implementation of strategies and programs that improve perinatal outcomes by increasing equitable access to quality community-based services.  

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Karen at kchustz@nichq.org.  

In partnership and with gratitude, 

The Healthy Start TASC Team