When limited services, funding, and personnel can’t cover the exact demands of the entire community, the City of Milwaukee Health Department has a team to address unmet needs: the public health strategy team.
MHD’s public health strategists fall under the Policy, Innovation, and Equity division – and they incorporate each of those elements in their daily operations, which can cover extremely broad and extremely specific topics.
Marques Hogans, MHD Health Strategy Director, compares his team to the mitochondria of a cell.
“We’re the workhorse. We’re the thought process. We're what you come up with when you're thinking of ideas and targets. We help execute those ideas with other partners and players,” Hogans said.
MHD public health strategists help strengthen policies, systems, and community environments to improve health and equity in Milwaukee. They offer consultation, expertise, and support to MHD leadership, often working as a team to build community partnerships, conduct outreach, and educate the public.
To boil it down: MHD strategists make sure the health department is investing its time and resources in the places the community needs it most. They keep a pulse on issues impacting Milwaukee’s residents and what local, statewide, and national initiatives and funding can be used to help.

“I would say health policy is about programming and policy at a lower level. It's about nailing down questions, measuring things, and trying to answer them in ways that make broad-based improvement,” said Anna Narvey, who has served as one of MHD's Public Health Strategists since January 2022. “We get to nerd out and do really cool things, but also innovate and see the impact.”
The team focuses on various areas: substance use and harm reduction, mental health, quality improvement, community outreach and engagement, lead policy, food and housing security, maternal and child health, research and policy, and grant management.
“We provide a public health role within a lot of these areas in the community and we create an impact that is associated with it, like emergency public health issues,” said Robert Walker, an MHD strategist since October 2022, who focuses on mental health and community resiliency. “We help drive development options around policies, programs, services ordinance.”
Narvey adds the team is responsible for marshaling funds awarded to the health department and advising on how to invest them in various community health improvement initiatives. In her role, Narvey ensures MHD remains compliant and transparent with its funding.
“The Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) are examples of statutory requirements MHD must meet, which the strategy team heavily assists with,” Narvey said. “MKE Elevate is a larger-scale initiative that fulfills MHD’s goals of collaborating and partnering with the community, to work towards specified initiatives.”
MKE Elevate, which officially launched in October 2017, is the health department’s CHIP aimed at elevating the health of all Milwaukee residents. MKE Elevate is operated by a steering committee comprised of representatives from the MHD, the community, and the Board of Health. The group meets regularly, using the plan to identify and discuss shared
goals and action steps that will result in long-term, measurable improvements.
“Right now, we’re making sure MHD is working within and towards a Health 3.0 model. I imagine we’ll also help MHD work towards a Health 4.0 model when the time comes,” Hogans said.
Hogans used one example with Alexandria Kohn, an MHD strategist since January 2023, who focuses on health equity, the CHIP, and MKE Elevate.
“(Kohn) did a 21-day Health Equity challenge, where she would research resources. We had weekly meetings to discuss the resource and provide feedback. She had to develop a timeline, schedule touch points throughout the week to share the readings, and then she would facilitate an MKE Elevate meeting,” Hogans said.
At a recent MKE Elevate meeting, more than 40 partners gathered to celebrate the group’s accomplishments thus far and dive into civic engagement as its next topic.
“I think right now the strategists are doing a really amazing job trying to rebuild trust, especially with our Community Health Improvement Plan. We're working hard on establishing relationships and trying to show how we can be there for residents, and vice versa,” Kohn said. “Funding is a big obstacle. Public health is one of the lowest funded positions in government spaces.”
Hogans then shared another example with Anneke Mohr, who’s been an MHD strategist since January 2022, focusing on Quality Improvement (QI) and MKE Elevate.
QI uses specific techniques to improve the quality of clinical services and programs, making them effective, efficient, and patient-centered. This involves regularly assessing and refining processes to enhance outcomes and meet regulatory standards.
“For (Mohr), it depends on the day. Last week, outside of the QI meeting, she focused most of her hours on the accreditation process, identifying documents and uploading them, making sure they fit whatever the Public Health Accreditation Board wants. Then this week, she'll jump back into QI work,” Hogans said.
The process of pursuing Pathways to Recognition through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is long and tedious. PHAB standards and measures include 10 domains that align with essential public health services. In June 2024, MHD completed its first step in becoming fully accredited by submitting documentation to meet 19 foundational capability standards and measures across seven domains. The bulk of this work, largely led by Mohr, required meticulous documentation and evidence to meet these standards. MHD hopes to achieve full accreditation by 2027, which would signify it meets the gold standard for public health and provides top-notch service to Milwaukee residents.
Each of the strategists holds a master’s degree and brings a diverse array of work experience to their roles.
For example, before pursuing a graduate degree in combined social work, Mohr served in the Peace Corps doing HIV prevention work.
“I think it's helpful to have a really broad background because we can be pulled in any direction any day,” Mohr said. “It sets the stage to be able to go with the flow. We take complicated information, try to make it digestible, and try to find community-led solutions.”
“Our role is to convene partners, align strategies, facilitate action teams, and track the data,” Mohr explained. “Having the opportunity to make a large-scale impact is part of the reason I wanted to work at MHD. Also having the ability to get community input, to set priorities, I think is really unusual in the nonprofit setting.” 
Often, MHD strategists are expected to advise programs and MHD leadership on current issues and initiatives.
“I do try to make myself available to all of our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs,” said Melissa Seidl, an MHD strategist since September 2022, who focuses on MCH initiatives and issues. “If those managers need strategic thinking, or if they need to flesh out any goals they’re working towards, I can help with that.”
“We have to always ask, what is my role? What can I push? What is our scope to advocate for,” Seidl said.
Much of the work MHD strategists do requires them to combine forces with other government and community-led groups.
“I bring together partners across different disciplines and community organizations to make decisions together,” said Amanda Richman, who has held her role as an MHD strategist focusing on built environments, like housing and transportation, since February 2022.
“A lot of what I do is working across different city departments, like the Department of Public Works or City Development, as they're developing plans and projects. For example, right now we're collaborating on an anti-speeding campaign, making sure all these decisions made at the city-government level are made with a health equity focus,” Richman said. “I also make sure we’re investing in members of our community and things that enable folks to be healthy. So, I primarily focus on supporting initiatives that help build safer streets, build grocery stores in equitable portions of the city, and ensure residents have access to safe housing.”
“It's really exciting to see so many different people, community partners, in so many different areas getting together, connecting with each other, and working to figure out different strategies of how we can address a problem,” Richman said.
Hogans says working with a team that is all master’s prepared and filled with diverse personalities that have direct connections to the community makes for a rewarding experience.
“Leveraging the power of the community and having this team lead the work, having it represented at a government level, is probably the biggest thing,” Hogans said.
“Everyone in this group has shown me the importance of continuing to grow, added Kohn. “Continue to go to trainings, continuing to go to webinars, to talks, to reading books. It didn't stop when people just earned their master's degree. It's a space where we continue to try to be the most informed. Whether that's learning a new evidence-based approach to strategy, learning a new concept, this group definitely does a great job of growing together and learning together.”
Moving ahead, Hogans said he looks forward to utilizing opioid litigation funds to expand the team’s work in substance use and mental health in the community. As civil servants, the team is always searching for more opportunities to connect directly with the community to add a public health lens to any conversations or initiatives.
If you would like to be involved in MKE Elevate, request support from the strategy team, or learn about any of their other initiatives, you can contact them via email at [email protected], message them on Instagram, or visit their website at milwaukee.gov/elevate.