Our Team

Zhandra Levesque, public health expert and experienced manager, leads projects focused on improving population health. She brings expertise in continuous quality improvement (CQI), systems thinking, operational leadership, optimizing financial and human resources, and organizational development. Her content expertise includes maternal and child health and early childhood systems. 

Levesque is the Project Director for the HV CoIIN. Prior to EDC, Levesque led maternal and child health initiatives at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, including the Infant Mortality CoIIN and the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems CoIIN. 

Levesque holds an MPH in Health Policy and Management from the Boston University School of Public Health and a BA in Political Science from Boston University. She is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish and English. 

Patricia Finnerty, with 15 years of experience working in the public health and healthcare fields, brings expertise in public health practice and quality improvement concepts, specifically the Model for Improvement and IHI’s Breakthrough Series. Finnerty has designed, implemented, and provided quality improvement expertise for multiple national projects related to children’s health, including home visiting, infant mortality, and early childhood comprehensive systems. 

Finnerty currently serves as Director of Improvement for the HV CoIIN.  Before joining EDC, she served as Associate Director of Improvement at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) where she provided leadership in the design and implementation of national Breakthrough Series Learning Collaboratives and Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Networks (CoIIN).  

Finnerty received her MSc, with a concentration in maternal and child health, from the Harvard School of Public Health, where she also served as a teaching fellow. Finnerty has completed an intensive Improvement Advisor course at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). 

Olivia Draper, an experienced coordinator, researcher, and instructional designer, offers expertise in maternal and child health, literacy and language development, and qualitative research methods. Her comprehensive understanding of cross-functional collaboration, curriculum development, and research design yields high-quality outcomes for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. 

Draper is the project manager for the HV CoIIN. She is also the universal technical assistance (TA) lead for the MIECHV Innovation TA Center. Prior to EDC, Draper worked at Harvard University as a research assistant.

Draper holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as well as certificates in public health and statistical analysis from Imperial College London. Draper is also a trained birth doula. 

Jessica Ehule is a courageous public health leader with a passion for supporting communities by addressing root issues that contribute to current health outcomes. She holds over a decade of experience in program design, implementation, facilitation, and systems change.  

Ehule is the Associate Director for the HV CoIIN. Previously, she was the Birth Justice Program Director at I Be Black Girl, where she helped build the foundation of their maternal health work. She also served as Director of Programs at CityMatCH, a national maternal and child health organization supporting local health departments to improve outcomes, increase workforce capacity and respond to emerging issues. 

Ehule holds an MS in Public Health from Meharry Medical College, and MS in Chemistry from Tennessee State University. She is also trained in several facilitation methods. She enjoys pulling from her love of science, history, and the health of communities to support and inspire movements for change.   

Anna Hanel is an experienced public health program evaluator and continuous quality improvement (CQI) specialist. Hanel specializes in community based Maternal Child Health assessment, program design, implementation, and evaluation. She works as the evaluation and CQI lead on multiple national public health initiatives including EDC’s Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network and the Institute for Home Visiting Workforce Development and Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management.

Hanel holds an Master of Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health and is a Birth Doula.

Lindsey M. Conley is a 14-year military veteran and highly skilled administrative professional who brings extensive experience supporting healthcare project management and propelling continuous improvement.

Conley is the HV CoIIN’s administrative manager. She also provides administrative support to the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Innovation Technical Assistance (TA) Center and the MIECHV TA Resource Center. Before joining EDC, Conley held key health care management positions with the U.S. Air Force, including deployment manager and manager of Ob/Gyn administrative services.

Conley holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and a BA in Health Care Management from Trident University International.

Kate Hamby-Hopkins, a technology coordinator with the Education Development Center, Inc. is experienced with facilitating virtual events and finding solutions to technological challenges. In addition to her work with the HV CoIIN, she has worked with several other groups focused on early childhood health, including the National Center on Health, Behavioral Health and Safety (NCHBHS), and the Home Visiting Improvement Action Center (HV-ImpACT).  

Before beginning her work with the Education Development Center, Inc. she attended Tulane University where she volunteered in New Orleans’ classrooms while earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology. 

Sara Voelker, an experienced project manager and improvement advisor, brings expertise in maternal and child health, continuous quality improvement (CQI), training and technical assistance, research, and evaluation. Nationwide, she guides the use of evidence-based strategies to strengthen communities and improve outcomes for children and families. 

Voelker leads capacity-building services for 56 U.S. state and territory awardees as the assistant director of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program’s Technical Assistance Resource Center. As an improvement advisor for the HV CoIIN, Voelker guides teams in achieving breakthrough improvements through collaborative learning and scaling of well-tested interventions.  

Voelker holds an MPP and an MA in social work, policy, and practice from the University of Chicago. She received her PMD Pro Certification as a project manager from APMG International. 

Crystal Jackson is a nonprofit professional with over twenty years’ experience in program development, research, and evaluation. Her work focuses on developing community-centered strategies that can alleviate social and economic disparities. She is also the founder and president of Good Human, a consultancy firm focused on strengthening the capacity of nonprofit organizations to develop and implement initiatives, and to use research to inform strategic imperatives.

A native of Kentucky, Crystal lives in her adopted hometown of Chicago, Illinois. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Loyola University Chicago. In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing, hiking, and triathlon training.

Xinxin Zhang, a research associate at EDC, has expertise in data analysis, educational research, and policy evaluation. Zhang specializes in cleaning large data sets, conducting descriptive analysis and predictive analytics, and presenting data to diverse audiences. She is passionate about supporting the use of data to inform policies with real impact. 

Zhang is the HV CoIIN’s data manager. She is also a researcher for a study on career academies and a project on developing children’s computational literacy. Before joining EDC, Zhang collected and analyzed performance data for Boston Public Schools. Earlier in her career, she was a financial analyst. 

Zhang holds an MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, an MA in Economics from Fudan University, and a BA in Economics from Tsinghua University. She is fluent in English and Chinese. 

Sally Baggett brings more than 20 years of experience in the management of evidence-based, early childhood home visitation programs to inform her current role.  The integration of early childhood home visitation services into primary health care systems is a focal point for much of her efforts and the topic of her published works.  

Baggett, a former home visiting supervisor herself, has worked on a number of CoIINs in a variety of different roles since the inception of HV CoIIN in 2013.  

Baggett is a charter member of the Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative Council. She received her BA from Furman University.    

Mary Mackrain, previously the Director of Maternal and Child Health at EDC, is a national leader in infant and early childhood mental health systems and continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods. She served as an expert adviser to federal, state, community, and program leaders on child and family mental health, resilience, early care and education quality, relational health, and systems change.   

A well-known author, Mackrain has published works on breastfeeding, trauma-informed care, home visitor/family partnerships, resilience, and creating CQI plans. Nationwide, she presents on infant and early childhood mental health consultation and CQI efforts within maternal and child health. 

Mackrain holds a PhD in Early Childhood, Human Development and Child Studies from Oakland University; an MEd in Educational Psychology from Wayne State University; and a Level IV Endorsement in Infant Mental Health Policy through Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.