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Leadership & Staff

Invest Health Program Team

Jennifer Fassbender

Director, Program Initiatives

 

Jennifer Fassbender (she/her) is the Director of Program Initiatives at Reinvestment Fund. She provides leadership in the program development, delivery, and quality control components for the initiative and engages with external stakeholders on strategic partnerships. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare delivery, research, administration, and advocacy, she has served in a national leadership role with the American Diabetes Association and acted as Program Director for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Healthy Weight Program, as well as Senior Research Project Manager for a health disparities research group at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an ACSM certified clinical exercise physiologist and represents Reinvestment Fund on the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Obesity Solutions and has co-authored numerous scientific publications. She studied at the Pennsylvania State University and did her graduate work in Exercise Physiology at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health.

Leah Rusenko

Program Manager, Social Determinants of Health

 

Leah Rusenko is the Program Manager for Social Determinants of Health at Reinvestment Fund. She works with the national Invest Health and regional Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities (BHEC) program initiatives. She brings nearly a decade of experience in community health and philanthropy in both local and international arenas. She is passionate about the intersection of urban health and sustainable development. Her professional background includes managing place-based initiatives, coordinating state-wide cross-sector collaborations, overseeing large grant portfolios, and building a research institute for health equity. Most recently, she led the Independence Blue Cross Foundation team in strategic development, execution, and assessment of the Foundation’s programs and activities. Ms. Rusenko holds a Bachelor of Science in International Health from Georgetown University.

Jacob Kraybill

Program Associate, Social Determinants of Health

 

Jacob Kraybill (he/they) is the Program Associate for Social Determinants of Health Programs at Reinvestment Fund. He works with the national Invest Health and regional Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities (BHEC) in New Jersey program initiatives. With over 10 years of experience working in the nonprofit, campaign, and healthcare sectors, Jacob is dedicated to building a more just and equitable world. Before joining the Reinvestment Fund, Jacob worked to bridge the gaps between the health and community development sectors and developed & launched the Principles for Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities at the Build Healthy Places Network. Previously he worked at the Public Health Institute, as well as five years at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health as a communications and public relations consultant, where he coordinated people, logistics, and contracts. Jacob’s professional work is rooted in community service; he completed two years of volunteer work in San Francisco during which he managed community and student volunteers at Mission Graduates, an organization in the city’s Mission neighborhood that increases the number of K-12 students who are prepared for and complete a college education. He graduated from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a B.A. in Global Studies.

Sara Vernon Sterman

Chief Program Officer

 

Sara Vernon Sterman (she/her) currently serves as Chief Program Officer at Reinvestment Fund. In this position, she expands on Reinvestment Fund’s work in Healthy Communities by focusing on investment models that integrate the organization’s lending and policy work in education, health care, childcare, food, social services, and affordable housing. Additionally, she co-directs Reinvestment Fund’s Pay for Success investments. Previously Ms. Sterman served as Chief Lending Officer, responsible for leading business development, originations and relationship management within Reinvestment Fund’s lending operation. Prior to joining Reinvestment Fund in 1999, she taught elementary school in New York City and Washington, D.C., with the Teach For America program, and was a program director for Teach For America in eastern North Carolina. Ms. Sterman holds an M.S.W from the School of Social Work and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

National Advisory Committee

 

Ivye Allen

President of Foundation for the Mid South

 

Jeffrey Brown

Founder, President, and CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, Inc

 

Ray Daffner

Community Development Consultant

 

David Fleming

Vice President, Global Health Programs of PATH

 

Jenny Ismert

Vice President of Policy & Strategy for UnitedHealth Group

 

Otis Samuel Johnson

Scholar in Residence at Savannah State University

 

Michael MacAffee

President at PolicyLink

 

John Moon

Vice President of Climate Aligned Philanthropy and Partnerships at Wells Fargo

 

Rebecca Morley

Founder and President of Rebecca Morley Consulting

 

Maggie Super Church

Vice President for Marketing Innovation and Impact at CLF Massacheusetts

 

Mark Van Brundt

Chief Operating Officer at Raza Development Fund

 

Paul Weech

Principal of Innovative Housing Strategies, LLC