CSHF Welcomes New Trustees
Jacob Pruitt is Vice President at T Rowe Price, where he leads the firm’s High Net Worth (HNW) and Donor Advised Funds market growth strategy. His key responsibilities in prior roles included; retirement plan administration, asset management, client portfolio analysis and general management. Jacob is also the owner of J5Stone Group which is a real estate development firm with real estate holdings in Ohio and Colorado.
Prior to joining T. Rowe Price, Jacob worked for The Vanguard Group where he was Head of Distribution and National Sales Management. Jacob was accountable for setting overall business strategy and capital markets research for investment product distribution of exchange traded funds (ETFs), 401k plans, commingled trusts and mutual funds.
Jacob is a graduate of Tennessee State University, Stanford University Business School Executive Management Program and Harvard Business School’s Public Education Leadership Institute. He is the Past Chairman of the Board for the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & EDC, Director for the University of Colorado Foundation and an Honorary Commander for the US Air Force Academy.
Erik Wallace, MD, is the Associate Dean for Colorado Springs Branch and serves as a Faculty Associate for the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. Dr Wallace graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and the Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his Primary Care Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and then joined the Internal Medicine Faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine in Tulsa.
Dr. Wallace graduated from the Professionalism in Contemporary Practice course at the Stanford Faculty Development Center, and previously served as Chair of the National Council of Young Physicians in 2009 and as an ex-officio member of the Board of Regents for the American College of Physicians. In 2011, he received the Walter J. McDonald Award for Young Physicians from the American College of Physicians, and in 2015, he received the John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation for his 2014 JAMA article on “Hospital Relationships with Direct-to-Consumer Screening Companies.” Dr. Wallace was featured in the Colorado Springs CEO Leadership Lessons and received Leadership Pikes Peak’s Modeling the Way Community Leadership Award.
Mia Ramirez is a Community Partner at The Colorado Trust where she works with Coloradans in cities, towns and neighborhoods across the state to encourage and strengthen resident- and community-led funding initiatives.
She has over 20 years of community health experience working both nationally and internationally, from the grassroots level to the federal and international health agency level. Mia has previously worked in chronic disease, infectious disease, violence prevention and health equity at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Multnomah County Health Department. Internationally, she has worked at the Pan American Health Organization in Chile to address gender-equity and at the Chol Chol Foundation providing micro credit loans to the indigenous Mapuche women.
She has a passion for improving community health, ameliorating health disparities and addressing the social determinants of health to improve health for all populations.
Mia earned a two Bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Sciences in Spanish and Biology from Regis University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University.
Mia lives in Colorado Springs, where she was born and raised and currently serves as a Trustee on the Colorado Springs Health Foundation Board.
New Capacity-Building Mini-Grant Opportunity
CSHF has added a new capacity-building mini-grant opportunity for requests of $5,000 or less. This is designed to be highly responsive (quick decisions) and low barrier (simpler application). This new offering grew out of our experience with Covid19 mini-grants in Summer 2020, through which we received a lot of positive feedback about the quick turnaround and flexible support for technology and short-term consulting needs.
Examples of capacity-building funding requests may include but are not limited to:
Planning, e.g. strategic planning
Assessing impact (evaluation)
Board or other volunteer development and training
Staff development and training
Communication consulting
Equity, diversity and inclusion coaching/consulting
Technology (hardware or software)
What it is not:
Support for direct services (e.g. hiring staff); organization or program expansion; or capital projects (CSHF has other funding opportunities for that)
Support for capacity-building needs that exceed $5,000 in cost (CSHF has another capacity-building opportunity for larger initiatives)
To learn more, check out the funding opportunity here. And, if you have a capacity-building/technical assistance need that exceeds $5,000, check out our regular Building Capacity Funding Opportunity here.
If you are interested in applying for funding, you must speak with Colorado Springs Health Foundation staff about your proposal before applying. If you do not have this conversation first, your application will not be considered. Please sign up for a date/time that works for you here.
Questions? Contact Cari or Jamie at [email protected]
Friendly Reminders
If you are a current funded partner and you anticipate that you won’t be able to spend down the grant funds within the grant year, please contact us to discuss an extension: [email protected].
We have several ongoing funding opportunities. To learn more, see our Grants Opportunities page.
What We’re Reading, Listening to or Viewing Now
A New York Times article on the decline in life expectancy due to CV19, and its disproportionate effect on communities of color.
A New York Times short (6 minute) documentary film on Angela Chaddlesone McCarthy, a “modern-day warrior for the Kiowa tribe,” who died of Covid19.
An article about the racial and ethnic dimensions of suicide from the New York Times.
Land! Who inhabited and cultivated this land before it was colonized? Indigenous people. Check out Native Land Digital’s website. It allows you to type in a zip code or city/town and learn what indigenous people(s) lived here before colonization. It also provides guidance on developing a land acknowledgement, which is one way to educate ourselves and our community about indigenous history and the important role that native peoples play then and now.
Another article on the impact of CV19 and Native peoples from the New York Times
And, for something that has nothing to do with health, you may enjoy the New York Times series “Diary of a Song”. These are short videos featuring different vocal artists. They are amazing and fun and interesting and truly delightful, especially if you love music.