AHEPP Support Team
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Keith Hansen, MBA
Executive Director
kfhansen@ahepp.org 
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Mr. Hansen has conducted education, training, and disaster drills/exercises for Fortune 500 companies, higher education, public health departments, hospitals, emergency management agencies, and first responders. He is currently the Chairperson of the Nebraska State Emergency Response Commission and the Training Director for the Great Plains Chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. He conducts training in Incident Command, Exercise Development, Business Continuity and basic emergency preparedness for healthcare and public health.
In his last position, he created and implemented Nebraska’s Strategic National Stockpile Plan and served as the ESF-8 coordinator for Nebraska’s Public Health and Medical disaster response. Mr. Hansen has earned a Masters of Business Administration and has extensive experience in training, organizational/strategic planning, project management and leadership.
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Kristine Sanger, BS, MT(ASCP), HCPCP
Associate Executive Director
ksanger@ahepp.org 
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Ms. Sanger is the co-founder and Co-Director of the Association of Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Professionals (AHEPP). An international organization dedicated to the professional development and support of healthcare emergency managers. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Association, including partner engagement with organizations such as ASPR, CMS, Joint Commission, and others. She oversees member and vendor relations, marketing and web design, and the coordination of all AHEPP programming. Kristi was instrumental in the development of the first ever Professional Standards for healthcare emergency managers, and the development of the Healthcare Emergency Management Certification (HcEM). Kristi has spent the majority of her career helping healthcare workers prepare for disasters and has extensive clinical experience in clinical laboratory science, embryology, infection prevention, patient safety, employee safety, and disaster preparedness. |
Anna Hansen, MPH Program Coordinator ahansen@ahepp.org 
| Anna Hansen has been the Program Coordinator for AHEPP since 2017. She plans the AHEPP Annual Conference, and manages both the AHEPP Education Committee and the AHEPP Committee for Best Practices Review. Ms. Hansen also participates in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Partners in Preparedness (PIP) Mentorship Program. PIP helps Critical Access Hospitals and Long Term Carefacilities in Nebraska navigate the COVID-19 Pandemic. Her professional interests include bridging the gap between patient safety and disaster preparedness, as well as the psychological consequences of responding to disasters.
| | | Brianna Rooney, MPH, DrPH Candidate Director of Vendor Relations
bcrooney@ahepp.org 
| Brianna Rooney, DrPH is an Assistant Research Professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH), Department of Public Health Practice, Policy and Translational Research. Her research is driven by a commitment to address gaps in healthcare preparedness and seeks to contribute valuable insights and recommendations for enhancing the resilience of rural healthcare communities. Currently, she works with the Center for Rural Health on the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program, the Rural Hospital Flexibility program, and the Arizona COVID-19 Health Disparities grant. She collaborates with local health departments, critical access hospitals, and rural health clinics to improve rural health disparities through program evaluation, community resilience strategies, healthcare workforce analysis, and emergency preparedness. Her interests include developing and implementing quality improvement tools and assessment, addressing health inequities and supporting data driven approaches to improve rural health across Arizona and the region. Dr. Rooney has over nine years’ experience in healthcare emergency preparedness and response and has collaborated with AHEPP vendors since 2015. Most recently, she worked with the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association as the Statewide Planning/Southern Region Manager for the Arizona Coalition of Healthcare Emergency Response. In Nebraska she worked with the public health and healthcare community as the Preparedness Epidemiologist and Hospital Preparedness Program Manager at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Rooney received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Arizona. | |
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Sharon Medcalf, PhD
Director of Research Programs and Publication
Sharon.Medcalf@ahepp.org
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Dr. Medcalf is an Assistant Professor in the College of Public health and the Director for the Center for Biosecurity, Biopreparedness and Emerging Infectious Diseases, which houses the Center for Preparedness Education, a state and regional training center for emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Dr. Medcalf is also the program director for the Master of Science program in Emergency Preparedness at UNMC’s College of Public Health, the first academic graduate program in the region, with a focus on the public health and medical response to a disaster.
Sharon has 15 years of acute care nursing experience that includes being a member of an air and ground transport team. She has worked in the international arena holding positions in Canada and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Medcalf’s research interests are in Hospital Preparedness, Community Medical Surge, Long Term Care Preparedness, Social Media Use in Disasters and Smallpox Vaccination of Laboratory Workers at National Variola Testing Sites
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John Lowe, PhD Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs | Dr. Lowe's research areas are infectious disease microbiology, disaster preparedness, and environmental exposure assessment. His focus is on remediation of biological weapon contamination, highly infectious patient transport, nosocomial environmental contamination, environmental sampling, and gaseous decontamination. This includes source evaluation, source tracking, and decontamination methods to reduce exposure. Dr. Lowe's research utilizes a wide array of research techniques including molecular biology, environmental microbiology, bioinformatics, and training assessment. He has previously done work and has ongoing projects in a wide range of environmental health topics from decontamination, highly infectious patient care, community-acquired pneumonia, as well as public health and healthcare disaster preparedness. |
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