About the Coalition > Steering Committee

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is composed of volunteers, who are committed to working with its partners and members to fully implement the Coalition’s mission. 

Leni Preston, Chair

Leni Preston’s career was in the field of interpretive and strategic planning for historic sites, museums, and non-profit organizations. More recently she has applied her planning skills to the area of grassroots political advocacy and policy. With three other women from Montgomery County, MD she created the Grassroots Political Action Toolkit to provide tools and resource materials for those new to the advocacy field. In 2006, she joined with others to form the Coalition. As Chair, she focuses on developing effective partnerships and advocacy and communication strategies to strengthen the Coalition’s positive impact on health care reform efforts in the state.

Leigh Stevenson Cobb, JD/MPH

Leigh Cobb is currently the health policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth (ACY), Maryland’s state-wide child advocacy organization.  Her recent efforts at ACY have involved increasing access to oral health care and improving birth outcomes. She has experience with health reform efforts in Colorado as well as Maryland.  A member of the Coalition since 2007, Leigh has focused her attention on improving outreach and removing barriers to enrollment and retention in the State’s Medicaid and MCHP programs.  She is also interested in facilitating a “no wrong door” approach to enrolling children and families in health and social welfare programs.

Mary Lou Fox

Mary Lou Fox's career was in the software and services industry with executive responsibilty for professional services, marketing and software development.  She joined the Coalition in 2006 and serves as its treasurer, as well as being responsible for all of its communications tools – website, e-alerts, e-newsletters, etc.  Her more recent volunteer commitments have included serving as a manager with The Climate Project, created by Vice-President Al Gore, and as  Assistant Treasurer with the group, WE LEAD, a political action committee.  She also spent several years teaching computer programming at Fairfield University.

Elise Handelman

Elise Handelman is a registered nurse in Maryland. She practiced in a variety of healthcare settings for over 20 years before moving into a policy position with the federal government. Her involvement with the  Coalition began in 2007.  She serves as a liaison with the Maryland Nurses Association and provides outreach to the Coalition’s membership, including the County Commissions for Women. 

Barbara Lenkerd, Ph.D

Barbara Lenkerd is a social researcher and consultant whose work has focused on people's adaption to social and economic change in the workplaces in the U.S. and developing countries.  As a Senior Research Fellow at the Project on Technology, Work and Character (PTWC) in Washington, DC, she was a member of the research team for the study, Leadership for Health Care in the Age of Learning under a grant from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (2000).  She has consulted with the US ACTION Agency, USAID, the US Department of State, the International Center for Research on Women, and the SIFO Group in Stockholm on unemployment in Sweden.  Her publications include Psychosocial Consequences of Unemployment (1995: Stockholm: City University Press). She joined the Coalition in 2007 and chairs the Legisltive Action Team. 

Marion Mudd

Marion Mudd was a founding member of the Coalition.  During her professional career she worked with the Boston World Affairs Council, the American Foundation for Political Education, the Experiment in International Living and the Washington Council Serving International Visitors.  She also served on the Board of the Montgomery County Maryland  League of Women Voters, Sidwell Friends School Board of Trustees and on the Montgomery County Maryland Community Action Committee.  Currently she serves on the Board of the Pension Rights Center, in the Capitol Hill Lobby Corps of the American Association of University Women, on the Women’s Pension Coalition and on the Executive Committee of Montgomery Health Care Action.   For recreation, she and her husband are avid birders in the USA and around the world.    

Susan Wood, Ph.D.

Susan Wood is an Associate Professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and Director of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. She previously was Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health at the FDA from 2000-2005 when she resigned on principle over continued delay of approval of emergency contraception over-the-counter. Prior to her time at FDA, Dr. Wood was Director of Policy and Program Development at the US Dept of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. From 1990-1995, Dr. Wood worked on Capitol Hill as professional staff for the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues. Previously, Dr. Wood was a research scientist at John Hopkins University School of Medicine; she received her PhD in biology from Boston University.

Coalition Founder

In 2006, the Coalition was founded by Anne Kasper who led the Coalition as its Chair until 2010 . 

Anne Kasper, Ph.D, Founder

Anne S. Kasper, Ph.D. is a founding member of the U.S. Women’s Health Movement and an advocate, sociologist, researcher, and public policy expert on women’s health for 40 years. As the first co-chair of the National Women’s Health Network in 1976, she was instrumental in gaining early national attention for women’s health. From 1990 to 1994 Anne was the director of the Campaign for Women’s Health, a coalition of more than 100 national, state, and grassroots organizations convened to advance women’s health in health care reform during the Clinton Administration. Anne is the founder, and for six years was the chair, of the Maryland Women’s Coalition for Health Care Reform. She has served as a commissioner on the Montgomery County Commission for Women. Anne also counsels women with breast cancer for Mobile Medical Care, the clinic system that serves the uninsured, poor, and homeless in Montgomery County. In 2009 Anne was awarded a Health Care Hero Award from the Maryland Daily Record for her work in breast cancer and health care reform. In 2010 Anne was given the Barbara Seaman lifetime achievement award for activism in women’s health.