Dear Friend of KHI:
The Kansas Health Institute recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Ten years of research, policy analysis and informing policymakers. We are proud of the reputation we have achieved for the quality and objectivity of our work and we are committed to thinking in bold, new ways about how we can build on that record.
Growth requires resources. To that end, we are truly fortunate to have the continued support of the Kansas Health Foundation, which recently awarded KHI $30 million in core funding to support our work through the year 2018.
Emboldened by this substantial opportunity and guided by our strategic planning process, the KHI board of directors recently approved two exciting initiatives. The one you are most likely to have noticed is the launching of the KHI News Service in January of this year. This innovative strategy builds on our longstanding commitment to provide state leaders with timely, objective information on a wide variety of issues affecting the health of Kansans. We have been encouraged by the positive feedback we have received about the job our highly regarded news staff has done chronicling developments in the rapidly moving health policy discussion this legislative session. (For information about our news staff, see
Jim McLean
,
Mike Shields
,
Dave Ranney
and
Sarah Green
.)
The board also approved a new focus area for our work that will target early childhood issues. As an organization, we firmly believe that improving the health of Kansans requires a deliberate strategy to ensure young children get a good start in life.
I am pleased to announce that Lisa Klein, Ph.D., will join KHI this summer to lead our work in this area. A former officer at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., Lisa is a nationally known expert in the design, implementation and evaluation of policies and programs for children and families (see
press release
).
While supporting these new initiatives, KHI remains committed to conducting research and policy analysis in public health, health care finance and health informatics. We have added talented new analysts to our staff (see
Sarah Carkhuff Fizell
and
Rachel Smit
).
I wanted to let you know about these exciting developments at KHI because you are an important partner in the work that we do. I encourage you to let me know how you think KHI can better meet the needs of the health policy community in Kansas.
Sincerely,
Robert F. St. Peter, M.D.
President and CEO