By combining the science of quality improvement with the art of storytelling and knowing what works across the healthcare ecosystem, I partner with you to find ways to be better, scale for growth, achieve long-term success, and impact the lives of those you serve.
PrairieWood Consulting serves clients across the United States, most within the healthcare industry. I engage with and amplify the needs of key stakeholders - patients, families, faculty, employees, donors, referrers - to inform strategic goals and improve operations.
Through quantitative data and qualitative narratives, I help leaders understand, from the user perspective, how they can do better through co-designing new or tailoring best practices to their environment. I also bring marketing expertise in branding, research, strategic planning, metrics, and communications.
The Process
Let’s ask end users and internal experts. We listen to their stories and look at data. Referencing my knowledge base and experiences, we can choose options that might work. We explore possible solutions and try them out. We then see what we learn. We stay the course or choose another path…always with curiosity, kindness, and persistence.
This process leads to co-designing a path and building the infrastructure to sustain the right gains and leave behind what does not work. Some change feels right - and the outcomes are as planned. Some changes become lessons to not repeat. All change requires some discomfort. I understand that and allow it to inform my approach. We grow together.
My Background
I grew up in a North Dakota farming community, founded by Icelandic immigrants in the late 1800s, on the prairie - and the long-time home of the Plains Indians. There, I learned how to build relationships that were mutually beneficial through intergenerational connections and to recognize how a highly functioning system could achieve great things when everyone has a role in the process. Today those childhood experiences continue to help me appreciate that when every person gives their talents in service of a shared goal, a stronger community is built and can carry out seemingly daunting tasks - together. I have learned to be grateful for the unique perspective of every person’s lived experience, role, and individual gifts.
I settled in the Pacific Northwest in my twenties, and have lived longer among the Douglas firs, Cedars, and Sequoias than among the herds of cattle and wheat and cornfields of my youth. My professional pursuits have been focused on helping others in large communities, primarily in healthcare.
As I learn how trees communicate via their mycelium, I liken it to hearing tales from patients and families. Their narratives offer a warning system on the breakdowns in the delivery of care. They are stakeholders who can help healthcare systems make the right choices - that actually help and meet their needs.
I hold a master’s degree in non-profit leadership from Seattle University, am active in my community through school volunteering, currently am serving on the board of directors for Alliance for a Healthy Washington and recently left the Columbia Lutheran Home board, and am the home visit coordinator for the Icelandic/North American exchange program called Snorri.
A nurse in a hospital system, my husband, Paul, and I debate the pros and cons of healthcare and talk about how we might make a difference through our daily interactions. At home, we negotiate the logistics of running a household, parenting, and how to weave in fun. My children help me understand and appreciate life in a way that fills me with gratitude for who they are and where they are going. Along with extended family, we enjoy exploring, whether closer to home in the Pacific NW or beyond.
