NCSL Staff Directory

Alise Garcia supports NCSL’s Health Program as a program coordinator. Garcia has over 25 years of experience with NCSL in numerous areas. She is dedicated to providing superior customer service and meeting coordination to the organization’s staff and constituents.

Charlie Severance-Medaris supports NCSL’s public health work as a senior policy specialist for the Health Program. He has previous experience in health policy through work at many Colorado nonprofits. Severance-Medaris is an expert in state policies relating to suicide prevention, drug misuse and overdose prevention and infectious disease prevention. 

As a senior policy specialist in NCSL’s Health Program, Colleen Becker focuses on prescription drug access and affordability. Becker comes to NCSL with 20 years of experience performing multiple roles in health advocacy and direct patient care. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Denver.

As a senior program coordinator, Jessica Hoffman supports the Health Program’s invitational meetings outreach and logistics. Previously, Hoffman worked as a public school educator. She is dedicated to providing NCSL’s members with high-quality experience and service. 

As an associate director in NCSL’s Health Program, Karmen Hanson directs work on behavioral health, pharmaceutical, cancer and cannabis policy projects. With more than 20 years at NCSL, Hanson has presented to dozens of legislative groups and organizations and dedicated her career to serving legislators and legislative staff across the country. Hanson earned a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s in psychology and sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

In her role as program principal in the Health Program, Kathryn Costanza serves state legislators, legislative staff and her colleagues as a nonpartisan Medicaid policy subject matter expert. Costanza is a licensed attorney who graduated with a health law and policy certificate from the University of Colorado Law School and has several years of experience practicing health law with an emphasis on issues related to the Medicaid program. Previously, Costanza was a practicing music therapist and predominately served Medicaid beneficiaries.

As an associate director in NCSL’s Health Program, Kelly Hughes oversees staff and projects related to health access, costs and coverage issues. Hughes brings nearly two decades of professional experience in federal and state government, nonprofit, research and health care settings. A graduate of the CDC’s Public Health Prevention Service fellowship, she earned her master’s degree in public health from Emory University and her bachelor’s from Virginia Tech. 

As a policy analyst in the health program, Kelsie George researches health care access, including rural health, emergency medical services, health workforce and health drivers. George comes to NCSL with experience in public policy analysis, grants management, community-engaged scholarship and health workforce research. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Denver and a B.A. from St. Norbert College in Green Bay, Wis.

Kevin Davenport is a Health Program policy associate focusing on commercial health care policy, rural health facilities and prescription drug costs. Previously, Davenport studied and worked with taxation, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance, as well as consumer and data privacy. Davenport holds a bachelor’s in political science with a minor in emergency management and a law degree with specialization in business transactional law. 

Khanh Nguyen leads NCSL’s maternal and child health project. Nguyen has 10 years of experience managing projects in health care settings, providing technical assistance on health policy to municipalities, and conducting public health research and evaluation. She earned master’s degrees in public health and social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and studied sociology and global health at Emory University.

In her role, Samantha Scotti focuses on state policy issues relating to health care access, costs and coverage. She has over six years of experience working with state legislators, legislative staff and other partners on a variety of health topics, developing tools, publications and collaborative meetings. Prior to joining NCSL, she worked as legislative staff at the Colorado General Assembly and has a dual degree in political science and international studies from Colorado State University. 

As a policy analyst in the Health Program, Sarah Jaromin focuses on access, cost and coverage issues with a particular focus on scope of practice, rural health and health care workforce. Jaromin has experience working with the policy division of the NYS Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers with a particular focus on legislation related to Medicaid and behavioral health workforce shortages. She earned her master’s degree in social work from the State University of New York at Albany after completing a bachelor’s in sociology at Brandeis University.