Aimee Sitzler, MSW - Owner, CEOAimee Sitzler is the founder and Principal Consultant of Community Alliance Consulting LLC. She has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Spanish and French and a Master of Social Work from Arizona State University (ASU). Ms. Sitzler has worked as a social worker in various capacities including direct practice, research, and evaluation. She has worked as a Research Analyst for a Center of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities at ASU, where she partnered with government agencies and nonprofits. She also coordinated a promotora/community health worker project using the Chronic Disease Self-Management program with monolingual Spanish speaking communities in South Scottsdale in partnership with Arizona Living Well Institute's AmeriCorps program.
In 2012, Ms. Sitzler co-founded an evaluation agency where she led program evaluations, health impact assessments and community health needs assessments for Mesa Arts Center, HonorHealth, Maricopa Department of Public Health, Arizona Living Well Institute, Mohave Department of Public Health, and Touchstone Behavioral Health. She is also well versed in community coalition building with experience working with the Isaac Anti-Drug Free Community Coalition, Scottsdale Neighborhoods in Action Coalition, and Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (CLRD) Coalition in Arizona. Ms. Sitzler is an Alliance Fellow at Vitalyst Health Foundation focused on building alliances to effect large scale social change. She currently lends her facilitation expertise to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ State Health Improvement Plan, Maricopa Department of Public Health's Preventative Health Collaborative, and the Arizona Diabetes Coalition. Ms. Sitzler also offers non-profit organizations utilization focused strategic planning services and staff retreats. She was formerly the Chair of the Arizona Evaluation Network’s Phoenix Cluster. Ms. Sitzler currently serves as President Elect of the Arizona Public Health Association. At Community Alliance Consulting, Ms. Sitzler offers a variety of systems-change facilitation and place-based evaluation as well as strategic planning services. |
Mara de Luca Funke, MPH - CAC Senior Evaluator

Mara de Luca Funke is a seasoned evaluation research professional with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Sociology from Michigan State University. Go Green! Mara enjoys both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, as well as strategic planning and grant writing. Her background includes both academic research as well as the evaluation of real-life programs in a range of health, education, and social service fields. After spending six years the nation’s largest county public health department, she’s been working as a consultant since 2014 for a variety of non-profits, corporations, and governmental agencies. Mara is also an adjunct professor of public health at A.T. Still University.
Community Alliance Collaborative Teams
In order to meet the unique needs of each project, leadership at Community Alliance organizes a team of individuals whose areas of expertise are best suited to meet the contractor's needs. Community Alliance project teams meet on a regular basis to provide organization and oversight of all activities to ensure that the work advances in a timely manner and with high quality. Learn more about the local professionals working on CAC project teams below.
Christina Bruyn, RN, BSN
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Christina Bruyn, RN, BSNChristina Bruyn holds a Registered Nurse license in the state of Arizona and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northern Arizona University. She also earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Arizona State University. She has worked as a healthcare technician for 17 years and manager of a health office for over 10 years. She started working as a nurse in various communities throughout Arizona, focusing on preventative healthcare. For the past five years she has administered quality-of-life nursing for medically fragile children in the school setting. Her work at CAC blends her background in administrative function with holistic healthcare and wellness.
Catherine Gouge, MS, MPH
Ms. Catherine Gouge holds a Master of Science and Master of Public Health degree from the Brody School of Medicine. She has worked in various capacities including epidemiology, informatics/data analytics, clinical research, instructional design, evaluation, and consultant positions. Ms. Gouge has been facilitating groups in Maricopa County that focus on public health, performance management, Lean foundations, policy development, grant writing, and operations. Prior to joining the Community Alliance Team Ms. Gouge worked for the Department of Health Services as the Chief Informatics Officer and as their Accreditation and Performance Improvement Manger. During her tenure she was tapped to work for the Governor’s Office to deploy Lean principles and performance management foundations in various state agencies. Before moving to Arizona Ms. Gouge worked as a researcher and database administrator for the Society of Thoracic Surgery at the East Carolina Heart Institute. Here she also collaborated on several projects with the Rural Healthcare Institute and clinicians. For a list of publications, please see the following link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hW1L5_IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Melissa Kovacs, Ph.D.Melissa Kovacs has a Ph.D. in public policy and econometrics from the University of Maryland. Dr. Kovacs is the founder of FirstEval, LLC, a data analytics and statistical consulting firm that helps clients find meaning in their data. Client engagements include program evaluations for nonprofit organizations; statistical consulting for governments and foundations; data analytic work for marketing firms; and statistical litigation support for attorneys. http://firsteval.com/
Belen Aguilar, LMSWBelen Aguilar has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Social Work from California State University of Long Beach. Mrs. Aguilar is a Licensed Social Worker with 17 years of experience working with adults, families and persons with disabilities. She has professional experience in resource management, individual and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention and facilitating psychoeducational groups in Spanish to families and caregivers. Ms. Aguilar is bi-lingual Spanish-English and provides translation, focus group, key informant interview and promotora capacity building support to CAC projects.
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