“I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, and international borders. There are interesting frictions and incongruities in these places, and often, if you stand at the point of tangency, you can see both sides better than if you were in the middle of either one.”
– Anne Fadiman

Carisa Almquist

Director, Client Services

Carisa is a deliberate and engaged leader who is an expert in multi-stakeholder collaboration to strategically align patient, clinician, community, and client priorities. She is skilled in community-based participatory engagement approaches that aim to elevate stakeholder understanding, address social determinants of health, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Carisa launched her public health career as a Patient Navigator for the American Cancer Society where she became involved in the challenges patients and communities face in managing and accessing care, making treatment decisions, and navigating daily life. She has worked with several major cancer centers in the Pacific Northwest on health literacy, care delivery, community-based participatory research methodology, clinical trial feedback and design, and community health worker programming. Most recently, Carisa worked at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) where she led all patient, community, and healthcare engagement strategies and programs across the Pacific Northwest Region, while simultaneously being recognized as an advocate and trusted partner for health equity initiatives at the local, regional, and national levels.

Carisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Community Health Education and Minor in Communications from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA and graduated top of class with a Master of Public Health from Grand Canyon University in Pheonix, AZ. She is Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) through the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing, Inc.