Nominations Committee Candidate Bios
Mike Butterworth
Thank you for the opportunity to serve our members and our community. I am a US Army veteran, government employee, father and part-time cat wrangler. My professional experiences span over fifteen years in government employment with experience working at both the state (two) and the federal level. I am graduate of Northern Illinois University where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics. I spend most of my time off enjoying all the wonderful places Madison and the surrounding communities have to offer. I also spend some of my free time organizing and officiating local wargaming events as well as going for walks with my wife and our two cats, Leo, and Tostada.
I have been a member of GHC-SCW since 2021. I joined the cooperative with my family when the first opportunity presented itself. I have always felt the cooperative model is one of the best business models to ensure the highest level of care and service. One that considers multiple factors beyond the traditional profit-centered approach. Wisconsin has a long history of creating and fostering cooperatives throughout many services and industries and I am very much interested in contributing to the continuation of these ideals for the members of GHC-SCW.
Veronika Kurth
I have been a GHC member for over 35 years, giving me a long-term, personal perspective on the organization’s evolution and the role it plays in our community. That experience shapes how I think about patient care, organizational values and the importance of thoughtful leadership. My educational background is in Astronomy–Physics, a field that strengthened my analytical thinking, problem solving abilities and comfort with complex systems. Those skills became the foundation of my career in health care technology. After graduating, I spent 21 years at Epic, where I developed deep expertise across a wide range of clinical and patient facing applications. My primary focus was EpicCare Ambulatory and the MyChart patient portal – two systems central to how GHC delivers outpatient care and engages patients. In addition to those areas, I worked with more than a dozen other Epic applications, giving me a broad understanding of how different parts of the health care ecosystem connect to support coordinated, high-quality care. As a Quality Manager, I collaborated closely with clinicians, analysts, developers and operational leaders to ensure that software met real world needs. This work strengthened my skills in process improvement, cross functional communication and translating technical issues into practical, patient centered solutions. It also gave me a deep appreciation for the complexities of health care delivery and the importance of systems that truly support both patients and care teams. Together, my long-standing membership at GHC, scientific training and decades of experience in health care technology shape the perspective I bring to committee work. I value data driven decision making, collaborative problem solving and a strong commitment to patient centered care, and I hope to contribute those strengths to the Nominations Committee.
I’m interested in serving on the 2027 GHC-SCW Nominations Committee because I believe the long-term success of GHC depends on strong, thoughtful leadership. As a cooperative, our ability to provide high quality care, remain member-focused and maintain a strong financial foundation all start with having the right people guiding the organization. Ensuring that the election ballot includes capable, mission aligned candidates is essential to sustaining GHC’s stability for many years to come. Strong leadership directly influences everything from strategic planning to financial stewardship, and I want to help support a process that identifies individuals who can uphold those responsibilities. As a GHC member for over 35 years, I’ve seen how leadership decisions shape the organization’s resilience and its ability to adapt to a changing healthcare environment. Serving on the Nominations Committee is an opportunity to contribute to a fair, intentional selection process that strengthens the cooperative’s future. I’m motivated by the chance to help ensure that GHC continues to thrive—clinically, operationally and financially—by starting with the most important step: presenting members with a slate of strong, well qualified candidates.
Ted Haglund
As a long-time, but now retired GHC provider, I am uniquely qualified to assist with promoting the best board candidates to ensure the long-term growth and success of the cooperative. My decades of experience working at GHC’s Urgent Care offered me the opportunity to understand the needs of and challenges faced by our cooperative in the increasingly profit-driven health care industry. My deep knowledge of our members and our clinic staff has positioned me to be an effective member of the Nominations Committee.
I am a firm believer in the cooperative model for my entire life. I believe that people know what’s in their own best interest in all aspects of their lives, and I believe that our fellow GHC cooperative members choose GHC in order to receive their care from providers who encourage their active participation in every aspect of their health. As GHC members, they have a voice in their health care. A cooperative model allows the community, health care providers, staff and members to be real partners in their health care. I believe that GHC is an important model, especially in these times.
Amihan Huesmann
I am a proud Badger, having earned a Ph.D. in Physics from UW-Madison in 2004, and am currently an education professional at UW-Madison. I have extensive experience working with diverse groups of people, and my own multicultural and international background – including having parents from different countries – gives me a valuable perspective. I’ve had to communicate with a doctor in a second language, and I have seen my naturalized parent struggle to get appropriate and respectful health care in the U.S. Thus, I believe it is important to consider immigrant voices in any discussion. My international experience has all been in countries with health care challenges: Yemen, the Philippines and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Notably, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon. There, I observed the racial and class disparities in the health care system and learned from public-health volunteer peers. For example, anyone admitted to a hospital then (mid 1990s) was tested for HIV; where one public-health volunteer worked, approximately 25% tested positive. These experiences also influence my views on many topics, including health care.
As a GHC member for over two decades, I am familiar with how GHC runs, the quality of care it offers and how GHC has changed since the 1990s. I’d love to be able to use the skills I’ve developed as a manager to aid GHC in finding excellent leadership. I am deeply committed to equity and inclusion. I seek opportunities to learn more about how to incorporate equity into my professional and personal life. Professionally, I have designed and conducted training sessions for my undergraduate workers on topics related to DEI. These include sessions on stereotype threats, microaggressions, identity, the experiences of first-generation and low-income college students, working with students with disabilities and more. Thus, I am well-versed in the psychosocial issues that affect our current reality, and this expertise will also be valuable to the nominations committee.
Pauline Gilbertson
I have lived in Madison since 1985 and have been a GHC member since then. I have three college degrees. I was in business management positions for 17 years, in both private and cooperative businesses. I then switched careers and became a public-school teacher of students with special needs for 20 years. I also taught adult Business and Marketing students at MATC while attending UW graduate school. I have been an active Board member of three Cooperatives. My personal interests include travel, camping, theatre, film festivals, photography, needlecraft and puzzles.
I have attended several annual GHC membership meetings and regularly vote in GHC Board elections. I have read and studied many candidates’ statements over the years. I feel my personal business and cooperative experiences, in addition to my GHC meeting history, give me a good understanding of what it takes to be a strong GHC Board candidate. I wish to help GHC choose the best candidates possible. I will help choose those who understand GHC’s mission and values, and soundly guide GHC Cooperative’s future.
Katherine Blue
I am an acute care SLP at UW Hospital and am on a team that treats the adult population with cognition and communication impairments including populations with neuro-rehab needs (post-stroke, delirium, tumor resection; language, cognition; motor speech), tracheostomy weaning (speaking valve) and augmentative and alternative communication. I specialize in discourse analysis and the use of alternative communication in the ICU setting. I am also a peripheral member of our inpatient Geriatrics team. My current research investigates patient outcomes and institutional cost when ventilated patients are provided with alternative modes of communication. While my current practice is in the adult realm, I spent my early years practicing with the Madison School District. Since being hired at UW Health, I floated between AFCH and UH initially but am now dedicated to the adult population.
I have been a member of GHC since 2017 when I was first hired at Madison Metropolitan School District. It was then striking to obtain such great care so quickly. When I began my dedicated career at UW Health, I opted to remain at GHC because of the quality of care. In these times where medical stability is fragile, I believe in supporting the health care of those I love and those in my community. This is a small way of providing that effort. I really enjoyed my time on the nominations committee in 2025 and would be very excited to repeat that role.