Our Team
Susan Bornstein, MD, MPH
Founder and CEO
Susan G. Bornstein, MD, MPH is an OBGYN by training. She became so frustrated with the issues that her patients were having with cost and access to care that she returned to the University of Michigan for a Master’s in Public Health.
Susan has a comprehensive understanding of the healthcare delivery system, having cared for patients across a variety of practice settings, including running her own office for nearly 20 years. She has negotiated and tussled with insurance companies from the employer, provider, and patient perspectives, and is well aware of how frustrating, maddening, expensive, inefficient, and inequitable this process is. She is devoted to bridging the gap between the overwhelming evidence in favor of universal healthcare in the US, including a tax-based financing system proportional to means, and the public’s embrace and support of this concept. In service of this goal, she founded The Asclepius Initiative, where she enthusiastically serves as CEO and staff.
In her spare time, Susan enjoys running, reading, hiking, and baking (hence the running and hiking). She is at perpetual risk of becoming a crazy cat lady.
Rick Burnett, MPH, MA
Project Manager
Rick Burnett, MPH, MA is a public health anthropologist with a passion for leveraging public health as a means to affect positive community change. Anchored in the philosophy that the combination of anthropology and public health represents an intersection of health, access, and cultural understanding that is desperately needed in public discourse and policy, Rick earned his bachelors in cultural anthropology from the University of Louisville and a Master's degree in public health from Michigan State University. During this time, he completed graduate research among the Ju/’hoansi San of Namibia, further underscoring his desire to work with marginalized and disenfranchised populations.
For the past two decades, Rick has continued this work by promoting advocacy for refugees from around the world resettled in the United States and contributing to research projects focused on Native American/indigenous healthy eating and language revitalization campaigns. These experiences have made the mission of TIA extremely personal to Rick, as he has a firsthand understanding of how broken the health care/health care coverage system in the United States is when compared to those in other high GDP nations. Additionally, he has personal experience with accruing extensive medical debt as a result of being underinsured in this country.
Rick loves data, organization, and learning new things. In his spare time, he enjoys chasing around his three rugrats, laughing like schoolkids with his amazing wife, wrestling with his 80lb Appalachian mountain cur/Shepherd mix, meditating, and cheering on his sports teams. He loves live music and will try to attend every jam band concert in the tri-state area.
Kerry Isham, MA
Health Care Coverage Literacy Educator
Kerry Isham holds an MA in experimental psychology from The University of Toledo in Ohio. For over two decades, Kerry has served as a training professional in the human services field and non-profits where she educated young people and adults on such topics as software and other product use, leadership development, conflict resolution, trauma, mindfulness, and child development. She has also facilitated trainings on nationally recognized certifications such as Mind Matters Trauma and Resilience Training, Cooking Matters, and HeartSaver CPR.
Her audiences have included professionals, consumers, students, university professors, and families. Kerry has developed and presented workshops and trainings both in-person and online for conferences and events on the local, regional, national, and international levels.
Kerry’s strengths in facilitating presentations include her empathy, creativity, organization of information, and her ability to engage participants. She resides in the Highlands Neighborhood in Louisville with her cat named Gramercy.
Laci Comer, MA
Communications Associate
Laci Comer is a communications professional with decades of experience in journalism and nonprofit communications. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Services Management and a Master of Arts in Communications.
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Laci spent 16 years as a television news producer for stations in her hometown of Amarillo, Texas and Louisville, including more than10 years at WHAS11, before trading the newsroom for the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining TAI, she spent nearly 9 years as Communications Specialist for an addiction recovery center in Louisville. Her specialty is storytelling.
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Laci was born and raised in Amarillo before moving to Louisville in 2003. She expected to only stay for a couple of years, but 20 years later, she still calls Louisville home. Laci's favorite things are notebooks, pens, reading, and the World Series Champion Texas Rangers. Her cat Sephora keeps Laci company as she works to help the TAI team educate Kentuckians about their choices when it comes to health care coverage.