Staff
Mackenzie Petersen, MSW, MPH
Project Director, Community Health Worker Training Program
Contact
Education
MSW, Portland State University
MPH, Portland State University
BFA, University of Oregon
Professional Experience
Mackenzie Petersen is the Project Director for the Community Health Worker Training Program HRSSA grant. She has over 15 years of professional experience working with communities to improve health and reduce disparities. Mackenzie loves to develop creative solutions and change systems with the expertise of stakeholders and people with lived experience. Before joining the Center for Children, Families, and Workforce Development, Mackenzie worked for almost five years at the Department of Public Health and Human Services as a section supervisor for behavioral health services in Medicaid and Children’s Health Services in Public Health. In these roles, she developed and improved partnerships with key partner organizations in an effort to dismantle silos and improve collaboration.
Prior to living in Montana, Mackenzie worked at a Coordinated Care Organization in Portland Oregon that served Medicaid and Medicare Members. She managed a diverse team of care coordinators and managed population health initiatives to address chronic disease and social determinants of health. She led a multi-partner and system grant to improve access to the diabetes prevention program and worked with community-based organizations and the Oregon Health Authority to ensure that CBO's were considered in payment models. Before working in the world of Medicaid and Public Health, Mackenzie worked for 4 years with individuals experiencing houselessness in downtown Portland at the Bud Clark Commons as a case manager and an engagement worker. This work and the incredible people that she met through that job, inspired Mackenzie to complete a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s Degree in Public Health.
Mackenzie is a former Peace Corps volunteer who collaborated with communities in Ibanda, Uganda to support drama, art, brass band, capacity, and health development projects and has a BFA in painting. In her spare time, she loves to plant trees around Helena, get outside with her family and play with clay.