Executive Director

Matt Whitman has served as the Director of RHI since 2013. Under Matt’s leadership, RHI has expanded from a drug prevention coalition to a broad public health coalition with focus areas including drug prevention, literacy and youth development. Prior to joining RHI, Matt served two terms in the AmeriCorps at the Broome County Office for the Aging and SUNY Cortland’s Institute for Civic Engagement. He graduated from Binghamton University in 2010 with a B.A. in History. Matt is a member of the Cortland Rotary Club where he has served on the Board, as Vice President, and Club President from 2021-2022.

Director of Public Health Infrastructure

aparrott@nyrhi.org

Aster Ripley Parrott works at RHI as the Director of Public Health Infrastructure, developing and managing databases, tools, systems, and grant applications that support RHI's collaborative work. In 2019, Aster earned its M.A. from Cornell University where they studied how different kinds of evidence get used in drug policy debates. It also regularly taught undergraduate writing courses about science, technology, and inequality. They came to RHI from direct service harm reduction work at Ithaca's syringe service program. Aster has earned a Chemical Dependency Counseling Certificate from Tompkins Cortland Community College, an M.S. from Drexel University, and a B.A. from Vassar College.

Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Claudia Kolts works at Rural Health Institute of New York as the Graphic Designer. She started with minimalist icons that has now expanded into full illustrations, animations and videos. She loves developing and learning new design skills to meet the ever growing needs and challenges of RHI. Claudia graduated from Tompkins Cortland Community College with an A.S. degree in New Media which emphasized design with emerging technology. In her free time she also enjoys character design and dreams of writing graphic novels. She lives in Cortland NY with her 4 precious bunnies and turtle.

Epidemiologist

Summer Barrows first started their role as Epidemiologist at RHI in 2022. Summer comes from a background in prevention starting as a Community Development Specialist for a Prevention Resource Center. There, they moved onto infection control in a nursing home setting. Rejoining substance use prevention, Summer is the central point to the annual youth survey. They not only implement the survey and analyze the results, but they also continue to develop new survey questions aimed at mental health.

Epidemiologist

Ashley Lewis joined the Rural Health Institute as an Epidemiologist in January 2025. In this role, she evaluates public health infrastructure and outcomes to strengthen data-driven decision-making. Before joining the Rural Health Institute, Ashley worked at the health department of a neighboring county, where she led efforts to revamp the Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan process with a focus on community engagement and partner collaboration. Her background includes roles in public health assessment and evaluation, with experience in criminal justice, child abuse prevention, and women's empowerment. She also has a clinical background, having worked in elder care as a nursing assistant and medical scribe. Ashley earned her Master of Public Health in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Cornell University. She is an active volunteer at the Tompkins County SPCA and enjoys hiking, camping, and kayaking with her border collie, Malarkey.

Epidemiologist

Lianne started as an Epidemiologist at RHI in January 2025. She holds an MPH from UBuffalo ('22) and a B.S in Mathematics with a minor in statistics from Michigan Technological University ('20). Much of her prior work during school was in food systems, and infant feeding practices in rural communities, and she most recently worked with immigrant farmers in western New York. She has a wide range of interests, and is happiest when working with rural populations and communities. Outside of work, Lianne enjoys dabbling in various crafts, playing music and spoiling her cat Fluffalo.

Community Health Educator & Training Coordinator

Andrea is a dedicated Community Health Educator and Training Coordinator at the Rural Health Institute of New York (RHI), where they strive to improve health literacy, preventive care, and workforce development across underserved rural communities. With a background in childhood education and a strong foundation in instructional design, Andrea brings both compassion and innovation to community health outreach. They hold a Childhood Education Certification from SUNY Cortland, a Master’s degree in Educational Technology, and over 20 years in diverse educational settings, which inform their approach to developing engaging, culturally responsive educational programs. At RHI, Andrea collaborates with local partners, facilitates trainings, and champions efforts to address social determinants of health, empowering individuals and organizations to build healthier, more resilient communities throughout upstate New York.

Jaime is a Community Health Educator at RHI, focusing on substance use prevention for Tompkins County youth and their families. Jaime has long been interested in how environmental factors and behaviors shape the health of individuals, families, and communities. This passion led them to pursue a Bachelor’s in Biopsychology, Gender Studies, and Public Health, where they concentrated on preventing negative health outcomes through both education/outreach and scientific research. Their outreach work has included youth prevention education on dating violence, disordered eating, and nicotine. In parallel, their research explored how certain genetic factors—often brought on by common public health concerns like pollution and chronic stress—can negatively affect health and be passed down to future generations. At Cornell, Jaime earned a Master’s in Genetics, Genomics, & Developmental Biology, investigating how these factors impact fetal brain development and contribute to epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders in children. By bridging hands-on outreach with scientific research, Jaime brings a unique perspective to understanding how public health concerns lead to health disparities and how to help families mitigate those risks. At RHI, Jaime continues this work by helping families and communities stay educated on health information, address health disparities, and improve resilience factors in kids and teens. Outside of work, Jaime likes trying new hobbies, enjoying the outdoors, and spending time with their elderly pug, Kermit.

Project Director

swatrous@nyrhi.org

Sara Watrous is the Project Director at RHI, where she oversees prevention and harm reduction programs. From 2020 to 2024, she led Cortland County's implementation of the NIH-funded HEALIng Communities Study initiative. Previously, she served as the Alcohol & Drug Prevention Coordinator at Tompkins Cortland Community College. Before that, she was a Program Coordinator at RHI (formerly CACTC), focusing on substance use prevention and youth development. Sara holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s degree in Political Science. She is currently a Rural Health Innovation Fellow, completing her Master’s in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

Care Navigator

Dean currently works as a Care Navigator at RHI. Since the loss of his son to an overdose in 2017, Dean has made it a point to re-educate himself on addiction and dedicated himself to connecting and helping at-risk people, by listening to their needs without judgment. In September 2019, Dean became the Healing Hearts Collaborative program director. HHC is a volunteer-run program with a mission to educate, empower, mentor, and train volunteer responders to deliver overdose prevention education and provide naloxone kits on demand. In January 2022, Dean joined the Southern Tier AIDS Program’s (STAP) harm reduction team and held multiple roles. As STAP’s Street Outreach Coordinator, he led two mobile harm reduction units, supervised a team of outreach workers who delivered overdose prevention education, dispensed rescue kits, and harm reduction supplies, navigated and linked people to care and treatment in rural, marginalized localities in the Southern Tier and Central New York regions.

Harm Reduction Educator

Hallie joined the Harm Reduction team at RHI as a Harm Reduction Educator in March 2025. She has a background in political science, sociology, and legal studies. Harm reduction has been a particular area of Hallie’s interests, as they have been closely impacted by the issue of substance use. She has previous experience working with college students to assess their needs and to connect them to resources and services that they might need. They are always looking for ways to connect with their community and to help people to meet their goals. Hallie is passionate about getting involved with and engaging in advocacy for marginalized, at risk, and disenfranchised groups in the Central New York region. In her spare time, Hallie enjoys reading, nature, and her two cats.

Engagement Coordinator

Jessica joined RHI in 2025 as the Engagement Coordinator on the Harm Reduction Team. She earned her Masters in Public Health from SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY, focusing on community health sciences, and her Bachelors in Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and minored in Public Health. Her academic focuses include racial disparities in maternal health outcomes and policies impacting social determinants of health. As the COVID-19 pandemic was intensifying in New York City in the Spring of 2020, she joined the city's COVID-19 response, working in the contact tracing program from its inception until its conclusion in 2022. She then joined the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene in the Division of Disease Control. In her role as Electronic Laboratory Reporting Coordinator, she was responsible for maintaining the timely and accurate reporting of over 100 reportable disease and conditions from NYC-based hospitals and commercial laboratories. Her other professional experiences include administrative roles in various clinical settings, including emergency departments and an outpatient psychiatric clinic for previously incarcerated perpetrators of sexual offenses. She is passionate about health equity and enjoys engaging with both the qualitative and quantitative sides of public health research. In her free time, she enjoys biking, hiking, skiing, and road-tripping throughout Upstate New York with her husband and their Australian cattle dog, Rocky.