The WMS Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Dennis Ellis, a Wyoming native, will take the helm of the WMS staff offices in Cheyenne starting on February 1, 2008. Dennis will replace Susie Pouliot, who departed WMS after nine years to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Idaho Medical Society in the fall of 2007.
Dr. Michael Jording, who ran the Executive Director Search Committee and also serves as WMS Board of Trustees President, stated, “The Executive Director Search Committee is extremely pleased to bring Dennis on as the Executive Director of WMS. While the competition for the position was rigorous, we felt that Dennis was the clear choice to lead our organization on a day to day basis into the future.”
“I look forward to working on many of the challenging issues that face WMS members. It is an exciting time in Wyoming healthcare and I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work on voicing our concerns at the Legislature and all around the state,” said Dennis Ellis.
Before joining WMS, Dennis was Deputy Attorney General at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. In this position, Dennis oversaw all policy decisions, directly supervising 40 attorneys and 15 support staff that represented many diverse state government clients such as the Governor, Secretary of State, higher education institutions, several different departments, as well as serving as the Attorney General’s liaison to the Legislature.
Dennis previously served in Colorado Governor Bill Owens’ cabinet as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. He was responsible for broad-based health and environmental protection programs, ranging from bio-terrorism and disease prevention to prevention and intervention services for children and youth.
Previous to his cabinet appointment, Dennis was Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Owens responsible for policy oversight of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources and Department of Public Health and Environment as well as counsel on eminent domain, wildfire and constitutional issues. Prior to assuming this position with Governor Owens, Dennis worked for a non-profit as a public policy mediator for the Meridian Institute and served as Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Barbara Cubin in Washington, D.C.. He holds an undergraduate and law degree from the University of Wyoming, and was certified as a mediator by the Virginia Supreme Court.
