Arizona ACE Initiative · For Director Amy Edwards Holmes View RHTP Response → Co-Comm · David Borofsky →
Arizona Capacity & Efficiency (ACE) Initiative · Conversation Starter

A shared-source operating system for Arizona — every agency, every county, every citizen.

The Force for Health® Network already built what ACE is trying to create: a modular, shared-source technology layer with structured pilots and transparent evaluation baked in — ready to be co-deployed across ADHS, AHCCCS, ABOR, the AZ Community College Coordinating Council, ADE, DES, Tribal Health, and more, for a fraction of the cost of each agency standing up its own.

Live PHIT Scores · 15 Counties · 22 Tribal Nations

Hover any county or tribal nation to activate.

Every Arizona county — and all 22 federally recognized Tribal Nations — rolls up to its own PHIT Score with a Coach Lucy or Dr. Rob insight, with tribal data sovereignty honored at every layer. This is the same statewide operating system ACE is proposing — already live.
Strong (70+) Developing (40–69) At Risk (<40) Tribal Nation
Navajo Nation Hopi White Mtn Apache San Carlos Apache Tohono O'odham Gila River CRIT Hualapai Mohave Coconino Navajo Apache La Paz Yavapai Gila Graham Greenlee Yuma Maricopa Pinal Pima S. Cruz Cochise
🪶 All 22 Federally Recognized Tribal Nations in Arizona
🪶Navajo Nation Hopi Tribe Tohono O'odham Nation White Mountain Apache San Carlos Apache Gila River Salt River Pima-Maricopa Ak-Chin Fort McDowell Yavapai Yavapai-Apache Nation Yavapai-Prescott Tonto Apache Pascua Yaqui Colorado River Indian Tribes Hualapai Havasupai Kaibab Band of Paiute San Juan Southern Paiute Fort Mojave Fort Yuma-Quechan Cocopah Zuni (AZ territory)
ACE × FFH Alignment

Three ACE pillars. Three FFH strengths. Two unexpected dividends.

Gov. Hobbs announced the Arizona Capacity & Efficiency Initiative on March 10, 2026 with a $100M savings target by FY2029without layoffs. ACE is built on three pillars. FFH has already built the modular infrastructure that serves all three — plus a fourth outcome ACE didn’t ask for but will absolutely take credit for.

1
Save Money
ACE: consolidated purchasing, bulk discounts, cut waste. FFH: one shared platform replaces 18 separate agency tech stacks. Prevention-focused content drives the real savings — Dr. Rob's specialty is ER cost reduction.
2
Simplify Operations
ACE: standardize admin services, cut duplication across agencies. FFH: one shared CRM, one project manager, one data layer. No more agencies emailing spreadsheets. Built on broadband-aware, rural-first architecture.
3
Strengthen with Technology
ACE: AI & emerging tech, Arizona Innovation Hub structured pilots, workforce productivity. FFH: PHIT Scores, Coach Lucy + Dr. Rob AI twins, Virtual C-Suite, 360° Human Explorer — all ready for transparent evaluation.
✦ Two Unexpected Dividends

Outcomes ACE didn’t ask for — but will absolutely take credit for.

The pillars above deliver on the $100M goal. These two dividends are the political and financial upside Amy brings back to the Governor’s desk — and with Dividend 5, a genuine Win-Win-Win: agencies, citizens, and the state budget all benefit from the same partnership.

Dividend 4
Not in Scope · Happens Anyway

Stronger Economy.

Companies follow nimble, innovative public-sector leadership. Every health-literate family cuts absenteeism, ED utilization, and talent flight. Arizona becomes more attractive to employers the same year it becomes measurably healthier. Workforce health = workforce capacity = economic growth.

Dividend 5
A Three-Pronged Public-Private Opportunity

Win. Win. Win.

FFH isn’t just an internal software tool your agencies use. Under a public-private partnership, Arizona can extend statewide access, reach every rooftop, and reinvest the prevention dividend — creating a self-sustaining loop that improves every year it runs.

Prong 1 · Internal
Serve Your Agencies
Reliable data, zip-level rollups, shared CRM + project manager across all 22 agencies. Cut redundancies. Improve agency performance. ACE target delivered.
Prong 2 · Outward
Serve Every Arizonan
Open statewide access: state-of-the-art, science-based health content free to every family. Reach every rooftop via our print-to-digital bridge with QR-tracked flow into the academy. 7.4M Arizonans served.
Prong 3 · Reinvestment
Fund Your Future
Prevention ROI ($6–$38 back on every $1) + Foundation fund returns flow back as self-funding reinvestment capital. Zero new appropriations needed.
Agencies win. Citizens win. The Governor’s Office wins. Arizona becomes the originating state partner — the model other states adopt.
The ACE fit: FFH slots directly into the Arizona Innovation Hub as a ready-to-pilot shared-source platform — structured pilots, transparent evaluation, statewide data layer. We match the ACE operating model Amy has been building her entire career — and deliver two unexpected dividends: a stronger Arizona economy, plus a three-pronged Win-Win-Win public-private partnership that serves agencies, reaches every Arizonan, and funds the prevention reinvestment loop — all without new appropriations.
The Bloomberg Parallel

The Bloomberg model for population health.

Amy ran GovEx — the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins — where she grew GovEx Academy to 10,000+ trained public-sector leaders, launched City AI Connect (460+ cities, 47 countries, Fast Company World-Changing Idea), and led What Works Cities data-practice standards. FFH is building exactly this playbook — but for population health instead of city management.

PHIT Scores
Measured. Compared. Scaled.
Bloomberg made city performance measurable across peers. FFH makes population-health readiness measurable across zip codes, counties, tribal nations, and states. 141 data panels, zip-level.
Data Hubs
DATA Act, at state scale.
Amy led the DATA Act of 2014 — the first U.S. open-data law, standardizing $6T in federal spend. FFH's Prevention Data Hub is her instinct at the state agency level: shared data layer, cross-agency rollups, transparent dashboards.
Mixed Media
Trust + reach + engagement.
Bloomberg built a media empire as the distribution layer for its data. FFH's Omni-Media Producer does the same for prevention — interactive magazines, QR-bridged print-to-digital, every rural rooftop, every channel.
We want to be the Bloomberg for population health — real solutions that can be shared, measured, and scaled. Arizona is where we prove it.
— Coach Lucy Howell, CEO, The Force for Health® Network
Peer Standing · Data Fusion Lineage

You’re sitting with three peers, not a vendor.

Coach Lucy Howell sold federal-grade data to the Top 10 U.S. banks, largest debt buyers, and the FDIC & NCUA for whole-loan portfolio asset trades a decade before the DATA Act standardized it. Dr. Robert Gillio testified on rural health disparities at the state and national level, helped build the 9/11 First Responders Registry, and led clinical protocols through Hurricane Katrina. Both landed in population health for the same reason: real solutions, measured, scaled, and trusted — with federal, market, and clinical discipline at one table.

Coach Lucy Howell · CEO, FFH

Bank & Agency Data Advisory

  • 2001: sold TeleCheck — early federal-grade data play.
  • 2001–2010: data sources for country's largest data aggregator — trained by the Grandfather of Data Fusion.
  • Clients: Top 10 U.S. banks, largest debt buyers, FDIC + NCUA for whole-loan portfolio asset trades.
  • Partnership Director, Angel Capital Association — hosted regional/national angel-investor events teaching PPP structures.
  • Today: same data + partnership lens, applied to population health — PHIT Scores, zip-level rollups, 3-leg Best Case model.
Dr. Robert Gillio, MD · CMO, FFH

Public Health Testimony & Emergency Response

  • State & national testimony on rural health disparities — on the congressional record for decades.
  • Contributed clinical protocols to the 9/11 First Responders Registry.
  • Hurricane Katrina emergency response — displaced-population health protocols.
  • Former Mayo Clinic pulmonologist — 30+ years of clinical authority.
  • Moves fluently across public, private, educational, and non-profit sectors — sits at every table.
  • Today: clinical mind behind Virtual Dr. Rob AI + the Certified Patient program.
The Three-Sided Data Ledger

One table. Three peers. Public, private, and clinical data fluency.

Amy — Gov't Side
  • • Led the DATA Act (2014) · U.S. Treasury / federal spend
  • • Open-gov transparency · GovEx / Bloomberg / WWC
Lucy — Market Side
  • • Top-10 banks · FDIC · NCUA · largest debt buyers
  • • Whole-loan portfolio trades · ACA Partnership Director
Dr. Rob — Clinical & Public Health Side
  • • 9/11 First Responders Registry · Katrina response
  • • Rural-health congressional testimony · Mayo Clinic pulmonology
Not a sale — a peer conversation. Three data veterans. Federal, market, and clinical discipline.
A Shared Appalachian Instinct

From Head Start to Data Hubs — same soil, same mission.

Both leaders built their careers solving for underserved, rural, data-starved communities. Now both operate at national scale — and Arizona is where their missions converge.

Director, ACE
Amy Edwards Holmes
Started in a Head Start program in rural Appalachia. Led the DATA Act at U.S. Treasury. Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins. NAPA Fellow.
FFH Co-Founder / CMO
Dr. Robert Gillio, MD
Based in State College, Centre County PA — the Appalachian heart of Penn State. Rural community health-disparity expert: broadband & connectivity, ER prevention, cost reduction.
PHIT Systems & Modular Gears

One shared hub. Six modular gears. Every agency provisioned its own workspace.

The PHIT (Population Health Information & Technology) Hub is the shared-source engine. Each gear is a module any ACE-partner agency can deploy independently — or combine — with role-based dashboards, shared KPIs, and one unified reporting layer across ADHS, AHCCCS, ABOR, the AZ Community College Coordinating Council, ADE, DES, Tribal Health, and beyond.

THE FORCE FOR HEALTH NETWORK HUB
Hover a gear to meet Dr. Rob or Coach Lucy · each module connects to the Hub and to its neighbors — maximum force, minimum silo.
PHIT Data Hub141 data panels, zip-level, EHR-ready
Chamber of Health®600 leaders · 5 sectors · every county
360° Academy11 body systems · Dr. Rob AI · 30+ languages
Reality Health GamesCoins, badges, leaderboards, fundraising
Omni-Media ProducerEvery rooftop, every channel, QR-tracked
Workforce Training HubWhite-label academies, compliant, scalable
The Prevention ROI Math

$1–$3 per Arizonan. 6:1 to 38:1 return.

The research is settled: upstream prevention, health literacy, and community activation return $6 to $38 for every $1 spent, depending on which levers are pulled. FFH is the delivery mechanism — at a per-capita cost that fits comfortably inside the ACE savings target.

$1–$3
Per-Capita Cost / Year
Shared platform cost spread across 7.4M Arizonans. Compare to each agency standing up its own stack at 10–100× the cost.
6:1
Floor ROI
Conservative return on prevention spend documented in CDC, Trust for America's Health, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation analyses.
14:1
Median ROI
Typical return when community-based prevention is combined with health-literacy and care-navigation programming.
38:1
Ceiling ROI
Best-case lever combinations in immunization, early-detection, and chronic-disease self-management programs.
The ACE Pilot Frame
$2M/year × 5 years — matched to the $1/head level, as part of the RHT grant.
Delivered as a structured pilot inside the Arizona Innovation Hub, with a transparent evaluation framework. One shared statewide resource. 18 roles activated on Day 1. Every dollar traceable at the zip-code, county, and agency level — exactly the accountability posture Director Holmes built into the DATA Act.
The “Best Case” Scenario

A three-leg stool: shared platform, prevention ROI, and a public/private partnership.

Arizona doesn't have to choose between saving money, building capacity, and investing in the future. The best-case scenario does all three at once — and leaves the state with equity in a growing, Arizona-based innovation company.

LEG 1

Shared Source, Statewide

PHIT Systems and the modular gears are deployed as a shared-source resource across 18 agency roles — customized per agency, unified at the data-hub layer. Replaces 18 separate tech stacks. Immediate cost containment that maps directly to ACE Pillar 1 (Save Money) and Pillar 2 (Simplify).

LEG 2

Prevention Investment

The same platform investment feeds directly into prevention — health literacy, early detection, community activation. At $1–$3/head with a 6:1–38:1 documented ROI range, the state's downstream Medicaid/AHCCCS savings outpace the platform cost many times over.

LEG 3

Public/Private Partnership

FFH is an Arizona-based, late-stage innovative startup (Delaware C-Corp). One pathway to long-term sustainability: the State, the Arizona Board of Regents, and the AZ Community College Coordinating Council (22 colleges) co-anchor a sidecar fund — aligning the platform's growth with Arizona's workforce and economic-development goals. (Details for a second conversation.)

Why this is an ACE-native play: Structured pilot. Transparent evaluation. Cross-agency shared services. Workforce productivity. Equity-centered. AI-responsible. Every ACE principle — already built into the FFH operating model.
One Platform, 18 Shared Roles

Every ACE-partner agency gets its own role-based workspace.

Each agency or quasi-agency partner activates only the roles it needs. All 18 roles share the same PHIT Hub, the same CRM, the same project manager, and the same reporting layer — so cross-agency rollups and joint campaigns work on Day 1.

Community Director
Chamber of Health regional leader
Sector Liaison
Education / Health / Public / Private / Non-Profit
Agency Admin
Role-based dashboard owner per agency
Data Analyst
Zip-level / county / state rollups
Program Manager
Project manager + task boards + reports
Clinician / Provider
EHR-ready PHIT Data Hub panels
Community Health Worker
Care navigation + home-visit workflow
Educator / Faculty
360° Academy + Train-the-Brain curricula
Student / Resident
Learn It / Live It / Share It progression
Family / Caregiver
Prevention Bingo + family dashboards
Workforce Coordinator
AHEC & pipeline integration
Fundraiser / Grants
Foundation + PPF fiscal-sponsor flows
Employer / HR
Workforce health + productivity gains
Tribal Partner
22 tribal nations, ITCA & IHS coordination
Media Producer
Omni-Media engine, QR-tracked
Policy Liaison
Bills, proclamations, cross-agency rollups
Coach / Navigator
Coach Lucy AI twin + human coaching
Executive / Legislator
Capital Command Center executive view
Already-deployed proof: FFH built and deployed the 360SCDHub — a statewide white-label platform for the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona — strengthening relationships with AZ DHS newborn screening, multiple hospital systems, and Banner Health (SCFA is developing Banner's nurse training program). Arizona is already operating one FFH white-label. The ACE play scales that same architecture across 22 partner agencies.
Chambers of Health® · Regional Prefill Plan

6 regional portals. Pre-populated. Ready to activate.

Every ACE-partner region ships with a pre-populated Top 100 leadership list, a Top 20 list across the 5 sectors (Education, Healthcare, Public, Private, Non-Profit/Human Services), and a fully-seeded CRM of targets and contacts. No cold-start. No discovery phase. On Day 1 every agency has its regional workspace loaded with real people, real relationships, real reporting.

6
Regional Directors
5
Sectors per Region
20
Top Leaders per Sector
600
Statewide Leader Network
Region Counties Population Edu Health Public Private Non-Profit Leaders
Rural NorthApache · Coconino · Navajo~250K100
Rural EastGila · Graham · Greenlee~85K100
Rural WestLa Paz · Mohave · Yuma~380K100
Rural SouthCochise · Santa Cruz~150K100
TransitionalPinal · Yavapai~450K100
Metro AnchorMaricopa · Pima5.5M+100
STATEWIDEAll 15 Counties7.4M+100%100%100%100%100%600
Every region. Every sector. One shared CRM, project manager, and digital collaboration OS.
State Agencies Served

One operating system. Every Arizona agency that touches rural health.

ACE succeeds when Arizona's agencies stop standing up 22 parallel tech stacks and start sharing one data layer, one CRM, and one campaign engine. FFH plugs directly into every agency below — with role-based dashboards, shared KPIs, and unified reporting at zip-code, county, and state levels.

Health
  • AZ Department of Health Services (ADHS) — licensure, HPSA, EMS, newborn screening
  • AHCCCS — Arizona Medicaid agency
  • AZ Center for Rural Health — UArizona MEZCOPH
  • AZ Rural Health Association
  • AZ Alliance for Community Health Centers (AACHC) — FQHC network
  • AZ Department of Insurance & Financial Institutions (DIFI)
Economic Security & Human Services
  • AZ Department of Economic Security (DES) — SNAP, TANF, Aging, DDD
  • Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD)
  • Division of Aging & Adult Services (DAAS)
  • AZ Department of Child Safety (DCS)
  • AZ Department of Veterans' Services
Education
  • AZ Department of Education (ADE) — school health, CTE
  • AZ Board of Regents (ABOR) — UA, ASU, NAU
  • AZ AHEC — Area Health Education Centers, workforce pipeline
  • AZ Community College Coordinating Council
  • Pipeline AZ / Office of Economic Opportunity
Economic & Infrastructure
  • AZ Commerce Authority (ACA) — workforce & rural development
  • AZ Broadband Office — rural connectivity
  • AZ Department of Agriculture — rural food systems & farm health
  • ADOT — rural access, NEMT, tribal transport
  • Registrar of Contractors / Dept. of Housing
Tribal & Community
  • Governor's Office on Tribal Relations — 22 tribal nations
  • Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA)
  • IHS & Tribal Health Programs (federal coordination)
  • Area Agencies on Aging (8 regional AAAs)
  • AZ Commission on the Arts / Humanities
Oversight & Executive
  • Governor's Office — ACE Initiative lead coordination
  • AZ Dept. of Emergency & Military Affairs (DEMA)
  • Auditor General / Treasurer — RHTP accountability & disbursement
  • AZ Association of Counties (AACo)
  • League of AZ Cities & Towns
Multi-Agency Aggregation, Built In.
Every agency above can be provisioned its own role-based workspace inside the FFH Network — with shared KPIs, cross-agency rollups, joint campaign tools, and one unified reporting view. No more emailing spreadsheets. No more duplicated tech spend. One Arizona operating system for rural health.
Already Operating in Arizona

Not a concept. A deployed, white-label statewide platform — ready for the ACE pilot.

FFH has already built and shipped a statewide white-label for a major Arizona partner — with the relationships, compliance posture, and healthcare integration to prove it. The ACE pilot scales that same architecture across the 22-agency partner map.

360SCDHub

Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona

FFH built and deployed SCFA's statewide white-label platform, strengthening ties with AZ DHS newborn screening, multiple hospital systems, and SCFA's recent contract to develop the nurse training program for all of Banner Healthcare.

Omni-Media Reach

Every Rural Rooftop, Every Channel

FFH's Omni-Media Producer coordinates video, podcast, social, broadcast, print, and digital storytelling into one campaign engine. Interactive community magazines reach every rural rooftop with QR-coded pages that bridge directly into digital resources, partner directories, incentives, and workforce pipelines — with source tracking on every asset.

Multi-Agency Hub

Built-In Aggregation & Collaboration

One shared CRM, project manager, and data layer lets multiple agencies — state, county, school district, hospital, non-profit — work together on the same dashboard instead of emailing spreadsheets. Cross-agency rollups, shared KPIs, joint campaigns, and unified reporting surface outcomes at zip-code, county, and state levels.

Already Embedded in Arizona's Fabric

Current partnerships activating ACE-level work today.

FFH is not arriving at the ACE conversation — we're already co-leading the statewide taskforces, workforce accelerators, classroom technology networks, and tribal / rural / broadband coalitions that ACE needs in order to succeed. Each partnership below is live, active, and contributing to the same operating system being proposed.

AZBSN
ATIC
Broadband · Launch Partner
AZBSN & ATIC
Launch partners in Arizona's broadband space. Coach Lucy currently leads the Health & Education Taskforce for the Arizona Broadband Stakeholder Network (AZBSN) and the Arizona Telecommunications & Information Council (ATIC) — including the My Healthy Broadband LIVE series that brings broadband, health, and education leaders together on a shared statewide rhythm.
Active · Lucy Co-Leading
AZ
HWAN
Healthcare Workforce
Arizona Healthcare Workforce Action Network
FFH is helping lead the state-level leaders inside the Arizona Healthcare Workforce Action Network to accelerate the healthcare workforce pipeline immediately — across hospital systems, community colleges, rural residencies, CHW/CHR programs, and tribal health workforce corridors.
Active · Co-Leading
AZ
TEA
Classroom Technology
Arizona Technology in Education Association
AZ TEA coaches and trains Arizona's teachers on technology — the exact workforce that will deliver ACE-scale digital health literacy into every classroom. President Nan Williams also serves on the FFH Network of Advisors, keeping the classroom-technology loop tight.
Active · Advisor Bridge
E-
Rate
Federal Connectivity Funding
Arizona E-Rate State Director
FFH works very closely with Arizona's E-Rate State Director to align FFH's classroom + community broadband strategy with the federal E-Rate funding layer. This is the fiscal rail that makes ACE's Health-in-Every-Classroom vision fundable at scale.
Active · Coordinated
AZ
PE+H
PE, Health & Rural Schools
AZ SHAPE · AZ PE & Health
FFH partners with the Arizona PE and Health educator network (AZ SHAPE) to deliver standards-aligned health literacy, PE, and Live-It trackers through the teacher network. President Carrie Foote (also President of AZ Rural Health Assn. & AZ Rural Schools Assn.) serves as an FFH Advisor.
Active · Advisor Bridge
SCFA
360
Clinical · Rare Disease
Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona
FFH produced and currently maintains the 360SCDHub app for SCFA — which has grown into SCFA's official Nursing Program development partnership with Banner Healthcare, plus continued enhancements including real-time dashboarding, community outreach, and newborn screening tie-ins with AZ DHS.
Active · Deployed & Maintained
🤝
Several of these partnership leaders also sit on FFH's Network of Advisors — a tight, two-way loop between the people actively leading Arizona's broadband, workforce, education, rural, and emergency-response work and the FFH leadership building the platform that scales them.
Meet the Advisors ↓
Network of Advisors

The caliber of leadership behind this work.

From a former U.S. Surgeon General to the leaders of Arizona's broadband, rural-schools, disaster-medicine, and Red Cross networks — the FFH Advisory Network mirrors the partnership map above, so the people shaping strategy are the same people already doing the work in the field.

RC
Dr. Richard Carmona
17th Surgeon General of the United States
DD
Donald Donahue
President, WADEM — World Assn. of Disaster Emergency Medicine
CS
Courtney Slanaker
Executive Director, American Red Cross Arizona
NW
Nan Williams
President, Arizona Technology in Education Association (AZ TEA)
CF
Carrie Foote
President, AZ Rural Health Assn. · AZ SHAPE · AZ Rural Schools Assn.
Open the Dialogue

A 30-minute working conversation with Director Holmes & the ACE team.

We're not pitching — we're proposing a structured pilot inside the Arizona Innovation Hub with transparent evaluation, at $1–$3 per Arizonan, across 18 shared roles and 22+ agency partners. Bloomberg playbook. DATA Act accountability. Appalachian roots. Arizona execution.

Agenda, Part 1 (10 min)
The Appalachian through-line. Bloomberg/GovEx parallel. What we've already built and deployed in Arizona.
Agenda, Part 2 (12 min)
Live walkthrough: PHIT Hub, 18 roles, 22 agency dashboards, Chamber prefill, prevention ROI math.
Agenda, Part 3 (8 min)
Pilot framing: $2M/yr × 5 years as an Innovation Hub structured pilot. Next steps & evaluation metrics.

Or email lucy@theforceforhealth.com directly · or message Coach Lucy on LinkedIn.