Meet our Executive Team

Mr. Bertler has served as President/CEO of Public Health Foundation Enterprises, (PHFE), since May, 2008. He brings over 40 years of experience in public health, human services and non-profit management to his current position.

Mr. Bertler began his career as a community organizer in Oakland County, Michigan developing youth recreation programs, crisis centers, free clinics and programs for runaway and homeless youth.

His interest in public policy eventually took him to the state capitol in Lansing where he represented the state network of Planned Parenthood affiliates and most recently served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Association for Local Public Health representing Michigan’s network of local public health departments where among other projects he participated in the development of one of the nation’s first local public health accreditation programs.

Mr. Bertler’s national activities have included work with the Public Health Informatics Institute, the Turning Point Information Technology Collaborative, the National Association of Local Boards of Health and the National Association of County and City Health Officials where he most recently chaired the Public Health Marketing Strategic Direction Team.

He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the California Society of Association Executives, (CalSAE), Legislative Committee and as a member of the California Conference of Local Health Officials, (CCLHO), Health Information and Data Committee among several other appointments.

Susan Vacko has served within PHFE’s Fiscal Department for 12 years, working her way up to the Director position. With 20 years experience, Ms. Vacko offers a highly valuable "hands on" approach and understanding to the management of the Fiscal Department. She has lead the full integration of two system conversions and therefore has a very extensive working knowledge of how to make PHFE’s systems responsive to client needs.

Ms. Vacko is a Business graduate of California Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. Her ongoing goal for PHFE and the Fiscal Department is to maximize efficiency and productivity while offering the highest level of customer service possible.

Ms. Vacko offers a strong and stable approach to the management of one of PHFE’s core service areas.

Mr. Smith joined PHFE as Director of Consulting Services in April 2003. Mr. Smith has coordinated PHFE’s efforts to establish a consulting services model as an avenue for accessing top-level subject matter expertise for public health, health information exchange, emergency preparedness and informatics quickly and easily for the non-profit and governmental communities. During his tenure at PHFE, Mr. Smith has sought to increase the availability of the right talent for the right project at the right price across the United States. He has worked as a project and program manager within the public health and health care arena for the bulk of his career.

Prior to joining PHFE, Mr. Smith served as the Director of the Washington Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WEDSS) and as a policy analyst and coordinator for the Office of the Secretary at the Washington State Department of Health.

Mr. Smith received his BA with an Energy Systems focus and his Masters in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington. He is currently working toward his Project Management Professional Credential through the Project Management Institute and his Masters in Public Health through the University of Washington

Danielle Gonzalez joined PHFE in October 2005 and brings with her over 14 years of Human Resources experience. Prior to joining PHFE, Danielle was the Human Resources Division Manager for an education company, where she managed employee relations, training, compensation, recruiting, and legal compliance for schools throughout the United States.

Danielle is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by the HR Certification Institute. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and is an active member of both PIHRA (Professionals in Human Resources Association) and SHRM (Society of Human Resources Management).

As PHFE’s Director of IS & Technology, Jude Lauren oversees PHFE’s Information Security, Enterprise Infrastructure, IT Helpdesk and Enterprise Resource Planning activities. Ms. Lauren has 19 years experience as an IT professional including 14 years of management responsibility in the commercial real estate, financial, non-profit, consulting, software, design, defense & space industries.

Prior to joining PHFE in June 2007, Jude was a senior manager at Ameriquest Mortgage leading three high-performance teams: middleware, application infrastructure and applications support. Each team delivered exemplary customer service by being a seamless partner to the business. Her organization supported 120+ e-Business applications hosted in multiple data centers with 24x7 production support.

Ms. Lauren garnered Lockheed Martin’s Galaxy award for providing outstanding customer service to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD). She served as an Associate Director, Business Systems at CB Richard/Ellis for 5 years, servicing the Fortune 100 companies by providing technology solutions to corporate real estate acquisitions and dispositions.

Ms. Lauren is certified in ITILv3. She received her BS in Computer Information Systems from California State University and her MBA with dual specializations in Healthcare & High-Technology management from Northeastern University.

Jude Lauren also serves as an Advisor for Social Media & Technology at Elite Social Management.