Christine Tappan specializes in applying progressive practice, program, policy, strategy, and financial expertise across the health and human services spectrum. She has 25+ years of experience working in the public, social, and for-profit sectors, as well as primary and higher education, both in the United States and internationally. Throughout her career, she’s focused on building partnerships that use data and analytics to drive collaboration and integrate transformational change at key intersections of the social determinants of health, including early childhood, economic mobility, housing, behavioral health, child welfare, and environmental justice. Currently, Christine is the Co-Director of Abt Associates Global Center on Technical Assistance and Implementation and guides the advancement of Abt’s cross-cutting portfolio of health and human services capacity-building efforts and partnerships across the United States. A focus of Christine’ role is to leverage research and best practices to directly impact the capacity and resiliency of individuals, families, communities, organizations, and systems. Prior to joining Abt, Tappan was Associate Commissioner at the New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services and Director of Local Government Affairs at American Public Human Services Association. She also served as a Fulbright Program Specialist in Central Asia, and as an NGO capacity building expert with a focus on child protection and strengthening child and family serving systems. Christine has an MSW from the University of Michigan and BSW from the University of New Hampshire. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Education and Leadership from Plymouth State University and is a Certified Forest and Nature Therapy Guide and Trail Consultant through the Association for Nature and Forest Therapists (ANFT). Christine recently founded BirchWalking, an organization that brings beings together in nature and creates safe spaces to deepen connections that promote resiliency and capacity for all to thrive and live well. She provides guided forest therapy walks for individuals, families, groups, and teams in New Hampshire and beyond both in person and virtually. Christine’s inspiration to become a forest therapy guide came from her own experiences as a health and human services professional and leader experiencing burnout and vicarious trauma. After traditional trauma treatments failed to relieve her symptoms, Christine attended a multi-day forest bathing retreat and experienced profound benefits that lasted over time. She subsequently undertook training through ANFT to become a certified guide and now offers tailored forest bathing experiences for individual health and human services practitioners, as well as teams, leaders, and organizations. Christine is also a volunteer with the Old Growth Forest Network where she is a County Coordinator for two counties in New Hampshire, Rockingham and Strafford, leading efforts to identify and preserve old growth forests. She has also completed her certification to become a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator through the Mindful Leader Institute, Brown University.

This event is co-sponsored by the NH Public Health Association.