Jennifer Tomasik, Vice President and Principal, is a second-generation owner of CFAR and serves as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. She is skilled at creating and directing processes that clarify strategy, solve complex organizational challenges, ensure sustainable implementation, and build effective leaders and teams. Her approach blends qualitative methods and quantitative analytics, with an emphasis on communication and collaboration, enabling people to discuss their most pressing issues in a safe and productive environment. She is a recognized expert at large group event design and facilitation.
While Jennifer leads CFAR’s Healthcare practice, she has had the privilege of working with mission-oriented leaders across many industries for more than two decades. She is a deep believer in the power of systems-thinking and the role of active engagement of people across all levels of an organization to shape, own, and contribute to their strategic future. Jennifer is proficient at bringing stakeholders together in ways that bridge the organizational and professional boundaries that often impede productive dialogue and strategic change. She helps her clients move from ideas to action, whether that be through individual or team-based coaching or leading large-scale strategy and change work.
Jennifer is an experienced speaker and author, and has presented to numerous client audiences, including the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Hospital Association, and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, among others. Her published work has appeared in the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, Healthcare Executive, the American Journal of Medicine, and several books focused on population health and healthcare management. Her publication, Lessons from the Field: Promising Interprofessional Collaboration Practices, was produced as the result of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project that she led to identify effective interprofessional collaboration practices that create a culture of health and improve patient-centered care.
Jennifer is deeply committed to improving healthcare, leadership, and education in her home state of Rhode Island, where she resides with her husband and daughters. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and was elected to represent the state on ACHE’s national Board of Regents. In 2011, she won the Regent Award for Early Careerist from the American College of Healthcare Executives Rhode Island (ACHERI), where she serves as a member of the Board. She is the Immediate-Past President of the Board of Trustees of the French American School of Rhode Island, where she led strategic planning, search, transition, and governance efforts. Jennifer serves on the Board of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute and is a member of the Omicron II class of Leadership Rhode Island.
She earned a BA in American Studies from Tufts University, as well as an MS in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is certified as a Predictive Index Practitioner.
Contact Jennifer at: [email protected]
Erin Konkle, PhD, Senior Manager at CFAR, has over 15 years of experience driving organizational transformation in complex institutions. She brings deep expertise in organization development, strategic planning, and leadership development to her client engagements. Her unique background combines research in organizational leadership — including work on appreciative inquiry in work cultures — with hands-on experience guiding institutional change. As a Senior Manager at CFAR, Erin co-leads the higher education practice and specializes in helping academic and nonprofit leaders navigate critical strategic challenges, from changing demographics to increasing governance scrutiny.
Erin’s track record of success includes leading major institutional initiatives alongside college presidents, boards of trustees, and senior leadership teams. Her portfolio includes leadership in institution-wide strategic planning, organizational design for research and practice centers and institutes, and implementing innovative programs that demonstrated measurable improvements in leadership development and organizational effectiveness.
Drawing from her academic research and practical experience in organizational development, Erin excels at designing and facilitating high-stakes strategic planning sessions that bring diverse stakeholders together to achieve transformative outcomes. Her approach combines rigorous data analysis with a deep understanding of institutional dynamics, allowing her to help clients turn complex challenges into sustainable growth and innovation opportunities.
Erin holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership and Development from the University of Minnesota, where her dissertation focused on merging office cultures using appreciative inquiry, a Master’s in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Carolina, and a Bachelor’s in Human Development from Penn State University. She serves on the National Advisory Board for Appreciative Education.
Contact Erin at: [email protected]