2023 Legislative Conference Speaker Bios

The speakers for 2023 Michigan Counties Legislative Conference in Lansing, April 24-26.

*Denotes MCMCFC event speaker

Michael G. Bosanac

Michael Bosanac is the Administrator/Chief Financial Officer for the County of Monroe. In his role, he is the chief administrative officer of the County and carries out the policies and directives of the governing board. One of the most important responsibilities is the financial management of the County. He also provides day-to-day leadership and long-term strategic planning of the organization. He has held several different administrative and leadership positions throughout his 38 years of public service with the County.

Michael’s leadership extends beyond the County. He is chairman of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority (MMRMA) a group self-insured public entity pool serving 426 Michigan municipalities in the property and casualty insurance field. He is currently serving his 12th consecutive term as chairman. The MMRMA is a nationally recognized leader in the public entity risk pooling industry. He has also served as the chairman of the Board of Managers of Greenstone Insurance Company, a wholly owned captive of the MMRMA. He is the vice president of the Michigan Association of County Administrative Officers.

In 2017, Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Michael to the Michigan Trial Court Funding Commission as one of 14 appointees to review and recommend changes to the trial court funding system. That work continues.

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Adrian College and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Toledo.

Deena Bosworth

Deena Bosworth joined MAC in 2011 and became director of governmental affairs in December 2013. Bosworth previously served as director of legislative relations for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, as assistant county administrator with the Charlotte County Board of Commissioners in Florida and as legislative director and senior policy adviser for the Michigan House Republican Caucus. She has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Western Michigan University.

Vickie Burlew*

Vickie Burlew is a mentor and coach to LTC facilities in the area of regulatory and clinical care. She advocates for the homes and their residents, believing that providing person-directed care is the road to compliance. Currently she is employed by Lebenbom & Rothman Consulting working with you for the best outcomes for your elders.

Brian Calley

Brian Calley is a collaborative leader who combines the skills from an accomplished private sector career with an extensive record of public service and a reputation for getting things done. He is passionate about making the world work better for all people and uses an inclusive problem-solving approach to make a difference.

As president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, Brian is able to put his passion for Michigan’s small businesses to work. He serves as a director of a publicly traded community bank, and as a Trustee of Oakland University. Additionally, he sits on various boards, including Special Olympics Michigan, Sparrow Health System, Disability Rights Michigan, and the Autism Alliance of Michigan.

Calley had the honor of serving as Michigan’s 63rd Lieutenant Governor from 2011-2018. Prior to that, Calley served two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives, two terms as an Ionia County commissioner and worked for over a decade in community banking. He holds a BA from Michigan State University, an MBA from Grand Valley State University and an MPA from Harvard University.

Matthew D. Chase

Matthew D. Chase has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Association of Counties (NACo) since September 2012. As the CEO, he is responsible for the overall management of the only national association representing America’s 3,069 county governments, with a national footprint of nearly 40,000 elected officials, 3.6 million county employees and more than $660 billion in annual public sector investments.

Previously, Matt served nearly a decade as executive director of the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), representing local government-based regional planning and development organizations. He is a graduate of Hartwick College in Otsego County, New York, and holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the board of advisors for GWU’s Graduate School of Political Management. He is a fellow for the National Academy of Public Administration. He was also a founding board member of Vets’ Community Connections.

Matt was raised in Warren and Washington counties in Upstate New York. Matt was introduced to county government by his stepfather who held two elective offices in Washington County: district attorney and judge.

Stephan Currie

Stephan Currie is the Michigan Association of Counties’ fourth executive director since 1968.

Currie began his service at MAC as deputy director in 2011. As deputy director, Currie led MAC’s daily operations, plus spurred new initiatives such as CoPro+, a collaborative purchasing program for public entities. As executive director, Currie leads various strategic initiatives for both MAC and the MAC Service Corporation and remains in a leadership role with the CoPro+ program. In September 2017, Currie was named the Strategic Association Leader for 2017 by the Michigan Society of Association Executives.

Prior to joining MAC, Currie was operations manager at Comfort Research in Grand Rapids. He graduated from Hope College with a degree in business administration and has an MBA from Michigan State University.

Amy Dolinky

Amy Dolinky joined MAC in 2022 as the Technical Adviser, Opioid Settlement Funds Planning and Capacity Building.

Prior to joining MAC, she served as a Senior Program Manager, Overdose Data to Action with the CDC Foundation and as the Senior Adviser of Michigan’s Opioid Strategy with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, Dolinky served as the Substance Misuse Response Coordinator, leading strategic planning around substance use with Knox County government in Tennessee.

She holds a master’s degree in public policy and administration with a focus on global health from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Loyola University New Orleans.

Emily Doerr

Emily Doerr has served as executive director of the Michigan State Land Bank Authority since October 2020 after serving in various community and economic development and real estate development positions around the state since 2007. She also serves on the board of the McFarlan Senior Housing Corporation in Flint and two in Detroit (Hostel Detroit, which she founded in 2011 and for the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Detroit Mercy, which is where she earned her MBA in 2012). In her “free time” she runs Flint City Bike Tours to showcase cultural, historical, and geographic assets of Flint. She is very honored to serve Michigan’s land bank community and excited by the opportunities for attainable housing development by communities through partnering with the State Land Bank or their county land bank.

David M. Donahue*

David Donahue worked in intensive care units prior to joining the state of Michigan in 2012. At the state, he started as a surveyor in the complaints unit until that unit was combined with “Annual Surveys. He was a survey manager for little more than two years before being promoted to his current position as LTC Division director. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve. He has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wright State University.

Denise Donohue

Denise Donohue joined County Road Association of Michigan (CRA) as the director in 2013. She came to CRA with nine years of association management experience, and 14 years in three different departments of Michigan state government. She holds BS and MA degrees from Michigan State University and is accredited in public relations and association management.

Kevin Evans*

Kevin Evans brings 30 years of health care, hospitality and regulatory experience as well as observations and insights from serving hundreds of workplaces in various capacities to this session. He has seen businesses falter when strong leaders left without a plan for succession or transition.

Steve Girard*

Steve Girard is a partner with the law firm of Warner Norcross + Judd. His clients are predominantly governmental entities and health care facilities. He focuses on educating public board members on their legal fiduciary responsibilities and facilitating administration and leadership in operationalizing state and federal laws.

Donald Haney*

Donald Haney has lobbied at both the state and federal levels for the Medical Group Management Association, the Kent Intermediate Association of School Boards and now for MCMCFC and NACHFa. He has been lobbying for more than 20 years and was an elected school board member for over 18 years.

Chris Harkins

Chris Harkins is state budget director. He is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the state’s $70 billion budget and oversees CEPI, OFM, OIAS, and SIGMA.

Prior to serving in the State Budget Office (SBO), Harkins served as director of the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency, where he managed the agency and its staff and ensured that the informational and fiscal needs of the members of the Michigan Senate were met. He also worked at Jackson National Life as a senior policy adviser and spent the preceding decade employed in various roles in state government, most recently within SBO where he served as director of OHHS.

Elizabeth Hertel

Elizabeth Hertel is the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Previously, she was senior chief deputy director for administration, where she oversaw external relations and communications, financial operations administration, legislative services, legal affairs, policy & planning, strategic integration, organizational services, workforce engagement and community and faith engagement.

Hertel joined the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) in 2013 as the senior assistant for policy and planning, and in February 2014, was appointed director of Policy and Planning. Following the merger of the Departments of Community Health and Human Services into MDHHS in 2015, Hertel served as senior deputy director for policy, planning and legislative services. In October 2016, she left that position to serve as director of Michigan advocacy for Trinity Health and returned to MDHHS as chief deputy for administration in February 2019.

Prior to joining MDCH, Hertel worked as a senior adviser for health policy in the state House Republican Policy Office and as a legislative assistant to state Rep. Bruce Caswell. She began her tenure in the House in 2005. In 2010, she worked as a consultant with Public Sector Consultants and then as a policy analyst at Blue Cross Blue Shield. She returned to the House in 2011.

Andrea LaFontaine

As a collaborator experienced in local, county and state government, Andrea’s background in policy, administration and trail building poise Michigan Trails for the future. She has built new partnerships and fostered relationships with communities, businesses, local trail managers and users while encouraging collaboration for the advancement of trail networks throughout Michigan.

Prior to working for MTGA, Andrea spent two years in the Executive Division at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. She came to the Executive Division after serving three consecutive terms representing the former 32nd District in the Michigan House of Representatives.

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Central Michigan University.

Eric Lupher

Eric Lupher is president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, an organization of Michigan citizens founded in 1916 to devote continuing attention to state and local government affairs. For more than 100 years, the goal of the Citizens Research Council has been to provide tools to the citizens of Michigan to secure good state and local government. Through its research and publications, the Citizens Research Council provides an independent, nonpartisan, and objective source of factual information on state and local policy issues.

Eric Lupher has been president of the organization since 2014. He has been with the council since 1987, the first two years as an intern in the Lent Upson-Loren Miller Fellowship Program, and since then as a research associate, Director of Local Affairs, and now President of the organization. During this span, he has done studies on many different state and local government policy issues. Much of his work over the past couple of years has concentrated on local government issues, including government finance, organization, service provision, and the consolidation of local governments.

He has served in leadership positions with the Governmental Research Association and the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC), an advisory body for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), representing the user community on behalf of the Governmental Research Association. He received a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in public administration from Wayne State University.

Ed Noyola

Ed Noyola has been with County Road Association of Michigan (CRA) for 18 years, serving as lead lobbyist and chief deputy director.

Prior to joining CRA, Ed spent two years at the Michigan Asphalt Paving Association and 27 years at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in property acquisition and as legislative liaison. He knows more about road funding and Michigan’s infrastructure system than anyone else in Michigan.

Julie Pioch

Julie Pioch is a district director for Michigan State University Extension in Southwest Michigan and has been working with community leaders for almost 30 years. She is a professional registered parliamentarian with the National Association of Parliamentarians and has many years of experience serving on elected and appointed governing boards as well as in leadership roles with nonprofit organizations.

Steve Roznowski

Steve Roznowski is a principal and project engineer with Spicer Group. He began as design engineer in the Water Resources Group in 2010. From there, he was promoted to project engineer and then project manager. He became an associate at Spicer Group in 2013, a senior associate in 2016 and a shareholder in the company in 2018. He continues to serve clients from Spicer’s Dundee office. He is a licensed professional engineer in both Michigan and Ohio and holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Michigan Technological University and a master’s in civil engineering from Colorado State University.

Ted Seitz

For nearly 20 years, Ted Seitz has been a member of Dykema’s consumer finance litigation, appellate, and class action teams. Ted has been admitted, appeared and acted as lead trial and appellate counsel in state and federal courts across the country. He also regularly appears before administrative agencies and in mediation, arbitration, and other ADR proceedings.

He represents public corporations, middle-market corporations, and non-profit foundations in a variety of commercial disputes. In the past few years, Ted has developed a pro bono practice devoted to public policy, social justice, and prisoners’ rights issues, where he has also been a court-appointed mediator.

Chris Swanson

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is a career police officer with experience spanning nearly three decades, serving in a variety of positions, including corrections, patrol, narcotics, criminal investigation, death investigation, human trafficking investigation and command operations. Swanson oversees the fifth-largest Sheriff’s Office in Michigan and is responsible for creating multiple programs that benefit the Genesee County population.

Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker joined the Michigan Department of Attorney General in 2019. He currently serves as assistant attorney general in the Corporate Oversight Division. Walker’s work specializes in opioids and antitrust matters. Walker is a graduate from Michigan State University Law School. Prior to his work in the Attorney General’s Office, he has experience working as a law clerk in the 30th Circuit Court and as a forms and resource analyst with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office.