Our Team
Patti A. Engel, R.N., B.S.N – CEO & President
As CEO and founder of Engage Health, Patti has helped define the rare disease space. Patti’s background in pediatric oncology nursing, plus her extensive experience in caregiver/patient identification, clinical trial recruitment, and health research prove useful to clients as they work to advance their programs in rare and complex conditions. A leader and frequent presenter on challenges facing those developing rare disease therapies, she uses relationships built up over the years to tirelessly drive forward client initiatives to efficiently address their business challenges.
Austin R. Letcher, MS – Program and Operations Director
Austin provides a wealth of knowledge and experience in the rare disease space through his background in bench, clinical, and market research. Austin’s academic background in neuroscience and biomedical engineering, along with his professional experience in building patient registries and clinical trial recruitment, ensure a deep and rich understanding of the challenges faced by our clients. He utilizes this background and experience to provide insightful yet pragmatic solutions to our clients that supports long-term relationships with patients and families impacted by rare and complex conditions.
Skyler Jackson, BA – Senior Director, Qualitative Research
Skyler’s background in sociology and political science and her experience serving the Child Foster Care Review Board of the State of Nebraska bodes well for our qualitative research department. Her grasp on the psychology underlying interactions between those impacted by rare diseases and the organizations that serve them complements an aptitude for gathering challenging data in an empathetic and caring manner. Clients appreciate her ability to “dig deep” to obtain insights, and to analyze qualitative and mixed methods research with text, audio, videos, and secondary data, distilling it into clear and actionable insight.
Anne Melchior, BA – Research Project Director
Gretchen Behnke, BS – Associate Project Manager
Gretchen leverages her background in public health and cellular biology to support patient-centered research initiatives. Her work includes development of research tools, quality review, analysis of patient-reported data, and synthesis of insights related to disease burden and treatment experiences. She has engaged with rare disease communities, colleagues and industry partners who value her curiosity, thoughtful approach, and strong problem-solving skills. Gretchen is passionate about elevating the perspectives of patients and families, which helps to ensure patient voices are meaningfully reflected in healthcare research and strategy.
Matthew Gabiou, Software Engineer
Jocelyn Myers, Data Analyst and Data Team
Jocelyn is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of Engage Health’s proprietary EnCompass® database. With approximately 1.4MM records characterizing the rare disease interest and experience of healthcare providers worldwide, Jocelyn’s strong organizational and management skills ensures data accuracy and cleanliness, capturing a variety of data points to ensure the best results for our clients. Jocelyn also works closely with our Data Privacy Officer and IT staff to ensure that US, EU and other privacy and data protections are adhered to at all times.
Zack Denoma – IT Administrator
Zack’s extensive experience in building tools needed to conduct our research have proven invaluable; both in the conduct of health research requiring IRB approvals but also as we outreach for research collaborations on behalf of our clients. He has an in-depth understanding of the health research process and because of his educational background in accounting, he is sensitive to client constraints and needs. His end-to-end understanding of the best ways to obtain information accurately and efficiently is key to spotting opportunities for our clients.