Executive Board

Mylynn is a progressive clinician leader, national speaker, and instructor with more than 25 years of health care knowledge and experience specializing in population health management, health policy and strategy, and health equity. As a licensed Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Mylynn has an in-depth understanding of complex medical conditions that informs her work. She has served as a health management executive and strategic advisor to payers, providers, and public sector agencies, giving her exceptional skills in facilitation and evaluation.

As a partner within Optum Advisory Services, Mylynn leads the Population Health Management Practice. She manages the delivery of transformational solutions tailored for providers, payers, and other clients to support growth and innovation across the care continuum. As a former state health officer, Mylynn established policy and leveraged health information technology to improve health equity and social determinants of health (SDOH) for vulnerable populations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mylynn served the North Dakota Department of Health as the state health officer. She developed and implemented strategic priorities, overseeing 365 employees and a $201 million biennial budget.

Mylynn’s years as a state health officer included participating in the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Public Health Leadership program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The program gave Mylynn new insights and opportunities to build collaborative relationships with other state health officers for ongoing knowledge sharing. In addition to her state health experience, her background includes health care management consulting roles for EY, Accenture, and Capgemini Ernst & Young.

As a skilled leader in change management, Mylynn helps organizations develop and implement innovative solutions to improve quality and access to care for diverse populations, reduce the cost of care, and improve the consumer experience. She has conducted voice of the consumer workshops, developed strategic roadmaps, and created communication roll-out strategies for successful initiatives. Operationally, Mylynn has helped health care organizations in clinical care coordination, patient flow, and implementation of health information systems. Her unique and diverse background includes supporting federal, state, local, and tribal governments; national and regional health plans serving Medicaid, Medicare and commercial members; integrated delivery networks; academic and community medical centers; physician groups and accountable care organizations (ACOs). 

Dr. Beth Sanford graduated with her BSN and MSN in Rural Health Nursing with a
specialization in Nursing Education from the University of North Dakota. Most recently, Beth
completed her DNP in Public Health and Policy from Rasmussen University, focusing on
vitamin D translational research.

She has worked as a Hospice Nurse, a Migrant Health Nurse, a Public Health Nurse, a Community Health Educator, and a Nurse Manager in Long-Term Care and Memory Care. These roles shaped her love for vulnerable and underserved populations, as well as for primary prevention. She has enjoyed volunteering with incarcerated and homeless teens in the US and Canada as well as orphans in Mexico and rural populations in the Amazon.

In 2005, she moved to China with her family and lived there for five years, volunteering as a
Nurse Consultant and teaching English. She then moved to Fargo where she became the co-founder of a non-profit in Afghanistan that focused on micro-businesses for women in poverty, particularly widows, volunteered as a nurse advocate in the local refugee community, and did volunteer parish nursing for five years before joining Rasmussen University as full-time nursing faculty in 2015.

In 2020, she obtained a post-graduate certificate in Applied Clinical Nutrition to better educate future nurses, colleagues, patients, and the public about the principles of integrative nutrition and advocate for vitamin D deficiency education in North Dakota. In the Winter of 2021, she wrote and, with two nurse legislators in North Dakota (Karen Rohr, Ph.D., RN and Kristin Roers, MSN, RN), championed SB2145: The Essential Caregivers Act in North Dakota, which was passed into law. Beth is passionate about cultivating a spirit of inquiry and developing the attitude of being a life-long learner in students, nurses, and healthcare professionals at all levels of practice.

She enjoys her time on the Board of Directors for the NDNA, advocating for the nurses of North Dakota and disseminating evidence-based practice to its members. 

Bio coming soon!

I came to nursing later in life, having been an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)-Paramedic for many years. As an RN BSN, I have worked in both rural hospital and long-term care, specializing in emergency medicine and geriatrics. I have served on many committees, helping to write policies related to influenza pandemics and mass casualty events. I continued to serve my local community as an EMT for nearly 20 years, retiring only after earning my Master's degree in Nursing Education.

As a life-long learner, I recently completed the dissertation/research phase of my PhD. I work as an Assistant Professor of Nursing and Simulation Lab Coordinator at the University of Jamestown. In addition to creating and running simulation scenarios for the nursing and physical therapy courses at UJ, I am the course coordinator for the Nursing Research and Nursing as a Profession courses. Additionally, I am a second-year faculty advisor for the Nursing Students' Association of North Dakota. I feel my experience and connections will help guide me in the Director of Advocacy position. I firmly believe in introducing young, new nurses to the legislative issues that we face as a profession. They need to know that together, nurses have a voice through the NDNA!!