Category: advocates

Anna Behnke

Anna Behnke

With over 30 years of dedicated service in healthcare and emergency response, Anna Behnke is a compassionate and experienced Nurse Advocate devoted to promoting patient safety, education, and holistic care. Her journey began as an EMT and Firefighter, where she built a strong foundation in emergency medicine, crisis response, and community service—skills that have continued […]

Will Stock

Will Stock

Will is a registered nurse with a decade of experience across a broad range of specialties, including behavioral health, palliative care, cardiac stepdown, med-surg, and both chronic and acute dialysis. His clinical journey has taken him from high-acuity hospital units to field-based community care, where he’s consistently stepped into roles requiring leadership, adaptability, and a […]

Anja Deitmer

Anja Deitmer

Anja, a dedicated nurse educator and certified case manager, actively advocates for patients in every role she undertakes. She draws on a strong clinical background in pediatric rehabilitation and long-term care nursing to consistently center the voice, rights, and needs of patients, particularly vulnerable pediatric populations. During her years as a nurse case manager, she […]

Tracy Kersey

Tracy Kersey

With over 30 years of dedicated service in the Case Management industry, Tracy Kersey brings a wealth of experience and compassion to her role as a Patient Advocate. As a Licensed Practical Nurse and Certified Case Manager, Tracy has devoted her career to helping clients regain their health and return to work. She holds a […]

Barbara Blandford

Barbara Blandford

Barbara brings to Stepping Stone Advocacy over 40 years of nursing experience working in a variety of medical environments including Medical-Surgical nursing, Acute Rehabilitative medicine, Case Management, Home Health, Education, and Clinical Management. Barbara’s experience in these areas accentuates patient and family education, evaluation and coordination of care to appropriate levels, quality assurance, Physician and staff education, […]

Michelle France

Michelle France

Michelle is our Insurance Claims Advocate. She has over 16 years of experience in the health insurance industry, specializing in Medicare and Medicaid. Her career began in the claims department, where she developed a strong foundation in understanding claim processing. This knowledge allowed her to expand into the appeals and grievance process, helping individuals navigate […]

Sandra Martinez

Sandra Martinez

Sandra is our Insurance and Billing expert. Sandra brings 20 years experience as a Professional Medical Biller. In her role as a Professional Medical Biller, she educates patients about their insurance coverage, including benefits, limitations and out of pocket costs.   She also helps with submitting necessary documentation to ensure claims are filed and paid correctly.  She […]

June Gonzales

June Gonzales

June is part of our administrative team. She is our Billing Manager. She has been instrumental in developing and streamlining our billing processes. June’s career has been in the medical/dental field with over 37 years as a Practice Administrator for a multi-office specialty practice. In this role, she managed the day- to day operations, including managing […]

Kristi Collman

Kristi Collman

Kristi brings over 15 years of experience as an Occupational Therapist and former Patient Advocate to Stepping Stone Advocacy Services. She serves as our Marketing and Social Media Coordinator, using her deep understanding of healthcare navigation, care transitions, and integrated advocacy to help families better understand how our Gold Service Program supports them. With experience […]

LORI IS EXTREMELY TALENTED!

What a great use of Lori’s talents!

I worked with Lori for several years during my career as an orthopedic surgeon. I know her to be not only compassionate and understanding but also a tireless advocate for what is right.

In difficult situations she was unwavering in her quest to enable me to provide the best possible care for my patients. She knows the system and how to work through it (and around it whenever necessary

LORI JUMPED RIGHT IN

If you are in need of a patient advocate, I would highly recommend Lori Schellenberg. She is extremely knowledgeable, effective, and professional. Knows when to be strong and forceful yet loving and caring with your loved one and your family. I was concerned about an elderly family member who had several severe falls, was forgetting to take medication, not eating healthy and not keeping up with housekeeping yet insistent she was fine and staying in her home. Even though Lori lived out of state she made phone calls on our behalf, made several recommendations to help us provide what our loved one needed and was an intermediary when it was necessary. Lori’s knowledge of geriatrics, continuous care/assisted living facilities, the health care system, long term care insurance and hospice is invaluable. She helped us put together a plan that provided the best and continuous care necessary for our loved one and our family. We are extremely thankful for her help and look forward to continuing to work with her as our loved one moves through the next phases of her life’s journey, thus enabling us to create loving memories.

LORI JUMPED RIGHT IN

My husband underwent nasal surgery 6 months ago, after he had a negative sleep study test and was referred to an ENT doctor due to continued fatigue and snoring.

Unfortunately, he developed two different serious infections, and we were concerned about his ongoing treatment with the ENT. In fact, we were very anxious because he wasn’t getting better but the surgeon was not clear with us as to what to do next.

When describing what was going on, Lori jumped right in, when she found out my husband was actually at the surgeon’s office at that time, and still did not understand the situation. She recommended that my husband ask to have the surgeon come back into the room, and to call her so that she could speak to the surgeon with my husband in the room. Lori was very professional and knowledgeable in her approach with his surgeon. She established a treatment plan, in a way that my husband could understand, and why this was the plan. She also discussed the “what ifs” the current treatment plan did not work. He ordered further tests to be completed prior to his next appointment, if he did not improve.

She followed up with my husband and I to make sure we understood the plan.

By advocating for my husband, Lori relieved a lot of anxiety and stress that this current medical concern was causing, and they felt more confident in the surgeon’s care.

We highly recommend Lori and Stepping Stone Advocacy Services, if you are experiencing a medical condition, and don’t know where to turn for answers. She is experienced and professional, yet able to discuss medical terms in a way that we understood.