The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) has named Sue Stout as its chief communications officer and director of public policy. She will officially begin her duties in January. Stout brings to the ACA more than 30 years experience as a nonprofit healthcare public policy executive and professional. Adding to her expertise in successful passage of healthcare legislation, she is also a registered nurse.
“We are honored to have a successful legislative tactician and communications professional join our team,” said Kendra Calhoun, ACA president and CEO. “I have had the pleasure to work with Sue in both legislative and communications efforts in Minnesota. Her background as a registered nurse enables her to look at legislation from a compassionate, human perspective, not simply as a collection of statistics. Her successful track record in passage of complex healthcare legislation in Minnesota is a reflection on her ability to get things done and think things through strategically.”
Stout is currently director of state government relations for the Minnesota Hospital Association, St. Paul, where she provides strategic leadership, analysis, and implementation of state government relations. Her background includes service as senior government relations for the Minnesota Nurses Association, St. Paul, as well as the director of Freeborn County Public Health in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
With extensive experience in healthcare program development, other areas of expertise Stout will bring to the ACA include grassroots organizing, communications strategy and management, association and leadership development, and strategic planning. Stout will lead the ACA’s legislative agenda, public policy initiatives, and strategic communications. She will focus on the ACA’s grassroots efforts to increase the number of states with prosthetic and orthotic parity laws, and will also focus on specific state delegations such as Tennessee, Iowa, and Minnesota. Stout will also oversee the public policy agenda of the ACA’s Limb Loss Task Force.