Meet the Team
Our team is committed to excellence and service to our clients and the communities that they serve.
Maddy Bynes-DeVaney, MPP
Maddy has worked in non-profits and government for the past decade with significant experience in public policy, research, analysis, grant writing, management, and communications. Her areas of focus include health and human services and healthcare policy and systems change.
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Maddy began Bynes Consulting Group in 2022 with the vision of helping non-profits meet their increase their public policy and advocacy work, meet their fundraising goals, reduce expenses, and better serve our communities. Prior to beginning Bynes Consulting Group, Maddy worked in both public and private roles to increase community engagement, innovative policies, and efficient management practices. Maddy's vast experience includes working in local government, the University of Arizona, Arizona Democratic Party, Pima Council on Aging, and AZAging. Maddy has spent a majority of her career focused on public policy analysis, advocacy, coalition building, fundraising, and program development in the health and human services sector - a sector that she is passionate to see working for all communities to create healthier and happier societies.
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Maddy's professional awards include being one of Tucson's 40 Under 40, winning three Aging Achievement Awards from USAging, and winning the first place Aging Innovation Award from USAging. Being active in her community, Maddy has served on several boards including Tucson Clean & Beautiful, Protecting Arizona's Families Coalition, and the Marana Community Food Bank Advisory Council. She current serves as a members of the Board of Directors for the National Aphasia Association.
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Maddy holds a bachelors degree from the University of Arizona in Political Science and History and a Masters Degree in Public Policy. As a fundraiser, Maddy holds a Professional Membership to the Association of Fundraising Professionals Washington D.C. and Southern Arizona Chapters. She currently lives in Washington D.C. with her husband, Nick, and their two dogs, Walker and Dusk.
Sarah Launius, PhD
Sarah Launius, PhD, is a community advocate, urban researcher, and policy strategist with over 20 years of experience in government, academia, and nonprofit sectors. She specializes in direct service provision, urban planning, community safety, strategic partnerships, and evidence-based programming.
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In addition to working with Bynes Consulting Group, Sarah currently serves as the Reporting and Governance Officer for a multi-disciplinary research and development center that is guiding energy transition for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This collaborative initiative, which spans nine universities and private partners from both the energy industry and energy intensive sectors, enables Sarah to refine her expertise in translating research into actionable strategies and governance frameworks that fosters adaptive, dynamic teams equipped to tackle complex, evolving challenges.
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In her previous role as a Program Director for the Community Safety, Health & Wellness initiative in Tucson, Sarah led a $1.4 million program aimed at enhancing community wellness and reducing dependence on emergency response services. She also served as Chief of Staff for Tucson's Ward 3 Council Office, advising on climate change, housing, and equitable development policies, and leading community engagement efforts.
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Sarah has a strong background in the non-profit sector, where she led development initiatives for organizations like Reach Out and Read Southern Arizona and Border Action Network, and co-founded community-based services such as a local emergency relief and bond fund as well as pro-bono immigration legal clinic. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing strategies to foster community engagement and address social justice issues.
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Sarah holds a PhD and MA in Geography and Development from the University of Arizona, and a BA in Political Economy from Prescott College. She is passionate about advancing social equity and sustainability, and currently splits her time between Dublin, Ireland and Tucson, Arizona.
Lara Ruggles
Lara Ruggles is a Tucson, Arizona songwriter with a history of fundraising and grant-writing in the Tucson community and beyond. In addition to releasing four albums of original music and receiving grants and awards for her music from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Groundswell Capital, and Tucson Ideafunding, Ruggles has worked in Fund Development roles with Ben's Bells, the Rialto Theatre, and YWCA Southern Arizona, and served on the board of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Southern Arizona Chapter. She played an instrumental local advocacy role in NIVA's Save Our Stages campaign, which resulted in the passage of the $16 billion Shuttered Venue Operators grant fund in Congress, the largest public rescue of the Arts in US history. Ruggles lives in a mid-century Tucson house with her husband and their cat, and still spends her weekends riding the mustang mare she adopted as a teenager in 2002.
Theo Kipnis
Theo Kipnis is a business and marketing consultant who helps organizations navigate complex, unfamiliar domains and translate strategy into execution. His work focuses on research and synthesis for leadership decision-making, process mapping and operational design, and hands-on support to move initiatives from planning into action.
Theo has a strong track record of rapidly coming up to speed in regulated, nuanced, and highly technical environments and contributing meaningfully at both operational and strategic levels. He supports leaders by clarifying priorities, mapping processes, identifying success factors, and helping teams execute on the work that emerges from planning and stakeholder conversations.
Theo has helped organizations define the value of the services they provide in measurable terms, create and execute communications plans, secure six figure federal grants, select, customize, and implement CRM and learning management systems, specify and build custom software systems, and launch new services into new domains.
He is particularly motivated by mission-based work in healthcare and the social determinants of health, and by helping organizations align their operational practices with their values so that strategy, systems, and execution lead to the greatest impact.
Elise Bajohr, CPHQ
Elise is a system-minded professional who has dedicated her life to social justice and equity, with over 20 years of experience in grassroots, non-profit, and government work. With a foundation in service provision in healthcare, behavioral health, and public health, Elise focused her career on program development, program evaluation, quality management, compliance, and process improvement.
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Elise currently works at the state level in the Department of Health to improve processes, quality, and operational excellence. She is well versed in improvement science, change management, relationship building, and creating sustainable methods to bridge silos in complex systems. Elise excels at making transparent order out of chaos, ambiguity and data.
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Demonstrating skills and competency in improving healthcare quality, Elise is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and earned a micro-credential in Performance and Process Improvement from the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ). She has skills in Lean and Six-Sigma methodologies, the Model for Improvement (MFI), process improvement, Human Centered Design (HCD), and change management. Skilled in data analytics and storytelling, Elise uses data to inform decision-making and make it more human and useful for individuals at all levels. She strives to consistently improve the systems that affect employees, organizations, and the public.
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Always focused on mission and vision, Elise has a long history of community engagement and employment. Providing services and building programs for people throughout the lifespan, from pregnancy to end of life, Elise has worked in Southern Arizona and on the border of Arizona and Mexico before moving to Pennsylvania in late 2024. Elise worked in organizations such as La Frontera Center, Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services (TOPS), Community Intervention Associates, and Jewish Family & Children’s Services (JFCS). Skilled in communication and messaging, Elise has worked from direct service to C-Suite and understands the complexities of systemic change and strategic planning.
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Supporting community is a north-star for Elise’s life. In the last ten years, she served as the Co-Chair of the Behavioral Health and Aging Council for Southern Arizona, the head of the JFCS Safety Committee, and the Education Associate Director for Arizona Association of Healthcare Quality (AzAHQ). She provided educational presentations throughout Pima County to help people plan for end of life or incapacity, with a focus on supporting Solo Seniors. She helped develop a program for surrogate decision making and was a licensed fiduciary in the state of Arizona with the goal of improving quality of life for incapacitated adults.
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Elise graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2003 with a bachelors degree from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, where she majored in history and minored in integrated liberal studies. She focused on factors in societal change, with a capstone on the philosophy of AI. Currently, Elise is completing a master’s degree in public health (MPH) at Boston University, with a focus on health equity. Elise currently enjoys living in the woods of Pennsylvania with her significant other and their four rescue dogs.