Lynda Mitchell, MA, CAE

Lynda has 20 years’ experience leading nonprofit organizations in the allergy and asthma community, and a proven track record in program development and partnerships, community building, and fundraising. She brings experience in healthcare compliance to implement best practices in nonprofit management, direct strategic growth, and build high-performance teams. She has long championed patient-centered care and patient engagement, and the use of innovative approaches and digital strategies to advance an organization’s mission and to empower patients and caregivers as partners in their healthcare. Lynda stepped into this role after joining Allergy & Asthma Network in 2019 and most recently serving as chief operations officer. Prior to becoming CEO, Lynda led operations, digital transformation and cross functional team collaboration for Allergy & Asthma Network. She implemented a new digital health communications strategy and led the development of the new allergyasthmanetwork.org, which has realized a 1500% increase in unique visitors since launching in May 2020. In addition to her work in digital health communications, Lynda also led the proposal team that has secured two Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington Engagement Awards focused on health disparities, asthma and COVID-19 and one PCORI dissemination project on pediatric asthma.

Lynda specialized in digital health communications strategy for small to medium size disease advocacy organizations. She advised organizations on how to leverage digital platforms to improve business models, constituent engagement, operational effectiveness, website visibility and mission impact. Key to this work was helping organizations implement effective search engine optimization (SEO) and social media strategies, and Google grant free pay-per-click advertising. Lynda brought a unique perspective to the role after having served in both executive and education program management roles in health-based nonprofit organizations. She understands that a successful strategy needs to be patient-centered and address the health literacy, readability and plain language needs of the organization’s site visitors. This unique perspective enables Lynda to work with organizations and provide realistic, affordable solutions that work for smaller organizations.

Lynda led the day-to-day operations of the $4M organization. She stepped into the role to lead the post-merger integration of human resources, information technology and operations. Lynda prepared the organization for its digital future by implementing a cloud-based technology architecture. She also provided leadership to all finance, tax, regulatory and compliance activities; facilities management; donor relations; corporate and foundation fundraising; and business administration. In her role leading the research department while serving in the role of Acting CEO, Lynda envisioned the concept that led to a $250K Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Award to increase the presence of the patient voice in research for asthma and allergic diseases. She also served as a member of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Coordinating Committee.

Lynda led a team that developed and executed the organization’s digital health communications and engagement strategy for its online communities, social media assets and websites. Under her leadership, the Kids With Food Allergies social media assets grew to 75,000 on Facebook; 7,500 on Twitter and 48,000 in the organization's online community. Lynda also launched the a monthly webinar series and other evidence-based digital health applications and educational programs that improved health and quality of life of people with asthma, food allergy and other allergic diseases. Prior to being promoted into this role in January 2015, Lynda was Vice President of AAFA's Kids With Food Allergies Division where she was awarded the title of "Pioneer in the Food Allergy Community."

Lynda founded Kids With Food Allergies Foundation (KFA), a 501(c)3) online support community to improve the lives of families raising children with food allergies and anaphylaxis, a life-threatening condition. She was inspired by her son's health struggles and her passion for leveraging technology and social to empower parents to be informed health advocates for their children. In founding this first-of-its-kind online patient community for families raising children with food allergies, KFA filled a vital gap by providing social and emotional support to parents and empowering families with the knowledge and confidence to create a safe and healthy future for their children. In her leadership role, she provided the vision; formed a governing board and medical advisory board; raised funds for the organization to advance its mission; and led staff and volunteers. Lynda led program development with special emphasis on creating digital, evidence-based health education materials that addressed practical food allergy management issues. She worked with medical advisors to conduct and publish survey-based studies that captured the patient voice. Lynda grew the KFA award-winning online community to more than 40,000 members in its first eight years. She successfully initiated efforts that led to a friendly merger of KFA with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America in 2013.

Lynda developed and presented seminars and educational content for hospital staff on basic and advanced ICD-9-CM coding and anatomy. She also conducted in-service training and coding compliance audits at university and community-based hospitals.

Lynda served as adjunct university instructor. She also did consulting with and training for hospital health information management departments and professionals.

Lynda managed team of professional health information management consultants for hospital quality management projects at military hospitals and medical centers in California, Hawaii, Asia, and on the East Coast.