Meet the Team
Alicia Koné
Alicia Koné, Owner and President of Koné Consulting LLC, has over 25 years experience working with health and human services agencies to improve our national public safety net system.
As a consultant, she has worked with health and human services agencies in over half the states in the US and with several national organizations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), childcare subsidies, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. She has multiple certifications in management, strategic planning, and facilitation techniques.
Her expertise includes: transformational change in customer service delivery through Lean methods of process improvement, SNAP and Medicaid policy and operations, integration of eligibility for health and human services programs, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on SNAP programs, human services IT system design, and organizational readiness and change management.
Email: alicia.kone@koneconsulting.com (she/her/hers)
Find Alicia on LinkedIn or twitter @AliciaKone.
Christina Watson
Christina Watson, Vice President - Operations and Finance, has more than 30 years of experience providing exceptional customer service plus 10 years of front line eligibility determination and supervision, in health and human services in Washington state. Her consulting work includes assisting over 11 states in improving their business processes and delivery of support services such as SNAP, Medicaid, TANF and childcare subsidies. Christina has a ToP Facilitation Methods certification from the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Her expertise includes business process improvement, customer and support services delivery, management and facilitation.
Email: christina.watson@koneconsulting.com (she/her/hers)
Find Christina on LinkedIn.
Sekou Koné
Sekou Koné, Vice President of International Affairs, is a first-generation immigrant from Cote d’Ivoire (CI), in West Africa. Sekou immigrated to New York City in 1994, and moved to Seattle in 1997 where he met and married Alicia. Sekou is a licensed nurse, and in the U.S. his career focus has been in healthcare. At Koné Consulting, he leads our international consulting practice.
Sekou maintains strong ties to Abidjan, CI, where many of his family members still reside. Over the years, as an expatriate, he has invested in the development of affordable housing and micro-enterprising lending to try and help improve the poorer neighborhoods where he grew up.
Sekou is fluent in French, English, and Mandingo. In his free time, he enjoys running and traveling with his beautiful wife and sons.
Email: sekou.kone@koneconsulting.com (he/him/his)
Twitter @konedjibami
Isaac Koné
Isaac Koné, Research and Development Assistant. Isaac has 5 years of professional experience with Koné Consulting with a multitude of responsibilites including client management and project assistance, communications and social media, IT support, and administrative tasks.
Email : isaac.kone@koneconsulting.com (he/him/his)
Zoumana Koné
Zoumana Koné, Project Assistant and student. As of January 2022, he is attending the University of Washington Bothell where he studies Business Administration with a focus in Finance. After graduation next winter, he hopes to continue studying business and attain an MBA in Finance. He has two years of customer service experience, working part-time as a server at Fairwinds: Brighton Court, a retirement community and with Koné Consulting.
Email : zoumi.kone@koneconsulting.com (he/him/his)
Patrick Jones
Patrick Jones, Graduate Intern at Koné Consulting, is currently pursuing an MPP at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. In pursuing his MPP, Patrick has gained experience conducting qualitative and quantitative policy analysis, including linear regression methods and stakeholder impact analysis. Patrick has applied these skills in academic work in his policy areas of interest, labor policy and healthcare financing. Prior to graduate school, Patrick worked on the client engagement team at Stratfor, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Austin, Texas.
Email: patrick.jones@koneconsulting.com (he/him/his)
Kristie Schultz
Kristie Schultz, project manager and consultant with Koné Consulting, graduated in June with an MPA from the Evans School at the University of Washington. Specializing in environmental policy, Ms. Schultz has worked with nonprofit organizations to conduct research on water pollution and implement community-based social marketing strategies to foster sustainable behavior within local communities. Throughout her education, Ms. Schultz has become well acquainted with program evaluation, qualitative analysis, and policy management. She also has experience using mixed method research techniques, such as semi-structured interviews and surveys, which informed the policy recommendations for her capstone report.
Email: kristie.schultz@koneconsulting.com (she/her/hers)
Odie
Odie, the Koné family’s boisterous blind Beagle, is Koné Consulting’s un-official mascot; it’s his excited howl you hear in greeting during Zoom and conference calls, and Odie who reminds us to seek and share joy throughout our day. Whether greeting the wind or blindly chasing the backyard chickens, Odie experiences a zest for life unparalleled among our various office pets/companions, and he’s never met a being he didn’t immediately welcome.
Like a town crier, Odie is the perfect sentinel to deliver our monthly Celebrations and Shout Outs, and sniff out items of interest for our followers - he is blind, after all, and has an exceptional sense of smell.