At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.
When Connection Is the Strategy
Ask Rebecca Alderfer what she loves most about her role, and she doesn’t mention policy (even after two decades working at the intersection of strategy, social impact, and public policy). What lights her up is connection, forging new partnerships, linking strategies across silos, and aligning people around shared goals.
“It’s really that chessboard,” Rebecca says. “How can we all support each other? Where can we leverage resources and opportunities that already exist? How do we grow the platform together, so that everyone benefits?”
That mindset has defined her career from the White House to the frontlines of maternal health in Colorado. As CEO of the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC), she’s no longer advising from the sidelines. She’s leading the charge, helping the organization grow from a startup into a statewide force for improving maternal and infant health.
From Policy to Practice
Rebecca’s journey began in public policy, where she cut her teeth on some of the most complex health issues. She worked on international programs for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, pandemic preparedness, and later, on domestic policy during the Affordable Care Act debate. Over the years, she’s worked across the full arc of impact in roles at the State Department, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Colorado Health Institute. For seven years, she ran her own consulting practice, with work including big clients and projects, such as leading a statewide strategy for maternal mental health in Colorado.
But consulting, she realized, had its limits.
"At some point you don't get to see the fruits of your labor, and you don't really belong to any particular organization or team," Rebecca says. "It felt like the time to get more deeply involved in building something and then watching it grow."
That “something” became CPCQC, a nonprofit working to reduce maternal mortality and improve birth outcomes across Colorado. Rebecca joined CPCQC at a pivotal moment. The organization was moving beyond its startup roots and needed a leader who could scale programs, deepen partnerships, and navigate the complex terrain of nonprofit finance.
Colorado’s small health nonprofit ecosystem welcomes this kind of leadership. “The tables tend to be concentric circles of each other,” Rebecca notes. You see the same people evolving through different roles and watch trajectories unfold over a decade. And crucially, “you can see the work in real time. Wheras at the national level, you can pass policy and then not really see the effect on the ground.”
It was exactly what she was looking for: a place to build, a community to grow with, and the ability to watch impact take root.
The Right Fit, Right on Time
In her first weeks on the job, Rebecca realized she needed senior-level financial expertise, not someday, but today. The organization was managing millions in state and federal funds, with strict compliance requirements and limited internal infrastructure.
“It’s a tough place to be,” she explains. “You can only afford one finance position, and you’re asking that role to do receivables, payables, reporting, and strategy, all very different skill sets.”
“We didn’t have the luxury of a long courtship,” Rebecca laughs. “Scott [Fowle] got it right away,” Rebecca recalls.
“He absolutely understood where I was coming from. It felt like talking to somebody who immediately starts nodding their head and is like, ‘Yep, been there, done that, seen that. I think I know who you need.’”
Enter Kari Chapman, a fractional CFO through CFO Selections.
“Kari and I have a very frank, direct, professional relationship,” Rebecca says. “We appreciate each other as humans, and we got down to business really quickly. I know and trust that she is doing the things she said she was going to do. I never worry things are falling through the cracks.”
Kari doesn’t just execute; she educates.
“She lets me know where my blind spots are, things that I would have no idea we have to do to be in compliance with state or federal or other rules and regulations. She makes sure I’m aware, engaged, and understand what our duties and responsibilities are.”
In partnership with Kari, CPCQC strengthened its internal controls, earned clean federal audits, and built up reserves to weather funding fluctuations.
“For us, that means we are considered a best-in-class nonprofit who manages really complex federal and state funds and does that exceptionally well.”
With solid financial systems in place, CPCQC is now able to ask bigger questions: How might we evolve our programs? What new partnerships could we pursue?
That’s the power of partnership, walking side by side with someone who helps you see farther.
The Power of People
Rebecca is the kind of leader who makes complexity feel navigable, who speaks with clarity, moves with intention, and never loses sight of the human impact behind the work.
“My team draws off of each other’s strengths. I trust my leaders, clinical, data and technology, behavioral health, and compliance to be the best at what they do and to not duplicate efforts,” says Rebecca.
“It creates this really wonderful symbiotic relationship.”
Expertise is also what she looks for in her partners and why the CFO Selections model resonates so deeply. Rebecca’s experience with Kari opened the door to other fractional roles, including HR and executive support. “We’re not big enough to support full-time specialized staff in-house, and now we don’t have to.”
Making the transition through the startup phase, CPCQC has a strong operational foundation. They’ve moved from making it through the day to looking out into the horizon.
“We’ve set ourselves up to be creative and understand what else is possible.”
Looking Ahead Together
As CPCQC moves into its next chapter, Rebecca is thinking about ongoing leadership development and succession, board development, and the role of collaboration in systems change. And once again, she’s turned to CFO Selections, this time for board development facilitation support through our sister company, Valtas.
That, in a word, is the throughline: partnership.
“I trusted Scott’s intuition about what we needed, how we needed it, and who would meet our needs,” says Rebecca.
“He was able to convey his understanding of our circumstances.”
“Kari has been so invested in us, so much a part of our team, that I forget she’s with CFO Selections,” says Rebecca.
And in a world that often asks nonprofit leaders to go it alone, that kind of guidance and partnership changes everything.
