About Us
Our team brings together decades of experience across behavioral health, policy, healthcare operations, and community advocacy, united by a shared commitment to equity and meaningful change. From clinical program design to legislative strategy to healthcare implementation, each consultant brings both deep professional expertise and a grounded, lived understanding of the systems we work to improve. Get to know the people behind MIMS Consulting.
Meet the Team
Sherie Arriazola Martinez
Sherie Arriazola Martinez (she/elle), founder and owner of MIMS Consulting, is a leader with over 15 years of policy and operations experience concerning health and human services, specializing in behavioral health and reentry. Her roots in Chicago and her personal experiences with socio-economic challenges fuel her commitment to social justice. Sherie was raised in the city of Chicago and as a youth was impacted by poverty, gangs, violence, and substance use resulting in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. With the help of interventions and government programs, Sherie was able to change her life trajectory and has dedicated her career to helping others do the same.
Before starting her own business, Sherie served as the Executive Director of Social Policy and Systems Change at Cook County Jail. Prior to that, she served as the AVP of Behavioral Health at SAFER Foundation. In 2020, she led the effort of SAFER to triage the needs of people being released early from prison, returning to Chicago. During this process, she developed a cross-systems model of reentry and care for people returning to the community—an initiative now known as the Supportive Reentry Network. In 2021, she wrote a multi-million dollar proposal to Illinois’ state Medicaid agency to invest in the network and to create brick and mortar housing for participants.Formerly a staffer under the Illinois House Speaker, Sherie possesses a profound understanding of state legislative processes. She has also sat on several committees, including Illinois Governor Pritzker’s Opioid Prevention and Recovery Steering Committee and the federal Medicaid Reentry Working Group under the SUPPORT Act.
Yara R. Costa, PsyD, MS
With more than 20 years in behavioral health, Dr. Costa has spent her career building and strengthening clinical programs, service-delivery systems, and multidisciplinary teams. Her experience across nonprofit, hospital, community mental health, forensic, and correctional settings gives her a rare, ground-level understanding of how clinical care, operations, and regulatory compliance intersect. As CEO and Clinical Director of Wōcc, she brings particular depth in forensic and justice-involved behavioral health and in serving underserved populations. She is fluent in Portuguese and conversational in Spanish.
Organizations bring Dr. Costa in when they need to move from strategy to execution: strengthening clinical infrastructure, refining workflows and documentation, and building systems that support sustainable growth without compromising quality of care.
Selected Consulting Areas
- Behavioral health program design, implementation, and scaling
- Clinical operations, documentation standards, and quality improvement
- EHR implementation and clinical workflow optimization
- Workforce development, supervision, and trauma-informed leadership
Michelle Suntoo
Policy and partnerships are where Michelle has built her career, with 17+ years of experience across government, grassroots organizing, advocacy, and cross-sector collaboration. She has worked with two Illinois state senators and served as Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, giving her exceptional fluency in navigating institutions with divergent priorities and translating policy goals into practical action. Her perspective is further shaped by lived experience, including her Mauritian and Indian heritage and her own journey with mental health, recovery, and caregiving, all of which inform a deeply grounded approach to equity and access.
Michelle is often brought in to deepen community engagement, strengthen strategic partnerships, and build policy and advocacy strategies genuinely informed by the people they serve.
Selected Consulting Areas
- Strategic partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and coalition building
- Public policy and legislative strategy
- Community engagement and lived-experience integration
- Equity, DEI, and BIPOC-centered organizational practices
Nicole Elseng, CPhT
Over two decades in healthcare operations and pharmacy have shaped Nicole's practical, implementation-focused approach to complex organizational change. As a Business Analyst supporting Retail Mergers & Acquisitions at Walgreens, she has led pharmacy integration for major acquisitions, coordinating over 220 stores across multiple waves and managing the conversion of 102 pharmacies while working across IT, vendors, inventory teams, and store leadership. Her earlier years as a Senior Certified Pharmacy Technician keep her enterprise-level work grounded in how change actually plays out for staff and consumers on the ground.
That combination of frontline and enterprise experience is what clients tap Nicole for: navigating complex transitions, improving workflows, and turning large-scale initiatives into well-coordinated, practical implementation.
Selected Consulting Areas
- Healthcare and pharmacy operations
- Mergers, acquisitions, and operational integration
- Project implementation and cross-functional coordination
- Inventory management, vendor coordination, and cost optimization
Your Chicagoland Consulting Firm
Our consultants bring decades of combined expertise to help you navigate complex challenges and achieve your vision. Whether you're looking to strengthen clinical operations, build strategic partnerships, or improve healthcare implementation, we're here to help.
