http://www.madsenhealth.com/portfolio daily 1.0 2025-10-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/1660184170300-DTOSLLO0JI50UT6VHEEU/IMG_20161029_143809+%281%29.jpg Home https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/54d27f6ae4b03bc3eb3f6a92/5c3a3d836d2a73d481e9f11e/1660183124009/leo-serrat-533364-unsplash.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/1660184170300-DTOSLLO0JI50UT6VHEEU/IMG_20161029_143809+%281%29.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/1660184505078-NLKJ9AF5LKG2JJ3ZTQ37/NNFRIENDSSCHOOLDONE-219%2B%25281%2529.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/1755189287609-M09CUNCQYZOFWD66JH3D/PXL_20250522_075840639.jpg Home http://www.madsenhealth.com/thisisklaus daily 0.75 2026-07-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/9ea43887-61b6-41f1-9e5f-006ac511f8d4/1000039933.jpg About Klaus - About Klaus Klaus Kroyer Madsen, MPH, is a population health strategist who builds coalitions that outlast their funding. Since 2014 he has led Cities for Better Health in Houston, the third city in what is now a 50-plus city global network, where his coalition governance model became the template other cities adopted. Together with Stuart Nelson, he pioneered the network's first faith-based health partnerships, now spanning more than 40 Houston congregations, and replicated the Houston model in Philadelphia. Danish-American, he has spent a decade applying Denmark's supersetting approach to community health in American cities, in ongoing collaboration with its originators at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen. He is the principal of Klaus Madsen Strategies. The Longer Story Klaus grew up in Denmark and has spent over 30 years in the United States, which turns out to be useful preparation for his line of work. Danish public health assumes that health is produced by whole communities, not delivered by clinics. American communities have the energy, the institutions, and the civic muscle to act on that idea, but rarely the connective tissue. Klaus builds the connective tissue. He learned the craft over 15 years at the Texas Health Institute, where he served as Vice President for Programs and built the organization's chronic disease portfolio. There he assembled the public-private partnership, spanning Novo Nordisk, Roche Diagnostics, the Texas State Demographer, the State Epidemiologist, and Methodist Healthcare Ministries, that produced the first state-level Diabetes Action Plan concept in the United States, a model subsequently adopted and adapted by 26 states. He also co-founded the Partnership for a Healthy Texas, the statewide obesity policy coalition now in its 18th year, and helped the Amarillo Area Foundation win Gates Foundation funding for a postsecondary success initiative that nearly doubled Amarillo College's graduation rate. In 2014, Houston became the third city in the world, after Copenhagen and Mexico City, to join Cities Changing Diabetes, now Cities for Better Health. Klaus was brought in to lead it, working throughout in close partnership with Novo Nordisk's Karin Gillespie, and he made a decision that shaped the next decade: rather than run a program, he would build a coalition that owned one. The governance model he designed there, built on shared decision-making and genuine community voice, was the first of its kind in the network and became the template adopted by cities across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The network now spans more than 50 cities on 5 continents. In 2024, the World Economic Forum featured the approach behind this work in its guide to place-based health change. The engagement model also earned Novo Nordisk the Public Affairs Council's 2017 Innovation Award for Engagement Strategy. Houston also produced his most distinctive innovation. Klaus made it the first city in the global network to engage houses of worship as strategic health partners, on the theory that for many of the communities carrying the heaviest chronic disease burden, the congregation is the last trusted institution. That experiment grew into a multi-faith collaborative spanning more than 40 Houston congregations, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim, with health surveys reaching almost 1,000 congregants and a leadership cohort building 9 faith communities into durable prevention settings. The second cohort is launching September 2026. From 2018 to 2022 he replicated the Houston model in Philadelphia, engaging over 600 stakeholders and running an innovation challenge that drew more than 60 proposals from community organizations. Replication is where you learn what is principle and what is local habit, and Philadelphia sharpened both. When COVID-19 vaccines reached Houston and uptake lagged in underserved neighborhoods, the Houston Health Department engaged Klaus to lead a CDC Foundation-funded outreach program, activating the trust networks he had spent years building. The work has repeatedly gone global. Replicating the innovation challenge model he built in Philadelphia, he designed and facilitated Novo Nordisk's worldwide innovation challenges in chronic disease prevention, run in collaboration with UNICEF and the EAT Foundation, drawing nearly 200 entries and coaching more than 20 projects across Brazil, Cambodia, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Mozambique, Portugal, and the United States. He advised Novo Nordisk Indonesia on launching Cities Changing Diabetes Jakarta in partnership with the Jakarta Provincial Government. He served as primary consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Healthy Cities Research Hub at UTHealth Houston, translating findings from 3 North American cities into tools practitioners actually use. He continues to take on international engagements. Underneath all of it is one method. Klaus has spent a decade applying the supersetting approach, developed by Paul Bloch and colleagues at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, in American communities, in ongoing collaboration with its originators. The approach holds that lasting health change comes from coordinated action across the settings of everyday life, and that coordination is a discipline, not overhead. How he puts that into practice is described on the How Klaus Works page. Klaus holds an MPH from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a BS from Copenhagen Business School. He is a Senior Consultant at the Lived Experience Lab, an international research consultancy affiliated with University College London that specializes in community-based health research with marginalized populations. In 2017, The Fountain of Praise honored him with its Stella Trimble Community Service Award, alongside Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Novo Nordisk's Karin Gillespie. He co-chairs the Texas Diabetes Council Strategy Workgroup, serves on the Steering Committee of the Partnership for a Healthy Texas, and volunteers on the board of BikeTexas. . http://www.madsenhealth.com/contact daily 0.75 2025-11-12 http://www.madsenhealth.com/testimonials daily 0.75 2026-05-13 http://www.madsenhealth.com/services daily 0.75 2026-07-13 http://www.madsenhealth.com/new-page-1-1 daily 0.75 2025-10-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54d27542e4b09cf5b9c0c31c/67ddb9f2-5e5d-4bb8-870a-4b5bdd08c037/1000039933.jpg About Klaus (Copy) - About Klaus Klaus Krøyer Madsen, MPH is a population health strategist specializing in chronic disease prevention, pharmaceutical-community partnerships, and health equity innovation. With over 20 years of experience bridging public health, private sector innovation, and community engagement, Klaus designs and implements collaborative solutions that deliver measurable health outcomes in complex health systems. What Sets Klaus Apart Klaus has a rare combination of skills: deep expertise in public health strategy, proven ability to build and sustain multi-sector coalitions, and extensive experience translating pharmaceutical innovation into community-level impact. He has successfully engaged over 1,000 stakeholders across major metropolitan initiatives, coached international health innovation projects in eight countries, and led evidence-based interventions that center the voices of people most affected by health inequities. His approach is collaborative, data-driven, and grounded in the reality of communities. Whether working with global pharmaceutical companies, local health departments, or grassroots organizations, Klaus creates the conditions for sustainable change through inclusive design, strategic partnerships, and rigorous evaluation. Core Expertise Pharmaceutical-Community Partnerships | Klaus has extensive experience designing and implementing partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and communities. His work with Novo Nordisk spans US and global initiatives, including facilitating innovation challenges that attracted nearly 200 entries from Brazil, Cambodia, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Mozambique, Portugal, and the United States. Chronic Disease Prevention at Scale | Since 2014, Klaus has led Cities for Better Health (formerly Cities Changing Diabetes) in the United States, building coalition architectures that engage diverse stakeholders and generate sustainable intervention portfolios. His collaborative innovation design approach has been recognized by the World Economic Forum and other leading organizations. Multi-Sector Coalition Building | Klaus co-founded the Partnership for a Healthy Texas, a childhood obesity policy coalition, now in its 18th year, and has designed coalition governance structures that center equity and amplify community voices. He excels at creating alignment among healthcare systems, government agencies, philanthropies, community organizations, and private sector partners. Research Translation & Evaluation | As primary consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Healthy Cities Research Hub at UTHealth Houston, Klaus synthesized findings from major North American initiatives and translated them into actionable strategies for cities nationwide. Background Prior to launching his consulting practice, Klaus spent fifteen years at Texas Health Institute, where he built the organization's chronic disease portfolio and served as Vice President for Programs. He has developed health equity solutions across diverse communities—from families of incarcerated individuals at Dallas County Jail to underserved rural residents, immigrant communities, and families affected by childhood obesity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Klaus led a large-scale vaccine outreach and education program for the Houston Health Department, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demonstrating his capacity for rapid response and community mobilization in crisis situations. Education & Leadership Klaus received his Bachelor of Science in Business, Language, and Culture from Copenhagen Business School and was an exchange student in the MBA program at The University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management from the National Executive Masters program at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. He currently serves on the Steering Committee of Partnership for a Healthy Texas and the Board of BikeTexas. He advises the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center on coalition building and public-private partnerships. . http://www.madsenhealth.com/howheworks daily 0.75 2026-07-12 http://www.madsenhealth.com/supersetting-approach daily 0.75 2026-07-12