BCHC Biographies Members

Dr. Tomás Aragón is the Health Officer of the City & County of San Francisco, and Director of the Population Health Division (PHD) at the San Francisco Department of . As Health Officer, he exercises leadership and legal authority to protect and promote health and equity. As PHD director, he directs public health services. He teaches epidemiologic computing at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and is interested in the practical application of decision and complexity sciences to health leadership and organizational performance. He maintains a not-for-profit medical epidemiology blog at http://medepi.com.

He graduated from UC Berkeley (BA, Molecular Biology; DrPH, Epidemiology) and Harvard Medical School (MD, MPH), and completed his clinical and research training at UCSF (SFGH Tomás Aragón Primary Care Internal Medicine; Clinical Infectious Diseases; and Traineeship in AIDS Prevention Studies, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies).

Dr. Rex Archer serves as Director of Health for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to serving on PHAB’s Board of Directors, he is a past president of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Under Dr. Archer’s leadership, the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department is one of the first health departments in the United States to achieve national accreditation and the first in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Region VII.

Dr. Archer completed his medical degree at the University of Kansas and his General Preventive Medicine Public Health Residency and Masters in Public Health degree at the University of Michigan. He is recognized as a Public Health Leadership Institute Scholar by UCLA/CDC.

Rex Archer Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Archer was the recipient of the 2013 Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health Work by the more than 25,000 members of the American Public Health Association.

Dr. C. Anneta Arno is the Director of the Office of Health Equity at the District of Columbia Department of Health. Prior to her role, she previously served as the Director of the Center for Health Equity (CHE) at the Louisville Metro Public Health & Wellness, a multidisciplinary practice agency focused on social determinants of health and ‘health-in-all-policies’. Arno also was the Program Director for Louisville’s Community Transformation (CTG) Grant. She earned her Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the University of Reading, Berkshire, England, and her MPH from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City, NY.

C. Anetta Arno

Dr. Oxiris Barbot has served as the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since 2014. Previously, Dr. Barbot lead the Baltimore City Health Department for four years, an agency of approximately 1,200 employees with a budget of approximately $138 million. In the spring of 2011, she unveiled Healthy Baltimore 2015, a comprehensive health policy agenda that articulates 10 priority areas and indicators for action.

Before serving as the commissioner of health in Baltimore City, Dr. Barbot worked in the Office of School Health at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and

Oxiris Barbot Department of Education, where sheserved as medical director since 2003. During her tenure, she implemented an electronic health record for the City’s 1.1 million public school students. In 2010, Dr. Barbot received the Hispanic Health Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association.

Before working in New York, Dr. Barbot was the Chief of Pediatrics and Community Medicine at Unity Health Care, Inc. in Washington, D.C. Dr. Barbot received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and holds a medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She completed her residency at George Washington University’s Children’s National Medical Center.

Dr. Sara H. Cody has served as Health Officer for Santa Clara County since September 2013. As Health Officer, Dr. Cody has broad authority to protect and promote the health of Santa Clara County's 1.8 million residents. She has also been the Health Director since last Summer.

Prior to her appointment as Health Officer, Dr. Cody served as Deputy Health Officer and Communicable Disease Control Officer at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department for 15 years. Her responsibilities included overseeing surveillance, disease control and prevention programs, as well as case and outbreak investigations. As a medical epidemiologist, she has extensive experience investigating outbreaks, including a large outbreak of multi-drug

Sara Cody resistant Salmonella from Mexican-style cheese made from raw milk and a countywide outbreak of mycobacterial furunculosis among nail salon patrons, and providing public risk communication.

Dr. Cody completed an internal medicine residency at Stanford University Hospital and medical school at Yale University School of Medicine. Following residency, she worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, assigned to the Division of Communicable Disease Control at the California Department of Health Services (now the California Department of Public Health).

Kelly Colopy, MPP, is the Director of the Long Beach (CA) Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS). The Department has a $117 million budget with over 300 staff leading 30 health focused programs in 9 sites around the City, providing more than 400,000 client visits annually. The Department includes Public Health, Environmental Health, Emergency Management, Homeless Services Continuum of Care, Housing Authority, and Family Preservation services. Long Beach is the second largest city in Los Angeles County (LACo): 50 square miles in size, with a population of 465,424.

Ms. Colopy has spent the past 20 years working in organizations that supported public health and social services at both the State, County and local levels. Prior to her moving to Long Kelly Colopy Beach, she served as the Associate Director for Salt Lake County’s (Utah) Human Services

Department, providing leadership and coordination in the areas of public health, aging services, behavioral health, community development, criminal justice services and jail re- entry, youth at risk, and library services. She managed the public mental health network in Salt Lake County, Utah, as Network Director for Optum Salt Lake County’s 225 provider network, served as the Research Director for the State of Utah Division of Substance Abuse and a Research Consultant in the Executive Director’s Office for State of Utah Department of Human Services, and early in her career, evaluated Federal education programs that served youth in low-income communities.

She has a successful history of leading cross-agency and community efforts, including leading the Utah Correction’s Department “Women’s Summit”, which designed and implemented a one-stop shop within Utah’s women’s prison where partners provided training and services to prepare women for successful re-entry; co-leading the design and evaluation of Alternatives to Incarceration for those with substance use disorders and mental illness in Salt Lake County; and designing and implementing Salt Lake County’s community learning center programs, which included school-based integrated physical and mental health care.

She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Smith College.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a public health physician and epidemiologist, is the Executive Director of Public Health for the City of Detroit under Mayor Michael E. Duggan. In his role, he oversees the Detroit Health Department and other health-related initiatives.

Dr. El-Sayed is an internationally recognized expert in population health policy, the social determinants of health, and health inequalities. Previously, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University, where he directed the Columbia University Systems Science Program and Global Research Analytics for Population Health. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles, commentaries and book chapters, in journals including JAMA, the American Journal of Public Health, and Pediatrics. He has been a featured speaker at national and international conferences. He is the recipient of numerous Abdul El-Sayed health policy research awards, including being named a Policy Innovator by the Carnegie Council. Dr. El-Sayed’s writings on urban health policy has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, Al-Jazeera, The Hill, Project Syndicate, and Huffington Post. In addition he has appeared as an expert commentator on local, national, and international networks.

Dr. El-Sayed earned a doctorate in Public Health from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and an MD from Columbia University as a Soros Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan with Highest Distinction in Biology and Political Science, where he delivered the University-wide student commencement speech alongside President Bill Clinton in 2007.

Dr. Bob England oversees the third-largest local public health jurisdiction in the U.S. He has been a public health doctor for his entire career, has held a variety of state and local health department positions (mostly in Arizona), and has served twice as the State Epidemiologist. Dr. England has refocused the Department on policy and systems change work whenever possible to maximize the effect of very limited local resources. He's a Past President of the Arizona Public Health Association and currently serves on the Boards of the National Association of County and City Health Officials and St Luke's Health Initiatives, a local foundation largely focused on health policy.

Bob England

Dr. Jeffrey D. Gunzenhauser is the Interim Health Officer and Medical Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Before joining Los Angeles County in 2003, Dr. Gunzenhauser served for more than 20 years as a Preventive Medicine physician in the United States Army, including serving as the consultant to the Army Surgeon General at the time of the Pentagon attack and during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In Los Angeles County, he directs the Department of Public Health’s Quality Improvement Division and provides technical oversight for the medical, nursing, and other professional staff. In his role as Medical Director, he interfaces with the medical community in the county

Jeffrey Gunzenhauser on a wide range of public health issues. As of September 1, 2014, Dr. Gunzenhauser serves as the Los Angeles County’s Interim Health Officer.

Dr. Gunzenhauser holds a Bachelor of Science degree from U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY; a Doctor of Medicine degree from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine; and a Master of Public Health degree from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Cynthia Harding, MPH, is the Interim Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, overseeing a budget of over $900 million and more than 39 distinct programs that promote and protect health, and prevent disease in Los Angeles County. She has worked in the Department of Public Health for over 30 years in a variety of different public health programs including Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, Tobacco Control, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Tuberculosis Control and AIDS prevention.

Ms. Harding is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and taught as a visiting professor at the National School of Public Health in Brazil. Ms. Harding has a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Community Health from Brown University, a Master of Public Health degree from UCLA, and a Cynthia Harding Certificate of Management from USC’s Center of Excellence in Health Care Management.

In addition to her work for the County, Ms. Harding is a musician, playing a number of different instruments from Latin America. She performs with her husband in the Latin American Jazz ensemble Huayucaltia (pronounced Why-you-call-TEE-ah), and with her sister in Conjunto Jardin (pronounced con-HUN-toe har-DEEN), a group that performs the music of Veracruz, Mexico.

Patty Hayes, RN, MN, is the Interim Director of Public Health – Seattle & King County. Prior to her appointment, Hayes served as the Director of the department’s largest division, Community Health Services. In this capacity, Patty oversaw the development of programs and services for low income and homeless individuals as well as families in King County. This includes the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program, Maternal Child Health, School Based Health Centers, Health Care for the Homeless and Primary Care/Dental Care delivery in the King County's Public Health Centers.

Patty has over 25 years of experience in public health, policy development, and advocacy. Prior to this, Patty was the Executive Director of WithinReach, a statewide non-profit that Patty Hayes connects families to food and health resources and previously worked for the Washington State Department of Health in various positions including Assistant Secretary of Health for Community & Family Health as well as the Director of Legislative, Policy and Constituent Relations. In 2014, Patty received the Heroine of Health Care award from the Center of Women and Democracy. Patty has her nursing and master degrees from the University of Washington School of Nursing and was inducted into the Washington Nursing Hall of Fame in 2002.

Dr. Joe Iser is the Chief Health Officer for the Southern Nevada Health District (Clark County, Nevada, and five incorporated cities). Previously, Dr. Iser has served as the head of multiple health departments, including, Washoe County Health District; Nevada County, California; and Yolo County, California. He also worked as the Medical Investigator and Federal/State Liaison for the Food and Drug Administration and the Regional Health Administrator, Region VI, for the DHHS/U.S. Public Health Service. He retired after 24 years of active duty with the U.S. Public Health Service and has over 25 years of experience in public health, policy development, and advocacy.

He has a Doctorate in Public Health in health policy from the University of Michigan, and he Joseph Iser has an MSc in infectious diseases from the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Kansas and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, General Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and Occupational Medicine, with a broad background in primary care, public health, and medical education.

Dr. Julie Morita is a nationally renowned public health leader and vaccination expert. Mayor nominated Dr. Morita to be Commissioner of the Department of Public Health (CDPH) in January, following 15 years of service to the department.

As CDPH Medical Director for , Dr. Morita fostered groundbreaking partnerships with health systems and the private sector, achieving national recognition for both the improvements in and overall coverage rates. In 2009, Dr. Morita led the City’s response to the pandemic influenza outbreak, developing a system to distribute more than one million doses of vaccine to clinics and residents across the City. Most recently, as Chief Medical Officer, Dr.

Julie Morita Morita led the City’s efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of the virus. As a result of her efforts, Chicago was the first jurisdiction in the nation to establish four CDC- approved Ebola response hospitals. Prior to her time with CDPH, Dr. Morita served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the CDC and worked in private practice. A graduate of the University of at Chicago Medical School, Dr. Morita lives in the City with her husband, who is also a physician, and their two children.

Gretchen Musicant, MPH, BSN is the Minneapolis Health Commissioner. She oversees the Minneapolis Health Department whose mission is “improve the quality of life for all people in the city by protecting the environment, preventing disease and injury, promoting healthy behaviors, and creating a city that is a healthy place to live, work and play”.

Prior to working for the City, Musicant was Vice President of Community Health for the Minnesota Hospital Association and a Government Affairs Specialist for the Minnesota Nurses Association.

Gretchen Musicant She has both a BS in Nursing and a Master in Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota. She has substantial public policy experience as a state level lobbyist and as a fellow with the Humphrey Institute. She has chaired several state-wide and regional efforts and is currently a member of the National Association of County and City Health Officials Board.

Under her leadership, Minneapolis was recognized in 2012 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of 6 communities that are making great strides in their journey toward better health. In 2014 she received the Gaylord Anderson Award for leadership in public health from the University of MinnesotaSchool of Public Health. She is the 2007 recipient of the Minnesota Public Health Association Paul and Sheila Wellstone Public Health Achievement Award and has been designated one of the 100 Distinguished Nursing Alumni of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.

Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt returned to the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) from the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW) where she was the Director and leading public health expert in Louisville, Kentucky.

As health Director of LMPHW, Dr. Nesbitt committed to five strategic priorities for Louisville Metro: creating a culture of health and wellness in Metro Louisville, an expanded focus on cLaQuandra S. Nesbitt social determinants of health and health equity, strengthening public-private partnerships, increasing the connection between public health and clinical medicine, and implementing an outcomes driven approach to program and policy development.

Prior to her role in Louisville, Dr. Nesbitt served separate terms as Senior Deputy Director for the Community Health Administration and Senior Deputy Director for the Center for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation at DOH. Prior to joining DOH, Dr. Nesbitt was Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Senior Coordinator for Health Disparities and Policy Research Initiatives in the Office of Policy & Planning at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Nesbitt received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, her medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health in Health Care Management and Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Nesbitt completed an internship in family medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Nesbitt completed her family medicine residency in the University of Maryland’s Department of Family Medicine where she served as chief resident. Dr. Nesbitt completed her fellowship training with the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.

Lillian Rivera, RN, MSN, PHD, as Administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Miami- Dade County, is responsible for the oversight and supervision of public health programs. Dr. Rivera administers an $80 million budget and nearly 900 employees in a county with over 2.4 million residents. Under her leadership, the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County is the only organization to have won the Governor's Sterling Award for significant improvement and performance excellence three times.

Dr. Rivera previously served as Deputy State Health Officer with the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee. Her responsibilities included oversight of 67 county health departments and implementation of the performance excellence model within the State Department of Lillian Rivera Health.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Rivera held the positions of Executive Community Health Nursing Director for the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, Director of Nursing at the Public Health Trust for Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, as well as Nursing Director for the Department of Health in Puerto Rico.

Dr. Rivera earned BSN and MSN degrees from the University of Puerto Rico and holds a PhD in Health Administration from Warren National University. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters in Behavioral Sciences from Carlos Albizu University. Dr. Rivera is certified as a Health Care Risk Manager, a graduate of the Executive Institute for Community Health Nurses at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, a fellow of the Nurse Executive Program/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Public Health Leadership Institute.

Dr. Rivera is a past President of the Florida Sterling Council; member of the Florida Public Health Association; founding board member of the Florida Public Health Institute; member of the External Advisory Committee of the Florida International University, Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work; member of an advisory Workgroup for the Office of State Tribal Local & Territorial Support of the Centers for Disease Control; and an honorary member of the Alpha Omega Chapter of the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.

In recognition of her leadership and commitment to public health, Dr. Rivera was featured in Miami Today as Best of Miami 2011. She received the 2011 Outstanding Professional Performance & Community Service Award from the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women and was named one of the most influential Latinos in Miami. Dr. Rivera is the recipient of the Miami Children's Hospital 2010 Champion for Children Award; the 2009 Community Service Award from the Florida Health Care Executive Forum; the Florida International University, Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work's Annual Paths of Public Health Award; and the 2008 University of South Florida College of Public Health's Florida Outstanding Woman in Public Health award.

Kathy Rothenberg-James is currently, under administrative direction, the Interim Commissioner of Health. She provides administrative and operational support in the context of all Division of Health disciplines, which involves the planning, directing and evaluation of all programs and initiatives. The role as Interim Commissioner of Health includes grant funding management, which includes effective programmatic, financial, contractual, performance and communication planning; facilitating daily feedback for staff by collecting and analyzing performance data and making corrective recommendations as needed; Overseeing a broad range of programs and services designed to promote, maintain and Kathy Rothenberg- improve the health of all Clevelanders; interpreting and enforcing those sections of the State James and City law which pertain to public health and disease control; managing direct medical services such as public health nursing, health centers, communicable disease surveillance, reproductive health clinics, inspection and licensure of medical facilities, laboratory services, chronic disease prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS education, testing and counseling, substance and mental health education and treatment, health disparities, infant mortality reduction, and overseeing the operation of the Bureau of Vital Statistics.

As the Health Center Director at the City of Cleveland Dept. of Public Health since 2000, she manages the health center facilities, develops and implements policies, procedures and strategies and assists in the provision of medical and social services to the public.

Vinny Taneja, MBBS, MPH, has served as Health Director for Tarrant County Public Health since September 2014. He brings to the department 13 years of experience in public health and healthcare at the local, regional and state levels.

Most recently, Taneja served as the Deputy Health Officer for a large urban county health department in Michigan.

Vinny Taneja He received a medical degree (MBBS) from Manipal Academy in India. He then pursued his passion for public health by obtaining a Masters in Public Health (MPH) at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky.

Taneja graduated as a fellow from Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI) at UIC Chicago. His focus was on Public Health Leadership under the .

Tricia Tillman’s goals throughout her career have been to promote a highly qualified, diverse workforce, to engage communities experiencing disparities in promoting health and well- being, and to reduce social inequities. She has worked over the last 22 years to improve the health of culturally diverse communities in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

Last year, Ms. Tillman returned to work at the Multnomah County Health Department to serve as Director for Public Health. Prior to this, she was the Director for the Office of Equity and Inclusion in the Oregon Health Authority. With her leadership, the Office of Equity and Inclusion elevated the mandate for health equity and civil rights, increased state funding for culturally specific community organizations to promote health and well being, created opportunities for highly qualified and diverse health professionals to serve in policy leadership roles, and created and implemented policies that promote equity and civil rights in health and Tricia Tillman human services. She advocated for the integration of health care interpreters, community health workers, doulas and other “traditional health workers” in health systems

transformation as proven health equity strategies.

Dr. Leana Wen is the Baltimore City Health Commissioner. An emergency physician and patient and community advocate, she was appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to lead the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), the oldest health department in the United States, formed in 1793. BCHD is an agency with a $130 million annual budget and 1,000 employees that aims to promote health and improve well-being through education, policy/advocacy, and direct service delivery.

Most recently, Dr. Wen has been an attending physician and Director of Patient-Centered Care in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University (GWU). As a professor of Emergency Medicine at the School of Medicine and of Health Policy at the School Leana Wen of Public Health, she co-directed GWU’s Residency Fellowship in Health Policy, co-led a new national collaboration on health policy and social mission with Kaiser Permanente, and served as founding director of Who’s My Doctor, a campaign calling for radical transparency in medicine.

Dr. Wen received her medical training from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School. A Rhodes Scholar, she studied public health and health policy at the University of Oxford, and worked as a community organizer in Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Stephen L. Williams, MPA, MEd , serves as the Director for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS). Williams led the Enroll Gulf Coast collaborative, which has allowed stakeholders across the Gulf Coast to work together as partners with a common strategy and organization to provide outreach and enrollment to the region’s estimated 1.4 million uninsured individuals. For this work, he has gained national attention and White House support. Prior to serving as the Health Director in Houston, he served as Administrator of Public Health and Deputy Director of Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.

Stephen L. Williams chairs the Texas Department of State Health Services Public Health Stephen Williams Funding and Policy Committee (Senate Bill 969) and the Coalition of the Homeless of

Houston/Harris County. He is Adjunct Professor at the UT School of Public Health and serves on a number of boards.

He is a former chair of the Harris County System of Hope Board and past President for Texas Association of Local Health Officials Board. He is an Alumnus of the American Leadership Forum and is a graduate of the National Urban Fellowship Program and Executive Leadership Institute.

Other Participants

John Auerbach, MBA, is the associate director for policy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the acting director of the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS). He oversees the Office of the Associate Director for Policy, which focuses on the promotion of public health and prevention as components of health care and payment reform and health system transformation. As acting director of OSTLTS, he oversees key activities and technical assistance that support the nation’s health departments and the public health system.

Previously, he was a distinguished professor of practice in health sciences and director of the John Auerbach Institute on Urban Health Research and Practice at Northeastern University from 2012 to 2014.

Auerbach was the commissioner of public health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2012. Under his leadership, the department developed innovative programs to address racial and ethnic disparities, promote wellness (including the Mass in Motion campaign), combat chronic disease, and support the successful implementation of the state’s healthcare reform initiative.

Prior to that, Auerbach was the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission for nine years during which health equity, emergency preparedness, and tobacco prevention became priorities. In addition to Boston’s public health programs, he oversaw its emergency medical, homeless, and substance abuse services.

Auerbach worked at the state health department for a decade, first as chief of staff and later as an assistant commissioner overseeing the HIV/AIDS Bureau during the early years of the epidemic.

Vicky Bass, MPH, is a specialist with the Government Affairs team at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). Bass’s primary responsibilities are to support NACCHO’s work in policy development, federal lobbying, and the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC).

Previously, Bass worked as a program analyst for chronic disease and healthy communities programs within NACCHO. In this role, Bass assisted local communities in adapting policy, systems and environmental methods to reduce chronic disease and to promote strategies that create healthier communities. Prior to NACCHO, she served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Southeast Ohio teaching healthy cooking, nutrition, alcohol and tobacco education classes to children and adults with developmental disabilities. Vicky Bass Bass graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the College of Saint

Scholastica where she was selected by the College Deans to be the 2009 Student Commencement Speaker and selected by peers to receive the Student Leadership Award. She earned her Master of Public Health in Public Health Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota.

Brian C. Castrucci, MA, directs the de Beaumont Foundation’s grant making activities and contributes to the strategic design and tactical implementation Foundation initiatives. He has created and managed grant programs to improve population health, further the integration of primary care and public health, enhance the public health workforce, and build the public health system infrastructure.

Prior to joining the de Beaumont Foundation, Castrucci spent a decade working in governmental public health at the state and local levels with stints at the Philadelphia Department of Health, Texas Department of State Health Services, and Georgia Department of Public Health. For his achievements in maternal and child health, Castrucci was the 2009 Brian C. Castrucci recipient of the Young Professional Achievement Award sponsored by the Coalition for Excellence in MCH Epidemiology and received the 2010 Young Leadership in MCH Award from

the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Brian graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997 and graduated with a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in New York, New York in 2006. He is currently pursuing a DrPH at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a physician who has focused her career toward improving access to affordable, high quality care for all people, especially vulnerable populations, and promoting overall health. She has done this through direct patient care, medical education, policy and administrative roles, research, and public service.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health oversees 12 core public health offices as well as 10 regional health offices across the nation and 10 Presidential and Secretarial advisory committees. The office is charged with leadership in developing policy recommendations as they pertain to public health issues that cut across HHS agencies and operating divisions. Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo DeSalvo also remains in her role as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, where she continues to set high level policy and the strategic direction of the office. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of the nation’s health IT efforts to adopt and meaningfully use health information technology, and collectively achieve health information technology interoperability, as a foundational element of better health for everyone in America.

Before joining the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she was Health Commissioner for the City of New Orleans, and Senior Health Policy Advisor to New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, from 2011-2014. While there, she transformed the outmoded health department to one that has since achieved national accreditation and restored health care to devastated areas of the city. Following Hurricane Katrina, Dr. DeSalvo was a community leader in building an innovative and award-winning model of neighborhood-based primary care and mental health services for low-income, uninsured and other vulnerable individuals that boasts a sophisticated health IT infrastructure.

Dr. DeSalvo was also a professor of medicine and vice dean for community affairs and health policy at Tulane University School of Medicine. She served as president of the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, the state’s lead for the health information exchange, and the National Association of Chiefs of General Internal Medicine. She has also served on the boards of the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Society of General Internal Medicine.

Jessica Solomon Fisher, MCP joined the Public Health National Center for Innovations at the Public Health Accreditation Board in December 2015, as the Chief Innovations Officer, where she is leading the development of this new division. Jessica comes to PHAB/PHNCI with 13 years of experience at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), where she served most recently as the Senior Advisor of Public Health Programs. In this role, she provided leadership and oversight for a large portion of NACCHO's programmatic portfolio, including Performance Improvement and Accreditation, Public Health Transformation, Workforce Development, Community Health Promotion and Health Equity. Jessica served on the Public Health Quality Improvement Exchange Advisory Committee and the Technical Advisors Team for the Center for Public Health Sharing. She also served as the Interim Communications Director for PHAB during its developmental period. Jessica Solomon Fisher

Laura Hanen, MPP, is the Chief of Government Affairs at NACCHO. Ms. Hanen’s primary responsibilities are to oversee policy development, federal lobbying, and the Big Cities Health Coalition. Ms. Hanen is also a member of NACCHO’s executive management team; she joined the organization in March 2011.

Prior to coming to NACCHO, Ms. Hanen was the Director of Government Relations for the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors for eleven years. Ms. Hanen was the Senior Lobbyist for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a legislative assistant for Congressman Rick Boucher of the Ninth District of Virginia, and was also a legislative assistant in the Government Relations Department of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Laura Hanen Ms. Hanen received her Bachelor's degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck is the Executive Director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). Dr. Hasbrouck was the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, an agency with 1,100 staff and an annual budget of more than $600M.

Dr. Hasbrouck also served as Public Health Director of Ulster County, and was the only county official in New York State to simultaneously lead both the public health and mental health departments. He spent 11 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he co-authored the first Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence (2001) and was engaged in polio eradication and HIV/AIDS issues. He also served in a diplomatic assignment as the CDC Director in Guyana, South America.

Dr. Hasbrouck has served on faculties of medicine or public health at Emory LaMar Hasbrouck University, Morehouse College, New York Medical College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a diplomat with the American Board of Internal Medicine, a former epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC, and primary care health policy fellow at the Department of Health and Human Services, Heath Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Dr. Hasbrouck is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Public Health and UCLA School of Medicine (Charles R. Drew-UCLA Program).

Dr. Shelley Hearne is a Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Since June 2013, she has served as the director of the BCHC on a part time basis. Dr. Hearne is transitioting to a senior advisor role with BCHC.

Dr. Hearne was the managing director of the Pew Health Group of The Pew Charitable Trusts overseeing its food safety, medical safety, research and biomedical programs. She was also the founding Executive Director of the Trust for America’s Health and was the Executive Director of the Pew Environmental Health Commission, the Acting Director of the NJ DEP Office of Pollution Prevention and a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

She serves as a board member to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan, which Shelley Hearne provides medical oversight and research from the health effects of the atomic bombs. Dr. Hearne received her B.A. with honors from Bowdoin College and her Doctorate in Public Health in environmental health science from Columbia University.

Ed Hunter, MA, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the de Beaumont Foundation. Previously, he was the Director of the Washington Office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he oversaw execution of the CDC’s national legislative strategy and engaged on a broad range of public health initiatives and policy priorities. As a principal CDC spokesperson to the Congress, the Administration, and public health organizations, Hunter was a leading voice for the nation’s preeminent public health and scientific research programs. Hunter started at the CDC Washington Office in 2003 as Deputy Director before being promoted to Acting Director in 2009 and Director in 2011.

Prior to his work at the Washington office, Hunter was Associate Director of the CDC’s Ed Hunter National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), where he was responsible for strategic planning for some of the nation’s leading health information systems, and for helping policymakers use

complex NCHS data in setting health policy and designing programs to improve the populations health.

Chrissie Juliano, MPP, is the director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, after serving as the deputy from December 2014 to June 2015. She has ten years of public health policy, research, and advocacy experience developing, planning, and implementing opportunities for collaboration, consensus building, and strategic outreach among various stakeholder groups. Previously, Ms. Juliano was the Senior Program Manager at RESOLVE where she conducted outreach and built strategic partnerships across and within health. Prior to joining RESOLVE, Ms. Juliano managed the Stakeholder Discussion Series, a series of facilitated meetings with a variety of stakeholders, at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, as well as a number of consensus building projects at the Trust for America’s Health.

Ms. Juliano holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School and a

Chrissie Juliano Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Communication from the George Washington University.

Dr. Meghan McGinty, is Deputy Director of the Big Cities Health Coalition at NACCHO. Prior to joining BCHC, Dr. McGinty conducted research at the UPMC Center for Health Security, which works to protect people's health from the consequences of epidemics and disasters. Her research examined topics including the allocation of scarce resources during disasters, risk Meghan McGinty management and communication, and health sector resilience. Dr. McGinty serves on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Best Practices Working Group for the Development of Special Considerations for Institutional Review Board Review of Disaster and Emergency Related Public Health Research.

Previously, Dr. McGinty served as Director of Continuity of Operations Planning at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she was responsible for developing plans to sustain essential public health services in the event of a disaster.

Dr. McGinty earned her Doctor of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her dissertation thesis examined hospital evacuation and shelter-in-place decision making during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Dr. McGinty was a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) trainee in Occupational Injury Epidemiology and Prevention. She also holds a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Art, Theater and Music from Georgetown University.

Pamela Russo, MD, MPH, is a senior program officer. She joined the Foundation in 2000. The major area of her work is improving health at the community level, based on the understanding of health as the result of interactions between social, environmental, behavioral, health care and genetic determinants. This area of programming includes developing robust collaborative partnerships across different sectors, agencies and organizations and requires addressing the root causes underlying inequities in the determinants between different populations or neighborhoods.

Her program portfolio includes transforming the governmental public health system, including Pamela G. Russo national accreditation as a platform for quality improvement; health impact assessment and more routinely bringing a health lens to decisions made in other sectors; working with communities to bridge sectors, including health care, public health, social services and others, and to identify and implement financing innovations to sustain their progress in improving the health of all in their communities; supporting predictive modeling showing the value of community-level prevention based on the best available evidence, and making those models useful to decision- makers in communities and states. Dr. Russo is a member of the IOM Population Health Roundtable.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Russo was an associate professor of medicine, researcher in clinical outcomes, and program co-director for the master’s program and fellowship in clinical epidemiology and health services research at the Cornell University Medical Center in New York City. Her education includes a BS from Harvard College, MD from the University of California, San Francisco, and an MPH in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, followed by a residency in primary care general internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in clinical epidemiology and rheumatology at Cornell.

Tricia Schmitt, MPA, serves as a Senior Program Examiner at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Tricia has been in her position since 2006. At OMB, Tricia leads the analysis of public health spending for CDC, the Prevention Fund, and ASPR. Prior to working at OMB, Tricia was a Presidential Management Fellow at the HHS Office of the Budget where she focused on Medicare issues. Prior to working for the government Tricia helped evaluate the NYC Asthma Initiative at the Center for Health and Public Service Research and also served as a Public Tricia Schmitt Health Educator with the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1999-2001. Tricia has a M.P.A. from New York University.

Dr. Craig Thomas is the director of the Division of Public Health Performance Improvement within CDC’s Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, where he develops and leads a division focused on providing guidance and strategic direction on a system of performance and accountability to improve state, tribal, local, and territorial public health performance and health outcomes.

Dr. Thomas joined CDC in 1998, where he has supported the planning, development, and management of public health programs and evaluation projects at the national, state, and local levels. For the past four years, Dr. Thomas served as the chief of the Outcome Monitoring and Evaluation Branch in the Division of State and Local Readiness (DSLR), Office Craig Thomas of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR).

Prior to his work in emergency preparedness, Dr. Thomas served as lead for developing and implementing the Program Evaluation and Monitoring System to support CDC-funded HIV prevention programs in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He also worked in the Epidemiology Program Office, where he was responsible for developing and managing evaluation and health services research projects to support the implementation of published findings from the Guide to Community Preventive Services.

Dr. Thomas received his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California Irvine, his master’s degree in experimental psychology from California State University Fullerton, and his doctor of philosophy degree in social psychology from the Claremont Graduate University with an emphasis in applied research methods, performance measurement, and program evaluation.

Elizabeth Voyles, MPA, has fifteen years of experience in public affairs, political and media strategy in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. She is currently Principal of Brass Ring Communications, a boutique public relations and marketing firm that specializes in the needs of community-focused nonprofits and small businesses, and serves as a communications consultant to BCHC.

Prior to founding Brass Ring Communications, she served as Director of Marketing at Fulcrum Properties Group, a leading residential real estate firm in the nation’s capital. Prior to joining Fulcrum, Voyles was a Senior Associate at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC. There, she managed media relations to heighten the profile, research, and message of Pew Elizabeth Voyles projects, primarily in the American Family Economic Security portfolio.

As a graduate student, Voyles served as a fellow at The Concord Coalition, a non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public about America’s fiscal challenges. . Prior to that, she served as Communications Manager at the Trust for America’s Health, a public health non-profit that focuses on policy related to chronic disease, infectious disease and emergency preparedness.

Voyles started her career in Washington as Deputy Press Secretary to then U.S. Senator John F. Kerry, where she produced press releases, public statements and extensive legislative background documents for reporters, producers and bloggers. Prior to arriving in Washington, Voyles was an account executive at Morgan Allen Moore, a lobbying and public relations firm, based in London, England. She also served on Kerry’s Presidential Campaign as a field organizer in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, and served as a staff member on a number of other state and local campaigns in her home state of Massachusetts.

She holds a Master’s of Public Administration from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s of Political Science from Tufts University..