All Current Member Biographies
Stephanie Aaronson
Term: 2009–2013
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Ms. Stephanie Aaronson is the Senior Director of Communications at PBS and PBS KIDS, where she serves on the senior corporate strategy and operations team. She also created and leads the PBS Healthy Kids and Healthy Communities Initiative, leveraging PBS’ resources to help children, families, teachers, and communities better understand their health and adopt healthy habits.
Ms. Aaronson initiated and manages two children’s developmental advisory boards and oversees PBS’ publicity and events. She has more than 17 years’ experience in public relations and communications for media and nonprofit organizations.
As a "crew captain" outside the office, Ms. Aaronson has led teams of volunteers in the three-day, 60-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. She also has used her talents and training in voice-over to produce book recordings for people with blindness and dyslexia.
Ms. Aaronson is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy. She holds a B.A. in communications from George Mason University as well as certificates from American University’s Institute for Strategic Communication for Nonprofits and George Mason University. She lives in Virginia with her husband and young child. She enjoys reading, running, and volunteering.
Syed M. Ahmed
Term: 2006–2010
Dr. Syed M. Ahmed is the Director of the Center for Healthy Communities (CHC) at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he is also a Professor of Family and Community Medicine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Dr. Ahmed has 16 years of experience working with communities in Ohio and Wisconsin as a researcher on more than a dozen federal, non-federal, and foundation grants. As the Director of CHC, he works with very large constituencies, including minorities and the underserved, in Milwaukee. CHC was formed in 1997 to develop community-academic partnerships to improve health in Wisconsin communities. It has established numerous programs related to cardiovascular disease, cancer, substance abuse, and mental health. CHC conducts activities in rural parts of Wisconsin, as well as in Milwaukee, and it is developing programs with Latino communities.
Prior to joining the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Ahmed was vice chair of research in Wright State University’s Department of Family Medicine and Director of the Alliance for Research in Community Health in Dayton. In Ohio, he was director of Reach Out of Montgomery County, a successful volunteer health care program that he founded in 1994 with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Through his educational, scholarly, and community work, Dr. Ahmed has made nationally recognized contributions to the fields of community health, community academic partnerships, and community-based participatory research. He has been an invited expert on community academic partnership and community-based participatory research at the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and, most recently, at NIH. He has presented at a variety of national conferences and published numerous academic papers and book chapters focusing on the health care of underserved and uninsured populations.
Dr. Ahmed has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence in Professional Service from Wright State University, the Ohio Quality of Care Award from the State of Ohio, and the Humanism in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Dr. Ahmed received degrees in medicine and surgery from the Sir Salimullah Medical College at Dhaka University in Bangladesh and a master’s and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. He completed a residency and a fellowship in family medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Recently, Dr. Ahmed was a scholar at the National Public Health Leadership Institute, a highly regarded training program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Micah Berman
Term: 2008–2012
Mr. Micah Berman is an Assistant Professor at New England School of Law in Boston, where he teaches health law and related courses. He was previously the Executive Director of the Tobacco Public Policy Center (TPPC) at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, which provided technical and legal support to tobacco control advocates. Under Mr. Berman’s leadership, the TPPC pursued innovative approaches to reducing tobacco-related disease, such as drafting tobacco-free policies for school districts, helping businesses implement the Ohio Smoke-Free Workplace Act, and collaborating with apartment associations to address drifting secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing.
As a law professor, Mr. Berman's research focuses on public health policy and health-related litigation, and he developed and taught a public health law course addressing tobacco, infectious diseases, bioterrorism, alcohol and drugs, medical trials, and nutrition.
Mr. Berman received a J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was managing editor of the Stanford Law Review. He is married to Rachel Bloomekatz, a law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Lora M. Church
Term: 2008–2012
Ms. Lora M. Church is a member of the Navajo Nation, Bitterwater Clan born for the Black Streak Wood Clan. She is the Senior Program Manager for the Acoma-Canoncito (To’Hajiilee)-Laguna Teen Centers. These school-based health centers are associated with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and serve youth and families who reside on three American Indian reservations and in two Hispanic communities west of Albuquerque. Her key responsibility is helping define the interface between the primary prevention program and clinical/behavioral health, focusing on prevention and early intervention. She has more than 23 years’ experience working in the health and human services field. In a previous position, she managed Native American Community Services, a nonprofit American Indian health and human services agency in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Ms. Church is a member of the To’Hajiilee Community Action Team and the Pueblo of Laguna Prevention Coalition. She serves as the principal investigator on three research protocols associated with the Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board. She also serves as a trainer/facilitator for J. Dalton Institute in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a focus on supervisory professional development. She has spoken at several national conferences that address American Indian health and well-being.
Ms. Church has a B.S. from Northeastern State University and is a candidate for master’s degrees in public administration and health education at the University of New Mexico. She enjoys running (slow), sewing traditional clothing and pow-wow regalia, and baking bread. She lives with her husband, Casey Church (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), and their five children in Albuquerque.
Naomi Cottoms
Term: 2007–2011
Ms. Naomi Cottoms is the Director of the Tri County Rural Health Network, Inc. (TCRHN), a nonprofit, grassroots organization that works to improve access to health care in the underserved rural counties of Lee, Monroe, and Phillips in eastern Arkansas. TCRHN collaborates with community organizations, including the Phillips County Health and Human Services Department, the Eastern Arkansas Hospice Center, and the Fay Boozman College of Public Health of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. TCRHN connects uninsured or underinsured disabled and elderly clients with available resources, including reduced-cost medicines.
One current TCRHN project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is studying the value of using community outreach workers, or “community connectors,” to direct uninsured and underinsured Arkansans toward home- and community-based care programs. By promoting early intervention, the community connectors help individuals get the services they need to stay at home while potentially saving the state substantial dollars on institutionalized care. Providing community-based services to the elderly and adults with physical disabilities is one-third the cost of placing them in a nursing home.
Ms. Cottoms is president of Walnut Street Works, Inc. (Common Stride), a nonprofit organization with programs that address health care, affordable housing, racial disparities, and community empowerment. She also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and served as a founding board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Phillips County. Ms. Cottoms has coauthored two presentations for national conferences.
Ms. Cottoms earned a master’s degree in human resource development from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. She has also received training in political leadership and the deliberative democracy process from the Kettering Foundation of Dayton, Ohio.
Linda Crew-McNamara
Term: 2006–2010
Ms. Linda Crew-McNamara is a nurse manager, community leader, researcher, advocate, public speaker, and person living with a chronic illness. Ms. Crew was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus in 1996. She served as Director of the Joseph F. Sullivan Center, an academic nurse-managed health center at Clemson University, from 1994 to 2006.
Ms. Crew has significant leadership, community development, and project management experience. She has been the principal investigator or project director on numerous interdisciplinary grants to provide primary and preventive health care to medically underserved populations. She has presented at numerous professional conferences in the United States and abroad.
Under her leadership, the Sullivan Center expanded its community health care outreach program using a mobile health van and a team of medical professionals. The Center has received numerous awards for its work promoting minority health issues, improving the health status of minority populations, and eliminating health disparities. These awards include the South Carolina Office of Minority Health Access to Care Award, the South Carolina Rural Health Association Award of Merit for Excellence in Research, a State Health Plan Prevention Partners Award for Collaboration, the South Carolina Best Chance Network Provider Facility of the Year Award, and the South Carolina Migrant Health Innovative Programs Award.
Ms. Crew has served as a management consultant to BMW and the School of Nursing at Radford University. She was a semifinalist for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program in 2004. In 2002, she received the Excellence in Writing Award from the South Carolina Nurses Association and Arthur L. Davis Publishing Company.
Ms. Crew has worked closely with the Latino population in South Carolina since 1991. She created a culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer and the need for early detection.
In addition to Ms. Crew’s career in health care management, she worked at Michelin North America for eight years. As a group personnel and employee relations manager for diverse employee groups, she honed communication, leadership, and project management skills. Ms. Crew completed her undergraduate degree in nursing at Jacksonville State University. She earned an M.B.A. from Clemson University and is a graduate of the Johnson & Johnson/University of California, Los Angeles Health Care Executive Program, an intensive leadership program.
Elmer R. Freeman
Term: 2007–2011
Mr. Elmer Freeman is the Executive Director of the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, Inc. (CCHERS), and an adjunct assistant professor and Director of Urban Health Programs and Policy for Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. CCHERS is a network of 15 academic community health centers providing health care access for underserved patients in Boston. Prior to this, Mr. Freeman was Executive Director of the Whittier Street Health Center for 17 years. He is the co-chair of Critical MASS, a multi-organizational, multicultural, multi-community, statewide coalition to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in Massachusetts.
Mr. Freeman is a recognized expert in the implementation of models of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and served as such for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Evidence Report No. 99, Community-Based Participatory Research: Assessing the Evidence, published in July 2004. He has coauthored a journal article on this topic, which was published in the Journal of Urban Health in November 2006. He is also actively involved in the development of CBPR partnerships between academic medical centers and the diverse communities of Boston. He is an advisory board member of the Tufts University Community Research Center and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Community Research Network, and he is a cofounder of the Community Health and Academic Medicine Partnership with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mr. Freeman is involved nationally with Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, the American Public Health Association, and the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Mr. Freeman has made more than 40 presentations at conferences and scientific meetings in the past seven years, including several keynotes. He is an accomplished facilitator with experience bringing consensus from groups with conflicting interests and serves as a consultant to schools and programs in public health in their efforts to promote community engagement and scholarship in research partnerships with communities.
Mr. Freeman received his M.S.W. from Boston College Graduate School for Social Work and is working toward a doctoral degree. He lives in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston with his wife of 30 years, Carlene, and their four-year-old grandson, Jakhari, who is their personal anti-aging agent.
Beth Furlong
Term: 2007–2011
Dr. Beth Furlong is an associate professor at Creighton University’s School of Nursing and a faculty associate in the university’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics. In 2003, she received the Omicron Delta Kappa Teaching for Tomorrow Award from her students, and she was recognized with the Mary Lucretia Award for supporting women at the university and with two dean’s awards for excellence.
Dr. Furlong has four decades of experience in community health nursing. She has presented at local, national, and international meetings and symposia, including several years at the conference of the national Association of Community Health Nurse Educators.
Dr. Furlong serves on the boards of the Visiting Nurse Association in Omaha and Seven Oaks Housing and is a member of the Advisory Council to the President of the University of Nebraska. She is a member of many professional associations in nursing, political science, and the law as well as social change organizations.
Her international experience includes working as a Peace Corps volunteer in India and Fulbright Fellowships in Jordan and Hungary. She has taught health ethics and related subjects to nurses and physicians in Azerbaijan, the Republic of Georgia, Lithuania, and Armenia.
Dr. Furlong is the recipient of an award for a “Decade of Outstanding Leadership and Service” from the Wellness Council of the Midlands. She also received the Elaine Osborne Jacobson Award for Women Working in Health Care Law from the Roscoe Pound Foundation, given to one law student nationally who demonstrates commitment to vulnerable populations.
Dr. Furlong has a Ph.D. in political science focusing on health policy from the University of Nebraska. Her dissertation discussed the early history of the National Institute of Nursing Research. Dr. Furlong also holds a J.D. from Creighton University and an R.N. from the Mercy School of Nursing. She lives in Omaha with her husband, a biochemist and microbiologist in the School of Medicine at the University of Nebraska.
Brent Jaquet
Term: 2007–2011
Mr. Brent Jaquet is a Senior Vice President at Cavarocchi-Ruscio-Dennis (CRD) Associates in Washington, DC, managing programs in government relations, strategic planning, and public policy. Prior to his current position with CRD, he served as senior appropriations aide to Representative C.W. Bill Young of Florida. While working for Representative Young, Mr. Jaquet specialized in health and biomedicine across a wide spectrum of health policy and appropriations issues. His work on behalf of Chairman Young contributed to the enactment of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, which reauthorized and expanded the nation’s bone marrow registry program to include umbilical cord blood units.
In previous positions, Mr. Jaquet was a senior management official at NIH, where his experience included managing communications; science transfer; professional health education; planning efforts and information technology programs; and serving as Executive Secretary for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Board of Scientific Counselors, which manages the peer review process for the Institute’s Intramural Research Program. He worked at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from 1981 to 1984 and NIDCR from 1984 until his retirement. Before joining the agency, Mr. Jaquet worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing communications programs in the areas of health planning, professions, and facilities.
Mr. Jaquet was also a founding board member of the LAM Foundation, serving women with lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a rare lung disease.
Mr. Jaquet attended graduate school in communications at the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism in College Park following service in the Navy as a journalist. He earned a B.A. in political science from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. He lives in Edgewater, Maryland, with his wife, who is a scientific program director, and he has three grown children and six grandchildren. He is also an artist whose depictions of the NIH campus have been published in calendars, note cards, and other formats.
Amye L. Leong
Term: 2009–2013
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Ms. Amye Leong is President and Chief Executive Officer of Healthy Motivation, a health advocacy and communications consulting firm in California and Paris France and a motivational speaker. She is the International Spokesperson and Director of Strategic Relations for the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010, established by the United Nations and the World Health Organization to improve quality of life for people affected by bone and joint diseases.
Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 18 and confined to a wheelchair by age 26, Ms. Leong underwent 16 surgeries and 12 joint replacements before learning to walk and function independently again. She was later diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome and osteoporosis. She founded the Arthritis Foundation's first education, support, and advocacy groups for young people with rheumatic disease. She held leadership positions in organizational and resource development, advocacy, public education, marketing, diversity, and strategic planning for the American College of Rheumatology, Arthritis Foundation, American Juvenile Organization, Patient Advocacy Leaders Summit, and the Alliance for Aging Research. She has previously served as Chair of the Surgeon General's National Council on Self-Help and Public Health and as a member of the National Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Advisory Council.
Ms. Leong travels widely as an advocate, educator, and author of Get a Grip: A Take-Charge Approach to Living with Arthritis and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Arthritis. She participated in the Olympic Torch Relay in 1996 as a Community Hero, and in 2002, President Bush presented her with the 2001 President's Community Volunteer Award, the nation's highest honor for community service.
Ms. Leong has a B.A. in communications and psychology (summa cum laude) from California State University, Fresno, and an M.B.A. in industrial relations from Purdue University. She enjoys music, travel, cultural arts, and international cuisine, and she collects unusual picture frames. She resides in Santa Barbara, California.
Jordan P. Lewis
Term: 2009–2013
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Dr. Jordan Lewis is an assistant professor in the Department of Alaska Native Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). When he is not teaching, he conducts research in rural Alaskan communities on improving the delivery of health and social services to elders and promoting successful aging. Dr. Lewis is a former Vice President of the National Association of Social Workers, Alaska Chapter, for which he oversaw recruitment and retention of members from rural areas of the state.
Dr. Lewis has presented his research on successful aging among Alaska Natives at conferences around the country and in Sweden. He also has taught courses on rural social work and issues of resilience in Alaska. As a social services worker in Missouri, he set up in-home services for senior citizens and people with blindness and other disabilities.
Dr. Lewis holds a Ph.D. in cross-cultural community psychology from UAF and an M.S.W. from Washington University in St. Louis. He grew up in rural Alaska, spending his winters on the Oregon coast and his summers commercial fishing. True to his Alaskan roots, he loves snow and hockey.
Matthew Margo
Term: 2007–2011
Mr. Matthew Margo is the Senior Vice President of Program Practices, New York, for the CBS Television Network. Mr. Margo’s responsibilities include leading the department that determines and applies CBS Television Network’s broadcast policies and guidelines for East Coast entertainment programming and all advertising and public service announcements (PSAs). He supervises the “CBS Cares” campaigns, which have won various media/entertainment industry and health industry awards, including the Paul Rogers Leadership Award. He executive produces the PSAs for CBS, featuring CBS stars discussing a wide variety of causes, including many health issues, such as HIV/AIDS, cancers, heart disease, and mental health.
Mr. Margo executive produced the first PSAs recorded by Nelson Mandela for the United States on the subject of tolerance. Mr. Margo supervises the award-winning CBSCares.tv Web site, for which he has interviewed medical and health experts on a variety of subjects, such as HIV/AIDS, women’s heart disease, breast and colon cancer, depression, bipolar disorder, menopause, and osteoporosis. In the case of HIV, his interviewees included Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Mr. Margo also initiated and executive produces the “CBS Cares” radio show, distributed nationally and hosted by Mr. Charles Osgood. Mr. Margo practiced international business law and litigation before joining CBS, where he started as a Senior Attorney for Finance, Law, and Corporate Development.
Mr. Margo served on the advisory boards of the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Communications, the Harvard Public Health Review, and the Better Business Bureau Foundation, including the Philanthropic Advisory Service. He is a former pilot; was a global and U.S. judge for the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards program, which recognizes environmentally friendly tourism (eco-tourism); and served as a judge for the International Emmy Awards. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Manhattan.
Anne Muñoz-Furlong
Term: 2007–2011
Ms. Anne Muñoz-Furlong is the CEO of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), which she founded 15 years ago after her daughter was diagnosed with food allergies. FAAN currently has 30,000 members who work to increase public awareness, provide education, advocate, and advance research on behalf of the 12 million Americans with food allergies. Ms. Muñoz-Furlong also founded the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Alliance, made up of lay organizations in nine countries, which works to implement public policy changes on universal issues, such as food labeling and the availability of epinephrine.
Ms. Muñoz-Furlong is a member of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and serves on several committees, including Adverse Reactions to Foods, Anaphylaxis, and Public Education. She works closely with the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and serves on their Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee. She has worked with many groups in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and her organization cosponsored the NIH/FAAN Anaphylaxis Symposium, the first multidisciplinary meetings to discuss a universally agreed upon definition for anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction. The findings were published in a peer-reviewed journal and will result in patients around the world experiencing more consistent care.
She worked with the food industry’s Food Allergy Issues Alliance and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop allergen labeling guidelines, which became the basis of the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004. She also served on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Advisory Council, where she provided input for grant review.
Ms. Muñoz-Furlong contributes to FAAN’s monthly newsletter, Food Allergy News, and gives presentations to groups and committees. She has written book chapters and coauthored scientific studies as well as publications for families coping with food allergies.
Ms. Muñoz-Furlong received a degree in business administration and journalism from George Mason University. She is bilingual—Spanish is her first language—and she lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her husband, Terry Furlong.
Eileen Naughton
Term: 2008–2012
Ms. Eileen Naughton was first elected as a Representative in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1992. As Chairwoman of the House Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and Environment, she is very involved with state health policy and regularly meets with a variety of organizations. Ms. Naughton has worked to improve health care for Rhode Islanders by championing affordable and accessible health care and improved care overall. Among other accomplishments, she has been instrumental in developing a Birth Surveillance System, promoted increased funding for HIV/AIDS programs, and created a vision-screening program for preschoolers.
Ms. Naughton has been active in encouraging adult stem cell research in Rhode Island and has represented the state at several meetings hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. She has made efforts to reform science education in Rhode Island by applying advanced technology to create “hands-on” learning opportunities.
Ms. Naughton was a Council of State Governments Toll Fellow in 2005. She was also a board member of the Northeast Heart Association and served as the Leading Ladies Group Co-Chairwoman. She serves on several other hospital and health-related boards, including Kent County Hospital, the Women and Infants Hospital, and the Ocean State Center for Independent Living and received an award for health policy from Quality Partners. She also serves on the steering committee for NECON, the New England Coalition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
Ms. Naughton is a graduate of the Southern New England School of Law. She and her husband, Dr. William C. Naughton, live on historic Lockwood Brook Farm, where they raise sheep and other livestock. They have two children and six grandchildren.
Greg R. Nycz
Term: 2009–2013
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Mr. Greg Nycz is the Executive Director of the Family Health Center of Marshfield, Inc., a federally and state-funded community health center. For more than 36 years, he has worked to improve access to quality care for disadvantaged populations and to eliminate health disparities, especially in rural communities.
Mr. Nycz has served as co-investigator on several NIH-funded studies and was active in the Wisconsin Area Health Education System, serving as treasurer of the Northern Area Health Education Center and as vice chair and chair of the statewide board of directors. He specializes in bridging the gap between research and community health.
Mr. Nycz is actively involved with community health centers at the state and national levels. He serves on the board and is a past chair of the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, and he currently serves on several committees of the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Mr. Nycz also serves on two committees of the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health that focus on improving the health through community/academic partnerships, research, and education.
Mr. Nycz is currently using research, education, and service tools to address obstacles to dental care for rural residents across Wisconsin. He has testified before Congress on similar health care access initiatives.
Mr. Nycz holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, psychology, and computer science from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. He lives in Marshfield, Wisconsin, where he makes the most of a 133-day growing season to pursue his interest in gardening.
Lynn M. Olson
Term: 2009–2013
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Dr. Lynn Olson is the Director of the Department of Research for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), where she studies diverse pediatrician attitudes and practices and supports collaborative, multi-institutional research projects. The results of this research shape national priorities and future directions for the Academy.
Dr. Olson has extensive experience working on teams to translate research findings into better patient care by including primary care pediatricians from all 50 states in the research process. She is also a strong advocate for the academy’s Plain Language Pediatrics program to help pediatricians better communicate with their patients.
As a trained sociologist, Dr. Olson works to promote the patient perspective (both parent and child) in pediatric research, including issues involving lack of health insurance and preventive care. She has also conducted research on public housing and welfare-to-work programs in Chicago.
After growing up on dairy farm, Dr. Olson attended St Olaf College in Minnesota and then Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she completed a Ph.D. in sociology. She lives in the Chicago area but also enjoys time with family and friends in the “driftless” hills and farmland of Central Wisconsin.
Ann-Gel S. Palermo
Term: 2006–2010
Ms. Ann-Gel S. Palermo has worked in the area of community-based public health for the past decade, with a principal focus on issues related to social determinants of health using a community-based participatory research approach. Since 1999, Ms. Palermo has served as the chair of the Harlem Community & Academic Partnership (HCAP), a diverse partnership of representatives from community and academic organizations committed to identifying social determinants of health and implementing community-based interventions in Harlem. HCAP evolved out of the CDC-funded Harlem Urban Research Center, a partnership developed to establish credibility in the Harlem community, demonstrate a true commitment to improving the health of its residents, and create a platform from which to address local health issues. When core funding ceased, Ms. Palermo led a major transition to reinvent the collaboration so that it could continue its important work as HCAP. HCAP is located at the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies at the New York Academy of Medicine.
Ms. Palermo also serves as a board member of the East Harlem Community Health Committee and is chair of the board of directors for the Manhattan-Staten Island Area Health Education Center. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine as well as a member of its Institutional Review Board..
Previous community research by Ms. Palermo includes analyses of diabetes care in East Harlem and of coverage for Medicare recipients. In addition to her public health activities, Ms. Palermo is the Associate Director of Operations at the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs at New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing and managing programs in the areas of community relations, medical education and training, and research to improve the health of all populations by diversifying the health care workforce and influencing health policy and research.
Ms. Palermo earned a Master of Public Health degree (majoring in health policy) from the University of Michigan in 1999. She is currently a doctoral student in public health at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Carlos Pavão
Term: 2008–2012
Mr. Carlos Pavão is a community administrator for the DeKalb County Board of Health in Decatur, Georgia. In this role, he manages community outreach efforts to medically underserved county residents. Among his projects are partnerships that aim to reduce disparities in HIV interventions and new programs that examine gaps in health care experienced by immigrants and refugees. Mr. Pavão has experience working in both clinical and non-clinical settings on HIV, substance abuse, suicide prevention, and tobacco control. He has worked on healthy schools initiatives and a program to increase education about cardiovascular health and nutrition among young people.
As a consultant, Mr. Pavão provides technical assistance and training to support cultural competency efforts, strategic planning, and evidence-based prevention programs and strategies at the regional, state, and local levels. His interests include examining the cultural experiences of a population rather than race or ethnicity as a framework for developing health promotion tools.
Mr. Pavão has served as a board member for organizations that advocate for the needs of underrepresented segments of the population, including the Fulton County Commission on Disability Affairs, Georgia Equality, Atlanta Area Evaluation Association, and the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative. He presently serves on the institutional review board for Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine. He has also been Commissioner of the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.
Mr. Pavão received a master’s degree in public administration from Bridgewater State College in 2004. He speaks both English and Portuguese fluently as well as conversational Spanish. Mr. Pavão resides in the historic section of Grant Park in Atlanta, Georgia, with his partner James H. Doster and two dogs. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, theater, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and exploring the South.
John W. Walsh
Term: 2008–2012
Mr. John Walsh was diagnosed with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (Alpha-1), a rare genetic disorder, in 1989. He is the co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the Alpha-1 Foundation in Miami, Florida. Under his leadership, the organization has become internationally recognized and has invested more than $35 million to support Alpha-1 research and related projects, which includes funding grant awards to more than 60 academic institutions in North America and Europe. Mr. Walsh is also co-founder and President of AlphaNet, Inc., a not-for-profit health management services company providing comprehensive care exclusively for individuals with Alpha-1. AlphaNet provides services to more than 2,500 individuals with Alpha-1 in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Because of the infrastructure and support provided by the Foundation and AlphaNet, several companies have drugs in development for the treatment of Alpha-1.
Mr. Walsh has an extensive background in business management and government relations. He served three terms on the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability, is a member and past Chairperson of the National Health Council’s Board of Directors, and was the Presidential Appointee to the American Thoracic Society’s Board of Directors. He is a member and past Chair of the American Thoracic Society Public Advisory Roundtable (ATS-PAR).
Mr. Walsh is also co-founder and President of the COPD Foundation, which addresses the needs of those living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, he has held leadership roles with the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law (CGREAL) at Case Western Reserve University, the Foundation of the American Thoracic Society, and the International COPD Coalition. Mr. Walsh is a member of the U.S. COPD Coalition’s Executive Committee and immediate past chair of the International COPD Coalition.
In 2002, Mr. Walsh’s contribution to pioneering collaboration in orphan drug development was recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the Commissioner’s Special Citation.
He and his wife live in Coconut Grove, Florida, and have an adult daughter.
Leo Wilton
Term: 2009–2013
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Dr. Wilton is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Africana Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He specializes in health disparities related to HIV and AIDS, community-based research, and psychological development and mental health.
As a regional trainer for the American Psychological Association’s HIV Office for Psychology Education (HOPE), Dr. Wilton provides outreach to diverse communities about HIV prevention. He has extensive experience as a psychologist providing clinical care for African American and Latino men, both HIV negative and positive.
He serves on the board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York and is a founding member of the Black Gay Men’s Research Group, a national group addressing the lack of scientific research on black gay men.
Dr. Wilton was a clinical psychology fellow at Yale University before obtaining his Ph.D. degree in counseling psychology from New York University (NYU). He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in HIV behavioral research and evaluation at NYU. At home, Dr. Wilton loves to cook, following in the footsteps of his father, who is a French chef.
James S. Wong
Term: 2008–2012
Dr. Jim Wong has held a variety of development and management positions at technology companies including IBM and Siros Technologies, and he is currently a Senior Product Strategist at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. He has experience defining and launching new products and balancing customer input with development capabilities to create successful products for targeted markets. He has developed business strategies and planned marketing efforts as well as managed manufacturing quality control. Dr. Wong is adept at managing cross-functional, global teams and communicating with a wide variety of individuals, both internal and external.
Dr. Wong is a survivor of congenital heart disease (tetralogy of Fallot) and serves on the board of directors of the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA). He currently chairs the organization’s Internet Committee and has held the positions of Vice President and Board Chair. Since he was first elected to the board in 2003, ACHA’s membership and budget has grown more than 15-fold. Dr. Wong has worked with medical professionals, ACHA staff, and volunteers to plan conferences, improve service to members, and initiate the development of a national disease registry.
Dr. Wong received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and he holds two U.S. patents in optical data storage and photolithography. He lives in San Jose, California; is an avid skier, golfer, and photographer; and is fascinated with the application of technology to improving people’s lives.
