Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Jane Mobley, PhD
Jane Mobley and Associates
Developer of the Public Health Workbook to Define, Locate and Reach Special, Vulnerable and At-Risk Populations in an Emergency (Draft)

Jane Mobley, is the founding principal of JMA, a Kansas City, MO-based communications firm recognized for engineering consumer and public support for issues of widely shared importance. Dr. Mobley’s career has increasingly centered on maximizing people’s willingness to believe in the power of teamwork and community to improve individual lives. For 20 years, JMA has served clients with broad reach in the public and private sectors, especially governments, agencies and organizations providing essential services to the public. The firm specializes in the critical infrastructures of water, transportation and public health and is nationally recognized for work in locating and reaching marginalized and traditionally hard-to-reach populations. The focus of JMA’s work is strengthening communities by assuring values-based, accessible communication to help people make good decisions for themselves and others who count on them.
Dr. Mobley has led study and strategy efforts for communication and public involvement initiatives nationwide. She was the lead consultant in concept and development of the Workbook for Defining, Locating and Reaching Special, Vulnerable and At-Risk Populations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has served as the team lead on projects with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to develop the Kentucky Outreach Information Network (KOIN), recognized as a NACCHO Model Practice. JMA’s current projects include research-based strategy on communications around drinking water contaminants, diversity in the workplace, and the potential of pictograms as directives in emergencies.

Cindy Lou Daniel
Disability Coordinator,
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

FEMA's Disability Coordinator, Cindy Lou Daniel, joined the agency in June 2007. As someone with a disability, she has worked to empower people with disabilities for more than 19 years. Most recently, Ms. Daniel worked at the National Organization on Disability in their Emergency Preparedness Initiative. She conducted research on the effects Hurricane Katrina had on people with disabilities and created an informational help desk for emergency agencies on various disability-related subjects. In addition, Ms. Daniel did consulting work, including working with Fairfax County, Va. to develop a Special Medical Needs Shelter to be used in the event of a disaster. She also worked with the American Red Cross to formulate a training curriculum for volunteers and emergency managers -- on assisting people with disabilities. She has extensive experience training groups and individuals, including "first responders" and law enforcement personnel. Earlier in her career, she worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service as a Person with Disabilities Program Manager, responsible for assisting the agency in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act. She has served on the Homeland Security National Task Force on Emergency Planning dealing with people with disabilities.

Other Speakers

Kay Aaby, MPH, BSN, RN
Advanced Practice Center Program Manager
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Services, Montgomery County, MD

Kay Aaby is the Program Manager for the Montgomery County Maryland’s Advanced Practice Center for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program over the last five years. Ms. Aaby earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at California State University and a Masters in Public Health from Loma Linda University, California. She has worked over 25 years in local public health in California, Hawaii, Minnesota and Maryland. She represented NACCHO at a Congressional staff briefing on Capital Hill speaking about the APC tools for “Cutting-Edge Approaches to Bioterrorism Preparedness.” Kay is a member of NACCHO Exercise and Evaluation Workgroup; represented NACCHO in several workgroups focusing on antiviral issues and at-risk and vulnerable populations during a Pandemic Influenza. Kay has authored several APC articles in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, Interfaces and Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Steven J. Berkowitz, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Child Study Center Yale University, School of Medicine
Medical Director: National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
Medical Director: Intensive In-home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service

Dr. Steven Berkowitz, Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, is the Medical Director of the In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS) and the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence (NCCEV). He has consulted to U.S. Federal Government and the State of Connecticut. He was the Director of the Child Division for the Connecticut Trauma Response and Recovery Program after 9/11, which was collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Department of Children and Families, the Yale University, School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut, School of Medicine. Dr. Berkowitz has been one of the primary developers and proponents of the Child Development-Community Policing program, a nationally replicated program between law enforcement and child mental health professionals. He is a contributor to the Psychological First Aid Manual and has authored training guide for First Responders called Disaster and Terrorism: A Guide for Managing Fear.

Betsy Burroughs
Advance Practice Center Communication Specialist
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Services, Montgomery County, MD

Betsy has been the Communication Specialist for the Montgomery County, Maryland Advanced Practice Center and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program for over a year. She brings with her a background in Communications, Public Relations and Marketing. In her career, she focuses on marketing, promotional and communication strategies utilized in the APC program and public health emergency preparedness. Betsy has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN
Director, Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness
Associate Professor of Surgery (Emergency Medicine) and Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Degutis is the Director of the Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness. Her research focuses on educational strategies in the area of disaster preparedness, as well as injury and violence prevention interventions. She is also the Research Director for the Section of Emergency Medicine and is Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale. Dr. Degutis is the President of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and is an active member of the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of APHA. Other activities include membership on the Healthy People 2010 Task Force of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine and the Board of Directors of the American Trauma Society. Dr. Degutis also served on the Steering Committee for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Acute Care Research Agenda development, leading the workgroup on disaster preparedness. Additionally, She co-chairs the workgroup on Community Preparedness and Response as part of the Core Team for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agency-wide research agenda development process.

Barbara Dingfelder, APRN-BC, BSN, MPH, CHES
Local Public Health Nurse Liaison
Local Health Administration Branch, Connecticut Department of Public Health

Barbara Dingfelder is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Public/Community Health Nursing and Certified Health Education Specialist.  Barbara’s experience includes public and community health, rehabilitation, home health, ambulatory surgery and others.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Phoenix and a Masters of Public Health degree from the Southern Connecticut State University.  In addition, Barbara was honored as the 2007 State of Connecticut Administrator Nurse of the Year.  Barbara joined the Connecticut Department of Public Health in 2002 and worked as a nurse consultant for the Breast and Cervical Cancer and Early Detection and WISEWOMAN Programs.  In January 2005, Barbara became the Local Public Health Nurse Liaison.  Barbara has been instrumental in standardizing training to local health officials and has taken a leadership role in creating the Department’s Virtual Office of Public Health Nursing.  She also advocates for people with special needs through her work on the Universal Access Sheltering Committee and is the committee chair for the Supportive Care Shelter Committee.  Since 2005, Barbara has been the Department’s representative for the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing.  Barbara serves on the Executive Board of the Connecticut Association of Public Health Nurses as Treasurer.  In addition, Barbara was selected by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to assist in the revision of the Clinical Nurse Specialist for Public/Community Health Nurses’ exam.

Carina Elsenboss
Advance Practice Center Program Manager,
Public Health-Seattle & King County

Carina Elsenboss is the Advanced Practice Center Program Manager with Public Health-Seattle & King County in Seattle, Washington. In this capacity she provides strategic direction and coordinates the development of best practice tools and resources related to public health preparedness for use by other local health departments. She also serves on Public Health’s Vulnerable Populations Action Team which is responsible for working collaboratively with community partners to ensure that vulnerable populations are included in Public Health’s preparedness planning. Prior to joining Public Health-Seattle & King County, Carina served as the manager for the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program in Salt Lake County, Utah. She holds BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a MS from University of Utah.

Michael Greenberger, JD
Director,
University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security

Michael Greenberger is the Director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS) at the University of Maryland and a professor at the School of Law.  CHHS and the six constituent professional schools which form its core (the University of Maryland Schools of Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing and Social Work) work on a broad range of legal, policy and scientific issues pertaining to the health policy aspects of counterterrorism.  CHHS has a staff of 45 professionals who work on a broad range of homeland security and emergency response issues for federal, state, and local governmental agencies, as well as medical researchers. including policy development, planning, and training relating to pandemic flu.  More...

Nora Groce, PhD
Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Public Health and Anthropology,Yale University

Dr. Groce is a medical anthropologist, interested in the area of global health and international development with particular emphasis on cross-cultural systems of health care and health as human rights issues. Her research interests include issues of disability in international health and development, violence as a global public health problem and equity in access to health care in ethnic and minority communities. Dr. Groce serves as faculty advisor to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)/Students Campaign for Child Survival: Physicians for Human Rights and serves regularly as an advisor to United Nations (UN) agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and a number of non-governmental organizations.

Âna-Marie Jones
Executive Director,
Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters (CARD)

Ana-Marie Jones is the Executive Director of CARD - Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters, a nonprofit located in Alameda County, California. Created by local community agencies after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, CARD trains and supports nonprofits and their special needs clients in disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities. In her tenure, she has re-written and redefined CARD’s services and curriculum to be based on community building, economic empowerment and leadership development philosophies. More...

Stacey Maples, MSc
GIS Assistant and Support Specialist
Yale University

Stacey Maples is the GIS Assistant & Instruction Coordinator for The Map Collection at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library.  He is an archaeologist, by training, and a technologist, by temperament. Stacey is responsible for most GIS support and instruction across the Yale Community and regularly contributes to research from a wide variety of departments and research centers.  He has recently collaborated on the design and implementation of mobile excavation-recording databases for an archaeological project in Syria; the development of Google Earth-based databases for the Cambodian Genocide Project; and is currently developing tools to enable the geo-referencing of field data using consumer-grade GPS equipment.  He holds a B.Sc. in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University and a M.Sc. in Geographic Information Sciences and Remote Sensing from The University of Texas at Dallas.

Mollie Melbourne, MPH, MEP
Director of Emergency Management
National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)

Mollie Melbourne is an association program director with over 10 years experience working with health centers and primary care associations. She currently serves as the Director of Emergency Management of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) – a non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance and expand access to quality, community-responsive health care for America’s medically underserved and uninsured. In serving its mission, NACHC represents the nation’s network of over 1,000 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) which serve 16 million people through 5,000 sites located in all of the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. In her role as Director of Emergency Management, Mollie guides emergency management activities at the health center, primary care association, and network levels by assuring that the information and tools needed to institute effective emergency management principles are available, providing training and technical assistance to health centers and networks and establishing relationships between federal, state and local governments that result in health center inclusion in planning activities. Mollie holds Bachelors degrees in English and Agriculture from the University of Connecticut as well as certification from FEMA as a Master Exercise Practitioner and a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Connecticut. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with her husband and two sons.

Dennis J. Mitchell
Licensed Facilities Specialist, Systems Support and Statewide Emergency Management Coordinator
State of Connecticut Department of Developmental Services

Dennis Mitchell is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University where he received a bachelor's degree in Special Education. Mr. Mitchell's connection with people with developmental disabilities spans thirty-four years and an array of professional positions in the public and private sector. In the last six years Mr. Mitchell has served as the Statewide Emergency Management Coordinator for the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services (DDS). He has helped define and implement DDS policies and procedures related to emergency preparedness and response. Mr. Mitchell has participated in twenty municipal, state and/or federal emergency response exercises. He is a member of two Regional Emergency Planning Teams (REPTs) and serves as the DDS representative on the Supportive Care Shelters Inter-Agency Planning Committee. He is an associate member of the Connecticut Emergency Management Association representing DDS. Mr. Mitchell is a member of a six-person task force sponsored by the Capital Region Council of Governments/Regional Emergency Planning Committee. This task force has developed a curriculum and implemented training for about three hundred municipal and regional emergency planners and first responders across North Central Connecticut. The training addresses the needs of people with disabilities during emergency circumstances. Mr. Mitchell has conducted numerous presentations for a variety of audiences in Connecticut and Massachusetts concerning the DDS emergency preparedness and response efforts.

Mercedes Moore
Community Health Nurse
Latino Health Initiative, Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County, MD

Sonia Mora
Latino Health Initiative Manager,
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services

Sonia Mora is currently the Manager of the Latino Health Initiative (LHI) at the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services in Maryland, where she is responsible for directing all technical, managerial, and fiscal activities relating to the LHI, a unique effort that aims to address the health-related needs of Latinos in Montgomery County, Maryland. In her current post, Ms. Mora has developed several models of programs and strategies to address the needs of the Latino community. As Manager of the LHI, Ms. Mora is also responsible for formulating and advocating for policies to effectively serve Latinos and reduce health disparities. This work is done through the establishment of sound collaborative efforts with other public and private entities. More...

Therese Nadeau, MSW
Television Host and Disability and Emergency Preparedness Consultant

Ms. Nadeau has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, and a Bachelors Degree in Social Work from Central Connecticut State University. Ms. Nadeau has significant experience in various consulting and supervisory positions working with people with a variety of disabilities and their families to plan for supports and options with regards to inclusion in communities of choice. Currently Ms. Nadeau works as a Disability and Emergency Preparedness Consultant, and as the Program Manager for the CT Tech Act Project's Assistive Technology Loan Program. She is Co-Host to the Emmy Award Winning TV Series "Able Lives" and "Able Lives Incorporated" airing on Connecticut Public Television. Ms. Nadeau is author of a children's book entitled "Sassy Goes to Work" which focuses on educating readers about her Service Dog, Sassy. In addition, Ms. Nadeau conducts presentation statewide and nationally with regards to supports for people with disabilities. Ms. Nadeau has been involved in educating on emergency preparedness for people with disabilities, working with first responders and other emergency planners to evaluate the needs of people with disabilities in shelter and evacuation planning, awareness and training. She is currently a trainer for first responders and emergency planners in conjunction with the Capital Region Emergency Planning Committee / Capital Region Council of Governments, educating about emergency planning and people with disabilities.

Marcie Roth
Executive Director and CEO
National Spinal Cord Injury Association's (NSCIA)

Marcie Roth is the National Spinal Cord Injury Association's (NSCIA) Executive Director and CEO. She assumed this role after serving as the Director of Advocacy and Public Policy for the National Council on Independent Living, and prior to that, as the Director of Governmental Affairs for TASH, an international disability rights organization. Ms. Roth's background in advocacy, disability services, human and civil rights, grassroots organizing, coalition building and public policy work began in the early 1970's as a high school volunteer. She has been active as a local, state and national leader, and has been involved in senior management activities for several national and international non-profit advocacy organizations over the past twenty years, managing multiple projects and leading public policy initiatives simultaneously. More...

Jim Schwendinger MSN MPH CCRN ANP-C
Acting Team Lead, Epi-X & Clinician Communication Team
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jim Schwendinger, MSN MPH CCRN ANP-C is a Certified Adult Nurse Practitioner assigned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. He became the CDC’s Emergency Communication System (ECS) in 2004 and has worked on both the Community Health Education and Clinician Communication Teams. He was involved with the launch of the Clinician Outreach Communication Activity (COCA) and the Clinician Registry and worked on the early version of the SNAPs census database tool. In 2008, he became team lead for the Epidemic Information Exchange team which operates the Epi-X program. Prior to that, he provided care at the CDC Occupational Health Clinic and was involved in CDC’s response to SARS and the 2001 anthrax attacks. Jim has clinical interest and specialty training in Infectious Disease & Travel Medicine, Occupational Health, Orthopedics and Internal Medicine. He continues to maintain his clinical skills working part-time for the Emory Department of Emergency Medicine. Jim maintains his advanced certification as a Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) and teaches Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Advanced HAZMAT Life Support (AHLS) and on various clinical subjects from 12-lead EKG interpretation to Blood & Body Fluid Exposure Management. He also has an interest in crisis communication, patient education and public health teaching. Jim holds a Bachelors in Nursing from Southern Connecticut State University, a Masters in Nursing from Yale University and a Masters in Public Health, Disaster Medicine, from the University of Piedmont.

Christina Zarcadoolas, PhD
Associate Professor, Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Director, Mount Sinai Center for Public Engagement in Health and Environmental Literacy

Christina Zarcadoolas, PhD, is a sociolinguist working in the area of health and environmental literacy for the past 35 years. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, and Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Public Engagement in Health and Environmental Literacy. Her research focuses on analyzing and closing the gaps between expert knowledge and public understanding of science. Dr. Zarcadoolas came to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2005, after spending 15 years on the faculty of Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies. Both at Brown and now at Mount Sinai her research and teaching are focused in the areas of health literacy and public understanding and engagement with science, communications, qualitative research methodology and promoting collaborative academic-community partnerships. Dr. Zarcadoolas is lead author of the critically acclaimed new text "Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action" (Zarcadoolas, Pleasant & Greer, Jossey Bass, 2006). The textbook presents a multi dimensional model of health literacy that includes the domains of fundamental literacy, science literacy, cultural literacy and civic literacy. The New England Journal of Medicine review of Advancing Health Literacy calls it “required reading” for public health professionals responsible for developing new tools for communicating with patients and the general public. “We recommend that public health directors make this book required reading for everyone.”